Flower in the River: A Family Tale Finally Told

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In this week’s episode, I continue reading from "Who Speaks for the Little Feller?"—Dwight Boyer’s unforgettable chapter in "True Tales of the Great Lakes" (1971), one of the earliest and most detailed accounts of the Eastland disaster. A meticulous maritime journalist, Boyer combined accuracy with deep empathy, giving voice to the people whose lives were forever altered that day.

This isn’t just history—it’s storytelling with heart. Names, quotes, context—it’s all there. Decades before anyone else tried to piece this together, Boyer had already done the work. George Hilton later built on that foundation with scholarly precision in Eastland: Legacy of the Titanic (1995), reinforcing what Boyer had captured through journalism and humanity.

Yet, in the 21st century, so many of those same stories still missing from modern retellings--specially the ones that are recycled constantly.

This episode is about honoring the storytellers who came before—and the real people whose lives they refused to let slip away. The work was already done. It’s time we reconnect with it.

• Book website: https://www.flowerintheriver.com/
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• YouTube: Flower in the River - A Family Tale Finally Told - YouTube
• Medium: Natalie Zett – Medium
• The opening/closing song is Twilight by 8opus
• Other music. Artlist

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What We’re Covering:

• Maritime journalist Dwight Boyer (1912–1977) published a detailed Eastland Disaster account in 1971—more than two decades before most major works on the subject
• His chapter in True Tales of the Great Lakes draws from courtroom records, witness interviews, and primary source material
• Although George Hilton cited Boyer in Eastland: Legacy of the Titanic, Boyer's work has otherwise been mostly overlooked or uncredited 

Highlights from Dwight Boyer's Career:

• Boyer wrote for the Toledo Blade (1944–1954) and Cleveland Plain Dealer (into the early 1970s)
• Respected journalist, known for precision, solid journalism, and vivid storytelling
• The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) cited his work in its Official Guide to Great Lakes Materials

Resources:

• Boyer, Dwight. True Tales of the Great Lakes. Cleveland: The World Publishing Company, 1971. — Chapter 2: “Who Speaks for the Little Feller” (Eastland Disaster)
• Hilton, George W. Eastland: Legacy of the Titanic. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1995.— Includes citation of Boyer’s 1971 account
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). A Guide to Selected Great Lakes Maritime History Materials at the National Archives–Great Lakes Region. Washington, D.C.: NOAA Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management, 1992.

• Book website: https://www.flowerintheriver.com/
• Substack: https://nataliezett.substack.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-z-87092b15/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zettnatalie/
• YouTube: Flower in the River - A Family Tale Finally Told - YouTube
• Medium: Natalie Zett – Medium
• The opening/closing song is Twilight by 8opus
• Other music. Artlist

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Released on July 24, 2025 – the 110th anniversary of the Eastland Disaster

On this pivotal anniversary, I’m sharing one of the most haunting firsthand accounts ever recorded about July 24, 1915—a story that doesn’t end when the ship rolled, but follows the tragedy all the way to its most chilling conclusion.

TRIGGER WARNING: There are graphic descriptions of death in this episode.

Jack Woodford was a 20-year-old aspiring writer standing on a Chicago River bridge when he witnessed something impossible: a massive steamer slowly rolling over "like a whale going to take a nap" in calm water on a sunny morning. But Jack's story doesn't end with the disaster itself. It continues through his swim across the river, his frantic reporting for the Chicago Herald and Examiner, and ultimately to a moment that would change his understanding of life and death forever.

At 3 AM, Jack was alone in an emergency morgue with hundreds of  Eastland victims. What he experienced there defied explanation - a presence, an awareness, something that suggested the boundary between life and death wasn't as clear as anyone believed. In his own words: "You could stand in the middle of the floor and by swiveling, see them all... It was as though their brains, having been taken out of play, their thought processes, somehow continued."

This episode features Jack's complete, unedited account from his 1962 autobiography - a powerful reminder that the Eastland disaster's most compelling stories often come from voices that have been overlooked or ignored.

About Jack Woodford: Born Josiah Pitts Woolfolk in 1894/5, Jack became a controversial novelist, pulp writer, and author of the famous writing manual "Trial and Error." He died in 1971, leaving behind over 100 novels and this extraordinary eyewitness account.

RESOURCES:

• The Autobiography of Jack Woodford (1962, published under Jack Woolfolk)
• The Pulp Scribbler meets the Capsized Ship (Flower in the River)

• Book website: https://www.flowerintheriver.com/
• Substack: https://nataliezett.substack.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-z-87092b15/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zettnatalie/
• YouTube: Flower in the River - A Family Tale Finally Told - YouTube
• Medium: Natalie Zett – Medium
• The opening/closing song is Twilight by 8opus
• Other music. Artlist

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What if being late saved your life?

In this episode of Flower in the River, we follow the eerie ripple of that question through time.

On the morning of July 24, 1915, Tom Milton and Willard Haynes were in Chicago when the Eastland Disaster unfolded. Milton missed boarding the ship by a single minute. Haynes, a physician, arrived just as chaos overtook the riverfront and assisted at the scene.

Their connection to the disaster surfaced in 1954 when both were living in Texas. That year, the Houston Chronicle published an interview with Milton in which he mentioned the Eastland Disaster. After reading the article, Haynes wrote a letter to Milton sharing his own experience of being there that day—opening with the words:

“Stranger things have happened…”

Their names do not appear in any known accounts of the Eastland Disaster. Their stories remained overlooked—until now.

This episode is about memory, timing, transparency, and the strange ways history finds its way back. It’s also a story within a story: about family archives, investigative instincts, and the quiet dignity of men whose roles in history were left unrecorded for nearly 40 years.

Spoiler alert: the eBay item that sparked this episode is now safely archived at the Newberry Library in Chicago!

Resources

• The Actor and the Doctor: Converging Lives Post-Eastland (released July 5, 2024) featuring the detailed stories of Tom Milton and Willard Haynes.
• Newberry Library, Eastland Disaster Digital Collection

• Book website: https://www.flowerintheriver.com/
• Substack: https://nataliezett.substack.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-z-87092b15/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zettnatalie/
• YouTube: Flower in the River - A Family Tale Finally Told - YouTube
• Medium: Natalie Zett – Medium
• The opening/closing song is Twilight by 8opus
• Other music. Artlist

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In this episode, we revisit the Bell Telephone News from August 1915 and the stories of  extraordinary individuals who responded to the Eastland disaster with courage and quick thinking:

• Fred J. Lippert - The telephone company engineer who happened to be wearing his bathing suit that morning (planning to swim after work) and dove repeatedly into the Chicago River to rescue victims. But his heroism didn't stop there - his entire life was defined by service and sacrifice.
• George Spiegelhauer - The methodical rescuer who knew how to operate the cutting-edge "pulmotor" resuscitation devices when others couldn't. His story has a beautiful twist involving beekeeping that perfectly captures his caring nature.
• H. Haberstroh - The vacationing boatman whose pleasure craft was pressed into rescue service by police.
• James Carney - The unsung hero who literally had to swim 100 feet in semi-darkness to install emergency telephone lines at the life-saving station, ensuring communication could flow during the crisis.

The Fire That Almost Was

I'll also share the spine-chilling story of an unnamed plant department worker who prevented what could have been a catastrophic fire at the Second Regiment Armory - where hundreds of people were gathered to identify their loved ones. Imagine the panic that could have ensued.

The Bigger Picture

Though freely available in digital archives, these firsthand accounts have remained largely overlooked for more than a century. They reveal not just moments of individual heroism, but the critical, behind-the-scenes work that connected rescuers, hospitals, morgues, and desperate families—long before the digital age. In just a few hours, the telephone company installed nearly 40 emergency lines, creating a vital communication network during one of Chicago’s darkest days.

These stories raise important questions about historical memory: Who gets remembered, and why?  By reclaiming their stories, we not only honor their courage, but also gain a fuller understanding of how communities respond in moments of crisis.

Resources

• Selfless Saviors: Two Extraordinary Rescuers in the Eastland Disaster
• Bell Telephone News, 1915
• American Ancestors

• Book website: https://www.flowerintheriver.com/
• Substack: https://nataliezett.substack.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-z-87092b15/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zettnatalie/
• YouTube: Flower in the River - A Family Tale Finally Told - YouTube
• Medium: Natalie Zett – Medium
• The opening/closing song is Twilight by 8opus
• Other music. Artlist

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In this week’s episode of Flower in the River, we unearth a powerful 1952 article written by author Olive Carruthers—an overlooked piece of Eastland Disaster history that should be widely known but has remained hidden for over 70 years. Through Carruthers’ evocative writing, we meet three remarkable figures:

• Catherine O’Reilly, the telephone operator who took the call about the Eastland disaster—and whose own brother, Patrick, was among the victims.
• Enoch Moberg, a deep-sea diver from Evanston who pulled more than 60 bodies from the wreckage and yet remains mostly unrecognized today.
• Olive Carruthers herself, a poet and author whose beautiful, human-centered storytelling reminds us why these names matter.

We also unpack why these stories were forgotten—and how rediscovering them reframes what we know about that tragic day in 1915.

What you’ll hear in this episode:

📞 The call Catherine O’Reilly made—and the call she dreaded to receive.

🤿 The incredible heroism of Enoch Moberg, a city diver who worked nonstop in pitch-black waters to retrieve the lost.

✍️ The literary legacy of Olive Carruthers, who wrote with clarity, compassion, and historical insight.

🕵️‍♀️ Why so many Eastland stories remain sidelined —and what it takes to bring them back.

Resources:

• Carruthers, Olive. “How Evanstonians Assisted in the Eastland Disaster.” The Evanston Review, October 23, 1952. In Evanston’s First 100 Years.
• The Piper City Journal, December 20, 1917. “Diver Works in Bitter Cold.” A piece that references Enoch Moberg’s service as a diver for Evanston, including his role in the Eastland Disaster.
• “From Ashes to Action” (about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (1911) and the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition.  Fill to Capacity Podcast (host, Pat Benincasa)
• Threads of Tragedy: The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire and the Eastland Disaster. (Flower in the River Podcast)
• Additional music in this episode sourced from Pixabay Music.

• Book website: https://www.flowerintheriver.com/
• Substack: https://nataliezett.substack.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-z-87092b15/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zettnatalie/
• YouTube: Flower in the River - A Family Tale Finally Told - YouTube
• Medium: Natalie Zett – Medium
• The opening/closing song is Twilight by 8opus
• Other music. Artlist

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In this episode, I’m circling back to three stories I’ve covered before—but they’re too important to leave behind.

First up: Floyd C. Smith, a hardworking Chicago salesman who was near the dock when the Eastland capsized. He assisted and was later recognized by Coroner Peter Hoffman as a citizen hero. I found Floyd through his granddaughter, Ann, who shared his story in The Chicago Genealogist (Vol. 48, No. 3, Spring 2016).

Next: Gertrude Berndt, who survived the Eastland—and twelve years later, survived The Favorite, another boat that capsized and claimed four members of her family. She had warned them about the boat. No one listened. Among those who helped with the rescue that day? A young lifeguard named Johnny Weissmuller, who would later swing to fame as Tarzan of the silver screen.

And finally: Bob Satterfield, a political cartoonist who was on the Clark Street Bridge when the Eastland went over. He didn’t just witness it—he captured it in a searing cartoon and a raw, first-person account.

Like so many Eastland stories, these didn’t make it into the version of history that gets repeated the most. But they’re part of the record—and they’re not going away.

As we approach the 110th anniversary of the Eastland Disaster, remembrance isn't something we perform once a year—it's the work of uncovering each story, name by name.  

Watch the Promo for this Episode here: Promo for “One Saved Lives. One Survived Twice. One Drew the Truth. 

• Book website: https://www.flowerintheriver.com/
• Substack: https://nataliezett.substack.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-z-87092b15/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zettnatalie/
• YouTube: Flower in the River - A Family Tale Finally Told - YouTube
• Medium: Natalie Zett – Medium
• The opening/closing song is Twilight by 8opus
• Other music. Artlist

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In this special retrospective, I’m circling back to some of the most powerful stories I’ve uncovered in my Eastland research—stories that have been entirely absent from the popular historical accounts of the disaster.

Meet James Gardner, a survivor who not only escaped the capsized vessel but went on to rescue nine women and two men from the Chicago River. His vivid first-person account, published just days after the disaster, offers rare and crucial insight—from the moment the Eastland began to list, to the horrifying sounds of panic as passengers realized what was happening. Despite being easily accessible in digital archives, Gardner’s name is missing from nearly every modern retelling of the tragedy.

Even more haunting is the story of Hancock John Harmon, celebrated in his 1917 obituary as a “hero of the Eastland disaster.” Harmon spent an entire day in the contaminated Chicago River recovering bodies—an act of selflessness that would ultimately cost him his health, and eventually, his life. As one Eastland family member would later say about similar cases:

“He didn’t die on the Eastland. Instead, he died of the Eastland.”

We also revisit the literary response to the tragedy through Agnes Lee’s poem “Eastland Waters,” published in 1916. The daughter of Rand McNally co-founder William H. Rand, Lee was a respected poet whose work appeared alongside the likes of Robert Frost. And yet, her haunting tribute to the disaster has been largely forgotten—even in her own city.

These rediscovered voices raise urgent questions:

Who decides what gets remembered? What stories are left out—and why? And as we approach the 110th anniversary in 2025, what other voices still wait in the shadows, asking to be heard?

Subscribe to be part of the ongoing work to bring these lost narratives back into the light—and to help reclaim a more honest, complete, and human record of the Eastland Disaster.

Resources

• Agnes Lee, “Eastland Waters,” Poetry: A Magazine of Verse, Feb 1916.
• Galena Daily Gazette, 27 July 1915 (James Gardner)
• “Hero of Eastland Tragedy Dies, Result of Shock.” The Grand Rapids Press, October 3, 1917.

• Book website: https://www.flowerintheriver.com/
• Substack: https://nataliezett.substack.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-z-87092b15/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zettnatalie/
• YouTube: Flower in the River - A Family Tale Finally Told - YouTube
• Medium: Natalie Zett – Medium
• The opening/closing song is Twilight by 8opus
• Other music. Artlist

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This is a special bonus episode in honor of Father’s Day 2025.

On an ordinary evening in 1960s Cleveland, an unexpected knock at the door changed the way I saw my father forever.

This short, true story is a tribute to Robert Joseph Zett (aka, Dad), a working-class man who never thought of himself as brave—but showed me what quiet courage really looks like.

Video Link:

The Night Nobody Came Knocking – A Father’s Day Story

• Book website: https://www.flowerintheriver.com/
• Substack: https://nataliezett.substack.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-z-87092b15/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zettnatalie/
• YouTube: Flower in the River - A Family Tale Finally Told - YouTube
• Medium: Natalie Zett – Medium
• The opening/closing song is Twilight by 8opus
• Other music. Artlist

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In this episode, I explore an aspect of the Eastland Disaster that’s rarely  investigated: the insurance industry’s response. It’s not as dry as it sounds!

We take a deep look at The Insurance Post, an independent trade journal published out of the Royal Insurance Building in Chicago in 1915. This was likely never meant for public eyes—and it offers a stark, often unsettling glimpse into how the insurance industry processed the Eastland tragedy.

📌 In this episode:

• The surprising hub Chicago was for the early 20th-century insurance industry
• What the 1915 Insurance Post really said about the Eastland—down to numbers, payouts, and public image
• A glimpse into how working-class families tried to protect themselves with fraternal insurance
• The chilling way insurance agents used the disaster to boost sales
• A breakdown of “pass-the-hat” insurance and its not-so-charitable implications
• We tend to trust numbers, but in a disaster like the Eastland, the math--whether insurance payouts or casualty numbers--deserves a second look.

📚 Bonus: Learn what a “baby elevator” was. (No, it’s not a metaphor. Yes, it’s as weird as it sounds.)

Resources:

• Insurance Post of Chicago
• Chicagology -  Royal Insurance Building
• History of US Insurance

• Book website: https://www.flowerintheriver.com/
• Substack: https://nataliezett.substack.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-z-87092b15/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zettnatalie/
• YouTube: Flower in the River - A Family Tale Finally Told - YouTube
• Medium: Natalie Zett – Medium
• The opening/closing song is Twilight by 8opus
• Other music. Artlist