Flower in the River: A Family Tale Finally Told

Late for Death: Stranger Things--Eastland Edition

• Natalie Zett • Season 3 • Episode 123

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What if being late saved your life?

In this episode of Flower in the River, we follow the eerie ripple of that question through time.

On the morning of July 24, 1915, Tom Milton and Willard Haynes were in Chicago when the Eastland Disaster unfolded. Milton missed boarding the ship by a single minute. Haynes, a physician, arrived just as chaos overtook the riverfront and assisted at the scene.

Their connection to the disaster surfaced in 1954 when both were living in Texas. That year, the Houston Chronicle published an interview with Milton in which he mentioned the Eastland Disaster. After reading the article, Haynes wrote a letter to Milton sharing his own experience of being there that day—opening with the words:

“Stranger things have happened…”

Their names do not appear in any known accounts of the Eastland Disaster. Their stories remained overlooked—until now.

This episode is about memory, timing, transparency, and the strange ways history finds its way back. It’s also a story within a story: about family archives, investigative instincts, and the quiet dignity of men whose roles in history were left unrecorded for nearly 40 years.

Spoiler alert: the eBay item that sparked this episode is now safely archived at the Newberry Library in Chicago!

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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, and welcome to episode 123 of Flower in the River. We're continuing our retrospective series and let me just say up front that there are so many people that I have previously included in past podcasts and would love to include again, but I've realized, somewhat reluctantly, that I can't feature everyone before the 110th anniversary of the Eastland disaster, but I will continue to share their stories, as well as share new stories with you after July 24th 2025. What caught me off guard was discovering just how many people I'd featured who have never been associated with the Eastland disaster at all Not in any books or in any so-called definitive websites Nowhere. And yet they were once known. Their stories were printed in real-time publications, then left to fade away. So part of what I try to do in this podcast is locate them and pull them out of the shadows and, as I've said and will keep saying and maybe over saying these stories, these people are not difficult to find and it doesn't cost anything to locate them. The stories live mostly in free and accessible places like Google Books, hathatrust, familysearchorg, various free newspapers that are available via the Library of Congress, other newspapers that are also easily available from all over the world, and digital archives that are maintained by state historical societies in places like Minnesota and Illinois. However, it's never good to make a hard and fast rule, because you will always find something that contradicts that rule. Although the majority of the stories that I've shared with you over the past couple of years have been stories that are freely available, easily accessible, there are occasionally exceptions to the guidelines, and I'm going to share one of those exceptions today, but this is a one-off type of experience and is not typical.

Natalie Zett:

But let me talk about the unique superpowers of an independent researcher like you and like me. An independent researcher like you and like me, being an independent researcher, meaning that I'm not sponsored by anyone. I don't have to please anyone. All I have to do is report the stories as I find them, with the caveat that I might find another story or another record that corrects information that I've previously shared with you. I'm sharing my research in real time. I'm not an expert on the ship itself, but rather I'm developing an expertise on the people of the Eastland disaster, and that is definitely a work in progress, particularly since so much has been neglected for so long.

Natalie Zett:

Let's segue into the story of the week. I first told this story last year and it's stayed with me for a lot of reasons. Number one it's one of the most unique experiences I have had in terms of researching the history of the Eastland disaster. Back in 2016, when I was a relatively new genealogist, I listened to a lot of genealogy podcasts. New genealogist I listen to a lot of genealogy podcasts. One of my favorites was Extreme Genes with Scott Fisher. Sadly, extreme Genes no longer is an active podcast, but I think the archives are still available. But Scott said something in one episode that surprised me. He said in one episode that surprised me, he said don't forget to check eBay. I thought eBay For genealogy, despite my initial aversion to that platform, I struck gold.

Natalie Zett:

I found my dad's oldest brother's Navy rucksack from World War II. I bought it and last year I gave it to my nephew. It's now a treasured family keepsake. So I set up a saved search on eBay for Eastland Disaster. Obviously, and usually the same items keep popping up Postcards, books, memorabilia. A lot of it was basically copies of originals. Most of that stuff I already have or have access to, but I still check the alerts each day to see if anything new comes up.

Natalie Zett:

And last year something truly unique came up. This set of items included an 8x10 publicity photo of an older man in a smoking jacket. Then there was a newspaper article about him and a handwritten letter from someone else. The price of these items was very steep, and so I hesitated. But I was also haunted. I kept thinking if I don't do something about this, this is probably going to disappear into a private collection, maybe forever. And the other thing I thought about, or wondered where are the historical organizations, specifically those organizations devoted to the Eastland? Shouldn't somebody from one of those be monitoring this stuff?

Natalie Zett:

Well, since there was no action on those items for many days, I finally reached out to the sellers and I explained what I do I make a podcast. I don't make any money on this, not sponsored, et cetera, et cetera and I made them an offer that I could afford and I said if you agree to my offer, I'll podcast about this story, which I'm now doing the second time, and then I will donate the items to the Newberry Library in Chicago, to the seller's credit. They said yes, and they were so kind to me, they even gave me some additional information about his family. That said, I was also very cautious. In a former life, early in my corporate career, I was an investigator who worked on fraud cases yeah, that's something that stays with you, by the way and so I asked the sellers for provenance. Where did these items come from? I wanted to know. The sellers told me that the items came from the estate of Tom and Eloise Milton and that checked out, and I also needed that for the Newberry's records as well.

Natalie Zett:

I want to pause for a second and tell you that this is why I keep emphasizing the importance of transparency. When I see an article about the Eastland disaster online, specifically if it's on a website that is official sounding and that purports to have some kind of expertise in the history of the Eastland disaster, and there are no citations for the photos or the biographies, that's a big red flag. Big red flag. Historical organizations or independent researchers or anybody in this realm needs to be transparent. It's a prerequisite, in fact. Where did this information come from? It didn't come from them, it came from someplace else. And who verified it? Who provided the checks and balances, particularly if it's a so-called historical organization sharing or pushing this information? This is the biggest lesson that I have received from researching the Eastland disaster. If we don't ask these questions up front, we end up with murky narratives and casualty numbers that don't come anywhere near the truth.

Natalie Zett:

But back to this eBay adventure. What did I buy? I bought a window into two forgotten witnesses and heroes of the, tom Milton and Dr Willard Calvin Haynes. Their names don't appear in any Eastland disaster history, anywhere that I could find, but their lives intersected twice, almost four decades apart, across multiple states.

Natalie Zett:

Let's start with Tom Milton, because he's the star of this eBay offering. I'm going to read the article about Tom Milton. This is from the Houston Chronicle. Date is Friday, january 15th 1954. There's a photo of Tom Milton and here's the caption beneath the photo. He doesn't need a diary. Tom Milton, a veteran of four wars and campaigns with the American and British armies, doesn't need a diary to remember the events of years gone by. He has a collection of medals, ribbons and commissions to remind him of the old days. Here he holds the campaign medal he received from the British government for service in the 16th Queen's Lancers Regiment in South Africa during the Boer War. Headline At 70, adventure-loving Actor Keeps Young with Excitement by Gilbert Gorman Chronicle staff.

Natalie Zett:

Tom Milton's quest for adventure has involved wars, revolutions and disasters on three continents, and he's not ready to quit. Yet. He was getting old, the Liverpool-born man asked with a laugh. His adventures finally led him to Houston and eventually to the one phase of his career for which his family, members of an old English theatrical family, had been hoping Acting. He is currently appearing in theater inks, the Eternal Eve, and it is this nightly activity, he claims, that is helping to keep him young. Quote I have these wonderful people at the theater to thank for it, he enthusiastically exclaimed.

Natalie Zett:

Young Tom ran away from home after completing his schooling because he didn't want to become an actor. Instead, he shipped on a cattle boat to Dublin, ireland, and enlisted in the 16th Queen's Lancers, a regiment that later saw distinguished service in South Africa during the Boer War, where he spent five years. Quote I never got a scratch in any of my wars, he declared. The regiment went back to England in 1905, and soon after Mr Milton was discharged as a sergeant scout. Still thirsting for adventure, he came to America the next year and worked for a while as a horse trainer, locomotive fireman, brakeman and construction worker. He joined the Western Electric Company in Chicago just in time to be in on the sensational Eastland ship disaster of July 24, 1915. The Eastland, loaded with several hundred Western Electric employees on their way to a company picnic, suddenly overturned at its Chicago River pier and 812 lives were lost. Quote I missed catching that boat by a minute. Mr Milton declared I was late in picking up my date and just as we crossed the bridge toward the boat we saw it turn over. We just stood there. It was awful.

Natalie Zett:

After his stint with Western Electric he enlisted in the 1st Illinois Cavalry Division, in time to be sent to the Mexican border where Pancho Villa was causing trouble. In 1917, his outfit was sent to Camp Logan near Houston for training, where it became part of the 33rd Division. Part of the 33rd Division. It was while I was there that I met Eloise DeLay in Houston. We had an understanding. Before I went overseas, the actor exclaimed. He had gone to officer's training school in Texas and emerged a second lieutenant In France. He won promotions to captain and joined Army Intelligence. When the conflict was over he returned to Houston to marry Miss DeLay, who came from an old French family. They had two children a son, thomas, now serving with the Army in Germany, and a daughter, eloise, who took up ballet, went to New York and became successful with the City Center Opera Ballet Company, ballet Theater and several Broadway shows. His wife died 11 years ago and he now lives alone in the family home at 412 McGowan.

Natalie Zett:

But life is far from lonely for Tom Milton. Still alert and vigorous, he insists he's not through yet. No use giving up just because you're 70, the aggressively friendly man said. There are plenty of things to do yet and I intend to do them. So you just listened to an article from the Houston Chronicle dated January 15th 1954. And this article, along with the photo and a letter that I will read to you, was what I purchased from eBay, and this article featured an interview with Tom Milton. Interview with Tom Milton and we learned that he was born in Liverpool, that he'd run away from home to avoid becoming an actor. That might be the first and last time you ever hear a story like that. And he got on with his life he did. But that experience of that day, it stayed with him for all of his life. And, as I've shared previously in other episodes, many of these people meaning witnesses or survivors of the Eastland disaster it's only when they become middle-aged or older that they are able and willing to talk about what they saw, what they experienced on July 24th 1915. 24, 1915.

Natalie Zett:

The second man in our story is Dr Willard Haynes, and he had an equally peripatetic life. Born in 1887 to a farming family, he earned his medical degree in 1903, but worked in a range of jobs—salesman, oilman, fruit seller. Like Tom Milton, he couldn't stay in one place, or even profession, for very long. So one day after he read Tom's interview in the Houston Chronicle, dr Haynes, then 77 and living in Falfurious Texas, wrote him a letter Foul Furious Texas, january 16th 54. Mr Thomas Milton, 412 McGowan, houston, texas.

Natalie Zett:

Dear Sir, stranger things have happened, but it just so happens that I was just on the approach of the bridge in Chicago the morning the Eastland turned over and over 800 drowned. I was among the very few firsts on the scene and assisted as far as I could, pulling some from the water, and I know from the clipping I enclosed that you too were there and assisted all you could. The dead laid out in the old Iroquois theater for identification was so sad a scene as I ever witnessed, and no doubt you too can still see these hand instruments and drowning men and women and children bobbing in the water screaming for help. I am 77 now but I will never forget the horror of that scene in the river and the tears of the dead laid out in rows in the old Iroquois theater for people to identify their dead. God grant that I never see such a disaster again and no doubt you join me in that hope. Sincerely WC Haynes, md, falfurius, texas.

Natalie Zett:

So Willard Haynes too kept that experience with him for the rest of his life and the article he saw about Tom Milton perhaps gave him permission for the first time to write about it. I don't know if they followed up with one another, I kind of think they probably did. But let's step back a second and talk about it's too much of a coincidence to be a coincidence Both guys who had been there in Chicago in 1915. Now, in 1954, they're both in Texas and this article about Tom Milton makes its way to Dr Willard Haynes. Talk about serendipity. It's not a coincidence, it's serendipity, it's precision timing, in fact. So those two men living in Texas in the 1950s are able to connect over the Eastland disaster, which happened in Chicago in 1915.

Natalie Zett:

Now fast forward to 2024. That's when certain assets from Tom Milton's estate well, they make their way to eBay and in turn make their way to me. Of course I had a little bit to do with that in terms of getting the wheels in motion. But without that eBay listing and without the seller's integrity and without Scott Fisher's casual advice to check eBay, I would have never found this and these men's stories, like the stories of so many others who had anything to do with the Eastland disaster, would have been lost, probably forever or for a really long time. So after I shared this story the first time in the podcast last year July 5th 2024, I digitized the materials, the article, the photo, the letter and sent off the originals to Alison Hinderleiter at the Newberry Library. So the Newberry Library in Chicago has an Eastland Disaster Historical Society records collection and I think that's still growing and they have various historical records pertaining to the Eastland disaster, including a ledger of employees from the Western Electric Company, a list of relatives employed after the disaster, memorial cards, photos and postcards. So check them out. I'll put a link in the show notes for that information as well. Them out. I'll put a link in the show notes for that information as well. Personally, it was a relief and a joy to be able to box this stuff up and send it off to the Newberry, knowing that it will be cared for there and available now and in the future for anyone researching the Eastland disaster, or rather the people of the Eastland disaster.

Natalie Zett:

This episode and the previous one that I did when I came upon the initial discovery it reminded me again of how easily these stories can vanish and how miraculously they can be rediscovered. And this story about the discovery of the Eastland disaster connection between Tom Milton and Willard Haynes via eBay. This is very unique, but I want to emphasize again that the majority of the stories are available online for free and it doesn't take that much work to find them. By now, just considering the victims alone, we should have over 800 stories and we don't have anything close to that. And I'm not even counting the other people who witnessed, who survived, who were involved in other capacities. Very few of those stories have been told as well, but we're taking care of that and I think that's the good news.

Natalie Zett:

So next week I will conclude this retrospective, but that doesn't mean that I won't continue to share stories that I shared previously, because a lot of times this podcast is the only time the story has been shared other than the first time it was printed. We will keep going and it'll take as long as it takes, but I want to make sure to honor all of the people who were affected by the Eastland disaster then and I want to honor the families. Now Take care of yourselves and take care of each other. I'll talk to 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.

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