History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time, Part 20

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

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nemeg's next advice was instantaneous departure, so that before the Indians could assemble or agree upon definite action, and while they would be taking posses- sion of the goods, the force might make its escape. Mr. Kinzie, who had long known the Indians, approved of the same course. The younger officers were in favor of holding the fort-but Captain Heald resolved to pur- sue his own way. This was to assemble the Indians, divide the property among them, and get from them a . friendly escort to Fort Wayne. On the 12th a confer- ence was held with the Indians by Captain Heald, and they agreed to his proposals. They would take the property, and furnish him a guard of safety. Whether they really would have done so it is impossible to know, but Black Hawk, who was not present at the massacre. but knew the Indian version of it, subsequently said that the attack took place because the whites did not keep their agreement. There were two species of prop- erty that the Indians chiefly wanted, whisky and ammu- nition. There were large quantities of both at the fort. and the Indians were aware of that fact. On the 13th, Captain William Wells, Indian Agent at Fort Wayne, arrived at Fort Dearborn with thirty friendly Miamis, for the purpose of bringing Captain Heakl on his way.

Fort

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Ground

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Captain Wells had lived among the Indians, and was cognizant of their character. He was the uncle

HISTORY OF EARLY CHICAGO.

of Mrs. Heald. Born in Kentucky, he belonged to a family of Indian fighters. When he was a lad of twelve, he was stolen by the Miamis and adopted by Little Tur- tle, their great chief. He served with the Indians at the outbreak of the war in 1790, and was present at the battle where St. Clair was defeated. But he then be- yan to realize that he was fighting against his own kin- dred, and resolved to take leave of the Indians. He asked Little Turtle to accompany him to a point on the Maumee, about two miles east of Fort Wayne, long known as the Big Elm, where he thus spoke : " Father, we have long been friends. I now leave you to go to my own people. We will be friends until the sun reaches the midday height. From that time we will be enemies; and if you want to kill me then, you may. And if I want to kill you, I may." He then set out for General Wayne's army, and was made captain of a company of scouts. He fought under General Wayne until the treaty of Greenville, after which he removed to Fort Wayne, where he. was joined by his wife, who was a daughter of Little Turtle. He settled upon a farm and was made Indian Agent and Justice of the Peace. He rendered effective service to General Harrison, the Governor.

When Captain Wells heard of the intended evacua- tion of Fort Dearborn he volunteered to go there and act as escort to the soldiers. He arrived at the fort on the 13th of August, too late, however, to have any influ- ence on the question of evacuation. Captain Heald had up to this point resisted the advice of Winnemeg, the friendly Indians. John Kinzie and his junior officers, as to adopting any other course. But now after all his firmness came a period of irresolution. The supply of muskets, ammunition and liquor was large. It was madness to hand over to the Indians these supplies with which first to excite and infuriate them, and then to leave them with still more abundant means of wreaking that fury on the garrison. This fact was strongly urged by both Captain Wells and John Kinzie. Captain Heald yielded, and on the night of the 13th destroyed all the ammunition and muskets he could not carry with him. The liquor was thrown into the lake. No sooner was this done than the older chiefs professed that they could no longer restrain their young men. Black Partridge, one of the most noted Pottawatomie chiefs, and always friendly to the whites since the treaty of Greenville, had received a medal from General Wayne at the time of that treaty. On the evening of the 14th he came to the fort and entered Captain Heald's quarters. " Father," he said, "1 come to deliver up to you the medal I wear. It was given me by the Americans and I have long worn it in token of our mutual friendship. But our young men are resolved to imbrue their hands in the blood of the whites. I can not restrain them, and I will not wear a token of peace while I am compelled to act as an enemy."

The Indians held a council and resolved on the destruction of the garrison. And yet, with the most heroic fortitude and constancy, the officers made their final arrangements for the evacuation, sustaining and encouraging the men by their words and by their exam- ple. At nine o'clock on the morning of the 15th of August, all being in readiness, the gates of the fort were thrown open for the last time, and the march com- menced. In accordance with Indian custom, and in premonition of his fate. Captain Wells had blackened his fare. With fifteen of his Miami braves, whom he supposed to be trusty, he led the advance. The other fifteen brought up the rear. The women and children were in wagons or on horseback. Brave John Kinze

determined to accompany the troops, hoping that his presence would be the means of restraining the Indians. Entrusting his family to the care of some friendly In- dians, to be taken around the head of the lake in a boat to a point near St. Joseph, he marched out with the troops. He was warned by several friendly chiefs not to accompany the soldiers, but he was determined to do all in his power to bring some restraining influence to bear, if possible, on the savages. The strains of music, as the soldiers passed beyond the gates, were certainly not enlivening. By some strange and wierd choice of the band-master, who was among the killed, the " Dead March" was played as the soldiers filed out from the protection of the fortifications, on to the open plain. Scarcely had the troops departed, when the fort became a scene of plundering.

Along the lake shore ran a beaten Indian trail, which was the path pursued. Westward from this, at about one hundred yards distance, commencing perhaps a quarter of a mile from the fort, a sand-bank, or range of sand-hills, separated the lake from the prairie. When the troops started, an escort of five hundred Pottawa- tomies accompanied them, but when the sand-hills were reached the Indians struck out towards the prairie, instead of keeping along the beach. Concealing their movements behind the sand hilis, they hurried forward and placed an ambuscade in readiness for the troops.

The little band had marched about a mile and a half when Captain Wells, who had led the advance, came riding swiftly back saying that the Indians were about to open an attack from behind the sand- bank. The company charged up the bank, firing one round, which the Indians returned. The savages, get- ting in upon the rear, were soon in possession of the horses, provisions and baggage, slaughtering many of the women and children in the attempt. Against fear- ful odds, and hand to hand, the officers and men, and even the women, fought for their lives.

But it was soon over. Drawing his little remnant of survivors off an elevation on the open prairie, out of range, Captain Heald himself wounded, proceeded to examine the situation. The Indians did not follow, but after some consultation of the chiefs, made signs for Captain Heald to approach them. He advanced alone and met Blackbird, who promised to spare their lives if they would surrender. Upon these terms Captain Heald complied with the demand.

Among the killed were Captain Wells, Ensign Ronau and Surgeon De Isaac Van Voorhis. The wounded were Captain and Mrs. Heald, Lieutenant Helm and his wife. Every other wounded prisoner was put to death. Of the whole number that had left the fort but an hour before, there remained only twenty-five non- commissioned officers and privates and eleven women and children.

The number of Indians engaged was between four and five hundred. Their loss was about fifteen.

The Miamis fed ac the first attack, and took no part whatever in the fight.

Captain Wells, after fighting desperately. was sur- rounded and stabbed in the back. His body was hor- ribly mangled, his head cut off, and his heart taken out and eaten by the savages, who thought by so doing some of the courage of the heroic scout would be conveyed to them.

Mrs. Helm, the daughter of Mrs. Kinzie, had a nar- row escape from death. Assaulted by a young Indian. she avoided the blow of his tomahawk, and then seized him around the neck, trying to get possession of his scalping-knife. While struggling in this way for her

FORT DEARBORN,

life, she was dragged from his grasp by another and older Indian, who bore her struggling to the lake, where- in he plunged her, but with her head above the water. Seeing that it was not the Indian's object to drown her, she looked at him earnestly and found it to be Black Partridge, who was thus trying to save her. After the firing ceased, she was conducted to a place of safety. When the attack was made, Mrs. Heald was riding on a very beautiful and well-trained bay mare, which she had brought with her from Kentucky, and which had long been coveted by the Indians. During the firing Mrs. Heald received six wounds, and was shortly captured. Both she and her husband were taken by the half-breed Chandonais to St. Joseph and permitted to reside with Mr. Burnett until they recovered from their wounds. Captain Heald then delivered himself to the British at Mackinac and was paroled. But the survivors were not yet safe from the hostile Indians. Lieutenant Helm was carried by his captors to a village on the Kankakee, where he remained two months before he was discovered by Black Partridge, who had saved the life of MIrs. Helm. That chief at once informed Thomas Forsyth, half- brother of Mr. Kinzie who was stationed at Peoria, and efforts were made to secure the release of the prisoner. Black Partridge was provided with a ransom and dis- patched to the Indian village. The amount that he carried with him not being sufficient to satisfy the In- dians, he freely offered them his pony, his rifle and a large gold ring which he wore in his nose. This was accepted, Lieutenant Helm was released, and soon after- wards joined his wife at Detroit, where she had gone with her parents.

The day following the massacre the fort and agency building were burned to the ground and the first Fort Dearborn ceased to be. The prisoners were scattered among the various tribes, and a large number of war- riors hastened away to attempt the destruction of Fort Wayne.

Among the officers of the fort who escaped the mas- sacre, was Quarter-master Sergeant Griffith, who is men- tioned by Mrs. Kinzie in " Waubun" as being absent collecting the baggage horses of the surgeon when the troops left the fort, but, hastening to join the force, was made prisoner by the chief of the St. Joseph band, who was friendly to the whites. He escaped in the hoat with the Kinzies two days later. This was William Griffith, afterward a captain of General Harrison's spies. He joined Harrison's army after his escape to Michigan, was placed in command of the spies, and received two wounds in the skirmish at the Moravian towns, a few days before the battle of the Thames, but participated also in the latter engagement. He was the son of Wil- liam Griffith, Sr., a farmer of Welsh descent, whose home was near the present site of Geneseo, N. Y. His sister, Mrs. Alexander Ewing, removed with her hus- band to Michigan in 1802, and thence to Piqua, Ohio, in 1 807, from which place William Griffith probably came to Chicago. He died in 1824, leaving two sons and a daughter, and was buried near old Fort Meigs, Ohio.

The same day that Fort Dearborn was burned, Gen- vral Hull surrendered Detroit to the British.

The sources of information in regard to the massacre are the official report of Heald, and the narrative of Mrs. Juliette H. Kinzie, in " Waubun," based upon the statements ot John Kinzie and Mrs. Helm. A narra- tive by Mrs. Heald was lost in the Rebellion. The narrative of Mrs. Kinzie has been the accepted and popular one, although there are some discrepancies In it as to dates, its censure of Captain Heakl is not severe, and it has much of the "after the event " flavor

alwout it. That the fort could have been held for any length of time against the Indians is altogether doubt- ful. A thousand hostile warriors would have belea- guered it within a very few days, as they did Fort Wayne shortly after, and it would have been impossible for General Harrison to have relieved both places. With- out such relief it must have fallen. Instantaneous evacuation in conformity with the advice of Winnemeg might have saved the garrison, but that partook too much of the nature of flight to suit the mind of such a man as Captain Heald. Since that was not thought honorable, the only course to pursue was to rigorously adhere to the agreement with the Indians, and turn over to them all the arms and liquor. Captain Heald was dissuaded by those surrounding him from adopting that dangerous expedient.

But the probabilities are that no course whatever could have saved the ill-fated garrison. War was de- clared, the Iodians were aroused and allied with the Brit- ish. Certain ones had friendships with the Americans, and did what could be done to save individuals, but they had no friendship for the United States. Tecum- seh was using all the influence of his powerful name to consolidate the Indian tribes in the British interest. The fall of Michilimackinac and the peril of Detroit showed the Indians that England was the stronger power. With all these forces at work, the fall of Fort Dearborn and the destruction of the garrison was apparently but a matter of time.

For four years the charred and blackened ruins of the fort remained, and the bodies of the slain lay un- buried where they fell.

The war raged along the Canadian border for a time with varying success, until at last the British flag was driven from the lakes. Then came peace, and in 1816 it was ordered that Fort Dearborn should be re- built. In July of that year, Captain Hezekiah Bradley, with two companies of infantry, arrived at the Chicago River. He built a fort on the site of the former one. - somewhat larger and on a different plan. The remains of the victims of the massacre were then gathered and buried.

The same year John Kinzie returned with his family and again occupied his deserted home. Other settlers came straggling along, the Indian Agency was resumed. and soon the lake shore and the river showed signs of activity and life. The familiar forms of the friendly chiefs were seen around the homes and firesides of their friends, and many were the hours that were passed in recounting the tragical scenes through which they had passed, since that fatal 15th of August four years be- fore. All had suffered, for war possesses no discrimina- ting hand. The village of Black Partridge had been destroyed in a single day, and his people killed or scat- tered. The subsequent life of the settlers was quiet and unvaried. Cultivation of the soil furnished them with the necessaries of life, and the abundance of game added a variety that many an eastern table might have envied. A thrifty bartering of the surplus of products with the occasional vessels that came for furs, supplied other wants, and thus days on the frontier passed away.

The year 1816 was also the year of the treaty of St. Louis, whereby the Ottawas and Chippewas ceded to the United States the lands surrounding the head of Lake Michigan, ten miles north and ten miles south of the mouth of the Chicago Creek, and back to the Kan- kakee, Illinois and Fox rivers. The fort, as rebuilt. consisted of a square stockade inclosing barracks, quar- ters for the officers, magazine and provision-store, and was defended by bastions at the northwest and south-

HISTORY OF EARLY CHICAGO.

east angles. The block-house was in the southwest cor- ner. 'The officers' quarters were on the west side and the soldiers' barracks on the east side. It had two gates, one on the north and the other on the south side. A garrison was stationed at the fort, under various com- manders, until 1823, when it was ordered to be evacu- ated. The frontier line had moved westward to the Mis- sissippi, and a garrison at Chicago was not considered necessary. During these years the officers in command were as follows : 1816 to 1817, Captain Hezekiah Brad- ley ; 1817 to 1820, Major Daniel Baker ; 1820 to 1821, Captain Hezekiah Bradley ; 1821, Major Alexander Cummings ; 1821 to 1823, Lieutenant-Colonel John McNeil ; 1823, Captain John Greene.

In October, 1828, a garrison was again stationed at Chicago, under the command of Major John Fowle ; First-Lieutenant David Hunter 'subsequently General ). The troops remained until May, 1831, when they were withdrawn. But the time came when the affrighted set- tlers sought refuge in the fort. In 1832 Black Hawk and his warriors commenced hostilities, which will be found described in later pages of this work. In June the fort was once more garrisoned, Major William Whistler being assigned to the command. This officer had helped his father in the building of the first Fort Dearborn, and now after twenty-nine years of absence returned to be the commander of the second fort.

On the 8th of July, 1832, General Scott, with troops, arrived in a steamer off Fort Dearborn .*

In May, 1833, Major Whistler was succeeded in command by Major John Fowle, who, however, re- mained but about one month, when he was succeeded by Major DeLafayette Wilcox, who commanded until December 18, 1833, and again from September 16, 1835, to August 1, 1836. Major John Bendu, Major John Greene and Captain and Brevet-Major Joseph Plymp- ton were in command at various times, until December 29, 1836, when the troops were permanently withdrawn, under the following order :

" The troops stationed at Fort Dearborn, Chicago, will imme- diately proceed to Fort Howard, and join the garrison at that post, Such public property as may be left at Fort Dearborn will remain in charge of Brevet-Major Plympton, of the 5th Infantry, who will continue in command of the post until otherwise instructed."

And so the last morning and evening salute was fired; the last sentinel withdrawn. the last soldier marched out, and Fort Dearborn as a military post ceased to be.

AFTER THE MASSACRE.

In the year 1812, as before stated, there were five houses at Chicago, besides the fort and building attached to it. Of these, four were occupied by the families of Kinzie, Ouilmette. Burns and Lee. The fifth was on the Lee farm, on the South Branch. It has often been stated that all the houses in Chicago, except Mr. Kin- zie's, were destroyed in 1812, by the Indians, but proba- bly no buildings were destroyed except the fort and agency house.

The house of Ouilmette was occupied by himself and family, who remained in Chicago. The " Burns House " was afterward occupied by Mr. Jouett, when he was In- dian Agent at Chicago, in 1817. The cabin on the Lee farm was fitted up and used as a trading-house by John Crafts, and the house of Mr. Lee near the fort, on the lake shore, was evidently sold by his widow to Jean Baptiste Beanbien, who bought " of the rightful owner thereof," a "house and piece of cultivated ground " in

that exact locality in 1812. Mrs. Lee escaped the mas- sacre, and with her infant child was carried captive to the village of Black Partridge. She was subsequently ransomed by M. DuPin, a French trader, became his wife, and lived in the Kinzie house during the absence of the family.

JEAN BAPTISTE BEAUBIEN, who may be considered the second permanent settler of Chicago, first visited the place in 1804, but did not purchase property till the year 1812, some time after the massacre. He then bought "of the rightful owner thereof" * a house or cabin south of the ruins of the fort and near the lake shore, which had been standing there since 1804.t Here he resided when in Chicago, and although fre- quently absent at his trading-houses in Milwaukee and Green Bay, always considered the cabin in Chicago his home, and the home of his family, until a better house was bought five or six years later.

Jean Baptiste Beaubien was, at the time he settled at Chicago, the third of that name in America. His grandfather, Jean Baptiste Beaubien, emigrated from France at an early day and settled on the St. Lawrence. The home of the second generation of American Beau- biens was Detroit, where lived Jean Baptiste, jr., Joseph, Jean, Marie, Lambert, Antoine, Genevieve, Marion and Susan. The names of two of these brothers (Jean Bap- tiste and Lambert) appear in a list of the members of a company of Detroit citizens, who. under the lead of General Cass, made a raid in 1814 upon the hostile In- dians in the vicinity. The names of three of the Mel- drums, prominent traders of Detroit and Mackinaw, also appear. Joseph Beaubien was the father of Jean Bap- tiste Beaubien of Chicago, who was born in the year 1780, at Detroit. When a young man he pushed out into the Michigan woods, and became a clerk for W'm. Bailly, a fur-trader, on Grand River. Through Bailly's instruction and help Mr. Beanbien acquired the rudi- ments of- an education, which, supplemented by native shrewdness and vivacity, made him quite superior to the ordinary French traders of the day. He married, for his first bride, Mah-naw-bun-no-quah, an Ottawa woman, who became the mother of his two sons, Charles Henry and Madore. He was settled as a trader in Mil- waukee as early as 1800, and until 1818 had a trading- house there. As before stated, he came to Chicago and bought the cabin and cultivated field south of the old fort in 1812. During that year he married, for his second wife, Josette LaFramboise, daughter of Francis LaFram- boise,¿ an influential French trader then living on the

* Affidavit of Madore Beaubien.

+ Captain T'homas G. Anderson, who came to Mackinaw in the spring of 1800, and was for many years engaged in trade with the Indians of the North- west, states in his " Personal Narrative." published in Vol. 1.X, Wis. His. Coll., that his first winter ( 1800-1801) was spent on the Mississippi, near the present site of Quincy, Ill .; his second (1801-1802) among the lowas on the DesMoines, and his third 1 1802-1803) among the Winnebagoes of Rock River. Toward the close of 1803 he started a trading-house at " Millwackie," having LaFramboise and LeClaire for neighbors. Here he remained until the spring of 18:6. He says: " During my second year at Min-na-wack, or Mill-wack ie ( 1804-1805) Captain Whistler, with his company of American soldiers, came to take posses- sion of Chicago. At this time there were no buildings there, except a few dilapidated log huts, covered with bark. Captain Whistler had selected one of these as a tempurary, though miserable, residence for his family, his nificers and men being under canvas. On being informed uf his arrival. I felt it my duty to pay my respects to the authority so much required in the country. On the inarrow I mounted Kee-ge-kaw. or Switt-Goer, and the next day I was invited to dine with the captain. Un going to the house, the outer door opening inter the dining-room, I found the table spread, the family and guests seated, con- sisting of several ladies, as jolly as kittens."

$ Probably a vin of either Alexander or Francis LaFramboise, traders of Mackinaw and Milwaukee. Asearly as 1735 Alexander Lait ramboter. ni Mack- inaw. established a house at the month of the Milwaukee River. After it was well established he returned in Mackinaw and sent his brother Francis to take charge of the Milwaukee house. The latter had some trouble with one of the neighboring chief-, whose hostility, added to his own mismanagement. brought the house, and with it his brother Alexander, to ruin. Francis LaFramdanse was afterwards murdered at a trading-house which he established among the Winnebagoes, in what is now central Wisconsin, and his hit-mness fell into the hands of his wirless, Madeline La Framboise, who, with headquarters at Macki- nas, mandgrd it with prudence and great success. The children of Francis. who were well grown when he lived in Milwaukee, are mentioned in the early history of that city, as ('lande, Alexis and LaFortune. The Chicago La Fram-

* See narrative of Caption Augustus Walker.

AFTER THE MASSACRE.

south side of the river, not far from Beaubien's place. In 1815, a short time before the rebuilding of the fort, an army contractor named Dean, built a house on the lake shore, at the mouth of the Chicago River, near where is now the foot of Randolph Street. In 1817, Mr. Beaubien purchased this house, which was a low, gloomy building of five rooms, for $1,ooo-a large sum for those days. After this purchase he lived in the Dean house for several years, his son Alexander being born there. He used the old cabin after this for a barn .*

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History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time, Part 20

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