Flower in the River: A Family Tale Finally Told

The Scars That Wouldn't Heal: Two Priests, Two Parishes

• Natalie Zett • Season 4 • Episode 169

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One forgotten newspaper article can change how a major tragedy is remembered. I’m picking up the trail from Edith Franklin Wyatt’s July 1915 reporting to recover the accounts of two priests she interviewed after the Eastland disaster.  We continue to speculate why so many parish names and their losses vanish from the “standard” retellings of Chicago’s 1915 catastrophe.

First, I introduce Father Albert J. Dedera and Mary, Queen of Heaven Church in Cicero, Illinois. This church was  touched by the Eastland disaster but largely absent from modern Eastland history platforms. I also share a moment of research serendipity that ties Edith Wyatt and Father Dedera to the 1909 Cherry Mine disaster, revealing how lives, disasters, and documentation can intersect unexpectedly. Along the way, I explain what genealogists mean by reasonably exhaustive research and why a single unsourced story is never enough. 

Next, I focus on Father Bronislaus Czajkowski and Our Lady of Czestochowa in Cicero. I discuss the history of the Black Madonna icon and why it became important to Polish immigrants. Finally, I share a major discovery: full digital scans of the Eastland burial records for Our Lady of Czestochowa on FamilySearch, revealing important details that are missed when only a cropped image is shared.

If you enjoy genealogy, family history, Chicago history, or the Eastland disaster, this one is for you.

Subscribe or follow Flower in the River, share this episode with a history-loving friend, and leave a review so more listeners can find these missing stories.

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Welcome And Pronunciation Disclaimer

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 169 of Flower in the River. Before we begin, I want you to know that I will be pronouncing or maybe mispronouncing a number of different Polish words in this episode. It's not for lack of trying, but even when I was looking at various pronunciation guides, believe it or not, many of them didn't agree with one another either. So I did the best I could, and just bear with and trust that my relatives who live in Poland right now will be sending me emails after this episode letting me know where I have gone astray. So it's time to get started.

Recap Of Edith Wyatt’s Reporting

Natalie Zett

And we are going to pick up from where we left off last week. And I hope that you had a chance to listen to last week's episode, A City of Sorrow, A Voice of Fire. It is centered around an article that appeared in the Chicago Examiner on July 26, 1915. It's called Hawthorne, A City of Sorrow, Community Hushed by Death. It is by Edith Franklin Wyatt, a very well-known author and writer during the early to mid-20th century. And as it is with so many others, her article and her name are omitted from any current Eastland disaster history platforms. In the article that I shared last week, she mentioned a number of people, and I want to introduce you to two of them today. And it's okay if you haven't listened to last week's episode because I will share some excerpts with you.

Meeting Father Dedera Through One Scene

Natalie Zett

Edith mentioned that she spoke to two priests, Father Dedera and Father Chaikowski. Father Albert Dadera, this is how we met him in Edith's article. A pale young girl in a fresh white dress and a flower wreathed hat touched the bell of the parish house of Father Dedera, priest of the parish of Mary, Queen of Heaven. Quote, They have found Martha's body too, she said simply. They found her this morning, they have just sent word. She walked away quietly. No, said Father Dedera when he came back to talk with us, I have seen no hysteria. People are very calm. Some of them are stunned. Yesterday many of them spent praying in church. There was not much rest last night. Although Father Dedera and Queen of Heaven Church were very much a part of the Eastland disaster history, generally they are not mentioned. With

Queen Of Heaven Parish Missing From Retellings

Natalie Zett

one notable and wonderful exception, an internet search revealed that this history about Father Dedera, Queen of Heaven, and the Eastland disaster, it's there. In fact, it's on the church's website. Mary Queen of Heaven Church, along with Our Lady of the Mount Church, merged, and they created this new church called Our Lady the Mystical Rose Parish. Here are some highlights from Our Lady the Mystical Rose website under the category of history of Mary Queen of Heaven Church. Mary Queen of Heaven Parish in Cicero, Illinois was established in 1911 following the efforts of local Catholics who had formed a group called the Central Club in 1908. This group petitioned Archbishop Quigley for the creation of a new parish, as there were about 50 Catholic families in the Morton Park section of Cicero in the summer of 1911. Reverend A. J. Didera was appointed to establish the parish. A temporary church was set up in a building originally used as the Morton Park Clubhouse, later a town hall, and a Methodist congregational church before being sold to the Archbishop of Chicago. The church was blessed on December 10, 1911, by Archbishop Quigley and named Mary, Queen of Heaven. The first Mass was held on December 17, 1911, and additional Masses were scheduled shortly afterward. The first baptism at the parish occurred in 1911, and the first marriage was performed in 1912. A tragedy struck in 1915 when the excursion steamer Eastland capsized, killing several merry Queen of Heaven parishioners. Despite such challenges, the parish flourished. I will give you a link so you can take a look at this history and look at the beautiful buildings, etc. I'm very grateful to the folks at this parish who put this history together.

A Surprising Link To Cherry Mine

Natalie Zett

We're going to go back to Edith Wyatt's original article, and there's a bit of serendipity that's going on here. In the opening of Edith's article, there's a brief list of other articles and books that she had written, including Heroes of the Cherry Mine. Edith wrote this article for McClure's magazine, and it was referring to the Cherry Mine disaster, which took place in Cherry, Illinois, on November 13th, 1909. And 259 miners died. It had a beautiful cover with the title of the article and Edith's name and get this. There's only one page of the article in it. Hopefully we can find the rest of it, but ugh, so close, yet so far. We'll keep hunting. But as I was researching Father Dadera and trying to get additional information about his life, he too has a connection to the Cherry Mine disaster. In the Jolliet Evening Herald, December 17, 1909, I learned that Father Dedera was there ministering to people and helping out where he could. Since both Edith Wyatt and Father Dadera were probably there at the same time, I wonder if that is where they met.org, but they only had a handful, and none of them were for 1915 deaths. Queen of Heaven lost approximately twenty parishioners. The question is, why is the name of this church as well as its losses omitted from the modern retellings of the Eastland disaster story? Let's explore Father Didera's background.

Father Dedera’s Life Beyond Eastland

Natalie Zett

His birth name was Hoychek, but he was sometimes known as Adelbert or Albert. Surname was Didera, D E D E R A. He was born in Czech Republic in 1880, at the time it was known as Bohemia. The family immigrated when he was a child. Father Dadera lived a very active and full life. For example, I found his passport application from 1924. There he says he planned to go to Palestine, to Egypt, and to Italy. Although there's no reason for the visit given on this application, he planned to be gone for three months. By 1935, he was at a different parish, Our Lady of the Holy Mount Church in Cicero. During World War II, Father Didera was very active in supporting soldiers as well as their families. He was also involved in early ecumenical efforts, meeting with Protestant and Jewish clergy. In the 1940s, that was very innovative. This article is from the Berwin Life, November 14, 1947, just two years before Father Didera's death. Headline Holy Mount Church is the work of Father D, and D is in parentheses. Amongst his parishioners, he was held in high esteem and with a lot of affection. To them, he was simply Father D. The hill which now bears the name Holy Mount is adjacent to the town of Pribrum, about forty miles south of Prague. From time immemorial, it was called the Holy Hill. Our Lady of the Holy Mount, 24th Street and 61st Street, is the beautiful church namesake of that hill, which has become the worship site of thousands coming annually to pray by the statue of the Virgin Mary, originally property of the first Archbishop of Prague. It has been housed in the chapel on the summit of the mount for the past five hundred years. It was in January 1919 that the Archbishop George W. Mundeline appointed the Reverend A. J. Didera, who had organized the Mary Queen of Heaven Parish, and was pastor there at the time, to proceed with arrangements for establishing a new church a mile west of the present one. Thus it was in the spring of that year a census was taken of the people residing within that vicinity, and the Reverend Adara, known to the parishioners as Father D, prepared for pastorship of the new church. About one hundred people worshipped when the first mass was said in the wooden building erected on the fourteen lot property that had been purchased. A few weeks later, six of the fourteen lots were exchanged for eight lots on 61st Court to obtain greater depth for larger buildings being planned. At the end of the first year, the congregation numbered approximately 200, and it was necessary that the church be enlarged. Improvements and additions to the church were planned. In 1923, the erection of the school building was completed. In 1924, a home was purchased for the sisters. In 1925, crowded conditions made it inevitable that a larger, more modern church would have to be built to accommodate the month-to-month increase in the population of the parish. A new church building was erected the next year. Many difficulties in construction were encountered during the Depression years, but by 1931 a rectory, convent, social center, and playground were a part of the church property. By the time of the church's 1944 silver jubilee celebration, the entire extensive building program had been successfully completed. Father D, who has devoted so much time and effort toward making the church the beautiful worship place it is now, is still serving as its pastor. Born in Chicago, pausing here to make a correction, Father Didera was born in the Czech Republic. Back to the article. He attended St. Bede's College in Peru, Illinois, and St. Mary's Theological Seminary in Baltimore. His assistants are the Reverend James Stanick and the Reverend George Kuchera. Among Holy Mount's best known organizations today are the Men's Jaeger Club, founded in 1924, and the Holy Name Society, Council of Catholic Women, and the Women's Tuesday Evening Club. For young people, there are the Young Ladies' Sedality, the CYO Club, and Girl and Boy Scout Troops sponsored by the Church. End of article.

Why Exhaustive Research Really Matters

Natalie Zett

That article you just heard, that was an excellent example of why genealogists are strongly encouraged to do reasonably exhaustive research. That means examining the full array of available resources for a given time and place. That's one explanation of what that is. So it involves evaluating any record you can get your hands on to test your theories and resolve conflicting evidence and eliminate other possibilities. One of the big problems in many of the biographies of various Eastland people, besides the missing source citations, which is a fairly common thing at this point, what I often see is some sort of a story. It usually appears to be a snippet with no source, but there are no other stories. There's no corroborating evidence. So that too is problematic. A single newspaper account or even a family story. It's a start, but the research should always continue. Father Dadera's obituary appears in the October 15, 1949 Chicago Tribune. The Reverend Albert J. Dedera, 69, pastor and founder of Our Lady of the Holy Mount Church, 24th Street and 61st Avenue, Cicero, died yesterday in St. Anthony's Hospital after a long illness. Father Dedera, who served as a Roman Catholic priest for more than 42 years, also was the founder of the Queen of Heaven Church in Cicero. He is survived by a brother, Amil Didera, and two sisters, Mrs. Catherine Smackle and Mrs. Anna Spika. Requiem High Mass will be sung at 10 30 AM Tuesday in Our Lady of the Holy Mount Church. Burial will be in Resurrection Cemetery. In the obituary there's no mention of Father Didera's involvement with the Eastland disaster. However, thanks to that article by Edith Franklin Wyatt, we have a record of that.

Obituary Clues And What They Omit

Natalie Zett

Father Bronislaus Djakowski was also mentioned in Edith Wyatt's article. Now in the article, Edith did not supply the name of his Polish parish. However, this one was pretty easy. It was Our Lady of Chechahova, Cicero. Probably because they lost so many people from that parish, and also there were a number of photos from the funerals that were printed and reprinted. Even though it's mentioned, its backstory is not really told.

Father Czajkowski And A Polish Parish Identified

Natalie Zett

And there's your clue. As I'm going to launch into this story, there's a lot of disagreement, a lot of contradiction. I'll share with you what I have learned, and I'll list some websites that can give you more information about this. It actually is quite fascinating. Our Lady of Chechyhovah is a painting or an icon of Mary holding the Christchild. And it was painted on wood in a Byzantine style. Tradition holds that Saint Luke painted it on a tabletop from the Holy Family's home in Nazareth. Now that's just one of the stories or traditions. Art historians date it to somewhere between the sixth and ninth centuries, likely originating in Constantinople or in Eastern Mediterranean. Now here is one story of how this painting made its way to Poland. The legend says that Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine, brought it to Constantinople. From there it eventually made its way to Bels, which is now in Ukraine, where it was venerated for centuries. In 1382, Prince Vladisal of Opala transported it westward and entrusted it to the Pauline monks of Yajna Gora, Bright Mountain, which is in Chechtehova.

The Black Madonna’s Origin Stories

Natalie Zett

So that's how the painting made its way to Chechtehova, and the monastery has been its home ever since. And if this painting, this icon could talk, the stories it could tell us. Our Lady of Chechjehova has some distinguishing characteristics. There are slashes on her face. How did this happen? In 1430, Hussite raiders sacked the monastery and slashed the painting. The two scars on Mary's right cheek are still visible. And according to legend, when restorers tried to repaint those marks, well the paint kept lifting. The scars are left as they were, and the story became part of the world. Her mystique. Why is Our Lady of Chechnahova known as the Black Madonna? A lot of disagreement about that, but here's one explanation. The dark complexion comes from centuries of candle smoke and varnish oxidation. Why she matters so much to Poles. In 1655, Sweden invaded Poland in what's called the Deluge, a catastrophic occupation. The Swedish siege of Jazna Gora failed against a small outgun garrison, and Poles interpreted this as miraculous. King Jan Kasmiirz subsequently declared Our Lady of Chechnyhova the Queen of Poland in 1656. So from that point she became inseparable from Polish national identity, not just as a religious figure, but as a symbol of survival against overwhelming odds. That's the key to understanding why Polish immigrant parishes placed her so centrally. For these families, she represented everything they'd come from and everything that they had survived. She became the patroness and she's often known as the Queen of Poland. However, don't confuse that with monarchy, okay? And there are a number of churches in the United States known as Our Lady of Chechahova, such as the Church in Cicero, Illinois. This is from the Berwin Life newspaper. The date is November 2, 1945. Headline. Little did the 86 Polish families who founded St. Mary's of Chechnyhova Church realize that their first church, a small wooden structure, would in a few decades become one of the largest and most beautiful edifices in the largest suburb in Chicago. Up until the year 1895, these devout Catholics walked some three and a half miles to St. Kasemir's, the closest Polish church, and prior to 1890 to St. Adelbert's, some five and a half miles away. Longing for their own church where they might worship more regularly, and for their own school, where they might have their children educated in the faith of their fathers, the pioneers held their first meeting on March 27, 1892. By May the following year, they were able to purchase six lots at Linden Avenue, now 49th Avenue, and 30th Street, at a cost of $2,250. The founders of this parish chose as their patroness Our Lady of Chechtehova because Mary, the wonder worker at Chechtehova, the holy city of Poland, is truly dear to the heart of every pole. Father Slaminsky was Saint Mary's first pastor coming to the church on Decoration Day, that would be Memorial Day, by the way, 1895. After four years of pioneering at the church, Father Slominsky was succeeded in July 1899 by Reverend Leo Workowski, who carried on the work of his predecessor until July of 1904. Saint Mary's third pastor, the Reverend Branislaus Zhakowski, served the church for 35 years until his death on October 13, 1939. It was during his time that a period of expansion took place. In January of 1905, under Father Zhakowski, the church began a construction of a brick church and school, and three years later, they erected the present convent for the sisters. In 1917, the present rectory was built. On October 29th of the same year, the cornerstone of St. Mary's present house of worship, a beautiful Gothic structure that towers above all others in Cicero, was blessed. The church, which was erected at a cost of $132,000, has a seating capacity of $1,000. In 1927, beautiful Gothic altars, pulpit, and communion rail, all of precious Carrara marble, were imported from Italy and erected in the church. His Excellency Archbishop Samuel A. Stritch appointed Reverend Theodore Langford, fourth pastor of St. Mary's on july thirteenth, nineteen forty. Father Langford, who was not a stranger to the parishioners, served as an assistant from January 1912 to July 1915. It was he who organized the large apostleship of prayer in 1912, and then the famous Boy Scouts in 1913. It was from St. Mary's too that he was promoted to his first pastorate at St. Valentine's. Father Langford subsequently spent twenty years as pastor of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in West Pullman. Since coming to St. Mary's, Father Langford has carried out a program of reconstruction and renovation. So you've just heard the history of Our Lady of Chechnahova in Poland

Building A Polish Immigrant Church In Cicero

Natalie Zett

as well as in Cicero, Illinois. Now let's focus on Reverend Bronislaus Czajkowski. So the 1920 census has a lot of information about him. In 1920 he was forty-six years old, and he states that he was born in Poland in 1874 and immigrated to the United States in 1890. He was naturalized in 1909. This is from the Berwin Life, october nineteenth, nineteen thirty nine. Hold rights for Cicero Polish pastor. Father Djaikowski was founder of the Hawthorne Parish. Within a month of the time when unconfirmed reports of German destruction of the Saint Mary of Chechahova Shrine in Poland reached this country, the Reverend Czajkowski, founder, builder, and pastor of Saint Mary Częstochowa Church in Hawthorne, died at 5 30 AM Friday morning in the church rectory after a prolonged illness. With the Reverend Cchakowski at the time of his death were Congressman Anton F. Machuski and Cicero prosecutor Julius Skroduluski, lifelong friends of the priest, and parish curates, the Reverend Francis Nogoluski, the Reverend Bernaslas Kajowski, and the Reverend Louis Novak. His death followed a night of suffering, bedside attendants said. He had read his last Mass on Sunday, October 1st. Requiem High Mass was celebrated at ten o'clock yesterday morning by high church officials, and burial followed in Resurrection Cemetery. Under Father Czajkowski's direction, the present church structure was started in 1916 and completed in 1918. His original church was a small frame structure located on what is now 52nd Avenue. Recently, Catholic clergymen throughout the Chicago diocese paid the Reverend Jakowski homage on his 35th anniversary as pastor. Latest reports from Poland indicate that while the St. Mary of Częstochowa shrine was damaged by the German gunfire, the statue, known as the Black Madonna, in honor of which the church was erected, remained unharmed. That's the end of that obituary. I won't belabor this because I like to leave some space for people to think about what they just heard, but the striking parallel. Father Jaikowski dies soon after there were unconfirmed reports reaching the United States that German forces had attacked the St. Mary of Chechtehova shrine in Poland, the very shrine his church was named for. Then later reports confirmed that the shrine was damaged, but the Black Madonna statue survived unharmed. I'll leave you with that one. Now it's time to take a look at the records for the parishioners of Saint Mary's of Chechtehova in Cicero who died on the Eastland. Fortunately, all of the records seem to be available on FamilySearch.org. And this is an example of the coveted primary source that all genealogists and historians look for. Digital scans of the original records, not paraphrases nor transcriptions. This is a significant find and I'll explain why. As I was doing the research for this episode, I looked online and I found only one partial image from this church's internment book reproduced on a website along with a very high level history of Our Lady of Chechtehova. I thought maybe that was all that was available, and this is why we have to question everything because the existing research is not that detailed, and even that record on this website was only the left half of the page. So we had some names and dates, and the right side of the page, which had the details about the priests, the cemeteries, and additional information completely cropped off. They're available for free, but I have copied those records and I will upload them to the Internet Archive as well as to my website so you have access to them. It appears that they have been available for a very long time, so I am not sure why someone would make a decision to share just a partial

Eastland Burial Records Found In Full

Natalie Zett

record and a very high level history. That's a head scratcher. But the very good news out of all of this is that I have the records and I can see them in their entirety. The first two people listed in this internment book are Maria Dudek and Jan Dudek, a married couple, ages twenty eight and thirty-two, respectively. I won't read the names of all of these people. There are 41 of them in total, by the way. So on the 27th of July, there were eight burials. And they're in different cemeteries too. Most are in resurrection, but some are in St. Adalbert's. On the 28th of July, there were 28 burials. On the 29th of July, there were four burials. Then, on August 13th, there was one burial of another Eastland victim. I have the feeling his body wasn't found until around that time. At the moment, I don't know how many individual funerals Father Czajkowski actually conducted, but the fact is he signed off on all of them, and they were his people. He'd probably known many of them from the time they were babies, and to have to face a tragedy like this where so many of his flock died so cruelly and so suddenly, I can't imagine what he felt. I'll say this, so grateful that Edith Wyatt wrote that article for one thing, and I'm even more grateful that I found it. Without her article, I might never have learned about Father Didera, about Queen of Heaven Church in Cicero, or how that parish was touched by the Eastland disaster. As for Our Lady of Częstochowa, I certainly knew the church, but I didn't know its backstory, and while Father Czajkowski is listed on one of the Eastland platforms, there's no information about him, and his connection to the church goes unmentioned. This is another example of why this research has to continue because so much of the story is available, but it still needs to be told. And

What This Changes And Next Steps

Natalie Zett

next week you know I'll have more stories for you, but in the meantime, please take care of yourselves, 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.flowerintheriver.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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