Flower in the River: A Family Tale Finally Told

One Survivor. Two Surnames. A 1940 Eastland Time Capsule

• Natalie Zett • Season 4 • Episode 166

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One surname search can reshape the entire landscape of history, and this week, it did just that. While tracing the path of Eastland disaster survivor Charles Borvansky (sometimes spelled Borovansky), I uncovered a 1940 Cicero Life newspaper article marking the twenty-fifth anniversary of the 1915 tragedy. This is the sort of local reporting that rarely finds its way into the most retold versions, yet it brims with vivid, unforgettable details that bring the past startlingly close.

I dove into the article’s retelling of how a joyful Western Electric Hawthorne Plant outing became a catastrophe on the Chicago River, and how the sorrow lingered in Cicero and Berwyn long after. What stands out most are the preserved voices of survivors. Charles Borvansky recalls the instant the Eastland began to tip and his scramble onto a raft. Frank Terdina offers his own account, including a moment of hesitation that seems surreal until you remember how shock can freeze time.

From there, I step back to reflect on the responsibility of this work: sharing transcripts, marking timestamps, and keeping citations front and center so the Eastland disaster story stays rooted in its original sources. I trace the early threads of Charles’s biography, piecing together draft cards, naturalization forms, and death records, as well as insights from the obituaries of his wife, Margaret, and their daughter, Violet. Just as the story seems to settle, a late-breaking discovery swings open a new door into Charles’s world, along with a surprising slice of Chicago history that I’ll explore in depth next week.

Subscribe or follow for more Eastland disaster research, share this episode with someone who enjoys family history, and if you’re liking the podcast, please leave a review and let me know which detail you'd like to dig into next.

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Welcome To Flower In The River

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 166 of Flower in the River. And I hope you're doing well. This week we have another trend that is continuing, and that is, several people reached out to me separately because they had connections to the Eastland disaster. It was interesting to have these conversations because each person is very different and they have a different attitude toward the disaster. They found my work primarily through the website, but also via my promo videos on Instagram and other social media, such as Substack, YouTube, and Threads. And some found this work via the podcast. Bottom line is that you never know how someone's going to make their way toward your work. That's why I publish the podcast, the promotional videos, and my transcripts all over the place. Because, for one thing, that makes the stories, the information available globally. The other reason for doing that is the Eastland disaster history, the way it's been told, has suffered through a lot of, I'll call it copying and pasting of others' work and not giving proper attribution. And that doesn't help anybody. So I want to make sure that my stuff is not only copyrighted, but also appears all over the place with timestamps to make sure that the integrity of the work and also the source citations stays intact. That's one of the biggest problems that I've seen with this history. It's all over the place, and much of it has become detached from its original source. And I do this, not just because it's my work, which I do value, but because it's these people's history, and I don't want that paraphrased or used in a way that separates it from its actual history and context. So when family members reach out, as several have during the last few weeks, it's more than just a lovely experience for me. It's essential because I don't only want to hand them facts and photos and information. I want to give them the trail and I want to be able to tell them where each piece of information came from so they can pick it up and research and do what they will to make sure that they understand their family member and to make sure that that information is available and those stories are there for the present and future generations of their family. The title was Eight Eastland Survivors on the Record Off the Radar. There were eight people who were working for Western Electric and who were interviewed. I did four of those biographies on April 23rd, and I will continue because I want to make sure that each one of these people has a biography. For this week, I will share the biography of Charles Borvansky or Borovansky. Yes, he spelled his name two different ways. As I was researching, hoping to get more biographical information about Charles Borovansky, I located this article. And it's another treasure trove, by the way. It includes an interview with Charles and with his friend, Frank Terdina, and they were both featured in that 1935 article that I shared with you a couple of weeks ago. However, this article from 1940 contains a lot of new material, and I have the feeling that no one has probably seen this since it was published. So I will share that article first, and then we will return to Charles' biography. This article is from the Cicero Life, and they have an address on the masthead, and that is 5304 West 25th Street, Cicero, Illinois. Tagline in every home, each Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday. The date of this article is Wednesday, July 24, 1940. Headline It's the twenty-fifth anniversary of Eastland Disaster. The author is George Stanke, and I want to tell you right now that part of the article is blurred and blacked out. I'll try to interpret as best I can. Cicero and Berwin were plunged into deepest mourning twenty-five years ago today, when one of the world's greatest steamship disasters, the capsizing of the excursion vessel Eastland in the Chicago River, took the lives of 166 West suburbanites. A total of 812 persons set for a picnic trip to Michigan City died in the catastrophe. More than 7,000 persons, employees of the Western Electric Company, Hawthorne Plant, and their families and friends had gathered at a pier on the Chicago River to board four steamers, which would take them on a holiday cruise. An estimated 2,400 had already packed the eastland. And while gang planks were being pulled up and ropes cast off, the crowds yet on the pier were terrified to see the ship list, right itself, and then slowly tip and capsize. What had been merry cheers a moment before became screams of horror as the vessel turned over on its side and the passengers were thrown from the decks into the water or were caught in the boat's superstructure and carried beneath the surface. Men, women, and children clung to the upper side of the boat until they lost their hold and slipped into the river, many drowning before rescuers on the shore could reach them. On the boat, sliding furniture, injured, killed, or pinned underwater many of the picnickers. One account of the disaster relates how one man was crushed to death against a wall by a piano, how another drowned while attempting to free himself from its chair caught in one corner of the deck. Scores were trapped and drowned while inside the ship's salons. Bodies were taken to armories in Chicago for identification, many later being brought to the undertaking establishment at two nine four four four four four seven forty ninth Avenue were Cicero and Burrwyn residents, friends and relatives of persons who had been scheduled to go on the cruise gathered to read bulletins posted on the disaster. Rejoicing was mixed with scenes of sorrow as new lists of survivors and dead were announced. Hawthorne hit hard. Crape hung on at least one home in almost every block in Hawthorne, the hardest hit area in the West suburbs on the day after the catastrophe. July twenty eighth, set by the Cicero Town Board as a funeral day, saw dozens of hearses followed by cortages of carriages file slowly through the town. Stores, offices, factories were closed in respect for the dead. This reporter's mother and father had the experience of being shoved off the gangplank onto the dock by boat attendants just as the vessel began to sway at its moorings. Only missing a streetcar on their trip downtown caused them to be on the pier instead of on the boat at the minute of the disaster. Other local residents who narrowly escaped death in the tragic accident were Frank Terdina, 3727 Wesley Avenue, now president of Berwin Playground and Recreation Commission, and Charles Borovansky, 1936 Grove Avenue, who were on the second deck of the vessel when it capsized. Headline Felt Boat Sway. Borovansky, recalling the experience, said, Frank and I felt the boat swaying a little, and were even joking about cutting loose the life preservers with a knife Frank carried. Suddenly the deck started to tilt toward the river, and I knew it was no joke. I saw several girls jump into the water from the lower deck, and a few seconds later I was in the water with people swimming all around me. It all happened so fast, I couldn't quite understand the tragedy that had happened at first. I tried to swim across the river, but found I couldn't make it with all my clothes on. Then I turned around and saw a raft a few feet away that I climbed onto, and in a few seconds I helped a girl and a man on it also. Headline, Thought of New Suit. Kurdina, in his version of the water tragedy, declared, Everybody went over to the riverside when the gang plank was pulled up. Suddenly the boats started to keel over. Borovansky yelled at me to jump, but I said, Hell no, I've got a new suit of clothes on. I won't jump. But in a few seconds, I was all alone on the deck, and into the water I jumped. I got caught in the ropes on the mast, and how I got loose, I don't know. But I finally came up. I was afraid the boilers would explode if I went near the boat, so I stayed back, and a tugboat picked me up. I guess I helped about sixteen people out of the water. Then I went home on the train. The conductor looked at my clothes and let me ride free, and back to my wife and family, who luckily had not gone along. Headline Disaster followed depression. The disaster came shortly after business depression, during which many employees of the Western Electric Company had been working only part-time and had just recently been put back on full time. To aid in combating the financial distress caused by the deaths of many family wage earners, Western Electric Firm set up a$100,000 relief fund. The Cicero Town Board voted$2,000 for relief, and a$300,000 fund was raised by private subscriptions throughout the state. Damage suits, totaling$8 million later placed against the steamship, went uncollected because a federal master and admirality ruled the vessel's owners were not liable beyond the value of the hull of the ship. Six indictments returned against Harry Peterson, captain of the Eastland, and other officials of the company got no farther than a hearing before a federal judge who ruled that since the ship was tied up at a dock in the Chicago River, the case was out of jurisdiction of the federal government. The salvaged Eastland was later sold to the United States Naval Reserve for$42,000 and was rebuilt to become the Will Met. That is the end of this article. So as mentioned, I shared the overall interviews from 1935 and then I followed up with four individual biographies, and I still have four more biographies to go, but the one I wanted to focus in on today is Charles Borvansky or Borovansky, who was featured along with his friend Frank Terdina in the 1935 article in The Life, and now again in the 1940 article in The Cicero Life. My search for Charles Borvansky led me to this 1940 article, but within it, there's so much going on that I want to review that first before going into Charles' bio. Here's what stood out for me. Even though this article is short, it's packed with information. I mean, new names and stories that aren't recorded on any other Eastland platform. So these people too were at risk of being lost. These stories are special because they're insider accounts. They're told by people who witnessed, who survived, who worked, and who lived near the Hawthorne plant of Western Electric. And their families and their neighborhoods experienced the loss in an extremely visceral way. They also provide a very intimate backstory, details that only people who lived and worked in that area for years would know. This is priceless in terms of the history, and I am so glad to have discovered it. Thanks to my searching for Charles Borovonsky, we have this information now. And this article, like so many other articles, has been there for decades but was never picked up and carried forward. There were a number of people mentioned in this article whose names don't appear in any recent retellings of the story of the Eastland disaster, such as the parents of the author, George Stenkey. And as I've shared previously, Charles Borvansky's name is left out of any survivor accounts. And there was also the Undertaker and his establishment. The name was not given in this article, but it was easy to locate because they provided an address, and that would be Albert Zamansky. According to the census, he was an undertaker from at least 1910, and he took care of several people who perished on the eastland. We also learned from this article that there was a depression going on where many of the Western electric workers were put on part-time. I don't recall ever reading that before. It very well might be there, and if it is there, it's probably somewhere in George Hilton's book, but it's not familiar to me. Well, bottom line is I went looking for a biography for Charles Borovansky, but instead found a gateway into what happened during and after the Eastland disaster, and the fact that it was being recounted and recalled in 1940, quite a few years after it happened, tells me that this was not forgotten. Well, speaking of Charles, let's take a look at the biographical information that I was able to locate. So we do have some name spelling switches, and most of them seem to have been introduced by Charles himself. Let's start with his World War II draft registration card. He had his name as Charles Robert Borvansky, so B-O-R-V-A-N-S-K-Y. In 1942, he was living at 2529 South Kenilworth Avenue, Berwin, which is a suburb of Chicago, and he was 54 years old. Charles states that he was born in Volinia, which is now in Czech Republic. And his date of birth was January 2nd or 7th, 1888. And the contact person on his draft registration card is his wife, Margaret. Her birth name was Gros, G-R-O-H. And Charles was still working for Western Electric during that time. When we go back to 1914 and take a look at Charles' naturalization card, it's a little bit different. In this record, the name is spelled Borovonsky, and at that point Charles was living at 982 West 18th place, and he stated that his country of origin was Austria. And this is confusing because he actually came from modern day Czech Republic or Czechia, but back then it was known as the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He says he was born on January 6, 1888. He arrived in the United States on September 15, 1892. This is a great example of the types of things that you run into while doing genealogy. Different names, different dates of birth, different places of birth. I've run into that a fair amount with my own family, so I'm no stranger to this. And I was able to locate a transcript of Charles' death record. I wish I could find the original, but this is what I have. In this record, his name is Charles Borvansky. They have Charles' birth date as January 8, 1888, birthplace Czechoslovakia. Death date December 21, 1950. Claim date, this is for Social Security, January 10th, 1951. Name listed as Charles Borvansky is what it says in the notes. And he was 62 years old when he died. And I'm guessing that he worked at Western Electric the entire time and retired from there. Right now I cannot locate a death notice or obituary for Charles. However, I was able to locate the obituary for his wife, Margaret, and his daughter, Violet. Here's Margaret's obituary from the Berwin Life, June 18th, 1969. Margaret Borvansky, 80 of 2529 K. Kenilworth Avenue, a community resident for 42 years, died yesterday at Fairfax Convalescent Center, 3601 Harlem Avenue after a short illness. Services will be held tomorrow at 1 p.m. at the George Schubert Funeral Chapel, 6616 Surmac Road, with the Reverend Victor Fenton of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church officiating. Interment will be in Bohemian National Cemetery. She is survived by her daughter, Violet, and several cousins. And I really was hoping that when I found Violet's obituary that I would get additional information about the family, but not very much, at least not yet. Here's Violet's obituary from The Life Wednesday, july nineteenth, nineteen ninety five. Violet Borvansky, eighty six, a lifelong resident of Berwin, died Saturday, july fifteenth, nineteen ninety five, in McNeil Hospital in Berwyn. Services will be private. Interment will be in Bohemian National Cemetery in Chicago. Arrangements were by H. Marrick and Sons' funeral home in Berwyn. Mrs. Borvansky was a homemaker. Survivors include cousins, that's the end of the obituary. And as we've seen before, a lot of times they assign a single woman a misses designation. I'm not quite sure why they did that, but she was not married as far as I can tell. So that's Violet. And although I was hoping to get more information about Charles and the rest of the family, I have the feeling down the road that this will happen, just not today. And though I don't have an extensive biography for Charles and for the rest of his family at this point, we do have those articles, both from 1935 and now from 1940, where he's quoted and where his experience of the Eastland disaster was shared. Both his name and his story are missing from any modern day accounts of the Eastland disaster. So it's important to acknowledge both Charles and his experience on the Eastland. And as I've seen in the last few weeks, you never know if a family member might go searching for their person. And if the person is Charles, well, I want them to be able to find his name and his story. And next week we will continue with more names and more stories of the people of the Eastland disaster. Hold on, I have some late-breaking news for all of us. About 30 minutes ago, I felt compelled to do one more search for Charles online. Part of me just felt bad that I hadn't been able to uncover more of his story. Well, as they say, be careful what you wish for. But no, this is a good thing, because something extraordinary turned up. Using Family Search's full text search, I found additional information about Charles' employment history, before Western Electric, that is. And let's just say that this opens up an entirely different door, not only into Charles' life, but into another piece of Chicago history that I honestly did not expect to stumble into. At first I thought maybe I'd tack it onto the end of this episode as a quick addendum, but that didn't feel right. This is bigger than that, and it deserves room to breathe, and it deserves its own episode, or at least part of one. So next week I'm going to give you additional information about the early life of Charles Borvansky. And I have the feeling we're all going to learn something new. And in the meantime, take care of yourselves and take care of each other. Stay safe, 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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