In November
2012, this research blog was inaugurated in anticipation of the centennial of
the Great Easter 1913 tornadoes and flood—the nation’s virtually forgotten but
arguably most widespread natural disaster, afflicting at least 15 states. The
blog’s title ‘Our National Calamity’ (ONC) was inspired by the title of one of
the “instant books” published in April 1913, which was itself inspired by President Woodrow Wilson’s appeal to the nation
for aid.
As this June
1, 2016, installment marks its fiftieth (50th!) post, it seems fitting to pause
for a moment’s reflection and to share some thoughtful reader feedback and queries
that other readers may be able to help answer.
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| So far, ONC has attracted more than 70,000 views, now averaging 2,500 to 3,000 per month. Credit: Stats and graphic by Google Blogspot. |
According to
stats maintained by Google Blogspot, ONC has attracted more than 70,000 views
since its creation, now averaging 2,500 to 3,000 per month. The record-setting
post was that of January 1, 2016, which drew more than 5,000 views that month—nearly
200 more than the previous record of the March 2013 centennial month. More than
40,000 of the lifetime views are from the United States, but a surprising
number are also from Russia, the Ukraine, and Europe.
Reader comments—and queries
Response to
a blog is always dicey, as there are way too many illiterate posters (some of
whom clearly have not read the post to which they are responding) who simply
want to advertise their own products or make some other irrelevant comment.
That clutter I delete. But valuable feedback and queries have come from readers
who have taken the time to send an e-mail. It belatedly occurs to me that some inquiries
are of potentially wider interest to others as well. Therefore, a few reader
queries from over the lifetime of ONC are reproduced below, older requests alternating
with newer ones where the older requests contain information of perennial
interest.
Important: Some historical questions from readers
I have been unable to answer myself (not every historical resource is
accessible online). So I heartily encourage other readers to e-mail me if they can offer any insights at all—including
amplifying on an answer I may have given. To protect the privacy of the correspondents
in this public forum, I have omitted last names, locations, and e-mail
addresses below, but will forward your response to the relevant person offline.
Who knows, some correspondence may become the subject of a future post (or a follow-up response in a future reader forum installment)!
On April
12, 2016, the following very interesting query arrived from retired professional
engineer George F.:
I am writing to ask whether you have
any information or opinion about this question: Would the damage in Akron and
downstream have been greater if the Gorge Dam, built in 1912, had not been in
place? If the pool behind the Gorge Dam had been full by the time of the 1913
flood, I suppose the dam would not have been much protection for Akron. I
hope you can find some information about it.
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| The 425-foot-long Gorge Metropolitan Park Dam in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, is also called the First Energy Dam. Credit: ideastream |
I found your webpage because of my
effort to modify the current plan to demolish the Gorge Dam. My interest
in the 1913 flood and the dam is not entirely impartial. I agree that the
Cuyahoga River should be returned to its natural course in Akron, but that does
not require removal of the dam. It could be turned into a bridge, providing
a thrilling view of the park sixty feet above the rushing river, with a sight
line for thousands of feet up and down that beautiful valley. No one
would forget the experience. A bridge would allow full freedom for the
river and the fish and the kayakers, and it would probably cost a good deal
less to convert the dam into a bridge than it would to remove it. The
bridge might even be designed to serve as a dam during an emergency.
In any case, the sediment must be
removed first. There is a way to do that using the power of the
river. For information, Google ‘Condit Dam.’ As they did at Condit,
drill a small tunnel at the base of the dam, but put a control valve on
it. Then the water flow could be regulated to flush the sediment down the
pipeline in stages. This would be better in several ways than pumping the
sediment over the dam from a barge, as currently proposed. <snip>
Best regards, George F.
Dear George F.: I am not a civil
engineer so cannot comment on the relative merits of various approaches to clearing
out the sediment from behind Gorge Metropolitan Park Dam (now also called the
First Energy Dam) or to assess the dam’s role during the 1913 flood. However, maybe
another reader can assist with your quest for information as to whether the
damage in Akron and downstream would have been greater if the Gorge Dam had not
been in place? Please e-mail answers or leads; I will forward them to
George F. –T.E.B.
Below is
an early reader query (from August 23, 2013) asking a question that often
arises, so this forum gives me an opportunity to answer publicly:
Subject: Brinkhaven (Brink Haven) Ohio deaths during the
1913 Flood
I am trying to find the number of deaths in the small town of Brinkman, Ohio during the 1913 flood. Cemetery listings and death tolls tended to center around the larger cities, although Brink Haven did receive some flourish because of the tragic events. I could find 6 total deaths utilizing archived newspapers and cemetery listings at Hibbet Cemetery, but I did not know if you kept a listing of more?
Thanks so much-- Jannette Q.
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| Reader Jannette Q. has written about Brink Haven during the 1913 flood. |
Dear Jannette Q: Out of a dozen official reports from 1913, I found
only one that specifically mentioned Brink Haven: on April 3, 1913, when a team
of Ohio State health officials visited Brink Haven, three people were reported missing
. However, ascertaining a precise death toll from such a massive natural
disaster as the Great Easter 1913 flood (or tornadoes) is extremely difficult,
even within a single small town such as Brink Haven. The fast-rising, torrential
flooding was so ferocious that bodies were simply swept away. Some were found
weeks or months later, but were so mangled and decomposed that they could not
be definitively identified. Some people initially reported missing or dead
later found their way home. Conversely, other deaths may never have been
tallied, notably those who were not drowned but were severely injured during
the flood but died weeks or months later. For these and many additional reasons
outlined in “‘Death Rode Ruthless…’” I have become convinced that official death statistics should be regarded only as
minimum numbers—and that the actual counts were likely much higher.
Sleuthing out counts closer to real
numbers in Brink Haven or elsewhere would require searching through newspapers
and county coroner records in every city and small town in 15 states—an enormous
undertaking that I have not done (but could make a great thesis project for one
or more grad students). It would be worth the effort, however: In March 2013,
Jim Blount—the historian of Hamilton, Ohio, a city devastated worse than Dayton
during the flood—recounted to me how years earlier (possibly for the flood’s 75th
anniversary in 1988) when he was a newspaper reporter, he and the county
coroner spent a day going through Hamilton death records for 1913. They
identified 200 to 300 deaths clearly attributed or attributable to the flood,
even though Hamilton’s “official” flood death toll is usually given as under 100
(unfortunately, Blount said his notes from that research are long gone). For
the centennial in 2013 (and the post “‘Death Rode Ruthless…’”), however, I meticulously
compiled Excel spreadsheets of deaths and property damage tallied in a dozen
official and semi-official reports (whose statistics, by the way, contradict one
another as often as they supplement one another).
Your findings of 6 deaths rather than
3 in Brink Haven is consonant with Blount’s experience in Hamilton. Thus, I
would love to hear more about your research and what you have found out about
the circumstances of the flood deaths in Brink Haven. –T.E.B.
Two cousins
independently responded on May 12, 2016 to Patrick R. Pearsey’s guest post “Men
of the Hour”; one included a query of general interest:
[T]he
interesting article ["Men of the Hour"]…was especially interesting to me because I saw my Great
Grand Father’s name on the IPD 1913 Flood Roll of Honor. His name was Charles
A. Barmfuhrer.
I have a question about a photo I saw of him that had “Inspector” on his hat. What exactly is an Inspector?
Thank you for posting this Flood Roll of Honor.
I recognized another policeman’s name in the Flood Roll of Honor as one of my Great Grandfather’s Pall Bearers: Lieutenant Herbert R. Fletcher. He was listed in his Funeral Memory Book.
Thank you again for the information. Sharon C.
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| Short bio of Inspector Barmfuhrer by Patrick R. Pearsey. |
Patrick R. Pearsey replies: “Inspector was a rank used by the Indianapolis Police
Department (IPD) from about 1913 to 1969. It was a high rank, basically the 2nd
highest rank next to Chief of Police. The Inspector often stepped in as
Acting Chief of Police. I wrote a power point presentation about all known
IPD inspectors
which includes a bio of Charles Barmfuhrer. Thanks for your interest and
comments on the article.”
An older
query from December 12, 2014, might still interest a number of readers:
Hi. I came across your
website today when I was doing a little research on the Flood of 1913. First, I
think it is awesome that you have done all this research on something that was
so significant! Second, I was wondering if you came across any
information/pictures specific to Delphos, Ohio. I only have one picture. It is
of my great-grandmother and her family waiting on their porch, I guess for
someone to come and get them. The floodwaters are near the steps of the porch.
I just haven't had any success finding any pictures/information about the
Flood's effect on Delphos from here in Kentucky.
Thanks for reading! Tina B.
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| 1913 flood at Fisher's Stone Quarry in Delphos, Ohio. Credit: Delphos Historical Society |
Dear Tina B.: Some photographs and
articles from the Delphos
Herald about the 1913 flood in Delphos,
Ohio, appears at “The Delphos Flood—1913” by Robert Holdgreve of the Delphos
Historical Society. There also seems to be a collection of photographic negatives of Delphos in the collection of Bowling Green State University. If you don’t find what you are seeking on
those actual web pages, try contacting the Delphos Historical Society or BGSU
directly; I’ve found that archivists can be very helpful in a situation like
this. Good luck, and let me know what you learn. –T.E.B.
On May
15, 2016, this comment arrived, unfortunately signed “Unknown” with a “noreply”
e-mail address:
I was tipped
off that you appeared on [Michael] Feldman’s show. Glad you were able to be
picked from the audience and be part of the broadcast [listen beginning at
1:33:24 here].
Several years ago I wrote an article for a local newsletter about the exploits
of a local ham operator calling for help in Columbus. He’s been since
identified as the first use of amateur radio in the time of disaster. So many
great stories link to this event. Keep up the great work!
Dear Unknown: It sounds as though you
are referring to 15-year-old Herbert V. Akerberg, about whom I wrote in the ONC
installment “Wireless to the Rescue”
on April 1, 2014. He actually was not the first, but was one of maybe a dozen
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| Akerberg's first message in the March 26 Columbus Citizen |
ham radio operators who were able to summon aid during the communications blackout
over Easter weekend (see “The First Punch”). He was also one of the youngest. As a result of the heroic actions of all
the ham radio operators during the 1913 flood, Congress and other organizations
began to move to establish a nationwide system of emergency radio. Thanks for
your interest. –T.E.B.
A request
that I could not answer from August 18, 2014, but perhaps readers can help:
My name is
Christy, and I was born in Dayton, Ohio (though now live in NJ). In the
process of preparing to move to a retirement home, my parents have come across
a number of items from their family, one of which is puzzling us. I have
attached images to this email, but the item in question appears to be a 1”x1”
medallion, presented to a “Mr Kirby” in 1913.
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| Inch square medal from 1913 apparently awarded to Elijah Kirby, possibly for heroism during the 1913 flood. Does any reader have any idea about what organization struck and awarded the medals? Credit: Christy K.V. |
We are certain this
references Elijah Kirby, my great-great grandfather. My father believes
this item is somehow connected to the Dayton Flood, but isn’t certain of that,
and doesn’t know anything more about its origins/meaning. Seeing as how I
am a history teacher, my parents have set me on the task of doing some
research. I found your blogs—and given your comprehensive coverage of
this event, I figured if my dad were correct about its connection, you might be
able to help us understand what this medallion (if that’s even the word for it)
is.
I thank you in advance for any assistance you can provide to us! Christy K. V.
Dear Christy K.V.: I was unable to find
any satisfying answer online, but not every historical document or photograph
has been scanned and posted to be publicly available. Where did Elijah Kirby
work and live in late March 1913? In an instance such as this, I would see if
there might be any record through his employer (especially if it happened to be
NCR or Delco) to see if the company awarded medals. Also, contact the Dayton Metro Library, which has an extensive collection of documents and artifacts about the 1913
flood, along with knowledgeable archivists who might be able to provide you
with useful leads. Another source would be Dayton History, which has preserved thousands of photos from the NCR archives. Last, if another reader knows of another recipient of this medal and can provide
a great lead, please email me
and I will forward your response to Christy. Good luck, and let me know what
you find. –T.E.B.
On April
18, 2016, this brief message—not sure whether it was responding to a specific
installment—arrived:
From: “Mike”
Subject: Dayton flood 1913 resources
Subject: Dayton flood 1913 resources
Don’t forget Alan Eckert’s “a time of terror”. 1965.
Great book. Mike
Dear Mike: A Time of Terror by Allan W. Eckert is a rocketing read by a Dayton newspaper reporter, published a couple
years after the 50th anniversary of the flood, about the first flood week in
Dayton. Although based on newspaper reports, the narrative is fictionalized in
an early example of subjective reportage that came to be called “new journalism” (made famous by Tom Wolfe in The Right Stuff and
other works) and a progenitor of what is now sometimes called literary nonfiction.
As a result of that creative narrative approach, sources are not footnoted or
otherwise indicated, and Eckert himself said he invented dialogue in the book,
so it is hard to tell what is factual and what has been dramatized. Thus, it is
best enjoyed not as history but as a “docudrama”—one that also inspired the
play 1913: The Great Dayton Flood
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| The play 1913: The Great Dayton Flood was inspired by Allan W. Eckert's 1965 book A Time of Terror. Credit: Wright State University |
most recently performed at Wright State University in January 2013
during the centennial year. A Time of
Terror was one of the first books I read
on the 1913 flood more than a decade ago; it (along with 20 other works) is summarized
in my first ‘book report.’ Its full text is available online. It is not forgotten! –T.E.B.
The seven queries
above are just a portion of the correspondence from readers. It only belatedly
occurred to me that an occasional “letters to the editor” type of installment
might be of wider interest to other ONC readers. But I also try to stop writing
when the word count exceeds 2,500 words! Thus, additional reader comments and
queries will have to wait for a future post.
If you can
contribute insights of suggestions to answer a reader query, or if you have a
question of your own, or if you like/dislike the idea of an occasional “reader
mailbag,” just let me know. And if you are pursuing research of your own about any aspect of the Great
Easter 1913 natural disaster and/or its consequences, let me repeat my earlier
invitation: don’t be shy. Let me know whether you would be interested in contributing
a guest post for ONC!
Next time: Crisis Communications in a
Communications Crisis
