On July 24, 1915, 844 people (472 women, 290 children, and 82 men) died in the Chicago River, in 20 feet of water, just yards from shore. This disaster still boggles my mind every time I think about it. I used to walk by the memorial every day and wonder how it could have happened. I’ve even read the very thorough The Sinking of the Eastland and still don’t understand how such a thing could have happened.
The Chicago Tribune published a collection of articles on it that also make for a good read.
Wow, I’d never heard anything about this. Fascinating and so very sad, thanks for sharing.
You’re welcome Queen Tonya. Thanks for that link MikeS, I hadn’t seen that. I realize my math was wrong. It was 96 years ago, not 94.
That is amazing. I had never heard of it. How sad it must be to pass the place where it happened.
There are other tragedies that have happened to “lower class” people that have been well remembered. One example is the Triangle Factory Fire.
My dad worked in what was one of the Western Electric buildings back in the 60s/70s. There was a plaque there with the names of everyone who died. I wonder whatever happened to that.
It is, if you know about it. Otherwise it’s just Wacker and Clark. 
“Who Speaks for The Little Fellow?” - a line that came directly from the Eastland disaster. The "little fellow’ was a very young boy, in nice, new clothes, whose body was unclaimed in the morgue for a long time. The line was what the papers had for headlines about thim. Finally he was identified by (I think) his grandmother (it has been thirty years since I read the story), by the matching pants that she had for his suit pants. The rest of the family was killed as well, and he kind of got lost in the chaos.
I first read about this in a book called True Tales of The Great Lakes. Amazing in that a big part of the disaster was that the company was organizing ‘enforced fun’ on the workers, and had supervisors pushing people to get to the picnic sight as early as possible, and hinting that it would look bad if they weren’t there. So people tried to get on the earliest possible boat that they could. Add this to the fact that the Eastland was notoriously top-heavy and prone to listing, and it was a recipe for disaster.
If this interests you, read up on some of the other didasters on the Lakes. A good one is White Hurricane, about the “Big Blow” of November 1913. Killed more than 250 people, sank 19 ships, and stranded another 19. Some of the shipwrecks still haven’t been found to this day.
I seem to recall that there is a plaque there, which is pretty difficult to miss. I stumbled upon it one day, and that’s how I first learned about the story.
Didn’t read the linked articles so I don’t know this may be redudant, but it’s worth mentioning.
A fella that was a temp worker for Western Electric was going to be on the boat that day but was running late and so missed being on board.
Guy by the name of George Halas.
The “Damned Interesting” link has several tales of how panicked people were directly responsible for the deaths (or inability to save) several others. That really drove home to me how scary it can be for rescuers of those who are in the water.
I did a paper on this while at DePaul several years ago. Here is an interesting link to what happened to the ship after the disaster:
It was recovered, sold, and re purposed as a Naval war ship.
In a damned interesting coincidence, that website also has this story.
For some years there was a storefront in Wheaton dedicated to the Eastland disaster. Not anymore. And the bronze plaque is very hard to miss, for people who would prefer to think the cheap tour boats are safe.
Note: They are. Been on a few or so. They aren’t Geoffrey Baer graphic, but what fun is there to riding ANYWHERE in Chicago if nobody gets killed? Several times? In detail?
Trust me, the USA’s general automotive commute can be a snooze. Wasn’t so in the Near West Side, when pedestrians noted that my crappy car with a bad trans was still better than what they had. Which was true. Success is relative, and it required a half pint of trans fluid from the store on Madison that I barely made it to.
The part about the Eastland that always gives me a catch in my throat is that there were 22 entire families that died. Somehow thinking about 22 Lawndale apartments or Cicero bungalows where the lights were never turned on that night makes the terrible numbers less abstract.
WTTW showed the John Calloway Chicago Stories episode last Sunday and again yesterday on 11.2. If you can catch it, it’s worth watching.
Thanks, MikeS. The Tribune carried the story for several days back in 1915 and they continue to do a fine job covering the story now 96 years later.
One thing to note about the collection of Tribune articles: There is still (at least) one known survivor still living (from the Eichholz family) and there is also one eye-witness still living (from the Pisano family).
The campus at Western Electric’s Hawthorne Works in Cicero, IL used to span 200 acres. It was a city within a city, having its own hospital, fire department, water tower and supply, railroad, power house (independent electrical supply), fuel storage, gymnasium, band shell, company store, restaurant, library, social clubs, baseball diamond and track and field. There is only one remnant still standing today - the brick water tower. (The rest was bulldozed for a shopping center.)
We have never heard of or seen the plaque that you mentioned, but find it interesting that one existed. A small photo-essay board was erected in Cicero a few years ago at Morton College.
The “Little Feller” was young William “Willie” Novotny who perished along with his family.
The historical marker stands at the northeast corner of LaSalle and Wacker in the heart of downtown Chicago. It was originally erected in 1989 as a result of the efforts of several students and their teachers. The marker disappeared in 2000, and was replaced a few years later.