Edward McDonald helped to save A. Edward and Eva N. Dean from drowning, Cleves, Ohio, March 26, 1913. The Deans’ frame house was surrounded by floodwater from the Miami River. The current approaching the house flowed at a speed of about 4 m.p.h. in waves 2 feet high. McDonald, 31, foreman of linemen, was in the stern of a boat that another man rowed to a tree about 80 feet above the house. After the other man tied a rope to the tree, he and McDonald let themselves drift against the house, where they got Edward, 40, and Eva, 39, aboard from the roof of a porch. The rope was then cut, and the other man tried to row out of the swift water, but the boat was carried against a fallen tree that was held at a stable 60 feet below the house. It was pushed free and was carried beyond control into a current of 5 m.p.h., where the waves were 4 feet high. They shipped some water, but the other man finally got the boat out of the swift water and took it to dry ground, nearly a half-mile from where he and McDonald had reached the Deans.
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