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Being a few minutes late can change an entire life.
Yet being thoroughly documented doesn’t guarantee anyone will keep researching.
This week, we follow two strikingly different threads from the 1915 Eastland disaster and examine how unevenly this history has been documented.
First, let’s talk about Dorothy Berman.
In July 1985, seventy years after the disaster, Dorothy went back to the Chicago River and shared her story with several newspapers. At the time of the disaster, she was a 20-year-old file clerk at Western Electric who planned to board the Eastland for the company picnic but showed up late. Instead, she stood on the riverbank and watched the ship capsize “like a toy,” while people screamed and slid into the water. She survived, but the memories of that day stayed with her for the rest of her life.
When Dorothy was almost ninety, she spoke to reporters, and her story appeared in newspaper after newspaper. Still, in modern histories of the Eastland disaster, her name and eyewitness account are missing.
Next, we meet Fred Hornburg, his father, and his brothers, all Western Electric employees who survived. Today, they linger as little more than names on a list, while the lives and connections behind those names have gone largely unexplored.
Fred told the story of his Eastland survival in a 1951 newspaper article. By then, he was working as a bridge tender, looking directly over the stretch of the Chicago River where the ship capsized. His account takes us back to Fred at fourteen, trapped inside the Eastland as the water rushed in, and follows his remarkable escape.
The article also mentions the use of a Pulmotor resuscitation device, giving us another look at how Chicago responded to emergencies and connecting this story to the city’s earlier experience with the Iroquois Theater fire.
Dorothy Berman’s eyewitness account was recorded in newspaper after newspaper, then disappeared from modern histories. Fred Hornburg and his family remained, but mostly as names on a page.
In this episode, we put the people back behind those names.
Resources:
“Recalls Eastland Loss from Job Vantage Point.” Chicago Sun-Times, July 25, 1951, p. 49.
“Eyewitness Recalls Chicago River Tragedy 70 Years Ago.” Alton Telegraph (Alton, IL), July 29, 1985, p. 3.
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