Flower in the River: A Family Tale Finally Told

The Ship That Rolled, the Stories That Didn't: More Voices from the Eastland

• Natalie Zett • Season 4 • Episode 161

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We explore three gripping firsthand accounts from eyewitnesses to the Eastland disaster, shared with the Dubuque Telegraph-Herald on July 26, 1915 — just two days after the tragedy. These accounts appeared once in print and then vanished from public memory for over a century.

One witness represented an early film company, another worked for a garment company, and the third was employed by a lumber, sash, and door dealer. Three people from very different worlds who happened to be in Chicago on that fateful morning.

Their words paint scenes of frantic rescue, packed bridges, and tense moments on the riverbank — revealing how trauma ripples outward, touching even those who had "no friend or relative in the catastrophe." Some accounts are graphic, and we want to be upfront about that. Yet to truly preserve history, we share these raw, lived experiences.

I also explore why the roster of names and stories continues to grow. Now at 176 and counting, these are voices that have slipped through the cracks of modern retellings — and restoring them matters for public memory, genealogy, and family history. When we welcome these forgotten witnesses back, the Eastland disaster transforms from a distant headline into a shared story of lives forever altered in a single Chicago morning.

One witness's connection to the United Photo Plays Company opened an unexpected window into Chicago's thriving early film scene. We explore the city's remarkably active studios, the impact of World War I on American filmmaking, and a question that lingers: Could this connection mean there are hidden photos or footage of the Eastland disaster still waiting to be found?

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Additional Music:

License: Title Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Format Change And Listener Outreach

Why Missing Names Matter

Eyewitness Account One From Fox

Eyewitness Account Two From Jones

Eyewitness Account Three From Altman

Who These Witnesses Were

United Photo Plays And Chicago Film

Hollywood’s Rise And Chicago’s Decline

Preserving Testimony And Closing

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 161 of Flower in the River. And I hope you're doing well. This week I thought I would shake up the format just a bit and start off with a story, and then at the end we'll do the shop talk. The shop talk is something that many of you have expressed interest in. It's about how I go about locating and organizing the information and the stories. I already know that so many of you are historians, you're genealogists, and I'm happy to oblige. I love talking about the behind-the-scenes stuff. And I hope that you find it useful and practical. Finally, I want to acknowledge all the existing and new listeners. What's interesting is that most weeks I get more European listeners than I do North American listeners. So welcome to everybody. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out via email or any of the socials. Substack is a good place to connect, and I'll do my best to answer your questions. Onward. In this episode, I will share three eyewitness accounts of the Eastland disaster. These are names and accounts that have never been shared beyond the very first time they appeared in a publication. During last week's podcast, I shared with you that I started counting all of the people whose names and accounts have been left out of the 21st century retellings of the Eastland disaster stories. As of last week, I had documented 158, including three victims. As of this week, and I'm talking the first week in April 2026, that number has jumped up quite a bit. It is now 176, and I'm not done yet, so keep that in mind, please. These are the people who were part of the Eastland disaster whose stories I have shared with you during the last three years, but who are otherwise missing. I do repeat this a lot, and I'll keep repeating it because I get so many first-time listeners. This may be the only episode of mine that they will ever hear. And if they take away nothing else, I want them to understand what happened to this history and why I'm doing this work in the first place. There have been so many incredible voices that have been muted from the Eastland disaster, and it's past time to bring them back. And when I uncover a new person associated with the Eastland disaster, I love it. But there's something also super compelling about eyewitness accounts, and I will share some of those with you today. Now, before I read these accounts, I want you to be aware that they are very graphic. So if you think that might be too much, feel free to skip through. This article is from the Dubuque Telegraph Herald. That's Dubuque, Iowa, by the way. Date is Monday, July 26, 1915. So this is just two days after the Eastland disaster. Headline Vivid Picture of Eastland Tragedy. R. C. Fox of Chicago was on tug that engaged in rescue work and says words cannot describe it, unable to sleep since terrible affair, horror of it all, still before him. R. C. Fox, representative of the United Photo Play Company of Chicago, was in Dubuque Monday, arranging for the staging of one of his company's photo plays at the Majestic Theater. Mr. Fox's room in Chicago is but a short distance from the Chicago River, where the Eastland disaster occurred Saturday morning. He was on the scene about 20 minutes after the boat turned over and managed to get into one of the tugs engaged in rescue work. Talking to a representative of the Telegraph Herald Monday, Mr. Fox said, quote, In my travels I have seen many terrible things, but nothing like that of the Eastland. I have not slept since. The sight is constantly before my eyes, and the cries and screams of the relatives and friends are continually in my ears. Oh, it was terrible, more terrible than language can portray. The photographer has gotten things down to a fine point, but even the camera will fail to depict what was seen there. Saw holes burned into vessel. We could hear the rapping of persons confined in the hold of the vessel. We knew there were people alive there. I saw men burn holes through the steel sides of the vessel with oxygen torches and lift out scores of bedraggled and half dead persons. I saw many crawl through the portholes. I was near where one man started to burn a hole through the side of the vessel when he was interfered with by one of the ship's officers who ordered him to stop, though the knocking of the imprisoned persons could be heard beneath. The man with the torch picked up a hammer and would have brained the officer, but was restrained, and the officer was pushed away while the man went on with his work, and soon had a hole through the side of the vessel, a hole through which many were rescued. The surface of the water was covered with hats of men and women, with gloves and all kinds of wearing apparel, while swimmers were here and there diving under the surface and coming up with limp forms. The tugboats and fireboats did excellent service, and the police and fire departments worked as one man with great effectiveness. Later, I saw the rescues taking bodies from the hold of the ill-fated vessel, bringing them out with hooks which dug unmercifully into the flesh of the unfortunates. I saw the bodies loaded into vehicles and carted away by scores, saw them piled up like cordwood, and with but little more care, for the time for care had passed. Witnessed resuscitation. Earlier I saw the apparently dead ones as they were brought to the surface. Physicians made hurried examination to determine if there was a spark of life. If there was, the body was turned over to another force which applied oxygen and other restoratives, pull motors being used with great effectiveness, and many persons who, to the casual observer, were dead, were brought back to life. But the sights will longest remain in my mind, and the sounds I will longest hear were of the people on the shore and the docks who had friends or relatives on the ill-fated boat. Strong men made no attempt to hide their anguish, while the mothers, sisters, wives, and sweethearts wrung their hands, pulled their hair, and gave themselves up wholly to the despair which had overcome them. I wish I could forget it all. I hope I may never again be called on to witness such a sight, even in a smaller way. It is too much for the frail humanity to bear and come through unimpaired. I know I will be a long time in recovering from the shock, and I had no friend or relative in the catastrophe, was simply a spectator and powerless to help, because I can swim but poorly and would have been of no assistance in the water. How much worse must the affair have affected persons losing relatives and friends? I will continue to read the second account in this article. C's Doomed Boat. Had I been entirely ignorant of the horrible disaster which befell the Eastland, I would have known by the expressions on the faces of all Chicagoans that something terrible had occurred, said David R. Jones of the Jones Brothers Garmin Company. Horror was written on the faces of all. Women stood in groups weeping, while others who probably had relatives aboard of the ill fated ship were hysterical. It was a scene I do not care to witness again. I arrived in Chicago about seven forty five and heard of the disaster, but as I had some business to tend to, I did not go directly to the scene, but arrived there about twelve o'clock. I stood on the State Street Bridge. The Eastland lay in the water, partly submerged between Dearborn and Clark Street bridges, her stern nosing the latter bridge. There were tugs and small boats in the river, and rescuers were standing on the hull of the sunken boat, removing the dead from the interior. Hundreds of ambulances and motor trucks were lined along both shores, especially on the Murdoch docks. The dead were placed in smaller boats, hurried to ambulances and motor trucks, and then taken away. Thousands of people lined the shore. It was almost impossible to get through the crowd. Tugs carry bodies. On both sides of the river scores of ambulances and huge motor trucks stood awaiting the ship's dead. As soon as a body was brought from the hull, it was placed on a tug. When the tug had a certain number of bodies, it would steam to shore and be unloaded. The bodies were immediately placed in motor vehicles and rushed to the morgues. I also saw scores of rescuers busily engaged in dragging the river, but I did not see any bodies brought up. The Chicago River from the State Street Bridge to Clark Street Bridge was lined up with boats. All were attempting to render as much assistance as possible. There were but few people on Clark and Dearborn bridges, as the police stood guard there and allowed none to pass over with the exception of physicians, ambulances, trucks carrying the dead and newspaper men. Later in the afternoon, even the newspaper men and physicians were not allowed to pass. Now and then the police were forced to use their clubs to keep back the crowds. I hope that I will never see such a sight again. And this is our final eyewitness account. Headline Witnessed the Tragedy Quote I'm sorry that I went to the scene of the tragedy, said FK Altman, an employee of Carr, Ryder and Adams Company, who was an eyewitness to the terrible catastrophe in the Chicago River. Quote While it seems horrible to those who read accounts of the Eastland tragedy, the feeling is nothing compared with the sensation that crept over one when viewing the actual scene and which recurs when the event is recalled. On the other side of the river and on the Dearborn and Clark Street bridges, thousands of people stood motionless. People hardened to the scenes of suffering were moved to tears. It is amazing the authorities were able to keep the order they did. Relatives and friends almost frantic pushed and crowded to get closer to the scene, waiting anxiously for the rescuers to bring from the ship of death a relative or friend. I witnessed the scene from the Clark Street Bridge. End of article. The three people you met courtesy of this article were R. C. Fox of the United Photoplay Company, David R. Jones of Jones Brothers Garment Company, and F. K. Altman of the Carr, Rider, and Adams Company. Although Fox was living in Chicago, not far from the Chicago River where the Eastland capsized, he happened to be in Dubuque that Monday, two days later, arranging one of his company's photo plays at the Majestic Theater. Now, photo play is a strange word to our ears today. It was the early term for what we'd now call films or movies, shown on physical reels that had to be carried from venue to venue and loaded into a projector. David R. Jones of Jones Brothers Garmin Company, the company had its origins in Dubuque, but according to the Encyclopedia of Dubuque, they went out of business in 1902. So whether they reopened in Chicago or something else entirely happened, that also needs more research. The third eyewitness, F.K. Altman, worked for Carr, Ryder, and Adams, also a Dubuque firm described in the Encyclopedia of Dubuque as one of the major lumber, sash, and door dealers in the community. What brought him to Chicago that day? I'm not sure yet. Perhaps they had an office there. And I had some difficulty finding out additional information about each one of these guys, probably because the surnames were fairly common and they did not give the actual first names. They just gave initials. But no problem, this happens all the time. You just have to keep searching. For this episode, I decided to focus on the United Photoplays Company, hoping that this angle would lead me to RC Fox. So far it hasn't. But what I found instead was something I knew very little about, the early film industry in Chicago. Because of the length of the article that I located that explains all of this, I'm going to summarize it. But I'll give you the link and I'll put that in my podcast notes as well as on my website. This article is from the Chicago Sunday Herald, November 15th, 1914. The headline is five reels a week, and the subheadline is Chicago to have new film plant. The United Photo Plays Company was organized in 1914 by a group of well-known Chicago business people with offices at 29 South LaSalle Street. Their timing was deliberate. The outbreak of World War I had cut off supply of European films that Americans depended on. That was a surprise to me, and that's what this article said. So this too needs further research. That black created a sudden demand for domestic production. The company planned to build a new studio in Wilmette, which is north of Chicago, and that studio would have been capable of producing five reels a week. At that point, that was one of the most ambitious production targets in the country. So their ambitions, though, went way beyond entertainment. The company had partnered with Dr. George A. Dorsey, who was the curator of anthropology at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago to produce educational films from his expedition to the Far East. And their motto said it plainly. I'm not sure what clean meant back in 1914, but that was their motto. The president of United Photo Plays Company was Wilbur Wynant, formerly president of the Toledo Life Insurance Company. Not sure what that had to do with films, but we never know, do we? The studio was to be managed by Harry McCrae Webster, formerly general producing director of the SNA company that's ESSANAY, one of Chicago's most established film studios. So in terms of history, this company, the United Photoplays, is connected to the Eastland Disaster by virtue of the testimony, the eyewitness account of its employee, R. C. Fox. Something that we need to keep on the radar in terms of the history of the Eastland disaster is did the United Photoplays Company actually create photos or footage of the Eastland disaster? Here's some additional information about Chicago's early film industry. I learned that Chicago had a fairly dense studio ecosystem before Hollywood took over, with production beginning in the late 1890s and peaking between 1907 and 1918. In the 1890s, William Selig was already making and exhibiting films in Chicago using adapted projection technology. Then George Spoor was experimenting with projection devices after seeing Edison's kinetoscope at the 1895. ninety three World's Fair and Spores Magnoscope Magnuscope exhibition work is a direct precursor to his later SNA studio, which intersected with United Photo Plays Company, which is where R. C. Fox was working. In 1907, William Selig built the Selig Polyscope Company plant at Irving Park in Western, a three acre complex with stages and labs that employed over 200 people. That same year, George Spoor and Gilbert Bronco Billy Anderson founded what became the SNA Film Manufacturing Company, initially as Peerless Film Manufacturing. And by 1908 they had a full studio at West Argyle in the uptown neighborhood of Chicago. By 1907, Chicago had 15 plus film exchanges controlling about 80% of U.S. film distribution. Producers like Selig and SNA sat atop this network. They were turning out hundreds of shorts and features annually and SNA alone released over 2,000 films in a 10 year period in Chicago, including Charlie Chaplin and Gloria Swanson. Chicago producers made early landmark films, the first Wizard of Oz adaptations, an early Sherlock Holmes feature, and foundational slapstick comedies. Also, there were several what they called race film companies. These were black run firms making films for black audiences and adding to a diverse and very dynamic studio landscape. Companies like United Photo Plays represent a second tier of 1910s producers, locally financed, often tied to educational or travel series, and using new film plants in the suburbs while keeping business offices in the loop in Chicago. And then there were a lot of reasons for their decline, but in the 1920s they had legal and patent pressures from the Motion Picture Patents Company combined with the search for better year-round shooting weather, and this pushed many independents and later SNA and CELIG to shift productions to California. And by the 1920s Chicago production had sharply declined but the city remained a distribution hub. South Wabash office blocks housed regional exchanges for MGM, Columbia, Warner, Universal, Paramount, RKO, and others. But that's a brief history of the film industry in the late 1800s, early 1900s in Chicago. This opens up a whole new line of research for the Eastland disaster. We have once again first person accounts that were at risk of being lost. So it's important that they don't get lost again. And what is so fascinating at least in the case of R. C. Fox his account is not only detailed in terms of what he saw. R. C. Fox was very candid about how witnessing the Eastland disaster and trying to assist in the midst of it affected him emotionally. He knew this would stay with him for the rest of his life and that's why I mention each of these people as I find them and honor their witness during such a traumatic event. And I will keep going with this history because each story, each account brings a different understanding and dimension to this event called the Eastland Disaster. And I'll have more stories for you next week so in the meantime please take care of yourselves and take care of each other. Stay safe. 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 wwwflowerinthever.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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