Ringing in 2015 with a roundup of further new (and newly discovered) resources about our Great Easter 1913 national calamity—and kudos to a 1913 flood documentary!
The 2013
centennial of the 1913 flood in Indiana and Ohio and the family of devastating
Easter tornadoes in Nebraska inspired a bumper crop of new histories in print
and film. For cultural history and lessons learned, however, memories and
scholarship must endure into the future, long after a mere anniversary.
Part of the
purpose of this research blog “'Our National Calamity': The Great Easter 1913 Flood” (ONC) is to provide a lasting, comprehensive guide to
resources published either online or in print about the March 1913 storm
system, devastation, and its societal consequences and implications, broadly
interpreted. As my second annual New Year’s Day gift to historians,
meteorologist, curators, descendants of sufferers, and all those places,
people, and events that might otherwise be neglected, below is a collation of
books hitherto not referenced:
Annotated bibliographies so far
Sixteen
books and two 1-hour PBS documentaries produced after 2000 about the Omaha
tornado in Nebraska and the 1913 flood in Ohio—plus three earlier books about
the 1913 flood and the resulting mammoth flood control works of Miami Conservancy
District—were highlighted in the first resource roundup “Book Report! 21 Books and Films on the Great Easter 1913 Flood and Tornadoes” (ONC, March 26, 2013).
That
annotated bibliography was updated about eight months later on New Year’s Day
2014 in “1913 Easter National Calamity: Centennial Highlights—and Legacy” (ONC,
January 1, 2014), noting the production of three more
books, four more 30- or 60-minute documentaries, and a couple of 4-minute
shorts. Also summarized were several videotaped talks, a round-up of TV and
radio coverage, museum exhibits, newspaper commemorations (highlighting those
that ran significant series of articles or albums of photographs), plus websites
and blogs.
A different
annotated biography was an analysis of the half-dozen century-old “instant
books” published in 1913—which keep cropping up all over the internet cited as
if they were authoritative references. “Profiting from Pain” (ONC March 3,
/2013)
pulled back the veil on their
rather dodgy and certainly money-grubbing authors, who wrote under multiple
confusing titles and pseudonyms (Frederick E. Drinker, Logan Marshall, Marshall
Everett [who was really Henry Neil], and Thomas H. Russell [who also wrote under
Thomas Herbert and other names]).
Also
relevant is the discussion of film footage that was shot in 1913 for showing in
movie theatres—likely the first time a natural disaster was caught on motion
picture film while the catastrophe was still in progress. “Screening Disaster”
(ONC March 1, 2014) also includes links to YouTube and
other sites that have preserved some of this historic footage for public
viewing.
Note before
introducing the new resources: Applause is due director Gary Harrison for his 30-minute
TV documentary on the 1913 flood in Indiana When
Every River Turned Against Us: Lessons from the Great 1913 Flood, produced
by PBS affiliate WFYI, which captured a 2014 regional Emmy Award. A 1913 flood
still photo from his documentary even leads the article “WFYI Earns Nine Regional Emmys,” which includes a link to the full movie
online.
Introducing (fanfare) additional
works
Below, in
alphabetical order by author’s last name, are five more books on the Great
Easter 1913 natural disaster that have come to my attention over the past
year (2014). Four are local histories that may be filling in details
of ‘Our National Calamity’ that otherwise might be lost to posterity. One is a novel.
Grismer,
Stephen C. Drenched Uniforms and Battered
Badges: How Dayton Police Emerged from the 1913 Flood. Dayton, OH: Dayton
Police History Foundation, Inc. 2013.
“By any
measure, the Dayton police force was undermanned, under-equipped and, after
March 24, 1913, underwater and overwhelmed,” writes the author, himself a
25+year retired sergeant in the Dayton Police Force, and thus alert to details
of significance that might escape an outside historian. This slim book (110
pages) features more than 70 photographs, including images (some published for
the first time) of 19 of the two dozen police officers who stuck by their
posts, maintained order, and rescued flood victims, especially during the first
four days before 2,400 Ohio National Guard troops arrived in Dayton on Friday,
March 28. It is unusual (and exemplary) among local histories in also setting
context (Part 1, Police Readiness), tracing consequences (Epilogue, 1913–1922),
and documenting statements and quotes with more than 120 end notes. A review of
the book in the Dayton Daily News appears here.
Daugherty,
Alan. THE Flood: A Bluffton History
Novel. Self-published. 2012.
This
254-page novel about a mistaken identity of someone who robbed a bank is set in
Wells County, Indiana, primarily during flood week from the windstorm of Good
Friday, March 21, 1913 through the following Friday. The five main characters
are fictional, although many real people are referenced and the book includes
several dozen actual historical photographs (some with captions). In real life,
Bluffton was hard hit, and some tidbits and quotations
from historical sources do appear in the novel. But as the author notes in the
preface, “This story intentionally gathered into a single location as much
history as possible, but placed it in a fun, readable experience rather than
repeating newspaper accounts or textbook style documentations.” Includes a
bibliography and an index of names.
Hinds,
Conrade C. Columbus and the Great Flood
of 1913: The Disaster that Reshaped the Ohio Valley. Charleston, SC: The
History Press. 2013.
Less a local
history of the flood in Columbus (which gets only two dedicated chapters out of
the book’s 12) than it is an overview of floods in general and other unrelated weather
disasters (including the “white hurricane” in the Great Lakes of November 1913), the book also describes flooding in Dayton in some detail, and highlights it in Chillicothe,
Zanesville, Ohio and Wheeling, West Virginia. It is unusual in briefly wondering
whether the eruption of the volcano Novarupta in Alaska in 1912 might have
influenced the storm system (something actually that a few people have wondered
for years, including myself since 2006). The book ends with a brief
account of the Miami Conservancy District and the earthworks protecting Dayton,
a timeline of significant historical events in 1912 and 1913, a brief bibliography,
and an index.
This is How Dayton Looked After The
Great 1913 Flood. Dayton,
OH: Landfall Press, Inc. 1973.
This slim 48-page
booklet of photographs was a commemorative publication on the sixtieth
anniversary of the flood in March 1973. What is interesting historically is
that the booklet’s back cover copy clearly demonstrates how public memory is
already disconnecting and fading about the widespread extent of the disaster,
noting that “Dayton, Ohio, suffered the second worst natural disaster (after
San Francisco) ever to befall an American City.” NOT NOTED OR CREDITED anywhere
is the fact that this four-decade-old booklet was actually a reprint of a
commemorative photographic booklet by Clarence B. Greene called Great 1913 Flood: Dayton, Ohio published in
1913 by the Specialty Photograph Co. Shame on Landfall (and hurray for the
internet).
Miller,
Frank. The Great Dayton Flood of 1913.
100th Anniversary Edition 1913–2013. Dayton, OH: Mill-Cliff Books
and Graphics. 2013.
This 60-page
large-format print-on-demand booklet is based on Dayton: Being a Story of the Great Flood as Seen from the Delco
Factory, a key eyewitness history of the flood originally published in
April 1913. Not a photographic reproduction of the original booklet, the 2013 type
is completely reset. Notable is the quality of the photographs—much better than
the lithographed original—because the compiler Miller came into possession of a
trove of original photographs several decades ago, and printed the images from
those. Also included is a redone version of a 1949 history of Delco called The Spark of Genius, which includes
photos of the flood, plus many other images from other sources.
Fast reference subject index to ONC
Over the
past two-plus years since November 2012, fully 32 installments—many of them full-length
heavily documented research articles—have been posted to this research blog “’Our National
Calamity: The Great Easter 1913 Flood” (ONC). That’s nearly the equivalent of
an entire book. A good many of them represent in-depth original analysis by
both myself and others, based on new primary sources. Because of the sheer
volume of new material, and the frequency of requests for information, below is
a subject index to the posts (not including the resource roundups already noted
above), categorized by general topic. Please note that an updated searchable
running list in Word in reverse chronological order is posted every month at
the top left link on the 1913 flood page of my website.
For meteorology of the powerful Great
Easter storm system:
Great Easter 1913 Dust Storm, Prairie Fires—and Red Rains (December
1, 2014) A mammoth Easter Sunday dust storm set raging prairie fires fires in two states and caused "blood rains" in three
Be Very Afraid... (December 23, 2012) Why the Great
Easter 1913 storm system could recur—profile of a computational reanalysis from 1913 data of what happened by Cleveland-based National
Weather Service senior hydrologist Sarah Jamison
The First Punch (November 25, 2012) A mammoth Good
Friday windstorm that decimated communications set the stage for national
tragedy
Earth-Shaking Mystery (October 1, 2014) Earthquake in Knoxville, Tennessee, at end of flood week—could the massive floodwaters have triggered the quake?
Earth-Shaking Mystery (October 1, 2014) Earthquake in Knoxville, Tennessee, at end of flood week—could the massive floodwaters have triggered the quake?
For facts and figures about death and
destruction:
Like a War Zone (March 16, 2013) A
modern reanalysis of official documents, revealing that the destruction of property exceeded that of Hurricane Katrina, centered on the
industrial North
For victims’, rescuers’, and
predators’ responses:
Wireless to the Rescue! Birth of Emergency Radio (April
1, 2014) High school and college students are the first to establish quasi-reliable communications into the flood districts, and at the end of flood week bills for emergency radio are being presented to Congress
High-Wire Horror (February 1, 2014) Literally
tight-rope walking over floodwaters to safety
Advertising Disaster (November 1, 2014) Within 24 hours, tornado insurance agents and others were clamoring for victims' cash
For significance today:
Benchmarking ‘Extreme’ (July 1, 2014) What infrastructure
today would lie in harm’s way if the tornadoes and flood recurred
For coverage in the 1913 media:
Screening Disaster (March 1, 2014) The 1913 flood may be the first natural disaster filmed
while it was still in progress; includes links to surviving footage
The Governor’s Ear (December 16, 2012) How two Bell
Telephone engineers got the word to Ohio Governor James M. Cox
For enduring consequences:
Magnum Opus (June 1, 2014) Stunning murals on concrete
floodwalls in 13 Ohio River cities and towns keep history alive--including the 1913 flood
Morgan’s Cowboys (January 20, 2013) What is the worst possible flood? And how can a city protect against it? A young engineer figures out how
Morgan’s Pyramids (January 27, 2013) Building the monumental but elegantly simple works to protect Dayton forevermore
Local histories:
36 Hours: From Boys to Leaders (August 1, 2014) Fewer than 100 Culver
Military Academy cadets rescued 1,400 Indiana residents; by guest historian
Richard Davies, Ph.D.
Tragedy at the Circus (February
10, 2013) At Peru, Indiana; by guest environmental historian Ron E. Withers, M.A. (by the way, this is the single most viewed post in ONC, with more than 2,300
views)
Rescuing Albany’s Water (January 13, 2013) It was also the
Hudson River’s greatest flood—and what New York did about it
The Prisoners’ Feast (December 30, 2012) How the inmates
of the Indiana State Reformatory saved the town of Jeffersonville from
flooding—and the unique response of the grateful residents
The Villain Who Stole the Flood (December 9, 2012) How the 1913
flood in Dayton transformed NCR president John H. Patterson—a convicted
felon—into a national hero
An Unnecessary Tragedy: The Johnstown Flood (May 1, 2014) Describing three potentially fatal dam myths that still persist today; by guest author Kenneth E. Smith, P.E.
Record of 2013 centennial
commemorations
Centennial Update: April through December (April 13, 2013)
Centennial Month! Events Update (March 3, 2013)
Centennial Month! Events Update (March 3, 2013)
Happy 1913 Centennial Year! (January 6, 2013)
Miscellaneous
“An Epidemic of Disasters” (November 16, 2012) Introduction and
mission for this research blog
Happy New Year! Thank you so much for your readership. Watch for new research installments to be posted the first of every month throughout 2015! I welcome hearing your feedback: please e-mail me!
© 2015 Trudy E. Bell
Next
time: Floods and Other Disasters: Knowing More, Yet Losing More
Bell, Trudy
E., The Great Dayton Flood of 1913, Arcadia Publishing, 2008. Picture
book of nearly 200 images of the flood in Dayton, rescue efforts, recovery, and
the construction of the Miami Conservancy District dry dams for flood control,
including several pictures of Cox. (Author’s shameless marketing plug: Copies
are available directly from me for the cover price of $21.99 plus $4.00
shipping, complete with inscription of your choice; for details, e-mail me), or
order
from the publisher.
