History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 16

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

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The services of Mr. Varnum as Factor at Chicagu entled the same year. After the order fur the discon. tinuaure of the factory was issued, A. B. Lintlsey, of Connecticut, was sent to Chicago to wind up its affairs. While living in Chicago, Mr. Varnum boarded in the old John Dean house, with J. B. Beathien, then its owner. He is spoken uf by Major Irwin as a gentle- man of well-known integrity. After the goods belong. ing to the United States remaining in the factory had been tlisposed of, the building, which was just south of the fort, was bought by a Mr. Whiting. probably Cap- tain Henry Whiting, an ex-army officer, then sutler of the fort.t It was sold by Mr. Whiting to the American Fur Company, and by that company to Jean Baptiste Beaubien, whose residence it remained until 1839.

During the continuance of the factory, from the rebuilding of the fort in 1816, tu its final abandonment in 1822- 23, there were two Indian Agents. Charles Jouett was reappointed in 1815, came to Chicago in 1816, and remained two years or more. His residence. and the Agency-house for that period, was a log build- ing of two large rooms, about twenty steps from the river bank, on the north side, according to the testi- mony of his daughter. Mrs. Susan M. Callis, who came to the place with her parents in t816t and remained here several years, She also says that this house, which was west of John Kinzie's, was built before the massa- cre of 1812.$ and that between it and the Kinzie house was another, occupied in 1816 by a Mr. Bridges. She mentions also an encounter which her father had with Main Poc, a furious Indian, the old war-chief of the Pottawatamies.

In a letter written by this lady to Hon. John Went-

· Wis. Hist. Coll .. vol. VIT.

+ Jamrs E. Herpa and Henry Whiting were Millers al Fort Dearborn in 1821-'33, and were both, in Bag, at Fort Howard, Lireen Bay, with Captain W'm. Whistler. Heron had been Assistant Commissary of Purchases in the army from September. the3, umil distunded. June 1, 1821; then suller at Macki. nac for a short time-at Chicago in iBaz, at Fort Ifoward in (82), and suber- quently at Fort Leavenworth and Fort Jesup until 1843

Henry Whiting, of New York, was commissioned Second Lieutenant of the zad Infantry, May 1. 1813, First Lieutenant in June, 1813 ; wounded in the hat. ale af Niagara, July 25. 1814; Captain in September, 1814: retained un tr- arrangentent of the army on peser establishment, May, 1815. as First Liemen- ant of ad Infantry with brevel; disbanded June, s820; sutler at Chicago in 1821 -* 22, and wulmequently at Green Bay.

: From the des rigetien suppneed to be the old " Buras House," mentioned in " Waobun.""

" " Chicago Antiquitica," p. 105.

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HISTORY OF EARLY CHICAGO.

worth, she mentions other incidents and persons of early ander Wolcott, Jr., graduated at Yale in the class of Chicago, She says :

"Aly mother's oblest child was Charles Lalime Joueti, who was born in Chicago, October 20, 18og, and died there September S. 1810. It has been said that he was the first white child born in Chicago .* There was a Government Factor there named Jacob B. Varnum, who had a child born there.t l'ossibly this child was born before my brother. My mother's nurse was a half-breed French and Indian woman, who was bound to her until she was eighteen years of age. Iler name was Madaline Alscum or tilscum. She married the day we left Chicago for the last time, Joseph thier, a wildlier from the garrison. I remember Jame- Kiley, ; who acted as father's interpreter. My impression is that Dr. Alexamler Wol- entl was father & successor as Indian Agent. Father resigneil the agency al Chicago about 1818-'19 and reinened lo Kentucky. There was a Dr. McMahon stationed at Chicago. There was a Dr. John Gale there from New Hampshire, who left before we didl. and who died at Fort Armstrong, July 27. 1830. I remember the Indian chief. " White Dog,' who pretended he could not speak English. But he gut ilrunk one day, and we then found out that he could speak it very well. I also temember a tall and powerful Indian chief, 'White Elk,' who was pointed out to me as the man who killed the children of Mrs. Susan Corbin al the massacre of 1812.% I remember a half-breed Indian who was in the employ of John Kinzic, named Perish LeClerc, who used to boast of his Pol- tawatomle ilescent. I also remember Major Daniel Haker, who hail command at Fort Dearborn. I frequently saw an Indian called ' Blue Earth,' because he always painted his face with a sort of blue clay, which gave him a ghastly appearance. He kept princi- pally by himself, and it was hinted he was a white man in disguise. Ile was out of health; and I once aw the Indians dance whal was called the ' medicine dance,' around him, in hopes of effect. ing a cure. There were two lieutenants in the garrison, whine names do not appear in any of your Chicago publications. They were married about the same time. They visited os frequently. tine was Lieutenant Brooks. | The other was Lieutenant Jantes Hackley, Jr., who married Rebekah Wells, of Fort Wayne, dangh- ter of Captain William Wells, who was killed in the Chicago massa- cre of 1313, and for whom your street was named." When my mother first went to Chicago it was in midwinter, and she went all the way on horseback. This journey she often described as her bridal tour. Father had as guides a half-breed Indian named Rohs- inson, and a negro named Joseph llanles. In traveling through Illinois they found the snow very deep and drifted im the prairies. They frequently heard the cries of panthers at night, who were de- lerred from them by their camp fires. The Imlians were always very kind, and mother never felt any fear. But she became tired of living so far from all society, and persuaded father to move kack lo Kentucky, He lived on a farm wear Harrodsburg. Ky., where all his children, except the one at Detroit and the one at L'hicago, were born. As he lived in Chicago when my brother died in (sep- tember) 1810, and at Harrodsburg the 8th of February, ISit, when my sister Caroline was born, you can judge when he left Chicago the first time. Mother often congratulated herself that she left Chicago in time to escape the massacre. . . The Agency.houve where we lived was on the north side of the river, nearly opposite the garrison, and John Kinzie, Sr., lived near by on the same side. Mother always said that the little river (as il then was) was lined all along its banks with wild onions, and took its name Chicago therefrom: Chicago meaning, in the original Indian longue, ' union.""

DR. ALEXANDER WOL.corr succeeded Mr. Jouett as Intlian Agent in 1820, and held the position until his death in 1830. He was the son of Alexander and Lucy Waldo, Wolcott, and was born at East Windsor, Conn., February 14. 1790. His father, who graduated at Yale in 1778, and settled at Windsor as an attorney, was a man of distinguished ability and standing. Alex-

· Tsu children had been burn le lieutenant William Whistler, and iwu lo John Kinne, in Chicago, prior to ,5 9.

+ Subsequent to 1816.

: James Riley, and his brothers Peter and John, were suas of Judge Riley, uf Schenectady, who was al une tinie a trader with the Indians at Saginaw. The boys were half-breeds, the mother being of the Indian race. (*Chicago Antiquities, " p. Jok)

5 Sce " Waubon," p. 18:, "Chicago Antiquitirs, " p. 1oz. Mr. Hurlbut qoutes from a letter of Mrs. Callis : " The house in which my father lived was built before the massacre of 1813. I know this from the fact that . White Elk,' att Indian chief, and the tallest I ever saw, was printed out to me as the savage that dashed out the brains of the children of Sukey Corbin against the side of this very house."

Lieutenant Edward E .. Brooks, of Kentucky. He was made C'aptain and I cansferted to lletruit about >819. He resigned June 6. 1827. His wife was the daughter of Chief Justice May, of Michigan, and one of his daughter. married 11. M. Schud, of Chicago, Mr. Brooks died in Hetmit.

{ Lieutenant Ilackley was promoted to a captaincy and resigned December 33, 1828.

180g. He was the third of four children, His oldest sister, Frances, married for her second husband, Arthur W. Magill of Middletown, Conn., to which place the Wolcott family had removed. Henry, the second child, was appointed Collector of the Port of Middletown by President Adams in 1828, He removed to Chicago in 1836, and tlied there April 5, 1846. Henry was the father of Alexander Wolcott, long the Chicago City Sur- veyor. Alexander, and Mary Ann, a younger sister, were the third and fourth children. iiter Dr. Wolcott's arrival here he finished and resided in a builtling con- menced during Judge Jouett's incumbency. This was the agency-house on the north side of the river, near where now is the foot of North State Street, and which was facetiously called "Cobweb Castle," during his residence there as a bachelor,-probably from the no. ticeable accumulation of those terrors to good house- keepers during those years, On the 20th of July, 1823. he was married at the residence of John Kinzie, by John Hamlin, J. P. of Fulton County, to Ellen Marion, ekl- est daughter of John and Eleanor Kinzie. In 1820 Dr. Walcott accompanied the expedition under Governor Cass from Detroit through the upper lakes to the sources of the Mississippi. The party left Detroit on the est of May, performed the journey, and returned to lake Michigan the latter part of August. At Green Bay the party divuled, some proceeding to Mackinac. and a part-among whom were Governor C'ass. Dr. Walcott, Major Robert Forsyth and Henry R. School- craft .- coming down the western shore of the lake to Chicago, where they arrived Angust 29, and remained until the 31st : when Governor Cass, accompanied by his secretary, Major Forsyth, Lieutenant Mackay, John Kinzie and others, took the old Indian trail to Detroit. and Schoolcraft and Captain Douglas the route by the eastern shore of the lake to Mackinac. Mr. Schoolcraft speaks of Dr. Wolcott as a gentleman "commanding respect by his manners, judgment and intelligence." On the 29th of August, 1824, a treaty was concluded with the Indians at Chicago, which was signed in the presence of Alexander Wolcott, Jr., Indian Agent, Jacob B. Varnum, Factor, and John Kinzie, Suh-Agent. In May. 1823, the garrison was withdrawn from Fort Dearborn and the post and property left in charge of Dr. Wolcott, who moved into one of the houses erected for officers' quarters, and there resided until the fort was again occupied by United States troops in August, 1828. He was appointed Justice of the Peace for Peoria County Derember 26, 1827, and is recorded as judge and voter at the special election for justice of the peace and constable, held at the house of James Kinzie in the Chicago Precinct, July 24, 1830. When troops arrived to re-garrison Fort Dearborn in 1828. Dr. Wolcott and family returned to their old home in the agency-house, where he died late in the fall of 1830. By his will, dated October 18, 1830, he left all his property to his wife Eleanor. M. Walcott and his daughter Mary Ann. The latter died in infancy, and his widow became his sole surviving heir.

Mrs. Wolcott, with her mother and half-sister, Mrs. Helm, remained at the agency-house until the spring of 1831. The order having been given for the evacua- tion of Fort Dearborn by the troops, the household goods of Mrs. Wolcott were sold by auction, and she accompanied her sister, Mrs. Lieutenant David Hunter now Mrs. General Hunter to Fort Howard, Green Bay. Mrs. John Kinzie and Mrs. Helm went to Fort Winne-

* Spelled Eleanor, both in the will of Bir, Walcott, and en the record of her marriage in the " Wukuti Memorial." She signed her name Ellen M.

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THE FUR TRADE AND TRADERS.

bago at the same time, with John H. Kinzie and wife, who had been in Chicago on a visit. The following extracts from a letter written in Chicago about 1821-22 by Dr. Wolcott to Governor Cass, in reply to certain queries of the latter in regard to the language and con- dition of the Pottawatomies, are given to show the sprightly and agreeable manner in which this early settler of Chicago expressed his ideas, and as revealing the pleasant humor of the man :*

" Dear Governor :- Thank God, 1 can al last in part disbur- then my conscience of a crime that has long laid heavy upon Is, the crime of neglecting to comply with your repeated requests re- specting your queries. Many a lime and off, when I cast a rueful glance over that interminable string of ' Inquiries,' which could not be properly answered by a philosopher. till after al least len years' study ' with all appliances and means to bont,' 1 have wished them at the bottom of the Red Sea, along with so many other wicked spirits, whose only object on earth was to disturb the repose of quiel, lazy people like myself. Could the necessary knowledge be acquired by the use of any kind of machinery, could it be accomplished by the use of steam it would be a matter of no difficulty. 11 Is only to Imty an engine, and the thing is done. Bul to find a person well acquainted with the Indian tongue who knows any thing about any other language on the face of the earth, or who can be made lo comprebend ils most simple principles, is a pretty impossible sort of an affair. Nevertheless, I have endearored to do a little something to quiet certain stirrings and switchings somewhere about the region of the pericardium, which hare for a long time troubled ine exceedingly ; more especially whenever my eyes happened to rest upon a little ugly-looking book, full of noles of Interrogation. That I have done so little, and that I have done that little so imperfectly, is only to be excused from the considera- tion that I have worked without tools. I have been in the situa- lion, and met with the success, you will perhaps say, of a man who should attempt to polish a diamond with a wood rasp, or fashion a watch with a sledge hammer. That I have delayed il so long can- not be excused at all, unless you will accept of the true plea, that I was delerred by the hopelessness of the task, and you have Inll leave to laugh when I tell you that The confusion and want of ar- rangement in the papers arise from want of time. But it is liter- ally truc. Since I commenced my inquiries, some weeks agu, re- specting the construction of the language. I have kept myself at it night and day : but I found such amazing difficulty at every step that my progress has been hut wow, and it is now too late to make any attempt at arrangement, as Captain Whitingt is ready to start. All, but what relates to language, has been written for a long time, and a meagre account is is. But the truth Is, that of all the Iribex and nations that people this globe, the Pottawatomies have the least that is peculiar in their manners and customs, or interesting In their history. The only very prominent trait in their character is their universal and insatiable love of ardent spirits, and that is common to all tribes who are so lucky as lo live in a state of fre- quent intercourse with Christian men.# I suppose by this time you will have another book of ' queries ' under way, with which you will favor your friends in due time. Should you be desirous ihat 1 should make farther inquiries, please to signify it, and 1 promise a more prompt attention to your request than I have given heretofore. And now I will not say another word on the subject of Indian languages except that I am as glad to escape from il as we were to escape from the unheard-of comforts of Sandy Lake. Don't you feel a horror creeping over you every time the idea re- curs jo your memory? I never think of it, but, like the l'harisee. I thank God that I am not as other men-Indian-traders and dwel- lers on the borders of Sandy Lake."

The widow of Dr. Walcott married, in 1836, Hon. George C. Bates of Detroit, and died in that city August 1, 1860, leaving a husband and one son, Kinzie Bates, U. S. A.

Ellen de Balès

Colonel Thomas J. V. Owen succeeded Dr. Wolcott, and served as Indian agent during the years 1831-32-33. Gholson Kercheval and James Stuart served under him

· letter published in Schoulcraft's " Travels in the Central Portions of the Mississippi Valley."

* Captain Henry Whiting, sutler at Fort Dearborn in 1821-22.

: A long account of the construction of the Pottawatomic Language follows lire.

as sub-agents ; Billy Caldwell Sanganash , as interpre- ter: David Mckee as blacksmith, and Joseph Porthier as striker. Colonel Owen was born in Kentucky, April 5. 1801. He was appointed Indian agent in the winter of 1830.31, but did not arrive in Chicago until the spring of 1831, the sub-agent, Mr. Kercheval, attending to the duties of the office until that time. When the Town of Chicago was incorporated in 1833, Colonel Owen was chosen President of its first board of trustees. He died at Chicago, October 15, 1835.

THE FUR TRADE AND TRADERS.

Before priest or explorer found his way to the Chicago River, the fur-trader was dealing with the Indians on its banks. Father Marquette found them-evidently not strangers to the soil or its savage inhabitants-when in the winter of 1674-75 he lay siek in his cabin on the prairie of the portage. They were here before hint, were awaiting his coming, and had prepared to receive him hospitably when he should arrive at their wintering- ground below the great Indian village. When they found that his ill health would compel him to pass the winter in "their cabin " at the portage, they sent him supplies from their own stores, and by their influence with the Indians made his hard winter more safe and comfortable.

Until the friendly Illinois were driven from their river. French traders passed freely to and fro over the " ('hicagou route " from Canada to Louisiana, and colo- nists came to build their cabins around the Fort St. Louis. When the tribes of the Illinois were driven from their country, and Fort St. Louis had been abandoned and finally destroyed, this path became for a time ton dangerous for even the daring voyageurs, and this route uf the Canadians to the French settlements and to the interior of the country was exchanged for one more safe.

From the first settlement of New France, the most lucrative business of the colonists was the traffic in furs. and the Canadian voyageurs were, after Nicolet. the first explorers of the Northwest. The fur trade on the St. Lawrence was licensed by the French Government, the paper being drawn somewhat in the form of a colonial commission, conferring on the holder the authority of a military officer over the voyageurs in his employ. The early French traders were sometimes by the terms of their licenses made Colonial agents, with power to make treaties with the Indians and arrange terms of commer- cial intercourse. Their Canadian engages were a won- derful class of uten, maintaining by their hardihood a traffic in furs with the savages of the Northwest, which gave to the region its only great value in the eyes of the French Government. The patience, tenacity of pur- pose, courage and resolution displayed by these hardy, cheerful servants are alnost without parallel in the his- tory of exploration of savage countries. With their packs of merchandise, or "outfits," they left Quebec or Montreal in their frail bark canoes, traversed lakes and rivers to their destined post, penetrated to the win- ter haunts of the savages, toiling up the streams in their camoes, and at each portage taking both the canoe and its load on their backs from one stream to another, outil a favorable spot for a " wintering-ground " was reached. Then, with their savage companions, they passed the winter in the wilderness, to secure for their employers the annual load of peltries, Sometimes they learned to love their savage life so well that they ceased to return to the St. Lawrence, but following the Indians in their wantderings, engaged in an illicit trade on their own ac- count, and became couriers de bois. These far-traders

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HISTORY OF EARLY CHICAGO.

of the woods became so numerous by the last of the seventeenth century that a royal declaration was issued against them-their vocation interfering materially with the profits of the licensed French traders. When French domination ceased in the Northwest there was an essen- dial change in the manner of carrying on the fur trade. At a later day the rongeurs of the American For Com- pany. and private traders were employed under written suntracts, executed in Canada for a term of from three to five years-their wages from two hundred and fifty livres fifty dollars , to seven hundred and fifty livres per year. To this was added their " omfit." consisting usually of a Mackinaw blanket, two cotton shirts, a cap- ote and a few other articles, with the necessary goods for their Indian customers. In the fall they lef Mack- inac, or other headquarter- of their employer, to spend the months until spring at their " wintering-ground." Their fond, when with savages, consisted principally of salt pork, corn and tallow, The furs collected by the voyagenrs employed by the American Fur Company were taken to Markinac in the spring, amil there re- packed for New York. The early population of Chicago was, in a great measure, made up of fur-traders. Aside from the military, almost every inhabitant was connected with this traffic, in some form or other. The first trace of white occupation of the site of Chicago after it be- came the home of the Pottawatumies, is by a French trailer namted Guarie, who located on the west side uf the North Branch of the Chicago River, near the forks. Gurdan S. Hubbard, whose personal knowledge of Chi- engo dates back to 1818, says of this trader :*

"Prior to 1800, the North Branch of the Chicago Kiser was called by the Indian traders aml voyageurs " River Tiuuric." and the South Branch, ' Porlage River.' In the west side of the North Itranch a man by the name of Guarie had a trading house, situated on the bank of the river about where Falton Street now is. This house was enclosed hy pickels. He heated there prior to 17;6. This tradition i received from Mest. Antoine Deschamps and An- toine Besom, whn from about 1778 had passed from Lake Michigan to the Illinois River yearly ; they were okt men when I first knew Them in 1818. This Tradition was corroboraled by nther old voya geurs. The evilences of this trading-lumise were pniuleil ott tu me by Mr. Hleschamps ; the corn-hitls adjoining were distinctly trace. able, though grown over with graw."

Baptiste Pointe de Saible doubtless traded in furs with the Indians, during his long residence un the Chi- cago River, but whether white traders were settled here during those years is unknown. Win. Burnett, a trader at St. Joseph, whose wintering-ground in 17go-gt. was on the Kankakee, says in a letter written at St. Josephi. May 6. 1790 :+ " | received a letter yesterday from Chicago, wherein it is said that nothing is made in the Mississippi this year." February 6, 1791, he writes : " The Pottawatomies at Chicago have killed a French- man about twenty days ago. They say there is plenty of Frenchinen " Whether these Frenchinen were traders with headquarters at Chicago, or merely passing voy- ageurs, is not known ; neither is there any clew to the name of Mr. Burnett's correspondent. He again writes, in the summer of 1798, to Mr. Porthier, a merchant at Mackinac : 1

" In the course if last winter t wrote you that it is experted that There will be a garrison at Chicago this summer, and from late account» | have reason to expect that they will be over there this fall, and should it be the case, and as I have a house there alreally, and a promise of assistance from headquarters, I will have occasion for a good deal of liquors, and some other articles for that post. Therefore, shmild there be a garrison at Chicago This fall, 1 will write for an addition of articles lo my order."

On the arrival of Major Whistler to build and gar- rison Fort Dearborn, he found at Chicago, as the only · Blanchard's " Ilistory of Chicago," p. 747.

+ " Chicago Antiquities," P. S.

residents in the summer of 1803, three French fur- trader> : LeMai, who bought the cabin of De Saible in 1796, and had probably been a resident since that time : Antoine Quilmette, who lived near him, and a trader by the name of l'ettell, of whom nothing more is known. A year latter Le Mai sald his cabin to John Kinzie. and Antoine Onilmette entered the service af the latter, ami long remained his employé. Ouilinette's house was just north, and within a very short distance uf Mr. Kinzie's. At the time of the Fort Dearborn massacre, it became the hiding place of Mrs. Helm, where she was preserved from the furious savages who sought her life by the courage and coolness of Mrs. Bisson, a sister of Mrs. Onilmette. It was in Quilmette's garden that William Griffith," the Quartermaster at the fort. hid himself behind the currant bushes, and when discovered by the family was disguised as a ('ana- tlian voyageur and helped in escape with the Kinzies.

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History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 16

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