Getting the story Wright: The 1913 Dayton Flood, and the Wright Family

(Revised 10/10/23) 1912 was a difficult year for the Wright family, with the passing of Wilbur Wright to typhoid fever May 30th of that year. 1913 was no kinder to either Dayton or the Wright family. While 1909 was the year of celebration in Dayton, filling the streets with proud citizens to welcome home the Wright Brothers....

1913 would fill the streets in an entirely different way......(2)

Post card at left shows view from steps of Court House looking north down Main Street, March 26, 1913, during the Dayton Flood. Postcard to right shows same street section during 1909 Wright Brother Home Celebration. Click photos to enlarge.(1)


Courtesy of Library of Congress, panoramic view of March 1913 flood and fire damage in downtown Dayton Ohio. Click on photo for larger view. Park Presbyterian Church can be seen to the right, mentioned later in this post.

Orville and his sister Katharine had returned to the Wright Hawthorn home March 19th, having been in Europe and specifically Germany since February 12th on business.

Their father Milton recorded the following in his diary entries:

Wednesday, March 19, 1913 "A nice, bright morning, and nice all day. Orville and Katharine return home from Europe at 12:15. Lorin and Netta & Horace dine with us. Mr. Crane after dinner took Katharine and me out to see the new house in Oakwood."

Thursday, March 20, 1913 "It is a very nice day, but somewhat windy. I walked by Lorin's old house in forenoon, and around his first Residence in the afternoon. Horace dined with us...."

Saturday, March 22 "Fair, cold morning. Ther. 26 degrees above. Fair day warms up. I go to Oakwood. The second story of the new house is two-thirds up."

Sunday, March 23, 1913 "It rains this forenoon. Horace came in afternoon; and they go to look at the new House. He writes a letter."

Monday, March 24 "I apprehended a flood. Felt the danger of it."

Grand Eccentrics, Turning the Century: Dayton and the Inventing of America, by Mark Bernstein, 1996, Ch 14, Flood- "That evening on the west side of Dayton, Bishop Milton Wright recorded in his diary: "I apprehended a flood. Felt the danger of it."......On Hawthorn Street....brother and sister had just thirty minutes to move belongings to their second floor before evacuating. By nightfall, six feet of water stood in the Wright's home.....Orville abandoned on a shelf in the shed near the house the irreplaceable collection of photographic negatives he and Wilbur had taken at Kitty Hawk and Huffman Prairie......Fire was Orville Wright's chief concern that evening. From the safety of high ground, he watched as buildings near his office on Third Street burned."

Flood and fire damage at West Third and Broadway, just west and opposite side of street from location of 1127 Wright Cycle Shop. Orville's Boyd building was at the northwest corner of West Third and Broadway, completed just months before the 1913 flood.

Mark Bernstein continues, "The 1903 aircraft sat disassembled in packing crates behind the shop; of greater anxiety to Orville was that his office on the building's second floor contained his and Wilbur's lives' work- all the records of their glider trials, their wind tunnel work, their study of propellers. Orville went to bed Tuesday night believing the whole of it would be lost to flames......The facts were bad enough. Fifteen square miles of Dayton lay under six to eighteen feet of water. Fourteen thousand homes destroyed or damaged...."

Hawthorn Street during the March 1913 flood, looking south from 4th street. To the left is 4 Hawthorn, home of Newton Haywood, and the roof and porch of 6 Hawthorn can be seen beyond. To the right, 1 Hawthorn, then the Wright's home of 7 Hawthorn with porch, then 11 Hawthorn. The side of 15 Hawthorn is visible, and 19 and 23 Hawthorn blend in with the trees and six feet of water. Photo courtesy of Special Collections and Archives, Wright State University.

Hawthorn Street Neighbors in 1913

1 Hawthorn Charles (engineer) & Josephine Crume, Benjamin Hill (fireman), John Rhoads (trav supervisor)(12)
7 Hawthorn Rev. Milton Wright, Orville Wright (pres The Wright Co), Katharine Wright
11 Hawthorn Rachael Wagner (student), Eleanor Wagner (widow)
15 Hawthorn
19 Hawthorn Carl (ticket & pass agent Pennsylvania Lines) & Carrie Tipton
23 Hawthorn William (salesman) & Jennie Haines, Cyrus Haines (clk cigar stand Hotel Beckel),
27 Hawthorn John (police) & Catherine Perry, Catherine Conley (widow)
39 Hawthorn Horace (engineer) & Jennie Reichard
4 Hawthorn Newton (police) & Loretta (nurse) Haywood, Ralph Haywood (painter)
6 Hawthorn Howard (molder) & Bertha Arnold
8 Hawthorn William (painter) & Edith Prentice
10 Hawthorn Kifer (fireman) & Anna Kline
14 Hawthorn Rebecca Masters (widow)
26 Hawthorn Allen (plasterer) & Ada Wamboldt
34 Hawthorn Harry (engineer) & P Pearl Hixson, Jefferson (inspector) & Elizabeth Morehead

Milton Wright's diary entries (combined day by day with year end entries):

Tuesday, March 25 "Alarm about the waters rising."

"About 8:00 forenoon the waters burst onto our Street. I put on my overcoat, ready to go."

"A swift river flowed down Williams Street, and, toward Hawthorn Street, many sheds floated and were wrecked.. It carried off Hartzell's chicken house, and drowned his chickens, which had been moved to the barn."

"Russell Hartzell comes with a canoe after Mrs. Wagner, and takes in me. We glide down Hawthorne and on Williams Street to William Hartzell's (next door to the Baptist Church) & they receive us most Christianly."

Eleanor Wagner lived in the house just south of the Wright's home. Widowed, her husband William had died in 1904. (3) The Hartzell's home on South Williams Street was one street west of Hawthorn, and several blocks to the south. Still very much in the flood zone, but apparently with better accommodations.

"It seemed as if a widow and an old man had been Providentially provided for. We knew not what our near neighbors were doing, except Snyder's north of us."

Sadly, the Wright's neighbor at 1014 West Fourth Street, Anna Egan, 65, would die in the flood the next day, March 26th. The Dayton Directories listed Anna's attorney son John, and his wife Nellie also living at the home during this time.

Near neighbor of the Wright's, Anna Egan, died during the 1913 Dayton flood. The Wright home is shown at 7 Hawthorn, identified by yellow arrow. Anna's home was not constructed at the time of this 1897 Sanborn map, but was located at the yellow arrow at 1014 West Fourth Street. Also shown, home of Charles and Carrie Grumbaugh, 111 South Williams. Map courtesy of Library of Congress, 1897 Sanborn maps, edited by author.

Tuesday March 25th, Milton continued:

"I walked in the door- saved my shoes. His wife is sick abed. She was Jemima Ellen Schell. Their sons were Russell, Layton, and Howard, 22 & 14. Their girls, Mary, 12, Mildred and Carrie, 6. A smart nice family. They belong at Lutheran Church. They treated us the kindest. Their house is a two story, plastered Atic above. Hartzell's (age 42), parents died when he was young. Hers are living. He is intelligent, thoughtful, and Christian. The boys were out rescuing and Mrs. Pexton directed them to find Mrs. Wagner. Our children asked if they could take me. A young man carried me on his shoulders and set me in the canoe. We had no fire after Tuesday forenoon, only coal oil & alcohol. Our rations were limited, but sufficient. We had bread, eggs, etc."

"I slept little"

"The waters rise six to eight feet by 9:00, night, begin to subside at 11:00."

Back on Hawthorn street, Newton Haywood, a police officer, was busy rescuing people. Newton and Loretta (nurse) Haywood lived across the street and one house north of the Wrights, at 4 Hawthorn. Newton was involved in "rescuing 39 persons, many of them being saved after the most desperate efforts. Finally rescued himself in a moving van south of the city."(6) The Haywood home is front left in the Hawthorn Street flood photo pictured earlier in this post.

Wednesday, March 26 "The waters fall about a half inch, an hour and till next night. We have a neighbor next north who came in (by bridge). From others we are cut off entirely. Our children advertise for me."

"They discovered a child lodged in the next door north..."

"There was a Washburn girl about three years old drowned....Snyder waded & brought her in from bushes; Catharine."

Thursday, March 27

"Daniel Snyder brought it to his house, where it lay till Wednesday (likely meant Thursday) morning, when I went in to see it. Just then its father came (Washburn) and took it away."

Daniel Ben Snyder, his wife Nettie, and their 14 year old daughter Charlotte lived next door to the Hartzells, at 257 South Williams. Thomas and Emma Washburn and their 3 year old daughter Catherine lived at 144 South Sprague, to the east of the Wright home on Hawthorn, near the Great Miami River. Thomas was a salesman for a milk company, 34 years old; his wife Emma 33. The couple had just celebrated their daughter's third birthday earlier that month. The fatalities of the 1913 flood included others living near the Washburn home on Sprague: Eliza Gunckle, 60, at 129 Sprague; Lydia Gunckle, 50, at 127 Sprague; and Leroy McFudden, just 10 years old, 124 Sprague.(5)

Four deaths due to the 1913 Flood for those living on Sprague Street, West Dayton. Numbered red arrows point to the homes of (1)Catharine Washburn, (2)Eliza Gunckle, (3)Lydia Gunckle, and (4)Leroy McFudden. Map courtesy of Library of Congress, 1897 Sanborn maps, edited by author.

Milton's March 27th diary entry continued:

"Mr. Siler passed, saw me, and reported to Orville, who came after me and Forest Stolz. He got an automobile which took us to E.S. Lorentz, opposite the Seminary, Where I saw Katharine. I dined there."

"Katharine had advertised for me Wednesday, on Hawthorn Street. Lorin a week before had moved from Second St. to 331 Grafton Avenue, Cor. Grand Avenue. I had counseled higher ground (that policy) for a year past."

Lorin Wright and family had moved from their home at 1243 West Second Street to 331 Grafton Avenue just one week prior to the March 1913 Dayton flood. The map above indicates the location of Lorin's home at Second Street by the 1243 arrow. His home at 331 Grafton (blue arrow) was well out of the flood zone. The blue star (C) marks the location of the Wright Cycle Shop. The red star (7) marks the location of the Wright home on Hawthorn. The black star (259) marks the location of the Hartzell home where Milton Wright was taken by boat as the area flooded.

"Frank Hale and Charles Grumbagh took me to Lorin's, Corner of Grand & Grafton Avenue."

Frank Hale lived just to the west of the Wright Cycle Shop, at 1129 West Third Street. His store, Frank B. Hale Fine Groceries and Fruits, was located at West Third & Williams (Hoover Block).

Courtesy of Dayton Daily News, April 11, 1913.

"The flood was second to Noah's."

Friday, March 28 "At Lorin's there are Father and Mother Ainsworth, Harry Andrews & his family, Chas. Grumbaugh, his sister and wife, a colored woman who took diptheria & Milton came by buggy from Oxford. There was much trouble about diptheria, Clare & three children. Dr. Spitzer came. Andrews visited Dr. Patterson."

Charles and Carrie Grumbach's home was located at 111 South Williams in the flood zone; their home indicated on the Sanborn map shown previously in this post. Carrie served as the Wright's housekeeper at 7 Hawthorn, and later at the the Oakwood Hawthorn Hill home until Orville's death in 1948.

"There I staid three weeks and one day, when we got gas, and I moved again. We were quarantined at Lorin's a week because Drs. Smith and Patterson pronounced a colored woman serving at Lorin's as being a bad case of diphtheria. She had quinsy! "

"At least two-thirds of the City was submerged. A considerable part, there was water in the second story of the buildings. The water came up 5 feet and five inches in our lower rooms. A few houses were washed away. Three or more fires broke out. One burned just west of Orville's office, several buildings. Another burned several buildings, including the Park Presbyterian Church."

Park Presbyterian Church, 1913 Dayton Flood.

Milton continued-

"Another burned several houses, south of Main Street, just north of the Fair Grounds, where there was quite a current of water flowed. The removal of the sediment and the cleaning of the dirt from the cellar, lower rooms, and the door-yard took a hard month's work. The loss of books, furniture etc. amounted to a large part of a thousand dollars. Orville's automobile was submerged and injured several hundred dollars. In all he and the family lost one thousand dollars. Then his new building was injured nearly another thousand. Orville lost a pianola costing 500 dollars, and other furniture, amounting to three hundred. I lost a few books of value, and the family lost two or three hundred dollars worth. The dwellings, stores, and shops of the city were injured many tens, if not hundreds, of millions. It has been estimated at $200,000,000."

View of UB Publishing House upper left in flood waters, looking north on Main Street. Photo taken from office window showing partial rooftop view of building southwest of UB Publishing House. From authors collection.

H. E. Morrill, Manager of the Carriage Hardware Department of The Dayton Malleable Iron Company wrote in a letter concerning the flood, dated April 11, 1913 (1). Dayton Malleable Iron was located at the corner of Dunbar (N. Summit) and West Third Street, adjacent to the Summit Street UB church, and to the west of the Wright Cycle Shop. The western edge of the flood passed through the middle of the Dayton Malleable Iron property. The 1908 Dayton map shown later in this post shows with a yellow arrow, the location.

"We have surely had a terrible catastrophe here- I have just been reading Boston New York & Cincinnati papers which friends sent me after a long wait. There is very little exaggeration in these out of town papers except as to the loss of life. Eight-eight bodies have been received to date. Perhaps missing persons may swell the total to some over 100."

1913 Dayton Ohio flood, South Summit (Paul Laurence Dunbar) Street.

1913 Dayton Ohio flood view from Summit (Paul Laurence Dunbar) Street

"The west edge of the flood covered Conover St at Third & Fifth and came to the foot of the steep hill at Home Ave & Gordon Ave. I tied Mrs Reeses steps and helped get her furniture up stairs but it was unnecessary. It was in the yard next east of here but I think not above the floor of the house- The low land back of the Orphan's home was under water and the east fence carried away. The north fence and alley were strewed with floating steps and sheds.

Broadway was a raging torrent and boats could not pass it to rescue people till the waters receded."

West Dayton 1913 Flood, Broadway south of Germantown.

West Dayton 1913 flood, Germantown street east of Broadway.

" We housed two families but as we had no gas fuel for light or water it was hard for Mrs Morrill and Ruth. The well up Boyer St. proved to be a boon to many families. A chafing dish (as long as we could get alcohol) and the furnace door was our only method of heating anything for a week then I managed to get a gasoline stove before the supply fell short. When the water gave out it left us with five inches in our cellar and my journeys to the furnace was over a narrow plank & boxes....."

Dayton Malleable Iron works, West Side Dayton, April 18, 1913, The Dayton Herald.

From the West side of Dayton, a letter from an Olivia written to a Mrs. Gaby, April 7, 1913 (1):

".....I walked down as far as Horace St. and the people down there certainly got a dose of it in most of the houses it came up to the second story."

1913 Dayton Flood, Horace Street looking south from West Third Street.

1913 Dayton flood, Fifth & Horace Streets, looking east.

Homes damaged by flood and fire on West Third Street, just east of Horace Street and opposite of Sprague.

Sprague Street, West Side of Dayton, 1913 Flood. Four households on this street each lost one family member to the flood, including 3 year old Catherine Washburn, retrieved near the home Milton Wright was provided refuge during the flood.

"Poor Esther Hax had quite an experience. She with the rest of the family were up in an attic from Tuesday until Thursday until they were rescued. They lost ever thing they had and are going to start over again in a flat on W. Third St. Also Anna Boone Kline their cute little home is a complete wreck. But she takes it so sweet said oh well will board for a while and start all over again. It effected quite a number of our church members but as far as we know they are all alive."

West side of Dayton flood damage at Bank Street, just east of Sprague.

"I suppose Bessie has told you we are cleaning the church and oh what a good time we did have...The mud must of been a couple inches thick and so sticky you can get an inkling what it must of been like. They had a great big, well regular fire hose that they got at the Engine House...allowed us to use the fire plug across the way. So you see with the pressure of water and the vigor behind the brooms we soon had the mud pretty well out. We all had boots on with the exception of Mrs. Ortman and had dust caps on, our shorts were so wet and muddy we were a plum site. Lucill Miller said as she was coming down Broadway she really thought we were a pack of 'Hunky women' some compt. ha! ha!..."

"...poor mama had to stay home we have some refugees and they are pills too. The husband is fine but say the woman don't turn her hand to do one thing....... there are four in family. They have been here a week yesterday (Tues) but thank fortune they are going home tomorrow or Friday. We have had three families altogether one was lovely, they didn't stay long, the other day. Oh the poor homeless people, and those who have homes have such hard work cleaning them just think it was up on the 2nd story in Riverdale. North Dayton and Boulevourd and this side of the bridge. The fifth street bridge was swept entirely away. Poor Mrs. Clark was a heavy loser, they were so close to the levy, it broke in several places.

It also took part of the Railroad bridge away with several car loads of coal that were put on to help hold it down. Poor Charl was in it too where he rooms they had 15 inches on Second floor. He got out all OK. We were so worried about Soules, but Charl met Mr. Sowl they are all right....Some houses were washed off their foundation. Calm Street looks like a gravel pit, you would never know it was a street. Then fire broke it was awful, the water so high no one could reach the buildings over in town, some people drowned and some burnt to death, tongue can never tell oh! The experiences some dear folks have had. They turned some of the Churches into Hospitals so many little babes were born in attics and we heard in boats too...."

West Dayton 1908 map with various streets highlighted as mentioned in flood accounts in this post. Stars indicate locations of Wright family home at 7 Hawthorn, Wright Cycle Shop at 1127 W. Third, home of William Hartzell who took Milton Wright in during the flood at 259 S. Williams, and former home of Lorin Wright family at 1243 Second Street. Lorin and family had moved north of Wolf Creek one week prior to the flood and was out of the flood zone.

The Bishop's Boys, Tom Crouch, 1989, pg 454- "The things that remained downstairs at 7 Hawthorn Street and in the bicycle shop were a total loss. Fortunately, the materials relating to the invention of the airplane survived with little damage. Rummaging through the shed, Orville found that some of the emulsion had begun to peel from a few of the glass plate negatives, but none was a total loss. The most important photo- the plate that John Daniels exposed just after the machine lifted off the rail for the first time on December 17, 1903- had lost only a small bit of emulsion in one corner. The image was undamaged.

The records of their experiments were safe as well. The water had not reached the second-floor office, and the fire that swept through other buildings on West Third left the bicycle shop untouched. Even the remnants of the 1903 airplane, stored in the low shed at the back, survived unharmed. The precious bits of wood and fabric, submerged beneath twelve feet of water, were protected from damage by a thick layer of mud."

Evidence of the flood damage can be seen in the Wright's glass plate negatives. A search on line of "Wright Brothers glass plate negatives" will present image after image of cracked plates with missing emulsion, with various degrees of damage. Fortunately, the photos made from these negatives prior to the flood were preserved, and so undamaged images do exist.

Steele High School, located southeast of the Main Street bridge, suffered a partial collapse of the exterior wall at the northwest corner facing the river. Katharine Wright had taught here up through 1908.

Photo from Matt Yanney collection, Steele High School, Dayton, Ohio

Steele High School, damage from 1913 flood, Dayton, Ohio. (1)

Steele High School corner classrooms collapse.

Photo from Matt Yanney collection, 1913 Flood Dayton Main Street.

Facing east, view from the Main Street bridge, Dayton, Ohio 1913 flood debris. Steele High School is to the south of this location. Newcomb Tavern can be seen at upper right hand of photo, and line of observers can be seen standing on the levy. Newcomb Tavern survived the flood, and is currently preserved at Carillon Historical Park.(1)

From Matt Yanney collection, 1913 Dayton Ohio flood scrapbook

Dayton 1913 Flood items from scrapbook assembled by Dr. O. B. Kneisley (served with Lorin Wright on City Commission)(1)

From Matt Yanney collection, 1913 Dayton flood

O. B. Kneisley's Emergency Pass, March 30, 1913 (1)

The Wright Cycle Exchange had been located at 1015 West Third in 1893. They moved to the opposite side of the street to 1034 West Third later that year, close to their print shop Wright & Wright Job Printing at the second floor of the Hoover Block. Twenty years later, in 1913, 1015 West Third was occupied by S. E. Bookwalter Electric Company, having opened there July 15th of 1912. The Bookwalter's losses were heavy, but the family and business was able to recover, or so it seemed. From the Dayton Daily News, December 4, 1915 issue, "In a temporary attack of melancholia, said to be due to brooding over losses incurred in the 1913 flood, Mrs. Adah Bookwalter, age about 40, residing at 1015 West Third Street, committed suicide in the bed room of her home shortly after 11 o'clock Friday night by shooting herself in the head with an automatic pistol. Mrs. Bookwalters' two daughters, ages about 8 and 10 years, were in the same room, asleep, when the woman turned the revolver on herself and ended her life. At the time of the tragedy Sherman Bookwalter, the husband, who is in the electrical supply business at the same address, was in the basement. Bookwalter heard the shot and rushing upstairs found his wife stretched across the bed with a bullet hole in her temple and the two children, suddenly aroused from their sleep, frantically endeavoring to grasp the impact of what they saw. Physicians were hurriedly summoned, but Mrs. Bookwalter was dead before they arrived. At the time of the flood Bookwalter's electrical supply shop at 1015 West Third Street was splendidly equipped and practically everything was lost. Bookwalter was not disheartened and re-entered the business after the flood, but his wife continually brooded over the loss and seemed unable to recover from the shock...."