Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1913-04-01
STORIES OF THE FLOOD

People OF Dayton Recite Personal Ex-
periences of Thrilling Interest.
OF the thousands of remarkable es-
capes the experience Of Miss Flossie
Lester, stenographer, who was ma
rooned on an overturned moving van
in Edgemont, q suburb Of Dayton, Is
considered as one Of the oldest. With
several men Miss Lester was impris-
oned on the top Of a passing van
which she mounted when. the food
came Tuesday morning. Eventually
the van was overturned and the party
was thrown into the icy waters. The
horses which had been hauling the
van broke loose and separated, SWIM
ming for their lives. One Of them
passed close to the woman who grasp
ed dangling strap and succeeded in
climbing astride, the animals back.
For more than a mile and half
Miss Lester cfung with her arms about
the horses neck until, at last, he
reached a high approach OF the levee
near a farm mouse. Here Miss Lester
dropped 10 the ground unconscious
and was taken in Ly the farmers fam
ny. Inc horse was taken to the barn.
MisS Lester tolu lie reScuers tnat she
will buy the horse If its owner can be
found.
Mrs. Clinton Wallace and her three
chiiuren mad an experienced OF an
other kind. They were marooned
without food when the flood came on
day night. All that time they subsist-
ed on grape fruit, box OF which they
secured as it tioaled up to window.
Z. H. Pfeffer, treasurer, and c. P.
Cutlip, a division superintendent OF
one Of the big Detroit (Mich.) auto
mobile companies, who hurried as best
they could through the hooded dis
tricts from the Michigan metropolis
to Dayton 10 rescue Pfeffer's sister,
found her this afternoon. She and
another woman, both with their babies
in their arms, were discovered on the
roof Of the formers home in River
dale, their feet resting in the caves
trough.
Ihere was seven feet Of water in
Riverdale, Pfeffer said, and three or
four hundred people marooned in Sec
ond stories. He offered to take boat
load from one house, but as there was
not room for everybody none Of them
would leave.
While Daytonians have had adven-
lures enough to last them them the re-
mainder OF their lives, frantic fathers
and husbands, wives and mothers, out
of town when the news Of the flood
reached them, had troubles Of their
own in attempting to return.
With railroads out Of commission In
the Omaha tornado districts and
floods rampant from western Pennsyl-
vania to the Mississippi, they found 1t
difficult to return. - .
w. r. Sullivan, prominent Dayton
business man, on his way to Denver,
heard of the flood at Grand Island,
Neb He returned to Lincoln, Neb.,
where the difficulties of travel began.
He darted to Kansas City, where de-
lay confronted him; then back to ST.
Joseph, Mo. But here, too, no rail-
road would promise to deliver him at
Dayton. Finally he went to st. Louis,
caught a train to Guthrie, KY, worked
back through Louisville to Cincinnati,
and from the latter city reached Day
ton in an automobile.
He found that the relief committee
had commandeered his own motor car
and that his wife had given away most
Of her linen, bedding, clothing and
food-a very ordinary proceeding
but that she and the children were
safe. Perfectly satisfied, Sullivan Of
fered his services to the city. His
story is offered as a fair sample of
hundreds of others.
A druggist at Anderson, Ind, whose
family were visiting at Dayton, arriy-
ed in a state Of collapse. Despairing
Of travelling by rail, he set out to con-
quer the flood. Where he could, he
hired vehicles, but he pursued a
straight course, fording or swimming
icy waters, plunging through swamps
and crawling over broken and danger
GUS trestles. His feet, knees and hands
were swollen when he reached Rich
mond, Ind, 43 miles west Of Dayton.
He offered $50 and a new set Of tires
for a machine to take him to Dayton
Thursday night, but none would take
the risk. In the morning Sharon
Jones, who was in charge Of forward
ing relief at Richmond, bundled him
into one Of the relief automobiles and
he completed his trip. Jones learned
his story but not his name nor Is 1t
known whether he found his family
in DAYTON.