TOMBSTONE TUESDAY: Miss Grace Bierman

TOMBSTONE TUESDAY (July 15, 2025): Miss Grace Bierman was born on March 7, 1895, in Chocolate (later called Sweetwater) in Calhoun County, Texas - the youngest child of John H. and Mary (Roemer) Bierman. Grace had one older brother, Edwin and two older sisters, Adrian and Belle (grandmother of local residents Mary Belle Meitzen and J.C. Melcher). When Grace was born, the family was living on a 640-acre farm, which had been purchased in 1886 from Martha Hatch, the daughter of the Chocolate Community founder Sylvania Hatch. When the family visited grandparents or attended music lessons in Long Mott, they had to ride horseback or in a buggy cross country, as there were few roads at the time. Grace first attended school at the Episcopal “Church on the Prairie” which was located on the banks of the creek near present day Hatchbend Country Club. Sadly, Grace’s father passed away from typhoid fever in 1903, when Grace was just 8 years old. With the support of her brother Adolph Roemer, Grace’s mother moved the family to Port Lavaca. They settled in a new home located at the corner of S. Guadalupe and Cypress Streets (today MLK). Grace and her sister Adrian were just 3 years apart and were very close. They both graduated from the Port Lavaca High School in May 1911, as reported in an article in the Houston Post.

Grace and Adrian both taught Sunday School and loved spending time with their nieces and nephews. Grace was an accomplished pianist and often played for church and other occasions. The family has a copy of the program for a “piano-forte recital” which shows that Grace performed “Rigaudon” by Cecile Chaminade and the “Robin’s Return” by Leander Fisher – both beautiful but challenging pieces, indicating her immense talent. The two sisters particularly enjoyed meeting new people, going to the open-air picture show and spending time dancing at the “New” Pavilion located just offshore of Cypress Street near their home. 

Port Lavaca actually had a total of 5 pavilions at one time. The first was built in 1896 just off the South end of Virginia Street near where the Oblate Villa used to be. The second was located just off Live Oak Street, and the third was just off Railroad Street – both are shown in a 1909 plat of Port Lavaca. The excursion train “Old Salty” brought many people from Central Texas and beyond to enjoy swimming at the Pavilions and staying at the local hotels. Port Lavaca’s fourth pavilion was called the “New” Pavilion and opened on Sunday, August 10, 1913, when Grace was 18 years old. It was a three-story structure, 100x600 feet in size, with bathhouses on the first floor, concessions second floor and a dance hall on the third floor. It was one of the largest and nicest pavilions on the Texas gulf coast at the time. The Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railroad ran two excursions to Port Lavaca on the opening day - one from San Antonio and the other from Wharton. Accompanying this article is a photo of Grace and her sister Adrian, with her brother Edwin and his wife Myrtle standing at the entrance steps to the “New” Pavilion on their way to enjoying a fine evening of fun no doubt.

On September 2, 1919, a tropical depression began to develop near the Leeward Islands which would ultimately change the Bierman family and Port Lavaca forever. Gradually the storm gained strength as it tracked west-northwest towards the Bahamas. On September 9 and 10, the storm devastated the Florida Keys with an intensity equivalent to that of a modern-day Category 4 hurricane. The storm which is known today as the “1919 Florida Keys Hurricane”, continued across the Gulf of Mexico towards Texas. During this time, without the assistance of satellite imagery and radars, meteorologists lost track of this hurricane, as ship reports from the Gulf of Mexico had temporarily ceased. Coastal residents weren’t aware of the approaching storm until about 9:30 am on the morning of September 14 and by noon the eye of the hurricane made landfall near Baffin Bay in the southern Coastal Bend as a Category 3 hurricane with 115 mph winds and a central pressure of 950 millibars. The large storm generated a dome of water that would serve to produce the highest storm surge on record in the Corpus Christi area with a height of 16 ft at Corpus Christi, 13 feet at Port O’Connor and 9 feet at Galveston. This hurricane is one of the deadliest to affect the Texas Coastal Bend, with an official death toll of 284 souls, but estimates of actual lives lost ranged between 600-1000 people.

Sadly, one of those deaths was Miss Grace Bierman. An article in the Victoria Advocate the following day stated that “The hurricane caused considerable damage in Port Lavaca. A wind with a velocity of seventy-five miles per hour played havoc with numerous small fishing boats and all houses on the bay front are reported blown down. The pavilion was also blown down. One death was reported, Miss Grace Bierman, who died of heart failure while watching the destruction caused by the high winds.” During the height of the storm, Grace was watching through the glass of her front door as her beloved Pavilion began swaying in the wind and suddenly collapsed. Grace turned and said, “The pavilion has disappeared!” and her weak heart, which she had struggled with in her young life, gave out and she fell to the floor and died. The account was also recorded in a Houston Post article on September 18, 1919, which said “The town of Port Lavaca is safe. Much damage was done along the shore. The new pavilion and all fish and oyster houses are gone. Some residences along the shore were destroyed. There was one death, that of Miss Grace Bierman who died of heart failure caused by fright. Nearly all boats were destroyed. The Fisher Dock & Channel Co. plants, the W.H. Smith Harbor and Dock Company are complete losses.”

The fifth and final pavilion in Port Lavaca was built later that year at the end of Main Street (near the present-day Bayfront Park fishing pier) from remaining pieces of the Port O’Connor Pavilion, but the popularity of Port Lavaca after that was never quite the same.

Friends and family of Grace were devastated by her death. Her sister Adrian never fully recovered from her grief. One friend wrote to Adrian “It will not seem natural to ever see you without Grace. … Grace had many friends, and they too will miss her.” And another saying, “I cannot imagine you without Grace, you two have always been so devoted to each other.” An obvious gentleman admirer wrote that Grace was “one of the most beautiful characters” he had ever known and that he had the “highest regard for her purity, intellect, and confidence she placed in people that deserved it.” 

Grace is buried in the Port Lavaca Cemetery with a marker of a praying angel. Grace’s mother Mary visited Grace’s burial site every day until her death in 1951. Her dear sister Adrian was the last of her siblings to pass away in July 1968. 

After the devastation of the 1919 hurricane in Port Lavaca, the city again incorporated and funded the construction of the concrete seawall which still exists today from just south of South Street to somewhere near where Wilson and Harbor Street would intersect. The wall was designed to help protect the lower elevations along the shoreline from high tides, storm surge and erosion.

The Shifting Sands of Calhoun County – CCHC;

Sesquicentennial Port Lavaca, Texas 1840-1990;

Victoria Advocate; Houston Post; Houston Chronical; 

Family photos and letters held by Mary Belle Meitzen

Tombstone Tuesday is written and compiled each week by Jody Weaver and Sheryl Cuellar of the Calhoun County Historical Commission, sharing the people and stories behind Calhoun County's history.