Descendants of Nathan Mulford Dorlon

Mobile Register 1906
A TALE OF WOE FROM SOUTH SHORE

A Mortality of Seventy-Nine Reported of Victims of the Great Storm of Thursday Last.

Coden Leads The List With Thirty-one Dead

The Wind and waves did their work thoroughly—How the dead met their end.
Thrilling stories of escape by survivors—Work of relief begun.

Thirty-one lives were lost in the storm at Sans Souci and Coden; 21 are said to be dead at Herron Bay; 2 at Grand Bay; 2 at Dauphin Island; 17 in Dauphin Island bay after journeying in small boats from Baldwin County; 2 at Alabama Port and 4 at Delchamps, making 79 in all.

Immediately upon receipt of information in the city that there was great loss of life and much suffering at Coden and Sans Souci Beach, summer resorts on the west coast of Mobile Bay, a relief train was hurriedly made of to carry the relatives of families living at the above places and to carry provisions to those who survived.
The train consisted of an engine, 2 coaches, one baggage coach, and a boxcar filled with provisions.   It left the foot of St. Francis shortly before 3 o’clock.   On arriving at Coden, all those who were saved were at the depot, all scantily clad and suffering from hunger, not having anything to eat since Thursday morning.

The list of the dead residents of Coden and Sans Souci beach is as follows:
DEAD AT CODEN AND SANS SOUCI
Mrs. J. H. Wilcox and daughter
Mrs. Hasen and two little daughters
Mrs. Frank Alexander
Miss J. Alexander
Miss Mary Alexander
Major F. S. Stevens
Mrs. Cooper and son
Mrs. Chas. Clark’s two children
Mrs. Simon Kiosky
Mrs. Susie Crivalerri
Mrs. Charles Kimball
Mr. Turner
Mrs. McBee
Mrs. Yewling and her three children
Mr. & Mrs. Olice Werreth and daughter, Una
Mrs. Adele Betancourt
Mr. Calloway and son, of Bayou La Batre
Ollie Dorlon, two children and a Negro woman were killed by debris.   Ollie Dorlon is a brother of Phelan Dorlon, tax collector.

*****(Theresa'a note: Ollie Dorlon was listed among the dead in error.

FATALITIES REPORTED ELSEWHERE
Twenty-one people were reported to have lost their lives by drowning at Herron Bay. Information comes from a Miss Hall who walked from Herron Bay to Coden.
Two drowned at Dauphin Island and seventeen reported drowned in the bay after they had come from Baldwin County in small boats.
James Reed and George Jones, Alabama Port
Mr. & Mrs. Culver are also reported to have lost their lives at Grand Bay, Ala.

WRECKED HOMES
The following is a complete list of the homes along the bay front that were wrecked:
William and Charles Clark’s, the Alexander place, Carson place, John Ewing’s place, the Howland place and four cottages adjoining it.   Major Parker’s place, Frank Andrew’s place, Charles graham’s place, Vale Rabi Grocery Company’s store, Stenler’s Store.
The Joulian hotel seemed to fare better, it’s damage amounting to a roof gone, fences down, outhouses down, and main building partly off foundation.
The Hayfield home and all the following cottages on the bay front are total wrecks:
Bryce’s home, Mrs. Wilcox’s place, cottages at Kennedy place, cottage occupied by Mrs. Williams, Boullemet cottage, occupied by Mrs. Bettancourt and family, Barrel place, John Gaillard’s home, Mrs. Parham’s cottage, Thomas Price’s cottage, Olice Werneth cottage, Mrs. Kimball’s cottage. The Moton home and above cottages adjoining it and the Klosky place.

AT BAYOU LA BATRE
The home of M. W. Faith is completely demolished. Every home on Bayou La Batre and Bayou Coden is a wreck.

RELIEF WORK
As soon as the relief train arrived at its destination, the work of unloading the car of provisions started, everyone lending a hand in stowing them in L. M. Rafield’s Store, where a committee was appointed to equally divide them among the sufferers.
This done, stretchers were secured and parties started out to recover the dead bodies and bring them to the depot where they were placed in coffins.   A total of eight bodies were buried during the day and seven brought to the city last night.   When the relief train returned the other ten bodies were left at Coden.
To one familiar with Coden, the place was not recognizable, with the pretty shelled driveway that led from the depot along Bayou Coden washed away and the cottages that lined the bay front reduced to kindling wood and covered with driftwood and fallen trees.   The Mobile and Bay Shore tracks looking towards San Souci Beach are torn up, crossties standing up on end in some places.   In other places there is nothing to show that a railroad ever was built there.
The storm was at its height from 7:30 Thursday morning until 10 o’clock p.m., when the waters began to recede, allowing many who had climbed to tree tops to save their lives, to descend and go to places back on the railroad for shelter.

SURVIVORS EXPERIENCES
Mrs. W. R. Phillips, with four children and a sister, Mrs. Stebbens, who were living on the bay front at Coden, had a thrilling experience, that of drifting through the woods in an open skiff, having taken to this when their home was swept away. They drifted through a thick swamp to the railroad a distance of half a mile.
Mrs. Phillips states they owe their lives to a colored boy whom she had working on the place.   The lad swam from the house to where a skiff was tied, cut it loose, took them in and piloted them to safety.   They had nothing to guide with and drifted with the tide and pulling on trees through the overflowed swamp.   They finally landed at Ryan’s house on the railroad where they were cared for.
While pulling from tree to tree and paddling with their hands through the swamps, they found an old man whose name could not be learned, clinging to a piece of driftwood and nearly exhausted.   He was taken in and carried with the others to safety.   The Ryan home was a refuge for all the survivors and forty who landed there were kept alive on boiled potatoes dug from the fields and chickens found drowned. Picked and eaten raw.

DEATH OF THE WERNETHS
The drowning of Mr. and Mrs. Werneth and their youngest daughter, Una, is probably the most pitiful of all.   From “Cal” Williams, a youth of about 16 years, comes the story of how he and Miss Adele Werneth climbed a tree after abandoning their home and in full night and powerless to help, saw Miss Werneth’s father, mother, grandmother, and young sister drown.   Williams states they stuck to the Werneth’s home until the waves were washing over it.   Then securing a skiff at the back door, Mr. Werneth told all to get in. As they did, the skiff already half full with rainwater, sank.   Mrs. Bettancourt, an old lady not able to swim, went down immediately.   Mrs. Werneth swam for a few yards and a wave engulfing her, she sank and did not rise.   Young Williams and Miss Werneth , both being good swimmers, made their way to an oak tree and gaining the top of this were safe.   Mr. Werneth, bearing the youngest in his arms, got to the foot of the oak tree and caught hold of a branch, but a wave washed the little one from his arms and he made a grab for her, losing his hold on the branch and he and the child both went under and were not seen again.   Miss Werneth, seeing her family drowned, attempted to jump from the tree.   The young Williams prevented her and by much persuasion kept her in the tree until the waters receded and he jumped telling her to follow.   She did and the two young people were able to wade through the woods to a place of safety, the home of Mr. Bosarge, two and a half miles distant.
Mrs. Colin Moore and daughters, Minnow and Colleen, Mrs. Randall and her daughter, Miss Junie Randall, who were occupying the Howland place on Coden bay front, abandoning their home and pulling along from tree to tree, landed safely at the Ryan house on the railroad.
On the train, as it pulled out from Coden, were the majority of the survivors, all more or less half clad, exhausted from exposure and hunger and bruised and cut from their experiences. The nerve displayed by all was remarkable, not one breaking down or giving way to their feelings.
Mr. Chas. Rafield, Mr. Dan Rice, Dr. Dawson, and Joseph Espalla, Jr. deserve special praise for their bravery, the latter saving Mrs. Julie Alford and son.

On the train returning, a relief committee was formed as follows: Dr. H. T. Inge, chairman; Mr. Paul Wilson, secretary; Mr. Jas. T. Duggan, treasurer.   The following gentlemen who went to Coden yesterday and helped in the rescue work were named on the committee:
E. D. Laurendine
W. H. Holcombe
C. W. Stanton
J. T. McDonald
E. C. Ford
R. V. Taylor
Phelan Dorlon
Chas. Rudolph
C. A. L. Johnstone
George Toulmin
George Bates
W. B. Powers and
Steve Forbes

A meeting was called for 10:30 Saturday morning in the Commercial Club rooms, when all public-spirited men are asked to meet the committee to devise ways to give immediate relief to the homeless of Coden.
The majorities of the residents lost everything and have only what clothes they were saved in and any old clothes that can be sent them will be gladly received.
It is said that Mr. B. T. Barrett, assisted by his father-in-law, Mr. A. G. Ward, had a most exciting experience during the storm on Thursday and while it was at its greatest fury.
Mr. Barrett has a naphtha launch, which he used for pleasure. Due to the prompt use of it as well as a metallic skiff, is perhaps responsible for the safety of his family.   Securing a stout line to his skiff, after placing his wife therein, as well as Miss Frank S. Ward of New Orleans, a relative of his wife, and her little son. He and Mr. Ward towed them with the launch to a place of safety some distance back in the woods.   They are reported to have remained near Coden.
Mr. Simon Klosky, grandson of Peter Rabbey, jr. and servant girl arrived here last night from Coden and are at Klosky’s.   It was first reported that young Rabbey had met a watery grave with his grandmother but the lad, who is twelve years of age, is said to have swam to a place of safety where he was later found and rescued.

SEEN FROM TRAIN WINDOW

As the special relief train went out of this city yesterday to Coden, from the train window looking toward the river, could be seen vessels out high and dry in the marsh.   The telegraph poles all along the line were down across the telegraph road as far as one could see.
What was formerly the marsh, now looks like a lake, the overflow having backed up from the river for a distance of a half a mile westward.
Rounding from the main line of the Mobile and Ohio onto Bay Shore at the Mobile Cotton Mill settlement, the church was blown down, houses unroofed and the windows of the main building battered and broken.
The Gordon Wood Company at Government Street and the railroad crossing suffered a severe loss with all the stables, sheds, and storehouses being badly damaged.
The fine pine timber lands between Government and Fronsinn(?) Station, all boxed for turpentine, are felled across one another in such a manner that it resembles a thick swampy undergrowth rather than the fine pine timber groves they were.
Fowl River is swollen 300 or 400 yards out of its banks and all the trees around blown down.   At Kipling, a boxcar that was standing on a track is blown completely over and now is resting on its side by the track.