Flower in the River: A Family Tale Finally Told

Shadows of the Past: Premonitions from the Titanic to the Eastland

• Natalie Zett • Season 2 • Episode 45

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Overview:

In  Episode 44 of Flower in the River Podcast, I continue exploring  unexplained phenomena like premonitions, synchronicities, and precognition, especially in relation to the Eastland Disaster. This journey includes discussions on Carl Jung's theories, mysterious historical events, and personal stories linked to the Eastland tragedy. Warning: there is a detailed discussion of a death scene in this episode. 

Introduction and Recap:

  • Overview of the previous episode and the exploration of unexplained phenomena.

 Carl Jung's Synchronicity:

  •  Discussion on Jung's concept of synchronicity and its connection to our psychological undercurrents and the cosmos.

 Premonitions and Historical Predictions:

  •  Did Morgan Robertson's novella "Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan" predict the Titanic disaster?
  • The 1901 experience at the Petit Trianon in Versailles where two English school teachers do some time traveling. 

Premonition Stories Related to the Eastland Disaster:

  •  A Tale of Two Annies: contrasting fates of Annie Utz (who survived) and Annie Booth (who didn’t). 
  • The tragic premonition of O.J. Bouffard and its impact. 
  • The Clark family tragedy and the premonition experienced by a family member. 
  • The story of Mrs. John Fitzgerald and her daughter, including a premonition by Mrs. Fitzgerald's father.

Exploring the Nature of Premonitions:

  •  Reflection on the purpose of premonitions and their role in our lives.

 Teaser for the Next Episode:

  • Upcoming discussion on another ship disaster in Chicago in 1927, with a surprising involvement of a famous personality. 

Links

Speaker 1:

Hello, I'm Natalie Zett and welcome to Flower in the River. This podcast, inspired by my book of the same name, explores the 1915 Eastland disaster in Chicago and its enduring impact, particularly on my family's history. We'll explore the intertwining narratives of others impacted by this tragedy as well, and we'll dive into writing and genealogy and uncover the surprising supernatural elements that surface in family history research. Come along with me on this journey of discovery. Hey, this is Natalie. Welcome to Episode 44 of Flower in the River podcast, where we will continue discussing the unexplained things like premonitions, synchronicities, precognition and other phenomena in relationship to the Eastland disaster. If you haven't already done so, please listen to last week's episode, which was first installment in this discussion about premonitions and such and I suppose the overarching umbrella term could be the unexplained, but that's awfully general. So I will flip back and forth between premonitions, precognition, synchronicities only because all of us relate to these different terms differently and some might speak to you more than others, and also, to be quite honest, this is the type of topic that can't be put under a magnifying glass or a microscope and its boundaries are very difficult to define. Often, all we have are stories and evidence of this in our own lives and it doesn't happen every day for people, but when it does happen, we don't always have a place to put that, so we tend to forget that. And what I'm saying is that it might be useful to think about those instances in one's life and maybe revisit those. They might actually turn out to be very good friends for us in terms of informing the types of internal guidance systems that we have in place. I mean, most of us have had the experience of thinking about someone we hadn't thought about in a while and then they text us or they call us. And according to psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung, this isn't coincidence. This synchronicity. According to him, it's the universe's way of arranging events in a tapestry of meaning without the threads of cause and effect. I studied Jung in undergrad and a little bit in grad school, and his work still fascinates me. He believed this synchronicity. These unexplained events are bridges, mystical arches that connect the tangible world with the psychological undercurrents of our minds. It's not about A leading to B, but rather about an invisible network that links our deepest thoughts and feelings with the greater cosmos in this kind of dance. Well, I could go on and on about Carl Jung. Because he is so interesting, I'll just say at least study him if this speaks to you. I think you would enjoy reading some of his work if you've never been acquainted with it.

Speaker 1:

But right now I have, as usual, way too much material, so I need to just jump in. So come along with me and I'll let you know that, as I've researched these old newspapers about families affected by the Eastland, I continue to be astonished at the number of unexplained events that happened prior to the disaster. I've been thinking a lot about these events in our lives. And, taking it one step farther, I was even thinking about time portals. That's another topic that fascinates us humans. I'm sure most people have seen somewhere in time and similar films and have read similar types of stories. But what is that all about?

Speaker 1:

A few days ago I dusted off a couple of items I discovered in the late 1990s. Now, this was when I first went digging into my family's past after I learned about our links to the Eastland disaster. My little research project was throwing curveballs at me right and left, and at that point I was juggling gigs as a freelance journalist and always diving head first into stories. I love my stories, but when I stumbled upon the Eastland connection with my family, things took a turn for the strange. It was like uncovering a secret room in a house that you thought you knew by heart. I want to share two things that I found way long ago. These two items stopped me dead in my tracks. They're not about the Eastland per se, but they definitely relate. Here's the first one. There was a book written in 1898. Now this is 14 years before the Titanic, and this book seemed to predict the Titanic.

Speaker 1:

Yep author Morgan Robertson's 1898 novella Utility or the wreck of the Titan. It has these details he created a fictional ship named Titan, which was described as the largest passenger steamship at the time and was deemed unsinkable. This paralleled the language that was used for the real RMS Titanic. Like the Titanic, the Titan was considered an incredibly luxurious and extravagant ship. In the novella, the Titan strikes an iceberg in the North Atlantic on a cold April night and sinks with massive loss of life due to lack of lifeboats. I kid you not Again, this is very similar to the real fate of the Titanic, which struck an iceberg in April of 1912 and sank, but lives on, thanks to all those movies about it. Right, the Titan and the Titanic were similar in size 800 feet versus 882 feet long respectively, both capable of 24 to 25 knots speed. Casualty numbers differed somewhat. You can't get it right all the time. The Titan sinking took 2,500 lives, while the Titanic took about 1,500. So again, in essence, 14 years before the Titanic sank, robertson's fictional story predicted some astonishingly accurate details of the real disaster, including the ship's basic dimensions and name impact with an Atlantic iceberg, severe loss of life, etc.

Speaker 1:

Now, that's what I call a premonition right, and I'm wondering how this came about for Morgan Robertson, what prompted him to write about such a thing? Now, in fairness, he was acquainted with ships shipping and he understood that ships can be notoriously unstable and dangerous at times. And I have to wonder what happened to his life after the Titanic happened? He actually died in 1915, the same year of the Eastland disaster, and I think the notoriety from the Titanic was something that he perhaps did not welcome. I say that because not much is known about what happened to him after he wrote this novella about the Titan and I read his death notice and it's quite sad.

Speaker 1:

The headline from the Wheeling Intelligencer 25 March 1915,. Author. Found Dad, atlantic City, new Jersey, march 24th. Morgan Robertson of New York and author and writer of poetry was found dead in his room here today. He had come to the shore to recuperate from a nervous collapse and seemed to be improving. Death was due to heart failure. He was 65 years old. Nervous collapse. There's also another discussion about the fact that he took some sort of drug and may have decided to end his own life.

Speaker 1:

I don't know. I can speculate that Mr Robertson was very sensitive. Obviously he was, and he was probably very intuitive. He was probably one of those people who could see a few feet ahead of them and that might have been for him a very difficult thing to handle in this life. And it felt sad. When I read that article I thought, oh, if I could only talk to you and maybe we can just remember him for what he did do, the fact that he did have the courage, the intestinal fortitude that it takes to write something down and publish it. And again, this stands out as one of the most amazing premonitions stories I've ever read. But we're not done yet. Okay, come along with me to France. Yes, france, there's another story and it also involves a book.

Speaker 1:

You remember Marie Antoinette, right, the Queen of France, and she is closely linked with the Palace of Versailles. Versailles is, I guess, not that far from Paris. I've never been there, but it's still there. It's still quite luxurious and they even have their own museum that you can visit. So if you're in France, stop on by.

Speaker 1:

Marie Antoinette was married to King Louis XVI and lived in Versailles during much of her reign, and the Palace was the center of French royal and political power. And it's where Marie experienced both the heights of luxury and the onset of the French Revolution. And, as you may know, things did not work out for Marie Antoinette and she had a lot of bad press. She was known for her extravagant lifestyle, allegedly at the Versailles, which sadly contributed to her unpopularity amongst the French people. She even had a private estate on the grounds, the Petite Trionnant, where she could escape port life and indulge in her love of the simpler things. Her story is a mix of luxury, controversy and, ultimately, tragedy, all set against the backdrop of this opulent palace. So Marie lived in the 1700s and were going to fast forward.

Speaker 1:

On August 10, 1901, two English women had an experience which they considered to be paranormal in the gardens of the Petite Trionnant. This story, which they published in 1911 under the title. An Adventure met with some success and fueled the theory that ghosts haunt the Trionnant. An ordinary visit is the headline. It all started with two English women, miss Moberly, head mistress at St Hugh's College for Women in Oxford, and Miss Jordane, a former student who assists Miss Moberly in her duties. During a trip to France, the two women decided to go to Versailles to visit the estate which they know very little of. It was a beautiful, hot day of August 1901 when the two friends began their visit, starting with the palace. The day went by without a hitch. The young women were delighted with their visit and they even decided to continue their discovery of the estate by going to Trionnant. The weather and the walk were very pleasant. Nothing seemed to disturb the tranquility of this ordinary day. However, the two women were about to experience something disturbing, to say the least, headline, a strange feeling.

Speaker 1:

After walking for a while, miss Moberly and Miss Jordane asked for directions to two men dressed in green coats and three-cornered hats, carrying spades. As she left the aisle, miss Moberly suddenly felt a surge of inexplicable and growing distress. As they continued on their way, the two women caught sight of a disturbing man sitting near a Chinese kiosk, staring at them with an insistent and appalling expression. A strong sense of panic ran through Miss Moberly. Unfortunately, a curly-haired man with dark eyes momentarily interrupted this unsettling feeling in a language that was hard to understand. The man urged them to continue their way to the right.

Speaker 1:

A few steps farther on, miss Moberly saw a woman drawing. She wore a white hat and an old-fashioned, unusual dress. Once more, a strange feeling overwhelmed Miss Moberly as she looked at her. A feeling of oppression and placidity that filled the place tarnished the enthusiasm of the two English women who returned to Paris affected by this experience. Do you think the petite Réunion is haunted? Miss Moberly, asked. Her younger friend, miss Jordane promptly replied yes without any hesitation. By comparing their experiences, they found several strange similarities.

Speaker 1:

After a refusal of publication by the Psychic Research Institute, the two friends carry out the research themselves and publish their story in 1911 under the title An Adventure translated as Le Fan Thoms de Triennan. The book's success was immediate and many experts were interested in the subject. The accumulation of details and disturbing coincidences sows doubt in people's minds. Several decades after the publication of the two English women's testimony, a discovery credits their story. A plan of the Triennan is discovered indicating that a Chinese kiosk had indeed existed in 1774. A question then arises how could Miss Moberly and Miss Jordane have known this information unsuspected in their time? What of the people they met were actually ghosts from Louis and Marie Antoinette's time.

Speaker 1:

The story that I read to you is courtesy of the Palace of Versailles website. So in the ensuing years, when I first ran across the story and it was being trounced and discredited, obviously the Palace thinks differently about it. And, yes, you could argue that well, it's a publicity ploy to get people to visit, and I'm sure there's something to that. But if something were completely bogus, I don't think they would take that kind of risk. So again, that's something to think about. Both of these books the book about the Titan and the book about the Petit Triennan they're available on Project Gutenberg. I will put links in my show notes about that. So I can't tell you the effect that this had on me.

Speaker 1:

When I was first researching the Eastland and came across these two books, I thought, wow, I have not to date spent a ton of time researching this topic because, again, I grew up with it and wasn't overly interested in it until it plopped in my life and made itself at home, and so I figured, as a good researcher, I needed to know everything about anything related to the unexplained, and so these two publications helped anchor me in terms of my Eastland research, which was about to really amp up and take some interesting twists and turns. So I'm going to jump right in and read some of the premonition-related articles that I discovered this past week. They all have to do with the Eastland and they're all surprisingly different as well, so I entitled this one A Tale of Two Annes. Now, this article actually appeared in a number of publications, and the one I'm reading from was initially published in the Colorado statesman July 31, 1915.

Speaker 1:

Annie Utz that's U-T-Z like zebra, 5219 Justine Street, chicago, was dragged from the river by a policeman on one of the motorboats. She had a premonition and told of it. Quote I dreamed twice Friday night that the boat was sinking and screamed, so that I woke up. My sister and Anna Booth, my chum and roommate, said Miss Uts, when the boat went over, I did just as I dreamed I would caught a floating plank and hung on to it until a policeman came for me. Ani Uts' friend, ani Booth, did not survive.

Speaker 1:

I have to wonder what is the purpose of these things, these premonitions, and I ran across some more recent publications, including a book called the Premonition Code, and one of the authors said that, basically, premonitions serve a purpose for those who are haunted by these types of dreams it tells them what's to come, but it also tells them how to prepare. It doesn't necessarily guarantee a good ending. In this case that didn't happen, but because Ani had had this dream, she knew exactly what she was going to do. What about the other woman? I don't know.

Speaker 1:

I wanted to do a little more digging to get the backstory because I was wondering why Ani, her sister, and Ani Booth were all living together. So Ani Uts is the woman who had the dream and who survived. She was the daughter of Michael Uts and Anna, and they immigrated from Germany in 1890,. According to the 1900 census, her dad, michael, died in 1906, and Anna, his widow, remarried a man called Charles Wanamaker, and Ani's mother eventually died in 1920, and that would be five years after the Eastland Ani's brother, who was also called Michael. He served in the US Army in World War I and died in 1965 at the age of 73. Ani Uts went on and married Peter Bodinette, and she died in 1963, age 69. They had one daughter and lived in Chicago.

Speaker 1:

Did Ani ever tell that story again? I don't know, but she told it once and it was reprinted all over the place and we have that information today. And now the other, ani Ani Booth, who died. I couldn't find out too much about her, but she was working as a peace worker for Western Electric and living at the Justine Address with Ani Uts and her family. A little bit about Ani Booth's backstory. Her father, william, was alive in 1906, but by 1910 he was out of the picture and I'm not sure if he died or what happened In the meantime. Ani's mother remarried a guy with a number of children and the mother outlived him and died in 1949, and is buried along with her daughter in Oakwood's Cemetery in Chicago. And so what I could tell from that 1910 census is that there were a whole lot of people living in that house after Ani Booth's mother remarried and maybe the house just got too crowded. Regardless, at some point Ani Booth moved in with Ani Uts and her family and that's how that came about.

Speaker 1:

Our next story from the Marion Daily Star, that's in Marion, ohio, on July 29, 1915. This one is a little more graphic in terms of its description of death. So please be aware that this might be disturbing to you. It's not an out-and-out trigger warning but it does go into some detail and please remember that this was written way back when and the style of writing is a little convoluted and a little different from what we're used to hearing. But hang in there with it. Even though they provide way much detail, I think the detail is interesting for a genealogist if you want to go and create a profile for this family. So here's the headline from the Marion Daily Star Fiance begs him not to go.

Speaker 1:

Does sweetheart of OJ Buford have premonition? Curious sidelight in Chicago tragedy His body second taken from the Eastland. Mr and Mrs George Menard return from Chicago where they are called by the tragic death of Mrs Menard's brother. He's on deck, even with waterline when boat goes over. Now, all that I just read to you that was the headline will continue. Did Oliver J Buford's fiance have a premonition of his fate? Mr and Mrs George Menard of South Prospect Street, that's Marion, ohio. You're going to have to hang in there with this one because there's a lot of story within a story. Okay, they have returned home from Chicago where Mrs Menard's brother, oliver Buford was drowned in the Eastland steamer catastrophe.

Speaker 1:

Saturday morning, the night before the ill-fated excursion steamer capsized in the Chicago River with its thousands of human freight. Ms Catherine Klein, whom he was to marry November 20th, begged him and that would be Oliver not to take the trip with Western Electric employees, michigan City, indiana. He said, however, that this would be his last trip with the Western Electric people and that he would not go except for the fact that the employees in his charge would not like it if he did not accompany the holiday makers. Second body removed Buford's body was the second taken from the ship after the hull was chopped in the side of the hull. His watch had stopped at 7.30 o'clock, five minutes after the steamer's gangplank was drawn and this is in the morning, folks. His left arm was broken at the elbow, his forehead bruised and his left hand and ankle cut and scratched from the awful death struggle. His coat and shirt were half torn from his body. He was on the first deck of the steamer, even with the water line, said Mrs Menard. When the steamer went down he simply drowned like a rat. Background played allso standover His Lobby in his charge at the time of the disaster. The young man's body was taken to the second regiment armory and soon was recovered there. It was identified by a girl who had formerly worked in Buford's office. An initial belt was the means of identification. That young man, whose first name is Oliver, is down here at the armory. The girl telephoned to the electric company's office Shortly after Buford's father, louis Buford, and a brother who had looked over 250 bodies in morgues in all parts of the city in an attempt to find Buford's remains, were notified.

Speaker 1:

Headline Funeral Thursday. The remains were taken to the Bradley Undertaking establishment. All services were held Tuesday morning at 10 o'clock. In the funeral cortage there were 15 limousines. Buford was held in the highest regard by his company and a host of friends. Burial was made in Mount Olivet Cemetery that Chicago. The victim's father visited here two weeks and returned home the night before the disaster occurred.

Speaker 1:

The body was recovered at 2.30 o'clock Saturday afternoon. It became so bloated that a size 19 collar was used. When he was dressed for burial he wore a size 14. 18 bodies were at the Bradley Undertaking establishment when Buford's remains were brought in. The place was so crowded that the bodies were placed on boards in the garage in the rear of the place and washed off with a hose. They were covered with mud.

Speaker 1:

When we covered from the river Mr Menard's story that would be Oliver's brother-in-law I saw the steamer through a small hole in the fence which has been built around the place to keep the crowds away, said Mr Menard. A solid line of police watched the place day and night. The utmost confusion prevails about the place. Hysterical women, crying children and sober-faced men stand about day and night hoping the bodies of loved ones will be brought from the murky water. The ship seemed to lay on its side about half of the bottom above water. In the Polish section of the city, 34 bodies were piled on one truck and hauled out for burial. In returning from a funeral of a friend who was drowned in the ship, a little girl was run down and killed by the motorhurst which had been used in the funeral procession of which she had just ridden. Of the forty-eight young men employed in one department, all but two were drowned. Twelve of the twenty employed in Buford's department were lost. The young man's father, a brother and four sisters survive All except Mrs Menard again, that's Oliver's sister, live in Chicago and follow-up. I see that the father, mr Louis Buford, died two years later, in 1917.

Speaker 1:

Just a bit of a commentary, because there is so much in that article. We've got Catherine Klein, oliver Buford's fiancee, with the premonition. I researched her and I don't know yet what became of Catherine after his death and I'd never heard that there was a little girl who was killed during one of the funeral processions. So I need to research that further. But what a story. And in terms of the detail of what that death looked like, what his body looked like, I have never heard or read of that level of detail. So that is, on one respect, of course, horrible, but also really interesting, because it brings home again what our families, our ancestors, who were involved in the Eastland disaster, what they experienced, and it gives a greater understanding of what they went through, and I think it always gives me another layer of insight into their lives and into their time.

Speaker 1:

Okay, before we continue, isn't it interesting how well I think of Chicago as the place that is the most affected by the Eastland? And that's just not true? As you can see so far in these stories, people from all over the United States at least, and probably Canada as well, were affected by this event, either directly or indirectly. And speaking of that our next story is from the Brooklyn Daily Times. That's, brooklyn, new York, july 27, 1915.

Speaker 1:

Brooke Family Among Drowned Brooklyn man, wife and child Eastland victims Old Heights residents. Sister had premonition that brother was in peril. Three former residents of Brooklyn were drowned in the Chicago River Saturday when the ill-fated steamer Eastland rolled over at the wharf with its hundreds of happy excursionists and caused one of the worst marine disasters in history. They are Mr and Mrs R L Clark and their two and a half year old daughter, eleanor. R L stands for Robert, by the way. I'm not sure what his middle name was. Back to the article. Their bodies will arrive here at 5.30 this afternoon over the Pennsylvania Railroad in a special car provided by the Western Electric Company. The remains of 19 other victims of New York and vicinity are coming aboard this train.

Speaker 1:

R L Clark was the second child of Mr and Mrs Joseph Clark and was born and reared in the Heights section of Brooklyn. His sister is Mrs Charles M Stearns, who resides with her husband and seven year old daughter at 311 Washington Avenue. The mother, whose maiden name was Ella Hamilton Bailey, also makes her home here. The father has long been confined in a sanitarium on account of illness. R L Clark is also survived by two brothers Richard Hamilton Clark, who recently went to Chicago and is returning with the remains, and Joseph Calvitt Clark Jr, who is the pastor at the Christian Church at Indiana, pa. Mrs Clark was Ms S Marie Anderson of Manhattan and leaves no relatives surviving. R L Clark was 27 years old. After leaving the Brooklyn High School he made a cruise aboard on the US Marine School Ship St Mary and seven years ago entered the employ of Western Electric Company working in their New York office. A year ago. Last November he was transferred to Chicago.

Speaker 1:

When Mrs Stearns read the account of the disaster in the Brooklyn Times, she feared for the safety of her brother and his family and immediately communicated with the New York office of the Western Electric Company and they gave her telephone connections with Chicago. She learned from her brother, richard H Clark, that the Clarks were among the missing and on Sunday her brother phoned that he identified the three bodies at the morgue. Mrs Joseph Clark. The mother is prostrated over the news and is now ill at the home of her daughter. While traveling in Europe a few years ago, mrs Joseph Clark dined with Alfred G Vanderbilt, who went down with the Lusitania last May. Mrs Stearns said she had a premonition last week that something dreadful was going to happen to her brother On arrival here the three bodies of the Clarks will be removed to the parlors of the undertaker connected with the Central Congregational Church, hancock Street and Franklin Avenue, and the Triple Funeral will be held from the chapel at 8 o'clock Wednesday evening. Interment will be made at Cyprus Hills Cemetery. Dr Katman, the pastor, is out of town but may officiate at the services.

Speaker 1:

It's the end of this article about the Clark family. But as a genealogist, what this very involved and detailed article gives me is all kinds of information about the family. The other fascinating tidbit is that the mother of Mr Clark was acquainted with Alfred Vanderbilt, who died on May 7th 1915. So we're talking a couple of months before the Eastland, and again, he died on the Lusitania. Now that's interesting, so I need to follow up on that as well. Even though these are not full biographies, the newspapers really give a great starting point for creating sketches of these families and some individuals' lives, the lives of those who were affected by the Eastland disaster.

Speaker 1:

Our next article is from the Chester Times in Chester, pennsylvania, monday, july 26, 1915, headline Victims of the Chicago Horror. Mrs John Fitzgerald and her little daughter of Fernwood among the many drown in disaster. Both bodies recovered. The remains will be brought to Delaware County for burial Bidding their relatives in Fernwood goodbye.

Speaker 1:

On July 8, mrs John Fitzgerald, aged 28 years, and her little daughter Dorothy, three years of age. Little thought that this would be the last time they would ever see their relatives. They were both drowned on Saturday morning when the steamer Eastland capsized at her dock in Chicago after being loaded with excursionists. The announcement of the death of the mother and daughter, both of whom were well known in this county where they always resided, was a great shock. Mrs Fitzgerald's mother, mrs John O'Brien at Fernwood, is prostrated with grief over the fate of her daughter and granddaughter.

Speaker 1:

On Thursday July 6, mrs Fitzgerald and daughter left Fernwood for Chicago where they were to be guests of Mr Fitzgerald's sister and brother-in-law, mr and Mrs Daniel Murphy. Each day, the young mother wrote a line to her relatives telling of the good times she and her little daughter were having. Last Saturday, mrs Sarah O'Brien, a sister of the victim, received a letter stating that her sister and little daughter were anticipating a good time for Saturday, where they were to go to Michigan Park. Since the arrival of the letter, john O'Brien, father of Mrs Fitzgerald, had a premonition that something was about to occur, and the thought has kept him awake for several nights. However, on Friday the thought left his mind. When relatives picked up the papers containing the report of the disaster on Saturday, they knew at once that the boat was probably the one that the daughter and little girl were on. They immediately communicated with the Chicago officials. It was later learned that the merry little party, including Mr and Mrs Murphy, were among the missing. The Murphy's had been married a little less than four months.

Speaker 1:

Headline bodies recovered. This morning a telegram was received from Undertaker William Martin of Chicago stating that the bodies of Mrs Fitzgerald and her daughter had been recovered and asked for instructions. Undertaker E L Donnelly made arrangements to have the bodies brought to Fernwood for burial. John O'Brien, father of Mrs Fitzgerald, went to the League of Island Navy Yard this morning and made arrangements with the commandant at that place to inform Mr Fitzgerald of the tragedy. The latter is a member of the United States Marine Corps and is a petty officer on the US Michigan now cruising in Cuban waters. The real purpose of the visit to Chicago was that Mr Fitzgerald was soon to enjoya furlough and was going to Chicago to visit his relatives, mrs Fitzgerald and her daughter going west to see the husband and father who had not been home for some time. Should the husband and father still be on the ship, he will probably come direct to the city and then to Fernwood instead of his proposed trip to Chicago. Mrs O'Brien is prostrated over the fate of her daughter and granddaughter, and her condition this morning was serious. The relatives of the drowned woman do not see how she was persuaded to get aboard the steamer, as she always had horror of the water. About ten years ago her mother and sister, mrs O'Brien and Mrs Sarah O'Brien, were on a steamer running down the bay and through an accident the steamer nearly capsized and since that time, after hearing the experience of the mother and sister, mrs Fitzgerald would never go on the water. That's the end of the article.

Speaker 1:

Believe it or not, there's so many things that are interesting about this story, including the fact that it was the father who had the premonition. I have to say, in most of these premonition stories that I've been aware of, it's primarily women who, at least report on these premonitions. I'm sure men get them just as often, but there might be a lot of reasons why they either don't want to talk about them or they don't recognize them at the time. But those are the stories of the latest of these premonitions. They're all different, yet they're all similar.

Speaker 1:

Well, we made some tracks in this episode, didn't we? We started with the story of a big premonition about the Titanic. We moved to France, to Versailles, to the experience of two unassuming English school teachers in 1901 who managed to unintentionally time travel back to the court of Marie Antoinette. That would make for quite a postcard. And then we further went into the old newspapers and learned of many premonitions that various people had about the upcoming Eastland disaster.

Speaker 1:

I was thinking about premonitions, and then I was also thinking about after-death communication. That's also an interesting topic. Next week we'll continue. There are a few more premonition stories that I want to bring up, but there's also a story that is somewhat related to the Eastland that again I stumbled over. So in 1927, in Chicago there was another boat accident, but this time Tarzan was on the scene, and there's an old movie called Tarzan's New York Adventure, and next week I'll talk a little bit about Tarzan's Chicago Adventure. It somewhat relates In the meantime.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for hanging in there with this story and I hope you have a great week. Take care, hey. That's it for this episode and thanks for coming along for the ride. Please subscribe or follow so you can keep up with all the episodes. For more information, please go to my website, that's wwwflowerintherivercom. I hope you'll consider buying my book, available now as audiobook, ebook, paperback and hardcover, because I owe people money and I'm just kidding about that. But the one thing I'm not kidding about is that this podcast and my book are dedicated to the memory of the 844 who died on the Eastland. Goodbye for now.

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Natalie Zett

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