The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1913-03-26
FLOOD AND FIRE
/ STUN DAYTON
CONTINUED from page II

/ CONTINUED from page IL
After a night of terror that part OF
Dayton which had homes to sleep in,
awoke today with heart breaks.
The flames last night showed men,
women and children perched on the
roofs of houses in the path OF the
i flames, watching the advancing fire
with helpless and horror-stricken
gaze.
A few men ventured out into the
tumultous stream in small boats and
rescued some.
Under the leadership OF Frederick
Patterson, gang Of men chopped a
hole through a roof in the food and
fire district and saved family OF
three. They tried to get to raft
that bore man and four women and
which whirled like spool in the
rapid waters, then suddenly the raft
was sucked up in, the darkness and
another chapter was added to the
tragic doubt that now exists as to the
number who died in this disaster.
Even the relatives of the supposed
dead are uncertain as to their fate.
The story of what really happened
during night and a day in Dayton,
the wonderful city that was bull.
around single industry, is being
told by the exhausted rescuers and
the Frustrated victims as they are
brought into the places of safety.
Each fragment of the story is a
tragedy in itself.
There is the story of George II.
Schaefer, rescuer who went out in
to the flood with a skiff and saved q
woman and a baby. as M
"a house that had been torn from
its foundation came floating up be
hind U.S. said Schaefer. THE wom-
an was frightened. told her there
was no danger
Suddenly she stood UP and jumped
over with her baby in her arms. She
went straight down and never came
Up again
Then there was the horror that Bill
Riley, salesman for the National
Cash Register company, saw himself
I'VE saw a woman standing at the
window of a house waiting for res.
cue said Riley. t'We rowed up ito
her Suddenly the house parted and
the woman in 1t was engulfed.
1T was the last we saw of her.
Then there was the man who was
nearly rescued, had stepped into the
skiff and then walked back into his
home which a short time later float.
ed away with him
| And the story of the colored moth.
err, who was being rowed to safety
with her two babies when the skiff
struck tree, and the little craft cap
sized so that the babies were drown
ed and the mother was rescued by
Robert burnham, the owner of Hthe
skiff. only to die before she reached
the hospital.
John Scott. an employee of the Ma
tional Cash Register company, who
came recently from Butte, Montana
descended telegraph pole and guided
across the cable to places of safety
men. women and children rescued
from flooded houses.
Scott had guided dozen persons
across the swaying bridges of wire
when the explosion that started the
fire occurred, and the shock knocked
Scott from the pole and he fell into
a tree.
THE last saw of him he was try
ing to get into the window of ar
abandoned house by way of one of the
branches of the tree. said Frank Stew
ems. a fellow employee of Scott THE
house was in the path of the fire.
What is your name?' asked this
registrars who received the refugee.
at the National Cash Register plant
of slender young person in mems
clothes
Norma Thuna," was the reply.
4 Norman" they asked.
Yes. i am a girl. was the answer
She had put on mans clothes In or
der to cross the perilous span o
wires unhampered by skirts
She came in with Ralph Myers, hi
wife and their little baby Myers hat
climbed the pole first. He let dowl