02/03/2025
This is the grave of Grace Winnefred Stevens, a victim of the Eastland Disaster. On July 24th, 1915, Stevens and 843 other passengers tragically lost their lives when the S.S. Eastland tipped over in 20 feet of water, in the Chicago River. The boat was known to have issues with being top-heavy and became unbalanced due to the uneven distribution of passengers. It's reported that some drowned and some were crushed by passengers who became trapped on the lower deck. Seventy percent of the Eastland disaster victims were younger than 25. And 22 whole families were wiped out by this disaster.
The passenger ship, that had over 2500 passengers on board, was on its way to a Western Electric company picnic in Michigan. Grace had been working for Western Electric from 1912 to 1915. Grace was the sole provider of her family. A role she had to take on after her father passed in 1907. The Red Cross, which had just opened their Chicago office a week before the disaster, was given control of disaster relief, that included over $400,000 in donations that came from all over the country. Records were kept from the interviews that The Red Cross did with the victim's families, so they could determine how much compensation each family would receive. According to their records, Grace's family received $102 from Grace's personal life insurance policy, $126 in emergency relief and $630 from donations.
Grace's brother A.S. was hired by Western Electric for $13 a week to fill his sister's position. After the tragedy, Western Electric closed their hiring procedures to anyone outside the company that wasn't impacted by the disaster. Victims' families were given priority for hires.
Grace is buried with her dad. Her mom and brother are not buried at this cemetery
