There Were 600 Fires in Chicago the Year Before the Great Fire of 1871

From the August 29, 2021, Chicago Tribune "600 fires sprang up in Chicago the year before the Great Fire of 1871.  On the night before came this 'terrible' prediction" by Rick Kogan.

There is no way of knowing what was on people's minds in the hot and arid weeks before a certain cow is said to have kicked over a lantern and started the Great Chicago Fire in 1871. 

But, 150 years before that Jean Babtiste Point du Sable had not yet been born and only a few white men had ever even walked on the land that would eventually become Chicago.  The only fires here were those made by the Potawatomi, Sauk, Illinois, Algonquins, Iroquois and the Native American tribes that had been in the area for centuries.

As a matter of fact, for much of the 18th century, what would become Chicago was a place of warring tribes.  DuSable and his Potawatomi wife Kitihawa built their cabin on the banks of the Chicago River in the 1770s and a few other white settlers followed.

Most settled on the riverbanks near Fort Dearborn, built in the fall of 1803 and soon afterwards called "the best garrison in the country."

--CootSable

Chicago's Bohemian National Cemetery-- Part 9: SS Eastland Disaster

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.  

Missing the Boat May Have Saved George Halas' Life-- Part 2: "Papa Bear"

Roughly 2,500 employees and their families had boarded the ship, and at 7:25 a.m. it began listing and swaying from side to side.

A large crowd of horrified spectators watched as the Eastland -- a few feet from the bank of the Chicago River between LaSalle Drive and Clark Street -- turned on its side.  It was in 20 feet of water, deep enough to drown 844 people trapped or trampled below decks.

It is the deadliest day ever in Chicago and was the greatest peacetime inland waterway disaster in American history.

"His mother told him to say a rosary of gratitude that night," said Patrick McCaskey, Halas' grandson and Chicago Bears vice president.

--Cooter

Missing the Boat May Have Saved George Halas' Life-- Part 1: Was Supposed To Be On the Ill-fated Eastland

From the July 24, 2019, Chicago Tribune "Late arrival for boat ride may have saved Halas' life" by Tim Bannon.

Football's George Halas was supposed to go on the ill-fated SS Eastland on Saturday, July 24, 1915.

But, he was late.

At the time, he was a 20-year-old and had a job with Western Electric and that day was supposed to join his coworkers for a fun day aboard the SS Eastland which would cross the southern end of Lake Michigan for the telephone's picnic in Michigan City, Indiana.

But by the time he reached  the Chicago River dock, the Eastland  was already overturned.

--Cooter

Marking the Centennial of the 1915 SS Eastland Disaster-- Part 1: Many Don't Know About It

From the June 5, 2015, Chicago Tribune "Society to mark centennial of 1915 Eastland disaster" by Dawn Rhodes.

On July 25, 1915, the SS Eastland listed to its side in the Chicago River and sent hundreds  of passengers into the water, killing 844 people, including nearly two dozen whole families.

What started out as a day of fun including a boat trip to a picnic in Michigan City, Indiana, ended in Chicago's worse tragedy, much worse than the Great Chicago Fire and with deaths approaching those on the much-better known Titanic.

These days, descendants of an Eastland survivor are battling to preserve the doomed ship's memory.

Ted Wachholz, executive director of the Eastland Historical Society based in Arlington Heights said: "There are countless instances when we're talking to someone who has lived in Chicago their whole lives and they have never heard of it."

Historians to Stage Trial for Eastland Disaster-- Part 3: What Happened in Aftermath

Whatever comes out of the mock trial will likely be more conclusive than what happened in the aftermath 100 years ago.

The ship's captain, engineer and four company executives were charged with manslaughter and criminal carelessness in August 1915.  All in the group were accused of loading the ship "greatly in excess of the number of persons the boat could carry with safety."  They were also accused of operating the ship despite knowing it was in substandard condition and of hiring an incompetent engineer.

Captain Harry Pederson additionally was accused of not following the proper procedures and failing "to warn passengers to leave the Eastland when it became apparent to him that she was about to overturn."  Engineer Joseph Erickson faced similar charges.

But U.S. District Judge Clarence Sessions cleared the men, reasoning that there was not enough evidence to prove the group knew of or ignored problems with the ship.

In the end, no one was found criminally liable.  Law at the time limited damages to the value of the ship which came to about $46,000 which went to pay claims of companies that provided coal to the ship and that towed the Eastland out of the river.  Families received next to nothing.

Sure Wouldn't Have Happened Today.

Historians to Stage Trial for Eastland Disaster-- Part 2

There is no definitive cause for the capsizing of the SS Eastland which claimed 844 lives.  The dominant belief is that the ship had many structural flaws.  It was overloaded with life boats as a result of the Titanic's sinking three years earlier.  It had no keel and its ballast system was faulty.  That morning it was overloaded with at least 2,500 people on board.  The story also is around that most of the people rushed to one side.

Lawyers from Marshall Law School have teamed up to analyze the information from a modern legal perspective.  One challenge is to determine what kind of a trial it should be.  To use modern civil law would be extremely complicated.  Today, you would have gone after Western Electric, but they didn't sponsor the boat ride; it was an employee who organized it.

They decided the case was best suited for involuntary manslaughter against the Eastland owners.  That is when somebody unintentionally kills someone likely to cause death or great bodily harm..  Attorney Bob Clifford said that the owners knew the ship was ill-prepared for its voyage but didn't do anything about it.  The Eastland was actually certified for service but had quite a history of being unstable.

Six jurors will decide the case and audience members will be able to vote on the outcome.

Wonder What The Verdict Was?

Historians to Stage Trial for Eastland Disaster-- Part 1

From the June 18, 2015, Chicago Tribune by Dawn Rhodes.

"Early on Saturday morning in 1915, thousands of workers and family members from Western Electric Co. gathered on the Chicago River for a lake excursion and an employee picnic.

"But what was supposed to be a celebration swiftly turned catastrophic as the SS Eastland--the first of five vessels scheduled to shuttle passengers to the Michigan City, Ind., outing -- rocked alarmingly and capsized in the 20-foot-deep waterway between Clark and LaSalle streets, killing 844 people and wiping out nearly two dozen families.

"The horrific scenes July 14 marked the worst disaster in Chicago's history (much worse than the much-better-known Great Chicago Fire), but nobody was held responsible.  As the Eastland tragedy marks its centennial, historians and legal experts are staging a trial to keep relevant the memory of the disaster and illuminate the issues that never saw the inside of a Chicago courtroom."

And Most Chicagoans Don't Even Know About It.

New, Chilling Video Clip of the Eastland Tragedy Found-- Part 2

Continued from June 19th.

Ot took days for professional divers to recover the bodies (844 of them).  Searching a sunked ship that is pitch-black, almost the size of a football field, four stories tall and on its side in the Chicago River is no easy task.  The first-known clips of footage was found this month by a University of Illinois graduate student.

Television reports of the find prompted Northern Illinois University (my old school) master's degree candidate Alex Revzan to search through a British online newsreel archive.    The videos were not indexed so it took Revzan 90 minutes to go through hundreds of clips before he found one among several clips about shipwrecks.

Ted Wachholz, executive director of the Eastland Disaster Historical Society  he believed that even more footage might be found.  He said that hundreds of photos have been donated to them, but nothing mad ethe disaster more real than this recently discovered videos.

And, next month Will mark the 100th Anniversary of the Eastland Tragedy.

New, Chilling Video Clip of Eastland Tragedy Found-- Part 1

From the Feb. 26, 2015, Chicago Tribune "New, more chilling video clip emerges of Eastland tragedy" by Meredith Rodriguez.

A new film clip of the 1915 SS Eastland disaster on the Chicago River in downtown Chicago has surfaced just weeks after the first-known footage emerged.  This one shows the grim fate of the 844 people who died in the capsizing.

The Eastland Historical Society on Wednesday announced the discovery of the footage, which shows victims' bodies being pulled out of the hull and from the river.  The Eastland had been ferrying thousands of Western Electric Co. employees to a company picnic in Michigan City, Indiana when it rolled over at its wharf.  This footage is much different from the first two clips released

This clip shows a young woman in a white dress being pulled from the hull.  Then it shows people being pulled out of the river.

The 65-second clip which can be seen at the Eastland Disaster Historical Society's site www.eastlanddisaster.org/mews shows how rescue efforts were performed.  Rescuers had to search through the dark interior of the ship underwater amid the debris, furniture, deck chairs and boxes.

This July Will mark the 100th Anniversary of the Tragedy.  --Cooter

Chicago Needs a Lift-- Part 3: Reversing a River and Chlorination

There are stories of people getting stuck in traffic jams because someone was moving a building from one place to another.  They lifted an entire hotel while people were still init.  Today, all parts of downtown are about ten feet above the natural level of the city because of Ellis Chesbrough.

It was interesting that he borrowed technology from another field, the jack screw from railroads.

Before building it, Chesbrough had gone on a grand tour of Europe, but not to see sights like the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre.  He visited sewer systems.  A man dedicated to his work.
But, even with the new sewers, people were still getting sick after drinking the water.  This led to the more famous story of Chicago reversing the flow of the Chicago River so not to dump the contaminants into Lake Michigan, but instead to send it elsewhere.

And then there is the story of chlorinating the water, which is actually poisoning it.  So, you poison the water to make people healthier.

--Cooter