“DAYTON IS A MASS OF RUINS...”
A CITY RISES FROM THE RUBBLE - Part Two
EMMA GRIMES
Emma Grimes,wrote several letters to her sister, Kate Bowlus. Emma mentions in one of the letters that she had to abandon her home at 929 Brown Street due to it becoming full of water. (See pages 81-82).
Emma worked in the laundry department at Miami Valley Hospital, and thus saw many of the flood victims that were treated for starvation and exposure there. Excerpts from two of her letters have been included here.
April 7th, 1913
Sister, Dayton is a mass of ruins, houses are piled on top of each other and in the south and south western and northern part of the City everything has gone and every bit of the heart of the City. The Pensyvania road has started trains out now but the railroad bridges and all the bridges but Third St. and Washington St. bridges. One City car line runs down to Monument Ave – and that is the only one that can run.
My house is slowly drying up now and I have the mud all cleaned up but I won’t put things back to their places for a while. Everything in my cellar is ruined and all the furniture that set in the water went to pieces. I have only one little old stove with two burners that poor old Mother gave me, and it never was used till now. And at first I let them have it up to the Hospital to heat water on to take care of the injured people that was brought in, then someone gave them a range and they made coal fires out in the yard to make coffee and cook for the patients. We could not buy anything if you was worth thousands of dollars and all stores were washed out. Sister I just got your card and thank your kind heart so much. And I will send you the money for what you send me. I am so sick and tired of what we can get to eat, no meat, milk eggs or butter, but it won’t be long till some of the railroads will bring in things now and country people will soon be coming in. No one has been allowed to come in, soldiers are every place. And you know everything people owned or had in their houses is all scattered over the sts. and on piles…
And so many are dying now at the Hospital from exposure and fright during the flood, Kate. The water rose four inches a minute during the early morning and no one had time to save anything or to get away. And you never saw anything like that mud that settled on everything, it cut and ground in and is fine as flour paste and you can hardly wash it off...
April 10th, 1913
I received the box this day. It was brought to me free of charge. And sister and all of you tears of thankfulness and gratitude came to my eyes to see something from Maryland and my dear relatives in all these long years. And no soul that has never had our experience here can imagine how glad and thankful one is for friends in a time like this and such a box of good things as this is sister I never expected of you. And if you believe me or not I never in my life saw anything that looked so good or tasted so good as the butter and meat. We are actually hungry for things of the kind you sent. Butter, milk, meat and vegetables one cannot buy. I fried some of the sliced meat and warmed two of those rolls and may God bless your hearts and lives for how good they tasted. Lillian scolded me for crying over the box when we opened it, but I said just to think that this is the first thing I ate from Maryland in so many hard long years. And I have wanted so much to come back for a visit for years and never felt yet that I could afford to lose the time to come, and now when we are in want and distress your dear kind hearts send such great help to me. You can never know how I handled those things and looked them over and over, how I thought of your dear hands making those rolls and butter, how I thought of when I was a girl at home yet with you all. Thank Charlie and Anna and everyone that helped, and their kind acts in this terible [sp] time are not only registered in our hearts but with God above and they will be rewarded in full. I even scraped some of the dust off the potatos to show Lillian some Maryland soil. Such a nice big box of good things. Just what one needs too. How can I save the meat Sister and the butter so it will keep good. I thought I would put the butter in a jar and put dry salt over it. And I have an attic and will put the meat in sacks and hang it up now. Tell me if that is the right way. My work has been so different for so long that I have forgotten. And I want to guard it as long as I can. You know the papers say Dayton is coming up grandly and business is resuming, but it is mostly done to encourage the poor people. Some places like the Cash and Davis that escaped the water is running but not one car line goes into the City or across the rivers and they have to find the men and furnish cots for those that live too far to go and come. Soup and beans and coffee is the main food prepared in Dayton now.
Part of Steele High school walls was washed out and yesterday the tower and walls fell. Dozens of houses have big red cards on them showing them unsafe to enter. The Hospital is overflowing and some, many pneumonia patients from the damp and cold houses...
Dayton is dark at night yet the Hospital has input on the Cash electric wire and have lights. Dayton is one mass of ruins and mud and filth is all one can say and tell the truth. The papers will tell you that the telephone system is working. The truth is not even a phone at the Hospital can be used. And we have no gas yet. All the fire we have is the little two burner stove that Mother had and I get a bucket of coal once a day given to me as to others to use. And coal oil is given too if you can find it which is hard to do since the supply base is moved from the Cash. The Red Cross Society now has charge of all supplies and the city is under Martial law, and I think that soon now things will be better. Sister what money I had and little valuables were put with all the others in the Hospital vault during the flood. And as soon as things are better I will get them out and then I will remember your kind donation to me, but if I could send you a million dollars, no money could ever cancel the kind act of your hearts, all of you. And the remembrance of it will only die when I close my eyes for the last time…
Major THOMAS L. RHOADS
As Chief Sanitary Officer, Major Thomas L. Rhoads had to make sure people cleaned up their property properly so that diseases could be kept in check. Upon his return to Washington, he told reporters of his experience in trying to enforce some of the Dayton citizens into doing this.
Well, some of them didn’t care particularly about cleaning up their premises, but we put a guard over ‘em, with fixed bayonets. Bayonets have pretty sharp points, you know. Usually they were convinced.
A woman came in to complain to me that the street in front of her house hadn’t been sprinkled. She said the wagons carting dirt out of the flooded section dropped it along the street in front of her house, and it had become very annoying to her and her neighbors. Oh, no, she wasn’t in the flooded section; she just wanted her street sprinkled.
“Where is your house, Madam?” I asked. She gave me the number. “How many in your family?” “Five; three women and two men.” “Well,” I said, “you just get five watering pots and sprinkle that street, and tell your neighbors to do the same. In four hours, I’m going to send up there, and if it isn’t done I shall arrest the whole lot of you.” I sent up after four hours. They had sprinkled the street. Oh, no, we hadn’t any authority; but you see, the thing had to be done.
…We took possession of whatever we needed, ordered the things we had to have – shovels, axes, rubber boots, flat cars, boats, teams, disinfectants. We pressed people into service wherever we found ‘em. I was introduced to a chap one morning. He looked good to me, and I put my hand on his shoulder and said “You’re just the man I need to take charge of my tool supply department.” He demurred at first, and said he had to look out for business. I said something about where his business could go, and that I needed him in mine. He came across without another murmur, and proved a regular steam engine. I heard his name, but it didn’t mean anything special to me. After a couple of weeks of it, he came to me and said he had a telegram from the Postmaster General, and if I could spare him he would go to Washington for a day or two. If I couldn’t, he’d stay, but it did mean a whole lot to him.
So I let him go, and after two or three days he came back and told me he had just closed a contract with the Post Office Department for Lord knows how many millions’ worth of stuff. Then I found out that he was Will Ohmer, head of a big concern that makes canceling machines, parcels post scales, and all that kind of stuff. I don’t know how many hundred thousand dollars it cost him to stand by me and neglect his business. He never peeped about it to me. He was a game sport, believe me.
FRED F. ARING
Fred F. Aring, of 221 East Jones Street, wrote in his diary of the days immediately following the flood.
[Friday March 28]
6:00 A.M.
Slept sound last night. Heard quite a bit of shooting but have no idea what it was all about. Water down to the sidewalk now. Will probably be able to get out in an hour or so. I am going to clean a little more and then go out for some tobacco and to see the extent of damage in other parts of town.
6:30 P.M.
I just got back after much trouble. The City is under Martial law and no one without a pass is allowed to go into the ‘Flood District’. It is almost impossible to get a pass and it seems that anyone who has NO business in the ‘Flood District’ can get a pass, but those with business here cannot get one. But I finally did get one.
When I first got out of the ‘District’ I went to the house where Bertha and Elsie went when they left home in a boat yesterday. Found them quite safe, sound, and satisfied. Then I met an old friend of mine (Ed Long), and he took me to his home (not in the flooded area) for a big breakfast and a full half tumbler of BOOZE whiskey. That was far more whiskey than I ever drank before but it didn’t bother me in the least. Both the breakfast and BOOZE were very much appreciated.
I then went all over the Eastern and Southern parts of town and saw quite a bit. The damage will undoubtedly run into the millions of dollars. I was out on Fairground hill and from there I could see at least two of our steel-concrete bridges are still in their customary places. Could also see about half of the railroad bridge over which I crawled, over high and low cars of coal, Tuesday morning. About half of it was gone – swept away – several hours after I crossed it. The Fifth St. bridge – a steel bridge North of the Railroad bridge – and which I could not get near on Tuesday morning because of water running over it and levees approaches to it, has been swept away completely.
Also went out to the National Cash Register Works which is the chief ‘relief’ station and saw about 25 dead in the garage which was being used as a morgue. Did not know any of them.
Mr. Patterson, president of the National Cash Register Co., is doing a great work rescuing and relieving flood sufferers and deserves all the credit he will get for it.
A great many more are being cared for at churches and school houses, as well as in private homes. People are taking into their homes, perfect strangers, and giving them the best of everything. Too much cannot be said of the way the situation is being handled at the N.C.R. plant.
At about 3:30 this afternoon they began to bring people from North Dayton in boats and the report from that quarter is that there will be many dead found there when the water has fully subsided. Many more will never be found.
Breweries are distributing water in their beer barrels and are serving a very useful purpose too. One of the funniest sights I ever saw when I passed a church at High and McLain streets. A big brewery truck was unloading beer kegs there and even the preacher was helping to take them into the church. I did not know what they contained at the time but wasn’t long in finding out.
Another funny sight was a horse and mule standing on what seemed to be a roof or, more likely, a second floor of someone’s home, the second story of which, being frame, had been washed away. And they were very much alive too, and quite contented. Couldn’t tell just where this location was as the houses are twisted too badly to distinguish streets. There are rumors afloat that much thievery is going on. Heard of one militiaman who was executed on the spot for having in his possession a suitcase full of pocketbooks taken from different people. Another militiaman (colored) was supposed to have been shot for having a woman’s hand in his pocket with a diamond ring on one of the fingers. All these stories came to me not too far from our home. But so many stories are afloat that one hardly knows what to believe.
I tried to get back into the District all afternoon and finally succeeded in finding a man with a pass good for himself and one other. I had him walk right past our house for all those found on the streets without a pass are being arrested. I feel as though I had walked about 25 miles today and am going to bed at once.
Saturday March 29
6:00 A.M.
Slept sound again. Heard many more shots fired today but think they were fired to frighten any thieves who might be lurking in the District. I am going out to see if I can get a pass so as to get back and forth from home. Will continue at 6:00 P.M.
6:30 P.M.
I have been all over the city and the damage is very great. Webster street bridge (an old but good iron bridge) is in the bed of the river. All the concrete bridges are still standing and seem to be none the worse for the high water. The corner tower of Steele High School has been damaged considerably and looks very dangerous. (It fell two days later – and before this was typed). There are several large breaks in the levee at different points but none at Main street as was reported Tuesday morning. The largest of the breaks is at Taylor street, just East of Webster, where the Mad River washed through to the depth of about 40 feet and about 350 feet long. There are other breaks, also quite large, but which can be repaired in short order. I was unable to get into North Dayton without a special pass and cannot say how the levees are in those sections but I understand there is a large break at Steele Dam in Riverdale.
Every store in the central part of the city was hard hit; many losing all they had. Every theater in the Flood District was put out of business; the seats in most of them being ruined and their scenery and decorations damaged. The big fire of Wednesday, and the one which concerned us most, burned out two picture shows, the Jewel and Star theaters. This fire extended from St. Clair to Jefferson sts on the South side of Third St and the same on the North side of Third St and excepting the two corner buildings on the Northeast and Southeast corners at Jefferson St.
Many stores were destroyed in this fire, including, besides the two picture shows on Jefferson St. (Jewel and Star) two paint stores on Third St – Barrett’s and Lowe Bros -. These are what caused the fire to burn so brightly.
The fire of Tuesday night was at the corner of Main, Stout and Vine Sts where five dwellings, one grocery and one saloon were completely destroyed. There were a number of other fires which occurred during the daytime and of which we never heard and could not see. One was at the corner of Washington and Perry (four houses and a flat); one at Third and Broadway, West Side (two large stores); one on West Fifth St (three dwellings). Another in the Pennsylvania Railroad Yard (seven cars of carbide). It was this fire that caused the big explosions Wednesday morning.
There may have been other fires in other parts of town but I did not get to see them as many streets are still under water and many others are still impassable because of debris. At the Union Station several large heavy cars were overturned.
I went out to the N.C.R. again, looking around. Only twelve more bodies were found since yesterday at noon. The N.C.R. seems to be the center of the City at present and will likely be for a week or two yet as nearly everything in town is ruined or nearly so. All Western Union Telegraph Company’s business is being handled at the N.C.R. Branch of the Post Office. And if I am not too busy tomorrow I am going after mine, if there is any, and I think there is.
Tomorrow is Sunday but there will not be any Church account everyone will be too busy cleaning out MUD.
Sunday March 30
6:00 P.M.
I haven’t been a hundred feet from the house all day. Did what I would call a hard day’s work and not even half started. We cleaned out a lot of mud though. Tomorrow we will start in earnest and if only we could have a fire the work would be much easier. All of the dead horses were removed today. Tomorrow the United States Army takes charge of cleaning up the City. The Curfew time has been extended to 6:30 P.M. after which time all those without passes must be off the streets or be subject to arrest. Anyone found picking up anything on the streets will also be arrested, so property will be fairly safe.
Monday March 31
6:00 P.M.
Have been cleaning mud all day and figure I have removed about two wagonloads of the stuff at least. The house looks nice and clean now, but it is far from being what it should be. Everyone is working hard to get things in shape and it is not an uncommon sight to see women dressed up in trousers as they go about their work. I had Bertha dressed up in a pair of mine and – honestly she doesn’t make a bad looking boy either. The man across the street threw his piano out in the street this afternoon. There are about 5,000 more of them that will go the same route in a day or two. Many other pieces of furniture will also thrown out as worthless.
I could write like this for a week or more and still not tell all that is happening in this city but as I am so deep in the mud as anyone else and must get to work cleaning up, I will close this diary with this paragraph and leave the rest to be written by someone who has nothing else to do.
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