Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1917-04-20
CHAPTER XIV.
The Battle.

ne 6dICle.
1t was now three o'clock in the
morning. In about half an hour the
men, naturally grumbling and protest
ing at being deprived of any of their
sleep, were out and at work. Lanterns
were lighted everywhere. The, rain
had fortunately not resumed, and the
air was soon filled with noise and con-
fusion. Men with axes were busy on
the hillside cutting the young pines.
Horses were hitched to the dump wag-
ons, the steam shovel began tearing
away the hillside. Some of the men
were detailed to knock down some
of the galvanized iron houses and the
battering of the hammers on the metal
added to the din.
Under Vandeventer's personal direc-
ton a row of stakes was driven into
the top of the dam about three feet
from the front of it. Big sheets of
overlapping galvanized iron were
nailed roughly to the fronts of the
firmly bedded stakes and the small
branches and brushwood were thrown
down before 1t. Bowlders and big
stones we're carried out on the dam in
the wagons and thrown down on the
brushwood; spare timbers, broken
wagon beds, old wheels, joists of dis
| membered houses were driven into the
earth to serve as braces behind the
palisade; bank of earth was piled
up behind it, on which every man who
could be spared from other tasks, even
the chiefs themselves, labored with
breathless energy. The water was still
rising, although the rain had stopped !;
the natural drainage would cause that.
but the rise was slower.
At dawn Vandeventer personally
carefully measured the depth of the
water and gagged it again. 1t was n
scant six and a half feet below the ton
of the dam. If the water rose above
the top it was gravely questionable
whether the palisade would hold it at
all, yet there was no other way of in
creasing the depth of the spillway
enough to discharge the flood volume
Working as hard as they could, they
had barely succeeded in raising the
earth bank back of it a foot high
They kept at it unremittingly, although
it did not seem to be of much use
! Vandeventer Stafford and Meade gath
cred together and scanned the sky
, seeking to discern the signs of the
} time, the purpose of the heavens. L
was clearer in the east. The clouds tC
the northwestward were in violent ac
! ton apparently. Lightning flashed
| through them and over the great range
: itself; low, muttered peals of thundel
came down from the peaks lost to sigh
, in the blackness overhead. They OBJ
e served all this carefully and Vande
t venter turned away, shaking his head
t 81 don't know" he began-the thre
of them were over on the east sid
r the better to see up the valley-'i
{" looks pretty bad, doesn't it?"
k ut does" answered Meade, Will
C Stafford nodded his head.
p "And, by the way, Stafford, have yo
e notified the town and the bridge peopl
e of the danger and bid them prepar
!" for it?"
l. Il tried to telephone them a Will
4 ago, but the connection has been br,
st Ken; the storm has played havoc wit
the line probably" answered the a
y. sistant engineer.
lie swell, what did you do thenT aske
i Vandeventer a little impatiently.
le II sent man down on horseback
r, a hurry to warn them that if 1t rail-
t. again the dam might go, and If it d
II 1t would go with a rush that the wat
OF was now only six feet below the lev,
rs and that they had better get up on Il
&c hills. OF course, last nights rain mu
It. have made the road almost impassabl
ed but he ought to get there by nj
ke o'clock. told him to tell the MartI
rd people to take whatever steps tn
on could devise to hold their viaduct al
er their machinery" answered Staffol