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Picture it. A survivor, Martha Willig, wrote down what happened on the Eastland the very next day. Then, on July 28, 1915, her gripping account ran on the front page of a New Jersey newspaper. Yet her name, the names of her fellow survivors, and their story are missing from modern versions of Eastland Disaster history — despite that article and later corroboration from descendants of the family.

That contradiction is where this story starts, and it's why I'm bringing Martha Willig and Otto Larsen back to the center of it. She's in many records. She's just absent from the story that got passed down.

Vet Twice, Keep the Originals

That gap is why I discuss heritage and historical organizations. The majority do exemplary work, but they’re not all created equal. Vet the organization, not the label.

Along those lines, I also revisit my own 1998 experience of sharing an article and photo with a venue that seemed very enthusiastic at the time. And then: crickets. Fortunately, I kept the originals. As a result, I finally learned how to curate my own family's history instead of waiting for permission.

That experience turned into a life lesson. When you've done the research, located the records, and confirmed the facts, you don't need to wait for anyone else to acknowledge your family's story. The evidence gives you everything you need to tell it yourself. Run with it!

Martha Willig's Survival Story

Which brings us back to Martha, and to her own words: the crush of the crowd, the moment the ship tips, Otto's efforts to save her, and the loss of her brother-in-law, Louis Kruse. From there, we look at what came after the headlines, including Martha’s sister, Rose Kruse, and her life as a widow and single mother. Some families didn't just lose people on July 24, 1915 — they lost years of stability afterward.

That's the thread running through this episode: the story doesn't end at the waterline, and neither does the responsibility to tell it. If you're interested in the Eastland disaster of 1915, Chicago history, genealogy, or preserving family stories with solid documentation and attribution, pull up a chair. We're doing that here every week.

Resources:

• “Survivor’s Tale of Eastland Disaster,” Hudson Observer (Hoboken, New Jersey), 28 July 1915, 1; reproducing a letter from Martha Willig to her sister, written 25 July 1915.
• Natalie Zett, “From Hoboken to Hawthorne: Martha Willig’s Untold Story,” Flower in the River Podcast, episode 64, published 1 June 2024, audio podcast.

• Book website: https://www.flowerintheriver.com/
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• Medium: Natalie Zett – Medium
• The opening/closing song is Twilight by 8opus
• Other music. Artlist

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What happens when a dramatic story is repeated often enough that people stop asking where it came from?

We begin with the curious case of Arthur Loeb, the self-proclaimed "King of the Bell Divers," who spent years promoting himself as an Eastland disaster hero (not true) and claiming honors that he never received.

His story illustrates what can happen when assertions are repeated without documentation and gradually take on the appearance of fact. When preserving a familiar narrative becomes more important than continuing the research, sources stop being questioned, old claims stop being tested, and the received narrative begins to substitute for history.

From there, I share a personal experience that reminds us why evidence is critical. A DNA relative in Poland sent records proving that I had a major branch of my family tree wrong. I mean, really wrong! Correcting it meant letting go of a story I had believed for years and rebuilding from original records instead.

Finally, we restore another overlooked voice: Chicago Postmaster Frederick E. Coyne. His memoir places us near the Clark Street Bridge in the immediate aftermath of the Eastland disaster and provides another eyewitness perspective on the rescue effort and its human cost. Although some of the statistics in his recollection are inaccurate, his firsthand observations add an important piece to the historical record and remind us that every contemporary account deserves to be examined alongside the evidence.

If you enjoyed this episode, follow Flower in the River, share it with someone who loves Chicago history or genealogy, and come back next week for another piece of the Eastland story.

Resources:

Coyne, F. E. In Reminiscence: Highlights of Men and Events in the Life of Chicago. Chicago: Privately printed, 1941.

Watch the extended video: Eastland “Hero,” Vaudeville Star, Octopus Wrangler: Meet Arthur Loeb — a companion video with additional documents, newspaper clippings, and visuals that expand on this episode.

• Book website: https://www.flowerintheriver.com/
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• YouTube: Flower in the River - A Family Tale Finally Told - YouTube
• Medium: Natalie Zett – Medium
• The opening/closing song is Twilight by 8opus
• Other music. Artlist

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A diamond-studded Carnegie medal. Dozens of dramatic rescues. A “king of the bell divers” who always seems to be first on the scene. Arthur Loeb’s Eastland Disaster legend is the kind of story that spreads fast online because it’s vivid, emotional, and easy to retell, but when we ask the most basic question, “Where’s the evidence?”, the ground shifts.

We slow down and do the work that Eastland Disaster historiography too often skips: reasonably exhaustive research. We walk through what’s actually in the newspaper record, including Loeb’s earlier arrests and the post-disaster reports that place him around the victims in ways that do not match the heroic narrative. Then we follow the myth as it grows through self-reporting, vague “medals,” and sensational claims that get picked up by bigger outlets without the context listeners deserve.

The turning point is the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission itself. We read a public denial that Loeb received any Carnegie award and unpack why that matters: the Carnegie Medal is a serious, evidence-driven honor with a high bar for documentation. Along the way, we contrast Loeb’s spotlight-hungry persona with the quieter stories of documented rescuers who rarely make it into modern retellings, and we use genealogy and census records to show the life Loeb actually lived.

If you enjoy Chicago history, true crime adjacent con artistry (!), genealogy research, or just learning how to fact-check viral historical stories, this one is a cautionary tale with receipts. Subscribe or follow, share the episode with a friend who loves “legendary” stories, and leave a review telling us your biggest red flag for a too-good-to-be-true hero claim.

OH, and if something sounds too over-the-top to be true, it probably is!

Resources

• Carnegie Hero Fund Commission
• Olive Carruthers, “How Evanstonians Assisted in the Eastland Disaster,” The Evanston Review (Evanston, Illinois), October 23, 1952, 37–38.
• Natalie Zett, Arthur Loeb: The Fake Hero of Real Tragedies, Flower in the River Podcast, ep. 68, June 29, 2024.
• The Day Book (Chicago), March 26, 1913.
• The Day Book (Chicago), August 06, 1915.
• The Chicago Tribune (Chicago), August 6, 1915
• Springfield News (Springfield, IL), May 30, 1916

• Book website: https://www.flowerintheriver.com/
• Substack: https://nataliezett.substack.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-z-87092b15/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zettnatalie/
• YouTube: Flower in the River - A Family Tale Finally Told - YouTube
• Medium: Natalie Zett – Medium
• The opening/closing song is Twilight by 8opus
• Other music. Artlist

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This week, I remember Dave Nelson, who passed away on July 10, 2026, just before the 111th anniversary of the Eastland disaster.

And yet his name rarely surfaces in the retellings his own work made possible.

Dave was the grandson of Elmer Nelson (born Knute David Hjalmar Nilsson in Kalmar, Sweden), an ironworker who helped cut through the Eastland's hull to free trapped passengers in 1915 and was awarded a Silver Star by the Cook County Coroner for his valor.

Watching The Poseidon Adventure brought his grandfather to mind and set Dave in motion in 1972! What he and his wife Rose built over the years became the most extensive collection of Eastland memorabilia in existence.

I wrote to Dave in the late 1990s after I had just discovered my family's connection to this disaster that I'd never heard of. He dropped everything to open his Eastland Museum (in downtown Chicago) late one night just for me and my friend. He gave us the grand tour and regaled us with the story of the Eastland as if he had been an eyewitness to it! By the time we were done, I was overwhelmed in the best possible way. I thanked him over and over, but he refused my donation. As we were winding down the visit, he looked at me, smiled and said, "Natalie, I'm afraid you've been Eastland-ized." I replied, "If that's true, then it's your fault, Mr. Eastland."

I also revisit a 1989 Chicago Tribune article, "The Eastland Remembered," documenting the Nelsons' 17-year labor of love, their refusal to charge admission, and their fight to keep the collection open. I remember Dave as someone who authentically cared about the Eastland and those whose lives were forever changed by it. It was never about him, but about his work to ensure the history of the Eastland and its people was preserved.

Mr. Eastland, you've left the stage, but your influence and your work continue.

Resources

• Donna Chavez, “The Eastland Remembered,” Chicago Tribune, July 23, 1989.
• “‘You’ll Spoil the Boat,’ Captain Tells Rescuers,” Chicago Examiner, July 25, 1915, 69.
• Acetylene Journal. Vol. 17, 1915–1916. Chicago: Acetylene Journal Publishing Company. Google Books.

• Book website: https://www.flowerintheriver.com/
• Substack: https://nataliezett.substack.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-z-87092b15/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zettnatalie/
• YouTube: Flower in the River - A Family Tale Finally Told - YouTube
• Medium: Natalie Zett – Medium
• The opening/closing song is Twilight by 8opus
• Other music. Artlist

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A capsized ship at a Chicago dock should not have happened. Except, it did.

Today, we go looking for the people who translated that shock into a demand for justice while the city was still counting its dead: the editorial cartoonists. Their names rarely appear in modern accounts of the Eastland disaster, but in 1915 their drawings exposed hypocrisy, challenged officials, and said what polite prose often would not.

We also return to the story of Willie Novotny, the child known for days only as “No. 396,” and why his identification prompted such a powerful outpouring of sympathy. From there, we read a 1915 Cartoons Magazine article that points to lax inspection laws, questionable safeguards, and a system seemingly more interested in protecting itself than protecting ordinary workers, women, and children. It is a vivid snapshot of how Chicago wrestled with grief, accountability, and the fear that the investigation would end in a whitewash.

Finally, we meet three essential artists: Luther Daniels Bradley, John T. McCutcheon, and Bob Satterfield. Bradley asks the blunt question, “Whose safety first?” McCutcheon skewers the familiar pattern of investigations that come “too late,” and Satterfield’s on-the-scene sketching gives historians and genealogists a rare primary source from the riverfront itself.

If you care about the Eastland disaster, Chicago history, political cartoons, or the way public memory gets edited over time, this story belongs in your feed.

Resources:

Cartoons Magazine, Vol. 8, No. 3, September 1915. H. H. Windsor, editor and publisher. Chicago. Digitized by Google Books.

Bradley, Luther Daniels. Cartoons by Bradley: Cartoonist of the Chicago Daily News, with a Biographical Sketch and an Appreciation. Chicago: Rand McNally & Company, 1917. Internet Archive.

• Book website: https://www.flowerintheriver.com/
• Substack: https://nataliezett.substack.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-z-87092b15/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zettnatalie/
• YouTube: Flower in the River - A Family Tale Finally Told - YouTube
• Medium: Natalie Zett – Medium
• The opening/closing song is Twilight by 8opus
• Other music. Artlist

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As we get closer to the 111th anniversary of the Eastland Disaster (July 24, 1915) in the Chicago River, we learn what careful writers actually put on the page--and what modern revisions often leave out.

We look at why poets and journalists who wrote about the Eastland disaster, such as Edith Wyatt, Agnes Lee, Olive Carruthers, Carl Sandberg, and others, are mostly missing from today’s accounts. We also focus on one key figure: Great Lakes reporter and maritime historian Dwight Boyer. In his chapter “Who Speaks for the Little Feller?” from True Tales of the Great Lakes (1971), Boyer draws on primary sources, courtroom records, and interviews to tell the Eastland's story with accuracy and respect for the victims as real people.

At the center of Boyer’s account is “Victim 396,” a child dressed in Sunday clothes who remained unidentified for days. Eventually, two of his friends and his grandmother recognized him as Willie Novotny (Vilém Novotný).

Next, we look at how the legal aftermath dragged on, with responsibility reduced to technical details and salvage value. We also mention Michael Schumacher’s Along Lake Michigan: Shipwreck Stories of Life and Loss (2025), which explains why it was so hard to determine the death toll in such chaos, especially when children were not always counted and survivors moved between hospitals without clear records.

If you want to dig deeper into Chicago history, the Eastland disaster, genealogy research, and learn how historical accuracy gets built, broken and restored, this conversation is for you.

Resources:

• Michael Schumacher, Along Lake Michigan: Shipwreck Stories of Life and Loss (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2025).
• Dwight Boyer, “Who Speaks for the Little Feller?” in True Tales of the Great Lakes (Michigan: Thunder Bay Press, 1971), 27.
• Natalie Zett, “Who Speaks for Dwight Boyer? The Storyteller Who Remembered Them All,” Flower in the River, episode 126, August 7, 2025
• Natalie Zett, "Dwight Boyer: Forgotten Chronicler of the Eastland Disaster," Flower in the River, episode 125, July 31, 2025.

• Book website: https://www.flowerintheriver.com/
• Substack: https://nataliezett.substack.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-z-87092b15/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zettnatalie/
• YouTube: Flower in the River - A Family Tale Finally Told - YouTube
• Medium: Natalie Zett – Medium
• The opening/closing song is Twilight by 8opus
• Other music. Artlist