10/02/2026
An ad placed in the October 9, 1900, issue of the Galveston Daily News reveals a family, raw with pain. In the notice, Henry Oppermann offers cash payments for the return of four caskets and two bodies, all swept away by the 1900 Storm:
“The undersigned will pay $10 reward for the recovery of each of the bodies of Albert L. Oppermann and his wife, lost during the storm from 9th and Broadway. Both wore a plain gold wedding ring with initials engraved inside. I will also pay $10 each for the recovery of four caskets, which floated out of my vault…three containing bodies of adults and one of child, the latter being contained in a white casket.”
Albert was Henry’s brother, newly married to Abigale. The two were never found. Neither were the four caskets, all containing the bodies of other members of the Oppermann family.
One casket held Laura, Henry’s sister, who died just one year after giving birth to a daughter, Catherine. The white casket contained Catherine, who died a year and a half after her mother at just two and a half years old. The family placed Catherine’s small casket next to Laura’s, but the storm washed them both away.
A third missing casket held Mary Anna Oppermann, mother of 10 children including Henry, Albert, and Laura, and wife to Gustave Oppermann. After Mary Anna suddenly fell ill and passed away, Gustave commissioned the construction of the Oppermann family vault in Calvary Catholic Cemetery. The structure is the only funerary vault in Galveston attributed to acclaimed architect Nicholas Clayton, designer of the 1892 Bishop’s Palace.
The fourth casket contained Joseph, another of Henry’s brothers. Joseph’s tragic story broke hearts in the late 1800s. After his mother’s death, his father, Gustave, remarried a woman 30 years younger. Joseph was rumored to be in love with his father’s young bride, and when the new couple went away on their honeymoon, Joseph consumed rat poison. His death was ruled a su***de.
What becomes of a final resting place when the earthly shells it held are lost?
Some stories ensnare us through mystery, fear, or whimsy. Others haunt us forever because they are just so sad.
