Martha K. Petersen

Martha Petersen lived at home with her parents and three younger siblings. She worked at Western Electric as a tester in department 2321. She boarded the Eastland and became one of its victims.

That day, her brother Bendt was riding his bicycle through the neighborhood when someone came to the Petersen home and mistakenly told his mother that he had been killed in an accident. Later that afternoon, Bendt was found safe and unharmed. Soon afterward, however, his mother learned the devastating news about her daughter, Martha.

Motorized vehicles were becoming increasingly common at the time. The family later recalled that Martha had once casually remarked that she preferred a horse-and-buggy to an automobile. In the aftermath of the Eastland Disaster, however, all of the funeral home’s motorized vehicles were already in use, and a horse-drawn carriage was ultimately used for Martha’s funeral.