Saloons, Scandals, and Survival: The Biehl Family and the Eastland

Send us Fan Mail This week, we’re heading back to Waukegan, Illinois, where the newspapers once again lead us into a much bigger Eastland story than expected. At the center is Frederick Biehl, a 26-year-old former Waukegan resident who died in the disaster. But as I began reconstructing his family, the story quickly expanded into a complicated network of relatives, survivors, conflicting newspaper accounts, and identities that needed a closer look. And then there is Frederick’s mother, Annie ...