(Click on photos to see fullsize images.)

Captain Harry Pedersen was born March 19, 1860 in Norway.  He emigrated to the United States in 1885, acquired his pilot's license in 1896, and obtained his Ship Master's license several years later.  He was hired by the St. Joseph-Chicago Steamship Company to command the Eastland, which would be the first (and last) excursion steamship that he commanded.  After the disaster, Captain Pedersen withdrew to his farm near Millburg, Michigan.

During the Spring and Fall of 2003 we traveled to Millburg, Michigan (90 miles east of Chicago in southwest Michigan) to the cemetery where Captain Harry Pedersen and his wife, Anna, are buried.  The small community of Millburg consists of a single intersection with a gas/convenient mart and a tavern/eats store on two of the corners, a few residential neighborhoods, and several surrounding farms.

Those of us who made the trips to Millburg stood in the simple, unpretentious cemetery overlooking the modest graves of Captain Pedersen and his wife and pondered several different thoughts.  What was his life like after the tragedy?  Did the tragedy and its tremendous loss of life haunt him?  If so, for how long?  Months?  Years?  His entire life?  How did the small community of Millburg look upon him?  Was he ostracized?  Were they sympathetic?  Was he isolated by the community or did he isolate himself from the public?

Standing over the simple grave of Captain Pedersen makes one think that "Harry" quite likely was an ordinary man who lived an ordinary life, except for that one day when an error in personal judgment drastically changed not only his life but the lives of tens of thousands of others - forever.  He died at age 79 of nephritis in Cook County Hospital, Chicago, on July 25, 1939, one day after the 24th anniversary of the tragedy.  Could it be that his illness was aggravated by the grief and stress that he might have experienced at least annually on July 24th of each year after the tragedy?

Please direct questions and comments to the Eastland Disaster Historical Society at info@eastlanddisaster.org.

Copyright © 1998-2003 Eastland Disaster Historical Society. All rights reserved.