USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Discovery and conquests of the Northwest, with the history of Chicago, Vol. I > Part 42
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The bones of the victims of the massacre of 1812 still lay scattered over the sand drifts, among the sparse growth of bunch grass and stunted shrubbery that grew there, and thus remained till 1822, when they were carefully gathered and buried with the measured respect of military etiquette, and they are now a part of the dust beneath the feet of a countless throng of busy citizens. The new fort was built on the same spot where the first had stood before its destruction. It consisted of a single block house, immediately east of which were barracks for the soldiers, and other build- ings for storage, etc., the whole enclosed with high palisades. Besides rebuilding Fort Dearborn, the gov- ernment sent Major Long to make a preliminary survey of the rivers between Chicago and the Illinois river, to ascertain the practicability of a ship canal uniting them. §
* American State Papers, Vol. II, page 13.
+ American State Papers, Vol. I, page 633.
¿ Jacob B. Varnum, of Massachusetts, was appointed factor, and Chas. Jouett, of Virginia, Indian agent.
§ The following facts relative to the topography of the country around Chicago in 1816 are taken from his report to George Graham, secretary of war. After describing the Illinois, the Desplaines and the Kankakee rivers, he speaks of the Chicago river, and calls it "merely an arm of the lake." The north branch he sets down as thirty miles long; and continues: " It receives a few tributaries. The south branch has an extent of only five or six miles, and has no supplies except from a small
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490
John Kinzie Returns to Chicago.
During the summer, Mr. John Kinzie returned with his family to Chicago. Owing to the friendship which the Indians had entertained for him, his house had been spared from the flames, and during his absence of four years, a Frenchman named Du Pin, resting under the usual immunity from Indian depredation, vouchsafed to his nation, had occupied Mr. Kinzie's house a part of the time as a trading station.
The same year at St. Louis, an important treaty was concluded with the Indians, as follows:
TREATY WITH THE OTTAWAS, CHIPPEWAS AND POTTAWATTAMIES.
A treaty of peace, friendship and limits, made and concluded between Ninian Edwards, William Clark and Auguste Chouteau, commissioners plenipotentiary of the United States of America, on the part and behalf of said states of the one part, and the chiefs and warriors of the united tribes of Ottawas, Chippewas and Pottawattamies residing on the Illi- nois and Milwaukee rivers and their waters, and on the southwestern parts of Lake Michigan, of the other part.
Whereas, a serious dispute has for some time past existed between the contracting parties relative to the right to a part of the lands ceded to the United States by the tribes of the Sacs and Foxes on the third day of November, 1804, and both parties being desirous of preserving an harmonious and friendly intercourse, and of establishing permanent peace and friendship, have, for the purpose of removing all difficulties, agreed to the following terms:
ARTICLE I .- The said chiefs and warriors, for themselves and the tribes they represent, agree to relinquish, and hereby do relinquish, to the United States, all their right, claim and title to all the land con- tained in the before-mentioned cession of the Sacs and Foxes, which lies south of a due west line from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan to the Mississippi river. And they moveover cede to the United States all the land contained within the following bounds, to wit: Beginning on the left bank of the Fox river of Illinois, ten miles
lake" (evidently what was Mud lake a few years ago). "The river and each of its branches are of variable widths, from fifteen to fifty yards, and for two or three miles inland have a sufficient depth of water to admit vessels of almost any burden. The entrance into Lake Michigan, however, which is thirty yards wide, is obstructed by a sand bar about seventy yards broad, upon the highest part of which the water is usually no more than two feet deep. The water course, which is already opened between the River Desplaines and Chicago river, needs but little more excavation to render it sufficiently capacious for all the purposes of a canal."
The report of R. Graham and Joseph Phillips, dated Kankakee, April 4, 1819, concludes with the following: "The route by the Chicago, as followed by the French since the discovery of the Illinois, presents at one season of the year an uninterrupted water communication for boats of six or eight tons burden, between the Mississippi and the Michigan lake. At another season, a portage of two miles; at another, a portage of seven miles, from the bend of the Plien (Desplaines), to the arm of the lake. And at another a portage of fifty miles from the mouth of the Plien to the lake, over which there is a well beaten wagon road. Boats and their loads are hauled by oxen and vehicles, kept for that purpose by the French settlers at Chicago.
American State Paper, Miss., Vol. II, page 555.
49I
Cession of Lands.
above the mouth of said Fox river; thence running so as to cross Sandy creek ten miles above its mouth; thence, in a direct line, to a point ten miles north of the west end of the Portage, between Chicago creek. which empties into Lake Michigan and the River Desplaines, a fork of the Illinois; thence in a direct line, to a point on Lake Michigan, ten miles northward of the mouth of Chicago creek; thence along the lake, to a point ten miles southward of the mouth of the said Chicago creek; thence in a direct line, to a point on the Kankakee, ten miles above its mouth; thence with the said Kankakee and the Illinois river, to the mouth of Fox river; and thence to the beginning: Provided, nevertheless, that the said tribes shall be permitted to hunt and to fish within the limits of the land hereby relinquished and ceded, so long as it may con- tinue to be the property of the United States.
ART. II .- In consideration of the aforesaid relinquishment and ces- sion, the United States have this day delivered to said tribes a consider- able quantity of merchandise, and do agree to pay them, annually, for the term of twelve years, goods to the value of $1,000, reckoning that value at the first cost of the goods in the city or place in which they shall be purchased, without any charge for transportation; which said goods shall be delivered to the said tribes at some place on the Illinois river, not lower down than Peoria. And the said United States do moreover agree to relinquish to the said tribes all the land contained in the aforesaid cession of the Sacs and Foxes which lies north of a due west line from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan to the Missis- sippi river, except three leagues square at the mouth of the Ouisconsin river, including both banks, and such other tracts on or near to the Ouisconsin and Mississippi rivers as the president of the United States may think proper to reserve: Provided, That such other tracts shall not, in the whole, exceed the quantity that would be contained in five leagues square.
ART. III .- The contracting parties, that peace and friendship may be permanent, promise that, in all things whatever, they will act with justice and correctness toward each other; and that they will, with perfect good faith, fulfill all the obligations imposed upon them by former treaties.
In witness whereof, the said Ninian Edwards, William Clark and Auguste Chouteau, commissioners aforesaid, and the chiefs and war- riors of the aforesaid tribes, have hereunto subscribed their names and affixed their seals, this 24th day of August, 1816, and of the independ- ence of the United States the forty-first.
NINIAN EDWARDS, WILLIAM CLARK, AUGUSTE CHOUTEAU.
7. Assitinadi
(Black Partridge.)
[Signed also by the chiefs and warriors of the Ottawas, Chippewas and Pottawattamies.]
The object in securing this strip of land was to con- struct a military road to facilitate the building of the proposed ship canal. Of all the Indian treaties ever made, this will be remembered when all others, with their obligations, are forgotten. When the country came to be surveyed in sections, inasmuch as the sur-
492
Improvements around Fort Dearborn.
veys on both sides of the treaty lines were not made at the same time, the section lines did not meet each other, and diagonal offsets along the entire length of the Indian grant were the result. An occasional gore of land is left open to discussion as to what range and township it belongs to, and all sectional maps must ever be disfigured with triangular fractions, as lasting monu- ments of early Indian power around Chicago.
With the opening of the year 1817, Capt. Bradley was still busy in completing the various appendages to Fort Dearborn, such as a magazine made of brick, rescued from the ruins of the old fort factory building, etc. A commodious parade ground was also laid out, and a large field immediately south of the fort was en- closed with a rail fence. This was planted with corn and garden vegetables for the subsistence of the garri- son. Convenient gateways, both on the north and south, gave ingress and egress, The block house it- self was more substantially built than the original one, and afforded an ample assurance of safety from Indian outbreaks. Communications were soon opened with the settlements of southern Illinois, by the way of the south branch of the Chicago river, Mud lake, the Des- plaines and Illinois rivers. Along this channel supplies of flour, meat and other necessaries were brought to the fort by means of small row boats and the short portage from the Desplaines to the Chicago river. The settlements of southern Illinois had at that time at- tained proportions sufficient to qualify the territory for a state in the federal Union, and the next year, 1818, Nathaniel Pope, delegate to congress, applied for and obtained the admission of Illinois as a sovereign state. Although the northern half of the state was then unset- tled, except in a very few places, its importance was not overlooked by Mr. Pope, who seemed gifted with a remarkable intuition into the future. Illinois as a terri- tory was bounded on the north by a line due west from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan, as shown on all maps previous to 1818. To this line Mr. Pope ob- jected for the following reasons, which are copied from Ford's History of Illinois:
4
493
Illinois Admitted into the Union.
By the ordinance of 1787, there were to be not less than three, nor more than five, states in the territory northwest of the Ohio river. The boundaries of these states were defined by that law. The three states of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois were to include the whole territory, and were to be bounded by the British possessions in Canada on the north. But congress reserved the power, if they thereafter should find it expedient, to form one or two states in that part of the territory which lies north of an east and west line drawn through the southerly bend of Lake Michigan. That line, it was generally supposed, was to be the north boundary of Illinois. Judge Pope, seeing that the port of Chicago was north of that line, and would be excluded by it from the state, and that the Illinois and Michigan canal (which was then con- templated) would issue from Chicago, to connect the great northern lakes with the Mississippi, and thus be partly within and partly with- out the state of Illinois, was thereby led to a critical examination of the ordinance, which resulted in a clear and satisfactory conviction, that it was competent for congress to extend the boundaries of a new state as far north as they pleased; and he found no difficulty in convinc- ing others of the correctness of his views.
But there were other and much more weighty reasons for this change of boundary, which were ably and successfully urged by Judge Pope upon the attention of congress. It was known that in all confederated republics there was danger of dissolution. The great valley of the Mis- sissippi was filling up with a numerous people; the original confederacy had already advanced westward a thousand miles, across the chain of mountains skirting the Atlantic; the adjoining states in the western country were watered by rivers running from every point of the com- pass, converging to a focus at the confluence of the Ohio and Missis- sippi at Cairo; the waters of the Ohio, Cumberland and Tennessee rivers carried much of the commerce of Alabama and Tennessee, all of Kentucky, considerable portions of that of Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York, and the greater portion of the commerce of Ohio and Indiana, down by the Point at Cairo (situate in the extreme south of Illinois), where it would be met by the commerce to and from the lower Mississippi with all the states and territories to be formed in the immense country on the Missouri, and extending to the head waters of the Mississippi. Illinois had a coast of 150 miles on the Ohio river, and nearly as much on the Wabash; the Mississippi was its western boundary for the whole length of the state; the commerce of all the western country was to pass by its shores, and would necessarily come to a focus at the mouth of the Ohio, at a point within this state, and within the control of Illinois, if, the Union being dissolved, she should see propar to control it. It was foreseen that none of the great states in the west could venture to aid in dissolving the Union, without culti- vating a state situate in such a central and commanding position.
What then was the duty of the national government? Illinois was . certain to be a great state, with any boundaries which that government could give. Its great extent of territory, its unrivaled fertility of soil, and capacity for sustaining a dense population, together with its com- manding position, would in course of time give the new state a very controlling influence with her sister states situate upon the western rivers, either in sustaining the federal Union as it is, or in dissolving it, and establishing new governments. If left entirely upon the waters of these great rivers, it was plain that, in case of threatened disruption, the interest of the new state would be to join a southern and western confederacy. But if a large portion of it could be made dependent upon the commerce and navigation of the great northern lakes, connected as they are with the eastern states, a rival interest would be created, to check the wish for a western and southern confederacy.
It therefore became the duty of the national government, not only to make Illinois strong, but to raise an interest inclining and binding her
494
Predictions Fulfilled.
to the eastern and northern portions of the Union. This could be done only through an interest in the lakes. At that time the commerce on the lakes was small, but its increase was confidently expected, and in- deed it has exceeded all anticipations, and is yet only in its infancy. To accomplish this object effectually, it was not only necessary to give to Illinois the port of Chicago and a route for the canal, but a consider- able coast on Lake Michigan, with a country back of it sufficiently extensive to contain a population capable of exercising a decided in- fluence upon the councils of the state.
There would, therefore, be a large commerce of the north, western and central portions of the state afloat on the lakes, for it was then foreseen that the canal would be made; and this alone would be like turning one of the many mouths of the Mississippi into Lake Michigan at Chicago. A very large commerce of the center and south would be found, both upon the lakes and the rivers. Associations in business, in interest, and of friendship would be formed, both with the north and the south. A state thus situated, having such a decided interest in the commerce, and in the preservation of the whole confederacy, can never consent to disunion; for the Union cannot be dissolved without a division and disruption of the state itself. These views, urged by Judge Pope, obtained the unqualified assent of the statesmen of 1818; and this feature of the bill for the admission of Illinois into the Union, met the unanimous approbation of both houses of congress.
That the wisdom of Mr. Pope has been amply veri- fied by events which have transpired since 1860 is apparent to every one. The interest of Chicago was united by the strongest ties which commercial relations could bind, both to the north and the south, and had the southern limits of Wisconsin included the city of Chicago, the state of Illinois would have been under the complete control of southern influences during the early stages of the rebellion, with but slender ties to bind her to the north. On the hypothesis that this state turned the scale in favor of the Union, when the question trembled in the balance, the geographical posi- tion of Chicago may, with no impropriety, be called the center key of the nation. Such it was deemed by Mr. Pope when the place had but two white families as residents --- John Kinzie and Ouilmette; and it is not too much to say that to the broad gauge spirit of Chicago representatives in the councils of the nation, the ad- ministration has sometimes looked for support in issues of difficult solution. Nor is it too much to say that the positions which have, from time to time, been taken by the people of Chicago on the vital questions of the day have been sustained in our national policy (not neces- sarily because Chicago came to their support), but because her people were sufficiently cosmopolitan to
495
Chicago the Central Key.
comprehend the situation, and see at the first glance the real wants of the nation, for the obvious reason that within her toils, the east, the south and the far west are drawn.
At this time the Mississippi river was teeming with flat boats engaged in the carrying trade of western pro- ductions to market, by the way of New Orleans. Six hundred and forty-three of these rude vessels were counted by a passenger, in his passage by steamboat up the river, on a trip in 1818 .*
This early channel of western commerce has now a rival along our lakes, which has already eclipsed it in importance, and points to their shores as the future metropolitan centers of trade and artisanship.
THE LAST CHICAGO RESIDENT SOLDIER OF FORT DEARBORN.
Luther Nichols was born in Gilbertsville, Otsego county, New York, in 1805, enlisted in the United States service in 1828, and came to Chi- cago with his wife and one child (as a soldier) in the Second United States Infantry, under the immediate charge of Major Whistler. The company consisted of about fifty soldiers. On their arrival they found Fort Dearborn crowded with refugees from the adjoining country, who had fled to the place for refuge from Black Hawk's Indians. These were ordered to leave at once, and obeyed the summons with reluct- ance, for their fears were not yet allayed from the danger of Indian scalping parties. A few days after their arrival General Scott came and brought the cholera. Major Whistler then left the quarters of the fort and built barracks outside for his men, at the foot of the present site of Madison street. Here they remained during the prevalence of cholera and assisted in burying the dead of Scott's army. Soon after General Scott's arrival, several of the dead bodies of such soldiers as died on the passage, were driven by the winds ashore on the beach south of Chicago. Mr. Nichols with six of the company were ordered to go and bury them. It was a very unwelcome task. They were buried in the sand where they lay, about three feet deep, from which place they have never since been resurrected. Only two of Major Whistler's command died, both of whom were men who often drank liquor. Mr. Nichols accompanied General Scott to Rock Island, wit- nessed his treaty with the Indians, at which time much hilarity pre- vailed among the soldiers, such as drinking and carousing.
Mr. Nichols served the remainder of his term as a soldier at Chicago, as one of the garrison at Fort Dearborn, was honorably discharged in the latter part of 1833, and has ever since been a citizen of Chicago, living now (1881) at 106 Peoria street, in good health, at which place the writer met him.
* Niles Register, Vol. XIV, page 344.
CHAPTER XXI.
The Name Chicago First Appears on School Atlases - The Mysteries Beyond-Adventures of James Gal- loway and What Grew Out of Them-Arrival of the Clybourns at Chicago-Chicago Surveyed and Laid Out in Village Lots-The Winnebago Scare - The Illinois and Michigan Canal Located-Civil History of Early Chicago-County Organization- Adjacent Settlements-David McKee's Narration.
There are yet many persons living throughout the northwest, but little past middle age, who were born in the old fashioned New England cottage. It stood upon a level sward of green, but scanty in extent, among the diversified hills and valleys around. Near its side door was the well, with its "old oaken bucket" suspended from the elevated extremity of the well-sweep by means of a slender pole cut from the adjacent woods. The kitchen was the largest and most important room in the house. One door led from it directly into a parlor half its size, but this door was seldom opened except when distinguished guests came to occupy the room sacred to their entertainment. Two other doors opened into bed rooms below, and a stairway led directly to apart- ments above, used for sleeping rooms or clutter lofts. The fireplace was large enough to accommodate a large. baking oven, reached through an aperture in the jamb on the right hand side, where the "rye-Indian " bread and pork and beans were baked. All provident hus- bands kept on hand a stock of fine split dry wood to heat the oven-hence the old familiar couplet :
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497
Résumé of Ancient Customs.
"You must be kind, you must be good, And keep your wife in oven wood."
The fuel used for heating the room in the winter was a green rock maple back log, in front of which small dry wood, laid upon two iron " fire dogs," burned brightly, and in the long winter evenings pine knots were used, that blazed with such brilliancy as to send a glaring light into the remotest part of the kitchen. By their light a bashful suitor to one of the daughters would lose a few games of checkers with her brother, who had nothing to distract his attention. While this was going on, the fair one sits nearer the fire, busy with her slate pencil and arithmetic. When nine o'clock comes, all retire but the two lovers; but before doing this, the father assures the young man by inviting him nearer the fire. The invitation is accepted, not without some reserve on the part of the young man as he draws up to the fire, and consequently nearer the object of his affections. All these old-fashioned ways are changed now, but yet some of the cottages are still standing that have witnessed them; and let us look into one of their garrets and see if we can find something to freshen our memories of early days. The garret is lighted by a six-light window in each gable end, fitted with seven- by-nine glass, and by their light we will look for what we wish to find. Here are the treadles of the old loom, that "mother's" feet have pressed with measured round as she twilled the web she was weaving; the spinning wheel, and the wooden. "finger," with which she turned it into a sonorous hum. Here is the old hand-reel, two feet long, with a cross bar on each end like a T. Here is the flax wheel and its distaff, with some of the tow
still clinging to it. Next comes the old "foot stove." It is a sheet iron box set in a wooden frame, in which a small sheet iron dish of live coals is placed, on which "mother's" feet rest while she sits in church in the winter, before the introduction of stoves. Ah! here comes something that would make the tears channel down the crow tracks of age, if these original tenants of this piece of furniture could see it. It is the old wooden cradle, from the sides of which the hands of
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Chicago on the School Atlas.
"mother" have worn off the paint in her efforts to rock to sleep her rollicking babies. It is full of a med- ley of cast-off relics-hand cards, old newspapers, old copy books filled up with straight marks, pot hooks and curves. At the bottom are the old school books, among which are Marshall's Spelling-book, the English Reader, the Columbian Orator, Murray's Grammar, and lastly, Woodbridge's Geography. This is what we have been looking for all this time, for on it the name of "Chicago" first made its appearance in our school book literature.
It was suggestive of reckless adventure far beyond the restraints of civilization; a place around which clus- tered Indian tents, ornamented with scalps hung out to dry as we boys stretched our coon skins on boards, and he who would dare to go there must be a prodigy of pluck. Beyond this place on our school maps inter- posed a vast plain between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi river, on which were names of Indian tribes whose pronunciation set our stammering tongues at defiance. St. Anthony's Falls, Prairie du Chien, Ft. Armstrong, on Rock Island, and Ft. Madison, at the Des Moines rapids, were the only names on the Upper Mississippi above St. Louis, except the inevitable no- menclature of Indian names, which were always such a puzzle to us.
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