What if you could step back in time and breathe life into the pages of forgotten newspapers, unearthing fascinating tales interwoven with personal stories, tragedy, love, and family connections? That's exactly what happens in Episode 39 of Flower in the River Podcast. We’ll traverse the path of George Dobek and Theresa Danda’s tragic love story, cut short by the Eastland Disaster. We’ll investigate the irreplaceable role multi-language newspapers played in connecting immigrants to their roots. These multi-language newspapers played an irreplaceable role in the lives of immigrants, serving as a powerful tool for connecting them to their roots. In a time when communication options were limited, these newspapers provided a lifeline for immigrants who yearned to stay connected to their homeland and culture.
Join me as we trace the Dobek family’s journey from Eastern Europe to New York and finally to Chicago for a better life. We also delve into the mystery of George’s burial in the Bohemian National Cemetery and the heartwarming tale of how the Danda family embraced him as their own. Along the way, we will uncover a surprising link to my Great-Aunt, Martha Pfeiffer, who tragically died on the Eastland. This tale will paint a poignant picture and reveal precious stories that even tragedies cannot erase.
Key Highlights:
Star-Crossed Lovers: The true story of George Dobek and Theresa Danda, a young couple who perished together in the Eastland Disaster.
Research Adventures: My journey through historical newspapers at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Library.
Library Love: A shoutout to the incredible staff at the library and the importance of such resources in research.
Eastland Chronicles: Insights into the ongoing series and the significance of connecting with history.
A German Newspaper Clue: Discovery of a 1920 memorial for George in the German newspaper Vorbote
Cultural Connections: Exploration of the ethnic and political contexts of early 20th-century Chicago through newspapers.
Genealogical Context: The importance of context in genealogy, revealing more than just names and dates.
The Dobek and Danda Families: Uncovering the origins and connections of George and Teresa's families.
What if you could step back in time and breathe life into the pages of forgotten newspapers, unearthing fascinating tales interwoven with personal stories, tragedy, love, and family connections? That's exactly what happens in Episode 39 of Flower in the River Podcast. We’ll traverse the path of George Dobek and Theresa Danda’s tragic love story, cut short by the Eastland Disaster. We’ll investigate the irreplaceable role multi-language newspapers played in connecting immigrants to their roots. These multi-language newspapers played an irreplaceable role in the lives of immigrants, serving as a powerful tool for connecting them to their roots. In a time when communication options were limited, these newspapers provided a lifeline for immigrants who yearned to stay connected to their homeland and culture.
Join me as we trace the Dobek family’s journey from Eastern Europe to New York and finally to Chicago for a better life. We also delve into the mystery of George’s burial in the Bohemian National Cemetery and the heartwarming tale of how the Danda family embraced him as their own. Along the way, we will uncover a surprising link to my Great-Aunt, Martha Pfeiffer, who tragically died on the Eastland. This tale will paint a poignant picture and reveal precious stories that even tragedies cannot erase.
Key Highlights:
Star-Crossed Lovers: The true story of George Dobek and Theresa Danda, a young couple who perished together in the Eastland Disaster.
Research Adventures: My journey through historical newspapers at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Library.
Library Love: A shoutout to the incredible staff at the library and the importance of such resources in research.
Eastland Chronicles: Insights into the ongoing series and the significance of connecting with history.
A German Newspaper Clue: Discovery of a 1920 memorial for George in the German newspaper Vorbote
Cultural Connections: Exploration of the ethnic and political contexts of early 20th-century Chicago through newspapers.
Genealogical Context: The importance of context in genealogy, revealing more than just names and dates.
The Dobek and Danda Families: Uncovering the origins and connections of George and Teresa's families.
Why Hello, I'm Natalie Zett and welcome to Flower in the River. Flower in the River is a podcast about a book I wrote of the same name, and that book is about the Eastland disaster that took place in 1915 in Chicago and how that long ago tragedy affected my family for generations. I'll talk about writing and family history and what you do when the supernatural comes into your life, when you're innocently doing a family history research project. Come on and let's have some fun with this. Before Jack and Rose, there was George and Teresa, a tale of two star-crossed lovers. Welcome to Episode 39 of Flower in the River podcast. This is Natalie.
Natalie:
Long before the fictional romance of Jack and Rose, you know, the one that captured our hearts in the movie Titanic, there was the true and tragic story of George Dobek and Teresa Danda. They fell in love, they got engaged and, since Teresa worked for Western Electric, they planned to go to the annual company Picnic. They boarded the Eastland. Yeah Well, as you can guess if you've read my book and if you've listened to any of these podcasts, usually anyone who boards the Eastland well, the ending is not good and in this case, unlike Jack and Rose and the Titanic, George and Teresa both perished. George was about 20 when he died and his fiancé, Theresa Danda, was also 20. If you're thinking that's the end of it and that's sad, it's not. No, no way I mean it's sad, of course. However, this story has more twists and turns than a yarn ball at a kitten party.
Natalie:
As I've continued my adventures in world building and adding episodes to this series that I'm calling the Eastland Chronicles, I have been spending nearly all of my research time looking at old newspapers, and the place where I do all of my investigating for these stories are the newspapers that are online at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Library, and I'll put a link in the show notes to this amazing site, because there's so much there, and if you're looking for history, if you love history of Chicago, that is, that's one place you have to go to. True, I could go to other sites that sometimes have the same publications, but this site is devoted to Illinois, and so it's easier to find things because that's what they have there and, for whatever reason, their digitized copies look clear and their papers are easy to find and the search works really well. I have to say that. So when I have had questions and I've had quite a few questions. The staff have been so kind, so generous, so knowledgeable, so never underestimate the power of a library, or a librarian for that matter. As a member of the Eastland family, I'm finding that this experience, this exploration of other families touched by this event, reveals a unique bond. It's a poignant reminder of how certain historical moments can create unseen threads that connect us to a larger community of individuals with this shared history. These shadows from the past also hover over the present. So back to George and Theresa.
Natalie:
While I was searching the publications from the Illinois newspaper collection, I saw a search result from 1920 that referenced the Eastland disaster. Now, since the Eastland disaster happened in 1915, I was drawn to this reference something from five years later. It was in a German language newspaper called Vorbote In English that means harbinger and it gave me the unexpected pleasure of getting to brush up on my German script reading skills, specifically the Fraktur script, and I'll put a link to the Germany handwriting wiki at familysearch. org because it's super useful. And take a look at that. And take a look at other languages that they can help you with If you're one of these people who has ancestry from not the United States, which is most of us and you want to do a deeper dive into the various languages of your ancestors? I know I have quite a few In this newspaper. In Vorbote, on page three was this memorial. I will read it first in German, since my family and friends who live in Germany have been encouraging and that's an air quotes They've been pushing me to do this, to read in German. They say I know you can do this and not rely on my AI voice, which I do sometimes when I want to have something flawlessly translated from English to German. Now, after you hear me read in German, you might be begging for that AI voice again. So here is the memorial in German and then I will mercifully read it in English for you. Chicago, 23 July 1020.
Natalie:
So, aaron Nero, on on son and brother York Dobbeck, which one five-year-old by the Eastland catastrophe, his young live lasso musta. Our Georg is not more. The plot in our Christ is near. He right uns need mere sign. Hand the Eastland serious. Does Shona bond traw and say not the Rubin? Elton and Gis Vista, you so. And Christina Dobek, elton, you so. Helen, andrew Gis Vista. Here's the same tribute in English.
Natalie:
Chicago, 23rd 1920, in memory of our son and brother George Dobek, who had to leave his young life five years ago in the Eastland catastrophe. Our Georg is no more. The place in our circle is empty. He no longer reaches out his hand. The Eastland tore the beautiful bond mourning his bereaved parents and siblings, Joseph and Christina. Dobek. Parents, Joseph, Helen and Andrew. Siblings, as mentioned, this tribute was written in German in a German paper called Vorbote and at first I thought these various multi-language papers at the turn of the century.
Natalie:
Well, I thought they were there to serve newly arrived immigrants from various countries and to keep them connected to each other and their mother countries. That's true, but these papers, many of these papers, were a lot more than that. For example, the history of the Vorbote. This is quite fascinating. The Vorbote was a notable German-language newspaper based in Chicago with a rich history. Now here are some points about its background and this paper should give a deeper idea of how George's parents were connected to that overall community.
Natalie:
Vorbote was established in the mid-19th century. That's a long time ago. It began as a weekly publication and over time it gained prominence among German-speaking workers and immigrants in Chicago, and it was very, very political. The newspaper was known for its strong ties to leftist and labor movements. It became a voice for socialist and later anarchist ideologies, reflecting the political climate and labor struggles of the time. And the Vorbote played a significant role in organizing and reporting on labor movements in Chicago, including the famous Haymarket affair in 1886, sometimes called the Haymarket Massacre and I covered that a few podcasts ago. But, as a reminder, this awful event involved a bomb thrown at a labor rally and the subsequent trial and execution of anarchist leaders was a pivotal moment in American labor history.
Natalie:
And Chicago, with its substantial German immigrant population, was a fertile ground for a newspaper like Vorbote. It not only provided news but also acted as a cultural and political guide for many German-speaking immigrants adjusting to life in America. And over time, as the political climate changed and the German immigrant population assimilated, the influence of the Vorbote waned. The exact date of its closure isn't widely known there's a lot of contradiction there but like many ethnic newspapers, it saw a decline in the early 20th century. In summary, the Vorbote is remembered for its role in Chicago's labor and immigrant history, illustrating how ethnic newspapers served not just as news providers but as cultural and political beacons for immigrant communities.
Natalie:
I mention that because I was wrong about the role of these newspapers. When I was looking at the history of these various publications I saw that they packed a punch, they had a lot of influence and they actually helped the overall labor movement, because if you've ever read the book the Jungle by Upton Sinclair, that's a somewhat horrifying view of life during that time amongst the working class. I believe the family in that particular novel were Lithuanian, but in many ways the history is shared. And also when I saw this ad in this paper, I was wondering about the history of these types of personal ads, tributes, things like this, because I've seen them all my life and I found out that personal ads actually started appearing in newspapers around the late 17th century and initially they were used for business, like selling things, but gradually they evolved to include personal matters.
Natalie:
Romance and marriage were big, so by the 18th century personal ads became a way for people to seek romantic partners or marriage. This was especially important in times when social mobility and meeting new people could be challenging, and these ads also began including tributes and prayers. Tributes to deceased individuals and prayers, like those to St Jude, are a more modern evolution of the personal ad. These ads serve as a public acknowledgement of personal emotions or experiences extending beyond the traditional scope of selling goods or seeking love. They can be seen as a way for people to connect with a broader community over shared sentiments or beliefs, or even tragedies such as the Eastland disaster. Initially, there was a stigma attached to using personal ads, especially for romantic purposes. However, as time has progressed, society's views on these types of things became less judgmental. These types of ads, these types of proclamations were more accepted and commonplace, and right now we have those all over the internet. They don't quite look like they did back in the day, but definitely the internet is filled with personal ads online dating sites, apps, things like that. But they had their origin in these personal ads from the 17th century.
Natalie:
But back to George and Theresa. I haven't forgotten about them In genealogy, and this is very much what this is about. It's so important to provide context, not just names and dates and even photographs. By themselves, they don't equal a context or understanding of the world, of the people you're studying, and obviously that's what I'm trying to do here. Back to Georg. Here's where it gets really interesting. So again, this wasn't just any ethnic newspaper, the Vorbote. It was very political, it had an edge to it In this particular issue published again five years after the Eastland disaster. It was the only memorial and the only mention of the Eastland Disaster in that issue of the Vorbote. So I wondered what prompted his family to take out this ad, and I also wonder how involved was his family in any of these political movements?
Natalie:
Another intriguing aspect to consider is the surname Dobek, which typically indicates Polish or Slovak heritage, something along those lines. Why am I confident about this assumption? Well, it's a mix of personal and cultural background. My own roots are deeply entrenched in these Eastern European communities and I grew up in working class cities where these various ethnic groups were prominent. And then, when I began diving into my own family tree, that's only deepened my understanding of Eastern European and Central European genealogy. Given this, my initial hunch was that, since the Dobek family placed their ad in a German newspaper, it suggested an obvious German connection, possibly on George's maternal line. Let's see what I uncovered about this fascinating intersection of cultures.
Natalie:
George's mother was Christina Marnett, born in 1861 in Moxdorf, ludwig Schoffen, rheinland Platz, deutschland, germany. She immigrated to New York as a single woman at age 26, in 1887, and a year later she married Joseph Dobek. Now I don't know if they knew each other or if they ran into each other, what their history was. But that's what happened. Now, christina's being from Germany may be the reason for the add in a German publication. But one thing about genealogy you have to always check your assumptions and confirmation bias and not jump to conclusions. Although it's easy to do that, we also have to build context, and I'm going to say the word context several times throughout this episode. We have to build context around George's life and part of that is understanding his family. In all of his records, george's father, joseph Dobek, said he was from Austria, joseph was born in 1860 and he immigrated to New York in 1886.
Natalie:
Question for you is the Austria of 1860 the same as Austria today? No, when Joseph was born in 1860, Austria was part of the Austrian Empire, which lasted until around 1867. This was an empire centered around the good old Hapsburg monarchy which you may have heard of. It existed from 1804 to 1867, and that in and of itself included a diverse range of territories in Central and Eastern Europe. So in other words, it wasn't Austria that we know. Okay, and the empire was largely a continuation of the Holy Roman Empire with a centralized administration under the Austrian Hapsburgs. It included regions like modern-day Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, parts of Poland and Italy, among others, but Joseph would have actually grown up in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and that began around 1867 and ended in 1918. Even if Joseph never moved, I bet he probably lived in many countries, depending on whoever claimed that territory.
Natalie:
This empire was formed as a result of the Austro-Hungarian compromise of 1867, which reorganized the Austrian Empire into a dual monarchy. This meant that the empire was effectively split into two co-equal kingdoms the Kingdom of Austria and the Kingdom of Hungary. Each of these kingdoms had its own government, parliament and administrative systems, but they shared a common monarch, foreign policy and military. This dual structure was a response to the growing nationalistic movements within the empire, especially from the Hungarians, who sought greater autonomy. Again, this empire included not just modern-day Austria, but also regions that are now part of Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, parts of Poland, Ukraine, Romania, Italy and more so.
Natalie:
Without knowing where Joseph was born, I'm guessing, based on the name, it was probably Slovakia, modern-day Slovakia or Poland, and further investigation into the Dobak surname and I got this off of Ancestry. com it does indeed confirm that this is normally a Polish or Slovak surname, and its meaning is pretty cool. It means brave, courageous, as in the examples of Dobaslaw, which is Polish Dobaslaw, and Dobomir. Slovak also has a variation of Dobak and its Dobak, and again, that is the origin of this name. So Joseph, Christina and their eventual children there seemed to be about seven they were living and working in New York until somewhere between 1910 and 1915, the entire family moved from New York to Chicago. Why, I'm not sure at this point. I need to do some deeper research, but it doesn't appear that Joseph was working for Western Electric, so the family may have relocated for other reasons yet to be determined.
Natalie:
When I saw that tribute to George five years after the Eastland disaster, I had to do reverse engineering and I went to both the Eastland Disaster Historical Society's page and to Find A Grave, and Find A Grave had a photo of George, and both the EDHS and Find A grave showed that George was buried in the Bohemian National Cemetery in Chicago, and so I made an assumption. I assume that with that last name, with Dobak as the last name, George being buried in a place like the Bohemian National Cemetery made sense ethnically. And if you've never been to the Bohemian National Cemetery, it is gorgeous, and if you're in Chicago I really recommend a visit there. It was founded in 1877 by eight Bohemian Benevolent Societies to provide a suitable burial site for persons of Bohemian birth or extraction, and ten years later the cemetery was opened to all nationalities on a non-sectarian basis. So again, I think my assumption is right, don't you? Why else would George be buried in the Bohemian National Cemetery? Well, once again, my assumption was wrong.
Natalie:
Check out George's obit. At the time of the Eastland Disaster, George Dobak, twenty years old, was the son of Mr and Mrs Joseph Dobak, 2154 South Hormann Avenue. He died with his sweetheart, miss Teresa Danda. He leaves his parents, three brothers, joseph Arthur, Andrew, and one sister, Helen, to mourn for him. Then it says he was buried at the Bohemian National Cemetery. So Teresa and George not only died together, they were buried together at the Danda family plot. And here is Teresa's obit Miss Teresa Danda, twenty years old, 1405 South Karloff Avenue, perished together with her fiancée, George Dobek, 2154 Hormann Avenue. She was employed by the Western Electric Company and leaves her parents, Mr. and Mrs Matthew Danda, and two brothers and one sister. And again, she was buried at the Bohemian National Cemetery, according to the obit. So Teresa's father, Matthew, sometimes called Mike he identified as being from Bohemia and other records indicate that he was actually living at one point in today's Czech Republic. And Josephine Kosan, who's Teresa's mother also identified as being from Bohemia. George's and Teresa's love for one another, even though they were never able to marry the parents, the Danda family wanted to honor that and they opened their family literally to George and they made him part of their family.
Natalie:
And there's one last thing that ties the Danda family back to mine, back to my Aunt Martha. When I was researching this couple, I saw the name Danda and I thought, gosh, that sounds so familiar. And in a newspaper where my Aunt Martha and others were listed as missing, this was before the bodies were found. She's on the front page and to the left of her is a photo of a little boy, Eddie Danda, who was Theresa's little brother. And Eddie Danda also died on the Eastland. I'll post all their photos on my website.
Natalie:
There is a gorgeous photo on Find a Grave of and on the plot. On the left side of the massive tombstone is the word mother with no name. But it is Christina, because the birth dates align and Christina unfortunately died in 1906, well before the Eastland, and her husband is designated as father and he died in 1955, and next to them is Edward Danda, Theresa Danda and George Dobek who started this adventure. Edward, Theresa and George died on the Eastland in 1915.
Natalie:
And of course, there's always more to this, but I wanted to introduce you to these two young lovers and their families, and I'm sure I'll find some other couples that I can highlight as well as time goes by. One thing to consider and to think about too is, just because a relationship wasn't legally acknowledged, it doesn't mean that the relationship didn't exist between two people, and obviously the Danda family was, I think, wonderful for the time. I don't know how many people buried two engaged people together in the family plot, but to me that speaks of something unusual and something worth pursuing. Not sure I'll ever get an answer to that, but it stands out. So this is a lot of information and I will add their bios to my website and add information as I find it. And again, thank you.
Natalie:
Research assistants, reference assistants and specialists at the Illinois History and Lincoln Collections of the University of Illinois, urbana Champagne, you guys rock. And thank you too, to the folks at the Chicago Public Library who helped me as I begin researching on some of these other older newspapers that I was unable to find elsewhere. Thank you for scanning, even though this journey, for me, is largely one of solitude and I'm not complaining because, again, I'm an introvert but I love collaborating with like-minded people who know more than I do and have access to information that I don't, and I love to thank them and involve them in this process as well, because it is a community of sorts and, again, what happened in 1915 to my family and to so many families does have an effect even now. And by talking back to this history, by acknowledging this history and by fleshing it out a little bit more, it becomes something beyond 844 were killed, its names, places and people and its families, and it's even people who aren't officially families but, like George and Theresa, there are people who loved each other and died together on the Eastland. I want to close with a quote from Elizabeth Shown Mills, an extraordinary and influential genealogist. Elizabeth was probably that kid in high school whose paper you wanted to copy off of, and now that she is grown and established herself in the field of genealogy, we still want to copy off of her papers. She's that extraordinary. Here's what she says.
Natalie:
Raw facts do not tell a story. They may not even tell the truth about what they do relate. As researchers, we seek original documents that offer us quote unquote the facts. But facts are impish devils and historical records do not speak for themselves. They cannot explain themselves. They are inert objects created by individuals of a different time, a different culture and who knows what mindset.
Natalie:
If taken at face value, records and their facts can deceive, mislead or confuse us. The only voice the documents have is the voice we give them. With every document we find and every story we tell, we have a choice. We can take what we see at face value, report it devoid of context and run the risk of misrepresenting the circumstances, or we can seek the context. We need to understand the record, the event and the person, and that's a quote from Elizabeth Shown Mills. I hope you'll consider buying my book, available now as audiobook, ebook, paperback and hardcover, because I owe people money and I'm just kidding about that. But the one thing I'm not kidding about is that this podcast and my book are dedicated to the memory of the 844 who died on the Eastland. Goodbye for now.