It would scarcely be faithful to the subject of this relief if some mention were not made of the third trip, namely, that of the voyage up the Ohio after the fall of the waters and the attempted return of the people to their former homes.
From an editorial of the Evansville Journal, May 28, 1884, headed “Good By Red Cross,” we make an extract or two which has reference to the voyage and its purposes:
The Red Cross, having concluded its labors on the Ohio River below this point, will start to-day for the upper Ohio and go as far as Pittsburg, relieving the meritorious cases on the way.... The “Josh V. Throop,” which has been rechartered for this trip, was loaded last Saturday. A part of the load was distributed between this point and Cave-in-Rock, and the room made vacant by the lower river distribution was filled with additional stores yesterday which will be distributed up the river. The load consists of what the people in the overflowed country will want and most need. There is clothing in immense quantities, over a hundred plows, large quantities of rakes, hoes, scythes, spades, shovels, groceries, flour, meat, meal, corn, bedsteads, chairs, buckets, tubs, tables, queensware, tinware, pots, kettles, skillets, etc.
This trip was arranged in general at Cincinnati, when Miss Barton first came West. At that time her policy took definite shape and it has never changed. She saw that the government was providing for all the immediate necessities of the sufferers and looked forward to the time when the unfortunate people would come almost hopelessly back to ruined homes—come back to find houses, furniture, tools, food, everything gone—and although aid would have been extended during the calamity by the government and benevolent institutions, the ruined people would have but a poor chance to proceed in the business of life. This was the anticipated opportunity of the Red Cross; this was the time Miss Barton foresaw would be pregnant with possibilities for doing large good, and the event has fully justified her prophetic view of the situation. The load now on the “Throop” will not only provide for the house, it will do much for the farm.
It would be difficult to imagine a voyage more replete with live interest than this beautiful May passage from Evansville to Pittsburg.
The banks were dotted with the marks of torn and washed-out homes; and occasionally one found the family, from father and mother to the wee little ones, gathered about the bare spot that once was home, trying in vain to find enough of the buried timbers to recommence a framework for another house, if ever they could build it, with all the hunger and need for daily food staring them in the face.
Picture, if possible, this scene: A strange ship, with two flags, steaming up the river; it halts, turns from its course, and draws up to the nearest landing. Some persons disembark and speak a few minutes with the family; then a half dozen strong mechanics man a small boat laden with all material for constructing a one-room house, take it to the spot and commence putting it up. Directly here is a structure with floor, roof, doors, windows and walls; the boat returns for furniture. Within three hours the strange ship sails away leaving a bewildered family in a new and clean house, with a bed, bedding, table, chairs, clothing, dishes, candles, a well-made little cooking stove, with blazing fire, with all the common quota of cooking utensils, meat, meal, groceries, a plow, rake, axe, hoe, shovel, spade, hammer, hatchet and nails, etc. We ask few questions, they none; but often it proves that the little, bare, boyhood feet of that desolated father had once skipped through the dewy grass of the green hills of New England, the brave old parent of States, where great riches are slow to come, and famishing hunger never enters.
Again, referring to the Evansville Journal of May 28 we find the following:
A band of little folks in Chicago, called the “Busy Bees,” were organized in a plan to extend succor to the suffering and collected a large box of goods which they sent to Miss Barton, with the request that it might be put where it would do the most good. She was some time in finding a place where she could put it with the greatest satisfaction to the givers and the donees. She found the opportunity she had been looking for yesterday. On her last voyage a gentleman at Cave-in-Rock told her that a poor, but worthy, family was in that vicinity, and on becoming acquainted with the family Miss Barton gave them some supplies and left fifteen dollars with the gentleman aforesaid, to either give to the family or spend for them as he might think best. He concluded that it would be judiciously expended by the people for whom it was intended and accordingly turned it over to them. The woman of the family came some days afterward to the gentleman, bringing with her another woman who was very destitute, and said: “This is my neighbor, and I have come to ask you if you think Miss Barton would care if I divided my fifteen dollars with her.” “Most certainly not,” was the reply; and then, out of her penury did this poor woman give. She retained ten dollars and gave five. Yesterday Miss Barton divided the contents of the store the “Busy Bees” had gathered among these two families, consisting of eight and five persons respectively. When she was delivering the goods to the poor woman who had generously shared with her neighbor, Miss Barton gave her back her five dollars, and said: “You have read where it is said, He that giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord, and He has sent it back already.”
On February 11, 1884, Congress, in response to appeals from Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia, appropriated $300,000 for the relief of the people who had lost their homes and other property by the Ohio River floods. On February 15, the first appropriation having been considered hardly sufficient to meet the demands, $200,000 more were appropriated for the same purpose, making $500,000 in all to be expended under the direction of the War Department. A boat load of supplies was sent down the river from Pittsburg; two boats left Cincinnati, one going up the river and the other down; one boat went down the river from Louisville and a fifth boat was sent down the river from Evansville. Afterward some additional boats were sent out from other places. Between February 15 and March 15, 536,000 rations were distributed by the government at a cost of $350,000. The remaining $150,000 were transferred to the Mississippi flood relief.