History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time, Part 19

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

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"CHICAGO, 26th May, ISII. " Sir :-- An Indian from the Peorias passed here yesterday, and has given me information that the Indians about that place have . been about the settlements of Kaskaskia and Vincennes, and have stolen from fifteen to twenty horses. It appears by the informa- tion given me that the principal actors are two brothers of the wife of Main Poc. He is residing at the Penrias, or a little above it, at a place they call l'rairie du Corbeau. By the express going to Fort Wayne, I will communicate this to the agent. I presume. Sir. that you will communicate' this to the Governor of Kaskaskia and to General Harrison. I am, Sir, with respect,

IIble. Servt,

I. Lalime

". GEN. W.M. CLARK, St. Louiss

Ind. Interpreter."

Lalime again wrote on the 7th of July, ISTI, to John Johnson, U. S. Factor at Fort Wayne, giving information of the murder of young Cox and the cap- ture of his sister. The letter reads:

" Sir :- Since my last to you we have news of other depredatious and murders committed about the settlement of Cahokia. The first news we received was that the brothers-in-law of Main Puc went down and stole a number of horses. Second, another party went down, stole some horses, killed a man, and took off a young woman, but they being pursued, were obliged to leave her to save themselves. Third. they have been there, and killed and destroyed a whole family. The cause of it, or in part. is from the Little Chief that came last fall to see Governor Harrison, under the feigned name of Wapewa. He told the Indians that he had told the Governor that the Americans were settling on their lands, and asked him what should be done with them IJe told the Indians that the Governor had told them they were bad people, that they must drive them off. kill their cattle and steal their horses, etc. Being the quarter ending with the 30th of June. I am busy with the factory, and have a number of Indians here paying their visit to Captain Heald. From those circumstances, I hope, Sir. you will excuse my hurry. Please give my respects to Mrs. Johnson. " I am with respect, Sir,

"Your obedient servant.

"J. J .. \1.1ME."

The murders alluded to in the letter of Mr. Lalime. had recently been committed. On the ed of June, 1811. the Indians surrounded the house of Mr. Cox on Shoal Creek, and finding only a young son and a daughter at home, killed the former and carried off the daughter a prisoner-and also stole horses and other property. (1

John Lalime wax of English and Indian forth. He was called an Fax- lishuman. In an angry encounter with Juhn kinzir, hr wa- seraientalfy killed in the spring ur early summer of 1812. tre Hjugraphy af Judin kinric.)

------

HISTORY OF EARLY CHICAGO.

the return of Mr. Cox, he assembled the settlers to the number of some eight or ten, and gave pursuit. The Indians were overtaken about fifty miles north of the present city of Springfield, and the girl was recovered. Mr. Price and Mr. Ellis, two settlers who lived where now is the city of Alton, were murdered the same month of the Cox outrage, while at work in their cornfields. In order to induce the Indians to give up these murder- ers, and restore the stolen property, as well as in the hope of preventing such depredations in the future, at council was appointed by Governor Ninian Edwards, to be held at Peoria on the 16th of August, 1811. Captain Samuel Levering, as representative of the Governor, started from Cahokia for Peoria July 25, 18II. He was accompanied by Captain Herbert Henry Swearin- gen and eight boatmen, who were to act as soldiers in case of emergency. On the 3d of August they arrived at Peoria, where they met Thomas Forsyth, the Indian Agent, who had long resided among the Indians, and thoroughly understood their language. He acted as in- terpreter. Gomo or Masseno, the principal chief of the Pottawatomies at Peoria, sent out his runners to summon the various chiefs on the river and in the surrounding country to the council, which was held on the 16th of August. Among the chiefs present were the Blackbird .known by the French as Letourneau, and by the sur- rounding Indians as Mucketepennese), Waubansee, Little Chief or Main Poc, Black Partridge, Senachwine and others. The message of Governor Edwards was read to them, in which he made a formal and positive demand that the murderers of the Illinois settlers should be handed over to justice, and the stolen horses be re- stored to their owners ; otherwise, "Storms and hurris canes, and the thunder and lightning of heaven cannot be more terrible, than would be the resentment of their Great Father."

The chiefs were divided as to the policy of giving up the murderers, as they averred that they were under the protection of the Prophet, or tribes hostile to the Americans. Gomo, whose village was at the head of Peoria Lake, near that of Black Partridge, thought it was possible to recover and give them up; but Main Poc, the war chief of the tribe, who lived on the Kan- kakee, and who was alluded to as " Little Chief," by Mr. Lalime, in his letter to the " Agent at Fort Wayne," declared " they were with the Shawanoe Prophet and he might as well kill himself as try to get them." In his speech, Main Poc said :

" You astonish me with your talk. Whenever you do wrong there is nothing said or done, but when we do anything, you immediately take us and tie us by the neck with a rope. You see our situation today, we the Pottawatomies, Chippewas and Otta- was. The Shawanne Prophet blames us to-day for not listening to him : you do the same, and we are now on a balance which side to take. If nur young men behave amiss, blame the Shawanne Prophet for it. These young men upbraid us, for they say, 'You give the Americans your hand, and some day they will knock you in the head.' This is the occasion of the late depredations among the Potawatomies. Observe what you said yesterday : you said that you would kill our wives and children for these murders. Them men did not go from among us, but from the Shawanve l'to- phet. From here they went and done the mischief and returned back again. Perhaps you never heard of the Prophet before. So now I tell it to you; since he has been on the Wabash he has told the song men that they was see the day that they will be ill- Treated, and more than that, the Ameriems will be traitors to them. If you wish to make war it is adbegether of ourselves. You May. what will become of our women and children in case of war ? on the other hand, what will become of your women and children ? It is better to avoid war. There is one horse in my village. There were three-two thed. I will take that horse to Chicago as it is nearer my lown. The gre der put of the horses stolen, were taken by the Indians who stole them, to Detron, wha intend never to return. Last summer the Agent at Chicago told them not to par-

chase any stolen borses, but this summer the commanding officer has demanded the horses, and I intend taking that one and deliv- ering it to him at Chicago."

Gomo also made a speech which, though friendly, showed the increasing dissatisfaction of the Indians with the encroachments of the whites, and particularly with their building forts, from which they inferred that the Americans intended to make war upon them and dispossess them of their country. At the final adjourn- ment of the council two horses only were delivered up,- the murderers were not found, and the council ended with still more bitter feelings on both sides.

In the fall succeeding this council on the Illinois River, Harrison took up his march for the Wabash. He had previously sent an agent to the village of the Prophet on the Tippecanoe River, to make one more effort to conciliate Tecumseh, who was there, but the interview ended in making the haughty warrior more de- termined than before, and on its termination he inime- diately set out for the South to secure the alliance of the Chickasaws, Creeks and Choctaws in the coming conflict which he anticipated.

During his absence. General Harrison marched with a small army to the Wabash, ascended that river to Tippecanoe, or Prophetstown, and encamped near. He was attacked in November, by the Prophet and his fol- lowers, who were completely routed, and their village broken up and destroyed. When Tecumseh returned from the South, he joined the British at Maiden, and thenceforth used all his influence and power to secure the alliance of the Illinois tribes for his new friends, sending messengers with bribes to bny their friendship if not their active co-operation.

The growing animosity of the Indians toward the Americaos, and their friendliness toward the British, in- cluced Governor Edwards to call another council in the spring of 1812. This was held at Cahokia, and was at- tended by all the prominent chiefs of the Pottawatomies, Kickapoos, Chippewas and Ottawas on the Illinois. The Indians were disappointed at the failure of the Prophet to fulfill his promises, and his defeat at Tippe- canoe had lessened their faith in his pretensions. Their professions of loyalty to the American cause were pro- fuse. Chiefs, who participated in the massacre at Chi- cago, a few months later, by their spokesman, Gomo, asserted, in the strongest terms, their determination never to join the British. They told Captain Hebert, the commissioner sent by the Governor, of the attempts of the English to induce the warriors of Main Poe's band to go to war against the Americans, and their resolu- tion to remain in peace : of their desire to have a U. S. Factor at Peoria, only that " on account of the Winne- bagoes, who are now raging about. he might be killed, and they should be blamed ; " and declared that " what- ever the English may do," the Americans might " rest assured that the four nations here, will never join them." At the time of this council, a description of the Illinois River, and the tribes residing on it and its branches, was prepared for Governor Edwards, from which the following extract, giving the tribes at and above Peuria Lake. is taken :

" The Pottawatomies were divided at that time (May, 1812). into several bands on the Killingis Kiver ; that of time, consisting of about one hundred and fifty men, at the north end of l'eoria Lake : Pepper's band at Sand Kiver (River au Sable) about two leagues below the Quin-qui-quee (Kankakee), consisting of about two hundred men, and of different nations, Pottawatomies, Chippe- was and Oftawas, Letournem (the Blackbird)," and Mittitasse are of thus band. Main Poe's band lies seven leagues up the Quin- mi-que, consisting of alomt fifty men. The other Puttawadlomics

* The Blu klund, it will be remirado red, was the thief In whont the troops reinvning after the masswe're at Chicago, in the sims summer, werentered.

MODERN CHICAGO AND ITS SETTLEMENT.

belong to the River St. Joseph, in which river there are three or four villages. In the Fox River, which empties itself into the Illinois Kiver at the Charboniere (or Coalpit) about thirty-five leagues above l'eoria, is another band of Pottawatomies, Chippewas and Ottawas, mixed together. Wabeesanse (Waabunsee) is their leader. This is a small band, about thirty. The Kee-kaa-poos are divided in three bands : Famawatam's band, consisting of about one hun- dred men, exclusive of those at the Prophet's. He has left the old village, and is now making bis village on Peoria Lake. The Little Deer has also abandoned their great village, and is now forming his village opposite Gomo's (on Peoria Lake). His band may con- sist of about seventy men, exclusive of those with the Prophet. There is, at least, fifty of this band with the Prophet, and as many of the l'ottawatomies. At Little Makina (helow l'eoria Lake), the south side of the Illinois, is a band headed by no particular chief. but led generally by warriors. LeBouw, or Sulky, is generally

Chicago situated, with regard to the surrounding In- dians, when Captain Heald received, on the 7th of Attgust, the order to evacuate Fort Dearborn.

FORT DEARBORN. .

In the month of .August, 1795, General .Anthony Wayne, called by the Indians " The Tempest," ter- minated the war that had raged in the Northwest for a number of years, by a treaty of peace signed at Green- ville, Ohio. By this treaty, the Indians ceded to the United States a number of tracts of lands, and among others "one piece of land, six miles square, at the

OLD FORT DEARBORN, ERECTED IN 1803.

looked upon as the main chief. At the camping place of Chicago. three leagues from the Lake Michigan, or Chicago Fort, is a vil- lage of Pottawatomies, Chippewas and Ottawas, of about thirty men. Co-wa-bee-mai is their chief. [On the rude map, accom- panying this description, Co-wa-bee-mai's village is placed at the point marked 'Portage, three leagues from the Chicago Fort.' From the junction of the Kankakee and Desplaines, is written ' From here (the forks), to the lake twenty leagues, and is called Chicago.'] Leaving Chicago to go to Makina, on the south side of (Lake) Michigan, is a river called the ' Little Calumick.' about five leagues from Chicago. Here is a village consisting of about mme hundred men. Okl Campignan is their chief. He has a burnt hand and nose broken, but it was reported this spring that he was killed in going to Niagara from Detroit. Mau-non-gai, " who was his second, probably now will be their chief. At the forks on the @Juin-qui-quee the Illinois River Ioses its name, and is called from here Chicago River to the lake, a distance of about twenty leagues. On the north (west) side of lake Michigan, leaving Chicago Fort, and thirty leagues from Chicago is River Mill-waa-kee. There are, generally, several . villages of Potta- walomies here."

The village of Black Partridge Muck-otey-pokee was on the south side of the Illinois River, opposite the head of Peoria Lake. Topenebe and Winnemeg were on the St. Joseph River. Thus were the settlers at

* Called Nam-non-gre in " Wanban," pp. 102 104.

mouth of the Chicago River, emptying into the south- west end of Lake Michigan, where a fort formerly stood." What this fort was or by whom erected, is now chiefly matter of conjecture. In 1718, James Logan, an agent of Governor Keith, of Pennsylvania, was sent to explore some of the routes to the Missis- sippi. Among others, he reports as to the route by - way of the River Chicagon, as follows :

" From Lake Huron they pass by the Strait of Michilimakina four leagues, being two in breadth, and of a great depth, to the Lake Illinoise : thence one hundred and fifty leagues to Fort Miamis, situated at the mouth of the River Chicagou. This fort is not regularly garrisoned."

Abont this time. or shortly after, the fort was proba- bly entirely abandoned. At all events, at the time of the treaty of Greenville, the oldest Indians then living had no recollection of a fort ever having been at that place .*

Rumors that a garrison would be stationed at ('hi- cago were in circulation as early as 1798, but it was not until 1803 that the fort was established. In July, 1803,

* American State Paper-, vol. 5, p. 562.

HISTORY OF EARLY CHICAGO.

a company of United States soldiers, under the con- mand of Captain John Whistler, arrived at the Chicago River, and during that summer and autumn built what has since been known as the first Fort Dearborn, named after General Henry Dearborn, at that time Secretary of War.

Nearly all the histories which give any account of Fort Dearborn say that it was established in the year (So4, but in volume 12, p. 175, American State Papers, there appears the following return :

"A return of the Army of the United States for the year IS03 designating every post and point of occupancy. Dated December 31, 1503.

Fort Dearborn Ind. Ter.

I Captain.

I I Second Lieutenant. Ensign.

Sergeants. Corporals.

3 4 Musicians. 54 Privates. 1 Surgeon's male."

This report conclusively shows that the fort was named Dearborn from the beginning, and that it was garrisoned in 1803.

The fort stood on the south side of the Chicago River, at the bend where the river turned to enter the lake. It had two block-houses, one on the southeast corner, the other at the northwest. On the north side a subterranean passage, leading from the parade ground to the river, designed as a place of escape in an emer- geney, or for supplying the garrison with water in time of a siege. The whole was enclosed by a strong pali- sade of wooden pickets. At the west of the fort and fronting north on the river was a two-story log building. covered with spht oak siding, which was the United States ageney-house. On the shores of the river, he- tween the fort and the agency, were the root-houses or cellars of the garrison. The ground on the south side was enclosed and cultivated as a garden. Three pieces of light artillery comprised the armament of the fort.

Captain John Whistler, the builder and first com- mandant of Fort Dearborn, was a native of Ireland. He was a British soldier in Burgoyne's army, and was taken prisoner at the time of the surrender of that army at Saratoga. After the war he married and settled in Hagerstown, Md .. where his son William was born. He enlisted in the American Army and took part in the Northwestern Indian war. He served under St. Clair, and afterwards under General Wayne. He was speedily promoted, rising through the lower grades to a lieuten- antey in 1792, and became captain July 1, 1797. In iSt4 he was a senior captain and brevet-major, having command at Fort Wayne. He rebuilt the fort in 1815. and removed to St. Charles, Mo., in 1817. In 1818 he was military storekeeper at St. Louis, and died in 1827 at Bellefontaine, Mo. He was a brave and efficient offi- rer, and became the progenitor of a line of brave and efficient soldiers. His son, William Whistler, will be noticed later as one of the commandants of the fort. Another son, George W. Whistler, graduated at West Point in ts14, and served in the army until 1833. when he resigned. He became a distinguished engineer, and m 1842 was appointed by the Russian Government to superintend the construction of railroads in Russia. General J. N. G. Whistler, a son of William Whistler, is now serving in the army.

Life at the fort was dull enough during the early years, and little occurred to disturb the monotony of garrison life. An occasional band to carry away the fnrs accumulated by the traders ; hunting and fishing ;

the assembling of the Indians to receive their payments; the trading in peltries ; the occasional birth of a baby --- these were the events that interested the few people gathered together on this far Western border. In 1810 Captain Nathan Heall succeeded Captain Whistler as commandant of the garrison. He was a native of New Hampshire, where he was born in 1775. He entered the army when young, and was lieutenant in 1799 and cap- tain in 1807. He married Rebekah Wells, a daughter of Captain Samuel Wells, a noted Indian fighter of Ken- tucky, and niece of William Wells, to be noticed here- after.

'T'he Pottawatomies were the Indians of the country. Signs of discontent among the Indians throughout the Northwest became plainly visible. The great chiefs saw with alarm the continual encroachments of the whites and their demands for more lands, which could only he satisfied by the cession of all the hunting-grounds of the Indians. As early as 1806, Tecumseh and his brother, the Prophet, had sought, and with considerable success, to unite all the Indians in one great confederacy to withstand the whites. It is probably true that l'ecum- seh intended at the first to withstand the whites peace- ably. But he was soon dragged into war.

The Pottawatomies did not join with him at first. Many of their leading chiefs, through the influence of John Kinzie and the officers at Fort Dearborn, were friendly with the Americans and wished to remain so. Among these were Black Partridge, Winnemeg, Tope- nebe, and others. In May, 1810, the Pottawatomies, Chippewas, and Ottawas held a council at St. Joseph. to consult as to joining the confederacy, but through the influence of Winnemeg, the Pottawatomies did not join. The younger warriors among them, however, did not sympathize with the oldler heads, and felt the ap- peals to their patriotism maile by Tecumseh and the Prophet. All the Indians, too. were largely under Brit- ish influence, and went every year to Maklen, Canada, to receive British presents. While Tecumseh was in the South in 1811, seeking to arouse the Choctaws, Chero- kees, Creeks, and other southern tribes to join with him, the Prophet precipitated hostilities by attacking Gen- eral Harrison's troops at Tippecanoe. The Indians were defeated, and had it not been for British influence, the confederacy would have been dissolved. Mean- time, more or less alarm was felt among the settlers around Fort Dearborn, and reports of murders of the whites by hostile Indians became frequent.

A settler, named Charles Lee, had come to Fort Dearborn shortly after it had been built, with his family. He took up a large farm on the South Branch of the Chicago River, about four miles from its mouth, at a point about where Bridgeport now stands. The farm- house was on the west side of the river. The farm was known as " Lee's place" and was afterwards called " Hardscrabble." Lee did not reside at the farm, but had a dwelling for himself and family on the lake shore. very near the fort. The farm was occupied by a man named Liberty White, who with three employés ( two men and a boy , managed the place. On the afternoon of the 6th of April, 1812, a party of eleven Winneba- goes came to the farm house and entering, seated then- selves without ceremony. One of the employés, a Cana- dian Frenchman, named Debou, became suspicious of them and remarked to the others. "I do not like the appearance of these Indians, they are none of our folks. They are not Pottawatomies." One of the others, a discharged soldier, said to the boy, who was a son of Mr. Lee, " We had better get away if we can. Say nothing, but do as you see me do." It was nearly

Grundens Hubbard

FORT DEARBORN.

sunset, and the soldier and the boy started towards the canoes, telling the Indians they were going to feed the cattle on the other side of the river, and that they would then return for supper. Gaining the other side of the river in safety, they made some show of collecting the cattle, but continued to get into the woods close at hand, and then started for the fort. On their way they notified the family of Burns, whose home was on the north side, a short distance above the fort, and then made their way to the fort. They had scarcely got out of sight of the farm-house ere the Indians shot and scalped the two men who had remained behind. The family of Burns was now considered to be in great danger, and a party of soldiers under Ensign Ronan, was sent to bring them to the fort. This was successfully done, and that

I. T. Helm and Ensign George Ronau. Twelve militia- men were also under his orders. Of the regulars, a large number were on the sick list. Altogether there were not probably forty able-bodied fighting men. With them were about a dozen women and twenty children. He received his orders on the 9th. But he trusted to the friendly reputation of the Pottawatomies. through whose country he must pass, and waited for six days, until four or five hundred warriors were assembled at the fort, before he moved. He was then at their mercy. The Pottawatomie chief who had brought General Hull's order was Winnemeg, a friendly Indian, who well knew the feelings of the Indians. He at first ad- vised that the fort be held, until reinforcements should arrive. To this Captain Heald would not agree. Win-

CHICAGO IN 1812.

ce's Place

92222229+

Prairie

S.Branch.

N.Bram

Ind. En.c.

Burn

Agency

House

Ind Trait

1812

MICHIGAN.

seni

Ling

LAKE

Month

MAP OF CHICAGO IN 1812.

night all the settlers around the fort were housed with- in its walls. The Indians committed no further attacks that time, but made off, satisfied with this exploit, with the two scalps obtained. The agency-house was now turned into a sort of a fortification for the settlers, and every care was taken to protect the settlement and to provide against surprise. Various attempts were made by the Indians during the next two months, but so alert were the whites that no damage was done, except the loss of a few cattle and sheep. So the summer passed. On the 18th of June, 1812, the United States declared war against England, and on the 16th of July, Fort Mackinac surrendered to the British. On the 9th of August following, an Indian runner from General Hull, at Detroit, brought news of the war and the fall of Mackinac, to Captain Heald, with orders to evacuate Fort Dearborn and proceed with his command to Detroit, by land, leaving it to the discretion of the commandant to dispose of the public property as he thought proper. Within the next three days neigh- boring Indians came in from all quarters to receive the goods which they understood were to be given them. It might seem as if no other course was open to Captain lleald but to obey the orders of General Hull. His force was not as strong as that at Fort Mackinac. It con- sisted of fifty-four privates, and two officers, Lieutenant

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History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time, Part 19

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