“IT WAS A TERRIBLE THING TO SEE”
DOWNTOWN DAYTON – Part One
Although having been warned the evening before that the river would reach its flood crest that day, most Daytonians were unconcerned, since the water usually only affected the low lying areas of the city.
On March 25, 1913 the levees north of the city could no longer hold back the swollen river. The Great Miami River began rushing through the downtown section of Dayton at twenty-five miles an hour.
CLEMENS LEO STAUDT
Clemens Leo Staudt lived in the Calvert building on the west side of Wilkinson Street, between Third and Fourth streets. About three weeks after the flood subsided Staudt wrote of his adventure during the high waters, which he titled Observations and experiences during the Dayton, Ohio Flood of 1913.
To begin with, I shall give you a short description of the weather preceding the flood. We were having the usual March weather till Good Friday. On this day we had a terrible wind storm followed by darkness and rain and frequent flashes of lightening. The following day, Saturday, we had more rain with continued darkness. Early Easter Sunday morning the weather was fair but during the day we had rain, thunder and lightning. Monday, the darkness was extreme all day and the rain poured unceasingly. The flood came Tuesday. Mrs. Staudt and I read in the Monday evening paper that the water was very high along the levee and that guards were being placed all along the river to keep a close watch during the night, but this did not give us any alarm as we were located in an apartment house within two blocks of the heart of the city where the water had never before reached the basement.
Early Tuesday morning we were awakened by the distress whistle which blew not more than a minute, and only for the ringing of a church bell I doubt our becoming alarmed. We lost no time in getting dressed and while my wife prepared breakfast, I went to see the cause of alarm. When I reached Third street, three doors from our place, I could see the water rushing south five blocks west of where we lived. It was then not quite six o’clock so I waited in front of the grocery store, thinking I had better lay in a supply of food, and have it prepared as I feared the gas might be turned off, which was our only means of cooking.
I noticed the water was rising very fast but I did not feel much alarmed for I had just met Dr. Bonnar who lived in Dayton for fifty years and he assured me that the water would not reach us. By this time Mr. King the groceryman, arrived and I purchased a supply of food sufficient to last my wife and I for two weeks. We ate a hurried breakfast, prepared the food which I brought in and then started for the street to watch the progress of the water. By this time, the water had covered the five intervening blocks and was within one half block of our place. We returned to our apartments and while my wife prepared things to eat, I began moving my office furniture from the basement to the first floor where we lived. I succeeded in removing everything but a roll top desk which I could not get out as the water had now reached me. Dr. Everhard, a lady doctor whose office was next to mine had succeeded in saving much of her furniture. Fortunately, she lived on the fourth floor where her things were safe but as or myself, I had to begin all over again for the water was now rising two feet and five inches per hour. I found a vacant apartment on the third floor where we began carrying our belongings. How we ever got everything out except the heavy furniture, that we were unable to carry, is more than we can now understand, as we had to take turns on the stairs, as there were three families on the first floor. Nothing was overlooked.
We had food and drinking water sufficient to last us two weeks, but we soon learned that others were not so fortunate. We had twenty-four women and three men in our building and after taking an invoice of our supplies we found that we had enough to last us two days. We all gathered together in one room on the fourth floor to watch the maddening waters with the exception of Mr. and Mrs. Leide, an aged couple who had been removed from the first to the third floor. Mrs. Leide was an invalid and confined to her bed all the time, but she and her husband were more than brave through it all.
It was not long until we could see pianos, tables, side boards, and in fact most everything from a baseball to dead horses floating down the streets. We saw one horse turn the corner with halter and strap on; as he reached our place, his strap caught on the limb of a tree. Being alive we felt sure he would drown before our eyes but he made a desperate struggle, tore loose and got in the rear of some tile that were piled up in front of the new post office that is under construction and managed to get his front feet up to the top row of tile. Occasionally the water would wash him back, but with a desperate plunge he would get his feet back on the pile and thus he fought with the water for eight long hours before he finally gave way and drowned.
Night came on and the water was still rising. Dr. Everhard, Mr. Calender and myself succeeded on getting all the women to retire, assuring them that we would keep a close watch during the night and give notice of any danger. Our women were brave through it all, but Dr. Everhard was more than brave! I don’t know how Mr. Calender and I could have gotten along without her assistance. Before the water receded, she was out in rubber boots administering to the sick. What a terrible night it was! There were struggling and moaning horses around our building but we could see nothing of the city as it was in total darkness. Such a night of horror I never again hope to experience.
Wednesday fires broke out all around us and our second night was more dismal than the first for we were afraid that we would be burned up like rats in a trap. About noon Wednesday Burkhart’s drug store caught fire. It was the worst fire I ever saw. The rain fell in torrents, the lightning flashed and the thunder roared. This store was three blocks east of us and three blocks were burned on both sides of the street. Another drug store one block South of us burned and during the night a residence caught fire three or four blocks to the west of us. These fires burned all night. One explosion followed another filling the air with fire. The wind was blowing wildly, carrying burning articles eight and ten blocks. Oh, the anxiety, the suffering and the suspense! I had just gotten over an attack of rheumatism shortly before the flood. I was not well before, and here I was in a building without fire, and the dampness was extreme. I wrapped rags around my shoes to keep my feet warm. My legs were swelling and I feared I was getting down, but the thought of my wife and my friends was all that kept me up. I knew I had to stick.
Occasionally I called on the old couple on the third floor. They were in bed; just as cheerful as though nothing had happened. What an inspiration it was to me to see by the candle light those two loving but practically helpless people without a fear. I forgot my pain. I forgot my danger.
Thursday morning we found the water going down as fast as it had risen. By evening we could see the ground on the high places around the new post office. The fires seemed under control, but we watched our building all night.
The next morning we could walk the streets. We could see things piled up of every description. Houses standing in the middle of streets, eight and ten dead horses in one block. In fact we had five dead horses around our apartments.
I thought our suffering was great, but I soon found that others had suffered more and by comparison we had suffered very little. Hundreds of people had nothing to eat for three days and many had to stand in the rain and water during all that time. Fathers and mothers were carrying their little ones shabbily clad, about the streets. Some had small packages of clothing tied to their backs, but many had nothing left. Husbands were separated from wives; daughters from mothers; and in many cases no one member of a family could find another. How their hearts must have ached for word from their loved ones, but during it all I only saw two people give way to their grief. What a brave lot of people we had! I felt proud of Dayton and her citizens.
BERTHA LANGSTROTH
Bertha Langstroth, a teacher at the Miami Commercial College, tried to get a better view of the high waters north of the city, not realizing that it was rapidly rushing towards downtown Dayton.
I went across the street to the Reibold Building with the office girl, as we thought we could go higher and see where the high water was. Went up on the elevator, but could see very little for the clouds. Had to walk down, as the elevator had stopped running. When we got down I remarked that it looked as if there was a thin sheet of water on the street up near the monument. The girl thought it was only the way the light struck the pavement, but in a minute I saw great numbers of people on foot and in different kinds of conveyances coming very rapidly toward the south, and before I could get across the street had to step in water in the east gutter. The girl was afraid of the water and stayed in the Reibold Building.
About nine o’clock we went upstairs into the office and in a few minutes heard a terrible crash below. Looked down the stairway and saw the plate glass window had broken.
Looked out the windows and saw several people caught in the water. Everybody seemed very quiet, there being no screaming or crying or excitement.
Two boys about 16 were near the corner where the fence was around the Reibold Annex excavation. One climbed on the post at the corner and the other started south. He got to the lamppost at the alley south of the Reibold building where he held on for awhile, motioning for the other to come one, but he shook his head and still clung to the post. The one at the alley then swam across the alley going south and disappeared in one of the buildings. I think the other got across to the Arcade in some way.
FRED BOYER
Fred Boyer, a teacher of Stivers High School, was on Main Street when the water came over the levee.
[I]t was still raining and as the cars were not running I started to walk to school (Stivers). I heard stories on my way down that shops were not running, that Main Street was under water, etc. Only about ten or fifteen teachers and fifty of the pupils came, so after 8:30 we decided to close school. The fire-bell rang and the whistles blew as a warning. Six of us walked down Main Street. St. Clair was covered to a depth of several feet near the canal, Main Street was covered south of the railroad.
Several of us had gotten about as far north as Fourth Street at just about 9 o’clock, when a man came galloping down the street on a horse, a tall, gaunt, ungainly figure, waving his hands in the other direction and crying “The levee’s broke, the levee’s broke.” The crowds started hurrying the other way, and streetcars hurriedly started backing (south on Main Street). A company of colored militia marched up the street from the south. In a moment the water was rushing down the gutters and spreading across the street. (The gutters were full and I could see the water coming down Main Street in a wall about six inches deep in the center of the street).
We went back up Fifth Street and it was already coming out Jefferson. Down St. Clair Street (from Fifth) we could see a great current in the water. We went up the railroad and Wyandotte Street to Third Street and the Canal down which the water was coming like a river. It was washing across St. Clair Street in a mighty current, and just beginning to flow into the Library. We looked up Third Street and it was already across between Wayne Avenue and the Railroad, so we retreated to Fifth Street, came back to Third at Bainbridge and found the water just about to wash over the Pennsylvania tracks and had to hurry to beat it up to McDonough Street. As we hurried up the railroad we saw some people climbing out of the window of a little cottage into the water which reached the sill and we nearly got caught at Clinton Street where it was already across the tracks.
FRED PATTERSON
Fred Patterson and Nelson Talbott were the first to brave the current as it swirled through the business section of Dayton. Fred reported that the water at the Algonquin Hotel, located at the southeast corner of Third and Ludlow Streets, was fifteen feet deep. From windows in the hotels and business buildings hundreds of marooned begged piteously for food.
At the intersection of Main and Third streets they saw houses and many small structures drift swiftly down between the imposing office buildings that formed the banks for the muddy torrents.
By careful steering and strong rowing we penetrated to almost the center of the city. Our route was Warren street to Jefferson, up Jefferson to Main, thence to Third Street, to Ludlow, to Second. Everywhere people yelled to us to rescue them, but it was impossible, for we were barely able to keep afloat.
Large amounts of money were offered us to take persons from perilous positions. The windows of the Algonquin Hotel seemed filled with faces, and the same conditions prevailed at most of the buildings we passed. We did not see any bodies, but the loss of life must have been great.
JOSEPH B. REICHMANN
Joseph B. Reichmann, President of the Platt Iron Works, was one of the faces Fred Patterson might have seen as he and Talbott passed by the Algonquin Hotel.
Several of us were on the third floor of the [Algonquin] hotel, when we saw a trolley car loaded with screaming passengers tossing about on the top of the torrent. Just after it passed us the car became wedged between an electric light pole and the Y.M.C.A. Building, which is just across Third Street from the Algonquin. It looked as if everybody aboard the car would be drowned and we were powerless to help them.
Then, suddenly, a boy jumped from the window of the Y.M.C.A. into the stream and started for the stranded conveyance.
He had a rope tied about his waist, the other end of which was made fast to the Y.M.C.A. Building. He hadn't taken more than three strokes, however, before the current caught him and threw him aside. He tried again, but got so exhausted they had to haul him back to the window.
Pretty soon another youth started on the same journey, but he failed. All together five of the young men tried before the last one managed to get the rope tied to the trolley car. Then, in the next two hours every person in the car climbed along the rope to the Y.M.C.A.
