Wau-Bun

First Edition, 1856

Chicago Tribune, May 7, 1856

Wau-Bun, The Early Day in the North West, by Mrs. John H. Kinzie, Derby & Jackson, New York; D. B. Cooke & Co., Chicago.
Home works, and especially works of the “Early Day” cannot fail to interest the West. All classes of readers, therefore, will greet warmly Wau-bun, and heartily thank Mrs. John H. Kinzie for giving it to the public.

The writer thinks so—at least she intimates in her preface that an apology is due for publishing her book. Not so. It is the very thing we need, and the public will be grateful to her for the glimpse of Pioneer life she has given us with so much of delicacy of feeling and of spirit.

The first settlement of a country is ever full of interest. ‘Tis not alone the hardships pioneers suffer—’tis not their struggles, privations and sufferings that we like chiefly to contemplate—but the character formed out of these difficulties—a character, in the West, broad, bold, and attractive.

One charm about Wau-bun is its fidelity and simplicity of detaiL We deal with living things—with the men and the women who were pioneers—and move as they move, and see as they see. We get, through them, into the wilderness, and know it in it silence and its greatness. We mingle with the first settlers, and chat with them as they chatted with each other. We welcome the new comers and hear their experiences, and enter into the plans for their safety and well being. We see the Indian, as he was, when he trod the forest almost his own, and neither feared his own foe, or the white man, with his customs and what not, as marked and original as his race could make them.

The “Early Day,” will be eagerly sought for, and generally read, we are sure. Hereafter we shall make full extracts from its interesting pages, certain that our readers will be glad to peruse them. Then it is so well printed, and so well illustrated? One likes to take up such a book, to read it; and all of us, in the West, cannot but rejoice over its publication.

More In regard to it anon..

Chicago Magazine, April 15, 1857

The 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.

Inter Ocean, Jan 27, 1902

NEW EDITION OF “WAU-BUN.”
Chicago’s Classic Is a Valuable Historical Document.
A mention of Wau-Bun, Chicago’s classic, immediately suggests Fort Dearborn and sets the Chicagoan to marveling over the evolution in two generations, of one of the foremost cities cf the world from a block-house. The appearance of a new edition of this famous book is therefore an event of local interest at least. As everybody knows—or should know—it was written by Mrs. John H. Kinzie; identification of her would be an impertinence. The book has been out of the market for many years. Written in Chicago in 1855, It was published in 1856 by Derby & Jackson, New York. A few years later the establishment was burned, and all the plates, including the original illustrations from the author’s drawings, were destroyed. A smaller edition, without illustrations, was published by J. B. Lippincott & Sons, Philadelphia, after Mrs. Kinzie’s death, in 1870. The Chicago fire of 1871 destroyed many copies in private hands, and of late years either edition has been scarce. The present edition contains protraits of Mr. and Mrs. Kinzie, and reproductions of a number of the author’s drawings, including, two familiar to every one—”Chicago in 1831″ and “Residence of John Kinzie, Esq.” It is edited by Eleanor Kinzle Gordon, daughter of the author, and granddaughter of the original John Kinzle, whose arrival in Chicago datés back to 1804 and the building of the frst Fort Dearborn.

It is not likely that Mrs. Kinzie meant to write history when she prepared the manuscript of Wau-Bun. It purports to be a narrative in sketchy style of her experiences in taking up her home in the West. Juliette Augusta Magill was a New England girl of distinguished ancestry. She had every advantage in the way of education. She spoke French fluently, read Spanish and Italian, and was so well grounded in Latin that she coached two of her brothers for college. She was an excellent musician, painted in water colors, and sketched from nature with ease and accuracy. She was an accomplished needle-woman and could make a man’s suit of clothing as well as do the most delicate embroidery. Withal she was a thoroughly good housekeeper. When she was 21 she was visiting in Boston. There she met John H. Kinzle, the son of the original John Kinzle. He was 24 years old and was a chip of the old block, having gone through the Fort Dearborn massacre when 9 years old. He had come East with Dr. Alexander Wolcott, Jr., the government Indian agent at Chicago, who had married his eldest sister. With this son of the West and this daughter of the East it was a case. of love at first sight. They were married in 1827. Mr. Kinzie then being the private secretary of General Lewis Cass, Governor of Michigan.

Wau-Bun begins with the departure in September, 1830, of the young couple from Detroit, bound for Fort Winnebago in Wisconsin, to which the husband had been ordered as Indian agent for the government. It covers the story of their trip up the lakes to Green Bay, their journey in Fort Winnebago, garrison life at the fort, a nice hazardous trip to Chicago on horseback, a description of Chicago and its inhabitants in 1831, the return fo Fort Winnebago, and the Sauk (Black Hawk) war. The story ends, with their departure on July 1, 1823, for Detroit, preparatory to taking up their permanent home in Chieago, which was actually accomplished in 1834.

But Mrs. Kinzie did write history nevertheless, for, apart from the value of her description of Chicago in 1831, it so happens that her book contains one of the few eyewitness accounts in existence of the Fort Dearborn massacre of 1812, an event that is of the most intense interest to Chicagoans. Sometimes historians find reports of historical events too voluminous and are obliged to winnow the chaff from the grain. At other times an event seemingly obscure grows in importance because of later conditions; then the historian is obliged to glean the field with industrious care lest no single grain of fact escape. It is thus with Chicago’s massacre. American soil from Deerfield to the Little Big Horn is red with the blood of massacres, but surely none deserves historical remembrance more than this. Yet up to twenty years or so ago practically all that was known of this event was the non-historical account contained in romantic, sketchy Wau-Bun, and no memorial of any kind marked either the site of the old fort or the spot of the massacre. Now we have the blockhouse tablet in the Hoyt building. and the Pullman bronze group at Eighteenth street and the lake, and historians are searching the United States for more facts about the massacre.

The narrative of the massacre in Wau-Bun was written by Mrs. John H. Kinzie from the account given her by her mother-in-law, Mrs. John Kinzie. The elder Mrs. Kinzie saw part of the massacre, from a. boat, aud twenty years later heard from Margaret Helm, who was an active participant, the story of her experiences on that bloody day. Mrs. Helm was the wife of Lieutenant Linal T. Helm and the step-daughter of old Jobn Kinzie. She was in the thick of the fight, and it is she whom Black Partridge is represented as rescuing in the Pullman bronze memorial group. She was then a child-wife of 17.

The War Department records are meager indeed as to Fort Dearborn, and as to the massacre there is no narrative account. In the Niles (Mich.) Weekly Register of Nov. 7, 1812, was printed an extract from a letter from Captain Nathan Heald, the commander at Fort Dearborn, written at Pittsburg Oct. 23 of that year, in which is given a short account of the fight, which presumably follows pretty closely his official report; at any rate it contains few details of other than the military movements.

This was supposed to exhaust the information. But in 1891 the late Joseph Kirkland made a valuable addition to the literature of the massaere by securing the story of Mrs. Nathan Heald, wife of the commander. This was secured through her son, Darius Heald of Missouri. He had heard his mother tell the story many times. She, like Mrs. Helm, was in the thick of the fight, with her husband and her uncle, the famous Captain Willam Wells, who was killed. Curiously enough, she does not mention Mrs. Helm, nor does Mrs. Helm mention her. The accounts of the two women—both officers’ wives, both mounted, and both wounded—do not agree in many particulars, but in the main do not seriously conflict. Major Kirkland was inclined to think Mrs. Heald’s the more correct.

This exhausts our material, unless there shall be found some day an account written by Lieutenant Helm. There was at one time in the papers of the Detroit Historical society a letter from Lieutenant Helm to Augustus B. Woodward of Washington, D. C., in which he said he had nearly completed a history of the Chicago massacre. The letter was written June 6, 1814, at Flemington, N. J., and it was said that there was an intimation in it that the publication of his history might subject him to court martial—which may account for the fact that it never saw light.

It is not necessary to give the Wau-Bun story of the massacre; it is too well known. It is a pity, however, that this book cannot be published in the form it deserves. The present edition, with the exception of the illustrations, is a cheap affair.
(Chicago: Rand, McNally & Co.)

Chicago Tribune, August 16, 1912

Who was really to blame for the Fort Dearborn massacre which occurred just 100 years ago yesterday?

The question has caused a ruction in the Chicago Historical society, which has reached a decision not to publish the history of the killing of seventy-six persons which has been prepared after years of research by Prof. Millo Milton Quaife of the Lewis institute. The professor will publish his own history, which he affirms is the only true one.

Some members of the committee on publications of the society call the teacher’s book “too personal.” In it he differs widely in several incidents with Mrs. John H. Kinzie, the author of Wah-Bun, a history of early Illinois, particularly Chicago. In fact, the professor calls false many events which Mrs. Kinzie chronicles.

Mrs. Kinzie helped her husband build the first residence in Chicago. They were the pioneers. And the Kinzie family stands high in the esteem of the Historical soclety. There is an important collection of relics of early Chicago in the exhibits of the society which has been loaned by the family.

Words of Order in Dispute.
In Wau-Bun Mrs. Kinzie takes the position that Capt. Nathan Heald, commander of Fort Dearborn when the massacre occurred, received an order from his superior, stationed at Sandwich, to evacuate ‘if practical.’ The entire controversy arose over the two words. ‘if practical.’ Events have shown that the evacuation was not practical.¹

The order was as follows:

word illegible, possibly Detroit

You will therefore destroy all arms and ammunition, but the goods of the factory you may give to the friendly Indians who may be desirous of escorting you on to Fort Wayne, and to the poor and needy of your post. I am informed this day that Mackinaw and the island of St. Joseph. will be evacuated on account of the scarcity of provisions, and I hope in my next to give you an account of the surrender of the British at Malden, as I expect 600 men here by the beginning of September. I am, sir, yours, etc.
Brig. Gen. Hull.

Censures Capt. Heald.
Mrs. Kinzie censured Capt. Heald for leaving the fort and practically placed upon his shoulders the responsibility for the deaths of fifty soldiers, twelve settlers, two women, and twelve children.

Prof. Qualfe exonerates Capt. Heald from all blame. He asserts in a leaflet, “Some Notes on the Fort Dearborn Massacre,” that the evacuation was not left to the judgment of the commander. He insists the order was peremptory, that the words “if practical” did not appear in the order. In his short paper the professor further expresses his opinion of Wau-Bun, which generally has been accepted as authentic.

“With the massacre, Chicago, considered as a place of habitation for white men, ceased for a time to exist.” he writes. “Those among its inhabitants whose bones were not left to bleach upon the sandy lake shore were scattered far and wide, most of them consigned to a painful captivity, from which, for many, death offered the only escape. Of those who drifted back to civilization but few took the trouble to record their knowledge of the massacre. Thus it was that the first generation of Chicagoans, after founding the modern city in the early ’30s, knew almost nothing of the event.”

Scores “Dead March” Story.
In Wau-Bun it is told that when the little band left the fort the musicians played a dead march. Of this Prof. Quaife has to say:

The dead march story is not worthy of serious consideration; the same is true of the narrative of the death of Capt. Wells; the story of Mrs. Helm’s romantic rescue by Black Partridge is probably largely fictitious, and that of the rescue of Mrs. Heald by Mrs. Kinzie is certainly entirely so.

All these incidents are recorded in Wau-Bun. Mrs. Kinzie’s husband was a half sister of Mrs. Helm. In the pamphlet the professor gives this opinion of Mrs. Kinzie’s work:

The conclusion seems justified that Mrs. Kinzie’s narrative of the massacre is so unreliable as to be unworthy of credence, except when corroborated by other evidence; the true history, therefore, remains to be written.

Chicago Tribune, October 15, 1913

A history of the beginnings of Chicago which, because it is scientific and based upon records rather than upon tradition. may overturn existing chronologies on the same subject and arouse much discussion in the Chicago Historical society. is about to he issued under the authorship of Prof. M. M. Quaife, the historian of Lewis institute. The volume Is called Chicago and the Old Northwest

The book. without adopting a partisan attitude, will it is said, dispel popular illusions about the surrender of Fort Dearborn and in particular will vindicate the character of Copt. Heald. the officer in charge of the fort. whom other histories. either with intent or through ignorance of the facts, have held responsible for the disaster.

Puts Blame on Gen. Hull.
According to Prot. Quaife, Heald s evacuation of Fort Dearborn followed the receipt of orders from Gen. Hull, then at Detroit, which left him no option In the matter. He was told to march out of Fort Dearborn and seek refuge either at Detroit or Fort Wayne. He obeyed his instructions and was caught by the Indians on the shore of the lake where the massacre ensued. The fact that Heald had no choice except to march out of the fort is demonstrated by the original order from Hull to Heald. which Prof. Quaife discovered in the archives of the Wisconsin historical library.

In this particular point Prof. Quaife’s history completely controverts the account of the same incident, hitherto regarded as an authority. which was written by a daughter of John Kinzie. who at the time of the massacre was a trader at the fort. The woman’s history, by implication at least, finds Heald guilty of criminal stupidity.

Destruction of Liquor an Issue.
Another error of the woman is her account of the destruction of the liquor and surplus arms in the fort at the time of the evacuation. According to her, Heald was preparing to turn these arms and liquor over to the friendly Indians when John Kinzie persuaded him this would be a dangerous thing to do.

As a matter of fact. according to Quaife, Hull’s orders to Heald were specific on the point that he must destroy the arms and intoxicants.

Kinzle’s claim to the title “Father of Chicago ” also is disputed. According to Prof. Quaife. that honor belongs to Capt. John Whistler, who built Fort Dearborn and for seven years dominated the life in and around its walls.

Prof. Quaife also has unearthed the story of the “Factory,” or Indian storehouse, which stood on the site of the present Chicago in the early years of the nineteenth century.

Among the documents are the daybook, kept by Mathew Irwin, the factor from 1809 to 1812; the Chicago order book, and the petty ledger, kept until July 5, 1812, when Irwin locked the storehouse and, giving the key to Dr. Van Voorhis, departed, in advance of the coming storm, carrying the ledger records with him.

Has Muster Roll of Garrison.
More important than these, from the local point of view, is the discovery of the muster roil of the Fort Dearborn garrison for May 31, 1812. Each year the local patriotic societies hold an exercise at the Massacre monument in commemoration of those who fell; but until now the celebrants have known the names of only a few of the heroes whose virtues they were commemorating.

Prof. Quaife’s history is the fruit of many years of research. Historical records all through the middle west and in Washington were ransacked for material.

As a result the book contains many facts hitherto unpublished. The history covers the period from 1673 to 1835.

Inter Ocean, October 15, 1913

Chicago has a new father.

John Kinzie, the pioneer trader who has held the title of “father of Chicago” In histories of the city and in memorials for nearly a century, has been dethroned, and in his place stands Captain John Whistler, the man who built Fort Dearborn and ruled its inhabitants for the first seven years of its existence.

The name of Captain Whistler, father of a famous son and grandfather of an even more famous grandson, has been rescued out of 100 years of dust and mold through documents torn and yellowed with age by Professor Milo M. Quaife of Lewis institute.

Grandfather of Artist.
From these old forgotten documents Professor Quaife has compiled a history entitled Chicago and the Old Northwest, issued yesterday by the University of Chicago Press.

Captain John Whistler was the father of George Washington Whistler, who spent his boyhood on the banks of the Chicago river more than a century ago and then gained world-wide fame by building the Russian railroad between St. Petersburg and Moscow. For this feat he was decorated by the Czar with the Order of Queen Anne. He in turn became the father of James A. MacNeil Whistler, the artist.

Describes Life In Fort.
But the naming of a new “father of Chicago” is only one of the important things which Professor Quaife has accomplished. From the great number of documents to which he has had access he has been enabled to describe accurately and minutely the daily life within the walls of Fort Dearborn previous to the Indian massacre, which wiped out nearly all of its inhabitants. For the frst time, he pretents a complete list of the members of the garrison.

He has unearthed the story of the “Factory,” or Indian storehouse which stood on the sits of the present Chicago in the early years of the nineteenth century.

Escapes With Records.
Among the documents are the Daybook kept by Mathew Irwin, the factor from 1809 to 1812; the Chicago Order Book, and the Petty Ledger kept until July 5, 1812, when Irwin locked the storehouse and, giving the key to Dr. Van Voorhis, departed in advance of the coming storm, carrying the ledger records with him.

The storehouse was soon afterwards destroyed by hostile natives and Dr. Van Voorhis was slain, but Irwin escaped with the records. These after strange vicissitudes still survive and have come into the possession of Professor Quaife.

Important papers relating to the famous massacre of Aug. 15, 1812, also are disclosed in the history.

Hull’s Fatal Order Given.
The fatal order of General Hull to Captain Heald for the evacuation of Fort Dearborn, a new version of the massacre Itself, as reported by Darlus Heald to Lyman C. Draper in 1868, and Captain Nathan Heald’s journal of his life, which he apparently wrote in his later years are all given to the public.

But more important than these from the local point of view, is the discovery of the muster roll of the garrison for May 31, 1812. Each year the local patriotic societies hold an exercise at the Massacre monument in commemoration of those who fell in the massacre, but until now the celebrants have known the names of only a small portion of the heroes of that memorable disaster.

Professor Quaife has not only compiled a list of the dead, but he has been enabled to trace the fortunes of many of the survivors until their return to civilization.

Almost the whole history of early Chicago as traditionally presented has been revised in the new volume

Inter Ocean, November 5, 1913

PR0FESSOR MILO MILTON QUAIFE
will be regarded by many Chicago as, I fear, as an image breaker. Dr. Quaife, who is the head of the history department at Lewis Institute, has just published a volume which purports to be the “last word” on the history of early Chicago. The book, Chicago and the Old Northwest, which, I believe, has not as yet reached the book stalls, rather discredits the part John Kinzle played in the Fort Dearborn massacre. The fame of John Kinzie, the trader, has come down to us partly by tradition and partly through Mrs. Juliette Kinzie’s Wan-Bun.

The famous Indian scout Captain Wells, after whom Wells street is named, was, according the Lewis historian, the real hero of the gory event. Kinzie, he states. While he elected to remain with the wagons in which tan women and children of the pioneers were slaughtered daring the tragic evacuation of the blockhouse, “did aot participate in the fighting” and was regarded, he tells us, as a neutral.

These statements recall the controversy waged between Dr. Quaife and Currey J. Seymour about a year ago in the DiaL. Mr. Seymour’s The Story of Old Fort Dearborn was characterized by the former as a mere paraphrase of Mrs, Kinzie’s account, to which he applied such qualifications as “grotesque,” “distorted” and “incredible.”

Dr. Qualfe may be a diligent and painstaking scholar, but he might almost as well declare that George Washington never chopped down the cherry tree, or that Santa Claus doesn’t exist, as to throw the cold searchlight of science on the Kinzie legend..

NOTES:

¹ The statement in Wau-Bun is as follows: “The orders to Captain Heald were, ‘to evacuate the fort, if practicable, and in that event, to distribute all the United States’ property contained in the fort, and in the United States’ factory or agency, among the Indians in the neighborhood.'”

NOTES:

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