The Galveston Dispatches

Personal stories of life in Galveston in the mid-nineteenth century.

In 1855, Friedrich Gloor was just nineteen when he was sent from Basel, Switzerland, halfway around the world to teach at the First German Lutheran Church school in Galveston, Texas. He spent the next eleven years writing letters to his family about a place that was very different from his Swiss home. The climate was harsh, with stifling heat and bitter cold, droughts and floods. He provides a firsthand account of the treatment of slaves, frontier justice by hangings and burning criminals in the streets, shipwrecks, the yellow fever epidemic and the Civil War. However, Friedrich was haunted by something from his life in Switzerland for which he constantly asks for forgiveness. Friedrich’s secret remains shrouded in mystery, but his letters are a vivid glimpse into the pivotal moments of Galveston’s early history.