Syxpack
74 posts
Apr 06, 2013
9:35 AM
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Does anyone know what they did with the horses that perished in the Dayton 1913 flood? I heard a story yesterday, that they were buried on Hawker Street in East Dayton and that is the reason for all the housing foundations in that area going bad now. I can't believe that story because I believe that was a residential area even back then. I would think the animals would have been cremated. Anyone know what they did with them?
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Perry401
146 posts
Apr 08, 2013
10:10 AM
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I had heard that the horses (and other animals) were buried when I was a kid (from people who actually helped with the clean-up). Cremation of thousands of horses would be hard to do even today, and I believe the cremation of dead animals was almost never done at that time. I was told by one of these people that every household in the area that flooded was required by some sort of martial-law type order to dig a pit in their backyards sufficiently large to dispose of any and all plant or animal remains and debris found on that property. Another person told me that materials found on the streets were "hauled away" -- often in railroad cars they ran down the street car tracks when these were available. I would assume most flood debris found on public property would have been taken to the town dump, or some other central disposal site. Still, the issues you raise about failing foundations in the East Dayton area could indead have happened if these houses were in the flood zone and the owners dug the pits as required. It wasn't until well into the 1930's that scientists and engineers started to realize that disturbing the soils around a foundation could cause later foundation failure, and this is why modern foundations require compacted dirt or gravel area, drainage systems, etc., when being back-filled.
Another possibility (although I don't know that much about if there were such facilities locally or if they would have survived the flood) would have been taking the remains to a rendering house, where dead animals were often taken and "cooked down" into glues and other non-edible products. Before the days of synthetic resins and modern glues and similar products, glues were often made from the remains of dead animals. I personnally doubt if they did this because there would have been a long delay perhaps a week or more between the time the animal died and the time they could have processed it, and becuase of the decomposition and desease issues, immediate burial would probably been the fastest and easiest way to dispose of the carcasses.
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Syxpack
83 posts
Apr 11, 2013
9:32 AM
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Thanks gris66. That makes perfect sense. More-so than the story about them being buried on Hawker Street.
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Syxpack
84 posts
Apr 11, 2013
9:32 AM
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Thanks gris66. That makes perfect sense. More-so than the story about them being buried on Hawker Street.
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FreedomWriter
1 post
Apr 11, 2013
6:14 PM
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Kind of along the subject. I wonder where all the debris was buried at? Would be neat to be able to find and go thru the stuff to see how Daytonians used to live. Any ideas as to where it all went?
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Billd1952
56 posts
Apr 19, 2013
6:12 PM
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I believe all the dead animal carcus' were loaded in train cars, and taken to a local fertilizer plant.
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