BROWNSVILLE PIO BILL YOUNG PENS 1867 HURRICANE DRAMA

By Juan Montoya
Just the other day we had the opportunity to visit the City of Brownsvilel's Public Information Officer Bill Young.
Bill, a veteran print and broadcast journalist who cut his teeth at the old Brownsville Herald when it strived to be a newspaper of record, also worked for local television stations and is a consummate border historical buff.
We know he loves to write about the Civil War and its impact on the border as well as on the wealth of topics this historical area enjoys.
He told us he had just written a piece on some murderers in the early 1900s in Willacy County where the "Rangers had something to do it," and included it in Dr. Tony Zavaletta's latest journal of South Texas history. He couldn't find us a copy, but said that he had also written a piece on the devastating hurricane of 1867, the storm that dealt the death blow to Puerto Bagdad, the notorious "den of iniquity"through which Confederate cotton had run the Union blockade in the Civil War and made millionaires of Charles Stillman, Robert King and Mifflin Kenedy.
Bill said the story ran in the San Antonio Express and we looked it up in the http://www.mysa.com/ website and entered the name Bill Young in the search box. Sure enough, the three-page story (Bill was always thorough, a bit too thorough, thought some of his editors) pops out and makes for fascinating reading.
Luckily, a photographer of the era who lived in Matamoros, Louis de Planque, was able to salvage his camera and equipment and provide us with what are thought to be the first-ever photographs of the destruction left behind by a hurricane.
Bill hints that his days at the city as a PIO may be nearing the end as he contemplates retirement after a lifetime of journalism. We hope he, like his better half, keeps on writing.