The True Story of Our National Calamity of Flood, Fire and Tornado

L >> Logan Marshall >> The True Story of Our National Calamity of Flood, Fire and Tornado

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Further on, members of a motor boat party were startled by shots in the
second floor of a house, about which five feet of water swirled. The
boat was stopped and a man peered from a window.

"Why are you shooting?" he was asked.

"Oh, just amusing myself, shooting at rats that come upstairs. When are
you going to take me out of here?" he replied.

Three babies were born in one church during the afternoon. One was born
in a boat while its mother was being conveyed to safety. Such scenes
were common.

WOMEN BECAME HYSTERICAL

At the rescue stations the scenes enacted were heartrending and the most
pitiful were witnessed at the temporary morgues. At the West Dayton
morgue frantic crowds all day and night watched every body brought in,
hoping against hope it was not that of some loved one.

Women became hysterical at times when searching for missing members of
their families whom they had failed to find at the relief stations.

With the coming of nightfall Thursday the efforts to rescue more persons
were slackened, and all of Dayton not in the central flood districts
waited in dread for the nightly fires which had added horrors to the
already terrible situation.

The flood situation at night appeared brighter than in the morning. The
water had fallen from three to five feet, the currents of the river and
creek had slackened, and there was food enough left for the town's
breakfast and dinner.

As Galveston and San Francisco pulled themselves together after calamity
so Dayton began pulling itself together on Friday of the week of the
flood. Emerging from the waters and privation, citizens began
co-operating with those who rushed to the rescue from outside.
Considerable progress was made toward the restoration of order and in
giving relief to those in the worst distress.

Much cheer was taken from the fact that so far as loss of life was
concerned it was not so great as had been feared, though no exact
estimates were yet calculable.

Financially the citizens had a great burden to bear. Investigators on
Friday put the figures of the losses at double that of the previous day,
making it $50,000,000.

THE FLOOD RECEDES

The down-town district was practically free of water. Fire engines
pumped out the basement of the Algonquin Hotel, that the Algonquin's
artesian well supply might be pumped into the empty city water mains for
fire protection.

Water was still from ten to fifteen feet deep in certain districts of
the west side. A mile of residences on Linwood Avenue had been swept
clear and nothing remained to indicate that the street had existed.

A SURVEY OF THE FLOOD'S DAMAGE

In a tour of the business sections it was found that the high stage of
the flood had been nine feet at Third and Main Streets, the heart of the
city.

The tower of Steele High School was levelled and the Leonard Building on
Main Street was undermined so that it collapsed. Other buildings stood
up.

The following buildings were found to have withstood the flood,
furnishing shelter to about 7,000 people who were marooned in them since
Tuesday: Conover Building, Kuhns Building, The Arcade, two Cappel
Buildings, Callahan Bank Building, Schwind Building, Commercial
Building, Mendenhall Building, Rike Kumler Building, Reibold Building,
Elder & Johnson's building and United Brethren Publishing Company's
building.

NO PUBLIC BUILDINGS GONE

None of the public buildings was destroyed. Among these buildings were
the Dayton Club, Victoria, National and Colonial theatres, city hall,
court house, Beckel, Phillips, Algonquin and Atlas hotels, Masonic
temple, post office, Y. M. C. A. and various churches.

The Log Cabin, 115 years old, the first house built in Dayton, still
stood, although it is on the south bank of the Miami, right in the path
of the flood.

The electric light and gas plants were safe from the high water. The
city's water comes from a reservoir high above the river.

In Dayton less than one hundred bodies had been recovered by Friday
night, though thousands were missing. The fire was out, however, and the
flood had so receded that relief boats were able to get to practically
all parts of the city.

MOST HOUSES WRECKED

Every house in the flooded district was practically ruined. Streets were
so clogged with wreckage that it was almost impossible to get through
them.

"Strange to say, there was not much suffering in our particular
neighborhood," declared George Armstrong, who had been marooned in the
Capell furniture store building. "There was one woman with a
three-weeks-old baby. We took excellent care of her. And did we pray?
There never were such prayers in church. We had a case of whiskey and
offered to send it off to persons who seemed exhausted. They refused to
take it, although ordinarily they are not teetotallers."

BOATMEN TOUR DISTRICTS

Members of the United States life-saving crew of Louisville navigated
sections of flooded Dayton heretofore unexplored, reporting conditions
in North Dayton and Riverdale quite as deplorable as the first estimates
concerning suffering were concerned.

Cruising the southern end of Riverdale, where it was feared there would
be found a big death list, Captain Gillooly, in charge of the crew from
the United States life saving station at Louisville, Ky., reported
conditions paralleling those in other sections of the stricken city, but
only two bodies were reported as having been recovered. The flooded
territory in Riverdale, which is a section of substantial home owners,
was approximately seventeen blocks long and seven blocks wide.

After having descended the Miami River, Captain Gillooly reported that
in the south central section of Dayton, where the flood flowed wildest
on Tuesday night and Wednesday, thousands of persons still were
imprisoned in upper floors of their homes. He stated that from numerous
inquiries among people whose residences had been inundated it appeared
the life loss would not be nearly so large as it was placed by first
reports.

This section still was flooded, although the water rapidly was receding,
and while a few corpses eddied out from the flood's edge, yet in the
center of the area it was stated that only two bodies had been seen.

DRINKING WATER DISTRIBUTED

Captain Gillooly and his men distributed food and quantities of drinking
water to a large number of the flood's prisoners. Arrangements also were
made to provide the needy ones with the necessary supplies from time to
time until the flood waters receded.

At many different points along the route stops were made and the crew
detoured away from the rivers. It was found that many of these detours
could be made afoot, the water having rapidly fallen since the night. At
no place was the water behind the levees deeper than four feet.

The Louisville men took relief to several hundred families in the low
district in the vicinity of Ludlow and Franklin Streets. Here the water
had reached the roofs of all two-story buildings. Only a few of the most
desperate cases were brought out, the first move being to leave bread
and water in as many places as possible.

Sixty Catholic sisters at the Academy of the Sisters of Notre Dame and
eighteen persons for whom they had provided refuge were found to have
been without food or water since Tuesday. There were several cases of
illness, and the suffering had been intense. The life savers left bread
and water and planned to take further help.

Meanwhile Capt. H. A. Hansen and the crew from Cleveland were operating
several boats in North Dayton. There many of the poorer class live, and
few of the buildings were substantial. Dozens of them were swept away,
upturned and shattered.

Mayor Phillips was still marooned in his house, and G. B. Smith,
president of the Chamber of Commerce, continued in active aid of relief
operations.

The Fourth National Bank Building, which was reported several times to
have been destroyed by fire, was found untouched by the flames, although
a building immediately adjoining was burned. The newspaper offices, the
_News_ and _Herald_ and _Journal_ buildings, were safe, but none was
issuing papers.

The Cleveland battalion of engineers were the first of a horde of troops
which began to pour into Dayton in the morning. They were immediately
put at work distilling the water. The fifteen men of the Dayton Ohio
National Guard companies, who had been on duty since midnight Tuesday,
frankly had been unable to cope with the situation. The police force
was also depleted by the fact that many of its members had been marooned
by high water. The looter had been in high glee.

MARTIAL LAW ENFORCED

Strict martial law was put into force. With headquarters at Bamberger
Park, Col. Zimmerman of the Fifth Ohio Regiment organized the forces of
protection, and by noon every accessible section was under strict guard.
Frequent fights and skirmishes were held with the pillagers, who sought
to steal under the cover of darkness. Orders to shoot to kill looters on
the third shot were issued to the militiamen. The pillaging of abandoned
homes and stores and the slugging and robbing of men and women in the
streets after nightfall had reached a desperate stage when the troops
arrived, and drastic orders were necessary.

"Shoot at the legs first, and then shoot to kill," was the way the
soldiers were instructed to act.

Colonel Zimmerman listened to thousands who sought passes to go through
the flood area to reach marooned friends and kinsmen. Only a few were
allowed to go, and these were compelled to prove special causes. To
those who asserted they had starving friends, Colonel Zimmerman rejoined
that provisions and medicines constantly were going into the inundated
district.

"Be satisfied you're not dead yet," was the Colonel's disposition of
many of the applicants.

All during the night and until dawn revolver and rifle shots had
sounded. Most of the shooting was in the bottoms near the river, but
about midnight there was a lively volley of shots, evidently an exchange
of bullets, believed to have been between soldiers and pillagers.

A robbery was thwarted when the police arrested a man who was escaping
from the city with a satchel containing $50,000 in diamonds and jewelry
which he had stolen from downtown jewelry shops.

"Beware of thieves and burglars," said an official bulletin given wide
circulation. "Don't leave your houses without protection. It was thieves
who scared you about the reservoir and natural gas explosion. The
natural gas has been turned off and there is no danger of explosions."

REFUGEES IN FIGHTS

At three o'clock Friday morning it was unofficially announced that three
pillagers had been shot to death in various parts of the city during the
night.

Over in North Dayton, when the lowlands were inundated by the rush of
the waters of the Mad River, the foreign population, which practically
occupies that section, was driven to the upper floors and the housetops.
With the extinguishing of the city's lights bedlam broke loose in
various portions of North Dayton. Men in the frenzy of their trouble
fell to desperate quarreling among themselves, and shots were heard at
all hours of the day and night Wednesday and Thursday.

There were unconfirmed reports that more than a dozen murders had been
committed. Troops were ordered into this district to stop the conflicts.

RESTORING SANITATION

Problems of sanitation, the water supply and the reconstruction of the
wrecked sewer system were resumed by engineers. Citizens were ordered to
dig cesspools in their yards and to get rid of all garbage. Members of
the State Board of Health, bringing carloads of lime and other
disinfectants, reached here to ward off disease.

A report was circulated that an epidemic of typhoid fever and pneumonia
had developed in Riverdale and West Dayton. It was ascertained, however,
that not a single well-developed case of either disease was known in the
sections mentioned, although there was considerable sickness among the
refugees, particularly women and children, due to privation.

Three deaths from diphtheria in other sections were reported by
Secretary of Health Board Miller.

FEEDING THE HOMELESS

The food situation was much brighter. The trucks sent from the Cash
Register Company, manned by men with military orders to confiscate
potatoes and food from the farmers, brought back a good supply of
vegetables and several relief trains reached the city.

The problem of providing for refugees was bravely faced by an army of
workers, many of whom came from neighboring cities equipped with car
loads and train loads of food.

"We can't tell how much we need," said John M. Patterson "and we don't
know yet in just what shape we want some of the supplies. For instance,
there came a carload of flour. We can use it later, but if that flour
had been made into bread it would have been immediately available for
the persons imprisoned in their homes whom it has been impossible to
remove. We could take bread to them, but flour is not serviceable."

Many motor boats went into the flooded district taking food and water
and bringing out persons who needed medical attention. Many of them were
so weak from deprivation and suffering as to be scarcely able to move.
Hundreds were taken to the Cash Register Hospital and other places where
they could be aided.

Among those taken out of the Algonquin Hotel were Stephen Patterson and
his wife. Mr. Patterson is a brother of John H. Patterson, the cash
register manufacturer. Great anxiety had been felt for their safety and
also for Mrs. Frank Patterson, a sister-in-law. The latter was found in
her home on West Fifth Street.

HUNDREDS STAND BY HOMES

In that section on the east side of the Miami River and north of the Mad
River rescue work went forward with the two United States life-saving
crews in charge. Hundreds of people living in upper stories and
practically without food or water since Tuesday morning refused to leave
their homes, believing they would have a better chance for safety there
than elsewhere. Water and food were supplied them. Hundreds of others
had left their homes, in some instances effecting exits by chopping
holes through the roofs. Very few of these were accounted for.

[Illustration: Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.
While the flood was raging, hundreds of fires which started throughout
the flooded States were left to consume millions of dollars worth of
property, and to destroy many lives, because of the inability of the
fire-fighters to get near the burning buildings]

[Illustration: Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.
President John H. Patterson, of the National Cash Register Company,
third man from the right, directing the work of rescue at Dayton, Ohio.
Through his magnificent skill as an organizer, and his coolness of mind,
scores of lives were saved that would otherwise have been lost, and a
great deal of suffering was alleviated by his prompt measures of relief]

A central morgue was established at the Probate Court building, and as
fast as possible identifications were made. Many of the bodies thus far
recovered, however, presented difficulties in the way of identification.

Colonel Zimmerman reported that boatloads of provisions continuously
were going into the still inundated districts. Milk for babies and
medicine for invalids were not forgotten by the rescue squads. Governor
Cox solved the problem of getting milk for Dayton's babies by
confiscating in the name of the State the entire output of the
Marysville dairies, and having it sent to the stricken city. The state
also seized two cars of eggs at Springfield found in a railroad yard and
sent them to Dayton.

PATTERSON CONTINUES NOBLE WORK

The dead bodies were placed in coffins as soon as they were identified.
These coffins and decent burial for the victims were paid for by the
President of the National Cash Register Company, who footed most of the
bills in the tremendous and efficient work of relief.

The weather was bitter cold, but the rain ceased to fall. Thousands of
survivors who spent two nights marooned in buildings without light, heat
or food on Friday night slept in warm beds.

CHAPTER V

THE RECUPERATION OF DAYTON

SPIRITS GO UP--SECRETARY OF WAR GARRISON ON THE SCENE--CLEARING
AWAY THE DEBRIS--BOAT CREWS SAVE 979--RELIEF ON BUSINESS
BASIS--STRICT SANITARY MEASURES--TALES OF THE RESCUED--A SUMMARY OF
WORK ACCOMPLISHED--RAILROADS AGAIN WORKING--COMMISSION GOVERNMENT
ESTABLISHED--A HOME OF TENTS--MILLIONAIRES IN THE
BREAD-LINE--ORVILLE WRIGHT'S ESCAPE--DEATH AND PROPERTY LOSS--THE
TASK OF REBUILDING.

Dayton passed Friday night in terror because of constant shooting by the
militiamen. Just how many looters were killed was unknown, as
information was refused. The facts figure only in military reports.

Fifty shots were fired between midnight and three o'clock Saturday
morning within hearing of the main hospital quarters in the National
Cash Register Building. Civil workers in the center of the town, where
efforts were being made to clear away debris, reported that five looters
were shot after midnight.

One of these was a negro who had succeeded in entering a Madison Street
house where he was seen by a militiaman and shot in the act of looting.
It is declared that only one of the five men shot was killed.

Orders were issued to the soldiers to inflict summary execution on
corpse robbers--ghouls who sneaked through the business and residence
streets like hyenas after a battle.

Dayton came out in force on Saturday to look around and judge for itself
the extent of the tragedy that confronted its people. Business men with
forces of assistants penetrated the business section and set about the
task of learning whether they had been stripped of their possessions
completely.

Haggard faces, worn out with sleepless nights and days of weary struggle
and apprehension for the future, brightened with the flush of new-born
hope as some of the searchers found that the flood had not proved
completely disastrous for them.

Scores of business interests, not alone in the central section, but as
well in the outlying manufacturing districts, faced ruin. The work of
reconstruction, already in the forming, meant for them going back to the
beginning for a fresh start, but on every hand one heard in spite of
this words of hope and cheerfulness that the disaster was no greater.

SPIRITS GO UP

The bitter cold gave way to a day of sunshine and comparative warmth.
The military authorities lifted the ban on uninterrupted travel about
the city. This privilege and the brightness of the day brought most of
the people out of their discouragement and great throngs appeared on the
streets. They found the death toll smaller than they had expected and
the property damage, while almost crushing in the size of the figures it
represented, not so utterly annihilating as was generally feared.

Military engineering experts began the work of extricating Dayton from
its covering of debris, and its menace to general public health. H. E.
Talbot, of Dayton, who built the Soo Locks, was placed in charge and the
Pennsylvania Railroad sent in seventy-five engineers to assist him.
While fifty additional experts appeared from other points, the Ohio
National Guard Battalion of Engineers from Cleveland became a part of
the organization to "sweep up" the city.

Relief from the suffering because of the closing down of the public
utilities bade fair to be accomplished by Sunday. The city lived up to
its motto "Dayton does" with the amendment that if it cannot find a way
it will make one.

With real philosophy and high courage its people set about the arduous
task of retrieving the ground and the fortunes they lost. The lives that
were taken by the disaster were not sacrificed in vain. The Citizens'
Committee, headed by John H. Patterson, the relief agency, and H. E.
Talbot, determined to find a way to protect the city against a
repetition of the horrors of the week.

Things looked brighter. It was announced that on Sunday the water would
be turned on in all the mains that were not broken, in order to give
pure drinking water to practically the entire city, something the
sanitary and engineering experts were working for as imperative if
epidemics were to be avoided. Until such time as the city mains could
be used, water was distributed from artesian wells by water carts and in
kegs, which were carried to the various districts by the "flying
squadron" of the auto relief corps.

SECRETARY OF WAR GARRISON ON THE SCENE

Secretary of War Garrison and his staff arrived at Dayton at noon, and
immediately went into conference with John H. Patterson, chairman of the
committee of fifteen, in charge of the relief work.

Soon after Mr. Garrison arrived the relief committee began to call local
physicians to consult with him to determine whether to place the city
under federal control. It was said Dayton's sanitary condition appeared
to warrant the presence of federal troops and government health experts.

It was later decided to leave the city in control of the state militia
and the local committee, except that sanitary experts from the federal
health service should be brought to Dayton. Mr. Garrison stated that
Major Thomas Rhoades, in co-operation with Major James C. Normoyle,
would have charge in Dayton. Major Normoyle had experience in furthering
relief in the Mississippi flood district last year.

GARRISON'S REPORT

Secretary Garrison gave out the substance of his telegram to President
Wilson as follows:

"I find the situation at Dayton to be as follows:

"The flood has subsided so that they have communication with all parts
of the city, no one being now in any position of peril or without food
or shelter. The National Cash Register plant has been turned into a
supply depot and lodging place for those who have no other present
place.

"Surgeon General Blue and some of his officers are here, as are also
some naval surgeons. We are all working in concert. The Governor, the
Mayor, the local committees and the citizens have all expressed much
gratitude for the action of the National Government, and have welcomed
us warmly, all of them stating that the fact that a direct
representative has been sent to their community has been of the greatest
benefit to the morale of the situation.

"I find a competent force is already organized to clean up the streets,
remove the debris and do general work of that description and has agreed
to work under the direction of the army surgeon I leave in charge of
sanitation. The National Guards have their Brigadier-General, George H.
Wood, here in command of the military situation and he has cordially
offered to co-operate in every way with our work of sanitation.

"I think that the situation here is very satisfactory and that this
community will find itself in a reassured position within a very short
time and facing only then the problem of repair, restoration and
rehabilitation.

"I will go back to Cincinnati tonight to get into touch with matters
left unfinished there and will go to Columbus at the earliest moment.
Governor Cox tells me that he thinks matters are in a satisfactory
condition at Columbus; that he has ample immediate supply of medicines
and other necessities; and that much of each is on the way. The weather
is very fine and there does not seem to be any cause for apprehension of
further floods in the vicinity of Dayton."

CLEARING AWAY THE DEBRIS

Efforts were made to clear away debris in sections where the flood water
had run off, and it was feared bodies might be found in these masses of
wreckage. With well organized crews doing this work, others took food to
persons still marooned in Riverdale and North Dayton.

The two hundred and fifty persons marooned in the Algonquin Hotel, in
the heart of the flood district, moved from their prison after the
waters had receded. Most of them said there was a general scare at the
fire which burned along Jefferson and Third Streets, on Wednesday night.
There was one death in the hotel, Johnny Flynn, a bell boy. Several of
the guests organized the majority after the flood waters had cut off
escape on Tuesday, and for three evenings programs of entertainments
were given in the hotel dining-room. It was decreed by a safety
committee that any person who declined to contribute to the
entertainment would be compelled figuratively to walk the plank. There
were no dissenters.

Among those marooned in hotels were one hundred from New York, Chicago,
Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Toledo, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia,
Detroit, Boston and St. Louis. All were safe.

A brilliant sunshine threw an uncanny light over the distorted scenes in
the areas where the homes of 75,000 people were swept away or toppled
over. A view down almost any street revealed among the wreckage,
tumbled-over houses, pianos, household utensils and dead horses brushed
together in indescribable confusion. At two points the bodies of horses
were seen still caught in the tops of trees.

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