History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 19

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 19

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THE FUR TRADE AND TRADERS.

he discharged this large amount of duty with the assistance of but a solitary clerk. It was ton mach for him : his health gave way. When a lardy leave of absence arrived, he set out with his family upon a journey, in hopes that mountain air or sca-bathing would recruit his exhausted forces. But he was destined to reach hardly the first stage of his journey. While riding in the rars approaching l'ittsburgh, and conversing with his ordinary cheerfulness, he re. marked a blind man approaching, and, perceiving that he was ask- ing alms, he characteristically put his hand in his pocket. In the act, his head drooped gently, and with a peaceful sigh, his spirit departed in its rest.

Colonel Kinzie married, in Middletown, Conn., August 9. 1830, Miss Juliette \. Magill, daughter of Arthur Magill of that place. He was at that time Indian Agent at Fort Winnebago, and the young couple, after a brief visit in New York, set out for their home in the western wildernews. In the latter part of September they arrived at Detroit, and took passage on the steamer " Henry Clay," for Green Bay, via Mackinaw. Arriving there they passed down the Fox River to the Portage and Fort Winnebago. Culonel Kinzie visited Chicago in the fall of t830, at the time of Dr. Wol- cott's death, and again in the spring of 1831, the latter time ac. companied by his wife. The family came to L'hicago to reside in 1834. St. James' parish was urganized the same year, and on the 12th of October Rev. Isaac W. Ilallam arrived in the place to take charge of it. Mr. and Mrs. John 11. Kinzie were from the first most influential and ilevoted members of St. James' Church, and with Gurdon S. 1lubbard and Mrs. Margaret Helm may he con- sidered its founders. The first regular services of the Church were hell in a room in a wordlen builling standing on the corner of Wolcott (now North State) and Kinzie streets, which was fitted up by Mr. Kinzie, and the lots on the southeast corner of Cass and Illinois streets, where a church edifice of brick was erected in 1836-37, were donated by him. The home of Mr. and Mrs. Kin- zie was on the northeast corner of Cass and Michigan streets, and the generous hospitality of bath host and hostess was proverbial. Mr. Kinzie left a widow, one son and two daughters. His eldest son (born at Fort Winnebago) was killed in an engagement at White River, in the summer of 1862, and he had also buried a daughter. Mrs. Juliette A. Kinzie died September 15, 1870, at Amagansett, 1 .. S. Her death was caused by the fatal mistake of a druggist, who sent her morphine, which she unfortunately swal- lowed instead of quinine, which she had ordered.

ELLEN MARION KINZIE, ektest daughter of John and Eleanor, was born in the " Kinzie House," in Deveinber, 1So4, and was probably the first white child born in Chicago, During the resi- dence of the family in Detroit she attended school at that place, and afterward at Middletown. C't. On July 20, 1823. she was married to Dr. Alexander Wolcott, then Indian Agent at Chicago. Her husband died at the agency house in 1930, and the following year with her sister, Mrs. Hunter, she accompanied the troops. then vacating Fort Dearborn, to Fort Howard, Green Bay. In 1836 she married, at Detroit, Mich., Hon, tieorge C. Bates of that city. Mrs. Bates died at Detrolt, August t. isto, at the resi- dence of Bishop Mccloskey, leaving a hushand and one son, Kin- zie Bates.

MARIA I. KINZIE was born in 1Soy, and married Lieuten- ant David Hunter (now General), when he was stationeit at Fort Dearborn, accompanying him in 1831 to Gireen Hay. The following is an extract from a letter of General Ilunter, dated May 24, 1879. and published in the Calumet Club Reception l'amphlet :

.... " More than half a century since, i first came to Chicago on horseback from St. Louis, stopping on the way at the log cabins of the early settlers, and pawing the last house at the mouth of the Fox River. 1 was married in Chicago, having to send a soldier one hundred and sixty miles, on foot, to Peoria for a li- cense. The northern counties in the State had nut then been or. ganized, and were all attached to Peoria County. My dear wife is still alive, and in good health ; and I can certify. a hundred times over, that Chicago is a first rate place from which tu get a good wife."

ROBERT ALLEN KINZIE was born in Chicago, February S. 1810. Although but two and a half years of age at the time the family escaped the Fort Dearborn massacre, its horrid wenes were indelitily imprinted on his memory-even to minor details. Ile re- turned with site family to Chicago in 1816, and when about nine years of age accompanied his father on a trip to St. Immis. Ile was sent to Delruit to attend school, going by way of the lakes, and returning on horseback. In 1825 he went to f'rairie du Chien and took a position there under his brother John II .. who was chief clerk for the American Fur Company, afterward taking his brother's position when the latter was appointed agent uf the company. In 1827 he returned to Chicago, and the following year went to De- trois. In 182g his brother John removed to Fort Winnebago as Indian Agent, and Robert went to that place, where he was em-

ployed as sutler to the fort. Mrs. Kinzie mentions in, " Waubun," the fact of his being there when she arrived in the fall of 1830, and he probably accompanied his brother to Chicagu a few weeks later am receiving intelligence of the alarming sickness of Dr. Wolcott, his sister's husband. He remained in Chicago when the rest of the family left in the spring of 183t, and carly in t832 erected a frame store on the West Side-the first frame store in Chicago- and probably the first frame building, aside from the one erected by Government for Billy t'aklwell in t628, near the junction of North State and Chicago Avenue. Mr. Kinzie married the daugh- ter of Colonel Wm. Whistler, who came to Chicago as I.ientenant in his father's command in 18o3, and returned to the place as com- mandant at Fort Dearborn in 1832. In 1835 Mr. Kinzie hecame a member of the firm of Kinzie. Davis & Hyde, hardware dealers : in 1840 he moved on to a farm at Walnut Grove, Illinois, where he remained three years. In 1845 he was at Des Moines, and thence went beyond the Missouri River in Kansas to trade with the In. dians. In May. 186t, he was appointed l'aymaster in the army. with the rank of Major, and remained in the service to the time of his death. From 1861 tu t664, he was in Washington, D. C. ;

R.A. Slingã

from 1964 to 1865 in New Mexico and afterward in Chicago. In person, Major Kinzie was a very powerful, as well as active man. His death was from heart disease, and very sutklen. He seemed quite as well as usual in the morning, hut later in the day suddenty became ill, and ilied in a few moments, at his residence on Thirty. fifth Street, t'hicago, on Saturday afternoon, December 13. 1873. The funeral services were conducted by Father Riordan, at St. James' Roman Catholic Church ; the interment was in Graceland Cemetery. It has been written of Robert A. Kinzie : "Hle was a man of sterling character and honesty. While his life presented no brilliant succession of great deeds, he was a man who would be remembered as "Good Major Kinzie."" **

. For many of the facts in relation to the vangen win of John and Eleanor Kinzie credit is here given sa Hurlba?'s " Chicaga Antiquities."

100

HISTORY OF EARLY CHICAGO.

CHICAGO FROM 1816 TO 1830.

From 18t6, when Fort Dearborn was rebuilt, Lo 1829-30 there was little change in the outward appear- ance of Chicago, Samuel A. Storrow, of Massachusetts, Judge-Advocate U. S. A., in 1816-18, made a three months' tour through the West in 1817, visiting Fort Dearborn on his route. In a letter lo Major-General Brown which was published in the Wisconsin Historical Society's Collections, he says :

"On the zd of (ktolær after walking for three or four houts, I reached the River Chicago, and after crossing it entered Fort Dearborn, where I was kindly entertained by Major Baker and the

for Fort Wayne, having provided less uncomfortable means of Ltaveling than for the ten previous days,"

When Henry R. Schoolcraft visited Chicago, in 1820, he found four or five families living here. He mentions those of Johnt Kinzie, Dr. Alexander Wolcott, John B. Beanbien aud John Crafts, the latter being then at Hardscrabble.

Two years later 1822 Charles C. Trowbridge made a trip from Michigan to Chicagu on Government busi- ness. He found only " the little Fort Dearborn, one log house, occupied by Mr. John Kinzie, agent for Mr. Astor, another by Dr. Wolcott, United States Indian Agent, and another by the late General Beaubien, then

FORT DEARBORN, AS REQUI.T IN 1816.

officers of the garrison, who received me as one arriveil from the moon. At Chicago I perceived I was in a better country. It had become so by gradual ameliuration, That which I had left was of a character far above mediocrity, but labors mmler the permanent defects of coldness of soil and want uf moisture. . · The River Chicago (or, in English, Will Onion River) is sleep, and about forty yards in width. Before it enter- the lake, its two branches unile, the one proceeding from the north, the other one proceeding from the west, where it takes its rise in the very fountain of the Plain or Illinois, which flows in an opposite direction. The source uf these two rivers illustrates the geographical phenomenon of a reservoir on the vety summit of a dividing ridge. In the autumn they are both without any apparem fountain, but are formed within a mile and a half of each other, by some impercept- ible unululations of the prairie, which drain it and lead tu different directions. But in the spring the space between the two is a single sheet of water. the common reservair of both, in the center of which there is no current toward either of the opposite streams .. :..... The. she and relations of Fort Dearborn 1 have alreally explained. I has no advantage of harbor, the river itself being always choaked and frequently barred from the same causes that I have imputed in the other streams of this country. In the rear of the fort is a prairie of the most complete flatness, no signs uf elevation being within the range of the eye. The soil and climate are both excel- lent. Traces yet remain of the devastation and massacre com- mitted by the savages in 1812. I saw one of the principal perpe- trators (Nes-ent-no-meg.)" On the 4th of October 1 left Chicago

· Mrs. Kinzie mys, (" Waubun," p. 145) that Nec-scrd-no-meg, one of the most famous chiefs of the nation, was the father of the wife uf Billy Caldwell.

a trader." So it was year after year-Fort Dearborn, and the houses of John Kinzie, Dr. Wolcott and Jean Baptiste Beaubien. William H. Keating, who reached Chicago, with the second expedition of Major Long, June 5, 1823, describes the village as " consisting of a few huts," and offering no inducements to the settler as a place of business for "the whole amount of the trade un the lake did not exceed the carga of five or six schooners, even at the time the garrison received its supplies from Mackinaw." Ebenezer Childs, of La Crosse, made a trip from Green Bay to Chicago in 1821, and again visited the latter place in 1827. He says the place had not improved any since his former visit. John H. Fonda, of Prairie du Chien, came to Chicago in 1825. He says :

" At that time Chicago was merely an Indian Agency, it con- tained about fourteen houses, alul not more than seventy.live or one hundred inhabitants at the most. An agent of the American Fur Company, named Giurdon $. Hubbard, then occupied the fort. The staple Inisiness seemed to be carried on by the Indians and run away soldiers, who hunted ducks and muskrats in the marshes. There was a great deal of low land ; and mostly destitute of tim- ber. The principal inhabitants were The [Government] Agent [Dr. Wolcott], Mr. Hubbard, a Frenchman by the name of Quil- mette, and John B. Beaubien."

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CHICAGO FROM 1816 TO 1830.

Chicago, at the time of Mr. Fonda's visit, was a part of Peoria County, He says there were some fourteen cabins in the place, and the assessment roll of John I .. Bogardus, Assessor of Peoria County for the same year 1825 shows just fourteen tax-payers, as follows :

Tax-Players' Names. Valuation,

Tax.

1 Beaubien, John R

.81000

$10.00

2 Clybourne, Jonas,

625

6.25

3 Clark, John K.

250

2.50

4 Crafts, John ..

5000

50,00

5 Clermont, Jeremy,

100

1.00

6 Coutra, Louis.

.50

7 Kinzie. Jolın

300

5.00

S Laframboise. Claude,

100

1.00

9 Laframboise, Joseph.

-50

to MeKec, David.

100

IT Piche, Peter ..

100

1.00

12 Robinson, Alexander.

2.00

13 Wolcott, Mraander,

572

5.72

14 Wilemer [Onilmette], Antoine

400

Of these tax-payers, Jonas Clybourne and John K. Clark, lived several miles up the North Branch, where now are the North Chicago rulling-mills : the Lafram- hoise brothers lived about an equal distance up the South Branch, at Hardscrabble ; John Crafts, the agent of the American Fur Company, had quarters with John B. Beaubien ; David Mckee lived in the North Side, near the agency-house of Dr. Wolcott, and John Kin- zie and Antoine Quilmette lived nearly opposite the

1 !

JOHN K CLARK.

fort. Alexander Robinson had a cabin at Hardscrabble but probably lived near the "forks" on the West Side, in 1825. Jeremy Clermont and Peter Piche were In- dian traders. In January. 1828, Mr. Fonda came again to Chicago as bearer of dispatches from Fort Howard to Fort Dearborn. He says there was no im- provement in the place since his former visit, save that the fort was strengthened and garrisoned. Since 1820, however, several permanent settlers had arrived at Chi-

cago, and made homes in its immediate vicinity, promi- Rent among whom were :-

THE CLYBOURNE FAMILY : 1823-24) .- Elizabeth Me- Kenzie, a young girl taken prisoner by the Indians in

ARCHIBALD CLYBOURNE.

Virginia, in the latter part of the eighteenth century, was released after a long captivity, and with her sister Margaret found her way, or was taken, to Detroit. Elizabeth became the wife of a trader, Clark, and the mother of John K. Clark, an Imlian trader for many years in Chicago, and of a daughter named Elizabeth, who married William Ahert, and settled in Laporte, In- diana. Mr. Mckenzie, the father of Elizabeth and Mar- garet, learning that his daughters were alive, visited De- troit, and on his return to Virginia was accompanied by both of them with their children.

Elizabeth subsequently married Jonas Clybourne of Virginia, the fruit of this union being two sons, Archi- bald and Henley.

ARCHIBALD CLYBOURNE, The elles) son was born In Giles County, Va., Angust 28, 1802, Ilis half-brother, John K. Clark, camte early to Chicago to seek his fortune, and Archibald followed him as soon as he arrived at mantium He reached Chicago August 5. 1623, and after remaining abon one year returned to Virginia with John K. Clark, In bring his father and muther to the place he had determined to make his home. The flybourne family. con- sisting of father and mother, Jonas and Henley, arrived at Chicago on the a3d of August, 1924. "They were accompanied by John K. Clark and Elizabeth Kinzie, a daughter of John Kinzie, who subse. quently married Samuel Miller, Juhn K. Clark had an Indian wife, named Madaline Mirandeau, sister of Mrs. Joseph Porthier ( Victoire Mirandeau), when lived in Chicago both before and after the massa- ere, although not here at the time. A daughter of John K. Clark anıl Madalinc Mirandeau, the wife through whom he received his [and in Chicago, is still living al Milwaukee. Clark married, July 21, 1829, l'ermelia Scott, daughter of Stephen J. Scott, who settled at Giros Point, (Wilmette) In 1826.

JONAS CLYBOURNE, with his wife and two sons, and their half- brother Clark, settled on the North Branch of the Chicago River, near where now are the North Chicago rolling mills-building there two cabins. On the roth uf June, 1829, Archibald Clybourne was

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102

HISTORY OF EARLY CHICAGO.

married at the "Gramil Rapids" of the Illinois River, now the town ol Marseilles, to Mary Galloway, daughterof James Galloway, who had been there settled some two years. This seems tu have been the earliest marriage uf Americans recorded in la Salle L'annty.

In the summer of 1524, James tiaallaway left his home In San- dusky, Ohio, and came un horseback to Chicago, arriving in the fall. lle spent a year in the vicinity, trapping and examining the country for a favorable site for a home. During the year he bought the claim uf a man named Weed on the Illinois River, at the point then known as the " tir.nul Rapids of the liumes," The following year he returned to Ohio, and diquered of his property there, pre- paratory to making his home in Illinois. After various hindrances Mr. Galloway and his family, consisting of his wile, his daughter Mary, aged about fourteen, Jane nine ur ten, Stran alumt two, and his son John, aged about six, started from sandusky for Chicagu in October, 1826, The vesel in which the family embarked was a small schooner, which was to touch at Hetreit and Mackinaw before making Chicago. Mr. tialloway, in anticipation of an extensive trade with the Indians, jwuvided himself with a large assortment of articles suited to the business, which with his household goods were placed on board the schooner. The passage to Deiruit and Mack- inaw was slow aml tedious, and at both those ports the passengers were delayeil while the captain had a " jolly time " on shore. I.caving Mackinaw late in the fall, in the midst of a heavy sturm, and against the advice of all prudent people, the captain run his vessel nground off the island of St. Helena, alwent tifeen miles from Mackinaw, where his passengers were oldiged to remain three or four days, and until they were picked up by a vessel belonging to the American Fur Company which left Markinaw fur Chicago, a few days Ister. The stranded vessel was well filled with water, al- though still whole, but much of its cargo was smiled, including a large part of the goods of Mr. Galloway. What could be saved was taken on board the vessel of the American Far Company. although with serious misgivings on the part of the captain as to the propriety of taking the goods of any trailer who was not con- nected with the company which employed him. Communication was opened with the agent at Mackinaw, who would give consent tu hnve Me, Galloway's goods carmel to t'hicago on the vessel nuly on condition that all those appertaining to the Imlian trade should be placed in charge of the ngent at Chicago, and kept by him until spring, thus throwing Mr. Galloway out of a winter's work. Hle would not consent to this, and some arrangement was made with the captain whereby he was to be allowed to place hix goods in some safe place, before the Chicago agent should know that he was authorized to claim them for the winter. The story of the experi- ences of the family, after reaching Chicago in 1326, as narrateil by Mrs. Archibald Clylxmene (the Mary falluway of the story), and published In the Chicago Snuday Times, gives a good picture of the little settlement and how the people lived here at that early dlay. The following extracts are from the article :

"There was a goodly company on board the American Fur Company's schommer, and its capacity was taxed tu the utmost. Besides the two crews and the Galloway family, there were Iwo carpenters, who were coming ou to do some repairing at the furt, and a Mr. Arthur and wife frum Detruit, who, like Mr. Galloway and family, intended to embark In a farming enterprise, There were still others, but Mrs. Clybourne at this late date ( 1877 ) fails to call up their identity. All these folk were most kindly dis- posed toward Mr. Galloway and swore to stand by him if the agent in Chicago seemed dispused to make him any trouble. When the vessel made a landing somewhere near the foot of Mad- ison Street, at a point where J. Baptiste Benubien, as agent of the American Fur Company * had a rookery, which was known as a " warehouse ; " the captain told him to look about him for a place to store his goods. As soon as Mr. Galloway had gone, the cap. tin most treacherously turned about and hamled the letter of in- troduction to Mir. Beaubien, and that functionary hastened to secure help to have the goods conveyed to the warehouse. In the meantime Mr. Galloway had been to the fort, standing almost un- occupied on the bank of the river, but as the keeper of the stock- ade went " snooks" with the Fur Company, he refused the new- comer even a room for shelter for his Inmily, to say nothing for store-room for his goods. Finding himself balked at that point, he scarcely knew where to turn, when he was apprised of what was happening at the vessel, and he quickly retraced his steps. Such an occurrence as the arrival of a schooner, with twenty or thirty people on board was naturally an "event " of extraordin. ary moment to the settlement and, as a matter of course, everybody -Americans, French half-breeds and full blixxled Indians for miles around, were on the scene, and taking a deep interest in all that was going on. It was well that Mr. Galloway was not an entire stranger to the place. During his former visit he had made a numi- . John Kinzie was agent of the American Fur Company al this time, but Mr. Beaubien had bought of the Company its night to trade with the Indians of the vicinity.

ber of acquaintances, not in say friends, especially in the rival setite. ment of Hardscrabble, and these people combined, with the 1%u ship-carpenters and Mr. Arthur, were disjkned to make a stand for him. When nuses were counted it was found that Mr. tiallo- way's friends were decidedly in the majority and Beaubien, swear. ing a blue streak In execrably mixed French and English, was forced to desist from carrying unt the behests of the agent at

MRS. ARCHIBALD CLYBOURNE.

Mackinaw. Failing of finding quarters at the fort, and there being no shelter " down town," Chief Alexander Robinson in- formed 3Ir. Halloway that he had an old log cabin at Hardserab- ble, which he was welcome to ucenpy. The offer was thankfully accepted, and ns the flat-boat of Mr. Wallace" of Hardscrabble. also a friend of the new comers, was near, the goods were hur- riedly piled into it and poled up the river to the shanty, which was Incated near the west branch of the South Branch, about four miles from the fort. The winter that followed was terribly severe, and the little cabin of ane room, crowded besides with barrels, proved a most uneumfortable place for a family of six persons to live in. At this period of Chicago's history, the Imlian was still monarch of all he surveyed. Red skins were the rule and white (Des the exception, and the cabin stood near the most frequented trail that led to the Desplaines and Fox River country-it having formerly beeu useil as a trading-house. The cabin was the farth- est in the direction of the Indiaus, and it was indeed, a terrible ordeal for the family to be transformed, at one move, frum comfort and civilization Into the very heart of savagery. The older inhab- itant», most of them brought up in the midst of savages, cared no mute for an Indian than a white man-indeed they minded him less-but the same indifference could not well be expected of new- comers, the more as the women folk were left much of the time alone, Wir. Galloway being about a considerable portion of his time on his claim near the " Grand Rapids " of the Illinois. One day during the absence of Mr. Galloway, some idle rumor reached the cabin that the Indians on the Auxplaines had taken the war- path. Old settlers would have paid little attention to such a story. but the new comers were terribly frightened. Mr. Galloway was expected home in the evening, and when he did not come, the family took it for granted that he had been brutally massacred. It was a terrible night. The snow was drifting furiously : a.kecn northwest wiml was raking the prairie as with grape shot, anul when about midnight the household was awakened by unearthly yells, and loud beatings on the door and windows, they concluded that their hour had come. The wife assumed that the busband-

* William H. Wallare. See skeich of Indian Fur-Traders at Chicago.

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103

CHICAGO FROM 1816 TO 1830.

who had been detained by the severity of the sturm-had been murdered, and that the fiends, still reeking with his blood, had now come to dispatch the family. It was evident that there were from a dozen to twenty Indians on the outside, yelling and rattling the door and windows. The fact was that these Indians still sup- posed the house to be a trading-post, and all they wanted was a shelter from the searching blast. Returning from an extensive hunting expedition nearly frozen, to be denied admission where they expected a warm welcome-for the fur-laden Indian wax always a cheering sight to the trader-was a mystery to them which they were determined to solve. They attempted to force the door, but failed. Every night, before retiring. it was Mrs, Galloway's custom to thoroughly barricade the door, and it was so arranged that nothing short of utter demolition would move it from its place. Mrs. Archibald Clybourne { Mary Galloway ) was then a girl fourteen years of age, and being the eldest, was the only one her mother could depend upon for assistance, There were two axes in the cabin. One of them the mother gave to the daughter, and posted her at one window : the other she grasped herself, and took a position near the other window. Having made this disposition of affairs, she said, " They have killed father and now they mean to kill us. But I am bound to kill one Indian at least before they do It, and you must kill another. The moment you see a head forcing its way by that window, strike." The two women stood guard the whole night, during several hours of which the Indians kept running round and round the cabin to keep warm, now and then emitting unearthly yells, Finally they gave up the effort to gain admittance and made their way to Lawton's ( Laugh- ton's ) the nearest neighbor, a trader about half a mile away in a southerly direction. Here they met with a ready welcome, and with chattering teeth told how they had fared at the other place. In a few words the situation was explained to them, and, as quickly as possible, a Frenchman was dispatched to quiet the fears of the women, who were still standing as guard, fearing at any moment the return of the howling redskins. The Frenchman did his best, talking through the keyhole to make them understand that no dan- ger was to be apprehended ; but as the folks inside surmised he was only an Indian imitating a Frenchman's broken English, and that the other red-devils were close behind hun in ambush, his well intended mission utterly failed of its object, and the stout-heartedl women held their post until the dawn of the morning revealed that the coast was clear."

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History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 19

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