OF THE 
 
 U NIVLRSITY 
 Of ILLINOIS 
 
 9773 
 C34s 
 
 HISTORICAL SURVEY
 
 Young Folks Library of Choice Literature 
 
 STORIES 
 
 OF 
 
 ILLINOIS 
 
 BY 
 
 MARA L. PRATT, M. D.C^ 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 BOSTON 
 
 NEW YORK CHICAGO SAN FRANCISCO
 
 COPYRIGHTED 
 Ky EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
 
 1900.
 
 ' '. 
 
 
 
 54319
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO 
 
 EXPLORATION .... 
 
 THE COMING OF THE FRENCH . 
 
 LA SALLE ..... 
 
 Foi/r DEARBORN, 1803 . 
 
 STORY OF JOHN KLNZIE 
 
 TECUMSEH 
 
 FIRST INDIAN ATTACK . 
 
 FORT WAYNE AND FORT HARRISON 
 
 A THIRD CAMPAIGN ... 
 
 CHICAGO AGA N . 
 
 THE INDIAN TREATY . 
 
 BLACK HAWK WAR .. 
 
 THE WINNEBAGO SCARE 
 
 THE LAST OF THE POTTAWATOMIES 
 
 THE GREAT FIRE 
 
 THE WORLD'S FAIR YEAR
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 0^ THE 
 UNIVERSITY of ILLIKOIS 
 
 131 
 
 cent 
 Illin
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 THOUSANDS OF YEARS AUG. 
 
 By thy rivers gently 
 
 Illinois, Illinois. 
 o'er thy prairies verdant growing, 
 
 Illinois, Illinois, 
 Comes an echo on the breeze, 
 Hustling through the leafy trees, 
 And its mellow tones are these, 
 
 Illinois, Illinois, 
 And its mellow tones are these, 
 Illinois." 
 
 A <-rand old state is Illinois! A wonderful city is 
 Chicago ! 
 
 ' They have grown up within one century," 
 people proudly say. 
 
 Yes, the part we se<- to-day has ^rown up within 
 one century. 
 
 But there was glorious history here centuries and 
 centuries before white men had ever set foot on 
 Illinois soil,
 
 & STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 How do we know? Oh, but there are signs of it 
 relics everywhere. 
 
 We are sure that our grand old Lake Michigan 
 was once very much higher than it is now. 
 
 We are sure that once Lakes Superior, Huron, and 
 Michigan all three poured their waters down 
 through our own Illinois River to the Mississippi, 
 then through the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 It does seem almost unbelievable. But wait! 
 Have you ever noticed those long, long bluffs on 
 either side of the Illinois River? They are a great 
 distance from the present banks of the river, to be 
 sure a whole mile apart we are told. 
 
 And, really, now that you come to look at them, 
 they do look for all the world as if they were water 
 worn, do they not? See the long horizontal lines, 
 the stained rock, the worn ridges. 
 
 Haven't you seen river banks, when the water was 
 low because of a long dry season, that looked like 
 these bluffs? 
 
 And when you saw them, you said, " How low the
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. ' 9 
 
 i 
 
 water is! See the banks! See where the river has 
 been ! " 
 
 But I'm sure you have already guessed the secret. 
 Yes, those old bluffs a mile apart are the banks 
 
 c 
 
 of the Illinois River of long ago. Of course they 
 look as if they were water worn; for that is just 
 what happened to them. 
 
 And all this was thousands of years ago. This 
 was when the great phain of -lakes poured its waters 
 into the Illinois. No wonder its banks were a mile 
 apart. Surely a river would need to be a mile wide 
 to take care of such a flood of water as that must 
 have bfeen. 
 
 But why has the river grown so narrow? For the 
 very same reason that the little streams you have 
 noticed sink sometimes to w low- water mark," leav- 
 ing their banks deserted. For we may be sure all 
 rivers obey the same laws. It is simply that for 
 some reason the water supply has been cut oif or 
 turned away. 
 
 The Niagara River, always rapid because of the
 
 10 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 slope of the land in that region, must, from its v.ry 
 beginning, have been a noisy, rushing stream; while 
 the great western river must at the same time have 
 rolled on its way, always slow and dignified. As 
 a natural consequence of these conditions, while the 
 slow western stream would tend rather to build up 
 land, the tearing, rushing Niagara would be steadily 
 and surely wearing it down. 
 
 Why, even within the memory of man the Niagara 
 Falls have worn back in their solid rock several 
 inches! And wise men say that some time, if nothing 
 happens to change the action of Niagara, Lake Erie 
 itself will tumble over the falls, leaving the lake- 
 ports of Cleveland and Sandusky high and dry. 
 
 Then you can see, I am sure, how it was that the 
 Niagara, always digging deeper and deeper, wearing- 
 its way backward, and driving the soil before it, 
 made the descent more and more marked, and so 
 filially began to draw^ off the water from Lakes 
 Superior, Michigan, and Huron, and to turn their 
 outflow eastward.
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. H 
 
 Then Lake Michigan receded, and we had what? 
 Just this: miles and. miles of the rich lake bed soil 
 that makes onr state of Illinois the grand agricul- 
 tural section that it is, and the Illinois River 
 still holding its course steadily seaward, gathering 
 up the waters of the many smaller rivers, and so 
 serving the state grandly for drainage and irrigation. 
 
 Ft was long after these marvellous changes of 
 land and river making had taken place that man 
 came to make his home on these rich prairies. 
 
 Xo one knows who the first people were, whence 
 they came, or whither they went. But here and 
 there, up and down the country and along the lakes, 
 are signs that in very early times people were here, 
 and that they were people of semi-civilization at 
 least. 
 
 On Lake Superior are mines which they left - 
 copper mines in which we know they must have 
 worked for years and years. Remains of machinery 
 have been found there; but what the people did 
 with the copper, why they mined it. or why they left
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 13 
 
 the mines at last their wealth by no means ex- 
 hausted that, no one knows. 
 
 After these mysterious people, came that savage 
 race which we call the American Indian. 
 
 All over the continent, within latitude of possible 
 dwelling;, these red men spread themselves; and in 
 our own state, chief among others, were the Illinois, 
 the Pottawottamies, the Ottawas, the Chippewas, 
 and the Ivickapoos. .That these tribes found even 
 in their day a commercial centre at Chicago we 
 know; for from no spot were there so many well- 
 worn trails extending in all directions, as from this 
 Chicago portage, even in the earliest times. 
 
 The savages came overland, and down the river 
 also, to Chicago portage; for from there, then as 
 now, the route out into the lake and thence on from 
 lake to lake, was clear and direct. It was their 
 route by which to carry to each other either war or 
 trade. It was the great route which served their 
 national interests, such as they were, even as to-day 
 it is ours.
 
 r 
 
 But while all this was happening on the western 
 prairie, while the savages were roaming up and 
 down the Illinois, wonderful things were taking 
 place on the eastern continent. 
 
 It is hard, to realize, in these days of locomotives 
 and telegraphs, that there ever was a time when the 
 two continents did not know of each other's 
 existence. 
 
 But we all know now there was such a time; and 
 that it was in 14:92 that the first discovery was made. 
 
 14
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 15 
 
 How the news spread up and down all Europe I 
 A new land found! Out across the waters of the 
 sea! Due west it lay! And with people of a kind 
 never before seen by European eyes ! 
 
 It was not very long before England, Holland, 
 France, Spain, Portugal each bent upon posses- 
 sion, began to .send out their explorers to learn 
 more about this new country. 
 
 It was De Soto, we know, who first touched upon 
 the Florida shore ; Cortez who inarched into Mexico ; 
 Raleigh who reached the Virginia shore; Hudson 
 who pushed up the great river of New York. 
 
 But none of these explorers pushed on towards 
 the Northwest. None of them ever dreamed of our 
 marvelous country inland. 
 
 For the French this honor and glory was reserved. 
 In 1534, Jacques Cartier, finding the outlet of the 
 noble St. Lawrence, sailed up to Quebec, then 
 hurried home to tell of the wonderful - f wedge- 
 shaped " river he had found a river ninety miles 
 wide at its outlet, and more miles long than even
 
 16 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 an imaginative Frenchman could picture to his 
 mind. 
 
 With delight the French people received news of 
 their success in the new world; and as soon as their 
 own national troubles could be adjusted, Champlain 
 .was sent out to see what use could be made of the 
 river, and what manner of country and people were 
 to be found along its shores. 
 
 Settlements were made at Montreal and Quebec; 
 trading stations were pushed into the interior; and 
 the French and Northwest Indians became friendly 
 through their mutual trade interests. But the 
 French were not content with mere discovery and 
 trade. They were a zealous, religious people; and 
 when French monks came to know that here in the 
 new w r orld, there were thousands and thousands of 
 untrained, untaught savages, their zealous hearts 
 burned with the desire to go among them, to set up 
 the Cross, and teach them the religion of the civilized 
 European countries. 
 
 And so, as we shall see, it was through these
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 17 
 
 people first of all that it came about that Illinois was 
 explored, the Illinois chief, Chicago, counseled with 
 by white men, and the Chicago portage discovered 
 and located by white men.
 
 THE COMING OF THE FRENCH. 
 
 From the first coming of the French into the St. 
 Lawrence, their ambitions were turned towards the 
 Northwest, from which quarter most enticing stories 
 of fur trade possibilities were poured into their ears 
 by the Indians. But it was only eighteen days after 
 the discovery of the lake by Champlain that the 
 first battle for conquest took place. 
 
 Champlain himself, in his own quaint way, wrote 
 the story of that first battle : 
 
 " As we began to approach," he says, ' ? the abode 
 of the Iroquois, we advanced only at night, resting 
 during the day. . . . . 
 
 f When it was evening we embarked in our canoes 
 to continue our course, and as we advanced very 
 quietly, we met the foe on the 29th of July at about 
 ten o'clock in the evening, at the extremity of a cape 
 that extends into the lake. 
 
 is
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 19 
 
 f The Iroquois had come to fight. We both began 
 to utter bitter cries, all getting in readiness for 
 battle. We withdrew out into the water; the 
 Iroquois went on shore. They drew their canoes 
 up close together, and began to fell trees with poor 
 axes. Thus they barricaded themselves very well. 
 
 " Our forces also passed the entire night, their 
 canoes being drawn up close to each other and 
 fastened to poles that they might not get separated, 
 and might be in readiness to fight. We were upon 
 the water within narrow range of the barricades. 
 
 f When the Iroquois were armed and in array, 
 they dispatched two canoes by themselves to the 
 enemy to inquire if they wished to fight, to which 
 the latter replied that they wished for nothing else ; 
 but that at the present there was not much light and 
 that it would be necessary to wait for daylight. 
 As soon as the sun rose they would offer battle. 
 
 r To this we agreed. Meantime the entire night 
 was spent in dancing on both sides, with endless 
 insults and other talk as to how little courage we
 
 20 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 had, how feeble a resistance we could make against 
 their arms, and that when day came we should 
 realize our ruin. 
 
 " Ours also were not slow to retort, telling them 
 that they would see such an execution of arms as 
 never before, together with an abundance of such as 
 is not unusual in the siege of a town. 
 
 "After this singing, dancing, and bandying of 
 words on both sides to the fill, when day came, my 
 companions and myself continued under cover for 
 fear the enemy would see us. 
 
 ? We arranged our arms in the best way possible, 
 being, however, separated each in one of the canoes 
 of the savage Montagnais. 
 
 f? After arming ourselves in light armor, we each 
 took an arquebuse and went on shore. I saw the 
 enemy go out of their barricade, two hundred in 
 number, stout and rugged of appearance. They 
 came at a slow pace towards us, three chiefs at 
 their head. Our men also advanced in the same 
 order, telling me that those with three large plumes
 
 STOJUES OF ILLINOIS. 21 
 
 were the chiefs, that they had only these three, and 
 that they could be distinguished by the plumes, 
 which were much larger than those of their compan- 
 ions, and that I should do what I could to kill them. 
 
 "I promised to do all in my power, and said I was 
 very sorry that they could not understand me, so 
 that I might give order and shape to their mode of 
 attacking their enemies, as then we should without 
 doubt defeat them all. But since this could not be 
 obviated, I should be very glad to show my courage 
 when we should engage in fight. 
 
 ' r As soon as we had landed they began to run for 
 some two hundred paces towards their enemies, who 
 stood firmly, not having as yet noticed my com- 
 panions who had gone into the woods with some 
 savages. 
 
 "Our men began to call me with loud cries; and 
 in order to give me passage way they opened in two 
 parts and put me at their head, where T marched 
 some twenty paces in advance of the rest. When I 
 was within thirty paces of the enemy they at once
 
 THE ENTIRE XIGHT WAS SPENT IN PANOINT 
 
 211
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 23 
 
 noticed me and, halting, gazed at me as I did also at 
 them. 
 
 "When I saw them make a move to fire at us, I 
 rested my musket against my cheek, and aimed 
 directly at one of the chiefs. With the same shot 
 two fell to the ground ; one so wounded that he died 
 soon after. 
 
 "I had loaded my musket with four balls. When 
 our side saw the shot so favorable to themselves, 
 they raised so loud cries that one could not have 
 heard it thunder. 
 
 fr Meantime the arrows Hew on both sides. The 
 Iroquois were greatly astonished that two men had 
 been killed so quickly, although they were equipped 
 for battle with armor made from cotton cloth with 
 wood which was proof against arrows. This caused 
 great alarm among them. 
 
 "As I was' loading again, one of my companions 
 tired a shot from the woods that so astonished them 
 anew that, seeing their chief dead, they lost courage 
 and took to flight, abandoning their camp and
 
 24 STORIES OF ILLINOIS 
 
 fort, and fleeing into the woods, whither I pursued, 
 them, killing still more of them and taking ten or 
 twelve prisoners. The remainder escaped with the 
 wounded. 
 
 "After gaining this battle our men amused them- 
 selves with taking a quantity of corn and meal from 
 our enemies, also their arrows, which they had left 
 behind that they might run better. After feasting, 
 dancing, and singing, we returned three hours after 
 with our prisoners." 
 
 Such reports as this, together with most vivid 
 drawings, at which Champlain was a genius, fired 
 the ambition of the French people to push on into 
 the new country, which was inhabited by such 
 strange simple people as these Indians seemed to be. 
 
 ? These people are heathens," said the zealous 
 monks ; " we must go to them and teach them the 
 true religion." 
 
 :? There are vast fields for fur trading farther 
 west," said the more secular minded; "these people 
 are hunters and can help us to gather skins,"
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 25 
 
 And so both priests and traders pushed on from 
 the Great Lakes into the territory of the Northwest. 
 It was not very long before the Falls of St. Mary 
 had been reached and a brisk trade with the red 
 men established at the outlet of Lake Superior. 
 
 These traders were kind and fair in their dealings 
 with the Indian, and it was fortunate they were; 
 otherwise, when eighteen years later good Fathers 
 Marquette, Hennipin, and Joliet pushed their canoes 
 down the lake again, their welcome might not have 
 been so cordial. 
 
 But as it w r as, the red men, remembering the first 
 visit of the French, received Marquette and Joliet, 
 his companion, gladly. They made huts for them; 
 they brought them food and bear skins, and made 
 them warm and comfortable the whole long winter. 
 ' It was in 1661 that Marquette had left his home 
 in France to come to this new country ; for news of 
 the new discoveries and the strange heathen people 
 had reached him even in his quiet monastery. "I 
 must go to these people," he said at once; and from
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 27 
 
 that time forth no other desire had Marquette in his 
 heart than to reach these red men. 
 
 The red men from the beginning felt Marquette's 
 love for them; for from the very day of his coming 
 among them they lived together in peace, and it was 
 not very long before they loved and trusted him, and 
 were eager to learn all that he was so eager to teach 
 them. 
 
 For three happy years Marquette dwelt among 
 the red men; and during that time he heard much 
 of a great river the Father of Waters, the Indians 
 called it somewhat farther west. f There are wild 
 men living along the banks of the river," the Indians 
 said; "they fight every tribe that approaches 
 them; and they scalp and burn their captives." 
 
 But Marquette longed to reach these wild men 
 and to teach them better ways of living. The more 
 he heard of them the more he was convinced that he 
 ought to go to them and carry the gospel of loving 
 brotherhood. So after a long time Marquette, with 
 Joliet and a few companions, set out from their safe
 
 28 STORIES OF IT/MKOTS. 
 
 home at Green Bay Mission, and journeyed down 
 rivers and across country to the Mississippi. It 
 was a wonderful journey, and strange and wild 
 indeed were the people they found up and down the 
 hanks of the Mississippi. So wild and warlike were 
 they, indeed, that Marquette, even when near the 
 mouth of the Mississippi, turned back rather than 
 have the records of the journey lost. And it was on 
 his return that he heard of the Illinois River. r? It 
 is a large river; and it will make your journey 
 shorter," the friendly natives of the upper Mississippi 
 told the explorers ; .and glad of any route that woutd 
 shorten the journey, they paddled up the Illinois, 
 and so discovered it for the French. 
 
 ? Truly," Joliet wrote, " we have seen nothing 
 like the fertility of this river valley. As far as 
 we can see, lie green fields, level, and rich in soil. 
 The forests are dense; wild birds and cattle roam 
 up and down the prairies; and wild deer and water 
 birds rest upon the river banks." 
 
 At Green Bay, Marquette, ill from long exposure
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 29 
 
 to all kinds of weather, sank exhausted. He could 
 go no farther; but he begged Joliet to push forward 
 to Quebec and tell them there what a wonderful 
 country they had found. Joliet did push on, 
 though the way was full of danger. At one time 
 his canoe was overturned in the treacherous rapids 
 of the St. Lawrence and many valuable records of 
 the journey were lost; but Quebec was reached at 
 last, and the wonderful story told. 
 
 Then there was great rejoicing among the French 
 people. The Cathedral was thrown open, and 
 services of praise and thanksgiving were held. 
 Bells were rung, flags were floated, and peals of 
 cannon rolled out across the great St. Lawrence. 
 It was nearly a year before Marqnette grew strong 
 and well enough to come out from his cabin again; 
 but as soon as he could even walk about the little 
 village he said to his people, w There are red men on 
 the Illinois that need me and I told them I would 
 come back to them. I would not like to deceive 
 this simple people; so let us go back to them at
 
 30 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 once." " But, good Father, you are not yet able," 
 his friends pleaded. ff lf I am to he well again, I 
 shall grow well there, if I am not to be well again, 
 then let me hasten that I may reach there before I 
 die. These Illinois red men must not think we 
 would deceive them/' And so the zealous monk 
 set forth again. Two companions he took with him; 
 and together they dragged their canoe across the 
 country. Il was November when at last they 
 reached the lake, and the winds were blowing across 
 it cold and biting, then as now. 
 
 Already there was ice upon the lake and the 
 foaming waters were lashing themselves against the 
 shores. Still the little canoe pushed on till the 
 Chicago River was reached. Here Marquette again 
 sank exhausted; and the little party was unable to 
 move farther. The red men, seeing the white men, 
 went down to the river; and with the help of 
 Marquette's companions, they made for the sick man 
 a rough little cabin and laid him upon a bed of moss 
 and dried leaves. All winter long Marquette lay
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. ;!) 
 
 there, sick and suffering. f? Let them come in," he 
 would say to his companions, when the red men 
 would come to the cabin to bring his food. And so 
 when he could, he talked with the red men and told 
 them why he had come. He taught them his own 
 religion and pleaded with them to be kind and 
 loving Avith each other; to cease, from bloodshed, 
 and to live together in peace and brotherly love. 
 
 How these simple red men loved the good 
 Marquette! How they watched over him and cared 
 for him! 'They brought me back to life," Mar- 
 quette used to say. And, indeed, it would seem as 
 if they did; for in the spring time the dying man 
 rallied, and again the little party pushed on towards 
 those Indian camps which Marquette had visited as 
 he came up the Illinois. 
 
 At the Kankekee dwelt a tribe of Indians, three 
 thousand strong; and it was to this camp that 
 Marquette and his companions came. The red men 
 had not forgotten him; but like trustful children hac( 
 watched and waited all winter long. And when
 
 .32 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 now he had come, they fell at his feet, so great was 
 their joy to see him. They brought him food and 
 prepared a cabin for him. They seated themselves 
 in a great circle around him and listened to his 
 words of love and wisdom. 
 
 For a few months Marquette lived here with the 
 red men, teaching them. But as the summer died 
 away, again his strength failed. Even the red men 
 could see the pale-face had not long to live; and so 
 when he asked them to take him back to Green Bay 
 to die, they w^ent to work to make his canoe ready, 
 They lined it with soft skins and spread a canopy 
 over it; then, silent and sad, the chiefs went with 
 him down the river, back to the lake, and on 
 towards Green Bay. It was a very slow journey; 
 for often Marquette was forced to rest for days upon 
 the shore. 
 
 Then the faithful red men would build great fires 
 for warmth, and wrapping the sick man in skins and 
 blankets, would lay him upon a bed of leaves and 
 moss before the fires, that he might grow warm and
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 35 
 
 gather strength. So they carried him on until 
 Green Bay at last was reached. Then the faithful 
 Indians left him with his companions; and, still 
 silent and sad, turned back to their homes. 
 
 There was but a short distance farther to go; but 
 Marquette's life was fading fast. >f I am afraid we 
 shall not reach the Mission," he said; ff I wish it 
 might have been." One evening, just as the sun 
 was sinking below the water's edge, Marquette's 
 companions lifted him once more, and for the last- 
 time, from the canoe. For that night Marquette 
 died; and they buried him upon the sunny hillside, 
 wrapped close in his priestly robes, as he had asked 
 them to bury him; and over his grave they read the 
 burial service and tolled the Mission bell Marquette 
 carried always with him. 
 
 fr He is dead," the companions said, when they 
 reached the Mission ; rf and we buried him upon the 
 hillside." 
 
 "Let us go and bring him home," the red men 
 said simply. And at once thirty canoes were made
 
 34 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 ready to go back down the lake to the burial 
 place. And so the body of Marquette was brought 
 to the Green Bay Mission and was buried again, 
 this time beneath the little chapel which he himself 
 had built.
 
 At the time the news of Marquette's great 
 discovery was brought to Quebec, there was in 
 Canada an enthusiastic, energetic young man named 
 La Salle, who had come over from France fired with 
 ambition to explore this new country across the 
 ocean. 
 
 tf Let us establish trading posts up and down this 
 great river," La Salle said at once, when he heard 
 the story Joliet had to fell. 
 
 "It might be well," said the cautious Governor- 
 General. " Will you go back to France, report to 
 the King, and ask for assistance to carry out these 
 plant*?"
 
 36 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 ' P I will," was La Salle's hearty answer; and away 
 he went to France to tell his story. 
 
 And he must have told it well ; for the King not 
 only gave him the assistance he asked, but gave him 
 permission to rebuild Fort Frontenac, and also hon- 
 ored him with the title, Chevalier. 
 
 And so Chevalier Robert La Salle came back to 
 Canada. He rebuilt the fort, held it for two years, 
 then went again to France. On this second visit, 
 he was received with honor; more titles were 
 showered upon him, and more extended privileges 
 in the new country were given him. 
 
 Again he came to Canada, bringing with him his 
 faithful Tonti, and at once set to work building a 
 fort above the falls of Niagara, which falls he him- 
 self had discovered not very long before. Not one 
 hour did the energetic La Salle waste; for before he 
 had been a week at work on the foil, he had begun 
 the building of a vessel that should carry him west- 
 ward, up the lakes toward the region of the Illinois. 
 
 Now the coat of arms of the La Salle family in
 
 STOKIES OF ILLINOIS. ;}7 
 
 Prance was a griffin; and for this reason La Salle 
 named his new boat The Griffin. In due time it 
 was sailing westward, bearing upon its deck the 
 daring Chevalier, his faithful Tonti and many other 
 brave companions. 
 
 Very slowly and carefully they made their way 
 along the lakes; for no one knew their depths and 
 shallows, since never before had their waters been 
 stirred by other vessels than the tiny canoes of the 
 red men. By and by these brave navigators came 
 upon an island. Red men lived there; and when 
 they saw the white men coming, they ran down to 
 the shore to welcome them. " Marquette! Mar- 
 quette ! " they shouted ; and from this La Salle knew 
 that Marquette must some time have visited the 
 island. 
 
 " See to it," La Salle said to his companions, " that 
 we do not disappoint these simple people. Do them 
 no harm. Be kind to them even as Marquette has 
 been." So the boat drew near and anchored; small 
 boats were lowered, and the Frenchmen went ashore.
 
 STATUE OF LA S.VLLE, ERECTED IX LINCOLN PARK, CHICAGO.
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 39 
 
 The natives received them warmly, bringing food 
 and furs for them. The Frenchmen, too, were 
 cordial and generous. They heaped presents upon 
 the red men knives and beads and colored cloths, 
 such as the red men loved. 
 
 Then trade was opened with these red men, and 
 the boat was loaded with furs and sent back to the 
 fort, while La Salle and a few companions went on 
 in canoes farther up the lakes. 
 
 "Unload the cargo and come back to overtake 
 us," had been La Salle's command when the boat 
 left the island and turned back. 
 
 But now whole weeks had gone by. Xo boat had 
 returned. Winter was coming on, and already La 
 Salle and his men had tasted the bitterness of the 
 winter winds upon the lakes. Once, driven upon 
 the shore by the storms, the men had lived four 
 days without food; and already many of them were 
 rebellious. How they watched the east for the coin- 
 ing of The Griffin these suifering, starving heroes! 
 
 But alas! The Griffin did not come. Xor did it
 
 40 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 ever come; and to this day no trace of it has ever- 
 been found. It never reached the fort and no man 
 ever knew its fate. 
 
 ? We must stay here," said La Salle, "until spring 
 opens;" and so the men set to work to build a fort, 
 and the little band crept within its shelter now 
 their only hope. But La Salle himself was not con- 
 tent to waste even the winter time; so with a few 
 faithful ones he pushed on in his canoe to Lake 
 Peoria. w Here," La Salle said, " we saw an excel- 
 lent site for a trading post ; and though we had little 
 heart to begin, we set to work to build another fort 
 for shelter; and we named-it Fort Crevecceur, which 
 means broken-hearted, for indeed we were broken- 
 hearted, one and all." 
 
 But no sooner had this fort been completed and 
 the men safely garrisoned, than La Salle, with only 
 five men, turned back, meaning to make his way 
 to Fort Frontenac for food and supplies. 
 
 "I shall build another vessel," this unflinching 
 hero said to his men, "and come back to you.
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 41 
 
 While I am gone, go on westward. Search for the 
 great river. Should you find it, we will build a 
 great vessel and follow it to its outlet. Who knows 
 but it may prove to be the Northwest Passage! " 
 
 And so La Salle left his men and turned back. 
 Xow, among La Salle's companions was good Father 
 Hennepin, one of those who had accompanied Mar- 
 quette on his voyage up and down the Mississippi; 
 and it was to Father Hennepiivs care and wisdom 
 that La Salle entrusted the expedition in search of 
 the Northwest Passage. 
 
 '' I shall know that all that can be done will be 
 done," were La Salle's parting words; "and when 
 by and by I shall return with more men and 
 supplies, let me be greeted with news of a great 
 discovery. Such news would indeed pay me a 
 thousand times over for all the suffering and disap- 
 pointments of the past." 
 
 So La Salle set out; and hardly was he out of 
 sight before the faithful Father Hennepin began 
 his preparations for pushing westward. Only two
 
 42 STORIES OF I 
 
 companions did he take with him; but their canoe 
 was well stored, their hearts were brave, and the sun 
 shone down brightly upon them the morning they 
 set sail, as if to give them God-speed. 
 
 They had sailed but a little way when they met 
 canoes filled with Illinois Indians. The white men 
 were received by these most cordially, and for a few 
 miles the canoes glided on, side by side. 
 
 " Oh, good Father," begged the friendly chiefs, do 
 not go on into these unknown waters. Dread 
 dangers await you dangers such as white men 
 know not of. There are terrible birds, with poison- 
 ous claws, which watch to swoop down upon the 
 canoes of the children of the Great Spirit. There 
 are rabbits with talons like eagles; and there are 
 winged buffaloes waiting to fly with their prey 
 across the plains; and in the water, too, there are 
 terrible creatures with sharp teeth and tusks that 
 will shatter the sides of the canoes. Whirlpools, 
 too, there are, and rapids, and on the banks live 
 tribes who kill and eat each other. Pray do not go!
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 43 
 
 Stay here and dwell in our wigwams and eat of our 
 
 venison.' 1 
 
 But Father Hennepin had heard all this before; 
 he had heard it when, with Marquette, he had set 
 forth down the Mississippi; and although his heart 
 beat warmly towards the friendly Illinois, he knew 
 full \vell how mistaken they were. Other dangers 
 awaited him that he knew but not these. And 
 so, bidding his dusky advisers good-bye, he pushed 
 on with his men, in search of the Northwest 
 Passage. 
 
 In due time they reached the Mississippi and 
 just in time to witness the breaking up of the vast 
 sheets of ice on the river. Down they came huge 
 blocks crushing and grinding, heaping themselves 
 upon each other, sliding and falling. It was a 
 wonderful sight. f We stood," Father Hennepin 
 wrote, pf awestruck before the mighty mass. Xor 
 could I have believed such sheets of ice could have 
 formed except in the frozen waters of a northern 
 
 sea."
 
 44 STORIES ()F ILLINOIS. 
 
 Around the tree-covered islands at the mouth of 
 the Illinois River, were drifted masses of wood and 
 moss and trunks of trees heaps on heaps 
 brought down by the mighty current. 
 
 Here the brave little band waited until the river 
 was clear; then they set out up the Mississippi. 
 
 For several days the little boats passed on 
 unmolested. But one day there came gliding 
 around a sudden bend in the river a tribe of Indiars 
 in war paint and feathers. Thirty canoes full there 
 were; and at sight of the three lone Frenchmen, 
 they bore down upon them, yelling and howling and 
 waving their tomahawks. 
 
 Escape was impossible. Resistance was worse 
 than useless. Father Hennepin rose in his canoe 
 and extended the calumet. That was the only 
 hope; but the calumet was tossed aside, the canoe 
 dragged ashore, its contents overhauled by the red 
 men, the gifts of beads and bright colored cloth 
 confiscated, and Father Hennepin and his compan- 
 ions were led away into captivity.
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 45 
 
 For several days the chiefs of the tribes coun- 
 selled whether to tomahawk, burn, or shoot their 
 captives; and the three white men knew full well 
 their peril. Still they flinched not. Indeed, Father 
 Hennepin, to convince his captors of his bravery, 
 himself placed a tomahawk in the hands of the 
 chief, and bowed his head before it. 
 
 Most pleasing was this to the Chiefs crude idea 
 of bravery; then, too, if a captive was so willing to 
 die, there was far less pleasure and excitement in 
 killing him; at least so the red men may have 
 reasoned; for in a few days the Chief smoked the 
 pipe of peace with his captives, and then, together, 
 the white men and the red men started up the river. 
 
 To the white men it was a wonderful journey. 
 Some days the warriors were kind to their captives, 
 some days cruel. Some days they would feed them 
 and pet them like favored children; some days they 
 would starve and neglect them. 
 
 After a journey of many days, the whole tribe 
 landed at a dreary little village encampment, where
 
 46 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 they left their canoes and proceeded on foot still 
 farther north. 
 
 The three Frenchmen had already been appor- 
 tioned, one to each of the three chiefs; and now, 
 loaded down with baggage, they were driven on 
 like cattle before the tribe. Over hill and through 
 forest, across rivers and into swamps, the tribe 
 pressed on through the heavy snows, into the teeth 
 of the biting wind. 
 
 r Often," so Father Hennepin wrote, '' 1 was so 
 benumbed with cold that I could not push my way; 
 and so exhausted that I could not stand. At one 
 time I fell beside the river bank, hoping to die there 
 rather than to struggle on. But even this was not 
 allowed me. One Indian came towards me, frowned 
 down upon me, then quietly and without a word, 
 set the grass on all sides of me on fire. f Now,' 
 said the savage, ' follow us or burn/ 
 
 ' f It seemed an endless journey ; but at last we 
 reached the home of our captors. It was not a 
 successful returning of these warriors, for they
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 47 
 
 brought no scalps, no prisoners only three help- 
 less canoe-men who had never harmed them, never 
 resisted them, and who had come into their country 
 loaded with presents, and intending nothing but to 
 explore the rivers and peacefully return to their own 
 country. 
 
 f The Indians seemed to feel that tl ey had little 
 to boast of; and therefore determined to make as 
 grand a parade of us as could be made. They 
 dressed us in feathers and war paints, placed gourds 
 in our hands, and bade us dance and sing. 
 
 ff And as we neared the village, though they 
 could not make their ? scalp-haloo ', nor give the 
 yell that would indicate to the women in the village 
 that stakes should be built and fires made ready, 
 they yelled and shouted, making the forests and the 
 hills to echo and re-echo with their brutal whoops. 
 
 f And now, alas ! came a sorrow, harder for us to 
 bear than either cold or starvation. On reaching 
 the village, our band of warriors broke up, and the 
 chiefs with their followers went away, each to his
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 49 
 
 own village; then it was we learned that henceforth 
 we were to be separated, each one of us to be 
 carried away to the village of the chief to whom we 
 had been given. 
 
 'There was no escape; hardly were we permitted 
 to say farewell to each other; but were hurried off 
 across marshes, over hills, and through forests, to 
 our various villages, each several miles from the 
 others. 
 
 " So, for man}' long months I dwelt here in this 
 little village, often wondering if ever a way should 
 be made for me to escape; or, if it was indeed to be 
 my lot to live out my days among these people. ' 
 
 rf One day a messenger came from the other vil- 
 lages. We were bidden to embark and sail farther 
 south in search of newer hunting grounds. Gladly 
 did I prepare for this departure, hoping that at last 
 we should be allowed to return to our own people. 
 
 " Our journey down the river was indeed hard to 
 bear. I, with one of my former companions, was 
 often in our canoe alone; yet we were forced on to
 
 50 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 keep pace with the rapidly moving canoes of the 
 Indians, with their ten and twelve paddles for each 
 canoe. 
 
 >f I hardly know how it came about; but my chief 
 had grown to believe whatever I promised him. 
 Therefore one day I said to him, f Good friend, yon 
 have been very kind to me. I have been happy and 
 contented among you for all these months. Now I 
 wish to go back to my country with these five 
 Frenchmen. I will come back again. And I will 
 come with rich presents for your tribe.' 
 
 "I dared hardly hope for the ready permission 
 the chief gave to my request. It was, I fear, the 
 hope of presents rather than any better motive that 
 induced him to allow me to depart. But, be that as 
 it might, I was once more a free man; and most joy- 
 ously did I start forth with my companions down 
 the Mississippi to the Wisconsin, thence across the 
 country, down the lakes to Montreal. 
 
 ' ? The governor, who had believed me long since 
 dead, stood thunderstruck. He took me with him to
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 51 
 
 his own home; and their I gave him a full account 
 of my adventures, and proved to him the advantages 
 of our discoveries." 
 
 But all this time, what was happening at Fort 
 Crevecoeur? La Salle had left there, with the 
 other men, his own faithful Tonti, and also two 
 missionaries who should work among the Indians 
 thereabout. 
 
 For some time all went well. The Indians 
 seemed friendly, there was food in plenty, and the 
 men were well sheltered. But one day an Indian 
 lad came running into the village round about the 
 fort, yelling and jumping high in the air. ' The 
 Frenchmen are upon us! The Iroquois! La 
 Salle!" 
 
 And, impulsive, excitable creatures as they were, 
 they were in a moment up and in arms. They 
 yelled and howled and flourished their tomahawks. 
 " r On to the fort! " they cried. 
 
 The white men heard the uproar, and all too soon 
 learned the occasion. Without a word, Tonti
 
 52 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 rushed out from the fort into the midst of the 
 excited throng. 
 
 ' The enemy! The enemy! " he shouted, " Where 
 are they? tell us! we will join you! " 
 
 The Indians were struck dumb. ' You join us? 
 Why, but you are the enemy! " they, cried. ''You 
 -led by La Salie! " 
 
 ? We ! La Salle ! " Tonti cried, pretending amaze- 
 ment, too ; " La Salle is hundreds of miles away ! " 
 
 But meantime the real enemy was close at hand. 
 The hostile tribe was encamped only a short distance 
 from the fort. w I will go to them," Tonti said. 
 
 It was a perilous thing to do; for the young 
 warriors of the tribe were blood-thirsty, and were 
 bent on massacre. No peace was possible; and 
 Tonti and his men were soon glad to escape up the 
 river, leaving the fort to the mercy of the savage 
 foe. It was a terrible journey that followed. The 
 wind was biting cold, the way unknown; and to 
 complete the danger and discomfort, the little canoe 
 failed them in their hour of need, so that they were
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 53 
 
 forced to leave it and make their way as best they 
 could along the bank, carrying the little boat with 
 them till they should reach a place where they 
 dared stop to repair it. 
 
 For fourteen long days the little band pushed on 
 through the wilderness, often losing their way and 
 retracing it for miles, hungry, discouraged, and 
 exhausted. 
 
 At last the little mission at Green Bay was 
 reached, and the worn-out men sank down, glad 
 indeed once more to feel the warmth of fire and 
 taste the savor of food. For weeks they rested 
 here, gathering up their strength and courage, that 
 they might be ready again to set out when La Salle 
 should bid them. 
 
 With the first signs of spring they pushed on 
 towards Fort Mackinaw. La Salle was there; but he 
 had already made his way to Fort Crevecoeur, and 
 was now returning, sad at heart; for he knew not 
 what had become of the brave men he had left there. 
 
 Tonti told his sad story of their winter to La
 
 54 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 Salle; and La Salle told the story of his own weary 
 journeying back and forth from Frontenac. Still 
 neither La Salle nor his men seemed to have lost 
 heart ; and when La Salle stretching his right hand 
 westward cried, "On! on to the Mississippi! " every 
 man answered heartily and with a great shout of 
 joy. "On! on to the Mississippi!" 
 
 That La Salle and his men did push on down the 
 Father of Waters, we all know. And a grand suc- 
 cess the voyage proved to be ; for La Salle planted 
 the French banner, and buried a leaden plate, upon 
 which were engraved these words : 
 
 rf Louis the Great Reigns. Robert, Cavalier, 
 with Lord Tonti, Ambassador, Lenobia Membrc, 
 Ecclesiastic, and twenty Frenchmen first navigated 
 this river from the country of the Illinois and passed 
 through this mouth on the 9th of April, 1682." 
 
 From this time on, the great tract of land up and 
 down the Mississippi was the noble property of the 
 French. As Parkman has so strongly put it: "On 
 that day the realm of France received a splendid
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 55 
 
 acquisition. The fertile plains of Texas; the vast 
 basin of the Mississippi from its frozen northern 
 springs to the sultry borders of the gulf from the 
 woody ridges of the Alleghanies to the bare peaks 
 of the Rocky Mountains a region of savannahs 
 and forests, sun cracked deserts and grassy prairies, 
 watered by a thousand rivers, ranged by a thousand 
 warlike tribes, passed beneath the sceptre of the 
 Sultan of Versailles." 
 
 Such, and a great deal more that we cannot here 
 
 i 
 
 take time to touch upon, were the sufferings and the 
 heroism that led to a knowledge of the rivers and 
 the lands of this unknown country, of which our 
 Illinois is now so nearly the centre. Such were the 
 first means through which it came about in time that 
 trading posts werje established up and down the 
 rivers; that both the English and the French began 
 to look with deep commercial interest upon the 
 section; and that in time the Chicago Portage, as 
 we shall learn later, became the one central point of 
 eastern interest.
 
 " O, city by the inland sea, 
 
 Chicago, 
 Grand monument of industry, 
 
 Chicago, 
 
 Gath'ring gladly from all lands, 
 For the love of thee, 
 Chicago." 
 
 " O, city by the inland sea. 
 Columbia has chosen thee 
 To proudly say, " I WILL," 
 And all prophecy fulfill, 
 Mighty city by the inland sea." 
 
 Did you ever see the Rush Street Bridge in 
 Chicago at the foot of Wabash Avenue? There is 
 nothing remarkable about it, you will say. No; 
 there are other bridges quite as good in and about 
 Chicago. 
 
 And still, there was a time, only a few years ago, 
 when every stranger coming to the city paid a visit
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 57 
 
 to the Rush Street Bridge. He would not be eon- 
 tent to leave Chicago until he had visited that 
 neighborhood. 
 
 Sometimes strangers go there now. There seems 
 little to see; still the visitors look and look. 
 
 And this is what they say: f * So this is Chicago's 
 oldest historical site!'- Or, r? So this is where 
 Chicago began! Well, well, well!" 
 
 There is one old Chicagoan who still lives not 
 very far from this bridge. He knew Chicago when 
 it was only a town; and he is very proud of the 
 great city. 
 
 ''You see," he says, "the city and I grew up 
 together. That makes me love it. 
 
 " Right here, where this south abutment of the 
 bridge now is, the old light-house keeper's little 
 hoirip ^tood.- Just beyond, was the tall, white light- 
 h( rf *e tower. And just across a little road from 
 th.it stood the old Fort." 
 
 Old Fort Dearborn! Yes, that is why strangers 
 even now go down to the Rush Street Bridge; for
 
 58 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 that spot has had a noble history; and there was a 
 time when no fort in the land meant so much to the 
 country as did old Fort Dearborn. 
 
 It is hard to believe, as we stand on the Rush 
 Street Bridge to-day, that only a few years ago 
 there were prairies and trees and green fields as far 
 as the eye could see; that the air was clear and 
 sweet, and that the only smoke was that from the 
 Indian camps, scattered here and there up and down 
 the prairie. But so it was; and so it might be now 
 who knows? had it not been for the Chicago 
 River. Flowing as it does into the lake, the site 
 was early discovered and appreciated even by the 
 Indians themselves. The French and the English 
 fur traders, too, were quick to see the convenience 
 and usefulness of the river; so that from the very 
 beginning the Chicago Portage was important. 
 And when, later, the Mississippi valley became out 
 property of our people, the government, recognizn. 
 the value of this portage, sent men to build a fort 
 there. "" For," said they, " the Chicago Portage will
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 59 
 
 some time, as our country grows westward, come to 
 be a commercial centre.''. 
 
 No Chicago boy or girl needs now to be told that 
 these early prophecies were wise ones. We only 
 wonder if these early prophets knew how wise they 
 were. 
 
 At the beginning of the nineteenth century there 
 were no white people living farther west than 
 Detroit; but the government had bought from the 
 Indians a piece of land six miles long on the western 
 shore of the lake, near its southern end; and it was 
 there the fort was to be built. 
 
 There were Indians in the forest round about ; 
 and one day these red men were surprised to see a 
 great white schooner coming down the lake. They 
 all ran down to the shore, staring in grim wonder. 
 
 '" Big bird! " said one Indian. 
 
 "Canoe with wings," grunted another; and not 
 until the men began to land with guns and the boats 
 had been loaded with the schooner's cargo, did the 
 red men creep back to their own camps. Then the
 
 60 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 schooner sailed back to Detroit, and the history of 
 Chicago had began. 
 
 The little band of men set at once to work. First, 
 a block-house must be built, and the grounds must 
 be enclosed by palisades high and strong. 
 
 So they chose a site for the fort, and set to work 
 hauling the logs and driving the stakes. 
 
 They had neither horses nor cattle to help them; 
 had they, the hauling of logs would have been quite 
 easy and they might have built their fort with 
 greater speed. 
 
 But when the men had to w play horse " as the 
 children say, fasten the ropes around their own 
 waists, and drag the logs themselves, it was not 
 quite so easy building forts as we might think The 
 men were brave and plucky, however, and often 
 their shouts and laughter rang out over the lake, 
 as they dragged the big logs along. All the 
 summer and all the fall they worked, day in and day 
 out, never forgetting, day or night, to keep a watch 
 upon the savages lurking in the forests round about;
 
 STORIKS OF ILLINOIS. 61 
 
 for the red men did not love the white men over 
 much, you know, and did not always favor their 
 presence on the western prairies. 
 
 But when the first frosts came, the fort was 
 finished, and the men were in comfortable quarters. 
 
 Very wise had those men been in the choice of 
 the site for their fort. On one side of the palisades 
 lay a branch of the Chicago River; on another lay a 
 broad swamp; on another were treacherous sands 
 beneath which the waters of the river made their 
 way. 
 
 These three sides of the fort were not, then, 
 easily approached by an attacking enemy; and 
 besides all this, the men had built a sallyport, as 
 they called it that is, an underground passage 
 from the block-house down to the river. 
 
 Thus protected, the little garrison settled into its 
 new quarters for the winter. 
 
 Fort Dearborn was now the farthest settlement 
 in this ]^orth West; and people spoke of it as 
 w away out west." Wonderful stories were told
 
 62 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 of it, and adventurous men from here and there 
 began to gather around the fort. By and by, a 
 little village was formed, and already the settlers 
 began to speak of their new home by its Indian 
 name Chicago. 

 
 The first man settler to come to Chicago was 
 John Kinzie. Now, John Kinzie had led an adven- 
 turous life, even from boyhood; and when he came 
 out here into the wilderness, he came, no doubt, from 
 love of adventure. But he proved himself a brave 
 and sturdy man, not afraid to work for his new 
 home; and Chicago's historians are proud now to 
 speak of him as the first citizen of Chicago. 
 
 63
 
 64 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 John Kinzie was born in Quebec; but when only 
 five years old went with his mother to live in New 
 York. New York, in those days, was little 
 more than a town, and John's adventurous soul 
 longed for greater freedom; so. one day he boarded 
 a vessel bound for Albany, and from there made his 
 way back to Quebec. 
 
 He was a little fellow; and many a time -so he 
 used to say afterwards he would have been glad 
 to creep into his own bed at home and be sure of a 
 warm breakfast in the morning. But he was a 
 plucky lad; and having reached Quebec, he was 
 bound to stay. 
 
 It was not very long before he found work with a 
 silversmith; and there, hard at work, he lived in 
 Quebec until he was a young man. 
 
 Now, during all these years the fur traders were 
 making stations here and there west of the Allegha- 
 nies, where the Indians might come to sell the skins 
 their hunters had prepared. 
 
 Wonderful Indian stories these fur traders had to
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 60 
 
 tell of their life at the stations; and whenever one of 
 them came to Quebec, every man, woman, and child 
 were eager to hear about the red men and the 
 marvelous adventures of the white men among 
 them. 
 
 All this was sweet music to John Kinzie's restless 
 soul; and away he went to Detroit then a little 
 village the most western of the fur-trading 
 stations. 
 
 This life was more to his taste than that of a 
 silversmith had been; and he soon made friends 
 with all the Indian traders round about. He went 
 hunting with them; he gave them tobacco and 
 bright colored beads; he invited them to the camp; 
 and soon the Indians became the best of friends 
 with the " white brave " as they called him. 
 
 One day there came into the camp an old chief 
 from Chillicothe. With him were two maidens 
 sunburnt, weather-beaten and dressed in Indian 
 squaw fashion, to be sure; but still very beautiful 
 white maidens for all that.
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 67 
 
 c They are beautiful," said John Kinzie. w It is 
 wrong for them to be brought up like Indian 
 squaws;" and the man's generous, honest heart was 
 filled with pity for them. 
 
 With John Kinzie was a young Scotchman 
 James Clark; and these two brave hearted lads had 
 many a long talk over the beautiful maidens. 
 
 r They should be rescued," John would say. 
 
 'They should," James would say. 
 
 Pr Margaret is very beautiful," John would say. 
 
 'Yes, but Elizabeth is more beautiful," James 
 would answer again. 
 
 'You and I have been adventurers long enough/' 
 said John at last; " and for my part I should like a 
 home." 
 
 "Well, nobody quite knows all these two men said; 
 but in the end this is what happened. The old Chief 
 went back to his home alone; James and John built 
 two snug little cabins, and Margaret and Elizabeth 
 took their respective places in them, the proudest of 
 home-makers and housewives.
 
 68 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 For five happy years these four people lived on in 
 their little log houses. Then one clay there came 
 into the village an old man. He was bent, and 
 gray, and feeble. f They tell me," he said, ff that 
 my two children my Margaret and Elizabeth 
 are living here in Detroit ; and I have come all the 
 way from Virginia to see if it be. true." 
 
 Now Margaret and Elizabeth as you have, 
 perhaps, already guessed had been stolen from 
 their home long before when they were little 
 children. In vain had the father tried all these 
 years to find them; they had been carried beyond 
 the Alleghanies into the tribe of the Shawanese, 
 and he could get no trace of them. 
 
 The Shawanese chief had been kind to them 
 always; but the little girls had never forgotten their 
 old home, and had often wondered, as they grew 
 up, if they should ever know where this home 
 had been, or should see their father and mother 
 
 again. 
 
 There was then great joy in the two little cabins,
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 69 
 
 ivhen the old father came to Margaret and Eliza- 
 jeth; and for a long time he dwelt among the simple 
 3eople of Detroit. Each morning he would say, " I 
 mist go back to Virginia ; " but the next morning 
 *till found him in the home of his children. 
 
 At last, one morning he said " Each day for 
 kveeks I have meant to go back to my home. But 
 t will be very lonely there. For twenty years I 
 searched formy children. 
 
 ' f Never an Indian entered my village, that I 
 lid not say to him, " Do you know of two little 
 ^irls, taken captive in the Dunmore war ? Are they 
 still alive? Do they live among your people? Are 
 they being brought up as slaves; or has some 
 generous chief taken them to his wigwam, where 
 they are treated kindly and protected from the 
 cruelty of the tribe? But no one could tell me, and 
 for many years I mourned them as dead, 
 
 " I am very old. I have not long to live. I wish 
 it might be that my sons and daughters and those 
 little grand-children would go home with me.
 
 70 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 Virginia is a country of fine farms; the soil is rich, 
 the climate is mild, and farms are plentiful." 
 
 But this picture of quiet comfort was not to the 
 taste of John Kinzie and James Clark. Into the 
 hearts of Margaret and Elizabeth, however, there 
 came a great longing to see the old home they still 
 remembered, and the friends who would greet them 
 so warmly. The old father, too, they had grown to 
 love ; and when he spoke to them of his old age and 
 his loneliness, their hearts filled with sorrow. 
 
 "Let us go home with him," they said to John 
 and James; our hearts long to see the old home and 
 our people, whom we have never known." 
 
 So it came about that the two daughters, with 
 their children, went away with the old father, back 
 to their home in Virginia. 
 
 N"ow, to go on a journey in those days was a 
 great event. There were no railroads; the country 
 was unexplored; the Indians lay in wait to spring 
 upon the white people, as they traveled through the 
 forests and over the mountains.
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 71 
 
 Margaret and Elizabeth, however, were used to 
 danger and hardship; so, when they rode out from 
 Detroit, their hearts were brave. rf Good-bv! " they 
 said, to their husbands and all the friends who 
 watched them setting forth upon the journey, 
 "good-by! We shall come back again. Have no 
 fear for us! " 
 
 NYnv, all this time, the Chicago Portage was 
 coming more and more to be talked of among the 
 Detroit traders. The Fort had stood now for many 
 years, and the fur trade had prospered. 
 
 History does not tell us why; but it happened 
 that Margaret and Elizabeth never returned from 
 their visit to Virginia. Although the old father 
 died, they seemed to prefer the peace and civiliza- 
 tion of a settled country rather than a frontier life 
 of hardship and danger. 
 
 And so it was that Kinzie, again alone and free 
 to wander at his pleasure, left Detroit and went to 
 St. Joseph's. There he married again, and when 
 the success of the Chicago Portage was assured,
 
 72 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 and the Indians had proven their friendliness so that 
 it seemed safe to build homes outside the fort, John 
 Kinzie set forth with his wife and baby boy for the 
 new settlement. 
 
 It was a long, hard journey. All such household 
 goods as were portable were heaped upon the backs 
 of horses. Mr. and Mrs. Kinzie each had a horse; 
 and in a big bag, hung on the horn of Mr. Kinzie's 
 saddle, the baby was placed. In this odd fashion, 
 camping at night, the family made their way across 
 the wild prairie, along the Indian trail, to their 
 new home at Fort Dearborn. John Kinzie was an 
 energetic man. In a very few days a cabin was 
 built, and the Kinzie family the first residents of 
 Chicago were settled in their new home. 
 
 From a French trader, Kinzie bought a trading 
 station, and began at once a brisk business with the 
 Indians. Very soon he won their confidence, 
 so upright were his dealings with them, and before 
 very long John Kinzie began to be spoken of as a 
 man of wealtlu
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 73 
 
 Every year he improved his home. First it was 
 only a little cabin with one room; then another room 
 was added, and then another. Windows and real 
 doors with hinges were added, the walls were made 
 close and warm, by and by a frame building was 
 made; till at last there stood upon the north bank 
 of the river, opposite the fort, and facing the sunny 
 south, a pretty little home the first real American 
 dwelling house ever built in the city of Chicago.
 
 TECUMSEfl 
 
 Tecmnseh was a Shawanese chief. For a long 
 time he had watched the advance of the white 
 people into the territory of the Red Men. 
 
 Very willing were the tribes to sell an acre of 
 their land from time to time, and to keep peace with 
 the white men who were settled upon it. They 
 gave no thought to the future; but were content 
 with the tobacco and bright colored trifles which the 
 
 74
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 75 
 
 white men were always ready to give in exchange 
 either for furs or for land. 
 
 But Tecnmseh had more foresight than others of 
 the simple red men of the western tribes. Every 
 sale of land he regarded with disfavor; every new 
 village that sprang up he watched with fierce hate 
 and jealousy. 
 
 f We shall have no land left," he would say to his 
 people. '' Do you not see that every year these 
 white men are pushing farther and farther west?" 
 
 Now Tecumseh had learned to read and write and 
 count; and not a settlement was there through the 
 entire North West that he did not know. He knew 
 the traders far and near; he knew the number of 
 people in each village. Most carefully he watched 
 the increase in population; and when, in 1810, there 
 were already more than twenty-four thousand white 
 people w r here only a few years before there had 
 been only a vast wilderness, his angry soul could 
 endure no more. 
 
 And so Tecnmseh set forth. Up and down
 
 76 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 the country, from tribe to tribe, he rushed like a 
 madman. Councils were held with chiefs, and mul- 
 titudes of red men were called together to listen to 
 the torrent of eloquence Tecumseh was ever ready 
 to pour out upon them. 
 
 With Tecumseh was a brother, Avise and cunning. 
 He claimed for himself wonderful powers. He 
 could see spirits and hear spirit voices. By the 
 spirits he was warned of the danger in store for the 
 red men. He could read the future; and he urged 
 the people to rise, even as Tecumseh should bid 
 them, and go forth, thousands strong, to overcome 
 and drive back the intruding white men. 
 
 ^ Rise, rise ! '' he said to one reluctant tribe ; 
 ff else to-morrow, in the midst of the daylight, the 
 sun will hide its face, and there will fall a deep 
 shadow upon the earth." 
 
 The red men sneered and went back to their wig- 
 wams. The next day dawned bright and clear. 
 Higher and higher, brighter and brighter, climbed 
 the sun up the eastern sky.
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 77 
 
 T We see no shadow,'' the red men said; and they 
 laughed to think how wise they had been, and how 
 foolish were those tribes who had been frightened 
 by the prophet's words. 
 
 Hut even as they spoke, a strange light began to 
 creep over the land. They looked up to the sun 
 there was a shadow upon it! Darker and darker 
 grew r that shadow! The yellow noon-day light 
 changed to a dark gray twilight! There were 
 strange shadows everywhere! 
 
 '' It is as the great prophet said! " they whispered. 
 ' The Great Spirit is angry with us ! " And, tremb- 
 ling with fear, the chiefs hurried to Tecumseh and 
 pledged themselves to join the federation to 
 carry war against the white men. 
 
 ?r ^ow the shadow will be lifted," said the prophet . 
 And the shadow was lifted; and from that day 
 the prophet's authority over the red men was estab- 
 lished. Such was the advantage that a wise ma a 
 had always, even from the beginning, over the simple- 
 hearted, superstitious red men.
 
 78 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 It was in the spring of 1808 that these two Indian 
 leaders set up their tents on the Tippecanoe, not far 
 from the Wabash. 
 
 Here the prophet made his abode, and chiefs for 
 hundreds and hundreds of miles around came to him 
 for advice. From this station Tecumseh journeyed 
 north, south, east, and west, stirring up the tribes, 
 and planning the great war of the red men against 
 the white men. 
 
 All this the white men, everywhere through the 
 west, watched with no little dread. Tecumseh had 
 great influence among his people, the white men 
 well knew; and an Indian war was a thing to be 
 dreaded, even by the bravest. 
 
 For a long time there was no outbreak, even upon 
 the frontiers. Tecumseh was hard at work, night 
 and day; but the time had not yet come. 
 
 Once, when Governor Harrison sent a message to 
 the Shawanese, it was received with bitterness and 
 the messengers sneered at as dogs. 
 
 All this showed that trouble was brewing, and
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 70 
 
 that plans for vengeance were in the hearts of the 
 Indians. 
 
 Again messengers were sent. ' r How dare you," 
 thundered one of the chiefs of the red men, f? come 
 into our presence! You are spies! Right here is 
 your grave ! Look at it ! " 
 
 But just then Tecumseh himself came forward, 
 saying to the messengers, rf Fear not; my people 
 shall not harm you here. Go back to Governor 
 Harrison and tell him that I shall come to talk with 
 him at Fort Vincennes." 
 
 In a few days Tecumseh, with seventy-five of 
 his bravest warriors, did come into the presence of 
 Governor Harrison. For more than a week the 
 red men dwelt in the camp among the white men, 
 and during all that time Tecumseh stalked among 
 them, stern and solemn. 
 
 ^N~ot once did he allow himself to talk with the 
 white men; not once did he forget" his dignity as 
 one aggrieved. At last he spoke to the white men 
 assembled before the Governor.
 
 80 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 'Years ago, v said he, ff you white men made a 
 peace with us. But since then you have killed 
 many of the Shawanese, and yon have taken our 
 lands. How can we, then, keep peace with the 
 white men? You force us to do you injury. You 
 do not want us to band together against you. You 
 try to set our tribes one against the other. You 
 would make us fight each other. We red men 
 never do that to your people. 
 
 'You are driving us west. You would drive us 
 into the lake. We are forbidding the chiefs of our 
 tribe to sell you any more land. You must not try 
 to buy it. If you do, we shall make war upon you. 
 We cannot give our land to you; for then there 
 would be no home for the red men." 
 
 Poor Tecumseh! He could not understand. He 
 could only see that there was danger ahead for his 
 people. 
 
 Then Governor Harrison tried to talk with him. 
 
 ' Think," said he, " how the cruel Spaniards treated 
 
 you in the past. And the French ! How little have
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 81 
 
 they cared for your rights or for your comfort. 
 Compare our treatment of your people with that 
 of these other nations." 
 
 But Tecumseh was only maddened by these 
 words. He sprang to his feet with a true savage 
 yell, and seized his tomahawk. His companions 
 sprang to his side, their knives glittering. 
 
 Quickly Governor Harrison drew his sword, and 
 his soldiers rushed upon the scene with sabres 
 drawn. "Shame upon you, Tecumseh!" thundered 
 the Governor, ff to behave like a savage who knows 
 nothing but savagery ! " 
 
 Then Tecumseh and his men crept away, their 
 faces black and revengeful. 
 
 " I forgot myself," said Tecumseh the next day. 
 ? 'I should not have grown angry; but there can be 
 no peace. The chief* of your people may sit in his 
 great wigwam and drink his wine; but you and I, 
 Governor Harrison, out here on the western fron- 
 tiers, must fight it out." 
 
 Nor did Tecumseh, even for a moment, swerve 
 
 * The President.
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 83 
 
 from his purpose. Already thousands of red men 
 had pledged to join against the white men, and 
 the times were full of danger. 
 
 About this time, too, a war broke out between the 
 English and the Americans the "War of 1812, 
 and Tecumseh, his confederacy now organized, joined 
 forces with the British against the Americans. All 
 the frontier forts were reinforced, Fort Dearborn 
 among the rest, and war was threatened every- 
 where. 
 
 During John Kinzie's eight years at Fort Dear- 
 born, he had won the love and confidence of the 
 Indian tribes for miles about; still, under the excite- 
 ment of war and spurred on by Tecumseh, no one 
 could tell what even these friendly Indians might 
 do. 
 
 There were many families in the village of 
 Chicago now, and all looked to Kinzie for advice 
 and protection. 
 
 At the risk of his own life, Kinzie set off among 
 the neighboring tribes to strengthen, if possible, their
 
 84 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 loyalty; or, at least, to find what the people at 
 the fort might expect from them. Even those 
 tribes who had been most friendly had little to say; 
 
 and when Kinzie spoke to them of the war and of 
 y 
 themselves, they sat in sullen silence. 
 
 f We cannot depend upon these red men," was all 
 Kinzie could say when he came back to the Fort. 
 
 One day an Indian came into the Fort upon some 
 errand. As he looked at the women and children, 
 he said, w In a few days these women will be hoeing* 
 in our corn fields; and the children will be our 
 captives." This certainly was not encouraging; and 
 close watch from that time on was kept upon the 
 outskirts.
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 Of^ THE 
 
 UNIVERSITV of ILLINOIS
 
 8ti 8IATUE COMMEMORATING THE MASSACEK AT KOKT DEA.RBO.V, 
 
 ERECTED IN CHICAGO.
 
 Among the tribes that fell in all too readily with 
 the scheme of Tecumseh were the Winnebagoes on 
 the Rock River. For a long time they lurked in the 
 forests round about, watching their chance for an 
 attack upon Fort Dearborn. It was their plan to 
 surround the settlement, attack first the outlying 
 houses, then sweep in upon the others, destroying 
 them all, even to the very palisades. 
 
 It was one afternoon, just at dusk, that twelve
 
 88 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 Indians came across the prairie, entered the house of 
 a white man named Lee, and sat down in solemn 
 silence. This, of itself, was nothing, for the Indians 
 often came into the houses like this. And, although 
 their manners were not quite like those of white 
 people when making calls, the settlers understood 
 and received them always with hospitality. 
 
 But on this occasion there was something unusual 
 in the behavior of the red men. They said nothing, 
 but sat in grim silence; and in their eyes was a fire 
 that boded evil to the settlement. At least, so two 
 women of the Lee family thought, who, pretending 
 to leave the house to feed the cattle, ferried them- 
 selves across the river and hurried to the Fort. On 
 their way, the two women called to every household, 
 "To the Fort! To the Fort! The Indians! The 
 Indians." 
 
 In one house a woman lay weak and sick. Beside 
 her sat Mrs. Kinzie, when the terrible news reached 
 their ears. Fleeing to her own house, with speed 
 born of the moment of terror, Mrs. Kinzie rushed in
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 89 
 
 upon her household, gasping, "The Indians! The 
 Indians are coming! " 
 
 John Kinzie sat playing with his children about 
 him. Seizing his gun, he rushed out Into the town. 
 Who should go to the rescue of the sick woman and 
 her children ! 
 
 "I will go! " shouted Ensign Konan, "I will go, 
 while you, Kinzie, hurry your people into the Fort 
 and give the signal to all on the outskirts ! " 
 
 Leaping into a boat, with six brave soldiers, 
 Konan rowed up the river, and even under the very 
 eyes of the red men rescued the poor helpless 
 woman and her children, and brought them safely 
 back to the Fort. 
 
 Now the gun was fired the danger signal 
 from the Fort, and every settler on the outskirts, 
 understanding well what it meant, hurried with his 
 family to the Fort. 
 
 The Indians, finding their plot discovered, fell 
 upon the Lee household with most brutal fury. 
 When morning dawned, there lay the ruins of the
 
 90 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 little home; and beside it the dead bodies of two 
 white men. 
 
 ' This is but the beginning," the people said; and 
 every preparation was made for a siege. 
 
 Already the Fort was well supplied with food and 
 ammunition. Orders were issued that no citizen or 
 soldier should leave without a guard, and a line of 
 sentinels was stationed up and down outside the 
 Fort. 
 
 A few nights later, the Indians again crept into 
 the settlement. The signal was given, and a volley 
 of shot was poured upon them from the sentinels 
 at the block-house. With a yell of fury, one Indian 
 hurled his battle-axe towards one of the sentinels, 
 then turned and fled; but in the morning the stains 
 of blood upon the grass showed that the shots had 
 not been fired in vain, though no Indian had fallen 
 dead beneath them. 
 
 Weeks passed by, and no other attack was 
 attempted. Scouts were sent out, but there seemed 
 to be no further sign of trouble. The 'Indians were
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 91 
 
 busy with their farming and their hunting; and once 
 more the settlers ^ent back to their little homes. 
 The Indians came and went as of old, the white men 
 visited their camps, trade was renewed, and peace 
 seemed to have again settled upon the community. 
 
 But there was trouble now at Detroit. General 
 Hull, w^ho was in charge of the American army 
 there, had grave fears for the future. " Go," said 
 he to Winnemac, a friendly Pottawatomie chief, " to 
 Fort Dearborn, and warn Captain Heald of possible 
 danger. Unless his forces and provisions are such 
 that he can stand alone against attack, advise him to 
 retreat to Fort Wayne at once." 
 
 Winnemac set forth, and for days and nights 
 traveled on through the unbroken wilderness. 
 
 It was a most exciting announcement he brought 
 from the east; and all the people from far and near 
 flocked to the block-house to hear. 
 
 War had been declared against England! 
 Another war! And the country had hardly recov- 
 ered from the last. Already Michilimackinac had
 
 o-2 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 fallen! The Indians were allying themselves by 
 thousands to the English! Detroit itself was hard 
 pressed ! 
 
 Serious, indeed, was all this to the little Chicago 
 settlement; for what could so few men, however 
 brave, do, if left without hope of reinforcement ! 
 
 ff If the Fort must be evacuated," said Kinzie, pf let 
 it be done at once, before the report of HnlFs 
 condition reaches the Indians round about us." 
 
 rf General Hull sends orders that all property in 
 the Fort be distributed among the Indians," Avas 
 Captain Heald's evasive answer. 
 
 "Leave all the goods and let the Indians distribute 
 for themselves," said Winnemac. Pf But first take 
 your people to Fort Wayne." 
 
 'That is right," said Ensign Konan, for this 
 fierce, fiery young officer often disapproved of 
 Captain Heald, and seldom failed to express it. 
 
 But to all this Captain Heald made no reply. He 
 sat in sullen silence. 
 
 On the next morning, at roll-call, lie quietly
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. <..; 
 
 announced that the plan of delay, as previously 
 stated by himself, would be carried out. 
 
 r The fool!" growled the impatient Konan. 
 ' ? Does he not know that he is imperiling* the lives 
 of every man of us ! " 
 
 ff Our hold on Indian friendship is too frail for 
 any such c-onfidence in them," said another. 
 
 "Let us go and tell them we are at their mercy," 
 sneered Ronan. 
 
 "I will distribute the goods and offer rewards to 
 our Indian neighbors to escort us in safety to Fort 
 Wayne," was Heald ? s only reply to these 
 remonstrances from his officers. 
 
 "Better stay and risk attack than do that," said 
 one office r bitterly. 
 
 Pf I could not do that, even if it seemed best," said 
 Captain Heald; "for we have no provisions." 
 
 " But, Captain, you have cattle enough to last 
 six months, " cried Kinzie. 
 
 r We have no salt to preserve the meat with," 
 answered Heald.
 
 U4 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 "Jerk it, then, as the Indians do their venison," 
 cried one soldier angrily. 
 
 But Captain Heald was unmoved, and the 
 precious hours for escape flew by. Hardly had the 
 sun risen again before the savages began to show 
 signs of insolence. Even the squaws looked in at 
 the gate- ways and sneered. 
 
 It was three days after Winnemac's arrival before 
 Captain Heald made ready a council with the 
 Indians. The council was held outside the fort 
 upon the parade ground, all the officers being 
 present. 
 
 " If we are not all massacred on the spot, we may 
 count ourselves fortunate," said Ronan ; and indeed 
 a massacre was not improbable, should opportunity 
 occur. The cannons were loaded and turned upon 
 the parade ground ready for use in case of trouble; 
 sentinels were placed on watch ; signals were agreed 
 upon, and Heald and his officers went forth to meet 
 the Indians. 
 
 "It seems best," said Captain Heald to the red
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 95 
 
 men, " to leave this fort and go to Fort Wayne. 
 We want your escort from fort to fort. 'Not only 
 shall you divide among" yourselves all the goods, both 
 in the fort and in the agency house, but on reaching 
 Fort Wayne, you shall receive still greater reward." 
 
 To all this the Indians listened with stolid faces. 
 What they thought no man could tell. But they 
 promised all that Captain Heald asked of them, then 
 went silently back to their own camp. 
 
 "What have you done, Captain, in giving these 
 savages even the ammunition from the agency 
 house ! " cried Kinzie, as soon as the Indians were 
 beyond hearing. f What if they should hear of the 
 fall of Michilimackinac! What if Tecumseh should 
 send messages to them! Do you not see that this 
 ammunition would then be in their hands to use 
 against us?" 
 
 At this Captain Heald seemed to awaken to a 
 sense of possible danger. Ff Perhaps you are right, 
 Kinzie," he, said. 
 
 "Right! too right, I fear!" answered Kinzie.
 
 96 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 r Then we must destroy the ammunition; that is 
 the best we can do now," was all Heald could say. 
 
 The next day the Indians were called together 
 and the goods from the fort distributed. "Come 
 again to-morrow," said Captain Heald, " and yon 
 shall have whatever there is in the agency house." 
 
 'To-day! let ns have it to-day!" clamored the 
 red men. 
 
 Cf Xot to-day;" and Heald sent them away angry 
 and discontented. For the Indians were suspicious. 
 They felt that, in sending them away, the white men 
 meant to deprive them of the contents of the ageney 
 house. 
 
 ' \\ e will watch," said they; and so, as soon as 
 darkness fell, they crept back to the fort. They lay 
 down flat in the grass and squirmed and crawled, 
 serpent-like, close up to the fort. The garrison, 
 too, were very still as still as the Indians them- 
 selves andy they worked in the dark. The 
 Indians, lyink" there in the grass, watched and 
 listened. Thi\ white men weie destroying the
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. U7 
 
 muskets ! And see ! The ammunition ! They were 
 throwing it in the well! The Indians grew wild 
 with anger. Their fierce eyes shone like fire. 
 They clutched at the tall grass and hissed liked 
 snakes. 
 
 But the white 'men were busy and saw nothing. 
 They rolled the casks of fire water out from the 
 store house. Very carefully they rolled them down 
 to the river, and poured the contents over the hank. 
 The fumes of fire water filled the air. It reached 
 the Indians lying in the grass. It was to them like 
 the smell of powder to a war horse. It aroused 
 them to redoubled fury. They hissed and writhed; 
 they muttered and growled and showered curses 
 upon the treacherous white men, who not only were 
 thus attempting to deceive them, but were wasting in 
 the river current cask on cask of precious fire-w r ater. 
 
 They wriggled through the grass up to the river 
 bank. They lapped the soil over which the fire- 
 water had poured; they drank the waters of the 
 river, laden as they were with it. Infuriated, maddened
 
 1)8 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 by the taste of the fire water, these spies crept back 
 to their camp. Half drunk, they staggered into the 
 presence of their chief and told him what they had 
 seen. 
 
 ^ow, as we know, the Pottawatomies had been 
 true to their peace compact with the white men, and 
 even now their chief had hoped to hold back the 
 young warriors of the tribe, who longed for 
 vengeance upon one and all. But when the spies 
 came into the camp smelling of fire-water and telling 
 their tale of treachery, the young warriors would 
 not be held back. They tightened their war belts, 
 seized their tomahawks, and filled the air with 
 threats. 
 
 Early in the morning Black Partridge, one of the 
 braves of the Pottawatomie chiefs, came into the 
 presence of Captain Heald. 
 
 ' f l come," he said, r to bring you this medal. 
 You gave it to me, and I have worn it as a pledge 
 of friendship to your people. But now my warriors 
 are angry with you. You have deceived them. I
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 99 
 
 cannot restrain them. The tribe vows vengeance 
 upon you; therefore I return the medal." 
 
 Black Partridge laid down the medal, and 
 silently turned and went out from the Fort. 
 
 Xot a man in the Fort spoke. Captain Heald 
 bowed his head in sorrow. What should they do? 
 Only one box of cartridges and twenty-five rounds 
 of ammunition had been reserved from the general 
 destruction, and little would this avail against an 
 attack from the Pottawatomies. 
 
 But already, though the garrison knew it not, aid 
 was near at hand. In the family of Captain Heald 
 was a white man who had been brought up among 
 the Indians. He had been captured by them when 
 a lad of thirteen years, and had been adopted into 
 the family of Little Turtle, a chief of character as 
 true and noble as that of Black Partridge. 
 
 Little Turtle loved the white boy; and while he 
 taught him to live the life of an Indian warrior, he 
 taught him to despise meanness and cowardice and 
 treachery.
 
 100 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 Now Little Turtle was a brave and daring chief; 
 and when the boy watched him, foremost always in 
 honorable battle, straightforward, upright, kindly in 
 his dealings with both friend and foe, he learned 
 many a lesson of truest heroism from his half-savage 
 friend and foster-father. 
 
 In that battle in which St. Clair fell, this man - 
 William Wayne Wells stood and fought with his 
 red men his adopted people in the foremost 
 ranks, till the dead bodies of the American artillery- 
 men lay heaped around him like a barricade, shield- 
 ing him from the bullets that poured in upon his 
 people. No man, red or white, ever fought more 
 valiantly, more bravely, more desperately for the 
 cause he thought to be right. 
 
 But when this battle was over, and Wells lay in 
 his wigwam alone and thought upon the great con- 
 flict between the white men and the red, he foresaw 
 what the end must be. He realized the superiority 
 of the white men; he knew their cause must win; 
 and he knew, too, that it was right and best both
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS, 101 
 
 for the country and all mankind that it should win. 
 So he went to Little Turtle and tolct him all that 
 he thought; for to desert his adopted people 
 unfairly and without the full consent of Little 
 Turtle, his straightforward soul would never have 
 permitted him to do. All night long Little Turtle 
 and his adopted son talked of- their past and their 
 possible future. All that was in his heart to tell, 
 Wells told to his good friend. 
 
 And in the end, Little Turtle grasped the young 
 man's hand and said; '' Go, my son, and do whatever 
 the Good Spirit bids yon; for it is He that speaks 
 to us and tells us what is right for each of us to do." 
 
 And so it was that Wells, who had lived so many 
 years with the Indians, and who loved his adopted 
 people as his own, went out from the camp of Little 
 Turtle and joined himself with the white forces 
 under the command of General Wayne. This was 
 during the revolution in 1794; and in the battles that 
 followed his bravery made for himself a name that 
 America will never forget.
 
 102 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 But now again the Indian war whoop was ringing 
 through the forest; again the white men and the red 
 men were at war. From Fort Wayne news reached 
 Wells of the danger at Fort Dearborn. 
 
 ' The Healds are of my own family," he said to 
 himself; "and even if they were not, I would go to 
 their rescue in a time like this." 
 
 With fifteen Miamis he hastened to relieve the 
 unfortunate garrison. 
 
 Never was reinforcement more welcome. For 
 despair had settled down upon the little garrison, 
 brave as it was. It was, of course, too late to 
 defend the Fort. There was nothing for them to do 
 but march out from it, assuming a courage that they 
 had not, and, in the face of the Pottawatomies, angry 
 and revengeful as they were, make a bold retreat 
 toward Fort Wayne. 
 
 ''First of all, go to sleep," said Wells to the worn- 
 out garrison; "I will keep watch. You will need 
 your strength, may be, to-morrow." 
 
 Early in the morning, August 15, 1812, the troops
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 103 
 
 were ready. At nine o'clock they were to march 
 out. At daybreak a friendly Indian came rushing 
 into the Fort. ff Mr. Kinzie," he whispered, ff The 
 Pottawatonries are ready for an attack. Conic with 
 me you and your family and I will carry yon to 
 Fort Wayne by boat." 
 
 f Go, v said Kinzie to his wife and children; 
 ff but I will inarch. The Pottawatomies have been 
 friendly with me; it may be I can hold them, even 
 now, in check/' 
 
 But hardly had the boat reached the mouth of the 
 river, when another messenger came running. 
 * f Stay here! Stay here!'' he shouted to the boat- 
 man; then ran back toward the Fort. 
 
 There, at the mouth of the river, Mrs. Kinzie, 
 claspinp- both her frightened children in her arms, 
 waited. Out from the Fort the troops inarched 
 before the wagons containing the women and 
 children. The mournful notes of the Dead March 
 floated down the waters. Wells, his face blackened, 
 as was the custom of his adopted tribe, marched
 
 104 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 along at the head of his little band of Miamis, 
 followed by the escort of about five hundred 
 Pottawatomies, their faces set, but with no sign thus 
 far of evil design. 
 
 All together they marched along the shore, until 
 they came to a line of sand dunes stretching 
 between the beach and the prairie. Here the com- 
 pany separated; for the Pottawatomies now turned 
 towards the prairie, instead of keeping along the 
 shore line with the troops and Miamis. ' 
 
 r What does that mean?*' said Kinzie quicklv. 
 ? We may be sure these red men do nothing without 
 a meaning." 
 
 Meantime, Wells, riding ahead, was watching 
 closely. Suddenly, with a whoop, he turned his 
 horse back upon the troops. 
 
 ''The attack! the attack !" he shouted. " They 
 are ready! Charge upon them! Charge!" 
 
 And almost before the words were said, out there 
 burst from the sand hills a volley of shot. 
 
 Another instant, and the troops charged upon
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 105 
 
 the bank and poured a deadly volley upon the 
 crouching savages. 
 
 At the sound of the first shot, Wells' fifteen 
 Mianiis, panic stricken, fled. Straight up into the 
 face of the chief of the Pottawatomies, Wells rod<\ 
 brandishing his tomahawk and shouting in tones 
 that rolled like thunder above the noise of battle: 
 
 -You are cowards! You have played a trick 
 upon us! But I will come back! I will punish yon 
 for your treachery, even as the Great Spirit 
 always punishes cowards and unfair warriors!" 
 
 And before even a rifle could be raised against 
 him, Wells turned and galloped across the prairie 
 in pursuit of his Mianiis. 
 
 Hand to hand, man to man, the savages and the 
 troops fought, drawing each other back and forth 
 across the dunes. Five hundred savages, and a 
 mere handful of troops to hold them back! 
 
 Ensign Ronan, one of the first to fall, staggered 
 foward and fought till exhausted. Then the red 
 men pressed through and fell upon the wagons.
 
 HH; 
 
 BLACK PARTRIDGE SAVES MUS. HELM.
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 107 
 
 One savage, with a howl like that of a beast, seized 
 the wife of Helm and dragged her to the ground. She 
 wrenched herself from his grasp, but his tomahawk 
 fell upon her shoulder. Springing to her feet, 
 strong in her agony of pain, she seized the Indian 
 by the arm and hurled the scalping knife from his 
 hand. 
 
 Just then, another savage seized upon her; and, 
 dragging her to the lake, plunged her into the water 
 and held her there. 
 
 rf lt is you! You! Black Partridge!" gasped Mrs. 
 Helm; for indeed it was Black Partridge, and it 
 was in this way that he had rescued her from the 
 tomahawk of the enraged Indian. 
 
 It was a brief, hard struggle; bravely though the 
 white men fought, with five hundred desperate, 
 maddened savages against them, there could be but 
 one end. By twos and threes, the white men fell 
 beneath the tomahawks and scalping knives of the 
 savage foe. 
 
 Hardly a third of the little band was now alive;
 
 108 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 and these, knowing" the hopelessness of their 
 struggle, surrendered on condition that the women 
 and children, such as were not already slain, should 
 be unmolested. 
 
 "When the firing ceased, Black Partridge dragged 
 Mrs. Helm forth from the water, and placing her 
 upon a horse, led her away captive. By her side 
 walked a savage, from whose belt hung the scalp of 
 the brave Wells, who had fallen fighting most 
 bravely. 
 
 Fainting, the captive woman sank upon the 
 ground before the wigwam of the chief, Wau-bee- 
 nee-mah. 
 
 But already the plunder of the Fort had begun. 
 The cattle had been shot down, and now lay dead 
 and dying upon the ground among the men who 
 had fought so desperately. And, although the 
 savages had promised to spare the women and 
 children and also the few remaining troops, they 
 seemed to think their promise did not include those 
 already wounded. These they seized upon as if
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 109 
 
 to vent their fury; nor did they cense until every 
 man, woman and child lay dead before them. 
 
 All this time the family of Mr. Kinzie sat in the 
 boat at the mouth of the river, unharmed. 
 
 "Harm not the wife of the Shaw-nee-aw-kee," 
 Black Partridge had commanded before the battle 
 had begun; and this command the savages had not 
 forgotten, even in the fiercest of the fight. 
 
 In the boat, terribly wounded, covered with a 
 great robe of buffalo, lay the wife of Captain Heald, 
 who had been rescued by the boatman and hidden 
 there. 
 
 By and by, there was once more quiet upon the 
 prairie. The savages had wreaked their vengeance; 
 and there was no further horror left for them to do. 
 
 The Kinzie family was carried back to the old 
 Kinzie home, while the other captives lay bound in 
 the wigwams of the red men. Here the Kin/ies 
 remained, guarded by a few friendly Indians, who 
 meant to escort them back to Detroit. 
 
 Black Partridge himself stood guard over the
 
 110 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 cottage; and it was well, perhaps, that lie did so, for 
 the next morning there came hurrying in upon the 
 scene more Indians, and from another and fiercer 
 tribe. These, hearing of the intended attack, had 
 come from the Wabash simply to take their part in a 
 possible battle against white men, whom, one and 
 all, they hated. 
 
 Thirsting for bloodshed, they rushed in upon the 
 scene, only to find themselves too late. The battle 
 w T as over, the spoils divided, and the scalps all 
 taken. Only the Kinzie family seemed to them 
 available, and these they reckoned at once as their 
 prey. And so, blackening their faces, they crept 
 toward the little cottage. Entering, they seated 
 themselves upon the floor in sullen silence. Even 
 Black Partridge felt there was little hope; for he 
 well understood the meaning of the savages. 
 
 Just then a friendly whoop was heard outside. 
 
 f 'Who are you?" shouted Black Partridge; for 
 canoes were moored to the river bank and red men 
 were landing just outside.
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. Ill 
 
 " I am a man," answered the leader among them. 
 r? A man like yourself." 
 
 "But who are you?" shouted Black Partridge, 
 meaning and the man upon the bank understood 
 whose friend are you? 
 
 "I am the Sau-ga-nash ! " answered the man from 
 the bank. 
 
 'Then come quick! your friend is in danger!" 
 for he was a half breed; and when he said, "I am 
 the Sau-ga-nash," he meant, " I am an English- 
 man." Had he said, "I am a Pottawatomie," no 
 one would have known better than Black Partridge 
 himself that all hope of saving the Kinzies was at 
 an end. 
 
 With all speed the Sau-ga-nash hurried up to the 
 cottage. In an instant he took in the situation. 
 
 "Well, well, good friends!" he said to the 
 savages, "glad am I to see you. They told me 
 there were enemies here! Strange! and your faces 
 blackened! Why is that? Ah, but T know. It is 
 that you mourn for friends that have fallen in battle.
 
 
 
 TAISLKT TO ( OilMKMOUATK FUKT DEABOUN MAS^ACRK, 
 J'l.ACKD 0V I'.ril ]>IN<. IN CHICAfJO OV T1IK SITK OF O1,l FORT DF.AIiOUN'.
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. M :] 
 
 "Or, perhaps, you are hungry. If yon are, ask 
 for food from Mr. Kinzie. He is the Indian's friend. 
 Never yet did an Indian go away from his door 
 fttogry." 
 
 By this time the savages were confused and 
 ashamed. They dared not tell why they had come; 
 and so, to save themselves, they said; ff Tt is as you 
 say, we mourn the death of friends; we come to 
 ask for white cotton in which to roll them for 
 burial." 
 
 'You shall rme it," said Kinzie; and loading 
 them down with all the house could afford, he sent 
 them away crestfallen, but not suspecting that they 
 had been outwitted by the Sau-ga-nash. 
 
 On the third day, the Kinzie family was con- 
 ducted to St. Joseph, and a few months later they 
 returned to Detroit. 
 
 Sick and wounded, Captain and Mrs. lleald had 
 already been sent to St. Joseph as prisoners of war. 
 Mrs. Helm, too, was finally sent to Canada as 
 prisoner of war.
 
 114 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 The soldiers and their families, the few who had 
 survived the cruel slaughter, were scattered up and 
 down the country among the different villages of the 
 Pottawatomies; but, after a time, all these were 
 taken to Detroit and ransomed. 
 
 So fell Fort Dearborn; and for a time it seemed, 
 indeed, as if the end of the story of Chicago had 
 come. For who then could see into the future? 
 AVho then could prophesy that from these ruins the 
 city should rise again rise, and grow, and become, 
 as it already has become, the foremost city in the 
 country ? 
 

 
 FORT WAYNE AND FORT HARRISON. 
 
 Meantime the forts at Michilimackinac and at 
 Detroit had fallen into the hands of the British and 
 their Indian allies. Not for one day had Tecumseh 
 rested ; not one opportunity had he lost to spur his 
 people on and to turn them against the settlers. 
 
 The British general, Brock, looked upon Tecum- 
 seh as the hero of the hour. He knew full well, and 
 readily acknowledged it, that very much of the 
 British success was due to this chiefs tireless 
 energy and unceasing labor among his own people.
 
 116 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 Teeumseh had accomplished all that he meant 
 to do; the three stations were destroyed, and the 
 future of the Northwest seemed hopeless. It seemed 
 as if once more the territory must fall back into the 
 possession of the savages. 
 
 Teeumseh was jubilant. British honors were 
 showered upon him. Still he cared little for that ; 
 for, be it said to this chiefs credit, he did what lie 
 did from honest love of his own people and for the 
 protection of what he truly believed to be their 
 rights. 
 
 With the fall of Michilimackinac, Detroit, and 
 Dearborn, his spirits rose, his courage increased. 
 Surely the Great Spirit was with him; the good 
 manittos were helping; else such grand success 
 could never have been his. 
 
 All this the prophet told the red men; and 
 spurred on by success and the assurance of the 
 Great Spirit's approval, they rose again at 
 Tecumseh's call and gathered their forces for 
 another campaign.
 
 STOKIKS OF ILLIN10S. 117 
 
 It was the plan of General Brock this time to 
 carry war into the heart of the "Northwest. 
 
 There were still Fort Wayne and Fort Harrison; 
 and these must be taken. " We must destroy these 
 as we destroyed Fort Dearborn/' General Brock 
 said; and Tecnmseh was ready with his help and 
 hearty approval. 
 
 This was not altogether an easy task; for the 
 British, strangers as they were in the territory, 
 knew nothing of distance. The rivers were all un- 
 known to them; and without the guidance of the 
 savages, an attempt to attack these forts would have 
 been most perilous. 
 
 Tecumseh knew the country well; and was ready 
 to map out, in his own crude way, the rivers and the 
 route. 
 
 With this as a guide, General Brock laid out his 
 plan, and at once the campaign was opened. 
 
 Fort Wayne was to be attacked first. There was 
 no time to be lost, lest the Americans should 
 re-enforce the place, knowing as they must that
 
 113 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 Fort Wayne and Harrison would not long be left 
 unmolested by the British. 
 
 The savages then were sent ahead, since they 
 could march more rapidly, with directions to sur- 
 round the fort and see that re-enforcements were 
 not received; neither was the garrison to be allowed 
 opportunity for escape. 
 
 Of the several tribes who joined in this enterprise, 
 none were more eager than the Pottawatomies. 
 Little had they ever suffered from the settlers; and 
 until the coming of Tecumseh, none had been more 
 friendly to the white men or more contented with 
 their relations. 
 
 But now the savage in them was aroused ; their 
 success at Fort Dearborn had whetted their savage 
 appetites and made them impatient for more blood- 
 shed. 
 
 Upon their eagerness General Brock looked with 
 satisfaction. He could afford to be generous. So 
 he said to their chief, ' If you succeed in this, the 
 entire contents of the fort shall be vours."
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 119 
 
 At this the tribe rang out a chorus of approving" 
 whoops, flourished their tomahawks, and made ready 
 for the onslaught. 
 
 In only a few days the Shawanese, the Miamis, 
 and the Pottawatomies appeared .before the fort. 
 It was never the Indian custom to make a bold 
 and open attack; and so, true to their tribal tradi- 
 tions, they scattered themselves in the forests round 
 about, hid themselves in the grasses, and watched 
 their chances for catching sentinels off guard or for 
 sneaking in unseen through gates. 
 
 While these tribes lay in wait at Foil Wayne, 
 another band of savages fell upon Fort Harrison. 
 First a little settlement outside the fort was 
 attacked, and twenty people slain. Then, with 
 twenty scalps dangling from their belts, the savages 
 pressed on close up to the fort. 
 
 Young Captain Taylor, afterward President of 
 the United States, was in command, with a little 
 garrison of only eighteen men. 
 
 All day and all night the little band lay in dread
 
 ATTACKING KOIM II A UK ISO v
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 121 
 
 suspense, for the forests were alive with savages. 
 Towards morning, the report of a rifle brought 
 every man to the barricades. The foe were skulk- 
 ing outside, and a few shots had already entered the 
 fort. Then the blockhouse was fired; and at the 
 same time, so that the attention of the little garrison 
 should be distracted, shots poured in thick and fast. 
 
 ff Oft with the roof! " shouted Captain Taylor. 
 " Off with the roof! " 
 
 At this, two men, panic stricken, jumped the walls 
 and fled to the forest; thus the little garrison was 
 reduced' to only sixteen. 
 
 ff Each man must be as brave as ten ! " said Taylor. 
 ' There are women here, and children, who need 
 our protection." 
 
 Above the din of battle the captain's voice rang 
 out; and every man heard and obeyed. 
 
 Quick and fast these sixteen, men loaded and re- 
 loaded, and the savages were kept at bay. When the 
 sun rose, they withdrew; and, although another 
 attack was sure to come, the brave garrison
 
 122 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 was given time to rest and prepare for stronger 
 defence. 
 
 In the midst of all this a messenger crept through 
 the Indian lines and made his way to General 
 Harrison. Without a moment's waiting, Colonel 
 Hopkins, at the General's command, started out at 
 the head of twelve hundred volunteers for Fort 
 Harrison. Never was help more welcome. A hard, 
 quick march was made, the Indians dispersed, and 
 the army marched in upon the brave sixteen, w r ho 
 welcomed them with as joyous cheers as sixteen 
 men so worn and exhausted could raise. 
 
 But all this time the savages about Fort Wayne 
 were busy. They made no direct attack, for they 
 waited the arrival of other tribes. They even made 
 pretense now and then at friendship. Old Chief 
 Winnemac, once the white man's friend, was now 
 the leading spirit in the treachery. 
 
 It was their plan to gain admittance a few of 
 them to the fort, overpower the sentinels, open 
 the gates, raise a whoop, and thus signal the tribes
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 123 
 
 outside. These, listening and ready, were then to 
 rush in, and so the fort was to be captured. 
 
 Once Winnemac, under a white flag, was admitted 
 with a band of comrades. But he found the guard 
 drawn up inside, rifles in hand, and ready to charge. 
 
 He saw that his trick was understood. Then, 
 making some excuse, which no one failed to inter- 
 pret, he crept out from the fort, unharmed, because 
 protected by the flag under which he himself had 
 proved such a traitor. 
 
 For two days more the siege went on. Messages 
 had been sent to General Harrison; but no one 
 within the fort could know whether or not the 
 messengers had succeeded in passing alive beyond 
 the Indian lines. 
 
 That the savages were expecting reinforcements, 
 was evident; and so both waited the besieged and 
 the besiegers. 
 
 One morning, a shout of triumph and a thunder- 
 ing at the great gateway brought the little garrison 
 of eighty men to their feet.
 
 1-24 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 Had help come? They looked out. No army 
 was in sight! 
 
 w Who is it?" the sentinel called. 
 
 "Open! It is I! Oliver." 
 
 Then the gate, was drawn back, and William 
 Oliver, the garrison's old sutler, accompanied by 
 three friendly Indians, rode in. 
 
 rp Harrison is on his way!" he cried, as soon as 
 the gate was closed. rf I was at Cincinnati when 
 your messenger came in. We hurried ahead to tell 
 yon that help is coming!" 
 
 Brave William Oliver! For it had been no simple 
 risk to dash in through the horde of savages that 
 lay outside ! 
 
 ff Harrison is on his way!" This was welcome 
 news; and every one of the eighty felt his courage 
 rise. rf Even though the savage reinforcements 
 arrive, we can hold out twelve hours," they 
 thought. And surely Harrison will reach the fort 
 in that time. 
 
 On the next day Harrison did arrive, with two
 
 STOUIES OF ILLINOIS. 125 
 
 thousand Kentucky troops and seven hundred Ohio 
 volunteers! And at sight of him the savages, with- 
 out a single attempt at battle, fled to the forest. 
 For miles they ran, pursued by a few of Harrison's 
 horsemen. Not once did they turn or attempt to 
 give battle. On, on, like the cowards they were, 
 they ran, scattering in all directions. 
 
 So the siege of Fort Wayne was lifted; and once 
 more the little garrison was safe.
 
 Far less successful had this eain])aign been thai 
 the first, in which Detroit, Michilimackinac, anc 
 Dearborn had fallen. 
 
 Still the British were not discouraged. On the 
 contrary, with greater vigor than before, the) 
 planned a third campaign. 
 
 Even yet Tecumseh hoped to establish a boundary 
 between his own and the white men's countries, one 
 over which the whites should pledge themselves 
 never to encroach. 
 
 In Tecumseh the British still hoped. The\ 
 looked upon him as their strong ally --the one red 
 
 126
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 127 
 
 man who had power to sway his people and bring 
 them into co-operation with the British. 
 
 It was to Harrison, however, that the Americans 
 turned their faces. On his way to Fort Wayne, 
 messengers had overtaken him, bringing him his 
 appointment of Commander-in-chief of all the forces 
 in the Northwest. 
 
 With a force of ten thousand men Harrison set at 
 once to work. First of all he meant to provide 
 protection for the frontier. Next, he prepared to 
 march in and recapture Detroit, and so reclaim 
 Michigan. Nor was this all. Detroit retaken, he 
 then proposed to invade Canada. 
 
 A magnificent plan! Yes, and western heroism 
 and patriotism were fired. Volunteers were impa- 
 tient to join the army, for Harrison was a born 
 commander. 
 
 All this meant endless labor, untiring zeal. First, 
 there was the soil rich, black, oozing, then as now. 
 But with no roads, and in a vast uncultivated region, 
 it was a terror to the army with its heavy machinery 
 of war.
 
 128 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 Still, at Harrison's call, the divisions came, wading 
 often through the black marshes, knee-deep in mud, 
 mid often sinking in the treacherous swamps. 
 
 First of all came the terrible defeat and massacre 
 on the River Raisin. Then Harrison built Fort 
 Meigs, where, hemmed in by mud blockades, he 
 remained even until the British General Proctor, 
 with Tecumseh himself as aid, took up his position 
 before the fort and opened fire. 
 
 As we have read in our histories, this was a hard 
 battle; but in the end Harrison was victorious and 
 Proctor withdrew, although he had with him 
 eighteen hundred Indians more than Tecumseh 
 had before commanded at any one time. 
 
 Following close upon this, came the siege of Fort 
 Stephenson, in which the Americans were again 
 grandly successful. 
 
 Then the cry, ff On to Maiden! " the grand battle 
 on the lakes, Perry's victory, and finally the battle 
 of the Thames, in which Tecumseh himself fell, and 
 the war of 1812 came virtually to an end.
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 129 
 
 During all this time the Kinzies were living in 
 Detroit held by the British and watched, as a man 
 so patriotic had need to be watched, by his British 
 prison keeper. 
 
 One day General Proctor became suspicions that 
 Kinzie might be in correspondence with Harrison. 
 
 f We must shut the man up," said Proctor to 
 Lieutenant Watson. 
 
 So Watson went to Kinzie, telling him that Proc- 
 tor wished to see him on the opposite side of the river. 
 
 Kinzie, suspecting nothing, crossed the river; 
 only to find himself a prisoner and under guard. 
 
 Hours passed, and Kinzie did not return. ?f Some- 
 thing is wrong," said Mrs. Kinzie; and she called a 
 friendly Indian chief one who, in all the changes 
 of conditions, had remained true to Kinzie and 
 told him her fears. 
 
 rr We will see," said the chief. And, with a little 
 band of friends, he set out for the house of the 
 commanding officer. 
 
 To avoid trouble Kinzie was released, and his
 
 1JO 
 
 KKNZIK SKK.S THE BATTUE*
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 131 
 
 Indian friends, carried him back to his old station in 
 triumph. But in a day or two Proctor sent 
 dragoons and they arrested him again. 
 
 r Where is Shaw-nee-aw-kee?." again the Indians 
 asked. 
 
 f There ! " said Mrs. Kinzie, r ' taken prisoner by 
 the Red Coats!" 
 
 Without one word, the Indians ran down the 
 river, seized their canoes, and rowed across. 
 
 It is not recorded what they said; but again 
 Proctor released Kinzie and the Indians carried him 
 back a second time to Mrs. Kinzie. 
 
 A few days later he was again seized upon, and 
 this time was carried to the prison at Fort Maiden, 
 at the mouth of the river. Here he was a prisoner, 
 when Perry's victory took place. 
 
 He was out in the^ prison court when the first 
 sound of cannon rolled down across the waters. 
 What could it mean! Soon the battle was on, and 
 both Kinzie and his prison keeper watched with 
 breathless eagerness.
 
 132 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 ff It is time for you to go back to your cell, sir," 
 said an officer. 
 
 rt Never mind! Wait! Let me see how the battle 
 goes ! " cried Kinzie. 
 
 Just then a sloop rounded the point. Pressing- 
 close upon her were two gun boats. 
 
 "What is that! She runs! The British colors! 
 See! she is lowering them! Hurrah! Yes, Sir 
 Officer, I am ready to go back to my cell. I have 
 seen how the battle has gone ! " 
 
 For the sloop was the " Little Belt " the very 
 last one of the British squadron that fell that day 
 before the gallant Perry.
 
 And now the war was over, the English were 
 driven out, and the Indian confederations broken. 
 The attention of American people was again turned 
 towards the Northwest as a future home for the 
 rapidly growing nation. 
 
 During the war much had been learned of its rich 
 soil, its vast prairies, its timber lands, and its 
 navigation resources, that might not have been 
 
 133
 
 134 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 revealed in a century to' come had not attention 
 been forced upon it. 
 
 All these glorious conditions began now to be 
 talked about. The government was roused to 
 interest; families began to migrate by tens and 
 hundreds. The pioneer spirit was awake. 
 
 The chain of Great Lakes grew rapidly in the 
 people's recognition of their importance. The Ohio, 
 until now the only westward commercial route, found 
 itself challenged by a rival. 
 
 And with all this renewal of interest, we may be 
 sure the "Portage of Chicago " was not forgotten. 
 Indeed, towards this were all eyes turned; in it was 
 recognized the future centre of the western home 
 life and commerce. 
 
 As early as 1814, President Madison, in his 
 message to Congress, recommended that it give due 
 attention to the importance of a ship canal connect- 
 ing Lake Michigan with the Illinois by way of 
 Chicago. This good advice the War Department 
 readily recognized, and Captain Hezekiah Bradley
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 135 
 
 was sent to rebuild and re-establish Fort Dear- 
 born. 
 
 With two companies of men he set out and, as it 
 happened, again on J'uly 4, just thirteen years from 
 the day Captain Whistler had sailed with his ^ great 
 white bird" up to the portage, this man landed to 
 rebuild the old fort. 
 
 Great changes had taken place since that sunny 
 day thirteen years before, when Whistler arrived 
 and the natives hurried down, amazed and pleased, 
 to see the white men and the white bird. 
 
 Here stood the little Kinzie house, almost 
 unharmed, and near it lay the ruins of the old fort; 
 and there, a little way up the river, in the stubble 
 and bunch grass, lay the whitened and weather- 
 beaten bones of the brave martyrs, slaughtered that 
 day when the savages fell upon the little band they 
 had promised to protect. 
 
 Captain Bradley and his men thought of all these 
 things when again they landed upon the spot that 
 had seen such suffering a few years since.
 
 136 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 Bat these men were brave and energetic, too; and 
 they set to work at once to build a new fort 
 upon the site of the old one. This new fort 
 consisted of a strong block-house and barracks for 
 the soldiers the whole enclosed, as before, in 
 strong high palisades. 
 
 Hardly was the fort finished and the place 
 protected, when John Kinzie came back with his 
 family again to make himself Chicago's first 
 citizen. He had been told that, out of love for him 
 the Indians had allowed his home to stand, but 
 even he hardly expected to find it in so good a 
 condition. 
 
 But there it stood even the vines about the 
 porch still climbing roofward just as it had been 
 in those other days when these same people dwelt 
 there so happily and peacefully. 
 
 "People said we were foolhardy to come back," 
 Kinzie used to say; "and perhaps we were. But 
 we loved our little home on the river, and we wanted 
 to get back to it; so we came."
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 137 
 
 But Northwest history was making rapidly in these 
 days; and in this very year a treaty was made with 
 the Ottawas, Cbippewas, and Pottawatomies. This 
 treaty all the chiefs and warriors signed, Black 
 Partridge's name leading all the rest. 
 
 It was most necessary that this strip of land 
 be secured for a future military road, when the 
 time should come for the building of the ship canal. 
 
 But the surveying was not done exactly as we 
 might, perhaps, wish. Lines did not always meet, 
 and so we have in our maps of Illinois even to this 
 day a monument to the Indian Treaty, in the 
 diagonal offsets and the triangular wedges that are 
 to be seen along the lines that bound and separate 
 our beautiful townships and counties. 
 
 The new colony at Fort Dearborn prospered, how- 
 ever; encouraged by the Kinzie family's bravery, 
 people began to come again; the block-house itself 
 was rebuilt; a large parade ground was laid out; a 
 magazine was constructed; and a great field planted 
 with corn and other vegetables.
 
 13 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 * 
 
 Communications were opened with the several 
 little settlements in southern Illinois, and boats ran 
 up and down the south branch of the Chicago River, 
 Mud Lake, the Desplaines, and Illinois, bringing 
 supplies to the fort. 
 
 Pioneers were coming fast; and in the very next 
 year 1818 the territory sent its first delegate to 
 Congress, and Nathaniel Pope applied for and was 
 granted the admission of the territory as a state 
 the State of Illinois ! 
 
 There were very few settlements in the northern 
 part of the state at that time; but Congressman 
 Pope was far sighted and most wise. 
 
 The northern boundary line was due west from 
 the southern point of Lake Michigan. 
 
 This, of course, did not include the portage of 
 Chicago. 
 
 ' We must have Chicago in Illinois," Pope firmly 
 declared. "It will be a great centre by and by. 
 Why should not Illinois have the glory? " 
 
 And so he set to work to have the boundary
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. i 3<) 
 
 changed. He wrote his reasons most clearly and 
 laid them before Congress. 
 
 Congress accepted the change; and there has not 
 been an epoch in our history since but has shown 
 how wise and far-sighted an act this was on the part 
 of Illinois' first Congressman.
 
 The Northwest was rapidly becoming populated. 
 Wars were over; our territory was secure; the East 
 was becoming crowded; rumors of the wonderful 
 country and its great advantages were spreading 
 , up and down the Atlantic coast, and not only men 
 for business purposes alone, but whole families - 
 sometimes whole neighborhoods were coming out 
 across the prairies. 
 
 140
 
 STORIES OF ILLINIOS. 141 
 
 The country along the eastern coast of Lake 
 Michigan still belonged to the Pottawatomies, the 
 Ottawa*, and the Chippewas. The white people 
 were, however, crowding close upon them, and the 
 time came when both Indians and white men were 
 glad to make a treaty that should make them both 
 feel more secure. 
 
 It was in 1821 and at Chicago that this treaty 
 was made. Lewis Cass, the Governor -of Michigan 
 represented the white men, and Metea, a Potta- 
 watomie Chief, represented the red men. 
 
 One of our greatest authorities on Ihdian affairs 
 was Henry Schoolcraft. He had travelled among the 
 Indians, had studied them, learned their Languages, 
 their legends, their manners and customs. At the 
 time of this treaty Henry Schoolcraft was the Indian 
 Agent for the United States and was located in this 
 section. He was present at the treaty gathering, 
 and because he wrote it out as no one else could 
 write it so vigorously, so truthfully, so intelligently 
 why may we not read the story in his own words?
 
 142 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 f To accommodate the numerous delegation which 
 gathered at Chicago at this council, great prepara- 
 tions had to be made at the expense of the 
 government. Rations must be issued, not only to 
 the chiefs who took part in the deliberations, but to 
 all who came' as spectators to grunt out gutteral 
 approbation to the various speeches to be made. 
 
 'These numbered over three thousand; they had 
 wearily toiled around the southern extremity of 
 Lake Michigan, and reached Chicago with a keen 
 relish for the 'mess of pottage' for which their 
 birthright was to be sold, and he who would deny 
 this poor pittance to them ought to be branded with 
 anathema. The northern bank of the river immedi- 
 ately opposite the fort was the spot selected for the 
 council, within range of its , guns perhaps as a 
 measure of caution. In the centre of the grounds 
 an open bower was erected, with rustic seats for the 
 chiefs. Two or three days were taken up in 
 formalities essential to the etiquette of Indian 
 customs in all important negotiations, and the
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 143 
 
 council was opened by a speech from Governor 
 Cass, setting forth the objects of the convention, in 
 which the politic orator emphasized his words 
 describing the benefits resulting to the Indians 
 through the money and goods they were to get for 
 Iheir lands, and, after reminding them that their 
 country was now nearly destitute of game, formally 
 proposed to buy it, generously offering to let them 
 still retain portions of it till wanted for settle- 
 ments, although they were receiving annuities for 
 the same. 
 
 "A short pause ensued after the respectful atten- 
 tion which the Indians had given to this speech, and 
 then after two days' consideration, Metea replied to 
 it in his happiest vein of oratory. The following 
 are extracts from it. 
 
 ' ' My Father, our country was given to us by the 
 Great Spirit, who gave it to us to hunt upon, to 
 make our corn fields upon, and to live upon, and to 
 make our beds upon when we die; and he would 
 never forgive us should we now bargain it away.
 
 144 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 When you first spoke to us of the lands of the St. 
 Marys, we said we had a little, and agreed to sell 
 you a piece of it; but we told you we could spare 
 no more. Now you ask us again. You 'a re never 
 satisfied! We have sold you a great tract of land 
 already; but it is not enough! We sold it to you 
 for the benefit of your children, to farm and to live 
 upon. We shall want it all for ourselves. We 
 know not how long we may live, and we wish to 
 leave some lands for our children to hunt upon. 
 You are gradually taking away our hunting grounds. 
 We are growing uneasy. What lands you have 
 you may retain, but we shall sell no more. You 
 think perhaps I speak in passion, but my heart is 
 good towards you. AVe have now told you what we 
 had to say. It is what was determined on in a 
 council among ourselves; and what I have spoken 
 is the voice of my nation. But do not think we 
 have a bad opinion of you. We speak to you with 
 a good heart, and the feelings of a friend.' 
 
 "Governor Cass replied to this speech, indulging
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. Ho 
 
 in soft words not unjustly applied, as due in the 
 main to the honor and good faith of the Indians, to 
 which various Indian chiefs replied in the usual 
 style of Indian oratory. John Kinzie also made a 
 speech, in which he refuted a charge of non-fulfill- 
 ment of treaty obligations on the part of the United 
 States. These deliberations lasted till the 23rd, 
 pending which no one doubted, either white or 
 Indians, that the latter would come to the terms 
 required of them and sell their lands, but no signs 
 of yielding were yet manifest in the impenetrable 
 countenances of the chiefs, as the council was closed 
 on this day by one of the chiefs, who said : 
 
 f My Father, it is late; I shall do no more to-day; 
 but to-morrow you shall hear our final council. 
 You are hungry by this time. You white men eat 
 at certain fixed hours; we Indians do what we have 
 to do and eat when it is convenient. ' 
 
 " The deliberations lasted till the 29th, when the 
 treaty was signed by both parties. 
 
 w The Indians made a cession of their land in
 
 146 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 Michigan, amounting to over five million acres, for 
 which the Pottawatomies were to receive an annuity 
 of five thousand dollars per annum for twenty years, 
 in specie, and the sum of one thousand dollars 
 expended annually among them during the time to 
 support a blacksmith and a teacher. The right to 
 immediately construct roads through the territory 
 ceded, connecting Detroit, Fort Wayne, and 
 Chicago, was also guaranteed. 
 
 f The Ottawas were to receive a perpetual annuity 
 of one thousand dollars, and for ten years the sum 
 of fifteen hundred dollars expended annually to 
 furnish them a blacksmith and a teacher." 
 
 This was, of course, a great gain, both in territory 
 and in security to the white people, and it gave, too, 
 a great impetus to immigration. Still we must 
 remember life was very crude and simple here, even 
 then, in 1821. 
 
 The garrison and the few citizens of the place 
 amused themselves with hunting and fishing. Sup- 
 plies were obtained from Detroit by a sailing vessel
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 147 
 
 in her annual trip, or from Southern Illinois, up the 
 Illinois and Desplaines rivers, to this then obscure 
 port, environed as it was by a hundred miles of 
 wilderness. 
 
 Colonel Childs, of La Crosses once wrote of the 
 country at this time: - 
 
 " In 1821, I made a trip to St. Louis in a bark 
 canoe up Fox River, across the Portage, and down 
 the Wisconsin to Prairie clu Chien, and thence down 
 the Mississippi. I was sixteen days on my journey, 
 and saw but seven white men in the whole distance, 
 outside the forts. I met one keel-boat on the Mis- 
 sissippi bound for Fort Armstrong at Rock Island. 
 There was a small garrison opposite the mouth of 
 the Des Moines River. There were but few 
 Americans and few Spaniards at St. Louis; the 
 inhabitants were mostly French. There was but 
 one brick building in the place, and no buildings 
 were located on Front Street, or where the levee 
 now is. I remained two weeks, when I was advised 
 to return by way of the Illinois River.
 
 H8 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 "I started by that route, and the next day was 
 taken down with the ague and fever, and the day 
 following one of my men was taken with the same 
 complaint, which left me with one Frenchmen and 
 one Indian to paddle my canoe. I did not provide 
 a sufficiently large stock of provisions when I left 
 St. Louis, presuming that I could get plenty on the 
 Illinois. But all I was able to obtain was one ham 
 full of maggots, and one peck of Indian meal. I 
 saw but one house from the mouth of the Illinois to 
 Fort Clark, where Peoria now is, at which latter- 
 place one French trader resided. When we reached 
 there I was completely exhausted, and remained a 
 few days to recruit ;; little. 
 
 We continued up the Illinois to the junction of 
 the Kankakee and Eau Plaine, and thence up the 
 Eau Plaine to where I supposed we had to make a 
 portage to Chicago River; but 1 could not see any 
 signs of the portage. There had been heavy rains 
 for several days, which had so raised the streams 
 that they overflowed their banks. I concluded that
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 149 
 
 I had gone far enough for the portage, so I left 
 the Eau Plaine and took a northeast direction. 
 After traveling a few miles, I found the current of 
 the Chicago River. The whole country was inun- 
 dated; I found not less than two feet of water all 
 the way across the portage. 
 
 T That night I arrived at Chicago, pitched my tent 
 on the bank of the lake, and went to the fort for 
 provisions. I was not, however, able to obtain any; 
 the commissary informing me- that the public stores 
 were so reduced that the garrison were subsisting 
 on half rations, and he knew not when they would 
 get any more. I went to Colonel Beaubien, who 
 furnished me with a small supply. I found two 
 traders here from Mackinaw; and as my men were 
 all sick, I exchanged my tent and canoe for a horse, 
 and took passage on the Mackinaw boat for 
 Manitowoc. One of our party had to go by land 
 on horse back. There were at this time but two 
 families residing outside of the fort at Chicago, 
 those of Mr. Kinzie and of Colonel Beaubien."
 
 BLACK HAWK WAR 
 
 JL. 
 
 But, although a treaty had been made, and 
 although for a time there was peace and comparative 
 safety in these little western settlements, cessation 
 of all Indian troubles had not yet come. 
 
 There was Black Hawk, in whom the spirit of 
 Tecumseh still lived; and there were, alas! white 
 men who were ready to push the savages, fairly or 
 unfairly, let but the opportunity arise. 
 
 Now, it was on the 15th day of July, 1822, that 
 
 150
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 151 
 
 Keokuk, the chief of the Sacs and Foxes, ceded 
 to the United States all the territory owned by his 
 tribe east of the Mississippi, and agreed to with- 
 draw across the river during the following year. 
 
 ' This is not fair! " Black Hawk thundered when 
 he heard of the action of Keokuk; and at once 
 this warrior arrayed himself against the chief and 
 against the white people. 
 
 Keokuk, true to his agreements, crossed the river, 
 taking with him the greater part of his tribe. But 
 Black Hawk refused to move a step. pf I shall stay 
 here upon my own territory," he said. ' The treaty 
 is not fair, and the white men know it was made 
 by only four of our chiefs, and that, too, after the 
 white men had first made them drunk." 
 
 " Tell me," said Black Hawk to the Indian Agent ; 
 "is this treaty fair?" 
 
 -You can do nothing," said the Indian Agent; 
 w the land was sold to the government, and already 
 the government has sold it to individuals who will 
 soon claim their portions."
 
 152 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 "It is a lie! " Black Hawk growled; and away he 
 went to his old British allies at Maiden. 
 
 w lf you have not sold your home it is certainly 
 yours," said the British, ready, of course, to 
 sympathize with Black Hawk, more especially now 
 that he was arrayed against the Government of the 
 United States. 
 
 ? Then I shall defend my home ! " was the old 
 chiefs tragic answer; and away he hurried to the 
 chiefs of the different tribes, bent, as Tecumseh had 
 been before him, on stirring up a war. 
 
 Not for one moment was this fierce determination 
 absent from his thoughts. He talked of it by day and 
 he dreamed of it by night; and when, on his return 
 from a hunting expedition, he found his own village 
 already taken possession of by the white men, and 
 active preparations in force for cultivating the 
 rich seven hundred acres on which, for so many 
 years, Black Hawk's people had raised their crops of 
 corn, his fury burst forth. 
 
 Now, whether or not the original treaty had been
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 153 
 
 fair, this last act even the white men knew full well 
 was an unwarrantable proceeding. The frontier 
 settlements were fifty miles away; and there was no 
 reason, other than deliberate design, why this little 
 spot should have been seized upon just now by 
 white men. 
 
 Black Hawk's fury knew no bounds. Even 
 Keokuk, under this insult, could not hold back his 
 warriors. With Black Hawk at their head, they 
 fell upon the little white settlement and took 
 possession of the field. 
 
 But even now a compromise was made; the white 
 men should cultivate one half the seven hundred 
 acres, and the squaws the other half. Pressed by 
 necessity, both red men and white men agreed to 
 this. But little advantage was the arrangement 
 to either side. The white men plowed up the corn 
 the squaws had planted, and the squaws, in re- 
 venge, drove their cows into the fields of -the white 
 men. 
 
 The latter called for military assistance, and
 
 154 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 General Games, at once advancing to Rock Island, 
 summoned a council. 
 
 "Who is this Black Hawk?" he asked with a 
 sneer. Black Hawk trembled with fury. >r You ask 
 who is Black Hawk; and why does he sit among 
 the chiefs? I will tell you who I am! I am a Sac! 
 My father was a warrior! Ask these braves who 
 have followed me to battle! They will tell you who 
 I am! Provoke our people to war, and you yourself 
 will learn who Black Hawk is! v 
 
 'You will leave this territory and cross the Mis- 
 sissippi," was General Games' peremptory reply to 
 this outburst of simple eloquence. 
 
 rf l will not!" Black Hawk answered; and so the 
 council ended. 
 
 But Black Hawk knew full well he could not, 
 with his little band, stand against the militia of the 
 United States. Accordingly he withdrew across 
 the river, * and General Gaines counted the Black 
 Hawk insurrection at an end. 
 
 Black Hawk however, was no such warrior. He
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 155 
 
 could wait; but surrender his purpose he would not. 
 
 At once he set to work. He sent emissaries to all 
 the tribes, calling upon them to band with him 
 against this common foe. 
 
 The emissaries came back pretending to have 
 secured promises of aid from the Chippewas, the 
 Pottawatomies, the Ottawas and the Winnebagos. 
 In this faith Black Hawk assembled his people. 
 They crossed the river, landing near the fort at the 
 mouth of Rock River. 
 
 f We are going to our friends, the Winnebagos, r 
 Black Hawk answered, when messengers were sent 
 after him. T We go to plant corn in the territory of 
 the Winnebagos! " 
 
 But the white men had good reason to doubt the 
 truth of the savage chief's word just here; and a 
 force of militia followed close upon Black Hawk's 
 trail. 
 
 A skirmish followed in which Black Hawk's 
 warriors were victorious; and Black Hawk, excited 
 by his success, sent runners to every Indian tribe,
 
 156 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 urging them, with yells and war whoops, to join 
 forces and push the war forward. 
 
 On towards l^aperville the savages came and a 
 terrible slaughter took place. 
 
 Naperville was the settlement nearest Chicago, 
 and now the people of Chicago began to realize the 
 danger close at hand. The outlying families hurried 
 in to the city, as they had some years before, to 
 place themselves under the protection of old Fort 
 Dearborn. 
 
 One man, writing of this time, said; 
 
 r The inhabitants came flying from Fox River, 
 through fear of their dreaded enemy. They came 
 with their cattle and horses, some bareheaded, and 
 others barefooted, crying ? The Indians! The 
 Indians ! ' Those that were able hurried on with all 
 speed for Danville. 
 
 " Some found their way to Danville in advance of 
 the rest, and told their fearful stories how the 
 Indians were killing and burning all before them, 
 while at this time it is presumed that there was not
 
 STORIES OF ILLINIOS. 157 
 
 a hostile Indian south of the Desplaines river. At 
 Plainfield, however, the alarm was so great that it 
 was thought best to make all possible efforts for 
 defense, in case of an attack. My house was con- 
 sidered the most secure place. I had two long pens 
 built, one of which served for a barn and the other 
 for a shed. These were torn down, and the logs used 
 to build up a breastwork around the house. Ail 
 the people living on Fox river, who could not get 
 farther away, made my home a place of shelter. 
 There were one hundred and twenty-five, old and 
 young. 
 
 >f We had four guns, some useless. Ammunition 
 was scarce. All our pewter spoons, basins, and plat- 
 ters were soon moulded by the women into bullets. 
 As a next best means of defense, we got a good 
 supply of axes, hoes, forks, sharp sticks and clubs. 
 Here we intended to stay till some relief could be 
 obtained. This was on Thursday, and we remained 
 here till the next Sabbath, when the people of 
 Chicago, hearing of our distress, raised a company
 
 158 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 of twenty-five white men and as many Indians, who 
 came to our aid." 
 
 Ottawa, Danville, and Chicago became places of 
 refuge for all frontier settlers. Rough forts were 
 hastily thrown up here and there; and the frontier 
 men, having sent their wives and children away in 
 safety to the fort, made brave efforts to save 
 their little homes. 
 
 General Scott, with nine companies, was sent 
 from Washington; and glad indeed were the people 
 crowded into the little fort, when one morning a 
 cannon boomed out across the waters, a vessel sailed 
 up to the mouth of the Chicago River, and a troop 
 of soldiers landed. 
 
 A week later General Scott himself arrived; but, 
 alas, for the white men, that dire disease cholera 
 had broken out among his forces, and men were 
 dying hourly. Terror now fell upon the people. 
 Black Hawk outside the Fort! Cholera within! 
 Which was the more terrible? The poor people 
 hardly knew.
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. Io9 
 
 But fortunately there were detachments out upon 
 the trail of Black Hawk, and, although the spirit of 
 the savage was as fierce as ever, he now held hack 
 from the active onslaught he longed to make. 
 
 At Stephenson, however, another small victory 
 was scored for the savage leader. Encouraged by 
 this, Black Hawk passed on to Apple River Fort, 
 where Captain Stone, with his plucky garrison of 
 only twenty-five, held the little wooden stockade for 
 a refuge to the mining camp that was clustered 
 around it. 
 
 Stealthily Black Hawk and his warriors crept 
 toward the fort and concealed themselves in a 
 thicket. From this ambush it was the savage's 
 intention to burst upon the fort when darkness came 
 on; and very successful, no doubt, their plan might 
 have been, had not one of the warriors, with more 
 zeal than discretion, shot at a body of white men 
 who chanced to be passing the ambush. 
 
 One white man fell wounded and the others, 
 quickly turning their guns towards the concealed
 
 160 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 Indians, retreated slowly towards the fort, giving 
 the alarm as they approached. 
 
 Black Hawk, foiled in his purpose but spurred on 
 by desperation, burst upon the fort, and for ten long 
 hours kept up a w r ild attack upon the little band. But 
 the garrison dealt their shot wisely; there was no ex- 
 citement, aim was steady, and many a red man fell be- 
 fore the bullets that the white men poured upon them. 
 
 The Indians, finding they could make no gain 
 upon the fort, turned upon the little village, de- 
 stroyed the buildings, burned the cornfields, and 
 then, with whoops and yells of defiance, retreated. 
 
 The white men followed Black Hawk's warriors 
 in quick pursuit. Other skirmishes took place; but 
 finally the savages, fleeing as rapidly as their scanty 
 means of transportation would allow, were overtaken 
 by General Henry, on the southern bank of the 
 Wisconsin. It was a quick battle, and disastrous to 
 the red men. Fifty braves were killed and many 
 more wounded. 
 
 Still Black Hawk fled before the pursuing white
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 161 
 
 men. During the night he succeeded in hurry- 
 ing his pool- fugitives across the Wisconsin, 
 whence they could fly towards the Mississippi. 
 General Atkinson in hot pursuit of the Sacs soon 
 arrived at Helena, joined Colonel Dodge and, cross- 
 ing over to the north side, soon struck the trail of 
 the fated Black Hawk. 
 
 On the second day of August the advance guard, 
 under Colonel Dodge and Colonel Taylor, overtook 
 them. The main army, however, under General 
 Atkinson, pressed on, thinking the main body of the 
 Sacs was in front. 
 
 In this they were outwitted by Black Hawk, who, 
 that he might escape with the main forces while the 
 white men should be engaged with the little detach- 
 ment, had sent them on to the mouth of the Bad 
 Axe River. General Henry, who was in the rear, 
 suspected this and, waiting not for conference or 
 instructions, dashed forward and fell upon the 
 Indians, huddled there together awaiting further 
 developments.
 
 162 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 With hardly a moment's warning, General Henry 
 burst upon them, a quick panic followed, the red 
 men were hemmed in, and a fierce, hot battle took 
 place. 
 
 With a yell Black Hawk turned and fled, his few 
 remaining warriors with him. On, on, to Prairie La 
 Crosse they fled; and then Black Hawk, helpless, 
 trapped, knowing that his cause was a lost one, 
 surrendered himself. Fifty of the warriors were 
 taken prisoners, a few escaping to the Winnebagoes, 
 where they hoped to find shelter and protection; but 
 alas! here the Sioux, old enemies of theirs, fell upon 
 the outcasts, and all were slain by their savage foe. 
 
 In September, the prisoners, Black Hawk among 
 them, were sent to St. Louis, and the Black Hawk 
 war was at an end. 
 
 A little later, Black Hawk was allowed to return 
 to his people; and on the Des Moines River in Iowa 
 the old chief spent the last five years of his life in 
 peace and quiet. Near the present site of Iowa 
 City the old chief lies buried. Over his dead body
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 163 
 
 was raised a mound the last honor his simple 
 countrymen . could pay to Black Hawk, the last 
 native defender of the soil of the Northwest! 
 
 And this was the last of organized Indian trouble 
 for Chicago or for Illinois. From this time on 
 civilization rapidly increased; the city grew, com- 
 mercial interests were enlarged, newspapers were 
 established, organizations of all kinds were formed, 
 until croakers began to say; "The city is growing 
 too fast. It will go down! Up like a rocket, down 
 like a stone ! " 
 
 But all these gloomy predictions have failed. 
 Chicago has grown bravely and steadily.
 
 THE WEO'EBAGO SCARE. 
 
 Although Chicago had now been surveyed and 
 laid out, although its name had now appeared on the 
 maps in the geographies which the school children 
 of the United States were using, it was not, even 
 yet, much of a town only a very stammering 
 prophecy of what so soon it was to be. 
 
 Indian scares, even, were not yet at an end; and 
 when, in 1827, the Winnebagoes threatened the 
 village, the Kinzies, the Helms, and. others who had 
 lived through the attack of 1812, had good reason to 
 fear a repetition of the same barbarous cruelty. 
 Let us read the account, as one of the villagers then 
 told it : 
 
 "At the breaking out of the Winnebago war, 
 early in July, 1827, Fort Dearborn was without 
 military occupation. 
 
 "Doctor Alexander Wolcott, Indian Agent, had 
 charge of the Fort, living in the brick building, just 
 
 164
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 165 
 
 within the north stockade previously occupied by 
 the commanding officers. 
 
 f The old officers' quarters, built of logs, on the 
 west, and within the pickets, were occupied by 
 Russell E. Heacock, and one other American family; 
 others dwelt with their families in the soldiers' 
 quarters, on the east side of the enclosure. The 
 store-house and guard-house were on either side of 
 the southern gate; the sutler's store was east of the 
 north gate, and north of the soldiers' barracks; the 
 block-house was located at the southwest and the 
 bastion at the northwest corners of the fort; and the 
 magazine of brick was situated about half-way, 
 between the west end of the guard and block-houses. 
 
 'The annual payment of the Pottawatomie 
 Indians occurred in September of the year 1828. A 
 large body of them had assembled, according to 
 custom, to receive their annuity. These left after 
 the payment for their respective villages, except a 
 portion of Big Foot's band. 
 
 ' The night following the payment, there was a
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 167 
 
 dance in the soldiers' barracks, during the progress 
 of which a violent storm of wind and rain arose; and 
 about midnight these quarters were struck by light- 
 ning and totally consumed, together with the store- 
 house and a portion of the block-house. 
 
 ".The sleeping inmates of Mr. Kinzies's house, on 
 the opposite bank of the river, were aroused by the 
 cry of ? Fire' from Mrs. Helm, one of their 
 number, who from her window had seen the flames. 
 On hearing the alarm, I, with Robert Kinzie, late 
 Paymaster of the United States' Army, hastily arose 
 and, only partially dressed, ran to the river. To our 
 dismay, we found the canoe, which was used for 
 crossing the river, filled with water; it had been 
 partially drawn up on the beach and had been filled 
 by the dashing waves. Not being able to turn it 
 over, and having nothing with which to bail it out, 
 we lost no time, but swam the stream. Entering by 
 the north gate we saw at a glance the situation. 
 - The barracks and store-house being wrapped in 
 flames, we directed our energies to the saving of the
 
 168 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 guard-house, the east end of which was on fire. 
 Mr. Kinzie, rolling himself in a wet blanket, got 
 upon the roof. The men and women, about forty in 
 number, formed a line to the river, and with buckets, 
 tubs and every available utensil, passed the water to 
 him; this was kept up till daylight before the flames 
 were subdued, Mr. Kinzie maintaining his dangerous 
 position with great fortitude, though his hands, face, 
 and portions of his body were severely burned. His 
 father, mother and sister, Mrs. Helm, had mean- 
 while freed the canoe from water, and crossing in it, 
 fell into line with those carrying water. 
 
 " Some of the Big Foot band of Indians were 
 present at the fire, but merely as spectators, and 
 could not be prevailed upon to assist; they all left 
 the next day for their homes. The strangeness of 
 their behavior was the subject of discussion among us. 
 
 rf Six or eight days after this event, while at 
 breakfast in Mr. Kinzie's house, we heard singing, 
 faintly at first, gradually growing louder as the 
 singers approached. Mr. Kinzie recognized the
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 169 
 
 voice as that of Bob Forsyth, and left the table for 
 the piazza of the house, whither we all followed. 
 About where Wells street now crosses the river, in 
 plain sight from where we stood, was a light birch 
 canoe, manned with thirteen men, rapidly approach- 
 ing, the men keeping time with their 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 us. 
 
 r? From them we first learned of the breaking out of 
 the Winnebago war, and the massacre on the upper 
 Mississippi. Governor Cass was at Green Bay by 
 appointment, to hold a treaty with the Winnebagoes 
 and Menomonee tribes, who, however, did not appear 
 to meet him in council. News of hostilities reach- 
 ing the Governor there, he immediately procured a 
 light birch-bark canoe, purposely made for speed, 
 manned it with twelve men at the paddles and a 
 steersman, and started up the river, making a port- 
 age into the Wisconsin, then down that river and 
 the Mississippi to Jefferson Barracks, below St. Louis,
 
 170 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 " Here he persuaded the commanding officer to 
 charter a steamer and, embarking troops on it, 
 ascended the Mississippi in search of the hostile 
 Indians, and to give aid to the troops at Fort 
 Snelling. On reaching the mouth of the Illinois 
 River, the Governor (his men and canoe having 
 been brought so far on the steamer), ascended that 
 stream and the Des Plaines, and passing through 
 Mud Lake into the south branch of the Chicago 
 River, reached Chicago. This trip from Green 
 Bay was performed in about thirteen days, the 
 Governor's party sleeping only five to seven hours, 
 and averaging sixty to seventy miles travel each day. 
 
 ' f On the Wisconsin River they passed Winnebago 
 encampments without molestation. They did not 
 stop to parley, passing rapidly by, singing their 
 
 boat songs; the Indians were so taken by surprise 
 
 * 
 that, before they recovered from their astonishment, 
 
 the canoe was out of danger. Governor Cass 
 remained at Chicago but a few hours, coasting Lake 
 Michigan back to Green Bay. As soon as he left,
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 171 
 
 the inhabitants of Chicago assembled for consulta- 
 tion. Big Foot was suspected of acting in concert 
 with the Winnebagoes, as he was known to be 
 friendly to them, and many of his band had inter- 
 married with that tribe. 
 
 ff Shab-o-nee was not here at the payment, his 
 money having been drawn for him by his friend, 
 Billy Caldwell. The evening before Governor 
 Case's visit, however, he was in Chicago, and then 
 the guest of Caldwell. At my suggestion, he and 
 Caldwell were engaged to visit Big Foot's village 
 (Geneva Lake), and get what information they- 
 could of the plans of the Winnebagoes; and also 
 learn what action Big Foot's band intended taking. 
 They left immediately, and on Hearing Geneva Lake 
 arranged that Shab-o-nee should enter the village 
 alone, Caldwell remaining hidden. 
 
 "Upon entering the village, Shab-o-nee was made 
 a prisoner, and accused of being a friend of the 
 Americans and a spy. He affected great indigna- 
 tion at these charges and said to Big Foot: " I was
 
 172 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 not at the payment, but was told by my braves that 
 yon desired ns to join the Winnebagoes and make 
 war on the Americans. I think the AVinnebagoes 
 have been foolish; alone they cannot succeed. So 
 I have come to council with yon, hear what you 
 have to say, when I will return to my people and 
 report all yon tell me; if they shall th'jn say, we 
 will join you, I will consent/ 
 
 w After talking nearly all night they agreed 
 to let him go, provided he was accompanied 
 by one of their own number; to this proposal 
 Shab-o-nee readily consented, though it placed 
 him in a dangerous position. His friend Cald- 
 well was waiting for him in the outskirts of 
 the village, and his presence must not be known, 
 as it would endanger both of their lives. Shab-o- 
 nee was equal to the emergency. After leaving in 
 company with one of Big Foot's braves, as the 
 place of CaldwelPs concealment was neared, he 
 commenced complaining in a loud voice of being 
 suspected and made a prisoner, and when quite near,
 
 STORIES OF ILLINIOS. 173 
 
 said, ' We must have no one with us in going to 
 Chicago. Should we meet any one of your band 
 or any one else, we must tell them to go away; we 
 must go by ourselves, and get to Chicago by noon 
 to-morrow. Kinzie will give us something to eat, 
 and we can go on next day.' 
 
 rr Caldwell heard and understood the meaning of 
 this, and started alone on another route. Strategy 
 was still to be used, as Shab-o-nee desired to report, 
 so on nearing Chicago, he said to his companion, 
 f If Kinzie sees you, he will ask why your band did 
 not assist in putting out the fire. Maybe he has 
 heard news of the war and is angry with Big Foot; 
 let us camp here, for our horses are very tired.' 
 This they did, and after a little, the Big Foot brave 
 suggested that Shab-o-nee should go to the Fort for 
 food and information. This was what he wanted to 
 do, and he lost no time in reporting the result of his 
 expedition, and procuring food, returned to his camp. 
 
 w He started the next morning with his companion 
 for his own village; on reaching it he called a council
 
 174 CALDWKLL HKA1II> AND VNDKIISTOOI. T1IK MKANING OF THIS.
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 175 
 
 of his Indians, who were addressed by Big Foot's 
 emissary, but they declined to take part with the 
 Winnebagoes, advising Big Foot to remain neutral. 
 
 " On receiving Shab-o-nee's report, the inhabit- 
 ants of Chicago were greatly excited; fearing an 
 attack, we assembled for consultation, when I 
 suggested sending to the "Wabash for assistance, 
 and tendered my services as messenger. This was 
 at first objected to, on the ground that a majority of 
 the men at the Fort were in my employ, and in case 
 of an attack, no one could manage them or enforce 
 their aid but myself. It was, however, decided that 
 I should go, as I knew the route and all the settlers. 
 An attack would probably not be made until Big 
 Foot's ambassador had returned with his report; 
 this would give at least two weeks' security, and in 
 that time I could, if successful, make the trip and 
 return. 
 
 " I started between four and five P. M., reach- 
 ing my trading house on the Iroquois River by 
 midnight, where I changed my horse and went on.
 
 176 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 It was a dark, rainy night. On reaching Sugar 
 Creek, I found the stream swollen out of its banks, 
 and my horse refusing to cross, I was obliged to 
 wait till daylight, when I discovered that a large 
 tree had fallen across the trail, making the ford 
 impassable. I swam the stream and went on, 
 reaching my friend Mr. Spencer's house at noon, 
 tired out. Mr. Spencer started immediately to give 
 the alarm, asking for volunteers to meet at Danville 
 the next evening, with five days' rations. 
 
 " By the day following, at the hour appointed, one 
 hundred men were organized into a company, and 
 appointing a Mr. Morgan, an old frontier fighter, as 
 their captain, we immediately started for Chicago, 
 camping that night on the north fork of the Vermil- 
 lion River. It rained continually, the trail was very 
 muddy, and we were obliged to swim most of the 
 streams and many of the large sloughs, but we still 
 pushed on, reaching Fort Dearborn the seventh day 
 after my departure, to the great joy of the waiting 
 people.
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 177 
 
 ' We reached Chicago about four o'clock in the 
 evening of the fourth day, in the midst of one of the 
 most severe rainstorms I ever experienced, accom- 
 panied by thunder and vicious lightening. The rain 
 we did not mind; we were without tents and were 
 used to wetting/ The water we took within us hurt 
 ns more than that which fell upon us, as drinking it 
 made many of us sick. 
 
 f The people of Chicago were very glad to see us. 
 They were expecting an attack every hour since 
 Colonel Hubbard had left them, and as we 
 approached they did not know whether we were 
 enemies or friends, and when they learned that we 
 were friends they gave us a shout of welcome. 
 
 " We kept guard day and night for some eight or 
 ten days, when a runner came I think from Green 
 Bay bringing word that General Cass had con- 
 cluded a treaty with the Winnebagoes and that we 
 might now disband and go home." 
 
 And thus, with little real suffering, did the Win- 
 nebago scare of 1827 come to its end.
 
 THE LAST OF THE POTTAWATOMIES. 
 
 When the white men came here, they found the 
 country round about Chicago occupied, as we know, 
 by the Pottawatomies. These were their hunting 
 grounds; and here their tents were pitched, their 
 wigwams and villages built. 
 
 They were an intelligent tribe, even from the 
 beginning, and were possessed of no little informa- 
 tion, as the result of their quick observation and 
 ready conclusions regarding what they saw. 
 
 The white men had little difficulty in making 
 friends with them; and from the beginning the white 
 men and the red men hunted and fished, ate and 
 drank together around their hospitable camp fires. 
 
 The Illinois Indians, who dwelt up and down 
 this Northwest Territory from the Wabash to 
 the Mississippi, and from the Ohio to the Great 
 Lakes had their central village in northern 
 Illinois where Utica now is. 
 
 178
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 179 
 
 Then, as now, it was a beautiful location, nestled 
 in the valley, and these Indians were not lacking in 
 appreciation of its beauty when they chose it for 
 their home. 
 
 It was not long- after the discovery of this section 
 by La Salle, that the Iroquois burst upon these 
 peace-abiding Illinois, laid waste their city, and 
 scattered them up and down the plain. 
 
 Until this time they too had been a powerful 
 tribe, and had their share in the glories of Indian 
 warfare. But from this blow they never recovered. 
 For three generations they struggled on, though 
 with little success, against foe after foe. 
 
 Close by their city, a part of what was once the 
 bank of the great Illinois River in those days of long 
 ago, stands a great water-worn rock. 
 
 This rock the Illinois Indians often looked upon 
 as their natural fortress, should ever attack come to 
 them; and, indeed, had it been planned and built for 
 a fortress, it could not have been made more secure 
 from attack, so high and steep is its craggy front.
 
 180 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 Now, the Pottawatouaies and the Ottawas were 
 most friendly. Indeed, Pontiac, the old Ottawa 
 chief, the idol of his -tribe, was obeyed and 
 reverenced hardly less by the Pottawatomies than 
 by his own people. 
 
 It was but natural, then, when this old chief fell, 
 slain, as the Pottawatomies believed, by the Illinois, 
 that they should join forces with the Ottawas and 
 swear eternal enmity to the offending tribe. 
 
 Accordingly, war was waged upon the Illinois, 
 already broken in spirit; and at last so few of them 
 remained that they fled to Starved Rock, so long 
 looked upon as their natural fortress. There, 
 besieged by their enemy, unable to obtain food or 
 water though the river ran at their feet they 
 starved on until, in desperation, knowing that death 
 was theirs if they remained upon the rock no less 
 than if they left it, they rushed down into the 
 valley to fight for their lives. 
 
 'Very softly, and in the dead of night, they crept 
 down the stone stairway, only to meet there at the
 
 STOKIKS OF ILLINOIS. 181 
 
 foot a great army of Pottawatomies and Ottawas 
 waiting and ready for the slaughter. 
 
 A terrible scene followed. War whoops filled the 
 air; and with the fury of wild beasts the Poltawato- 
 inies and Ottawas fell upon the little band of hall' 
 starved Illinois. The women and children mere 
 skeletons, so reduced were they by starvation fell 
 easy victims to the foe, who slew them with no less 
 satisfaction than they did the warriors of the 
 unfortunate tribe. 
 
 The conflict lasted but a short time; for the weak, 
 starved Illinois had little courage or endurance to 
 do battle, and in an hour the ground was covered 
 with the dead bodies of the Illinois. 
 
 Eleven only escaped. These eleven, strengthened 
 by desperation, broke through the ranks of the 
 enemy, and in the darkness and confusion, seized 
 some canoes that were anchored there and made 
 their way to St. Louis. 
 
 Here they were protected by the people in the 
 fort, given food and allowed to rest, until at last,
 
 182 
 
 "STARVED ROCK, 1
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 183 
 
 broken in spirit, not even longer claiming 1 the name 
 Illinois, they crept away to friendly tribes farther 
 south, whoever would hear their piteous tale and 
 accept them into their tribe. 
 
 So perished the Illinois at the hands of the Potta- 
 watornies. 
 
 It was this extermination of the Illinois that 
 secured to the Pottawatomies the country up and 
 down this section. 
 
 Chicago had always been a favorite hunting 
 ground for the Pottawatomies. Around it they 
 liked to set up their wigwams; here they were 
 accustomed to hold their great councils; and here it 
 was that they finally made their last treaty with our 
 government. 
 
 In this treaty they agreed to move to a certain 
 locality west of the Missouri ; and gradually they 
 went away, leaving only a few of their number, who 
 still lingered about the growing city, trading a little, 
 working a little, but in no way molesting the 
 inhabitants.
 
 184 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 In 1835, the Pottawatomies assembled for the last 
 time in Chicago to receive their annuity from the 
 government. 
 
 Most amazed did they seem to find houses and 
 business blocks already erected upon the very places 
 where, in their day, the tall, rank grass had grown. 
 
 To some of them the realization seemed to come 
 that their country was gone, that they were 
 exiles, and that a greater people had indeed taken 
 possession of their lands. 
 
 There were five thousand Pottawatomies assem- 
 bled in the city on this day in 1835; and as they 
 realized that never again would they come together 
 on their native soil, the old spirit of savagery seemed 
 to leap up in them and a desire once more to 
 express themselves in old time Avar dance took 
 possession of them. 
 
 Accordingly, without warning to the white men, 
 'they assembled at the Council House, near the 
 present Lake House. 
 
 They wore only a strip of cloth around their loins,
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 185 
 
 and they had painted their bodies in a great variety 
 of most brilliant colors. 
 
 On their faces, certainly, they had allowed their 
 most savage artistic instincts full play; for never 
 were faces made more hideous! 
 
 Their long, coarse, black hair they had gathered 
 in old time scalp locks, and among the hair were 
 feathers and plumes, strung together so that 
 in some cases they hung down behind and even 
 trailed. 
 
 Kach Indian was armed with tomahawk and war 
 club, and the leaders beat upon hollow pans, making 
 a noise deafening and horrible. 
 
 Up and down the north side of the river they 
 marched, stopping at each house to whoop and yell 
 and flourish their tomahawks. 
 
 Over the old bridge they marched, on across the 
 South Branch, up to the Sauganash Hotel. 
 
 It was a hot close morning in August; the per- 
 spiration poured down their faces, their tongues 
 rolled out, and their eyes were wild and bloodshot.
 
 16 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 Their faces were fierce and cruel and their strong- 
 muscles were drawn up in great knots so strained 
 and tense were they. 
 
 They danced and leaped at every step, and 
 brandished their Avar clubs with constant whoops 
 and yells. 
 
 Surrounding the hotel, they leered in at the 
 windows and shook their tomahawks at the women, 
 yelling and howling and threatening. 
 
 More than one brave heart beat high; for even 
 the bravest of the men knew that at any moment the 
 savages, excited and wrought up as they were, 
 might turn this sham war dance into actual warfare 1 , 
 lose control of themselves and burst in upon the 
 people, helpless as they were before them. 
 
 Fortunately this did not happen, and the Indians 
 marched on to Fort Dearborn, where, before the 
 assembled officers, they finished their exhibition, 
 with louder yells, higher leaps and greater 
 contortions. 
 
 Then, at the word of command, they ceased,
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 187 
 
 wiped their perspiring faces, and dispersed to their 
 lodging places, content now to leave their old hunt- 
 ing grounds and go back to their home beyond the 
 Missouri. 
 
 Xo less glad were the people of Chicago to see 
 them go; for, tragic though their exile was, the 
 white man knew full well that their sham war dance 
 might have proved a real one, that many a white 
 village had witnessed it as real, and that for the 
 safety and peace of mind of the growing city it was 
 best that the Pottawatomies appear never again 
 within its limits.
 
 THE GREAT FIEE. 
 
 41 O city by the inland sea, 
 
 Chicago, 
 The whole world's heart in sympathy, 
 
 Chicago, 
 
 Throbbed for thee in thy distress, 
 But thon'rt risen now to bl ss 
 All who call on thce. 
 Chicago." 
 
 It had been a most unusually dry summer. Since 
 July there had been only two and one-fourth inches 
 of rainfall in the prairie section of the country less 
 than one-fourth the average amount. 
 
 It was on October 7th, 1871, that the first fire in 
 Chicago broke out, and the four blocks included by 
 Adams, Clinton, A T an Buren Streets and the South 
 Branch, were destroyed. 
 
 This of itself was no small fire. Dry as the build- 
 ings were, and with a south wind blowing, it was 
 only by the most energetic labor that even this fire 
 was brought under control and the city saved. 
 
 But hardly had the firemen recovered from the 
 
 1S8
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 189 
 
 exhaustion of this night's work, when on Sunday 
 evening- out ran^ another- alarm of fire this time 
 from l)e Koven Street locality. 
 
 The southwest wind was now blowing a gale. 
 The watchmen on the Court House misjudged the 
 locality, and the nearest engine reached the scene 
 only to find the fire already beyond control. 
 
 The wind rose higher and higher; the dry roofs 
 snapped and crackled. Great tongues of fire were 
 whirled high in the air; pieces of burning timber 
 were blown hundreds of feet to the northeast, 
 dropping here and there and everywhere upon the 
 dry roofs of buildings. The fire was everywhere! 
 The fifteen engines were but toys, in their power to 
 stav the flames! 
 
 Already the old Judge Caton place one of 
 Chicago's earliest landmarks was in flames. The 
 beautiful forest around about it hissed and crackled 
 like fire-works; and in a lew moments, little else 
 than the twelve old chimneys were left to mark the 
 ruin of the grand old mansion house.
 
 190 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 On, on the fire rushed, towards the district 
 burned the night before. ff ~ But it must stop then ! " 
 the people said; and in their despair, they even 
 watched, with relief, the destruction of the blocks up 
 to that charred and empty square. 
 
 Certainly this seemed probable; and under any 
 ordinary conditions it must have been so. But the 
 city seemed fated. 
 
 At half past twelve, with a howl, as if exulting in 
 the dire destruction, the wind swept up with a fear- 
 ful gust, siezed a brand of fire, hurled it high in the 
 air, and sent it with the speed of a rocket across the 
 river, down upon the roof of a miserable little 
 tenement house built of wood. 
 
 One second, and the roof was in a blaze; five 
 minutes, and the whole wooden section was one 
 sheet of flames. 
 
 On the roof of the Court House the watchmen 
 fought the falling embers, and rang the great bell. 
 At last the wooden cupola caught,, and the watch- 
 men were driven below. The bell rang on and on,
 
 STORIES OF ILLINIOS. 191 
 
 until it fell with a great crash into the meltrng 
 caldron of flames below. 
 
 In the jail basement, the prisoners shrieked and 
 howled and shook their iron doors. 
 
 "Let them go!" came the command from Captain 
 Hickey; and out they rushed, blinded and half 
 suffocated, into the street below the only beings 
 in the whole doomed city to whom the fire was not a 
 sorrow and a terror! 
 
 Here and there, powder was used and buildings 
 blown np, that great gaps might be made, which, 
 it was hoped, might stop the onward rush of fire. 
 But even this was of little avail; for hardly had the 
 first great black chasm been made, where the 
 business palace of the Merchants' Insurance Com- 
 pany stood, when the flames, with superhuman 
 power, leaped the chasm and fell with redoubled 
 fury upon the roof beyond. 
 
 And now the fire crossed the main river! It was 
 half past two, when a car-load of keros.ene, standing 
 on the N. "W. K. K., caught; and from that the fire
 
 192 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 fiend rushed straight on towards the dwelling houses 
 of that section of the city. 
 
 An hour later, and the City Water Works were 
 attacked. This building was of stone and the roof 
 slated over. But the fire seemed no respector of 
 material. The flames fell upon this slated roof, 
 which ignited and sent a blaze down in upon the 
 ceilings below. 
 
 Most courageously the engineer and his force 
 held theit* post and fought the flames, till the very 
 roof fell in, when flight was all that was left to them. 
 
 N~ow, with the pumping' engines themselves 
 destroyed, the fire had no obstruction. On, on it 
 sped, even up to the very limits of Lincoln Park; 
 nor did it stop until the last house upon the limit 
 was reached. 
 
 For twenty-five long hours had the fire raged, 
 and over a distance of four miles it swept in dire 
 destruction. Thousands of people were driven into 
 the streets, homeless and penniless, and hundreds lay 
 dead beneath the ruins of fallen buildings. ]S"o
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 103 
 
 whole volume could tell the story of this fire, the 
 misery of the people, the destruction of the city. 
 
 What now would be the future of this ruined 
 city? Would it, could it recover? That was the 
 question asked by the people of Chicago and of all 
 other cities of the country. 
 
 On the morning after the fire was over, one man 
 was seen looking at the ruins of his business block, 
 and turning over the bricks here and there. 
 
 ? What are you doing?" a neighbor asked. 
 
 " Seeing how soon these bricks will be cool 
 enough to build again ! " was the laconic answer. 
 
 And that answer seemed the prophecy of the 
 future. 
 
 "Ruined!" exclaimed the editor of the Tribune; 
 "Never! Our city will boast a population of one 
 million in twenty years;" and his prophecy was 
 correct. 
 
 Such has been, and such is, the spirit of the 
 Chicago people-!
 
 THE WORLD'S FAIR YEAR. 
 
 " () city by the inland sea, 
 
 Chicago, 
 Whose institutions grand and free, 
 
 Chicago, 
 
 Give instruction and delight. 
 Making darkened pathways bright, 
 For Humanity. 
 Chicago." 
 
 "A burden of honor!" Yes, and how grandly 
 our brave city bore the burden! 
 
 When the idea of celebrating the four hundreth 
 anniversary of the coining of Columbus sprang into 
 the minds of the people, the next question was. 
 Where should we hold the celebration ? At the
 
 196 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 West Indies, where first the caravels landed? 
 Columbus' tomb was there; that made it fitting. 
 In Boston, because it was historic? In New 
 York, because it was New York? In Philadelphia, 
 because the Centennial was held there? 
 
 No none of these! But in our own Chicago! 
 Because Chicago was large and central the City 
 of the Future; and above all, because the people 
 of Chicago dared. 
 
 And it was, indeed, no little undertaking, no little 
 risk and burden. But Chicago knew its resources 
 and its citizens knew its brave men and women 
 their intelligence, their energy, their patriotism and 
 their unfailing capacity for successful enterprise. 
 
 And so it came about that it was Chicago who 
 entertained the guests for the World's Fair a fail- 
 greater than which no country of the world has ever 
 seen. But it will be most superfluous to talk 
 T World's Fair " to Illinois boys and girls ! It is all 
 too fresh in our minds; and we know, as no one can 
 tell us, how grand and beautiful it was.
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 19? 
 
 Indeed, Illinois boys and girls have a right to be 
 proud of that part of the exhibition which they 
 themselves provided their educational exhibit. If 
 it were not already conceded by the thousands of 
 educational men and women who were there, that no 
 exhibit from any other state excelled our own, we 
 should not claim it ourselves. But they said it 
 they said it at the time, and they say it still; and so 
 they will not count it ill taste in us if we trust their 
 judgment and take deserved comfort to ourselves, 
 that we contributed acceptably in this, as in other 
 lines, to the World's Exposition of 1893. 
 
 The first definite movement towards the celebra- 
 tion of the discovery of America was the forming 
 of a corporation in 1889 under the laws of Illinois. 
 
 The next, was the passing of an act in Congress, 
 in the preamble of which we find these words : 
 
 >f Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of 
 Representatives of the United States of America in 
 Congress assembled; that an exhibition of arts, 
 industries, manufactures, and products of the soil,
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 199 
 
 mine, and sea, shall be inaugurated in the year 1892, 
 in the city of Chicago in the state of Illinois, as 
 hereafter provided." 
 
 But the corporation must first have ready 
 $5,000,000, to begin the work, and 5,000,000 more 
 to bring forward on demand during the exposition. 
 This did not appall the Illinois spirit. The five 
 million was raised by popular subscription, all gladly 
 contributing, from the millionaire to the day laborer, 
 according to their means. 
 
 And it was because this first sum was so gener- 
 ously contributed, that the second five million was 
 raised by issue of city bonds. 
 
 So the preliminary work went on. A greater 
 undertaking our country never saw; but that it was 
 wisely and successfully carried forward, we had our 
 proof when the Fair was thrown open to the public. 
 
 It was on the 12th of October, 1892 the 
 anniversary of the landing of Columbus that the 
 dedication took place. And what a day that was, 
 not only in Chicago, but throughout the country!
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 201 
 
 Columbus day! Celebrated by the school boys 
 and girls in every city and town and borough! 
 MiisiQ, processions and flags! And in the evening, 
 patriotic songs, fireworks, speeches and cheers for 
 the land of Columbus! We remember it still. 
 And we are proud to-day, as we then were, that we 
 are Americans, ready now and forever to hail 
 Columbia our ow r n, our native land. 
 
 And upon our Chicago, the burden of all this fell 
 It is over now; and has passed into the history of 
 our city. It was great; it was established on a 
 mighty scale; it was carried on with energy and 
 enthusiasm, and it w^as a success. Each state and 
 territory in the Union helped, and had its represent- 
 atives in delegates and officers. All worked in 
 harmony. Great dreams of achievement were ful- 
 filled. And in all this Chicago failed not in any 
 respect to support and carry on, with glory to her- 
 self and comfort to her guests, her f ' great burden of 
 honor," The Columbian Exposition. 
 
 And now, Chicago's future !
 
 202 STORIES Of ILLINOIS, 
 
 What shall it be? Who shall tell? 
 
 But of one thing we may be sure the same 
 brave spirit of enthusiasm that has pervaded the 
 hearts of the present and past generations, will per- 
 vade the hearts of those yet to come. Love for the 
 city by its citizens is, to us and to it, a tower of 
 strength. We are proud of our city; and we are 
 proud that we are proud. 
 
 No city on earth has a record like it. Fifty years 
 ago a prairie to-day a city of more than a million 
 inhabitants, representing every interest commer- 
 cial, industrial, educational and artistic known to 
 any section in our broad land. Of our city in its 
 earlier days, one old man, still hearty and strong, 
 says with glowing pride; 
 
 " I was born in 1822 in a little house at the foot 
 of Washington Street, four blocks from old Fort 
 Dearborn. The house was one that had been used 
 as a trading post. Afterward, about 1834, when the 
 pier was built at the mouth of the river, the course 
 of the river was changed, and the foundations of the
 
 STORIES OF ILLINOIS. 203 
 
 old house were so undermined that it had to be 
 torn down. 
 
 rc I can recollect the time when I could g-o to 
 
 c? 
 
 the fort and count only twenty-five buildings out- 
 side the garrison, and these were mostly log houses. 
 
 f This part of the city was then a forest. The 
 trees were as thick as they could be down to 
 Chicago Avenue. In this very place we could sit 
 and shoot deer; and there were wood wolves, which 
 were larger and darker than the ordinary prairie 
 wolves. 
 
 "Prairie wolves, by the way, were exceedingly 
 numerous all around Harrison and Vali Buren 
 Streets. From Randolph Street, running south, 
 there was a strip of forest to Sixteenth Street, and 
 between Fifth Avenue and the lake. This was 
 heavy timber, and once in a while a bear or a lynx 
 would get in there." 
 
 And another no less proud of the wonderful 
 change in his own life-time, says: 
 
 pf l was born in one of the old Fort Dearborn
 
 204 STORIES 01 s ILLINOIS. 
 
 houses, and I have played over the ground time and 
 time again as a boy. 
 
 ? There is one point in connection with old Fort 
 Dearborn that I should like to have corrected, and 
 that is the statement that it was surrounded by a 
 solid plank fence. Instead of this it was surrounded 
 by five rows of sharp pickets, each about fifteen feet 
 
 high." 
 
 Other cities have gone through the same process 
 of change and growth, to be sure; but not in half a 
 century. And it is because of this proud past that 
 we hope so much for the future. Great schemes and 
 great interests even now are pending; and in them 
 Chicago will not fail. Pride of citizenship will pre- 
 serve and push forward our city in the years to come, 
 even as it has done in the few short years that have 
 passed; and we shall sing as proudly then as now: 
 
 ^ O, city by the inland sea, 
 Columbia has chosen thee 
 To proudly say, < I Will,' 
 And all prophecy fulfill, 
 Mighty city by the inland sea."
 
 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 H E. MACOMBER. 
 
 Stories of 
 
 American 
 
 Pioneers. 
 
 ,llus. Price, Bds., 30 cts. 
 Cloth, 40 cts. 
 
 Daniel Boone Lewis 
 and Clark Fremont 
 Kit Carson, 
 
 (jrti Grade.) 
 
 Stories of 
 
 Great Inventors. 
 
 Illus. Boards, 30 cents; 
 Cloth, 40 cents. 
 
 Fulton Cooper 
 Whitney Morse 
 Edison, with graphic 
 stories of their wonderful 
 discoveries and inventions.
 
 HISTORY. 
 
 (3rd Grade.} 
 
 Stories of the Red Children. 
 
 By DOROTHY BROOKS. Large type. Illus. 
 Price, Boards, 30 cents; Cloth, 40 cents. 
 
 It is both natural and fitting that the boys and girls of 
 America should be interested and familiar with the legends 
 that have woven so much of poetry and romance about the 
 life of the Red men. And \\hen these fanciful talcs are 
 presented as a part of the life-his'ory of the little Red chil- 
 dren they touch tl e kindred love of the ma velous in the 
 civilized children of to-day with a pecu'iar closeness. All 
 barriers of race and centuries of time fa e away and the red 
 and white children clasp hands in joy and delight in their 
 mutual love of Nature's wonder-tales. The author's well- 
 known charm in story telling has never shown bett< r than 
 in this little book. The style is smooth, flowing and beauti- 
 ful. Wind, stars, rain, snow, rainbows and the \\hole phe- 
 nome 1 a of nature are woven into charnrng stories which 
 will feed the imagination without injuring the children. 
 The book is illustrated by twenty-three striking pictures 
 vivid with Indian life and activities.
 
 HISTORY AND PATRIOTISM. 
 
 American History Stories. 
 
 By MARA L. PRATT, Author of Young Folk's Library of 
 American History, etc. Vols. I., II., III., IV. 
 
 Price, Boards, 36 cents each; Cloth, 50 cents. 
 
 USED IN THE SCHOOLS OF NEW YORK, BOSTON, BROOKLYN, P1TTSBURG, 
 MINNEAPOLIS, ST. PAUL, MILWAUKEE, NEW HAVEN, HARTFORD, ETC. 
 
 (For ^rd, ^.th and ^th Years.} 
 
 Your American History Stories are, in my opinion among 
 the most valuable aids to the work of introducing History in 
 the lower grades. We are using a quantity of them in Grades 
 III. and IV. Reading and language are best developed in 
 connection with what is intensely interesting, and I predict a 
 *arge demand for books of this sort. 
 
 S. T. BUTTON, Supt. of Schools, Brookline, Mass.