Chicago Magazine, April 15, 1857 PAGES 103-117
THE MASSACRE OF CHICAGO1During the period of eight years, from the erection of the United States Fort, in 1804, to 1812, when it was destroyed, there are but few incidents to attract our attention. John Kinzie kept up his trading station, and a company of United States troops continued to occupy the Fort. Indians, a few Canadians and Americans,—traders and soldiers, constituted the mass of population. The trading station made it at all times the resort of the Indians. There were but five houses outside of the fort. One of these was that belonging to Mr. Kinzie, upon the wath side, opposite the fort, the first house in Chicago, the view of which we have already published. On the same side of the river, west of this, was the residence of Ouilmette, a Frenchman in the employ of Mr.
KINZIE. And further up the river, on the present locality of the east end of the Chicago and Galena Railroad Freight House, on Wolcott Street, was a small log cabin, the residence of Burns, a discharged soldier. On the south side of the river, in addition to the Fort, was the United States Factory, the place for conducting the business of the fort, the intercourse with the Indians, and the storage of goods, and was also called the Indian Ageney House. This building is seen in the view of the old Fort of 1804. at the right of the picture and west of the fort. There was, also, a small house on the lake shore, south of the fort, occupied by Mr. Lee, the owner of the South Branch farm, called Lee’s Place, where the first massacre of the whites occurred on the 7th of April, 1812.
To understand properly the history of these times, it is necessary that we also understand the location and condition of the Indian population in this vicinity. It should be remembered that Chicago then was far removed from the American settlements. Ohio was the most western State, and contained but little over two hundred thousand inhabi. tants. White settlements west of Ohio, properly, there were none, other than those clustering about a fort or an Indian trading post, such as Fort Wayne, Detroit, or Chicago. Scattered over this section of the country, of which Chicago would then have represented the center, were different tribes of Indians, occupying the same territory they had occupied for ages before any white man had set his foot upon their shores, We have before given the locality of the tribes of the North West. It should be remembered that the Pottawatomies were the Chicago Indians. The Miamis were their near neighbors at the south. The Winnebagoes joined them on the north, and occupied the
NOTES:
1The history of the Massacre of Chicago, which makes up the main part of this chapter, was published in 1836 in the Narrative by Mrs. John H. Kinzie, and the same was transferred to her work entitled Wau-bun, which was published, in 1856. Wau-bun is an interesting book of nearly five hundred pages, devoted to the Early Day in the North West-Wau-bun being the Indian term for early day. It contains many lively and graphic sketches of Western incidents and pioneer life, with minute sketches of family history connected with Mr. Kinzie’s’s residence in Chicago. One of the important features of this work is the full history of the Massacre and the preceding events. We are of course indebted to the narrative in Wau-bun for most of the facts which we have used as public history. Much of the contents of the book relating to these events are intensely interesting, but as they are the property of the authoress, it would be improper for us to extract from it for these pages. The Narrative, with little variation, has been transferred into Brown’s History of Illinois, and to the Western Annals, and has also been made the ground work of the popular tales by Major Richardson, entitled Hardscrabble, and Wau-non-gee.
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