Welcome to Episode 46 of Flower in the River Podcast -- "A Switchboard Operator and a Nurse Walk Into a Shipwreck: Unraveling the Eastland Disaster."
News from the Newberry! Photographs, postcards, death records and other materials related to the 1915 tragedy were donated by the Eastland Disaster Historical Society to the Newberry Library (Chicago). The info is available online or at the Newberry.
What happens in Versailles Doesn't Stay in Versailles. If you enjoyed Episode 44 ("Shadows of the Past: Premonitions from the Titanic to the Eastland") and want to learn more about two English school teachers' unintended time-travel adventure, check out the Astonishing Legends podcast episode, "The Ghosts. of Versailles, Part 1."
Look for the Helpers. Imagine the bravery of ordinary individuals like Western Electric employees, Margaret Condon (Switchboard Operator) and Helen Repa (Nurse) who demonstrated exceptional courage amid chaos when the Eastland capsized. Their stories, woven through this week's episode, are poignant reminders of the human spirit's resilience, and we're honored to bring them to light for you.
This episode's rich narrative intertwines the advancements in communication, the evolution of nursing, and the personal sacrifices of those who stepped up when disaster struck. Immersing yourself in their experiences promises both a humbling and enlightening encounter with history.
Welcome to Episode 46 of Flower in the River Podcast -- "A Switchboard Operator and a Nurse Walk Into a Shipwreck: Unraveling the Eastland Disaster."
News from the Newberry! Photographs, postcards, death records and other materials related to the 1915 tragedy were donated by the Eastland Disaster Historical Society to the Newberry Library (Chicago). The info is available online or at the Newberry.
What happens in Versailles Doesn't Stay in Versailles. If you enjoyed Episode 44 ("Shadows of the Past: Premonitions from the Titanic to the Eastland") and want to learn more about two English school teachers' unintended time-travel adventure, check out the Astonishing Legends podcast episode, "The Ghosts. of Versailles, Part 1."
Look for the Helpers. Imagine the bravery of ordinary individuals like Western Electric employees, Margaret Condon (Switchboard Operator) and Helen Repa (Nurse) who demonstrated exceptional courage amid chaos when the Eastland capsized. Their stories, woven through this week's episode, are poignant reminders of the human spirit's resilience, and we're honored to bring them to light for you.
This episode's rich narrative intertwines the advancements in communication, the evolution of nursing, and the personal sacrifices of those who stepped up when disaster struck. Immersing yourself in their experiences promises both a humbling and enlightening encounter with history.
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. Hello, this is Natalie and I hope you're doing well, and I want to welcome you to Flower in the River podcast. This is episode 46 and we are going to have to jump right in because a lot has been going on this past week in terms of Eastland news and stories. So the first is an email that I received this past week from Allison Hinderlater, and she is the Lloyd Lewis Curator of Modern Manuscripts and Archives and also selector for modern music at the Newberry in Chicago. So Allison wrote. I'm pleased to announce that we have the photographs and postcards from the Eastland Disaster Historical Society now online and available to view and download, and to say this was great news is an understatement, and thank you again, allison, for sharing that with me. I can't think of a better place for the Eastland materials to live than at the Newberry Library in Chicago. I'm looking at their website now. It was founded in 1887 and is one of Chicago's most historic cultural institutions. This people from all over visit to research topics of interest, discover their family history, take classes or learn something new and unexpected. So I will put a link in the show notes and I encourage you to visit their website and if you're able to actually go there and visit the Newberry Library, that is quite the experience as well. I would encourage you to do that. I also want to say thank you to the Waakoltz Decker family, the founders of the Eastland Disaster Historical Society, for working with the Newberry and for caring for all of that information, including the postcards, photographs, death records, survivors accounts for all these years and transitioning it to the Newberry so it's accessible to anyone who's interested in it. Okay, transitioning a little bit.
Speaker 1:
So part two of this podcast I call what Happens in Versailles Doesn't Stay in Versailles. You might recall, a couple of weeks ago I discussed the enigmatic tale of the Petite Trinon time slip. That was something that allegedly happened in 1903, when two English school teachers traveled to France, to Versailles, and decided to walk around the grounds where, among others, marie Antoinette once lived. They experienced something extraordinary a journey through time that defies explanation, where they seem to have gone way, way back, and it's a story that is as mystifying as it is captivating. In my opinion, this story was one of those that helped open my mind up to what was going on with me when I was initially researching the Eastland Disaster experience in my own family. Well, this week, it seems I'm not the only one intrigued by this historical mystery. The Astonishing Legends podcast has just released an episode where they do a very deep dive into the same event. Their detailed account of the time slip at the Petite Trinon provides a new perspective on what these school teachers might have encountered. It's just brilliant to see such a fascinating story receiving attention from different angles. So for those who enjoyed this story and who are intrigued and want more insights, check out Astonishing Legends podcast, specifically this episode. It is 275 and it's entitled the Ghosts of Versailles, part 1. And Part 2 is coming. I've listened to the guys who do Astonishing Legends and they do such in-depth research. It really is my kind of show and the dialogue between the two co-hosts is really a lot of fun. Check out Astonishing Legends and I'll put a link in the show notes for you.
Speaker 1:
Now transitioning once again, the title of this segment of the podcast is Look for the Helpers. I bet you already know the quote from Mr Rogers when he said when I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me look for the helpers, you will always find people who are helping. So last week I discussed how Johnny Weissmuller rescued and recovered people who were aboard the favorite ship which capsized in Lake Michigan in 1927. And this week I found a couple of stories about two other helpers who sprang into action when the Eastland capsized in 1915. Reading those stories made me think about what is it about some people not all people, but what is it about some people that a hero or heroine emerges from them in times of great distress? In the hidden depths of some souls lies an untapped wellspring of strength, a dormant core of bravery waiting silently for its moment to surface. It's a quiet power, humbly concealed, biting its time until the world crumbles and the call to rise is sounded. It's in the fractures of our reality, amidst the debris of what was that these unassuming heroes are forged. They emerge, often to their own surprise as eff awakening from a slumber within themselves to discover the giants they truly are. I wager, in their most private moments before the crisis, even they couldn't fathom the giants that they would become. When the unthinkable asked them to stand tall when the Eastland capsized, not everyone rose to the occasion. But I now want to tell you two stories of two women a switchboard operator and a nurse.
Speaker 1:
Let me introduce you to the switchboard operator, but first imagine a world where instant communication wasn't at our fingertips. That was once the reality. That was the daily grind for Margaret Condon, a Western Electric switchboard operator, during a time where the very concept of a phone call was revolutionary. Back in 1915, making a phone call was a whole different ball game. Okay, you couldn't just dial your friend directly, you needed someone in the middle to connect the dots. Here's the switchboard operator, the unsung hero of early telecommunication. These operators were the ones manually connecting your call through a maze of wires on a central switchboard. It wasn't just about patching through calls, it was about memorizing numbers, knowing who was on which line and keeping cool when the lines lit up like a Christmas tree. Margaret Condon was one of those patient, sharp-minded folks who kept the conversations flowing, but her skills and the switchboard itself faced the ultimate challenge on the day the Eastland disaster struck.
Speaker 1:
When Margaret Condon was born on May 21, 1885 in Chicago, her father, james, was 40, and her mother, margaret, was also 40. Both parents were born in Ireland and her dad at that point was working for the railroad. In 1900, when Margaret was 15, she was already working as an office clerk. That same year her sister died and the year before her brother died. Then, in 1911, her mother died. Margaret was still living at home at that point and working as the chief operator at Western Electric, and Margaret was on duty when the Eastland disaster hit.
Speaker 1:
I'm going to read from the Western Electric News and this was published in 1920. But this was a history of the switchboard and of Margaret. Specifically. Quote Ms Condon, who has been in charge of the Hawthorne Works PBX ever since it opened in 1915, started with the company in the braiding department at Clinton Street in 1901. A few months later George Hopf, our present chief of educational service, picked Ms Condon as a likely telephone operator and the soundness of his judgment was soon confirmed.
Speaker 1:
Ms Condon moved to Hawthorne in March 1905 to take charge of its first private branch exchange. For a while she was the entire force on a two-position board in the building now occupied by the payroll department. As the population of Hawthorne grew, the demand for more local telephones increased correspondingly. The two-position board was replaced by a four-position board in 1906. The four-position board was replaced by a nine-position board in 1907 when the exchange moved to the fourth floor of Building 49, its present location, and the growth from that time has been rapid. Positions 10, 11, and 12 were added in 1909, and a supervisor's desk with a four-line key cabinet was added two years later. In 1913, two sections comprising positions 13 and 18 inclusive were cut in, and these were joined in 1917 by positions 19, 20, and 21. Positions 22, 23, and 24 were added in 1918, and positions 25, 26, and 27 in 1922.
Speaker 1:
That's the end of that short article. I'm reading all that to show you what progress and technology looked like back then, even though when we look at these photographs it seems quite primitive to us. At that point things were growing really fast and it took somebody with an incredible mind and openness for reinventions, such as Margaret Condon, to adapt and adjust like the times we're living in now. This required an ability to adapt, to change. So Margaret was at her switchboard when the Eastland capsized. She played a vital role in relaying urgent messages, coordinating rescue efforts and connecting frantic families. Her calm demeanor amidst chaos undoubtedly saved lives. This article is from the Western Electric News, august 1915, so that's one month after the Eastland disaster Headline. 34 hours at the switchboard. What one Western Electric telephone operator did Not.
Speaker 1:
All of the heroes and heroines of the Eastland disaster were at the docks. In fact, one of the finest feats of the terrible week of July 24 was performed by a telephone operator miles away from the scene of the disaster. She is Ms Margaret Condon, chief Operator of the Western Electric Company's Private Branch Exchange at Hawthorne. She remained on duty at the switchboard from noon of July 24 until late at night, july 25. 34 hours of continuous service. When Ms Condon was seen at the exchange on Wednesday night, july 28, she had been on duty for a total of nearly 74 hours out of the past 103, more than three whole days out of five. She looked surprisingly fresh after her ordeal. Although it was obvious that she had been under a severe strain and she was expecting to go on duty again early the following morning, there wasn't anything particularly heroic about it that I can see. She said in a lull between calls Somebody had to be there to answer inquiries, to make connections and see that the other girls did their work smoothly.
Speaker 1:
So I stayed. That was all there was to it. You see, I was expected to go to the picnic. I got down to the dock at exactly 7.30 am, just as the Eastland went over. I stayed down for a while watching the rescue work until finally, seeing that there was nothing I could do, I started home. The crowds were so dense that it took me an hour and a half to get there. When I reached the house at 12.30, my sister met me at the door and said the Western have been trying to get you on the phone. They want you to get down to the plant as soon as you can.
Speaker 1:
I reached Hawthorne at 1pm Saturday and went right to work, calling up all the girls I could think of to help out in the rush that I knew was coming. They came in on all sorts of hours and worked all sorts of hours. Miss O'Reilly, for instance, who is here now. There were only two girls on duty Wednesday night, went on at 3pm Saturday and worked until 7.30 Sunday morning. Another girl, miss Schumacher went on at 4.30 Sunday afternoon, worked until 7.30 Monday morning and then went on again from 12 until 3 Monday afternoon. I was on duty all day Saturday, from 1pm, all Saturday night, all Sunday and all Sunday night until 11 o'clock. I came back at 6.30 Monday morning and stayed until 8.45 that night. Tuesday I was on from 6.45am until 8pm. I came on today at 7.30am and leave at 8 tonight Tomorrow. Yes, I'll be here at 7.30 in the morning.
Speaker 1:
Why have I been on duty so long? Well, it was up to somebody to see that the telephone service is here, that the telephone service here is maintained, and I was the one. Ordinarily. You see, our supervisor, miss Brett, would relieve me, but she's away. Poor girl. What I've done is nothing to what she did.
Speaker 1:
Her sister went down on the boat and yet she was one of the first to respond when I called for volunteers. She came here Saturday afternoon and worked for three hours after she had word that her sister's body had been identified. It was heartbreaking and she called me on Sunday and offered to go up to work again to help me out. Margaret, she said I'm useless here at home. I can't sleep, I can't think, I can't do anything. Isn't there something I can do? How could I let her take my place? Busy Miss Condon smiled.
Speaker 1:
I've answered more calls here during the past five days than I'd ordinarily get in a month. Most of them come from the poor people who are trying to get news of friends and relatives who are missing. Some of them are so distracted that they can't even remember the name of the people they're trying to find. It's terrible to sit here and hear them crying for their dead. A great many calls, of course, come from outside, from the relief and information committees. Look here. She opened a drawer in the supervisor's desk and pulled out a thick bundle of paper slips. These are the slips where the long-distance calls alone that I've had to make since Saturday. There must be over 200 of them. I haven't even had time to check them and copy them in duplicate. That will have to be done later.
Speaker 1:
This board of ours is an 18 position, multiple, that is, it has room for 18 operators. Well, on Monday night, our heaviest night, we had every position at the board occupied, two extra girls operating at the supervisor's desk and one on the floor. Even then, we had all we could do to keep up with the calls. You couldn't hear yourself think. Ms Condon stopped to make a connection, then leaned back with a sigh of relief. Well, the heaviest part of the work is over. I think the calls have been slackening up today. Before long we can probably get back to something like a normal schedule. Yes, I've been working pretty hard, but so have the other girls. So has everybody. You see, we don't any of us feel we're working for ourselves or even for the company. We're doing what we can to be of some use to the people who were hit by the Eastland disaster and we're grateful for being able to do even that much.
Speaker 1:
So Margaret's life after that time. In 1922, margaret, at age 37, married Peter Smith, a former deputy sheriff, who was 53. They moved around a bit after that and Peter died in 1944, and Margaret died just one year later. As far as I can tell, no children were born to this marriage. I found several issues of the Western Electric News on Google Books, again for free, and there were several photos of Margaret Condon which I've been working with to try to restore a bit, and I'll add those to the promotional graphic that I always create for these podcasts Onward.
Speaker 1:
Our second hero of the hour is Helen Repa, a nurse from the Western Electric Infirmary. Nurses then as now, were and are the unsung heroes in emergencies. Before we go further, I want to provide background on Helen so you can get to know her a little bit better. Unfortunately, I don't know who the author of this article is, but it's quite well done and it is located on Findergrave. So whoever you are, thank you for writing this article. I'm assuming that Helen is one of your relatives.
Speaker 1:
So Helen was born in Chicago around 1884, and life was not easy. Her parents, vojtesh Repa and Katarina Strand, were working-class Czech immigrants from Pocenovoce, west Bohemia. The couple immigrated around either 1881 or 1882. Now, helen was not the couple's first child, because they had three others before her, and all were either stillborn or died very young. Although her legal name was Helena, throughout her life she much preferred Helen. Her parents were much the same. Vojtesh and Katarina Americanized their names into Albert and Catherine, but continued to call each other by their original names when they were in the house. Vojtesh died tragically in 1898 at age 37, and Helen had to work as a dressmaker to keep her family afloat, which by 1900 now included two sisters, mary and Frances, and a younger brother, frances, also called Frank. Helen had another brother named John, born in 1889, but he only lived for two years, dying in 1891.
Speaker 1:
Helen attended elementary school run by the St John Nepomocini Church in Chicago. She did not progress any further While at school. That's where she learned to read and write English, so they were speaking Czech at home entirely, that sounds like. Despite lacking a college education, helen managed to find work as a staff nurse at Oak Hill Infirmary in Oak Forest, illinois by 1910. She worked there for two years before getting enough money to enroll at the St Mary of Nazareth Hospital School of Nursing in Chicago. She graduated two short years later, in 1912. Even after she was hired by the Western Electric Company to work as one of seven nurses in the massive Hawthorne Works facility in Chicago. At the same time she worked at Western Electric, she was a program committee member for the nurses alumni association of St Mary of Nazareth. So Helen is what I would call a very plucky woman. She did not have a good situation starting out, but she had a lot of drive and a lot of focus obviously and, I think, played the long game. So she finally got what she wanted and that was the ability to work as a nurse and I'm going to read from the Western Electric News August 1915 article about Helen Headline the Experiences of a Hawthorne Nurse as Told by Miss Rippa. Hawthorne Hospital. The picnic committee had arranged for the maintenance of a hospital tent at Michigan City for the treatment of minor accidents that might occur during the day. Miss Rippa was one of the three nurses from the Hawthorne Hospital who had been detailed to be in attendance at the tent. All three had agreed to go out on the Theodore Roosevelt, the second boat out, and Miss Rippa was on her way to the dock when the catastrophe occurred. The following is the story of her experience as she told it for the news on July 28. These are Helen's words.
Speaker 1:
I was on a trolley car at Lake Street when I heard what I thought must be screams. I could hear them even above the noise of the car and the noises on the street. Just then a mounted policeman galloped up and stopped all the traffic, shouting excursion, boat upset, look out for the ambulance. I knew it once. It must be one of our boats and I ran to the front of the car to get off. The motor man tried to stop me but I slipped past him and jumped off just as one of the ambulances came up. It had to slow up on account of the congestion, and I managed to jump on the back step. I had my uniform on and so was allowed to stay on until we got to the dock.
Speaker 1:
I don't know how I got on the dock or on the Eastland. Indeed, there are a good many things that happened that day that I am still hazy about. All I remember is climbing up the slippery side of the boat, losing my footing and being shoved up by somebody from behind. I finally got to where I could stand up on the side of the boat, which was lying out of water. I shall never Be able to forget what I saw. People were struggling in the water, clustered so thickly that they literally covered the surface of the river. A few were swimming, the rest were bloundering about, some clinging to a life raft that had floated free, others clutching at anything they could reach, at bits of wood, at each other, grabbing each other, pulling each other down and screaming. The screaming was the most horrible of all. They were already pulling them out from below when I got there, out of the water and out through the portholes, people were being dragged out, wet, bleeding and hysterical by the scores. Most of those from the decks and inside of the boat were cut more or less severely because the chairs and benches had slid down on top of them when the boat went over. Those who had no injuries beyond the wedding and the shock were sent to the various hotels.
Speaker 1:
I started working first on the boat itself and then on the dock, helping to try and resuscitate those who were unconscious. The pull motors had not yet arrived and we had to try what first aid measures we could. The injured were taken over to the Iroquois Memorial Hospital. Remember that this is only an emergency hospital and is not equipped to handle a large number of cases at once. I asked a policeman how many nurses were on duty there. He said there were only two. Knowing that I would be more needed there than at the dock for the present, I hurried over.
Speaker 1:
I went back and forth between the hospital and the dock several times during the day and had no trouble in making the journey quickly. I simply jumped on a patrol wagon or an ambulance and, being, as I have said, in uniform, was able to make the trip without being questioned. The one place I did have trouble, and a great deal of it was at the dock. The police had evidently received orders to keep everyone back, and so zealously did they perform their work that I was held up several times until I could be identified. I finally remembered the armbands that we nurses had received to wear at the picnic. These were of red, white and blue cloth with a red cross on them. After I had put mine on, I had no further trouble.
Speaker 1:
When I got to the Iroquois I found the two nurses distracted. More and more people were arriving every minute, wet and shivering, and there were no blankets left. Something had to be done quickly, so I had one of the nurses telephone to Marshall Field Company for 500 blankets, with orders to charge them to the Western Electric Company. In the meantime I telephoned to some of the nearby restaurants and had them send over hot soup and coffee to the hospital. By this time the hospital was so full of people that we had no place to put the less seriously injured while they were drying off. Luckily, just at this time, word came from men working in the boiler room of a large building nearby that they could care for as many people as we cared to send over. I must say that the people of Chicago showed a wonderful spirit. Everyone did all he could to help.
Speaker 1:
As soon as my patients were sufficiently recovered, I would send them home, thinking it is better to have them with their families as soon as possible. In order to do this, I would simply go into the street, stop the first automobile that came along, load it up with people and tell the owner or driver where to take them. And not one driver said no or seemed anything but anxious to help out. When the women would be brought off, the boat dripping wet, the men standing by simply took off their coats and put them around them. About nine or half past, I started back to the dock. When I got to Clark Street, the crowd was so dense that I simply couldn't walk a step further. So I got on a hook and ladder truck that was going down. When I got to the dock, they had begun to bring the bodies up from the hold and it was pouring rain. The bodies came out faster than we could handle them.
Speaker 1:
By this time, a number of outside nurses and doctors were at work on the victims. Most of them were dead, but a few still showed signs of life. I saw that if any of these were going to be saved, we must get them away from the dock. The crowding and confusion were terrible. The bodies were laid out on the dock on the bridges, some on the Roosevelt, others on the sidewalk. A crowd of willing but ignorant volunteers kept getting in the way and made our attempts at resuscitation almost useless. I asked one of the policemen isn't there some building where we can take these people? Some of them have a fighting chance if we can get them in, out of the rain and away from this crowd. He promised to see what could be done and went away. A little later he returned saying that we could take the bodies over to the Reed and Murdoch warehouse. We took over the bodies we had and all the others that came out over there, but it was too late. Out of hundreds that we took to the warehouse, only four were revived by this time.
Speaker 1:
I had on my armband and was so able to go from the dock to the warehouse and back without being stopped. What made the confusion at the dock still worse was the fact that many of the people who had been pulled out of the water uninjured were still so dazed that they were wandering up and down without knowing where they were or what they were doing. I found one man up a little alley nearby. He was wandering up and down with a ghastly expressionless face, repeating over and over again I lost them all. I lost them all. His wife and three children were somewhere in the hold of the Eastland.
Speaker 1:
About twelve o'clock they reached the bodies in the inner cabins and after that time all the bodies that came up seemed to be women and children. It had begun to drizzle just before the boat was to start and the mothers had taken their children inside to be out of the wet. In the meantime my sister was looking for me in the morgues and at Reed and Murdoch's. Someone had telephoned to my home that I had been seen climbing over the side of the boat and had fallen off. I was working over a man down at the warehouse when I heard someone scream my God, it's Helen. It was my sister. She fainted when she saw me.
Speaker 1:
When I started out in the morning, I had on a white uniform and white shoes. By noon, what with dressing the wounds and kneeling on the dock, I was covered with blood stains and caked with mud from head to foot. I had lost my coat. A fireman threw a woman's skirt over my shoulders and I kept the rain out with that. At four o'clock I went home. There was nothing left to do. I had been on my feet since seven thirty that morning and I felt that if I ever sat down I would never get up again. I came home in the streetcar with the skirt wrapped around my shoulders and my brother's raincoat over that.
Speaker 1:
Well, after the Eastland disaster and somewhere between 1921 and 1930, Helen married Frank J Tomak, who was a truck driver. They had a son born in 1922, and Helen died in 1938 at age 54. By 1941 Frank was unemployed and living in a hotel. I'm not sure what happened to Frank afterward, but I will keep researching his life as well. And finally, there was another publication called the Week, and from its 1915 issue they talk about both Margaret and Helen, and I want to conclude with that.
Speaker 1:
Margaret Condon is head telephone operator at the Western Electric Plant. On the afternoon of the 24th of July she went back to help handle the telephone inquiries for the missing. She went on duty at 1 o'clock Saturday afternoon and stayed at the switchboard until 11 o'clock Sunday night 34 hours. She says she didn't want to trust the board to anybody else. Helen Repa, a nurse at the Western Electric Plant Hospital, got through the police lines, pulled a couple of people out of the water and then helped resuscitate several more. Then she jumped on an ambulance and rode down to the Iroquois Hospital. There she ordered 500 blankets from Marshall Field and Company on her own responsibility, helped wrap them around the injured as they were brought in, did a lot of bandaging and tied a few arteries. Then she went back to the Eastland, opened a temporary morgue at a nearby warehouse, collected the clothing as it was cut from the bodies, tagged the bodies and the clothing for identification and drove away the undertakers. Then she went home in a streetcar.
Speaker 1:
It was not only the Eastland disaster, it was also the Eastland revelation. That's the end of that article and I don't know what they meant by Eastland revelation, but that's kind of haunting. So you heard the stories of two remarkable women, and in their own words, which is what I prefer and that is very valuable to us as genealogists and as those of us who are researching the Eastland disaster. Maybe a few things will help with the clarification. When Helen Repa mentioned that they were waiting for pull motors, that's P-U-L-M-O-T-O-R, that is, at a high level, a very early respiratory apparatus for pumping oxygen or air into and out of the lungs. It's pretty controversial because a lot of people felt that pull motors did no good whatsoever. But it helped some people. So that's why they are mentioned and they were used quite extensively and at some point I'll do a deeper dive into the history of these medical devices because they're characters in this as well.
Speaker 1:
I also wanted to share a bit about the Hawthorne Works facility and its hospital. The Hawthorne Works was a large factory complex of Western Electric and they were located in Cicero, illinois, which is just outside of Chicago, and it opened in 1905 and it was in operation until the early 1980s and at its peak it employed about 45,000 workers. It produced telephone equipment and a number of other consumer products. It was also self-contained. It had a hospital. It had all kinds of facilities within the complex that made it a city within a city, I guess that's the best way to say it, and they had a very involved and vibrant employee group and they did a lot of outreach to the community. I know that my grandmother, for example, fought to get a job at Western Electric. She was working for McCormick's and worked really, really hard to get into Western Electric and, despite the fact that the Eastland disaster happened and everything, I think overall she was very happy to work there. So that's a little bit about the Hawthorne Works in Cicero.
Speaker 1:
As always, I thank you for taking some time out of your day to listen to the podcast and to get to know some of the people who were once alive and who once did some extraordinary things in the face of the impossible. Now again, don't forget to check out the Newberry Library site and make sure to look at the Eastland Disaster materials, and I think you'll find it very interesting. I will talk to you next week. Have a great week, take care, 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 wwwflowerintherevercom. 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.