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Mrs. Earl A. Frederick

 

 

This appeared in the Dayton Daily News on March 28, 1962

By Mrs. Earl A. Frederick

     I was working as a maid in the Fred Hornicks home on Pulaski St., opposite the church, corner of Buckeye and Pulaski Sts.  It was a double house and Hornick and his wife and two children and I took food, candles and bedding into the attic on Tuesday afternoon.
     People in the other half of the double did the same. There were 10 or 12 in the attic, as near as I can remember.
     I WILL NEVER forget Mar. 26 of that year, 1913, because it was my 17th birthday and they all said if the water goes down we will have a party for you tonight.
     We were up in the attic until Thursday morning when Hornick’s father came over from Xenia, where Fred formerly lived, with a boat, and we slid down over the porch roof into the boat.  Before we touched dry land we almost upset twice.
     I WAS TAKEN to Xenia with them and my mother thought I was drowned until the following Saturday when they brought me home.
     We saw several people pulled with a rope across the street into the church.  The water was almost to the last step of the stairs, to the second floor in Hornick’s house.  The piano was floating around in the water.
     I will never forget that birthday.