History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 15

Author: Andreas, A. T. (Alfred Theodore), 1839-1900
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago : A.T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 875

USA > Illinois > Cook County > History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time > Part 15

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· 13 Peters, 495.

adversely upon the bill No. 773' and recommend that it be indefinitely postponed." The apparent similarity of the interest involved with that of the Kinzie family could furnish no solid basis for a claim against the Gov. erument, as pre-emption has been decided by the courts to be a matter of, bounty on its part and coukl not be turned into a right against it, on the part of a citizen. Moreover, the Government had need, or use, for the southern fraction which it was actually occupying when suit was brought, while of the northern fraction it had never made any use. Had the Beaubien claimants awaited the abandonment of the land hy the Govern- ment it is not improbable that they would have succeed- ed. Indeed, it was rumored that the patent had been actually signed in favor of Beaubien when the news of the suit aroused the indignation of President Jackson, who in his impulsive wrath tore it into fragments. The story is somewhat open to suspicion, being such as the known character of the President woukl have given rise to, without any foundation in fact. Eventually Con- gress donated to Beaubien four or five lots in the Fort Dearborn Addition as a compensation for his original ontlay; but the effort to prosecute the claim before Congress in 1878, was, as has been shown, resisted with so much firmness as to leave hut little hope of its suc- cessful revival at any future time.

The Fort Dearborn Addition was sold by the Gov- ernment under Act of Congress of March 3, 1819. There was also some abortive agitation about obtaining the contested land for county purposes, in virtue of an act of Congress of May 26, 1824, granting any unsold public lands at $1.25 an acre for such purposes, But it was too late, and the Beaubien Claim went into the real estate market. as stated, under the auspices of the Gien- eral Government.

The homestead of Colonel Beaubien was where now is the southwest corner of South Water Street and Mich- igan Avenue. This was bid in at the land sale in June, 1839, by James H. Collins, for $1.049, and, in the words of Madore, son of the old pioneer, the " very house his father was inhabiting, in which his family had been born and reared, and around which were the graves of his departed children, was sold from him in his old age. No wonder the citizens of Chicago held an indignation meeting."

Colonel Beaubien owned a farm near the place, called " Hardscrabble," to which he removed about the year 1840, and where his wife died in September, 1845. In 1850 he was commissioned Brigadier-General of militia, He returned from his farm to Chicago where he married, in 1855. Miss Louise Pinney. In 1858 he removed to Naperville, where he died January 5, 1863.

UNITED STATES INDIAN AGENTS AND FAC- TORS AT CHICAGO.

When old Fort Dearborn was built in 1803-4. an agency-house, for the use of the United States Indian Agents to be stationed at the post, was erected under the protection of its guns. It was situated a short dis- tance above the fort on the same side of the river, and is described as an old-fashioned log building with a hall in the center, and one large room on each side. Porches extended the whole length of the building, front and rear. The Chicago Agency included the Pottawat- omies, Sacs, Foxes and Kickapoos. All negotiations with them, all payments made to them by the United States, all settlements of disputed questions, were through the medium of the Indian Agent.

CHARLES JOUETT, the first Indian Agent at Chi-

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UNITED STATES INDIAN AGENTS AND FACTORS AT CHICAGO.

cago, arrived and entered upon the duties of his office in 1805. He was a native of Virginia, the youngest of nine children, and was born in 1772. His father shared in Braddock's defeat in 1754, and two of his brothers

C. Lom M

fought in the War of Independence. John Jouett and his four sons were all of remarkable size and strength. Charles was six feet three inches in height and propor- tionally muscular. He studied law in early manhood, and practised for a short time at Charlottesville, Va. In 1802, be was appointed by President Jefferson Indian Agent at Detroit. January 22, 1803, Mr. Jouett mar- ried Miss Eliza Dodemead, of Detroit, who died in 1805, leaving a daughter, born in 1804. April 2, 1805, he was appointed Commissioner " to hold a treaty " with the Wyandotts, Ottawas and other Indians of northwestern Ohio, and what is now southeastern Michigan. The treaty was signed at Fort Industry, on " the Miami of the Lake," now the Maumee, July 4. 1805. The same year he was appointed as Indian Agent at Chicago ; and was officially notified, October 26, 1805, that the Sacs, Foxes and Pottawatomies would be thenceforth in- cluded in that agency. Early in 1809 he married Miss Susan Randolph Allen, of Clark County, Ky., but born near Williamsburg, Va., in 1786. By her he had one son, born in Chicago in 18og, and there deceased in 1810: and three daughters, born in Kentucky. In 1811* he removed to Mercer County, Ky., where he became a judge in 1812. He was again appointed In- dian Agent for Chicago, by President Madoou, in 1815. and moved there' with his family that year. He is charged with $1,000 salary as such agent in the nation- al accounts of 1816. The Indian agencies in Illinois were turned over to the Territory of Illinois in 1817. with a proviso that all such accounts should not exceed $25,000 a year. It may be owing to this change that Mr. Jouett severed his connection with the Indian De- partment a second time. He, however, signed the In- dian treaty of St. Mary's, Ohio, September 17, 1818, as witness, with the title of Indian Agent. This seems to have been his last service in that line; and he soon afterwards returned to Kentucky. At the organization of the Territory of Arkansas, in 1819, he was appoint- ed its Judge ; but the climate proved unhealthful, and after a stay of six months, during which he was engaged in establishing the institutions of the new govern- ment, he returned to Kentucky." He then settled in Trigg County, of which he remained a resident until his death, May 28, 1834. He enjoyed the friendship and confidence of three Presidents ; and was noted for his integrity and fidelity to the trust imposed in bim.

Soon after the buikling of Fort Dearborn, the United States established a Factory at the post, for the purpose of controlling the Indian trade of the vicinity. The Factory system was instituted by the Government from motives of both philanthropy and expediency. It was designed to benefit the Indians by giving them a fair equivalent for their fors in such useful articles as their needs required, and to withhold from them whisky, which was rapidly rendering them not only useless, but dangerous " wards " of Government. It was believed that by dealing fairly and honestly with them, they

would soon learn to consider the United States Factors their friends and benefactors, and gladly transfer their trade from those who first intoxicated and then cheat- ed them, to those who came among them to better their condition, With this motive was also the desire of transferring the immense profits of the Indian trade from private traders or corporations to the United States Treasury. The system eventually proved a fail- ure. The gentlemen sent to the frontier to deal with the Indians, although men of intelligence and integrity, were unacquainted with the nature of those they came to serve, and unequal to the task of competing with old, acote and experienced traders, whom the Indians had learned to trust, and whose influence over them was unbounded .. Before the war of 1812, the factories were a partial success, but after peace was declared, and they were re-established in 1816, they proved a complete failure, The American Fur Company, after its re-organ- ization in 1817, swept away both private traders and factories, and enjoyed for a time almost a monopoly of the Northwestern fur trade.

The name of the United States Factor at Chicago, from the time the system was established until 1810, has not been preserved, unless, as seems probable, Charles Jonett was both Indian Agent and Factor.

Matthew Irwin was Factor here from 1810 until the destruction of Fort Dearborn, August 15, 1812. and after the departure of Mr. Jonett, in 1811, probably acted also as Agent. He was the son of Matthew Irwin, Sr., a native of Ireland, who settled in Philadel- phia when quite young, and becoming a wealthy mer- chant assisted the United States Government during the Revolution by loaning it money for carrying on its plans. In September, 1777. he was appointed Quarter- master-General of Pennsylvania, and served in General Armstrong's division, then in the field. During 1778 and 1779 he was engaged in fitting out privateers and ships against the enemy, being appointed a naval agent for the State in the latter year, and commissioner for procuring salt for the public. In 1781 he was l'ort Warden for Philadelphia ; from 1785 served for several years as Recorder of Deeds and Master of Rolls of Philadelphia, and in 1787 was appointed Justice of the Court of Common Pleas. He became bankrupt in the latter part of 1788, partly in consequence of surety debts. The mother of Matthew Irwin, Jr., was a sister of Thomas Mifflin, General in the Revolution and after- ward Governor of Pennsylvania. His oldest brother, Thomas, was United States District Judge of Western Pennsylvania, and another brother was a merchant of l'hiladelphia. Matthew Irwin, Jr., was born, reared and educated at Philadelphia.

In a written communication, given to Dr. Jedidiah Morse, in 1820, and published in " Morse's Report on Indian Affairs," Major Irwin gives the following state- ment of the amount of business done while he was Factor at Chicago :

Amount of furs and peltries forwarded to the Superin. lendent of Indian trade June 30. ISto, and in-

voiced al ... $ 2,972.56 Amount of drafts on the Secretary of war, in favor of

the Superintendent of Indian trade in that year .. 1,740.01

Total amount of business done in 1810 .... $ 4.712.57

Amount of furs and peltries forwarded to the Superin-

intendent of Indian trade Sept. 25, 1811, .. 5.280.50 Amount of drafts on Secretary of War transmitted in favor of the Superintendent of Indian trade. 775.39

Total amount of business done in 1811, ... $ 6,055.80

. He was charged with salary to October 1, 1811 ; and his successor, Cap- tain Nathan licald, is charged on suinc account from July 1, that to August 15, 1612,

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HISTORY OF EARLY CHICAGO.

Amount of furs aml peliries forwarded to the Superin-

lendeil of Indian trade July 11, 1212, . $ 3.751.41

Amount of drafts transmitted in favor of the Superin- lendent of Indian trade .......

Amount of articles sold for cash, 515-45

Amount of business done in iste, $ 6.795.06

In May, 1811, Mr. Irwin gave notice to the Secre- tary of the Treasury of the machinations of the Shawa- noe Prophet to incite the Pottawatomies of the Illinois River and surrouniling country to hostility against the Government. Mr. Jouett's absence left Mr. Irwin to discharge the duties of Agent and Factor. He again writes on the toth of March, 1812: " The Chippewa and Ottawa nations, hearing that the Winnebagues and l'ottawatomies are hostilely inclined toward the whites, sent speeches among them, desiring them to change their sentiments and live in peace with the whites ;" and again on April 16, 1812: "On the 6th, a party af ten or eleven Indians surrounded a small farm house on Chicago River, and killed two men. The Indians are of the Winnebago tribe." Mr. Irwin must have left Chicago soon after forwarding goods July 1th. or he would hardly have escaped the massacre of the next month. The goods in the factory were distributed among the savages, and the subsequent war put an end. for a time, to the factory system. Mr. Irwin was appointed Assistant Commissary nf Purchases in the army May, 1813, and served until June, 1815. when the army was disbanded. The following spring a mil- itary post was established at Green Bay, aml he wassent there as United States Factor, remaining until the office was discontinued in 1822. Major Irwin married. in 1816, at Uniontown, Penn., Miss Nancy Walker, and his son William, born in 1817. was the first white child of American parents born at Green Bay. On the organization of Brown County, Wis,, in 1818, he was appointed by Governor Cass its first Chief Justice and Judge of Probate, serving until September, 1820. Late ill 1822 he returned with his family to Philadelphia, and finally settled at Uniontown, Pa., where he was em- ployed as merchant and Postmaster, and where he died about 1845. from the effects of paralysis, at the age nf nearly seventy-five years. Major Irwin is described as of a little above medium height. well proportioned. of pleasing deportment, and interesting and popular address.

On the rebuilding of Fart Dearborn in 1816, a fac- tory was again established by Government. Jacob B Varnum, of Massachusetts, was appointed Factor, with a salary of $1,300. The business was unsatisfactory. In a letter to Major Irwin at Green Bay, dated Decem- ber 5. 1818, a year and a half after the reorganization of the American Fur Company, Mr. Varnum says :

" The indiscriminate admission of British subjects to trade with the Indians is a matter of pretly general complaint, through- nut this section of the country. There are five establishitients nuw within the limits of this agency, headed by British subjects. These. with the large number of American traders, in every part of the conniry, will effectually check the progress uf this factory. I have hardly doue a sufficiency of business this season to clear the wages uf my interpreter."

The following year he writes to the superintendent of Indian affairs at Washington, evidently believing that a better day was dawning for the factories in conse- quence of the recent decision of the Attorney-General as to who should be considered American citizens, and granted licenses to trade with the Indians, The deris. ion was, that unless these residing within the jurisdic- tion of the western ports, at the time they were given up by the British, did absolutely go into court within

the twelve months following the event, and declare themselves American citizens. they could not he con. sidered as such without going through the process of naturalization. The Secretary of War, John C. Cal- houn, immediately directed Governor Cass of Michi- gan Territory in revoke all licenses hitherto granted to persons thus circumstanced, and he, in turn. ordered the several Indian agents accordingly. This order temporarily threw out of employment many trader> connected with the American Fur Company, which hail retained in its service Canadians formerly British sub- jects, who had been licensed by the various Indian agents to trade, they claiming the right of citizenship under the provision of Jay's treaty. Following is the letter of Mr. Varnum :

" L'STEH STATES FACTORY, CHICAGO, June 20, 1819 " The exclusion of foreigners from the Indian trade, will, it is twhieved, justify the rxtension of the operation of this establish- ment. This, together with the consideratiun of the large supply of blankets aml cloths now on hand, induces me to recommend a chetribution of the goods of this factory among the adjacent villa- ges for trade, to such an extent as will ensure the sale uf nearly all by the expiration of the trading weavm. Such a measure, I am well convinced. will be highly gratifying to the Indians, as a great number by this means will be rnabled to supply themselves with goods un more reasonable terme than could otherwise be dune ; nor do. I apprehend any difficulty in effecting it to the advantage of the Binvernment, as gentlemen of unquestionable integrity have already applied for such outhis. JACOR R. VARNUM."

It may readily be seen that the American Fur Com. pany would not quietly submit to such a diminution of its prerogatives, and measures were innnediately taken to prevent the present unpleasant aspect of affairs be. coming a permanent fact. Ramsey Crooks and Samuel Abbott hastened to Washington to be present at the ses- sion of 1819-20. That their efforts to obtain such terms as they desired for the company in which they were both interested were successful, is shown by the following extracts from a letter written to John J. Astor by Ramsey Crooks," dated " New York, May, 1820." Mr. Crooks sity's :

"The Deu-fangled obnoxious Indian system died a natural death, as the House of Representatives, pleading a press of much more important business, refused to act on the hill from the Senate. ail from the interest our friends look in the explanations given by Them by Mr. Samuel Abbott, who remained al Washington for the purpine. I have not the smallest doubt, had the bill been brought forward, but the monster would have been strangled. Now thal usthing can be efferted untit Congress meets again, I presume the trade will be for this summer continued umler the former regula- tions : bnt had Mr. Secretary C'alhoun carried his point in gening the proposed new law passed, it is no longer concealed that the first step was in license so few traders that the factories were sure of reviving : another appeal tu Congress for the increase of the public Irade fund workt no doubt have followed : and private trade con- tined to a limited number of favorites, among whom I hazard bui little iu saying the American Fur L'umpany would not have been fuund : because we will not suffer ourselves to be trampled upon with impunity either by the military ur any other power, and te. cause others, profiting by our example, have of laic shown thens their teeth."

The same month that the agent of the American Fur Company wrote thus to his principal, the Factor at Chi- cago, again discouraged, writes under date of " May 23. 1820 ":

" The Indians have been induced to come here this season by * the facility with which they were enabled to procure whisky. In fact the commerce with them this season has been almod exclusively confined to that article. I will venture to say that out of iwa hun- dred bark« (Indian boxes containing about forty pounds) of sugar laken, nol live have been purchased with any other commodity than whisky. I have not been able to procure a pound of sugar from the Indians, but can get a supply from the traders at ten cents a poutil."

The factors, from first to last, attributed the ill suc-

. This letter and others from which extracts are suken, are in the posses- siun of Burdon 5 Hubbard

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UNITED STATES INDIAN AGENTS AND FACTORS AT CHICAGO.

ress of the system to the licensing of British traders, brought up in the business, thoroughly conversant with the nature and desires of the Indian, and determined in their opposition to the factories. On the other hand, the private traders and the fur companies affirmed that the system was radically wrong, and that the Indians were equally cheated, and equally well supplied with whisky by the factories as by themselves. Major Irwin says in letters to the Superintendent of Indian Trade, during the years 1817-19 :

" There appear- a palpable incongruity in the manner of con- dueting the Indian trade, the factors are sent to supply the wants of the Indians, and the Indian agents can adopt such measures as To defeat all their plans to thal end. It is very certain that the authority vested in them to issue licenses is well calculated to de- stroy all the benefits that might be expected from the factories ; particularly too when they interfere with each other's districts. The truth is, the factories required to be well supported before they can be of any utility ; one of the first measures to which should be the prohibition to grant licenses where the factory can supply the necessities of the Indians."

On July 5. 1821, Colonel McKenney writes from the " Indian Trade Office " to Major Irwin :

" Sir :- I have the honor respectfully to represent, that for the three years last past, the two factories on the lakes, one at Chicago, the other al Green Bay, have been in a measure useless to the In- dians, and, in a pecuniary point of view. to the Government also. This state of things is owing entirely to the unsuitable provisions which exist for the regulation of the trade. . . The continalion of the same inactivity which has hitherto characterized the business al these two factories, promising to make inroads upon the fund allot. led for the traile, I do not feel myself authorized further to delay a decision on the subject, and recommend it accordingly for the Executive approval : it is to break up and discontinue the Jwo factories located at Chicago and Green Bay."

In opposition to the views of the Government Fact- ors at Chicago and Green Bay, may be given the views of two gentlemen who visited them, the one in 1820 the other in 1822. Dr. Jedidiah Morse in his report on In- dian affairs, says :

' An intelligent gentleman, who had just visited L'hicago, in- formed me (July. 1820), that there were goods belonging to Govern. ment, at that place, to the value of $20,000, which cost more at Georgetown than the traders ask for their goods at the post of de- livery : and that the goods are inferior in quality, and selected with less judgment than those of the traders : that only twenty-five dul- lars' worth of furs was sold by the Factor at Chicago ; that the liovernment makes no profit im its capital, and pays the superin- lendents, factors, sub-factors, aml their clerks out of their funds. ' The fact, ' he added, ' that the Government sells goods al cost and carriage, and pay their own agents ; and that yet the Indians pre- fer dealing with the traders, is pretty conclusive evidence that the traders have not been exorbitant in the prices of their goods, nor have maltreated the lilians, who have had liberty to Irade with une or the other as they pleased. It is evident," he said, ' that by some means, the Indians had not confidence in the Government, as fair and upright in their trade.' Nothing was said or intimated on this subject, by the gentleman above alluded to, which in the re- motesi degree Impeached the character or conduct of any of the factors. They appear as far as I have knowledge of them, to be upright men. and faithfully and intelligently to have discharged the duties of their office. This want of confidence in the Govern- ment, on part of the Indians, I have witnessed with solicitude in many other instances, and it has often been expressed by the In- dians in my interviews with them. Whether this prejudice has arisen from foreign influence, exerted to answer particular purposes, or from that of the traders, as is alleged in the preceding commu nications Ifrom the factors at Chicago and Green Bay), or has been occasioned by the manner in which their lands have been obtained from them by the tiovernment : or by the inferiority in quality and high prices of the goods whien have been offered them in barter, at the Government factories, or delivered to them in payment of their annuities, as other confidently assert, it is not for me to decide. It is my opinion, however, from all I could learn, that each of these causes has had more or less influence in creating and fixing this un- happy prejudice in their minds."

General Albert G. Ellis, who was the first editor of the Green Bay Intelligencer, the pioneer newspaper of

Wisconsin, describes, in his " Recollections."* Green Bay as it was on his arrival in 1822. Speaking of the Unitetl States factories, he says :

" Dne had been placed at tireen Bay, and Major Matthew Irwin. of l'ennsylvania, appointed lo the office. We found him at Fort Howard in 1822, the sole occupant of the post, in his stone buik). ing and living under the same roof with his family, the troops hav. ing been removed two years before to C'amp Smith. Major Irwin was a gentleman of intelligence culture and integrity, and as well filted for the trust as any other citizen Intally unacquainted with the Indian country, its trade and inhabitants, could he -- thal is, nol fitted at all; and. moreover, being furnished by the Government with goods unsuited to the Indian trade, and coming In competing contact with life-long, experienced. astute traders, of course the effort to gain confidence, trust and influence with the Indians wa- a total failure. His sleazy woolen blankets. cheap calice, and. wurst of all, his poor, unserviceable guns, were all rejected by the Indians, and during four years' trade he did not secure fifty dol- lars' worth of peltries; but the natives, as well as French inhabit. ants, made quantities of maple sugar-this was not current al New York for payment of goods, as peltries were, and wol so much cared for by the old traders, The Indians resorted with it in the Unitedl States Factor, Major Irwin, who bought large quantities of it, and had many thousand pounds in store at the time of our arrival in 1822. . . That fall Major Irwin closed up most of the business, shipped his sugar to Detmit, turned over the concern to a young gentleman succeeding him by the name of Kinggold, and left the country. Messrs. Ieron and Whitney, sullers to the troops. bought Major Irwin's house, and the old factory was'converted inin a hospital building for the sick of the garrison."

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History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 15

Author: Andreas, A. T. (Alfred Theodore), 1839-1900 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Chicago : A.T. Andreas Number of Pages: 875

Author: Andreas, A. T. (Alfred Theodore), 1839-1900
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago : A.T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 875