<\/p>\n
Let’s Talk History<\/p>\n
For Americans since the 1960s, Fred Rogers\u2019 “Mister
\nRogers\u2019 Neighborhood” has shown us what it means to be a neighbor. Perhaps
\nthe most lasting legacy of Mr. Rogers is a quote: \u201cWhen I was a boy
\nand would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, \u2018Look for
\nthe helpers. You will always find people who are helping.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Today, let\u2019s talk
\nabout a time in Coshocton County\u2019s history when neighbors showed up to help
\nneighbors: Ohio’s 1913 Great Flood. Six straight days of rain and melting snow
\nwere produced from March 21-26, 1913. Unchecked by our modern dams, the rivers
\nrose dangerously high. <\/p>\n
In Coshocton one unnamed immigrant woman,
\nliving in today\u2019s Old Town Coshocton neighborhood on Third Street, found
\nherself abandoned by her husband with three small children to care for. Calmly,
\nshe picked up one child under each arm and the baby in her teeth by their
\nclothing, then walked through water up to her knees, in her long Edwardian
\nskirts, for eight blocks to find safety.<\/p>\n
She didn\u2019t stop until she reached the
\nBachert building on Walnut Street. But there, too, were heroes whose names have
\nbeen lost to history: The \u201cladies in charge of the lunch room\u201d at the Bachert
\nbuilding provided the refugees drifting in from across the county a warm meal,
\na place to rest and a sympathetic ear.<\/p>\n
Still others went looking for problems to
\nsolve. Brothers Melvin and James Marshall, boatmen on the Ohio-Erie Canal, set
\nout into the 1913 flood to search for evacuees in their canal boat. They went
\nfrom Canal Lewisville and Coshocton and back, rescuing as many as they could
\nalong the way and saving many lives.<\/p>\n
E.A. Crawford of the hydroelectric light
\ncompany worked himself and his crew frantically to provide power to as many
\nresidents as possible, as long as possible, even as the water advanced one by
\none into the furnaces. Eventually, they had to evacuate the plant as it flooded
\nbehind them while the water whistle blew to alert locals the power was
\ngoing out.<\/p>\n
To
\nkeep county residents informed, \u201cnewsies\u201d of The Coshocton Morning Tribune
\nstayed at their posts until the electric power failed, then asked local
\nadvertising companies for the use of their gasoline-powered presses. Finally, a
\nsmall gasoline engine from Gray Hardware was jury-rigged to work. Printing
\nuntil 4 a.m., C.W. Knoff, Frank Moore, Frank Schleich and two
\ndepartments of the Tribune provided this county with hope, news and
\nlists of resources in a desperate time. These became known as the \u201cflood
\neditions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps
\nthe most striking story to come out of the 1913 flood in Coshocton County is
\nthat of its post offices. Located at 604 Sixth St. at the end of the
\nthen-brand-new Bachert building, this location was a clearinghouse for all
\nCoshocton County mail. Under Postmaster Seth Snyder, the Coshocton Post Office
\nand its workers became heroic out of sheer determination.<\/p>\n
Working around the
\nclock under scavenged kerosene lamps, electricity and heat both out, Snyder led a team that had decided the best way to ease peoples\u2019 minds was
\nthrough \u201cword from their folks.\u201d With the phone and telegraph lines out, only
\npaper mail could carry news of surviving to family members.<\/p>\n
When mail could not
\npass washed-out roads and destroyed bridges, Snyder sent carrier Leroy Biggs by
\nboat, rig and horseback to Frazeysburg. Walter C. Chapman, postmaster of
\nLayland in Clark Township in 1913, even had to row a boat to and from his door
\njust to get the mail inside. The water had flooded up to and into the store there.
\nMinnie M. Wheeler, postmistress of Nellie for 25 years, carried mail
\nbags by hand to higher ground when the Brinkhaven canal locks broke upstream.<\/p>\n
These
\nCoshocton County residents showed up for their neighbors when their neighbors
\nneeded them the most, and I think we should talk about that.<\/p>\n
This
\nessay is excerpted from a longer presentation, \u201cLook for the Helpers: When
\nCoshocton County Showed Up for Our Neighbors,\u201d being presented at 5:45 p.m. Wednesday, April 29 at the library.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yourohionews.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Let’s Talk History Residents braved rising waters to save lives and deliver vital news amid Ohio’s historic disaster For Americans since the 1960s, Fred Rogers\u2019 “Mister Rogers\u2019 Neighborhood” has shown us what it means to be a neighbor. Perhaps the most lasting legacy of Mr. Rogers is a quote: \u201cWhen I was a boy and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2372819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2372818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/When-Coshocton-County-showed-up-stories-from-the-1913-flood.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2372818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2372818"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2372818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2372820,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2372818\/revisions\/2372820"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2372819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2372818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2372818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2372818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}