Flower in the River: A Family Tale Finally Told

Bohemian Rhapsody - Forgotten by the River, Remembered at the Cemetery

• Natalie Zett • Season 2 • Episode 86

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In this episode, we explore the rich history and legacy of Chicago’s Bohemian National Cemetery—a place that’s so much more than a resting place. We’ll explore what it really means to be “Bohemian” (no, not absinthe-drinking artists) and how this historic cemetery, founded by Czech immigrants, became a site of resilience, community, and remembrance.

Highlights:

  •  Introducing New Listeners: Natalie welcomes listeners from around the world, including folks from the Philippines, Spain, and even her family in Slovakia!
  •  Bohemian National Cemetery: Learn why this unique cemetery, established by Czech freethinkers, stands out for its inclusivity, independence, and quirky monuments, like a memorial for Cubs fans that mimics Wrigley Field.
  •  Bohemia’s History: A crash course on the rise and fall of Bohemia, how it transitioned from an independent kingdom to part of the Czech Republic, and what “Bohemian” culture really means.
  • Chicago’s Czech Community: Discover the impact of Czech immigrants in Chicago—from early labor activism to political influence, culminating in the election of Chicago’s Czech-born mayor, Anton Cermak.
  •  Eastland Disaster Connections: Natalie highlights the Bohemian National Cemetery’s role in memorializing Eastland Disaster victims and preserving their stories, showing how these memories live on through meaningful, carefully crafted public art.
  • BONUS EPISODE: Guess who’s back! Max and Eva, my trusty AI sidekicks, are diving into a topic that’s as bold as it is brainy—the history of Freethought in the Czech community! 🧠✨

Links:

Additional Fun Fact:

Stay tuned for a bonus episode on YouTube where Natalie’s AI pals, "Max" and "Eva," will discuss the Czech community’s freethought movement and its impact on Chicago’s cultural landscape.

 

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. Why? Hello? This is Natalie, and welcome to episode 86 of Flower in the River podcast, and I want to extend a special welcome to brand new listeners across the United States and in some new countries the Philippines, spain, austria, czech Republic. You'll find that this is a good episode for you to be joining in, by the way and I know my family in Slovakia is often listening Italy and Brazil, so I want to thank you all for joining me on this journey. And because there are so many new listeners occasionally actually a lot of the time I do repeat a lot of things and I do want to provide context for everybody. So for longtime listeners, please just bear with it. I talk pretty fast anyway, but I want the newer people to understand what is going on here and to understand the context of the time of 1915. And as always and forever. As much as possible, I want these people who experienced the Eastland disaster, in whatever capacity, I want them to speak for themselves, even though they've been departed for many, many years now. So that is my wish and desire for this podcast to give them the ultimate respect and give them a chance to tell their stories. And for once, I have a title for the podcast as I'm recording it. I usually give them the titles after I'm done. For whatever reason, the title doesn't always become apparent, but this one how do you like this one? Bohemian Rhapsody Forgotten by the River, remembered at the Cemetery. It will make sense, I promise. Throughout the last year of the podcast, as I've been focusing on families outside of my own, I have shared stories of so many Eastland victims who found their final resting place at the Bohemian National Cemetery in Chicago. But here's the thing I've never devoted an episode to the cemetery itself and it feels like this is the perfect time to shine a light on it. So the Bohemian National Cemetery in Chicago is more than just a resting place. It really is a rich tapestry of history and stories, each marked by unique and remarkable monuments and memorials.

Natalie Zett:

But first things first. What exactly is a bohemian? Now, if you're not from Chicago, you might be picturing a cemetery filled with artists, free spirits and maybe poets sipping absinthe under the trees. It sounds really cool, right? But we're talking about Bohemian with a capital B and, while I hate to disappoint, this isn't exactly a graveyard for the avant-garde, although there are a lot of free-thinking spirits there, and we'll talk about that as well. So we will dig into what it really means and why this cemetery is so special.

Natalie Zett:

But first, as always, I have to give you some context. Bohemia was a place at one point. It was a historical region in Central Europe, located in what is now the western part of the Czech Republic, with Prague as its capital. It was bordered by Germany, poland, austria and Moravia, and its history is as layered and complex as its location. So, starting in the 12th century, bohemia rose as a powerful kingdom within the Holy Roman Empire You've probably heard of that With influential rulers and Prague as its cultural and political center. The kingdom also included Moravia, silesia and Lusatia, at times all known together as the lands of the Bohemian crown. It's very complicated, but we're going to keep on moving through the timeline. We're going to move to the Habsburg rule. The Habsburg dynasty took control in 1526, and while Bohemia kept its title as a kingdom, its autonomy eroded as Austrian influence grew. By 1804, bohemia was fully absorbed into Austria-Hungary the Slovak region, which is where my family comes from. They were part of the Kingdom of Hungary and they were still within that empire, but the cultural and political ties between Czech and Slovak people in many ways grew stronger during this period. So the end of Bohemia as a political entity happened in 1918. With the collapse of Austria-Hungary after World War I, bohemia's kingdom status ended and it became part of this new nation called Czechoslovakia, uniting Bohemia, moravia, silesia and Slovakia. The union marked the beginning of a shared Czech and Slovak identity and a new independent state and folks.

Natalie Zett:

This is very, very high level. There's all kinds of nuances, but I'm not getting into them here. I just want to walk you through a little bit of this. So was Bohemia a region or a country? Over time, to confuse you further, bohemia has been both. It was initially an independent kingdom within the Holy Roman Empire, as we said, then a region within Austria-Hungary, and now is a part of the Czech Republic. The term Bohemian has held on because of the cultural identity people from this region carried with them, especially as they immigrated. And of course it was associated also with rethinking free living artistic types as well, and that's a whole other path. That's really interesting but we don't have time to explore that here. But just to let you know, I do recognize that Also there's a BBC podcast called how to Invent a Country. Have you heard of that? And I hope at some point they talk about Czechoslovakia, because that's another invented country.

Natalie Zett:

Now that we've covered Bohemia's past, we can dive into the Chicago Bohemians or Chicago Czechs and their contributions. Early immigration and settlement. From approximately the 1850s to the 1870s, czech immigration to Chicago kicked off and it hit a peak in the 1870s. The first Czechs settled in neighborhoods like the near west side known as Prague. At that point, as they found economic success, they moved to areas like Pilsen and South Lawndale, which was also called Czech California. South Lawndale is also where my family lived. They were Polish and German, so it wasn't exclusively a Czech neighborhood, and later on many of the Czech people moved to Cicero and Berwyn, which we've talked about in other episodes.

Natalie Zett:

The Czechs were incredible. They built a range of social and cultural institutions, creating mutual aid societies, churches, and the Sokol that means falcon. The Sokol is a Czech and Slovak organization, and they too have quite the history. I've been a Sokol all my life, my father was a Sokol, and it's just one of those things that we just become part of. As with everything else, the Sokol also has a very complicated history, but it started off, and still is, a gymnastics organization and, again, even that is innovative for the time. It's also a get-together type of place, a social place, the one in Cleveland that my dad belonged to. My dad was not into gymnastics, believe me, but he went there for the social aspect. And even today the Sokol organization or organizations there's all sorts of them. Actually they're going strong.

Natalie Zett:

Back to Czech immigration to Chicago. Divisions, though, amongst the Czech immigrants were based on beliefs, with separate institutions for Catholics, for freethinkers and socialists, and early Czech immigrants often worked low-wage jobs, and they were really active in the labor movements, playing key roles in events like the 1877 Great Railroad Strike and the Haymarket Affair, which we've talked about as well. Politically, they initially supported the Republican Party's anti-slavery stance and obviously that was a while ago but they shifted toward the Democrats in the 1880s. Their influence culminated with the election of Czech-born Anton Cermak, or Cermak, as Chicago's mayor in 1831. And I think this position was further galvanized when Cermak was assassinated a couple of years later and the two world wars intensified Chicago's Czech community's support for Czechoslovak independence. After World War II, the community remained a stronghold for Czech political activism, particularly through the Cold War, with organizations advocating for freedom and independence for Czechoslovakia. So this is a very high-level snapshot, but it covers somewhat how the Chicago Bohemians established roots and formed very influential community institutions, fought for labor rights and became a political force, a real political force in Chicago, but they always kept, like so many other groups, a connection to their homeland.

Natalie Zett:

Over the past year, I've been very open about my shock at discovering how many Eastland disaster stories remained untold or seemed to have slipped through the cracks. Diving into this research has revealed a way richer and more complex history than I ever imagined, a history that deserves to be fully explored, uncovered and shared. What I've found in these stories drives me to keep going, because it's clear that the Eastland story is so much more compelling than the versions I'd encountered when I first began this journey to the tragedy which, while deeply meaningful to me and other people who read my book, we've learned that the history of this thing is expansive and it's about more than any one family's story, and I want to emphasize that when we're talking about a tragedy that impacted probably thousands of people, we owe it to the memory of all of those who were affected to expand our focus, to look beyond any single thread and to tell the whole story layered, multifaceted, deeply human and a mess sometimes. While I'm very proud of all the progress that we've made in the last year, when I say we yes, on this side of the veil, it very much is a solo effort. I'm doing this myself and, as I've said, I'm not affiliated with anyone, nor do I at this point, want any sponsorship. Here's why I've kept this podcast editorially independent, deliberately.

Natalie Zett:

Like many creatives, I value my independence and wanted to stay true to my own path, honoring the vision that I set from the start and, of course, changing it up and getting creative and stepping into rabbit holes and things like that. That's part of the fun, but that's how I've structured this and I wanted to do what makes sense. But the other part of that is I don't feel alone in this either. I really do feel that those spirits of those people who departed my relatives and beyond my relatives assist quite a bit of the time, and really you don't have to believe this and I would never argue anyone into a belief because, well, that makes no sense. But it's just something I've known from my childhood onward, that when the departed are respected, they do reciprocate. There are still so many, countless stories that are waiting to be uncovered. My backlist is still bursting with stories.

Natalie Zett:

By the way, despite the challenges, or maybe because of the challenges, one source of inspiration has been the work done by those associated with the Bohemian National Cemetery. They've been consistently and quietly preserving the history of the Eastland disaster and other significant events, doing the real work of keeping memories alive in beautiful, creative and meaningful ways. Here's a brief history of the Bohemian National Cemetery, and I'll follow that up with some excerpts from a book. The Bohemian National Cemetery was established in 1877 by a group of Czech immigrants who identified as freethinkers have you heard that term before? No worries, we'll talk about that as well and the cemetery was not simply a place to bury their dead. It was a reflection of their values of inclusivity and independence. These were people who had broken away from the strict, stifling religious rules that they grew up with in Bohemia and they wanted a resting place that represented their freedom in this new country.

Natalie Zett:

Walking through the Bohemian National Cemetery feels like stepping into a living, breathing history book. Yes, there are religious symbols, but you'll also find monuments celebrating human achievement, tributes to Czech American veterans, community leaders and even some delightfully quirky elements. One standout feature is a columbarium known as Beyond the Vines, which gives Chicago Cubs fans the next best thing to a final resting place under Wrigley Field's centerfield bleachers no kidding. Covered in ivy, with a scoreboard set to 1 20 pm, it mimics Wrigley Field in a way that feels both quirky and deeply rooted in local culture. For Cubs fans, I'm guessing it's practically heaven on earth. What do you say? But let's talk about another monument.

Natalie Zett:

In 2015, for the Eastland Disaster's 100th anniversary, the Friends of Bohemian National Cemetery, led by Chuck Michalik, created a thoughtful and striking memorial. They repurposed an actual steamship wheel from the Great Lakes, setting it against blue-green granite that evokes the Chicago River, photos, stories and personalized bricks with connections to the tragedy. It's the kind of memorial that makes you stop and really feel the weight of the story and, from what I've read, the path that they had to walk. To make this happen was not easy. There was a lot of back and forth. I commend them for getting it done. It must have really been very challenging, and I too have worked on public art projects as an assistant, not an artist, and there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes that has to be navigated. So hats off to you for the work you did.

Natalie Zett:

But all of this got me to thinking about Chicago's abundance of public art. From the Picasso sculpture in Daly Plaza to the Four Seasons Mosaic downtown by Chagall, the city is packed with incredible installations. But weirdly, at the riverfront where the Eastland capsized, as far as I know, there's only a plaque. So a friend visiting Chicago last summer did her very own self-guided Eastland Disasters site tour and while she was there she sent me this text. I'm at the site and all I'm seeing is this plaque. I thought there would be something more. If there is, I'm not seeing it. Sometimes it takes somebody who's an outsider to the event to point out what's missing some type of larger public art piece about the Eastland disaster that was going to be installed at the Chicago River, at the disaster site, and I think the project was called River's Edge. But as I was searching, I couldn't find anything about it. If I do locate it, because now I'm really thinking about it, I will post it on my website, just for the sake of history. Art is evolving a lot, especially public art. With the possibilities that AI, immersive experiences and other exciting new technologies bring, there might be something expansive and accessible to everyone down by the Chicago River someday.

Natalie Zett:

Reflecting on the Bohemian National Cemetery's history and the work of those who care deeply about it, the dedication is tangible, and I want to close by reading an excerpt from A Dear and Precious Heritage the Bohemian National Cemetery, chicago, illinois, 2nd edition by Carol Jean Smetana. It is an excellent book, not only for those interested in the Eastland disaster, but anyone who appreciates cemeteries as keepers of history. And the other thing I'm going to include in a bonus episode that I will post to YouTube is a little bit of background on the Free Thought Movement among the Czech community, because it is interesting. It's not as well known. Many people don't even know what free thought is, but I will include that courtesy of my new BFFs that would be Max and Ava, and they are the characters that were created by Notebook LM. They do a very good job of discussing this topic and I've also noticed by the hits that I get off of their discussions that they are becoming very popular. Don't tell them, though, it'll go to their heads. Here are some sections from the book A Dear and Precious Heritage Bohemian or Czech?

Natalie Zett:

There is often confusion about the English adjectives Bohemian and Czech. The Czech language uses one word, český. In the United States prior to the 1910s, bohemian was used to describe people from the Czech lands of Bohemia and Borovia. During World War I, as the movement grew to create the independent country of Czechoslovakia, the word Czech came into use. In this volume I generally use Bohemian in pre-World War I contexts and use Czech when describing times after the 1918 founding of Czechoslovakia.

Natalie Zett:

Carol Jean Smetana. Editor. Bohemian National Cemetery the early years. Bohemian National Cemetery grew out of a mounting friction between the Catholic Church hierarchy in Chicago and members of the Chicago Bohemian community. The immediate provocation for the establishment of the cemetery occurred when the priest at St Wenceslas Church refused to allow the burial of a Bohemian Catholic woman in the Catholic cemetery, purportedly because she had not made confession before she died. But this was just the latest grievance in what many Bohemians saw as a series of injustices by the Catholic Church in Chicago. The first Bohemians settled in Chicago in the early 1850s.

Natalie Zett:

Once in the United States, bohemians began to turn away from the Catholic Church and by the 1870s, a majority were describing themselves as Protestants or Freethinkers, also known as Rationalists. Some of this was simply a response to centuries of enforced Catholicism by the Austrian Empire, which ruled the Bohemian lands since the defeat of the Protestant estates at the Battle of White Mountain near Prague in 1620. Thus rejecting Catholicism was an overt way for Bohemians to assert their independence in the new world and exercise their newfound freedoms, including freedom of religion. By 1880, the majority of the 40,000 Bohemians in Chicago perhaps as many as 24,000, identified themselves as freethinkers, while only a quarter about 10,000, belonged to the Catholic Church.

Natalie Zett:

Freethinkers generally based their worldview on science, logic and reason and did not believe there was sufficient evidence to support the existence of a god. In its disregard for religion circumscribed by tradition, authority and established belief, freethought sometimes evoked an anti-clericalism in its followers. By the end of the 1800s, freethinkers purportedly outnumbered religious believers 621 in Bohemian Pilsen on the city's southwest side, svodna Obek, chicago. The Freethinkers of Chicago, founded in 1870, had quickly become the core of an elaborate social network in the Bohemian community. The Freethinkers established benevolent and building societies, maintained schools and a library, organized children's programs and adult lectures and sponsored musical and dramatic programs. Svobodna Obek offered secular rites for their followers, the naming of children, marriages and funerals. That's the end of that section, but that is unique among immigrant communities. During that time, I'm going to skip forward to a chapter on the Eastland Disaster Memorial.

Natalie Zett:

The Eastland Disaster Memorial was dedicated in July 2015, 100 years after the steamship Eastland turned over in the Chicago River, drowning more than 800 passengers. The memorial was created to remember the victims, honor the rescuers and educate the public about the tragedy. Friends of BNC, that's, bohemian National Cemetery, friends of Bohemian National Cemetery member Chuck Mihalik, organized and chaired the committee that designed the memorial and raised funds for its realization. A salvaged Great Lakes steamship wheel is angled into a large piece of blue-green granite representing the Chicago River. That's a caption beneath the photo. Then there's another image A polished black granite stone features photos of the SS Eastland and descriptions of the tragedy and its aftermath. Then there's a third photo Paver bricks are engraved with illustrations and remembrances from organizations, families and individuals who helped fund the memorial. Now I'm going to read from the chapter in this book about the Eastland disaster, but it's from the viewpoint of this community.

Natalie Zett:

The Eastland Disaster On July 24, 1915, the Eastland excursion ship capsized in the Chicago River. The Eastland Disaster remains Chicago's largest loss of life in a single event. The Eastland was one of several ships chartered by Western Electric ships chartered by Western Electric to transport several thousand employees and their families and friends across Lake Michigan to the fifth annual employee picnic at Michigan City, indiana. At the time, western Electric had over 10,000 employees at its sprawling 200-acre Hawthorne Works at the southwest corner of Cicero Avenue and Cermak Road. Czechs and Slovaks, mostly from Chicago's west side neighborhoods and western suburbs, comprised a substantial percentage of the workforce. At the Clark Street Wharf at the Chicago River, about 2,500 picnic-goers boarded the Eastland for the trip across the lake. Preparations for departure were underway when the ship, which had been listing from side to side, quickly but gently rolled over onto her port side and came to rest on the river bottom with the water's surface about at the center line of the ship. It has been suggested that a combination of factors contributed to the accident, including original design flaws of the ship, complicated by subsequent unsafe structural alterations and errors by the crew resulting in poor ballast control and errors by the crew resulting in poor ballast control.

Natalie Zett:

Local churches, funeral parlors, undertakers and cemeteries were overwhelmed with the demands to provide services for the grieving families and friends of those who lost their lives. Bohemian National Cemetery recorded 143 burials of Eastland victims, the highest number of burials in any Chicago-area cemetery. The cemetery's newly opened Section 16 was practically sold out to families purchasing grave sites for their loved ones who lost their lives that sad summer day. At that time, graves were dug by hand and it took two men four hours to dig a single grave. An additional 50 men were hired to work 12-hour days in order to prepare graves for the victims. Chief Bailiff, anton J Cermak, who would later be the only Bohemian-born mayor of Chicago, provided a fleet of automobiles to transport mourners and floral pieces to the cemetery.

Natalie Zett:

And after that there are a number of photographs with captions beneath them, and I've previously covered many of the people who are buried at Bohemian National, so we'll continue to document them as well as add some of the newer stories to my website. So the book A Dear and Precious Heritage what a lovely title, by the way is indeed something that's an incredible resource, and it sounds as if the Friends of the Bohemian National Cemetery are indeed friends, and they do a great job of preserving this history. Thank you. There's a lot more to say about the history of the Bohemian National Cemetery, including the story of a woman, helen Sclair, who lived on the grounds and she was known as the cemetery lady, and she stayed there until her death, but I'll save that for another episode, because Helen really does deserve her own episode, or at least half of an episode. She's that interesting.

Natalie Zett:

So goodbye, take care of yourself, and I will talk with you next week. 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, thank you.

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