10 former homes of victims of the 1915 boat accident
On July 24th, 1915, over 2000 Western Electric workers boarded the SS Eastland on the main branch of the Chicago River. It was meant to take them to a company picnic in Michigan. The boat capsized at the dock killing 844. Below are pictures of ten of their homes. To learn more about the event and see where all the victims lived at that time check out CBA’s Eastland Victims Homes map.
Closest to the camera is the former Cicero home of Elizabeth (Liening) Rivy, a 20 year old Western electric “laborer” (7/17/24). According to her Chicago Tribune obit her fiancé was helping to buy the house.
Set back on its lot was the probable Heart of Chicago neighborhood home of Anna Brenner (5/10/24) . The 18 year old attended the factory picnic with her Western Electric employed cousin and her boyfriend. The home is also a very good reminder of Chicago’s 19th century sewer system installation which required raising the city street level. It was up to individuals to have their building raised to the new level, so many homes in low lying working class neighborhoods were left at their original spot.
Top – In the middle is the former home of Emma Samek, 17 year old WE switchboard operator. Bottom – Former home of William Sherry, 22 year old “trainman” for the Metropolitan Electric. Both shots were taken on 6/27/24. The engaged couple lived around the block from each other in the Little Village neighborhood.
Not all victims of the disaster lived close to the factory in Cicero. Separated from her husband, Mabel Deichmann Bucholz and new daughter lived with her folks in this Portage Park home (2/1/24). After her death, 9 month old Eunice became the subject of a Chicago Examiner reported custody battle between the husband and Mabel’s parents. I haven’t found a news report on the result, so the work needed to find that out will have to be done later.
William Mueller, a 32 year old Western Electric inspector, and his wife lived in the corner building in Little Village (7/16/24). Pauline survived, but he didn’t.Her father had been a grocer and may have ran it in the now bricked up 1st floor storefront. For more details, have a read at Posts in the Graveyard.
Heart of Chicago building (5/10/24) where 67 year old Anna Stamm lived at the time of her death in the 1915. She went on the picnic with her daughter Cora whose husband worked at the factory.
Victim Wladislawa Placzek (aka Lucy Phillips) probably lived in the two story section of this building in Cicero (7/18/24). As reported in the Chicago Tribune the 21 year old Western Electric employee and her friend and fellow victim Helen Stekelon shared a funeral mass.
Former home of 19 year old Philip Uren in Humboldt Park (5/22/24). The WE electrical worker’s death left his widowed mother alone.
Former Little Village home of married victims Edward & Anna Zobac, with built-after-their-time St Agnes of Bohemia behind (6/27/24). Edward was a machinist at Western Electric. The couple had left their two children at home with grandma.
Contact CBA for a custom guided ridethat includes some of these sights and for gift certificates for the cyclists in your life.Also, these maps are some of the many layers on The Map, where you can plan your own ride, run, or walk around Chicago
