1913 Flood: Fast Forward, Yet Not Really

September 2024

By Mollie Hauser, Historian

Photo courtesy of the Dayton Daily News

There is not a soul today who actually remembers the 1913 Flood, yet who of us can forget it. Every book about Dayton, every article, every commentary about the period tells us how devastating this flood was as if it were the only one that Dayton suffered.

There have been floods in the Miami Valley since 1805 when March rains broke through the levee. It seems each time the citizens suffered, they either suggested dredging the Great Miami Riverbed or they added more dirt to the levee already built, but partially destroyed again and again. We should remember that in the early days, there was not the population in the Valley that is today. 

Let us focus on the occurrence in 1847, the year we presume that Robert Steele purchased the property on Ludlow Street on which to build his home. I quote Roz Young in an article dated March 20, 1993: “In 1814 all three rivers in the city overflowed and destroyed the levee. The levee was patched up, but floods in 1826, 1832 and 1847 destroyed early efforts at flood control. New and more extensive levees lined the rivers after 1847, and property owners believed from then on, the lower part of Dayton was completely secure from any further flooding.” Then came the flood of 1866. 

There is much more to the story next time.