When word of the Texas disaster first came it was reported that the entire family had been lost, but it later developed that a married daughter, who lives in Omaha, Neb., was not visiting her parents, as was first supposed, and therefore escaped the death that overtook her relatives. Peter E. McKenna, the head of the family, was well known in Philadelphia during his youth. His father was one of the pioneers in the religious press. The son followed the profession of his father, and after engaging in the publication of newspapers and religious weeklies until 1862 he sought fortune in the West. [Illustration: VIEW OF PIER 23, SHOWING VESSEL OVERTURNED BY THE GALE] [Illustration: HOUSE ON CENTRE STREET BETWEEN N AND N½ AVENUES BRACED UP BY A FLOATING CISTERN] [Illustration: DESTRUCTION OF GALVESTON ORPHANS’ HOME] [Illustration: INTERIOR OF ST. PATRICK’S CHURCH WHICH WAS DEMOLISHED BY THE HURRICANE] Galveston at the time was a growing city, and as it offered the opportunities Mr. McKenna desired he settled there and devoted himself to the upbuilding of newspapers. His success was of such a nature that he made his permanent home in Galveston, and during the thirty-eight years that have passed, was recognized as one of the most foremost journalists in that city. Latterly he was connected with the Galveston “Despatch” and also conducted a publishing house for himself. Separated as he was by thousands of miles from the city of his birth, Mr. McKenna was able to make only a few visits during the last twenty-five years, but he kept up a constant correspondence with several relatives. In these letters there was frequent mention of the fact that the city was lower than the sea and open to the attacks of any storm that might form in the Gulf of Mexico. CLEARING THE WATER FRONT. At a conference held at the office of the City Health Officer on Friday, the 14th, it was decided to accept the offer of the Marine Hospital Service, and establish a camp at Houston, where the destitute and invalids can be sent. The physicians agreed that there were many indigent persons in the city who should be removed. A message was sent to the Surgeon General asking that the department furnish one thousand tents, of four-berth capacity each; also seven hundred barrels of disinfecting fluid. Another important movement in the direction of sanitation was made by the Health Department in calling for one hundred men with drays to clean the streets. The idea is to district the city and start the drays to remove all unsanitary matter from the streets. STRANGE BURIAL PLACES AND GRAVES. Although the work of disposing of the dead is being pushed, several hundred bodies are still buried beneath the wreckage. Thirty-two sand mounds marked with small boards, attract attention on the beach, near Twenty-sixth street, and tell the story of where about seventy-five bodies have been buried.