The Great Dayton, Ohio Flood of 1913: My Hometown Disaster
When I first set out to do a disaster podcast, I knew I would eventually cover the great Dayton flood of 1913. As a kid growing up in the Dayton area, I was well aware of it at a young age, even though it occurred sixty-plus years before I was born. Every big anniversary there would be a news story about it, with perhaps an interview with a very old, weathered survivor who had lived its horrors as a child. As a teen, I read the essential account of the flood, a book called A Time of Terror, and I was hooked.
The Great Dayton Flood Didn’t Just Affect Dayton
Dayton was the biggest city that this storm system flooded and definitely the most damaged, but plenty of other cities and towns along the Great Miami River, particularly Hamilton, Ohio, were also devastated. And the storm system didn’t just affect Ohio, either: it started out by whipping up a devastating tornado in Nebraska. One article I used as source material when researching this episode details that while Dayton was the hardest-hit, the widespread flooding was devastating for many parts of the country. The whole flood and storm system actually cut a brutal path through 14 states and it was the country’s most widespread natural disaster. The flooding ranked second only to the destructive and deadly 1889 Johnstown, Pennsylvania flood (which I read a fascinating book about and which we will definitely cover on a future episode!)
A Curmudgeonly Citizen Kinda Saved the Day
If you listen to the episode (and why wouldn’t you, COME ON!) you will hear me talk about how John Henry Patterson, a leading citizen of Dayton and president of the National Cash Register company, took quick action to help limit the devastation to his city both before, during, and after the flood.
Patterson was a very eccentric man. He was one of Dayton’s wealthiest and most influential citizens, but he was also known for terrifying his executives by firing and re-hiring them to teach them lessons. It was his way or the highway, and a lot of people who worked for him ended up taking the highway! But he was also a leader in a kind of employee benefits program that was rare back in that time. His factories and facilities had on-site dining and health care facilities, he had a beautiful recreation park for employees, and he even sponsored contests among them to beautify their lawns and gardens, because so many of them lived near “the Cash,” as it was known.
Patterson was an eccentric, and reportedly ruthless in business, but to his fellow Daytonians he was a bonafide hero during and after the Great Dayton Flood. Looking at the year 1913 as a whole, it’s hard to argue that Patterson was anything but generous: that year, the National Cash Register Company spent 2/3 of their profits on flood relief for the people of Dayton. Now that is something that is certainly unheard of today!
The Great Dayton Flood Left a Legacy of Prevention
As I covered (probably ad nauseum) in the episode, the great Dayton flood was extremely devastating for the people who lived through it, especially if they lost loved ones. Thousands found themselves homeless and/or with their places of business destroyed, or both. The city recovered fairly quickly, though, with Midwestern hard work and grit. And as they rebuilt, they vowed never to let a flood destroy their city again. Good old John H. Patterson himself helped spearhead a fundraising campaign which both he himself and Dayton’s favorite son Orville Wright donated to, but even the “regular Joe” citizens of Dayton gave anything they could scrape together to contribute. The funds raised went to hiring an engineering firm to figure out a way to protect their city and the Miami Valley from future catastrophic floods. If you listen, you’ll find out how they did it, and how over 100 years later, people like me are still benefiting from their determination to make Dayton a safer place.
Dayton is my hometown and I love it so much! I hope you enjoyed listening to this episode and learning more about my city! I’d love to hear from you about what you found most interesting.
Here are the resources I used to put together this episode:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Dayton_Flood
https://www.daytondailynews.com/news/local/one-dayton-flood-twins-dies/vZXLiJWSsB7kt4zAhFdDYI/
https://www.history.com/news/great-flood-1913
https://wrightbrothershistory.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-1913-dayton-flood-and-wright-family.html
Books:
Grand Eccentrics by Mark Bernstein
Through Flood, Through Fire by Curt Dalton
A Time of Terror by Allen W. Eckert
