The Galveston Dispatches: A Swiss Missionary’s Account of Nineteenth-Century Texas

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.

Fred Huddleston was a preservation architect with a love for Galveston history. These letters, written in Swiss German, passed through many hands before Fred committed to translate them into English. Clay Rogers currently serves on the Galveston Historical Foundation executive board and has retired from the practice of law and order to devote more time to family and his Galveston community. Clay was committed to having Fred’s work on these translations completed in his memory and took up finalizing them.