CHAPTER VII.

CONTEMPORANEOUS REPORTS.

HARDLY any one institution existing four score years ago, shows so wondrous a change as does the American newspaper. The steamboat, railroad, telegraph, telephone, power-press and other mechanical aids to the spreading of news have all been invented and perfected within that time, while gas and electric light have aided in the prompt reproduction of intelligence, and penny-postage in its dissemination. So that which was then an infant--say rather an embryo--is now a giant.

The very first published narrative of the massacre which is now at hand is the following account, very short and full of errors, taken from the Buffalo Gazette (date not given) and published in Niles' Weekly Register of October 3, 1812.[AG]

[AG] This paper, published in Baltimore, was the best general chronicle of events reported by correspondents or appearing in the few and meager outlying journals of the day.

_Fall of Fort Dearborn, at Chicago._--Yesterday afternoon the Queen Charlotte arrived at Fort Erie, seven days from Detroit. A flag of truce soon landed, at Buffalo Creek, Major Atwater and Lieut. J. L. Eastman, who gave the following account of the fall of Fort Dearborn: On the first of September a Pottowatomie chief arrived at Detroit and stated that about the middle of August Captain Wells, from Fort Wayne [an interpreter], arrived at Fort Dearborn to advise the commandant of that fort to evacuate it and retreat. In the mean time a large body of Indians of different nations had collected and menaced the garrison. A council was held with the Indians, in which it was agreed that the party in the garrison should be spared on condition that all property in the fort should be given up. The Americans marched out but were fired upon and nearly all killed. There were about fifty men in the fort beside women and children, and probably not more than ten or twelve taken prisoners. Captain Wells and Heald [the commandant] were killed.

This brief report interests us in various ways. Detroit was in the British hands, and the Queen Charlotte a British ship, for Perry's victory had not yet been won. Major Atwater and Lieut. Eastman, here liberated by the British under flag of truce, were probably part of the army surrendered by General Hull on August 16, and paroled; these officers having remained in Detroit for some unexplained reason--perhaps because they were citizens of that city, as Atwater is an old Detroit name. (It has been given to a street there.) The Queen Charlotte was one of the ships captured by Perry on Sept. 10, 1813, and was sunk in Put-in-Bay, and twenty years later she was raised, repaired and put again in commission, this time as a trading-vessel, and it was on her that John Dean Caton, later Chief Justice of Illinois, and now (1893) an honored resident of Chicago, took passage at Buffalo with his bride, in 1834, and came to the land which was to be their home for sixty years.[AH]

[AH] Mrs. Caton died in 1892.

Regarding the rest of the fugitives we have very scanty reports. The next item we find is an utterly wild, false and fanciful statement of Mrs. Helm's vicissitudes, contradicting in every particular her own narrative, as given in Wau-Bun.

[From Niles' Weekly Register, Saturday, April 13, 1813.]

_Savage Barbarity._--Mrs. Helm, the wife of Lieutenant Helm, who escaped from the butchery of Chicauga by the assistance of a humane Indian, has arrived at this place [Buffaloe]. The account of her sufferings during three months' slavery among the Indians and three months' imprisonment among their allies, would make a most interesting volume. One circumstance alone will I mention. During five days after she was taken prisoner she had not the least sustenance, and was compelled to drag a canoe (barefooted and wading along the stream) in which there were some squaws, and when she demanded food, some flesh of her murdered countrymen and a piece of Col. Wells' heart was offered her.

She knows the fact that Col. Proctor, the British commander at Maiden, bought the scalps of our murdered garrison of Chicauga, and thanks to her noble spirit, she boldly charged him with his infamy in his own house.

She knows further, from the tribe with whom she was a prisoner, and who were the perpetrators of those murders, that they intended to remain true, but that they received orders from the British to cut off our garrison, whom they were to escort.

Oh, spirits of the murdered Americans! can ye not rouse your countrymen, your friends, your relations, to take ample vengeance on those worse than savage bloodhounds?

An Officer.

March 18th, 1813.

This is manifestly written to "fire the patriotic heart" of the country to rally to the defence of "Buffaloe," a frontier town in deadly fear of its Canadian neighbors, in sight beyond the Niagara River. Mrs. Helm herself must have learned with surprise that while she, with the rest of the Kinzie family, was hospitably entertained at "Parc-aux-vaches," on the St. Joseph, she was suffering "three months' slavery among the Indians;" and later, while living in Detroit, she was enduring "three months' imprisonment among their allies," the English. Also that during the five days after the massacre, when she tells us she was, with much discomfort and more alarm, living in the Kinzie mansion with her relatives, she was really dragging a canoe, barefooted, wading along the stream, deprived of all sustenance except the flesh of her murdered countrymen, especially poor Wells's carved-up and bleeding heart--which, by the way, she had only heard of; never seen! Such things serve very well to prove to us that, as creators of imaginative fiction, newspaper correspondents of those days were equal even to those of our own.

More absurd, if possible, is a letter printed in Niles' Register of May 8, 1813, purporting to have been written by one Walter Jordan, a non-commissioned officer of regulars, stationed at Fort Wayne, to his wife, in Alleghany County, dated Fort Wayne, October 19, 1812. In the first place, it is most unlikely that any such white man should have been in Captain Wells's company and remained unmentioned. We hear of nobody as arriving but Captain Wells and his thirty Miami Indians. In our day, it is true, a captain would be likely to be accompanied by an orderly; but Wells had been brought up in too stern a school to be provided with such an attendant. Then, too, the narrative bristles with absurdities. The story is as follows:

I take my pen to inform you that I am well, after a long and perilous journey through the Indian country. Capt. Wells, myself, and an hundred friendly Indians, left Fort Wayne on the 1st of August to escort Captain Heald from Fort Chicauga, as he was in danger of being captured by the British. Orders had been given to abandon the fort and retreat to Fort Wayne, a distance of 150 miles. We reached Chicauga on the 10th of August, and on the 15th prepared for an immediate march, burning all that we could not fetch with us. On the 15th at 8 o'clock we commenced our march with our small force, which consisted of Captain Wells, myself, one hundred Confute Indians, Captain Heald's one hundred men, ten women, twenty children--in all 232. We had marched half a mile when we were attacked by 600 Kickapoo and Wynbago Indians. In the moment of trial our Confute savages joined the savage enemy. Our contest lasted fifteen minutes, when every man, woman and child was killed except fifteen. Thanks be to God, I was one of those who escaped. First they shot the feather off my cap, next the epaulet off my shoulder, and then the handle from the sword; I then surrendered to four savage rascals. The Confute chief, taking me by the hand and speaking English, said: "Jordan, I know you. You gave me tobacco at Fort Wayne. We won't kill you, but come and see what we will do to your captain." So, leading me to where Wells lay, they cut off his head and put it on a long pole, while another took out his heart and divided it up among the chiefs and ate it up raw. Then they scalped the slain and stripped the prisoners, and gathered in a ring with us fifteen poor wretches in the middle. They had nearly fallen out about the divide, but my old chief, the White Racoon, holding me fast, they made the divide and departed to their towns. They tied me hard and fast that night, and placed a guard over me. I lay down and slept soundly until morning, for I was tired. In the morning they untied me and set me parching corn, at which I worked attentively until night. They said that if I would stay, and not run away they would make a chief of me; but if I would attempt to run away they would catch me and burn me alive. I answered them with a fine story in order to gain their confidence, and finally made my escape from them on the 19th of August, and took one of the best horses to carry me, being seven days in the wilderness. I was joyfully received at Wayne on the 26th. On the 28th day they attacked the fort and blockaded us until the 16th of September, when we were relieved by General Harrison.

One is uncertain whether to rate this as a yarn made by some penny-a-liner out of such scraps as might be picked up from common rumor and the tales of returned stragglers of the thirty Indians who ran away when the attack began, or the lying story of a fellow who was really of the party, and one of the leaders, not in the fight, but in the flight. His enumeration of "one hundred Confute Indians," (no tribe of that name being known to history) in place of the band of thirty Miamis, his estimate of Captain Heald's "one hundred men, ten women and twenty children," his march of "half a mile," his statement that all were killed except fifteen, which would make the loss of life over two hundred, in place of Captain Heald's estimate of fifty-two, all tend to force the conclusion that there was no Walter Jordan in the matter. The latter part of the story, representing himself as heroically losing feather, epaulet and sword-hilt to the rascally savages, who still refrained from inflicting bodily injury on him, his then being kindly but firmly led to the place where poor Wells, in the presence of his niece, was waiting to have his head cut off and set up on a pole, and his heart cut out and divided among the chiefs, etc., tends to the belief that Walter Jordan was present, ran away, saved himself, reached Fort Wayne and devised this cock-and-bull story to explain his long absence, his personal safety and his possession of a horse which did not belong to him. Another hypothesis is that he started from Fort Wayne with Wells, deserted on the road, hung around until he got the story as told by the Indian fugitives, and (finding that his captain was dead) put a bold face on the matter and came in, bringing a horse he had been lucky enough to "capture" when its owner was not looking.

The next item is dated more than a year later; a year during which the wretched captives seem to have suffered miseries indescribable. The story bears the stamp of truth so far as the escaped fugitives knew it:

[From Niles' Weekly Register, 4th June, 1814.]

Chicago.--Among the persons who have recently arrived at this place, says the Plattsburg [N. Y.] paper of the 21st ultimo, from Quebec, are: James Van Horn, Dyson Dyer, Joseph Knowles, Joseph Bowen, Paul Grummond, Nathan Edson, Elias Mills, James Corbin, Phelim Corbin, of the First Regiment of U. S. Infantry, who survived the massacre at Fort Dearborn, or Chicago, on the 15th August, 1812. It will be recollected that the commandant at Fort Chicago, Captain Heald, was ordered by General Hull to evacuate the fort and proceed with his command to Detroit; that having proceeded about a mile and a half, the troops were attacked by a body of Indians, to whom they were compelled to capitulate.

Captain Heald, in his report of this affair, dated October 23d, 1812, says: "Our strength was fifty-four regulars and twelve militia, out of which twenty-six regulars and all the militia, with two women and twelve children, were killed in the action.

"Lieut. Linai T. Helm, with twenty-five non-commissioned officers and privates, and eleven women and children, were prisoners when we separated." Lieut. Helm was ransomed. Of the twenty-five non-commissioned officers and privates, and the eleven women and children, the nine persons above mentioned are believed to be the only survivors. They state that the prisoners who were not put to death on the march were taken to the Fox River, in the Indian territory, where they were distributed among the Indians as servants. Those who survived remained in this situation about nine months, during which time they were allowed scarcely a sufficiency of sustenance to support nature, and were then brought to Fort Chicago, where they were purchased by a French trader, agreeable to the directions of General Proctor, and sent to Amherstburg, and from thence to Quebec, where they arrived November 8th, 1813.

John Neads, who was one of the prisoners, formerly of Virginia, died among the Indians between the 15th and 20th of January, 1813.

Hugh Logan, an Irishman, was tomahawked and put to death, be not being able to walk from excessive fatigue.

August Mott, a German, was killed in the same manner for the like reason.

A man by the name of Nelson was frozen to death while a captive with the Indians. He was formerly from Maryland.

A child of Mrs. Neads, the wife of John Neads, was tied to a tree to prevent its following and crying after its mother for victuals. Mrs.. Neads perished from hunger and cold.

The officers who were killed on the 15th of August had their heads cut off and their hearts taken out and boiled in the presence of the prisoners. Eleven children were massacred and scalped in one wagon.

Mrs. Corbin, wife of Phelim Corbin, in an advanced stage of pregnancy, was tomahawked, scalped, cut open, and had the child taken out and its head cut off.

Turning to the latest muster-roll of the force, dated 1810, we identify among these survivors the names of Dyson Dyer, Nathan Edson, Paul Grummow, James Van Home, James Corbin and Phelim Corbin. Among the perished, August Mott, John Neads and Hugh Logan. To this sad list must be added four still more pitiable victims--the wife and unborn child of Phelim Corbin, and the unhappy Mrs. Neads, to whom death must have been welcome after seeing her little one "tied to a tree to keep it from following her and crying for victuals."

Mrs. John Kinzie, in a sketch of the life of her husband (Chic. Hist. Society, July 11, 1877. Fergus' Hist. Series No. 10) says:

In 1816 the Kinzie family returned to their desolated home in Chicago. The bones of the murdered soldiers, who had fallen four years before, were still lying unburied where they had fallen. The troops who rebuilt the fort collected and interred these remains. The coffins which contained them were deposited near the bank of the river, which then had its outlet about at the foot of Madison Street. The cutting through the sand-bar for the harbor caused the lake to encroach and wash away the earth, exposing the long range of coffins and their contents, which were afterward cared for and reinterred by the civil authorities.

There is good reason to believe that Mrs. Kinzie was mistaken in thinking that the coffins exposed on the lake shore by the action of the waves, contained the bodies of those who perished in the massacre. The fort burying-ground certainly was at the place indicated, and the exposed coffins doubtless contained the bodies of those buried in that ground; but that does not include the massacre victims. Mr. Fernando Jones believes them to have been buried at where Seventeenth Street, extended, would cross Prairie Avenue.

A letter on the matter (kindly furnished me while these pages are in preparation) reads as follows:

Upon my arrival in Chicago, in the spring of 1835, being fifteen years of age, I became acquainted with a number of Indian and half-breed boys, as well as older persons, and visited many times the location of the Indian massacre of 1812. The spot was pointed out by some who were children at the time, and by others who had been informed by their parents. The burial-place where the victims were interred was quite distinct at that time. There was a mound in the prairie southwest of the massacre-ground, that was pointed out as the grave of the vidette, or soldier in advance of the retreating garrison.

The tradition was that the soldier ran west into the prairie, thinking to hide in the tall grass, but was pursued and killed and scalped and his body afterward buried by friendly half breeds.

In the summer of 1836 a number of youngsters, accompanied by some young Indians and half-breeds, proceeded to examine the lonely hillock in the plains. The turf still preserved the shape of a grave. There were in the party as I remember, besides myself, Pierre Laframbois, Alex Beaubien, Charles Cleaver, J. Louis Hooker and John C. Haines. After digging about three feet into the ground we unearthed a skeleton surrounded by bits of woolen cloth, pieces of leather, brass military buttons and buckles and a brass plate with U. S. upon it. We became convinced that this was undeniably the grave of the traditional vidette, and reverently returned the remains into the grave where they had lain for a quarter of a century, and where I suppose they still remain. The spot was about a block south of the Calumet Club-House, near the S. E. corner of Indiana Ave. and Twenty-first Street. I kept watch of the place until streets were laid out and the property improved, having resided near it for over twenty-five years.

Fernando Jones.

No remains of any coffin were found, a fact which would indicate a battle-field burial; but on the other hand, it seems most improbable that the Indians would have left belt-plate, buttons and cloth on any of their victims.

* * * * *

The Indian Problem is solved at last, and by the Indians' own and only means for the solution of problems--the cutting of the knot. It has been a long struggle, marked by wrong on both sides and by shame on ours--theirs was not capable of shame. They had many friends and only one formidable enemy--themselves.

The Americans met them with the sword in one hand and the olive branch in the other. They declined the branch and defied the sword. The English offered them gifts in both hands, and they took all that was offered, rendering in exchange services disgraceful to the more civilized party to the contract. The French offered them love, and won theirs in return. While other whites held aloof, the gay Frenchman fraternized with them, became one with them, shared their lives and their pursuits, won their religious allegiance--nay, more; in a gentler and more irresistible way prevailed over them, for he formed with their women alliances which furnished the inferior race a hybrid, partly like themselves, but superior, and able and willing to be their leaders against the more grasping, less loving Americans. These hybrids have, in many cases, continued the race on its enlightened side, and there are not wanting among ourselves splendid specimens of manhood and womanhood, whose fine figures, flashing eyes, and strong, grave faces, proclaim the proud possession of the blood of the only really "first citizens" of our democratic republic.

It is now hard to trace the Indians who departed hence in 1835, fifty-eight years ago. They are almost "lost tribes." The report for 1890 of the Commissioners of Indian Affairs, gives Pottowatomies of various descriptions scattered in many places. This same is true of the Ottawas and Chippewas.

The larger part of the Pottowatomies (known of old as the "Woods Band," in contradistinction to the "Prairie Band") have renounced tribal relations and are known as the "Citizen Band." They number scarcely two thousand souls, and occupy a tract nearly thirty miles square (575,000 acres) in Oklahoma.

The Commissioners' report says but little about them, giving more attention to the "Prairie Band," since they are still a tribe, and thus, "wards of the nation." They number only 432, and hold in common 77,357 acres in Kansas, where they are doing fairly, but are pestered with the dregs of the "Citizen Band," who fall back on the tribe like the returned prodigal--but unrepentant, and still fit company only for the husk-eating swine.

Of the "Citizen Band," Special Agent Porter says:

"The Pottowatomies are citizens of the United States, thoroughly tinctured with white blood. Nearly all of them speak English and read and write. Some of them are quite wealthy, being good farmers, with large herds of stock. Their morals are below the standard, considering their advanced state as a civilized' people."

This is not high praise; still, it gives hope for better things. Peace and industry coming first, civilization and morality will follow. The savage Indian is essentially a being of the past (notwithstanding the survival of a few wild Apaches, a few "ghost-dancers" among the Sioux, and some other exceptional bodies) and he is succeeded by the truly civilized Indian (of whom the Cherokees are a splendid example), a self-respecting, self governing, self-educating, prosperous human being; not particularly different from the frontiers-man, except by a slight and diminishing shade of color and by the possession of the best characteristics of his savage ancestors. It may perhaps be said that no race of men has ever made as much progress in five generations as have the "civilized Indians." It is only one hundred and sixty years since d'Artaguiette, Vinsenne, the Jesuit Senat, and young St. Ange, son of the French commandant in the Illinois country (Fort Chartres), were defeated in the Arkansas country and were burned at the stake by the unconquered Chickasaws, who were "amazed to see the fortitude with which white men could die." And now, in the territory adjoining Arkansas on the west, the descendants of the torturers are cultivating farms, maintaining governments, courts, schools and churches, and in short, setting an example worthy to be followed by many who have been "civilized" from the time ages back of the year 1492; when the innocent, luckless Haytians learned of the existence of the unspeakable Spaniards, in cruelty the only rivals of the North American aborigines.

* * * * *

What is the reason for the intense interest and curiosity which clusters about this story of violence and rapine, of heroism, anguish and death? Other massacres have blotted with blood the pages of American history. From Deerfield and Schenectady to the Little Bighorn, our devoted bands have perished at the hands of the American Indian; and each dark day is suffered to rest as a mere tradition, buried in the half-forgotten folk-lore of its time and place. Why does the Fort Dearborn massacre, involving only a few score souls, hold a different rank in our hearts?

It is because the footsteps of millions are passing over the spot where it all happened; steamers are churning its peaceful waters; bells and steam-whistles are rending the air that bore away the sound of gun-shots, war-whoops and dying cries; and the sculptors' art is putting into immortal bronze the memory of its incidents. Thus does it gain an _ex post facto_ importance and a posthumous fame.

Transcription of Block-House Tablet:

BLOCK HOUSE OF FORT DEARBORN

This building occupies the site of old Fort Dearborn which extended a little across Mich. Ave. and somewhat into the River as it now is.

The Fort was built in 1803 & 4. Forming our outmost defense.

By order of Gen. Hull it was evacuated Aug. 15, 1812 after its stores and provisions had been distributed among the Indians.

Very soon after the Indians attacked and massacred about fifty of the troops and a number of citizens including women and children and next day burned the Fort.

In 1816 it was re-built, but after the Black-hawk War it went into gradual disuse and in May 1857 when it was torn down, excepting a single building, which stood upon this site till the Great Fire of Oct. 9, 1871.

At the suggestion of the Chicago Historical Society this tablet was erected by Nov. 1889. W. M. Hoyt.

Among the world's great cities, Chicago should be the one most thoroughly recorded. No other that counts her denizens by the million has among them those born before her annals fairly began. No other has had such startling vicissitudes. Laid low by slaughter in her infancy and by fire in her youth, she has climbed with bounding steps, upward and onward. Toiling, enduring, laughing, prospering, exulting; she has taken each scourge as a fillip to her energy, each spur as a stimulus to her courage. Hers is the enthusiasm of youth with the strength of maturity.

The early days of Paris and London are lost in half-mythical shadow. Even if told, their incidents might fail to match in interest those which have befallen their young sister. So much the more zealously should we who love this youthful aspirant for fame, take care that the romance of her childhood shall be preserved and handed down to posterity.

The spirited figure of La Salle (given by Lambert Tree) and Martin Ryerson's Indian group, are both fine memorials of the dawn of things in the North-West. Eli Bates's matchless statue of Lincoln is devoted to a page in the history of the whole Union. Now comes Chicago's latest treasure, the magnificent group commemorating the massacre of 1812; a purely civic work, to keep in the minds of Chicago's citizens, for untold generations, the romance and reality of her struggling infancy.

Honor to the men who, in the intense pressure of the present, still have thoughts for the past and the future.

* * * * *

At the unveiling, (1881) of the Block-House Tablet (designed by the Chicago Historical Society) set by William M. Hoyt in the north wall of his warehouse, facing Rush Street Bridge from the south, Mr. Eugene Hall read some stanzas of original verse so musical, so poetic and so apt for the occasion, that I venture (with his permission) to repeat them here, as a finish to our story.

* * * * *

FORT DEARBORN, CHICAGO, 1881.

Here, where the savage war-whoop once resounded, Where council fires burned brightly years ago, Where the red Indian from his covert bounded To scalp his pale-faced foe:

Here, where grey badgers had their haunts and burrows, Where wild wolves howled and prowled in midnight bands, Where frontier farmers turned the virgin furrows, Our splendid city stands.

Here, where brave men and helpless women perished, Here, where in unknown graves their forms decay; This marble, that their memory may be cherished, We consecrate today.

No more the farm-boy's call, or lowing cattle. Frighten the timid wild fowl from the slough: The noisy trucks and wagons roll and rattle O'er miles of pavement now.

Now are our senses startled and confounded. By screaming whistle and by clanging bell. Where Beaubien's merry fiddle once resounded When summer twilight fell.

Here stood the fort with palisades about it. With low log block-house in those early hours; The prairie fair extended far without it. Blooming with fragrant flowers.

About this spot the buildings quickly clustered; The logs decayed, the palisade went down. Here the resistless Western spirit mustered And built this wondrous town.

Here from the trackless plain its structures started. And one by one, in splendor rose to view. The white ships went and came, the years departed, And still she grandly grew.

Till one wild night, a night each man remembers. When round her homes the red fire leaped and curled. The sky was filled with flame and flying embers. That swept them from the world.

Men said: "Chicago's bright career is ended!" As by the smouldering stones they chanced to go, While the wide world its love and pity blended, To help us in our woe.

O where was ever human goodness greater? Man's love for man was never more sublime. On the eternal scroll of our Creator 'Tis written for all time.

Chicago lives, and many a lofty steeple Looks down today upon this western plain; The tireless hands of her unconquered people Have reared her walls again.

Long may she live and grow in wealth and beauty, And may her children be, in coming years, True to their trust and faithful in their duty As her brave pioneers.

APPENDIX.

A--John Baptiste Pointe de Saible.

B--Fort Dearborn in the War Department.

C--The Whittier Family.

D--The Kinzie Family.

E--The Wells and Heald Families.

F--The Bones of John Lalime.

G--Letters from a. H. Edwards.

H--Billy Caldwell, "The Sauganash."

I--Indian War Dance.

K--The Bronze Memorial Group.

APPENDIX A.

JEAN BAPTISTE POINTE DE SAIBLE, THE HAYTIAN NEGRO WHO WAS THE FIRST "WHITE MAN" TO SETTLE IN CHICAGO (1776-77).

NOT IN JEST, but in grave, sober earnest, the Indians used to say that "the first white man in Chicago was a nigger." In their view, all non-Indians were "whites," the adjective having to them only a racial significance. Then, too the aborigines had no jests--no harmless ones. Peering into the dim past for early items concerning what is now Chicago, one comes first to the comparatively clear (though positively scanty) records of the French--La Salle, Marquette, Tonti, Hennepin, St. Cosme and their bold associates--who came in by way of the St. Lawrence in the seventeenth century--1672 to 1700.

From that time there occurs a great blank. Scarcely a ray of light or word of intelligence pierces the deep gloom for just one hundred years. Detroit, Mackinaw, Lake Superior, Green Bay, Fort Duquesne and St. Louis are kept in view. Even Kaskasia and Fort Chartres, both in Illinois territory, are on record; a circumstance due to the fact, not generally known, that they were points of importance in John Law's famous Mississippi scheme. But Chicago was almost as though it had sunk below the waves of Lake Michigan when La Salle, Marquette and St. Cosme bade it good-bye.

Suddenly, in 1778, in the midst of the Revolutionary War, the name reappears in literature in a curious way. It comes to us through a poetical allusion from the pen of Colonel Arent Schuyler de Peyster, commandant at Michilimackinac. De Peyster, as his name suggests, was a New Yorker of the ancient Dutch stock He entered the English army and in 1757 was commissioned lieutenant in the Eighth, or King's Regiment of Foot. Necessarily he was and continued to be a royalist, and when war broke out served King George against Gen. George.

Fortunately for our knowledge of the West during Revolutionary times, Colonel de Peyster was a scholar and a gentleman as well a soldier and a Tory He left a volume of "Miscellanies," which was first published (1813) in Dumfries, Scotland, whither the old soldier retired when the bad cause for which he made a good fight came to a disastrous end by the peace of Paris in 1783.[AI] An edition, edited by General J. Watts de Peyster, of Yonkers, was published in 1888.

[AI] After his return to Scotland, Colonel de Peyster commanded the "fencibles" (militia), of which Robert Burns was a member, and it was in his honor that the poet wrote his poem, "To Colonel de Peyster," beginning:

"My honored Colonel, deep I feel Your interest in the poets' weal."

and ending, after several stanzas:

"But lest you think I am uncivil To plague you with this draunting drivel. Abjuring a intentions evil, I quat my pen: The Lord preserve us frae the devil, Amen! Amen!"

Colonel de Peyster's post of loyal service was Mackinaw, whither, as the "Miscellanies" tell us, he was sent early in 1774, "to command the post, with the painful task of superintending the lake Indians." "Canoes arrived with passes signed by the American General Wooster, and Dr. Benjamin Franklin, wherein it was stipulated that those traders should not afford any succor whatever to the British garrison."

He adds that "in the spring following they [the Indians] were sent down to assist General Burgoine in his expedition across Lake Champlaine"--an entry which recalls the fate of poor Jane McCrea, whose death at the hands of the Indians, near Saratoga, used to draw tears from our childish eyes in the good old times before patriotism was no more.

In that expedition they seem to have done no valuable service to King George (except the killing of Miss McCrea), and on their return they were assembled at Mackinaw for the purpose of making a diversion in favor of the English General Hamilton, whom George Rogers Clark, our paragon of Western soldiers, had defeated already (though de Peyster did not know it) and sent across the Alleghanies, a prisoner, to Patrick Henry, Governor of Virginia.

Now comes in the mention of Chicago. De Peyster made a speech to the assembled redskins, which speech he next day turned into rude rhyme at the request of a fair lady whom he calls, in gallant French phrase, "une chère compagne de voyage." The poem is included in the "Miscellanies."[AJ]

[AJ] The lady was his wife. The marriage was childless, and General J. Watts de Peyster (1892) says in a private note: "She was _chère_ indeed to de P's lineal heirs, for her cajolery of the Colonel transferred his property from his nephew, protege and namesake. Captain Arent Schuyler de Peyster, to her own people, McMurdo's, or whatever was the name of her nephews." General de Peyster says that he himself got the story from Captain Arent Schuyler de Peyster, the namesake in question, and the discoverer of the "De Peyster Islands," in the Pacific Ocean.

The entire versified speech is too long to quote, interesting though it be as an unstudied sketch of things of that time and place. Any one wishing to know more of it can find it in the "Miscellanies," of which a copy should be easily found in any large library.

SPEECH TO THE WESTERN INDIANS.

Great chiefs, convened at my desire To kindle up this council-fire, Which, with ascending smoke shall burn, Till you from war once more return To lay the axe in earth so deep That nothing shall disturb its sleep.

I know you have been told by Clark His riflemen ne'er miss the mark; In vain you hide behind a tree If they your finger-tip can see. The instant they have got their aim Enrolls you on the list of lame.

But then, my sons, this boaster's rifles, To those I have in store are trifles: If you but make the tree your mark The ball will twirl beneath the bark. Till it one-half the circle find, Then out and kill the man behind.

Clark says, with Louis in alliance He sets your father at defiance; That he, too, hopes, ere long, to gain Assistance from the King of Spain.

Suppose, awhile, his threats prove true. My children, what becomes of you? Your sons, your daughters and your wives, Must they be hacked by their big knives? Clark, soon repulsed, will ne'er return, While your war-fire thus clear doth burn.

At Fort St. Joseph and the Post, Go, lay in ambush for his host, While I send round Lake Michigan And raise the warriors to a man. Who, on their way to get to you. Shall take a peep at Eschikagou.[AK]

Those runagates at Milwackie Must now perforce with you agree. Sly Siggernaak and Naakewoin Must with Langlade their forces join, Or he will send them, _tout au diable_ As he did Baptiste Pointe de Saible.[AL]

[AK] A river and fort at the head of Lake Michigan.

[AL] A handsome negro, well educated and settled in Chicago, but much in the interest of the French.

So steps upon the stage of history the earliest non-Indian settler of Chicago; a man who built, at about the time of our Declaration of Independence, the house which was standing within the memory of hundreds of Chicagoans of 1892--the well-known "Kinzie Mansion," that faced the north bank of the river where Pine Street now ends.

Mrs. John H. Kinzie, in her delightful book, "Wau-Bun, the Early day in the North-West," calls him "Pointe au Sable," and says he was a native of San Domingo, and came from that island with a friend named Glamorgan; who had obtained large Spanish grants in or about St. Louis. She adds that Jean Baptiste sold his Chicago establishment to a French trader named Le Mai, and went back to Peoria where his friend Glamorgan was living, and died tinder his roof, presumably about 1800. From Le Mai, the property passed in 1803, to John Kinzie, the real pioneer of Chicago.

Hispaniola (Hayti and San Domingo) was discovered and even colonized, by Columbus, in 1492. It had then some two million inhabitants, living like our first parents in Eden (Genesis I, 27), but the unspeakable cruelty of the Spaniards so depopulated the splendid and happy island, that in 1517--twenty-five years later--it was requisite to import negro slaves to carry on the mining, and to-day not one soul of the original race survives.

The French began to come in 1630, and by the treaty of Ryswick [1697] the island was divided between France and Spain. Then began the greatness of the Haytian negro, which culminated in Toussaint L'Ouverture, liberator of his race from French slavery and his land from French domain; and later, victim to Napoleon's perfidy. Under the French rule many free negroes were educated in France, very probably Baptiste Pointe de Saible among the rest. At any rate he was of the adventurous spirit which would rather be first in a new sphere than last in an old, and so, with Glamorgan, he came over to Mobile or New Orleans. Then (probably on one of John Law's "Compagnie de l'Occident" bateaux) he came up the Mississippi to Kaskaskia, Cahokia, St. Louis, and at last to Peoria, on the Illinois, where he left Glamorgan, and pushed on to the Pottowatomie outposts where we find him in 1778, the object of Colonel de Peyster's admiring dislike.

Edward G. Mason, in an address before the Historical society, gives a tradition in regard to Pointe de Saible's welcome on Chicago soil, which tradition appears in "Early Western Days," a volume published by John T. Kingston, formerly a state senator of Wisconsin. It runs thus: An Indian living south of the Portage River--now called the Chicago--being out hunting, suddenly came upon a strange object, half hidden by the underbrush. It was a black face with white eyes and woolly hair! (Probably no Indian of his tribe had ever seen a negro.) After gazing at the novel sight awhile, he grunted, "Ugh! Mucketewees!" (black meat.) He captured the odd animal and carried him to the village, whither came the Indians from far and near to gaze, to wonder, and to speculate. Fortunately for Baptiste, for Chicago and for history, the consensus of opinion called it "bad meat," and so the creature's life was spared.

Shaubena, a chief of the Pottowatomies, was in and about Chicago long after their war dance of 1836. He had seen Pointe de Saible, but unfortunately his knowledge concerning him is not on record. Mr. Mason says regretfully:

In 1855, at the old Wells Street station, I saw old Shaubena wearing moccasins, leggins, coat and plug hat with colored strings tied around it. He was gazing with great delight at the Galena Railway engine, named for him, and calling the attention of the people on the platform to it. He doubtless thought that a much more wonderful sight than old Jean Baptiste.

One other mention of Pointe de Saible is thrown up from the almost barren shore of Western history. The third volume of the Wisconsin Historical Society's collection contains certain "Recollections" of Augustin Grignon (a grandson of Sieur Charles de Langlade), who became the first permanent white settler of Wisconsin about 1735, and, as we have seen, is named by de Peyster in his verses, among which "Recollections" occurs the following precious bit:

"At a very early period there was a negro who lived here (Chicago) named Baptiste Pointe de Saible. My brother, Perish Grignon, visited Chicago about 1794 and told me that Pointe de Saible was a large man, that he had a commission for some office, but for what particular office or for what government I cannot now recollect. He was a trader, pretty wealthy, and drank freely. I do not know what became of him."

With these bits of chance allusion--touches here and there--we get a quite distinct impression of the lonely Baptiste. His origin shows possibility of greatness, for it was the same with that of François Dominique Toussaint, surnamed l'Ouverture. Like him, he was a French West-Indian mulatto. He was large, handsome, well-educated and adventurous, traits which mark pretty clearly his migrations and his fortunes. Neither in Mobile, New Orleans, Kaskaskia, nor St. Louis could he probably feel at home, for at each of these places nigritude was associated with servitude. Among the Peoria Indians he probably found scanty elbow-room, especially if his friend and rival trader, Glamorgan, was, as his name implies, of Welsh blood--a race which gleans close, and thrives where others starve.

Not unnaturally would he, as tradition suggests, aspire to headship of the great tribe of Pottowatomies, for he knew how vastly superior he was to the best of them; and quite as naturally would he fail, seeing that the red strain of blood and the black have even less in common than has each with the white. At the same time, considering the state of domestic relations at that time and place, we may be very sure that he did not fail to "take some savage woman"--one or more--to rear his dusky race in large numbers and much rude, half-breed gaiety and contentment.

As to his office, one would like greatly to know something about it, and is prone to wish that somebody would look it up--in the general government archives, or those of the North-West Territory, which had been established in 1788, General St. Clair being its first governor, and Cincinnati (Losantiville) its capital. Why should it not have been under Harrison and Wells? It would scarcely have been an English office in view of the unpleasant allusion by de Peyster, though the English maintained emissaries hereabouts--fomenters of discontent--away on almost to the war of 1812. Still, it might be worth while to try the Canadian records. Barring swell a discovery, it seems probable that the last word has been written about him.

Jean Baptiste's name "Pointe de Saible" (or Sable) might be suspected of being a description of his residence rather than an inheritance from his forefathers, for the cabin of squared logs, so early built and so lately destroyed, stood at the head of the great sand-point which of old interrupted the course of the Chicago river lakeward, and turned it south for about half a mile to where it flowed over a long, fordable, narrow bar formed by the ceaseless sandstream that moves from north to south along the western shore of Lake Michigan. But the records and traditions are old enough and exact enough to uphold the name as a patronymic, and leave the place as a mere coincidence. One might almost as easily trace it to his lack of grit and perseverance, seeing that he put his hand to the plow and looked back; that he came to Chicago in hope and moved away in despair; that having a "homestead location" he did not stay and "prove up;" that, owning, by occupation, a thousand million dollars worth of real estate, he sold it for a song instead of waiting for a "boom." _Point de sable_--"no sand."

The two other characteristics of Chicago's first merchant-prince, which are preserved for us by lucky chance, are that he was "pretty wealthy" and that he "drank freely." Only one of these traits has come down to his successors of a century later. [From "Liber Scriptorum," published by the Authors' Club, New York.]

Joseph Kirkland.

APPENDIX B.

FORT DEARBORN RECORDS AT WASHINGTON.

WAR Department records, back of the war of 1812, are few and poor; partly, no doubt, for the reason that during that short struggle a British force, sailing up the Potomac, seized upon the defenceless little city of Washington and burned its public buildings with their contents. The Hon. Robert Lincoln, Secretary of War (under President Garfield) at the time of unveiling the Block House Tablet, May 21, 1881, kindly furnished to Mr. Wentworth copies of all documents on file relating to Fort Dearborn and its garrison, (Fergus' Hist., Series No. 16.)

* * * * *

Extract from a letter written June 28, 1804, by General Henry Dearborn, Secretary of War under President Jefferson:

Being of opinion that, for the general defence of our country, we ought not to rely upon fortifications, but on men and steel; and that works calculated for resisting batteries of cannon are necessary only for our principal seaports, I cannot conceive it useful or expedient to construct expensive works for our interior military posts, especially such as are intended merely to hold the Indians in check. I have therefore directed stockade works aided by block-houses to be erected at Vincennes, at Chikago, at or near the mouth of the Miami of the lakes, and at Kaskaskia, in conformity with the sketch herewith enclosed, each calculated for a full company; the block-houses to be constructed of timber slightly hewed, and of the most durable kind to be obtained at the respective places; the magazines for powder to be of brick, of a conic figure, each capable of receiving from fifty to one hundred barrels of powder. Establishments of the kind here proposed will, I presume, be necessary for each of the military posts in Upper and Lower Louisiana, New Orleans and its immediate dependencies excepted. I will thank you to examine the enclosed sketch, and to give me your opinion on the dimensions and other proposed arrangements You will observe the block-houses are to be so placed as to scour from the upper and lower stories the whole of the lines. The back part of the barracks are to have port-holes which can be opened when necessary for the use of musketry for annoying an enemy.

It will, I presume, be proper ultimately to extend palisades round the block-houses.

* * * * *

Statement compiled from the Records of the Adjutant General's office in the case of Fort Dearborn, with copies of orders:

Fort Dearborn, situated at Chicago, Ill., within a few yards of Lake Michigan. Latitude 41° 51' North; Longitude 87° 15' West. Post established by the United States forces in 1804. (From 1804-12 no records are on file.)

August 15th, 1812, the garrison having evacuated the post and were _en route_ for Ft. Wayne, under the command of Captain Nathan Heald, 1st U. S. Infantry, composed of 54 Regular Infantry, 12 Militia men, and one interpreter, was attacked by Indians to the number of between 400 and 500, of whom 15 were killed. Those of the garrison killed were Ensign George Ronan, 1st Infantry, Dr. Isaac Van Voorhis, Captain Wells, Interpreter, 24 enlisted men, U S. Infantry, and 12 Militia-men; 2 women and 12 children were also killed. The wounded were Captain Nathan Heald and Mrs. Heald. None others reported. The next day, August 16th, 1812, the post was destroyed by the Indians. Reoccupied about June 1816, Capt. Hezekiah Bradley, 3rd Infantry, commanding. The troops continued in occupation until October, 1823, when the post was evacuated and left in charge of the Indian agent; It was reoccupied Oct. 3rd, 1828.

Capt. Hezekiah Bradley, 3rd Infantry, commanded the post from June 1816, to May 1817, Brevet Major D. Baker to June 1820; Captain Hezekiah Bradley, 3rd Infantry, to January 1821, Major Alex Cummings, 3rd Infantry, to October, 1821; Lieut. Col. J. McNeal, 3rd Infantry, to July 1823; Captain John Greene, 3rd Infantry, to October, 1823; post not garrisoned from October 1823, to October 1828. No returns of post on file prior to 1828.

* * * * *

Copies of Orders.

ORDER NO. 35.

Adjutant General's Office, Washington, 27 May, 1823.

The Major-General commanding the army directs that Fort Dearborn, Chicago, be evacuated, and that the garrison thereof be withdrawn to the headquarters of the 3rd regiment of Infantry.

One company of the 3rd regiment of Infantry will proceed to Mackinac and relieve the company of artillery now stationed there, which, with the company of artillery at Fort Shelby, Detroit, will be withdrawn and ordered to the harbor of New York.

The commanding General of the Eastern department, will give the necessary orders for carrying these movements into effect, as well as for the security of the public property at Forts Dearborn and Shelby.

By order of Major-General Brown.

(Signed) Chas. J. Nourse, _Act'g Adjutant-General_.

ORDER NO. 44.

Adjutant-General's Office, Washington, 19 August, 1828.

(Extract.) In conformity with the directions of the Secretary of War, the following movements of the troops will be made.

Two companies of the 5th regiment of Infantry to reoccupy Fort Dearborn, at the head of Lake Michigan; the remaining eight companies to proceed by the way of the Wisconsin and Fox rivers to Fort Howard, Green Bay, where the headquarters of the regiment will be established.

Four Co's of the Reg't to constitute the garrison of Fort Howard; two Co's for the garrison of Michilimackinac, and two for that of Fort Brady.

4. The Quartermaster-General's department to furnish the necessary transportation and supplies for the movement and accommodation of the troops.

The subsistence department to furnish the necessary supplies of provisions.

The Surgeon-General to supply medical officers and suitable hospital supplies for the posts to be established and reoccupied.

5. The Commanding Generals of the Eastern and Western departments are respectively charged with the execution of this order as far as relates to their respective commands.

By order of Major General Macomb, Major-General Commanding the Army.

(Signed) R. Jones, _Adjutant-General_.

ORDER NO. 16.

Adjutant-General's Office, Washington, 23 Feb., 1832.

(Copy.) The headquarters of the 2nd Regiment of Infantry are transferred to Fort Niagara. Lieut. Col. Cummings, with all the officers and men composing the garrison of Madison Barracks, Sackett's Harbor, will accordingly relieve the garrison of Fort Niagara; and Major Whistler, on being relieved by Lieut.-Col. Cummings, with all the troops under his command, will repair to Fort Dearborn (Chicago, Illinois) and garrison that post.

Assistant Surgeon De Camp, now on duty at Madison Barracks, is assigned to duly at Fort Dearborn, and will accompany the troops ordered to that post. These movements will take place as soon as the navigation will permit.

By order of Major-General Macomb.

(Signed) R. Jones, _Adjutant-General_.

GENERAL ORDER HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY. NO. 80.

Adjutant-General's Office, Washington, Nov. 30th, 1836.

(Extract) I. The troops stationed at Fort Dearborn, Chicago, will immediately proceed to Fort Howard and join the garrison at that post. Such public property as may be left at Fort Dearborn will remain in charge of Brevt-Major Plympton, of the 5th Infantry; who will continue in command of the post until otherwise instructed.

By order of Alexander Macomb, Maj.-Gen. Com'd'g-in-Chief.

(Signed) R. Jones, _Adjutant-General_.

* * * * *

When the last fort was being demolished [1856] an old paper was found which bore internal evidence of being a survival from the first fort. How it could have survived the flames of 1812 is a mystery. Perhaps some brick bomb-proof magazine chanced to shelter it, and the builders of the new fort, finding it, laid it in a closet, where it remained, hidden and forgotten. One would like to see it to-day--if it also survived October 9, 1871!

Permission is hereby given for one gill of whiskey each: Denison,[A] Dyer,[A] Andrews,[A] Keamble (?), Burman, J. Corbin,[A] Burnett, Smith,[A] McPherson, Hamilton, Fury[A], Grumond[A] (?), Morfitt, Lynch,[A] Locker,[A] Peterson,[A] P. Corbin,[A] Van Horn,[AM] Mills.

(Signed),

November 12th, 1811.

[AM] Appear on the nuster-roll given on page 150. Several of the names recur in the Plattsburg story of the nine survivors (21 May 1814).

On December 29, 1836, the garrison was finally withdrawn from Fort Dearborn, and after its thirty-three years of stirring vicissitudes it passed into a useless old age, which lasted a score of years before its abandonment as a government possession. In fact, one of its buildings--a great, barn-like, wooden hospital--was standing, in use as a hospital storehouse, up to 1871, when the great fire obliterated it, with nearly all else that was ancient in Chicago.

* * * * *

An exception to this destruction and the fast gathering cloud of oblivion, is to be found in an old red granite boulder, with a rude human face carved on it, which stood in the center of the fort esplanade, and which is now (1891) one of our few antiquarian treasures. It is nearly eight feet high by three feet in greatest diameter, and weighs perhaps 4,000 pounds. In prehistoric times the Indians used the concave top for a corn-mill, and for many, many weary hours must the patient and long-suffering squaws have leaned over it, crushing the scanty, flinty corn of those days into material for the food of braves and pappooses.

Many persons have looked on it as a relic of prehistoric art--the sacrificial stone of an Aztec teocalli perhaps--but Mr. Hurlbut gives the cold truth; more modern, though scarcely less romantic. He says it was set up in the fort, and soldiers, sick and well, used it as a lounging-place. Sometimes it served as a pillory for disorderly characters, and it was a common expression or threat, that for certain offenses the offender would be "sent to the rock." Waubansa was a Chicago chief, and a soldier-sculptor tried to depict his features on the stone; and (to quote Mr. Hurlbut):

"The portrait pleased the Indians, the liege friends of the chief, greatly; for a party of them, admitted into the block-house to see it, whooped and leaped as if they had achieved a victory, and with uncouth gestures they danced in a triumphant circle around the rock."

In 1837 ... Daniel Webster paid a visit to the West, and took Chicago in his route.... The conveyance was a barouche with four elegant creams attached. Mr. Webster was accompanied by his daughter and son. Every wheel-vehicle, every horse and mule in town, it is said, were in requisition that day, and the senator was met some miles out by a numerous delegation from this _new city_, who joined in the procession.... It was the fourth of July, the column came over Randolph Street bridge, and thence to the parade-ground within the fort. There were guns at the fort, which were eloquent, of course, though the soldiers had left some weeks before. The foundation of all this outcry about Mr. Webster is, that the base and platform on which that gentleman stood when he made the speech within the fort, was the rock, the same Waubansa stone.... Justin Butterfield (who stood directly in front of the senator) swung his hat and cheered the speaker.

The "statue" was pierced to form the base of a fountain, and was set up as one of the curiosities of the great Sanitary Commission Fair, held in 1865, in Dearborn Park, in aid of the sick and wounded in the war for the Union. In 1856 it was adopted as a relic by the Hon. Isaac N. Arnold--member of Congress during the war and one of the staunchest and ablest of patriots, and most devoted of friends to the soldiers--who moved it to his home, in Erie street. Mr. Arnold's house was burned with the rest in the great fire of 1871, and old "Waubansa" passed through the flames with the same unmoved look he had preserved through his earlier vicissitudes. Afterward numerous fire relics were grouped about him and a photograph taken, wherein, for the first time, he looks abashed, as if conscious of the contrast between his uncouthness and the carvings which surround his antique lineaments. The stone stands open to the public view in the grounds adjoining the new home (100 Pine Street), which Mr. Arnold built after the fire, and in which he lived up to the time of his lamented death, in April, 1884.

* * * * *

Who were the victims of August fifteenth, 1812? What were the names of the killed, the wounded, the tortured, the missing? This is a question to which only the merest apology for an answer can be given. In tens of thousands of cases the very act of dying for one's country forbids the possibility of becoming known to fame. Nameless graves dot our land from north to south, and from east to west, especially from the Susquehanna to the Rio Grande and from the Ohio to the Gulf. Heaven knows who were those dead, and who they might have become if they had not died when and where they did. Let us hope that somewhere in the universe they have their record--on earth they are forgotten.

I have aimed at recording every surviving name of the dwellers in Chicago up to the massacre. As an effort toward that end, I give, on the next page, the last muster and pay-roll of the troops at the old fort, as shown by existing records. It is headed:

"Muster roll of a company of Infantry under the command of Captain Nathan Heald, in the First Regiment of the United States, commanded by Colonel Jacob Kingsbury, from Nov. 30, when last mustered, to December 31, 1810."

It concludes with a certificate in the following form, identical, by the way, with the formula in use in our army to this day (1893):

Recapitulation.--Present, fit for duty, 50; sick, 5; unfit for service, 3; on command, 1; on furlough, 1; discharged, 6. Total, 67.

We Certify on honor that this muster-roll exhibits a true statement of the company commanded by Captain Nathan Heald, and that the remarks set opposite their names are accurate and just.

J. Cooper, S. Mate.

Ph. O'Strander, Lieutenant commanding the Company,

Names. Rank. Appointed or Remarks and changes enlisted. since last muster.

*Nathan Heald Captain 31 Jan. 1807 On furlough in Mass Philip O'Strander 2nd Lieut. 1 May 1808 { Present Of Capt. Rhea's { Co. Asst M y Agt. Sick. Seth Thompson " 18 Aug. 1808 Present *John Cooper Surg Mate 13 June 1808 " Joseph Glass Sergeant 18 June 1806 " *John Crozier " 2 July 1808 " Richard Rickman " 10 May 1806 " Thomas Forth Corporal 6 July 1807 " *Asa Campbell " 26 Jan. 1810 " *Rhodias Jones " 9 Dec. 1807 " * Richard Garner " 2 Oct. 1810 " George Burnet Fifer. 1 Oct. 1806 " John Smith " 27 June 1806 " *John Hamilton Drummer 5 July 1808 " *Hugh McPherson " 20 Oct. 1807 " *John Allen Private 27 Nov. 1810 " George Adams " 21 Aug. 1806 " Presley Andrews " 11 July 1806 " (sick.) Thomas Ashbrook " 29 Dec. 1805 Term expired 29 Dec. 1810. Thomas Burns " 18 June 1806 Present. Patrick Burke " 27 May 1806 " (sick.) Redmond Berry " 2 July 1806 " William Best " 22 April 1806 Present unfit for service James Chapman " 1 Dec. 1805 Time expired 1 Dec. 1810. James Corbin " 2 Oct. 1810 Present. Fielding Corbin " 7 Dec. 1805 Time expired 7 Dec. 1810. Silas Clark " 15 Aug. 1806 On command at Ft. Wayne James Clark " 4 Dec. 1805 Time expired 4 Dec. 1810. *Dyson Dyer " 1 Oct. 1810 Present (sick). Stephen Draper " 19 July 1806 " *Daniel Dougherty " 13 Aug. 1807 " Michael Denison " 28 April 1806 " *Nathan Edson " 6 April 1810 " *John Fury " 19 March 1808 " "Paul Grummo " 1 Oct. 1810 " *William N. Hunt " 18 Oct. 1810 " John Kelsoe " 17 Dec. 1808 Time expired 17 Dec. 1810 *David Kennison " 14 March 1808 Present. *Sam'l Kirkpatrick " 20 Dec. 1810 Re-enlisted 20 Dec. 1810. *Jacob Laudon " 28 Nov. 1807 Unfit for service. *James Lutta " 10 April 1810 ......................... *Michael Lynch " 20 Dec. 1810 Re-enlisted 20 Dec. 1810. *Michael Leonard " 13 April 1810 Present. Hugh Logan " 5 May 1806 " *Frederick Locker " 13 April 1810 " Andrew Loy " 6 July 1807 " August Mott " 9 July 1806 " Ralph Miller " 19 Dec. 1805 Term expired 19 Dec. 1810 Peter Miller " 13 June 1806 Present, unfit for service. *Duncan McCarty " 2 Aug. 1807 Present. Patrick McGowan " 30 April 1806 " James Mabury " 14 April 1806 " William Moffit " 23 April 1806 " John Moyan " 28 June 1806 " *John Neads " 5 July 1808 " *Joseph Noles " 8 Sept 1810 " *Thomas Poindexter " 3 Sept. 1810 " William Pickett " 6 June 1806 " *Frederick Peterson " 1 June 1808 " *David Sherror " 1 Oct. 1810 " *John Suttonfield " 8 Sept. 1807 " *John Smith " 2 April 1808 " *James Starr " 18 Nov. 1809 " Phillip Smith " 30 April 1806 " *John Simmons " 14 March 1810 " *James Van Home " 2 May 1810 " (sick). Anthony L. Waggoner " 9 Jan. 1806 " (sick).

* Men who are likely to have been in service at the time of the massacre.

APPENDIX C.

THE WHISTLER FAMILY.

ACCORDING to Gardner's Military Dictionary, Captain John Whistler was born in Ireland. He was originally a British soldier, and was made prisoner with General Burgoyne at the battle of Saratoga, in 1777, where our General Henry Dearborn was serving as Major. The captives were conducted to Boston, where, by the terms of the capitulation, they should have been paroled; but for some reason (which the English, by considered no sufficient excuse for not complying with the military agreement) the Continental Congress held them as prisoners of war until the peace of 1783.

John Whistler did not return to England, but joined the American army and became first sergeant, and then won his way to a captaincy in the First Infantry, in which capacity he came, in 1804, and built the first Fort Dearborn. He was brevetted major in 1812, and served with his company until it was disbanded after the close of the war (June, 1815). He died in 1827 at Bellefontaine, Missouri, where he had been military storekeeper for several years. John Wentworth (Fort Dearborn; Fergus' Historical Series, No. 16, p. 14) says:

Some writers contend that had Captain Whistler been in charge of the fort instead of Captain Heald, the massacre would not have taken place. Captain Heald has had no one to speak for him here. But he was appointed from Massachusetts a second lieutenant in 1799, and could not be supposed to have that acquaintance with the characteristics of the Indians which Whistler had, who had been in his country's service ever since Burgoyne's surrender in 1777, and principally against the Indians, and frequently participating in the campaigns of General Arthur St. Clair, in one of which he was wounded.

Of him Captain Andreas says (Hist. Chi. Vol. I, p. 80):

After the war he married and settled in Hagerstown, Md., where his son William was born. He enlisted in the American army and took part in the Northwestern Indian War, serving under St. Clair and afterward under Wayne. He was speedily promoted, rising through the lower grades to a lieutenancy in 1792, and became a captain in 1794. He rebuilt the fort in 1815[AN] [after the destruction and massacre in 1812] and removed to St. Charles, Mo., in 1817. In 1818 he was military storekeeper at St. Louis, and died at Bellefontaine. Mo., in 1827. He was a brave and efficient officer, and became the progenitor of a line of brave and efficient soldiers.

[AN] Apparently an error. The second fort was built by Captain Hezekiah Bradley, who was sent here for that purpose with two companies of infantry, arriving July 4, 1816.

His son, George Washington Whistler, was with Captain John when the family came to Chicago, being then three years old. This is the Major Whistler who became a distinguished engineer in the service of Russia. Another son. Lieutenant William Whistler, with his young wife (Julia Ferson) came to Chicago with Captain Whistler. He will be mentioned later as one of the last commandants of Fort Dearborn, holding that post until 1833. He lived until 1863.

Julia Ferson, who became Mrs. William Whistler, was born in Salem, Mass., 1787. Her parents were John and Mary (La Dake) Ferson. In childhood she removed with her parents to Detroit, where she received most of her education. In May, 1802, she was married to William Whistler (born in Hagerstown Md., about 1784), a second lieutenant in the company of his father. Captain John Whistler, U. S. A., then stationed at Detroit. (Fergus' Historical Series No. 16.) She visited Chicago in 1875, when, at eighty-seven, her mind and memory were of the brightest, and conversation with her on old matters was a rare pleasure. Mrs. General Philip Sheridan is her grand niece, and cherishes her relationship as a patent to high rank in our Chicago nobility. No portrait of John Whistler is known to exist. For likenesses of Major and Mrs. William Whistler see pages 58 and 59.

A daughter of William and this charming old lady was born in 1818, and named Gwenthlean. She was married at Fort Dearborn, in 1834, to Robert A. Kinzie, second son of John Kinzie, the pioneer. Mrs. Gwenthlean Kinzie is now living in Chicago, and has been consulted in the preparation of this narrative.[AO]

[AO] On mentioning to Judge Caton that Mrs Robert Kinzie was again living here following a long absence, the venerable Chief-Justice, after a moment's thought, sad: "Yes, I remember the marriage, and that the bride was one of the most beautiful women you can imagine. I have never seen her since that time. Ladies were not plentiful in this part of the world then, and we were not over particular about looks, but Gwenthlean Whistler Kinzie would be noted for her beauty anywhere at anytime." And on looking at the lady herself, one can well believe all that can be said in praise of her charms in her girlish years--sixteen when she was married.

Mr. Hurlbut (Chicago Antiquities, p. 83) gives the following spirited account of a visit made in 1875 to Mrs. Julia (Ferson) Whistler, wife of William and daughter-in-law of old John, the whilom soldier in the army of General Burgoyne. (It will be observed that Mr. Hurlbut slightly mistook his war record).

Very few of the four hundred thousand reasonably adult individuals now residing in Chicago are aware that the person of whom we are going to speak is now a visitor in Chicago. After so long a period--since early in the century; before those of our citizens who have reached their "three-score years and ten" were born, when she came, a trustful wife of sixteen, and stepped a shore upon the river-bank--it is not a little remarkable that she is to-day again passing over and around the locality of her early home. Under the gentle supervision of this married maiden's blue eyes our stockade-fortress, then so far within the wilderness, was erected. Yet, of all those who came in that summer of 1803; the sailor-men of that vessel, the oarsmen of that boat, the company of United States soldiers, Captain and Mrs. Whistler and their son, the husband and his bride of a year; all, we may safely say, have bid adieu to earth excepting this lone representative. These are some of the circumstances which contribute to make this lady a personage of unusual interest to the dwellers here. A few particulars in the life of Mrs. Whistler, together with some of the facts attending the coming of those who arrived to assist in the building of Fort Dearborn, will certainly be acceptable.

It was a coveted pilgrimage which we sought, as any one might believe, for it was during the tremendous rain-storm of the evening of the 29th of October, 1875, that we sallied out to call at Mrs. Colonel R. A. Kinzie's, for an introduction to the lady's mother, Mrs. Whistler. When we entered the parlor, the venerable woman was engaged at the center table, in some game of amusement with her grand-children and great grand-children, seemingly as much interested as any of the juveniles. (We will remark here that five generations in succession of this family have lived in Chicago.) She claimed to enjoy good health, and was, apparently, an unusual specimen of well preserved faculties, both intellectual and physical. She is of tall form, and her appearance still indicates the truth of the common report, that in her earlier years she was a person of uncommon elegance. A marked trait of hers has been a spirit of unyielding energy and determination, and which length of years has not yet subdued. Her tenacious memory ministers to a voluble tongue, and we may say, briefly, she is an agreeable, intelligent, and sprightly lady, numbering only a little over 88 years. "To-day," said she, "I received my first pension on account of my husband's services." Mrs. Whistler resides in Newport, Kentucky. She has one son and several grandsons in the army. Born in Salem, Mass., July 3rd, 1787, her maiden name was Julia Ferson, and her parents were John and Mary (LaDake) Ferson. In childhood she removed with her parents to Detroit, where she received most of her education. In the month of May, 1802, she was married to William Whistler (born in Hagerstown, Md., about 1784), a second lieutenant in the company of his father, Captain John Whistler, U. S. A., then stationed at Detroit. In the summer of the ensuing year, Captain Whistler's company was ordered to Chicago, to occupy the post and build the fort. Lieutenant James S. Swearingen (late Col. Swearingen of Chillicothe, O.) conducted the company from Detroit overland. The U. S. Steamer "Tracy," Dorr master, was despatched at same time for same destination, with supplies, and having also on board Captain John Whistler, Mrs. Whistler, their son George W., then three years old [afterwards the distinguished engineer in the employ of the Russian government] Lieutenant William Whistler, and the young wife of the last named gentleman. The schooner stopped briefly on her route at the St. Joseph's river, where the Whistlers left the vessel and took a row-boat to Chicago. The schooner, on arriving at Chicago, anchored half a mile from the shore, discharging her freight by boats. Some two thousand Indians visited the locality while the vessel was here, being attracted by so unusual an occurrence as the appearance, in these waters, of a "big canoe with wings." Lieutenant Swearingen returned with the "Tracy" to Detroit.

There were then here, says Mrs W., but four rude huts or traders' cabins, occupied by white men, Canadian French with Indian wives; of these were Le Mai, Pettell and Ouilmette. No fort existed here at that time, although it is understood (see treaty of Greenville) that there had been one at a former day, built by the French, doubtless, as it was upon one of the main routes from New France to Louisiana, of which extensive region that government long held possession by a series of military posts. [It is said that Durantaye, a French official, built some sort of a fortification here as early as 1685.]

Captain Whistler, upon his arrival, at once set about erecting a stockade and shelter for their protection, followed by getting out the sticks for the heavier work. It is worth mentioning here that there was not at that time within hundreds of miles a team of horses or oxen, and, as a consequence, the soldiers had to don the harness, and with the aid of ropes drag home the needed timbers. The birth of two children within the fort we have referred to elsewhere. Lieutenant Whistler, after a five years' sojourn here, was transferred to Fort Wayne, having previously been made a first lieutenant. He distinguished himself at the battle of Maguago, Mich., August 9th, 1812; was in Detroit at the time of Hull's surrender, and, with Mrs. Whistler, was taken prisoner to Montreal; was promoted to a Captain in December, 1812, to Major in 1826, and to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1845. At his death he had rendered sixty-two years continuous service in the army, yet Mrs. W. says she remembers but six short furloughs during the whole time. He was stationed at various posts, besides those of Green Bay, Niagara, and Sackett's Harbor; at the last named post General Grant (then a subaltern officer) belonged to the command of Colonel W. In June, 1832, Colonel Whistler arrived again at Fort Dearborn, not the work which he had assisted to build twenty-eight years before, for that was burned in 1812, but the later one, erected in 1816-17. He then remained here but a brief period.

Colonel William Whistler's height at maturity was six feet two inches, and his weight at one time was 250 pounds. He died in Newport, Kentucky, December 4th, 1863.

Captain John Whistler, the builder and commandant of the first Fort Dearborn (afterwards Major W.) was an officer in the army of the Revolution. We regret that we have so few facts concerning his history; nor have we a portrait or signature of the patriot. It is believed that when ordered to Chicago he belonged to a regiment of artillery. He continued in command at Fort Dearborn until the fore part of 1811, we think, for we notice that his successor. Captain Heald, gave to the Pottowatomie chief "Little Chief" a pass to St. Louis, dated July 11, 1811. Mrs. Whistler expressed to us her opinion that had Captain W. been continued in command, the Chicago massacre would not have happened. Major John Whistler died at Bellefontaine. Mo., in 1827.

Colonel James Swearingen was a second lieutenant in 1803, when he conducted the company of Captain Whistler from Detroit across Michigan to Chicago. The regiment of artillery, with which he was connected, is understood to have been the only corps of that branch of defence. Lieutenant Swearingen continued in the service until about 1816, attaining the rank of colonel, when he resigned his commission and made his residence in Chillicothe, O., where he died on his eighty-second birthday, in February, 1864.

Mrs. Julia (Ferson) Whistler died at Newport, Ky., in 1878, at the ripe age of ninety years.

James McNeil Whistler, the eccentric and distinguished London artist, is descended from old John, the Burgoyne British soldier, through George Washington Whistler, the great American engineer in the Russian service.

It is interesting to observe that both our old leading families, the Whistlers and the Kinzies, have furnished successive generations of soldiers to their country. The heroic death of John Harris Kinzie, second, will be noted in the Appendix D, which is devoted to the Kinzie family. Of the Whistlers, some of the name have been constantly in the military service, and when the two families joined by the marriage of Robert Kinzie and Gwenthlean Whistler the racial tendency continued.

General Garland Whistler, son of Colonel William Whistler, was a graduate of West Point, and a soldier in the war for the Union. He is now on the retired list. His son. Major Garland Whistler, also a graduate, was in the late war and is still in the service. Major David Hunter Kinzie, son of Robert (uniting the two families), left West Point for active service in the Union war. He is now at the Presidio, California. Captain John Kinzie, another son of Robert, is stationed at Omaha.

APPENDIX D.

THE KINZIE FAMILY.

BEGINNING at a point even further back in the dim past than the building of Pointe de Saible's cabin, we take up the narrative of the lives of its latest owners, John Kinzie was born in Quebec about 1763, son of John McKenzie, or McKinzie, a Scotchman, who married Mrs. Haliburton, a widow, with one daughter,[AP] and died when his son John was very young. Mrs. McKenzie made a third marriage, with one William Forsyth, who had served under General Wolfe in the taking of Quebec. William Forsyth, with wife, children and step-children, lived many years in New York, and later in Detroit. While they lived in New York, John McKinzie, afterward John Kinzie, was sent, with two Forsyth half-brothers, to school in Williamsburgh, just across the East river; a negro servant, or slave, going every Saturday night to bring the three boys home. One Saturday there was no Johnnie to be found--the embryo frontiers-man had runaway. He got on board a sloop bound for Albany and fell in with some one who helped him on to Quebec, where he found employment in the shop of a silver-smith; and there he remained three years and learned the trade which later gave him the Indian name, "Shaw-nee-aw-kee"--silver-smith.

[AP] This daughter, half-sister of John Kinzie, is said in Wau-Bun to have possessed beauty and accomplishments, and to have lived to become the mother of General Fleming and Nicholas Low, both very well known in New York and Brooklyn.

We next find him in Detroit, with his mother and step-father, who had moved thither with their Forsyth children.[AQ] Robert Forsyth, a grandson of William, was well known in Chicago in the decade before the Union War. He was an officer of the Illinois Central Railway, and his tall, handsome figure, his bluff, hearty manners and his unquestionable ability', made him a general favorite.

[AQ] William Forsyth kept a hotel in Detroit for many years and died there in 1790 Robert, one of his sons, was in the service of the American government during the war of 1812. Thomas, who became Major Thomas Forsyth, U. S. A., was born in Detroit, December 5, 1771. Before the war of 1812, he was Indian Agent among the Pottowatomies at Peoria Lake. After the war of 1812 he was sent as U. S. Indian Agent among the Sauks and Foxes, with whom he remained many years. He died at St. Louis, October 29, 1833. Colonel Robert Forsyth, an early resident of Chicago, was the son of Major Thomas Forsyth; George, another son of William Forsyth, was lost in the woods near Detroit, August 6, 1778. (Andreas' Hist. Chic.) Mrs. Kinzie quotes from the record in an old family Bible, as follows: "George Forsyth was lost in the woods 6th August, 1778, when Henry Hays and Mark Stirling ran away and left him. The remains of George Forsyth we're found by an Indian the 2d of October, 1776 close by the Prairie Ronde." Family tradition gives some particulars of the disaster, adding the touching fact that after its fourteen months' exposure there was nothing to identify the body but the auburn curls and the little boots.

While at Detroit, John Kinzie began his long career as Indian-trader, beginning with the Shawnees and Ottawas in the Ohio country. In this way he made the acquaintance of two Indian girls, who, when young, had been captured on the Kanawha River and taken to Chillicothe, the headquarters of the tribe. Their names were Margaret and Elizabeth McKenzie, and their story is thus romantically told by Rufus Blanchard in his admirable "Discovery of the Northwest and History of Chicago." (R. Blanchard & Co., Wheaton, Ill. 1881.)

Among the venturesome pioneers of Virginia was a backwoods-man named McKenzie. He, with a number of his comrades, settled at the mouth of Wolf's creek, where it empties into the Kanawha. During Dunmore's War on the frontier [about 1773] the Shawanese, in one of their border forays, came suddenly upon the home of McKenzie, killed his wife and led two of his children into captivity. The names of the young captives were Margaret, ten years old, and Elizabeth; eight years old. They were taken to Chillicothe, the great Indian Town of the Shawanese, where they were adopted into the family of a high-bred Indian chief and raised under the tender care of his obedient squaw, according to custom. Ten years later Margaret was allowed to accompany her foster-father on a hunting-excursion to the St. Mary's River, near Fort Wayne. A young chief of the same tribe became enamored by the graces and accomplishments of the young captive, but Margaret recoiled from her swarthy lover and determined not to yield her heart to one who had no higher destiny for her than to ornament his leggings with porcupine quills--one of the highest accomplishments of which a squaw is capable. Margaret's lover approached the camp where she was sleeping, intending to force her to become his wife. According to the Indian custom, a din of yells and rattle of a drum announced the intentions of the would-be bridegroom to the terrified victim. The heroine fled to the forest for protection.

Fortunately her dog followed her as she fled down the bank of the St. Mary's River, to the stockade, half a mile distant, where the horses were kept. The footsteps of her detestable lover were close behind. She turned and set her dog at him, and reached the stockade, unhitched a horse, leaped upon his back and took her flight through the wilderness, seventy-five miles, to her Indian home at Chillicothe. The horse died the next day after he had performed so wonderful a feat without rest or sustenance. This heroic girl and her sister, Elizabeth, became afterward mothers of some of the first pioneers of Chicago.

After the adventures of Margaret, as just told, she, with her sister, Elizabeth, were taken to Detroit by their foster-father, and there they became acquainted with John Kinzie--and they were married. Elizabeth at the same time met a Scotchman named Clark and married him. The two young couples lived in Detroit about five years, during which time Margaret (Kinzie) had three children, William, James and Elizabeth; and Elizabeth (Clark) had two, John K. and Elizabeth.

The treaty of Greenville, 1795, having restored peace on the border, Mr. Isaac McKenzie, the father, received tidings of his children, and went to Detroit to see them. The two young mothers, with their children, returned with their father to their old home, to which arrangement both of their husbands consented. A final separation was not intended, but time and distance divorced them forever. Mr. Kinzie afterwards moved to St. Joseph's, where he married a Mrs. McKillip, the widow of a British officer. Margaret married Mr. Benjamin Hall, of Virginia, and Elizabeth married Mr. Jonas Clybourn of the same place. David, the oldest son of Benjamin Hall and Margaret, made a journey to Chicago in 1822, and he remained there three years. On his return to Virginia his flattering account of the place induced a number of persons to emigrate thither. The first of these was Archibald Clybourn, the eldest son of Elizabeth, who remained a permanent resident and an esteemed citizen, well known to thousands of the present inhabitants of Chicago. His mother was Elizabeth the captive, who, with her second husband, Mr. Clybourn, soon afterwards came to Chicago. Mr. Benjamin Hall was another of the Chicago pioneers who emigrated to Chicago in consequence of David Hall's commendations of its future promise. Margaret, the captive, was his aunt, and to him the writer is indebted for the detail of Margaret's and Elizabeth's history. Mr. Hall is now a resident of Wheaton. He came to Chicago in 1830 and was the proprietor of the first tannery ever established there.

Elizabeth Kinzie, daughter of John Kinzie, became the wife of Samuel Miller, of a respectable Quaker family in Ohio. She was highly respected by all who knew her. Her husband kept the Miller House, at the forks of the Chicago River. James Kinzie came to Chicago about 1824, and was well received by his father. [James is mentioned by Mr. Kinzie in a letter written in 1821, given later in this article].

This is the romantic story taken by Mr. Blanchard from the lips of the nephew of one of the captive girls, and given in his valuable history. Some of the circumstances stated as fact may be questionable, especially the "marriage" of the girls to Mr. Kinzie and Mr. Clark. Their summary removal by their father, and their marriage to other men, considered with the marriage of Mr. Kinzie and Mr. Clark to other women, seems to cast doubt upon the occurrence of any ceremonies, civil or religious. Those relations were lightly held at that time and place. There is doubtless a "bend sinister" somewhere, but it seems unlikely that James Kinzie and Elizabeth and Samuel Miller would have left the legitimacy of the more distinguished branch of the family unassailed if it had been assailable. (It is said that Mrs. Miller did chafe under the scandal.)

In 1800 John Kinzie married Eleanor (Lytle) McKillip, widow of a British officer, who had one daughter, Margaret, afterward Mrs. Lieutenant Helm. In the same year he moved to the St. Joseph's River, which empties into Lake Michigan on its eastern side, nearly opposite Chicago, and there set up his trading-house. His son, John Harris Kinzie, was born at Sandwich, opposite Detroit, where his mother chanced to be spending a day when he made his unexpected appearance.

In 1803 John Kinzie visited Chicago, having probably learned of the approaching establishment of Fort Dearborn, and bought the Le Mai house, built by Jean Baptiste Pointe de Saible, some twenty-five years before. He moved into it with his family in the following year. From that time to his death, in 1828, he is the most conspicuous and unique figure in Chicago history, and fairly deserves the name of the father of the city. His branch trading-posts existed in Milwaukee, at Rock River, on the Illinois and Kankakee Rivers, and in the Sangamon country. To quote again Andreas (Hist. Chic. Vol. I, P. 73):

This extended Indian trade made the employment of a large number of men at headquarters a necessity, and the Canadian voyageurs in the service of Mr. Kinzie were about the only white men who had occasion to visit Chicago during those early years. He was sutler for the garrison at the fort in addition to his Indian trade, and also kept up his manufacture of the ornaments in which the Indians delighted. During the first residence of Mr. and Mrs. John Kinzie in Chicago, three children were born to them--Ellen Marion in December, 1805; Maria Indiana in 1807, and Robert Allen, February 8, 1810. Margaret McKillip, Mr. Kinzie's step-daughter, who married Lieutenant Linai T. Helm of Fort Dearborn, and also Robert Forsyth, nephew of Mr. Kinzie, were at times members of his family, the latter being the first teacher of John H. Kinzie.

Henry H. Hurlbut in his delightful "Chicago Antiquities,"[AR] says:

By what we learn from a search in the county records at Detroit, John Kinzie seems to have been doing business there in the years 1795-97 and '98. In May, 1795, some portion of the Ottawa tribe of Indians conveyed lands on the Maumee to John Kinzie, silver-smith, of Detroit; also in the same year to John Kinzie, merchant, of Detroit. It appears, also, from the same records, that in September, 1810, John Kinzie and John Whistler Jr. were lately copartners in trade at Fort Dearborn, and in the same year John Kinzie and Thomas Forsyth were merchants in Chicago. We are told by Robert A. Kinzie that his father was sutler at Fort Dearborn when he came to Chicago in 1804; possibly Mr. Whistler Jr. was his partner in that enterprise. In October, 1815, John Kinzie and Thomas Forsyth were copartners in trade in the District of Detroit, Territory of Michigan. In March, 1816, appear on the records the names of John Kinzie, silver-smith, and Elenor, his wife, of Detroit. By these items it seems that though Mr. Kinzie took up his residence in Chicago in 1804 [the first entry here upon his books bore date May 12, 1804] and that he left here after the battle of August, 1812, returning in 1816, yet he was still identified with Detroit, certainly until the summer of 1816. We notice that he was a witness at the treaty of Spring Wells, near Detroit, in September, 1815. He was one of the interpreters.

[AR] A book full of bits of old-time gossip, traditions and skeptical notes on other traditions, controversial criticism on Wau-Bun and other books, and good-humored raillery, aimed at persons and things of the early day. Only five hundred copies were printed, and the book is becoming scarce, but some copies remain for sale in the family of its author, 27 Winthrop Place, Chicago.

Wau-Bun gives a long and romantic biography of John Kinzie and his progenitors; such a sketch as would naturally (and properly) be made by a daughter-in-law, writing during the lifetime of many of the persons directly interested in the facts related, but omitting things which would shock the sensibilities of those persons, and mar the literary symmetry of the picture set forth in her pages. She does not allude to the Margaret McKenzie episode, never mentions James Kinzie, well-known Chicagoan as he was, and also ignores another matter which the integrity of history requires to be stated, and which the lapse of almost three generations should disarm of the sting which might attach to it at the time of Wau-Bun. This matter is the killing, in self-defense, of John Lalime, by John Kinzie. (See Appendix F.)

After the massacre and the subsequent events so romantically described in Wau-Bun, Mr. Kinzie returned, probably in the autumn of 1816, to Chicago, where he reoccupied the historic house. To sit on his front porch and watch the building of a new fort in the old spot must have been a mingling of pleasure and pain. All that had passed since the original incoming of twelve years before must have seemed like a dream. The lake to the eastward, the river in front, the prairie beyond and the oak woods behind him were all as of old; but here around him were the children born and reared in the intervening years; here were new soldiers to take the place of the little band sacrificed four years ago. There, scattered over the sand-hills, were the bleaching bones of the martyred dead, and within dwelt an enduring memory of the horrors of their killing.

And where were the savings of a lifetime of industry, courage and enterprise? Gone beyond recall. He made heroic efforts to redeem something from the wreck, traveling in Indian fashion and in Indian dress from one to another of the places where he had had branch trading-posts, and where debts were due to him. But it takes only a slight knowledge of affairs in a new country to see clearly that after war has disturbed and ravaged a district, and four years of absence have wasted the goods and scattered the debtors, every dollar saved would have cost in the saving two dollars' worth of work and sacrifice of strength and time. That his salvage was small and his later days quite devoid of the ease and comfort which his hard-won early success should have guaranteed him, we have the testimony of a letter written by him August 19, 1821, to his son John H., after he had placed the latter with the American (Astor's) Fur Company at Mackinaw:

Dear Son--I received your letter by the schooner. Nothing gives me more satisfaction than to hear from you and of you. It does give both myself and your mother a pleasure to hear how your conduct is talked of by every one that hopes you every advantage. Let this rather stimulate you to continue the worthy man, for a good name is better than wealth, and we cannot be too circumspect in our line of conduct. Mr. Crooks speaks highly of you and try to continue to be the favorite of such worthy men as Mr. Crooks, Mr. Stewart and other gentlemen of the firm. Your mother and all of the family are well and send their love to you. James[AS] is here, and I am pleased that his returns are such as to satisfy the firm.

[AS] John's half-brother, son of the captive girl, Margaret McKenzie.

I have been reduced in wages, owing to the economy of the government. My interpreter's salary is no more and I have but $100 to subsist on. It does work me hard sometimes to provide for your brothers and sisters on this and maintain my family in a decent manner. I will have to take new measures. I hate to change houses, but I have been requested to wait Conant's arrival. We are all mighty busy, as the treaty commences to-morrow and we have hordes of Indians around us already. My best respects to Mr. Crooks and Stewart and all the gentlemen of your house.

Adieu. I am your loving father,

This is said to be the only letter of John Kinzie's that is known to exist. (A large and invaluable collection of papers were given in 1877 to the Historical Society by John H. Kinzie, and perished with the society building in the great fire of 1871). No portrait of John Kinzie has ever been found.

He assisted in negotiating the treaty of 1821, before mentioned; addressing the Indians to reconcile them to it, and signing it as a sub-agent, which post he filled under his son-in-law, Dr. Alexander Wolcott, Indian agent. In 1825 he was appointed Justice of the Peace, for Peoria county.

Captain Andreas remarks on John Kinzie's standing with the Indians as follows:

The esteem in which Mr. Kinzie was held by the Indians is shown by the treaty made with the Pottowatomies September 20, 1828, by one provision of which they gave to Eleanor Kinzie and her four children by the late John Kinzie $3,500 in consideration of the attachment of the Indians to her deceased husband, who was long an Indian trader and who lost a large sum in the trade, by the credits given them and also by the destruction of his property. The money is in lieu of a tract of land which the Indians gave the late John Kinzie long since, and upon which he lived.

There is no doubt that the Indians had a warm feeling for the Kinzies. At the same time it seems probable that the treaty in question, like all other treaties, was carefully arranged by the whites and merely submitted to the Indians for ratification. The Indians did not give any money, all payments came from the United States, and were made to such persons (other than Indians) as the commissioners thought best to care for. As to the land given by the Indians to Mr. Kinzie and on which he lived, where was it? The Indians had parted with the Chicago tract, six miles square, nine years before Mr. Kinzie arrived at Fort Dearborn. It is true that in May, 1795, the Ottawas (not the Pottowatomies) conveyed land in Ohio to John Kinzie and Thomas Forsyth; but he certainly never lived on it. He also lived at Parc-aux-vaches, on the St. Joseph's river, from 1800 to 1804. It is possible, though not probable, that the Indians made him a grant there.

Everyone who visited the hospitable "Kinzie mansion" was glad to do so again. Let us follow the good example.

The structure, as put up by Pointe de Saible, and passed through the hands of Le Mai to John Kinzie, was a cabin of roughly squared logs. In Kinzie's time it was beautified, enlarged, improved and surrounded by out-houses, trees, fences, grass plats, piazza and garden. "The latch string hung outside the door,"[AT] and all were free to pull it and enter. Friend or stranger, red-man or white could come and go, eat and drink, sleep and wake, listen and talk as well. A tale is told of two travelers who mistook the house for an inn, gave orders, asked questions, praised and blamed, as one does who says to himself, "Shall I not take mine ease in mine inn?" and who were keenly mortified when they came to pay their scot and found that there was none to pay. In front (as the picture shows) were four fine poplars; in the rear, two great cotton-woods. The remains of one of these last named were visible at a very late period. (Who knows just how lately?) In the out-buildings were accommodated dairy, baking-ovens, stables and rooms for "the Frenchmen," the Canadian engages who were then the chief subordinates in fur-trading, and whose descendants are now well-known citizens, their names perpetuating their ancestry--Beaubien, Laframboise, Porthier, Mirandeau, etc.

[AT] This odd expression of welcome came from the old style of door-fastening; a latch within lifted by the hand or by a string which was poked through a gimlet hole, so that it could be pulled from the outside. To lock the door the household simply pulled in the string and kept it inside.

Captain Andreas says:

The Kinzie house was no gloomy home. Up to the very time of their forced removal, the children danced to the sound of their father's violin and the long hours of frontier life were made merry with sport and play. Later the primitive court of Justice Kinzie must have been held in the "spare room"--if spare room there was.

Hurlbut, in his "Chicago Antiquities," says:

The last distinguished guest from abroad whom the Kinzies entertained at the old house was Governor Cass; in the summer of 1827. This was during the Winnebago Indian excitement. Gurdon Hubbard says: "While at breakfast at Mr. Kinzie's house we heard singing, faint at first but gradually growing louder as the singer approached. Mr. Kinzie recognized the leading voice as that of Bob Forsyth, and left the table for the piazza of the house, where we all followed. About where Wells Street crosses, in plain sight from where we stood, was a light birch bark canoe, manned with thirteen men, rapidly approaching, the men keeping time with the paddles to one of the Canadian boat-songs; it proved to be Governor Cass and his secretary, Robert Forsyth, and they landed and soon joined in."

The visit of Governor Cass was just before the "Winnebago scare" of 1827. He it was that informed the lonely, unarmed and defenceless post of Fort Dearborn of the Winnebago uprising. Gurdon Hubbard at once proposed to ride down the "Hubbard Trail" for help. The others objected for fear they might be attacked before his return; but it was finally decided that he should go, and go he did. At Danville he raised, within about a day, fifty volunteers, armed and mounted, and started for Fort Dearborn. They reached the Vermilion, then at flood and running "bank-full" and very rapidly. The horses on being driven in would turn and come back to shore. Hubbard, provoked at the delay, threw off his coat, crying: "Give me old Charley!" Mounting the horse he boldly dashed into the stream, and the other horses crowded after him. "The water was so swift that Old Charley became unmanageable; but Hubbard dismounted on the upper side, seized the horse by the mane, and, swimming with his left hand, guided the horse in the direction of the opposite shore. We were afraid he would be washed under, or struck by his feet and drowned, but he got over."[AU]

[AU] See "the Winnebago Scare" by Hiram W. Beckwith, of Danville. Fergus' Historical Series No. 10.

The brave rescuers arrived and stayed, petted and feasted by the Chicagoans of that day, until a runner came in from Green Bay, bringing word that Governor Cass had made peace with the Indians.

According to Mr. Hurlbut, as the old master neared his end the old homestead also went to decay. The very logs must have been in a perishing condition after fifty years of service, and the lake sand, driven by the lake breezes, piled itself up against the north and east sides. Then, too, the standard of comfort had changed. Son-in-law Wolcott had rooms in the brick building of the unoccupied fort. Colonel Beaubien had a frame house close to the fort's south wall (now Michigan Avenue and River Streets), and thither the Kinzies moved. What more natural than that the ancient tree, as it tottered to its fall, should lean over toward the young saplings that had sprung up at its foot? It is the way of the world.

It was in 1827 that Mr. Kinzie, and whatever then formed his household, quitted the historical log house for the last time. In 1829, it was (says Andreas) used for a while by Anson N. Taylor as a store. In March, 1831, Mr. Bailey lived in it and probably made it the post office, its first location in Chicago, as he was the first postmaster. The mail was then brought from Detroit on horseback, about twice a month.

Captain Andreas says:

After 1831 and 1832, when Mark Noble occupied it with his family, there is no record of its being inhabited. Its decaying logs were used by the Indians and immigrants for fuel, and the drifting sands of Lake Michigan was fast piled over its remains. No one knows when it finally disappeared, but with the growth of the new town, this relic of the early day of Chicago passed from sight to be numbered among the things that were.

Mrs. Robert Kinzie says now (1893) that she is sure that the house was standing when she was married in the fort, in 1834, and she thinks long afterward She scouts the idea that those solid logs were used by the Indians or immigrants for fuel.

The following account of Mr. Kinzie's death was learned from Mr. Gurdon S. Hubbard: "He remained in full vigor of health in both body and mind, till he had a slight attack of apoplexy, after which his health continued to decline until his death, which took place in a few months, at the residence of his son-in-law. Dr. Wolcott, who then lived in the brick building, formerly used as the officers' quarters in the fort. Here, while on a brief visit to Mrs. Wolcott (Ellen Marion Kinzie), he was suddenly attacked with apoplexy. Mr. Hubbard, then living in Mr. Kinzie's family, was sent for, and on coming into the presence of the dying man he found him in convulsions on the floor, in the parlor, his head supported by his daughter. Mr. Hubbard raised him to a sitting position and thus supported him till he drew his last breath. The funeral service took place in the fort and the last honors due to the old pioneer were paid with impressive respect by the few inhabitants of the place."

Mr. Kinzie's remains were first buried in the fort burying ground on the lake shore south of the old fort (about Michigan Avenue and Washington Street) whence they were later removed to a plot west of the present water-works (Chicago Avenue and Tower Place) and finally to Graceland, where they now rest.

Unfortunately there exists no portrait of John Kinzie. The portrait of John H. Kinzie, taken from a miniature, and that of his wife, the author of Wau-Bun, are kindly furnished by their daughter, Mrs. Nellie Kinzie Gordon. There has also been copied an oil portrait of the last named lady herself, painted by Healy in 1857, when she was about to quit her native city for her home in Savannah, Georgia, which departure was a loss still remembered and regretted by her many Chicago friends and admirers; in other words by all of the Chicago of 1857 which survives to 1893.

A fourth portrait of this honored branch of the pioneer stock is that of the son, John H. Kinzie, Jr., who died for his country in a manner which must endear his memory to every Union loving patriot. The following touching sketch of his life and death is contributed by a near relative of the brave young martyr.

John Harris Kinzie, Jr., was born in 1838. He was educated as a civil engineer at the Polytechnic Institute of Ann Arbor, Mich. He served in the navy during the war and met his tragic fate in 1862, while master's mate on the gun-boat Mound City, commanded by Admiral Davis.

While attacking a fort on the White River, a shot from the fort's battery penetrated the boiler of the Mound City. In the terrific explosion that followed, young Kinzie and more than ninety others were scalded and blown overboard.

The hospital boat of the fleet immediately set out to rescue the wounded men. As Kinzie struck out for the boat, his friend Augustus Taylor, of Cairo, called out to him to keep out of the range of the fort as the sharp-shooters were evidently picking off the wounded men in the water. This proved to be true; young Kinzie was shot through the legs and arras by minié balls as he was being lifted into the boat.

He soon heard the shouts of his comrades; and turning to one of his friends, he said:

"We have taken the fort. I am ready to die now."

He sank rapidly and died the following morning, June 18, just as the sun was rising. He left a young wife barely eighteen years old, a daughter of Judge James, of Racine, Wisconsin, and his own little daughter was born three months after his death.

It was necessary to put a guard over the person of Colonel Fry (who was captured with the fort) to save him from being sacrificed to the indignation the men felt against him for having ordered his sharp-shooters to pick off the scalded men and shoot them in the water.

APPENDIX E.

WILLIAM WELLS AND REBEKAH WELLS HEALD.

GRATITUDE to our first hero and martyr calls for a somewhat extended study of his life, and it will be found interesting enough to repay the attention.

Colonel Samuel Wells and his brother Captain William Wells were Kentuckians; the family being said to have come from Virginia. William, when twelve years old, was stolen by the Indians from the residence of Hon. Nathaniel Pope, where both brothers seem to have been living. He was adopted by Me-che-kan-nah-quah, or little Turtle, a chief of the Miamis, lived in his house and married his daughter Wa-nan-ga-peth, by whom he had several children, of whom the following left children:

Pe-me-zah-quah (Rebekah) married Captain Hackley, of Fort Wayne, leaving Ann and John Hackley, her children.

Ah-mah-qua-zah-quah (a "sweet breeze"--Mary) born at Fort Wayne May 10, 1800, married Judge James Wolcott March 8, 1821; died at Maumee City, (now South Toledo,) O., Feb. 19, 1834, leaving children as follows: William Wells Wolcott, Toledo; Mary Ann (Wolcott) Gilbert, South Toledo; Henry Clay Wolcott, South Toledo, and James Madison Wolcott, South Toledo.

Jane (Wells) Grigg, living at Peru, Indiana; has children.

Yelberton P. Wells, St. Louis, died leaving one child.

William fought on the side of the Indians in the campaign of 1790 and 1791, when they defeated the Americans under Generals Harmer and Saint Clair. The story of his reclamation, as told by Rebekah (Wells) Heald to her son Darius, and repeated by him to a stenographer, in my presence, in 1892, is quite romantic.

Rebekah was daughter of Samuel Wells, elder brother of William, and was therefore niece of the latter. She must have been born between 1780 and 1790. We learn from the story of her son, the Hon. Darius Heald, as follows:

She was fond of telling the story of her life, and her children and her friends were never tired of listening to it. [Her son thinks he has heard her tell it a hundred times.] She would begin away back in her girlhood, spent in the country about Louisville, Kentucky, when her father. Colonel Samuel Wells, was living there; and tell how they all wanted uncle William Wells, whom they called their "Indian uncle," to leave the Indians who had stolen him in his boyhood, and come home and belong to his white relations. He hung back for years, and even at last, when he agreed to visit them, made the proviso that he should be allowed to bring along an Indian escort with him, so that he should not be compelled to stay with them if he did not want to.

Young Rebekah Wells was the one who had been chosen to go to the Indian council with her father, and persuade her uncle William to come and visit his old home; she, being a girl, very likely had more influence with him than any of the men could have had. William Wells was at that time living a wild Indian life, roaming up and down the Wabash river, and between the lakes and the Ohio. Probably the place where the battle of Tippicanoe was fought, in 1811, near the present site of La Fayette, Indiana, was pretty near the center of his regular stamping ground.

After much hesitation he consented to get together a party of braves, somewhere from seventy-five to a hundred, and visit his relatives. Little Turtle, whose daughter he had married, was along, very likely commanding the escort. They went down to the falls of the Ohio river, about opposite Louisville, and camped, while William Wells, with a picked band of twenty-five, crossed the river and met with his own people. Then the question arose as to whether he was the brother of Colonel Samuel Wells, and he asked to be taken to the place where he was said to have been captured, to see if he could remember the circumstances. When he reached there, he looked about and pointed in a certain direction and asked if there was a pond there; and they said: "Well, let's go and see." So they went in the direction indicated, and to be sure they saw the pond; and he said that he could remember that pond. Then he saw a younger brother present, whom he had accidentally wounded in the head as a child, and he said to his brother:

"Now if you are my brother there ought to be a mark on the back of your head, where I hit you with a stone one day;" and the brother held up his head, and William lifted the hair and found the scar, and he said: "Yes, I am your brother."

William was now convinced for the first time that he was the brother of Colonel Samuel Wells, but he went back with his Indian friends, his father-in-law, Little Turtle, and the rest, and it was not until sometime later that he told Little Turtle that, although he had fought for his Indian friends all his life, the time had now come when he was going home to fight for his own flesh and blood. It was under a big tree on the banks of the Miami that he had this talk, and he pointed to the sun and said: "Till the sun goes up in the middle of the sky we are friends. After that you can kill me if you want to." Still they always remained friends, and agreed that if in war, if one could find out on which side of the army the other was put, he would change positions so as not to be likely to meet the other in battle; and if one recognized the other while fighting, he would never aim to hit him. They also had the privilege of meeting and talking to each other, it being understood that nothing was to be said about the opposing numbers of their armies. They were not to act as spies but simply to meet each other as friends.

It was at about the time when General Wayne, "Mad Anthony," came into command that Wells left his red friends and began to serve on the side of his own flesh and blood. He was made captain of a company of scouts, and must have done good service, for, in 1798, he accompanied his father-in-law, Little Turtle, to Philadelphia, where the Indian (and probably Wells also) was presented to President Washington, and in 1803 we find him back at Chicago signing an Indian trader's license: "W. H. Harrison, Governor of Indian Territory, by William Wells, agent at Indian affairs." Little Turtle lived usually at Fort Wayne. Of him his friend John Johnston, of Piqua, Ohio, said:

"He was a man of great wit, humor and vivacity, fond of the company of gentlemen and delighted in good eating. When I knew him he had two wives living with him under the same roof in the greatest harmony. This distinguished chief died at Fort Wayne of a confirmed case of gout, brought on by high living, and was buried with military honors by the troops of the United States."

He died July 14, 1812, and was buried on the west bank of the river at Fort Wayne. His portrait hangs on the walls of the War Department at Washington.

In 1809 Captain Wells took his niece, Rebekah, with him to Fort Wayne on a visit. Captain Heald was then on duty at Fort Wayne, and it was doubtless there that the love-making took place which led to the marriage of the two young people in 1811.

The following interesting bits concerning Captain Wells are taken from a letter written by A. H. Edwards to Hon. John Wentworth (Fergus' Hist. Series No. 16), the remainder of which letter is given later in this volume. (See Appendix G.)

Captain Wells, after being captured by the Indians when a boy, remained with them until the treaty with the Miamis. Somewhere about the year 1795 he was a chief and an adopted brother of the celebrated chief Little Turtle. Captain Wells signed the marriage certificate, as officiating magistrate, of my father and mother at Fort Wayne, June, 1805. The certificate is now in my possession.

"Fort Wayne, 4th June.

"I do hereby certify that I joined Dr. Abraham Edwards and Ruthy Hunt in the holy bonds of matrimony, on the third instant, according to the law.

"Given under my Hand and Seal, the day and year above written.

"William Wells, Esq."

* * * Captain Wells urged Major Heald not to leave the fort, as he did not like the way the Indians acted, and was well acquainted with all their movements as learned from his Indian allies, who deserted him the moment the firing commenced. Captain N. Heald's story is as I heard it from the mouth of one who saw it all, the girl and her mother, the one living in our family for many years, and the mother in Detroit. Their name was Cooper.

Captain Wells, soon after leaving the Indians, was appointed interpreter at the request of General Wayne, and was with him in his campaign against the Indians as captain of a company of spies, and many thrilling accounts were given me of his daring and remarkable adventures as such, related by one who received them from his own lips, and in confirmation of one of his adventures pointed at an Indian present, and said: "That Indian," says he, "belongs to me, and sticks to me like a brother," and then told how he captured him with his rifle on his shoulder. This Indian was the one who gave Mrs. Wells the first intimation of his death and then disappeared, supposed to have returned to his people.

Captain William Wells was acting Indian Agent and Justice of the Peace at Port Wayne at the time he married my father and mother, and was considered a remarkably brave and resolute man. I will give you a sketch of one of his feats as told me by my mother, who was present and witnessed it all. The Indians were collected at Fort Wayne on the way for the purpose of meeting the Miamis and other Indians in council. While camped there they invited the officers of the fort to come out and witness a grand dance, and other performances, previous to their departure for the Indian conference. Wells advised the commander of the fort not to go, as he did not like the actions of the Indians; but his advice was overruled, and all hands went out, including the officers' ladies. But the troops in the fort were on the alert, their guns were loaded and sentries were doubled, as it was in the evening. A very large tent was provided for the purpose of the grand dance. After many preliminary dances and talks, a large and powerful chief arose and commenced his dance around the ring, and made many flourishes with his tomahawk. Then he came up to Wells, who stood next my mother, and spoke in Indian and made demonstrations with his tomahawk that looked dangerous, and then took his seat. But no sooner than he did so Wells gave one of the most unearthly war-whoops she ever heard, and sprang up into the air as high as her head, and picked up the jaw bone of a horse or ox that lay near by, and went around the ring in a more vigorous and artistic Indian style than had been seen that evening; and wound up by going up to the big Indian and flourishing his jaw-bone, and told him that he had killed more Indians than white men, and had killed one that looked just like him, and he believed it was his brother, only much better looking and a better brave than he was. The Indians were perfectly taken by surprise. Wells turned to the officers and told them to be going. He hurried them off to the fort, and had all hands on the alert during the night. When questioned as to his action and what he said, he replied that he had told the Indians what I have related. Then he enquired of those present if they did not see that the Indians standing on the opposite side of the tent had their rifles wrapped up in their blankets.

"If I had not done just as I had, and talked to that Indian as I did, we would all have been shot in five minutes; but my actions required a council, as their plans were, as they supposed, frustrated, and that the troops would be down on them at the first hostile move they made." He saw the game when he first went in, as his Indian training taught him, and he waited just for the demonstration that was made as the signal for action. Wells saw no time was to be lost, and made good his resolve, and the big Indian cowed under the demonstration of Wells. My mother said he looked as if he expected Wells to make an end of him for what he had said to Wells in his dance. "I had to meet bravado with bravado, and I think I beat," said Wells. You could see it in the countenances of all the Indians. The same advice given to Heald, if attended to, would have saved the massacre of Fort Dearborn. * * * *

A. H. Edwards.

James Madison Wolcott, grandson of Captain Wells (through Ah-mah-quah-zah-quah, who married Judge James Wolcott) wrote to Mr. Wentworth as follows:

We are proud of our Little Turtle [Indian] blood and of our Captain Wells blood. We try to keep up the customs of our ancestors, and dress occasionally in Indian costumes. We take no exception when people speak of our Indian parentage. We take pleasure in sending you the tomahawk which Captain William Wells had at the time of his death, and which was brought to his family by an Indian who was in the battle. We also have a dress-sword which was presented to him by General W. H. Harrison, and a great many books which he had; showing that even when he lived among the Indians, he was trying to improve himself. He did all he could to educate his children. Captain Wells, in the year of his death, sent to President Madison, at Little Turtle's request, the interpretation of the speech that that chief made to General W. H. Harrison, January 25, 1812.

Captain Heald never got rid of the effect of his wound. The bullet remained embedded in his hip and doubtless is in his coffin. He resigned shortly after the war, and the family (in 1817) settled at Stockland, Missouri. The new name of the place, O'Fallon, recalls the fact that the well known Colonel O'Fallon, of St. Louis, was an old friend of the family, and himself redeemed the things which the Indians had captured at the massacre (the same articles now cherished as relics of the historic event) and sent them to Colonel Samuel Wells at Louisville, where they arrived during the interval when all supposed that Nathan and Rebekah had perished with the members of the garrison and their fellow-sufferers.

Among the articles captured by the Indians and, after their transportation from Chicago to Peoria and from Peoria to Saint Louis, bought by Colonel O'Fallon and sent to the Falls of the Ohio (Louisville) to Samuel Wells, are the following, all of which were brought to Chicago by the Hon. Darius Heald, exhibited to his relatives (the family of Gen. A. L. Chetlain), and their friends, and here reproduced.

Captain Heald's sword.

A shawl-pin he wore which, when recovered, had been bent to serve as a nose-ring.

Part of his uniform coat, which seems to have been divided among his captors.

Six silver table-spoons and one soup-ladle, each marked "N. R. H.," doubtless the wedding-present made by Colonel Samuel Wells to Nathan and Rebekah Heald.

A hair brooch marked "S. W.," supposed to contain the hair of Samuel Wells.

A finger-ring marked "R. W." (Probably one of the girlish treasures of Rebekah Wells.)

A fine tortoise-shell comb, cut somewhat in the shape of an eagle's beak and having silver ornaments representing the bird's eye, nostril, etc.

Mr. Wentworth further says:

In the biographical sketches of the members of the Corinthian Lodge of Masons, at Concord, Mass., I find the following:

Nathan Heald, initiated in 1797, died at Stockland (now O'Fallon) in St. Charles County, Missouri, where he had resided some years, in 1832, aged 57 years. He was born in Ipswich, N. H., September 29, 1775, was the third sou of Colonel Thomas and Sybel (Adams) Heald and in early life joined the U. S. Army. Mrs. Maria (Heald) Edwards, of this city, born at Ipswich, N. H, in 1803, mother of Mrs. General Chetlain, was the eldest child of his brother, Hon. Thomas Heald, one of the Associate Judges of the Supreme Court of Alabama. (Fergus' Hist. Series No. 16.)

A considerable part of Captain Heald's first report of the massacre appears in our old friend Niles' Weekly Register, Nov. 7, 1812. (I have quoted it, to a great extent, in connection with the story of the event.)

Extract of a letter from Captain Heald, late commandant at Fort Chicago, dated at Pittsburg, October 23, 1812:

On the 9th of August, I received orders from General Hull to evacuate the post and proceed with my command to Detroit, by land, leaving it at my discretion to dispose of the public property as I thought proper. The neighboring Indians got the information as soon as I did, and came in from all quarters to receive goods in the factory-store, which they understood were to be given to them. On the 13th, Captain Wells, of Fort Wayne, arrived with about thirty Miamis, for the purpose of escorting us in, by request of General Hull. On the 14th I delivered to the Indians all the goods of the factory-store, and a considerable quantity of provisions which we could not take with us. The surplus arms and ammunition I thought proper to destroy, fearing they would make bad use of it, if put in their possession. I also destroyed all liquor on hand soon after they began to collect.

The collection was unusually large for that place, but they conducted with the strictest propriety until after I left the fort. On the 15th, at 9 A. M., we commenced our march. A part of the Miamis were detached in front, the remainder in our rear, as guards, under the direction of Captain Wells. The situation of the country rendered it necessary for us to take the beach, with the lake on our left and a high sand-bank on our right at about one hundred yards distance. We had proceeded about a mile and a half when it was discovered that the Indians were prepared to attack us from behind the bank. I immediately marched up, with the company, to the top of the bank, when the action commenced; after firing one round we charged, and the Indians gave way in front and joined those on our flanks. In about fifteen minutes they got possession of all our horses, provisions, and baggage of every description, and, finding the Miamis did not assist us, I drew off the men I had left and took possession of a small elevation in the open prairie, out of shot of the bank or any other cover. The Indians did not follow me but assembled in a body on the top of the bank, and after some private consultation among themselves, made signs for me to approach them. I advanced toward them alone and was met by one of the Pottowatomie chiefs called Black-bird, with an interpreter. After shaking hands, he requested me to surrender, promising to spare the lives of all the prisoners. On a few moments consideration I concluded it would be most prudent to comply with his request, although I did not put entire confidence in his promise. After delivering up our arms we were taken back to their encampment near the fort, and distributed among the different tribes.

The next morning they set fire to the fort and left the place, taking the prisoners with them. Their number of warriors was between four and five hundred, mostly from the Pottowatomie nation, and their loss, from the best information I could get, was about fifteen. Our strength was about fifty-four regulars and twelve militia, out of which twenty-six regulars and all the militia were killed in the action, with two women and twelve children. Ensign George Ronan and Dr. Isaac Van Voorhis of my company, with Captain Wells of Fort Wayne, to my great sorrow, are numbered among the dead. Lieutenant Linai T. Helm, with twenty-five non-commissioned officers and privates and eleven women and children, were prisoners when we separated.

Mrs. Heald and myself were taken to the mouth of the river St. Joseph, and, being both badly wounded, were permitted to reside with Mr. Burnett, an Indian trader. In a few days after our arrival there, the Indians went off to take Fort Wayne, and in their absence I engaged a Frenchman to take us to Michilimackinac by water, where I gave myself up as a prisoner of war, with one of my sergeants. The commanding officer, Captain Roberts, offered me every assistance in his power to render our situation comfortable while we remained there, and to enable us to proceed on our journey. To him I gave my parole of honor, and came to Detroit and reported myself to Colonel Proctor, who gave us a passage to Buffalo, from that place I came by way of Presque-Isle, and arrived here yesterday.

Nathan Heald.

The following letter from Captain Heald, written three years after taking up his residence in Missouri, speaks for itself:

St. Charles, Missouri Territory May 18th, 1820.

Sir:--I had the honor of receiving your letter of the 30th of March, a few days since. The garrison at Chicago commanded by me at the time Detroit was surrendered by General Hull, were every man paid up to the 30th of June, 1812, inclusive, officers' subsistence and forage included.

The last payment embraced nine months, and was made by myself as the agent of Mr. Eastman, but I cannot say what the amount was. Every paper relative to that transaction was soon after lost. I am, however, confident that there was no deposit with me to pay the garrison for the three months subsequent to the 30th of June, 1812.

The receipt-rolls which I had taken from Mr. Eastman, together with the balance of money in my hands, fell into the hands of the Indians on the 15th of August, 1812, when the troops under my command were defeated near Chicago; what became of them afterwards I know not. I have no papers in my possession relative to that garrison, excepting one muster-roll for the month of May, 1812. By it I find that the garrison there consisted of one captain, one 2nd lieutenant, one ensign, one surgeon's mate, four sergeants, two corporals, four musicians and forty-one privates. I cannot determine what the strength of the garrison was at any other time during the years 1811 and 1812, but it was on the decline. Monthly returns were regularly submitted to the Adjutant and Inspector-General's office, at Washington City, which, I suppose, can be found at any time.

I am respectfully sir, your most obedient servant,

Nathan Heald.

Peter Hagner, Esq., } 3rd Auditor's Office, Treasury } Department, Washington City. }

* * * * *

This brings up to the mind of every officer the terrors of the "Auditors of the Treasury." Not victory or defeat, not wounds or even death--nay, not old Time himself can clear a soldier from the terrible ordeal of the "Accounting Department." Poor Heald had evidently been asked: "Where is the money which was in your hands before the savages surrounded you, slaughtered your troops, wounded yourself and your wife, massacred the civilians under your care, tortured to death your wounded and burned your fort?" At the same time the ordnance bureau doubtless asked what had become of the arms, ammunition, accoutrements and cooking utensils; the commissary bureau asked after the stores and the quartermaster's bureau after the equippage. Scores of thousands of volunteer officers in the Union war found to their cost that their fighting was the only thing which the War Department kept no record of; that their account-keeping and reporting was what must be most carefully looked after if they would free themselves, their heirs, executors and assigns, from imperishable obligations. For the government knows no "statute of limitations"--takes no account of the lapse of time any more than does Nature in her operations. "Contra regem tempus non occurret."

Yet, paradoxical as it may seem, this is right. If all men were honest, "red tape" could be done away with; but as men are, individual accountability is indispensable. Without it, the army might fall into negligence leading to corruption, instead of being, as it is, the very example of administrational honor and probity.

* * * * *

It so happens that the death of Mrs. Maria (Heald) Edwards, niece of Captain Nathan Heald and mother of Mrs. General Chetlain, is announced after the above matter had been put in print. She died on May 6, 1893, at the residence of General Chetlain, in this city, at the ripe age of ninety years.

It stirs the heart to think that, almost up to this very day, there was living among us so near a relative to the gallant and unfortunate captain; a woman who was a girl nine years old when her uncle passed through the direful ordeal.

APPENDIX F.

THE BONES OF JOHN LALIME.--SUBSTANCE OF A PAPER READ BY JOSEPH KIRKLAND BEFORE THE CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY, ON THE OCCASION OF THE PRESENTATION TO THE SOCIETY OF CERTAIN HUMAN RELICS, JULY 21, 1891.

SOME ominous threatenings were heard at old Ft. Dearborn before the bursting of the storm of August 15, 1812. Among them was the killing of the interpreter for the government, John Lalime.

John Kinzie arrived at Fort Dearborn in 1804, and with his family occupied a house built of squared logs, which, up to about 1840, stood where the corner of Cass and Kinzie streets now is. He was an Indian-trader, furnishing what the savages desired and taking furs in exchange. The government also had an Indian agent, or trader, there.

Various circumstances tend to show that before 1812 considerable rivalry existed between the government fur-trading agency and the civilian dealers. The former had certain advantages in the cheapness of purchase and transportation, but were restricted as to selling liquor. The latter were nominally under the same restriction, but practically free, and the Indians, like other dipsomaniacs, hated every man who tried to restrain their drinking. The short-sighted savages mistook their friends for their enemies, their enemies for their friends. They loved the poison and the poisoner.

Mrs. Kinzie, in Wau-Bun, says that there were two factions in the garrison, the Kinzies sympathizing with the opposition. Also that, though the garrison was massacred, no Kinzie was injured, the immunity extending even to Lieutenant Linai T. Helm, who had married Mr. Kinzie's step-daughter. Also that while the fort was burned, the Kinzie mansion was left untouched, and remained standing up to within the memory of living men.

For several years before 1812, John Lalime, a Frenchman, had been the government's salaried interpreter at Fort Dearborn. The earliest mention of the name occurs in a letter written from St. Joseph by William Burnett to his Detroit correspondent, which begins with the words: "When Mr. Lalime was in Detroit last you was pleased to tell him that if I should want anything at your house, it should be at my service." The next intelligence about him is in two letters he wrote concerning Indian matters. The first was to Wm. Clark, Governor of Missouri, and reads as follows:

Chicago, 26th May, 1811.

Sir--An Indian from the Peorias passed here yesterday and has given me information that the Indians about that place have been about the settlements of Kaskasia and Vincennes and have stolen from fifteen to twenty horses. It appears by the information given me that the principal actors are two brothers of the wife of Main Foe. He is residing on the Peoria, or a little above it, at a place they call "Prairie du Corbeau." By the express going to Fort Wayne I will communicate this to the agent. I presume, sir, that you will communicate this to the Governor of Kaskasia and General Harrison. I am sir, with respect,

Y'r h'ble serv't, J. Lalime.

The second letter is the one mentioned in the first. It is written to John Johnson, United States factor at Fort Wayne, dated July 7th, 1811, and reads as follows:

Since my last to you we have news of other depredations and murders committed about the settlement of Cahokia. The first news we received was that the brother-in-law of Main Poc went down and stole a number of horses. Second, another party went down, stole some horses, killed a man and took off a young woman, but they being pursued were obliged to leave her to save themselves. Third, they have been there and killed and destroyed a whole family. The cause of it in part is from the Little Chief that came last fall to see Governor Harrison under the feigned name of Wapepa. He told the Indians that he had told the governor that the Americans were settling on their lands, and asked him what should be done with them. He told the Indians that the Governor had told him they were bad people.

We observe that the Peoria chief, Main Poc, is mentioned as blameworthy for these wrongs. It may be interesting to know Main Poc's side of the question. Said he:

You astonish me with your talk! Whenever you do wrong there is nothing said or done; but when we do anything you immediately take us and tie us by the neck with a rope. You say, what will become of our women and children if there is war? On the other hand, what will become of your women and children? It is best to avoid war.

Lalime's letters show that he was a man of ability and education. We also guess, from a clause in Article III of the treaty of 1821, that Lalime lived after the manner of those days, and left at least one half-breed child. The clause reserves a half-section of land for "John B. Lalime, son of Noke-no-qua."

Miss Noke-no-qua is not otherwise known to history.

The next knowledge we have of Lalime relates to his violent death in the spring of 1812, about five months before the massacre, at a point on the south bank of the river within a stone's throw of where is now the south end of Rush Street bridge.

In a letter written by the lamented Gurdon Hubbard to John Wentworth, June 25th, 1881, we read:

As regards the unfortunate killing of Mr. Lalime by Mr. John Kinzie, I have heard the account of it related by Mrs. Kinzie and her daughter, Mrs. Helm. Mr. Kinzie never, in my hearing, alluded to or spoke of it. He deeply regretted the act. Knowing his aversion to conversing on the subject, I never spoke to him about it.

Mrs. Kinzie said that her husband and Lalime had for several years been on unfriendly terms, and had had frequent altercations; that at the time of the encounter Mr. Kinzie had crossed the river alone, in a canoe, going to the fort, and that Lalime met him outside the garrison and shot him, the ball cutting the side of his neck. She supposed that Lalime saw her husband crossing, and taking his pistol went through the gate purposely to meet him. Mr. Kinzie, closing with Lalime, stabbed him and returned to the house covered with blood. He told his wife what he had done, that he feared he had killed Lalime, and probably a squad would be sent for him and that he must hide. She, in haste, took bandages and with him retreated to the woods, where as soon as possible she dressed his wounds, returning just in time to meet an officer with a squad with orders to seize her husband. He could not be found. For several days he was hid in the bush and cared for by his wife.

Lalime was, I understand, an educated man, and quite a favorite with the officers, who were greatly excited. They decided he should be buried near Kinzie's house, in plain view from his front door and piazza. The grave was enclosed in a picket fence, which Mr. Kinzie, in his lifetime, kept in perfect order. My impression has ever been that Mr. Kinzie acted, as he told his wife, in self-defence. This is borne out by the fact that, after a full investigation by the officers, whose friend the deceased was, they acquitted Mr. Kinzie, who then returned to his family.

In some of these details I may be in error, but the fact has always been firm in my mind that Lalime made the attack, provoking the killing, in self-defence. Mr. Kinzie deeply regretted the result, and avoided any reference to it.

Yours, G. S. Hubbard.

Mr. Hubbard does not say he remembers having seen the grave. He did not come to Chicago to live until 1836. Judge Blodgett, as we shall see hereafter, describes its position as not on the river bank, but back in the timber.

A somewhat different account of the affair was given by Mrs. Porthier (Victoire Mirandeau,) and printed in Captain Andreas' History of Chicago, Vol. II, page 105.

My sister Madeline and I saw the fight between John Kinzie and Lalime, when Lalime was killed. It was sunset, when they used to shut the gates of the fort. Kinzie and Lalime came out together, and soon we heard Lieutenant Helm call out for Mr. Kinzie to look out for Lalime, as he had a pistol. Quick we saw the men come together. We heard the pistol go off and saw the smoke. Then they fell down together. I don't know as Lalime got up at all, but Kinzie got home pretty quick. Blood was running from his shoulder, where Lalime had shot him. In the night he packed up some things and my father took him to Milwaukee, where he stayed until his shoulder got well and he found he would not be troubled if he came back. You see, Kinzie wasn't to blame at all. He didn't have any pistol nor knife--nothing. After Lalime shot him and Kinzie got his arms around him, he (Lalime) pulled out his dirk, and as they fell he was stabbed with his own knife. That is what they all said. I didn't see the knife at all. I don't remember where Lalime was buried. I don't think his grave was very near Kinzie's house. I don't remember that Mr. Kinzie ever took care of the grave. That is all I know about it. I don't know what the quarrel was about. It was an old one--business, I guess.

This bears all the thumb-marks of truth. It comes at first hand from a disinterested eye-witness. Even if we suppose Mrs. Kinzie to have seen the affray, which she does not say, it was doubtless from the opposite side of the river, while Victoire and her sister were in the fort itself. No other account, direct from an eye-witness, has ever been published.

Now, without pretending to certainty, it strikes me as probable that up to this time Kinzie stood on the Indian side of the irrepressible conflict between white men and red men, while the army and Lalime took the other. Mrs. Helm's narrative in Wau-Bun is decidedly hostile to the good sense of the commandant of the fort, and even to the courage of some of his faithful subordinates, while obviously friendly to the mutinous element in his command. Therefore it seems to me quite likely that Lalime's crazy attack on Kinzie was not entirely disconnected with that irrepressible conflict, that this long-standing quarrel had more than appears on the surface to do with the admitted success of Kinzie's trade and the well-known unprofitableness of the business carried on by the government agency.

On April 29th, 1891, there was unearthed at the southwest corner of Cass and Illinois streets, a skeleton. Workmen were digging a cellar there for a large new building, and were startled by having the shovel stopped by a skull, wherein its edge made a slight abrasion. Further examination brought to light some spinal vertebrae, some fragments of ribs, some remains of shoulder-blades and pelvis-bones, some bones of the upper and lower arms and the hip-bones, besides two bones of the lower part of one leg; also fragments, nearly crumbled away, of a rude pine coffin. The rumor of the discovery spread through the neighborhood, and luckily reached the ears of Mr. Scott Fergus, son of the veteran printer, Robert Fergus, whose establishment stands within ten feet of the place where these relics of mortality had so long lain unnoticed.

Mr. Fergus at once tried to save and collect the bones, and finding some disposition on the part of the laborers to disregard his requests, he rang for the police-patrol wagon, which bundled the little lot into a soap-box and carried them to the East Chicago Avenue station.

I was out of town at this time and did not hear of the interesting occurrence until Mr. Fergus told me of it upon my return, about a month later. I then went to the station, only to learn that the bones, being unclaimed, had been sent in the patrol-wagon to the morgue at the County Hospital, on the West Side. However, on looking up the officer who carried them over, he freely and kindly offered to try to reclaim them, and have them delivered to the Historical Society. The morgue officials, after a few days, at a merely nominal expense, complied with the request, and they are now here. Was this, _is_ this the skeleton of John Lalime?

The place where the bones were found is within a stone's throw of the exact spot indicated by Gurdon Hubbard as the place where the picket fence marked the grave, "two hundred yards west of the Kinzie house."

Dr. Arthur B. Hosmer, and Dr. Otto Freer, who have examined the relics independently of each other, and assisted me in arranging them in human semblance, consider them to be the skeleton of a slender white man, about five feet and four inches in height.

The color, consistency and general conditions indicate that they had lain in the ground (dry sand) for a very long time, reaching probably or possibly the seventy-nine years which have elapsed since Lalime's death.

Now, admitting their expert judgment to be correct, this man died not far from 1812. At that time there had not and never had been in all these parts more than some fifty to one hundred white men, nearly all of whom were soldiers, living in the fort and subject to burial in the fort burying-ground, adjoining the present site of Michigan Avenue and Randolph street. At a later date, say fifty years ago, isolated burials were not uncommon, but even then they could scarcely have occurred in so public a spot as the north bank cf the river, close to the docks and warehouses which had been by that time built there.

John C. Haines, Fernando Jones and others remember perfectly the existence of that lonely little fenced enclosure, and even that it was said to mark the resting-place of a man killed in a fight. They and all others agree that no other burials were made thereabouts, so far as known. Another point, favorable or otherwise to this identification, is the fact that the place where the skeleton was found is the lot whereon stood the first St. James Church, and that the attendants there, as I was informed by one of them, Mr. Ezra McCagg, never heard of any burial as having taken place in the church-yard.

On the other hand, Mr. Hubbard designates "the river bank" as the place of burial, and the memory of Mr. Fernando Jones is to the effect that the fenced enclosure was nearer to the place of Rush Street bridge than is the spot of finding.

But in contradiction to this view. Judge Blodgett tells me that he was here in 1831 and 1832, which was several years before either Mr. Jones or Mr. Haines, and before Mr. Hubbard came here to live, he being then trading at Danville. The Judge adds that with the Beaubien and Laframboise boys he paddled canoes on the creek, played in the old Kinzie log-house and wandered all about the numerous paths that ran along the river bank, and back into the thick, tangled underbrush which filled the woods, covering almost all the North Side west of the shore sand-hills. He says that one path over which they traveled back and forth ran from the old house west to the forks of the river, passing north of the old Agency house--"Cobweb Castle"--which stood near the northeast corner of Kinzie and State Streets. Also that from that path behind Cobweb Castle the boys pointed further north to where they said there was a grave where the man was buried whom John Kinzie had killed, but they never went out to that spot, and so far as he remembered he never saw the grave. A kind of awe kept him quite clear of that place. All he knows is that it was somewhere out in the brush behind the Agency house.

This seems to locate the grave as nearly as possible at the corner of Illinois and Cass streets, where these relics were found. Fernando Jones suggests that even if the grave was originally elsewhere, the remains might have got into the church lot in this way: In 1832 Robert Kinzie entered and subdivided Kinzie's Addition, bounded by Chicago Avenue on the north, the lake on the east, Kinzie Street on the south and State Street on the west, and gradually he and his brother John sold the lots. In 1835 they gave the St. James Society the two lots where the church was built and wherein this skeleton was found. What more likely than that on selling the lot whereon the original interment took place (supposing it to be other than where the bones were unearthed) the sellers were compelled, either by the buyer's stipulation or their own sense of duty to their father's manifest wishes, to find a new place for the coffin of poor Lalime, and thereupon selected the spare room in the new church-yard?

* * * * *

It is worthy of note, that as, with the skeleton, were found the remains of a coffin--a single bit of pine board, showing the well-known "shoulder angle," though decayed so that only a crumbling strip half an inch thick was left--this could not have been a secret interment, made to conceal the death of a man. It would seem utterly improbable that two men's bodies should have been coffined and buried within the little space of ground, in the few years of time pointed out by all these circumstances. We learn that Lalime was so buried; also that, so far as known, all other excavations thereabouts have failed to expose his remains; also that these relics have now come to light. Everyone must draw his own conclusion. I have drawn mine. If it be erroneous, this exploitation of the subject will be likely to bring out the truth.

* * * * *

LETTER FROM FERNANDO JONES.

Chicago, July 20th, 1891.

Joseph Kirkland, Esquire:

_Dear Sir_--In answer to your inquiry as to any incidents coming to my knowledge as to the grave of John Lalime, who was buried near the mouth of the Chicago River in the year 1812, I furnish the following statement:

When I arrived in Chicago, on my sixteenth birthday, May 26th, 1835, I landed on the north side of the present river, near its mouth, very near to the old John Kinzie homestead. I was escorted to the historic Cobweb Castle and the Dearborn Street bridge by the children of an old friend of my father's, Samuel Jackson, who was employed upon the north pier harbor work, and who had been an old neighbor in Buffalo, New York, where he had also been employed upon the government harbor. The little boy, Ezra, and the girl, Abigail, pointed out a grave situated a little to the north of our path and several hundred feet west of the Kinzie house. The grave was surrounded by a neat white picket fence. I passed it many times afterward, during that and the succeeding summer, and often visited it with children about my own age. The history of this lonely grave, as detailed by them, gave it a peculiar fascination to me, and to them, and to others who saw it. I recall now, after an interval of mere than half a century, a number of persons who visited this grave with me, among whom were the Indian wife of Captain Jamison; the wife of Lieut. Thompson, a half-breed woman; Virginia Baxley, daughter of Captain Baxley, of the fort; Pierre Laframboise, son of a chief and interpreter; Alexander Beaubien, son of a trader, and John C. Haines, who was also a clerk near me on South Water Street.

The tradition in regard to this grave was that it was the last resting-place of a Frenchman named Lalime, who was government interpreter at the fort, and who was killed in an encounter with the old Indian-trader, John Kinzie. It was said that the officers of the garrison had the body buried in sight of Mr. Kinzie's house in resentment for his murder. But it seems that old Mr. Kinzie took the sting from this reproach by carefully tending the spot during his lifetime, and his son, John H. Kinzie, continued the same care over it.

Soon after the erection of St. James Episcopal Church, about the year 1838, a grave was noticed on the north side of the lot and in the rear of the church, which was situated on the southwest corner of Cass and Illinois Streets, and opposite the new house of John H. Kinzie. The lot upon which the Frenchman was buried had been sold by Mr. John H. Kinzie, and was built upon, and Mr. Kinzie had given the lot upon the corner for the church. Mr. Alonzo C. Wood, the builder of the church, who still survives, informs me that the grave appeared there mysteriously, and his remembrance is that the Rev. Mr. Hallam, the priest in charge, informed him that the remains were placed there by the direction of Mr. Kinzie, or Mrs. Kinzie, but he has no further distinct recollection in regard to it. I, myself, never mentioned the subject to Mr. John H. Kinzie, but remember a conversation with his brother, Robert A. Kinzie, U. S. Paymaster, in which he expressed satisfaction that his brother had taken care of the bones of poor Lalime. It was understood by the few conversant with the history of Lalime's death that both the elder Kinzie and his son, John H., were averse to speaking of the matter, but "Bob" was very like an Indian, and not at all reticent on the question, and that the legend among those who took any interest in the matter has always been that this solitary grave in the church-yard was the grave of the "little Frenchman" who was first buried near the spot. Under the circumstances, it is not strange that the removal should have been quietly made, and I have little doubt in my own mind that the tradition is correct.

Very sincerely yours,

Fernando Jones.

* * * * *

LETTER FROM THE HON. J. C. HAINES.

Chicago, 15 July, 1891.

Major J. Kirkland: Without very definite recollection as to just where the grave of John Lalime stood in 1835, when I came to Chicago, I can say that I knew of its existence and have an impression it stood in St. James' Church lot, corner of Cass and Michigan Streets.

John C. Haines.

* * * * *

DR. HOSMER'S LETTER.

108 Pine Street, Chicago, } July 11, 1893. }

The bones shown me at this date at the Chicago Historical Society, constitute the major portion of a human skeleton--that of an adult white male of slender build and about five feet four to five inches in height. There is evidence of a partial or complete fracture of the left femur, at some time in his life, thoroughly repaired and with some permanent thickening of the bone.

Judging by the color, weight and rotten condition of the bones, I believe that they have been in the ground (supposing it to be sandy and above water-level) at least sixty (60) but not to exceed one hundred (100) years.

A. B. Hosmer, M. D.

* * * * *

DR. FREER'S LETTER.

The skeleton shown me by Mr. Joseph Kirkland is without doubt of great age and resembles in appearance fragments of others that have lain for many years in sandy soil. All animal matter has departed from the bones, leaving them very light and consisting of the mineral portions alone.

The type of skeleton is that of a man of moderate stature and light build. The skull is that of a white man and of great symmetry. The lower jaw is missing, but the upper perfect, barring loss of all teeth but one. The presence of the third molar's sockets speaks for the complete maturity of the man. It is impossible exactly to estimate the exact time that the skeleton has been in the ground, but its appearance would tally well with the eighty years it is supposed to have lain there.

Dr. O. T. Freer.

July 20th, 1891.

APPENDIX G.

IMPORTANT REMINISCENCES OF AN OLD SETTLER (A. H. EDWARDS).--[from "FORT DEARBORN"; FERGUS' HISTORICAL SERIES, NO. 16.]

Sheboygan (Wis.), May 24th, 1891.

Hon. John Wentworth:

_Dear Sir_--I have had the pleasure of reading your account and also the remarks of others in regard to Chicago and Illinois history. I am acquainted with some facts derived from conversation with one who was there, and witnessed the fight and killing of many of those who lost their lives on that memorable day. She was a daughter of one of the soldiers, and was one of the children who, with her mother and sisters, occupied the wagons, or conveyances that was to convey them from the fort. She told me she saw her father when he fell, and also many others. She, with her mother and sisters, were taken prisoners among the Indians for nearly two years, and were finally taken to Mackinac and sold to the traders and sent to Detroit. On our arrival in Detroit, in 1816, after the war, this girl was taken into our family, and was then about thirteen years old, and had been scalped. She said a young Indian came to the wagon where she was and grabbed her by the hair and pulled her out of the wagon, and she fought him the best she knew how, scratching and biting, till finally he threw her down and scalped her. She was so frightened she was not aware of it until the blood ran down her face. An old squaw interfered and prevented her from being tomahawked by the Indian, she going with the squaw to her wigwam, and was taken care of and her head cured. This squaw was one that often came to their house. The bare spot on the top of the head was about the size of a silver dollar. She saw Captain Wells killed, and told the same story as related in your pamphlet.

My father was well acquainted with Captain Wells; was stationed with him at Fort Wayne, Indiana, where I was born, in 1807, and he was surgeon of the post. My mother was a daughter of Col. Thomas Hunt of the Fifth Infantry.

I think there must be a mistake as to the year the Kinzies returned to Chicago. My father and family arrived in Detroit in June, 1816; the Kinzies were there then, and I was schoolmate of John, Robert, Ellen and Maria during that year, and I think they returned to Chicago in 1817. Mr. Kinzie went in the fall of 1816, and the family in the spring of 1817.

I was in Chicago in 1832 in the Black Hawk War time, as First Lieutenant of cavalry, from Michigan. The regiment was commanded by General Hart L. Stewart, now living in Chicago.

During the Black Hawk War, and when in Chicago, we heard of the killing of the Hall family and the carrying off of the two girls. Our company camped that night at the mouth of the Little Calumet, and next morning went into Chicago, and the fort was occupied by women and children of the surrounding country.

Then I saw for the last time my schoolmate, R. A. Kinzie. My brother. Col. L. A. H. Edwards, was in command of the fort after we left, and had a Cass County regiment of military from Michigan. We met him on our return at Door Prairie. He remained there until the arrival of Major Whistler, in June, 1832; he retired from the fort before the landing of any of the U. S. troops, on account of cholera being among them, and he wished to avoid any contact with them on that account. His command camped on the prairie, about a mile from the fort, and remained only a day or two. Fearing the cholera might get among his men, he left for home, as he saw they were not needed any longer, and was so informed by Major Whistler.

Captain Anderson, Ensign Wallace and myself camped under the hospitable roof of General Beaubien, on the bank of the lake, not very far from the fort, who had kept the only house there. Mark Beaubien Jr. went into Chicago with us, he having joined us at Niles, on his way home from school. He was the son of the one called the fiddler.

Our family lived in Detroit and were well acquainted with the Whistlers. My father. Major Edwards, was in Detroit at the surrender of Hull, as Surgeon-General of the Northwestern Army. He went from Ohio, and arriving in Detroit, received his appointment. Our family was then living in Dayton, Ohio. At the close of the war he resigned, and in 1816 removed to Detroit and was appointed sutler to all Northwestern posts--Fort Gratiot, Mackinac, Green Bay [Fort Howard], and Chicago [Fort Dearborn]--his books, now in my possession, showing his dealings with each of these stores, and all the officers mentioned in your paper.

It is pleasant to note that at the disastrous fire at the Calumet Club, which occurred while these pages were preparing, the Beaubien fiddle and the Wells hatchet were saved.

* * * * *

Sheboygan (Wis.), Jan. 10, 1881.

Your letter of the 5th came to hand to-day. The person I named as being present at the massacre, was a daughter of Cooper,[AV] one of the soldiers who was killed in the fight. Her account, as given to me, as also her mother's, was that as soon as all the soldiers were disposed of, the Indians made a rush for the wagons, where the women and children were. Her mother, and sister younger than herself, were taken from the wagon and carried away. A young Indian boy about fourteen or fifteen years old dragged her by the hair out of the wagon, and she bit and scratched him so badly that he finally scalped her and would have killed her if an old squaw had not prevented him. I think she married a man by the name of Farnum and lived many years in Detroit. Her mother died there about the year 1832. The sisters were living in Detroit in 1828. I have since heard they were living in Mackinac. I do not know the first name of Cooper. He was killed and the girl said she saw her father's scalp in the hands of an Indian afterward. He had sandy hair. I think she said they were Scotch. Isabella had children. The girl said she saw Wells when he fell from his horse, and that his face was painted. What became of her sister I do not know, as I left Detroit in 1823, but my father and mother remained there until 1828. You will receive with this a statement written by my father regarding himself, a short time before his death, which occurred in October, 1860, at Kalamazoo, Mich., where he had resided for many years. The statement will give you all the information in regard to himself as well as who my mother was. Her father, Thomas Hunt, was appointed a surgeon in the army directly after the battle of Bunker Hill, where he was brought into notice by an act of gallantry, then only a boy of fifteen. He remained in the army until his death, in 1808, in command of his regiment, at Bellefontaine, Missouri. His sons and grandsons have been representatives in the army ever since. Captain Thomas Hunt, mentioned in your letter, was a son, and the present General Henry J. Hunt, of the Artillery, and General Lewis C. Hunt, commanding the Fourth Infantry, grandsons, whose father (my mother's brother) was Captain Samuel W. Hunt of the army.

My grandfather, Thomas Hunt, was a captain under Lafayette, and was wounded at Yorktown in storming a redoubt of the British. Afterward he was with General Anthony Wayne in his campaign against the Indians, and was left in command of Fort Wayne as its first commander after the subjection of the Indians.

A. H. Edwards.

[AV] "John Cooper, Surgeon's Mate," is found in the muster-roll shown on page 150. He also signed the certificate to the roll.

For other extracts from this interesting paper see Appendix E--"The Wells and Heald families."

APPENDIX H.

BILLY CALDWELL, THE SAUGANASH.

APPENDIX I.

FAREWELL WAR-DANCE OF THE INDIANS.

The money paid and the goods delivered, the Indians shook the dust off their feet and departed; the dust shaking being literal, for once, as they joined, just before starting, in a final "war-dance." For this strange scene, we fortunately have as witness Ex-Chief-Justice Caton, previously quoted herein. He estimates the dancers at eight hundred, that being all the braves that could be mustered, out of the five thousand members then present of the departing tribes. The date was August 18th, 1835. He says:

They appreciated that it was their last on their native soil--that it was a sort of funeral ceremony of old associations and memories, and nothing was omitted to lend it all the grandeur and solemnity possible. They assembled at the Council House (North-east corner of Rush and Kinzie Streets). All were naked except a strip of cloth around their loins. Their bodies were covered with a great variety of brilliant paints. On their faces particularly they seemed to have exhausted their art of hideous decoration. Foreheads, cheeks and noses were covered with curved strips of red or vermillion, which were edged with black points, and gave the appearance of a horrid grin. The long, coarse black hair was gathered into scalp locks on the tops of their heads and decorated with a profusion of hawks' and eagles' feathers; some strung together so as to reach nearly to the ground. They were principally armed with tomahawks and war clubs. They were led by what answered for a band of music, which created a discordant din of hideous noises, produced by beating on hollow vessels and striking clubs and sticks together. They advanced with a continuous dance. Their actual progress was quite slow. They proceeded up along the river on the North side, stopping in front of every house to perform some extra antics. They crossed the north branch on the old bridge, about Kinzie Street, and proceeded south to the bridge which stood where Lake Street bridge is now, nearly in front of, and in full view from the Sauganash Hotel ("Wigwam" lot, Lake and Market Streets). A number of young married people had rooms there. The parlor was in the second story pointing west, from the windows of which the best view of the dancers was to be had and these were filled with ladies.

The young lawyer, afterward Chief Justice, had come to the West in 1833, and less than a year before this had gone back to Oneida County, New York, and there married Miss Laura Sherrill. They were among the lookers-on from those upper windows, a crowd all interested, many agitated and some really frightened at the thought of the passions and memories that must be inflaming those savage breasts and that were making them the very picture of demoniac fury.

Although the din and clatter had been heard for some time, they did not come into view from this point of observation till they had proceeded so far West (on the North side) as to come on a line with the house. All the way to the South Branch bridge came the wild band, which was in front as they came upon the bridge, redoubling their blows, followed by the warriors who had now wrought themselves into a perfect fury.

The morning was very warm and the perspiration was pouring from them. Their countenances had assumed an expression of all the worst passions--fierce anger, terrible hate, dire revenge, remorseless cruelty--all were expressed in their terrible features. Their tomahawks and clubs were thrown and brandished in every direction, and with every step and every gesture they uttered the most frightful yells. The dance consisted of leaps and spasmodic steps, now forward, now back or sidewise, the whole body distorted into every imaginable position, most generally stooping forward with the head and face thrown up, the back arched down, first one foot thrown forward and withdrawn and the other similarly thrust out, frequently squatting quite to the ground, and all with a movement almost as quick as lightning. The yells and screams they uttered were broken up and multiplied and rendered all the more hideous by a rapid clapping of the mouth with the palm of the hand. When the head of the column reached the hotel, while they looked up at the windows at the "Chemo-ko-man squaws," it seemed as if we had a picture of hell itself before us, and a carnival of the damned spirits there confined. They paused in their progress, for extra exploits, in front of John T. Semple's house, near the northwest corner of Lake and Franklin Streets, and then again in front of the Tremont, on the northwest corner of Take and Dearborn Streets, where the appearance of ladies again in the window again inspired them with new life and energy. Thence they proceeded down to Fort Dearborn, where we will take a final leave of my old friends, with more good wishes for their final welfare than I really dare hope will be realized.

The Indians were conveyed to the lands selected for them, (and accepted by a deputation sent by them in advance of the treaty) in Clay County, Missouri, opposite Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The Missourians were hostile to their new, strange neighbors, and two years later they were again moved, this time to a reservation in Iowa, near Council Bluffs. Once more the fate of the poor waif, "Move on, move on," was theirs, and then they halted in Kansas for many years. Their present condition has been already sketched.

Judge Caton is an ardent, devoted friend of the Indians. He knew many of them personally, they having been his faithful companions--by night and day, in summer and winter--in hunting, which was the passion of his early years. Yet here, we observe, he says sadly, that his wishes for their welfare go beyond any confident hope he can feel.

APPENDIX K.

THE BRONZE MEMORIAL GROUP.

History places the scene of the Massacre adjacent to the shore of Lake Michigan, between the present 16th and 20th Streets. The Memorial Group, now (1893) newly erected, stands at the eastern extremity of 18th Street, overlooking the lake (nothing intervening save the right of way of the Illinois Central Railway); and is therefore in the midst of the battle-field.

I think it well here to put in evidence unanswerable testimony as to the identity of the spot selected for the group with the place where the short and fatal struggle took place. Regarding it, Munsell's history observes:

The attack, the charge, the subsequent advance, etc., seem all to point to about the spot where is now Eighteenth Street; and to the Massacre tree, a tall cottonwood, still standing when these lines are penned (1892), though dead since about five years ago.

For conclusive evidence of the identity of the tree and its trustworthiness as marking the battle-field, see certificates of old citizens given on page 31, Vol. I, Andreas' History of Chicago.

The letters quoted by Captain Andreas are all from persons not only well-informed, but also of the highest social character and standing. They are as follows:

Letter from Mrs. Henry W. King.

151 Rush Street, Chicago, } January 25, 1884. }

A. T. Andreas, Esq.

_Dear sir:_--I am very happy to tell you what I know about the tree in question, for I am anxious that its value as a relic should be appreciated by Chicago people, especially since the fire has obliterated nearly every other object connected with our early history. Shortly before the death of my friend Mrs. John K. Kinzie, I called upon her and asked her to drive with me through the city and point out the various locations and points of interest that she knew were connected with the "early day" of Chicago. She said there were very few objects remaining, but localities she would be happy to show me.

She appointed a day, but was not well enough to keep her appointment; went East soon after for her health and died within a few weeks. However, at this interview I mention, she said that to her the most interesting object in our city was the old Cottonwood tree that stands on Eighteenth Street, between Prairie Avenue and the lake. She remarked that it, with its fellows, were saplings at the time of the Indian Massacre, and that they marked the spot of that fearful occurrence; though she was not sure but that the smaller one had either died or been cut down. I expressed surprise at the location, imagining that the massacre occurred further south, among the small sand-hills that we early settlers remember in the vicinity of Hyde Park. I remember that her answer to this was:

"My child, you must understand that in 1812 there was no Chicago, and the distance between the old fort and Eighteenth Street was enormous." Said she: "My husband and his family always bore in mind the location of that massacre, and marked it by the Cottonwood trees, which, strange to say, have stood unharmed in the middle of the street to this day."

The above facts I communicated to the Historical Society soon after Mrs. Kinzie's death, and believe through them was the means of preventing the cutting down of the old tree, which the citizens of the South Side had voted to be a nuisance. I sincerely hope something may be done to fence in and preserve so valuable a relic and reminder of one of the most sad and interesting events in the life of Chicago.

Believe me, sir, yours most respectfully, Mrs. Henry W. King.

Letter from Hon. Isaac N. Arnold.

Chicago, January 25, 1884.

Captain A. T. Andreas.

_Dear sir:_--I have your note of this morning, asking me to state what I know relating to the massacre at Chicago in 1812. I came to Chicago in October, 1836; the Fort Dearborn reservation then, and for several years afterward, belonged to the government, and there were but a few scattering houses from Fort Dearborn south to [the present location of] the University, and between Michigan Avenue and the beach of Lake Michigan. The sand-hills near the shore were still standing. The family of John H. Kinzie was then the most prominent in Chicago, and the best acquainted with its early history. From this family and other early settlers, and by Mr. and Mrs. Kinzie, I was told where the attack on the soldiers by the Indians was made. There were then growing some cottonwood trees near which I was told the massacre occurred. One of those trees is still standing in the street leading from Michigan Avenue to the lake and not very far from the track of the Illinois Central Railway. This tree was pointed out to me by both Mr. and Mrs Kinzie, as near the place where the attack began. As the fight continued, the combatants moved south and went over considerable space. Mrs. John H. Kinzie was a person of clear and retentive memory and of great intelligence. She wrote a full and graphic history of the massacre, obtaining her facts, in part, from eye-witnesses, and I have no' doubts of her accuracy.

Very respectfully yours, Isaac N. Arnold.

Letter from A. J. Galloway.

Chicago, February 8, 1884.

Captain A. T. Andreas.

_My dear sir:_--At your request I will state my recollections concerning the cottonwood tree in the east end of Eighteenth Street. When I removed from Eldredge Court to the present 1808 Prairie Avenue, in 1858, the tree was in apparent good condition, though showing all the marks of advanced age. The large lower branches (since cutoff), after mounting upward for a time, curved gracefully downward, so that a man riding under them could have readily touched their extremities with his whip at a distance of twenty or twenty-five feet from the body. From an intimate knowledge of the growth of trees, I have no doubt but its sapling life long ante-dated the time of the massacre of the Fort Dearborn garrison. I will venture the opinion that if it were cut down and the stump subjected to a careful examination, it would be found that the last two inches of its growth cover a period of fifty years at least.

Yours truly, A. J. Galloway.

To these highly convincing letters. Captain Andreas adds verbal testimony as follows:

Charles Harpell, an old citizen, now living on the North Side, says that as far back as he can remember this locality was known as "the Indian battle-ground;" that years ago, when a boy, he with others used to play there (the place, from its very associations, having the strongest attractions) and hunt in the sand for beads and other little trinkets, which they were wont to find in abundance. Mr. Harpell relates, also, that he, while playing there one day, found an old single-barreled brass pistol, which he kept for many years.

Mrs. Mary Clark Williams, whose father, H. B. Clark, purchased in 1833, the land on which the tree now stands, says that nearly fifty years ago she played under the old cottonwood, and that it was then a large and thrifty tree. In 1840 an old Indian told her that the massacre occurred on that spot.

On the same branch of the subject, and in absolute conformation of the Clark testimony, see the following letter, later than the other, which I am glad to be able to give as "the conclusion of the matter."

Aspen, Colorado, March 15, 1890.

_Editor of the Tribune:_

I notice your interesting article on the subject of the Chicago Massacre of 1812. I was born on what is now Michigan Avenue (then a farm) and within 1,200 feet of this awful affair. Your article is in the main correct, though not exactly so as regards the tree at the foot of Eighteenth Street. This was one of a grove, consisting of perhaps fifty to seventy-five large cotton-woods, extending from a little north of Sixteenth to a little south of Eighteenth Street. Almost in the center of this grove--I think the exact location would be two hundred and fifty to three hundred feet north of Eighteenth Street, on the east end of Wirt Dexter's lot--stood a "clump" of eight or nine trees....

The sand-hills extended from about where the Illinois Central round-house now is south to about Twenty-Fifth Street. They were covered with low cedar trees, ground pine, and sand cherry bushes, together with a perfect mat of sand prickers, to which the soles of our feet often gave testimony when in swimming. The old cemetery, where many of the old settlers were buried, was located near Twenty-Second Street and Calumet Avenue. I think the McAvoy brewery stands about the centre of it.

I sincerely hope something will be done to commemorate this awful affair and perpetuate the memory of our ancestors, who fought the Indians, the fleas and the ague to make so grand and beautiful a city as Chicago.

Robert G. Clarke.

So much for the place selected for the bronze group, now for the work itself.

Carl Rohl-Smith, a Danish sculptor who had already won distinction in Europe and in America, and who came to Chicago under the strong attraction which the preparation of the World's Columbian Exposition offered for all artists, won notice and praise by his statue of Franklin, cast for the entrance of the Electrical building. This work pleased those interested highly, and the sculptor was invited to prepare the model for a group to commemorate the Fort Dearborn Massacre of 1812. Mr. Rohl-Smith, by the help of his accomplished wife, made a study of the historical facts connected with the event, and naturally concluded that Black Partridge saving the life of Mrs. Helm was the portion of the sad story which presented the most picturesque, dramatic and artistic features for reproduction. To this he added the killing of Surgeon VanVoorhees, which Mrs. Helm details almost in the same breath with the story of her own experience. The study, when completed in clay, won the approval of all observers (this acceptance being fortified by the warm admiration the group elicited from the best art-critics to whom it was submitted), and orders were at once given for the work; to be in bronze and of heroic proportions; the figure group to be nine feet high, set on a granite pedestal ten feet high.

Mr. Rohl-Smith set himself to work with the utmost diligence. Fortune favored him; for there happened to be just then some Indians of the must untamed sort at Fort Sheridan (only a few miles away), in charge of the garrison as prisoners of war, they having been captured in the Pine Ridge disturbance whereof the affair of Wounded Knee creek was the chief event. By General Miles's permission, Mr. Rohl-Smith was allowed to select two of these red-men to stand as models for the principal savage figures of the group. The two best adapted were "Kicking Bear" and "Short Bull." Concerning them Mr. Rohl-Smith says:

Kicking Bear is the best specimen of physical manhood I have ever critically examined. He is a wonderful man and seems to enjoy the novelty of posing, besides evidently having a clear understanding of the use to which his figure will be put. The assailant of Mrs. Helm, the one with the uplifted tomahawk [Short Bull] fills the historical idea that the assailant was a "young" Indian, naturally one who would not be as fully developed as the vigorous, manly chief, Black Partridge. The presence of these Indians has been of great value to me in producing the figures. I have been enabled to bring out some of their characteristics not otherwise possible.

The savages were accompanied by an interpreter, and the newspapers of the day gave some amusing accounts of their demeanor in the studio; their mixture of docility and self-assertion, etc. It chanced that the real dispositions of the two principal models were the reverse of their assumed characters; and Kicking Bear (who, when wearing his native dress and war-paint, carried a string of _six scalps_ as part of his outfit), was much amused at the fact that he was assigned the more humane part. "Me, good Injun!" he cried; "him bad Injun!" And he laughed loudly at the jest.

The four faces of the granite pedestal bear appropriate _bas-reliefs_ cast in bronze. The front (south-west) shows the fight itself; the opposite side represents the train--troops, wagons, etc.--leaving the fort; one end gives the scene when Black Partridge delivered up his medal to Captain Heald, and the opposite end the death of the heroic Wells.

The various scenes bear descriptive inscriptions; and on the North-West face is the dedication, as follows:

Presented May, 1893, to the Chicago Historical Society, in Trust for the City of Chicago and for Posterity.

The group stands on the scene of the fight, just one hundred and twenty feet east of the "Massacre tree" spoken of in chapter VII, and earlier in this appendix. Its position is admirable in the artistic point of view as well as in the historical, for it occupies the eastern extremity of Eighteenth Street and the northern of Calumet Avenue; separated from Lake Michigan only by the right of way of the Illinois Central railway. The hillocks which shielded the Indians in making their attack have been leveled down, but their sandy base forms an admirable foundation for the massive pedestal, which may well keep its place, unmoved, for a thousand years.

INDEX.

=A.=

Abbott, Dr. Lucius; 49. Agency House; 48, 67, 79, 192. Ah-mah-qua-zah-quah; 35, 173. Allen, Colonel; 109. American Fur Co.; 65, 164. Anderson, Capt. Thomas C.; 66. Andreas, Capt. A. T. quoted; 153, 163, 165, 167, 170, 216-218. Andrews, Presley; 146, 150. Arnold, Hon. I. N.; 148-149, 217. Artaguiette; 124. Astor's Fur Co.; 56, 65, 164. Atwater, Major; 113, 114.

=B.=

Baker, B'vt Major D.; 144. Bates, Eli, 126. Battles, Joe; 63. Baxley, Virginia; 194. Beaubien, Alex.; 121, 194. Beaubien, J. B.; 169. Beckwith, H. W.; 168. Bisson, Mrs.; 45, 46. Black Bird; 40, 180. Black Hawk; 32. Black Partridge; 29, 30, 44-46, 90, 104, 220. Black Partridge Medal; 91. Blanchard, Rufus; 67, 158-161. Block-House; 120. Block-House Tablet; 125, 126. Blodgett, Hon. H. W.; 189, 192. Bowen, Joseph; 118. Braddock's Defeat; 61. Bradley, Capt. H.; 144. British and Indians; 30, 77-79. Brock, Gen.; 78. Bronze Group; 29, 220, 221. Brown, Maj. Gen.; 145. Bunker Hill, Battle of; 107. Burgoyne, Gen.; 58, 135. Burman (soldier); 146. Burnett, Geo.; 146, 150. Burns, John and family; 72, 80, 103. Burns, Robert; 134. Butterfield, Justin; 148.

=C.=

Cahokia; 138. Caldwell, Billy (Sauganash); 46, 47, 201, 203. Callis, Mrs.; 48. Calumet Club; 35. Calumet Lake; 55. Cass. Lewis; 83, 167, 168. Caton, Hon. J. D.; 114, 153, 203-206. Caton, Laura Sherrill; 205. Chandonnais; 37, 38, 42, 43, 97, 102. Chetlain, Mrs. Gen.; 180. Chicago; _passim_; see table of contents. Chicago in 1812 and in 1892; 95. Chicago, the name; 54. Chicago, Treaty of; 47. Clark, Elizabeth; 159. Clark, Geo. Rogers; 53, 54, 135. Clark, H. B.; 218. Clark, John K.; 159. Clarke, Robert G.; 220. Cleaver, Charles; 121. Clybourn, Archibald; 160. Clybourn, Jonas; 160. Cobweb Castle; 48, 192. Conflict of Authorities; 83, 84, 87. Confute Indians; 116. Cooper, Isabella; 197-9. Cooper, John, Surg. Mate; 149, 150. Corbin, James; 118, 146, 150. Corbin, Phelim; 20, 118, 146, 150. Corbin, Sukey; 20, 48, 119. Cummings, Maj. Alex.; 144. Custer slaughter; 33.

=D.=

Dearborn, Fort; see Fort Dearborn. Dearborn, Gen. Henry; 57, 143. Debou (Frenchman); 72. Defence, possible; 192. De Peyster, Col. A. S.; 53; 56, 134-136. De Peyster, J. Watts; 134. Du Pin, Madame; 104. Durantaye; 155. Dyer, Dyson; 118, 146, 150.

=E.=

Eastman, Lieut. J. L.; 113, 114. Eastman, Jonathan, Paymaster; 189. Edson, Nathan; 118, 150. Edwards, J. H.; 176-7, 197-9. Edwards, Maria (Heald); 183. English employment of Indians; 77-79. "Epeconier;" 35, 36. Erie Canal; 210. Evacuation of Fort Dearborn; 81, 88.

=F.=

Farnum, Isabella (Cooper); 197. Fergus Hist. Series, quoted; 68, 120, 151, 152, 168. Fergus, Robert; 190. Fergus, Scott; 190, 191. Ferson, Julia, 152. Forsyth, Geo.; 158. Forsyth, Robert; 158, 167. Forsyth, Thomas; 158, 162, 166. Forsyth, William; 157. Fort Chartres; 133. Fort Dearborn, _passim_; see table of contents. Fort Dearborn, Records of; 143-150. Fort Dearborn Verses; 127-129. Fort George, Canada; 102. Fort Maiden, Canada; 109. Fort Meigs, Canada; 109. François, half-breed; 100. Franklin, Statue of; 220. Free Masonry; 98, 178. Freer, Dr. Otto; 191, 195. French Period; 53. Fry, Col.; 172. Fury, John; 146, 150.

=G.=

Galloway, A. J.; 218. Gardner's Military History, quoted; 151. George III; 79, 84, 135. Gilbert, Mary Ann; 173. Glamorgan; 137. Gordon, Mrs. Nellie Kinzie; 171. Grade of streets changed; 210. Grant, Gen. U. S.; 155. Great Fire; 213, 214. Greene, Capt. John; 144. Greenville, Treaty of; 47, 54, 57, 90, 155, 159. Griffith, Quartermaster; 100. Grigg, Jane Wells; 173. Grignon, Augustin; 139. Grummond, Paul; 118, 146, 150. "Grutte;" 24. Guarie River; 57.

=H.=

Hackleys, Ann and John; 173. Haines, Hon. John C.; 121, 192, 194, 195. Hall, Benjamin; 160. Hall, David; 160. Hall, Eugene; 127. Hallam, Rev. Mr.; 194. Haliburton, Mrs.; 157. Hamilton, Gen.; 135. Hardscrabble; 71, 105. Harmer, Gen.; 174. Harpell, Charles; 218. Harrison, W. H.; 44, 65, 107, 109, 201. Hays, Sergeant; 105. Hayti, Island of; 137. Heald family; 173-183. Heald, Hon. Darius; _passim_; see table of contents. Heald manuscript lost; 99. Heald, Captain Nathan; _passim_; see table of contents. Heald, Rebekah (Wells); _passim_; see table of contents. Heald, Rebekah, quoted; 31-38, 69, 83, 93, 97-99. Helm, Lieut. Linai T.; 23, 33, 39, 41, 48, 49, 162, 181. Helm, Margaret; _passim_; see table of contents. Helm, Margaret, quoted; see Wau-Bun. Hennepin; 133. Henry, Patrick; 135. Hispaniola; 137. Historical Society; 29, 45, 165, 191. Hooker, J. Lewis; 121. Hosmer, Dr. A. B.; 191, 195. House-raising; 209, 210. Hoyt, William M.; 127. Hubbard, G. S.; 57, 167, 169, 170, 188. Hull, Gen.; 78, 80, 93, 114, 118, 180. Hunt family, the; 199. Hunter, Gen. David; 23. Hurlbut's Antiquities; 54, 58, 62, 148, 154, 155, 162, 167.

=I.=

Indians; _passim_; see table of contents. Indian Agency; 62, 63. Indian Atrocities; 38. Indian Group, (Ryerson's); 126. Indian Treaties; 165.

=J.=

Jackson, Andrew; 107. Jackson, Samuel; 194. Jamison, Capt.; 194. Jefferson, President; 57. Jerked beef; 85. Johnston, John; 175. Jones, Fernando; 121, 192-195. Jones, R. Adjt. Gen.; 145, 146. Jordan, Walter; 116-118. Jouett, Charles, 48, 61, 62.

=K.=

Kaskaskia; 133, 138. Keamble, (soldier); 146. Kee-ge-kaw or swift-goer; 66. Kee-po-tah; 44, 100, 103, 112. Kickapoos; 116. Kicking Bear; 221. King, Mrs. Henry W.; 217. Kingsbury, Col. Jacob; 149. Kingston, John T.; 138. Kinzie family; 23, 46, 61, 68, 100, 120, 157-170. Kinzie House; 19, 44, 46, 61, 64, 73, 80, 111, 167. Kinzie, John; _passim_; see table of contents. Kinzie, Mrs. John; 23, 43, 61, 165. Kinzie, John Harris; 23, 61; 161, 164, 165, 171, 194. Kinzie, Mrs. John Harris; 21, 28, 42, 82, 120, 163, 171, 216. Kinzie, John Harris Jr.; 171, 172; Kinzie, Ellen Marion; 23, 170. Kinzie, Maria Indiana; 23. Kinzie, Robert Allen; 23, 167. Kinzie, Mrs. Robert Allen; 153, 170, 194. Knowles, Joseph; 118.

=L.=

Laframboise, Josette; 24. Laframboise, Pierre; 121, 194. La Geuness, J. B.; 65. Lake Erie, battle of; 109, 110. Lalime, John; 70, 80, 163, 185. La Salle, Robert Cavelier; 53, 54, 126, 133, 134. Latrobe, John Joseph; 203. Law, John, 133, 138. Lawe, Judge John; 65. Leclerc, Peresh; 30, 39. Lee's place and family; 70-72, 80, 104, 105. Le Mai; 57, 60, 137, 155. Liber Scriptorum; 133-141. Lincoln, Hon. Robert; 68, 143. Little Belt, Sloop; 110. Little Turtle (Me-che-kan-nah-quah); 32, 35, 55, 173-177. Locker, Frederick; 146, 150. Logan, Hugh; 119, 150. Lord Liverpool's Government; 78, 79. Lundy's Lane, battle of; 107. Lynch, Michael; 146, 150.

=M.=

Macomb, Mr.; 112. Macomb, Maj. Gen; 146. Mackinaw; 53, 80, 102, 103. Mad Anthony; see Wayne. Maguago, battle of; 155. Main Poc; 187. Marquette; 53, 54, 71, 105, 133. Mason, E. G.; 49, 138. Massacre; 19-50 and _passim_. Massacre tree; 33, 113, 216-219. McCagg, Ezra; 192. McCoy, Isaac; 63. McCrea, Miss Jane; 135. McKee, Col.; 100. McKenzie, Elizabeth; 158, 159. McKenzie, Isaac; 159. McKenzie, John; 157. McKenzie, Margaret; 158, 159, 163, 164. McKillip, Eleanor; 160, 161. McKillip, Margaret; 161. McNeil, Col. J.; 144. McPherson, Hugh; 146, 150. Me-che-kan-nah-quah; 32, 35, 55, 173. Miami Indians; 20, 24, 25-27, 89, 93, 116, 180. Militia-men; 23, 38, 40. Miller, Samuel; 161. Mills, Elias; 118, 146. Min-na-wack or Mill-wack-ie; 66, 103. Mirandeau, Victoire; 189. Morfitt, William; 146, 150. Mott, August; 119, 150. Mound City (gun-boat); 171. Munsell's History, quoted; 45. 63, 67, 71, 80, 82.

=N.=

Napoleonic years; 63. Nau-non-gee; 77, 105. Neads, John, wife and child; 119, 150. Nelson (soldier); 119. Nee-scot-nee-meg; 45. New Orleans, battle of, 107. Niles Register, quoted; 108, 113, 115, 116, 118, 180. Noble, Mark; 170. Noke-no-qua, Miss; 187. Nourse, Charles J.; 145.

=O.=

O'Fallon, Col.; 37, 178. O'Fallon, Mo.; 38, 99, 178. O'Strander, Philip; 149, 150. Ottawas; 77. Ouillemette; 19, 45, 46, 57, 155.

=P.=

Parc-aux-vaches; 23, 115, 166. Patterson, Mr.; 109. Pee-so-tum, 30, 41, 142. Pe-me-zah-quah; 173. Perry, Commodore; 107, 110. Peterson (soldier); 146. Pettell, M.; 80, 155. Plattsburgh paper, quoted; 103. Pointe de Saible, J. B.; 44, 53, 55-57, 60, 133-141, 157, 166. Pope, Nathaniel; 173. Porthier, Victoire Mirandeau; 189, 190. Pottowatomies; 24, 25-27, 30, 40, 44, 46, 57, 88, 103, 123, 166. Proctor, Gen.; 101, 108, 115, 119. Posterity of Pioneers; John Whistler, John Kinzie, William Wells and Nathan Heald; see appendix C, D and E. Put-in-bay; 107, 114.

=Q.=

Queen Charlotte, (schooner); 113, 114.

=R.=

Relics recovered; 178. Reveille; 19. Roberts, Capt.; 181. Robinson, Chief; 63, 101. Rohl-Smith, Carl; 29, 220, 221. Ronan, Lieut. George; 22, 28, 33, 40, 70, 83, 83, 144, 146, 181. Round Head; 201. Rumsey, Julian; 201. Russell family; 80. Ryerson, Martin; 126. Ryswick, treaty of; 137.

=S.=

Sand-dunes; 25; 29, 31, 180. Sauganash, the; 46, 47, 201, 202. Scalped girl; 197. Scott, Winfield; 107. Senat, Jesuit; 124. Shaubena; 138, 139, 202. Shaw-nee-aw-kee, (Silver-smith); 68, 109, 158. Shawnee Indians; 77, 201. Sheaffe, Col.; 102. Sheridan, Mrs. Gen.; 152. Short Bull; 221. Skeletons juried; 120, 121. Skeleton in Hist. Society; 186. Sleeping-car system; 212-214. Smith, John; 146, 150. St. Ange; 124. St. Clair, Governor; 140, 174. St. Cosme; 133. St. Domingo; 137. St. James' Church; 194. St. Joseph's; 23, 59, 98, 100-102. Stuart, David; 164. Swearingen, Col. James S.; 58. Sword of Capt. Heald; 99.

=T.=

Tanner, Dr. H. B.; 65. Taylor, Augustus; 172. Tecumseh; 32, 47, 106, 201. Thames, battle of; 107. Thompson, Lieut.; 194. Tippecanoe, battle of; 44, 74, 77. Tonti; 54, 133. To-pee-nee-be; 24, 25, 27, 63, 100, 102. Torture of wounded prisoners; 38, 43, 98. Toussaint L'Ouverture; 138, 139. "Tracy," schooner; 59, 67, 155. Tree, Lambert; 126.

=V.=

Van Home, James; 118, 146, 150. Van Voorhees, Dr. Isaac; 28, 33, 40, 144, 181, 220. Vinsenne; 124.

=W.=

Wabash Indians; 44. Wabash River; 144. Wa-bin-she-way; 48. Waggoner, Anthony L.; 150. Wah-bee-nee-mah; 30. Walk-in-the-water; 201. Wa-nan-ga-peth; 35, 173. War-dance; 203. War of 1812; 80. Washington, President; 175. Wau-ban-see; 41, 44. Waubansa stone; 147, 148. Wau-Bun, quoted; 21, 23, 28, 81, 39, 41, 42, 44, 45, 62, 71, 72, 80, 82, 85, 86, 88, 90, 99-106, 108-110, 137, 186. Wayne, Gen. Anthony; 47, 55, 56, 175, 202. Webster, Daniel; 148. Weem-tee-gosh; 100. Wells family; 173-183. Wells, Rebekah; 69, 70, 173. Wells, Samuel; 36, 37, 69, 99, 173. Wells, William; _passim_; see table of contents. Wells Street; 35. Wentworth, John; 68, 151, 152. Whisky; 63, 87, 88. Whistler family; 151-156. Whistler, John; 58-61, 66, 69. Whistler, John Jr.; 162. Whistler, Major Geo. W.; 152. Whistler, William; 58, 59. Whistler, Mrs. Wm.; 59, 60, 61. White Elk; 48. White, Liberty; 71. Williams, Mrs. Mary Clark; 118. Wilmette; 57. Winnebagoes; 77, 88, 116, 167. Winnemeg; 41, 80, 81. Wolcott, Alexander; 165, 169. Wolcott, Henry Clay; 173. Wolcott, James Madison; 35, 173, 177. Wolcott, William Wells; 173. Women and Children; 40, 49, 64. Wood, Alonzo C.; 194. Woodward, Augustus B.; 49. Wounded for torture; 38, 43, 98.

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