The 1913 Flood

(The following was written by Mary C. Borror, and is reprinted from “Reflections”, a collection of local stories available at the Grove City Welcome Center and Museum).It was on a morning in March of 1913, my dad was to take us children to school today, but he turned the wrong way when he got to State Route 665. So we were going toward Shadeville (as near as we could get). The Hiner Road fence posts were under water and each time a wave came over them they shone like a mirror. Water covered Hiner Road, from the left side of the road to the right side. The water came up to the garden of the first and only house on the right side of the road. (There had at one time been another house built in what was now the garden area.) We saw a straw stack go down the river with 4 or 5 chickens on it.The following Sunday Dad took the family to the present-day Central Point in a surrey with the fringe on top. All along Central Avenue to Broad Street, I could see clothing hanging in the trees.My mother had a cousin who had gone to work one morning.  Officials would not allow him to go home, he lost his wife and four children in the flood.March 25, 1913 was the flood.