Coshocton County's heroics during 1913 flood

For Americans since the 1960s, Fred Rogers’ "Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood" has shown us what it means to be a neighbor. Perhaps the most lasting legacy of Mr. Rogers is a quote: “When I was a boy and would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’”

Today, let’s talk about a time in Coshocton County’s history when neighbors showed up to help neighbors: Ohio's 1913 Great Flood. Six straight days of rain and melting snow were produced from March 21-26, 1913. Unchecked by our modern dams, the rivers rose dangerously high.

In Coshocton one unnamed immigrant woman, living in today’s Old Town Coshocton neighborhood on Third Street, found herself abandoned by her husband with three small children to care for. Calmly, she picked up one child under each arm and the baby in her teeth by their clothing, then walked through water up to her knees, in her long Edwardian skirts, for eight blocks to find safety.

She didn’t stop until she reached the Bachert building on Walnut Street. But there, too, were heroes whose names have been lost to history: The “ladies in charge of the lunch room” at the Bachert building provided the refugees drifting in from across the county a warm meal, a place to rest and a sympathetic ear.

Still others went looking for problems to solve. Brothers Melvin and James Marshall, boatmen on the Ohio-Erie Canal, set out into the 1913 flood to search for evacuees in their canal boat. They went from Canal Lewisville and Coshocton and back, rescuing as many as they could along the way and saving many lives.

E.A. Crawford of the hydroelectric light company worked himself and his crew frantically to provide power to as many residents as possible, as long as possible, even as the water advanced one by one into the furnaces. Eventually, they had to evacuate the plant as it flooded behind them while the water whistle blew to alert locals the power was going out.

To keep county residents informed, “newsies” of The Coshocton Morning Tribune stayed at their posts until the electric power failed, then asked local advertising companies for the use of their gasoline-powered presses. Finally, a small gasoline engine from Gray Hardware was jury-rigged to work. Printing until 4 a.m., C.W. Knoff, Frank Moore, Frank Schleich and two departments of the Tribune provided this county with hope, news and lists of resources in a desperate time. These became known as the “flood editions.”

Perhaps the most striking story to come out of the 1913 flood in Coshocton County is that of its post offices. Located at 604 Sixth St. at the end of the then-brand-new Bachert building, this location was a clearinghouse for all Coshocton County mail. Under Postmaster Seth Snyder, the Coshocton Post Office and its workers became heroic out of sheer determination.

Working around the clock under scavenged kerosene lamps, electricity and heat both out, Snyder led a team that had decided the best way to ease peoples’ minds was through “word from their folks.” With the phone and telegraph lines out, only paper mail could carry news of surviving to family members.

When mail could not pass washed-out roads and destroyed bridges, Snyder sent carrier Leroy Biggs by boat, rig and horseback to Frazeysburg. Walter C. Chapman, postmaster of Layland in Clark Township in 1913, even had to row a boat to and from his door just to get the mail inside. The water had flooded up to and into the store there. Minnie M. Wheeler, postmistress of Nellie for 25 years, carried mail bags by hand to higher ground when the Brinkhaven canal locks broke upstream.

These Coshocton County residents showed up for their neighbors when their neighbors needed them the most, and I think we should talk about that.

This essay is excerpted from a longer presentation, “Look for the Helpers: When Coshocton County Showed Up for Our Neighbors,” being presented at 5:45 p.m. Wednesday, April 29 at the library.