Washed Away: How the Great Flood of 1913, America's Most Widespread Natural Disaster, Terrorized a Nation and Changed It Forever (55 page)

The mustachioed man in the dark clothing, evidently watching boatmen doing their rescuing, is John H. Patterson, the founder of the National Cash Register Company (NCR) and a Dayton, Ohio legend for his efforts in saving his fellow townspeople's lives.
Courtesy of Dayton Metro Library, 1913 Flood Collection.

Nelson “Bud” Talbott, son of Harold Talbott (the man in charge of the boatmaking at NCR) and Frederick Beck Patterson (right), son of John H. Patterson, pose for a photo. It was said that, together, Talbott and Patterson rescued 162 people from their homes in a canoe.

On the first floor of the National Cash Register building, a kitchen was set up to feed flood refugees. In the center is John Patterson's nineteen-year-old daughter Dorothy.
Both images courtesy of Dayton Metro Library, 1913 Flood Collection.

Some Dayton, Ohio citizens watch as flood survivors “walk” the telephone wires until they reach dry ground. A few citizens below aren't even watching the ongoing scene above them, suggesting that by now the escapes were becoming commonplace.

Another shot showing just how precarious these walks along the telephone wires in Dayton, Ohio were. That there seem to be no reports of people slipping and falling to their deaths seems like a minor miracle.
Both images courtesy of Dayton Metro Library, 1913 Flood Collection.

Dayton, Ohio, after the flood. A familiar sight: the ruins of a flooded house.

Another familiar sight: that of a piano being washed away.

An unidentified barn or house, destroyed in the flood.

Rescue operations such as this one were ongoing in Dayton and communities across Ohio and numerous other states, including Indiana, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and West Virginia.

A look at Main Street in Dayton during the flood. Someone has scrawled on the photo that it was taken at 3:30 P.M. on March 25, 1913.
All five images courtesy of Dayton Metro Library, 1913 Flood Collection.

After the flood: the ruins of the Lowe Brothers Paint Store Company (and no, there's no connection to Lowe's, the home improvement chain). The rubble of the William D. Huber Furniture Company, south of the store, is also in the shot. Both businesses were taken out not by just the flood but by fire too.

What it looks like: railroad cars tossed aside by the flood.