USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Discovery and conquests of the Northwest, with the history of Chicago, Vol. I > Part 52
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A new era now opens upon Chicago, one destined to spread her fame throughout the world, and to infuse into newspaper literature that essential manifesto of progress which the elastic spirits of new countries are sure to call into being. To say less than this would not do full justice to Chicago journalism.
On November 26, 1833, the first sheet appeared, under the title of the Chicago Democrat, edited and published by John Calhoun, corner of La Salle and South Water streets. A well written editorial appears in the first number, setting forth the policy of the paper with temperate and modest pretensions withal, evincing a masterly skill in editorial capability which does honor to his army of successors. The same number con- gratulates the Chicagoans on the success of Mr. Owen at the treaty just negotiated, in overcoming the objec- tions of the Indians to removing to their new home in Missouri, and equally congratulates the Indians on the prospect of soon getting out of the reach of the depre- dations of "unprincipled civilized borderers." Liberal quotations from literary journals, poetry, as good as the average newspaper musings, wit and wisdom, and a moderate amount of advertisements, fill up the six- column sheet creditably.
The third number advertises an English and classi- cal academy, corner of Water and Franklin streets, which must have been the first of its kind in Chicago. In the issue of June 11, 1834, is a quotation from Cob- bett, the English historian and essayist, evidently in- tended as a trite description of Chicago young girls:
601
Its First Subscription List.
The girls of America [says this Catholic father], are beautiful and unaffected; perfectly frank, and at the same time perfectly modest; but when you make them an offer of your hand, be prepared to give it, for wait they will not. In England we frequently hear of courtships of a quarter of a century. In that anti-Malthusian country a quarter of a year is deemed to be rather lengthy.
June 11, 1834, the following appears, which is repro- duced in these pages to show the progress of emigra- tion and the means of travel:
Hardly a vessel arrives that is not crowded with emigrants, and the stage that now runs twice a week from the east is thronged with trav- elers. The steamboat "Pioneer," which now performs her regular trips to St. Joseph, is also a great accommodation to the traveling community. Loaded teams and covered wagons, laden with families and goods, are daily arriving and settling upon the country back.
June 28th the editor congratulates Cincinnati, Ohio, on the prospect of a railroad to connect with the Miami canal.
The Illinois and Michigan canal is frequently com- mented on, not only as essential to the success of Chi- cago, but as a national necessity.
The subscription list of the paper is still preserved, and is copied here as a valuable record of the business men of Chicago at that day, for nearly all took the paper.
CITY SUBSCRIPTION BOOK OF "CHICAGO DEMOCRAT," DATED NOVEMBER, 1833.
A. Lloyd.
J. Dean Caton.
Charles Viani.
C. and I. Harmon.
Eli B. Williams.
Lt. L. T. Jamieson.
Chester Ingersoll.
Samuel Wayman. Archibald Clybourn.
E. Wentworth.
Dr. W. Clark. John Miller. Samuel Brown.
Augustus Rugsley.
George Walker. Stephen E. Downer.
Newberry & Dole. G. Kercheval. James Kinzie.
E. H. Haddock. Irad Hill.
Parker M. Cole.
E. A. Rider.
Albert Forbes.
J. R. Brown.
H. B. Clark. Robert Kinzie. P. J. Lewis.
A. Merrill.
James Herrington.
Rev. Jeremiah Porter.
P. F. W. Peck. James H. Mulford. John Wright. Alanson Sweet.
George N. Powell.
T. C. Sproat.
Jonathan Hix.
Peter Warden.
Philip Scott.
E. W. Casey.
J. L. Thompson.
H. T. Harding.
E. S. Kimberly.
P. Pruyn. Peter Cohen.
M. B. Beaubien.
Brewster, Hogan & Co.
T. J. V. Owen. W. H. Brown. B. Jones. I. Allen.
P. L. Updyke. John L. Sergents. John Watkins.
C. H. Chapman. Platt Thorn.
J. P. Brady.
R. M. Sweet. Philo Carpenter. G. Spring. John K. Boyer. Star Foot.
Silas B. Cobb. Abel Breed.
Abel E. Carpenter.
John B. Beaubien.
Dr. Maxwell.
Solomon Lincoln.
Hiram Hugenin.
F. Forbes. Rufus Brown.
Joseph A. Barnes. Mancel Talcott. Alanson Filer. Douglas Sloan. A. Woodruff. Daniel Elston. Luther Hatch. George W. Snow.
Librarian, Ft. Dearborn.
602
Early Job Printing.
J. K. Botsford.
Mathias Mason.
Jacob G. Pattreson.
J. B. Tuttle.
John Wellmaker.
George Hertington.
Col. R. I. Hamilton.
I. Solomon.
Alexander N. Fullerton.
Charles Wisencraft.
N. F. Hurd.
M. K. Brown.
E. S. Thrall.
James Mitchell.
Silas W. Sherman.
Nelson R. Norton. Benjamin Hall.
John Marshall.
John Davis.
N. Carpenter.
S. Ellis. H. C. West.
Hiram Lumbard.
Isaac Harmon. Byron King.
Samuel Harmon.
C. B. Dodson.
John T. Temple.
J. W. Reed.
L. Barnes. William Cooley.
Walter Kimball.
Richard Steele.
Rathbone Sanford.
William Taylor.
Henry Hopkins.
Orsemus Morrison.
H. Barnes.
Elijah Clark.
James Walker.
E. Brown.
William Taylor.
Gilbert Carpenter.
Ahisa Hubbard.
Mark Beaubien.
Benjamin Briggs.
R. E. Herrick.
John H. Kinzie.
W. Vanderberg.
Thomas Hoyt.
C. H. Chapman.
Benjamin F. Barker.
Edward E. Hunter.
Paul Burdeck.
Samuel Brown.
John Noble.
George Bickerdike. H. I. Cleveland.
Ford Freeman.
Aug. Penoyer.
S. C. George.
Hiram Pease.
Jones & King.
B. Cald well.
The account book which Mr. Calhoun kept is equally valuable as a memento of the village days of Chicago. Among the charges for job printing, ball tickets are no inconsiderable item.
Government blanks for the land office* were a good source of income, for which Mr. Calhoun may thank his young wife, not only for her patient industry in helping to execute the jobs, but for her inventive genius in im- provising a way to press the printed sheets to give them the necessary finish after being printed. For the want of a lever press to do this Mrs. Calhoun suggested a flatiron, and offered to iron every sheet in a run of 3,000, which she did, and turned out the job in immacu- late smoothness. Besides assisting her husband by this laborious undertaking, she helped him in correcting his proof, and in the general executive labors of the office.
By the request of her husband she preserves during her lifetime the entire file of his papers, and I trust that I betray no confidence by stating that, from my conversation with her as to their final disposition, I infer that she will bequeath them to the Chicago His- torical Society.
* The government land office was opened June 1, 1835, under charge of Col. E. D. Taylor and James Whitlock.
Oliver Losier.
Robert Williston.
603
Wolf's Point.
The last issue of his paper bears date of November 16, 1836, two days before which time by contract it was sold to Horatio Hill, a present resident of Chicago (1881), and brother of Isaac Hill, of New Hampshire, its hard money governor, who said, in order to give point to his issue with the whig party, that a bank of dirt was the best bank, and a plow-share the best share in it .* Mr. Hill immediately transferred his contract to Mr. John Wentworth, who then came to Chicago and began his eventful career where Mr. Calhoun left off as a journalist. The paper was continued under the same name by Mr. Wentworth, of which more will be said in its appropriate place.
For more than twelve years previous to this time, the fork of the river then known by the name of Wolff's point, was the center of Chicago attractions. Here stood the old Miller house, on the north side, erected by Alexander Robinson+ in 1820. To him it was a palace, where he entertained not only his Indian friends, but such white persons as wished to secure Indian trade by the distribution of presents among them. Mr. Robinson was early in the employ of Conant & Mack as an Indian trader on Fox river, and afterward employed in the same service by Mr. Lawton, on the Desplaines. He spoke both the English and Pottawattamie lan- guages with ease, and on conventional occasions acted as interpreter.
It is not known at what time he disposed of his house at the fork, but it is known that in 1832 Mr. Samuel Miller kept tavern here-the same who had married Elizabeth Kinzie, the third child of John Kinzie, by Margaret, his first wife. She died at this house in August, 1832. The original building was made of logs, but afterward covered with weather boards, to give it
* This pithy similitude is here reproduced from childish memory, when the father of the writer read Mr. Hill's message to a select coterie of lis- teners among whom he was an attentive one.
+ Mr. Robinson's father was a Canadian voyageur, of Scottish descent, in the employ of a fur company, and his mother a Pottawattamie woman. He was bred to his father's occupation, and became a useful man in his sphere, as well as a true friend to the Indians, for which cause he rose to the position of principal chief of the Pottawattamies, and remained such till their removal, in 1835.
604
Elijah Wentworth's Tavern.
the appearance of a frame house. But even at this early day the whole structure was in a state of decay, especially the roof, as will be seen by the accompanying picture. It had before this date served as church, school house and private residence.
On the west bank of the river, at the immediate junc- tion of the two branches, was a tavern kept by Elijah Wentworth in 1833. This was at the time the model hotel of the town.
Robert A. Kinzie had a store, in 1832, where the Men- asha Woodenware Co. now is (1881), on the west bank of the river. Thomas Cook then lived immediately west of the Green Tree, following the occupation of team- ster. He is still living at his home, in Lyons (1881). The Green Tree is still standing, being the northeast corner of Lake and Canal streets. It was built by John H. Kinzie, and is the oldest building in the city at the present day (1881). For many years it has been known as the Lake street house, but it is now a common saloon and private dwelling. Immediately east of this place James Kinzie kept a store in 1835, where he drove a thriving trade with Indians and new comers. Alexander Robinson's second residence was situated between Lake and Randolph streets, on the West Side. His place was generally lively with Indians, in the declining glories of their latter days in Chicago. Groups of blan- keted squaws, with their pappooses slung on their backs, in birch bark pockets, and an equal number of braves, bedaubed with paint and ornamented with . feathers, hung around his doors in listless dalliance, while among them a few white drummers might some- times be seen distributing free whisky to secure their trade. A few hours' boisterous yelling and a war dance would wind up the scene, and with the small hours of morning tranquillity would be restored.
It may appear strange to some that a man of Mr. Robinson's integrity and reputation for excellence in those qualifications which make up the character of the model citizen, should intermingle and associate with the low class of Indians that came and went freely to and from his house; and for this apparent inconsistency
WOLF'S POINT IN 1832.
€
605
First Temperance Pledge.
history ought to make an apology in his behalf; not on his individual account, but because he was one, of but a small number left, who represented the once lofty virtues of his race in their purer and happier days; and who, after 150 years' occupation of Chicago in company with the French, were now taking their leave forever of this place, so dear to them.
A man's a man for a' that,
was a sentiment of which Robinson felt the true force. No one could be too low to become a recipient of his favor, and no one so high in his estimation as to be un- approachable through the common forms of respect. Being half Indian, and having a wife of the same race, he was shut out from civilized society socially, and to have cut loose from the Indians would have left him without influence, and alone in the world. This same principle is not unfrequently seen nowadays when a partisan politician in defense of some dogma essential to secure public spoils, receives on terms of social equality persons far beneath his station, and Robinson was more justifiable than these, because his motive was not a selfish one, but the result of an inevitable destiny.
In 1833 Mr. Philo Carpenter presented the temper- ance pledge to him (the first, says Mr. Carpenter to the writer, that was ever drawn up in Chicago). After a moment's reflection he signed it, at the same time prov- ing the sincerity of his resolution by drawing a flask of whisky from his pocket and emptying its contents on the ground. It is not known how long he held his reso- lution, but he never was a drunkard.
The removal of his tribe was a turning point in his life. The issue now came directly to him which to choose -- an Indian or a civilized life. After weighing the matter, in consideration of his children's best good, he chose the latter, not without painful emotions on his part, and sore disappointment on the part of his tribe. Soon after their removal he moved to his reservation on the Desplaines river, and became a farmer highly esteemed by all who knew him. His wife was equally exemplary in her walk in life, and afforded one of the many proofs that the pure Indian is possessed of high
606
Longevity of Robinson.
virtues when circumstances favor their growth, which is all that can be said of any one.
His daughter Cynthia, the wife of Mr. Cooney, is now a resident of Chicago (1881), to which place the family recently came, for the laudable purpose of edu- cating their children. From her the writer has learned that her father came to Chicago in 1806, and hence- forward made it his home till he retired to his reserva- tion on the Desplaines. He was not present at the massacre of 1812, but on hearing of it returned in time to unite with the Sauganash and Black Partridge to save the lives of the prisoners, when his own life was threatened for his courageous interposition to this end. Says his daughter: "He told the would-be assassins that they might destroy the white blood in him, but must not touch the Indian." This dilemma, with its complex issue, helped to turn the scale in favor of the prisoners, and when the issue was settled, he took Mr. and Mrs. Helm under his charge and rowed them in his canoe around the extremity of Lake Michigan and along its eastern shore to Mackinaw.
He lived to see the great fire of 1871, and as he beheld its desolations from Lake street bridge, he gave a lusty whoop, and exclaimed that he once more saw the open prairie there as in the old days of his own prime. He died the next year, April 19, 1872, at the advanced age of 110 years, according to Robert Kinzie's estimate, who says that he was born before his father, John Kinzie. Some others set his age at 105, but all agree as to his wonderful longevity; and no one chal- lenges his record for uprightness, hospitality and benevo- lence.
An equally noble specimen of an upright man was Shabonee, whose eulogy has been told by Col. Gurdon S. Hubbard, in a pamphlet published by the Chicago Historical Society .*
* "I cannot close," says Mr. Hubbard, "without adding my testimony to that of Mr. Hicklings, regarding the character and services of that noble Indian chief, Shabonee."t
t His name has been spelled in two ways by his biographers.
607
Griefs of Shabonee.
In addition to Mr. Hubbard's voucher as to the in- tegrity of Shabonee, the following bit of his history from Chicago's well known citizen, William Hickling, Esq., is only a just tribute to the memory of him whose remains now honor our soil, and whose life-size portrait is treasured in grateful memory by the Chicago Historical Society. *
The same treaty which gave to Caldwell, Robinson and others of our Indians and half-breeds their reser- vations of land, also gave two sections to Shabonee. This he desired to be so located that it would include his old home and council house in the grove before mentioned. By direction of Major Langham, then surveyor general of Illinois and Missouri, a survey and plat of the reservation was made by a deputy surveyor, and Shabonee fondly hoped that the house which he and his family had occupied for so many years was secured to him and them forever. I believe that in all the other reservations of land granted by the afore- mentioned treaty, that all the parties thereto, having
"From my first acquaintance with him, which began in the fall of 1818, to his death, I was impressed with the nobleness of his character. Physically he was as fine a specimen of a man as I ever saw; tall, well proportioned, strong and active, with a face expressing great strength of mind and goodness of heart. Had he been favored with the advan- tages of education, he might have commanded a high position among the men of his day. He was remarkable for his integrity, of a generous and forgiving nature, always hospitable, and until his return from the west, a strictly temperate man, not only abstaining himself from all intoxicating liquors, but influencing his people to do the same. He was ever a friend to the white settlers, and should be held by them in grate- ful remembrance. He had an uncommonly retentive memory, and a perfect knowledge of this western country. He would readily draw on the sand or a bed of ashes, quite a correct map of the whole district from the lakes to the Missouri river, giving general courses of rivers, designating towns and places of notoriety, even though he had never seen them. It ought to be a matter of regret and mortification to us all that our government so wronged this man (who so often periled his own life to save those of the whites), by withholding from him the title to the land granted him under a solemn treaty, the commissioners representing our government having given him their pledge that the land allotted him by the Pottawattamie nation should be guaranteed to him by our government, and be protected in its ownership. He never sold his right to the land, but by force was driven from it, when he re- turned from the west to take possession and found that our government disregarded his rights and sold it."
* This portrait was painted from life by Mr. F. B. Young, of Rome, N. Y. It was presented to the society by Mr. Cyrus F. Miller, of Rock- ford, at which place it was painted in 1840.
608
Shabonee Ejected from His Home.
such reservations, enjoyed them in fee, and only re- quired the consent of, and signature of the president of the United States, in order to pass a good title to par- ties purchasing such reserved lands. Why Shabonee's case should differ from all the rest I could never deter- mine. At any rate, when the survey of the public lands lying north of the old Indian boundary line was ordered by the land department to be made, the deputy sur- veyor had instructions to ignore the previous survey of the reservations, and include the lands thereon contained in the regular section lines of the United States survey, and during the absence of poor old Shabonee and his family in Kansas, these lands were sold by public sale at Dixon. The home of the old chief and his family passed into other hands, strangers to him, and in answer to an appeal made at Washington in Shabonee's behalf, the commissioner of the general land depart- ment, in reply, said that Shabonee had forfeited and lost his title to the lands by removing away from them.
In 1837 Shabonee was notified by the Indian agent, that by the terms of the late treaty, all members of his . band, with the exception of those of his own family, must remove to their new reservations in western Mis- souri. The parting with so many of those with whom he so long had been associated, he could not endure, so he resolved, with all his family, to accompany them to their new homes. In the fall of the year the whole tribe, some 130 in number, reached the reservation in safety; but no sooner had Shabonee and his family reached their lodges in their new homes than new troubles began. The Sauks and Foxes, unfortunately, had their new reservations in close proximity to that of the Pottawattamies and Ottawas. The well known hostility a few years previous of Shabonee to Black Hawk, and the part which the Ottawas took against him and his followers in the war which followed, were still fresh in the mind of the individual Sauk leader, and made enemies of two noted braves who, at an ear- lier period of their career, had for so many years been fighting side by side under the eye of their leader Tecumseh.
609
A Home Given to Shabonee.
The warfare against Shabonee and his family resulted in the murder of his eldest son and a nephew, who were killed soon after their arrival in western Missouri. The old chief, Shabonee, narrowly escaped with his life from the vengeance of his foes. This caused him and his family to return to Illinois in about one year after hav- ing left it. From this time until in 1849, Shabonee and his family, some twenty to twenty-five in number, lived at the grove in peace and quietness with the white neighbors surrounding them. By this time the Potta- wattamies and Ottawas had been again removed to a new reservation granted them in Kansas, and Shabonee again, with his family, left their old homes in Illinois, to join their red brethren in the new one to be occupied. He remained there with his old friends and tribe some three years, then again with his family, retraced their steps back to their old home in the Illinois grove, only to find his village and lands in the possession of stran- gers; the old home he and his family had occupied for more than forty years, was lost to him forever. When he fully realized his forlorn situation, it is said that the old warrior, who probably had scarcely ever before shed a tear, here " wept like a child." But his cup of misery was not yet full. An unfeeling brute, the new owner of the land upon which on his return Shabonee and his family encamped, cursed the poor old man for having cut a few lodge poles on what he thought was his own property, and peremptorily ordered him and his family to leave the grove. This they did, and it is said that Shabonee never visited it again. A few friends, realiz- ing the destitute situation in which the poor old chief and his family were placed, purchased for him a small tract of twenty acres of timber land on the Mazon creek, a short distance south of Morris, in this state. The situation of the land and its surroundings were of a character to suit the Indians. The land was fenced in, a small spot broken up for tillage, and a double log cabin built for them. Here in a semi-state of poverty and wretchedness, the old chief and part of his family lived, most of the time in wigwams or tents, using the house for storage purposes and as a barn.
610
Death of Shabonee.
Shabonee died July 27, 1859, aged about eighty- three years. He was buried in the county of Grundy, and be it said to the shame of the white men, no memorial stone, nothing but a piece of board stuck in the ground, shows the spot where lie the remains of the best and truest Indian friend which the early set- tlers of northern Illinois had in the day of their tribula- tion. He was not much of an orator, yet his words of wisdom always had their weight in council deliberations. Until quite late in life (after his return from the west in 1838), he was remarkably temperate in his habits, scarcely ever tasting of the "fire water," that great enemy of his race. No doubt his long association with Tecumseh, who also was strictly temperate in his habits, had its influence upon the mind and character of Sha- bonee. It is well known that Tecumseh, both by pre- cept and example, ever tried to impress on the minds of his red brethren that most of the unnumbered woes which had been fastened upon their race were in the main attributable to their inordinate love of whisky, and the usual debaucheries following its use. Shabonee, in another trait of his character, showed what influence had been made upon it by the teachings of his model leader Tecumseh, viz. : his humanity always shown and protection from indiscriminate slaughter afforded to the unfortunate captives of war who fell into his hands. This is attested to by Caldwell in the document before us.
Surrounded by white neighbors, and almost in daily contact with civilized man, yet this contact failed to produce good results. On the contrary, that so called civilized man too often tempted the poor old Indian to indulge in a too liberal use of the accursed "fire water," which generally left him in a state of maudlin helpless- ness, pitiable to behold. Let us throw a veil over his few faults, and remember his many virtues.
Black Partridge, whose career as a chief preceded that of Shabonee, was treated like an enemy by the whites, his village being burned by them during an in- vasion of central Illinois in 1812, as told in a foregoing chapter. But a few months before this wanton act of
611
Indian Honor.
hostility, to justify which history fails to find any provo- cation, this chief had used his utmost endeavors to pre- vent his tribe from making war upon the garrison of Fort Dearborn, and failing in this purpose, he gave due warning to Capt. Heald of the irrepressible hostility of the Indians. After the massacre, he co-operated with Billy Caldwell to save the lives of all the prisoners, and procure for them a safe passage to the British lines. To omit a record of the ill-requited services of these chiefs, who represented the native virtues of their race, would be unjust to their memory, besides losing an opportunity to bring to light the benevolent bent of the mind, as exemplified in these children of nature.
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