THE NEW FORT DEARBORN
The British negotiators of the Treaty of Ghent which brought the War
of 1812 to a close made strenuous efforts to compel the renunciation
by the United States of its sovereignty over all of that portion of
the old Northwest not included within the line drawn by the Treaty of
Greenville of 1795. The avowed object of this provision was to erect
a permanent barrier between the United States and the possessions of
Great Britain in that region by forever securing the territory thus
surrendered by the former to the Indians. The American representatives
refused even to consider this proposition, however, and in the end the
British were compelled to abandon it. Their contention that the Indian
should be admitted as a party to the treaty was also abandoned, and,
as finally agreed upon, it provided for a better definition of the
boundaries between the two nations, but for no surrender of territory
on either side.
The counterpart for the Northwest of the Treaty of Ghent was the
negotiation during the summer of 1815, by two commissions representing
the United States, of over a score of treaties with the various tribes
of that region.[654] One commission, consisting of Governor Edwards
of Illinois and Governor Clark of Missouri Territory and Auguste
Chouteau, the St. Louis Indian trader, met the diplomats of the red
race at Portage des Sioux near the mouth of the Illinois River; the
other, composed of General Harrison, General Duncan McArthur, and John
Graham, conducted its negotiations at Spring Wells near Detroit. Except
for the Sacs and Foxes, who manifested a belligerent attitude for some
months longer, the autumn of 1815 witnessed the conclusion of treaty
making and the formal restoration of peace to the harassed northwestern
frontier. But the British influence over the tribes was still powerful,
despite the bitterness of the red men over their desertion, as they
chose to regard it, by their former ally. The American influence over
the tribes of Wisconsin and the territory farther west was as yet but
slight.[655] Though nominally this region had long acknowledged the
sovereignty of the United States, in fact it had remained commercially
dependent upon Great Britain; and the British possessed, as a matter of
course, the sympathy and affection of the red man.
[Footnote 654: For the treaties and accompanying documents see
_American State Papers, Indian Affairs_, II, 1-26.]
[Footnote 655: _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XVIII, xii.]
With the restoration of peace, therefore, it remained for the Americans
to establish an effective control over the northwestern tribes. The
dominance of the British trader over them must be broken, and to this
end garrisons must be scattered throughout the country to overcome the
tribes and give countenance to the American traders in their efforts to
compete successfully with their British rivals.
How the situation was viewed by well-informed Americans may be learned
from a letter written by Lewis Cass to the Secretary of War in the
spring of 1816.[656] Calling attention to the indications of a renewal
by the British Indian Department of its old aggressive attitude with
reference to the Indians of the United States, Cass pointed out the
existence of three great channels for carrying on trade between Canada
and the Indians of the Mississippi and Missouri country. These were,
first, by way of Chicago and the Illinois River; second, by Green
Bay and the Fox-Wisconsin waterway; third, from Lake Superior to the
headwaters of the Mississippi. Of these the great channel at that time
was the second. Through it great quantities of goods were smuggled into
the Indian country of the United States. This practice could be cut
off, Cass urged, so far as the Illinois and the Fox-Wisconsin river
routes were concerned, by the establishment of garrisons at Green Bay
and Chicago. To stop smuggling altogether, however, there must also be
a post near the Grand Portage.
[Footnote 656: _Ibid._, XIX, 376-79.]
Almost a year before this John Kinzie had transmitted to Cass an
argument in favor of the re-establishment of a garrison at Chicago to
take the place of the one that had been destroyed in the massacre of
1812.[657] Kinzie was, of course, greatly interested in the adoption
of this proposal, for it would make possible the renewal by him under
favorable conditions of the pursuit of a livelihood at Chicago. He
pointed out that the hostility for the Americans of the tribes around
Lake Michigan, between Mackinac and the southern end of the lake, was
mainly due to their intercourse with the traders of the Southwest
Company, who were hostile to the American traders. Because of lack of
game these tribes were forced to migrate at certain seasons to the
waters of the Fox, Chicago, and Illinois rivers, and as an incident to
this migration they generally rendezvoused at Chicago in the spring.
For this reason a garrison there was necessary to preserve order among
the Indians and to restrain the British traders, whose influence would
ever keep them hostile to the United States.
[Footnote 657: Kinzie to Cass, July 15, 1815; Indian Office, Book 204,
Letter Book I, 90.]
Before the close of the summer of 1815 the government determined
not only to establish garrisons at Chicago and Green Bay, but to
reoccupy Prairie du Chien and erect a new fort at Rock Island on
the Mississippi, and another in the vicinity of the Falls of St.
Anthony.[658] At the same time it was planned to restore the government
factory at Chicago for the conduct of the Indian trade, and to
establish new factories at Green Bay and Prairie du Chien.[659] To
the Third Infantry under Colonel Miller, then stationed at Detroit,
was allotted the duty of garrisoning the forts at Mackinac, Green
Bay, and Chicago.[660] Colonel Miller with his station at Mackinac
was to have command of the three posts. Two companies, Bradley's and
Baker's, were destined for Chicago. In the absence of Major Baker, the
ranking officer, Captain Hezekiah Bradley, commanded the detachment.
The companies comprising the Green Bay contingent were ordered to
embark June 9.[661] Whether the Chicago detachment accompanied them on
their way does not appear, but on June 30 it was on board the schooner
"General Wayne" off the "Manitoo" Island in Lake Michigan. Here the
first inspection was held, and a roster of the companies was made.[662]
Of the one hundred and thirty-three men enrolled in the two companies
one hundred and twelve were present on this expedition.
[Footnote 658: Flagler, _History of the Rock Island Arsenal_, 14-16;
_Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XIX, 376-89. The decision to
restore Fort Dearborn was reached at least as early as June, 1815
(_ibid._, 384).]
[Footnote 659: _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XIX, 380-84.]
[Footnote 660: _Drennan Papers_, Department orders dated Detroit, June
7 and 8, 1816.]
[Footnote 661: For a short account of the establishment of the fort at
Green Bay see Neville, _Historic Green Bay_, chap. vi.]
[Footnote 662: _Drennan Papers_, Fort Dearborn post returns.]
On July 4 the expedition arrived at Chicago. The public buildings
were found to have been entirely destroyed with the exception of
the magazine, which was badly damaged.[663] Numerous small parties
of Indians visited the soldiers during the first few weeks, but no
hostility was manifested by them. But one account preserves the details
of the events attending the construction of the new Fort Dearborn, and
this one is rambling and unreliable.[664] It relates that some Detroit
traders, foreseeing a demand for vegetables upon the arrival of the
garrison, had sent some Canadian half-breeds to Chicago in the spring
of 1816 to start a truck garden. Upon the arrival of the "General
Wayne" the troops landed and a temporary camp for the protection of
themselves and the stores was established in a pasture near the old
fort. Some garden seeds had been brought along, and one of the first
tasks was to prepare a garden. Two half-breeds, Alexander Robinson
and Ouilmette, and their squaws with their ponies were engaged to
prepare the ground. With the aid of the soldiers the task was soon
accomplished; but whether from the lateness of the season or for some
other reason, the gardening experiment was not a success. The Canadian
gardeners, who had planted in May about four miles up the South Branch,
brought in vegetables for sale to the garrison at high prices.
[Footnote 663: _Ibid._, Bradley to Parker, August 3, 1816.]
[Footnote 664: _Head Papers_, narrative of Moses Morgan.]
Meanwhile the construction of the fort was being prosecuted. In
addition to the garrison, pit-sawyers and other workmen had been
brought from Detroit. A grove of pine trees near the lake shore about
four miles north of the river was selected, and the logs were rolled
into the lake and rafted down to the mouth of the river and up the
stream to a point opposite the site of the fort. Bands of Indians
straggled around the buildings to gaze at the work of construction, beg
for tobacco, and pilfer any unguarded tools that might be concealed
under their blankets. The visits of the squaws and their papooses to
the camp became so frequent and obnoxious that a heavier detail was
required to mount guard by day to keep them away from the tents than
was necessary by night. A detail of soldiers guarded the pit-sawyers at
the pine grove on the north shore, who were engaged in cutting out the
sawn lumber for roofs and floors. The Indians remained peaceable, but
the sawyers' fears of them were easily excited. From this unpromising
situation a real romance shortly developed. The disappearance of two
of the Canadian pit-sawyers, who when last seen were in the company of
an Indian, intensified the fears of their associates. Their anxiety
was soon relieved by the reappearance of the men accompanied by two
young squaws whom they had taken to wife. They had determined to take
up their abode with a band of Indians residing on the Calumet, and had
returned to demand their saws and the wages that were due them. Their
requests were satisfied and they were allowed to depart, but not until
the adjutant had read the marriage service to them and the garrison and
workmen had celebrated the occasion with a holiday.
A few months after the arrival of the garrison Major Long of the
engineer department of the army, who was to acquire fame several years
later as an explorer, came to Chicago in search of information for
a topographical report which he was preparing on the region roughly
corresponding to the modern states of Illinois and Indiana.[665]
He found that the construction of the fort had been pushed with
commendable industry, and reported that it would probably be brought
to completion in the course of the following season. It was on a point
of land formed by a bend in the river about eight hundred yards from
its mouth. Curiously enough he reported that a more eligible site for
the fort was afforded on the opposite side of the river, on the point
of land between it and the lake. This location would more completely
command the entrance to the river, and would also command the anchorage
to a considerable extent. Perhaps the reason for this dissent from the
judgment of the officers who had located the first and second forts may
be inferred from Long's recommendation that the position he approved
should be fortified in a manner calculated to resist any naval force
that might be brought against it. Evidently he had in contemplation the
possibility of another war with Great Britain, while both the first and
second Fort Dearborn were designed to afford protection against Indian
attacks only.
[Footnote 665: The report is printed in full in the _National
Register_, III, 193-98.]
With the fort constructed and the garrison re-established, life at
Chicago assumed in the main the aspects which it had borne before the
massacre. Fort Dearborn was no longer, as in the old days, the farthest
outpost of the United States in the Northwest, but it was still only an
isolated wilderness station. Fort Wayne was the nearest post-office,
and between this place and Chicago the mail was carried by foot
soldiers once or twice a month.[666] Other agencies for maintaining
connection with the outside world were few and irregular. The conduct
of the business pertaining to the garrison and the operations connected
with the prosecution of the fur trade were responsible for most of
them. The provisions for the garrison were for the most part brought
around the lakes in schooners, although the live stock destined to
supply the soldiers with fresh meat was sometimes driven overland
to Chicago.[667] The historian of Major Long's expedition reported
in 1823 that the total annual lake trade of Chicago, including the
transportation of supplies for the garrison, did not exceed the cargo
of five or six schooners.[668]
[Footnote 666: In describing Chicago in 1818 Hubbard says (_Life_, 38)
once a month. A report of the Post-Office Department, January 14, 1825
(_American State Papers_, Vol. XV, Post-Office Department, 136), shows
that at that time the mail was carried between Fort Wayne and Green Bay
once a month. J. Watson Webb, who was post adjutant at Fort Dearborn
in 1821-22 states (Letter to John Wentworth, October 31, 1882) that
he sent a sergeant and a private to Fort Wayne fortnightly to bring
the mail for Chicago and Green Bay, and that a similar detail from the
latter place was always on hand to receive and carry forward the mail
destined for that place.]
[Footnote 667: Keating, _Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's
River_, I, 183. A letter from Captain Bradley of Fort Dearborn in the
winter of 1816 (_Drennan Papers_, Bradley to McComb, December 3, 1816)
announces that "a drove of hogs consisting of about three hundred
recently arrived here for the contractor." At the time of the Chicago
Treaty of 1821 two hundred head of cattle were driven from Brownstown
to Chicago to supply fresh meat for the Indians in attendance on the
negotiations (Schoolcraft, _Travels in the Central Portions of the
Mississippi Valley_, 375). In June of this same year Rev. Isaac McCoy,
while traveling from the mouth of the St. Joseph River to Fort Wayne,
met a party engaged in driving cattle through the wilderness to Chicago
(McCoy, _History of Baptist Indian Missions_, 108-9).]
[Footnote 668: Keating, _op. cit._, I, 164.]
The existence of war interrupted but did not entirely prevent the
conduct of the Indian trade at Chicago. The business of the American
traders was broken up, but their lives were safe, even in the midst of
the slaughter which attended the massacre.[669] The winter following
the massacre two French traders, Du Pain and Buisson, established
themselves with a stock of goods in the abandoned house of John
Kinzie.[670] What success they met with, or whether they returned in
the following years, does not appear, but the needs of the Indians were
supplied to some extent by Robert Dickson, whose plans for stirring up
the northwestern tribes against the Americans necessitated the sending
of large quantities of goods to Chicago to distribute among his red
allies.[671] The restoration of Fort Dearborn was the signal for the
return of the American traders to Chicago. Among the early arrivals was
John Crafts, the representative of a Detroit firm, who is said to have
established himself at Chicago some time during the year 1816.[672]
His trading house was on the South Branch, not far from the Lee Cabin,
where the murders of April, 1812, occurred. Crafts pursued his calling
with success for several years, but the competition of the American Fur
Company at last proved too strong, and in 1822 his establishment passed
into its possession. Crafts became its employee at the same time, and
continued to reside at Chicago until his death, several years later.
[Footnote 669: Kinzie and all his family passed through the massacre
unscathed. Thomas Forsyth came to Chicago the day after the massacre
and remained with the Kinzies several days (_supra_, note 632).]
[Footnote 670: _Supra_, note 613. Mrs. Kinzie gives the name as Du Pin
(_Wau Bun_, 190). Her story of his rescue of Mrs. Lee and her baby from
captivity and threatened matrimony at the hands of Black Partridge has
already been told (p. 255).]
[Footnote 671: For a list of the goods to be sent from Mackinac to
Chicago for Dickson at the opening of navigation in the spring of 1813
see _Michigan Pioneer Collections_, XV, 224.]
[Footnote 672: On Crafts see Hurlbut, _Chicago Antiquities_, _passim_;
Andreas, _History of Chicago_, Vol. I, _passim_. It is usually said
that he was in the employ of Mack and Conant of Detroit, but Hurlbut
suggests (_Chicago Antiquities_, 409) that Abraham Edwards was his
employer.]
John Kinzie's interest in the restoration of Fort Dearborn has already
been noted. The exact date of his return to Chicago is uncertain,
but it apparently occurred during the latter half of the year 1816.
In an affidavit made September 14, 1816, Kinzie described himself as
"of the city of Detroit."[673] The last entry in his account book at
Detroit bears date of June 16, 1816, and the first entry at Chicago
occurs on January 10, following.[674] From the same source we learn
that the revival of Kinzie's commercial activities at Chicago was
coincident with the return of the garrison; for under date of June
13 occurs the invoice of a "Chicago Adventure," followed three days
later by a second. The principal items of the first invoice are butter
and whisky--four kegs and ten pounds of the former, and two barrels,
containing sixty-eight gallons, of the latter. The contents of the
second invoice pertain wholly to live stock, the principal items being
five head of oxen and a mare and colt.
[Footnote 673: Copy of affidavit concerning the wounds received by
Heald in the Chicago massacre, MS in possession of Mr. Wright Johnson
of Rutherford, New Jersey.]
[Footnote 674: _Barry Transcript._]
The Kinzie family was again established in the old home and the trader
resumed his calling. He seems never to have recovered, however, the
leading position as a trader which he held before the war. Within a few
months after his return to Chicago he arranged with Varnum and Jouett
to act as interpreter for both the factory and the Indian agency, and
relinquished his trade with the Indians.[675] He continued to act as
interpreter for some time, and several years later, when Wolcott had
succeeded Jouett as Indian agent at Chicago, Kinzie was appointed
subagent, receiving separate compensation for each appointment.[676] In
addition to his services with the government he again entered into the
Indian trade during these years, part of the time on his own account,
and later, according to Hubbard, as an employee of the American Fur
Company.[677]
[Footnote 675: Indian Department, Letter Book, Cass Correspondence,
Kinzie to Cass, January 25, 1817; Jouett to Cass, January 25, 1817. All
of the Indian Department letter books to be cited are preserved in the
Pension Building at Washington.]
[Footnote 676: _American State Papers, Indian Affairs_, II, 365.]
[Footnote 677: Hurlbut, _Chicago Antiquities_, 31.]
An important part of the life at Chicago in this period centered in
the government Indian establishment, the restoration of which was
coincident with the return of the garrison to Fort Dearborn. During the
year 1815 Charles Jouett received the appointment of Indian agent, and
Jacob B. Varnum was designated as factor.[678] Jouett had been agent at
Chicago for several years prior to the War of 1812, but had resigned
in the year 1811 and settled in Mercer County, Kentucky.[679] He now
returned to the government service and to his old position at Chicago.
His residence during this second incumbency was a log house on the
north side of the river, possibly the same house which had sheltered
the Burns family in the period before the massacre. It was far from
adequate to the needs of Jouett's family, and in 1817 he complained
bitterly of it and of the indifference of the officers of the garrison
concerning his plight.[680] The house he described as "a little hut
that a man of humanity would not suffer his negroes to live in." It was
fourteen feet square, with but a single chair, which Jouett had brought
with him from Kentucky, and there were nine persons in the family,
including servants, to be accommodated. Jouett's indignant appeal
produced little result, however. When Wolcott succeeded him as agent
in 1819 he found the agency house a "mere shell," which necessitated
rebuilding entirely to make it habitable.[681]
[Footnote 678: _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XIX, 380-95. Jouett
was first appointed agent at Green Bay and Colonel John Bowyer agent
at Chicago; at Jouett's request, however, a change was made in the
appointments, Jouett going as agent to Chicago and Bowyer to Green Bay
(_Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XIX, 391-92, 399).]
[Footnote 679: On Jouett see Hurlbut, _Chicago Antiquities_, 102 ff.;
Andreas, History of Chicago, 87.]
[Footnote 680: Indian Department, Letter Book, Jouett to Cass, February
1, 1817.]
[Footnote 681: Indian Department, Cass correspondence, Wolcott to Cass,
January 1, 1820.]
Jouett was a lawyer by training, and both before and after his
second residence at Chicago he held the office of judge, the first
time in Kentucky, the second in Arkansas Territory. He was a man of
remarkable physique, six feet three inches in height, broad-shouldered
and muscular. Among the Indians he was known as "the White Otter,"
and it is said that he possessed a commanding influence over them.
His daughter recalled in after years that the red men were frequent
visitors at her father's home, and that the dusky callers were
especially kind to the children, her sister and herself. Their nurse
was an Indian girl, a faithful and devoted servant, who afterward
married a soldier of the garrison. In 1819 Jouett again resigned the
Indian agency and returned to Kentucky. His place was filled by the
transfer to the Chicago agency of Doctor Alexander Wolcott, who had
been appointed "Agent to the Lakes," in April, 1818.[682]
[Footnote 682: Indian Office, Letter Book D, 241, Calhoun to Wolcott,
April 22, 1818; _ibid._, 277, Calhoun to Wolcott, March 27, 1819.]
Jacob B. Varnum, Chicago's only government factor after the War of
1812, belonged to an old and prominent New England family.[683] Through
the family influence Varnum secured, when but twenty-three years of
age, the appointment as government factor at Sandusky, Ohio.[684] He
remained there until the news of Hull's surrender at Detroit, causing
the precipitate retreat of the Ohio militia from Sandusky, compelled
the abandonment of the factory. Varnum thereupon entered the army and
served until the close of the war. On the return of peace, finding
himself without an occupation, he applied for a position in the
Department of Indian Trade, and in the summer of 1815 was appointed
factor at Chicago.
[Footnote 683: For it see Varnum, _The Vanums of Dracutt_. James
Mitchell Varnum was a brigadier-general during the Revolution. His
brother, Joseph B. Varnum, was speaker of the lower house of Congress
from 1807 to 1811, and United States senator from Massachusetts, from
1811 to 1817.]
[Footnote 684: The account which follows is based upon the journal of
Jacob B. Varnum.]
At this time it was the expectation of the department to establish the
factory before the winter set in.[685] On receiving the news of his
appointment Varnum set out for Erie by way of Buffalo, where he met
Matthew Irwin, who had been factor at Chicago before the war and was
now en route to establish the new factory at Green Bay. After a rough
passage from Buffalo to Erie, in "a miserable apology for a schooner,"
the officials learned that the goods for the Indian trade, which were
to have preceded them thither, had not arrived, and that the movement
of the military to Chicago and Green Bay had been postponed to the
following year. This involved the postponement of the establishment
of the factories as well; nevertheless the naval commander at Erie
resolved to take the goods, should they arrive in time, on to Mackinac
that season, there to await the departure of the military expedition in
the spring. Irwin thereupon returned to his home, while it was agreed
that Varnum should go on to Mackinac in charge of the goods.
[Footnote 685: _Varnum's Journal_; Mason to Varnum, August 20, 1815,
_Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XIX, 391-95.]
Varnum's narrative of the autumn voyage through the lakes from Erie
to Mackinac presents a vivid picture of the discomforts and dangers
of travel on the Great Lakes a century ago. The expedition consisted
of two government vessels, the "Porcupine" and the "Ghent." The naval
officers considered themselves insulted and degraded by the menial
service of transporting merchandise. They therefore took no pains to
protect the goods from ruin by water, and but little, apparently, to
promote the comfort of the luckless factor. At Detroit a lady was
given passage to Mackinac. In order to make room for her Varnum had to
surrender the berth he had occupied thus far, and received in exchange
for it one so near the bottom of the vessel that in rough weather the
bilge water would spurt into it, keeping it wet most of the time.
The commander was a "perfect tyrant," as far as his power extended,
and Varnum avers that during the four weeks they were together
he witnessed the infliction of more severe and often undeserved
punishments than during all the remainder of his life. The stories of
the floggings meted out by the commander's orders sicken the reader,
after the lapse of a century, as they did the helpless witness at the
time. On the second day out the negro cook, with whom the commander
professed he would not part for his weight in gold, was given a dozen
lashes because his master conceived the meat was not sufficiently
cooked. A sailor possessed of an undue propensity for liquor had been
unmercifully flogged for getting drunk, and threatened with a hundred
lashes upon a repetition of the offense. Notwithstanding this the
offense was repeated. The delinquent was ordered stripped and lashed to
the shrouds. Varnum went below to escape witnessing the scene. In due
time the commander came down, raging because the culprit had borne the
torture so stoically. After receiving a hundred lashes without uttering
a groan the tyrant demanded of him a promise not to repeat the offense,
under pain upon refusal of receiving a second hundred on his now raw
and bloody back. The torture proceeded and seventeen lashes had been
administered when the victim gave in, making the promise required and
begging for mercy. At the entrance to Lake Huron the rapid current made
it difficult for sailing vessels to steer an even course. Dissatisfied
with the helmsman's efforts the commander ordered a fresh man to the
wheel, and the one who had been relieved received a dozen lashes. The
new steersman promptly encountered the same difficulty and was as
promptly relieved and flogged; and this routine was kept up until every
seaman on board had taken his turn at the wheel and received his quota
of lashes before the vessel got into the lake.
At Mackinac Varnum opened and dried the goods which had been wet, and
then settled down to pass the long winter. Despite the extreme cold,
and the desolation produced by the recent war, the winter's confinement
proved to be one of the pleasantest periods of his whole life. He
had a comfortable room with a good stove and plenty of firewood. The
days were spent in reading, or, in pleasant weather, in excursions to
the nets of the fishermen or elsewhere. The evenings were devoted to
social amusements participated in by the merchants and the officers of
the garrison. Among the latter were two brothers of Franklin Pierce,
afterward President of the United States, one of whom, Captain Benjamin
K. Pierce, wooed and married a half-breed French and Indian girl.[686]
[Footnote 686: _Varnum's Journal_; _Wisconsin Historical Collections_,
XIV, 36, 40-41.]
Among the arrivals on the first vessel in the spring was a beautiful
young woman from Detroit who came to visit her aunt. Varnum became
enamored of her, and a romance began which was to culminate sadly
enough at Chicago only a year later. The impression which the fair
stranger made upon him was thus graphically set forth after the lapse
of half a century: "She was a girl of polished manners, tall and
graceful in her walk, and of striking symmetry of form. Her hair was
auburn; her eyes dark blue, and remarkably transparent skin blended
with a due proportion of red. I thought her in point of beauty quite
equal to any lady I had seen."
That the young girl's beauty had a real existence, apart from the
imagination of the fond lover, is shown by the reminiscences of Mrs.
Baird of her childhood days at Mackinac. After a lapse of seventy
years she alluded to her as "a beautiful woman, who was married at
Mackinac."[687] Three months after the first meeting the beautiful girl
became Varnum's bride, the marriage being solemnized by Major Puthuff
in the absence of any minister of the gospel at Mackinac. A few days
later the couple embarked with the factory goods on the "Tiger" bound
for Chicago, whither the troops under Captain Bradley had recently
preceded them. On their arrival the skeleton of a log hut on the south
side which had survived the destruction in 1812 was assigned to Varnum
to serve both as a store and as a dwelling. It was about twenty feet
square, a story and a half in height, and without a floor. Varnum
caused a floor of puncheons to be laid, made of logs split out four
or five inches thick and roughly hewed on the face, and procured the
erection of a lean-to for a kitchen. A large portion of the goods were
stored in the loft, the remainder being deposited with Kinzie for
retail purposes.
[Footnote 687: _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XIV, 26.]
In this hovel the brief period of the wedded life of the young couple
was passed. According to the chronicler the winter passed "pleasantly
enough." But for him there was the diversion of his business, and for
recreation he indulged in frequent hunting excursions. For the young
wife no relief from the lonely monotony and the grinding hardship of
such an existence was possible. With the coming of spring she fell
ill from approaching maternity. They had no servants, and there was
no possibility of procuring any, but fortunately Mrs. Varnum's sister
came on a visit and afforded assistance during the time of trouble.
In June, 1817, the birth occurred, but the child was stillborn, and
the trial killed the mother. The simple words of the husband written
long afterward may well be permitted to terminate our recital of
the pathetic tragedy: "Its long suffering mother survived but a few
moments. Thus was I bereft of a beloved wife and the anticipated hope
of a family. The mother with the child in her arms was buried a few
yards from my house, where they rested when I left Chicago, 1822."
Two years passed, when Varnum joined a horseback party on a trip to
Detroit. With the hot season the Indian trade ceased and the recreation
of hunting was suspended. Diversions wholly failed, and the principal
occupation consisted in fighting mosquitoes. The journey would involve
a ride of seven hundred miles in fly time, yet Varnum gladly entered
upon it to escape the deadly monotony of life at Chicago. Aside from
Varnum the party consisted of Major Baker, John Dean, who had come to
Chicago as an army contractor in 1816, and a guide. The route taken
was by way of Fort Wayne and thence down the Maumee River and on to
Detroit. The destination was reached after eleven days of travel,
Varnum making his entry into Detroit after nightfall, covered with mud
from head to foot as the result of being thrown from his horse into a
swamp almost at the end of the journey.
Detroit was at that time a small village where each person interested
himself in the affairs of all the rest. Upon the arrival of Varnum with
no ostensible business the ready conclusion was reached that he had
come in search of a wife. Although he denied such an intention, within
two months he confirmed the expectation of the villagers by contracting
a second marriage alliance. In the autumn of 1819 he embarked with
his wife and her sister on a schooner for Chicago. The weather was
pleasant and the company jovial. Arrived at Chicago the new wife began
housekeeping under more favorable circumstances than her predecessor
had done. The soldiers had constructed a new dwelling for the factor,
under Varnum's superintendence; Mrs. Varnum had brought with her
two servants, and the society of the place had improved somewhat.
Several of the officers had brought on their families, and a spirit of
friendliness and sociability prevailed, evening parties with dancing
and other amusements being frequently held.
Among the inhabitants of Chicago during this period were several who
had figured prominently in the massacre of 1812. About the time of
Kinzie's return came Lieutenant Helm and his wife.[688] In 1817 they
were living on the south side of the river in a small square house
without a floor.[689] In lieu of this a tarpaulin was spread down, and
tarpaulin was also hung about the walls. No one has taken the trouble,
apparently, to record the duration of this domestic establishment.
Mrs. Helm continued a resident of Chicago for many years, and frequent
mention of her later doings is made by the family historian in the
pages of _Wau Bun_. No mention of Lieutenant Helm occurs, however, and
even the fact of his existence is ignored. The reason for this silence
is perhaps revealed by certain court records of Peoria County, within
whose boundaries Chicago was for a time included. These show that in
1829 Helm was still living, residing, apparently, in Clay County,
Illinois.[690] In October of this year Mrs. Helm received a divorce
from him together with alimony and the custody of their child.
[Footnote 688: Helm's name appears in Kinzie's account book in January,
1817, and again in January, 1818.]
[Footnote 689: Recollections of Mrs. Baird, _Wisconsin Historical
Collections_, XIV, 26.]
[Footnote 690: McCulloch, _Early Days of Peoria and Chicago_, 108.]
To what extent Jean Baptiste Chandonnai made Chicago his home in the
period of the second Fort Dearborn is also somewhat uncertain. It
is related by Mrs. Baird that he was here in the employ of Kinzie
shortly after the return of the troops, and his wife, coming to join
him, was a passenger from Mackinac on the same schooner which brought
Mrs. Baird and her mother to Chicago. The date of this visit is given
as 1816, though it seems probable it actually occurred the following
year. During the next few years Chandonnai was engaged in the fur trade
in the region tributary to Chicago.[691] What the Indians received
from him in exchange for their furs is perhaps sufficiently indicated
by a consignment of goods sent to him from Mackinac, September 19,
1818, consisting of four barrels of whisky and six barrels of flour.
Evidently the order had called for a larger quantity of fire-water,
for the consignment was accompanied by the explanation that no more
liquor could be promised because of its dearness and "uncommon
scarcity." The next year Chandonnai betrayed the confidence reposed in
him by the American Fur Company, by selling his furs to John Crafts
and refusing to pay the company for the merchandise with which he
had procured them.[692] The latter appealed to Kinzie to exert his
influence in its behalf. That he did so with good effect seems evident
from a later letter expressing gratitude for his exertions in securing
the payment of a portion of the claim against Chandonnai. The writer
urges a continuance of these efforts, and asks if a mortgage cannot be
secured on the lands granted to Chandonnai by the Indians. What was,
apparently, the sequel to this claim appeared fourteen years later
in a clause of the Chicago Treaty of 1833. Among the grants of money
made to individuals was the sum of two thousand five hundred dollars
to Chandonnai, one thousand of which "by the particular request" of
the latter was to be paid to Robert Stuart, agent of the American Fur
Company.
[Footnote 691: See on this point the letters of Ramsey Crooks printed
in Andreas, _History of Chicago_, I, 94-95.]
[Footnote 692: _Ibid._, I, 95.]
Perhaps the most picturesque character in the little group of civilian
residents of Chicago in the decade which began with the restoration of
Fort Dearborn was Jean Baptiste Beaubien. He was descended from an old
Canadian family, one of whose members is said to have been a follower
of La Salle. About the middle of the eighteenth century a branch of
the family established itself at Detroit, where the future citizen of
Chicago was born in the year 1787.[693] He early engaged in the Indian
trade, and according to the custom of the time married a squaw. He is
said to have had a daughter born at Chicago as early as 1805, but the
details both of his early migrations and of his marriage alliances
are rather hazy. In 1814 he married Josette La Framboise, who was a
servant in the family of John Kinzie at the time of the massacre. How
soon after this Beaubien made Chicago his permanent place of residence
is not certainly known, but in 1817 he purchased a house of John Dean,
the army contractor, and thenceforth continued to reside on the Fort
Dearborn reservation until, in the early thirties, his attempt to gain
title to it precipitated the struggle over the Beaubien Land Claim
which became famous in the annals of early Chicago.
[Footnote 693: Beaubien family genealogy, MS in Chicago Historical
Society library.]
An interesting feature of the life of Chicago and the adjoining region
during the period under consideration was afforded by the periodical
visits of the Illinois "brigade" of the American Fur Company. From
its headquarters at Mackinac each autumn a number of trading outfits
departed for the various trading posts scattered throughout the
Northwest. Each brigade was composed of voyageurs organized into boat
crews, the number of the latter varying with the importance of the
station which constituted the destination of the brigade.[694] The
goods were transported in bateaux, each manned by half a dozen men
and carrying about three tons of merchandise. The Illinois brigade
consisted of a dozen boats carrying, including the families of the
traders, about a hundred persons.
[Footnote 694: On the operations of the American Fur Company see
Hubbard, _Life_, _passim_.]
Each autumn for a number of years this fleet made its way from Mackinac
down the eastern shore of Lake Michigan and around its southern end to
Chicago. From the south branch of the river the boats and goods were
forced at the expense of much toil and hardship across the portage and
down the Des Plaines until navigable water was reached on the Illinois
River. Here the brigade broke up, small parties going to the various
trading stations of the Illinois and its tributaries, and the winter
was passed in bartering the goods for the furs of the Indians. With
the opening of navigation in the spring the outfit reassembled and the
return journey to Mackinac was begun. The boats, now laden with furs,
were forced up the Illinois and the Des Plaines, the difficulty on
the latter stream arising now from the excess of water, rather than
from its scarcity, and the labor of stemming the raging current of the
swollen stream. The remainder of the journey from Chicago, around the
lake to Mackinac, was made with comparative ease.
We are indebted to the recollections of Gurdon S. Hubbard for an
intimate picture of the life and activities of the traders who composed
the Illinois brigade. Hubbard first visited the Illinois country as
a youth of sixteen in the autumn of 1818. Approaching Chicago, the
brigade spent the night at the mouth of the Little Calumet River.
At dawn the party set out, in holiday attire and with flags flying,
upon the last twelve miles of the lake voyage. At Douglas Grove young
Hubbard landed, and climbing a tree gazed in wonder upon the first
prairie he had ever beheld. In the foreground was a sea of waving
grass, intermingled with a profusion of wild flowers; in the distance
the groves of timber at Blue Island and along the Des Plaines River. A
herd of wild deer appeared in view, while a pair of red foxes emerged
from the grass within gunshot of the enraptured youth. To the northward
could be seen the whitewashed walls of Fort Dearborn sparkling in the
sunlight, while on the blue surface of the lake the brawny voyageurs
urged onward the fleet of bateaux, their flashing oars keeping time
with the music of the boat song.
Descending from his observation point, Hubbard made his way toward the
fort, and found the traders encamped on the north side of the river
to the west of Kinzie's house. Here he was entertained and a firm
friendship between him and the Kinzie family soon developed. The young
visitor was to return to Chicago frequently during the following years,
until in 1834 he made it his permanent home and shortly became one of
the foremost citizens of the struggling but optimistic young city.
Interesting glimpses of the manner of life in and around the new Fort
Dearborn are afforded by the accounts of travelers who occasionally
visited this frontier station. The reception of Storrow at Fort
Dearborn in 1817, "as one arrived from the moon," has already been
mentioned.[695] Storrow was greatly impressed with the strategic
advantages possessed by Chicago, which he thus early pointed out marked
it as the future place of deposit for the whole region of the upper
lakes.[696] He described the climate and soil as excellent, although
not all visitors of this early period agree with him in this opinion.
At the time of his visit traces of the massacre yet remained, and
Storrow encountered one of the "principal perpetrators," Nuscotnemeg,
or the Mad Sturgeon.
[Footnote 695: _Supra_, p. 153.]
[Footnote 696: _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, VI, 183-84.]
From the pen of Mrs. Baird, whose visit to Chicago was probably
made in the same year as that of Storrow, we get a more detailed
description.[697] The vessel which transported her from Mackinac had
for its cargo "the familiar load of pork, flour, and butter." There
were no ports of call on the western side of Lake Michigan, and the
master after seeking in vain at Chicago for a return cargo had finally
to take on a ballast of sand and gravel. Mrs. Baird draws a pleasant
picture of the household of her host, John Kinzie. The establishment
included a number of "men and women retainers." There was as yet no
bridge across the river, the only means of passage being a canoe or
dugout, as in the days before the massacre. In this craft, with the two
Kinzie children, eight and ten years of age, acting as her crew, Mrs.
Baird first crossed the Chicago River.
[Footnote 697: _Ibid._, XIV, 25 ff.]
In the summer of 1820 Governor Cass of Michigan Territory, returning
from a voyage of exploration to the sources of the Mississippi River,
arrived in mid-August at Chicago with a party of sixteen men in
two canoes.[698] At Chicago the party separated. Cass with several
attendants proceeded on horseback along the Indian trail to Detroit,
while the scientists of the expedition. Captain Douglas and Henry R.
Schoolcraft, completed the circuit of Lake Michigan by continuing
around its eastern shore to Mackinac. Schoolcraft, like Storrow, was
greatly impressed with the natural advantages possessed by Chicago,
and predicted for it a glowing future. With the extinguishment of the
Indian title to the surrounding country immigration would flow in, and
Chicago would become the dèpôt for the inland commerce between the
northern and southern sections of the Union, and "a great thoroughfare
for strangers, merchants, and travelers."
[Footnote 698: For an account of the expedition see Schoolcraft,
_Narrative Journal of Travels from Detroit ... to the Sources of the
Mississippi River in 1820_.]
No little discernment was requisite thus to perceive the future
destiny of the rude frontier hamlet which according to Schoolcraft's
estimate contained, exclusive of the military but ten or a dozen houses
and a population of sixty souls. Quite different from Schoolcraft's
description was that of the historian of Major Long's expedition to the
sources of the St. Peter's River three years later.[699] He described
the climate as inhospitable, the soil sterile, and the scenery
monotonous and uninviting. The village consisted of a few huts of log
or bark, low, filthy, and disgusting, displaying not the least trace
of comfort, and inhabited by "a miserable race of men," scarcely equal
to the Indians from whom they were descended. Nor could the chronicler
perceive the brilliant future in store for Chicago which Schoolcraft
had foretold. He granted that "at some distant day," when the country
between the Wabash and the Mississippi should become populated, Chicago
might become a point in the line of communication between the Great
Lakes and the Mississippi; but even the intercourse which would be
carried on through this channel would, he thought, be at all times a
limited one.
[Footnote 699: Keating, _Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's
River_, I, 163-65.]
From September, 1821, until June, 1823, the commander of Fort Dearborn
was Lieutenant-colonel John McNeil.[700] Colonel McNeil was a man of
interesting personality in many ways. Physically he was the rival of
General Scott for being the tallest and heaviest man in the army,
and the equal in size of "Long John" Wentworth, Chicago's well-known
editor, mayor, and congressman.[701] He was a soldier of the War of
1812, during the course of which he was twice brevetted for gallant
conduct, the first time in the battle of Chippewa and the second in
the battle of Niagara.[702] Mrs. McNeil was a half-sister of Franklin
Pierce, later President of the United States. She was described over
half a century later, by one who as a young soldier had come under
her influence, as a "most estimable woman," whose kindness and wise
counsels had had a beneficial influence on his whole life.[703] For a
daughter born to Mrs. McNeil at Fort Dearborn the father subsequently
claimed the distinction of having been the first child born in the
new fort.[704] Their only son, Lieutenant J. Winfield Scott McNeil,
who died in 1837 of wounds received in a battle with the Seminole
Indians,[705] was a young boy during the time his father was stationed
at Fort Dearborn.
[Footnote 700: _Drennan Papers_, Fort Dearborn post returns.]
[Footnote 701: Wentworth, _Early Chicago_, 24-25. In 1857 Wentworth was
said to be the tallest man in Chicago, measuring about six feet and a
half and weighing two hundred and thirty pounds (Chicago Magazine, I,
399).]
[Footnote 702: Heitman, _Dictionary of the United States Army_, I, 679.]
[Footnote 703: Van Cleve, _Three Score Years and Ten_, 31.]
[Footnote 704: Wentworth, _Early Chicago_, 24.]
[Footnote 705: _Ibid._, Heitman, _op. cit._, I, 679.]
James Watson Webb, who later acquired national renown as editor,
politician, and diplomat, was stationed at Fort Dearborn as a young
Heutenant during a part of the period of McNeil's incumbency as
commander. The descendant of an old New York family, Webb ran away from
home at the age of seventeen, and going to Washington secured as the
result of a personal interview with Calhoun, then Secretary of War, a
commission in the army. In October, 1821, he joined the Fort Dearborn
garrison and remained here until the following June. Webb's service
at Fort Dearborn was marked by a bold and arduous exploit. Toward the
end of January, 1822, John Kinzie, who was then acting as sub-Indian
agent, communicated to Colonel McNeil information which he had received
from a friendly Chippewa chief of a plot on the part of the Sioux and
Fox Indians to overwhelm the garrison at Fort Snelling on the upper
Mississippi the following spring.[706] It was desirable to send word
to Fort Armstrong of the plot, from which place the news could be
forwarded up the Mississippi to Fort Snelling. Lieutenant Webb, though
barely twenty years of age, volunteered for this service. Accompanied
by a sergeant and a Pottawatomie guide, he set out on February 4,
intending to proceed to the post of a French trader on the Rock River
and there secure a Winnebago guide for the remainder of the trip. Upon
reaching there, however, he found the Winnebagoes celebrating their
war dance. To secure a guide from them was out of the question. During
the night Webb and his companion set out, ostensibly to return to
Chicago, but in reality to make their way across the prairie to Fort
Armstrong. The weather was bitterly cold and they were exposed to the
double danger of death from freezing and of being intercepted by the
Indians. Neither materialized, however, and in due time Webb's message
was delivered to the commander at Fort Armstrong.
[Footnote 706: For Webb's account of the affair see his letter to John
Wentworth, October 31, 1882, in Chicago Historical Society library,
and Andrews, _Biographical Sketch of James Watson Webb_, 11-15. For
Kinzie's report of the plot to Cass, February 1, 1822, see Indian
Department, Cass correspondence.]
In May, 1823, an order was issued from Washington for the evacuation
of Fort Dearborn, and the following autumn the garrison departed.[707]
Doctor Alexander Wolcott, who had succeeded Jouett as Indian agent at
Chicago, continued to serve in this capacity until his death in 1830.
In July, 1823, he married Ellen Marion, the eldest daughter of John
Kinzie's second family,[708] and upon the removal of the garrison took
up his residence in the fort. The circumstances of Wolcott's marriage
well illustrate the primitive conditions which prevailed at Chicago
in this period. There was no justice of the peace, minister of the
gospel, or other person at Chicago authorized to solemnize marriages.
It chanced that William S. Hamilton, son of the famous statesman,
Alexander Hamilton, who had adopted a roving life in the wilderness of
northern Illinois, had taken a contract to supply the garrison at Fort
Howard with beef cattle. John Hamlin, one of the early residents of
Peoria who held a commission as justice of the peace, had accompanied
Hamilton on a trip to Green Bay with a drove of cattle. On the return
journey he reached Chicago about July 20, and advantage was taken of
his presence by the prospective bride and groom to have their marriage
ceremony performed.
[Footnote 707: Wentworth, _Early Chicago_, 47; _Drennan Papers_, Fort
Dearborn post returns.]
[Footnote 708: McCulloch, _Early Days of Peoria and Chicago_, 99.]
With the garrison departed most of the life at Chicago. During the
next few years little occurred to interrupt the monotonous course of
existence. Rarely a new settler, attracted by the presence of relatives
who had gone before, or lured westward by the hope of improving his
material condition, would direct his steps to Chicago. Periodically the
Indians, who still held possession of the country tributary to Chicago,
would assemble to receive their annuities, the payment of which had
been stipulated in various treaties. At such times the place teemed
with savages and excitement for a few days, during which the traders
reaped a golden harvest. Finally in 1827 occurred the Winnebago War,
which for a time furnished plenty of excitement for Chicago, and led
eventually to the reoccupation of Fort Dearborn by a garrison of United
States troops.