Wolf’s Point and the Town of Chicago

Chicago Magazine, May 15, 1857

WOLF’S POINT.—This view was taken by Geo. Davis, Esq., of this city, when it presented the most important point in Chicago. A particular description of the view will be found on page 302 (below).

The illustration accompanying this sketch is a view of Wolf’s Point, as it appeared at this time. It is engraved from a drawing taken by Geo. Davis, Esq., in 1832. It is an accurate representation of the scene viewed from the south-east, or a stand point which might be supposed to be on the block east of Market between Randolph and Lake streets. As no change worthy of note is known to have taken place, from 1830, to the time when the drawing was made, it is presented as an accurate view of the appearance of the river banks at Wolf’s Point, and the two principal buildings within the range of the prospect, as it was at the time the town of Chicago was laid out.¹

When settlers began to congregate, and to erect their cabins, with the view of forming a center, or the nucleus of a town, the point selected as the most available for village purposes, was the tract on the West Side, at the junction of the North and South Branches, at a point of land looking directly down the main channel of the river. This place was at first called Wolf’s Point. Here were first built the few cabins and rude buildings for business purposes that composed the center, and the first gathering point of population that enlarged and expanded into a magnificent city. And this nucleus begun its process of formation less than a generation ago. There are many men in our midst and elsewhere, who know well what Chicago is to-day, who as clearly remember what it was when the chief of its population had clustered about Wolf’s Point, and when the old fort was the sightly object down the river, that rested between them and the rising sun; and “Cobweb Castle” and the old “Kinzie House” were their staid neighbors. Twenty-seven years only have passed since the Wolf Point settlement was really all of Chicago.

This last picture of the embryo town, as it was the year before the Canal Commissioner laid out the original town of Chicago, would be a deeply interesting subject at this day to behold. In addition to the few buildings that were standing in 1818, as before given as the description of Gurdon S. Hubbard, Esq., we have only to mention this group at Wolf’s Point, two or three buildings on the South Side, between the Point and the Fort, and the Miller House, on the North Side.

The Miller House is shown in the view of Wolf’s Point. It stood on the point of land between the North Branch and the Main Channel. It was a log structure partly sided, and was erected by Mr. Samuel Miller, who resided here with his family and a brother by the name of John Miller. This house was used as the occasion required, as a tavern-for as few as were the inhabitants of Chicago at that time, one of their principal avocations seems to have been that of keeping tavern. A little above its mouth con the North Branch, was a log bridge, which gave access from that quarter to the business of the agency, and the little trade which may have continued up to this time on the North Side.

CHICAGO IN 1832

Elijah Wenthworth

This Souvenir Poster for the 1893 Columbian Exposition was authorized by George R. Davis (no relation), Director-General of the World’s Columbian Exposition. Colors were added under the direction of landscape artist John R. Kay. Litho. by Chas. Shober & Co., Chicago, 1855-1870

But the center of attraction was at Wolf’s Point, opposite the Miller House. Here, too, was another tavern, the public house, par excellence, of Chicago-the school house and church, as well as the store; and if these did not make the town, what could? On this side, the most prominent object of interest was the tavern kept by Mr. Elijah Wentworth, a man familiarly known as “Old Geese,” not as a burlesque on the worthy landlord, but as a compliment to his distinctive and original character. This building was partly log and partly frame, and was situated on the ground north of Lake Street Bridge, now occupied as a lumber yard. North of this tavern was an oblong building which had been erected by Father Walker, a missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church, for a place of worship, and for a school house. Mr. Walker had at times ministered to the spiritual wants of the settlement, from this rude temple. Mr. W. had a residence in the country known as Walker’s, which distinguished the locality at that time, which is now Plainfield, Will Co. This log tabernacle was the meeting house of the town. Mr. See, who, it seems, was the local preacher, or exhorter, and who resided at the Point, was the supply which was most generally afforded. Preaching was upon a par with other callings and employments of the place. Mr. Wentworth’s tavern was the best one kept in Chicago. It was the place where men of character who visited the town always stopped. It was the head quarters of Gen. Scott, when he came to Chicago with the troops for the Black Hawk War, in 1832. The distinctive name of this celebrated tavern, as familiarly used by all the settlers, was “Rat Castle,” in contrast with its rival in distinction on the North Side, “Cobweb Castle,” and in commemoration of a large class of regular boarders that infested its premises, as well as every other cabin on the river shore. Next south of Wentworth’s tavern was the residence of James Kinzie. Next to these were log cabins in which resided Alexander Robinson, now occupying a farm made on his reservation, on the Des Plaines—and here occasionally, resided Billy Caldwell, whose wife was the wild daughter of an Indian Chief, and her presence did not always hallow his wigwam with the sanctity of peace. Still further south of these was the store-house of Mr. Robert A. Kinzie, son of Mr. John Kinzie, who had succeeded his father in the Indian Trade, and his stock consisted of groceries, Indian goods and supplies for the settlers, and was the store of the village, as essentially as Wentworth’s was the village tavern. Across the South Branch, on the east side, resided Mark Beaubien, brother of Gen. J. B. Beaubien, who also kept tavern.²

In 1831 his establishment had risen to a two story dwelling, painted, with green blinds, and soon attained to the title of the Saganash Hotel—which was the Indian name of Billy Caldwell-and so called in honor of that distinguished chief, and man of the times, for he was then one of the prominent residents of Chicago. It stood near what is now the south-east corner of Lake and Market streets. By this time there had been a place of amusement started in a little, low log shanty, where was set up a billiard table, at which citizens of leisure amused themselves in knocking about three cracked balls. Further up the South Branch was the residence of a French Indian trader by the name of Bou-rissa. In the South Division, near the “slough” that drained the marshes of the South Side, and emptied into the river at State street, was the trading house of Medert Beaubien—son of Col. Beaubien—a cabin of small pretensions. Upon the Lake Shore, a little distance south of the fort, Col. Beaubien resided in the cabin which he had purchased of the American Fur Company, in 1817-which he had elevated to the dignity of a homestead, and which was now familiarly known among the settlers by the name of the “Wigwam.” Near this residence was his store, in which the American Fur Company kept a stock of goods for the Indian trade. Further south, the old Dean house had started on the way to ruin; the water of the lake had gradually encroached upon the shore, until it had undermined the foundations of the cabin, and it had fallen backward down the bank, where it lay, a type of ruin, an emblem, in the estimation of the croakers (who existed at that time, as well as the present,) of the future of Chicago—but with the people generally, the subject of joke and laughter, as a little incident to vary the monotony of the settlement. Another settler about this time had taken up his residence in the suburbs, to be rated with the other ” outside settlers” who had linked their fortunes with Chicago, for better or worse–and this was Dr. Harmon, the father of Isaac D. Harmon, who had made a claim a mile and a half south, on the lake shore, on the site of the Indian battle ground of 1812, and was making a fine improvement there. This was the place since known as H. B. Clark’s. For many years, in the early times of Chicago, Clark’s place had been noticed by every stranger for its unusually splendid appearance as a country residence, standing isolated upon the prairie, surrounded by some fine poplars, and other young ornamental and fruit trees and shrubbery. Dr. Harmon enclosed a field with a sod fence, and planted a nursery, and seemed to take much pride in horticultural improvement; and the trees there yet staunding in the center of North street were planted by his hand. He assiduously cultivated his garden, raised fruits and vegetables, acted a part of the time as the surgeon of the garrison, visited the few patients that may have needed his calls, and lived very largely in the future anticipations of Chicago’s coming greatness–which he has lived to more than realize.

Gurdon S. Hubbard, Esq., a present well known citizen, has been a permanent resident of the city for nearly twenty-five years. He first came to Chicago in 1818. He was an agent of the American Fur Company, who at that time had trading posts at convenient distances in all this part of the Western country. While his engagements required his presence at other stations, he was frequently at Chicago, and often made this point for weeks and months together, his place of residence, from 1818, until he made here in 1833, his permanent home.

At the time of Mr. Hubbard’s arrival, there were only two families residing here, not connected with the military establishment. One of these families was that of Mr. Kinzie, who resided in the old home he occupied before the war; the other was that of Antoine Ouilmette, a French Canadian, who had married an Indian woman, and he occupied the same cabin near Mr. KinzIe’s, where he resided at the time of the massacre. These houses, with the insignificant cabin of Burns, were the only buildings of the settlement of Chicago, which had been spared by the Indians from destruction. The Agency house called “Cob-web Castle,” at the Burns’ place, had not then been erected, but the timber had been gotten out, and was on the ground.

The North Side, with the exception of the sand hills along the lake shore as described in connection with the Kinzie house, and places which were low and marshy, was a body of thrifty heavy growth of timber. Mr. Kinzie had a field opened on the North Branch, near Chicago Avenue, which he kept as a meadow for cutting grass.

On the West Side, none of the cabins, which a few years later made the settlement, or center of the city, called Wolf’s Point, had then been erected. North of the old freight depot of the Chicago and Galena Union Rail Road Company, were the remains of a cabin, and old fields which had not for many years been cultivated—where once an Indian trader had lived by the name of Guarie. He had kept a trading station, the first one ever established here; and he probably was the first white resident. The North Branch was at that time called Guarie’s River, from the name of the old trader.

On the South Side there were the fort, erected two years previously, and the buildings outside, attached to the fort; and the factory, for the use of the Indian Agency. The fort stood upon the same site of the one of 1804. It was built on a larger scale, and in a more substantial manner. It was surrounded like the previous one, by palisades, made of timber standing upright, and driven into the earth. Inside of the paling, on the west side, were a row of buildings which were used for the quarters of the officers and their families. On the east side, nearest to the lake, were the barracks, or quarters of the soldiers. Gateways were left on the north and south sides, admitting a free passage through the parade ground and the enclosure. On the north, inside of the enclosure, was a brick structure, repaired from the old ruins, which was the magazine. On the south, on either side of the main entrance, was the store-house and guard-room. On the southwest stood the block house, which has remained the ancient land mark, until within a few weeks, when it has been removed to yield to the improvements about the locality of the old fort, in widening the river, and in the erection of the Rush street bridge. South of the fort were the cultivated grounds of the establishment, a fine garden, with a good quantity of shrubbery, young fruit trees, currant bushes, &c., and which yielded in the season a large supply of vegetables and luxuries for the tables of the officers and the garrison. These grounds were enclosed, including a pasture and field, with a rail fence, extending as far south as Madison street, and west to State street, which embraced the tract since known as Fort Dearborn Reservation, which remained an enclosed field for many years, and afterwards an open common, while the original town of Chicago was rapidly being built, and had become a densely occupied part of the city; until after the decision of the BeauBier claim of title, when it was sold by the govern-ment. From the south side entrance of the fort, and along the lake shore, east of the garden and the pasture, where run the Indian and army trail, was kept open a space for a road, on which were the buildings put up by the garrison for the factory, and the Dean house, erected by an army contractor. East of these, and on ground where now stands the Depot of the Illinois Central Railroad, and which was swept away by the action of the lake, was the garrison burying ground. Near here had been in olden time an Indian burial place. In 1856, while the laborers engaged by the contractors to grade and pave Lake and Water streets, were removing the earth for this purpose, from the cellar of one of the new buildings erected near this locality, on Michigan avenue, they exhumed a number of Indian skeletons, one of which was evidently a chief of distinction, indicated by the number of metal ornaments, and articles buried with him, which were much decayed. On the west of the fort were the barns, stables &c., and the root houses and cellars on the bank of the river west of the light house, in the same place of those of the old fort.

The West Side was an open prairie, entirely free from timber, as it appeared until recently built over, excepting the grove up the south branch, this side of the canal, which surrounded the Lee Place. On the South Side, a body of timber grew along the river, extending east as far as Wells street, and following the bend of the river, crossed Clark street, and extending south two or three miles. To the south, from the fort, was a free and boundless prospect of open prairie, skirted by a belt of timber on the river side, and shut in on the left by the view of the lake and the sand hills of the battle ground. The South Side, on which the most valuable part of the city has been built, where lots are worth from one thousand to fifteen hundred dollars a front foot, was at that time generally low and marshy ground. Along the river shore was a strip of land still more marshy, where land and water mingled, covered with tall grass, reeds and rushes. Our public Square, and where stands the Court House and City Hall, was then a pond, where the Indians had trapped the muskrat, and where the first settlers hunted ducks. To this poud, and draining also the marsh extending up Wells street, was an outlet in a little stream they called a “slough,” which in a winding course passed over the site of the Tremont House, and entered the river at the end of State street; and up to a later date than 1840, where Water street passed this “slough,” it was crossed by a log bridge.

Along the shores of the river, among the sedgy grass, the wild onions grew in great abundance. The Indian name for these peculiarly native productions, is Chi-ka-go. The Indians gave names to places, localities, and streams, from some natural object or circumstance—and it was therefore very natural that the Indians should give to this locality that name which more than any thing else to their minds gave it character—therefore from the name of the wild onions, which grew so abundantly along the marshy shore of its river, they called it Chi-ca-go. Chi-ka-go-nauk, in the Pottawatomie language, would mean Chicago land or place; Chi-ka-go-sippi would mean Chicago River.

This is a picture of Chicago, and of all that then composed it, as described to us by Gurdon S. Hubbard, Esq., as seen by him when he first came here, in 1818.

The Point.

Key Dates

August 4, 1830—Original Town, as Platted by Canal Commissioners.
November 6, 1833—Town Limits, as Extended by Trustees.
February 11, 1835—Town of Chicago, as Incorporated
March 4, 1837—City of Chicago as Incorporated

1833

In 1830, commissioned to survey, James Thompson completed a plat of what was then known as the Town of Chicago, an area about 0.375 square miles with streets 80 feet wide and alleys 18 feet wide.

History of Chicago, A. T. Andreas, 1884

The names given on various tracts of land are those of the primary patentees, or persons by whom entry was made, entered or patented between the years 1828 and 1836. The information is taken from “Book of Original Entry.” Streets are shown were laid out subsequent of 1830.

On February 11, 1835, the Town of Chicago was Incorporated when the corporate limits were extended, so as to include all land lying east of State Street to the lake shore, from Chicago Avenue and Twelfth Street. Previously the boundaries did not include the military reservation. This 1834 survey drawn by J. S. Wright reflects the expansion.

Image Shows Early Chicago Along South Bank Of River
CHICAGO (CBS) — About 40 years before the Great Chicago Fire, this village along the shores of Lake Michigan essentially consisted of a muddy trail along the south bank of the Chicago River along with a few small streets, which today comprise the epicenter of the Loop.

In what may be one of the first images of Chicago (below), a general store, along with a horse-drawn carriage, sits along the bank of the river. Off in the distance is Wolf Point Tavern.

The image, which is featured on a Chicago history website called Chicagology, apparently was from the 1830s. It was published in a 1929 book titled Chicago and Its Makers.

Today, that trail is Wacker Drive.

Painting by Edgar Spier Cameron (1862 – 1944).

The picture above is a rare view looking west toward Wolf Point (where the river splits) on what was then known as South Water Street, according to the website’s owner, Terry Gregory.³

In 1833, when Chicago was officially chartered as a village, the population was around 350. Four years later, nearly 4,000 residents called Chicago their home.

Chicagology focuses on the history of the city before 1900, Gregory says.

A fifth-generation Chicagoan, Gregory, who now lives in ~~Hawaii~~ Chicago, has always been interested in Chicago history. Part of his family settled here in the 1850s. His great-great-grandfather started a shipbuilding businesses located on the site of what is now the University Of Illinois at Chicago

Jerry Cwick’s family tree dates back to the time of this scene. He likes to imagine his ancestors walking along the trail, and it was quite likely that they did. More family members settled in Chicago from Ireland in 1845, Cwick said.

NOTES:

¹According to Mrs. James H. Kinzie’s Wau-Bun, this junction of the river was called Wolf Point from having been the residence of an Indian named Moa-way, or “the Wolf.”

²Elijah “Old Geese” Wentworth opened what was probably Chicago’s second tavern in 1830. It stood at the junction of the North and South Forks of the river, and a rumor said it got its name from the fact that a wolf strayed into it one day in 1830 and Landlord Wentworth killed it. This incident was much talked of, and at the same time Samuel Miller had a tavern across the river, and there was a rivalry between the two log taverns, which was patronized by the men and officers of Fort Dearborn. Wentworth was ambitious, and wanted a sign to attract wayfarers. Lieutenant Allen made one for him out of a piece of a box. He painted a picture of a wolf on it. The fort blacksmith made hinges, and the wolf sign was hung on a sapling. The tavern was the first institution to have a sign board in Chicago, and Wentworth’s predecessor, Archibald Caldwell, had the distinction of being the first licensed liquor seller and landlord in Chicago, and therefore Wolf Point Tavern was the first and the starting point of the many thousand liquor-selling establishments in Chicago today. The first ferry across the river for hire was between this tavern and Miller’s. It has also been called the Geese Hotel.

The proprietors of Wolf Point Tavern and the date of the terms are as follows:

³This is a view looking west on South Water Street possibly in the 1830s. Hogan’s store was at South Water and Market Streets, while Wolf Point Tavern can be seen in the distance. From a painting by Edgar S. Cameron (1862-1944), presumedly owned by the Chicago History Museum.

Andreas’ History of Chicago, 1884

Key Dates

NOTES:

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