USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Discovery and conquests of the Northwest, with the history of Chicago, Vol. I > Part 45
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
" Col. R. J. Hamilton came to this city, as above stated, in April, 1831. Cook county had been organized the month previous. He soon obtained a high position among his fellow-citizens, and at that time young and full of energy and vigor, and not the man to shrink from responsibility, we wonder that he was not crushed with the weight of the 'blushing honors' that fell to his share of the spoils in the new county of Cook. In the course of the year he became judge of probate, recorder, county clerk; discharged gratuitously the duties of treas- urer, and was commissioner of schools. The good col- onel would find his hands full were he to fulfill the duties of all these offices at the present time. We have availed ourselves of his early and accurate knowledge of events for most of the facts which are contained in some half dozen of the succeeding paragraphs.
" The county of Cook in 1831 embraced all the terri- tory now included in the counties of Lake, McHenry, Dupage, Will and Iroquois. At that time Fort Dear- born was occupied by two companies of U. S. Infantry, under the command of Major Fowle. The resident citizens were Mr. Elijah Wentworth and family, occu- pying a house partly log and partly frame, owned by Mr. James Kinzie, and situated on the ground since occupied by Mr. Norton as a lumber yard. Mr. W. kept a tavern, the best in Chicago. In the vicinity of this tavern resided Mr. James Kinzie and family, Mr. William See and family, Mr. Alexander Robinson and
522
Adjacent Settlements.
family-now living on the Des Plaines-and Mr. Rob- ert A. Kinzie, who had a store composed of dry goods -a large portion of them Indian goods-groceries, etc. Across the north branch of the Chicago river, and nearly opposite Mr. Wentworth's tavern, resided Mr. Samuel Miller and family, and with them Mr. John Miller, a brother. Mr. Miller also kept tavern. On the east side of the south branch, and immediately above the junction with the north branch, resided Mr. Mark Beaubien and family, who also kept tavern; and a short distance above him, on the south branch, resided a Mr. Bourisso, an Indian trader. Between Mark Beaubien's tavern and Fort Dearborn there were no houses, except a small log cabin, near the foot of Dearborn street, and used as an Indian trading house. Near the garrison, and immediately south, on the prop- erty sold by James H. Collins, Esq., to the Illinois Central Railroad Co., was the residence of Mr. J. B. Beaubien and family, who was connected with the American Fur Co. in the Indian trade. He had near his residence a store, containing such goods as were suitable to that business. A short distance south of him on the lake was a house, then unoccupied.
" On the north side of the river, and immediately opposite the garrison, stood the old ' Kinzie House,' as it was commonly called, which was also then unoccupied, and in a very dilapidated state. A short distance above, on the main branch of the river, and on the ground now occupied by the Chicago & Galena Rail- road Co., stood what had been the Government Agency house, and known to the 'oldest inhabitant' as ‘Cob- web Castle.' That was then unoccupied, Dr. Wolcott, the government agent, having died the fall before. In its vicinity were several small log buildings, for the accommodation of the blacksmith, interpreter and others connected with the agency. The blacksmith then occupying one of the buildings was Mr. McKee, in 188 1 living in Dupage county. Billy Caldwell, the prin- cipal chief of the Ottawa, Pottawattamie and Chip- pewa Indians, occupied another. He was then inter- preter for the agency. Col. Thomas J. V. Owen, who
TCE
Cippientions
cil Hill
Bois
føl
Gratiots
Grove
Grande
Vi
ota
te Qak Pt.
Turtle R.
Brodais R
So
lena.
Shannon
ple
43
· Cravosville
Ancient Mounds
mor
Northern
A TS T
HED
Rolling Prairie
Arecent. Mouncts
L
A
S
L
E
In 1835.
VER
Dearbor
R.
STOR
DAVIESS
T
Veritas !!
Big Bend.
Swamp
R
from Rock Isd. to Detyo
Old Indian
11
a
3
Rapids
Green
Geen
son
XXXIV
Aki Ko Fort 350 At High.
and
R de
FO
nsel
Ranger Vest.
Ranges West
I
1000
Henne pin C XXXII
Vexintil
caversL.
Stads Z
XXXJ
Pickam>
Kankakee R
R
Edvards R MER GER
I
MICHIGAN
E DAVIESS
Pekat
T
HED
MAP
Lewiston
ACHED
Small Fork
Kishwe
T
Dixons Ferrys
SKE
Meridian
ROC
48
Raccoon
E
Pla1
XXXV
6
Double For !:
Salme A
R du Bois Bu
O
hier
id
mibois
Rivet
Rock Island
F. Armstrong on
MISSISSIPPI
SLAN
T
0
3+ Principal Meridian
K
uns
Pomcipal Meridian
5
Kite
IX
Rush C
and FOXES
Pekatonica
R WINNEBAGOES
LAKE
1
MICHIGAN
River
River
SAUKS
River
Des Plaines
0
MIIE S River
Junia
Kankakee
addisssss! H
F
toods"
OrBall
R
Vermillion
River
River
-
S.
Illinois
C
Macuuran
River
P
West.
Fork
Missouri
SIONITTI
L
River
RTven.
Muady
Green
Ohio
River
The first mention of the Pottawattamies is in the "Jesuit Relation " of 1639. They were then reported on the north bank of Lake Huron. Twenty-six years later they were reported on the west bank of Lake Michigan. In 1674 they were at Green Bay, and assisted Father Marquette on his way from the mission of St. Francis Xavier at that place to the " Chicagou " portage. Later they took possession of the country around Chicago, and also the immense plains lying in Illinois west of the Wabash river.
River
East
--
Kaskaskıa
Lit.
Wabash
White R.
MAP SHOWING THE INDIAN TRIBES IN ILLINOIS IN 1812
Ricer
Fork
PIANKESHAW MIAMIES
Rock
For
TTOWA
River
Muck
525
Naperville.
had been the winter before appointed to succeed the late Dr. Wolcott, had not then taken up his residence in Chicago; G. Kercheval, who was then sub-agent, was then here. Dr. E. Harmon, the father of C. L. Har- mon, and James Harrington, of Geneva, Kane county, had taken up their residence here, and were making claims on the lake shore-Dr. Harmon where Mrs. Clarke lived in 1879, and Mr. H. immediately north and adjoining."
The settlement nearest to Chicago in 1830 was at Naperville, where Mr. Stephen J. Scott settled at this date, where Willard, his son, now lives, 1880, still at- tending to his business of banking. Within the next two years a goodly number of settlers came to the place by way of the lakes, passing through Chicago, which not pleasing them, they settled at Naperville. Among them were Mr. Naper, for whom the town was named; Mr. Harry T. Wilson, living, in 1880, at Wheaton, Ill., and Hon. Edward Murray, living, in 1879, at Naperville, to whom the writer is indebted for items of historic interest. Settlements were also begun at Grosse Point and on Fox river.
Galena had for many years been a thriving settle- ment, on account of the lead mines, and several old Indian trails led to it from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan, as well as from the settled portions of Illinois, which then extended no farther north than Ot- tawa. In 1825 a Mr. Kellogg pioneered his way from Peoria over the prairies to Galena, and subsequently others followed his track, till it had scarred the green turf into a beaten road known by the name of Kellogg's trail. The next year Mr. John Boles made the same tour, and cut across some of Mr. Kellogg's curves, crossing the Rock river at Dixon, then a spot without inhabitants or a name. After this the road was known as Boles' trail. For the next few years a large travel between Galena and the Illinois settlements went over it, and afforded a small source of income to the Winne- bagoes and Sacs, in the novel method by which they ferried wagons over Rock river at Dixon, which was done by placing both wheels on one side of the wagon
526
Dixon's Ferry.
in one large canoe, and both on the other side in another. Thus laden, the canoes were paddled across, while the horses, being detached from the wagon, swam behind, led by their bridles .* The settlements of Ap- ple river and others, from ten to twenty miles from Galena, were made previous to 1832, and also those on the Mississippi at Rock Island, and at the Des Moines rapids. Meantime, the demand for ferriage over the Rock river at Dixon increased, and a Mr. J. L. Be- gordis, of Peoria, resolved to build a flat bottomed ferry boat there. With this intent he built a small hut on the bank of the river and commenced building the boat, but the jealous Indians looked upon it as infringement of their rights, and burned it. In 1828 an Indian inter- preter of French extraction, named Joe Ogie, by virtue of having married an Indian wife, succeeded better. He started a ferry without molestation from the Indians, and in 1830 sold it to Mr. Dixon, after which the place took the name of Dixon's Ferry, and subsequently Dixon. This venerable pioneer lived till 1876, when he died full of honors and full of years. +
Chicago was then in her germ cell, but during those days of uncertainty occasional adventurers came to cast their lot with her, and among those who thus came pre- vious to 1823, two are still living, in 1881-Gurdon S. Hubbard, whose early adventures have already been told, and David McKee, who came in 1822. The writer visited him at Aurora, Ill., in the summer of 1879. He was at work in his garden, scythe in hand, mowing the weeds around its headlands. The following is his story, substantially as it came from his lips, fresh from the past-truthful and laconic.
He was born in London county, Va., in the year 1800, went to Cincinnati at the age of thirteen, where he remained till he was twenty years old, when he
* History of Ogle county, by H. W. Boss, a present resident of Chi- cago.
+ Mr. John Dixon was born at Rye, Westchester county, N. Y., in 1784. On the 13th of April, 1820, he removed to Illinois, locating near where the city of Springfield now is, where he remained four years. Thence he removed to Peoria county, and from the latter place to Rock river, where he arrived on the 11th of April, 1830, and bought the ferry boat of Ogie for $1,800. SHERWOOD DIXON.
527
McKee's Narration.
started for Chicago on horseback, by the way of Fort Wayne. Elkhart was the next settled point on his way, where two or three log cabins stood, inhabited by their lonesome tenants. Niles was the next. Here was a small settlement, and two miles from it a Baptist missionary station, under the charge of Rev. Isaac McCoy, for the benefit of the Indians. The same man sometimes visited Chicago, and held religious services.
At that time there were annual arrivals by sailing vessel to Chicago, with supplies for the fort. On one of these some books were shipped for Mr. McCoy's mis- sion, but while the vessel lay at anchor outside of the bar, unloading her freight, a storm came up and rolled the waves over it, and ruined the books, with other por- tions of the freight.
He crossed the Calumet in an Indian canoe made of birch bark, his horse swimming by its side, led by the bridle. There was an Indian village at the place, its wigwams built with webs of flags interwoven together with the fiber of basswood bark. The fiber was made by boiling the bark, and beating it as flax is made from the straw. Indian mats were made from this material, and used as we use carpets. They also served as beds for the Indians, as well as the door for the wigwam.
Col. J. McNeil held command of the fort at the time of his arrival. John Kinzie lived on the North Side in a house whose sides were covered with birch bark, brought by the Indians from Michigan. The Indians made vessels for holding water, maple sap, etc., from this material.
David and Barney Lawton were acting as clerks for the American Fur Co. Both had Indian wives. David died at his brother's house, where Lyons now is. The Chicago river was then a clear stream, and its water was used for culinary purposes.
Excellent fish abounded in it, and over it hovered wild geese, ducks and sand hill cranes in vast flocks, and pelicans and swans were sometimes seen. Deer were plenty, and bear, wild turkeys and otter were found on the Desplaines.
Speaking of the Indians, says Mr. McKee, "They
528
McKee's Narration.
are better than white people; they always feed the hun- gry without regard to pay. In a natural state they are models of benevolence."
On coming over the sand hills toward the fort, his attention was attracted to the battle ground of the mas- sacre. The bones were gathered into two boxes, each about four feet square, and buried just west of the sand drifts, in the soil of the prairie, by order of Captain Bradley.
Billy Caldwell told him that he buried the head of Captain Wells two days after the battle, in the sand, but could not find the body.
Mr. LaFramboise told him that after the first fire at the battle, Captain Heald asked his soldiers if they would fight till death or surrender, and they chose to fight.
For many years Mr. McKee had dealings with Alex- ander Robinson, and always found him a model of up- rightness. He could not read or write, but managed to keep his accounts with exactness by means of charac- ters of his own to represent quantities, with a pencil and paper. He was interpreter for all the Indians at the Chicago agency.
Mr. McKee was gunsmith for the Indian department from the time of his first arrival in Chicago, in 1822, till 1827. He then became mail carrier for the govern- ment between Fort Wayne and Chicago, and made a trip once a month between the two places during the year 1828. He performed the service on horseback, carrying mail bags, camping equipments and a gun to shoot his living on the way. Each night the earth was his bed, and the forage of the wilderness his horse feed. On one occasion, he was overtaken by an unusually severe snow storm, and for six days he buffeted the tempest, painfully toiling through the drifts which be- wildered him, on his way from Niles to Chicago. In his path he found the dead body of a soldier frozen while attempting to reach Niles.
The first house at the fork of the Chicago river (Wolf's Point), was built by James Kinzie (John Kinzie's oldest son by his first wife). It was a log cabin with clapboard roof and sides. It was situated on the south
529
McKee's Narration.
side. Two or three small huts were next built near by it by Canadians and half breeds. John Hogan built a house on the south side, opposite James Kinzie's house.
Chicago was yet essentially an Indian town. Pel- tries and furs, guns, blankets, kettles, knives, hatchets, vermilion and whisky were its stock in trade, and In- dians were its suppliers and consumers. Quiet reigned there because no one had occasion to offend the Indians, and when they became intoxicated, the squaws took care to keep sober, in order to restrain them. All this was soon to be changed by means of the Black Hawk war, which will next be told.
* The Pottawattamies paid one-half the expense of building the first bridge from the south to the west side .- Western Annals.
BLACK HAWK. The Last Defender of his Native Land in the Northwest.
CHAPTER XXII.
The Winnebagoes, the Pottawattamies, and the Sacs and Foxes in 1832-Black Hawk's Village and Cornfield Purchased by the Whites-Forbearance of the Indians -A Transient Compromise-Gov. Reynolds Calls for Volunteers to Drive Away the Indians-They Re- tire across the Mississippi-Bad Advice of White Cloud, the Prophet-Black Hawk Returns to Illinois, and Camps at Sycamore Creek-The Dog Feast-The Pursuit-The Alarm-Stillman's Defeat-Indian Creek Massacre-Flight of the Frontierers-General Scott Arrives at Detroit-The Cholera among His Men-He Arrives at Chicago-Fearful Ravages of the Pestilence-Black Hawk's Fugitive Skirmishes in Northern Illinois-His Retreat-Battle of Bad Ax- General Scott Arrives at Fort Armstrong-Black Hawk Bought In as a Prisoner-The War Ended.
In 1831 the Winnebagoes occupied the country on the Wisconsin river. Their whole numbers were about 1, 500. White Loon was their principal chief. He with some of his braves had fought both Wayne and Harrison, and had ever been loyal to British interest during the war of 1812.
The Pottawattamies occupied the northeastern por- tion of Illinois. They had also fought on the British side during the war of 1812, but since the treaty of 1815 held with them, they had been subsidized into friendship by an annuity of $5,700. Their numbers were but little short of 3, 000.
The Sacs and Foxes were quite as numerous, and
530
Black Hawk Determines to Defend His Home. 531
were more to be feared, as they had not been brought so much under the influence of the United States. Their hunting grounds lay along Rock river and in the southeastern part of Iowa. Early records place them on the eastern coast of Michigan, from whence they were driven to Green Bay, from whence they wandered to the Mississippi. Here they became a formidable power and took part in revenging the death of Pontiac by a relentless war upon the Illinois tribes. Keokuk was their principal chief, but Black Hawk rose to dis- tinction as a subordinate chief by virtue of his daring deeds on the war path when a mere boy. Ever since the war of 1812 he had frequently visited his English father at Malden, and received presents from him as a just remuneration for his past services to him.
By the treaty of 1804, held in St. Louis, in Novem- ber, his tribe had sold all their lands in Illinois to the United States, for a consideration in goods to the value of $2,234. 50, and an annuity of $1,000. This treaty Black Hawk alleged to have been a fraud, * but if it was, its provisions were confirmed by the subsequent treaty of 1822, and also in 1830, on the 15th of July, at Prairie du Chien, when Keokuk made the final cession to the United States of all the country owned by the Sacs and Foxes east of the Mississippi river. This was done with- out the knowledge of Black Hawk, and when the old veteran heard of it his indignation was aroused, for he was always opposed to yielding territory to the whites. By the stipulations of this treaty the Sacs and Foxes were to leave their villages east of the Mississippi the next year, and Keokuk used his influence with his tribe to bring these stipulations into peaceable fulfillment. Black Hawk took the opposite side of the question. The merits of the case were from this time canvassed by the old men of the tribe as well as the chiefs during the remainder of the summer and the entire autumn of 1830. Meantime Keokuk had crossed the Mississippi
* Black Hawk in his account of the treaty already alluded to in a pre- ceding chapter, says that the treaty was made by only four chiefs of his tribe, and that they signed it under the influence of intoxicating drink. See Smith's Wis., page 114.
532
Black Hawk's Village Purchased.
with the majority of his tribe, while Black Hawk was casting about in all directions for assistance wherewith to maintain his ancient home on Rock river. First he went to the Indian agent on Rock Island, who informed him that the lands having been sold by the government to individuals, that the Indians had no longer any right to remain on them, as the provisions of the treaty of 1804 obliged them to leave the country as soon as pri- vate persons had purchased the lands ceded. Not dis- heartened by this set back, he went to Malden to take counsel with his ancient allies, the British. As might be expected, he was told by them that if the Indians had not sold their lands they could still remain on them in safety. On his return he paid his respects to General Cass, at Detroit, who gave him similar assurances. His resolution was now taken to defend his home, on the assumption that the treaty was a fraud by which it had been sold, and to this end he made a vain attempt to secure the assistance of the Pottawattamies, the Winnebagoes and other tribes, but his eloquence was wasted. The chiefs of these tribes had seen the folly of contending against the United States, and were de- termined to keep down the war spirit of their young men, but it sometimes required their utmost exertion to do it.
Returning from one of his missions to procure assis- tance, late in the autumn of 1830, Black Hawk found his village deserted. All its inhabitants had gone north on the usual hunt to reap their annual harvest of furs wherewith to pay old debts to traders, as well as to barter for new supplies to satisfy their increasing wants for the rude implements of civilization. He followed them, and for a few weeks, at least, the griefs of this tenacious advocate of Indian rights were assuaged by the excitements of the chase. This solace was brief; when he with his tribe returned early the succeeding April, they found their village in possession of the pale faces. The fur trader at Rock Island, a former friend of Black Hawk, had purchased the very ground on which the village stood, and he and his associates were making preparations to cultivate the spacious field of
533
Threatened Spoliation of the Indians.
700 acres on which the Indians had for many years raised their corn for bread supply.
It cannot be denied that this was a violation at least of the spirit of the treaty of 1804, the validity even of which was challenged by Black Hawk. Though this treaty ceded the lands to the United States, it guaran- teed the right of the Indians to remain on them till they were wanted for settlements; but in this case the vital center of the lands in question was purchased by design, while the frontier settlements* of the whites were yet fifty miles distant. Even Keokuk was now unable to entirely stem the tide of indignation which arose in the Indian camp, and contrary to his advice a large detachment of the tribe joined their fortunes with Black Hawk. These, with Black Hawk at the head of his band, took possession of their town and also of the field, notwithstanding the presence of the white claim- ants. It was situated between the Rock and the Mis- sissippi rivers at their immediate junction. Here the Sacs had made their home for about 150 years, and hard by were the graves of their fathers, admonishing them from the "world of the Great Spirit" to defend their graves. It is not to be supposed that the mass of Indian population could understand the binding force of a contract, and it is no marvel that their sense of jus- tice was outraged when they beheld strangers appropri- ating to themselves the soil which they had inherited. But even while writhing under these griefs a peaceable parley was held with the intruders (in their estimation), and owing to the temperate counsels of Black Hawk his tribe were brought into a conservative humor, and con- sented to let the new claimants cultivate half the field, while the squaws should cultivate the other half. Under this compromise the squaws planted their half, but as might be supposed, this insufficient attempt at palliation did not bridge over the chasm between the ambitions of the whites and the necessities of the Indians. The former cared more for the right of the soil than for the crop, and a quarrel with the Indians would facilitate this end. Black Hawk comprehended
* Western Annals Appendix.
534
Treacherous Compromise.
the whole situation, and with a laudable purpose hardly to be looked for in an Indian, counseled forbearance from his people, while a little handful of white men entered among them (as they felt) to rob them of their possessions; but there is a point beyond which forbear- ance cannot go, at least in minds of low degree, or even those of mediocrity. It is only the philosopher who can be patient over present griefs, and even he can do it only when he sees beyond, those triumphs which the recoil of time are likely to bring to his consolation. But if Black Hawk himself was a philosopher the squaws who dug in the corn fields were not philoso- phers. The white men plowed up part of the corn which they had planted on their half of the field, and they retorted by tearing down the fences adjacent to the white men's half, and allowing the cattle to come in to injure the crop.
Pending these and other disturbances of the peace, eight of the white settlers united in a memorial to Gov. Reynolds, setting forth their grievances, which was presented to him at the executive office, then at Van- dalia, on the 18th of May, 1831. In response to this memorial and several others of a similar nature, which Gov. Reynolds states that he received, on the 27th he made a call for 700 militia to protect the white settlers at the Black Hawk village, and on the same day addressed a letter to Gen. Clark, superintendent of Indian affairs, stationed at St. Louis, requesting his assistance in removing the Indians. The next day the governor addressed a letter to Gen. Gaines, then at Jefferson barracks, of similar intent. In response to these letters, Gen. Clark relieves himself from further responsibility by referring the whole matter to Gen. Gaines, who was the most proper one to act in the mat- ter, and Gen. Gaines replied to Gov. Reynolds, saying: " I do not deem it necessary or proper to require militia or any other description of force other than the regular army at this place and Prairie du Chien to protect the frontiers."
If Gov. Reynolds had referred the entire matter of protecting the frontier to Gen. Gaines, instead of call-
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.