TOMBSTONE TUESDAY: Captain Frank Bauer

TOMBSTONE TUESDAY: Captain Frank Bauer (1868-1954)

The name Bauer is one that is well known in Calhoun County, and for good reason. Through vigorous work and a deep commitment to this place they chose as home, they became one of the oldest and most successful families in the state. Each generation set their sights on the future and instilled that same work ethic and vision to the next. So, it was with Captain Frank Bauer whose life was a colorful one. 

During the years between 1845 to 1852 Europe was plagued with a massive famine. The Great Potato Famine was felt deeply in Ireland and included Scotland, and Germany. With over a million deaths, there were over two million people who sold what little they had and immigrated to the United States for a better life. 

The first immigrants to land at Indian Point were no doubt weak and weary from the long trip across the ocean. To say that the expectations they had about their new home was not what they had envisioned is an understatement. What they found was a barren shore with scarce food and not conducive to much in the way of hunting or growing any food soon. There was no protection at all from the constant winds, dampness, heat and cold. Add to this mix the lack of fresh drinking water, endless swarms of mosquitoes, and the local Karankawa tribes and you understand how disheartening it had been. In 1844 the first immigrants spent their first Christmas in huts that they had built out of weeds, brush, and driftwood. It was in this environment that plagued the people with cholera and yellow fever and other illnesses. There was no way to turn back so most of these people moved inland and settled the towns of New Braunfels, Fredericksburg, and others, leaving a trail of people who died along the way. It took people with great fortitude to make a home in Texas. Around 1848 Indian Point consisted of three houses and a wharf. By 1852 Indianola had become the county seat and a thriving city stretching about 4 miles of shoreline. 

The Bauer family was from Saxony, an inland Prussian kingdom adjoining the Bohemian province of Austria-Hungary empire. In 1851 Edward and Elizabeth Bauer and their 3 children, a daughter only identified as F. R., a son, Anton, and a second son named Charles, who was born during the voyage across the Atlantic, landed in Indianola. Edward was 49 years old, and he set up a business as a butcher. Anton grew up into manhood in the family operated business and then expanded into the fish and oyster business. When the Civil War broke out the Bauers became involved in actively working to help supply the Confederate troops. Along with others they endured a time of shortages in necessities that needed great resourcefulness. After Lee’s surrender, the south then experienced years of reconstruction. During this time Anton took to expanding his business by shipping out oysters on Morgan Line steamers, to Galveston and New Orleans. He packed the oysters in ice that were brought to Indianola from New England by way of a three-mast schooner. 

Anton married Catherine and the couple had 13 children including Frank Bauer, born in Indianola on May 5th, 1868. By that time Indianola had grown with wharves and a bay full of schooners and boats coming and going through the port. The Main Street was bustling with businesses, carts, horses, and people so much so that it rivaled Galveston. Sadly, Indianola did not stay that way for long. When Frank was 5 years old the first of two hurricanes ravaged the city. On September 15,1875, a storm brought heavy winds and rain that were ceaseless. During the night things got worse. By dawn the east side of the town was submerged, and water was flooding Main Street. The gale strengthened into a hurricane and then into a cyclone, by noon the water was several feet deep crossing the streets of the city. Boats carried women and children to what little places of safety there were, as the water began washing houses, businesses, animals, and people out into the prairie beyond. Then as quickly as it came in it returned to the bay bringing wreckage back through and taking out what little businesses and homes left standing with it as well. The Bauers survived by taking a wagon up to Magnolia Beach which was on higher ground. They watched the storm and when it subsided, they returned home only to find it was gone. Over 300 people perished during the storm. Many moved to Victoria, Lavaca, and other towns, the Bauers stayed and helped rebuild Indianola.

On August 20, 1886, another fierce storm hit the small port town. A kerosene lamp that was left burning toppled over and caught a building on fire. The winds of the storm quickly spread the flames to other buildings setting two blocks ablaze. Frank’s mother Katie took her children and sought refuge in the Runge Bank building, and their lives were spared. Frank was 16 years old at that time and found himself with his best friend Cot Plummer in Matagorda Bay on board a schooner owned by Cot’s father. The experience was a harrowing one as Frank himself gave the following account. “You could hear a kind of low roar from the east and a big black cloud settled down over the bay. That was the first warning we had before she hit. It was on a Friday morning, that’s when the bad one hit. We were on Cot’s dad’s boat, the “Eclipse,” a 13-ton, 45-foot schooner, when she went down. The schooner was broken to bits. When we landed in the water, we got some planks that were floating around.” Frank went on, “My plank was was 12 inches wide and 12 feet long, I was on one end and on the other end was a black water moccasin, but we got along pretty well. That moccasin and I floated from Friday to Sunday, and when we wound up at Trespalacios, Cot said I ought to kill that old snake. But I wouldn’t do it. I figured I owed him that much. That snake could have killed me many a time.”

That Sunday, Cot and Frank took a train ride to Victoria, and they found his father and the rest of the family there unharmed. Over 150 people drowned in that storm and the town of Indianola laid bare in wreckage and ashes. The Bauer’s home was burned to the ground, and once again they found themselves starting over. Indianola never rebuilt, Port Lavaca once again became the county seat. The Bauers moved to Victoria and in 1887 they moved to Cuero to join the other Indianolans that had rebuilt there.

It was in Cuero was where Frank met Elizabeth “Lizzie” Wienand and the couple married in 1893. They moved to Oklahoma Territory but returned a year later. In 1900 they moved to Edna, and in 1904 they moved to Port Lavaca and settled for good. It was here that the couple raised their family two sons and 3 daughters who would grow to have strong work ethics, loyalty to their community, and vision for their futures. Frank and Lizzie bought the Lavaca Hotel and along with their children they ran the hotel until her death in 1936. Mrs. Bauer ran a tight ship over the hotel’s daily business. Trains like Old Salty brought cars full of holiday seekers to Port Lavaca ready for some fun and relaxation on the shores of Lavaca Bay. This of course kept the hotel full of guests. The Bauer children did not suffer the pains of boredom as there was always a task to do, and it took the whole family to make it run smoothly. During these early years of the hotel, there was a long and impressive list of guests that forged friendships and offered future opportunities to the family.

Eventually the family moved to a home that was known as the Langford House. It was near the High School, 3 blocks down from the hotel. 

Governor Samuel T. Lanham appointed Frank Bauer as the first Deputy Game and Fish Commissioner in Texas. The job paid $75 a month, and he had to provide his own boat. This job required him to be away from home for days at a time as he traveled up and down the Texas Coastline. Frank held many offices in the city of Port Lavaca. He was Superintendent of Waterworks, Public Weigher, Fire Marshall, City Manager, City Marshall, Tax Collector, Tax Assessor, and Secretary. In a Victoria Advocate article, a reporter said that “the whole City of Port Lavaca’s government visited Victoria today, except for the Mayor and the Fire Chief who stayed to keep the city’s affairs in order.” The reporter was talking about the visit of Captain Frank Bauer. One of the most important things that Frank gave to this community was bringing in the first shrimp net. It was new device to commercial fishing and with his job as the Game and Fish Commission he had the exposure and the access to bring it to Port Lavaca. The shrimp nets gave the local economy a huge boost, allowing shrimp to be shipped out with fish and oysters. It was said that in 1929 over 2,500,000 pounds of shrimp was shipped out of Port Lavaca. 

In 1915 another hurricane made landfall on the Texas Gulf Coast. Captain Frank Bauer and his two young sons had been visiting relatives in Galveston and were traveling home aboard a friend’s yacht, the “Jonathan Lane.” As they reached the town of Matagorda the vessel had engine trouble and there was no radio communication. The storm’s impact was so fierce it merged the waters of the gulf into the waters of Matagorda Bay. Frank Bauer shouted to his boys “if they find us with sand in our ears, it won’t be in the Gulf.” He made an anchor of the flywheel to hold the yacht in place and secured his sons to himself with a rope. He made a raft of life preservers, and it was this raft that kept them afloat throughout the storm's fury. The force of the storm was so powerful that they were left naked but alive clinging to the raft off the shoreline of Matagorda. Captain John Sterling, who lived in the town of Matagorda, found them, fed and clothed them, and helped them catch the train from Bay City to Port Lavaca. The three had been missing for seven days and when they made it home Lizzie’s hair had turned white from worry. In 1919 another hurricane landed on the coast south of the City of Port Lavaca. The storm did much damage in Port Lavaca and Calhoun County and took some lives as well. After the storm Frank Bauer transported some 50 windmills and 10,000 loaves of bread to the wrecked communities of Rockport, Port Aransas, and Corpus Christi aboard his 60 ft boat, helping those survivors get their feet back under them. 

Through his travels, guests staying at the hotel, and his own offices held for the city and state, Frank was active in politics, and both campaigned for candidates and garnered them many votes. He would bring fishermen from their boats to shore, and buckboards would take them to polling places. One election was a very close race in which his friend Judge Dudgeon was a candidate. Frank rounded up all the fishers he could find, packed them on his boat and started a rapid trip to the city wharf. All the sudden the wind died, and the boat stopped and would not budge. Frank took a pole and pushed it into the sands at the bottom of the shallow bay pushing the boat through the water. They made it to shore in this fashion and after their votes were cast, Judge Dudgeon was re-elected. 

Frank’s ingenuity served the people of Port Lavaca well. One time an angry Tom Dudgeon discovered someone had been stealing firewood from his livery stable and woodyard. Frank analyzed the situation and promised Tom that he would find the culprit. A few minutes later Captain Bauer returned carrying an arm full of firewood that he placed on top of the firewood pile. He had concealed several small charges of gun powder in the logs. “Now don’t use any of this firewood for yourself Tom,” he said. “We will just wait and see whose stove has a little explosion.” They didn’t have to wait long as two nights later the wood disappeared and an ear-ringing blast from the living room of one of the city’s most respected citizens. Tom never had anymore firewood taken, problem solved. 

Captain Frank was well known for his affinity for hunting and his first taste of hunting was using a muzzle loaded double barrel shotgun. Every day he walked three miles to his grandfather's place, and he would ask his grandpa to point out the duck he wanted, and Frank never failed to bring it down. He began hunting at age 13 and hunted every day of his life from there. As time went on, he was taking governors, senators, generals, and other dignitaries on hunts when they came to town. He never failed to get the daily limit of ducks and geese. He was a bonafide sure shot. 

In his old age Captain Frank spent his time hunting, occasionally piloting a tugboat for his son Bill’s dredges, helping his daughter Myrtle run the hotel after his beloved Lizzie died, and enjoying his family. On the 26th of May, in 1954, Frank Edward Bauer died. He is buried in the Port Lavaca Cemetery next to Lizzie. 

When it comes to summing up the long and colorful life of Captain Frank Bauer, no one could describe it any better than he did himself. A writer by the name of Eddie Cope captured it in the following. “The weather-beaten old man was sitting in his front yard. He was weaving a casting net, and his gnarled fingers were moving like a hummingbird’s wings. When he noticed that I was watching him, he slowed down, shifted his cud of chewing tobacco, and said “Howdy.” I’ve come down to Port Lavaca to do a feature story on you Captain, I said, handing him my card. He looked at it for a moment, then with an elfin grin creased his weathered face. He fished in his pocket and came out with a neatly printed card which he handed to me. The card read: I’m somewhat of a bull thrower myself. Go on with your story. Captain Frank Bauer.”

Shifting Sands of Calhoun County

Port Lavaca 1840 to 1990

W.H. Bauer A Biography of Accomplishment by Vernon Smylie

https://www.calhouncountyhc.org

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.