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I.H.
Kempner, Edmund R. Cheeseborough and Billy Cherry Discuss Politicsby
Bill Cherry | |
Galveston
was in a stark raving fiscal and financial mess, and it started at least ten years
before the 1900
Storm.
There were many heroes who rose to the challenge when most
of the surviving residents decided to rebuild the island rather than to just leave
behind ravishes of the storm and to move elsewhere.
One person you rarely
hear of or read about was Edmund R. Cheesborough. He was the secretary-treasurer
of the Texas Portland Cement and Lime Co., and of another company that developed
all of what is now known as Galveston’s Silk Stocking District.
Prior
to the 1900
Storm, the city government had gotten so corrupt that the city was both spiritually
and financially bankrupt. It couldn’t even pay the city employees on a regular
basis. They got paid in what was known as script. Script is like an unsecured
loan. The city was the borrower and the employees were its creditors. Can you
imagine?
The way it worked was this: When there was money in the city’s
bank account, an employee could present his script note at the bank’s teller window
and get paid. Sometimes it took weeks.
So everyone seem to know that to
rebuild the island would require collecting all of the back property taxes, putting
in a responsible city government, and showing that Galveston
was able to pay all of its bills. That way it could earn a bond rating that would
allow it to get the millions it would need to raise the land grade of the entire
city and build a 4-mile, 16-foot high, 17-foot wide concrete seawall.
Leaders decided they should petition the legislature to change the form of government
to be set up like a business corporation. They called it the commission form.
Commissioner I.H. Kempner took on the task of collecting the back
taxes, and he did it within about a year. The bills started being paid, the bond
rating became excellent. The city was able to raise the money it needed for the
grade raising and seawall. No more script.
One of the unsung heroes was
Mr. Cheeseborough. He orchestrated and managed the enormous task of getting
the dredge material pumped from the gulf’s bottom onto the island, but not before
each and every remaining house was jacked up no less than about eight feet.
Tempers ran short as mosquitos and snakes and raw sewage were everywhere, and
yellow fever struck. There was no way to rush things. Galvestonians had to wait
for the dredge material to dry out. During that time, citizens had to walk gangplanks
across the mushy quicksand-like fill to get to and from their houses. Mr. Cheeseborough
held firm in the plan. It took 7 years.
About
Easter time in the late-50s, three men I had high regard for, Julian A. Levy,
Jack S. Evans, and Mr. Kempner began politicking me to pick their alma mater,
Washington & Lee University, for my college. Having any chance of being selected
for admissions required strong recommendations from alumni. They said they’d do
it.
One school day, Arthur Graham, one of Ball High’s most beloved teachers,
told me that Mr. Kempner had a copy of his recommendation letter for me to pick
up. “He’s expecting you right after school,” Mr. Graham said.
When I got
there, Mr. Kempner and Mr. Cheeseborough were in his office. Both were, if not
already, close to 90-years old.
We had barely shaken hands when Mr. Kempner
said, “Billy Cherry, do you know anything about the council-manager form of government?”
“Yes, sir. My civics teacher, Miz Blanche Saunders, has just taught us
about that,” I said.
“Well, that’s what Ed and I are discussing, because
Ruth (Kempner, his daughter-in- law) and Frances (Kay Harris) and some of their
League of Women Voters friends think we should get rid of the commission form
of government that Ed Cheeseborough, R.W. Smith and I worked so hard to get established
after the storm,”
he said.
“Ruth and Frances want the council-manager form.”
So
for at least the next hour, I listened as they told about the 1900
Storm and discussed Galveston’s
governmental past. Then the three of us cast our vote on whether or not changing
to the council- manager form of government was the right thing for Galveston.
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Galveston
after Hurricane Ike
Photo courtesy Bill Cherry, September 26, 2008 |
Galveston
after Hurricane Ike
Photos courtesy Bill Cherry, September 26, 2008 |
Two
elder statesmen and a teenager concluded that a form of government had never been
Galveston’s
problem. The problem was always that those who were elected, as well as those
who were hired to fill the governmental positions, frequently chose to favor some
residents over most others. In fact, most citizens had never gotten a fair shake
in Galveston.
If that were true, changing the form of government yet again was unnecessary.
Mr. Kempner called his daughter-in-law and told her that the three of
us had been meeting for about an hour, and that he thought she would be interested
in our conclusion.
With that, I shook hands with my friends, picked up
the copy of the letter Mr. Kempner had written for me, and left without thinking
there was anything unusual, that for the past hour I had been chosen to be an
equal with two of the most important citizens Galveston
had ever had. I doubt they thought there was anything unusual about it either,
because that was the way it was when I was growing up in Galveston.
Now 108 years later, Galveston
has experienced another devastating storm. The storm’s name was Ike (ironically
Mr. Kempner’s nickname) and the mayor of the city who is in charge of trying to
get the city back on the track to recovery is Mr. Kempner’s granddaughter, Lyda
Ann Kempner Quinn Thomas, yet another irony.
Bill
Cherry's Galveston Memories December 8, 2008 column
Copyright William
S. Cherry. All rights reserved |
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Bill Cherry, a Dallas Realtor and free lance writer
was a longtime columnist for "The Galveston County Daily News." His book, Bill
Cherry's Galveston Memories, has sold thousands, and is still available at
Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com and other bookstores. |
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