History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time, Part 18

Author: Andreas, Alfred Theodore
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 1340

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* ** History of Milwaukee."

1 Name wi given In Arthor M. Kinzie, her me pheu .

& Mrs. Jagh l'orthis, who was living at the time in the family of An- tesine harlunetic.

1 --

HISTORY OF EARLY CHICAGO.

of the case were known, and it was safe for him to return. Mr. Lalime had warm friends at the fort, and until it was known that the killing was accidental and the struggle, on Mr. Kinzie's part, in self-defense, great anger was excited. and many threats were made against him. The verdict rendered by the officers at the fort, on the examination of the circumstances, was " justifi- able homicide," and Mr. Kinzie returned to Chicago as soon as his wound was healed.

Save this affair, time passed peacefully away for eight years. Then came the fright of April, 1812. when the dwellers at " Lee's Place " were murdered by the Indians, followed, on August 15, by the massacre of the garrison of Fort Dearborn .*

Mr. Kinzie removed his family to the fort for pro- tection, at the time of the Indian outrage of April 7, and they were yet living there when it was evacuated on the 15th of August. Having determined to accompany the troops himself, believing he could afford them some protection, he entrusted his family-now consisting of wife and four children (John H., nine years of age. and Ellen, Maria and Robert, younger) to the care of his clerk, John Baptiste Chandonnait, and two friendly In- dians upon whose fidelity he could rely, who were to convey them in a boat to his former home at Bertrand on the St. Joseph River, Mr. Kinzie left the fort with the garrison. The boat, leaving a little later, had been taken only to the mouth of the river, where now is the foot of Madison Street, when a message was received . from Mr. Kinzie. ordering it to proceed no further. The family accordingly remained at that point under the pro- tection of the friendly Indians, until, after the loss of about two-thirds the number of the garrison, the mas- sacre was stayed by the surrender of the survivors, with the stipulation that their lives should be spared, and they should be delivered at some British post. It being then considered safer for the Kinzie family to return, they were taken to their home, where they remained three days ; saved from the fury of the Indians who had come from a distance to participate in the massacre, and to whom the family were unknown, by the strong personal friendship and tireless vigilance of the neighboring chiefs, Black Partridge, Waubansee and Caldwell the Sauganash, who proved in this emergency that an In- dian can be a faithful friend. On the ISth of August, the whole family, including Mrs. Helm,t the daughter- in-law of Mr. Kinzie, were safely conducted by boat to St. Joseph River, and remained at Bertrand until the following November, under the protection of the Chief Topenebe brother of the wife of William Burnett, the Chicago trader . All except Mr. Kinzie who followed in December were then taken to Detroit, and delivered to Colonel McGee, the British Indian agent, as prisoners of war. On Mr. Kinzie's arrival he was paroled by General Proctor, and the family took possession of the old family residence. After a short time the British commander became suspicious that Mr. Kinzie was in correspondence with General Harrison, and ordered his arrest. After two fruitless attempts, both of which were thwarted by the vigilance and energy of the Indian friends of Shaw nee-aw-kee. General Proctor succeeded in procuring his arrest, and sent him to Fort Malden, at the mouth of the Detroit River, where he was impris- oned. He remained in confinement until the result of the battle of lake Eric. September to, 1813, showed General Proctor that some safer place must be found for * * history , Fart Dearborn, following this.

+ Mr. Marcanet ( Mekiltipo Holma was the daughter of Mrs. John kinzie.

war .. and Mrs Helm was ressing at the last. They were loath wounded-

American prisoners. Mr. Kinzie was then taken to Quebec to be sent thence to England. The vessel upon which he was placed, when a few days out, was chased by an American frigate and driven to Halifax, and. on a second attempt to make the passage, sprung a-leak, and was obliged to return to port. Mr. Kinzie was once more confined in Quebec, but soon released and allowed to return to his family in Detroit, then the headquarters of General Harrison.

While residing in Detroit, Mr. Kinzie was a witness to the treaty made with the Indians at Spring Wells, near that post, on September 8, 1815. He is on record, October, 1815, as a partner of Thomas Forsyth. In 1816, John and Eleanor Kinzie conveyed several pieces of land, one of which, described as " where I now live, and have built and made improvements," is dated June 24, 1816. In the same year-probably in the autumn- Mr. Kinzie returned with his family to Chicago, and the " Kinzie House " again became his home. He engaged in trade with the Indians, and also resumed his occupa- tion of silversmith. After the reorganization of the American For Company, in 1817, although not appointed agent of the company, he was on intimate and confi- dential terms with the agents at Mackinac, and con- tinned to do a large business as an independent trader .* Writing to Mr. Kinzie, from Mackinac, June 22, 1817, one week after his arrival there, as agent of the Ameri- can Fur Company, Ramsey Crooks says, " Iam happy to learn your success in the late campaign, and sincerely hope it may continue. 1 look for a visit from you soon, but should that be inconvenient yet, for some time, any commands you may in the interim favor us with shall be duly attended to." In a letter written to Governor Cass, a day later, he speaks of the success of Mr. Kinzie in his ventures during the past year. By letters pub- lished elsewhere in this volume, it will be seen that Mr. Kinzie was actively engaged in the fur trade, after his return to Chicago, in 1816. In September, 1818. he signed as a witness, with title of sub-agent, the treaty of St. Mary's, Ohio. In the summer.of 1818, he sent his son John to Mackinac, to be indentured to the American Fur Company. Mr. Crooks writes to Mr. Kinzie, August 15, 1818, that John reached the place "in good health, which has continued ever since." It would seem that he sent his son in company with Mr. Chan- donnait,t his former clerk, as Mr. Crooks alludes to the fact of buying skins brought by him-the price of which does not meet his 'Kinzie's " expectations."

On the 5th of June, 1821, Mr. Kinzie was recom- mended as Justice of the Peace for Pike County-ap- parently the first for that district, but it does not appear that he was commissioned

In all the letters written by Mr. Crooks to Mr. Kinzie he speaks in terms of commendation of John, and the following letter of Mr. Kinzie-the only one from his pen now accessible, shows his appreciation of the value of meriting the confidence of the agents of the Company, and enables the reader to form a just estimate of the man. The letter is to his son, at Mack- inac, and is dated August 19, 1821:

"Dutr Son :- I received your letter by the schooner. Nothing gives me more satisfaction than to hear from you and of you. It ijoe's give Both myself and your mother a pleasure to hear how your soul. duct is talked of by every one that hope you every advantage. Kather let this stimulate you to continue the worthy man, for a good name is better than wealth, and we cannot be ton circumspect in our line of conduct. Mr. Crooks speaks highly of you, and try lo contime the favorite of such worthy men as Mr. Crooks, Mr. Stewart and the other gentlemen of the concern. Your motherand

MODERN CHICAGO AND ITS SETTLEMENT.

all of the family are well, and send their love to you. James is here, and I am pleased that his returns are such as to satisfy the lirm.

" I have been reduced in wages, owing to the economy of the Government .. My interpreter's salary is no more, and I have but $roo to subsist on. It does work me hard sometimes to provide for your sisters and brothers on this, and maintain my family in a decent manner. I will have to take new measures. I hate to change houses, but I have been requested to wait Conant's arrival. We are all mighty busy, as the treaty commences to-morrow, and

The U. S. Indian Agency was established at Chi- cago in 1804, and re-established in 1816, when Mr. Kin- zie was appointed sub-agent. under Charles Jouett. He served in the same capacity under Dr. Alexander Wolcott, and also as Indian interpreter for a short time. December 2, 1833, he was recommended as a Justice of the l'eace for Fulton County, and July 28, 1825. was appointed Justice of the Peace for Peoria County. After the death

THE OLD KINZIE MANSION AS IT APPEARED IN 1832.

we have hordes of Indians around us already. My best respects to Mr. Crooks and Stewart, and all the gentlemen of your house. "Adieu. I am your loving Father."

Mr. Kinzie's name appears as sub-agent and witness to the treaty of Chicago, August 29, 1821, which was signed in the immediate neighborhood of his residence -probably between his house and the agency-house, a little west. The accepted spelling is Kinzie, not as above.

Mr. Kinzie, appealed to by Governor Cass, spoke to the Indians, who were discontented with the annuities granted them, in the following words : " You must recollect that when I first spoke to you about the an- nuity at St. Mary's, I told you I could offer only two thousand dollars. You said it was too little. I took this answer to your father, who said that the annuity was small, because you had sold but a small tract of country ; but he authorized me to give a little more, and when I returned, I offered you five hundred dol- lars more, which you agreed to, and upon this the treaty was signed. Mr. Bertrand was also present, and can speak to this point."

of John Crafts, in the latter part of 1825, Mr. Kinzie was appointed agent of the American Fur Company. and as early as the fall of 1827, with his family, he took his final leave of the old house as a home. One of his daughters, the wife of Dr. Wolcott, lived in a building within the walls of Fort Dearborn, then without a garri- son. The residence of Colonel Beaubien was close be- side the south wall of the fort, and there Mr. Kinzie was living at the time of his death. On Monday, Jan- . nary 6, 1828, while visiting his daughter, Mrs. Wolcott, he was suddenly stricken with apoplexy-his second attack -and died after a very brief struggle. The funeral services were conducted within the fort, and all that was mortal of the pioneer of Chicago, was buried on the shore of Lake Michigan near by. Subsequently his remains were removed to the north side of the river. and interred just west of the present site of the water works. They were again removed to the cemetery, for- merly on that portion of Lincoln Park near North Ave- nue and Clark Street, and once more to a final resting place at Graceland.

The esteem in which Mr. Kinzie was held by the Indians, is shown by the treaty made with the Potta- watomies, September 20, 1828, the year of his death, by one provision of which they give "to Eleanor Kinzic and her four children by the late John Kinzic. 83.500.00. in consideration of the attachment of the Indians to her

HISTORY OF EARLY .CHICAGO.

deceased husband, who was long an Indian trader; and who lost a large sum in the trade, by the credits given them, and also by the destruction of his property. The money is in lieu of a tract of land, which the Indians gave the late John Kinzie long since, and upon which he lived." The Kinzie house was no gloomy home. Up to the very time of their enforced removal, the children " danced to the sound of their father's violin," and the long hours of frontier life were made merry with sport and play. Later, the primitive court of Justice Kinzie THE KINZIE HOUSE .- For several years of its early existence, Chicago was simply Fort Dearborn, and the trading establishment and house of John Kinzie. "Only this, and nothing more." save, perhaps, a few huts inhab- ited by half-breeds, and the wigwams of the Pottawato- mies. must have been held in its " spare room," if spare room there was. In 1829, after the old master who lived there so long, had gone to his rest, it was used for a time as a store, by Anson H. Taylor, and later, in March, 1831, was the residence* and probably the office of Mr. Bailey, the first Postmaster of Chicago. Its best days were past when the family of Mr. Kinzie left it, and after 1831 and 1832, when Mark Noble occupied it with his family, there is no record of its being inhabited. Its decaying logs were used by the Indians and emi- grants for fuel, and the drifting sand of Lake Michigan was fast piled over its remains. No one knows when it finally disappeared, but with the growth of the new a "long, low building with a piazza extending along its . town, this relic of the early day of Chicago passed from sight to be numbered among the things that were.

The cabin of LeMai was gradually enlarged and improved by Mr. Kinzie, until what was once a mere habitation became a comfortable home for his own family, and a hospitable shelter for every stranger that found its doors. The old home as remembered by John H. Kinzie, and described by his wife in " Waubun, " was front, a range of four or five rooms. A broad green space was enclosed between it and the river, and shaded by a row of Lombardy poplars. Two immense cotton- wood trees stood in the rear of the building. A fine, well-cultivated garden extended to the north of the dwelling, and surrounding it were various buildings ap- pertaining to the establishment - dairy. bake-house, lodging-house for the Frenchmen, and stables."

A vast range of sand - bills, covered with stunted cedars, pines, and dwarf-willow trees, intervened between the house and the lake, which was, at this time, not more than thirty rods distant. Between the house and Fort Dearborn was kept up a foot ferry-a little boat swing- ing in the river, for the use of any passenger. Directly in front of its door the river bent to the south, around the fort, and could be seen at the point where it emptied into the lake. A beautiful picture of this early Chicago home, as described by Jobn H. Kinzie, long years after it ceased to exist, is drawn in the old Chicago Magazine of 1857. The editor* says, speaking of Mr. Kinzie :

"Every feature of the oldl home is distinct in his recollection. The Lombardy poplars, which perished long ago, and the cotton- woods which once were bot saplings planted by his own hand, and which have stood until the more recent days as mementoes of the past; the rough-hewn logs which formed the wall of his home, the garden and the shrubbery, the fence paling that sorrounded it, and the green lawn at the front of the house, gently descending to the water of the river; the tiny boat floating idly at the foot of the walk; and, as the crowning mark of the picture, standing upon the opposite shore, upon the highest part of the elevation, the ohl fort, the whitewashed walls of the block-houses, the barracks and the palisades, glistening in the bright sun, while a gentle slope of green grass extended from the enclosure to the very water's edge. It was a beautiful sight. Over all this rose the few pulsations of bu- man progress, as seen in an occasional stray Indian, with his canve or pony or pack of furs; a French Canadian loitering here and there; a sollier pacing his rounds about the fort, or idly strolling over the prairies, or hunting in the woods."

In this house, the first white child of Chicago - Ellen Marion Kinzie- was born in December, 1804. The little maiden played around her home, until danger same too near, escaped it all, and returned with her par- ents to Chicago and her birthplace, to live in the old home, until on the zoth of July, 1823, she was married under its roof to Dr. Alexander Wolcott,t then Indian Agent, became the first Chicago bride, and the Kinzie house the scene of the first Chicago wedding. Maria 1. Kinzie, afterward the wife of General David Hunter, was born here in 18oz, and Robert Allen, youngest son of John and Eleanor, ou February 8, 18to.

* The late Zeluna Fastiman.

+ Dr. Wufeest dual .dl t bo age m is gx soml in ia go his widow married in Dc- truit, Mich., Hon. Gov. C. Hates Mrs. Hates died m Detron, August 1, 1800.

In 1808 Tecumseh and his brother Lanlewasikan ( Open Door ), who was related on the paternal side to the Kickapoos, removed from the old home of the Shaw- nees in Ohio to a tract of land on the Wabash River given them by the Pottawatomies and Kickapoos. Tecumseh had long objected to the grants of lands made by the Indians to the whites, and, with his brother, now engaged in a systematic effort to unite the North- western tribes in a confederacy, by which each tribe should be pledged to make treaties or cede lands only with the consent of the league. During the year : Son. Tecumseh and the Prophet were actively engaged in this work, and they were exasperated almost to madness, when by the treaty made at Fort Wayne in September of that year. certain Western tribes, including the Pot- tawatomies and Kickapoos, ceded to the United States. through its commissioner. General Harrison, lands on the Wabash and White rivers, which Tecumseh claimed belonged to the Shawnees, of whom he was the princi- pal chief. Tecumseh was no party to the treaty, and maintained that the cession of land was illegal and un- just, and that he was in no wise bound by its terms. . 1 comneil was appointed and held at Vincennes. August 12, ISIo, to settle the difficulty if possible. It ended in a bitter and angry dispute between General Harrison and Tecumseh. The former maintained the legality of the treaty of 1809, and his determination to hold and defend the ceded lands ; the latter, in an impassioned and fiery speech, denounced the whites and their aggres- sions, and declared that by the terms of the great In- dian league all lands were held in common-that all the tribes constituted one nation, and that without the consent of all no treaty of purchase and cession was valid. He left the council more than ever determined to unite the Indians against the American intruders : a purpose more readily accomplished by reason of ill feel- ing existing between Great Britain and the United -States, now steadily strengthening through the intrigues of English agents and traders in the Northwest. Soon after the council at Vincennes, Tecumseh and the Pro- phet visited the various Pottawatomie bands on the Illi- nois and its waters, including those of Shawhoney, Billy Caldwell, Senachwinc. Gomo. Main Por, Black l'artridge, Letourneau or the Blackbird, and others, to induce them to join the confederacy and pledge them- selves to sell no more land to the Americans. He re- ceived from the most of them little encouragement, but the visit evidently had its effect, as attacks on the white settlers of Illinois soon followed.

+ Scc " Waubtmn."

MODERN CHICAGO AND IT'S SETTLEMENT.

In July, ISI0, the Pottawatomies of the Illinois made a raid upon a settlement in Missouri, opposite the mouth of the Gasconade, stealing property and · murdering several settlers, among whom was Captain Cole. The Governor of Missouri General William ('lark ) made it requisition upon Governor Ninian Ed- wards of Illinois, for the murderers. They had taken refuge with Main Poc,* the war chief of the tribe, then residing near Peoria Lake, but whose village was on the Kankakee, just above the forks. They were never re- covered. The following letter from General Harrison in relation to this affair, which has been deposited, with other papers belonging to Governor Edwards, with the Chicago Historical Society, is of interest to Chicago, as showing the dangerous proximity of hostile Indians, at the time the inhabitants believed themselves secure in the friendship of the neighboring Pottawatomies, at least. The letter is addressed to " General Wilham Clark, Indian Agent, St. Louis : "

" VINCENNES, Igth June, ISII.

"Dear Sir :- I have been exerting myself to find out where the Pottawatomies who murdered Captain Cole and his party were to be found and the best meansnf apprehending them, for some months past. I will now give you the result of my inquiries on the sub- ject. The chiefs of the Pottawatomies all acknowledge that the murderers belong to their tribe. Several of the principal ones were at Fort Wayne carly this spring, and informed Captain Wells that they had put themselves under the protection of Main Poc, the great war chief nf the tribe, who resides upon the Illinois River. One of these, however, spent the last winter with the I'mophet. I sent Wellst up to the town of the latter in April last, to ascertain whether they were there and what would be the most likely means of getting hold of them, and four others of the same tribe, who had in the beginning of that month stolen fourteen horses from this neighborhood. In his report Wells informed me that the murderers were not there ; that they lived on the Illinois River and were only occasionally on the Wabash. I would imme- diately have communicated this information to you, but as I still had a man at the Prophet's village, I waited his return to know whether he would bring any further intelligence. A few days agu he arrived, and with him a young Indian, who formerly lived with ine, and who is the son-in-law of Onoxa or Five Medals, a princi- pal Pottawatomie chief. Onoxa desired the young man to inform me that there was no probability of the murderers being delivered up, and that there was no way of getting them but by sending a party of men and taking them wherever they would be found. Brouilette, the young man above mentioned, says that a Pottawa- Inmie was at the Prophet's town when he left it, with one of the horses taken from Cole, but he does not know whether he was one uf the party that took him. I have on the 23d April written in the Secretary of War for particular instruction on the subject of them fellows, but have not yet received an answer. I think, however. that a formal demand had better be made of Main Poc by (inv- ernor Edwards, as they are certainly within his jurisdiction, and I will cause the same thing to be done of the chiefs who attend at l'ost Wayne to receive their annuity. There is not, however, the smallest probability of their being surrendered. I have no doubt of the good disposition of Tupennibe, # the principal chief of the tribe, Onoxa and many others, but the tribe is so large and scattered that they have no control over the distant . parts, indeed very little over the young men that are about them. I am therefore certain that there is no nther mode of bringing the culprits to justice but by seizing them nurselves. All the information that I receive from the Indian country confirmis the rooted enmity of the Prophet to the U. S. and his determination to commence hostilities as soon as he thinks himself sufficiently strong. From the uncommon insolence which he and his party have lately manifested, I am inclined to believe that a crisis is fast approaching. \ Frenchman descending the Wabash about ten days ago was robbed of his pirogite and some small quantity of gouds : but the most during piece of insolence that they have yet ventured upon is that of seiz- ing the salt destined for the tribes above them. The pirogue which I sent up with it returned last evening and the man who had charge

* T'his chief, who gave the whites a great deal id trouble. is mentioned hy The daughter of Charles Juuett, the first Indian Agent at Chicago, as visning the place after the fort was rebuilt in 1810. She says her father had an earum- ter with him, in which the savage brandsheet los scalping-knife with forums menaces betekening bloody vidleure : but. contronting him steruly, Mr. Jonelt ondered him to give up the knife, and he finally complird.

+ Captain William Wells, massirred at Chicago, August, 1815.

: Tapenebe, chief of the St. Joseph bami, spoken if in " Wanbun," J- " Toprenerber." He proved a faithful friend to the whites udl Chicago. In all tlw trraties spelird Topenric.

of her reports that he stopped at the Prophet's village and offered him three barrels of salt intended for him, and that he was ordered to stop until a council was held, and the whole was then taken from him. If our government will submit to this insolence, it will be the means of making all the tribes treat us with contempt.

"I do not recollect anything of the claim of Briam which you . mention in your last. I may perhaps have received the papers and sent them to Fort Wayne but I have forgotten it. I will thank you to state the particulars.

"I am yours sincerely,

"W.M. IL. HARRISON."

Prior to the time the above letter was written. Matthew .Irwin, U. S. Factor at Chicago, had given notice to the Secretary of War of the machinations of the Prophet to incite the Indians on the Illinois to hos- tilities against the whites. The following letter was written by John Lalime*, Indian interpreterat Fort Dear- horn, to General William Clark, at St. Louis, giving in- formation of the thefts to which General Harrison alludes in his communication to General Clark.

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History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time, Part 18

Author: Andreas, Alfred Theodore Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas Number of Pages: 1340

Author: Andreas, Alfred Theodore
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 1340