Henry J. Geiger, 33, minister, helped to save Maud F. Klutts, 20; her son Ethridge, 3, and babe, one day, and Flora Fowler, 11, from drowning, Hickman, Kentucky, April 1, 1912. During a flood, a levee along the Mississippi River broke at night. The levee had never before broken, and citizens did not know what to expect from a break, but it was thought that the houses in the district surrounding the Klutts home would be quickly swept away. Geiger and a companion were 700 feet from the Klutts home, nearer higher ground, when they heard a signal which warned them that the levee had broken. They knew that Mrs. Klutts was in bed with her babe, and they ran to the house. They put the children on a mattress with Mrs. Klutts and left the house, the water at the Klutts home being 3.5 feet deep by that time. The men carried the mattress as they waded 250 feet to a railroad embankment, where they stopped until Geiger’s companion could retrace his steps 125 feet and get a more substantial litter. When the litter was procured, the men carried Mrs. Klutts and the children along the embankment 2,000 feet to a hill. They reached the hill 30 minutes after starting to the rescue. Within four hours of that time, the water around the Klutts house was nine feet deep. 10136-913
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