Floodwaters and Flames: The 1913 Disaster in Dayton, Ohio by Lois Miner Huey (review)

The tremendous rainfall of spring, 1913 that swept through the upper Midwest and eastward and took the lives of a thousand Dayton citizens was wedged between two higher profile calamities, the sinking of Titanic and the onset of World War I, and it therefore ended up as little more than a historical footnote. Huey calls attention to the tragedy, following events over three days through the experiences of a varied group of Daytonites as they fought for their own lives and those of neighbors and strangers. John H. Patterson, owner of the National Cash Register Company, promptly put employees and property at the service of those who needed food, shelter, or medical aid, and also set aside rooms for a makeshift morgue. John Bell kept telegraph service running throughout the storm, African-American baseball player Bill Sloane “borrowed” a boat at gunpoint to rescue neighbors and, ultimately, even the boat’s reluctant owner. Orville and Katharine Wright were separated from their aged father; librarian Mary Althoff tried but failed to save her collection; Clarence Mauch helped strangers escape from rooftop to rooftop ahead of fires caused by gasline explosions. Huey’s approach is nicely attuned to a middle-grades readership, with just enough featured participants to represent a range of experiences, but not too many to sort out. Plentiful period photographs capture the enormity of the disaster, and a timeline, source notes, glossary and bibliography will assist report writers.