History of Chicago, A. T. Andreas, 1884
here is now standing in Eighteenth Street, between Prairie Avenue and the lake, a large cottonwood tree which marks the site of the massacre of 1812, and which, there is reason to believe, possesses even a greater historic value; as it is believed by many old settlers to have been standing at the time of the disaster. In order that the appearance of this landmark might be preserved, and that the memories clustering about it might not pass from mind, we have caused the tree to be photographed and engraved, and have also obtained documentary evidence that the Kinzie family regarded both the site referred to and this particular tree as historic.
On the morning of August 15, 1812, the troops and settlers left Fort Dearborn, proceeded southward about a mile and a half, and were attacked by the Indians.
Having ascertained that Mrs. Juliette A. Kinzie had, during her lifetime, informed her friend, Mrs. Henry W. King, of the belief concerning the tree, a reply was sent:
January 25, 1884
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 (1871) has obliterated nearly every other object connected with our early history. Shortly before the death of my friend, Mrs. John H. Kinzie, I called upon her and asked her to drive with me through the city and point out the various locations and interests that she knew were connected with the “early days” of Chicago. She said that 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 afterward for her health, and died within a few weeks. However, at the 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 fellow, were samplings at the time of the Indian massacre, and that they marked the spot of that fearful occurence; though she was not sure but the smaller one had either died or cut down. I expressed surprise at the location, imagining a massacre occured further south, among the small sandhills which early settlers remember, in the vicinity of Hyde Park. I remember 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 this massacre, and marked it by the cottonwood trees, which, strange to say, have stood unharmed in the middle of the street until this day.”
The above facts, I communicated to the Chicago 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. Trusting the above information may be of some use to you, and that you may be able present the matter in a more entertaining form than I have done. Believe me, sir,
Mrs. Henry W. King
Hon. Isaac N. Arnold, whose residence in Chicago since 1836 enabled him to enjoy the friendship of the Kinzie family, was asked to state what he knew regarding the subject. His response reads thus:
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 1S12. I came to Chicago in October, 1S36; the Fort Dearborn Reservation then and for several years thereafter belonged to the Government, and there were but a few scattering houses from Fort Dearborn south to 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 II. Kinzie was then the most prominent in Chicago, and the best acquainted with its early history. From this family and other old settlers, and by Mr. and Mrs. Kinzie, I was told where the attack upon 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 Railroad. 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 west 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.
A. J. Galloway, Esq , who has resided in the vicinity for many years, says:
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 Eldridge Court, to the present No. 1808 Prairie Avenue, in 1855, the tree was in apparent good condition, though showing all the marks of advanced age. The large lower branches (since cut of 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 of the tree. From an intimate knowledge of the growth of trees, I have no doubt but its sapling life long antedated 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 covers a period of fifty years, at least.
A. J. Galloway.
Charles Harpell, an old citizen, now living on the North Side, says that so 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 before it was finally lost.
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 1810 an old Indian told her father that the massacre occurred on that spot.
Although there is no way of positively determining that the tree pictured on the opposite page is the identical one that stood, a mere sapling, on the spot during the massacre, there is strong, almost conclusive, cause for declaring it the same. At all events, the proof of the site is satisfactory, and the view herewith presented is an interesting one, as showing how the scene of barbaric treachery appears after a lapse of nearly seventy two years.
Chicago’s Historic Tree
Chicago Tribune, May 20, 1894
Early yesterday morning a crowd of people collected on Eighteenth street, near the residence of George M. Pullman, and began digging through the asphalt pavement of the roadway. They were as excited and industrious as if they were a rescuing party, digging after entombed miners. The occupants of the Pullman mansion ran out to see what was the matter, and found the crowd was digging for the roots of the historic cottonwood tree, which after standing there for a century or more, and witnessing at short range the Fort Dearborn massacre Aug. 12, 1812, went down before Friday’s storm at 5:15 o’clock in the afternoon.
This celebrated tree might have lived another century if it had been let alone, but civilization killed it. Long after it had attained a great size the grade of Eighteenth street, where it stood, was raised six feet and the earth piled deep over its roots and around its trunk. Then the inevitable gaspipe, which is always death to trees, was laid near it, and finally the whole street as covered with asphalt close to the very bark of the tree. There was nothing left for it but to die, which it did several years ago, and the northwest wind did the rest. The howling of the blast prevented its fall being heard, so that it sank to rest apparently as noiselessly as a rose leaf falls to the ground.
A Rush for Souvenirs.
The significance of this event was fully appreciated in Mr. Pullman’s neighborhood. The venerable trunk had no sooner struck the ground than everyone within a quarter of a mile who had a saw or a hatchet came to hack a piece off it as a souvenir until the Pullmans got scared. It is probable the tree belonged legally to the city, but Mr. Pullman has been its protector so long that he seemed to own it, and as he was absent at the East his representatives begged the crowd not to carry the whole trunk away. As soon as they had scattered the trunk was sawed into two parts, and deposited in Mr. Pullman’s two gardens, one on each side of Eighteenth street, where they still lie. If any one thinks they are not watched let him try to whittle a piece off them with a jack-knife.
The greatest friend this tree ever had is Fernando Jones, who came to Chicago in 1833, and played baseball under its branches when he was a great deal younger than he is now. But for his veneration for this ancient relic and his constant watch-care over it the street officers of Chicago would long since have removed it as a nuisance. It was with a beautiful poetic justice therefore that he was in at its death. It had hardly touched the ground before he was by its side, declaiming its history, and offering to take the corpse home and embalm it. But that matter has been adjourned until Mr. Pullman’s return.
Traditions Cluster Round the Spot.
Mr. Jones is also the repository of the traditions concerning this tree. He says a similar tree used to stand 200 feet south of this one, and an Indian named Capt. Isaac, who participated in the massacre, often told him it was between these two trees the wagon was stopped by the Indians and Black Partridge rescued Mrs. Helm, as represented in the bronze monument erected near the spot by Mr. Pullman. Isaac mimicked the shooting and scalping in such a realistic manner that it left no doubt in Mr. Jones’ mind that he was a thoroughly reliable Indian on this point.
Mr. Jones delights in relating how he once did the same for the tree as Bmck Partridge did for Mrs. Helm. Many years ago the Street Commissioner, seized with a passion for improvement, made ready to lay this tree low, though covered with leafy boughs.
Mr. Jones resented this as he would the sacrifice of a human being, and never ceased his protestation until the relic was delivered and appropriately protected. Mr. Puliman furnished the iron railing which was placed around its base, and which still adheres to the prostrate trunk, and Mr. Jones, with a passion for scriptural quotations, hung on it a board, which was found dangling to one of its limbs when it fell, and on which was this inscription
Chicago Tribune, May 23, 1942
THE MASSACRE TREE.
H. A. .Musham of Chicago, who has delved deep into the story of Fort Dearborn writes us about the cottonwood tree which tradition says sheltered the fighters of 1812. as they fought for their lives during the battle with the Indians: “It is my conclusion, after considerable study, that it not only could not have been standing at the time of the battle, but that the place where it stood was far removed from where the battle took place.
Reasons: (1) Cottonwood trees seldom live as long a time as the so-colled “Massacre Tree” is reputed t have lived. … Its location was unfavorable to the attainment of that age. Its roots would have been bedded in loose sand and it would have been exposed to the fury of the gales on the lake.
(2) This tree must have been planted or have taken root at a later date, probably after this part of Chicago was graded and subdivided into blocks.
(3) According to pictures of this tree (see Kirkland and Andreas) it was, in the year 1884. about 3 feet in diameter at the butt. According to statistics on cottonwoods, it was then about 30 or 33 years old. which would put its start in life about 1850, when the Prairie avenue neighborhood became a subdivision.
(4) The battle did not take place where the tree stood, but about Michigan avenue and 13th street. This is clearly shown by a study of the numerous accounts of it.
(5) The bullets in the tree probably came from the guns of wandering hunters.
This is a great site about Chicago.
My great grandfather had a trading post near Fort Dearborn . When the fire started in 1871 he took all the family to the lake .
My grandmother was about 7 but she always remembered that day. The family built a house of brick at 31 st. And Union Ave.
My grandmother raised her family there. She sold the house about 1948/49.
I have looked for information on my great grandfather, John Conway but I have not found anything.
The family is buried at Calvary Cenetary.