Kate Dorman

The Catfish Hotel stood about 300 yards north of Fort Griffin and had its own wharf; the 1860 census counted 24 permanent guests there, five of them merchants. When yellow fever struck in July 1862 and most of the town fled, Kate Dorman, Sarah Vosburg and Sarah Ann King nursed the sick with no medicines, and all three survived. Vosburg had had the fever in New Orleans. In October, Federal troops took Captain Dorman's horse and cart for a howitzer, and Kate berated them. They threatened to burn the hotel and did not.

What the plaque says

Kate Dorman Georgia native Kate Dorman and her husband, Arthur Magill, owned and operated the catfish Hotel at Sabine Pass as early as 1847. Arthur Magill was killed in an accident in 1859, and the following year Kate, a widow with two young daughters, married John Dorman. In 1862 the Catfish Hotel became a temporary hospital, where Kate nursed victims of a yellow fever epidemic. A strong supporter of the Confederacy, Kate traveled through enemy fire to provide food to Lt. Dick Dowling's troops during the Battle of Sabine Pass in 1863. (1990)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sabine Pass Battleground State Historic Site — 1.9 mi
  A waterfront park at the mouth of the Sabine where the earthwork of Fort Griffin stood, with a Dowling statue, a Union memorial, wartime magazines and a walkway for fishing.
• Sea Rim State Park — 7.4 mi
  Texas's far southeast corner: nearly two miles of Gulf shoreline backed by 4,000 acres of marsh, reached by boardwalk or paddle trail, rebuilt after Rita and Ike.
• Museum of the Gulf Coast — 11 mi
  Port Arthur's regional museum in a former bank building: fossils, Native Americans, the petroleum story, a 125-foot history mural and Halls of Fame for musicians, athletes and artists.
• Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum — 24 mi
  A re-created oil boomtown on the Lamar University campus, with a derrick, period shops, a 1941 granite monument and an optional re-enactment of the January 1901 Lucas gusher.

More markers nearby

• Kate Dorman — steps away
• Sabine Pass Cemetery — steps away
• Jacob Harmon Garner — steps away
• Benjamin Johnson — steps away