Opera, Book, and Kindle

Three recent new works explore aspects of the 1913 flood in Columbus, Indianapolis, and Dayton

Virtually all books, videos, and other works about the Great Easter 1913 Flood focus on its monumental death and destruction, most often in the context of one locality. Few encompass the multistate geographical scale of the natural catastrophe, and almost none explore its human toll through time as families struggled to come to terms with total loss.

That all changed February 8–10, 2019, with the world premiere of an ambitious original opera called The Flood—giving three performances to a packed Southern Theatre (seating capacity 900) in Columbus, Ohio.

The project was supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts; the music was composed by Korine Fujiwara, commissioned by OPERA America’s Opera Grants for Female Composers program; the libretto was written by Stephen Wadsworth (who, among other things, had written A Quiet Place with Leonard Bernstein). It was co-produced by Opera Columbus and ProMusica Chamber Orchestra. The singers’ backgrounds included education at Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and the Juilliard School in New York City (among others), and performances with the New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra.

Warning: plot spoilers ahead.

The one-act opera The Flood was set in four interiors at different eras to reveal how later generations of a family seek to resolve the trauma suffered by ancestors during the 1913 flood. Before the Saturday evening performance at the Southern Theatre in Columbus, Ohio, historian Trudy E. Bell set the wider context of the 1913 flood to audience members. Credit: Roxana Bell

The Flood is set in two Columbus neighborhoods: Franklinton—hardest hit by the 1913 flood—and Hilltop. Although librettist Wadsworth had immersed himself in the history of the flood in Columbus—whose death toll was equivalent to that in more famous Dayton—the story is much more universal. Thus, the fictional characters and their situations are composites, and knowledge about specific historical settings is not critical to understanding the drama. More important is how the tragedy of loss ricochets through four generations of an extended family over a century: 1913, 1940, 1970, and 2014.

In the new opera The Flood, tragedy befalling a woman in the 1913 flood (left) plays out in the later life of her former lover in 1940 (right). Photo: The Wall Street Journal

The eras are not depicted successively in acts. The opera unfolds in one act, with the different eras depicted in four interiors on the stage simultaneously—especially poignant in revealing how trauma from the past can cripple love for the present or future, can engender future pain(or forgetting), and can trigger how people wrestle with ghosts. Time is fluid, and future interacts with past. It is a substantial, meaty work; I truly wish I could have seen it twice—once to absorb the plot and a second time to more closely follow the complexities of the loves and losses and rediscoveries.

The father in 1940 (left), who had lost his first wife and children in the 1913 flood, rejects the daughter of his second marriage, who ends up in an insane asylum by 1970 (middle). She leaves the asylum to marry, and eventually dies, but years later her own daughter discovers her mother’s tragic secret in 2014 (right). Credit: Columbus Underground

Because the play is in no way a history of the 1913 flood, the Friday and Saturday evening performances and the Sunday matinee were all preceded by a scene-setting “talkback” by different guest speakers who recounted aspects of the history of the 1913 flood. Two (for Friday and Sunday) were local experts sketching its history in Columbus, and I (for Saturday night) outlined its wider context.

Interviews with some of the creators and some of the music sung by the performers can be heard in this 7.5-minute video preview. (A 30-second teaser is here.)

The Flood is a significant work, and to be highly recommended if it comes to your city. Reviews of the weekend’s performances were published not only in local outlets (including  The Columbus Dispatch and Radio OSU) but also in The Wall Street Journal.

Police in Indianapolis

Patrick Pearsey, archivist for the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, has expanded his research—some of it summarized for this research blog in April 2016 in his guest post “Men of the Hour”—into an entire book titled The Time of Heroes: The Great Flood of 1913 and the Indianapolis Police Department (no date, but privately published in 2018).

The book chronologically outlines what happened in Indianapolis during the 1913 flood from March 21 through 30, focusing on the especially disastrous days of March 25–27. In Pearsey’s words, “When the Washington Street Bridge collapsed on the 26th, the city was cut in two. Marooned on the west side of the raging White River was Captain George V. Coffin and a handful of police officers. Faced with rescuing, feeding and clothing over 7,000 people that week, what these men did became the Indianapolis’s Police Department’s finest hour.”

The large-print book is 425 pages long and features some 200 photographs. Print-on-demand copies can be purchased from Amazon. 

A Day in Dayton

Corpses in Trees and Rats on a Raft: The Great Dayton Flood of 1913, compiled by Danny Z. Kiel, is a transcription of the special “flood edition” of the Dayton Daily News published on April 2, 1913. That issue was likely the first attempt by anyone in 1913 to summarize the drama of the flood in some kind of coherent narrative—preceding the “instant books” that began to appear in late April (see “Profiting from Pain”). The original newspaper issue was a makeshift affair, which resulted in many typesetting errors that Kiel has sought to correct in his 77-page transcript.

Published in 2016, the work does not appear to exist as a printed book. A 99-cent Kindle version is available on Amazon (along with a preview and introduction). 

Happy reading!

©2019 Trudy E. Bell

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.

[Note: I am in the midst of an unrelated book project that is currently claiming most of my time, but am posting here as often as possible. Feel free to contact me re the Great Easter 1913 natural catastrophe.]

Paducah Postcards + Miamisburg Marker

One reader’s query leads to solving a Kentucky mystery; another reader invites viewing of a new historical marker on the 1913 flood in Ohio 

Out of the blue the morning of June 2, 2018, this email message arrived:

Ms. Bell. I stumbled upon your blog a couple of years back while trying to identify a group of flood postcards I have. I thought they were from Paducah, KY, but didn’t know the year. Turns out 

This scene during the 1913 flood is one of seven mystery postcards received from Mike Kunz. It is of downtown Paducah, Kentucky: specifically, Broadway seen from Second Street. The water flooding the city was deep enough for boats.

they were from 1913, and show some of the ‘Water Carnival’ in that city. I have collected and sold cards for years, never being aware of the importance of the 1913 flood. I have read all of your past blogs and have told a number of collectors and dealers at shows about the site. I have 

All seven postcards from Mike Kunz
correspond to scenes depicted in
this souvenir booklet, with a few
minor differences in the way images
were cropped.

gained much from this sight and I have enjoyed it’s educational value. To thank you for your efforts I would like you to have these Paducah cards. I would rather see them go where they would be appreciated than to someone for resale. I’m not trying to sell you something. If you want them, just send me an address, and will send them to you.

Keep up the good work. Mike Kunz, Petersburg, Tn.

South Third Street from Broadway in 

Paducah; at left is the Citizens Savings

 Bank and at right is First National Bank.

In this and other images, the faint vertical
marking that seems disembodied in the
sky is actually a streetlight hanging from
electrical wires.

The “water carnival” to which Mike Kunz referred was the appalling belittling of the horrific magnitude of the 1913 flood in Paducah, Kentucky, recounted in this blog’s September 2014 post “Spurning Disaster Aid.” 

At the time I wrote that post—indeed, until last month—I had never seen photos of the 1913 flood in Paducah as the city newspaper then did not publish images.

South Fourth Street from
Broadway. At left in the
foreground is the dry goods
business W. M. Rieke & Co.,
and in the background is
City Hall. At right in the
foreground is the Paducah
Banking Co.

Immediately, I wrote back to Mike, thanking him and accepting his generous offer. A few days later, seven black-and-white postcards arrived by mail. 

All of them showed flooded street scenes of a city with a few people in distant boats. The postcards were lithographed: they had a halftone screen dot pattern, suggesting they might have been printed for mass distribution or sale (as opposed to being real photographic prints made from a glass negative in an enlarger). None of them had been used; none had any printed caption; a few had cryptic handwritten identifying markings on the front (clearly on the original negative).

Broadway Avenue looking
east from Fourth Street.
The City National Bank
is at the left.

When I asked Mike what led him think they were of Paducah, he responded:

Trudy, the one card depicts the 3 Links Bldg, and I have had another view of that building that identifies it from Paducah. Also, the street names match some in Paducah. I have tried to find info on the store names visible on the images, but had no luck. You probably have access to better sources than I, so that might help. I have been able to pinpoint other locations that way. I think these cards were probably printed by a newspaper or local printer, but it unusual for them not to be identified as such. Please let me know what you come up with. Good luck with your search, Mike.  

Map of Paducah, KY, showing where
the seven postcard images were
photographed during the 1913 flood.

His guess triggered a memory of another blog post I wrote, “Grisly Souvenirs,” on the commemorative booklets—including booklets of postcards—published in many cities of local Great Easter 1913 flood and tornado devastation. The very first image in that post was of just such a booklet for Paducah, which at that time (November 2015) I had never seen and could not find online.

North Fourth Street from
Broadway Avenue.

Well, sometime in the intervening two-and-a-half years, images of the booklet’s interior pages made their way onto the internet. 

Broadway Avenue between
Fourth and Fifth Streets. The
author of the souvenir booklet
spins reality by noting that the
scene shows “johnboats of every
description in which the citizens
enjoyed the Water Carnival.”

Those pages definitively revealed that all seven postcards indeed were of the 1913 flood in Paducah depicted in the booklet, including identifications of the street locations. No name is given for the booklet’s author, but the photographs were credited to Paducah photographers Sacra & Cook.

Thank you, Mike Kunz! 

Fifth and Kentucky Avenue, showing the
Three Links Building.

This post reproduces all seven of the postcards he kindly gave to me, identifying their locations.

 

Miamisburg 1913 flood marker

Meantime, a couple of weeks earlier, on May 22, 2018, another reader emailed: 

Hard to believe it's been 5 years since we recognized the 1913 flood in Miamisburg.  If you are in the area on June 19, 10:00 am Riverfront Park, we are dedicating an Ohio Historical Marker. Would be nice if you could be there.  Carol O'Connell, Miamisburg Historical Society
 

When it turned out that the dedication was to be “merely a pause in the many activities” that day celebrating the bicentennial Miamisburg (southwest of Dayton), and that I live 200+ miles away diagonally across the state, Carol promised to send me a copy of the program after the event.

She was as good as her word, supplemented by photos of the historical marker by local photographer Jay Robinson. Jay’s images of the front and back of the marker are here; additional images he took of the entire unveiling of the marker are on Facebook.

When I asked Carol what her role had been in securing the historical marker, she replied:

I completed the application for the Ohio History Connection marker.  It's akin to writing a research paper.  It was my donation to Miamisburg's Bicentennial celebration. It was unveiled at the site that was inundated by the flood. The land is repurposed as Riverfront Park. The marker stands in front of the levee along the Great Miami River constructed by the Miami Conservancy District.
  

Historical images of Miamisburg during the 1913 flood appear on the city’s website.

Thank you, Carol and Jay!

Speaking of historical markers…

After hearing from Carol, I wondered what other historical markers might commemorate the 1913 flood. A quick Google search revealed that another one was installed a year ago (June 2017) by the Indian Lake Historical 

Society. It is in Russells Point, OH (Logan County) along the Great Miami River—only about 75 miles northeast of Miamisburg, in case someone wants to visit them both in a day. Both photographs of the Indian Lake marker were taken by Rev. Ronald Irick.

Installation of historical markers commemorating the widespread Great Easter 1913 tornadoes and flood 

in any state is the type of news I would love to feature in this research blog. Heck, I’d love simply to learn the locations and see images of long-existing historical markers that describe a landmark that existed until destroyed by the Great Easter tornadoes or flood, even if the disaster itself is not the main focus of the marker…

It’s always fun to hear from readers with queries, updates, images, leads to new information, or invitations to speak or to attend relevant events, so please contact me!  

©2018 Trudy E. Bell

Next time: Desperate Medicine

Selected references

The 1913 flood is commemorated in some paintings in floodwall murals—see “Magnum Opus.” 

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.

Great Easter 1913 Disaster Library

As a gift on the fourth anniversary of this research blog, here in one place is a library of some three dozen books and half a dozen documentary films on the nation's most widespread natural disaster beginning Easter weekend 1913.

Part of the purpose of this research blog “'Our National Calamity': The Great Easter 1913 Flood” (ONC) since its creation in November 2012 is to provide a lasting, comprehensive guide to resources published about the March 1913 storm system, tornadoes and flooding; the casualties and devastation; and the societal consequences, broadly interpreted. As a fourth anniversary gift, here in one place is a master collation of all the books and documentary films highlighted in half a dozen separate installments since the centennial in 2013.

Each entry below gives full bibliographical information in alphabetical order by author or title. In the case of books not widely available in retail outlets, ordering information is also included (if available). As the books range from scholarly to fictionalized popular accounts to children’s books to historical novels, the brief descriptions are intended to provide succinct information about each work’s intention, scope, audience, and approach. With a few exceptions, I was able to obtain review copies or PDFs. Please contact me with additions or updates.

Nonfiction books since 2000

Bambakidis, Elli, and Harriet Foley (editors). 1913—The 1913 Flood in Franklin, Ohio: A Guide. Franklin Area Historical Society, P. O. Box 345, Franklin, OH 45005-0345. 2013. [Title on title page reads 1913 Flood of the Great Miami River: A Guide to Resources on the Flood of 1913 Available at the Franklin Area Historical Society.] No ISBN. xiv. 129 pages. Appendices. Bibliography. Index. Softbound or hardbound.

Principally a detailed guide to the FAHS collection of some 8,000 items, this book is richly illustrated with photographic images and captions on uncoated paper, pre-flood history of the Franklin area, and a historical sketch that puts the Franklin-area flood in statewide context. Copies are available from FAHS and the Franklin-Springboro Public Library, or via mail order. Price of $20.00 (softbound) or $35.00 (hardbound) includes Ohio sales tax; mail orders should also include $4.00 for shipping and handling. Payment is by cash or checks payable to the Franklin Area Historical Society (FAHS); telephone (FAHS Museum is voicemail only) is (937) 746-8295.

Bambakidis, Elli (editor). 1913: Preserving the Memories of Dayton’s Great Flood. Proceedings of the Symposium [October 22, 2002] sponsored by Dayton Metro Library, Ohio Humanities Council, Miami Conservancy District, Ohio Preservation Council and Beavercreek Women’s League. With a Guide to Resources on the Flood of 1913. Dayton Metro Library, 215 East Third Street, Dayton, OH 45402-2103. 2004. ISBN 0-9707679-1-9. xv. 128 pages. Appendices. Bibliographies (one for print materials, one for websites). Index. Softbound. 

Richly illustrated with more than 125 photographs on coated paper, this book includes the full text of five major papers presented at the symposium (especially thought-provoking is the lead essay “Where History Comes From: The Dayton Flood and Why We Remember,” by Una M. Cadegan, University of Dayton). Despite being only nine years old, the book may be available primarily in libraries; call Dayton Metro for more information.

Bell, Trudy E. The Great Dayton Flood of 1913. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7385-5179-1. 2008. 128 pages. Bibliography. Softbound. 

Part of Arcadia’s Images of America series, this picture book features nearly 200 images from the Dayton Metro Library, the Miami Conservancy District, and the NCR Archives at Dayton History, on coated paper with extended captions telling the story of the flood in Dayton, rescue efforts, recovery, and the construction of the Miami Conservancy District dry dams for flood control. As per Arcadia’s usual pattern for its local histories, the book is widely available in the Dayton area at bookstores, museums, and even local Walgreen's, but not necessarily in more distant bookstores. Copies also can be ordered through Arcadia or directly from the author (with inscription of your choice) for the cover price of $21.99 each (including Ohio sales tax) plus an additional $4.00 shipping and handling. For more information, contact t.e.bell@ieee.org.

Blount, Jim. Flood: Butler County’s Greatest Weather Disaster—March 1913. Past/Present Press, Hamilton! Ohio. 2002. No ISBN. 68 pages. Saddlestitched. 

More than 70 photos and maps on uncoated paper of the 1913 flood of the Great Miami River in the Hamilton and Middletown areas of Ohio was compiled by Hamilton’s historian and retired newspaper journalist. Hamilton, about a third the size of Dayton in 1913 (about 35,000 citizens compared to about 125,000) suffered far more deaths for the size of its population than did Dayton; although body counts were less than 100, official estimates acknowledge the real casualties likely topped 150, and Blount’s research suggested it may have topped 200. Chapters written and laid out like newspaper articles. No bibliography or index, but detailed table of contents. Available for $12.50 from Books in Shandon, 4795 Cincinnati-Brookville Road,  P.O. Box 8, Shandon, OH 45063, phone 513-738-2962 or 513-523-4005; contact binshandon@fuse.net for information on shipping.

Brown, Tom, Warning! High Water Ahead: A Photographic History of the Great 1913 Flood at Zanesville, Ohio. Muskingum County Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society, November 2013. Only 350 copies printed. $25.00 plus $5.00 shipping; MCCOGS; Post Office Box 2427; Zanesville, OH 43702-2427; (740) 453-0391 ext.139. I was unable to locate an image of the cover and have not seen a copy of the book.

Conrad, Thelma (compiler and editor). Rain and River: Remembering the Flood of 1913, Logansport, Indiana. Cass County Historical Society, 1004 East Market Street, Logansport, IN 46947. 2013. ii. 88 pages. Hardbound.

Rich photographic record of the overflowing of the Wabash River and flooding of Logansport, Indiana, as documented principally by professional photographers from four photographic studios in the city in 1913. The book, compiled and edited by the CCHS’s Executive Director, features more than 160 images—the best of the CCHS’s collection of postcards and photographs—printed on coated paper with extended captions. Also included are notes and observations of observers trapped in buildings, quotes from newspapers, and excerpts of letters. No bibliography or index. Sold at the Cass County Historical Society; for ordering the book by mail ($25 per copy plus $5 for shipping and handling), contact the author at the society at 574-753-3866 or e mail cchistoricalsoc@frontier.com. 

Dalton, Curt, Through Flood, Through Fire: Personal Stories from Survivors of the Dayton Flood of 1913. Oregon Printing. Dayton, OH. 2012. 182 pages. Appendices. Bibliography. Index. 

Full verbatim contents of letters, speeches, other 1913 documents during and after the 1913 flood, prefaced by introductory narrative, plus over 100 stunning photographs from the NCR Archives of Dayton History, the Dayton Daily News, and other sources. Reprint of a book originally published in 2001. Although the entire text is online, the photographs make it eminently worth acquiring a physical printed copy. $24.95; available from Carillon Park, 1000 Carillon Blvd, Dayton, OH 45409; call 937-293-2841 and ask for the gift shop for information about shipping.

Dalton, Curt. Water, Water Everywhere… The History of the Miami Valley Flood of 1913. Children’s Historical Publishing, 2626 Delanie Avenue, Dayton OH 45419, (937)-643-0502. 2013. 32 pages. No ISBN.  Saddlestitched. 

Laid out rather like an Arcadia book although larger in format, it is written at a level accessible to grade-school children without talking down to them. Through the dramatic photographs, reading, and a few activities, children can learn social studies history and a little engineering. Sold at Dayton Art Institute and Carillon Park. For ordering (retail $8.00 each plus $3.35 shipping, although special discounts are available for teachers and classrooms), contact the publisher at chps@woh.rr.com.

Gignilliat, Lt. Col. Leigh R., Capt. Robert Rossow, and Cdt. Elliott White Springs. Logansport—The Flood, March 1913. Assembled and edited by Robert B. D. Hartman.  Culver Academies. No publication date. 57 pages. The Second Century Series. 

This is a centennial reprint of a book that was self-published by the school in 1994 (in celebration of Culver's centennial). It is, with the exception of the introduction by Culver historian Bob Hartman, three first-hand accounts of the dramatic rescue of more than 1,000 citizens of Logansport, Indiana, by a group of cadets and faculty of the Culver Military Academy (as it was then called). The story is recounted by then-superintendent Col. L.R. Gignilliat, by Black Horse Troop director (and war veteran, yarn-spinner and adventurer) Col. Robert Rossow, and by cadet Elliot White Springs, who went on to fame and fortune as a WWI veteran and textile magnate, in addition to a brief excerpt from a letter by a Logansport woman. It has a handful of photos.$13.95. Available at the Culver Military Academy campus bookstore or can be ordered online.

Grismer, Stephen C. Drenched Uniforms and Battered Badges: How Dayton Police Emerged from the 1913 Flood. Dayton, OH: Dayton Police History Foundation, Inc. 2013. Footnotes.

“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.

Hinds, Conrade C. Columbus and the Great Flood of 1913: The Disaster that Reshaped the Ohio Valley. Charleston, SC: The History Press. 2013.

Despite its title, this book is 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.

Huey, Lois Miner, Floodwaters and Flames: The 1913 Disaster in Dayton, Ohio, by (Minneapolis: Millbrook Press 2016; hardback library binding). 

Written for grades 4 through 8, the 56-page book is striking for its large square format (10 x 10 inches) and dramatic layout, with big photographs atop a background of pages from Dayton newspapers. The narrative follows the stories of half a dozen people from various walks of life throughout the three worst days of the flood (Tuesday, March 25 through Thursday, March 27, 1913): NCR's savior John H. Patterson and Bell Telephone's John Bell, aircraft pioneers brother and sister Orville and Katharine Wright, librarian Mary Althoff, rescuer southpaw Dayton Marcos pitcher Bill Sloan, 18-year-old store clerk Clarence Mauch, and coal dealer Andrew Fox and his wife Finette, who had long feared the possibility of a major flood. The two last chapters acknowledge the calamity's wider geographical area and aftermath. A preview of the book is on Google.


Lenihan, Brian D., Ph.D. 1913 to 2013 in 13 miles: The Hamilton, Ohio, 1913 Flood Then and Now. Bellevue, KY:  MicroPress Books. 2015. Large-format (8.5 x 11 inches), 196 pages. Bibliography. Index. Lavishly illustrated. 

Taking the unique approach of being a step-by-step walking tour for a 13-mile loop through Hamilton, its hundreds of images pair each location with how it looked during or immediately after the flood with how it looks today. Hamilton has one of the largest collections of 1913 flood photos in the Miami Valley, and Lenihan meticulously took many of the modern images from as close to the same vantage point as possible, shooting most of the modern images in 2013 during the flood's centennial. (Hamilton also had what was probably the largest centennial commemoration of the 1913 disaster in any state, with multiple talks, tours, and other events scheduled over six weeks - see the Michael J. Colligan video archive and website). 

Miami Conservancy District, The. A Flood of Memories. One Hundred Years After the Flood: Images from 1913 and Today. The Miami Conservancy District. 2013. ISBN 978-0-615-75860-2. 128 pages. Hardbound. 

Colorful coffee-table picture book depicts the dramatic 1913 flood side-by-side with images of the same areas today captured by photographer Andy Snow. Piqua, Troy, Dayton, West Carrollton, Miamisburg, Franklin, Middletown, and Hamilton are all included. Each pair of images has brief descriptive text, but the bulk of every page is reserved for the striking contrasts between devastation in 1913 and the safety and vibrancy these communities enjoy now. $22.95 from the Dayton Art Institute Museum Store, Carillon Historical Park’s Gift Shop, and the Butler County Historical Society.

 Mihelich, Dennis, Ribbon of Destruction: The 1913 Douglas County Tornado on Easter Sunday and the Jewish Holiday of Purim , Douglas County Historical Society and Nebraska Jewish Historical Society. 48 pages.

Although better known as the 1913 Omaha Tornado, the title accurately clarifies that the path of destruction cut a wide swath for tens of miles through Nebraska. It provides unique insights into the effects of the tornado on the Jewish and Black communitieis. Not for sale; complimentary with membership in the Douglas County Historical Society.

Miller, Frank. The Great Dayton Flood of 1913. 100^th 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.


O’Gorman, John W. Impact of the Great 1913 Flood on Miamisburg, Ohio. Miamisburg Historical Society. 2012. (vi) 106 pages. 40 photographs. Bibliography. 

The author writes: “As the title indicates, it deals with Miamisburg, as I found that the Miamisburg story was overlooked in the general  reporting of the day.” $15.00 including tax, plus postage and handling (call for information). Make checks out to Miamisburg Historical Society and send to MHS at 4 North Main Street, Miamisburg, OH 45342, Phone: (937) 859-5000, e-mail: MHSociety@att.net

Sing, Travis. Omaha’s Easter Tornado of 1913.  Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7385-3184-7. 2003. 128 pages. Bibliography. Softbound. 

Part of Arcadia’s Images of America series, this picture book features some 200 images from various historical archives in Omaha, Nebraska, on coated paper. (Sing’s technique of telling the gripping story of the Great Easter Omaha Tornado and its destruction in various communities through extended captions, including rescue efforts, relief, and recovery, inspired my own approach for my own Arcadia book on the 1913 flood in Dayton.) As per Arcadia’s usual pattern for its local histories, Sing’s book is widely available in the Omaha area at bookstores, museums, and historical societies, but not necessarily in more distant bookstores. Copies also can be ordered ($21.99 cover price) through Arcadia. 

Swickard, Lisa. Calamity and Courage: Tiffin’s Battle During Ohio’s Deadly 1913 Flood. Melmore, OH: Virgin Alley Press, 2010. 290 pages. Appendices. Index. Softcover. 248 photographs.

This book is one of the notable few focused on the 1913 flood in northern Ohio, 200 miles away from the Miami Valley and the Dayton area. Tiffin, on the Sandusky River, was swept by a wall of water that claimed 19 lives. Inspired at first by recollections of grandparents and other relatives, the author—a lifelong Tiffin resident—relies heavily on local newspaper accounts, oral history interviews conducted  in 1988 for the 75th anniversary of the flood, and resources at the Seneca County Museum. See this YouTube video about the book. $35.00 - order directly from Virgin Alley Press, 40 West Market Street #2, Tiffin, OH 44883.

Trostel, Scott D. And Through the Black Night of Terror: The 1913 Flood in the Northern Miami Valley. Cam-Tech Publishing, 4890 East Miami-Shelby Road, Fletcher, OH 45326-9766. ISBN 978-0-925436-69-6. 2012. 188 pages. Bibliography. Index. Softcover. 

Recounts the 1913 flood in the five northern Miami Valley counties of Champaign, Darke, Logan, Miami, and Shelby, where 65 people perished in the angry waters, including in the towns of Sidney, Piqua, and Troy. Includes more than 100 illustrations and maps on uncoated stock, plus lists of fatalities. $34.95; book can be ordered online.

Trostel, Scott D. Letters From the Attic: Stories from the victims of the 1913 flood in western Ohio. Cam-Tech Publishing, 4890 East Miami-Shelby Road, Fletcher, OH 45326-9766 Cam-Tech Publishing. ISBN 978-0-925436-73-3. 2013. 128 pages. Soft cover.  

Recounts the 1913 flood in Miami Valley from Sidney (north of Dayton) to Hamilton (south of Dayton) in the words of the flood survivors themselves in letters. Have not seen the actual book. The author writes: “All the letters came from newspapers where the originals had been submitted for reprint by persons to whom they were originally addressed in 1913, nothing out of any historical society or archive, that stuff had all been reprinted several times over the years and I wanted fresh materials, so I went hunting for it. 20 photos and illustrations.” $18.95; book can be ordered online.

Trostel, Scott D. Railroads of Western Ohio in the 1913 Flood (96 pages; ISBN 978-0-925436-74-0; $23.95 + $3.50 shipping, Cam-Tech Publishing, 4890 E. Miami-Shelby Rd., Fletcher, OH 45326-9766)

This large-format book is the third of Trostel’s large-format local histories of the 1913 flood in the northern Miami Valley. Information about all three appears on Trostel’s website. Trostel also gives talks around southwestern Ohio; check his website periodically for announcements.

Troy Historical Society. Troy and the Great Flood of 1913. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7385-9059-2. 2012. 128 pages. Bibliography. Index. Softbound. 

Part of Arcadia’s Images of America series, this picture book features some 200 images on coated paper from various historical archives in Troy, Ohio, north of Dayton. Troy’s story, including the loss of 15 lives directly to drowning and countless others from injury and disease, has largely been overshadowed by the publicity about Dayton at the time. But for the U.S. bicentennial in 1976, the Troy History Committee interviewed Troy flood survivors and preserved the interviews on audio tape, which form the basis of stories told in this book of disaster and rebuilding. As per Arcadia’s usual pattern for its local histories, the book is widely available in the upper Miami Valley area north of Dayton, but not necessarily in more distant bookstores. Copies also can be ordered ($21.99 cover price) through Arcadia.

Williams, Geoff. Washed Away: How the Great Flood of 1913, America’s Most Widespread Natural Disaster, Terrorized a Nation and Changed it Forever. Pegasus. 2013. ISBN 978-1-60598-404-9. ix. 356 pages. Index. Hardcover. 

Despite the sweeping and definitive-sounding subtitle, the first 310 pages—all the main chapters totaling more than 90 percent of the book—focus just on flood week mainly in the Midwest from Easter Sunday, March 23 through Saturday, March 29. Clearly inspired by Allan W. Eckert's classic A Time of Terror (see below), it is a fictionalized moment-by-moment recounting of personal experiences primarily from flood victims as gleaned from newspaper accounts, heavily focused on Ohio. A 28-page epilogue is a timeline of the subsequent century 1913-2011, briefly highlighting aspects of the flood’s destruction down the Mississippi and noting what happened in later decades to the various people the author had introduced earlier in the book. No bibliography, but a final acknowledgments section lists the newspapers read and some librarians and other sources consulted. $28.95. Available at bookstores.

Twentieth-century books

Our National Calamity; Horrors of Tornado, Flood and Fire; America's Greatest Flood and Cyclone Calamity; Tragic Story of America's Greatest Disaster; all these and others (even sometimes the same book published under a different title) were “instant books” published in 1913—some as early as April while the flood was still in progress—that keep cropping up all over the internet and in second-hand bookstores. Often cited as if they were authoritative references, they actually were thinly disguised direct steals of local newspaper accounts without credit given. A descriptive analysis of the half-dozen century-old tomes is “Profiting from Pain” (ONC March 3,2013). It is a detailed post that pulls back the veil on the dodgy instant-books industry and its 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 among other names]), likely to avoid lawsuits under the new Federal copyright act.

Becker, Carl M., and Patrick B. Nolan. Keeping the Promise: A Pictorial History of the Miami Conservancy District. Landfall Press. Dayton, OH. 1988. ISBN 0-913428-65-5 clothbound; 0-913428-66-2 paperback. 208 pages. Appendices. 

Several hundred photographs from the collections of Wright State University, the Miami Conservancy District, and other archives that depict the flooding around the Miami Valley in Ohio, including Piqua and Troy and rural areas as well as in Dayton and Hamilton, and then document the construction of the Miami Conservation District dry dams. Published in time for the 75th anniversary of the 1913 flood. You may get lucky and find a copy second-hand.

Eckert, Allan W. A Time of Terror: The Great Dayton Flood. Landfall Press. Dayton, OH. 1981 (a reprint of the original published by Little, Brown, & Co. in 1965, shortly after the 50th anniversary of the flood) ISBN 0-913428-02-7.  341 pages. (There may have also been a 1997 reprint.)

Fictionalized account of the 1913 flood in Dayton that has proven highly influential in keeping the memory alive (the musical stage play 1913 performed most recently in January-February 2013 at Wright State University is based on the book). No bibliography or footnotes, but a brief acknowledgment section about sources. Second-hand copies are available (at sometimes dismayingly high prices), but the entire text of the book is available online.

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). 

Historical Novels

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.

Friermood, Elisabeth Hamilton. Promises in the Attic. Landfall Press. Dayton, OH. 1960. My copy says reprinted 1982 and 1986, but online I’ve also seen the date 1975. One edition may have been published by Doubleday & Co. 226 pages. 

A teen historical novel about a 17-year-old high-school senior girl who wants to be a writer, and gets her first opportunities at reporting and writing during the 1913 flood in Dayton. The fictional character interacts with real individuals (e.g., NCR president John H. Patterson), and the flood is described from the viewpoint of its happening to her and her family. The portion of the book concerned with the flood begins around page 90. Turns up second-hand.

Kennedy, Kathy Toerner, Flood of Courage: A 1913 Experience. KY: MicroPress Books, 2013. (6 x 9 inches, 208 pages, some photos at the end) . 

A historical novel based on the actual experiences of the author's mother (13 at the time of the flood) and grandparents.As the author notes, the book should not be treated as historical fact (I especially wondered about the recounted meteorology). The flood story begins around page 60, and by the next chapter is truly gripping. Especially revealing were the perspectives of people who experienced the flood from being trapped inside a house, including opening the windows to let in the floodwaters to try to prevent the tonnage of water from shifting the house off its foundations, hearing and seeing walls crack, and quaking with terror when crossing on hands and knees a door laid between windows of neighboring houses to get to a house with third story (reminiscent of the recollections of people who tightrope-walked to safety along telephone wires, see "High Wire Horror"). All these harrowing details were based on truth, as revealed in the four-page written account from the author's mother, included at the end of the novel.

Historian and writing consultant Anne Wainscott may be working on a historical novel Torrential about the 1913 flood in Dayton, based in part on family stories she had heard since childhood. Meantime, in her November 7, 2013, blog installment “Weather Storyteller Unleashes Lessons of Past Storm Disasters,” Wainscott profiled the work of Cleveland National Weather Service hydrologist Sarah Jamison in sleuthing the origins of the monumental 1913 storm system (see also this blog "Be Very Afraid..." about Jamison's research).

Documentary films and videos

Devil Clouds: Tornadoes Strike Nebraska. The 1913 Easter Tornadoes. NET – Nebraska Public Television. 2013. Running time 56:55 minutes. 

Online description: “Developed in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of the event (which took place on March 23, 1913), it’s a story full of heroes and colorful characters; a story of tragedy, but also recovery and resolve; and the story of a city and state in transition. It’s a story so well documented visually that it offers an intriguing glimpse into the disaster, and the lives of 1913 Nebraskans in places like Omaha, Ralston, Yutan and Otoe (called Berlin at the time).” Entire documentary can be viewed online. Fabulous additional resources—including videos about the Berlin and Yutan tornadoes in the same tornado family—appear online (scroll down to section "Related Media" at right).

Goodbye, The Levee Has Broken: The Story of the Great Dayton Flood. ThinkTV - Greater Dayton Public Television. Produced in partnership with the Montgomery County Historical Society. 2010. Running time 54:50 minutes. 

Jacket copy: “Recounts the day-by-day events of the flood, as experienced by its victims and survivors. Their harrowing stories, taken from diaries, letters, and newspaper articles, are brought to life through drawings, film footage, and rarely-seen archival photographs. Emmy-award-winning producer Shawn Brady bring these elements together for the first time in an emotionally-charged recreation of the extraordinary event that once held an entire nation spellbound.” Entire documentary can be viewed online.

The 1913 Flood: Shadow Over the Miami Valley features more than 500 flood photos from half a dozen towns around the Miami River watershed in southwestern Ohio, along with moving picture clips of the flood in progress from local historical societies and quotations from letters written at the time. Produced by Middletown, Ohio, filmmaker and historian Sam Ashworth, the 30-minute documentary premiered April 26, 2013 as part of the Michael J.Colligan 1913 flood history project in Hamilton, Ohio. Background about it appears at “New video tells the story of the Great Flood.” The documentary itself does not appear to be available online, but a DVD is available from the Dayton Metro Library. 

The 1913 Flood in Morgan County, Ohio is a 26-minute documentary written and produced by Ohio University professor Rick Shriver focusing on the 1913 flood in the Muskingum River watershed in southeastern Ohio, and the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District constructed in the 1930s. An overview describing how century-old photographs were enhanced is here. The documentary premiered on March 21 with a screening at the Opera House in McConnelsville.

The Great 1913 Flood in Greater Lafayette, Indiana is a 35-minute slide show assembled and narrated by Bob Verplank, based on talks he has presented at Rotary Clubs and libraries around northwestern Indiana. The full-length version does not appear to be available online, but some parts of it were captured in a 3:30-minute short The ‘Great Flood’ of 1913 by David Smith of the Lafayette Journal-Courier (see also the paper’s March 19 article and March 23 article and video on high-water marks of damages and deaths). Copies can be ordered directly from Verplank for $15.00: make the check out to Rotary Back Pack Fund. For details, contact Verplank.

The Omaha Easter Tornado is a 4:45-minute short that brings to light a tragic song written by Hans B. Parkinson in 1913 after the fatal twister—still Nebraska’s deadliest—had killed so many. Two talented Nebraska Wesleyan University music students—pianist Zach Weir (junior) and soloist Cadie Jochum (senior)—perform the piece. The short is a web extra to the 1-hour Nebraska NET public television documentary Devil Clouds: Tornadoes Strike Nebraska, which originally aired in March 2013.

When Every River Turned Against Us: Lessons from the Great 1913 Flood is a 30-minute documentary film about the 1913 flood in Indiana that 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. It features actual 1913 moving picture footage of the flood itself around Indiana, as well as modern interviews both about the historic disaster and about current flood mitigation and preparedness. It first screened before a live audience on November 8, 2013, and premiered on WFYI Public TV on Thursday, November 21. Produced by Emmy Award-winning TV producer Gary Harrison at WFYI Public TV in Indianapolis, it was created in partnership with the Indiana Silver Jackets emergency readiness coalition and the Polis Center at IUPUI, with assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, the Indiana Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Geological Survey, NOAA, National Weather Service, and the Indiana Department of Resources.  A 3-minute trailer for the film appears here. A review of the film appears on page 2A of the November 19, 2013 issue of the Berne Shopping News.

Film footage shot in March 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—is discussed in “Screening Disaster” (ONC March 1, 2014). That post also includes links to YouTube and other sites that have preserved some of this historic footage for public viewing.

A great number of additional modern-day videos can be found on YouTube just by searching on “1913 flood” or “1913 tornado.” For example, The Greatest Natural Disaster in Ohio History: The Flood of 1913 is a 4:20-minute short told mostly through historic photographs and produced in 2012 by the U.S. Geological Survey. It also describes how today the USGS uses data collected from networks of stream gauges to monitor river levels and warn the public. 

Video slide show of 1913 flood devastation in Hamilton, Ohio is reminiscent of footage after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake

And in case you haven't seen enough of splintered Hamilton, check out Historic Flood Hamilton, Ohio 1913 Disaster, a centennial slide show of postcards uploaded in September 2013. Seeing the images one right after another in just a few minutes silently conveys the full power and force of torrential waters, which indeed—as noted by Ohio Governor James M. Cox—left Hamilton looking like San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake.

Fast reference index to ONC

Over the past four years since November 2012, fully 53 installments—many of them full-length heavily documented research articles—have been posted to this research blog 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. 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 those who like stats: ONC has garnered over 85,000 lifetime views, averaging several thousand per month.

As always, contact me at t.e.bell@ieee.org if I have overlooked a resource or if any information needs updating. Happy reading and viewing! 

Next time: Desperate Medicine

©2016 Trudy E. Bell. For permission to reprint or use, contact Trudy E. Bell at t.e.bell@ieee.org