Flower in the River: A Family Tale Finally Told

Pages, Faces, and Names Restored - A Czech Eastland Breakthrough

• Natalie Zett

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In this episode, we return to Chicago's Czech community and uncover something extraordinary: an original 1916 Czech-language publication that didn't just tell the story of the Eastland disaster—it preserved more than 100 photographs of Czech women, men and children who lost their lives during the Eastland Disaster. 

Many of these photos haven't been seen since the article was published in 1916. You'll hear how finding this rare primary source adds depth, texture, and nuance to our understanding of the tragedy. 

🌊 What's inside 

  •  Meet Josef Mach, the Czech-American writer who documented the Eastland disaster from within his community (“Catastrophe on the Chicago River.” Amerikan národní kalendář  (1916).
  • How the Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International's Náše Rodina helped preserve and translate this history decades later 
  • The discovery of the original Czech-language publication in a Czech digital archive—and the unexpected treasures inside: page after page of photos 
  • What it's been like extracting and uploading these images to the memorials on the EASTLAND DISASTER VICTIMS site on Find a Grave  
  • Why restoring original names for members of various immigrant communities is both an act of restoration and remembrance

Final thoughts: 

There's a risk in assuming "the research is done." Spoiler alert: it isn’t. 

Many aspects of the people of Eastland Disaster have barely been explored.  This breakthrough reminds us  that the research needs to continue. There's still so much to uncover, question, and restore.

📷 A living archive—one photo at a time

For many families, these uploads to Find a Grave may be the first public photo attached to their loved one's memorial. This work is ongoing, but it's already an incredible step toward restoring dignity, identity, and connection across generations.

Resources:

Natalie Zett:

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 and welcome to episode 146 of Flower in the River Podcast. I hope you're doing well. 2025 has been quite the year, hasn't it? But we're going back to 1915 and 1916. I hope you had a chance to listen to last week's podcast, or at least saw the promo video that I made, which condenses everything into 90 seconds. Yes, it can be done if you try. Last week I talked about three women who were members of the Kolar family, extended family members, cousins, cousins by marriage. I covered the two who lost their lives, Julia and Anna Molliter Kolar, and the one who survived, Ella Kolar, who had been previously designated as unsubstantiated, by the way. Ella eventually became a world-renowned opera singer who performed everywhere. And just a few years after her training in Milan, Italy, she returned to her beloved Chicago neighborhood and sang for her people, the Czech people. After all, all of them had lost someone or a lot of someones during the Eastland disaster. And as I was researching this week, something said, keep going, you're not done with this research of Chicago's Czech community. Now, I have covered various stories throughout the last couple years of individuals who were part of the Czech community, but I haven't gone into as much depth with this community as I have with others, because the Czech community in Chicago, past and present, has done an exemplary job of caring for its history in Chicago. For example, the Bohemian National Cemetery near Chicago has a gorgeous Eastland Disaster Memorial Tribute, and there are quite a few people in that community now who can speak very knowledgeably about the Eastland disaster. So I thought, well, they're in good shape. I wasn't sure if I could add anything. Well, as it turns out, there's something I can add, and I will share that with all of you. So last week when I was trying to get more details about the Kohler family, I returned to this publication called Najerodinia. That's a contemporary publication, and it means our family. It's the newsletter of the Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International based in St. Paul. And yep, I'm proud of that, and I'm proud that I'm a member. So Najerodinia had additional information about the Kolar family who I profiled. But they had a lot more information about a lot more people, and I wanted to take a closer look at that. So in Chicago during the time of the Eastland disaster, there were a number of Czech language publications that shared the story of the Eastland disaster from the viewpoint of the people themselves, the Czech immigrants who were living in Chicago during that time. Then, many years later, the Czechoslovak Genealogical Society procured one of those publications, had it translated into English, and that's where we got all of this biographical information about the people of the Czech community who suffered so much during the Eastland disaster. But back to these original Czech language publications in Chicago, these publications gave an intimate portrait of these people. These documents were published in the Czech language, and most of the time they used the Czech names, the names that these people were born with, not the Americanized forms of their names. Najirodinia, starting in 1995, took one of those Czech language publications, had it translated into English, and then published it in their newsletter. And when I say extensive, I'm not kidding. This thing could probably become a book or at least a booklet. There's so much information here. The first part is the massive detailed commentary that is given. The author had quite the assessment of the Eastland disaster. And then the next part are the names and brief bios of the victims of the Eastland disaster. Najerodinia took the first part, the commentary, and they published it in the December 1995 issue. And then in March 1996, they published the second part. This part contained the surnames and bios of the people beginning with the letter A and ending with the letter L. And finally, in September 1996, they published the remaining surnames from the letter M to the letter Z. So the entire article was published throughout the course of several issues. It was so useful to have these documents to refer to as I was doing my research. Besides looking at the lists of names and biographies, I needed to take a very close look at the commentary. It is a poetic commentary on what happened during the time of the Eastland disaster. That's the best way I can describe it. I'll share the beginning part of the commentary in this episode, and you can make your own assessment. I also wanted to get a hold of the primary source, the original document to see what it looked like. I have learned through doing genealogy and now through doing history that getting a hold of a primary source is invaluable. So it was time to go searching for that original document that was published in Chicago in 1916. It was challenging. I found it and it was located on a site that is maintained by a group of people in Czechia, and they call themselves Scriptum. So it's a digital archive. I'm not sure how far back it goes, but they have a lot of publications that reference the Eastland disaster, and I will take a look and see what I can find and share that with you as well. So the good news is that I found the original document, the very one that was used by the folks at Najerodinia to translate and to publish. It was fantastic to find that primary source, that original document. That's true. But there was more to it than just the text. What I found is going to benefit many, many Eastland Disaster family members. Before I get into all of that, I wanted you to know that I will also upload this document to the Internet Archive. It is in the public domain, by the way. And I will also put a copy of it on my own website so you can access it from there. So this publication was called the American Narodnik Calendar, which means American National Calendar, or Almanac. And for Czech immigrants of that time period, early 20th century in Chicago and beyond, it wasn't just a calendar the way you and I think of calendars. American Narodnik Calendar, which was written and published by Czech immigrants in Chicago, well, the primary audience was that community. And this is a very literate community and it's a very informed community. So these documents, these almanacs were huge. Some of them were over 300 pages, and they contained everything that anyone could be concerned about who was living in that community, from news, from short stories to weather reports, farming commentaries, and it seemed to have everything. And I'm looking forward to digging in further and learning about it, and I will share relevant information with you. So that's where this Eastland article appeared. And it was published by the August Geringer family, who also published similar periodicals. So the article about the Eastland disaster, which is called Catastrophe on the Chicago River, was published in the American Narodny Calendar 1916. And the author was Josef Mach. And Josef Mach was many things. He was a reporter, he was a poet, satirist, who was an immigrant and lived in Chicago for many years, and he worked for a variety of Czech publications. Faced with the Eastland disaster in his very own backyard, Josef Mach responded by restoring human scale to everything. He named people and placed them within families, neighborhoods, workplaces, and parishes because that was how loss was understood in immigrant life during that time. He translated not just the event but its meaning for a community living between cultures and honestly often misread by the English language press. His writing showed restraint, protected dignity, resisted sensationalism, and documented how the Czech community grieved, organized, and cared for its own, but he did not shy away from expressing anger either. But in doing all of this he skillfully preserved the memory as a lived experience, not as a headline. His writing style moved between modes, part reportage, part poetry. That makes it very unique. So it's great to have this writing, it really is. However, there's one more thing that I need to share with you. This article, Catastrophe on the Chicago River, contains something that frankly is blowing my mind. The article also includes more than 100 photographs. Most of these images, well, they don't appear to have been seen since the article was published in 1916. I'm very aware that had I not come across this document in its original format, that the photographs could have remained lost, if not forever, then for a long, long time. And that's the other danger of implying that the research for the Eastland disaster is done, that the number is settled. That's not the case. As you can see from this podcast, there are still things that remain to be seen. And for the Eastland disaster or for any historical event, here's the thing. The research should never stop. It should be ongoing. There are still things to be discovered. Let me tell you what I have been doing for the last few days and will continue to do. I have been extracting the photos from the original document, which is in PDF format, one by one, doing very light cleanup. Most of them are actually in good shape, and I've been uploading them to the various profiles for the Eastland disaster victims on Find a Grave. And here is what surprised me. For a lot of these people, this will be the first time they've had a photograph associated with their publicly available profile. And I hope that it brings a lot of joy and maybe closure to family members who are looking to find additional information about them. Maybe this is the first time that they will have seen a photograph of their relative who died during the Eastland disaster. And I know pretty much in every episode that I encourage you to go to Find a Grave. And this is unlike anything I've ever done. I mean, throughout the years, on and off I have updated information on Find a Grave. But this experience adding all of these photographs at once was really intense. I think at this point, there are over 101 photos that I added, but don't quote me exactly, I need to go back and count, and I'm not done yet. I will let you know the final tally. What an experience, what an honor to have found this and to be able to share this with anyone who will go looking for them. And here's the other thing. The enormity of the loss of the Czech community during the Eastland disaster, it really washed over me when you see all these photos page after page after page, and you will see this when I upload the document. It really drives home what happened to this community, and it really makes me appreciate them even more. So great respect to what they did do and what they continue to do. And I also have an even deeper appreciation for Find a Grave. But there was something else that happened in the midst of working on these profiles. It was really important to be able to restore not just the profiles and photos, but the original names of these people, the names that they were born with. Many of them went by their Americanized names, and so restoring that name, restoring a surname is really important. And here's the irony upon the irony. I chose my family's original name, the original name of my dad's father, for my username on Find a Grave. I did that years ago, and I didn't really think deeply about why I did that. I just did it because it felt right. My dad's father was an immigrant from eastern Slovakia and he was part of an ethnic group called Carpathel Rusins. The original name was Zid, not Zet. I'm not sure why they did Zet, by the way. I have no idea what they were thinking, but they did. So I've never changed my name back to its original form, but I do use Zidova for the name of my publishing company, and occasionally when I sign a piece of graphic art that I make, things like that. But I also use it as my Find a Grave user ID. So there I was working under my original name in the midst of restoring many Czech victims' original names to their profiles on Find a Grave. So this is the kind of thing that I know genealogists kind of go, yes, I get it. And other people will think, what the heck? But I wanted to mention that in case you ever have such an experience. Finding this original document also gives me hope. If I found something like this, let's face it, this is more in the obscure realm. So there's probably a lot more information out there that has yet to be discovered. But this is one heck of a long buildup to an article, so let's get to it. Here's the article. Catastrophe on the Chicago River by Joseph Mach Sr. In the Chronicles of Czech American history, the twenty fourth of july nineteen fifteen will be remembered forever as Black Saturday. It was a horrible day when tragedy struck our countrymen, living under the star spangled flag of the United States, taking more Czech lives than any other mass disaster ever recorded in this country. It was the catastrophe on the Chicago River, the tragic end of the ship Eastland, in which eight hundred and twelve lives were lost, of which over a fourth were Czech lives, casting despairing grief and endless sorrow upon so many Czech settlements in this renowned metropolis on the banks of Lake Michigan. The horrors of this accident overshadowed those of the fire in the Iroquois theater, which took six hundred lives. It exceeded by far the gloom and the number of victims of the Chicago fire of eighteen seventy one, even the San Francisco earthquake, or the nineteen thirteen tornado in Omaha. But to us Czechs, living not only in America, but overseas back in the old country, the Chicago River accident is more painful considering how many young Czech lives with promising futures were wasted on that fateful day, the twenty fourth of july nineteen fifteen, when the steamship prepared for its departure on the day's outing with 3,000 passengers aboard, overturned at its river landing. What an ocean of tears, what a tidal wave of sorrow and broken hearted grief lay that day upon the heart and soul of every Czech American in the metropolis, even all across America, wherever our countrymen live, and the Czech language is spoken, and the painful memory of that terrible day will never vanish in our minds, and the name Eastland will remain forever in Czech American history an expression of horror, terror, grief and sorrow. Merciful time, which, it is said, can temper and mollify every pain, heal and make whole every wound, and dry all tears, can hardly ever obscure the haunting memory of this event in the souls of those who grieve the loss of their loved ones. It is possible for one to be resigned to his fate, but it is impossible for him to forget it. How often do we read of a ship disaster? The reports of which shook up and resounded worldwide. Who can't recall the sinking of the liner Titanic in collision with an iceberg, thus becoming the tomb of about thirteen hundred people? Also, in our living memories are the sinking of the ships Volturna, Empress of Ireland, and others. The sinking of the Lusitania, with most of its passengers by a torpedo launched from a submerged submarine, was within a war zone. However, all of these incidents happened under conditions that were predictable or expectable risks. The world read the reports about the Titanic in mute horror. But nevertheless, the huge loss of lives was understandable, since the transatlantic giant transport had the accident far from land on the high seas and off the normal course of steamships. However, nobody could have suspected that a similar catastrophe could happen at the wharf in the river between city streets, in calm weather, close to other ships, in the presence of a huge audience of onlookers. And it did happen, nevertheless. Merciless and unpredictable fate played out its tragic role by this sinking at the least expected time and place. However, the sacrifice of the unfortunate ship Eastland was neither an act of raging natural forces nor an act of war. No, here it was negligence, public abuse, and greed for gold and profit that were directly responsible for the Chicago catastrophe. So terrible an accident would never have happened if the ship's owner showed more concern for the safety of its passengers than for its own risk and profit. That many lives would have never been criminally wasted if the responsible inspection officials and the ship's officers had carried out their responsibilities properly. The Eastland was a death trap into which the unwitting, trusting passengers cheerfully and eagerly stepped aboard, expecting an enjoyable crossing of the clear blue waters of Lake Michigan. These people, after working all year within the congested city, expected to spend two days in open nature devoted to entertainment and to intellectual and physical release from their daily routine work in the shops and offices of a large industrial company. The Western Electric Company organizes an employee outing once a year, which always enjoys a large attendance and was regarded as the best attended and most successful outing of the summer season. It is no wonder then that the outing on the fateful twenty fourth of July drew active public interest all around and that all Western Electric Company employees participated if possible. It was expected that more than four thousand participants would cross the lake aboard the ships, Eastland, Theodore Roosevelt, Racine, and Rochester to Michigan City, the goal of this happy excursion. Among those who showed up for the trip were several hundred fellow countrymen, of which many traveled with their families. Instead of happiness and joy, the participants encountered a nightmare of horror, tears, and death. Instead of funny plays, entertainment, song, dancing, contests, races, and sports matches, they were stricken by a catastrophe the like of which had never happened before in Chicago's history. That's the end of this section, but it's not the end of the article. So you've been listening to the first part of Catastrophe on the Chicago River by Joseph Moch Sr. And we will continue reading and discussing this article next week. Take care of yourselves and take care of each other. And I will talk to you soon. 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. And for more information, please go to my website. That's www.flowerinthher.com. I hope you'll consider buying my book available as audiobook, ebook, paperback, and hardcover because I still owe people money, and that's my running joke. But the one thing I'm serious about is that this podcast and my book are dedicated to the memory of all who experienced the Eastland disaster of 1915. Goodbye for now.

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Natalie Zett

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