Flower in the River: A Family Tale Finally Told

Natalie Zett

"Flower in the River" 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. 

  1. 8h ago

    A Pitiable Sight: A Postmaster Remembers the Eastland

    Send us Fan Mail 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/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 - YouTubeMedium: Natalie Zett – MediumThe opening/closing song is Twilight by 8opusOther music. Artlist

    A Pitiable Sight: A Postmaster Remembers the Eastland

  2. Aug 5

    Eastland “Hero,” Vaudeville Star, Octopus Wrangler: Meet Arthur Loeb

    Send us Fan Mail 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 CommissionOlive 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, 1915Springfield 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 - YouTubeMedium: Natalie Zett – MediumThe opening/closing song is Twilight by 8opusOther music. Artlist

    Eastland “Hero,” Vaudeville Star, Octopus Wrangler: Meet Arthur Loeb

  3. Jul 30

    “You’ll Spoil the Boat”: Elmer Nelson, the Torch, and the Evidence

    Send us Fan Mail What does a bad grade on a high-school term paper have to do with the 1915 Eastland disaster? This week is part history, part confession, and part detective story — and it starts with some genuinely good news. There is a new Eastland documentary — The Eastland Tragedy: July 24, 1915, from Chicago's WTTW/PBS! I braced for the usual retellings and instead found something that felt like a world premiere. It features the story about one of the divers, Iver Johnson, as told by his grandson. Link below. Then, a confession. Meet Mrs. K, my tenth-grade English teacher. Whenever we students skipped footnotes, Mrs. K would return our papers and on the cover she would write, LAZY, LAZY, LAZY in red pen. I still have my personalized LAZY LAZY LAZY paper somewhere. I spent years with a love-hate relationship to footnotes... and then life dropped me into a calling where I am absolutely immersed in them. You'll understand the irony by the end. At the heart of the episode is a man named Elmer Nelson — Dave Nelson's grandfather, a structural ironworker who showed up at the capsized Eastland with an acetylene torch. And I went looking for more info about him. (Note: Dave Nelson, otherwise known as Mr. Eastland, had been researching the Eastland and sharing his work since 1972. Dave recently passed away and I featured Dave in the last episode, Mr. Eastland and the Night at the Museum. Link below.) While searching for more info about Elmer's connection to the disaster, I stumbled onto a modern retelling. Something about it felt forced, a little off. Then I saw the problem: it carried no source citation at all — nothing to back up its claims, nothing to trace them to. Was this fact or fiction? Citations are often missing in modern retellings of the Eastland disaster. An account without source citations places a brick wall between us and the actual history. I couldn't use that modern article other than as an example of how not to do research, and I kept searching. After a lot of trial and error, I traced the story back to what may be its 1915 source — where I noticed the modern version had been changed in ways worth pausing over.  As a successful graduate of Mrs. K's 10th grade English class, I admit that as I do this Eastland history research there are days where I too want to pick up her red pen — but I'd change the mantra to: SOURCE, SOURCE, SOURCE. And the next time you read a "historical" account with no source in sight, you may never look at it the same way again. Resources The Eastland Tragedy July 24, 1915  (New documentary about a luxury steamer overturning in the Chicago River.  WTTW, Chicago's PBS station.)Natalie Zett, “Mr. Eastland and the Night at the Museum,” Flower in the River Podcast, ep. 176, July 23, 2026.“‘You’ll Spoil the Boat,’ Captain Tells Rescuers,” Chicago Examiner, July 25, 1915, 69. Bailey, Jonathan. Plagiarism Today. A useful resource on plagiarism, copyright, attribution, and the misuse of creative and research work. Although its focus is largely contemporary and online, many of the same ethical issues apply to historical writing and research.Elizabeth Shown Mills, Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace, 4th ed. (Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2024)Hume, Robert W., managing editor. 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 - YouTubeMedium: Natalie Zett – MediumThe opening/closing song is Twilight by 8opusOther music. Artlist

    “You’ll Spoil the Boat”: Elmer Nelson, the Torch, and the Evidence

  4. Jul 23

    Mr. Eastland and the Night at the Museum

    Send us Fan Mail 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 - YouTubeMedium: Natalie Zett – MediumThe opening/closing song is Twilight by 8opusOther music. Artlist

    Mr. Eastland and the Night at the Museum

  5. Jul 15

    Ink Against Indifference: The Eastland Cartoonists

    Send us Fan Mail 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 - YouTubeMedium: Natalie Zett – MediumThe opening/closing song is Twilight by 8opusOther music. Artlist

    Ink Against Indifference: The Eastland Cartoonists

  6. Jul 9

    Dwight Boyer: The Man Who Spoke for “the Little Feller”

    Send us Fan Mail 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, 2025Natalie 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 - YouTubeMedium: Natalie Zett – MediumThe opening/closing song is Twilight by 8opusOther music. Artlist

    Dwight Boyer: The Man Who Spoke for “the Little Feller”

  7. Jul 2

    Olive Carruthers: Chain-Smoking, Gravel-Voiced Chronicler of the Eastland

    Send us Fan Mail Sometimes, a single newspaper article can pull lives back from the shadows. Today, I want to share the story behind one of my most treasured discoveries: writer and journalist Olive Carruthers. Her 1952 Evanston Review piece, “How Evanstonians Assisted in the Eastland Disaster,” brings the 1915 Eastland tragedy in Chicago into sharp, unforgettable focus. Long after the Eastland rolled into the Chicago River during the Western Electric picnic, Olive sought out Evanston residents, collected their memories, and wove them into a gripping narrative that saves names other histories have let slip away.     We step into the raw moments Olive refused to soften: the frantic surge of rescuers, the dread that someone you love might be lost, and diver Enoch Moberg plunging into a world turned upside down, filled with ladders, darkness, wreckage, and the unthinkable. We trace the aftermath through Catherine O’Reilly’s desperate search for her brother Patrick, the jolt of grief and hardship that struck survivors’ families, and the wave of community relief that rose up in the days that followed. Then Olive steps out from behind the byline and into the spotlight. We follow her journey from Wisconsin to Chicago and Kentucky, exploring her life as a novelist and book critic. Gerald McMurtry offers heartfelt thanks for Olive saving his manuscript and for their partnership on Lincoln’s Other Mary. He also leaves us with a description for the ages: Olive as a “chain-smoking, gravel-voiced time bomb.” Some writers are memorable. Olive apparently came with a warning label. I close with Olive’s own words on why Chicago held her and what it meant to write with real freedom.    If you love uncovering the hidden stories of the Eastland disaster, or if Chicago history, genealogy, and archival sleuthing spark your curiosity, this episode is made for you. Subscribe or follow, share it with a fellow history enthusiast, and leave a review to help others discover these long-lost tales. Resources: Olive Carruthers, “How Evanstonians Assisted in the Eastland Disaster,” The Evanston Review (Evanston, Illinois), October 23, 1952, 37–38.R. Gerald McMurtry, My Lifelong Pursuit of Lincoln (Fort Wayne, IN: Louis A. Warren Lincoln Library and Museum, 1981).Olive Carruthers and R. Gerald McMurtry, Lincoln’s Other Mary: The Courtship of Mary Owens (Chicago: Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, 1946).Olive Carruthers, We’ll Sing One Song (Indianapolis and New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1947).She Took the Call. He Dove for the Lost. She Wrote Their Story.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 - YouTubeMedium: Natalie Zett – MediumThe opening/closing song is Twilight by 8opusOther music. Artlist

    Olive Carruthers: Chain-Smoking, Gravel-Voiced Chronicler of the Eastland

  8. Jun 25

    Rand McNally to the Chicago River: Agnes Lee's Eastland Story

    Send us Fan Mail The Eastland disaster didn't vanish into the Chicago River — it scattered into poems, magazines, archives, and family research, waiting for someone to go looking. In this episode, I push back on the idea that “history forgot” the Eastland disaster. History didn't forget. The records are there in abundance. What’s missing is the willingness to look past the easy summary and find them. We return to Agnes Lee, a major voice in Chicago's literary scene, with a newly uncovered Eastland poem and a deep dive into her life and work. Then the trail takes an unexpected turn — straight to The Prison Mirror, a prisoner-run newspaper out of Stillwater, Minnesota. It's not a detour. It's a reminder that the most important sources often live outside the places we assume to search. From there, I introduce Harriet Monroe, founder of Poetry magazine, and explain how her "open door" editorial policy preserved an entire community of writers responding to tragedy — Agnes Lee and Carl Sandburg among them. You'll hear two of Lee's Eastland poems, "The Divers" and "Eastland Waters" — works that belong in any serious conversation about the 1915 disaster, Chicago history, public memory, and the ethics of retelling. If you enjoy learning about overlooked voices of the Eastland disaster, subscribe, share this episode, and leave a review so more listeners can find Flower in the River. Resources: Lee, Agnes. “Eastland Waters.” Poetry: A Magazine of Verse  (February 1916)Lee, Agnes. “The Divers.” The Bookman 42 (September 1915–February 1916)The Editors, “Harriet Monroe & the Open Door,” Poetry Foundation, n.d., accessed June 24, 2026.Rand, Martha Agnes, and Agnes Lee. "The Knife and the Leaf." The Prison Mirror [Stillwater, MN], vol. 3, no. 5, 12 Sept. 1889, p. 1.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 - YouTubeMedium: Natalie Zett – MediumThe opening/closing song is Twilight by 8opusOther music. Artlist

    Rand McNally to the Chicago River: Agnes Lee's Eastland Story
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About

"Flower in the River" 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. 

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