On July 24, 1915, the SS Eastland -- loaded with Western Electric employees and their families -- prepared to depart from its dock on the Chicago River in downtown Chicago and head across Lake Michigan for a company picnic in Michigan City, Indiana.
The boat suddenly listed to its side and capsized, trapping hundreds in the vessel as water poured in. Out of the 844 people drowned, Bohemian Cemetery has 143 Eastland victims buried in its plots, the most of any cemetery in the Chicago area.
Of the 22 families wiped out by the disaster, four are buried in the cemetery. Some, including those of Czech ancestry, include a short line -- "obet Eastlandu" or "victim of the Eastland."
Almost 100 years later, a memorial was dedicated to the victims of that ship at the Bohemian cemetery. A black plaque described the disaster on one side and details of the Eastland gravesites on the other. A granite slab with a ship's wheel juts out of the slab with carved ripples that represent the sinking of the ship and its raising following the incident.
Sadly, Today, the Tragedy Is Hardly Remembered.
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