Flower in the River: A Family Tale Finally Told

A Hero at the Porthole: The Rabe Family’s Story

• Natalie Zett • Season 4 • Episode 143

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A forgotten headline. A crowded dock. A father who turns back to a capsized  ship and pulls a family friend through a porthole. In this episode, we follow the Rabe family—Fred, Delia, Grace, and Kenneth—from a terrifying morning on the Chicago River into the decades that followed, when work, service, and community stitched their lives into something livable again. We open the archive, and listen as Grace and Kenneth share their memories of that day, 84 years later.

Grace becomes a skilled comptometer operator at Western Electric, part of a large, highly trained cohort of women whose precision work kept the company running long before electronics took over. Kenneth rises through the company and never boards a pleasure boat without remembering the river. Fred advances to department manager, yet even after a 1999 article documented his rescue of family friend Anna Johnson, the act was never acknowledged. It’s another example of how an Eastland story can surface clearly in the record yet fade again, even when it should have been carried forward. Their obituaries turn out to be maps—Telephone Pioneers chapters, Eastern Star ties, addresses that trace moves across neighborhoods and seasons of service. Those details show how survivors rebuilt meaning through hands-on volunteer work, fraternal lodges, and a workplace culture that blended pride with mutual aid.

Resources: 

  • Northlake Herald-Journal (IL), December 1, 1999 — “Eastland Disaster All But Forgotten,” by Jennifer Giustino.
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 143 of Flower in the River. And I hope you are doing well. This week I decided that it was time to look at all the backlog of stories that I had been collecting over the past couple of years. For all the stories that I've shared with you, I probably have twice as many that have not seen the light of day. So I wanted to get to them to make sure that they are shared because I have the feeling, based on the patterns that I've seen, they probably will not be shared. I found a partial newspaper clipping, and God knows where I got that from. It appears to be something from Google Books, but it didn't take much time at all to find out its source of origin. And it is a magnificent story of an entire family who survived. The father in the family was a hero. He rescued somebody, and the children were the ones who later in life shared the story. I have seen their names, but curiously enough, they have no biographical information on any of the Eastland websites. However, I have been able to find them and their stories elsewhere. There is a lot of information here, so let's jump in. I would like to introduce you to the Robbie family. That's R-A-B-E. I'm assuming that is how the surname is pronounced. First of all, there's Frederick Robbie, the father, born in 1882, died in 1952. There is his wife, Delia Laura Emo, was her birth name, born in 1883, and died in 1968. Then we have the children. Kenneth John Robbie, who was born in 1911 and died in the year 2000, so he was just four years old when the family was aboard the Eastland. Then there is Grace Robbie, who was born in 1907 and also died in January 2000, and she was about eight years old when she was aboard the Eastland. It's the children, the Robbie children, who tell the story, and they tell it much, much later in life. And they were interviewed, and the story appeared in a newspaper. And I will share the article with you now. And I hope you will enjoy meeting this remarkable family. This article is from the North Lake Herald Journal in Illinois. It was published December 1st, 1999. Headline Eastland Disaster All But Forgotten by Jennifer Gustino. Here's the article. It is considered one of the worst maritime catastrophes in American history. No, it is not the Titanic. Most people don't even know it is Chicago's worst single disaster. It was the SS Eastland disaster of July 24th, 1915. On the south side of the Chicago River, near the Clark Street Bridge in Chicago, thousands of Western Electric Company employees and their families gathered to board the excursion steamer for the annual company picnic in Michigan City, Indiana. Fred and Delia Robbie of the city's Austin neighborhood had met while working for Western Electric and eventually married. With their two children in tow, they, like so many other employees, believed the day was going to be the perfect family outing. Kenneth and Grace Robbie were only four and eight years old, respectively. Neither had been on a ship before. Quote, I suppose we were very excited, remembered Grace Robbie Nielsen, ninety-two, now residing in the Villa Scalabrini home for the aged in Northlake. Quote, it was the first time we were on a ship, though only four, a smart four, as he puts it. Brother Kenneth says he remembers the tragic event. Quote, I remember that it was not a cold day, but it was overcast, and I remember walking with my sister, mother, and father to catch the streetcar, said Robbie eighty-eight. Quote, I was wearing my sailor suit for the event, and I remember I was quite jubilant, as everyone was. It was to be a nice little boat ride across the lake to Michigan City for a picnic. Passengers enthusiastically began loading onto the ship at a rate of fifty per minute until reaching the capacity of two thousand five hundred seventy-two. Quote, at first we headed for the lower docks, but my parents thought it was much too crowded and noisy because everyone was celebrating. So they moved us up to the upper decks. And thank goodness they did, Kenneth said. What started out as a day of fun quickly turned into tragedy. Just as the passenger steamer cast off from the dock, the ship immediately began listing, or leaning back and forth. At approximately 7.30 AM, only twenty minutes after all of the passengers had boarded, the list became so severe the eastland rolled over on its port side and settled on the muddy bottom of the Chicago River. Quote, it was horrible. Everything turned to chaos. People began falling and some were jumping into the water. I saw those people grasping onto anything they could and struggling in the water. Quote, we were on the right side of the ship, the side that didn't go under. We climbed over the boat, and I can remember it was very slippery, very slippery, and my mother and father had control of us. Thank God we were able to climb to the dock, said Robbie. John Nielsen, Grace's son, lives in Elmwood Park. He knows his mother, uncle, grandmother, and grandfather were among the fortunate ones. Quote, they were able to get to safety and got themselves to the part of the ship that didn't go under, he said he has been told. Quote, but other people were going into the ship and getting trapped. And still others were either trapped under the ship or were struggling to stay afloat in the river's current. Anyone and everyone who heard the piercing screams and shrills of panic tried to help, including Grace and Ken's father, who saved a woman who became trapped in one of the portholes. Quote, When we got to the dock, my mom and dad sat us down and my dad went back to the boat, Kenneth recalled. A family friend of ours, Anne Johnson, was stuck in one of the portholes, and he lifted her out. Kenneth also said he remembers that as the tragedy and chaos swirled around him, he was not afraid. The shock set in later. You know, I don't remember being scared right away. It wasn't until two or three hours later that I started shaking all over, said Kenneth. I just thank God my mom and dad had control over us and knew what to do. It was such a horrible day. By the afternoon the second Regiment Armory on Washington Boulevard had been established as the Central Morgue. By midnight, those who feared they might have lost a loved one were admitted to see the casualties. More people died in the Eastland disaster than perished in the Great Chicago fire, making it Chicago's worst single disaster. More passengers of the Eastland died than passengers of the Titanic, since casualties of the Titanic were largely crew members. Still, not many people have knowledge of the disaster. Quote, it's hard to figure out why it is not really known by most people, even people from the area, said John Nielsen. It is the worst thing that ever happened in Chicago's history, and nobody has heard of it. Kenneth said, when he tells people he was aboard the Eastland, few know what he is talking about. They say what? Then I tell them about it. I think providing publicity about this is worthwhile because it was such a horrible thing. I mean, about eight hundred and fifty people died. I doubt that is in the history books, and I think it should be given its due attention, Kenneth said. He added since the historic day, he and his wife have taken in more than one hundred cruises, and each time he has thought of the Eastland. But just as the knowledge of the Eastland and its survivors is largely unknown, so too is the exact cause of why the ship turned on its side. Some have speculated the ship was poorly engineered and was top heavy, even though it passed federal inspections. Extensive and complex investigations, as well as lawsuits, followed the disaster, but turned up nothing concrete. The United States Court of Appeals ruled in 1935 the St. Joseph Chicago Steamship Company, the ship's manufacturer, was not liable for the deaths in the disaster, that the ship was seaworthy, and that operators took proper precautions. While the Eastland was refloated rather quickly, renamed the USS Wilmet and refitted as a naval training vessel, it was eventually broken up for scrap in 1947. It is believed there are only about four or five survivors from the Eastland disaster still living today. Beginning this February, the Museum of Science and Industry will unveil what they claim is the world's largest display on the Titanic. A spokeswoman for the museum said there will also be about seventy-five linear feet devoted to the Eastland disaster, whereby photographs, video, and artifacts will serve to represent Chicago's forgotten disaster. End of article. How about that article? There is so much there, and I am going to try to, as they say, unpack the key information for you. Let's start with Fred Robbie. Fred is the father of Ken and Grace, and he was married to Delia. So Fred Robbie was a hero, and as far as I can tell, he's never been acknowledged as a hero of the Eastland disaster. Fred Robbie's children, Grace and Ken, recall that there was a woman, Anna Johnson or Anne Johnson. Fred Robbie rescued her by pulling her through a porthole. He could have chosen to stay on the dock with his family, but instead he went to rescue this woman. And this woman, because her name is Anna Johnson, she'll be a little difficult to find, but we'll take a look and see if there are any accounts anywhere for a survivor called Anna Johnson or Ann Johnson. So we have a hero, Fred Robbie. So we're going to zigzag a bit through the lives of the Robbie family. First of all, let's talk about Grace. What happened to Grace Robbie after the Eastland disaster? Well, given the fact that she was in her 90s when she was interviewed, Grace went on to live a long life, and she died a year after the article was printed. And stepping back, every time I find an article like this about a survivor or a witness or even someone who lost a family member or friend in the Eastland disaster, I often wonder how many other missed opportunities have yet to be located. I'm talking about interviews that were done once and never followed up on, and the stories that seem to have been there and then they vanish. Speaking of the Robbie family, I did find a few references to them after this article was printed, but none of these references cited where the information came from. And they don't seem to have come from this article. So until the primary sources show up, I'm going to ignore these. I mean, there's already enough Eastland mythology or fan fiction out there, and I don't want to add to that. So you're probably wondering why the Robbie family was aboard the Eastland in the first place? Well, Fred Robbie, a German immigrant, worked for Western Electric. And the family seemed to stay in the same neighborhood, and that would be the Austin neighborhood, which is seven miles west of the loop for Chicagoans. And the entire Robbie family was a Western Electric family, even after the Eastland disaster. And I'll explain that in a bit. As for Grace Robbie, she graduated from Austin High School in 1925. I was able to locate her yearbook photo, and I have to say it's really cute. And she was a Latin scholar, and her desire in life was to become a nurse. I don't think she ever fulfilled that desire, but she did some other things that were also equally remarkable. So we're jumping ahead to the 1930s census. At that point, Grace is twenty-three years old, single, still living at home, and she's working for Western Electric. And her occupation is listed as, wait for this word, a comptometer operator. And it is spelled C O M P T O M E T E R. A Comptometer is a mechanical calculator invented by Dorr, Eugene Felt, and Robert Torrent in 1887, Guess Which City, Chicago, and it is notable for being the first to use push buttons for input. Think of it as a gigantic, ginormous, old-fashioned calculator. And according to this article, which is a compilation of articles that I found on Google, the comptometer was widely used in business until the late 1970s, when it was replaced by electronic calculators and computers. Although its operators often preferred it for adding lists due to its speed. Go figure. And you can buy one off of eBay too, by the way. I'm not going to be doing that, but it's there for the taking. And the comptometer operator was the employee, usually, maybe always, a woman, who was working on the device, the comptometer. That is a mouthful, by the way. So as mentioned, it was women who did this work, and it was not easy work. I don't think any of us could pull this off today. It was specialized, skilled work. Fast fingers, they had to move really fast. Absolute precision. No room for errors. These women handled payroll, billing, inventory numbers, probably all sorts of other things for companies like Western Electric. Here's some additional information about Fred Robby, the father and the hero. He was born in Germany and baptized in Russell, Mecklenburg, Schwerin, and immigrated in 1888, according to this census. Another census has him immigrating in 1887. He married Delia Laura Emo in 1905. And in the 1910 census, they were living at 3416 North Hamilton Avenue in Chicago, and Fred was working for Western Electric. By 1920, the family had moved to 1114 Mansfield Street, and Fred was still working for Western Electric. And by 1930, Fred is still with Western Electric, but by then he has moved up the ranks and he is a department manager. Let's take a look at the obituaries and see what they tell us about the Robbie family members. Here's the obituary for Frederick Theodore Martin Robbie. Word has been received here of the recent death in Chicago of F. M. Robbie, 18 Gordon Road, a resident of Fort Lauderdale, for nine years. Mr. Robbie died July 1st at Chicago Presbyterian Hospital of a heart attack which followed surgery. He was a member and past member of Old Glory Lodge No. 975 AF and AM, past patron of Jephtha Chapter 340 OES, that's the Order of the Eastern Star, and was a life member of the Telephone Pioneers of America, Hawthorne Chapter, No. 45, All of Chicago. Burial was in Oak Ridge Cemetery, Chicago, Illinois. He leaves his wife, Delia E. Robbie, Fort Lauderdale, a daughter, Mrs. Grace S. Nielsen, Elmwood Park, Illinois, and a son, Kenneth J. Robbie, Indianapolis, Indiana, and four grandchildren. This particular death notice was from the Fort Lauderdale News, Friday, July eighteenth, nineteen fifty-two. The death notice was repeated in other newspapers as well. Let's move on to Delia Emo Robbie, her obituary, which is from the Chicago Tribune october eighth, nineteen sixty-eight. Delia Robbie, Nay Emo, beloved wife of the late Fred, fond mother of Grace Nielsen, and Kenneth Robbie, grandmother of four, great grandmother of three, resting at Lewis Funeral Home, seventy six hundred West Grand Avenue at the Circle, Tuesday after four PM, funeral Wednesday, October ninth at one PM, member of the Jeptha chapter number three hundred forty, interment Oak Ridge Cemetery. Here is Grace Robbie Nielsen's obituary, and she died a year after that interview took place. This is from the Chicago Tribune, January ninth, year two thousand. Grace S. Nielsen, Ney Robbie, beloved wife of the late Norman, loving mother of John, sister of Kenneth, dear aunt to one niece and two nephews, lifetime member of the Berwin Chapter of the Eastern Star, member of the Telephone Pioneers Club, survivor of the Eastland disaster, resting at Lewis Funeral Home seventy six hundred West Grand Avenue at the Circle, Elmwood Park, Sunday from three to nine PM, funeral Monday, january tenth, eleven AM to Christ Episcopal Church, five hundred fifteen Franklin River Forest, service at eleven thirty AM, internment at Oak Ridge Cemetery, Hillside. And Kenneth Robbie, that's Grace's brother, he died in May of 2000, and this is his obituary from the Orlando Sentinel, May 9th, year 2000. Kenneth Robbie, eighty-eight, Eustace, died Wednesday, May 3rd. Mr. Robbie worked for Western Electric as a department chief. Born in Chicago, he moved to Central Florida in 1973. He was a member of St. Thomas Episcopal Church. Then they list a daughter, two sons, eight grandchildren, and eight great grandchildren. We don't have much information on Kenneth, but he died right after this article was published. So it's breathtaking that these things happen the way they happen. And since this legacy has not been very well documented in the twenty first century, I'm sure we've lost a lot more, but I'm concentrating on what we've been able to locate. So that's the good news. There's always good news, and there are probably a lot more stories yet to be uncovered. What's wonderful about Grace's obituary is the fact that the Eastland disaster was mentioned. That's huge. A lot of times in people's stories and survivor stories or family members' stories, that is not mentioned. So let's talk about some of the topics that were brought up in the article as well as the obituaries. There's actually a lot more history here than just the Eastland disaster. Let's talk about the telephone pioneers that were mentioned in these obituaries. One thing worth noting about Grace's life is her connection to the telephone pioneers of America. The pioneers were founded in 1911, and they became the largest industry-based service organization in the country, especially among employees of Western Electric, ATT, and the Bell System. Membership wasn't automatic, by the way. You usually joined after years of steady work. When someone showed up as a pioneer, it meant they had built a long, solid career inside of that world. For Western Electric workers, the pioneers were a big deal. They blended social life, professional pride, and community service. Members volunteered in schools, repaired equipment for people with disabilities, organized fundraisers and spent weekends helping with all sorts of local projects. It was hands-on practical service very much in the spirit of the working people who kept the early telephone system running. Women were not sidelined in this organization either. They served as officers, committee leads, crafters for charity drives, and organizers of social events. A trained comptometer operator like Grace, someone who handled complex, precision-based work, fit right into that culture. And the fact that her father was a pioneer as well shows how deeply the Robbie family was woven into Western Electric's community life. And think about it, this was after the Eastland disaster. And this additional information helps flesh out the lives of this family. They weren't just people who survived the Eastland disaster, they had lives. This additional information about Grace tells us that she just wasn't an employee who worked a job. She was part of this larger network of Western Electric people who stayed connected years after they left the Hawthorne plant each day. For someone who survived the Eastland disaster as a child and grew up in the shadow of that event, these community ties likely provided continuity and a sense of belonging that lasted her whole life long. Can you imagine the discussions between these people who either survived or witnessed it or who lost family members in it? That would be a fascinating conversation, that's for sure. Now, we also learned that lodges played a huge role in the Robbie family's lives. I've done several episodes about lodges, and Grace's name pops up in membership lists for the Order of the Eastern Star, that's OES. And her dad was a member as well. And the OES still seems to be one of the largest fraternal organizations open to both men and women. I need to verify that. It's essentially the Masonic Family's Auxiliary Organization, founded in the 1850s and built around service, charity, and community fellowship. Membership in the OES required a Masonic connection, typically a relative who was a master Mason, which was very common in communities with large civic cultures like Chicago and its suburbs. By the early 20th century, OES chapters functioned as social anchors. They organized charity drives, sick visitation committees, scholarship funds, and neighborhood events. For a lot of women, it offered leadership roles that they couldn't get elsewhere, from Running committees to planning public programs, and you get that sense of continuity from one generation to the next. I think of these as kind of a civic club, mutual aid society, and family tradition rolled into one. So I hope you enjoyed learning more about the Robbie family, learning not just about their status as rescuer and survivor family, but also the lives that they led before and after the Eastland disaster. So next week I have more stories to share. I have quite the backlog. So we will be busy, and I will also bring back the other stories that I've shared earlier in 2025 to make sure that those folks are not forgotten. In the meantime, have a great week. Take care of yourselves and take care of each other. I will talk to you next week. That's www.flowerinther.com. 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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Natalie Zett

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