Flower in the River: A Family Tale Finally Told

From Coal Dust to River Depths: Spring Valley's Eastland Story

• Natalie Zett • Season 1 • Episode 43

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Come along with me as we traverse the poignant histories of Spring Valley's (IL) coal mining roots and their interwoven tales with the harrowing Eastland Disaster of 1915. The quiet streets of this city bear witness to a story that extends far beyond its borders, a narrative of labor struggles, cultural diversity, and the devastating loss of several of its own to the murky waters of the Chicago River. As we navigate the complex tapestry of early 20th-century life, we pay tribute to those who perished, and the community forever altered by industrialization's dual promise and peril.

The past isn't always what it seems, and deciphering the true stories behind historical events can be akin to solving a puzzle with elusive pieces.  Some course correction is needed to bring to life the stories of survivors like Harriet Theis, and honor the memory of siblings Walter and Nellie Summit (Latowski). From the documentation of near-misses to the heroic efforts of rescuers amidst chaos, we shed light on the resilience and humanity that emerged from tragedy. This chapter of history reminds us that every name on a memorial plaque was a life full of stories, and we endeavor to ensure their narratives are told with integrity and respect.

As we weave the threads of history with personal discovery, I share a revelation that intimately links my family lineage to the very events we've been exploring in Spring Valley. Who knew?? Genealogy and DNA testing have opened a window into my own ancestral connections to Spring Valley and its mining communities. It's a testament to the magic that unfolds when one's intuition collides with rigorous research, revealing the entangled branches of family trees that reach through time. Join us as we celebrate not only the strength of the survivors but also the rich tapestry of legacies they've passed down through generations.

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Natalie Zett:

Why Hello, I'm Natalie Zett and welcome to Flower in the River. Flower in the River is a podcast about a book I wrote of the same name, and that book is about the Eastland disaster that took place in 1915 in Chicago and how that long ago tragedy affected my family for generations. I'll talk about writing and family history and what you do when the supernatural comes into your life, when you're innocently doing a family history research project. Come on and let's have some fun with this.

Natalie Zett:

When we think of the Eastland disaster, we think of it as a Chicago event, something that affected the city and its neighborhoods and surrounding communities. That's logical, because the majority of those affected worked for Western Electric Hawthorne works in Chicago. But what about a small or smallish city? Its population was 7,000 or so in 1910. And this small city was over 100 miles from Chicago. Why did this particular city, so far away, lose at least 10 people in the Eastland disaster?

Natalie Zett:

Hey folks, welcome back to Flower in the River podcast. It's Natalie, as usual, and we are winding down 2023 here with episode 42. Today we're looking at the threads that connect Spring Valley, illinois, to the heart of the Eastland disaster, and maybe at the end of this we will understand why so many people left what seems like an idyllic life in Spring Valley, illinois for the big city in Chicago to work for Western Electric. So let's get back to Spring Valley with its idyllic name. It does have quite the history and, to be honest, I was a little shocked, quite shocked, when I read about this. So let me give you a little background about why Spring Valley, illinois is so unique. It was established in 1884 specifically for coal mining. That shocked me because I'm a coal miner's granddaughter from Johnstown, pennsylvania, and I don't associate Illinois with coal mining. At any rate, there were a bunch of industrialists and I think one of them came from Erie, pennsylvania, and they envisioned creating a coal metropolis those two words don't quite go together, but you know what I mean and on the Bluffs bordering Spring Creek in southeastern Bureau County that is the name Bureau, like Bureau of something or other Bureau County. Well, this just seemed to be an ideal location for this industry to come about, although they had a lot of financial backing and they did a lot of urban planning. So around that time, the Spring Valley Coal Company and the Spring Valley Townside Company they were the two primary entities responsible for the town's development. At any rate, they were going strong. Spring Valley was meticulously planned, with space allotted for churches, schools, public buildings and broad streets. It sounds really nice, doesn't it? And by 1888, the town had grown rapidly to 3,000 residents, earning it the nickname Magic City. Well, let me tell you, the magic didn't last very long.

Natalie Zett:

Spring Valley eventually attracted a diverse population from various European countries, contributing to its dynamic cultural fabric. This diversity was reflected in 32 distinct nationality groups reported in the town by 1905. However, there were also a lot of labor conflicts during that time. In the late 1880s and 1890s, there were violent and iduming violence, strikes exacerbated by the Depression of 1893 to 1896, and tensions culminated in the Spring Valley Race Riot of 1895, which was a significant event in the state's history. This involved conflict between Eastern and Southern European immigrants and African-American coal workers. This riot and other riots led to major legislative changes regarding labor practices. So, needless to say, spring Valley was struggling, as were other cities during that time.

Natalie Zett:

So this influx of so many different people in such a small space working in the same industry created a jumble of cultures and traditions, with many immigrants arriving in their native dress. As mentioned, they had a lot of labor conflicts and strikes, and the strikes became violent, and so I don't remember reading about this in history class in high school or even college. But when I stepped back from it and was looking at other literature written about this time I found that indeed this was happening all over the United States in different forms and different locations. At that time it was never emphasized when I was coming up and I'm definitely not picking on Spring Valley here, because I certainly grew up with this, either via seeing it firsthand or hearing stories about it in the various industrial cities that I grew up in, and so this is just a microcosm for what was happening in so many places. I can't say that enough. And so Spring Valley was kind of a hotspot, if you want to call it that, and eventually the mining decline in community transformation took place and they had their glory years in those days last very long. And then there came the competition from cheaper coal fields elsewhere, etc. Etc. So this relative instability might explain why many people wanted to relocate to Chicago to make a better life for themselves or what looked like a better life than the ones working in the coal mines or doing supportive work for that industry. I'm not sure, still researching that one.

Natalie Zett:

For those who may not have grown up around the coal mining industry or know that much about it, well it is, and it always was, an extremely volatile and dangerous industry, and many of us have lost loved ones in that industry and I lost my grandfather, and my great grandfather was severely injured, and I believe my great uncle also sustained some injuries when he was working at the steel mills. And my mother's best friend growing up, her husband, was injured in an accident and he lost his leg. This was typical and in a strange way, because it happened so much, we heard about it so much, we didn't think anything of it. When you step back, it's like that's not normal, and when you're a little kid and that is your world, you just accept the fact that that's everybody's world, until you get a little older and you realize this doesn't happen to everybody and it's just precarious, and you never know if your person is going to come home after a day, a long day's work. So even if they do come home, a lot of times they develop so many health problems by virtue of the work that they were doing, and this certainly happened to a lot of people that I knew of or grew up with. So at any rate, perhaps Chicago promised a better life for these people.

Natalie Zett:

Apparently, quite a few from Spring Valley came to Chicago to work for Western Electric. Western Electric was a large and growing company then and they offered employment in the industrial sector and it gave a lot of people opportunities that they perhaps would not have had otherwise. And the Eastland disaster in 1915 involving Western Electric employees. It reflects the company's significant presence and the number of employees involved in company activities, indicating that it was not just a major employer at the time but a major influence in Chicago. So let me tell you about this story, about how I found out about this place and its connection to the Eastland disaster.

Natalie Zett:

I came across this publication called the Bureau County Tribune and the date was 30th July 1915. Here's the headline Former Spring Valley residents in disaster on Eastland. Arnold Tice, that's T-H-E-I-S of LaSalle, loses three sisters in ill-fated boat. Spring Valley boy, a hero, Leo Winski, graduate of Brown's business college in LaSalle, among the dead. Illinois Valley cities, particularly Spring Valley, have felt the toll of the Eastland disaster in the loss of former residents who perish when the big lake steamer with its overloaded decks overturned in the Chicago River Saturday morning. Almost every town along the interurban has some personal interest in the catastrophe, so Arnold Tice is the first person profiled.

Natalie Zett:

Arnold Theis, who is employed on the construction of the new Casca Sica Hotel in LaSalle, lost three sisters in the disaster. They were Clara, age 26, Harriet, 22, and Agnes 14. The bodies of Harriet and Agnes have been recovered, but that of the third sister has not been found. Clara Tice has worked for the Western Electric Company for the last 10 years and Agnes recently secured employment there. Harriet had been studying for the sisterhood in Minnesota, but she returned to Chicago Friday and was prevailed upon by her sisters to go on the excursion. The girls were the daughters of Mr and Mrs Anton Tice of LaSalle and visited their parents there about two months ago. They also leave two sisters in Chicago.

Natalie Zett:

Now here's another sidebar. When I did a little researching I found out that this was not entirely accurate. Harriet, the sister who was studying for the sisterhood in Minnesota she actually survived obviously left the sisterhood because she later got married. Here's what I want to say. When I'm finding errors or inconsistencies in these old articles, I still hold them in high esteem. I really stand by my fellow journalists because I know what it's like to have to get a story out, and what I don't know is what was it like in 1915, with very little time, no internet, if you can imagine that and you're trying to get things out the gate and you have no time to edit or have somebody error check your work. I think, all things considered, these journalists and these newspapers did a phenomenal job, so deep respect for you all, even though you're not here to hear that Now.

Natalie Zett:

Our next person is Leo Winski, and I'll continue reading. Leo Winski of Spring Valley was another victim of the horrible accident. Winske was graduated from the Brown Business College of LaSalle about three years ago and had been living in Chicago for about two years. He was employed as a bookkeeper for the Chicago American. He spent several days of his vacation last week at the home of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Winski, on Minnesota Street in Spring Valley. With some friends, Winski started on the lake excursion and was one of the many who met a terrible death. His body was recovered and was brought to Spring Valley by WI Keegan, who went to Chicago to claim it. The funeral was held in Spring Valley Tuesday. He was 23 years old and, note for Leonard, there are two spellings of his name WYNSKI or WINSKI. Always important to have those different spellings there when you're doing this type of research.

Natalie Zett:

Now the next two people who are mentioned are Walter and Nellie Summit. Here's the article I'll continue reading. Walter and Nellie Summit note they are brother and sister were other Spring Valley residents who perished on the Eastland. Their ages were 21 and 24 respectively. The summits changed by legal proceedings their name from LTowsky and they lived in Spring Valley until three years ago when they moved to Chicago. They were both employed in the Western Electric Plant. Both bodies were recovered and funeral services were held Tuesday.

Natalie Zett:

Although Walter and Nellie were lost, another sister, agnes, was saved and in saving herself the girl had presence of mind to help Alice Friedrich, a girlfriend, to safety. The Friedrich girl is also a former resident of Spring Valley. John Friedrich, a brother of Alice, was drowned. They left Spring Valley a few years ago and moved to Chicago where they lived at 5228 40th Street. Now a little sidebar about the brother and sister here they were actually. Walter was actually Vladislav Latovsky and his sister Nellie was Anilia Latovsky, and why they decided to do this name change. It's not clear that they did this or Nellie did this Nellie might have been taken with Nellie Bly, the journalist, for all I know, but the name change from a very Polish sounding name to Summit is interesting to me. I'm researching that right now. Again, I just met them this week, so I don't have a ton of detailed research for them at the moment. The other thing I wanted to mention is that Nellie was 26 when she died. She was older than what they said, and Walter was 25.

Natalie Zett:

Our next person who died was Miss Julia Kowalski or Kowalska. I want to say something about Polish names, at least the names in my history. If the suffix is S-K-I, it usually indicates a man, and I'm not sure if that man is a married man or not. If it's S-K-A, such as Julia's name, is often listed as Kowalska, as was my great grandmother's name, strzegszka. That is simply the feminine version of this name. Now there are other suffixes as well, but these are the ones that are fairly familiar, at least in the genealogy work that I've done, and I wanted to point it out. I will continue reading. Miss Julia Kowalski, age 18, numbered among the death and was another former Spring Valley resident. Her brother, who was with her on the excursion boat, was rescued. Miss Kowalski's body was brought to Spring Valley for burial. Note from me again I don't know what her brother's name is and she was a little difficult to figure out, but we're still researching her.

Natalie Zett:

George Rigen, formerly of LaSalle, wired to relatives in that city the news that he had planned to take the Eastland but decided to go later on one of the other boats. He believes that delay probably saved his life. Leo Lugovski of LaSalle, formerly mayor of Oglespie, received a letter Monday from his sister stating that her son, ladislas Nubikki, had drowned on the ill-fated boat. The letter also told that a son of Ludovsky's stepbrother, a boy named Makholz, saved himself by swimming. Makholz is a foreman at the electric plant in Chicago, and here's another note from me Now. This took some research on my part, but the Ludovsky Makholz family was a blended family and the mother of the boy who drowned was Anna Makholz and her son's name was actually Ladislas Kubicki, not Nubikki as was reported in the newspaper. I'll continue reading the article.

Natalie Zett:

Captain Donovan, one of the Chicago divers who worked so bravely to aid in the work of rescuing, is a brother of George Donovan, who is employed as an undertaker at the Keegan Establishment in LaSalle. Captain Donovan worked from Saturday morning until Monday, with only two hours' rest. Otto Fisher, brother of Mrs Julius Bruecker and Mrs George Newruther of Peru, was another Eastland victim. Fisher was formerly a resident of Peru. His body was recovered and funeral services were held in Chicago on Tuesday. And once again I want to give you a little background on Otto Fisher. He was only 17 years old and he was working as a repairman for Western Electric and living with his mother and father, who were from Germany. And this is according to the records on Family Search, otto's death record. I'll continue reading from the article.

Natalie Zett:

Among the many heroes who figured in the accident is Stanley Demorowski, who is a former Spring Valley resident. Demorowski is in business in Chicago and had accompanied a party of friends who worked at the electric plant. When the boat overturned, demorowski was on the upper deck and was fortunate enough to escape by way of a smokestack. In getting out, he was badly bruised and burned. This did not prevent him from aiding the struggling mass of humanity in the river. He set to work and, in short, while had taken a dozen women and children from the water and laid them safe on the shore, he was finally forced to give up the work on account of his weakened condition. Demorowski is an excellent swimmer and this aided him in rescue work. He is mentioned with several other heroes for Carnegie metals.

Natalie Zett:

A brief note about Stanley, his surname. Well, they got that wrong with. That happens with those kind of last names. His surname was Demorowski. On his draft registration card he spells it D-O-M-E-R-A-S-K-I and he was living actually not that far from where my family was living. He was on West 28th Street and in the 1940s he was working for Western Electric. But he was born in Spring Valley. So I'm pretty certain this is the same Stanley that they're mentioning here in this article.

Natalie Zett:

That's the end of the article and although there are a number of discrepancies in the article, a number of challenges when I was doing the research, this article also provided a ton of useful information to track down some of these people. And here's a word about the locations that were mentioned. Although Spring Valley Illinois figured prominently, obviously, in that article, other locations were LaSalle Illinois, oglesby, illinois and Peru Illinois, not the country Peru. They were all somewhat close to each other so I think that's why they were mentioned. But population-wise, spring Valley Illinois was pretty small with a lot of fascinating history and add to the strife and turmoil they already had add the Eastland disaster to it.

Natalie Zett:

Now I want to go back to the names that were mentioned. I realize that was a long article and there are a lot of names, but there are also a fair number of things that seem to be inaccurate. And again, even though this is a primary source, you need to back it up with other primary sources to validate it. And I was able to find a lot of corroborating information in FamilySearchorg and in other newspapers, including the Czennik-Szekagowski again, that's the Polish newspaper of that time. So that was somewhat helpful and I did extensive family trees, as extensive as I could do, for all of these people and in some I wasn't able to get a ton of information yet and I also reached out to a historical society in the area. They seem really well put together and I think after the holidays we'll probably have some conversations and I'll bring more information to you.

Natalie Zett:

And for those who are relatively new to this podcast, you should know that these Eastland Chronicles that I've been coming up with, these stories of other people besides my immediate family who were on the Eastland I do these each week and they very much are, I would say, first drafts or sketches of people's lives. I don't have everything complete yet, but as I find new information, I add it to my website and eventually I want to have pages for each one of these people. For example, now I'm adding bios for each one of the amateur baseball players who I profiled last week, and as I find more information about them, I add to the pages. So I would encourage you to visit my website regularly, and I would also encourage you to sign up for my newsletter, which I put out weekly, and any other information that I can't fit into the podcast. I stick in there as things are being digitized and added to these various databases. Literally, information changes each day, and so I want you to feel encouraged.

Natalie Zett:

If you're doing your own family history research and you're just beginning and you're hitting a bunch of dead ends and you've looked every place you know, don't get discouraged. Just realize that you might not have it today, but you might have the information tomorrow. So don't give up and, as I do, think outside the box, because it can really take you to some interesting places and never, ever, ever forget the value of these old newspapers. I can't stress that enough. I have found more information there, even if it is not 100% accurate. It can certainly provide hints, and the other approach is to come up with a theory and then try to disprove it. That actually is incredible. I can't prove this, but I think when you try to disprove a pet theory or a hypothesis, it makes your brain work differently and I think you see things clearer and you can see paths clearer. But again, I can't prove that, but give it a try and see how that works for you.

Natalie Zett:

You can hone your detective skills by doing this. It's a lot of fun and it becomes I don't want to say easier. It's just that you get more fluid with it as time goes by, and I'm excited about talking to an historian or two, because there's nothing like a historian, somebody who grew up in the area and who knows that area like the back of their hand, who has all the history, who knows all the people, who has access to things that you just can't get online. That's the thing, and, face it, not all of us can travel to these various locations, so we really rely on librarians, like I have in this series, as well as experienced genealogists, as well as experienced historians. So I will be making a part two to this episode, simply because I can't do everybody justice in this one episode, simply because I'm still researching the information and there are so many people and their relationships are actually quite intertwined. There are two of these people who have mothers whose maiden names are the same and I wonder if they're related as well. I'm still researching that, so I will let you know. And so just stay tuned for upcoming episodes with more research. And just to let you know, I did find some additional information about various people that I've been sharing with you. However, since the sources weren't cited, I'm not going to repeat it here until I can validate that, because all I'm doing in that case is perpetuating something that has no source citing and may not be accurate. So stay tuned for that as well.

Natalie Zett:

Okay, if you want to hear something that's even more unbelievable, I do have evidence, okay. So when I was looking at the various names of these people who came from Spring Valley and La Salle and Oglespie, etc. I saw that many of them were from the area that was known as Prussia, and again, some of the names looked slightly familiar to me, but I thought, oh well, my mother's side is heavily Polish and Prussian. I thought the likelihood of me being related to somebody in Spring Valley was practically nil, because I know my family's migration patterns or do I? Again, it's so far from Chicago and any coal miners that I do have in my family are from my dad's side and they're largely in Johnstown, pennsylvania, western Pennsylvania.

Natalie Zett:

But something said last night when I was putting this script together. Something said go to Ancestry and look at your DNA matches and if you've done the DNA test, you know what I'm talking about. So I opened my list of DNA matches in Ancestrycom and in the search field for birth location I think that's the name of the field I typed in Spring Valley Bureau, illinois. Are you ready for this? Between my sister and myself we have nine people that we're related to from Spring Valley, illinois, that is. And let me tell you, a connection in Spring Valley is nothing I expected. That should not be, but it is. And in this case they're fourth to fifth cousin material, so it's not so distant that you can write it off. It's close, and my sister has even closer people in her DNA matches. We are full-blooded sisters but, as you know, you get 50% from each parent, but that mixture is different depending on what happened when you were conceived. So that's why we are full-blooded sisters, but we will have different matches and that's why it's always valuable to have a sibling do a DNA test as well. So, anyway, I was looking at these names somewhat in shock last night I thought you got to be kidding me and I also saw that we have relatives in LaSalle, or Ancestry in LaSalle, and as well as Okolspe, which again it was one of those things that threw me off, and then, fortunately, one of the women from Spring Valley, I mean one of the DNA women that I matched with. This woman had a beautiful, extensive, well-documented family tree and I'm writing an email to her right now because this tree matches one of the people, one of the families. I should say that I've just profiled for you.

Natalie Zett:

When I started creating what is now called the Eastland Chronicles series, which is a spin-off from discussing my book and answering questions about my book on the podcast, my reason for expanding the world was to make sure I had a better idea of Chicago of 1915, to understand how the Eastland disaster affected not just my family but so many other families and communities in all of Chicago at that point. Since I've been doing this Eastland Chronicles spin-off thingy, this is the second time I have found another family that I'm probably related to who was involved in the Eastland disaster beyond my own immediate family, so that's two extra families so far. I'm not done yet and again to find connections in a place so far from Chicago with a population of about 5,000 people at this moment. That's pretty extraordinary. Now, I know this is not over-the-top or very dramatic or cinematic for that matter, but this is intuition in action as far as I'm concerned, and that has happened along this journey for the last 25 years. I wish it was true in the rest of my life. But there's something about when I engage with this material with the Eastland, that magic happens sometimes, but I have to go through a lot of frustration to get there. So it's not easy magic, but it's some kind of magic. I think it's like take the hands off the steering wheel because you literally do not know what's going to happen next.

Natalie Zett:

The people who died on the Eastland well, they had stories, they had lives, and trying to access those stories is challenging, but I'm not giving up. It just takes a little more creativity, but also not just creative license but also a strict adherence to again citing the sources. Where is this information coming from? That's also the part of the creativity that is absolutely necessary, especially in a case like this, where they may not have anybody to speak for them any longer, and I have been engaged in trying to figure out each person's story as I go through this podcast. They had lives before they died. What were their lives? Who were their families? Who were their friends? What did they do? And even after their deaths, their lives went on in some form or the other through their families, who somehow continued on. What are their stories? The lives of those lost are reflected in those stories and I'm kidding, but I'm not who knows, I might find some more relatives who were involved in the Eastland disaster. You never know. So next week, I'm planning on having a follow-up episode to discuss at length some of these people. I just did not have time to discuss their back stories. And again, as long as I am engaged in these Eastland Chronicles stories, you can consider that they are always going to be a sketch or a first draft coming out the gate, because I literally do this each week. However, you can also be assured that as I find new information, I will share that or add it to my website for these people. So happy 2020 for to you, and that's probably when you will be hearing this.

Natalie Zett:

Thank you for coming along this podcast journey with me. I realize that this is such a quirky niche thing and I do not try to appeal to the masses because I don't think I could do that if I tried. So, those of you who are here, I appreciate you and I hope you're being inspired to take action with your own family history. I mean, you never know what you're going to find out. I'm living proof of that. So if you enjoy this type of thing, I encourage you to dig deeper into your own family history. I assure you you will find some surprises. Take care, happy New Year.

Natalie Zett:

Hey, that's it for this episode and thanks for coming along for the ride. Please subscribe or follow so you can keep up with all the episodes. For more information, please go to my website. That's wwwflowerintherivercom. I hope you'll consider buying my book, available now as audiobook, ebook, paperback and hardcover, because I owe people money and I'm just kidding about that. But the one thing I'm not kidding about is that this podcast and my book are dedicated to the memory of the 844 who died on the Eastland. Goodbye for now.

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