USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Discovery and conquests of the Northwest, with the history of Chicago, Vol. I > Part 49
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* His name is spelled Ronan in Wabun.
+ Spelled Voorhees in Wabun.
1
GARRISON.
OFFICERS.
RANK.
FROM
TO
A. I. 5th Inf. From Oct. 3d, 1828, 1 to May 20, 1831.
John Fowle, David Hunter,
Capt. and Bvt. Maj., 5th Inf. Ist Lt., 5th Inf.
Oct. 3d, 1828.
Dec. 14, 1830.
Commanding Post. § Commanding Post from Dec. 14, 1830, to May 20, 1831. A. A. C. S. & A. A. Q. M.
G. I. 2d Inf. From June 17, 1832. S I. to May 15, 1833. G. to May 31, 1833.
1
Wm. Whistler,
Re-occupied June 17, 1832. Maj., 2d Inf.
June 17, 1832.
May 14, 1833.
Commanding Post ..
"No returns between June and Oct. 1832. Fort Dearborn having be- come a General Hospital on the 11th of July last, no returns were rendered until its re-occupation; G. and I. 2d Inf. returned to Post on 1st of Oct. from Campaign." See return of Post for Oct., 1832.
A. B. 5th Inf. From May 14, 1833, } to Dec., 1836. 1
P. Maxwell, John Fowle,
Ass't Surg. Capt. and Bvt. Maj., 5th Inf.
Feb. 3d, 1833. May 14, 1833.
Dec. - , 1836. June 19, 1833.
Commanding Post.
D. Wilcox.
"
"
Aug. 1, 1836.
( Commanding Post from Oct. 31 to Dec. 18, 1833; and from Sept. 16, 1835. to Aug. 1, 1836.
L. T. Jamison. J. Allen,
1st Lt, 5th Inf. Byt. 20 2d Lt., 5th Inf.
J. T. Collinsworth, George Bender, J. M. Baxley, E. K. Smith,
Maj., 5th Inf. Capt., 5th Inf. 1st Lt., 5th Inf.
J. L. Thompson, John Green, A. H. Tappen, I. Plympton, ISt. Clair Denny.
2d Lt., 5th Inf. Maj., 5th Inf. Bvt. 2d Lt., 5th Inf. Capt. and Bvt. Maj., 5th Inf. Capt., 5th Inf.
June 19, 1833. June 20, 1833. 5 May 29, 1833. 7 Oct. 23, 1836. June 20, 1833. Dec. 18, 1833. Oct. 15, 1835. Aug. 1, 1836. JAug. - , 1836.
Sept., 1836. May 1837. [Dec. 1836.
Commanding Post. Commanding Post.
No Returns on file subsequent to May, 1837.
¥
May 15, 1833.
May 31, 1833.
¥
May 15, 1833.
Byt. 2d La 2d Lt., 2d Inf.,
May 31. 1833.
May 15, 1833.
S. G. I. DeCamp, Seth Johnston, I. B. Kingsbury, Hannibal Day, I. W. Penrose, E. R. Long,
Ass't Surg. Capt .. 2d Inf. Ist Lt., 2d Inf. 2d Lt., 2d Inf.
June 20, 1829. Nov. 4, 1829.
May 20, 1831.
Capt., 5th Iuf.
Aug. 20, 1830.
§ Troops withdrawn May 20, 1831.
Dec. 14, 1830 .. May 20, 1831.
2d Lt., 5th Inf.
Aug. - , 1830. Mch. 1829.
John G. Furman, A. Van Buren, C. A. Finley, James Engle, Amos B. Foster, Martin Scott,
"'d Lt., 5th Inf.
Bvt. 2d Lt., 5th Inf.
Ass't Surg., U. S. A.
Bvt. 2d Lt., 5th Inf.
ON DUTY 1
Dec. - , 1836. Jan. - , 1834. June 20, 1833. Oct. 31, 1833. Apr., 1836. July, 1834. L Dec. 1836. Dec. 1836. Sept. 16, 1835.
Commanding Post.
FORT DEARBORN, ILL. FROM OCTOBER 3D, 1828, TO MAY 31ST, 1837.
REMARKS.
Nov. 23, 1832.
571
Fort Dearborn.
The following letter, from Mr. R. J. Bennett is inserted as the most authoritative and best history of the last years of Fort Dearborn, which has yet been made public.
CHICAGO, May 11, 1880.
RUFUS BLANCHARD :
Dear Sir. - In reply to your inquiries concerning Fort Dearborn, I am pleased to say the little I can, to give a more definite idea of Chicago's oldest landmark. The "Old Fort," burned at time of the massacre, belonged to an age preceding Chicago, while the defense, erected at a later date on the same site, was known to many still living, and properly belongs to the Chicago that has grown during the last fifty years, be- cause it stood till the tide of improvements and the demands of a grow- ing commerce crowded upon it, and until its last remnant went down in the great fire of 1871.
In July, 1836. my father came to Chicago, became acquainted with it and helped in laying the state road from this place to Galena during that summer. In March, 1844, I came with my father's family from the east, and spent my first two weeks in this state, in the house of the keeper of the government light. This house stood about where the south abutment of Rush street bridge now stands. So, from my early association, I felt interested in this historical spot. After the great fire, business located me within a hundred feet of the spot where the house stood in which I first lived in this state, and directly upon the "site of Fort Dearborn." This close association of my business with a spot so historical and so closely allied to me by the present and the past, led to the production of two pictures *- one representing the fort as it was from 1844 till after 1850, and the other as it appeared after the stockade, and most of the buildings had been removed, and naught but the "Block House " of the fort and the lighthouse and light keeper's house remained. In the production of those pictures I followed such sketches as could be found, after verification by scores who had known the fort at an early day, and had pronounced the material used reliable. In describing the place, I can do no better than to use the language of Miss Augusta Meacham, in reply to my inquiries upon this subject.
"Father kept the government light in 1842, 1843 and 1844 ; I think pre- vious to that, for a year or two, he was superintendent of all lights on Lake Michigan. The lighthouse was a stone structure, kept white by lime wash. The dwelling house stood perhaps seventy-five feet east and north of the lighthouse. The old fort was east and just across a rather narrow street or road from it. (This corresponds about to our present River street.) It was west of Michigan avenue ; at that time the avenue did not come to the river, but came to an end just south of the fort."
The fort stood on a sand mound, some twenty feet above the river, and occupied a tract bounded by a line running along about River street to near the center of the river as it now is, and east, say 150 feet east of Michigan avenue to the lake beach; thence south, say a like distance south of the present intersection of Michigan avenue and River Street ; thence west to the place of beginning. The inclosure was a stockade formed by setting logs upright and close together, the lower end bedded in the earth, and the upper sharpened like pickets or pikes. Within this inclosure and near the stockade was arrayed the barracks and the officers' quarters; they were built of hewn logs. Within these and to the south side of the inclosure was the parade ground. In 1857 Mr. A. J. Cross, now connected with the C., B. & Q. R. R., but then in the employ of the city, tore down the fort and light- house and leveled the mound by carting the sand to fill Randolph street to grade. One of the buildings was moved, but still within the site of the
572
Fort Dearborn.
fort (about the center of the store now owned by W. M. Hoyt, and occu- pied by the firm of which he is the head). That building stood till the fire of 1871 destroyed it, and thus removed the last of Fort Dearborn. A few weeks before that fire I visited that building with my father, and he, laying his hands on one of its corners, said, "This is one of the buildings of the old fort as I saw it in 1836."
War has given way to peace, defense to aggressive prosperity, but may prosperity never smother our interest in early Chicago and Fort Dearborn .*
Yours respectfully,
R. J. BENNETT.
* The two pictures referred to by Mr. Bennett are both landscape drawings of the fort, river and lighthouse, not differing essentially, as far as the block house, officers' quarters, etc., are concerned, from the view here presented. They are now in possession of Mr. Hoyt .- Author.
* The view of the fort here presented was from the immediate vicinity of the lighthouse spoken of in Mr. Bennett's letter ; hence the lighthouse, light keeper's house and river do not appear, as the spectator is looking away from these objects. The large honey locust tree, appearing in the right background, will be remembered by many of our old citizens. It stood on the west side of Michigan avenue, so near the street that one needed to stoop in passing on the sidewalk. Tradition says it was planted by the daughter of Mr. John Kinzie. It stood till destroyed by the great fire.
DEARBORN STREET DRAWBRIDGE, BUILT IN 1834.
14
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MICHIGAN
Des Plaines K
CHAPTER XXIII.
Chicago as a French and Indian Town in 1790- Chicago as Seen by Philo Carpenter in 1832-Eli B. Williams' Report of Chicago in 1833-Cook County Organized-The Town of Chicago Organized under a Board of Trustees-The Mouth of the River Opened -The First Public Loan-Indian Treaty of 1830- Ditto of 1833 at Chicago-Graphic Description of Chicago and the Treaty by an English Traveler-The Indian Titles Extinguished -- The Indians Removed.
The great plateau of northern Illinois was now vacant. Its unmeasured plains over which the summer winds waved the tall prairie grasses into changing hues of green, before the occasional traveler who crossed them, lay out temptingly before the emigrant. The Indian was gone. They had left nothing but the graves of their fathers. They had not even marred the beauty of the groves which stood upon the rolling heath like islands of the ocean, in majestic solitude. The wolves and a few deer were their only tenants, except the birds. The conquest of the northwest was now com- pleted. The spasmodic throe of lingering native power that had been quickened into a fleeting activity by the courage of Black Hawk, had vanished. Many of the men who witnessed all this are still living (1880) and jostling their way along the stage of life in its accumu- lating activity, that the march of progress has stimu- lated to high-water mark among us.
But before proceeding with the narrative let us notice the ancestry, as far as the data for it is known, of John Kinzie, the first man who had the honor of representing
573
Racine dance , the 1839
Sutch that I cannot leave to See you Sim my home affairs une
let present. I laim into Chicago in
The year 17.90 in July witness old fr
Heavy he knows i was theone and the Greand Two Ur procounsell and Shepper
Ano In law and J. Bullioned the Country
These men were living in
Before the war with winebayes Treating with them & few the indians Brake open the Door of my house
Tw also the Door of illo Kimgier house at first there was only Three indians come they told me there was Forty more coming and they told me To hun i Did do , in mine days WAFER
And all i found left of muy things The feathers of my Beds Seattend about The floor, the amount Diefstnay By, Theme at that time was about Eight hundred Dollars Berieles your father two the
Had about four hundred hogs Difstrand By the Saim indians theearly at the Same time further Particulars when i see your
I wish you to write the whether it is Best for me to come There ar for you to tame he ar aw. how Soon it must Be Done
00gs Av .- vygone
yours with Respect Aumlwine mit Quilmell mark
" hu
575
Ancestry of John Kinzie.
the new regions of the stars and stripes, here according to American principles. The French who were at Chi- cago before him were uneducated, as the foregoing letter will show, written to John H. Kinzie, but addressed to John Kinzie by mistake.
The foregoing letter* is a concentrated page of history of great value, because it tells of the condition of Chicago and its people as early as 1790, the date in which Ouil- mette came and remained a permanent settler. His name is associated with its history and still remains on the maps showing his reservation near the present limits of Chicago. He gives the names of several persons known to him at the time, and from his letter it appears that the Winnebagoes had been a formidable power, dan- gerous to offend. This letter was written before the introduction of envelopes, and in copying it under a camera it was reduced, and the place where it was sealed has been indicated by a circle in which the word wafer has been added, to show how letters were sealed at that time.
John Kinzie was born at Quebec, L. C., 1763. His mother was previously married to Major Haliburton. The only daughter of this marriage was the mother of Gen. Fleming and Nicholas Leowe, of New York. While yet an infant, his father died and his mother married a Mr. Forsythe. Gen. James W. Forsythe, U. S. A., is a descendant of this union.
A cousin of John Kinzie was Charles King, president of Columbia college, New York, whose daughter mar- ried Monsieur Waddington, for many years ambassador from France to the Court of St. James.
After his youthful flight from home, as told in pre- ceding pages, he apprenticed himself to a watchmaker, thus learning a trade which enabled him to gain the confidence of the northwestern tribes of Indians by manufacturing ornaments, etc., from the silver brought by them from the Lake Superior region, and gave him the name of "Shawneawkee," i. e., Silversmith, by
* Thanks to Mrs. Eleanor Kinzie Gordon, of Savannah, Ga., daughter of John H. Kinzie, who sent the original letter to me, from which this is copied by photo process.
576
Mrs. Juliette A. Kinzie.
which he was known throughout that region. He was married to Mrs. Eleanor McKillup, the widow of a British officer, March 24, 1793. His oldest son, John H., well known to the writer and many other of the present citizens of Chicago, inherited many of those distinguished traits of his father's character which can best be learned in frontier life, and especially Chicago life, where the sublimest virtues of savage life tempered its rough side into harmony with the teachings of Mr. Kinzie, the elder, whose influence was potent and timely in the days of the Chicago massacre.
The death of John H. Kinzie took place on the cars near Pittsburg, as related in other parts of this work. It was during our civil war, in which cause, on the Union side, he took an active part. He had enjoyed many offices of trust during his eventful life, and had filled them all with honor to himself and with benefit to his country. His talented wife left a lasting monument of her literary fame in her writings, prominent among which was Waubun, a history made as interesting as romance and dramatic as Shakespearean tragedy by her graphic pen.
From an obituary notice of her death which occurred in 1871, the following passages are taken:
" While the population of Chicago increases so rapidly that the world is amazed at its progress, the early in- habitants and pioneers are fast passing away, dropping one after the other, like ripened fruit, here and there, startling for a moment the public mind, then vanishing forever from the hearts and memories of this most busy and restless people. Among the latest and saddest of these exits is that of Mrs. Juliette A. Kinzie, relict of the late John H. Kinzie, whose funeral takes place on Thursday, at 2:00 o'clock in the afternoon, at St. James' church, and whose memory, worth and works demand something more than a mere passing notice.
"Born at Middletown, Conn., in 1805, descended through her mother from Dr. Alexander Wolcott-an elder brother of Oliver Wolcott. They were the sons of Gov. Roger Wolcott, who was even more famous than his noted son Oliver. He was next in command
577
Home of Mr. and Mrs. John A. Kinzie.
to Gen. Sir William Pepperell, in the expedition against Cape Breton, and in the siege of Louisburg, where they secured a signal victory. He was also one of the early colonial governors of Connecticut, held many im- portant offices of trust in the colonies, was a wise legis- lator and an able statesman.
" Mrs. Kinzie's education, like that of all the well bred girls of New England of that day, was perfect and com- plete, and to all the thorough knowledge of the schools, she added a cultivated taste for music, a hearty devo- tion to books and letters, and a complete mastery of the standard English and American classics and history. In August, 1829, she married Col. John H. Kinzie, then sub-Indian agent of the Winnebagoes, under Gen. Cass, as secretary of war, and removed to Fort Winne- bago, at the Portage, between the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, where they remained a year or two, and then removed to Fort Howard, at Green Bay.
" In the spring of 1834, Col. Kinzie and his wife came to Chicago, and for a time occupied the old Kinzie house on the North Side, near the corner of Pine street, where old John Kinzie had lived since 1803, with the exception of the years 1813, 1814 and 1815, while in custody of the British government as prisoner of war at Sandwich, Canada.
"From the moment of her arrival in Chicago, then containing a population of not more than 600 white people and several thousands of Indians, Juliette Kinzie commenced the great literary work of her life.
" From 1836 down to the time that the great flood of emigration overflowed all the old landmarks of society in Chicago, her quiet and unpretending home was the rendezvous of all officers of the government, all the cul- tivated and intellectual people of our own and of foreign lands. Frederica Bremer, Harriet Martineau, Capt. Marryatt, Charles Fenno Hoffmann and other eminent authors have been guests at her literary home." But a few years more will see the last one of these urban pioneers gathered into the fold among their fathers, and then our age will descend into history as an epoch of progress unparalleled in its records.
578
Philo Carpenter.
In 1880 there were but three or four men living in Chicago who were residents of the place before the Black Hawk war, and have been representatives of its vital interests, and witnessed its growth from a lea of sand ridge, marsh and forest, to a city of over 500,000 -have seen it in its gradations from an obscure military post on the extreme verge of western settlements, to the commercial center of the great northwest. One of these, Gurdon S. Hubbard, has already been memorized in preceding chapters, as his active life has interwoven its record into Chicago history. Another is Philo Car- penter, who is associated with later records of Chicago.
He came to the place in 1832, starting from Troy, N. Y., in May. He took the Erie canal to Buffalo, and from thence took passage on the steamer " Enterprise " (Capt. Walker, master), to Detroit. Four and a half days was then the usual time for this passage. Detroit was the western limit of established lines of western transportation, but a mail coach consisting of a Penn- sylvania covered wagon with a concave body, was drawn by two horses slowly through the wilderness road to Niles once a week, from whence the mail was carried to Chicago on horseback, a half-breed generally perform- ing the service. From Detroit to Niles, Mr. Carpenter, with another gentleman named G. W. Snow, came in the mail coach. Niles was an old settled French trad- ing post, and at this time enjoyed a fair trade, princi- pally with Indians. Supplies were transported to the place from Detroit by way of the lake to the mouth of the St. Joseph, which latter spot had been an important point ever since La Salle had built a fort here in 1680. From here freight was transported to Niles by means of flat boats, propelled by shoulder poles, as our worthy Mr. Lincoln used to move his lumber rafts through sluggish waters when a boatman.
Mr. Carpenter with Mr. Snow took passage from Niles to the mouth of the St. Joseph river on one of these boats, expecting to complete the last part of their journey on board a sloop which made occasional trips from this place to Chicago; but in this they were dis- appointed. The last trip made by this craft to Chi-
579
Indian Transportation.
cago was just after Gen. Scott's arrival at the place, and so great was the terror caused by the contagion that he brought, that no inducement could influence the master of the sloop to return. In this emergency two Indians came to Mr. Carpenter, and by means of signs offered to convey him and his companion to their destination in a small boat along the shore around the head of the lake. Five dollars was the fare, half down, and the balance at the end of the journey. The terms being accepted, the Indians took to the woods, and soon returned with several long strips of elm bark. These were quickly tied together till a long tow line was im- provised and attached to the rude boat, which was the excavated trunk of a tree. One Indian seized the line and started off on a trot, tugging the clumsy craft along the shore, while the other steered. By taking turns a speed of five miles an hour was attained. When the first night overtook them, as chance would have it, a schooner lay stranded on the beach, and its captain in- vited the travelers to accept his hospitalities. A sup- per of venison, a good berth and breakfast followed. In the morning the Indians took their places, one ať the helm and the other at the tow line; the travelers seated themselves in the boat; a few extra strains of the swarthy toiler raised the speed and rapidly he tugged along the sandy shore the exponents of a civilization destined to exterminate his own race. The next night found them at the mouth of the Calumet. Here John Mann kept a tavern and also a ferry, but he with his family had fled to Chicago, lest some Indian on the war path should attack them to subserve the interests of Black Hawk. Mr. Carpenter and his companion entered his forsaken house and spent the night, and in the morning, resuming their journey in the usual way, soon came to the place where the Douglas monument now stands. Here a settler lived named Joel Ellis, well known to some of the old settlers now living. One of the Indians was now attacked with colic, perhaps caused by the fear of the cholera, and both refused to proceed farther, but Mr. Ellis yoked his oxen to a lum- ber wagon, the travelers seated themselves in it, and
580
Phillip F. W. Peck.
after an hour's toiling over the sand ridges, the Ameri- can flag waving over the block house at Fort Dearborn met their view.
The streets of the embryo town had been staked out, but no grading had been done, not even a dirt road thrown up. A wagon track took a circuitous way from one house to another, accommodating itself to the oozy sloughs which seamed the landscape. The places con- nected by this trace were first the fort with its adjuncts, occupying the grounds south of the present Rush street bridge, from which the path took a western direction to Russell Heacock's log building, which stood on the bank of the river at the junction of a deep run, the mouth of which was where State street now comes to the river. A foot-log across it gave Mr. Heacock a nearer way to the postoffice, which was then at the Fork* (Wolf's Point), but the main road curved around the head of this run, or rather to a place above its abrupt bank where it could be crossed. The road next threaded its way to a log building about at the present corner of Clark and Water streets, where George W. Dole and Oliver Newberry kept a commission house. The next building on the road in its western course was a new frame, the first of its kind ever erected in Chi- cago; it was located near the present corner of La Salle and Water streets, built by P. F. W. Peck, t and occu- pied by him as a dry goods store. It stood till the great fire of 1871, contrasting strangely and incongru- ously with its adjacent companions. The next building on the primitive highway was the postoffice, at which was also a general store kept by John S. C. Hogan. It stood where Water street now meets Lake street diagonally, just east of the bridge. Immediately south of this on . Market street, stood a log tavern kept by Mark Beaubien. This was sometimes called the Sau- ganash, but it was not the famous hotel known by that name subsequently erected about at the present corner of Franklin and Lake streets. Besides these buildings
* Mr. Heacock came to Chicago in 1827. He was the first lawyer who settled at the place .- W. H. HURLBUT.
+ Mr. Peck came to Chicago in 1831 on the schooner ." Telegraph," bringing with him a stock of goods.
581
Mouth of the Chicago River.
was the residence of John Baptise Beaubien, south of the fort on the bank of the river, past its turn as it took its sandy way into the lake. These are all the im- provements on the South Side, as reported by Mr. Car- penter on his first arrival at Chicago.
Speaking of the area occupied by the sand bar and river itself, east of the elevated bank on which the fort stood, he says it was ever changing in form, and such portions of it as one day appeared above water were liable to be submerged the next day. Nor was the mouth of the river any more permanent in its location, for there was no spot from north to south in this low heath of moving sands that had not at certain times been its channel, in obedience to the whimsical action of the winds and waves. At its immediate mouth the river was not more than twelve inches deep during ord- inary summer seasons, while a few feet above, it deep- ened to fifteen feet or more; but the freshets of spring, or an excessive rain at any time might produce a cur- rent in the river sufficient to clear away the sand at its mouth to a depth as low as the bottom of the river above. This depth could only be maintained as long as the swollen waters were able to resist the counter action of the waves, which would quickly choke the mouth of the river again when its active current sub- sided.
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