USA > Illinois > Cook County > History of Cook County, Illinois : being a general survey of Cook County history, including a condensed history of Chicago and special account of districts outside the city limits : from the earliest settlement to the present time, volume I > Part 6
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In 1840 there was made an effort to annex all northern Illinois to Wisconsin. James Duane Doty, Governor of Wisconsin, favored the plan. He said in a letter addressed to the people of Wisconsin, and dated October 30, 1840: "I hope no inducement which may be held out by political expediency or respect for a government which has attempted to infringe the rights of a state (Wisconsin) which had no voice in her councils, will deter us from proceeding to frame a permanent government for the state according to its constituted boundaries." He had before said, January 19, 1840, in a letter addressed to several in northern Illinois: "My doctrine has been, and still is, that if Congress saw fit to establish more than three states in the territory northwest of the Ohio, the Ordinance of 1787 fixed definitely the northern boundary of the states bor- dering on the Ohio river on a line drawn east and west through the southerly head or extreme of Lake Michigan. It is, therefore, lawful for these (that is, those living north of the line last afore- said), to unite with the people who occupy the other portion of the fifth state (now called Wisconsin Territory) to frame a state gov- ernment for themselves according to the articles of cession con- tained in the Ordinance of 1787. This right is paramount to any act of Congress. The public debt of Illinois is enough alone to alarm the property holders in every part of the state, especially the industrious farmers. Justice, however, I think, requires that pro-
HISTORY OF COOK COUNTY
vision should be made in the constitution of the new state for the completion of the canal from Chicago to the state line, and also the improvement of the navigation of Rock river, and the repay- ment of a fair proportion of the expense incurred by Illinois upon these works. A proposition so equitable I cannot but believe would be acceptable to Illinois, and the course pursued by Wisconsin approved by the world."
Many people in northern Illinois preferred to remain with Wis- consin and favored the change of boundary. On July 6, 1840, a convention at Rockford, Ill., declared that the fourteen northern counties in Illinois belonged to Wisconsin and proposed a conven- tion to be held at Madison in November of that year to fix the southern boundary of Wisconsin. In 1842 the Territorial Gov- ernor of Wisconsin sent a committee to the Governor of Illinois informing him that the Illinois jurisdiction over the frontier coun- ties was accidental and temporary. Much excitement ensued. Wis- consin was in a state of ferment till admitted into the Union in 1848. Congress confirmed the boundary of 1818.
Northern Illinois was principally settled from New York and New England. A little later Germans from Pennsylvania came in; then Irish and other nationalities of Europe. On March 23, 1816, Mr. Robertson, from the Committee on Public Lands (H. R.), re- ported a bill to provide for the appointment of a surveyor for Illi- nois and Missouri territories. On February 6, 1821, Illinois passed "An Act providing for the running and marking the line dividing the states of Illinois and Indiana." In establishing this line no notice was taken of the surveys of the public lands, nor was the intersection of these public surveys with the state line noted, so as to show the correct fractions and subdivisions of the public lands on each side of the state line. In November, 1827, the Surveyor General of Ohio, Indiana and Michigan Territory was instructed to connect the surveys of the sections caused to be made fractional on each side of the state line with the line itself. This direction was not complied with, whereupon the same instructions were issued in December, 1828, to the Surveyor General at St. Louis (for Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas), but he replied that no surveyor could be found to do the work for the price allowed by law-three dollars per mile-to retrace the old line and connect the public surveys with the state line. So the lands could not be offered for sale. Hence the law of Congress to relieve the situation. Mr. Clarke, of the Committee on Territories, reported a bill in the House in January, 1830, for ascertaining the 'latitude of the south- erly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan, and of certain other points, for the purpose thereafter of fixing the true northern boundary lines of the states of Ohio and Illinois.
Congress, in 1830, passed an act granting preemption rights to settlers on public lands. Prior to January, 1831, the plats and sur-
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veys of lands not yet offered for sale were not filed in any land office. But the act of Congress required citizens with preemption rights to any such lands to avail themselves of the provisions of the law previous to the day appointed for the commencement of the sale of lands in the district, which could not be done in the absence of the plats and surveys. So Illinois asked that the preemption law be extended one year-or to January 1, 1831. In 1831 a new land district north of the line dividing Townships 21 and 22 north of the base line and east of the Third principal meridian, includ- ing all that part of the state to its northern boundary, was created, the office to be located by the President. The Legislature in Jan- uary, 1833, memoralized Congress to grant preemption rights for two years after the enactment of the law to actual settlers on the public domain. Congress passed an act on March 2, 1833, authoriz- ing the President to cause the public surveys to be connected with the line of demarcation between Indiana and Illinois.
The Act of Congress of June 25, 1834, authorized the President "to cause to be sold all the lands in the Northeast Land District of Illinois excepting only Sections 16 of each township and individual tracts and government reservations." This Act placed the Indian reservations in Cook county in the market. In 1834 the land offices in Illinois were at Shawneetown, Kaskaskia, Edwardsville, Van- dalia, Palestine, Springfield, Danville and Quincy. A bill creating a surveyor general for Illinois alone passed Congress early in 1835; before this for some time Illinois and Missouri were united in the surveyor.
"Custom, as well as the acts of the general government. has sanctioned the location of settlements on the unsurveyed public lands by granting them preemption rights to a sufficiency for a small farm. Many of the settlers of the tract now offered and to be sold on the 15th inst. came to the West and made their locations under the implied pledge of the government by its past acts, that they should have a preference and a right to purchase the lots on which they located when the same came into market, and at a minimum price. We trust that strangers that come among us, and especially our own citizens, will not attempt to commit so gross an act of injustice as to interfere with the purchase of the quarter section on which im- provements have been made by the actual settler. We trust for the peace and quiet of our town that these local customs will not be outraged at the coming sale." We have been favored with the following statement of the amount of money received at the Land Office in this place since the same was opened :
For lands entered under the preemption laws from May 28 to June 15, 1835. $ 33,066.90
Public sale from June 15 to June 30, inclusive. 354,278.57
Private entry from August 3 to 31, inclusive .. 61,958.57
Private entry from September 1 to 30, inclusive 10,654.71
Total
$459,958.75
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"We do not believe the records of any other land office will exhibit the receipts of half this amount. But a small portion of the land in this district is still in the market. Of that in the market scarcely an acre of good land remains for entry. Facts like these show more conclusively than volumes of abstract reasoning or in- definite statement the rapid advance of this section of our state in wealth and population."-(Chicago Democrat, October 7, 1835.)
"NOTICE .- The Commissioners of the General Land Office have requested me to obtain information as to which of the below named locations may interfere with settlements or preemption rights. All persons having a settlement or preemption claim on any of said locations are requested to make proof thereof without delay to this office, stating the time of their settlement, extent of their improve- ment and describing the tract, and attested in the usual manner.
"Chicago, January 27, 1836." "JAMES T. WHITLOCK, Reg.
The Surveyor General of Illinois, located at St. Louis, reported January 30, 1836, as follows: "First: In the Northeast District of Illinois-with important exceptions, all that part of this district which lies south of the old Indian boundary lines has been surveyed and the extensive sale effected therein during the past season, in the townships which were brought into market, fully sustained my reports of the 19th of November, 1833, and the 16th of December, 1834, in relation thereto, and to the unsurveyed lands of the district I therefore again recommend that all the exterior boundaries* be surveyed; and that all the fractions adjoining Lake Michigan, and as many other townships and fractional townships as will be equal in the whole to about sixty entire townships, be subdivided, which gives for this district :
Township lines. 1,056 miles
Subdivisions of sixty townships. 3,600 miles
Meanders of the lake and navigable rivers. 300 miles
Total 4,956 miles
"This estimate includes the surveys ordered by the letters from the General Land Office, dated the 5th of August and the 14th of November, 1835."-(E. T. Langham, Surveyor General, Illinois and Missouri.)
In 1821 the following portions were surveyed: Township 35, Range 13; Township 36, Ranges 12, 13 and 14; Township 37, Ranges 11, 12, 13 and 14; Township 38, Ranges 12, 13 and 14; Township 39, Ranges 13 and 14; Township 40, Range 13; and Township 41,
*Ceded to the United States by the treaty at Chicago of 26 September, 1833. The township lines amounting to 560 miles directed to be surveyed by the commissioner's letter of the 5th of August, 1835, and the townships and fractional townships (equal to about 51 whole townships), making with the meanders 3,100 miles of surveying to be subdivided after the breaking up of the winter, as directed by the commissioner's letter of the 19th December, 1835.
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Range 12. In 1828 the following: Township 42, Range 10. In 1834: Township 35, Ranges 14 and 15; Township 36, Range 15; Township 37, Range 15; Township 40, Range 14; and Township 41, Range 14. In 1837: Township 38, Range 15. In 1838: Township 42, Range 11. In 1839: Township 40, Ranges 12 and 13; Township 41, Range 13; Township 42, Ranges 9, 12 and 13. In 1840: Township 41, Ranges 9, 10 and 11. In 1843: Town- ship 39, Range 12. In those cases where the same territory was surveyed more than once, as in Township 40, Range 13, the later survey was made because of inaccuracies in the first one.
"In Illinois the office is advised of the survey of ninety-eight townships and the fractional townships embracing the whole of the Pottawatomie cession of October 20, 1832, and such portions of the adjacent cessions as had not been surveyed, thus completing the sur- veys in the Danville district and in the southern part of the Chicago district. The whole of these surveys can be brought into the mar- ket next spring. Instructions were given to the Surveyor General in August last, to have that portion of the lands ceded by the treaty . of 1833 and 1834 with the Chippewa, Ottawa and Pottawatomie Indians, which is situated in Illinois, run off into townships, and he has been since directed to subdivide those townships into sec- tions, preparatory to being brought into market."-(Chicago Dem- ocrat, February 24, 1836.)
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EARLY COOK COUNTY AND CHICAGO, 1779-1840
W ITH the exception of the French cabin at Lee's place, occupied by Father Marquette many years before, the Garay (or Guarie) cabin or stockade on the North Branch at an early date, and a possible fort or stockade here at a subsequent period, it seems clear that the first resident of the present site of Chicago was a colored man named Jean Baptiste Point De Saible, who lived here as early as 1779, as shown by the following extract from a letter dated July 4, 1779, and written by Col. Arent Schuyler De Peyster, a British commander at Michilli- mackinac: "Baptiste Point De Saible, a handsome negro, well edu- cated and settled at Eschikagou (Chicago), but much in the French interest." His cabin was located on the north bank of Chicago river near its mouth and near the point where it turned south just before entering the lake. The fact that De Saible lived here is still further verified by Augustus Grignon, of Wisconsin. Perish Grignon, brother of Augustus, saw De Saible here and said that he was large, a trader, pretty wealthy and drank freely, and that he had a commis- sion of some sort, probably from the French government. In 1796 De Saible sold his cabin to a French trader named Le Mai, from Peoria, who occupied it as a home and trading house until 1804. Chi- cago was referred to by William Burnett, an Indian trader of St. Jo- seph, Michigan, in a letter dated May 14, 1786, and addressed to George Mildrum, a merchant at Mackinac. Again, on May 6, 1790, he referred to this place. On August 24, 1798, he wrote saying that he expected a garrison would be stationed at Chicago "this sum- mer." Other references to Chicago were made. It is probable, also, that an Indian trader named Guarie, as before stated, lived on the west side of the North Branch before the year 1800. Traders spoke of the North Branch as "River Guarie."
In the summer of 1803, Capt. John Whistler, stationed with his company of United States troops at Detroit, was ordered to pro- ceed to Chicago with his command and there to build a fort and occupy the post thus established. The company came here by land under the command of Lieut. James S. Swearingen. Captain Whistler, his wife, his two sons, Lieut. William and George and the young wife of William went as far as St. Joseph in the schooner "Tracy" and thence came to Chicago in a row boat. Upon their arrival there were here, according to Mrs. Lieut. William Whistler, but four Indian traders' huts or cabins-all occupied by Canadian
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HISTORY OF COOK COUNTY
Frenchmen and their Indian wives, three of them being Le Mai, Ouilmette and Pettell. In 1804 John Kinzie, then residing near Niles, Michigan, bought the Le Mai property here, and with his wife and young son, John H., came on and occupied the same. Gradually, as time passed, the old cabin was changed, improved and extended until it became an attractive home for that period. The house stood on the north side at the bend where the river turned south before entering the lake. John Kinzie became known, and justly so, as "The Father of Chicago." He came here as an Indian trader in the employ of the American Fur Company, and in the end was much beloved by the Indians, whose friend he was. In addition to his Indian trade, he became sutler for the garrison in Fort Dearborn. No doubt the officers at Fort Dearborn were concerned in the Indian trade. At times John Whistler, Jr., and Thomas Forsyth were interested in business with Mr. Kinzie. In the spring of 1812, in an encounter, Mr. Kinzie killed John Lalime, Indian interpreter here. The officers at the fort investigated the case and acquitted Mr. Kinzie-"justifiable homicide."
It is highly probable that from 1804 to 1812 the few log cabins here were occupied by traders. The Indian outbreaks in 1812 broke up the little settlement, and after an absence of four years Mr. Kin- zie returned with his family and occupied his former residence -- probably in the Fall of 1816. He resumed his trade with the Indians, not as a representative of the American Fur Company, but as an independent trader. However, in 1818, he sent his son John to Mackinac to become an apprentice of the American Fur Company. This company owned the only schooner on Lake Michi- gan; it registered about forty tons and came here regularly with supplies for the company's agency. Upon the arrival in 1818 of Gurdon S. Hubbard there resided here two families-those of John Kinzie and Antoine Ouilmette, both living on the North Side, the latter about two blocks west of the former. Ouilmette was a French trader with an Indian wife and several half-breed children. A trader named M. Du Pin lived here a little later. At this date Captain Bradley was a commander at Fort Dearborn. Upon the formation of Pike county in 1821, Mr. Kinzie was recommended for justice of the peace, but there does not appear any record that he was commissioned at that date. He was one of the sub-agents of the government when the treaty of August 29, 1821, was con- cluded here with the Indians, having been appointed in 1816. The agency was established in 1804 and reestablished in 1816 when Charles Jouett became agent, under whom Mr. Kinzie served. He was sub-agent under Dr. Alexander Wolcott also and at the same time served as Indian interpreter. On July 28, 1825, Mr. Kinzie became justice of the peace at this point for Peoria county, and the same year became agent of the American Fur Company. He died here suddenly January 6, 1828.
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HISTORY OF COOK COUNTY
From the above it will be seen that up to about the date of the death of John Kinzie Fort Dearborn was all of Chicago, except the houses of Mr. Kinzie and a few French traders. Ellen Marion Kinzie was born in the Le Mai house in December, 1804-the first white birth here. The half-breed children of several French trad- ers, no doubt, had been born here before. On July 20, 1823, she married Dr. Alexander Wolcott, Indian agent-the first marriage in Chicago.
Fort Dearborn was built during the summer and fall of 1803 and was named for Gen. Henry Dearborn. It stood on the south side of Chicago river at the point where the river turned south- ward before emptying into the lake. It had two blockhouses. On the north side a subterranean passage led from the parade ground to the river. The enclosure was a heavy palisade of wood cut from the adjacent forests. On Dec. 31, 1803, there were reported here at "Fort Dearborn, Ind. Ty." one captain, one second lieutenant, one ensign, four sergeants, three corporals, four mu- sicians, fifty-four privates, and one surgeon's mate. The United States agency building-a two-story log structure covered with split oak siding-stood a short distance west of the fort, fronting on the river. There were here three pieces of light artillery. Capt. Nathan Heald succeeded Captain Whistler as commander in 1810. A settler, Charles Lee, had come here about 1804 with his family, and had preempted a large tract at what afterward became Bridgeport. It became known as "Lee's Place" or "Hardscrabble." Lee and his family built a residence near the fort and were thus residents of Chicago very early. Also before this date a family named Burns lived on the North Side west of Ouilmette. The inter- preter, John Lalime, and Mathew Irwin, United States Factor, were here as early as 1811. Thus there lived here at the time of the massacre of 1812 the families of Lee, Burns, Kinzie and Ouil- mette, and the Lee house at "Hardscrabble" was occupied by Mr. Lee's employes or tenants. In 1817 Kinzie and Ouilmette occupied their former houses. Mr. Jouett took possession of the Burns house-the Lee cabin at "Hardscrabble" was occupied by John Craft as a trading house and the Lee residence near the fort was owned and occupied by Jean Baptiste Beaubien, who had first come here in 1804, but did not secure property until after the massacre, when he purchased the Lee home a short distance south of the fort near the lake shore and the cultivated tract of three acres adjacent. Late in 1812 Francis La Framboise, a French trader, lived in a log hut on the South Side, near Beaubien. The latter married for his second wife Josette, daughter of Francis La Fram- boise. In 1815, in anticipation of the return of the garrison, John Dean, an army contractor, built a house on the South Side, near the foot of Randolph street. In 1817 the Dean house passed to Mr. Beaubien, who occupied it for some time, but afterward converted
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it into a barn. In 1818 Mr. Beaubien became agent of the Ameri- can Fur Company at this point. The old United States building just south of the fort was purchased first by Capt. Henry Whiting and second by the American Fur Company about 1823, and later was sold to Mr. Beaubien for $500. This was occupied by him as a home until 1840.
In July, 1816, Capt. Hezekiah Bradley, in command of two com- panies of infantry, arrived here under orders to rebuild Fort Dear- born on the same site. Soon after this the Indian Agency was resumed and settlers began to appear. The new fort was a square stockade, within which were officers' quarters, barracks, magazine and provision house; there were bastions at the northwest and southwest angles. A block house stood in the southwest corner. The garrison was maintained here until 1823, when, not being necessary, it was ordered away. Maj. Daniel Baker was com- mander from 1817 to 1820, when Capt. Hezekiah Bradley returned. In 1824 Maj. Alexander Cummings took command, but the same year was succeeded by Lieut. Col. John McNeil, who continued until 1827, when Capt. John Greene became commander. This was the year when Archibald Clybourn arrived here permanently. In October, 1828, the Indians again becoming troublesome, a garri- son was sent here under the command of Maj. John Fowle. They remained until May, 1831, when they were again ordered away. Soon afterward, early in 1832, an Indian scare again brought a garrison-this time under the command of Maj. William Whistler. On July 8, 1832, General Scott arrived with a body of troops to assist in quelling the Indians. In May, 1833, Maj. John Fowle assumed command, but one month later was succeeded by Maj. Lafayette Wilcox. Afterwards, until Aug. 1, 1836, Maj, John Bendu, Maj. John Greene and Maj. Joseph Plympton commanded, but at that date the garrison was permanently withdrawn.
The Chicago government agency embraced the Pottawatomies, Sacs, Foxes, Kickapoos, and Charles Jouett became the first agent here in 1805. Mathew Irwin was factor from 1810 to the date of the massacre. He reported that the total amount of business done here in his department for the year 1810 was $4,712.57 and for the year 1811 was $6,055.89. Jacob B. Varnum became factor in 1816, but could do little business owing to the influx of British traders, who at the conclusion of the War of 1812 poured into the United States, intent on monopolizing the valuable Indian trade. Later these traders were thrown out of business by an order from the Secretary of War. The factory was abandoned about 1823. Charles Jouett was again factor from 1815 to 1818. His residence and agency house stood on the North Side and consisted of two large rooms. This house stood a short distance west of John Kinzie's home. In 1816 a Mr. Bridges lived on the north bank between the Kinzie and Jouett houses. James E. Herron
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and Henry Whiting were sutlers at Fort Dearborn in 1821-22. A Doctor McMahon and Dr. John Gale were here as early as 1820. Dr. Alexander Wolcott, in 1820, succeeded Mr. Jouett as Indian agent, and resided in the agency house, which stood near the foot of North State street and was called "Cobweb Castle." 'The next year Doctor Wolcott, Indian agent; J. B. Varnum, factor, and John Kinzie, sub-agent, signed the Indian treaty concluded here. Doctor Wolcott on Dec. 26, 1827, became a justice of the peace of Peoria county, of which the present Cook county was then an . adjacency. Col. Thomas J. V. Owen succeeded Doctor Wolcott as Indian agent late in 1830 or early in 1831, and under him were Gholson Kercheval and James Stuart, sub-agents. Connected with the agency were Billy Caldwell (Indian), interpreter ; David McKee, blacksmith, and Joseph Porthier, striker. It will be seen that nearly all of the settlers here prior to 1830 were either con- nected with the Government Agency, the American Fur Company, the Indian trade or the garrison. Gurdon S. Hubbard was agent of the American Fur Company. The trading-house at "Lee's Place," conducted after 1816 by John Crafts for Messrs. Conant & Mack, merchants of Detroit, was very successful, monopolizing most of the Indian trade owing to its advantageous location and to the antipathy of the Indians against the government factories. In 1818 Jean B. Beaubien became agent at Chicago for the Ameri- can Fur Company and built a trading house on the South Side near the foot of Madison street, and in the end secured the trade of the Crafts house at "Lee's Place." W. H. Wallace traded at the latter place after about 1822. Associated with Wallace was a man named Davis. George Hunt was a trader at Wolf Point, or perhaps at "Lee's Place." Nearly all of these men were connected with the American Fur Company. Soon after 1825 the Indian trade at Chicago rapidly declined.
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