Flower in the River: A Family Tale Finally Told

Immediate Ink, Enduring Impact - Eastland's Dual Narrative

• Natalie Zett • Season 2 • Episode 82

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In this episode, I continue exploring the Eastland disaster coverage, focusing on articles from The Scoop, featuring the Chicago Daily News (1915), and a later piece from the Bradenton Herald (1962). The episode highlights the power of eyewitness accounts and the lasting impact of the tragedy.

Key Points

  • Discussion of the Chicago Daily News coverage of the Eastland disaster
  • Eyewitness accounts from three Bradenton, Florida residents who witnessed the disaster in 1915
  • Details about the rescue efforts and the tragedy's impact on Chicago
  • Comparison of the Eastland disaster to other major Chicago tragedies

Interviewees

  • John Swanson - Former news journalist
  • John Bacon - Part-time linotype operator for the Bradenton Herald
  • Harry Borns - Witness

Notable Quotes

  •  "The Daily News was the first paper to announce that 1000 or more were dead in Saturday's disaster, and it was the first to print a photograph of the capsized vessel."
  • "As Barry began to cut a hole in the hall with an asphaltene torch, the Eastland's captain Pedersen burst forth and literally tried to throw Barry off the ship, despite the shrieking and pounding of survivors underneath the sinking hall."

 Interesting Facts

  • The Eastland disaster resulted in over 800 deaths, surpassing the death toll of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. 
  • The ship was later repurposed as a Naval training vessel named the USS Wilmette
  • John Swanson worked with famous writers like Carl Sandburg and Ben Hecht at the Chicago Daily News

Personal Note

As always, I'm amazed at how much of this history hasn't been covered. While my podcast episodes are quick sketches of these stories, I continue to update my website with new information as I discover it.

Link:


Natalie Zett:

Hello, I'm Natalie Zett and welcome to Flower in the River. This podcast, inspired by my book of the same name, explores the 1915 Eastland disaster in Chicago and its enduring impact, particularly on my family's history. We'll explore the intertwining narratives of others impacted by this tragedy as well, and we'll dive into writing and genealogy and uncover the surprising supernatural elements that surface in family history research. Come along with me on this journey of discovery. Hi, this is Natalie, and welcome to episode 82 of Flower in the River podcast. Thank you, as always, for joining me on this journey into the past, and we're going to do some more time travel today. Hang on to your hats. I will continue reading articles from the Scoop, and if you've been here previously, you know that the Scoop was a trade journal for journalists at the time of the Eastland disaster and they devoted a special issue to covering the coverage of the Eastland by various newspapers at that time. And we are going to continue by looking at the Chicago Daily News. The article is really short. However, as I continued my research, I found another article written 47 years after this one was written, and it ties directly back to the Daily News. So I hope you'll enjoy yet another coincidence as Jim Harold, host of the Paranormal Podcast, often says, this is too much of a coincidence to be a coincidence, so have fun, okay. So I'm going to read from the Daily News and this is from 1915, and from the Scoop the Daily News Concerning itself.

Natalie Zett:

The Daily News is, by traditional usage, reticent. One of the chiefs in that office writes this what the Daily News did is worth telling. How it did it is ancient history. The Daily News was the first paper to announce that 1,000 or more were dead in Saturday's disaster and it was the first to print a photograph of the capsized vessel. These beats were followed up by a complete and conservative report for later editions. Who did it? Everyone on the editorial and arts staff. Yes, everyone in the composing room. How did they do it? By teamwork and legwork On an all-star staff, no stars except mentioned by name. It is teamwork, combined with its legwork, that makes the daily news the finest and greatest, which is admirable and characteristic. But this much more may be said. The daily news is organized upon a system that responds automatically to all requirements, from the smallest to the greatest and most insistent. It covered the Eastland story wonderfully and without unusual effort.

Natalie Zett:

The photograph mentioned appeared in the first city edition Saturday morning, promptly upon the release moment by which all afternoon papers are governed. It occupied the first half of page three. It was an enlargement of a four by five snapshot taken by Clyde Brown who was crossing south on Clark Street Bridge when the ship was turning. In 20 minutes he had reached the office and was back on the scene with his camera. In another 15 minutes the picture was in process and it was finished and in the forms and the presses were running in plenty time to have gone upon the streets a few minutes after 9. When 9.45 was reached and all the papers were released, it was the only picture carried by any of them. Brown was leaving the scene when the photographers for the other afternoon papers began to arrive. It was a picture best, and a big one.

Natalie Zett:

That's the end of that very short article. But Clyde Brown, remember his name because he's about to come up in another article that was written 47 years afterward. This article is from the Bradenton Herald. The date is Wednesday, may 14th 1962, and Bradenton is in Florida. The newsprint is faded and difficult to read and I've tried to restore it as best I can. But bear with as I try to get through because it's so fascinating.

Natalie Zett:

Headline 812 died when boat capsized in Chicago River. Three local men saw Eastland tragedy Fourth 1915. Chicago, illinois suffered its worst disaster when 812 people died in 17 minutes after the top-heavy Eastland excursion boat capsized in the Chicago River. Three men now living in Bradenton, john Swanson, john Bacon and Harry Borns, were there that day and witnessed the tragedy. The following account is based on their eyewitness stories and background research. The article was written by Kent Shetling Herald staff writer.

Natalie Zett:

Walking across the Wells Street Bridge over the Chicago River one cloudy July morning in 1915, one cloudy July morning in 1915, john Swanson, former newspaperman now living at 5320 13th Avenue Drive West, became horrified as more than 1,000 happy excursionists aboard crossed the multiple decks to the other side of the steamship to watch the passing lumber boat. Seconds later, swanson, watching in horror as the 269-foot-long Eastland plunged over on its side into the river, frightful screams of panic and terror rented the air, while fear-struck witnesses stood agog on the dock on the bridges and streets above watching helplessly. The trance was momentary, splashed Over A few moments after the huge Eastland splashed over on its side to lay like a gigantic beached whale, hundreds upon hundreds of people scrambled down to the dock on both sides of the river. Empty chicken coops from nearby Water Street Market were flung into the river to the struggling survivors. From both sides of the river people hurled ladders, ropes and anything that would float. Men of the anchor lines, warehouses threw merchandise from the ship's skull, kill Soon.

Natalie Zett:

Frightful sirens resounded through the canyon-like downtown streets of Chicago's Loop as fire engines from scattered stations raced to converge on the riverfront dock. Stations raced to converge on the riverfront dock. Amidst the maelstrom of ladders, boxes, ropes and chicken coops thrown into the river to shrieking survivors were pitiful little lunch baskets, handbags, clothing and other debris also floating aimlessly on the river from the floundering steamship Bobbing Heads. The river became dotted with the bobbing heads of survivors shouting and waving their arms, while scores more frantically thrashed in the water in frenzied efforts to reach safety or their loved ones in the water. Streetcars and traffic came to a stop as surrounding streets and river bridges were literally choked by thousands of people pressing toward the tragic scene.

Natalie Zett:

An ad layout man for the Chicago Daily News at the time, swanson, was mindful of the importance of a newsbeat, so he ran from the bridge and the confused catastrophe scene to his newspaper office four blocks south on Madison Avenue, bursting breathlessly into the city newsroom. Minutes later Swanson shouted the startling news that the Eastland just keeled over in the river. The cynical newsman looked up with wonder, some disbelief and a few with a smile, as though this was another crank announcement, a joke. Everybody thought I was joking and a few even laughed, swanson recalls Then one of the telephones rang and someone was calling in to report the Eastland had turned over in the river. The city editor I can't remember his name now jumped into action. Clyde Brown, the news ace photographer, then just happened to be in the city room with all of his equipment. He was sent right out to take pictures. As I recall Swanson continued, brown did a wonderful job and we were the first newspaper on the street that night with pictures of the tragedy night with pictures of the tragedy. Another Bradenton resident was there that July 24, 1915, and saw the Eastland disaster. He is John Bacon, now a part-time linotype operator for the Herald, who lives at 911 43rd Street West On streetcar.

Natalie Zett:

Yes, I remember when the Eastland went down very well. I was on a streetcar going to work that morning. When the streetcar got on the Clark Street Bridge the fellow sitting next to me nudged me and said look at the Eastland, it's leaning way over. Sure enough, the Eastland was listing pretty bad In fact. I remember remarking at the time I didn't see how it could keep from falling over.

Natalie Zett:

Bacon recalled, by the time I reached Madison Avenue we could hear the sirens blowing. I got off the streetcar and asked someone who was running up the street what was wrong. He told me the Eastland had just turned over in the river. Well, I ran up toward the river with everyone else, I remember, because I was late to work that morning I had kind of a funny feeling in my stomach and I guess everyone felt the same way.

Natalie Zett:

Bacon continued Horrible sight. When I got up to the river, it was a horrible sight. The river was littered with debris and hundreds of people from the boat. I remember looking over across the river at the Reed Murdoch and Company warehouse. They had opened the doors and scores of bodies were being lined up on the floor. You might call it a mass morgue. A third Bradenton resident, harry Bournes, 3320 Riverview Boulevard, also saw the Eastland going down. He was on a loop-bound elevated train crossing the Well Street Bridge above the river at the time of the disaster. I remember it well, it was down at the old Water Street Market and I can recall the people on the dock throwing out those large chicken coops to people in the water. Borns relates. Borns relates. Rare Welder. One of my good friends by the name of Steve Berry with the Chicago Police Department was one of the few welders at that time because it was a new thing in those days.

Natalie Zett:

He was called out to cut a hole in the side of the steel hull ship above the water to rescue the hundreds of people trapped in the side compartments. Then one of those unbelievable tragedies occurred during the frenzied rescue efforts. As Barry began to cut a hole in the hull with an acyltine torch, the Eastlands Captain Peterson burst forth and literally tried to throw Barry off the ship. Despite the shrieking and pounding of survivors underneath the sinking hull. Swanson recalls the sinking hull. Swanson recalls Captain Peterson grabbed Barry and shouted he didn't want anybody damaging his ship. Short Struggle the struggle was short-lived. Scores of firemen and nearby policemen came to Barry's aid and threw Captain Peterson overboard so the police welder could finish cutting the hole on the ship's side. If they hadn't gotten that hole open, hundreds more would have died of suffocation or drowning. Swanson points out. As a result, points out. As a result, captain Peterson was later sent to prison. Bacon recalls Thus, in only 17 minutes from the time the Eastland capsized, chicago suffered its worst tragedy in terms of human lives.

Natalie Zett:

When the count of the dead was made officially, it was found that 812 people had perished. This was 500 more than died in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, and shockingly less time and space. The Iroquois Theater. The Eastland tragedy eclipsed the terrible Iroquois Theater fire of December 30, 1902, in which 602 persons died in that horrible conflagration. One of the most remarkable things about the Eastland catastrophe was the fact that every one of those 812 bodies were identified, with the lone exception of a young girl. Bacon remembers they found every person after dragging the river for two days. Afterward, everybody was identified except this young girl. So you know what they did. The city of Chicago gave this unknown little girl a mass funeral. It was the only way the city had of demonstrating its sorrow.

Natalie Zett:

What caused the Eastland to capsize and who was to blame? What caused the Eastland to capsize and who was to blame? Inept handling. Following the post-disaster investigation and inquest, the major share of the blame was laid to the inept handling by inexperienced hands manipulating the water ballast tanks, as the Eastland's third engineer frankly testified at the inquest. I knew little of the mechanism of the boat. However, there was a more inherent cause. According to Swanson, the ship itself was improperly designed, being too top-heavy. I recall that on its maiden voyage from Michigan City, indiana, where it was built, they ran into rough water on Lake Michigan and the Eastland almost capsized. Then Never Made Money, never made money.

Natalie Zett:

Following the disaster, the Eastland became property of the government. Swanson recalls that it never made money for its owners. As an excursion boat, the government patched the Eastland's hull and raised it. The government patched the Eastlands Hall and raised it. The by then infamous Eastland was rechristened the USS Wilmette and put into service as a naval training ship. In 1946, with bridges raised as if in farewell, the Wilmette was towed up the Chicago River and scrapped. The ship outlived its predicted span by three years.

Natalie Zett:

There's also a sidebar in this particular article that I want to read to you. It's about John Swanson and his career as a newspaper reporter. Headline Swanson worked in Chicago with famed newsmen. John Swanson worked on the Chicago Daily News from 1910 to 1931, spanning what has been described as Chicago's golden era of newspaper journalists, such noted writers as Carl Sandburg and Ben Hecht worked on the news at this time and Swanson knew them well. In addition, sherwood Anderson and the late Charles MacArthur, husband of Helen Hayes, were Chicago newspaper writers Swanson came in contact with at that time. Swanson says that Sandberg began his research and writing on Abraham Lincoln 20 years before his famous series on the Prairie Years and War Years was published. Hecht left Chicago to become a successful movie scenario writer and author, and I also need to mention that my Aunt, pearl Cerny, also worked for the Chicago Daily News and she came a little bit after John Swanson was working there.

Natalie Zett:

I hope you enjoyed listening to these accounts, both the ones that were written in the Scoop about the Daily News in 1915 and the Bradenton Journal interview, even though there are some discrepancies with the memories of some of these people in terms of numbers of people who died. As well as I don't think there was an unknown little girl, I think they might be referring to an unnamed, unidentified little boy who didn't remain unidentified for a while. They just called him Little Fellow or Little Feller, and he was identified eventually, so this may be who he was referring to. That aside, it is fascinating again to hear the stories of these folks. None of these names, by the way, neither Swanson, nor Bourns nor Bacon are mentioned in any of the literature or the history of the Eastland disaster online, at least as far as I can tell. This may be the first mention of these three men in many, many years, and that's not a criticism. It's just that there's so much and it's all over the place.

Natalie Zett:

And the resource I always look to is George Hilton's book, because, number one, he was an academic. Number two, it's thoroughly researched, thoroughly annotated, thoroughly source-cited. But even George couldn't get everything, because the Eastland disaster and its tentacles, it's pretty expansive. If anybody could have gotten all that history it would have been George. But George was alive during the time where the internet was just becoming a thing. Had he had access to what we have access to now, he'd be all over this that I know. No other book has come close to doing what he has done and my work on this podcast.

Natalie Zett:

I cannot consider most of it as exhaustive research because I work so quickly from week to week, because I'm trying to fill in all these stories with all of these people and it's a delight to do that. However, these are just sketches, and after I'm done with a particular podcast episode, and as time goes by and as I find more information out about these people or about a certain situation, I update my website. That's as much as I can do. At least there's a record of what's happened with this history. So how's that for time travel and another group of people who were part of the Eastland disaster?

Natalie Zett:

And next week I have another untold story for you. Well, actually a series of untold stories, and I don't think they've seen the light of day since they were first published. So it'll be fun to share this information with you and see what you think about all of this. 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, and for more information, please go to my website, that's wwwflowerintherivercom. I hope you'll consider buying my book, available as audiobook, ebook, paperback and hardcover, because I still owe people money and that's my running joke. But the one thing I'm serious about is that this podcast and my book are dedicated to the memory of all who experienced the Eastland disaster of 1915. Goodbye for now.

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