The Galveston County Daily News

Women paraded along the Seawall Boulevard in Easter finery that cost as much as $20.

Thousands of children took part in a citywide Easter egg hunt, with Sioux Indian Chief William Red Fox acting as master of ceremonies.

The year was 1929, and Galveston, once the Wall Street of the Southwest, was determined to focus on the Easter message of hope, despite grim economic news.

In the depression that followed and through the war years, traditions of Easter celebration could have become simpler. But then, as today, the holiday focused on family.

“It was always about family,” recalled Carolyn Ford, 73, who grew up on 32nd Street and Avenue Q1/2. She always had new clothes for Easter, sewn by her mother, Mary Elizabeth Grossman.

“During the war years, there was no cutback on special occasions,” she said. “We went ahead with regular celebrations.”

She remembers reading about the Easter parade on the boulevard but never attended it herself. In her family, Easter celebrations centered on services at St. Patrick Catholic Church and family gatherings where children hunted hard-boiled, dyed Easter eggs.

Retta Lou Weber, 85, can picture the depression years in Galveston.

“There was very, very little in the way of spending money,” she said.

But she remembers Easter as a time of celebration at the family home, 1701 Church St., despite economic stresses. Her mother, Henrietta Louise Stavenhagen, would always make her a new Easter outfit, with fluffy skirt, in pastel colors.

“One of my special memories is being able to get white kid gloves,” she said. “I often sat with my aunt in church and I was fidgety, waiting for things to happen. She would say, ‘Sister, cultivate repose,’ and she would hold my hands still.”

Her father, Ernest Stavenhagen, was a member of the Masonic Lodge.

“He had to dress in his full Masonic regalia and wear them to a service that was held in Menard Park,” she recalled. “We always walked with him all the way down to the boulevard, and the Masonic Band would play Easter music as members walked across and gathered on the stage.”

After the sunrise service at Menard Park, the family would attend services at First Presbyterian Church. The sanctuary was decorated with palm branches left over from Palm Sunday and bright flowers from members’ yards, Weber said.

Easter Sunday 1929, The Daily News reported the success of the first citywide Easter egg hunt the day before at Menard Park with some 3,000 children attending. The event was coordinated by the Kiwanis Club and included Chief Fox, “fully attired in his native costume.”

Services Easter Sunday included a sunrise program at Menard Park “under the auspices of the Knights Templar,” and the dedication of a set of chimes and windows at Trinity Episcopal Church. The day before, Clark W. Thompson Company advertised “striking Easter frocks” for $18 while Davidson’s Inc. had Easter hats, “the crowning glory of your Easter costume,” for $1.95.

Moving forward in Galveston history, the April 17, 1949, edition of The Daily News reported about 5,000 children attended the countywide Easter egg hunt on East Beach, coordinated by the Kiwanis Club on the day before Easter. As for Easter Sunday events, “the grandest ladies in the Easter parade will walk the boulevard.”

Nathan’s advertised flower-trimmed Easter straw hats for $10.95, while the Holly Shop had dresses in “better crepes and tear drop taffetas” for $8.95. John’s Oyster Resort had a $1.75 Easter Sunday dinner.

Both Weber and Ford recall Easter dinners as lavish home-cooked meals. Ford’s mother always prepared a traditional ham, potato salad dish and desert, a menu she follows to this day when her four children, nine grandchildren and one great-grandchild gather for Easter.

Weber will join her children and grandchildren for Easter dinner. This holiday comes in the midst of difficult times — the recent loss of her husband, Lee Weber Jr., and the loss of family photographs in Hurricane Ike.

She has pictures stored away in her memories though — of Easter celebrations during the Great Depression focused on the gathering of family.

“My father was very talented in presenting beautiful prayers and he would pray and thank the Lord for all our blessings,” she said.

Resources

The Daily News accounts were provided by Casey Greene, head of special collections at the Rosenberg Library Texas History Center. The center is helping in hurricane recovery efforts by helping establish the age of a residence or building for insurance purposes and by recording recollections of the storm. For information, see gthcenter.org.

“Lively Stones: A History of the People Who Built First Presbyterian Church,” by Retta Lou Weber, and her daughter, Gayle Weber Strange, is available for purchase at the church office. The church will have an outdoor Easter sunrise service, rain or shine, at 6:45 a.m. in the chapel garden, under the tent on 19th Street between Winnie and Church streets.