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.  

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.

Chicago's Eastland Disaster-- Part 3: Comparing the Disasters

It was July 15, 1915, and the time for the fifth annual employee picnic for the workers at Chicago's huge Western Electric plant.

Five ships had been hired to take the people to Michigan City.    One of the five was the ship heralded as the "Speed Queen of the Great Lakes," the SS Eastland.

Twenty-two entire families died in the tragedy.

And now, that tragedy has been largely forgotten.  Not all tragedies in Chicago have been though.  Most everyone knows about the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, you know, the one supposedly started by Mrs. O'Leary's cow.  Somewhere between 300-400 died in it.

Then there was the Chicago Iroquois Theater fire in 1903, which killed 606.  People remember that.

Another disaster most people know is the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, especially thanks to Gordon Lightfoot's song about it.  Twenty-nine died in that one.

Somewhat forgotten, though, is the wreck of the ship Lady Elgin in Lake Michigan in which 279 perished.

Chicago's Eastland Disaster-- Part 2

Of 2,500+ passengers on the SS Eastland that July 15, 1915, morning, 844 died.  Some 7,000 Western Electric workers, their families and friends had purchased tickets for what was planned to be a great day of fun and activities, including a round trip boat trip to Michigan City, for a picnic and activities.  Everyone of these mostly 2nd and 3rd generation immigrants was primed for fun.

One of the people planning to go was a young man named George Hallas, who later became known as one of the founders of the NFL and, of course, Da Bears.

Barb Kohler's grandmother was one who survived what the Chicago Tribune called in bold headlines the next day the "Most Appalling Cathedral in the History of Inland Navigation."

Sadly, the Eastland tragedy has been lost in history.

Chicago's Eastland Disaster-- Part 1 "Wasn't No One Rich or Famous On That Boat"

Yesterday, I went to the Fox Lake, Illinois, Library, to see a presentation by the Eastland Disaster Historical Society.

They started with this quote:

"Wasn't no one rich or famous on that boat when it went down.
Only dusty men with dusty books know or care who drowned."

This pretty well sums up the story of the Eastland.  Even many Chicagoans know little or nothing about the fated vessel called the Eastland.

Three members of the society mad the presentation.  Two of them were descendants of one of the survivors, their grandmother.  Had she perished that horrific day, almost 100 years ago, they would not have been in the library last night.

Ted Wattles was the other presenter.

Eastland Disaster Talk Tonight

The Eastland Disaster Historical Disaster Society will give a talk on one of Chicago's greatest tragedies tonight at the Fox Lake, Illinois, library through photos, video and first-person narratives.  The presentation will be given by descendants of the survivors.

I was there and will write about it beginning tomorrow.