<TITLE>19. Par 73-76</TITLE>L-73 But then, I remember when the flood came up, and my wife took sick. And I never forget that hour. My, the night the dike broke through down there, the levy... Brother Ryan, you was there. And I was working on the patrol. I thought I was a pretty good boatman.
And I'm fixing to close the service. And I never forget that night, these few seconds... I want to try to put it to your hearts to let you know of what taken place at that time.
My wife taken sick. And the dike broke through that night. I remember meeting Brother Ryan and them out there, and he was in my old boat, standing out at the edge of the water, preaching to the people, going down the river.

L-74 And then, I went to the hospital to get her, and the whole thing had washed away. And there I was, out in the... Went out to make a rescue to a woman that come, told me there was out there on past Chestnut street, and the house was going in, and the people were drowning. And I got in the boat, and pulled... Little old pull string motor, and I got out there, and got to where the woman was, and the house was about to go over, a big two story house shaking back and forth. And I come down through the back of a alley like, where I had to get in. And I tied the boat, went a got a mother and some children and put them in the boat. The mother fainted. I got her in the boat, packing her, put her in the boat, and got back out. And when she come to, when we got her to shore, she begin to scream, "My baby, my baby." And I thought she left a baby in that house up there.

L-75 Well, I tried to go back again. Come to find out, it was a baby she was... A little two year old, three year old child she had there with her, and she didn't know where it was at. But I'd done got in the boat. And I went back to get the baby. And as I tied the boat to the post, like this, and got it again to look around, there was nothing in the house, the bottom give away, and here I was in the house. And I run and jumped through to the door real quick, and fell into the water, and got the post like this, and pulled a string loose, jumped up in the boat again. And the current had done got me out in the middle of the Ohio River, which is three or four times as wide as it is here, and then it was really wide. The whole city was swept over.

L-76 And the motor... Something had happened, and I couldn't get it started. And that current was taking me out in towards the dam down there, over the falls. It was just as hard as it could swirl me around. I was setting out there pulling that string as hard as I could, and it wouldn't start. And I'd pull it again, the boat turning, the waves almost as high as this building. It's just like that.
I had plenty of time to think about whether that was backwash or not, or trash. I thought, "Oh, my. Just little while longer and over them piers and through the falls I'll go, and that's the end of it. I thought, "A wife, two babies..." And I got to pulling the string like that, and I was going on out into the river. And I seen it wasn't going to start, and I started crying. I said, "God, be merciful to me. Don't let me die out here like this." I pulled the string like that, and pulled it again. It wouldn't start. And I choked it, and I had it flooded, and I was pulling again. I thought, "Oh, my." Why, I couldn't... I didn't know what to do. And then just about time they got in current it started.


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