Flower in the River: A Family Tale Finally Told

Bones, History, Heart: Helen Sclair’s Death Quest

• Natalie Zett • Season 2 • Episode 87

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Episode Highlights:

Introducing Helen Sclair: In this episode, I explore the life of Helen Sclair, a unique and quirky “cemetery-ologist” who had a deep love for Chicago’s history, especially as it relates to its cemeteries. Helen dedicated her life to preserving the stories of those buried in Chicago’s historic cemeteries, including many of the Eastland disaster victims.

  • The Bohemian National Cemetery: Helen had a special connection with Bohemian National Cemetery, where around 143 Eastland victims were laid to rest. She also lived there! Her commitment to the dead helped keep Chicago’s cultural and historical memory alive. Helen saw cemeteries as sacred archives, full of stories waiting to be told.
  • Real Lives, Real People: Through Helen’s powerful words, we’re reminded that history is made up of real people. The Eastland victims weren’t just names; they were individuals from all walks of life—Polish, Bohemian, Italian, Irish, Swedish, German—all working hard, dreaming of better lives. Helen’s perspective makes us see these people as people like us, not distant figures.
  • The 2nd Regiment Armory Morgue: Helen had a unique way of bringing the harsh realities of history to life. I recount her description of families searching through rows of bodies after the disaster, an image that hits close to home. My own grandmother was among those people, looking for her sister.
  • Helen’s Life and Her Legacy: I share more about Helen’s background and her journey into Chicago’s cemeteries. From a young age, Helen was drawn to these places, eventually becoming a vital source of knowledge on lost and hidden cemeteries in the area. Her extensive research and collection are still inspiring others, and her contributions have left a lasting mark on Chicago history.
  • The Role of a Citizen Historian: Helen’s story is a reminder that history doesn’t just belong to a select few or gatekeepers. Helen wasn’t part of any organization —she was simply driven by her love for history and her commitment to justice. She taught me that sometimes, you need to dig deeper to honor the people who came before us.

Closing Thoughts: Helen’s story challenges us to be curious, to ask questions, and to look beyond what we think we know. I hope you’re as inspired by Helen’s legacy as I am.


Links and Sources:

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. Hey, this is Natalie. I hope you're doing well. I know it's been quite the week here, but I hope that you're able to remain steady and are taking care of yourselves, and I want to welcome you back to episode 87 of Flower in the River podcast. I also want to thank people for their interest in last week's episode about the Bohemian National Cemetery. I had no idea that this episode would generate such interest If you weren't with me last week. Let me tell you in a nutshell what that was all about. So the Bohemian National Cemetery, where roughly 143 Eastland victims are buried, was the focus for last week's episode. During last week's episode, I mentioned my respect for a cemeteryologist. I mentioned my respect for a cemeteryologist. Yes, I may have coined that term. I don't know, but this person held a treasure trove of Chicagolair, and she truly was one of a kind, a brilliant and quirky historian.

Natalie Zett:

Helen spent much of her time, and indeed her life, at the Bohemian National Cemetery, where she was living before she passed away. Yep, you heard that right. For Helen, cemeteries weren't just burial sites. They were sacred archives filled with stories waiting to be uncovered. She believed the dead deserve respect, not just as individuals, but as an integral part of a community's identity. Her work ensured that the people interred within these hallowed grounds were not forgotten, that their stories and contributions were preserved as part of Chicago's cultural and historical legacy. Here are the final words, or the executive summary of Helen Sclair's life. This is from her headstone at Bohemian National Cemetery. Helen Sclair, 1930 to 2009,. Advocate for the dead. Helen lived up to that title in every sense of the word. In a memorable appearance on the Chicago Stories documentary series, helen shared a powerful perspective about the Eastland disaster and its passengers and its passengers.

Helen Sclair:

They were you and me, they were everybody. They were Polish, they were Bohemian, they were Italian, they were Irish, they were Swedish, they were Germans. They came from all over the world to find a job, to find a better place to live, and these people worked long, long hours at Western Electric Heavens. They didn't get free days just every day, these were six-day work weeks that they put in.

Natalie Zett:

With characteristic insight, helen reminded us that these just weren't names and dates. Reminded us that these just weren't names and dates. They were real people, people just like us. She spoke of their diverse backgrounds Polish, bohemian, italian, irish, swedish, german and their shared dreams of building better lives through their work at Western Electric. Even with the grueling six-day work weeks. Her words cut straight to the heart of the matter, breaking down any barrier between past and present and asking us to see ourselves as those passengers. As those passengers.

Natalie Zett:

Okay, advocating for the dead might seem like a peculiar calling, but, as I've learned, it's an essential one. In a fast-moving city like Chicago, where urban development and neglect can threaten these historic spaces, someone like Helen steps in to protect the dignity and history embedded in each cemetery. She believed that by honoring the dead, we honor our own roots and acknowledge the layers of life that shaped our present. Through her tours, her lectures and her encyclopedic knowledge, helen invited people to see cemeteries not as morbid places but as beautiful historical sites of connection and of memory. I first met Helen around the year 2000, and this was during one of the very early Eastland disaster commemorative events in Chicago. In our conversation, it was a combination of being awestruck and intimidated, meaning I was the one being awestruck and intimidated. I was quite a bit younger back then and speaking to someone like her, with that incredible sense of presence and knowledge, it was a bit overwhelming, but in a good way I found myself really intrigued with her. She was both gentle and authoritative and I bet when she was teaching in various schools that if you showed up for her class unprepared, you probably didn't do that a second time. And I also think she was probably one of those that did not hand out A's Not sure about that, but that's the feeling I got from her. Helen also knew a lot of the details about the Eastland disaster and could recount them accurately, but also with a lot of empathy.

Natalie Zett:

Helen had a calling, almost like a religious calling, and she did this work with preserving history and caring for the dead because she felt called to do it, not because she got recognized or anything like that, but she was very firm in her convictions and she did her homework. And you'll see that she was not afraid to challenge the powers that be when it came to the history that she loved so much. But she was there to give voice to those who could no longer speak, and what a role model for someone like me who was just getting started. She was there to make sure that each victim, survivor and rescuer had their story told. And when I was researching Helen's life this past week, I rediscovered this documentary. Actually, I forgot that I even had seen it previously, but I saw it with new eyes because, well, helen's no longer among the living, hearing her knowledge, and you can just tell that she loved what she did. It was not just wonderful, but inspirational. Here's one thing I wish they had given Helen more screen time.

Natalie Zett:

Helen knew that history, particularly a history like the Eastland, was more than just a bunch of names and dates. She felt the emotional weight of history I really don't know how else to describe that and she brought a depth that helped her audience whoever her audience was to see and feel the Eastland disaster as a personal tragedy, as something that included and involved them, not just as a distant historical event. And the other thing I have conjectured this week is that I think if Helen had been in charge of this legacy, the whole world would have known about the Eastland disaster by now. She was gifted with this ferocity and expansiveness, and fairness too. That's how she approached history and she knew that history wasn't just one or two narratives, but it all of the history that she covered while she was alive and traveling through the cemeteries of Chicago. Let's listen again to hear what Helen had to say about the makeshift morgue for the Eastland victims that was constructed at the 2nd Regiment Armory.

Helen Sclair:

They laid the bodies out in rows of 85 over there. Think about you don't know where somebody is. Think about being the widow who's home with the children, having to come and look for your husband in row after row after row of bodies over 800. And the other thing that was was so frightening. They had no particular record-keeping system. So a family might know that their cousin or their sister was on the Eastland, but they had no way of knowing whether they had gone down in the Eastland or had been able to get themselves off the Eastland.

Natalie Zett:

Helen's description of the morgue at the 2nd Regiment Armory reveals another devastating layer of the Eastland tragedy. In her characteristically direct way, helen painted a haunting picture of what families faced in those dark hours. Now this one hits really close to home. My grandmother was one of those desperate people searching through the rows looking for her sister, martha Pfeiffer. While I've shared her story in my book and many, many times on this podcast, I have to say that hearing Helen describe the scene, the endless rows of bodies, the crushing uncertainty that brought my grandmother's experience into painfully sharp focus again. Sometimes, when you tell a story over and over, its edges can soften. But then someone like Helen comes along and with just a few powerful words they're able to reframe the story. They help you to see it all anew. She made me feel the weight of every step that my grandmother took through those rows searching for her sister.

Natalie Zett:

Helen was many things a genealogist, a historian and she blended those roles seamlessly. She knew how to connect people with their ancestors. Here's the thing. She also saw the broader context, how individual lives contribute to a city's history, and for her, cemeteries were like open-air museums where each grave held a piece of Chicago's social and economic history. Her work was a bridge between genealogy and historical preservation, reminding us that personal histories are all intertwined with the public memory. I want to be clear, too, and say that Helen's primary focus was not the Eastland disaster, but because the Eastland disaster was so much a part of Chicago, she knew it and she knew it very well. Her approach was all-encompassing and very transparent, and she believed that history belongs to everyone, not just a select few. For Helen, every life, every story deserved respect and remembrance. Her inclusive philosophy left an indelible mark not only on Chicago cemeteries, but on everyone who knew her, and I actually contacted the author this week. She is writer Cori Remore, and she writes for the Chicago Tribune, and this article was updated on October 4th 2022.

Natalie Zett:

The headline is Dead people always seem to get in the way of the living Facing death with Chicago's cemetery lady, helen Sclair. This is not an obituary for Chicago's cemetery lady. After all, helen Sclair, the sometimes prickly yet always engaging former schoolteacher turned self-taught historian, lecturer, collector, tour guide and author, died of cardiac arrest on December 16, 2009, at 78 years old. 2009 at 78 years old. Instead, this is a celebration of the ever-growing afterlife of a woman who spent so many of her days thinking about death. Sclair's final resting place is the same as her last known address Bohemian National Cemetery on the northwest side. Her cremated remains lie under a headstone bearing the inscription An Advocate for the Dead.

Natalie Zett:

She lived the last eight years of her life tucked away in a former caretaker's cottage on the grounds, which provided ample room to display her thousands of pieces of death memorabilia. According to Paul F Gell, a former curator at the Newberry Library, quote, visiting her home was like getting a docent-led tour of a museum. Everything displayed in an order clear only to her, but explainable, gail wrote in an email Morning jewelry, halloween novelties, embalming, tools and chemicals, funeral home giveaways including toys, books and magazines, postcards of cemeteries and photographs of funeral floral arrangements Mind-boggling, just to remember it all. In fact, after she died, the Newberry acquired her collection one of the largest and most diverse he's seen, gell said, for inclusion in the library's holdings. Sclair was obsessed with death. She displayed caskets at her home and had a skull and crossbones motif on her personal checks, but she never attempted to communicate with the dead. That just wasn't her thing. Quote I never discuss ghosts, sclair said in 1999. I have no interest in the subject. However, her afterlife was just beginning.

Natalie Zett:

Born into death, sclair's own life confronted death almost from the beginning. She was born December 30, 1930, in Chicago to parents who'd recently returned from missionary work in Africa. Her mother, helen, died just one week later and was buried near her southeastern Missouri hometown. As an only child, sclair was sent to live with William and Helen Weber, who owned a duck farm in Suburban Lake Villa. Quote. Mother was raised as one of Helen's children. Now, that created a bit of a problem, because everyone was named Helen. In those days, said Lou Helen Sclair, her daughter. So mother's nickname was Susie, and that's so far, apart from anything she would have ever called herself.

Natalie Zett:

Sclair's biological father, irvin L Young, was a successful inventor and businessman whose philanthropic efforts in Africa helped Lincoln Park Zoo acquire its iconic gorilla Bushman and later four baby gorillas. One was named after him. As generous as he was, he devoted little time to his only child. However, sclair's guardians demonstrated the importance of family, both living and dead. At two and a half they took her to visit her birth mother's grave. Her first job was trimming grass from the Weber's family headstones. She recalled the experience in Studs Terkel's 2001 book Will the Circle Be Unbroken Reflections on Death, rebirth and Hunger for a Faith. Within the book she also described how her growing interest in death was kindled out of boredom, growing Legacy.

Natalie Zett:

After her death, almost all of the items from Sclair's Cemetery Cottage the piles upon piles of research papers and cemetery informational brochures, photographs of headstones and death care industry research were all transferred to the Newberry Library where they would be cataloged and preserved. Quote we've built three large panel vans, floor to ceiling with books and papers and anything printed. Lou Helen Sclair said it was a memorable weekend. Three or four days in the middle of summer. It was beastly hot. Gell said there was one little air conditioner in the house. It was a cute little cottage that she had. It was filled from top to bottom with material. Her materials, most yet not digitized, continue to provide inspiration for a new generation of death-related researchers. Samantha Sam Smith, pursuing a doctorate in history at Michigan State University, became interested in Sclair's collection of post-mortem photographs and used them for a capstone project. Quote unlike people who collect stamps or coins, it is impossible to collect all of death, smith wrote in an email. Sclair's collection is incomplete and that is part of its beauty, at least for me. Several small groupings from Sclair's collection have been displayed at the Newberry. These include fans which were used by funeral goers to cool themselves before air conditioning was common, and ribbons with designs on both sides which were worn by union and or fraternal organization members A monumental discovery.

Natalie Zett:

Sclair found herself alone in the early 1980s. Her daughter was studying nursing at Indiana University. Her second husband, marvin, had died in 1975. She taught at Gladstone Elementary on the near west side, but was looking for something else to occupy her time. She was intrigued by an idea I had heard that Chicago's Lincoln Park had once been a cemetery. Some of it, all of it, none of it. And if it had been a cemetery, what happened to all the bodies and the monuments? Idle curiosity, sclair said in 2004. It had been more than a century since burials took place at the Chicago City Cemetery, which was north of North Avenue, along the lakefront and outside the then city limits. Bodies were later relocated to other cemeteries due to a variety of factors City expansion, northward health risks associated with rising lake levels and their proximity to decaying bodies buried in shallow graves, and a lawsuit concerning one of the cemetery's sections. As my college career had been spent as a voice major, I knew little about research, sclair later admitted.

Natalie Zett:

When she went looking for the city's cemetery records, experts guessed they'd been lost to the Great Fire of 1871. More than 110 years later, however, boxes of old papers were found in a Southside warehouse and sent to Springfield for conservation. When the Illinois Regional Archives Depository opened at Northeastern Illinois University in 1990, the cemetery documents were there and so was Sclair. Documents were there and so was Sclair. Chicago Tribune reporter Ron Grossman wrote Sclair seems to have been the first to guess that the archive might contain records of the old Lake Front Cemetery. Eventually she found more than 600 relevant documents, had them photographed, then copied by hand their virtually illegible 19th century handwritings. The discovery of this demographic goldmine of undertaker's reports was monumental, especially for a novice. It's a one-in-a-million shot, melvin Hawley, professor of history at the University of Illinois in Chicago, said in 1991. Her discovery confirmed bodies still remain buried beneath Lincoln Park.

Natalie Zett:

Pushing her passion forward, sclair continued to research cemeteries and gave lectures and tours. With dramatic flares, a voice that commands attention and fascinating visuals, she explains the city's racial, ethnic and religious divisions, the economic and social classes and the family structure. The Tribune reported about one of her classes in 1997. Costumes and props were customized for Sclair's presentations, including the 1915's Eastland disaster, the Great Fire of 1871, and the Wingfoot Express crash of 1919. She would dress for every occasion, no, let's say every disaster occasion, said Craig Fankucha, a local historian and friend. Still, she took the topic seriously. She located missing cemeteries in the Chicago area, finding 63 of them, and categorized cemeteries by their poignant features. Three of them and categorized cemeteries by their poignant features. For example, you can be buried next to your pets only in Elm Lawn Cemetery in Elmhurst.

Natalie Zett:

She became so knowledgeable about death that Sclair would correct anyone, regardless of their credentials, who misrepresented historical facts. Professional historians in I Am One can be very snobbish about people who are avocational historians. Gell said I'm sure that Helen suffered some of that. There were people who felt she was merely an amateur. That was truly not fair to her, because she was a very serious, dedicated researcher. She was very thorough, but she was also in the habit of challenging professional historians when she thought they made a mistake. And you know that's not a way to make friends. It drives me nuts, sclair said in 1997. That's why I guess I'll have to write a book.

Natalie Zett:

It was around that time Sclair began working with the Chicago Genealogical Society to produce a book of her almost four decades of research. In 2003, with the help of the organization's members, she presented its leadership with a manuscript complete with multiple detailed appendices. Von Kucha, the corresponding secretary of the group, says a difference in opinion on what the book should include caused Sclair to back out of the partnership. Helen wanted to write this huge tome on all of the city's cemeteries and all of the burial techniques and all of the interesting stories that came out of the removals from the Chicago City Cemetery, the Chicago Genealogical Society. People said no, we don't want to publish that book. Instead, in 2008, one year before Sclair's death, the Society published Chicago Cemetery Records 1847 to 1863, sexton's Reports and Certificates, treasurer Receipts, deeds and Undertaker's Reports.

Natalie Zett:

Its primary audience genealogists. It's a non-circulating reference book housed in the genealogy section of many local libraries that still provides key details about the former cemetery. Let me say it this way I mean, I was part of it. It's terrible. Well, no, no, it's wonderful for people who are researching early Chicago. And curiously, in the book it doesn't say who's buried there. It says who the plot owners are. That's helpful to genealogists, fon Kuka said, nonetheless, dedicated to her, if our city did not have Helen's thoughtful study of burial and mortuary practices and her work in disseminating that information to others, this city would be a much less interesting place in which to research. Today, sclair's manuscript of cemetery history with a copyright date of 2003 sits among her collection of papers at the Newberry Library. There are no plans to publish it.

Natalie Zett:

The work that gave her the greatest joy, sclair once said, was getting to know people and their ethnic and religious traditions shown in Chicago cemeteries, which she compiled by hand on yellow pads of paper. Helen said I can now easily move from Assyrians to Zoroastrians with the likes of assorted Bosnians, gypsies, hungarians, kurds, luxemborgs, pakistanis, etc. In between, she said in 2004. This method often used to locate these far-flung burial sites is the interviewing of cab drivers, waiters and wheelchair attendants, and there's an image of sheets of ethnic burial sites in Helen's beautiful handwriting.

Natalie Zett:

She also became vocal about the problems facing local cemeteries On developers buying up open cemetery land. She said the dead don't pay taxes and the dead don't vote On the maintenance of old or abandoned cemeteries, she said there is an assumption, with perpetual care, that somehow God is going to take care of it. I often ask the question how long is forever? There is money today and tomorrow, but go look in five years. There might not be enough money to cut the grass. On the discovery of long ago buried bodies during construction in Lincoln Park, she said they could have left the people in peace instead of in pieces With backhoes and bulldozers is not the way to approach a piece of land that was once a cemetery Really any time a body was discovered during a construction project, sklair was consulted for her opinion.

Natalie Zett:

This has been going on for years the finding of bodies. This is just the latest discovery. Every time they dig for sewers and water they invariably find the remnants of some cemetery. On efforts to relocate nearly 1,500 graves at St Johanna's Cemetery for O'Hare Airport expansion, she said Dead people always seem to get in the way of the living, but if this cemetery is not moved it would inhibit the development in the Midwest. On the dangers associated with moving the dead, especially those who died in Chicago's early days, she said I will give you the list in alphabetical order it's anthrax, cholera, diphtheria, smallpox, typhus and typhoid. When you go to dig up these bodies it's not just digging a row for carrots.

Natalie Zett:

There are lots of things to worry about. There are lots of things to worry about Sclare's legacy. Combining her life's tragic experiences with her desire to make sure others' lives were not forgotten helps Sclare better connect with the living. Her life's work makes the invisible seen again. Those who love her remember a feisty, determined woman with a passion for sharing her knowledge with others. Quote she didn't have a small presence in anybody's life. Gell said 2020, and this is after Helen's death is a year overwhelmed with death. More than one million people have died worldwide due to COVID-19, including more than 220,000 in the United States and more than 9,700 in Illinois.

Natalie Zett:

Sclair believed that a previous pandemic in 1918, which killed an estimated 50 million in the world and 675,000 in the United States, coupled with tens of millions of deaths due to World War I, caused society to break away from its traditional grieving practices. People were overwhelmed by the sheer number of casualties. As a result, we've forgotten how to mourn the dead, sclair said. Sclair found beauty in death and thought others should too. Quote people should think about how they want to be remembered. She said you are not just a piece of something that is on earth to be eventually thrown away. End of article.

Natalie Zett:

And in terms of Helen's legacy, I want to read a very short piece from a blog and I don't know who the writer is. He or she goes by the name Graveyard Snoop snoop. They wrote under the heading of ethics. Many years ago, I was lucky enough to take a class from the queen of Chicago cemeteries, helen Sclair. She was not just a singularly fascinating person, but also a principled one. Her concern for cemeteries and their residents has always stuck with me. Well, I hope that Helen Seglaire was an interesting person for you to meet on this journey.

Natalie Zett:

For me, reflecting on Helen, well, I'm struck by her unwavering commitment to speaking for those who can no longer speak for themselves. She questioned the comfortable narratives and she dug deep to find the overlooked truths, and she was guided by a sense of duty and justice, I think, to bring respect and remembrance to the dead. Helen showed that true advocacy is action, not just lip service. It's about asking questions others avoid and challenging stories that have been told the same way for way too long and have caused a lot of damage to the history. Citizen historians like Helen are often the ones making extraordinary discoveries, not because they're paid or recognized or part of an official organization, but because they are driven by genuine passion and commitment to justice, and I hope her story inspires you, too, to question things.

Natalie Zett:

Just because a fact is repeated doesn't mean it's the truth. Helen taught me that the past deserves our curiosity and our courage, and we must dig deeper to honor those who live before us. After all, they helped make us. Thank you for joining me in remembering Helen's legacy and keeping those stories alive Until next time. Stay curious, courageous even during difficult times, and always be willing to look beyond the surface. I'll see you later, later. 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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