History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time, Part 9

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

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" Whatever may have been the etymological meaning of the · word Chicago, in its practical use it probably denotes strong or great. The Indians applied this term to the Mississippi River, to thunder, or to the voice of the Great Manitou. " Edwin IIubbard, that the title of his chapter should read, " An- account : ". the genealogist, adopts a similar view, and says the word Chicago, in its applications, signified strong, mighty, powerful."

of the building of a new fort. named by us Creveceur, on the river of the Illinois, named by the savages Che- cau-gou," which there is reason to believe was their . name for the Illinois River. Marquette speaks of the river only as "the river of the Illinois," while Joliet calls it the "river of St. Louis," and also " The Divine River, or Outralaise."+

Franquelin has evidently mistaken the locality of the St. Louis River of Joliet. as, on his large map of 1684, he has applied to the Ohio the name " River St. Louis or Chucagoa." The name, however, shows that the river called St. Louis was also called Checaugou or Chucagoa. The name Chicagou is given to the Illinois by Coxe, also, in his " Louisiana." There is a map in the Historical Society Library at Madison, Wis., said to have been designed by Samson, geographer to the French King in 10;3. before the results of the expedi- tiem of Joliet and Marquette were made known . On thus map is laid down a river. with its outlet in the Gulf of Mexico, and which is intended to represent the Mis- "issippi. It is called the "( haragua River."

One of the meanings of the word " Chicaugon," or

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Chicago, is said to be " great " or " strong," from ka-go, something, and chi, from gitchi, great. It is not unrea- sonable to believe that this was the generic terin applied by the Illinois Indians, not only to their own "great river," but also to the Mississippi. Much information regarding the latter river had been gained by the French from the Illinois Indians, but it was always called by them the "Great River," which its name also signifies in the dialect of the Northwestern tribes-mecha or meche, large or great ; and sepua, sepi, river. The Illinois River is called the " Divine River " (" Riviere LaDivine") by Joliet, who applies this name to the river, from the source of the Desplaines branch to its mouth. LaSalle calls the Illinois the Divine River, in 1680, and Membre says, speaking of the expedition on which he accom- panied LaSalle in 1681-82, that they "went toward the Divine River, called by the Indians Checaugou," to make their way to the Mississippi ; Membre, however, applying the name only to the northern branch of the Illinois Desplaines), which branch was called by that name or Chicago, until as late as 1812. LaSalle, writing of his expedition to the Illinois in the winter of 1681-82, says he arrived in January, 1682, at "the division line called Checaugau, from the river of the same name, which lies in the country of the Mas- coutins." The Mascoutins, at that time, had villages between the Fox and Desplaines, in common with the Kickapoos, whose language, manners and customs were identical. It is believed that they were bands of the same tribe, known by the different names, and that the Kickaphos are now the only survivors of the tribe.

ʻ St. Cosme, visiting this locality in 1699 and again in 1700, spells the name variously ; as Chikagu, Chika- gou, Chicagu, Chicago, and Chicaqu. The latter spell- ing is equivalent to Chicaque, or Checaqua, which was the name borne by a long line of Illinois chiefs-and as applied to them, would mean the great, or powerful, chiefs.

Dr. William Barry,* first secretary of the Chicago , Historical Society, who has given much attention to this - question, makes the following statement :

It must be remembered that when LaSalle came with his party of followers to this region in the winter of 1681-82, not only the river now the Desplaines, but the portage leading to it, was "called by the savages" the Miamis and Illinois, whose dialect was the same) Che- cagou. The name, "as the appellation of a chief or brave," or whatever it might mean, could not have been "transferred by the French to the river, and passed from the river to the locality when the French settled there," as Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull, of Hartford, Conn., suggests, because both river and locality were " called by the savages Checagou " when the French first visited them. If the meaning of this word, in the dialect of the Ilinois and Miamis, was great, or power- ful, and was the generic term by them applied to the Mississippi. the Illinois, their great chiefs, etc., and as the French gave other and specific names to their rivers and Incalities, this was at last only given to the Des- plaines, the portage, and later to the little sircam lead- ing from the portage to the lake, of course. the name so applied lost all its significance.

A similar word or compound word which applies

. "Chicago Antiquities "-p. 121.

HISTORY OF EARLY CHICAGO.

locally to the present Chicago River is found in another dialect Chippewa of the same Algonquin tongue-the words, shegahg, meaning skunk, or she-gau-ga-winzhe, skunk-weed or wild onion ; which it is believed was given to the present Chicago River by the natives, from the circumstance of its banks producing plentifully the wild leek or onion. The early French writers-Membre. and Tonty in his " Memoir "- speak of the abundance of this bulbous plant throughout the country ; the latter mentioning the fact of subsisting on the wild onions which he and his companions grubbed from the ground, on their journey from the Illinois to Green Bay in the winter of 1680-81.

E. M. Haines, of Waukegan, in Blanchard's " History of Illinois," says, in regard to this meaning of the word, so applied :

" The word Chicago is understood to be an Indian word ; at least it is derived from that source. What its precise meaning is, or whether it has any particular meaning at all in its present form as now applied, is a matter of considerable dispute among those who have given the subject attention. The word comes to us through the early French explorers of the West as an Indian word from the language of the Algonquin group. Whilst this group of the North American tribes had one general or generic language by which they were distinguished, each tribe had its dialect differing more or less from that of the other tribes of the same group. The standard or parent language, however, since this people became known to the whites, was that spoken by the Ojibways (Chippeways,) the most powerful and numerous of the various tribes of this group. Those who pretend to make any positive assertion as to the correct mean- ing of this word, as an Indian word, seem to have confined their investigations on the subject to the Indian language, as spoken by the Ojibways, without reference to other dialects, seeming to ignore the fact that it could come from any other source, whereupon they reach the conclusion, and so assert, that it means onion, garlic, leek or skunk. So far as appears at this day, there seems to have been no special inquiry into the origin or meaning of this word until about the time of the rebuilding of Fort Dearborn, in 1816. The year following that event, Colonel Samuel A. Starron visited this place, and in a letter to General Jacob Brown of the United States Army, refers to the river here as . the River Chicago (or in the English- Wild Onion: River).' * * * The definition of the onion by Rev. Edward F. Welson, in his dictionary of the Ojibway language, is keche-she-gaug-vh-wunzh. He defines skunk as zhe-gang. . John Tanner, for thirty years a captive 'among the Ojibways, and many years United States Indian interpreter, in a 'Catalogue of Plants and Animals, found in the country of the Ojibways, with English names,' appended to the narrative of his captivity, defines skunk as she-gang. He defines onion as she-gau-ga-winthe (skunk-weed). In a note thereto, by Dr. James, editor of Tanner's narrative, it is added : ' From shih-gau-ga-winche, this word in the singular num- - ber, some derive the name Chicago.' # # # It is noticed that all who contend that the word Chicago, as applied to the river and city of that name, means skunk, onion or the like, derive their con- victions on the subject from one or more of the authorities which are before cited, or from some one familiar with the Ojibway lan- guage, who form- his evictions to the same effect, from the mere coincidence of winds. Tiistory is so unsui-factory and varied in regard to this word, that we are left to this day to determine its meaning solely upon the basis of similarity of sounds. For there seems to be no fact or invalent narrated or mentioned in history that leads with any degree of certainty either to the origina! mean- ing of this word as intes led, or to the dialect from which it is . derived. And it is to be confessed that upon the theory aforesaid, conceding that the word mes from the Offbway language or ria- leet. no one is prepared t . dispute the assertim so generally made that the word is derived .com chunk. The word skunk being in the Indian tongue simp. the king, in order to make Cleany, the theory adopted is that a. an diesen bedst termination is added which makes Chicagoa , mening at the skunk, the sound na being dropped in comm .. . speech, leaving the word in the form wow usedl. Whilst this .- aut !consistent in printice in dealing with Imlien names, there another theory, dis suggested, which Acctươi, thất wind xem to lực cạnh Here without adding ng, would he . The wind o andel, would dende the we're. thus, 'him dd the skunk,' in which

may be computed in this . consistent. The world ! senitive, andl might be re Give it would protects

kiel, but the new ... a hace thiet- dering erverd genera-

degree of certainty is, that it is of Indian origin and comes from some dialect of the Algonquin group, so called. It must be noted, however, that in the Ojioway dialect this word, or that which is essentially the same, is not confined in its meaning to that con- tended for as before mentioned. The word may mean, also, in that language, to forbear, or avoid, from kah-go, forbear, and che, . a prefix answering to our preposition to; or. it may mean some- thing great, from kago, something, and chi, froni git-che, great. Besides several other words or expressions which may be found in this dialect, of the same sound. yet of different meanings, Che-ca- gua was the name of a noted Sac chief, and means in that dialect, 'he that stands by the tree.' In the Pottawatomie dialect, the word choc-ca-go, without addition or abridgment, means destitute."

There have been various other theories in regard to the meaning of the word, but the weight of authority seems to denote that when the French first mentioned the river, "called by the savages Checagou," they referred to the Illinois, and its northern branch, and that it was simply at that time the " great river " of the Illinois. When these Indians and the kindred tribe. the Miamis, were driven from the region, and the " canoe people"-all branches of the original Ojibways-gained possession of the country, the name was transferred to the present Chicago River. although it was still applied also to the Desplaines. The name, as applied by these Indians to the little river had, doubtless, a local signifi- cation, and from the time of their advent, Chicago River, in all probability, meant skunk-weed, garlic, or wild-onion river. It was certainly known as such as early as 1773, when the Indians deeded to William Murray a tract of land, extending " up the Illinois to Chicagou or Garlick Creek," although it may never be fully known whether the simple word she-kang, the more complex she-gan-ga-winzhe, the Pottawatomic - choc-ca-go, or some other similar word had the honor ... of giving a name to the present river and city of Chi- cago.

EARLY EXPLORATIONS.

JOHN 'NICOLET .- A history of Canada, written in Latin, by M. DuCreux, and entitled Historia Canaden- sis, was published io Paris in the year 1664. In this work was the following passage:

"In ' the last months of 1642, New France mourned for two men of no common character who were snatched away front her; one of these ( Raymbault), who died first, of disease, was a member of the Society of the Jesuits, and the other, although a lavman. was distinguished by singularly meritorious acts toward the Indian trihes of Canada."

This " layman," whose services in the interest of France and humanity well merited the above notice, was John Nicolet. the first civilized man who trod the soil or floated upon the waters of the great Northwest -- the dauntless pioneer who penetrated to the hitherto un- known " fresh water sea," beyond the " Lake of the Hurons," and visited the Indian tribes dwelling upon it- western shore; not resting until he reached the vil- lages of the Illinois Erininans and. it is believed the beautiful prairies of the State which now bear- their name. In the Historia Canariensis, and in the Jesuit Relations of 1639-43 Vimont . is found the narrative of the life and achievement- of the man who occupied so important a place in the history of Frem h explorations.

In 1603 samuel Champhan first came to the banks of the St. Lawrence to make a survey of the country pre- liminary to founding a colony and permanently secur- ing to France a monopoly of the far trade with the sur- rounding Indian -. His visit was brief, bet from the natives he learned enough to satisfy him that the fail- uns of De La Roche. Pont Have and Chauvin need not be repeated on the st. Lawrence He returned to France, to sati again : 100%, with men, arms and stores

EARLY EXPLORATIONS.

for a colony, and in the summer of that year he com- menced the settlement of Quebec. During his previous visits he had heard from the savages of regions farther to the west-of great lakes, cataracts and rivers-and had become convinced that from the head of the St. Lawrence, by means of these inland lakes and streams, it would be possible to reach the so-called Western Sea and China; as, by the Ottawa of the North. he believed he could reach the Polar Sea. He came, therefore, to New France the second time, more as an explorer than as a merchant. The interests of the fur trade were placed in the hands of another, and after the settlement at Quebec acquired some degree of permanency, he commenced his exploration of the country farther to the south and west. Attaching to his interests the Algonquins of the Ottawa, and the Hurons of Georgian Bay, who came annually to the St. Lawrence to trade, and who, like the French, were fearful of the encroachments of the Iroquois, Champlain penetrated the country to the lake which bears his name, drove the Iroquois from its waters, and by his powers so attached the allied tribes to him- self, that before they left him to return to their homes the Hurons had invited him to visit them at their villages and ally himself with them in their war with the Iroquois. -

After revisiting France in 1609 and 1610, he again returned in 1611 to the St. Lawrence, and selected as a trading-post the present site of Montreal. The con- tinuous and cruel wars of the Iroquois had compelled him to abandon his scheme of penetrating the western country, and he now devoted all his energy to the ad- vancement of the interests of his superiors in France, by attempting to secure a monopoly of the fur trade of the surrounding region. With the design of extending this trade to more distant tribes, he commenced, about the year 1615, to train young men for the especial purpose of dealing with the Indians, by placing them in the charge of some friendly tribe to learn its language, man- .. . ners and habits, and to become hardened and inured to the deprivations and loneliness of a life spent in the'- . Hundred Associates."

wilderness and among savages. While training others, . he did not fail to cultivate the friendship of the Indians, and attach them to his interest by every means in his power. In 1615 he consented to lead the Hurons and- Algonquins of the Ottawa against the Iroquois. With two Frenchmen and ten Indians he left Montreal in July of that year, traveled up the Ottawa to the Algonquin villages, passed the Allumette lakes, and thence by Lake · Nipissing, French River and Georgian Bay, reached the home of the Hurons, which lay in the little peninsula formed by the head of the Georgian Bay, the River Severn and Lake Simcoe. Here he joined the warriors of the two nations who had gathered at the Huron village. With them he moved south to the shore of Lake Ontario, crossed the lake and attacked the Iroquois in their fortified villages in the present State of New York. The attack was not a success, and, with his allies, Champlain returned to the Huron village, where he passed the winter, and returned to Quebec in the summer of 1616, arriving just one year from the time of his departure. He had learned enough of the lake of the Hurons and of the country farther west, with its treasures of copper and peltry, to be more than ever anxious to secure it for France.

Quebec, at this time, consisted of a small fort. of which Champlain was nominal commander, and a popu- lation of some fifty fur-traders, adventurersand Recollet friars. In 1618 there arrived at this post, from France, a young man named John Nicolet. He was a native of Cherbourg, in Normandy, and son of Thomas Nicolet, a mail-carrier from Cherbourg to Paris, Ili- mother was

Marguerita de la Mer. In accordance with the plan of Champlain to educate young Frenchmen for explorers and traders by actual trial of Indian life. Nicolet was selected for that purpose, as giving extraordinary prom- ise of future usefulness, and sent to an Algonquin tribe. whose home was the Isle des Allumette, on the Ottawa River, that he might prepare himself for the career marked out for him .*

With the "Algonquins of the Island" he spent two years, accompanying them in their wanderings and par- taking of all their dangers and privations-sometimes almost perishing with hunger, and subsisting for weeks upon barks and lichens. During this time he never saw the face of a white man, or beard a human voice, save the guttural tones of the savages, which soon. however. became intelligible : his memory, according to the record, being wonderfully good. At the end of two years he had become familiar with the Algonquin lan- guage, and was then sent, with four hundred. natives, on a peace mission to the Iroquois. It would appear from the narrative, that Nicolet was authorized to negotiate with the hostile tribe, as it is stated that " he performed his mission successfully." At this time he must have visited the Hurons, the allies of the Algonquin tribe. who would be equally benefited by the renewal of peace, and whose villages lay directly in his route.

After his return from this peace mission, Nicolet took up his residence with the Indians who dwelt on the shores of Lake Nipissing, further to the northwest than the Isle des Allumette. Here he lived eight or nine years, becoming practically one of the tribe. He had his cabin and trading-house among them, entered into their councils, and doubtless was looked upon as one of the " head men " of the nation. About the year 1633.t when Canada passed from the brief dominion of En- gland back to its former owner, Nicolet was recalled to Quebec by Government, and made Commissary and In- dian Interpreter in that city for the "Company of the

During the years of Nicolet's absence among the Indians, New France had passed through various changes. The Recollets had been superseded by the Jesuits, who had commenced the work of establishing missions among the Indian tribes in Canada. The com- panies of French merchants who, for a time, enjoyed a monopoly of the fur trade, had given place to the Com- pany of New France, commonly called the "Company of the Hundred Associates," which, with Cardinal Richelieu as its brain and motive force, now held almost sovereign sway over both the secular and religious in- terests of the French colonists. Interrupted in its de- signs for a brief period, by the successes of England in Canada, its jurisdiction was restored after the treaty of peace, and in May, 1633, Champlain, who had been carried prisoner to England, was again restored to his former office, and assumed command at Quebec, with the understanding that the affairs of New France were now to be conducted in the interests of the Hundred Associates, and the Society of Loyola. The French population on the St. Lawrence was even now only about one hundred and fifty, and the only trading posts were Quebec, Three Rivers, the Rapids of St. Louis, and Tadoussac, at the mouth of the Saguenay.

It was at this time that Nicolet was recalled from Nipissing, and entered the employ of the powerful com- pany which ruled New France. The narrative says. " During this period while Nicolet was commissary and

* The narrative of Ducreux calls the period spent here a "preliminary train:1 ....

. Iwaaropation of Canada by the English from 1. .. Hope Need for

HISTORY OF EARLY CHICAGO.

interpreter for the Company', at the command of the same rulers, he had to make an excusion to certain maritime tribes for the purpose of securing peace be- tween them and the Hurons." The Hurons had always been friendly to the French ; they were the most dis- tant tribe with whom any commercial intercourse was maintained, and their country lay in the path to the far West. Should this threatened war be declared against their allies, explorers would hardly dare venture far from the banks of the St. Lawrence, and the proselyting designs of the Jesuits would also be effectually checked. Champlain was eager, too, to gain knowledge of the "maritime tribes," called "Men of the Sea" by the Algonquins, who sometimes made the long journey of five or six weeks to their country, and returned with wonderful tales of the nation which had wandered thither from the borders of a distant sea, and was still visited by a "strange people without hair or beards, who came from the west in large canoes, upon a great water, to trade." With his preconceived idea of the probability of reaching the sea which washed the shore of Asia, by means of the western lakes and rivers, Champlain be- lieved the "great water," of which the Indians spoke, might be this distant Western Sea, over which the beard- less Chinese had passed to trade with the people who once lived on its borders. Therefore, to the rulers of New France, it was an object to secure peace between the Hurons and the " Men of the Sea," in order to ad- vance the interests of both commerce and religion. Knowing the superior ability of Nicolet, and having been instrumental in placing him where he could acquire the special training necessary to fit him for the task of penetrating the wilderness to these strange and unknown tribes, and also of dealing with them in a prudent and successful manner, Champlain selected him for the mis- sion. He was to visit " La Nation des Puants :"* if possible, ." secure a peace,", between them and the Hurons, and their friendship for France ; and he was also to explore the country of the Puants in search of ..

the passage to the Western Sea. In July, 1634, Fathers Brebeuf and Daniel started from Quebec to found the Huron mission. Nicolet accompanied them from Three Rivers, where he had been assisting in the building of a fort -- as far as the Isle des Allumette, his old Indian home. Father Brebeuf says he "endured every hardship " during the journey, "with the courage of the strongest savage." Here the fathers apparently feit him to go to their mission. From the time that Nicolet left 'Three Rivers with the missionaries there is no record of his being on the St. Lawrence until Decem- ber. 1635-nearly a year and a half-the time of his ab- . sence on his mission to the West, when he visited the northern and western shore of Lake Michigan. This visit. therefore, was between July, 1634. and December. 1635. He was not again absent from its post in Canada long enough for such a journey during his after life.

Some time after the father- let him at the Hole des Allumette. Nicolet followed them to the vilage of the Hurons, and thence set out on his partitie expedition, ac- Bon." and provided with gift- to come and iunile trine in his path.

thu - from Lake Nipping: then the " Satt mot Ben er -. " on the northern shore of Lake Bl ** off and :1

Michigan. Here lived the ancestors of the modern Ojibways and Chippewas -- Algonquins, whose language was familiar to Nicolet, and here his party stopped for a brief rest. It may be that words here dropped by Nic- olet, in regard to the new mission among the Huron -. were remembered. Not many years after. the inhabi- tants of this village asked that a missionary might be sent among them, and still later there was founded here the successful mission of Dablon and Marquette.

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History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time, Part 9

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