On this day December 2, 1912, the only side wheel steamer ever built in Milwaukee, the FLORA, burned in Chicago’s North Branch River.
The FLORA was built in 1875 by Wolf & Davidson, ran between Milwaukee and Manistee, Mich., for the Engelmann Line and was named for Mike Engelmann’s daughter. She measured 174.3 feet in length and 27.7 feet in beam. Her engine was from the steamer CITY OF TOLEDO that was built in 1865 and went on the beach at Manistee in November of 1873. The TOLEDO’s stern was entirely gone but she was taken to Wolf & Davidson who rebuilt her into a schooner and used her engine in the FLORA.
The FLORA at Thunder Bay, August 1886
In 1899 she was sold Canadian, renamed URANIA and sailed on Lake Erie.
In 1905 she came back on the US registry and took back the name FLORA.
By the end of the 1912 season, she was laid up in Chicago south of the CNW railroad bridge near Kinzie Street at the foot of Orleans Street waiting to be sold at the sheriff’s sale.
So on December 2nd, Herman Runge notes she caught fire while being dismantled but the newspapers state she caught fire during the night and the cause was unknown. The three that were on board evidently snuck on the boat looking for a place to sleep that night. Two persons were reported burned to death and one man escaped by jumping into the river and swimming ashore. Here are two newspaper accounts of December 2nd from the one who jumped into the river and was saved.
“TWO ARE BURNED TO DEATH IN BOAT
“DWARF ESCAPES BY JUMPING OVERBOARD INTO THE CHICAGO RIVER
“Chicago, Dec. 2 – two men – “Gurke” and “Candy Kid” – were burned to death here last night in a fire which nearly destroyed the old side wheeler FLORA of Saginaw, Mich., which was anchored in the Chicago river. The names given were the one ones by which the men were known to Thomas Kinny, a Dwarf, twenty one years old, who was on the boat but escaped by jumping overboard. “Gurke” was asleep in a cabin and the “Candy Kid” occupied a place on the lower deck. Kinny had made a bed in the pantry.
“How the FLORA caught fire is not known. An alarm was turned in by a pedestrian who saw the smoke, but the firemen could not get at the boat for some time, because a freight train was in the way. They go to the shore in time to see in the water the small figure of Kinny, who at first was thought to be a boy. The bodies of the others were found on the boat when the fire was extinguished.
“Kinny is a dime museum and side show performer. The dead men, he said, were chance acquaintances and the three had slipped on board the boat searching for a place to spend the night.”
“DWARF WEIGHING 50 TRIES IN VAIN TO SAVE TWO AT FIRE
“CHICAGO, DEC 2 – Two men are dead today despite the efforts of Thomas Kinny, a dwarf 4 feet tall and weighing 50 pounds, to save them. The men lost their lives when the old side wheel steamer FLORA burned here at her dock.
“Kinny battered at the doors of the cabins where the men were sleeping and aroused one of them. The man staggered to the deck and fell over. Kinny tugged with all his strength to drag him to safety, but was finally forces to leap into the river to save himself.
“Later he saw the other man rush to the deck and leap into the stream with his clothing ablaze. He drowned before aid could reach him. “
The next day, Robert Gurke walked into the East Chicago Avenue Police Station to deny he had been burned to death on the FLORA. The newspaper never mentioned if Gurke was the one who staggered to the deck and fell over or the one whose clothes were on fire. Lucky for Gurke he was able to present himself alive.
Suzette Lopez
Photo Credit: Great Lakes Marine Collection of the Milwaukee Public Library and Wisconsin Marine Historical Society.
