Thanks for sharing the highlights of the program. I would like to have been there, but am
currently in Atlanta, GA. My Mother (raised on a farm near Amboy) talked of the 1913
flood--and the story of the horse stranded on the bridge, etc. However, from this
description, it was much worse than I had realized from her stories. They were less than
20 miles away, but were not directly affected.
Joyce Overman Bowman
Regine Brindle <barmbrindle(a)sbcglobal.net> wrote:
Between March 24, 1913 and March 27, 1913, 6" of rain fell on
Peru, and send the river water rushing down its streets at speeds of 20mph, tearing
everything on its path and drowning Peru's hopes for a bright future.
It can be said that Peru never really recovered from it.
Before the flood of 1913, Peru was a busy town, full of activity, jobs, with its 15,000
inhabitants, 100 factories, a trolley service, railroads, a new hospital (Duke's),
circus (which employed 1000 people on the road), a new concrete bridge (largest of its
kind in the world at the time).
Peru's boon benefited the surrounding communities as well.
There had been other flooding episodes in Peru. The East side was particularly prone to
this problem. After the floods of 1904 and 1907, people had found ways to raise thier
homes but that would not matter in 1913 as the high water mark would reach between 6-7
feet, leaving debris in high tree branches as a witness.
(while Ron was taking 'now and then' pictures of a house, the owner told them he
had wondered how he could have found 3 in of dried mud on the ceiling of his newly bought
house)
It had been a wet winter. The ground was already soaked. Easter rains caused enough
concern that churches cancelled Sunday services.
Ebert Shirk owned a furniture factory right on the Wabash and he was quite concerned
about its safety. He put his workers to building a temporary dam to keep the river from
invading the manufacture and it worked for a short while.
Normally the Wabash flow is between 8,000 to 10,000 cubic feet per minute. In 1913, the
water flowed at the rate of 118,000 cubic feet per minute!
It not only carried off the planks from Ebert Shirk's factory, it was strong enough
to knock houses off their foundation and carry them downstream.
As planks floated down river, they got caught on the new bridge and soon stacked into a
barrage that diverted the water onto the city streets.
By Monday afternoon, storm sewers were spewing river water. Some people evacuated to
higher ground but many decided to ride out the storm.
Within an hour the water was knee high and soon after that evacuation stopped altogether
due to the rush of water.
By evening the utilities stopped services.
People were already without heat, as basements and first floors were flooded. Now there
was no drinking water.
Peple were trapped. SO were the animals.
Ben Wallace's circus animals were in grave danger.
Situated at the confluent of the Mississinewa and the Wabash, the Circus WInter Quarters
were submerged as the two river became one.
The caged cats drowned. So did the one Bengal tiger that escaped. He jumped in the
water and drowned too. 8 horses drowned too.
The shackled elephants had to be freed but even after being freed they would not leave,
too panicked by the cold wind. Nellie saved one of the trainers and got him to safety but
returned to where the other elephants were. They made it to the house but would not go to
higher ground. 5 elephants died. 3 floated away down river. One got tangled up by the
bridge too.
(As a side note, Ron tells of this businessman who bought the elephant carcasses after
hearing of their deaths, and had them disinterred 3 weeks later, to have them
skinned...!!! and their feet cut off to use as sun-umbrella(?) stand!!!)
Ben Wallace tallied his losses to $150,000 (1913 figures), while Ebert Shirk's
losses amounted to $250,000 (1913 figures)
The total loss for Peru is estimated at $3,000,000 (1913 figures)
Some people lost everything they had.
Remember, there was no insurance, and no FEMA to rescue or help you recover...
However communities came together to help each other.
Once word reached them out of the situation in Peru, Rochester and Warsaw offered their
boats to help rescue stranded people. And they did this in spite of the torrential rains
and snow...
A $1,500 donation was made on the spot and a train of relief supplies was prepared.
On Wednesday a big snow storm added to the trouble, but the rescueing went on.
Michigan City also sent rescuers.
The trains could not get right into Peru but delivery continued to come in.
Rescue boats worked non-stop.
Ron name two whose outstanding work was not unnoticed:
- Sam Bundy, a 32y ld Miami Indian, whose boating skills were welcomed. He worked
non-stop for 57 hours and rescued an estimated number of 162 to 325 people. When he was
done, he only asked to be able to have a cup of coffee and some sleep.
- Red May was not quite as lucky. His efforts saved the lives of 200 people but he
drowned trying to save the lady who had caused his boat to capsize with all its
passengers.
The unforgiving waters were 15 to 20 feet deep.
Another Ron names by name is Mr Baldwin, who is said to have saved 120 lives. Who is
he? Ron would love to find out more about this individual. If the name sounds familiar,
let me know and I will get you in touch with him right away.
In all, 11 people drowned in the flood. Forgive me for not having taken this down fast
enough... )=
The total death toll reached 10 however after counting those who died of exposure
shortly after.
Ron mentioned Rochester earlier in the presentation. He back-tracked a bit to show that
people knew what was really important. Rochester and Peru had profesional baseball teams
and they were arch-enemies on the field, but they prepared a "Peru Day" after
the flood. Rochester's population swelled to 30,000 that day!
He also explains how South Peru and Peru had been separate entities before the flood.
South Peru being 'nicer' than Peru. With the Broadway Bridge washed out, there
was need to rebuild. They talked it over and finally agreed only to discover they need the
approval of the War department beforehand... They got it BUT they had one more barrier...
it would require an act of Congress to allow the rebuilding...
Eventually they got it.
In the meantime, two weeks after the flood, they had already built a foot bridge and 6
weeks after the approval of Congress, they had the new bridge up and running.
In spite of newspaper reports that disease and death was rampant in Peru, there was no
case of typhoid fever as vaccination was made available immediately.
The Fire Dept pumped out people's basements.
By the end of April peru was rnning business 'as usual', minus the businesses
whose owners decided to leave for fear of another such disaster.
Sure makes one appreciate the Mississinewa Dam, that's for sure!!!
I took notes as Ron gave the presentation but I could not keep up.
Neither does this summary give you the full spectrum of what he said.
He has hundreds of anecdotes and of course unpublished pictures we got to see.
One of you asked what impact the flood had on the Miami Indian community. Ron is hoping
to get more answers from the Miami Indians soon. Maybe then he can tell us more.
One story he told was about this horse stranded on the bridge unable to go anywhere for
2 days, without food. A man took pity on it and figured out a way to get food to it and
it survived.
Another one is of a family who managed to get themselves to saftey in the 2nd story of
the ice cream factory and survived on cone wafers for 4 days, then to their delight
discovered a box of dried meat... only it was not really the sort they'd have eaten at
any other time...
This was a wonderful presentation!!!
Maybe you will have the chance to hear him sometimes.
Otherwise maybe he will publish his study. It sure will be well worth reading!
Hope you got something out of this report!
Take good care!
Regine