USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Discovery and conquests of the Northwest, with the history of Chicago, Vol. I > Part 41
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58
UNITED STATES FACTORY, CHICAGO, June 20, 1819.
The exclusion of foreigners (the Hudson Bay Co.) from the Indian trade will. it is believed, justify the extension of the operation of this establishment. This, together with the consideration of the large sup- ply of blankets and clothes now on hand, induces me to recommend a distribution of the goods of this factory among the adjacent villages for trade, to such an extent as will insure the sale of nearly all by the ex- piration of the trading season. Such a measure, I am well convinced, will be highly gratifying to the Indians, as a great number by this means will be enabled to supply themselves with goods on more reason- able terms than could otherwise be done; nor do I apprehend any diffi- culty in effecting it to the advantage of the government, as gentlemen of unquestionable integrity have already applied for such outfits.
JACOB R. VARNUM.
The above proposition was declined in a respectful letter from the superintendent at Washington. See American State Papers, Vol. II, page 361.
Mr. Hubbard, after his return to Mackinaw in the spring of 1819, was the next winter detailed to Michi- gan, and did not pass through Chicago again till the fall of 1820, at which time he was on his way back to his old trading ground in Illinois, with the same com- panions.
No change had taken place in Chicago; the same garrison was there, and Mr. Kinzie's and Ouilmette's families still lived in contentment amidst their wild asso- ciations, hardly dreaming of what was soon to become a reality around them in the way of settlements.
In the year 1816, Alexander Wolcott, of Connecticut, succeeded Mr. Jowett as Indian agent. Miss Eleanor Kinzie was then a blooming miss of twelve. She cer- tainly had no rival charmers to alienate the affections of her suitor, Mr. Wolcott; or if she had, it is fair to assume that she would have eclipsed them, for the happy couple were married, Mr. John Hamlin, a justice of the peace from Fulton county, Ill., officiating on the occasion, the two lovers, with commendable serenity, waiting many days for him to be sent for for that pur- pose. This may be set down as the first wedding ever celebrated in Chicago according to the approved style of modern days. Its date was 1820.
The next year, 1821, an event took place which was significant of the progress of settlements in the country,
VIEW OF CHICAGO IN 1821 TAKEN FROM NATURE BY HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT.
479
Schoolcraft at Chicago.
· as well as of the waning fortunes of the Indians. The country on the east bank of Lake Michigan was in un- disputed possession of the Pottawattamies, the Ottawas and Chippewas, each holding their respective portions; but the settlements of Michigan were rapidly trenching on their grounds, and the Indians were not unwilling to sell out to the United States, under an assurance that west of the lake an asylum was open to them. A treaty was therefore proposed for the purpose of pur- chasing their lands, and Chicago selected as the place for it, and the time appointed for its session was late in August, 1821. Lewis Cass, governor of Michigan, and Solomon Sibley, acted in behalf of the United States; and a large band of Indian chiefs (among whom Metea, the Pottawattamie, was conspicuous) united their wis- dom to make the best terms they could with the United States in parting with their country.
At the time of this treaty, Henry R. Schoolcraft was on his way from St. Louis to his headquarters, as Indian agent, near the outlet of Lake Superior, and his account of this great Indian council at Chicago, which place he passed while it was in session, is detailed in his usual lucid style in his book entitled "Travels in the Central Portions of the Mississippi Valley," published in 1825.
But first, let us listen to his description of the great fossilized tree, which was found in this early day in the Desplaines river, a little above its junction with the Kankakee. Of it he says: "The part which is ex- posed, according to our measurement, is fifty-one feet and a few inches in length, and its diameter at the largest end three feet. But there is apparently a con- siderable portion of its original length concealed in the rock."* After examining this tree, Mr. Schoolcraft passed Mount Joliet, which he accurately describes, and with his party passed on up the west side of the Desplaines to the fording place, not far from the present site of Riverside. After crossing he says: "We found the opposite shore thronged with Indians, whose loud and obtrusive salutations caused us to make a few
* Thomas Tousey, Esq., of Virginia, visited that locality the next year, and verifies Schoolcraft's description of this remarkable petrifaction.
480
Indian Treaty of 1821.
minutes' halt. From this point we were scarcely ever out of sight of straggling parties, all proceeding to the same place. Most commonly they were mounted on horses and appareled in their best manner, and decor- ated with medals, silver bands and feathers. The gaudy and showy dresses of these troops of Indians, with the jingling caused by the striking of their orna- ments, and their spirited manner of riding, created a scene as novel as it was interesting. After crossing the south fork of the Chicago, and emerging from the forest that skirted it, nearly the whole number appeared on the extensive and level plain that stretches on the shore of the lake, while the refreshing and noble spectacle of the lake itself, with 'vast and sullen swell,' appeared beyond."
¿ To accommodate the numerous delegation who gathered at Chicago, at this council, great preparations had to be made at the expense of the government. Rations must be issued, not only to the chiefs who took part in the deliberations, but to all who came as specta- tors to grunt out guttural approbation to the various speeches to be made. These numbered over 3,000; they had wearily toiled around the southern extremity of Lake Michigan, and reached Chicago with a keen relish for the "mess of pottage" for which their birth- right was to be sold, and he who would deny this poor pittance to them ought to be branded with anathema.
The northern bank of the river immediately opposite the fort was the spot selected for the council, within the range of its guns-perhaps as a measure of caution. In the center of the grounds an open bower was erected, with rustic seats for the chiefs. Two or three days were taken up in formalities essential to the etiquette of Indian customs in all important negotiations, and the council was opened by a speech from Gov. Cass, set- ting forth the objects of the convention, in which the politic orator emphasized his words, describing the benefits resulting to the Indians, through the money and goods they were to get for their lands; and after reminding them that their country was now nearly des- titute of game, formally proposed to buy it, generously
9
8
-SOUTH
Key to Model of Fortifications and Sur= roundings.
El Figure 1-Gateway to the west. Figure 2-Tunnel and underground well, now in the middle of the Chicago River. Into this well Captain Heald threw the rum and whisky whose loss angered the In- dians and did more than anything else to cause the massacre of the whites. Figure 3-This building stood a little north of the spot where the steamer Virginia lands its passengers to-day. Figure 4-Flagstaff. This pole rose practically at what is now the foot of Michigan Avenue. Figure 5-This blockhouse stood on land where to-day the river flows under Rush street bridge. Figure 6-Directly under this point is the United States barge office of the present. Figure 7-The street directly south of the Goodrich docks runs at this point to day. Figure 8-Here is about the spot where Hoyt's grocery establish- ment stands.
Figure 9-Close to the site of this blockhouse Booth's packing establish- ment is now doing business at the foot of Michigan Avenue.
Figures 10 and 11-Show the location approximately of South Water and Randolph Streets to-day.
-WEST-
LORY
View of a Minia- ture Model of the First Fort Dearborn.
From a drawing made in 1808 by Captain John Whistler; executed by A. L. Van Den Berghen, sculptor, 1898.
In memory of the interest shown in the advancement of Chicago, by Jesse Whitehead, born 1800, died 1881; and Rebecca McClure Whitehead, born 1822, died 1890. This contribution to the early history of the city is presented by their daughter, Char- lotte Whitehead Pitkin, to the Chicago Historical Society, October 9th, 1898. It now adorns its collection of historical curios.
FORT DEARBORN, CHICAGO, AS IT APPEARED JUNE, 1853. FROM A SKETCH MADE BY A. C. HACKETT FOR GOVERNOR BROSS
483
Metea's Speech.
offering to let them still retain portions of it till wanted for settlements, although they were receiving annuities for the same.
A short pause ensued after the respectful attention which the Indians had given to this speech, and after two days' consideration, Metea replied to it in his hap- piest vein of oratory. The following are extracts from it:
My Father, our country was given to us by the Great Spirit, who gave it to us to hunt upon, to make our corn fields upon, to live upon, and to make our beds upon when we die; and he would never forgive us should we now bargain it away. When you first spoke to us of the lands of the St. Mary's, we said we had a little, and agreed to sell you a piece of it; but we told you we could spare no more. Now you ask us again. You are never satisfied! We have sold you a great tract of land already; but it is not enough! We sold it to you for the benefit of your children, to farm and to live upon. We shall want it all for ourselves. We know not how long we may live, and we wish to leave some lands for our children to hunt upon. You are gradually taking away our hunting grounds. We are growing uneasy. What lands you have you may retain, but we shall sell no more. You think perhaps I speak in passion, but my heart is good toward you. We have now told you what we had to say. It is what was determined on in a council among our- selves; and what I have spoken, is the voice of my nation. But do not think we have a bad opinion of you. We speak to you with a good heart, and the feelings of a friend.
Gov. Cass replied to this speech, indulging in soft words not unjustly applied, as due in the main to the honor and good faith of the Indians, to which various Indian chiefs replied in the usual style of Indian oratory. John Kinzie also made a speech, in which he refuted a charge of non-fulfillment of treaty obligations on the part of the United States. These deliberations lasted till the 23d, pending which no one doubted, either white or Indians, that the latter would come to the terms required of them, and sell their lands; but no signs of yielding the issue were yet manifest in the im- penetrable countenances of the chiefs, as the council was closed on this day by one of the chiefs, who said:
"My Father, it is late; I shall do no more to-day; but to-morrow you shall hear our final council. You are hungry by this time. You white men eat at certain fixed hours; we Indians do what we have to do and eat when it is convenient."
The deliberations lasted till the 29th, when the treaty was signed by both parties.
484.
Cession of Indian Lands.
The Indians made a cession of their lands in Michi- gan, amounting to over 5,000,000 acres, for which the Pottawattamies were to receive an annuity of $5,000 per annum for twenty years, in specie, and the sum of $1, 000 expended annually among them during the time, to support a blacksmith and a teacher, and the right to immediately construct roads through the territory ceded, connecting Detroit, Fort Wayne and Chicago, was guaranteed.
The Ottawas were to receive a perpetual annuity of $1, 000, and for ten years the sum of $1, 500 expended annually to furnish them a blacksmith and a teacher.
The next year, 1822, passed off with few incidents to diversify the seeming inanity of life on the frontier. The officers of the garrison, together with the few citi- zens of the place, amused themselves with hunting, fishing, and such sports as their infinite leisure could invent, in their immunity from the burdens of society, as it now is. Their supplies for subsistence were ob- tained from Detroit by a sailing vessel in her annual trip, and also from southern Illinois, up the Illinois and Desplaines rivers, to this then obscure post, environed by 100 miles of wilderness, without an inhabitant except the Indians. The following report from Col. Ebenezer Childs, of La Crosse, to the State Historical Society of Wisconsin will give a faithful picture of the country at this date:
In 1821 I made a trip to St. Louis in a bark canoe up Fox river, across the Portage, and down the Wisconsin to Prairie du Chien, and thence down the Mississippi. I was sixteen days on my journey, and saw but seven white men in the whole distance, outside the forts. I met one keel boat on the Mississippi bound up for Fort Armstrong at Rock Island. There was a small garrison opposite the mouth of the Des Moines river. There were but few Americans and few Spaniards at St. Louis; the inhabitants were mostly French. There was but one brick building in the place, and no buildings were located on Front street, or where the levee now is. I encamped on the sand beach, near where the old market is located. I remained two weeks, did my busincs, when I was advised to return by way of the Illinois river.
I started by that route, and the next day was taken down with the ague and fever, and the day following one of my men was also taken. with the same complaint, which left me with one Indian and one Frenchman to paddle my canoe. I did not provide a sufficiently large stock of provisions when I left St. Louis, presuming that I could get plenty on the Illinois. But all I was able to obtain was one ham full of maggots, and one peck of Indian meal. I saw but one house from the mouth of the Illinois to Fort Clark, where Peoria now is, at which latter place one French trader resided. When we reached there, I was com-
485
Narrative of E. Childs.
pletely exhausted, and remained a few days to recruit a little, when we left to prosecute our journey. We continued up the Illinois to the junc- tion of the Kankakee and Eau Plaine, and thence up the Eau Plaine to where I supposed we had to make a portage to Chicago river; but I could not see any signs of the portage. There had been heavy rains for several days, which had so raised the streams that they overflowed their banks. I concluded that I had gone far enough for the portage, so I left the Eau Plaine and took a northeast direction. After traveling a few miles, I found the current of the Chicago river. The whole country was inundated; I found not less than two feet of water all the way across the portage.
That night I arrived at Chicago, pitched my tent on the bank of the lake, and went to the fort for provisions. I was not, however, able to obtain any, the commissary informing me that the public stores were so reduced that the garrison were subsisting on half rations, and he knew not when they would get any more. I went to Col. Beaubien, who furnished me with a small supply. I found two traders there from Mackinaw; and as my men were all sick, I exchanged my tent and canoe for a horse, and took passage on board the Mackinaw boat as far as Manitowoc. One of our party had to go by land and ride the horse. There were at this time but two families residing outside of the fort at Chicago, those of Mr. Kinzie and Col. Beaubien.
When universal enthusiasm, in any one direction, dissolves into apathy from exhaustion of the forces which pulled in that direction, then comes an epoch when mankind enters upon new fields of labor, quite different from the ones that have last engrossed their attention; and new energies, that have long lain dor- mant, are awakened into life. Such a point was reached when Europe sheathed the sword after the downfall of Napoleon in 1814. Renown at the cannon's mouth was no longer sought after, for it was evident to the simplest understanding that industry to build up what war had torn down would pay best; and with these nobler purposes in view, Europe and America went to work.
England's problem was how to keep the balance of trade in her favor, and how to pay the interest on her public debt, which had so recently been contracted. America's was how to build turnpikes, canals and school houses throughout the, as yet, unknown and illimitable northwest. Both nations set about their respective callings immediately; to fulfill which the inventive genius of the artisan was stimulated, and new machinery sprang into existence, by which creative power to supply the wants of man was multiplied.
Besides this, America on her part brought to her aid new achievements in religion and public policy. The
486
Distributive Learning.
state was relieved from any responsibility in the former, each individual conscience being left free to choose its own forms of worship due to divine grace. Here it is not too much to say that to the west belongs the honor of sweeping away every vestige of legal authority over religion from the first, while in New England a public tax in the early day was levied for the support of the Gospel by the authority of the state .* This one idea is worth more than all the moral results of Napoleon's campaigns, which employed the available forces of nearly all Europe for more than ten years. The pros- perity of the west is in part due to this principle, nor has its exemplary blessings stopped where they began; but by their moral force have already undermined the religious policy of England by presenting a contrast so much in favor of individual accountability when pitted against state authority in matters of conscience. +
In ancient times the fruit of the tree of knowledge was forbidden to the masses, and a penalty attached to those who tasted it. Now, the interest of neither king, priest nor pedagogue is advanced by a monopoly of this boon. On the contrary, it is presented to the people under the most enticing forms which universities, col- leges, school houses, books and newspapers are able to offer. Under this condition, the philosophy which once gave such singular fame to Confucius, Zoroaster, Plato
*In 1638 the following appeared in the Colonial Records of Massa- chusetts, Vol. I, page 240:
"This court, takeing into consideration the necessity of an equall con- tribution of all comon charges in townes, and observing that the chiefe occation of this defect hearin ariseth from hence that many of those who are not freemen nor members of any church do take advantage thereby to withdraw thier helpe in such voluntary contribution as are in vse-It is therefore hearby declared, ev'ry inhabitant in any towne is lyable to contribute to all charges both in church and comonwelthe whereoff hee doth or may receive benefit; and withall it is also ordered that such inhabitants who shall not voluntarily contribute p'portion- ately to his ability wth other freemen of the same towne to all comon charges, as well as for upholding the ordinances in the churches as otherwise, shal be compelled thereto by assessment and distress, to bee levied by the cunstable."
Modifications of this old law inherited from England, too numerous to mention, have had place in various New England States, even since they, with the other colonies, gained their independence; and it is still within the memory of middle-aged men of our day that its last vestiges were released from the statute books.
+ The modification of England's system of tithes is a proof of this assertion.
487
America a New Field for Learning.
and others, and later to Copernicus, La Place and their kindred spirits, is now familiar to millions of men, and within the reach of every one. America was offered as a field where this learning could be cultivated on a new soil, where there was no danger to be apprehended from the overshadowing influences of clannishness in politics or religion, or the rights of feudalism. The result is shown in poetry, song, oratory and literature. The vital forces of a nation are on an unremitting strain to grasp at new reaches in science and artisanship, and life now sees abundant diversity to animate its pathway.
Such is America, particularly the west, in her crown- ing glory. Among those who live in this age of activity there are censors who protest against its turmoil, and sigh for the quietude of olden times. Perhaps the rest- ive spirits of the ambitious west would run mad without the restraining influence of these counselors. They may be necessary to prune off the tangent points which may be called the deformities of our cycle in history, nevertheless unparalleled in grandeur-a cycle in which not such architectural piles as the Pyramids, the Pantheon or the Coliseum have been built by enforced labor, but one in which humbler edifices, dedicated to science and religion, have been distributed throughout the land. Mental alchemy has economized her most potent forces within unpretentious domiciles; and where this is the universal condition, national issues hang upon the turn of a subtle power, gathering its force from a considerate public opinion, as a result of distributive instead of concentrated learning. This force is com- paratively perfect when it is adequate to checkmate the sinister purposes of private ambition, used against the public interest; and that it should ever be up to this standard is essential to the success of a republican form of government.
From the ancient Normans, * have we undoubtedly
* The Normans or North men settled in Norway, as emigrants from Asia, while Rome was in her glory. They settled Iceland in 860, and Greenland in 986. They conquered both England and France in the day of their glory, and in 1066, William the Conqueror, a pure Norman, became king of England, many generations after his people had first overrun the country and settled there. From this period dates the commencement of England's greatness.
488
Norman Inheritance.
inherited, through ancient Briton blood, much of our love of literature and our ambition to outrival the rest the world in national grandeur; and although Americans love to date their patent from Plymouth Rock or James- town, it can only be claimed that these were way sta- tions, on the road from the original starting point. The literature of the ancient Normans, and even their mythology, is a sublime study of which their descen- dants, though diluted with the evolutions of centuries, may justly be proud. Their brain power has crept through the attenuations of European revolutions, and, like the whirlwind, has seemed to gather force, till it has found its way to the great interior of North America, to set up a nucleus, around which to build up our states, as soon as the country became accessible to set- tlers. The termination of the war of 1812 opened the gates to it, down to which time the intrigues of Spain, the lingering power of the English on the lakes, and the Indian occupation, were insurmountable barriers to emigration. The true pioneer spirit now began in earnest. The great chain of lakes, as a highway to the far west, rapidly grew into importance, and soon be- came a rival of the Ohio river, which had hitherto been the only road to the west, except the track of the emigrant wagon through the crooked paths of the wilderness.
During these years of unfolding destiny, Chicago had been considered not only a suitable place for a fort which should command the fur trade of the back country, but as a terminus of a thoroughfare between the Upper Mississippi and the lakes. With this end in view, President Madison, in his message at the opening of congress, in 1814, recommended its attention to the importance of a ship canal, connecting the waters of Lake Michigan at Chicago with the Illinois river. This was the first official mention of such a scheme, however much it might have been talked of among the geographers of the country; and the next year the sec- retary of war, in his instructions to General Harrison, D. McArthur and John Grahame, recommended the
489
Fort Dearborn Rebuilt.
erection of military posts, connecting Chicago with St. Louis, by way of the Illinois river. *
The attention of the war department appears to have been ever directed to the importance of this thorough- fare, since its necessity had become apparent by the purchase of Louisiana, and especially after its practi- cability had been assured by the successful termination of the late war with England. A year later, in 1816, the war department gave orders for the rebuilding of Fort Dearborn. Capt. Hezekiah Bradley, who had entered the United States service April 19, 1814, and whose honorable record had won confidence in his abilities, was commissioned for the undertaking.+ As chance would have it, he arrived on the ground with his men (two companies) on the 4th of July, just thirteen years after his predecessor, Capt. Whistler, had landed with his men, to build the first fort. }
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.