J. Oliver King, 22, farmhand, helped to save Philip Henn, 47, passenger conductor, from drowning, West Liberty, Ohio, March 25, 1913. Henn was thrown into the floodwaters of Mad River at night when a trestle collapsed, and he drifted a half-mile to a bridge. He was seriously injured, but he got up on the bridge. The water continued to rise. At daylight persons on land, 400 feet from the bridge, saw Henn sitting in water on the bridge. He was weak from loss of blood and from exposure. The road approach to the bridge was higher than the adjacent fields, and the water rushing over it had washed it out in the middle, leaving ridges at the sides, over which the water rolled. The water flowed with a current of from about 6 m.p.h., and there was a strong suction under the bridge. For a distance of 40 feet from the bridge the water was drawn toward it. After several unsuccessful attempts had been made to reach the bridge by men in boats and on a raft, King and another man got on the raft and poled it toward the bridge. Men on the bank held a rope attached to the raft. When the raft got to the bridge, one end was immediately sucked under it. The men hurriedly got upon the bridge. Men on land tried to pull the raft back, but the rope broke. King and his companion lifted Henn to a resting place above the water . With the aid of a pole, King waded on the ridge and took the end of the rope to a tree 25 feet from the bridge and tied it. Men again put out in a boat, but the boat was capsized before it reached the bridge. Then another raft was taken out, but it was submerged at the tree where King had tied his rope. King waded out with the aid of his rope, secured the rope attached to the submerged raft, and made a complete line of rope from land to the bridge. Several hours after King went to the bridge, men waded out along the rope and took Henn to land, King wading ahead of them on the return. The water had fallen two or three feet. Henn recovered. 10365-919
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