Washed Away: How the Great Flood of 1913, America's Most Widespread Natural Disaster, Terrorized a Nation and Changed It Forever (56 page)

One of the many sad and not unusual scenes in Dayton after the flood, on North Ludlow, near Second Street and the First Presbyterian Church.

Someone took this shot either during or shortly after the flood—in one of the untouched, dry parts of the city—of Dayton savior John H. Patterson and Edward A. Deeds, a high-level executive at NCR, who, like Patterson, was also looking at a year in the clink for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act.

A musical graveyard: It seems likely that in this neighborhood, people came back to their homes after the waters receded, found their ruined pianos, and began tossing them here.
All five images courtesy of Dayton Metro Library, 1913 Flood Collection.

One of many flood refugee camps, this one at the northeast corner of Main and Stillwater in Dayton. Behind the people is an apartment building.

Flood survivors are walking past the courthouse in Dayton, carrying, yes, someone who didn't make it.

All we know about this photo is that it was apparently taken during the days of (or perhaps shortly after) the flood. The man in the center is James M. Cox, the governor of Ohio.
All three images courtesy of Dayton Metro Library, 1913 Flood Collection.

The woman standing left of the bicycle is Lydia Saettel, who wisely took her baby with her instead of leaving him behind with her father-in-law, who remained at his building, which later blew up in an explosion. The man next to her is her husband, Oliver.

The Saettels' grocery store—the man with the apron is probably Oliver Saettel. This photo was presumably taken before the flood. After the explosion, however, the building was rebuilt. The grocery store finally closed around 1970. Fire and flood couldn't take it down, but supermarkets did.
Both images courtesy of Elinor Kline.

These homes along Main Street in Dayton, Ohio, were destroyed by fire and flood.
Courtesy of Dayton Metro Library, 1913 Flood Collection.

A house on the edge of the flooding in Mentor, Kentucky, taken by the author's great-grandmother, who lived in this town.

The same house as the one in the previous photo, taken almost a hundred years later, in 2012. If you look down the road, past those trees is a sprawling field that looks to be as long and wide as a couple of football fields, and past that is the Ohio River.
Last two images courtesy of Jim and Rita Williams.

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Copyright © 2013 by Geoff Williams

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