Judge Henry Joseph Huck
Indianola, Calhoun County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Henry Joseph Huck was born on August 3, 1882, in Ottenhofen, Baden, in southern Germany. He graduated from Heidelberg University and, with the inheritance from his mother's death, Henry venture to London and established a merchant business at the age of 17. On Sept. 29, 1845, at the age of 23, Henry sailed on the ship Wellington to New York City, and later traveled to New Orleans and then Indian Point (later named Indianola). Huck opened a lumber yard in Indian Point and a satellite yard in Powderhorn, importing and exporting Florida pine and later calcasieu lumber. In 1846, following the admission of Texas into the Union, Henry J. Huck was one of the organizers and first Probate Judge of Calhoun County. Judge Huck was a trustee of the Indianola and Guadalupe Valley Railroad and a proponent of many transportation advancements. Huck enlisted in 1861 in the Indianola Guards Battalion, Texas Militia. Huck advanced in the military to the Chief Quartermaster of Texas with the rank of major by May 1865. Following the war, Huck return to Indianola and was elected Commissioner of Pilots at the Port of Indianola and returned to his lumber business, which expanded rapidly. Judge Huck serve as a Commissioner of Schools and on the Board of School Examiners, as well as chairman of the Indianola Relief Association after the 1875 hurricane. When the 1886 hurricane struck, the city of Indianola was devastated, and Judge Huck lost his lumber inventory. He sold his holdings and moved to Austin, where he passed away on December 18, 1905. Judge Huck significantly impacted Indianola and the State of Texas as a pioneer businessman, commissioner, soldier and statesman. (2017)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Educated in Germany and seasoned as a young merchant in London, Henry Joseph Huck sailed to America in the 1840s and made his way to Indian Point—soon the booming Gulf port of Indianola. He opened lumber yards, became one of Calhoun County's first probate judges, promoted railroads, and served as a Confederate quartermaster during the Civil War. Twice hurricanes battered Indianola, and the catastrophic 1886 storm destroyed his business and the town itself, driving him at last to Austin.
Why it matters
Huck's rise and ruin embody the fortunes of Indianola, the vanished Texas port whose destruction by hurricane is one of the state's great lost-city stories.
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Related people
- · Henry Joseph Huck
Related events
- · 1886 Indianola hurricane
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