History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 3

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

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A similar word or compound word which applies

*** Chicago Antiquities "-p. 121.

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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 abuntlance of this bulbous plant throughout the country : the latter mentioning the fact of subsisting nn 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 :680-81.

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 wurd 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 distinguisheil, each iribe 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 langnage, as spoken by the Ojibways, without reference to other ilialerts, seeming in ignore the fact that it could come from any other source, whereupon they reach the conclusion, and soassert, that it means onion, garlic, leck « skunk. So far as appears at this day, there seems to have been nu 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. Hle defines skunk as zhe-gang. John T'anner, 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. Ile defines onion as she-gan-gu-winzhe (skunk-weed). In a note thereto, by Dr. James, editor of Tanner's narrative, it is added : 'From shih-gan-ga-winche, this word in the singular num- ber, some derive the name Chicago." . " I1 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- viclions on the subject from one or more of the amthorities which are before cited, or from some one familiar with the Ojibway lan- guage, who forms his convictions to the same effect, from the mere cuincidence of sounds. History is so unsatisfactory and varied in regard to this word, that we are left 10 this ilay to determine its meaning solely upon the basis of similarity of sounds. For there seems to be no fact or incident narrated or mentioned in history thal leads with any degree of certainty either to the original mean- ing of this word as intended, or to the dialect from which it is derived. And It is to be confessed that upon the theory aforesaid, conceding that the word comes from the Ojibway language or dia- lect, no one is prepared to dispute the assertion so generally made that the word is derived from skunk. The word skunk being in the Indian tongue simply she-kang, in order to ntake Chicago, the theory adopled is that ong, an Ojibway local termination is added which makes Chi-cag-ung, meaning at the skunk, the sound ng being dropped in common speech, leaving the word in the form now used. Whilst this is not inconsistent in practice in dealing with Indian names, there is another theory, it is suggested, which may be adopted in this connection, that would seem to be equally consistent. The word Chi-ca-go, withont adding ng, would be a fair Ojibway expression. The sound o added, would denote the genitive, and might be rendered thus, 'him of the skunk," in which case it would probably be the name of an individual, and it is stated that this word is the name not only of some one Indian chief, bin the name also of a line of chiefs during several genera- tions. * * * The most that can be said of the word with any

degree of certainty is, that it is of Indian origin and comes from same dialect of the Algonquin group, so called. It must be noted, however, that in the Ojibway 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 thal language, 10 forbear, or avuid, 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, from git-che, great. Besicles several other words or expressions which may be found in this dialect, of the same sound, yel 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 l'ottawatomie 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 tlenote that when the French first mentioned the river, " called hy 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 rountry, 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 carly 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 NICOt.Er .- A history of Canada, written in Latin, by M. DuCreux, and entitled Historia Canaden- sis, was published in 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 from her; we 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 hy singularly meritorious acts toward the Indian tribes 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 its western shore; not resting until he reached the vil- lages of the Illinois Eriniouaz and, it is believed the beautiful prairies of the State which now bears their name. In the Historia Canadensis, and in the Jesuit Relations nf 1639-43 Vimont , is found the narrative of the life and achievements of the man who occupied so important a place in the history of French explorations,

In 1603 Samuel Champlain first came to the banks of the St. Lawrence to make a survey of the country pre- limiuary to founding a colony and permanently secur- ing to France a monopoly of the fur trade with the sur- rounding Indians. His visit was brief, but from the natives he learned enough to satisfy him that the fail- ures of De La Roche, Pontgrave and Chantvin need not be repeated on the St. Lawrence. He returned to France, to sail again in 1608, with men, arms and stores

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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 helieved 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 wiklerness 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 hy 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, adventurers and 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. His 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 heard 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 he 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 163.3.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 Hundred Associates."

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 con- 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 training.'

+ "The occupation of Canada by the English from 1620 to 1637 accounts for his long residence among the Indians,

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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 he 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 withont 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 wiklerness 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 left 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 ah- 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 his post in Canada long enough for such a journey chiring his after life.

Some time after the fathers left him at the Isle des Allumette, Nicolet followed them to the village of the Hurons, and thenre set out on his pacific expedition, ac- companied by " seven ambassadors of the Huron na- tion," and provided with gifts to conciliate any hostile tribe in his path. Launching their canoes, the party paddled up the Georgian Bay: passed " the river"t which flows from Lake Nipissing; then the " Nation of Beav- ers," on the northern shore of Lake Huron; and still north of Sault Sainte Marie and the " People of the Falls," whose village was on the south side of the strait at the foot of the rapids, in what is now the State of

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 Hurons, 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.

Leaving the " Village of the Falls," Nicolet returned down the strait of St. Mary, turned to the west, passed Mackinac, and his little canoe floated upon the clear waters of the "second great fresh water sea." The pioneer white man had found his way to the great Northwest. With that little boat came the beginning of the end which is not yet,-the dawning of the wonder- ful to-day of the West. Coasting along the northern shore of Lake Michigan, he stopped occasionally upon the shore of what is now the Upper Peninsula of Michi- gan, reached Green Bay and the mouth of the Menom- onee River, which he entered, and visited the Indians living in its valley. At the head of Green Bay, near the point where it receives the waters of Fox River, lived the Winnebagoes* to whom he had come with nis message of peace. The narrativet continues thus:

" When he was two days distam (from the Winnebagoes), he sent forward one of his own company to make known to the nahon to which they were going thal a European ambassador was ap- proaching with gifts, who, in behalf of the Hurons, desired to se- cure their friendship "The embassy was received with applause, and young men were immediately sent lo meet him, who were to carry the baggage and the equipment of the Manitourinion (won. derful man), and escort him with honor. Nicolet was clad in a Chinese robe of sitk, skillfully ornamented with birds and flowers of many colors; he carried in cach hand a small pistol. When he had discharged these, the more timid persons, boys and women. beluuk themselves to flight, to escape as quickly as possible from a man who, They said, carried the thunder in both his hands. Ilut The rumor of his coming having spread far and wide, the chiefs, with Their followers, assembled directly, to the number of four or five thousand persons; and the malter having been discussed and considered in a general council, a treaty was made in due form. Afterward cach of the chiefs gave a banquet after their fashion; and al one of these, strange Jo say, a hundred and twenty beavers were calen."

After negotiating a treaty with the Winnebagoes, Nicolet sailed up the Fox River, of Green Bay, a six days' journey, as the first step toward the discovery of the " great water " he desired to reach. Near the " port- age " between the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers, he found a village of the Mascontins.

Allouez found the Mascoutin village, which he visited in 1670, at the western extremity of the portage on the "Wisconsin, and says it was six days' sail down the Wis- consin to the " Messisipi," from the village. He atso speaks of the lake or marsh near the portage as being the source of the Wisconsin River .;

Nicolet evidently thought the same. The narrative reads:

"The Sieur Nicolet, who had penetrated farthest into thuse distant countries, avers that had he sailed three days more of a greal river which flows from the lake he would have found the sea."

After sailing down the Wisconsin,s and when with- in three days' journey of this " sea," Nicolet seems to

· This tribe, called Oninipegon in Vimont's Relation (royo), and Puants by the French, was identified with the Winnebagues of Green Bay by J. G. Shea. +1lu Lreux.

:Rel. 1670-71. " To reach them, the Mascoutins, we traversed the lake of marsh, at the head of the Wisconsin, which was a beautiful river running southwest."

$It is the opinion of fohn G, Shea and Francis Parkman that Nicolet reached and miled down the Wisconsin, as stated above. Prof. C. W. Butter- feld, of Wisconsin, who has given much time and study to the subject of Nicolet's explorations, is convinced-and gives good reasons for his belief-1lnt Nicolet terminated his journey toward the West at the portage, and that it would have required as " three days' journey " on the Fox River to reach thec Wisconsin-an affluent of the Mississippi, and the " wra " of Nicolet.

*Winnebagoes of firern lay, W'ss.

+ French River.

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EARLY EXPLORATIONS.

have found that it was still a long journey to the sea which washed the shores of Asia, and turned his course toward the south. He then visited the Illinois, whom he called Eriniouay. Vimont, from information derived from Nicolet, describes them as living south of the Winnebagoes, and as numbering about sixty villages. He also speaks of them as the Liniouek. After his visit to the Illinnis villages, Nicolet returned to the region now Green Bay, visited the Pottawatomies, who lived on the islands at the mouth of the bay, amil on the penin- sula forming its western shore. His mission ended, he returned to the Huron village and thence to Three Riv- ers, where he is mentioned, in the parish records, as standing godfather to Marie, little daughter of Capitanel, chief of the Montaegnais Indians), on the 27th of De- cember, 1635. On his return to Canada, he was as- signed to the post at Three Rivers, by Champlain, as commissary and interpreter. On the 7th of October, 1637, he was married at Quebec to Marguerite Couillard, a godchild of Champlain. Their only child was adaugh- ter. His history, from the time of his return until his death, is thus simply told by DuCreux:

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History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 3

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