Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1913-04-22

from MS ScnOOl TO LOBanSpOrt, q SUD-
merged town fifteen miles away. Be-
lfeving the young mans own account
of his experiences would be Of partic-
ular interest here at home, we have
secured Col. Springs permission to
publish It. The letter reads:
.l Culver, Ind, March 80, 1918.
Dear Father: I guess you have re-
ceived the paper I sent you just after
we came back from forty eight hours
work in Logansport. -.. .-.
Now, we don't all claim to be heroes,
but sixty volunteers, mostly men who
had been to summer school, saved
over 1000 people, mostly women and
children. We saved 500 the first day
and were too busy to count the second.
At about o'clock Wednesday morn
ing we were awakened with the news
that Logansport was under fifteen
feet Of water and that we were needed.
We loaded five boats on fiat cars and
got switch engine and caboose from
South Bend. 1t was sure some job car
rying those big boats half mile to the
sidetrack. Only about 100 were awak-
ened and all volunteered, but they only
picked about forty-f five who had been
to summer school and fifteen Of the
biggest in the school, hoping they could
row. Then they gave US each a can
teen Of water and cup OF coffee and
piled US all in that one caboose. You
see there was no drinking water or
NJ oil on ttyo nranQrQd
to stay. BY daybreak we had the boats
launched and began our fight with the
water. Logansport Is situated in the
valley between the Wabash and Eel
rivers. They join in the lower part OF
town and the whole city now was a big
river. Every street was raging tor
rent, fifteen feet deep on an average
and every alley was q mill race. The
flood had come on suddenly in the
night and the people had had no chance
to get away. Those in one-story houses
either got to one with an attic or Sec
ond story or were drowned like rats In
a trap. Once we found man up to
his neck in water with just his head
sticking out Of the roof where he had
torn a hole in 1t with his hands. An
other time we came to hip roof or, q
house just sticking out of the water.
~
cry for help. We tore off the shingles
with bayonets and found two young
girls lying on the rafters In the water.
They had been there for forty -eight
hours without food, water or light and
scantily clothed. The thermometer was
"a degrees and 1t was showing hard.
You can't imagine how hard 1t was
to navigate those big heavy boats in
that current and those narrow streets.
Every time we came to corner. the
cross current would pick us up and
dash us against q pole or house. Once
1t drove us on submerged iron fence
and ripped a hole In the bottom. Lots
of times we couldn't get near the house
but would get the people out OF the
second story window by ropes. Do you
the Barnett hotel where we
took breakfast In Logansport one morn
ing on the way to summer school?
Well we took forty-fiv people out OF
the second story back window by drag
ging the boat up an alley. 1t was as
much trouble landing the people as
getting them, especially as there were
so many cripples, sick people and par
alyzed people. I remember once we
were taking some women out Of the in
terurban station when they passed . a
little girl with spinal trouble to me. She
was strapped to a board and as / car
ried her down the boat I could hear the
most .pitiful groans have ever heard.
Another time we had to bring O. wo-
man down the ladder who had both her
legs broken. She smiled at us and was
cheerful all the time in spite Of the
fact that every step nearly killed her.
We had to take mother with two
hour old baby out Of a drenched fiat
and I tell you it was some job. We let
her down by rope and just wrapped
the baby UP in five or six blankets and
threw 1t down. A woman wanted US to
save her dog but we wouldn't do 1t, SO
she wrapped 1t up like baby and
handed 1t down carefully. My! but we
were mad when it started barking.
Two men were rowing down Market
street (the main street) Wednesday In
a steel row boat when they struck the
current crossing at Third. The cur
rent dashed it against an iron post and
wrapped 1t around the pole like piece
of wire. Three hours later we came
along (Cutter No. g. and found the
men hanging to the awning Of q gro
Gerry store three blocks further down. ]
wish you could have seen that steel
boat; bent double around that pole,
the bow and stern rammed into each
other like safety pin. You can imag-
inc how swift the current was, even q
mile from the river. The rivers them
selves were like the rapids above Nj
agara and no boat could stay upright
In it for second. All six bridges over
the Wabash were washed away and
only one held on the Eel. Thursday
morning about $50 we took No. and
carried It across the bridge to get at
the island" as 1t Is called, but 1t is
really a peninsula between the rivers.
Here we worked Thursday, at times al
most the banks Of the river itself. We
could see houses, barns and chicken
GOODS shooting down the river at the
rate Of forty and fifty miles an hour.
Wednesday dead bodies were lodged
up against the piers Of the bridges and
could be seen in the river. No one has
been able to get them off yet. Some are
supposed to have been washed all the
way down from Peru, fifteen miles
north. But the most horrible Of all was
when a mans head was found between
two IRON spikes in the bridge. It is
supposed that he was caught there by
his neck and the current tore his body
away. So, far he has not been identi-
fed. s..-...
There is one thing I saw that will
never forget. No. was lashed to
awning poles of Blick's saloon, half
block from the river. How we got there
I don't know, but it took us three hours
to get back, the current was so strong.
We had a little row-boat with US and
we sent it down further to get an old
lady out of the Pennsylvania station.
They got there and started back. They
struck a submerged baggage truck and
lost control of the boat. The current
caught them and drove them against
guy wire of telephone pole. The boat
upset and was broken into bits against
the pole. They weren't fifty yards from
US but we were powerless to help them.
1 shall never forget that woman's
screams. I have dreamed about it ev-
cry night since. The two men shouted
for help but soon the waves of the riv-
er hushed their cries. We turned away
and hid our faces; we couldn't bear to
look. Then suddenly we heard yell
and looked up. One Of the men was
pulling himself, hand over hand, on the
guy wire to the pole. We yelled en-
to him and grabbed our
oars. The officer Of the boat drew and
loaded his revolver and commanded.
uctk ,too5,, wa nap't holm hint III