Flower in the River: A Family Tale Finally Told

Raw Knuckles, Bare Feet: Eastland's Unlikely Heroes

August 23, 2024 • Natalie Zett • Season 2 • Episode 76

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Welcome back to Flower in the River! In this episode, we explore the untold stories of two extraordinary individuals connected to the tragic Eastland Disaster of 1915. These heroes, whose tales have remained largely hidden from history, finally get the recognition they deserve.

First, meet Amelia Schaefer Schmidt, a 15-year-old girl on what was supposed to be a joyous picnic day. Instead, Amelia found herself in a nightmare, surviving the capsizing of the Eastland with sheer determination and courage. Her story, preserved in interviews and newspaper articles, reveals the harrowing details of that day and her incredible bravery in saving a young girl's life.

Next, we uncover the story of Peter Hardy (Hardo), a Rusyn immigrant who, at just 17, found himself rescuing multiple people from the Eastland's wreckage. A man who went on to build a successful life in America, Peter never forgot the screams and chaos of that day. His story is a testament to the strength and resilience of those who rise to the occasion when disaster strikes.

This episode is not just about remembering the tragedy but also about honoring the human spirit's incredible power to persevere and help others, even in the darkest of times. We also take a brief detour into the fascinating world of Rusyn culture, shedding light on the rich history and identity of this often-overlooked ethnic group.

As we wrap up, we reflect on the importance of uncovering and preserving these hidden stories. History is full of forgotten voices, and it's our responsibility to bring them to light.

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Natalie Zett:

Hello, I'm Natalie Zett and welcome to Flower in the River.

Natalie Zett:

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. Hey, this is Natalie, and welcome to Episode 76 of Flower in the River Podcast, and welcome back to the existing listeners who've been with me for quite a while and, as always, there are a number of new listeners, and so, in that spirit, I want to provide a little bit of intro to this podcast, because it is kind of quirky, to say the least. Right, nobody would argue with that. So when I first started this podcast, it was, and still is, all about my book and my family's connection to the Eastland disaster. But as I went deeper, the thing took on a life of its own, shifting to share stories of other Eastland people, most of whom had very little identifying information. In other words, I would just find a name but very little biographical information about who these people were. And now it's evolved even further and it has gone in a direction that I could not have predicted. Since I've been doing this, I've uncovered many individuals and families who were never mentioned in any publication or any website at least any that I could locate, people who were connected to the Eastland disaster, but whose names and stories have been forgotten. I call them the long-lost people of the Eastland, and I want to change that with some of these episodes. As I find these people, I'm going to share their stories with you, and that's what I'll be doing this week. After nearly 10 months of intensive research, one thing has become clear there are so many stories about the people of the Eastland that have not been told, and I'm not sure why, and in a sense, I don't really want to spend a whole lot of energy on figuring that out, because that energy needs to be applied to the research, to share the stories that have gone missing for all these years. So that's what I'm all about with this, and I'll continue doing my part bringing these neglected stories to light and giving voice to those who have been overlooked for way too long. And the two people I'm going to introduce you to? Well, they were heroes, unlikely heroes, but they were heroes. They were two teenagers, okay, and unlike the notorious con man Arthur Loeb, who I featured in episode 68, as with many true heroes, they didn't talk much about what happened afterward, but they went quietly about their lives. Fortunately for us, someone, or rather a lot of someones, were able to coax the stories out of these people while they were alive. So the first person I want to introduce you to was quote unquote a housewife that's how she was described in later census records and she was living in a suburb of Chicago called Rolling, rolling Meadows. In the July 21, 1966 issue of the Daily Herald, amelia Schaefer Schmidt was interviewed for a most memorable article and please bear with me as I read this, because I tried to improve the printing on this, but it's a little difficult to read Clothes torn, knuckles raw as she survives disaster.

Natalie Zett:

One of the few remaining survivors of the Eastland disaster 51 years ago next Monday is a Rolling Meadows resident. She is Amelia Schaefer Schmidt, who was a 15-year-old girl en route to a Western Electric Company picnic in St Joseph, michigan, when the cruise boat capsized in the Chicago River on July 24, 1915. Quote we left early in the morning in the drizzly rain. Mrs Schmidt recalls she was sitting in a deck chair holding a seven-year-old cousin on her lap. As the ropes were cast off, the band was playing on our second deck, she remembered, and on the lower deck couples were dancing to the music of another band Quote without warning, the deck tilted crazily. I told the little girl to hold onto the railing and I put my hands over her little hands. People climbed over us. My knuckles were raw. They grabbed for my feet and tore my clothing off as they touched me. I lost the rest of my party. A man saved me. I never knew who he was, but I was put on a tug and taken to South Water Street. All I wanted was to get home. I saw a streetcar and asked the conductor to take me home, although I didn't have any money. I told him what had happened and it was the first he knew of it. The Eastland disaster toll was 812 dead and the remembrance of the scene still horrifies Mrs Schmidt For a year or more. She recalls the curious went down to the river to view the ship. Then it was refurbished and converted into the Wilmette. Her husband served on the Wilmette in World War I and in the Second World War her son-in-law served on the same vessel.

Natalie Zett:

Mrs Schmidt now lives with a married daughter. Three more of her children live in Rolling Meadows. They are Alderman Nicholas Schmidt, robert Schmidt and Carol Thorson. Another daughter is Shirley Schoner of Carpentersville. By the way, an alderman is similar to a city council person. That's how they're described in most states, but I think Boston and Chicago still have the alderman title.

Natalie Zett:

On April 6, 1900, in Chicago, to Johann, who was 42, and Katrazina, who was 43, and both of them were German immigrants who eventually moved to Chicago in 1880 and had 13 children, eight of whom were alive. According to the 1900 census. Johann worked in a stable at that point. Amelia married Nicholas Schmidt on May 7, 1921, in Cook, illinois. Nicholas worked primarily as a laborer. They had six children in 14 years, five of whom lived to adulthood. Nicholas Amelia's husband died in 1965.

Natalie Zett:

A year later was when she was talking about the Eastland, and she kept talking about it. In the September 4, 1972 issue of the Herald she shared the story again. Story again Eastland tragedy still remembered. July 24th was to have been a holiday for 2,000 people aboard the Eastland. Instead it turned into the worst marina tragedy in the history of the Chicago River. The passengers on board the excursion steamer Eastland prepared to head across Lake Michigan to take the passengers to the Michigan dunes for a picnic. Suddenly, with no warning, the Eastland began listing to port and within minutes it was on its side in the river. The incident resulted in the greatest loss of life that had ever taken place on the shores of the Chicago River 812 persons died On board the Eastland that day was Mrs Amelia Schmidt, now of 3601 Bluebird Lane, rolling Meadows, one of the few living survivors of the tragedy.

Natalie Zett:

The day is still vivid in her mind, although it happened more than 57 years ago. Fifteen years old at the time, mrs Schmidt was in a party of six, including her brother-in-law, who worked for Western Electric. The Western Electric Hawthorne plant was sponsoring the day for its employees. Quote it was a gray, muggy morning as we boarded the steamer docked near the Clark Street Bridge, said Mrs Schmidt. I never wanted to go in the first place. I hated water and boats, but they thought they would give me a real treat. I got a real treat, all right.

Natalie Zett:

She was on the upper deck at the time the ship tipped. She had been standing with her brother-in-law on the side. That went under, but minutes before the ship began to tip. They had moved to the other side to join the rest of their party. When the steamer tipped, she clung to the railing, singing Nearer my God to thee. Within minutes she was hoisted to the side of the boat. As she recalls, her knuckles were raw by this time from people walking over them, her shoulder out of place from hanging on and her clothes torn. It happened so fast.

Natalie Zett:

She said that one instant the boat had been filled with laughing picnickers in their holiday finery and the next instant men and women were in a frenzied fight for life. On the side, mrs Schmidt helped save a young girl who had been on the lower deck. She threw a rope through a porthole telling the girl to hold on and then squeezed her through. It was terrible. People were in a state of shock, screaming for friends and family. Small children were floating in the water and people trapped on lower decks were crying for help. She said Many were thrown off the boat or jumped when it tipped. People on shore were throwing chicken crates and other floatable objects to the people in the water. Mrs Schmidt recalls that several people in the water were hit on the head by the objects and drowned by someone trying to cling to them and pulling them under A tugboat, which had been ready to pull the Eastland out to lake, formed a bridge from the Eastland to the dock.

Natalie Zett:

Women and children were ordered off first. Mrs Schmidt was among the first rescued. Nearby streets and warehouses were turned into morgues as physicians and nurses rushed to the scene. Spectators were so thick on the Clark Street Bridge it had to be evacuated for fear it might collapse. Parted from her group and without money, mrs Schmidt talked a streetcar driver into taking her home. When the streetcar driver asked what had happened to her, she explained she was on the boat that tipped over and within minutes was telling her story to a group of people who crowded around her. She made it home before the extra editions of the paper were out, so her parents had not been worried. Later her brother-in-law stopped by and informed her that the entire party they had been with was safe.

Natalie Zett:

That was the first and last boat ride for Mrs Schmidt, who said give me dry land. None of that water. Water is for fish, not for people. It was also the last excursion for the Eastland. Mrs Schmidt recalls how she passed it for several years as it sat in the harbor Still a valuable piece of steel. It was later towed away and converted into the USS Wilmette, docked near the Illinois Naval Reserve Armory. The Wilmette was used as a Navy training ship during World War II. The bell from the Wilmette can still be found at the Naval Reserve Armory.

Natalie Zett:

Investigations into the incident began immediately by the coroner's jury and the state's attorney. President Woodrow Wilson even sent Secretary of Commerce William C Redfield to conduct an investigation, but the real cause was never determined. Some claimed the steamer was overcrowded and should have only been allowed to carry 1,200 passengers. Others said the water ballast compartments were not filled properly or the lines had not been cast off when the tug started pulling the vessel. Amelia Schaefer died on January 26, 1988, in Des Plaines, illinois, when she was 87 years old. However, the last word on her journey was printed in her obituary. This is from the Chicago Tribune, wednesday January 27, 1988.

Natalie Zett:

Amelia Schmidt survived Eastland's sinking in 1915 by Kenan Heiss. Amelia L Schmidt, 87, a homemaker and a survivor of the Eastland's sinking in 1915, helped save the lives of several others after the tragic accident. Mass for Mrs Schmidt, a Rolling Meadows resident. Mass for Mrs Schmidt, a Rolling Meadows resident, will be said at 10 am Thursday at St Colette Catholic Church, 3900 South Meadow Drive, rolling Meadows. She died Tuesday at a Des Plaines nursing home.

Natalie Zett:

Quote my mother was a very good person and a very quiet one, said her daughter was a very good person and a very quiet one, said her daughter, geraldine Mezzo. She did not like anyone interfering with her life or privacy. She had not wanted to go on the Eastland that day because she didn't like boats or water. Her brother-in-law, however, insisted that she would have a good time. It was July 24, 1915, a gray muggy morning. Mrs Schmidt later recalled in a 1972 newspaper article.

Natalie Zett:

The Eastland, a Great Lakes passenger ship, was crowded with picnickers, heading for a Western Electric Company outing across the lake. It was docked at the Chicago River at the foot of Clark Street. The crew had emptied its ballast tanks to allow more people on board. When the crowd shifted to one side to observe a passing ship, the Eastland capsized. Hundreds were trapped below deck. The accident's toll was 812, including 22 entire families. Mrs Schmidt had been on the side that turned downward only moments before the accident but went to the other side to join her relatives.

Natalie Zett:

Quote One instant the ship was filled with laughing picnickers in their holiday finery. Instant the ship was filled with laughing picnickers in their holiday finery. The next you could see and hear them groping and screaming in frenzy for their lives, she said. Although a teenager, mrs Schmidt had the presence of mind to rescue her brother-in-law's niece and to throwa rope through a porthole and pull a young girl out of it. People, she reported in a newspaper account, were struggling in the water and persons on shore were throwing them chicken crates and other floatable objects. Some of these hit the people on the head and helped drown them. Others died in the water because people who couldn't swim pulled them down. The Clark Street Bridge was so filled with onlookers that they had to be moved off so it wouldn't collapse. Mrs Schmidt, one of the first saved was pulled aboard the tugboat meant to take the Eastland out into the lake. Survivors besides her daughter include two sons, nicholas Jr and Robert, two other daughters, shirley Schoener and Carol Thorson Stack, 12 grandchildren and 23 great-grandchildren.

Natalie Zett:

So to recap, amelia's story was shared at least three times from 1966 to 1988. In terms of information about the Eastland, whether books or websites, even in the Wayback Machine, I could find no mention of Amelia in any Eastland disaster history. That is significant and you can find her obituary on Find a Grave, and I'll put a link to that in the show notes. It is so wonderful that her family at least has remembered her connection to the Eastland disaster, and now we're going to move on to something completely different. It really is time for a 360-degree turn.

Natalie Zett:

So when I've shared my family's stories in connection with the Eastland disaster, they pertain to my maternal ancestral line, who are mostly Germans and Poles, who eventually settled in Chicago, and one thing I have found since doing the deep research for this podcast was that there were a lot more of my relatives in Chicago during that time, and most, if not all, of them were some flavor of the Lutheran faith. The one group, though, that I didn't think I'd run into were the relatives from my dad's side of the family, not in Chicago. I only knew of two of them who made their way from Johnstown, where all of my immigrant ancestors first settled, to Chicago, and those two were my great-aunts, who were Slovak immigrants who became Roman Catholic sisters whose mother house was in Joliet. Be fruitful and multiply didn't apply to them so far. In my background we have mostly Lutherans and Roman Catholics, but we're not done yet, and I promise this is going to get more confusing. So there's this other branch of my paternal ancestors, my dad's father's people. They're also from Slovakia, but they weren't Slovak. Does that sound like some kind of riddle? Maybe it is, I don't know. They were part of an ethnic group called Rusyns. I bet you've never heard of them and no, I'm not mispronouncing Russian. So most Rusyns immigrated to the eastern United States at the end of the 19th and early 20th century and, like my grandfather, many ended up working in the coal mines of western Pennsylvania. Now Rusyns are a stateless people who don't belong to a particular country, but they belong to this ethnic group and in Europe they're mostly located in western Ukraine, eastern Slovakia and southeastern Poland, and there are also communities in Serbia and Romania and Hungary. So right now we need to go on a brief detour, but we will return to this Chicago-Rusyn connection in a minute.

Natalie Zett:

Rusyns are a fascinating yet often overlooked ethnic group. We're a small community with global estimates from 500,000 to 1.2 million people, including about 320,000 in the United States. To put that in perspective, that's roughly the population of St Paul, minnesota, where I currently live. So I'm 25% Rusyn thanks to my paternal grandfather, who hailed from Osovice, slovakia, and while you might think you don't know any Rusyns, you've likely heard of Andy Warhol the pioneering pop icon was 100% Rusyn, and Steve Ditko, who co-created Spider-Man with Stan Lee. Ditko also had Rusyn background and he was from Johnstown, pennsylvania, which is where my family's from, and also, if Wikipedia is to be believed, in this instance, he too either attended or was a member of my grandfather's church, st Mary's Byzantine Church in Johnstown. Pretty cool, given our very small numbers. Many Rusyns are distantly related and while I can't confirm any direct connection to Warhol or Ditko, I do know that Michael Strank, one of the flag raisers at Irojima, is a distant relative of mine.

Natalie Zett:

The concept of Rusyn identity is kind of murky because it's an ethnic group that is not tied to a specific country, is not tied to a specific country. It's similar to how we might think about Jewish or Romani people, both of which are also part of my distant heritage. To further pile up on my ethnic fratata, rusyns are often mistakenly confused with Russians, but they are distinctly different ethnic groups. This confusion, along with other identity issues, has led to significant controversy and varying recognition among different countries. For instance, slovakia officially recognizes Rusyns as a separate ethnic group. However, ukraine does not recognize Rusyns as a distinct ethnicity. Instead, they are categorized as Ukrainian, which has been a source of ongoing debate and tension in the modern world, and it's a primary example of how ethnic identities can be subject to political considerations and how the same group of people can be viewed differently across national borders. The controversy surrounding Rusyn recognition is not just a matter of bureaucratic classification. It touches deeper issues of cultural preservation, self-determination and the rights of minority groups. For many Rusyns, official recognition is seen as crucial for maintaining their unique language, traditions and way of life.

Natalie Zett:

Now I'm going for the challenge round and I'm going to try to explain the Rusyn religious landscape, and again, this is very high level. So religion has traditionally been a cornerstone of Rusyn identity and with many Rusyns, including my grandfather, they belonged to the Greek Catholic Church, although they weren't Greek, and that's another naming convention that throws people off. Although there are differences, the term is sometimes used interchangeably with the Eastern Catholic or Byzantine Catholic Church. This branch of Catholicism follows the Byzantine Rite, setting it apart from the more familiar Roman Catholic practices. So, to stop for a second, when you look at my immediate family, my grandmother was a Slovak Roman Catholic, while my grandfather was a Rusyn from Slovakia who was Byzantine or Greek Catholic Christian. Did you follow that? Anyway?

Natalie Zett:

Rusyn churches are often adorned with stunning sacred icons which play a central role in their worship services. For example, my granddad's church, st Mary's Byzantine Church in Johnstown, is just glorious and stunning. It's worth noting, however, that Rusyn religious affiliations aren't monolithic. A significant number of Rusyns also belong to various Orthodox Christian denominations, adding another layer of diversity, complexity and confusion to our cultural tapestry. That's why we are so mysterious, I think. But anyway, the Rusyn community is far from homogenous, though. It comprises various subgroups, each with its own characteristics. One such subgroup is called the Lemkos, and they primarily came from southeastern Poland. While sharing many cultural and religious traits with other Rusyns, such as my group, the Karpatho-Rusyns Lemko's have distinctive traditions and dialects that set them apart within the broader Rusyn identity.

Natalie Zett:

Why am I sharing all this, you're wondering? This intro is necessary because I want to introduce you to a Rusyn man who immigrated from Poland and settled in Chicago in 1913 by himself, when he was just 15 years old, and just two years later he became part of the Eastland disaster. Finding this man was extraordinary on so many levels. As with Amelia, his story was not documented in any books or websites about the Eastland disaster that I could find. However, his story is documented all over the place in terms of its connection to Rusyn identity and Rusyn history. He's quite something. And another interesting serendipity, coincidence, synchronicity is that unless you were Roosan yourself or knew of this group, even if you found this guy's story, you would not have made this connection because it is so obscure. So I am pleased to introduce you to Peter Hardy, which is the Americanized name of Peter Hardow.

Natalie Zett:

This article is from the Bridgeport Sunday Post, september 5, 1965. Peter Hardy was a hero at capsizing of Excursion Steamer 50 years ago. The article is by Andrea Hickok. Though it happened 50 years ago, peter S Hardy, a Bridgeport manufacturer, still cannot forget the capsizing of the Excursion Steamer Eastland, with 2,500 aboard, and his part in the rescue efforts. When the 2,200-ton vessel keeled over as it was leaving its mooring in the Chicago River, 812 men, women and children, bound for a day-long outing to Michigan City four hours away, were trapped below deck. All were drowned.

Natalie Zett:

The Eastland was one of five steamers chartered by the Western Electric Company for a July 24th picnic for the firm's 7,000 employees, 835 drowned altogether. Mr Hardy, who was to found the Peerless Aluminum Foundry Company. 16 years later was then a boy of 17 on his way to work. He had taken time out to watch the festive boarding scene as he crossed a nearby bridge Quote One minute they were laughing and happy, he recalls, and in another minute they were screaming for mercy and help. Hundreds of victims bobbed helplessly in the polluted water. Many could not swim. The river was more than 20 feet deep. Employees of nearby warehouses threw chairs, lettuce crates, barrels and planks in the water to help the survivors to keep afloat. Some objects unfortunately hit the floundering swimmers, causing them to sink and drown.

Speaker 2:

River filled with bodies. The river was filled with the.

Natalie Zett:

River Filled with Bodies. The river was filled with the bodies of the dead, their picnic baskets and the objects thrown from the deck. Those aboard who had managed to crawl out of portholes clung to the sides of the tilted deck like grapes. Some hung from the legs of others like links in a chain. When one let go, they all dropped. Mr Hardy, now 68 and supposedly retired as president of the foundry in Peren he is not is still haunted by the tragedy Saved 10. He remembers jumping into the water after removing his shoes and jacket. He saved at least 10, he says and recalls four of the passengers, in particular Three he believes were a mother, father and son all clinging together. The father held on to a porthole, the wife hung from his legs and the boy dangled from his mother's foot. God help me. The woman screamed. Albert, do something. But the father, burdened with the weight of his family, could do nothing. After Mr Hardy persuaded the child to let go, he swam with him to the stern of the ship 80 feet away and handed him to a man standing on the side of the steamer which was above water. By the time Hardy swam back, the father and mother were making it to shore. The manufacturer also remembers saving a panicky woman who fought him all the way, had to hit her. I had to hit her in the nose to make her come to her senses. He said he towed at least seven others to safety, but through the years only the family of three and the woman remained vivid. Hours passed while rescue efforts continued, parents screaming the names of missing children from the shore. A horse-drawn ambulance and fire truck arrived more than 30 minutes after the boat turned over. Looters active Looters, meanwhile went through the pockets and purses of both the dead and the living. One of them stole Peter Hardy's shoes and jacket. That day he walked home barefoot.

Natalie Zett:

The young man left Chicago two days later. Quote I was a nervous wreck. He remembers I couldn't stay in that city. The boy, who had arrived in this country two years before, hitchhiked to New Britain, that's in Connecticut, where he worked briefly in a cabinet shop. But he was too upset to stay there too and continued to walk across the country working in various jobs as coal digger, track layer and cabinet maker. The cries of the dying and the horror of that day haunted him for several years, particularly at night. Quote many times I would have to get up and walk around the block. He recalls I couldn't sleep for a long time. His worst memory, although, mr Hardy, who has immigrated from Galicia in the Carpathian Mountains and has had a tough life he has supported himself since he was 15, and the Eastland tragedy is his worst nightmare. It is one of the most terrible he modestly disclaims his role in the rescue. Everybody was a hero that day, he said.

Natalie Zett:

A half century has passed since the Chicago tragedy and while he almost never speaks of his part in the rescue, he has a drawer full of clippings and pictures about the Eastland and its ill-fated excursion. His real pride and pleasure, however, is in the aluminum foundry he started on a shoestring in 1931, during the Depression, the Trumbull Town Hall shopping center which he developed, the Park City Hospital, in which he has been acting as president and chairman of the board and now as trustee. All of these achievements, he says, were built on a foundation of hard work, honesty and thrift. He credits his success to his mother's advice and guidance from the parish priest. His mother had urged him to work hard and be honest and always to ask for help when he needed it. Quote you will be refused by 10 or 15, she told him, but there will always be someone who will help. She was right, mr Hardy agreed. She had nothing else to give me. But she was right. Parents gave courage. My parents, the thankful manufacturer said, were not afraid to send me into the world. He does not regret leaving Galicia. It was beautiful, but you can't live on the climate, he said. And as the youngest of seven brothers, it was felt that opportunities in America offered the best hope for his future. A magnificent testimony to the Horatio Alger's rags-to-riches legend. Peter Hardy parlayed his shoestring into one of the biggest aluminum foundries in the East, on whose output many important customers rely.

Natalie Zett:

The Trumbull resident of Hardy Lane it was named after him is sure that the kind of success he had is within the grasp of today's youth if he acquires a skill Quote. The trouble with too many today is the feeling that they must have luxury goods they do not need and consequently I've learned to live from paycheck to paycheck. His advice Learn the value of a dollar, he counseled. Work hard and don't feel sorry for yourself. The economic climate is more favorable to today's young people than it was in his time. He feels Industry and consumers' need for new luxuries has created a tremendous demand for new products. As for himself, I don't work for the riches. Look at my dirty hands and he displays grease-stained palms. Mr Hardy still works in the shop helping to train pattern makers. This is my retirement, he smiles. His son, myron, is president of the foundry.

Natalie Zett:

A great source of pleasure seems to be the factory, which now, quote, feeds close to 2,000 mouths. He said he is proud of his workers and enjoys seeing their children well-dressed and healthy Work benefits. He was one of the first manufacturers in the area to give his plant workers insurance, pensions, hospitalizations and death benefits. He says, quote, a good worker is entitled to consideration. He is a spoke in the wheel. He derives satisfaction from the knowledge that his plant will continue to provide employment and goods after his death. Quote, we must leave something behind, he said quietly. We must enrich our company. In short, the stalwart industrialist said we must pay our debt for the space we occupy. Mr Hardy's favorite maxim is that, despite the language barrier and his pitiful capital of $2.75, when he arrived in America quote, I learned to paddle my own canoe. Wasn't that a great article? He's an interesting, fascinating, wonderful person, but the way the article was written was stellar. The author, andrea Hickok, was a seasoned journalist I think you can tell that by the tone of this and she was the daughter of Guy Carlton Hickok, who was a program director and writer for Voice of America, and he worked for the State Department, so you could say that she might have been a chip off the old block.

Natalie Zett:

Back to Peter Hardy, or Peter Hardo he was again a Lemko Rusyn, born the 6th of June in 1897 in Jaroczy Sanok, poland. He married Anastasia, another Rusyn immigrant, and they had two children. He died 24th April 1989 in Bridgeport, fairfield, connecticut, and Peter left the world a better place. What he didn't tell you is that in 1946, he founded the Lemko Relief Committee in the United States to aid Lemkos who, after their forced deportation in 1947 to various parts of communist-ruled Poland, wanted to return to their Carpathian villages. After 1957, the Polish government allowed Hardy to visit the area and to distribute some funds that were used mainly to purchase food and clothing and to reconstruct damaged churches. The following year, through Hardy's personal intervention, the Polish government signed a 15-point document agreeing to continue the aid program. This was an unprecedented act for a communist government at the height of the Cold War.

Natalie Zett:

Peter wanted to make sure, too, that Lemko history was preserved, and in 1970, he founded the Carpatho Literary Association and financed the reprinting of four older scholarly books. I'm truly grateful to have shared both of these stories with you Again. It is astounding actually to think that these stories might have remained hidden. The fact that, for example, this account of Peter's life was printed in 1965 and has seemingly gone unnoticed until now is unbelievable, especially considering how priceless and multifaceted these firsthand accounts of the Eastland disaster are. These firsthand accounts of the Eastland disaster are, of course, these are just two of the many discoveries I've made since doing this podcast, and I have the feeling this is not the last, based on the pattern I'm seeing so far and here's the thing for all of you, this discovery underscores a crucial point there's always more to uncover in history, and it also highlights a concerning issue. Sometimes, whether intentionally or not, important details and perspectives get overlooked or altered in the retelling of historical events. That's why it's so important to return to primary sources and, please, question everything. I hope this encourages you to dig deep into your own family's past or into a piece of history that you're interested in.

Natalie Zett:

My ability to unearth so much of the lost history of the Eastlands people isn't due to any special talent. It mostly has to do with persistence. As I've said, I recently shared about some of the strange and weird jobs I had in my career. Actually, I could do a whole podcast on my weird jobs, but that's maybe down the line. Early jobs that I had had to do with investigation not the dramatic, interesting stuff that you see on TV, but investigating insurance scams, investigating fraud and even as time had passed in my career, I did work and I do work for the government.

Natalie Zett:

Actually, it's one of those things where you have to always be aware of what you're doing and always be looking for that slight thing that's not matching up, and sometimes it's the tiniest detail that will give you the most illumination on what is going on and why things are not adding up. Also, too, for me. Adding up Also too for me. I do rely on all my education, my experience, my left brain, if you want to call it that. But there is that intuitive factor when something feels off, I have to follow it, because when things aren't adding up, you have to really go down that road.

Natalie Zett:

And the other thing, too that I found from my childhood years, from being schooled in how the Johnstown flood was treated there are always people like our Arthur Loeb, for example, of the Eastland, who was robbing bodies, getting famous because of the Eastland there are always these parasitic entities that attach themselves to these types of events. And as much as I like to be positive I mean there's so much goodness in the lives of the two people whose stories that I shared with you it's incredible. I can never turn away from the other stuff either, because not addressing that also does a real disservice to history and to the people who made this history, and in this case, specifically to the folks who were involved one way or the other on the Eastland. And also this is personal for me, because our family lost someone on the Eastland and because this had devastating results. I have blood in the story of the Eastland and every time I look at those photos of the morgue, of the bodies laid out, I always wonder which one of those was my aunt. That fires up my efforts in a way that my body can barely contain on some days.

Natalie Zett:

One of my favorite shows of all time, charmed the guardian angel Leo, reminds the three sisters, who are good witches that quote your power comes from your emotions. And Heroes of the Eastland Disaster Amelia Schaefer-Schmidt and fellow Rusyn Peter Hardy. Peter Hardo. Memory Eternal, bechnaya Pamyat. So we'll close with the chant Memory Eternal. So you can hear what it sounds like in an Orthodox or Byzantine church.

Speaker 2:

The Lord be with you, memories eternal. Now, all we need is God.

Natalie Zett:

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 wwwflowerintherivercom wwwflowerintherivercom. 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.

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Natalie Zett

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