-&A , V ,jJ* - HH^ *>r>v^ t ^J m # 13 68. . v Price 75c. SBlgiTariBiaraJ^ -HI&JB.EB ost-i>aicl, on reoel/pt of i>rice. COMPLIMENTS OF k? darfj> (Chicago, FORT DEARBORN AX ADDRESS, DELIVERED AT THE UNVEILING OF THE MEMORIAL TABLET TO MARK THE SITE OF THE BLOCK - HOUSE, ON SATURDAY AFTERNOON, MAY 2isT, 1881, UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY, TO WHICH HAVE BEEN ADDED BY HON. JOHN WEXTWORTH. LLD., LATE EDITOR, PUBLISHER, AND PROPRIETOR FOR TWENTY - FIVE YEARS OF THE "CHICAGO DEMOCRAT," THE FIRST CORPORATION NEWS- PAPER; MEMBER OF CONGRESS, FOR THE CHICAGO DIS- TRICT, FOR TWELVE YEARS; TWO TERMS MAYOR; AND A SETTLER OF 1836. CHICAGO: FERGUS PRINTING COMPANY. 1881. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1881, by FERGUS PRINTING COMPANY, In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. Revised from The Chicago Tribune, of Sunday, May 22, 1881.* FORT DEARBORN. The Memorial Tablet, Marking the Site of the Old Block-House, Unveiled Address by Hon. John Wentworth A Mass of Historical Information Documents and Statements never before made Public Capt. Heald's Own Story of the Circumstances Connected with the Massacre Letter Ordering the Establishing of the Fort Its Early Commanders Promi- nent Officers who have been Stationed within its Walls Gen. Scott and the Cholera Noted Names in Early History Remarks by Hon. Thomas Hoyne, Hon. Isaac N. Arnold, and Robert J. Bennett, Esq. An Original Poem by Eugene J. Hall A Son of Capt. Nathan Heald in Attendance. THE tablet which marks the site of old Fort Dearborn was unveiled yesterday with appropriate ceremonies in the presence of the First Regiment I. N. G. (350 strong) and about 1500 citizens. As has been previously stated in The Tribune, the memento is on the north front of the building at the corner of River Street and Michigan Avenue, just opposite Rush-Street bridge. The idea originated in the Histori- cal Society, and some of its officers having mentioned the subject to Mr. Win. M. Hoyt, of the tinn which occupies the structure, he fell in with it at once, and had the tablet put in at his own expense, and yesterday it was formally " presented " to the Historical Society. The tact that it would be was pretty well known, and by half-past three o'clock, when the militia were on the ground and massed on River Street, there was a large crowd of spectators in the vicinity who had assembled to take part in the proceedings. A stand had been erected on the corner for the accommodation of the speakers and others. On the front part of it was a model of the old block-house, with an American flag on the staff. The building was set off with two small oil-paintings of the fort and flags, every window on both fronts * The issue of The Tribune, which contained the foregoing account of this interesting historical event, was indeed a remarkable one. It was made up of the regular edition, of 20 pages, and an extra of 16, containing the revised New Testament, literatim, et ~cerbatim, et puncliuitim. The entire paper was, therefore, made up of 36 pages, of seven columns to a page, or 252 columns 4 FORT DEARBORN. containing one of the latter, and a large flag^ was pendant from a rope strung across the street. Other structures in the neighborhood were similarly adorned. Among the well-known citizens and old settlers on the stand and in the audience were the following: Gurdon S. Hubbaid, Dr. Hiram Wheeler, who came to Chicago in 1831, and slept the first night on the floor of the block-house; Judge John A. Jameson, Hon. Thomas Hoyne, Hon. Isaac N. Arnold, John Bates, 1832; Thos. Rapp. Samuel I). Ward, Albert D. Hagar, James J. Richards, James Lane, E. F. C. Klokke, Rev. David Swing, Andrew J. Galloway, Walter Kimball, Hon. Win. Bross, Mayor Carter H. Harrison, James Couch, Hon. E. M. Haines, Augustin Deodat Taylor, Michael Dulanty, Reuben J. Bennett, N. Landon; Lawrence Bauer, whose wedding reception took place in in all. The New Testament occupied 112 columns of minion a type two sizes larger than that used in setting up advertisements. Aside from its clear, attractive presentation of a work which the public was curious and even anxious to obtain at the earliest moment, and in all its entirety, The Tribune had its full complement of telegraphic and local news, editorial matter, and advertisements. Nothing was slurred over; nothing was omitted. It was a complete newspaper, in the best sense of the word. Out of the total of 252 columns, 72 were devoted to advertisements, and the remaining 180 includ- ing the 112 used in printing the New Testament to reading matter. Of the 72 columns of advertisements, about 40 were taken up with displayed advertisements, about 31 with small advertisements, including the "Wants," and about a column with paid reading matter. Of the regular reading matter, 1 20 columns were set in minion, 59 in nonpareil, and i in agate. The entire Testament revision was set up, corrected, placed in the forms, and stereotyped between the hours of ten in the morning and ten in the evening a piece of work which is only a fair illustration of The Tribune's unsurpassed mechanical facilities. Eighty-seven compositors were employed in setting the type, and five in correcting the errors noted by the proof-readers, though neither class of workmen was continuously employed on the New Testament. A number of them were taken off the work along in the after- noon of Saturday, to set advertisements, while the remainder worked indis- criminately on the New Testament and the reading matter which went to make up the regular Sunday edition. Had the whole force been employed continuously on the New Testament, the whole revision would have been set up, corrected, locked up in the forms, and stereotyped in eight, instead of twelve hours. The Tribune has shown its enterprise in similar directions on several previous occasions, but on this one it excelled itself, furnishing a notable instance of what unlimited mechanical facilities, intelligently con- trolled, are able to accomplish. / REMARKS OF ROBERT J. BENNETT. 5 ort; Hon. Elilm B. Washburne, Charles C. P. Holden, Joel C. ^. Arthur G. Burlev, Mark Kimball, Mr. . McChesnev, Thomas * - / i/* arter. Rev. Jeremiah Porter, Benjamin F. Aver, Charles 1'r/sbv// ,7- :)t. Darius Heald, Frank Hoyne. Col. W. H. Thompson, Gej^J^AlTp fl.O cj *J Sheridan, William M. Hoyt. ex-Mayor Isaac L. M illrkejiy^i Qy^ /P ent worth, Gen. A. L. Chetlain. Wm. B. H. G|jrl0rl%n1erK\^eTirsonl. . H. Kiusr. Wm. K. Ackerman; Alexander jjlenrv. Philip. William &., Maurice D.P., and Isadore. all sons of Gen. John B. Beaubien; aliston. David, George. Edward, Frank^Gordon, and Slidell, all sons Mark BeaubienTFrank, John, and William R., sons of Henry, and grandsons of Gen. J. B. Beaubien; Oscar Dow us, son-in-law of Mark Beaubien. and Samuel S. Beach. The gathering was called to order by the Hon. Isaac X. Arnold, President of the Historical Society, who said: FELLOW-CITIZENS : I suppose there are many here to-day, possibly, who do not know that on the spot where we stand, and extending" north, inclosed with pickets, was old Fort Dearborn, far off in the then wilderness. We have met to-day to place in position and to inaugurate a tablet that shall tell to all who shall come after us, where that Fort was located. There is present with us a gentleman who, forty-eight years ago, organized the first church in Chicago, and who preached his first sermon in the Fort. It is altogether proper that these services be opened with prayer, and that that gentleman should address the Throne of Grace on this occasion. The Rev. Jeremiah Porter, who preached in the Fort in 1833, and was Chicago's first resident pastor, came forward and offered prayer. Mr. Robert J. Bennett was then introduced and said: MK. CHAIRMAN: In behalf of my respected kinsman and friend. Mr. William M. Hoyt, of this City, it is my pleasant privilege to pro- sent to you as the honorable President and representative of the Chicago Historical Society, and through you to the world, this tablet which is soon to be uncovered to the view of this audience. At the suggestion of members of your Society, this memorial stone is placed to tell the passers-by through the years to come that here stood old Fort Dearborn; that here, within the memory of men now living, stood the outmost defence of our common country ; that here, on this spot, thrice consecrated by blood and fire, was planted the germ which in so short a time has budded, blossomed, and grown into this magnifi- cent City. While we are looking over the past let it not be forgotten that we are making history for the future. We will fondly hope that 6 FORT DEARBORN. the record of this generation will be as satisfactory to the next as are the events we now commemorate to us. May the Chicago of the future as far exceed the present in all that is great and glorious as does the present exceed the days of old Fort Dearborn. Mr. Chairman, hoping this memorial stone will be as gladly received as it is cheerfully given, I ask Chicago's oldest citizen, our much esteemed Gurdon S. Hubbard, to unveil this tablet for inspection and acceptance. The military presented arms, and, as Mr. Hubbard drew from in front of the tablet the flag which had covered it, the crowd cheered and the band played a medley of National airs. Order being restored, Mr. Arnold requested Hon. Thomas Hoyne to respond on behalf of the Historical Society, and he did so as follows : MR. BENNETT : I have been selected by the Historical Society to return to you their profound and grateful thanks for the very appro- priate and beautiful memento which, at your own cost, you have placed on this historical corner. It is a memento which, as every one will see at a glance, recalls centuries of time, and embodies almost the whole history of events. We stand upon historical ground. We stand upon the ground where, as you have very eloquently said, was planted the original germ of the population who to-day constitute the great com- mercial metropolis of not only the West, where the Fort was estab- lished in ad\ance of civilization, but the commercial centre of the country. We stand in the presence, also, of things which bring to remembrance some of the most remarkable events of Xational history. On yonder shore of this same river two centuries ago in the winter of 1674 stood the first Christian missionary that ever visited this land, the pious and humble Marquette, the discoverer of the Missis- sippi, who was the fiist white man that ever spent a winter on this river, or at this spot. And, sir, we stand upon the ground wliere, at the beginning of this century, a whole garrison marched out, and upon the shore of this lake, belosv here, were slaughtered mercilessly by the aboriginal inhabitants of this same land. "We say to you, Mr. Bennett, and your friend, Mr. Hoyt, and others whose patriotism and enterprise have secured this monument, that you have set an excellent example; for, as the events are fast passing from the memory of the generation now coming up, it is essential that such monuments as this be erected by men like yourself to perpetuate what is associated with the foundation of this great commercial metropolis, wonderful in its rise, wonderful in its advance, and wonderful in its consummation. POEM BY EUGENE J. HALL. Eugene J. Hall next read the following original poem : FORT DEARBORN. Chicago, 1881. Here, where the savage war-whoop once resounded, Where council-fires burned brightly years ago, Where the red Indian from his covert bounded To scalp his pale-faced foe. Here, where gray badgers had their haunts and burrows, Where wild wolves howled and prowled in midnight bands, Where frontier farmers turned the virgin furrows, Our splendid city stands. Here, where brave men and lovely women perished; Here, where in unknown graves their forms decay; This marble, that their memory may be cherished, We consecrate to-day. No more the farm-boy's call, or lowing cattle Frighten the timid wild-fowl from the slough; The noisy trucks and wagons roll and rattle O'er miles of pavements now. Now are our senses startled and confounded, By screaming whistle and by clanging bell, Where Beaubien's merry fiddle once resounded, When Summer twilight fell. Here stood the Fort, with palisades about it, With low log block-house, in those early hours, The prairie fair extending far without it, Blooming with fragrant flowers. About this spot the buildings quickly clustered; The logs decayed; the palisades went down; Here the resistless Western spirits mustered, And built this wondrous town. Here from the trackless slough its structures started, And, one by one, in splendor rose to view; The white ships went and came, the years departed, And still she grandly grew. Till one wild night, a night each man remembers, When round her homes the red fire leaped and curled, The sky was filled with flame and flying embers That swept them from the world. 8 FORT DEARBORN. Men said, "Chicago's bright career is ended!" As by her smoldering stones they chanced to go, While the wide world its love and pity blended To help us in our woe. O where was ever human goodness greater? Man's love for man was never more sublime; On the eternal scroll of our Creator 'Tis written for all time. Chicago lives, and many a lofty steeple Looks down to-day upon this Western plain; The tireless hands of her unconquered people Have reared her walls again. Long may she live, and grow in wealth and beauty, And may her children be in coming years True to their trust, and faithful to their duty As her brave pioneers. Mr. Arnold then asked Hon. John AVentworth to step forward, saying that Chicago was more indebted to him than any other man for the appropriations obtained from Congress for the magnificent harbor they saw before them. "The Chicago Historical Society,'' began Mr. "Wentwortli, whose appearance was greeted with cheers, "requested me to prepare a his- tory of Fort Dearborn. "When I found that I must confine myself to history, I immediately removed from my table all my poetical M'orks; I also laid aside my Dictionary of Eloquent Quotations, and my Compendiiyn of Interesting Anecdotes. I have aimed not only to give a brief history of all persons ever connected with the Fort, but, when possible, to give the names 'of some of their descendants now living, thus connecting the past with the present. I hope thereby to receive for our Historical Society new facts for the development of Chicago's Early History." Regardless of a severe wind blowing directly in his face, and of the whistling of the tug-boats numerously passing through the Rush-Street bridge, not one hundred feet from him, Mr. AVentworth, in the open air, delivered the following address : FORT DEARBORN: AN ADDRESS, Delivered under the auspices of the Chicago Historical Society, on Saturday, Afternoon, May 21, 1881, on the Fort Site, BY HON. JOHN WENTWORTH, LL.D. r I A HE first official recognition of an intention to construct a J^ fort at Chicago may be found in a letter upon the records of the War Department, dated June 28th, 1804, directed to Gen. James Wilkinson, but which letter bears no signature. As the letter was dated at the War Department, and as the Secretary of War alone could give such directions, there can be no doubt but that it eminated from Gen. Henry Dearborn, Secretary of War during President Jefferson's administration, from 1801 to 1809. This letter says: "Being of opinion that, for the general defence of our country, we ought not to rely on fortifications, but on men and steel ; and that works calculated for resisting batteries of cannon are neces- sary only for our principal seaports, I can not conceive it to be useful or expedient to construct expensive works for our interior military posts, especially such as are intended merely to hold the Indians in check. I have, therefore, directed stockade-works, aided by block-houses, to be erected at Vincennes, at- Chikago, at near the mouth of the Miami of the Lakes, and at Kaskas- kias, in conformity to the sketch herewith enclosed, each cal- culated for a full company; the block-houses to be constructed of timber, slightly hewed, and of the most durable kind to be obtained at the respective places; the magazines for powder to be of brick of a conic figure, each capable of receiving from fifty to one hundred barrels of powder. Establishments of the kind here proposed will, I presume, be necessary for each of the military posts in Upper and Lower Louisiana, New Orleans and its immediate dependencies excepted. I will thank you to examine the enclosed sketch, and to give me your opinion on the dimensions and other proposed arrangements. You will observe the block-houses are intended to be so placed as to scour from the upper and lower stories the whole of the lines. The back part of the barracks are to have port-holes which can be opened 10 FORT DEARBORN. when necessary for the use of musketry for annoying an enemy. It will, I presume, be proper, ultimately, to extend the pallisades round the block-houses." This letter spells Chicago with a k. This sketch, referred to, can not be found in the archives at Washington, and, as the opinion of Gen. Wilkinson was solicited as to the dimensions and other proposed arrangements, and as he was more of a frontiersman than the Secretary of War, it is not improbable that a new plan altogether was adopted. Gen. Henry Dearborn was a native of New Hampshire, and was a distinguished Soldier in the war of the Revolution, and in that of 1812. In times of peace, he was almost always in civil service, dying at Roxbury, Mass., June 6th, 1829, where a portion of his mansion still stands. M jj enrv Q R Dearborn? his grandson, a resident of Chicago in ^*th*e*^urnmer of 1838, and afterward of Winnebago County, and married there, July 6th, 1840, Sarah M., daughter of Henry Thurston. of Harlem, of that county, one of our most respected early settlers, still lives at Roxbury. He is the son of Gen. Henry A. S. Dearborn, who lived and died there, and was a soldier of the war of 1812, and a member of Congress, and worthily filled the shoes of his father. Gen. Wilkinson was a Marylander, and was a general in the war of the Revolution, and thereafter passed most of his time upon the frontier, being associated with Gen. Anthony Wayne in most of his campaigns against the Indians. But, whatever the plan was, it is a legitimate inference from the letter of the Secretary, that the plan was the same for all the points men- tioned. It has occurred to me that, as the other forts were of longer continuance than ours, and, in all probability, much longer, we may yet find among some of the old settlers, or the Historical Societies of those localities, some kind of a picture that will give us an approximate idea of what our original Fort was. I am making efforts in this direction. John H. Kinzie, in his Narrative, says, "Although it stood upon the same ground as the last Fort, it was differently con- structed, having two block-houses on the southern side; and on the northern side, a sally-port, or subterranean passage from the parade ground to the river." This we officially know, that on June 28th, 1804, there was no fort here, but that one was being projected. September 30, 1804, there were one captain, two second lieutenants, four sergeants, four corporals, four musicians, and fifty-four privates here. Jan. i, 1805, Capt. John Whistler and his son, 2d-Lieut. Wm. Whistler, BY HON. JOHN WENTWORTH. I I were reported here; also, ist-Lieut. Moses Hooke, who was a native of Massachusetts, and resigned when captain, Jan. 20, 1808. By the treaty of Greenville, in 1795, the Pottawatomies, Miamis, and their allies, relinquished their right to "one piece of land, six- miles square, at the mouth of the Chicago River, emptying into the south-west end of Lake Michigan, where a fort formerly stood." Many persons, besides myself, have endeavored to find something to give character to this Fort, thus recognized by Gen. Wayne, but there has been only one conclusion reached in relation to the matter, and that is, that it was only a French trading-post with mere temporary outside protection against In- dian robberies. THE FIRST FORT DEARBORN, ERECTED IN 1804.* * It stood nearly on the site of the Fort erected in 1816, and finally demol- ished in the summer of 1856. It was somewhat different in its structure from its successor. It had two block -houses, one on the south-east corner, the other at the north-west. On the north side was a sally-port, or subterranean passage, leading from the parade ground to the river, designed as a place of escape in an emergency, or for supplying the garrison with water in time of a siege. The whole was enclosed by a strong palisade of wooden pickets. At the west of the fort, and fronting north on the river*, was a two-story log build- ing, covered with split-oak siding, which was the United- States factory, attached to the fort. On the shore of the river, between the fort and the factory, were the root-houses, or cellars of the garrison. The ground adjoin- ing the fort on the south side, was enclosed and cultivated as a garden. The Fort was furnished with three pieces of light-artillery. A company of United- States troops, about fifty in number, many of whom were invalids, constituted the garrison. It received the name of Fort Dearborn, by which it was ever after known as long as it continued a military post. Such was the old Fort previous to 1812. Through the kindness of Mrs. JOHN H. KINZIE, who fur- nished the sketch, we are enabled to present a view of this Fort as it appeared previous to that year. Chicago Magazine, Vol. /., No. i., March, 1837. 12 FORT DEARBORN. Official records show that the Fort was called "Fort Dear- born," in 1812, and there is nothing to indicate that it was not so called from 1804. The Adjutant-General's official records say: "Post established, by United States forces, in 1804. Situated within a few yards of Lake Michigan, in latitude 41 51' north; longitude 87 15' west." The Adjutant-General writes me that from 1804 to 1812 there are no records on file. So I must fill up this space of time from unofficial sources. At various times after my arrival here, on the 25th of October, 1836, I was in the habit of meeting Major William Whistler of the regular army here, where he had a daughter, who is still living, the widow of Robert A. Kinzie. Major Whistler died at New- port, Ky., December 4th, 1863, in his eightieth year, or there- abouts, but his widow died more recently, and visited this City, in full possession of all her mental faculties, in 1875. He was appointed second-lieutenant, June 8th, 1801. Thus his military life would cover over sixty years of the history of Chicago; and during the most of this time he, or some descendant of his family, has been here; he claiming to have come here in 1803, as a second-lieutenant in the company of his father, and to have passed that winter here with his wife, and which statement she confirmed when last here. Two of his children were born in the old Fort, and probably the only children ever born there. Many of our old settlers remember John Harrison Whistler, who was born there October 7th, 1807, married Esther Bailly of old Baillytown, near Porter Station, Porter County, Indiana, at the house of Gen. John B. Beaubien, in Chicago, and died in Burlington, Kansas, October 23d, 1873. Another son was born there who died young. In 1832, Major William Whistler was commandant of the Fort, having been made so June i7th, and so was here during the Black- Hawk war, and during the cholera season. In the absence of official documents, the statements of the Kinzie family and of the Whistler family are our best authority, five generations of the latter and four of the former having lived here. I quote from the Chicago Antiquities, by H. H. Hurlbut: "It was a coveted pilgrimage which we sought, as any one might believe, for it was during the tremendous rain-storm of the evening of 2Qth October, 1875, tnat we sallied out to call at Mrs. Col. R. A. Kinzie's, for an introduction to that lady's mother, Mrs. Whistler. * * * Her tenacious memory ministers to a voluble tongue, and we may say briefly, she is an agreeable, in- telligent, and sprightly lady, numbering only a little over 88 years. BY HON. JOHN WENTWORTH. 13 'To-day,' said she, 'I received my first pension on account of my husband's services.' * * Born in Salem, Mass., July 3d, 1787, her maiden name was Julia Person, and her parents were John and Mary (La Dake) Person. In childhood she removed with her parents to Detroit, where she received most of her edu- cation. In the month of May, 1802, she was married to William Whistler, born in Hagerstown, Maryland, about 1784, a second- lieutenant in the company of his father, Captain John Whistler, U.S.A., then stationed at Detroit. In the summer of 1803, Captain Whistler's company was ordered to Chicago, to occupy the post and build the Fort. Lieut. James S. Swearingen (late Colonel Swearingen, of Chillicothe, O.) conducted the company from Detroit overland. The U. S. schooner Tracy, Dorr, master, was dispatched at the same time, for same destination, by the lakes, with supplies, and having also on board Captain John Whistler, Mrs. Whistler, their son George W., then three years old, (afterward the distinguished engineer in the employ of the Russian government), Lieut. Wm. Whistler, and the young wife of the last-named gentleman. The schooner stopped briefly on her route at St. Joseph's River, where the Whistlers left the vessel and took a row-boat to Chicago. The schooner on arriv- ing at Chicago, anchored half a mile from the shore, discharging her freight by boats. Some 2,000 Indians visited the locality while the vessel was here, being attracted by so unusual an occurrence, as the appearance in these waters of 'a big canoe with wings.' Lieut. Swearingen returned with the Tracy to Detroit." "There were then here, says Mrs. W., but four rude huts, or traders' cabins, occupied by white men, Canadian French, with Indian wives. * * Capt. Whistler, upon his arrival, at once set about erecting a stockade and shelter for their protection, followed by getting out the sticks for the heavier work. It is worth mentioning here, that there was not at that time, within hundreds of miles, a team of horses, or oxen, and, as a con- sequence, the soldiers had to don the harness, and with the aid of ropes drag home the needed timbers. * * Lieut. Whistler, after about five years sojourn here, was transferred to Fort Wayne, having previously been made a first-lieutenant. * * "Col. Wm. Whistler's height at maturity was 6 feet 2 inches, and his weight at one time was 260 pounds. He died in New- port, Ky., Dec. 4th, 1863." Mrs. Whistler lived to be ninety years of age, dying on February i3th, 1878, at Newport, Ky., and leaving four daughters, one son, Gen. J. N. G. Whistler, now. stationed at Fort Keogh, Dakota, and thirty-seven grandchildren, 14 FORT DEARBORN. according to the obituary notice published at the time. Mrs. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan is her grand-niece. This Capt. John Whistler, father of William, according to Gardner's Military Dictionary, was originally a British soldier, and was made prisoner with Gen. Burgoyne, at Saratoga, October, 1777, where our Gen. Henry Dearborn was serving as Major. He afterward joined the American army, became sergeant, and by hard fighting, won his way to a captaincy in the ist Infantry, in April, 1802. He was made Brevet-Major in 1812, and con- tinued in that capacity until his company was disbanded after the close of the war, June, 1815. He died at Bellefontaine, Mo., in 1827, where he had been a military store-keeper several years. The United States official register says he was a native of Ire- land. There is nothing to contradict the general impression that about the year 1810, he was succeeded by Capt. Nathan Heald, who commanded at the destruction of the Fort; making but two commandants in the life of the first Fort, the one being a witness of its commencement, and the other of its destruction. Heald was made Major, August 26th, 1812. eleven days after the mas- sacre, and went into private life with the disbandment of his regiment at the close of the war, June, 1815. His wife was Rebekah, daughter of Col. Samuel Wells, of Louisville, Ky., and niece of the murdered Capt. William Wells,* for whom our Wells Street was named. Mrs. Juliette A. Kinzie, in her Wau-bun, says, "The Indians stole Capt. Wells, when a boy, from the family of Hon. Nathaniel Pope, of Kentucky, with whom he was living." Some writers contend that, had Capt. Whistler been in charge of the Fort instead of Capt. Heald, the massacre would not have taken place. Capt. Heald has had no one to speak for him here. But he was appointed from Massachusetts a lieuten- ant, in 1799, and could not be supposed to have had that ac- quaintance with the characteristics of the Indians which Whistler had, who had been in his country's service ever since Burgoyne's surrender in 1777, and principally against the Indians, and fre- quently participating in the campaigns of Gen. Arthur St. Clair, and in one of which he was wounded. t Fault-finders say he * For history of Capt. Wm. Wells and family, see Appendix A. t In the Biographical Sketches of the Members of the Corinthian Lodge of Masons, at Concord, Mass., I find the following : "Nathan Heald, initiated in 1797, died at Stockland, [now O'Fallon], in St. Charles Co., Mo., where he had resided for some years, in 1832, aged 57 years. He was born in New Ipswich, N.H., [Sept. 29,] 1775, [was the third son of Col. Thomas and Sybel (Adams) Heald,] and in early life joined the U. S. Army." Mrs. BY HON. JOHN WENTWORTH. I 5 should have done one of two things, neither of which he did. He should have abandoned the Fort at once upon receiving his orders from Gen. William Hull, commanding at Detroit, which were received here on the yth, or else have put the Fort in a con- dition for permanent defence. Gen. Hull's orders were to evacuate the post if practicable, and, in that event, to distribute the property belonging to the United States, in the Fort and in the factory or agency, to the Indians in the neighborhood. It was not until eight days thereafter that Capf. Heald evacuated the post. Yet there may have been considerations held out to him by friendly chiefs and their friends, which they could not make good after the news of the war with Great Britain became gener- ally spread. Even Gen. Hull thought the Indians friendly, or he would not have ordered the property distributed as he did. But Mackinaw had surrendered to the British on the iyth of July, and the Indians may have heard of it, although Capt. Nathan Heald did not hear of it until the arrival of Gen. William Hull's mes- sage, on the yth. As the Indians generally favored the British, the news from Mackinaw may have excited them. Gen. Hull sur- rendered Detroit to Gen. Isaac Brock (who was killed at the battle of Queenstown. on the i3th October, ensuing) about twenty-four hours after the Chicago massacre. And it is a remarkable fact that our John B. Beaubien was at the surrender of Mackinaw, whilst his brother, Mark Beaubien, was at that of Detroit. I now quote from the Adjutant-General's letter of April 2d, 1 88 r, giving all that appears upon the records of the War De- partment, respecting the destruction of the Fort : "August 1 5th, 1812, the garrison, having evacuated the post and were en route for Fort Wayne, under the command of Capt. Nathan Heald, ist United States Infantry, composed of 54 regular infantry, 12 militia-men, and i interpreter, was attacked by the Indians to the number of between 400 and 500, of whom 15 were reported killed. Those of the garrison killed were Ensign Geo. Ronan, ist Infantry, Dr. I. V. Van Voorhis, Capt. Wells, interpre- ter, 24 enlisted men United States Infantry, and 12 militia-men; 2 women and 12 children were also killed. The wounded were Maria (Heald) Edwards, of this City, born at New Ipswich, N. H., in 1803, mother of Mrs. Gen. A. L. Chetlain, was the oldest child of his brother Hon. Thomas Heald, one of the Associate-Judges of the Supreme Court of Alabama, who died at Mobile, Alabama, in 1821, aged 53. There was a younger brother, Jonas Heald, who died at St. Louis, Mo., single. Mrs. Edwards has a sister, Mrs. Eliza Heald Stone, residing at Concord, Mass., but no brothers. 1 6 FORT DEARBORN. \~' IT Capt. Nathan Heald and Mrs. Heald. None others reported. The next day, August i6th, 1812, the post was destroyed by the Indians." Ensign George Ronan was from the State of New York, and a graduate of the Military Academy, in 1811. Dr. Isaac V. Van Voorhis was also from the State of New York, and appointed surgeon's -mate in 1811. Both are supposed to have been un- married. Capt. William Wells was a brother of Col. Samuel Wells, a prominent man in Kentucky. Lieut. Linai T. Helm, also in the Fort, who is not mentioned in the Adjutant-General's letter, but who is mentioned in the various histories of the massacre as among the wounded and prisoners, (as also is his wife), was appointed ensign in 1807, (State not given), and pro- moted to be captain in April, 1814, and resigned in September of the same year. He married Margaret, a daughter of Capt. McKillup, a British officer, who was killed near Fort Defiance, Ohio, in 1794, whose "Ifcdow married the original John Kinzie, called by the Indians^Shaw-nee-aw-kee, meaning silversmith, she was half-sister to'john H. and Robert A. Kinzie. Capt. Helm left an only child. Wrr^. Edwin Helm, who lived Gen. Hunter, until the war ot the Rebellion; he then went into the army, and^no'i'or being heaid fluni, io juppuaed, by his relatives, rOSwtrc-been killed in the war. Others rlm'm thit ITT i lici*i4 L jil ^l TTTIIJ'I Capt. Linai T. Helm was son of VUliam Willis Helm, a Revolutionary soldier, of Prince-William County, Va., who married Taliafero, of Caroline County. Virginia. Capt. Helm is said to have died whilst traveling at the East, about 1817, at or near Bath, Steuben County, N.Y. Capt. and Mrs. Margaret Helm were married in Detroit, 1808, and after his death she married, at Chicago, 1836, Dr^JuicJxis. .^l^fltk of Detroit, Mich., and died in 1845, at Grand Rapids, tJU 'Mich. He was appointed assistant- surgeon from Connecticut, Jan. 15, 1828, and resigned, March 31, 1834. After his wife's death he returned to Connecticut, and died there. Capt. Helm had a brother, Francis T. Helm, who was ap- pointed lieutenant from New York, in 1814, and left the army at the close of the war, 1815; he had a son, Charles J. Helm, who was appointed first -lieutenant from Kentucky, March 8, 1847, and served in the army until the close of the Mexican war; who married Louise, daughter of Col. William Whistler, now living at Xewport, Ky., and sister of Mrs. Robt. A. Kinzie. He was aid- de-camp to Gen. John S. Wool. The details of the massacre would require more time than I have to spare on this occasion. I have given all that the BY HON. JOHN \YKNT\VQRTH. I/ records at Washington show.* Next to them in importance are the contemporaneous accountst copied into American Stale Papers; and also into Niles' Register of 1812, 1813, and 1814. Next is the Narrative of the Afassacre of Chicago, by John H. Kinzie,+ who was a boy here at the time, having been born in Sandwich, Upper Canada, July 7, 1803, published in 1844. Next, Brown's History of Illinois; and next, Annals of the West, pub- lished at St. Louis, in 1851; History of the Maumee Valley, by H. S. Knapp; McBride's Pioneer Biography; Lossing's Field Book of the War of 1812; Brice's History of Fort Wayne. Upon this matter and many others appertaining to the early history of Chicago, Mrs. Juliette A. Kinzie's Wau-bun, published in 1855, is very instructive; but it is not properly appreciated because it is written in the shape of leisure sketches instead of con- secutive history. Those who think lightly of her work should call at my office and copy a thorough index of it, which I have made, and they will find that Wau-bnn is a historic treasure. Robert Fergus, of this City, is publishing a very valuable series of pamphlets upon Early Chicago, in which much respecting this massacre is given. There is also something in Blanchard's History of Chicago and the North- West. After a diligent search at the var- ious Departments, I can not find that any of the soldiers here at the time of the massacre, nor that any of their descendants, have applied for a land-warrant or a pension. So I have been unable to procure for you the names of any descendants of those ^hose lives were preserved, nor can I give you the names of those whose lives were lost, except those published in the papers about the time, nor the names of any living descendants. The com- pany-roll can not be found. Yet I will give to whatever his- tory this address may acquire the names of the soldiers and of others I have found out, and perhaps some family genealogist may yet do what I have been unable to do. The following soldiers reached Plattsburg, New York, in 1814, after being redeemed as British prisoners at Quebec, Canada: James Van Horn, Joseph Knowles, Paul Grummon, (or Grummow or Grum- mond or Gromet), Elias Mills, James Bowen, Nathan Edson, * See Appendix B. t See Appendix C. J The Massacre of Chicago, was written by Mrs. John H. Kinzie, and pub- lished by Ellis & Fergus, printers, Saloon Buildings, Chicago, in 1844. The copy was written in a half-bound blank-book, small letter-page, of about four quires, in Mrs. Kinzie's handwriting. Shortly after its publication, Judge Henry Brown issued his History of Illinois, and he copied Mrs. Kinzie's pamphlet, which made two chapters of his history. Mrs. K. said that "the Judge had no right to take the Massacre, or to make the alterations which he made." R. FERGUS, June I4th, 1881. I 8 FORT DEARBORN. Dyson Dyer, James Corbin, and Phelim Corbin, whose wife (Mrs. Corbin) was inhumanly massacred. Mrs. Holt, wife of Sergeant Holt, is mentioned as having afterward lived in Ohio. Sergeant Hays was killed. A soldier named Cooper* was killed, but his family was saved. Among the soldiers who were killed, or who died from expos- ure after the massacre, were John Neads, Hugh Logan, August Motte, and Nelson from Maryland, t During my residence in Chicago, I have made repeated efforts to trace out some descendant or relative of Capt. Nathan Heald without success. After I began to write this address, I felt more anxious than ever to learn something more of him, and addressed letters to various places seeking information. Luckily, one of my letters reached a gentleman who knew a son of his, and he lost no time in seeing him and some neighbors who also knew the family; and in hastening to me the following statements, gathered in a short interview; being remembrances of what they had heard from his parents, they having read nothing upon the subject and not thinking that there was anyone at this late day feeling any in- terest in it : "Capt. Nathan Heald was married in Louisville, Kentucky, May 23d, 1811, to Rebekah Wells, a native of Kentucky, and daughter of Col. Samuel Wells, of that place. They started at once for Fort Dearborn, and went all the way on horseback. She rode a beautiful and \vell-trained bay mare, upon which the Indians ever looked with longing eyes. They made several attempts to steal her. She was riding her when the attack was made, and the Indians considered her one of the greatest trophies of the battle. Great, but unsuccessful efforts were made to repur- chase her. Gen. Hull sent Capt. Win. Wells, with about thirty- two friendly Indians, to escort Capt. Heald to Fort Wayne. * See Appendix D. t When the last Fort was taken down, in 1856, an old paper was found, reading as follows: - "Permission is hereby given for one gill of whiskey each: Denison, Dyer, Andrews, Keamble (may be Kimball or some other name beginning with K), Burnain, J. Corbin, Burnett, Smith, McPher- son, Hamilton, Fury [not certain], Gramond [or Grummon, or Grummow, or Grumet], Mor- fitt [or Marfett], Lynch, Locke [or Locker], Peterson, P. Corbin, Van Horn, Mills. November I2th, 1811." The most of the names had been partially erased with pen and ink, probably to show that they had received their whiskey. Therefore, some of the names may be erroneous. From a portrait in possession of her son, Hon. Darius Heald. BY HON. JOHN WENTWORTH. 19 There were in Fort Dearborn only twenty-five or thirty fighting men. The others were upon the sick-list. It was in the very hot weather of August. The order to vacate created no dissatisfac- tion at Fort Dearborn or vicinity, except with the sutler or store- keeper, interpreters, traders, and that whole class who felt that their occupation would be gone if the Fort should be abandoned. They are the persons who have handed down all the reflections upon Capt. Heald's conduct in leaving the Fort. When the soldiers had proceeded about one and a-half miles from the Fort, they were surprised and surrounded by about 600 Indians who had formed in a horse-shoe or semi-circular shape upon the bluff. The troops were upon the lake shore. Capt. and Mrs. Heald were riding together. Capt. Wells was somewhat in advance, dressed in Indian costume, with his Indian forces. Capt. Wells first noticed 'the design of the Indians and rode back and in- formed Capt. Heald, who at once started for the most elevated point upon the sand-hills, and endeavored to mass his wagons, baggage, women, and children, and sick soldiers, so as to make a better defence whilst the fight was going on. At the first attack, Capt. Wells' Indians made their escape. Early in the fight, Capt. Heald and his wife became separated. Capt. Wells rode up to Mrs. Heald, with blood streaming from his mouth and nostrils, and told her that he thought he had been fatally wounded, and requested her to inform his wife that he had fought bravely and knew that he had killed seven Indians before he was shot. Soon his horse was shot, and, as the horse fell, his foot was caught in the stirrup and he was held under the dead horse some time. Whilst in this position, he killed his eighth Indian. He was released from this position just in time to meet his death from a bullet in the back of his neck. The Indians im- mediately scalped him, cut out his heart and flourished it about upon a gun-stick, then divided it into small pieces and ate it whilst warm, Mrs. Heald being a witness. She was led back to the Fort as a prisoner. "Capt. Heald received a wound in the hip which always troubled him, and, it is believed, caused his death in 1832. He drew a pension in consequence thereof. Having but about a half-dozen men left in a fighting condition, Capt. Heald surren- dered. The Indians returned to the Fort, plundered and burned it. They then camped along the lake shore, near the Fort. The next morning, an* Indian chief, named Jean Baptist Chandonais, who was a half-breed, having possession of Capt. Heald as his pris- oner, sought out the captor of Mrs. Heald and purchased her. She had supposed that her husband was killed. Chandonais took 20 FORT DEARBORN. Mrs. Heald to her husband. She had received six wounds. When the Indians were leading her away as prisoner, one of the squaws attempted to take a blanket from her, when she, with her riding-whip, struck her several times ; which act of bravery, under the circumstances, greatly excited the admiration of the Indians. The next day, the chief Chandonais took all the warriors with him for the purpose, it was said, of burning a prisoner, leaving .Capt. Heald and wife in charge of the squaws and a young Indian boy. That evening, through the assistance of the boy who accom- panied them, and probably with the assent of Chandonais, they made their escape in a birch-bark canoe to Mackinaw, and finally reached Detroit, where Capt. Heald surrendered himself as a prisoner of war. The British officer in charge was a Mason as well as Capt. Heald. This officer greatly assisted them and, when exchanged, he gave them money to take them home. "The Indians took from Capt. Heald a large ornamental silver shawl or blanket-pin, marked R. A. M., and from Mrs. Heald a tortoise-shell comb mounted with gold, and they were finally sold at St. Louis, where Lieut. John O'Fallon, a U.S. officer from Kentucky, recognized, purchased, and sent them to Louisville, Ky., where they arrived before Capt. and Mrs. Heald. "Capt. Heald and wife came to St. Charles County, Mo., in the sprihg of 1817, and settled at Stony Point, near the town of O'Fallon in that county, where they resided until his death, April rt 27th, 1832, aged fifty-seven years. Mrs. Heald remained there also until her death, April 230!, 1857, aged eightv-one years. She was a leading member of the Baptist Church, and was greatly respected for her great firmness and kindness. They were buried upon the home place. Mrs. Heald left a manuscript history of her horseback tour from Louisville, in 1811, to Chicago, of her life whilst at Chicago, and of the massacre, andTier final return to St. Louis. But it was lost during the war of the Rebellion. "They had two daughters, both now dead, Margaret dying single in 1836, aged twenty, and Mary (the oldest) dying in 1835, the wife of Capt. David McCausland, who still survives her. They had a son, Darius, born January 27th, 1822, and still lives upon the home place, near O'Fallon. He represented St. Charles County in the Missouri Legislature in 1856-59. Col. Samuel Wells, father of Mrs. Heald, was a noted Indian -fighter and brother of Capt. William Wells. "Chandonais and his son visited Major Heald in the fall before his death, and passed some days with him, recounting the scenes of the massacre and calling to mind the incident of the blanket." I find the following in Gardner's Military Dictionary: BY HON. JOHN WENTWORTH. 21 Samuel Wells was from Kentucky. Major in Adair's Mounted Volunteers, in 1793; Major, and distinguished himself in battle of Tippecanoe, Nov. 7, 1811; Colonel of i7th Infantry, 1812; disbanded with regiment, May 12, 1814; Major-General of Ken- tucky Militia. William Wells, brother of above, was from Kentucky, was cap- tain commanding company of spies, under Maj.-Gen. Anthony Wayne, from July 28, to December, 1794. William Wayne Wells, son of Capt. William, was appointed cadet at West Point from Indiana, September, 1817; second-lieu- tenant, 1821; first-lieutenant, 1825; resigned July 31, 1831, and died in 1832. [Died on board the Steamer Superior, off Erie, Pa., whilst returning home.] All accounts agree that the massacre took place about one mile and a-half south from the Fort. It was pointed out to me in 1836, and the historic bluffs or sand-hills existed for many years thereafter. Medore B. Beaubien, son of Gen. John B. Beaubien, sends me, by his brother, Alexander, who has just returned from a visit to him, at Silver Lake, Shawnee County, Kansas, the following to read to you : "I was born at Grand River, Michigan, in 1809, and came to Chicago with my father, in 1813, and walked over the ruins of the old Fort that was burnt by the Indians. After me, all father's children were born in Chicago." [At this point Mr. Wentworth caused a general commotion in his audience by saying:] Ladies and gentlemen, I am going to give you a recess by introducing to you a gentleman who unexpectedly called upon me yesterday, andwhom I believe you will all be glad to know. Hon. Darius Heald, of O'Fallon, St. Charles County, Mo., son of Capt. Nathan Heald, commandant of the Fort at the time of the massacre, who came here on purpose to witness the ceremonies of this day. [Mr. Heald came forward amid great cheering and thanked the people for their reception." He exhibited the shawl-pin, into the rim of which the Indians had made a hole, so as to wear it in their ear or nose. It was the opinion of many that it might have been made here by our original John Kinzie, who was a silver- smith at one time. He then exhibited his mother's bridal comb, which attracted great admiration from the ladies; having been well preserved. The shell was cut in the shape of an eagle, and it was plenteously studded with gold so as to represent the eagle's wings. Mr. Heald said he had heard his mother say that, whilst 22 FORT DEARBORN. she was writhing in pain from her many wounds and lying upon the ground, she saw an Indian chief strutting around with that comb in his hair. Mr. Heald also exhibited a small ivory minia- ture of his mother's uncle, the massacred Capt. Wm. Wells, and of his own grandfather, Col. Samuel Wells.] There is no doubt but the Indians, who resided within the im- mediate vicinity of the Fort, were friendly, and did their best to pacify the numerous warriors who flocked here from the more distant hunting-grounds. But they were so determined upon warfare that they proceeded, directly after the massacre, to Fort Wayne, and joined the Indians there in a continued assault upon the Fort, until relieved by Gen. Wm. H. Harrison,, on th*e 1 6th September, following. Scarcely a person escaped the massacre who did not have some kind words to say of some friendly Indian whose acquaintance had been previously formed. The Adjutant-General writes to me that his records only show that the post was reoccupied about June, 1816, Capt. Hezekiah Bradley commanding. The troops continued in occupation until October, 1823, when the post was evacuated, and left in charge of the Indian -agent. It was reoccupied, October 3d, 1828. Nothing is on file respecting the rebuilding of the Fort. When I was in Congress, under the second term of President Tyler, in 1843 an d '44, Hon. John C. Calhoun was Secretary of State, and I remember, in a conversation with me about Chicago, that he claimed that the Fort was completed under the early part of his term as Secretary of War, and he asserted that there was a disposition among the officers here to call it Fort Chicago; but he thought it would be disrespectful to Gen. Henry Dearborn, then living and standing high in the affections of the people, and having a claim upon their gratitude as a soldier and statesman. Calhoun's term commenced with the inauguration of President Monroe, March 4th, 1817. The building of the Fort in 1816, may have been the cause or the result of the treaty of that year, in which the Pottawatomies ceded to the United States all the country in this region, described as the country upon the headwaters of Lake Michigan. They were to be paid $5700 yearly, and their number was estimated at three thousand and four hundred. They remained the peaceful occupants of all they wanted until after my arrival, Oct. 25, '36. Our old settlers received a very welcome visit not long since from Col. John T. Sprague, who made himself very popular here whilst, as a second-lieu- tenant, collecting the scattered bands, and making arrangements to take them to their new home,* where they have ever remained * See Sketch of the Potta'vatomies, by J. D. Cat on, No. 3, Fergus' Hist. Series. BY HON. JOHN WENTWORTH. 23 contented, and from whom we often hear through their agent, a member of the first Board of Trustees of the Original Town of Chicago, in 1833, Medore B. Beaubien, now mayor of their com- mercial centre, Silver Lake, Shawnee County, Kansas. Colonel Sprague was son-in-law of Gen. Wm. J. Worth, and won honors in the Florida and Mexican wars. He has recently deceased. Capt. John B. F. Russell was here upon detached Indian-ser- vice, when I came, and superintended the Indians' final removal. He entered West Point from Massachusetts, in 1814, was made captain in 1830, and resigned, 22d June, 1837. He built the first public_hall in our City, at the south-east corner of Lake and Clark Streets, known as "The Saloon" where courts, public meetings, balls, etc.," etc., were held. It was there where Stephen A. Doug- lass and John T. Stuart, candidates for Congress, had a public discussion in 1838. He was the first man to establish an office for the sale and purchase of real estate and payment of taxes here. He died here January 3, 1861, leaving a widow and son, both still living here. I quote from a paper read before the Chicago Historical So- ciety by Hon. Isaac N. Arnold, its President, upon the authority of MiyJphn,H KjrmVg daughter, Mrs. Nellie Gordon, and pub- lished ^n the Chicago ^Tribune, July i8th, 1877: . "In 1816, the Kinzie family returned to their desolate home in Chicago. The bones of the murdered soldiers who had fallen four years before, were still lying unburied where they had fallen. The troops, who rebuilt the Fort, collected and interred the re- mains. The coffins which contained them were deposited near the bank of the river, which then had its outlet about at the foot of Madison Street. The cutting through the sand-bar for the harbor caused the Lake to encroach and wash away the earth, exposing the long range of coffins and their contents, which were afterward cared for and reinterred by the civil au- thorities."* Among my earliest recollections of Chicago was seeing pro- jections of coffins from the steep banks of the lake shore, south of the Fort, about Lake Street. Capt. Bradley commanded from June, 1816, until May, 1817; Brevet-Major Daniel Baker, t until June, 1820; then Capt. Bradley again, to Jan. ist, 1821 ; Maj. Alexander Cummings to Oct., 1821 ; Lieut.-Col. Jno. McNeil to July, 1823; Capt. Jno. Greene to Oct., 1823. They are all dead ; Bradley dying in 1826; Baker in 1836; Cummings in 1842; McNeil in 1850, and Greene in 1840. None of them have descendants in this region of whom I ever heard. * See No. 10 Fergus Historical Series, p. 21. t See Appendix E. ^ P never~TiacT''an acquaintance with any of them, except" Col. Mc- Neil, afterward brevetted Brigadier- General. He was a native of New Hampshire, and passed his last years there. From him I received my earliest impressions .of Chicago. He claimed that his daughter, now living, the widow of Hon. Chandler E. Potter, of Manchester, N.H., was the first child born in the new Fort. I met her, a few years since, walking from the site of the Fort, and she told me she had been trying to find her birthplace. Another daughter, still living, is the wife of the present Gen. Henry W. Benham. He lost his only son, Lieutenant J. Win- field Scott McNeil, in an engagement under Gen. Hernandez, with the Indians, in Florida, in 1837. Gen. McNeil was brother- in-law of President Franklin Pierce, the late Lieut. John Sullivan Pierce, and Lieut.-Col. Benjamin K. Pierce.* Gen. McNeil was the competitor of Gen. Scott, for being the tallest and heaviest man who was ever in the American army. Both were brevetted for their gallantry at the battle of Niagara, Canada, in 1814, where McNeil was so severely wounded that * Lieut. John Sullivan Pierce married Harriet, Puthuff, daughter of .the Indian-agent at Mackinaw, who was a Virginian, ana came to Mackinaw about 1818. He was Wm. Henry Puthuff, appointed adjutant from Ohio, May 7, 1812; major, Feb. 21, 1814; and disbanded, with his regiment, at the close of the war, in 1815. He was a member of the Michigan legislative council in 1824, and died in November of that year. Lieut. Pierce died at Detroit, in 1825. After his death, and that of her father, Mrs. Pierce went to Chilli- cothe, Ohio, with her two children, y^ Lieut.-Col. Benjamin K. Pierce married Josette Lafromboise, when he was in command of Fort Mackinaw, about 1815-16, daughter of Joseph Lafrom- boise, who married Madeline, daughter of Jean Baptiste Marcotte, a fur- trader of Mackinaw, who married a woman of the Ottawa tribe of Indians. Mrs. Pierce died in Nov., 1821, leaving Harriet, who married Jas. Brewerton Ricketts, who graduated at West Point, in 1839, and was a captain in 1852. Mrs. Rickets did not live long, but left a daughter who married an army officer^ and is still living. Lt.-Col. Pierce married again. Joseph Lafromboise had a Imaiden sister who taught a young ladies' school at Mackinaw, as early as 1 793 \at 1794. Madame Madeline Lafromboise, after she was thirty years of age, I/educated herself; and her husband having been killed upon the Upper Mis- /* sissippi, she took charge of his business and continued a trader in the Ameri- Wisconsin, and to whom I am indebted for this" information. The Lafromboise family of this City, claimed relationship to that of Mackinaw; but it is probable that our Francis, Sr. , was no nearer related than cousin or second-cousin to Joseph, of Mackinaw. In 1826, Francis, Sr., voted here, with three sons, Joseph, Claude, and Francis, Jr. Gen. John Baptiste Beaubien's second wife was Josette Lafromboise, daughter of Francis, Sr. Medore B. Beaubien, of Silver Lake, Kan., son of Gen. John B., by his first wife, now has for his second wife the widow of Thomas W olkyjs, (a clerk in the Chicago postoffice, in jS.^lL and daughter o.f ouivJcfeefwXafromboise. BY HON. JOHN WENTWORTH. 2$ he was incapacitated for further duty, and went into civil service, being at one time surveyor-general of the port of Boston. I have often measured with both these distinguished men, and I feel safe in saying that those who have seen me have an accurate idea of their size and height. From October, 1823, the Fort was in charge of Dr. Alexander Wolcott, from Connecticut, the uncle of our present and long time-honored county surveyor, named for him. There was an Indian trading-post at Chicago, on Lake Michi- gan, in Indiana Territory, in 1805. Charles Jouett, from Ken- tucky, (sometimes written Jewett), was Indian-agent at Detroit in 1803. The Chicago agency may then have been under the supervision of the Detroit agent. He signed his name afterward as Indian -agent at Chicago. Mathew Irwin* was the Indian- * Mathew Irwin, sometimes called Indian-agent, and sometimes Factory- agent, at Chicago, in 1810, received $1165 salary. Official reports show that there was in that year $4732 worth of merchandize and $877 worth of furs and peltries, and that the factory -building cost $500. Between 1807 and 1811 the profits on the trade at Chicago was $3725. From the 1st of March to the massacre, Charles Jouett appears to have succeeded Mr. Irwin. After the Fort was rebuilt, the Indian trade commenced again, and during the years 1817-18-19, there were 191 Deer skins, 71 Beaver skins, 1182 Raccoon skins, 2 7>77 Muskrat skins, and 16 Fox skins purchased. These were sold at Georgetown, D.C., on ninety days' credit. Between July, 1820, and Decem- ber, 1821, Alexander Wolcott, as Indian-agent, paid out $27,600. His salary was $1300. John Kinzie received $500 as sub-agent. In 1831-32, Thomas J. V. Owen was Indian-agent, and disbursed here, during the year, $4987, and in 1832-33, $64,593. George \V. Dole, (afterwards alderman), is paid for salt, and Messrs. Beeson, Winslow & Beeson for tobacco. Col. Owen's salary was $1300; Gholson Kerchival, his brother-in-law, (afterward member of the Legislature), received $524 as sub-agent. James Stewart, as sub-agent, $375. Billy Caldwell, (Sauganash) interpreter, $493. David McKee, (who died at Aurora, 111., April 8th, 1881), blacksmith, $480, Joseph Pothier, (who married Victor Miranda, a half-breed, and was living at Milwaukee, at last dates), assistant-blacksmith, $220. Dexter Graves, (father- in-law of the late E. H. Hadduck, who died May 30, 1881), assistant in issuing provisions. John Currin, agriculturist at Carey Mission. [The Carey Mission, referred to in this note, was a few miles from Niles, Michigan, and was under charge of the Baptists. Not far from it in the same county, near where Bertram, Berrien County, now is, was the St. Joseph Mission, under charge of the Catholics.] Robert A. Kinzie, (son of John), assistant in fur- nishing presents to the Indians. Isaac Harmon, Justice of the Peace, fees for prosecuting John Welch for selling liquor to Indians, $2.82. [He was brother to Dr. Elijah Dewey Harmon, who died Jan. 3, 1869.*] In 1833-4, pay- ments were made to some of the same persons, and also to John S. C. Hogan, (postmaster), Brewster, Hogan & Co., William See, (Rev.), blacksmith, John Calhoun, (publisher of Democrat}, Ferdinand Seybold, Clemens Stose, (afterward alderman, and now living at SanFrancisco, Cal. ), Joseph Bouche, or Bushy, James Smallwood, Peter Pruyne, (afterward State Senator), and J. S. W. Beeson. * See Early Medical Chicago, No. n Fergus' Historical Series, pp. 12 18. 26 FORT DEARBORN. agent here, in 1810. Dr. Alexander Wolcott,'was Indian-agent here as early as 1820, and so continued until his death, in 1830. He was succeeded by Col. Thomas J. V. Owen, of this State, who was born in Kentucky, April 5th, 1801, and was one of our first Board of Town Trustees, in 1833, who died here October 1 5th, 1835, whose wife (now living at East St. Louis, in this State) was daughter of Hon. Miles Hotchkiss, and niece of our United States Senator, Elias K. Kane. If you will go down to Lewiston, in Fulton County, you will find, upon the list of mar- riages there, the following, at Chicago precinct of that county: "By John Hamlin, J.P., July 2oth, 1823, Alexander Wolcott and Ellen Marion Kinzie." Mr. Hamlin resided at Peoria, and was on his way home from Green Bay, when he performed the ceremony. Chicago had neither clergyman nor Justice-of-the-Peace then. But this trouble was soon avoided by the appointment of her father as one of the Justices-of-the- Peace for Fulton County, upon the zd of Decem- ber following. We had to wait until we became a part of Peoria County before we had a second one, who was Billy Caldwell, (Sauganash), who was appointed April i8th, 1826. Mrs. Wol- cott, remarried, in Detroit, May 26, 1836, Hon. George C. Bates, of that City, (where she died, August i, 1860, leaving Kinzie Bates, born there April 19, 1838, now captain in U. S. Infantry,) more recently of this City, but now of Leadville, Colo. It is claimed that she was the first white child born in Chicago [1805], the place of her birth being on the North-Side, at the historic home of John and Eleanor Kinzie, and I know not why she can not be said to have been the first white person married here. The U.S. Official Register of 1826, shows that Wolcott's salary was $1300, and that he had a Sub-Agent, Alexander Doyle, born in Virginia, at a salary of $500, and that Mr. Kinzie drew a salary of $500 as Indian interpreter; and Alexander Robinson, better known as Chechepinqua, whose descendants still reside in this City, at a salary of $365 ; and also Peresch LeClerc, a Frenchman, well known after I came here, but having no descendants that I am aware of, at a salary of $432. In the year 1823, there appears to have been an Indian -agent or factor here from Connecticut, named A. B. Lindsley, at a salary of $1300, of whom nothing is now known. There was a Jacob B. Varnum here as factor, as early as 1817, from Massachusetts, at a salary of $1300, and who was continued here for some time after Dr. Wolcott came, of whom also nothing is known. Mr. Alexander Beaubien informs me that, in 1866, an aged gentleman called to see him, and inquired about his father. He? ._, - ^ c BY HON. JOHN WENTWORTH. 2/ said he lived here in 1820, and boarded in the old John Dean house with his father, the site of which has been washed away and would now be out in the Lake, if it had not been filled up. He said his name was Varnum, and he lived then in Petersburg. Mr. Beaubien had forgotten whether in Kentucky or Virginia. John Dean was a post-sutler. The Adjutant- General's official records show the following: Upon May 27th, 1823, Major-General Jacob Brown, General-in- Chief of the Army, issued this order: "The Major-General, commanding the army, directs that Fort Dearborn, Chicago, be evacuated, and that the garrison thereof be withdrawn to the headquarters of the 3d Regiment of Infantry. * * * The Commanding-General of the eastern depart- ment will give the necessary orders for carrying these movements into effect, as well as for the security of the public property at Fort Dearborn." Thus matters stood at the Fort until, Major-General Brown being dead, his successor, as General-in-Chief of the Army, Maj.- Gen. Alexander Macomb, gave the following order under date of Washington, August igth, 1828: "In- conformity with the directions of the Secretary of War, the following movements of the troops will be made without delay: Two companies of the 5th Regiment of Infantry to re- occupy Fort Dearborn, at the head of Lake Michigan, the remaining eight companies to proceed by the way of the Ouis- consin and Fox Rivers, to Fort Howard, Green Bay, where the headquarters of the Regiment will be established." Mrs. John H; Kinzie, in her Wau-bun, thus alludes to this change of the soldiers: "The troops were removed from the garrison in 1823, but restored in 1828, after the Winnebago war. There was a disturbance between the Winnebagoes and white settlers on and near the Mississippi. After some murders had been committed, the young chief, Red Bird, was taken and im- prisoned at Prairie du Chien to await his trial, where he died of chagrin "and the irksomeness of confinement. It was feared that the Pottawatomies [our Indians] would make common cause with the AVinnebagoes, and commence a general system of havoc and bloodshed upon the frontier. They were deterred from such a step, probably, by the exertions of Billy Caldwell [ Sauganash], Robinson [Chechepinqua], and Chamblee [Shabonee], who made an expedition among the Rock-River bands to argue and per- suade them into remaining tranquil."* * See Sketch of Caldwell and Shabonee, by Wm. Hickling, in No. 10 Fergus' Historical Series, pp. 29 46. 28 FORT DEARBORN. I can never think of either of these three persons without being reminded of the many pleasant and instructive hours that I have passed with them individually and collectively, listening to their own experience, describing battle after battle the massacre at Chicago and the battle of the Thames included and narrating personal interviews with and characteristics of Tecumseh, Gen. Harrison, and Gen. Wayne, whom they always called "Old Tem- pest." Caldwell or Sauganash* died with his tribe at Council Bluffs, Iowa, Sept. 28, 1841, in his 6oth year, childless. His wife died before he left here. His only child, Susan Caldwell, died here in 1834. Chamblee or Shabonee died near Morris, in Grundy County, in this State, July 17, 1859, aged 84 years, whilst Robinson or Chechepinqua lived to vote for me several times for Congress, and to call on me as mayor and smoke the pipe of peace. He died upon his reservation, near River Park, in this county, April 22, 1872, aged no years. Both of these latter have living descendants. The Winnebago Indians occupied all that portion of Wisconsin Territory bordering on Wisconsin River, numbering about 1550, of whom 500 were warriors. Hence the importance of making headquarters at Fort Howard Green Bay and afterward of the construction of Fort Winnebago, under the superintendence of Lieut. Jefferson Davis. Gen. David Hunter writes me from Washington, under date of May 18, 1881: "In October, 1829, I saw on the north side of the River, opposite the Fort, a white man, and wondering where he could have come from, I got into a small wooden canoe, in- tended for only one person, and paddled over to interview him. He introduced himself to me as 2d-Lieut. Jefferson Davis, of the ist Infantry, from Fort Winnebago, in pursuit of deserters. I, of course, was very glad to see Lieut. Davis. I invited him to lie down in my canoe, and I paddled him safely to the Fort. He was my guest until refreshed and ready to return to Fort Winne- bago. This, no doubt, was the first visit of Jefferson Davis to Chicago." [At this point of his address, Mr. Wentworth asked pardon for the following digression.] As I was starting for this assemblage, I purchased the three o'clock Evening Journal, and was greatly surprised to learn that Mr. Davis arrived in this City this morning. I immediately drove to his hoteland found that he was absent. I intended to have invited him to come here and address you. He could tell you many things of interest about the North-West in early times. * See Appendix F. BY HON. JOHN WENTWORTH. 29 And I know he would. For, when he and I were in the House of Representatives together, he was accustomed to inquire for our early families, and to narrate many pleasant incidents. I know you would have given him a cordial reception. I think we must have nearly a thousand of his soldiers, in the late war of the Rebellion, amongst us doing business, and we had rather have more than less of them. Chicago has ever been a hospitable, as well as a cosmopolitan city. She welcomes emigrants from all climes and of all sentiments. As early as 1826, we had an Indian chief, who fought against us in the war of 1812, for Justice of the Peace, and we have had officers, as well as citizens, of every diversity of sentiment and nativity ever since, and one of the great elements of our prosperity has been that we make everyone feel at home here. When I, as your Mayor, went to Montreal, in 1860, to solicit the Prince of Wales to make our City a visit, the great obstacle that I had to overcome was the fears that our numerous foreign population might give vent to their prejudices against royalty, and perpetrate some outrage. But he did come, and, after his return home, the Duke of New- castle wrote me that nowhere was he treated so satisfactorily as in Chicago. And yet we had not an extra policeman during his stay. You remember how it was in 1864, at the time of the great National Convention, when Hon. Clement L. Vallandigham, who had been banished, by President Lincoln, for his treasonable efforts into the rebel country, addressed our citizens, in the even- ing, from the court-house door-steps, there was not the least disturbance, and every policeman was performing his regular routine duties. And, when he closed and I was called upon to respond to him, I was treated with the same respect by his friends that he had been by mine.* Now, would it not have created a sensation throughout the country if it could have been telegraphed that Jefferson Davis was here to-day entertaining us with his experience in Early Chicago ! Such a despatch would have done us good and Mr. Davis good also. It is not my fault that he is not now here. [Mr. Davis rode within one block of the tablet whilst Mr. Wentworth was speaking. When he read the reference to him- self the next morning and learned its kind reception by the audience, he expressed his regrets at not being present, and especially when he learned that Gen. P. H. Sheridan was upon the stage.] The companies at the Fort, from Oct. 3d, 1828, to their with- drawal, May 2oth, 1831, were companies A and I of the 5th In- * See Appendix G. 3O FORT DEARBORN. fantry. Capt. John Fowle, who commanded the Fort, was from Massachusetts, and was killed April 25th, 1838, by a steamboat explosion on the Ohio River. His ist-lieutenant was the present Gen. David Hunter, of Washington City, whose wife, Maria H. Kinzie, daughter of John, born in 1807, is the oldest white person nosv living who was born in Chicago. A 2d-lieutenant was John G. Furman, from South Carolina, who died at the Fort on August 29, 1830. Another 2d-lieutenant was Abram, son of Martin Van Buren and his private-secretary when President. There was an assistant -surgeon, Clement A. Finley, from Ohio, whose last record I find as medical-director under Gen. Taylor, in Mexico, in 1846. The second company was commanded by Capt. Mar- tin Scott, from Vermont, who was killed whilst as colonel he was leading his regiment at the battle of El Molino del Rey, in Mexico, Sept. 8, 1847. James Engle, from New Jersey, was his second -lieutenant, who resigned in 1834 and died soon after. His wife was here with him. A brevet second-lieutenant, from New Hampshire, Amos Foster, was under him also, a brother of the late Dr. John H. Foster,* of this City. He was shot by a soldier at Fort Howard, Green Bay, February 7, 1832. Engle, Foster, and Hunter voted at an election in the Chicago precinct of Peoria County, on July 24, 1830, for Justice-of-the-Peace and Constable. These were the first votes ever cast here by military officers. On March 31-, 1831, Gen. Macomb issued the following order: "The Post of Chicago will be evacuated as early as practicable, and the garrison, consisting of two companies of the 5th Regiment of Infantry, will proceed to Green Bay and occupy Fort Howard." On Feb. 23, 1832, he issued this order: "The headquarters of the 2d Regiment of Infantry are transferred to Fort Niagara. Lieut. -Col. Cummings, with all the officers and men composing the Madison Barracks at Sacketts Harbor, will accordingly relieve the garrison of Fort Niagara, and Major Whistler, of the 2d In- fantry, on being relieved byWol. Cummings, with all the troops under his command, will repair to Fort Dearborn (Chicago) and garrison that post. "Assistant-Surgeon DeCamp, now on duty at Madison Bar- racks, is assigned to Fort Dearborn and will accompany the troops ordered to that post. "These movements will take place as soon as the navigation will permit." This brings us to the second crisis in the history of Chicago, twenty years after the massacre, when the settlers, affrighted by 1* Se Marly Medical Chicago, No. ia Fergftt^Historical Series, page 30. BY HON. JOHN WENTWORTH. 31 the depredations of Black-Hawk's warriors with their wives and children, sought refuge in the Fort.* Then the Asiatic cholera came and they fled the Fort, but dared not return to their homes, and thus they vibrated between the Indians and cholera, suffer- ing for the necessaries of life. The War Department's records say: "Fort Dearborn having become a general hospital on July nth, no returns were received until its reoccupation ; companies G and I, 2d Infantry returned to the Fort, on Oct. ist, from cam- paign." This refers to the march of Gen. Scott to Rock Island in pursuit of Black Hawk. Our Esquire Sauganash with his two friends, Shabonee and Chechepinqua, successfully used their influ- ence to keep the Indians in this vicinity in amity. Some recent writers have asserted that the coffins, which I have heretofore noticed, contained the bodies of soldiers who died of the cholera at that time. But I served in Congress with Gen. Humphrey Marshall, of Kentucky, who came here with Gen. Scott, as a sec- ond-lieutenant, and helped bury the dead, among them a class- mate, Second-Lieutenant Franklin McDuffie, of Rochester, New Hampshire, who died July i5th, and he said the dead were thrown unceremoniously into a pit, and oftentimes those helping to carry a body there in a very few hours had to be thrown in themselves, and the soldiers and citizens afterward were afraid to remove them. Luther Nichols, who died May 2d, 1881, in this City, was, at the time, a regularly enlisted soldier, the last to reside in our City, and helped bury the dead. He described the pit as at the north-west corner of Lake Street and Wabash Avenue. Mr. Nichols was born at Gilbertsville, Otsego County, New York, in 1805, and enlisted as a United-States soldier in 1828; came to Chicago under Major Whistler, and was honorably discharged in 1833. Major Whistler arrived here on June lyth, 1832, and kept com- mand until May 14, 1833. Surgeon Samuel G. I. DeCamp, from New Jersey, of whom I can learn nothing, was succeeded in 1833 by Surgeon Philip Maxwell, t who after residing here for several * See Appendix H. Also, Gurdon S. HubbarcTs Narrative, in No. 10, Fergus' Historical Series, p. 41. t Among the valuable documents which fell into my hands whilst collecting, material for the history of Fort Dearborn was a book, presented by I. L. Usher, Esq., of La Crosse, Wis., which I have deposited with the Chicago Historical Society. It is entitled "Medical Prescription Book of U. S. Army used at Fort Dearborn. " Some leaves have been torn therefrom. But is in a good condition from November, 1832, until the evacuation of the Fort, December 29, 1836. Dr. Philip Maxwell came to the Fort as surgeon, February 3, 1833, an d left at the evacuation. So the prescriptions entered in the book are undoubtedly his, and are interesting as showing the great change in medical practice. The name of Luther Nichols is upon the sick-list, 32 FORT DEARBORN. years, died upon his farm at Geneva Lake, Wisconsin, Novem- ber 5th, 1859, aged sixty years. He was a member of our Legislature, in 1848, and father-in-law of Joel C. Walter, of this City. His bust is one of those upon the block fronting the Court House, on the east side of Clark Street. He was a very social and popular man, and whenever you see a Chicago boy write his name Philip M., you can tell for whom he was named. The captain was Seth Johnson, who resigned in 1836, and ended his days in this city, leaving descendants, his daughter Harriet having married Josiah E. McClure, of this City, Jan. 8, 1837. In 1840, he was Alderman of the old 4th ward, when there were but six wards in the City and only two upon the West Side, his ward comprising all territory north of Lake Street, his residence being in old Waubansia. He was also deputy-collector of the port of Chicago when it belonged to the Detroit district. The first-lieutenant was Julius J. B. Kingsbury, who distinguished himself in the Mexican war and was Major when he resigned. He passed much of his time in this City when not on duty, and, by judicious investment, accumulated a large fortune, which with the aid of lawyers is likely to share the fate of most large fortunes before it passes through the third generation. His son, inheriting his father's love of the good old flag, was killed in the war of the Rebellion, leaving an infant son. His daughter married Capt. Simon Bolivar Buckner, from Kentucky, who, after winning great honor in the Mexican war, became a general in the rebel army. He has been reconstructed now and has the devout sympathies of the numerous friends of Major Kingsbury, in his efforts to save for the grandchildren a good share of the Kingsbury estate. I was quite intimate with Major Kingsbury and. I will give him the credit of having the most exalted appreciation of a soldier's duty to his wife and children. His investments here were not a matter of speculation but a sense of duty. However diminutive his salary and wherever stationed, his anxiety for the future of his family would have induced savings and investments. There were three second-lieutenants here who left with Major Whistler, in 1833, and never returned to have any status with our Chicago people. Hannibal Day, of Vermont, who was a captain in 1838; James W. Penrose, of Missouri, who distinguished him- March 10, 1833; and Sergeant Joseph Adams, aged eighty-six years, now living at South Evanston, in this county, and present at the Calumet Club's reception to the Old Settlers on the igth inst., was prescribed for on the I5th of March, 1835. The book was taken to Fort Howard, Green Bay, Wis., where it was no longer used for its original purpose. See also Nos. 5 and n, Fergus' Historical Series, Sketches of Dr. Maxwell. BY HON. JOHN WENTWORTH. 33 self in the Mexican War, and was brevetted major, and died at Plattsburg, New York, in 1848; and Edwin R. Long, of North Carolina, who died a first-lieutenant at Detroit, Mich., in 1846. In May, 1833, Capt. John Fowle was again placed in command of the post as the successor of Maj. Whistler, and with him came Brevet-Major De Lafayette Wilcox, who was afterwards, at two periods in command of the post, ending with August ist, 1836. Maj. Wilcox distinguished himself, was wounded in war of 1812, and died at Pilatka, Florida, in 1842. His name will be per- petuated through our legal reports as representing the United States in the celebrated suit of Gen. John B. Beaubien's grantees or lessees to gain possession of the land upon which the Fort was situated under the preemption and other laws. Major Wilcox, and a second -lieutenant, James L. Thompson, were elected members of the Executive Committee of The Chicago Temperance Society, January 3Oth, 1834. And Che- che-pin-qua (Alexander Robinson) joined it. He created a sen- sation by pulling a whisky-bottle from his pocket and smashing it with his tomahawk. Philo Carpenter, still living here, was secretary, and can probably tell how long before they had to erase the Indian Chief's name. Yet there was such a society before this, of which John Watkins, now living near Joliet, our first public school-master, was secretary, in 1833, and he may know whether Sauganash and Shabonee had not preceeded Che- che-pin-qua, in the good cause. With Major Wilcox also came ist-Lieut. Louis T. Jamison, from Virginia, who, as captain, resigned in 1838. He remained here some time, and will be remembered by all our old settlers, marrying for his second wife, (having lost his first one here, who was from the Chippewa tribe of Indians), a daughter of Gen. Geo. W. McClure, from New York, who distinguished himself in the war of 1812, was an early settler near Dundee, in this State, and died there August i6th, 1851, aged eighty. Capt. JamisontoDecame a sutler at camp Ringgold, in Texas, near the close of the Mexican war, and diedjyin that region. There was a second - lieutenant, John T. Collinsworth, from Tennessee, who resigned in 1836, went to Texas, where he was made inspector - general, and died there January 28th, 1837. There was also a second-lieutenant, James Allen, from Ohio, uncle of Hon. B. F. Allen, of Des Moines, Iowa, and he was the second man in charge of our Harbor Works. Among the young officers ever stationed at our Fort, he is the most favorably remembered, and was the most of a society man. He took naturally to the company of which our nrarnisc*ji0us population*. '/M, 34 FORT DEARBORN. was composed. There could be no social gathering without an invitation to him. He was one of the people all the time. When he went away to join his company the citizens unanimously and successfully petitioned to have him sent back to be placed in charge of our Harbor- Works. The present Chief of Engineers, Gen. A. A. Humphreys, at Washington, writes me, "I went to Chicago in the latter part of Sept., 1838, and relieved Capt. James Allen." Mr. Ail^. Knickerbocker, of this City, has presented me, for the Historical Society, some very interesting letters of his, showing the genial character of the man, written to his father, of the same name, who was for many years clerk of the Harbor Department. Lieut. Allen was made captain of dragoons in 1837, raised a brigade of Mormon volunteers, in the region of his com- mand, for the Mexican war, and died, unmarried, at Fort Leaven- worth, Aug. 23, 1846, on his route to New Mexico, then a part of the enemy's territory. The first steamboat built in our City was named for him. It was built near the forks of the river, on the North-Side, and run from here to St. Joseph, Captain Pickering. There were lively times on its deck in the evening, after our young folks began to sing, "Come, Uncle Mark,* tune your old violin, And give us a dance on the Jim A\-lin. " On the 1 9th of June, 1833, our Fort had a new commandant, Major George Bender, from Massachusetts, who resigned his position in the army on the 31* of October, thereafter, and died in Washington City, without additional military service, Aug. 2ist, 1865. He commenced the work upon our harbor, the first appro- priation therefor, of $25,000, having been made in 1833, the year after the Black-Hawk war, its importance not having been appre- ciated until Gen. Scott was compelled to send his soldiers on shore from steamboats, one-half of a mile out in the Lake. Chicago has celebrated many occasions, all considered great at the time. But the commencement of the harbor was the first one. There are several now living who remember it. Capt.^j Morgan L. Shapley, of Meridian, Texas, one of the first em- ployes, writes me: "There were two or three stores on South-Water Street. Mark Beaubien, the noted fiddler, had a hotel at the head of Lake Street. There were less than a dozen dwelling shanties in the entire town. The first stone was procured about three miles up the south branch of the river. The work was commenced on the south side of the river. The ties and timber were procured upon BY HON. JOHN WENTWORTH. 35 the Calumet River, and were rafted into the Lake. The next year, 1834, the work was commenced upon the north side of the river, Lieut. James Allen, superintending." With Major Bender came Capt. Joseph Baxley, from Mary- land, who continued at the Fort until he resigned from the army on April ist, 1836. He lived with us some years thereafter, but his subsequent history is unknown to me. There was a first- lieutenant, Ephraim Kirby Smith, from Connecticut, who was here until December, 1836. He became Major, distinguished himself in the Mexican war, and was mortally wounded at the battle of El Molino del Rey, dying September nth, 1847, near City of Mexico. And there was a second-lieutenant, from Ten- nessee, James L. Thompson, until December, 1836, who resigned from the army, May i8th, 1846, and was drowned soon after in the St. Clair River. He was son-in-law of Gen. Hugh Brady. December i8th, 1833, Major John Greene, heretofore alluded to, was sent back as successor of Major George Bender, in com- mand of the post, who continued here until September 16, 1835. There came here, October i5th, 1835, a second-lieutenant, Alex- ander H. Tappan, from Ohio, who continued until September, 1836, and resigned from the army, July 3151, 1838. He resided here until the Mexican war. when he joined Capt. T. B. Kenny's company of the ^th Regiment of Illinois Volunteers, Col. E. W. B. Newby. He was honorably discharged at the close of the war, at Alton, 111., and has not sirfce been heard from. Capt. St. Clair Denny, from Pennsylvania, came in August, 1836, and remained until the Fort was abandoned. He resigned from the army, April 3oth, 1839, and was afterward made pay- master. I know nothing further of him. The last commandant of the. post was Brevet-Major Joseph Plympton,* from Massachusetts, arriving on August ist, 1836. He remained at the Fort until June or July, 1837, although the soldiers were withdrawn on December agth, 1836,^ in accordance with the following order of Major-General Alexander Macomb, dated November 3oth, 1836: "The troops stationed at Fort Dearborn, Chicago, will imme- diately proceed to Fort Howard and join the garrison at that post. Such public property as may be left at Fort Dearborn will remain in charge of Brevet-Major Plympton, of the 5th Infantry, who will continue in command of the post until otherwise in- structed." I saw the last sentinel withdrawn from the entrance, and the last soldier march out, and I heard the last salute fired from Fort * See Appendix Q.^ t See Appendix K. 36 FORT DEARBORN. Dearborn.* For a while we missed the cannon's discharge at sunrise and sunset. And soon sunrise and sunset lost their significance in the measurement of Chicago time. Major Plympton made many friends here, and frequently visited us. His wife was a Livingston, from New York. He was brev- etted a colonel for his meritorious services in the Mexican war, after having distinguished himself in the Florida war. He was promoted to colonel in 1853, and died June 5, 1860. He had a son, Peter William Livingston Plympton, who graduated at West Point, in 1847, an d was a brevet-major when he died, at Galves- ton, Texas, August 10, 1866, aged thirty-nine, and he had a brother, Joseph R. Plympton, now living at Lake City, Florida, and a sister Emily, who married Capt. Mansfield Lovell, a grad- uate of West Point, in 1842, who distinguished himself in the Mexican war. The Fort was afterward taken charge of by the superintendent of the harbor-works. Lieut. A. A. Humphreys, (now general), from Pennsylvania, succeeded Capt. Allen, and he was succeeded by 2nd-Lieut. Jesse H. Leavenworth, from Vermont, who resigned, October 3151, 1836, to become civil-engineer, but was retained in government employ; and, at last dates, was Indian-agent at some of our western posts. He and Mrs. Leavenworth are favorably remembered for the manner in which they made the Fort lively with their frequent elegant entertainments. They were liberal in their invitations, and if their guests did not desire to mingle generally, there were apartments enough in the Fort to gratify all distinctive nationalities, conditions, or tastes; all amuse- ments being in order from psalm-singing to dancing to the music of Mark Beaubien's violin. Next came Capt. John McClellan, from Pennsylvania, brother of Gov. Robert McCleilan, of Michigan, who remained until the harbor appropriation was expended, and then he went to the Mexican war, where he was brevetted lieutenant-colonel for meri- torious services, and died soon after, unmarried. Then came the late Gen. Joseph D. Webster, from New Hamp- shire, as ist-lieutenant, who constructed the first Marine Hospital, and remained in charge until the Illinois Central Railroad took possession of all there was left of the Fort-Dearborn Reservation. I have taken no account of the officers who came here with Gen. Scott, July roth, 1832. He left Buffalo with four steamers, * Opposite the name Fort Dearborn, in the Army Returns for the year 1837, is printed, "Garrison withdrawn May 10, 1837, and Capt. Louis T. Jamison is the only person connected with the army in the Fort. " See letter of Sergeant Joseph Adams, Appendix K. BY HON. JOHN WENTWORTH. 3/ the Henry Clay, Superior, Sheldon Thompson, and William Penn. But owing to the breaking out of the cholera, the steamers Henry Clay and Superior were sent back from Fort Gratiot. I have a letter from Captain A. Walker,* who commanded the Sheldon Thompson at that time, saying: "The disease became so alarming on the Henry Clay that nothing like discipline could be preserved. Everything in the way of subordination ceased. As soon as the steamer came to the dock, each man sprang on shore, hoping to escape from a scene so terrible and appalling. Some fled to the fields, some to the woods, whilst others lay down in the streets and under the cover of the river bank, where most of them died unwept and alone. * * * Fort Dearborn was evacuated for the accom- modation of sick troops. Major Wm. Whistler and Capt. Seth Johnson, and many others, with their families, who had previously occupied the barracks, took shelter wherever they could, .some under boards, placed obliquely across fences, and others in tents. * * The Chicago River, at that time, was but a mere creek, easily forded at its mouth, whilst it wended its way along the beach, flowing into the lake a short distance south of the present locality of Lake Street. * * * The only means of obtaining anything for fuel was to purchase the useless log-building used as a stable. That, together with the rail-fence enclosing a field of some three acres near by, was sufficient to enable our boats to reach Mackinaw on our return trip." Gen. Winfield Scott, sometime after the Mexican war, told me that he had often been in great danger, and that he had wit- nessed a great deal of suffering, but he had never felt his entire helplessness and need of Divine Providence as he did upon the lakes in the midst of the Asiatic cholera. Sentinels were of no use in warning of the enemy's approach. He could not storm his works, fortify against him, nor cut his own way out, nor make terms of capitulation. There was no respect for a flag of truce, and his men were falling upon all sides from an enemy in his very midst. And his responsibilities were never greater. Indian massacres were demanding his utmost haste, and there were with him the most of the class of West-Point graduates, to obtain their first lesson in Indian warfare. There were forty-five in the class of 1832. Twenty-nine of them left Buffalo for the Black-Hawk war, but were nearly all sent back from Fort Gratiot. I have their names and official record.t Six only now belong to the army, and of these six, five are upon the retired list, leaving only Col. John N. Macomb, of the Engineers, in active service. * See Appendix L. t See Appendix J. 38 FORT DEARBORN. Gen. Ward B. Burnett, a member of that class, from Pennsyl- vania, one of the few now remaining, and the only one known to me, visited this City last August, and, with fresh memory gave me a full description of the scenes of those times. He was one of those sent back in the steamer Hetiry C!ay, from Fort Gratiot. He afterward returned here, and, under the direction of Capt. James Allen, he superintended the first harbor-works at Michi- gan City and St. Joseph. He resigned, July 3ist, 1836, and became an engineer upon the Illinois-and-Michigan Canal, and so continued until the suspension of the work thereon, in 1840. He afterward went into the Mexican war, and so distinguished himself that the gold snuff-box was presented to him, which had originally been presented by the corporation of the city of New York to Gen. Jackson, and was bequeathed in Gen. Jackson's will to the corporation of New York again, in trust, for the best soldier among its residents in the next war. Gen. Burnett also distinguished himself in the war of the Rebellion. On the 28th of May, 1835, Chicago had a sensation, and I am sorry that I was not here to enjoy it. But many now living were here. I have enjoyed almost every one since. Chicago has ever been noted for its sensations, and that is one of the reasons why I have never liked to leave it. You can not find any other place that has so many of them. Why travel about when there is so much of interest transpiring at home? On that day, Gen. John B. Beaubien went to the public land-office and purchased, for ninety-four dollars and sixty-one cents, the entire Fort-Dear- born Reservation. He derived his military title from an election by the people, not from any conspicuous military talents, but be- cause he had the most friends of any one in town, and he kept them to the day of his death. The State, at that time, was divided into military districts, and the people elected the gen- erals. He had lived upon the reservation many years, and he had found some law, which satisfied our land-officers that he was entitled to make the purchase, the same as many others have found laws under which they could purchase our Lake-Front ever since. The news spread. Everybody was a daily paper in those days. We had but two newspapers then, and both were weeklies. The people assembled in squads and discussed the situation. The question was raised: did Gen. Beaubien buy the Fort with the land? What were the officers to do? There was no telegraph in those days. Gen. Beaubien was congratulated. He had an entire Fort of his own. A conflict between the United States' troops and the State militia might ensue. Gen. Beaubien, him- self, was in command of the militia. Would he use them to BY HON. JOHN WENTWORTH. 39 dispossess the United States' forces? Fancy yourselves here at that time, and remember that the men of that day were the sub- stratum of our present society, and you can appreciate how great a day that of May 28th, 1835, was - The Receiver of Public Moneys, at that time, was Hon. Edmund D. Taylor, now resid- ing at Mendota, in this State, and for many years a resident of this City. Nothing serious happened, however, as a case was agreed upon and submitted, in 1836, to Judge Thomas Ford, of the Cook County Circuit Court, at the October term, in the shape of an action of ejectment, and entitled John Jackson ex deni. Murray McConnell v. De Lafayette Wilcox. The first time I ever saw Thos. Ford, who afterward gained such a splendid reputation as our Canal-Governor, and as historian of our State, was when, in Nov., 1836, he called at my office and left his written opinion to be published in my Chicago Democrat. His opinion was very elaborate, and just as favorable to the plain- tiff as it could possibly be, whilst he decided against him. He thought Gen. Beaubien's purchase was entirely legal, but that his title could not be enforced until he had procured his patent from Washington; which one thing needful he was never to procure. The suit was appealed to the State supreme court, where Justice Theophilus W. Smith, in behalf of a majority of the court, gave a long and exhaustive opinion, very valuable to this day as a historical document, reversing the decision of the Court below.* Justice Smith was a resident of this City, father-in-law of ex-Mayor Levi D. Boone. He was a warm, personal friend of Gen. Beau- bien, and his learned opinion was the work of both heart and head. I have often met him at the General's entertainments. The suit was then taken to the United States Supreme Court, where another very elaborate opinion, and one very valuable as a historical document to this day, was given; which effectually wiped out every pretence to a claim that Gen. Beaubien had. On De- cember 1 8th, 1840, he was glad to call at the land -office and receive his money back, without interest t Upon April 23d, 1839, Hon. Joel R. Poinsett, Secretary of War, appointed Hon. Matthew Burchard, then Solicitor of the General Land-Office, the agent of the Department, to come to Chicago and sell the reservation. Judge Burchard caused the land to be surveyed and platted as Fort-Dearborn Addition to Chicago. His survey made the reservation contain 53/^ acres; being 3^( acres less than the quantity marked upon the original official plat, the quantity . having been diminished, it was sup- * See Scammon's Reports, vol. i. t See Peters' United States Reports, vol. viii. 4O FORT DEARBORN. posed, by abrasions caused by the action of the water of the Lake. All was sold except what was needed for the occupants of the public buildings, and there was realized from the sale what was considered at that time the great sum of $106,042.* At this time, Chicago had another sensation. Gen. Beaubien had subdivided the land and sold, or given away, his interest in a great many lots. The owners of such rights undertook to shape a public sentiment so as to prevent any one from bid- ding against them at the time of the sale. The very numerous friends of Gen. Beaubien and his family, sympathized with such a movement. It would be difficult to mention any man of any official prominence or aspirations, from the Judge of our Supreme Court to the humblest citizen, who did not favor non-intervention. Politics also were running very high. The next year, President Martin VanBuren would seek a reelection, and many interested and sympathizing were his political supporters, and they argued that it would injure the party if the poor people of the West were to be outbid by Eastern speculators. Threats of personal violence were not unfrequently made. Out of the party clamor grew the dedication of Dearborn Park. It was thought a great thing to give so large a tract for a public park. We had nothing of the kind then. It was thought, by the Democratic-party leaders, a measure that would greatly benefit the administration in this region. Yet Judge Burchard dared not have an open sale; and resolved to advertise for sealed bids for a portion of the lots daily, with a determination to reject bids which he thought too low, and to stop the sale if he found the people were influenced by intimidation. Everything proceeded satisfactorily until the lots upon which Gen. Beaubien lived were to be offered. He was expected to procure his homestead for a nominal sum merely, and violent threats were made against any man who dared bid against him. But there was one man, James H. Collins, and I think the only man in the City who dared do this; who had denounced the whole transaction from the beginning in every place he had an opportunity. He had denounced the land- officers and the Judges of the Courts. He was one of the earliest Abolitionists in our State, and would shelter fugitive slaves, and would travel any distance to defend one when cap- tured, or defend a man who was arrested for assisting one to his freedom. He was a man of ability and integrity, and took great delight in defying popular clamor. He took an average of the price at previous sales and put in his sealed bid, thereby securing * A detailed account of this sale, with names of purchasers, may be found in No. 2 of Fergus' Historical Series Chicago Directory for 1839, page 47. f. JOHN WENTWORTH. 41 all the land which Gen. Beaubien desired, being the land upon the east side of Michigan Avenue, in Block 5, between South- Water Street and the lots reserved, where the Marine Hospital afterward was, except the corner lot, known as lot n, for which Gen. Beaubien paid $225. Mr. Collins bid $1049 f r tne next five lots, 10, 9, 8, 7, and 6, where Beaubien's house, out- buildings, and garden were. His life was threatened. He was burnt in effigy. Many indignities were put upon him. To all this he bid defiance, asserting that the friends of Gen. Beaubien might possibly take his life, but they could never have his land. He was one of Chicago's ablest lawyers, the candidate of the early Abolitionists for Congress, and far the ablest man in their organization. Had he lived a few years longer, he, unquestion- ably, would have been assigned to some one of the highest posi- tions in the country. Thus Gen. Beaubien lost his old home- stead, except this one lot which he soon sold as insufficient for him; and not one who claimed under him was successful in pro- curing a lot. If you wish to find the traditional residence of Gen. Jean Baptiste Beaubien, after he moved from what was before known as the John-Dean house, go east upon South-Water Street until you come to the north-east corner of South-Water Street and Michigan Ave., and you will find it. Gen. Beaubien subsequently moved to near what is now River Park, on the Desplaines River, in this county, near the reservation of Alex. Robinson, the Indian chief. The General died at Naperville, DuPage Co., Jan. 5, 1863. At the session of Congress, in 1848, I succeeded in procuring an amendment to the Naval Appropriation Bill, appropriating $10,000 for the construction of a Marine Hospital on such site as should be selected by the Secretary of the Treasury on the lands owned by the United States. It was one of my best arguments, for the appropriation, that the Government already owned the land for the site. This took up another portion of the Reserva- tion, it being upon the northern portion of block 5, fronting Michigan Avenue and being upon the east side thereof, and ad- joining and north of the lots Mr. Collins bought. It was not until September 17, 1850, that I was enabled to telegraph to you, from Congress, that we had secured the Illinois-Central-Railroad grant.* And it was not until the i4th day of October, 1852, that Hon. Charles M. Conrad, Secretary of War, in consideration of $45,000, made the deed of what was unoccupied of the Reservation to that company, in which was the following preamble: "Whereas the military site of Fort Dearborn, commonly known as the Fort- Dearborn Reservation, at Chicago, Illinois, has become useless * See Appendix M. 42 FORT DEARBORN. for military purposes, and the tract thereof not being used or necessary for the site of a fort or for any other authorized pur- poses, has been sold," etc., etc. The railroad company, com- plaining that it paid this sum of $45,000 from necessity and under protest in order to expedite their road into the City and insisting that the land was included in the grant made by Congress, which 1, who took an active part in framing and passing the law, could not endorse, brought suit in the Court of Claims,* at Washington, for refunding the money. The court decided against the claim. I have thus shown you how the entire Reservation was disposed of, except what would make about eight full lots, upon which the old light-house was located, or near it. They were not needed for light-house purposes; and were lots i to 6 in block 4, frac- tional lots 8 and 9 in block 2, and the north 34 feet of lot i in block 5, all near the Rush-Street bridge.t James F. Joy bought for the Railroad Company (Michigan Central or Illinois Central,, or both jointly) the land occupied by the Marine-Hospital build- ing, being the south ten feet of lot i and lots 2, 3, 4, and 5 in block 5. The hospital was burned in the great fire of 1871. The Government had erected a new light-house at the end of the North Pier. I was in Congress, and the thought occurred to me that the best way to dispose of the remaining land upon which the old light-house and other necessary Government buildings had been located was to present it to that kind-hearted and popular old pioneer, Gen. Jean Baptiste Beaubien. And it was. so done by an act approved Aug. i, 1854. And there was not a citizen of Chicago who knew him who ever questioned its pro- priety, to my knowledge. The last man in charge of the old light- house was that genial old settler, his brother Mark, who passed away on the nth of April, 1881, aged 81 years. He came here, from Detroit, in 1826, where he resided at the time of Gen. Hull's surrender and he witnessed it. He brought a violin with him and * See U.S. Senate Miscel. Doc., No. 145, ist Session of 35th Congress. + EXTRACT FROM THE REPORT OF HON. MATHEW BURCHARD, AGENT OF THE WAR DEPARTMENT, DATED Nov. 21, 1840. "By the official plat herewith enclosed, it will be seen that block I, and lots 8, 9, and 10 in block 2, lots i, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 in block 4, and lots I, 2, 3, 4, and 5 in block 5 are colored blue. These were reserved from sale, and embrace all the grounds occupied by the light-house, keeper's dwelling, and fortress of Fort Dearborn within the pickets, including the officers' quarters and barracks. This ground is very valuable. My object in reserving so much property was to secure and protect the Light, which is situated on lot 8 of block 2, from obstruction by private buildings which otherwise might have been erected between its present position and Lake Michigan, also to afford room and shops for the superintendent of the public works." [By such officers it was occupied for some fifteen years.] BY HON. JOHN WENTWQRTH. 43 U. S. Marine Hospital. Big Locust Tree. Storehouse, Magazine. Block-house. Soldier's Barracks. Officer's Quarters. Light-house. Stables, Artillery. Commandant's Quarters. Light-keeper's House. Ferry Slip. FORT DEARBORN IN 1850.* * The above is a very good representation of the Fort, in 1850, from a da- guerrotype, by Polycarpus von Schneidau, a Swedish nobleman, taken from the south front of the Lake House, which was situated on the east side of Rush Street, extending from Michigan to Kinzie (now called North- Water) Streets. The ferry, shown in the foreground, landed on the North-Side, about where the "Empire Warehouse" now is. The building faintly shown between the block-house and the light-keeper's, is the residence of the late "Judge" Henry Fuller, and was just outside of the Fort enclosure, and the ground is now covered by Spaulding & Merrick's tobacco works. There was another building in the Fort enclosure, not shown in this view, just east of the block-house; were the officers' quarters in this view removed, it would appear as if in front of the large locust-tree, and was the quartermaster's or sutler's quarters. The parade-ground was between the commandant's, officers', and sutler's quarters on the west, and the building where the artillery was housed, the soldier's barracks, and the storehouse on the east; and was about 80 feet wide, and extended from the river bank south, the full length of the enclosure say 400 feet; near its southern extremity was a gentle rise of ground or knoll, in the centre of which was an 8-inch piece of square timber, imbedded in the earth, placed upright, about 2 feet high, upon the top of which was a brass plate on which had been a sun-dial. South of this sun-dial, say 100 feet, was a turn-style through which you entered the Fort enclosure from the centre of Michigan Avenue, which then commenced at this point. The whole Fort enclosure was surrounded by a rough-board fence, white- washed, about 6 feet high; the pickets having been removed at an earlier date. The kitchen-garden was in the south-west corner of the enclos- 44 FORT DEARBORN. and with it made more hearts merry than any man who ever lived in Chicago. He requested that it be given to me upon his death- bed, and upon the evening of the igth of May, 1881, I presented it to the Calumet Club, whose members ever delighted to enter- tain him.* He was Mark Beaubien, a brother of Gen. John B. Beaubien, who claimed to have brought the first piano to our City, which is yet in good tune with his granddaughter, Mrs. Sophia Ogee, daughter of the late Chas. Beaubien, now living in Silver Lake, Kansas. When I came here, on October 25th, 1836, there was no other piano on the South-Side and none on the West. So much has been said and written of these two brothers in connec- tion with early Chicago, and all in kindness and commendation, that I will forego the promptings of my heart at this time respect- ing them. Yet the Beaubiens and that piano and that fiddle are inseparably connected with the history of the Fort- Dearborn Reservation. For years, John B. was the only resident upon it outside the Fort; and, when the light which had so long illumi- nated our Lake, under the superintendence of his brother Mark, was extinguished, Congress gave to him what was left of its foun- dation and surroundings, after widening the river. A light-houset was established here, by an Act of Congress, March 3, 1831. It fellj soon after completion, in October of y 0^ that year; but it was soon rebuilt. Samuel C. LasW was the o^^^^y first keeper. When I came here, in 1836, William M. Stevens I was keeper; then John C. Gibson; then William M. Stevens again. President Harrison appointed Silas Meacham; President Polk, James Long; President Taylor, Chas. Douglass; President Pierce, Henry Fuller; and President Buchanan, Mark Beaubien. The annual salary was all the while $350. These men are all numbered with the dead. And so are nearly all those who ever occupied the Fort, some falling in the War of 1812, some in sub- sequent Indian wars, some in the Mexican war, and some in the war to protect and perpetuate a union in defence of which the others had fallen. We have marked the site and written the his- tory of old Fort Dearborn. All else has given way to the march of commerce. But the name remains, a name associated with all the thrilling scenes of the American Revolution, from Bunker Hill to Yorktown, from the capture of Burgoyne to that of Cornwallis. ure. The street or road shown in above view between the block-house and the light-keeper's is River Street. The piles, upon which the turn-table of the present bridge at Rush Street was built, were driven (at about the spot, indicated in the above view, where the boat is partly drawn ashore) part in the bank of the River and part in the water; and the channel south of this turn-table has since been excavated. F. * See Appendix N. t See Appendix O. J See Appendix P. From an Ivory Minature in the possession of his grand-nephew, Hon. Darius Heald. APPENDIX A. THE WELLS FAMILY. The descendants of Col. Samuel Wells and Capt. William Wells claim that their parents were Virginians, and some say that both Samuel and William were born there. Gardner's Army Dictionary states that both came into the U.S. service from Kentucky. Mrs. Capt. Heald, the daughter of Col. Samuel, was married at Louisville, Ky. Capt. William was stolen when about twelve years of age, from the residence of the Hon. Nathaniel Pope, of Kentucky, by the Miami Indians, and was adopted as a son by Me-che-kau- ^^ nah-qua or Little Turtle, one of the most distinguished warriors and leaders vi of his day, who was half-Mohican and half-Miami. Capt. Wells fought upon ^ the side of the Indians and distinguished himself in their defeat of Gen. N Josiah Harmar, in 1790, and in their defeat of Gen. Arthur St. Clair, in 1791. They had great admiration for his dash and courage. About the time that Gen. Anthony Wayne was appointed to take command of the Western army, Capt. Wells began to realize that he was fighting against his own kindred \ and might kill some of them in battle, and resolved to sever his connection \ with the Indians. He invited the chief of Miamis, Little Turtle, to accom- pany him to a point on the Maumee, about two miles east of Fort Wayne, long known as the "Big Elm," where he thus addressed him: "Father, we have long been friends. I now leave you to go to my own people. We will be friends until the sun reaches its mid-day height. From that time,' we will be enemies; and, if you want to kill me then, you may. And, if I want to kill you, I may." He set out immediately for Gen. Wayne's army, was made captain of a company of spies, and fought with him until the treaty of peace at Greenville, in 1795. After that, he was joined by his wife, who was a daughter of Little Turtle, and his children. He lived with Little Turtle, at Fort Wayne; they were always fast friends; and after the peace of Greenville, v <3 in 1795, was declared under Wayne's treaty, Capt. Wells accompanied Little A\ Turtle to Washington, and they together visited nearly all the Eastern Cities. N ^VLittle Turtle died at Fort Wayne, Ind., 14 July, 1812. Capt. Wells settled ^ ^Vipon a farm and was afterward made Indian-agent and Justice-of-the- Peace. ^ ^ His Indian name signified Black-Snake. His correspondence preserved in the \ A American State Papers, as well as many manuscripts still in existence, (some of ** v ^ which being now in my possession), show that he was a good scholar for his times. He had one other Indian wife, a Weah woman, and one American wife who survived him. His childi en were all well educated. The most of them were by Wa-nan-ga-peth, the daughter of Little Turtle, and they all were as follows : /6vw-K*- Z/ /vf} t Ah-pez-zah-quah Ann Wells married j>Dr. Wi ^ A Indiana, died childless, July 26, 1834. SkQ ai/f . \>5 Pe-me-sah-quah Rebekah Wells married Capt % and died June 14, 1835, leaving Ann and John. Ah-mah-quau-zah-quuah (a sweet breeze) Mary \Y ells, born Wayne, Indiana, May 10, 1800, married Judge James Wolcott, (who was from Torrington, Connecticut, and is said to have been cousin of our original Dr. Alexander Wolcott), at St. Louis, Mo., March 8, 1821. She died at Maumee City, (now SoutL Toledo), Ohio, Febmarvyj^, 1843. ,He dU &/&$m N \ f* 46 FORT DEARBORN. 5, 1873, having remarried and having children by his second wife. He lived at Fort Wayne (which had ever been the home of the Wells family) until 1826, when he removed to South Toledo, O. Frederick Allen Wolcott was killed before Atlanta, Ga., July 22d, 1864. Wa-pe-mong-gah William Wayne Wells, graduated at West Point, in 1821, and is alluded to in the Address. < ^j-^v^l~f~' Jane^Vells married Mnriwubuu^. SMMM! Griggs,-and now livs a Peru, Indiana, and has children/714 CQ c<- r^vn^~ t j Samuel G. Wells died childless. fc^vp > Yelberton P. Wells died, leaving one child^at St. Louis, Mo. Juliana Wells, died childless. All those having Indian names claimed that their names were given them by their grandfather, Little Turtle. Hon. J. L. Williams, in his History of the First Presbyterian Church of Fort Wayne, says: "Of the first members of this church, two were half-breed Indians, Mrs. Turner and Mrs. Hackley, who had before (in 1820) joined the Baptist Church, under the labors of Rev. Mr. McCoy, missionary to the Indians at Fort Wayne. They were educated in Kentucky, and are yet kindly remembered as ladies of refinement and intelligent piety. " Mrs. Wolcott, was a zealous Episcopalian, having united herself with the first church of that order upon the Maumee River^ast of FarL^Vayne. The following children of/ Judge* Je/ies and Ah-mah-quau-zah-quuah (Wells) Wolcott are now KvjtigV*' W/lfftm Wells Wolcott, Toledo, Ohio; -r^ary Ann Wolcott. now Mrs.^Gilbert, South Toledo, Ohio; Henry Clay \VoIcott, South Toledo, Ohio; J^ames Madison Wolcott, South Toledo, Ohio. The latter writes: "We are proud of our Indian (Little Turtle) blood, and of our Capt. Wells blood. We try to keep up the customs of our ancestors, and dre^s occasionally in Indian costumes. We take no exceptions when people.speak of our Indian parentage. We take pleasure in sending to you the tomahawk which Capt. William Wells had at the time of his death, and which was brought to. his family by an Indian who was in the battle. We also have a dress-sword, which was presented to him by Gen. William H. Harrison, and a great many books which he had; showing that, even when he lived among the Indians, he was trying to improve himself. He did all he could to educate his children. " Capt. Wells, in the year of his death, sent to President Madison, at Little Turtle's request, the interpretation of the speech that that chief made to Gen. W. H. Harrison, January 25, 1812. B. STATEMENT COMPILED FROM THE RECORDS OF THE ADJUTANT-GEN- ERAL'S OFFICE, IN THE CASE OF FORT DEARBORN, WITH COPIES OF ORDERS: STATEMENT: Fort Dearborn, situated at Chicago, 111., within a few yards of Lake Michi- gan; Latitude 41 51' North; Longitude 87 15' West. Post established by the United States forces in 1804. [From 1804-12, no records are on file.] August I5th, 1812, the garrison having evacuated the post and were^ route for Ft. Wayne, under the command of Capt. Nathan Heald, ist U. S. Infan- try, composed of 54 Regular Infantry, 12 Militia-men, and I Interpreter, was attacked by Indians, to the number of between 400 and 500, of whom 15 were reported killed. Those of the garrison killed were Ensign George Ronan, ist Infantry, Dr. Isaac V. VanVoorhis, Capt. Wells, Interpreter, 24 enlisted men U. S. Infantry, and 12 militia-men; 2 wome^nd 12 children were also kille)^_ J,*J, r** f j*' c3&4*' *>%. j <^^ *jL<&4 jn * ' 4 APPENDIX OFFICIAL RECORDS. 47 The wounded were Capt. Nathan Heald and Mrs. Heald. None others reported. The next day, August 16, 1812, the post was destroyed by the Indians, Re-occupied about June, 1816, Capt. Hezekiah Bradley, 3d Infan- try, commanding; the troops continued in occupation until October, 1823, when the post was evacuated and left in charge of the Indian agent; it was re-occupied October 3, 1828. Capt. Hezekiah Bradley, 3d Infantry, commanded the post from June, 1816, to May, 1817; Brevet-Major D. Baker, 3d Infantry, to June, 1820; Capt. Hezekiah Bradley, 3d Infantry, to January, 1821; Major Alex. Cummings, 3d Infantry, to October, 1821; Lieut. -Col. J. McNeal, 3d In- fantry, to July, 1823; Capt. John Greene, 3d Infantry; to October, 1823; post not garrisoned from October, 1823, to October, 1828. No returns of post on file prior to 1828. COPIES OF ORDERS: Order No. 35. Adjutant-General's Office, Washington, 27 May, 1823. The Major-General, commanding the army, directs that Fort Dearborn, Chicago, be evacuated, and that the garrison thereof be withdrawn to the headquarters of the 3d Regiment of Infantry. One company of the 3d Regiment of Infantry will proceed to Mackinac and relieve the company of Artillery now stationed there, which, with the company of Artillery at Fort Shelby, Detroit, will be withdrawn and ordered to the Harbor of New York. The Commanding-General of the Eastern Department will give the neces- sary orders for carrying these movements into effect as well as for the security of the public property at Forts Dearborn and Shelby. "* By order of MAJOR -GENERAL BROWN, (Signed) CHAS. J. NOURSE, Acfg Adjutant- General. Order No. 44. Adjutant-General's Office, Washington, 19 Aug., 1828. [EXTRACT.] In conformity with the directions of the Secretary of War, the following movements of the troops will be made without delay: I. Two companies of the 5th Regiment of Infantry to re-occupy Fort Dearborn, at the head of Lake Michigan; the remaining eight companies to proceed, by the way of the Ouisconsin and Fox Rivers, to Fort Howard, Green Bay, where the headquarters of the Regiment will be established. Four Go's of this Reg't to constitute the garrison of Ft. Howard; two Go's, the garrison for Michilimackinac, and two for that of Ft. Brady. * * 4. The Quartermaster-General's Department to furnish the necessary trans- portation and supplies for the movement and accommodation of the troops. The Subsistence department to furnish the necessary surplus of provisions. The Surgeon-General to provide Medical Officers and suitable Hospital supplies for the posts to be established and re-occupied. 5. The Commanding-Generals of the Eastern and Western Departments are respectively charged with the execution of this Order, as far as relates to their respective commands. By order of MAJOR-GENERAL MACOMB, (Signed) R. JONES, Adjutant-General. Order No. 5. Adjutant-General's Office, Washington, 31 March, 1831. [EXTRACT.] I. The Post of Chicago will be evacuated as early as prac- ticable, and the garrison, consisting of two companies of the 5th Regiment of Infantry, will proceed to Green Bay, and occupy Fort Howard. * * By order of ALEXANDER MACOMB, ,1 I *T7 /? Major-General, Commanding the Army, ' - ro s < O U w fc Is" REMAK ^o c - <' - s< s 2 ."I 1 ' M between rborn hai pital, on ere rende TO Bi^ c O a - C ^ 1 B S E ft 'P P" MI "n^ 1 M 1 M a- o -O-i fo5* "3 oil o M 3 t! 1 ^,2 -8 C g c FERENT AT THE 1 S _o 1 ^ * J1J I o u o , sii 91! A, S a as E ^2 "O *^ E fig aa 1 U E o U i >. i- a a g "S CO (j M H O /n m m 'n f^ fn 00 OO OO CO CO S S *S "S c ro en m M \d r<1 vo" M 0 cS . ^ S " " ^^ ? * W /) LJ . o MI !: u >, >, ^ >, > B a 1 ^ >-, >> rt rt >! r 2 hi J _ : ^ '"r J J " 3 S 2 <&xt "B HO o fc cxT oo" TO co iT * eS cS 00 co H , H " M " " "> rS APPENDIX CONTEMPORANEOUS. 49 Order No. 17. Adjutant-General's Office, Washington, 23 Feb., 1832. (COPY.) The head-quarters of the 2d Regiment of Infantry are transferred to Fort Niagara. Lieut. -Col. Cummings, with all the officers and men com- posing the garrison of Madison Barracks, Sacketts' Harbor, will accordingly relieve the garrison of Fort Niagara; and Major Whistler, of the 2d Infantry, on being relieved by Lieut. -Col. Cummings, with all the troops under his command, will repair to Fort Dearborn (Chicago, Illinois) and garrison that post. Assistant- Surgeon DeCamp, now on duty at Madison Barracks, is assigned to duty at Fort Dearborn, and will accompany the troops ordered to that post. These movements will take place as soon as the navigation will permit. By order of MAJOR-GENERAL MACOMB, . (Signed) R. JONES, Adjutant-General. General Order, Head-quarters of the Army, No. 80. Adjutant-General's Office, Washington, Nov. 30, 1836. [EXTRACT.] I. The troops stationed at Fort Dearborn, Chicago, will immediately proceed to Fort Howard and join the garrison at that post. Such public property as may be left at Fort Dearborn will remain in charge of Brevet-Major Plympton, of the 5th Infantry, who will continue in command of the post until otherwise instructed. By order of ALEXANDER MACOMB, Maj.-Gen. Com'd'g-in-Chief, (Signed) R. JONES, Adjutant-General. Adjutant's -General's Office, Washington, April 2, 1881. OFFICIAL, (Signed) C. McKEEVER, Assistant-Adjutant General in charge. C. CONTEMPORANEOUS ACCOUNTS. Mathew Irwin, [or Irvine], Indian agent, writes from Chicago, May 131)1, 1811, to the Secretary of War: "An assemblage of the Indians is to take place on a branch of the Illinois, by the influence of the Prophet., //The, result will beJjostile iAhe e^nt of war with Great^^in^/ ^ &LCC. (j^'lvtJL cfP^'ZZ- <*<& ^ ) (Saliennjg/" Indian interpreter at Chicago, writes under date of June 2, 1811 : " Several horses have been stolen. The Indians in this quarter are inclined to hostility. " John Johnston, [who was U.S. factor at Fort Wayne], writes from Piqua- Town, Ohio, under date of May I, 1812: " The Indians have recently murdered two men at Fort Dearborn. " Mathew Irwin [or Irvine] writes, Chicago, loth March, 1812: "The Chippewa and Ottawa nations, hearing that the Winnebagoes and Pottawatomies are hostilely inclined toward the whites, sent speeches among them, desiring them to change their sentiments, and live in peace with the whites." April 16, 1812 : "On the 6th, a party of ten or eleven Indians surrounded a small farm-house, on Chicago River, and killed two men. The Indians are of the Winnebago tribe." EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS FROM CAPTAIN HEALD: CHICAGO, yth February, 1812. An express arrived at the post on the 1st instant, from Gen. [William, afterward Governor of Missouri.] Clark. He was sent for the purpose of 5> phUa ^ p ^ 4th Artillery, Drowned, May 16, 1849, in Rio Grande River. 2d Artillery, Resigned, August 31, 1833. zd Artillery, Resigned, July 31, 1836. A A-f-n Now Col. U.S.A., retired, residing at No. lery> Monroe Place, St. Paul, Minn. 4th Artillery, Resigned, July 28, 1836. NO. NAME. 1 *George W. Ward, .. . 2 Robert P. Smith, .. .. 3 Benjamin S. Ewell, .. 4 George W. Cass 5 Jacob W. Bailey 6 Philip St. George Cocke, 7 *Henry G Sill, 8 * Joseph C. Vance, .. 9 *George Watson, . . . . 10 Erasmus D. Keyes, n *Frankl n McDuflee, . . 12 *Lewis Howell, .. .. 13 *William Wall, 14 *John M. Mi comb, 15 *Edward Deas, .. .. . 16 John E. Brackett, .. .. 17 *Ward B. Burnett, .. . 18 James H. Simpson, 19 Alfred Brush, 20 * Richard G. Fain, . .. ist Artillery, Resigned, December 31, 1833. 21 *Henderson K. Yoakum, - 3d Artillery, Resigned, March 31, 1833. 22 *Tench Tilghman, .. .. 4th Artillery, Resigned, November 30, 1833. 23 William H. Pettes, .. .. ist Artillery, Resigned, September n, 1836. 24 Theophilus F. J. Wilkinson, 2d Artillery, Resigned, February 28, 1835. ?c *I nrrnm Sito-rca <=t Aru'llo Now Lieut. -Col. U.S.A., retired, residing at lery> No. 1226 K Street, N.-W., Washington, D.C. 26 *George B. Crittenden, . 4th Infantry, Resigned, April 30, 1833. 2d Infantry, Resigned, July 31, 1836. *v.'T'*, . ' Now Lieut.-Col. U.S.A., retired, residing at 7 th Infantry, N(} ^ Rjggs ^ N .. W ., Washington, D.C. 27\Jacab Brown,. _. ahiet P? Wh^ngir 29 *Randolph B. Marcy, 30 'James P. Hardin, . .. 31 Thomas M. Hill, 32 *Roger S. D'x, .. .. 33 Robert H. Archer, .. 34 *James V. Bomford, 35 *Richard C. Gatlin, .. 36 William H. Storer, . .. 37 *George H. Griffin, .. 38 John Beach, .. .. .. 39 *William O. Kello, .. 40 *Henry Swartwout, 41 *Gaines P. Kingsbury, + * Humphrey Marshall, ._ 43 * James M. Bowman, . 44 *Ashburn Ury, .. .. 45 *Albert G. Edwards, . rt , , / .,. Now Brig. -Gen. U.S.A., retired, residing at ntry> Orange, New Jersey. 4th Infantry, Resigned, December 15, 1832. ist Infantry, Died, July 10, 1838, at Bath, Maine. 7th Infantry, Died, January 7, 1849, at Hillsborough, Pa. 3d Infantry, Resigned, December 31, 18-57. , r c . Now Col. U.S.A., retired, residing at No. 116 2d Infantry, Wes( . Jersey gtreetj Elizabeth) NJ . 7th Infantry, Resigned, May 20, 1861. ist Infantry, Resigned, November 15, 1839. 6th Infantry, Died, October 8, 1839, at Tampa,. Florida. ist Infantry, Resigned, June 30, 1838. 3d Infantry, Died, Jan. 27, 1848, in Southampton Co., Va. 3d Infantry, Died, July i, 1852, at Fort Meade, Florida. Mt'd Rang's, Resigned, October 13, 1836. Mt'd Rang's, Resigned, April 30, 1833. Mt'd Rang's, Died, July 21, 1839, at Ft. Wayne, Indian Ter. Mt'd Rang's, Died, April 14, 1838, at Matanzas, Cuba. Mt'd Rang's, Resigned, May 2, 1835. Those to whose name this mark * is prefixed, participated in some manner in the Black- Hawk expedition of 1832. (Signed) RICHARD C. DRUM. Adjutant-General's Office, Washington, May 6, 1881. Adjutant-General. 70 FORT DEARBORN. K. LETTERS FROM THE LAST SOLDIER IN FORT DEARBORN. SOUTH EVANSTON, COOK Co., ILL., June 17, 1881. HON. JOHN WENTWORTH. DMT Sir: I enlisted October, 1819, at Philadelphia, Pa., in the 5th Regt. U.S. Infantry, being then 23 years of age. I started with a detachment of recruits May, 1820, to join the regiment, then stationed about seven miles below the Falls of St. Anthony, near where Fort Snelling now stands. The regiment was then commanded by Lieut.-Col. Henry Leavenworth, father of Lieut. Jesse H. Leavenworth. We joined the regiment about the last of July, and work was begun on the Fort the same fall. We remained at Fort Snelling till May, 1828, when we were ordered to Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis. I remained there till September of the same year, when we were ordered to Fort Brady, near the outlet of Lake Superior. Here we remained till May, 1833, when we were ordered to Fort Dearborn, Chicago. Soon after our arrival at the Fort, I received from Washington my appointment as ordnance -sergeant of the post, and thenceforward I had nothing more to do with garrison duty. Previous to my appointment as ordnance -sergeant, I was orderly -sergeant of B company. Capt. (Brevet- Major) DeLafayette Wilcox, was captain of B company from the time we left Jefferson Barracks till he left Chicago; but, being away on a leave of absence, when A and B companies were ordered to Fort Dearborn, Lieut. Louis T. Jamison had temporary command of the company B to which I belonged. When the two companies left Fort Dearborn for Fort Howard. Major Joseph Plympton and myself were left behind. He was in charge of the Government property, and I as ordnance-sergeant of the post, to await a vacancy at some other post. I remained at Fort Dearborn till the latter end of May when, my term of enlistment having expired, I quit the army and went to farming in the town of Northfield, in Cook County. The late Edward H. Hadduck, who died 30 May, 1881, with his team, hauled my traps from the City to my claim. Capt. John B. F. Russell did not come to Chicago with the company, nor did he wer do garrison duty in Fort Dearborn. When he came to Chicago he was on detached service in the Indian Department, and superintended the removal of the Indians to their reservation out West. The first I knew of Bernard Ward* was, I think, in 1823, when he joined the regiment at Fort Snelling with a detachment of recruits, I think, from Boston. There he was discharged from the army by reason of his term of enlistment having expired. Whereupon he went East and enlisted in the 4th Artillery; but not liking that arm of the service he got transferred to his old regiment, and rejoined us at Fort Brady, I think, in 1830. He accompanied the troops to Fort Dear- born, and was honorably discharged at the expiration of his term of enlist- ment. None of my childrent were born in Fort Dearborn, although two * Bernard or "Barney" Ward will be remembered as the first alderman ever elected from the old fifth ward, embracing all the territory on the North Side, between Clark Street and the River. There were then but six wards in the City, two on each side of the River; but the third (represented by John Dean Caton) and the fifth (by Bernard Ward) had but one each. Mr. Ward lived upon an island, since cut away, near the forks of the River, approachable from the North Side by a foot-bridge. Mr. Ward has been dead about forty years, leaving a son, now living, Henry A. Ward, born on the island, 28 March, 1834, and a daughter, who married Ralph, a deceased son of this Sergeant Joseph Adams, of South Evanston, 111. t Mr. Adams has two children now living, viz. : Henry Adams, now living at South Evanston, Cook County, 111., and the wife of Dr. Allen W. Gray, (son of ex-Sheriff John Gray), of Chicago. He had a son, Ralph Adams, now dead, who married a daughter of ex-alderman Bernard Ward. APPENDIX LETTER FROM JOSEPH ADAMS. 71 were born in Chicago while I was stationed there as a soldier. My family did not live in the Fort till after the troops left, when we moved in for the winter. In looking over your Fort Dearborn address, you mention of having lost track of Lieut. J. L. Thompson. He was with the Army of Observa- tion, on the Rio Grande, and he resigned just before hostilities broke out in the Mexican war; for which his father-in-law, Gen. Hugh Brady, was much displeased. Soon after his resignation, I read in a newspaper, (your Chicago Democrat, perhaps?), an account of his death by drowning in the St. Clair River, near Detroit, Mich. The Rev. Jeremiah Porter came to Chicago on the same boat that I did, and I attended the first services he held in Chicago, May, 1833. JOSEPH ADAMS. SOUTH EVANSTON, COOK Co., ILL., June 16, 1881. HON. JOHN WENTWORTH, Dear Sir: I am positive that the troops left Chicago late in December, 1836, but the exact date I do not know, but I do know that it was close upon the New Year of 1837. As to what the printed Army Returns show, I presume they allude to the public property, ordnance and quartermaster stores being removed to headquarters of the regiment. I do not recollect when Major Joseph Plympton left, but think he would have left when the public property was withdrawn. Capt. Louis T. Jamison remained in the garrison till late in the fall of 1837, being detailed on recruit- ing-service. I do not know how much longer he remained; but I saw him on some business late in the fall. I should think you would remember the fuss that occurred between Capt. Jamison and his recruits on one side, and Col. Beaubien and a number of citizens, favorable to him, on the side. The latter hauled some lumber upon the " Reservation, " and Capt. James Allen brought his men from the harbor-works and conquered the aggressive party. [See Scammon's Illinois Reports, vol. iii. , Louis T. Jamison v. John Doe ex dem. John B. Beaubien. Also De Lafayette Wilcox v. James Kinzie.] I was born in the county of Stafford or Staffordshire, England, December 24th, 1794. I know I came to Chicago in May, 1833. I heard Rev. Jeremiah Porter preach frequently in an old log-building which I can not locate; but I know that it was .somewhere near the junction of the two branches of the River. I think he preached his first sermon there; but I am not positive. Father Jesse Walker [Methodist] preached in the same building. There was a room fitted up for Rev. Jeremiah Porter in the garrison, after we had been there sometime. Thinking of Major Joseph Plympton and family reminds me that just sixty years ago this coming " Fourth of July, " he was then a lieutenant, and in command of the company to which I belonged. He was detailed to take charge of the party to fire the first Fourth-of- July salute that was ever fired at Fort Snelling. I was the non-commissioned officer of the party. That was in 1821; there were then barracks built for two or three companies. Major Plympton was not married at that time. He left Fort Snelling about 1822, and returned (a short time before we left for Jefferson Barracks) with a wife and perhaps one child. I know there was one there. After we left the Fort, I never saw him again till he came to Chicago to take command of Fort Dearborn. There had been salutes fired near Fort Snelling, but not on the site of the Fort itself. I remember one given for Gov. Cass, in 1820, on his return from a north-west tour among the Indians. JOSEPH ADAMS. 72 FORT DEARBORN. L. From the Chicago Democrat, March 23d, 1861. EXTRACTS FROM LETTER OF CAPT. A. WALKER. CHICAGO IN 1832. ARRIVAL OF FIRST STEAMBOAT. THE CHOLERA AND ITS FATALITY AMONG THE U.S. TROOPS AND SAILORS. GEN. SCOTT'S ARRIVAL. EARLY STEAMBOAT ITEMS. BUFFALO, October 3oth, 1860. CAPT. R. C. BRISTOL, Dear Sir: On my arrival home from New York, a few days since, from our annual meeting, I found your favor of the 3d inst. , in which you speak of my former communication. And now, in compliance with your request, I will enter more fully into detail, as you inform me many of the leading points and incidents connected with that pioneer voyage, will form a part of the recorded history of Chicago, as kept by the Historical Society. * * * It will be borne in mind that at that time but few traces of civilization could be seem, after passing the Straits of Mackinaw; nothing like light-houses, or beacon-lights, artificial harbors, or but few natural ones, were in existence; no piers, wood or coal yards were established; and not a single village, town or city on the whole distance, where now all are conspicuous along the western shores of Lake Michigan, showing a strange contrast indeed. It will also be remembered, as stated in my former communication, that four steamers, the Henry Clay, Superior, Slieldon Thompson, and William Penn, were chartered by the United States Government for the purpose of transporting troops, equipments, and provisions to Chicago, during the Black- Hawk war, but, owing to the fearful ravages, made by the breaking out of the Asiatic cholera among the troops and crews on board, two of those boats were compelled to abandon their voyage, proceeding no further than Fort Gratiot. The disease became so violent and alarming on board the Henry Clay that nothing like discipline could be observed, everything in the way of subordination ceased. As soon as the steamer came to the dock, each man sprang on shore, hoping to escape from a scene so terrifying and appalling. Some fled to the fields, some to the woods, while others lay down in the streets, and under the cover of the river bank, where most of them died unwept and alone. There were no cases of cholera causing death on board my boat until we passed the Manitou Islands, (Lake Michigan). The first person attacked died about four o'clock in the afternoon, some thirty hours before reaching Chicago. As soon as it was ascertained, by the surgeon, that life was ex- tinct, the deceased was wrapped closely in his blanket, placing within some weights secured by lashing of small cordage around the ankles, knees, waist, and neck, and then committed, with but little ceremony, to the deep. This unpleasant though imperative duty was performed by the Orderly Ser- geant, with a few privates detailed for that purpose. In like manner twelve others, including this same noble sergeant, who sickened and died in a few hours, were also thrown overboard before the balance of the troops were landed at Chicago. The sudden and untimely death of this veteran sergeant and his committal to a watery grave, caused a deep sensation on board among the soldiers and crews, which I will not here attempt to describe. The effect produced upon Gen. Scott and the other officers, in witnessing the scene, was too visible to be misunderstood, for the dead soldier had been a very valuable man, and evidently a favorite among the officers and soldiers of the regiment. * * Some very interesting and appropriate memoranda were made by the steward APPENDIX LETTER OF CAPT. WALKER. 73 of the boat at the time, on one of the leaves of his account-book (which is still in my possession) by quotations from one of the poets, such as, " Sleep, soldier, sleep; thy warfare's o'er," etc. * * * On another leaf is a graphic representation of a coffin, made by pen and ink, placed opposite the account on the credit side of one of the volunteer officers, who died after reaching Chicago, with this singular and concise device or inscription written upon the lid of the coffin : "Account settled by Death. (Signed) H. Bradley, clerk and steward, Steamer Sheldon Thompson. Chicago, 111., July nth, 1832." There was one singular fact not one of the officers of the army was attacked by the disease, while on board my boat, with such violence as to result in death, or any of the officers belonging to the boat, though nearly one-fourth of the crew fell a prey to the disease on a subsequent trip, while on the passage from Detroit to Buffalo. We arrived at Chicago (as stated in the former communication) on the evening of the loth of July, 1832. I sent the yawl-boat on shore soon after with Gen. Scott and a number of the volunteer officers, who accompanied him on his expedition against the hostile tribes, who, with Black Hawk, had committed many depredations, (though, perhaps, not without some provoca- tion), compelling the whites to abandon their homes in the country and flee to Chicago, taking refuge in the Fort for the time being. Before landing the troops next morning, we were under the painful necessity of committing three more to the deep, who died during the night, making, in all, sixteen who were thus consigned to a watery grave. These three were anchored to the bottom in two and a-half fathoms, the water being so clear that their forms could be plainly seen from our decks. This unwelcome sight created such excitement, working upon the superstitious fears of some of the crew, that prudence dictated that we weigh anchor and move a distance, sufficient to shut from sight a scene which seemed to haunt the imagination, and influence the mind with thoughts of some portentious evil. In the course of the day and night following, eighteen others died and were interred not far from the spot where the American Temperance House* * N.-W. corner Lake Street and Wabash Avenue. has since been erected. The earth that was removed to cover one made a grave to receive the next that died. All were buried without coffins or shrouds, except their blankets, which served for a winding-sheet, there left, as it were, without remembrance or a stone to mark their resting-place. Dur- ing the four days we remained at Chicago, fifty-four more died, making an aggregate of eighty-eight who paid the debt of nature. * On approaching Chicago, I found quite a fleet of sail vessels, at anchor in the offing, where we also came to, near them. As soon as it was ascertained that cholera was on board, no time was lost in communicating from one vessel to the other the intelligence, which induced them to weigh anchor at once, and stand out to sea, hoping to escape the pestilence, which, at that time, was considered contagious. In the morning some of them were nearly lost in the distance, though in the course of the day they mostly returned and reanchored near by, in hailing distance. Among the fleet were some vessels belonging to Oliver Newberry, Esq., of Detroit, that were employed in transporting provisions and stores from the Government to that port. The number of buildings at that time, where your populous City now stands, was but five, three of which were log-tenements; one of them with- out a roof, was used as a stable, and one small frame dwelling-house, besides the light-house and barracks (better known as Fort Dearborn) which was 74 FORT DEARBORN. evacuated for the accommodation of the sick troops. Major Whistler, Capt. Johnson, and many others, with their families, who had previously occupied the barracks, took shelter wherever they could, some under boards placed obliquely across the fence, others in tents, etc. It is proper in this connection to state that all the mattresess and bedding belonging to my boat, except sufficient for the crew, were taken by order of Gen. Scott for the use of the sick, giving his draft for the purchase of new bedding, which was not only a deed of mercy to those suffering ones, but a matter of favor to me, in procuring a fresh out-fit, so necessary after that disastrous voyage. There was no harbor accessible to any craft drawing more than two feet of water, hardly sufficient to admit the bateau in which the troops were landed. But little else was seen besides the broad expanse of prairie, with its gentle undulated surface, covered with grass and variegated flowers, stretching out far in the distance, resembling a great carpet inter- woven with green, purple, and gold; in one direction bounded only by the blue horizon, with no intervening woodland to obstruct the vision. The view in looking through the spy-glass from the upper deck of our steamer, while laying in the offing, was a most picturesque one, presenting a landscape inter- spersed with small groves of underwood, making the picture complete; com- bining the grand and beautiful in nature, far beyond anything I had before seen. The Chicago River, at that time, was but a mere creek, easily forded at its mouth, while it wended its way along the beach, flowing into the Lake a small distance south of the present locality of Lake Street. The provisions and stores brought by the sail-vessels were landed on the beach of the Lake, near the mouth of the River, where now are seen the extensive railroad improvements. * * * We remained four days after landing the troops, procuring fuel for the homeward voyage, etc. The only means of obtaining anything for fuel was to purchase the roofless log-building used as a stable. That, together with the rail fence enclosing a field of some three acres near by, was sufficient to enable us to reach Mackinaw. Being drawn to the beach and prepared for use, it was boated on board by the crew, which operation occupied the most of four days to accomplish. There was one circumstance connected with this transaction, which, with other things, deserves to be mentioned. A youngerly man by the name of Burnham, if my memory serves, rendered a special service in aiding me in negotiating for the fuel and assisting in getting it drawn to the shore, he hav- ing the only team that could be procured. He had come in from the country but a few days before, with a yoke of oxen and a wagon, bringing with him a family, I think not his own, who had fled from the country for refuge. His services, so timely and unabating, and the kindly disposition he mani- fested to assist in every way in his power, together with the moderate price charged for the services, under the circumstances, went far to strengthen my faith in human nature, that all mankind are not entirely selfish, that there are some who can and do act disinterestedly. This, I verily believe, was the case, in a very large degree, with this generous-hearted young man. He, too, fell a prey to the cholera. He was attacked and died a few days after I sailed from your Fort. After getting the fuel on board, I was detained some six hours, waiting the arrival of a gentleman whose name I think was Chamberlain. I had dis- patched a messenger for him, he residing some fifteen miles in the country. At length he arrived, and engaged to accompany me as far as Detroit and act in the capacity of physician, having some knowledge in preparing medi- cine, being a druggist by profession. APPENDIX LETTER OF CAPT. WALKER. 75 During this protracted stay, in waiting for the doctor, the crew became quite uneasy to get under way, and leave behind them a scene fraught with associations of the dead and the dying, which they had witnessed so frequently, until they became almost mutinous. But as soon as orders were given to get under way, the celerity with which the yawl was hoisted to the stern, was a scene of exciting interest, as the duty was performed with a will and a spirit of cheerfulness, accompanied with a hearty song of " Yo-heave- ho. " As they hove at the windlass, they seemed almost frantic with joy when the anchor came in sight and her prow turned homeward. We had no cases of cholera on our passage to Detroit. The physician returned across the country, after receiving the stipulated sum for his services, which I think was some two hundred dollars, besides the stage-fare, which was one of the items in the stipulation. In 1832, as before stated, but two steamers visited Chicago, the Sheldon Thompson being the first ever at that port. The William Penn arrived some eight days later, laden with troops, stores, etc., belonging to the Government. From the year 1832, different steamers made occasional trips to Chicago the Daniel Webster, Monroe, Columbus, Anthony Wayne, Bunker Hill, and others. The most noted among them was the steamer Michigan, (the first), built and owned by Oliver Newberry, Esq., late of Detroit, who for many years was associated with and largely engaged in the commerce of the lakes. This boat made one or more annual trips of pleasure, generally making the circuit of Lake Michigan. She was a fine specimen of a steamer, far in advance of most boats of her time. Though her model was by no means comely, her speed was quite equal to others, having two powerful low-pressure beam- engines, and withal a staunch sea-boat. Her fine finish, splendid fixtures, and furniture, which were quite superior to any other in that day, together with her veteran commander, Capt. Blake, on board, rendered her a favorite with the traveling public. A few years later a large class of steamers commenced making regular trips from Buffalo touching most of the intermediate ports. Among the number was the James Madison, owned by Charles M. Reed, Esq., of Erie, built with particular reference to the upper-lake trade. Her capacity for freight and passengers was the largest upon the Lake at that time. She was first commanded by Capt. R. C. Bristol, afterwards, and for many years, by Capt. McFadyen. Still later, in the year 1837, came the steamer Illinois, (the first), owned and built by O. Newberry, Esq. She was also designed for the Chicago trade. In this boat was combined many qualities, both in her size, symmetry, beauty of model, style of finish, speed, and seaworthiness, which placed her in the foremost rank of steamboats and enabled her for many years to receive a most liberal patronage. She was also brought out under the command of Capt. Blake. From year to year emigration to Illinois and Wisconsin continued to in- crease, until a daily line of boats was established between Buffalo and Chicago, while at the same time the public demands were such as to require a still further advance, and a different class and style of boat with better accom- modations and increased facilities, suited to the condition and circumstances of a large class of the more refined and wealthy, who were then emigrating and settling throughout your and the adjoining States. And hence the necessity of introducing the upper-cabin boat. When the Great Western first made her appearance upon the lakes, and during the two years in which she was being built, many, who claimed to be judges, expressed doubts, of the practicability and seaworthiness of that class of boats. But in a few trips she became a favorite with the public, and, notwithstanding the opinions and prejudices of the few, was the means of bringing about an entire revolution 76 FORT DEARBORN. in the construction of our steam marine upon the lakes, causing all the boats in commission and contemporary with her, to convert their lower cabins in steerages and freight-holds, and substitute the upper-cabin. * * * It is proper here to say that the Great Western was built expressly for the upper-lake trade, and continued to make regular trips for ten successive years. Of the estimation placed upon her during those years, it is not my province here to speak, more than to say that she was designed, modeled by, and under my com- mand during that period. At that time (1838) the principal forwarding houses in the City were Kinzie & Hunter, Newberry & Dole, Gurdon S. Hubbard, Esq., Bristol & Porter, the latter of whom was then agents and consignees for the above-named boats, Mr. Hubbard being the agent for the Great Western. Subsequently she ran to the dock of Messrs. Walker, Smith and others as her agents and consignees. The population of Chicago, if I remember rightly, did not exceed four or five thousand souls. Your friend and obedient servant, A. WALKER. M. THE OLD RAILROADS OF ILLINOIS. OMAHA, NEB., June 15, 1881. HON. JOHN WEXTWORTH, Dear Sir: I have to thank you for the receipt of copies of your lectures, and proceedings of the Calumet Club, all which bring up many familiar and departed names and faces. I arrived at Chicago, February n, 1837, and one of the first forms and faces, was your own, that I met. And I soon became a reader of your Chicago Democrat, and a visitor at your sanctum. I boarded with Mark Beaubien, at his " Illinois Exchange, " and my room was on the opposite corner, a small, yellow building, which had been used by some physician whose name has escaped me. I went to Chicago, under the promise of a situation under Tames Seymour, then just from the Erie road, who had been selected by Col. Edmund D. Taylor and W. B. Ogden, to survey and locate the old Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, now grown into the gigantic North- Western. It is not easy, after the lapse of forty-four years, and the absence of a daily journal, to recall with much exactness, the operations and incidents of that period. We began our survey at the foot of Dearborn Street, and ran three lines, nearly due west, to the DesPlaines River. Much of the time we waded in water, waist deep, and were glad, at night, to reach the hotel at Barry's Point, kept by Jocelyn & Chamberlin, and dry ourselves by the large fire-place. The "hard times," following the Land Speculation, made short work of the projected railroad. We were paid off, and, June 1st, left for Peru, then a promising city on paper and prairie bluffs, to enter upon the surverys north and south of the Illinois River, under the old Illinois Internal Improvement system. I can scarcely recall the names, even of our corps of engineers. James Seymour, was chief; his brother, Wm. H. Seymour, was assistant; P. H. Ogilvie, draughtsman, a lively little Scot, and a graduate of Edinboro'; H. V. Mooris, assistant-draughtsman; Geo. Howel, rodman, and myself axeman and chainman. It was my lot to drive, under the immediate superintendence of the chief, the first stake, as we understood at the time, ever driven in your City, for a railroad line. The high grass, where the fire had not swept over it, required four-foot stakes, which we backed for miles, using 400 feet stations. Of all our company, I have no knowledge of any other survivor. APPENDIX LETTER FROM FREDRICK A. NASH. 77 We boarded, for some weeks, with a most pleasant gentleman, up the north-branch, in a new bricl^^ouse. I believe he was a Virginian, Archibald Clybourn perhaps. An active business man, named James A. Marshal, also boarded there. This was more than forty years ago. I left Chicago, Feb., 1841, and seven years later passed through it. I spent the winter of 1837-38 in Chicago, our office being on what was then the outskirts of the City, but now quite central, at the residence of Hiram P. Woodworth, who was our new chief-engineer. From Peru, or LaSalle, our surveys extended up the Ver- million to Dixon and Galena, from the south side of the River in the direc- tion of Bloomington, running sixty miles without a tree or any stream to check our progress. We also surveyed a portion of the Illinois River, and run a line from Meridosia to Quincy. In 1840, Ogilvie, myself, and others listened to a four-hour speech from Stephen A. Douglas, at Dixon's Ferry, and to a shorter and spicy address from "Long John" Wentworth, then in the bloom of manhood. In 1840, I was junior assistant-engineer, and had charge of construction from LaSalle to the Bureau River, near Inlet Grove, Lee County, and a small prairie town called Greenfield, in Bureau County. In passing through Peru last week, I recalled the fact that in June, 1837, Daniel Webster was there and addressed the people upon the future of Illinois, etc., followed by toasts, etc. [He came from Peru directly to Chicago and addressed the people here.] And I wondered how many there were left in that region who then listened to the great "Expounder and Defender." The glorious Fourth of 1837 we celebrated at Greenfield, on the banks of the dark and muddy waters of the Bureau River. Fletcher Webster, [son of Daniel], his wife, Theron D. Brewster, and pretty much all the people there- abouts, were present. Thanking you for bringing back to mind long-buried memories of my early days, and pleasant remembrances of old friends and familiar faces, and hoping you and yours may long live to enjoy prosperity, I am, Yours as ever, FRED'K A. NASH. N. REMARKS OF MR. WENTWORTH AT THE OLD SETTLERS' REUNION UPON THE PRESENTATION OF MARK BEAUBIEN'S FIDDLE TO THE CALUMET CLUB, 19 MAY, iSSi : I am a little embarassed in my position to-night, as I have to act the double part of guest and host. I am a member of this, the Calumet Club, and I am entertaining myself whilst the Club entertains the old settlers of Chicago. But in either capacity I can not but give expression to my pleasure. I am grateful to my colleagues in the Club for their hospi- talities, and to Divine Providence for giving to so many of Chicago's pioneers life and strength to attend this our third annual reception. As a host, I wel- come you in veneration for old associations, and as a guest I thank my col- leagues of the Club for their appreciation. I have ever felt an interest in the history of Chicago, but more especially since the fire of 1871. At that time, I was engaged in preparing an index to the Chicago Democrat which I published for a quarter of a century, from 1836 to 1 86 1; such an index being a labor-saving institution to newspaper reporters and all others who might wish to refer to the events of my Chicago life. If people were desirous of information, I could then place my index before them, and they could obtain their ends without disturbing my avoca- tions. But the fire came and destroyed both papers and index. I was saved; but there was no index to my memory, and I felt that I and all of the early settlers must soon pass away. What then was to be done to gather up and perpetuate our history? The old settlers were the landmarks; but they 78 FORT DEARBORN. were scattered, and many of them outside of the reach of the Chicago Direc- tory. The members of the Calumet Club comprehended the situation, and resolved to bring the old settlers together in an annual entertainment, the first of which took place two years ago, and many here to-night were present upon that occasion and the succeeding one; and I hope they will live to attend many others. We registered our names with the date of our arrival here, with the place of our birth, and with our ages. And we also gave to the secretary of the Club the names of all whom we knew who had not been invited, in order that they might be invited upon future occasions. The result has been that it is believed that there lives not anywhere a resident of Chicago, prior to 1840, who was of age, who has not been invited to these annual receptions. And, when they can not come, they generally write an interesting letter. And, when from the infirmities of age, they are incapaci- tated from writing, we are glad to know that some friend writes for them. Thus our proceedings are looked upon as a part of the history of the North- West. Our Chicago editors inform me that no one of their daily issues is so extensively called for as that next succeeding the evening of these anniver- saries. The proceedings of our first reception were published in a pamphlet; and that pamphlet now has a place in all the Historical Societies of the United States; and in most of those of the Old World. I ever have that pamphlet upon my table, and, when people call upon me for information about early times, if I can not impart it, I look over the registry of names, and point out some persons who I think can do so. Thus, between us all, we can impart a great deal of valuable information, and especially to those desirous of perfecting their land-titles. What else can compare with these Calumet-Club receptions in restoring our history? I have regretted the non-attendance of the widows of our early settlers. This is to be provided for hereafter, as the Club House is to be enlarged to a capacity that will accommodate them. I know, personally, over one hundred widows of early settlers, whose presence upon these occasions would be both pleasurable and profitable. Their memories are as good as ours and they have information as valuable as ours. Besides, many of them have letters and papers that would settle many disputed points, which we have not! The history of Chicago must be written, and it must be written accurately, and these widows and ourselves must furnish the material. I have been requested by the Chicago Historical Society, next Saturday, to match my voice in the open air against the whistle of the tug -boats that run up and down the Chicago River, at the junction of the streets at the Rush- Street bridge, and recite the history of Fort Dearborn from its con- struction, in 1804, to its abandonment, in 1837. In looking up material for that occasion, I have felt the advantages of these reunions as all persons will who seek knowledge of the past. If any of you have any old papers upon that subject, or any knowledge that has never been published, you will subserve the cause of history by letting me know it. If, after I have delivered my address, you notice any mistakes, I will thank you to inform me respect- ing them. As matters now are, on the disappearance of official records, we are much dependant upon each other for the verity of history. In the enter- prise and competition of our daily papers, Chicago's history has been much mystified. Interesting events are sought after and commented upon without particularity as to dates, or the persons concerned in them. As men become old they too often become garrulous, and where they can not procure an audience, they often write letters and sign their names to them, or make statements to reporters, and such go to the world as the veritable remem- brances of old settlers. They generally get their events right, but they too often make mistakes in dates and in parties to them. Hence the importance APPENDIX MARK BEAUBIEN'S FIDDLE. 79 of reestablishing the old landmarks, which it is the mission of the old settlers who meet here at these receptions to do. Many often compliment me upon the accuracy of my memory. But it is no better than the most of yours. And I dare not trust it in important matters unless backed by old papers and ex- periences which I am ever upon the look out to gather up and have at hand for reference. My fellow old settlers! I miss several faces here to-night that I have been in the habit of meeting. Some are unavoidably detained, whilst others have gone to the general reunion beyond the grave. One we all miss more than any other who always has been with us. We miss him for the peculiar kind of music that he always furnished us. We miss him because, when speaking of any Chicago event, he was never the man to say, as many of us are com- pelled to say : " That happened before I came to Chicago. " He came here in 1826, and was a voter when this City was a part of Peoria County. But he had seen much of interest "before he came to Chicago. Never again shall we behold a man who was present at the surrender of Gen. Hull, at Detroit. I allude to Mark Beaubien, who died at the residence of his daughter, Mrs. George Mathews, at Kankakee, in this State, on the nth April, of this year. Upon his death-bed, he requested that his riddle be given to me. At every other reunion of Chicago's old settlers, Mr. Beaubien has been present and played upon it. The fiddle is here now, but the arm that wielded the bow is palsied in death. I labored among his descendants, among the old French pioneers, and among you, old settlers, to find some one to play a dirge upon it to his memory here to-night. But I was unsuccessful. And now I present it to the Calumet Club, as he was ever honored here. All its members were ever glad to see him, and he ever felt at home here. And as he has passed away, I take pleasure in presenting to you his oldest son, Frank Gordon Beaubien, now present. But he has not inherited the musical taste of his father. He was born in Chicago, and so is younger than the fiddle which his father brought here from Detroit, in 1826.* How long he had it before he came here I can not say. It has done service enough in Chicago to entitle it to honor, however. Three generations have listened to its music here. I also take pleasure in introducing you to his cousin, Alexander Beaubien, son of the late Gen. Jean Baptiste Beaubien, who was at Mackinaw in 1812, and saw the surrender of that place to the British as his brother Mark did that of Detroit. The General was a little higher toned than Mark, and brought the first piano to Chicago. And like the fiddle, that piano has been well pre- served; and, after long use in Chicago, it is now doing service in the family of his granddaughter, Mrs. Sophia (Beaubien) Ogee, at Silver Lake, Kansas, daughter of the late Charles Beaubien. And now, gentlemen, permit me to say that in this crowded room, crowded with liberal hosts to do us honor, and crowded with grateful guests to receive that honor, I want to shake hands with every old settler here to-night if I have not already done so. There is no probability that we shall ever all meet here again. Yet some will meet here. For these annual receptions are to be continuous and in a larger hall. I want you all to be enabled to say when you return to your homes and you are asked whom you met, that you have once more shaken hands with "Long John" Wentworth. And, if you live until next year, and I live, I want you to come here, see our new hall, and give then another shake. * Mark Beaubien was not the last survivor of the settlers of 1826. Edward Ament, who voted here in that year, now lives at Newark, Kendall County, 111., and has a son, John Ament, now living in this City. He had four brothers once living here, viz.: Hiram, now living at San Jose, California; Justus died at Big Rock, Kane County, 111.; Calvin died at Warsaw, Hancock County, 111. ; John died at Princeton, Bureau County, 111. ; and Anson died at La Prairie. Adams County 111. See No. 7 of Fergus' Historical Series, page 16 80 FORT DEARBORN. On occasions of this kind we want sociability rather than speech- making. Refreshments await you and will be at your pleasure as long as you stay. Let us now waive all ceremony and resolve ourselves into an old-fashioned Love Feast, where we can eat drink and be merry, shouting Glory Hallelujah and praising the Lord for extending our lives to the present time. O. HISTORY OF THE CHICAGO LIGHT-HOUSE. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF LIGHT-HOUSE BOARD, WASHINGTON, June 6th, 1881. Sir: Your letter of May 27th, relative to the old Chicago light -house, within the precincts of Fort Dearborn, has been received. In reply, I have to say that the structure in question was built, served its purpose, was discontinued and removed, prior to the organization of the Light -House Board, and that the only information this office can obtain, with regard to it, is from the imperfect records which have come down from those who, from time to time, previously had charge of the light-house ser- vice. Such of the information which you ask, as the Board is able to furnish, is herein given. The first appropriation known to the Board for the erection of the structure in question was made by the Act, approved March 3, 1831, and is as follows: "$5000 for building a light -house at the mouth of Chicago River, Lake Michigan." The next appropriation known to the Board, was made by the Act, ap- proved March 3, 1847, and is: "For a light-house at Chicago, $3500." It appears from the various light-house lists, published by the Treasury Department from 1838 to 1857, that the Chicago light-house was erected in 1831-2, but the precise date upon which it was commenced, and upon which it was finished, is not given. In the light -house list for 1838, the building is described as follows: "Chicago light-house, south side of Chicago River; fixed light; tower forty feet high; fourteen inch reflector; four lamps; built in 1831-2." The records of the office show nothing with regard to the tradition you mention, relative to the destruction of a light-house in 1831, and the erection of a new one upon the same spot. There appears, thus far, no evidence that there was any light-house at Fort Dearborn prior to 1831. The first keeper of the light, of whom the Board has any record, was Samuel C. LasVr, who received $350 per year. There is sent'to your address, to-day, a copy of the book entitled Docu- ~ments Relating to Light-Houses, 1789 to i8ji, and you are referred to pages 88, 245, and 254, where mention is made the of several light-houses at and near Chicago. There is, also, sent you a book entitled Laius and Appropriations from ij8g to fS'jJ, and you are referred to pages 93 and 132 for the appro- priations for the erection of the old Chicago light-house, and to pages 144, 154, and 193, for appropriations relative to other aids to navigation in the. neighborhood of Chicago; also to the index on page 227, relative to the appropriations made within the above-mentioned dates for aids to navigation in the State of Illinois. There is also sent you, for the use of the Historical Society, a copy of the last report of the Light-House Board, and of the last issued list of lights on the lakes, in which you will find mention of the present condition of the lights near Chicago. Very respectfully, GEO. DEWEY, Hon. JOHN WENTWORTH, Chicago. Commander U.S.N., Naval Sec'y. APPENDIX COL. PLYMPTON. 8 1 P. FALL OF THE ORIGINAL LIGHT-HOUSE AT CHICAGO. LETTER FROM ISAAC D. HARMON, (AGED 17), TO HIS ELDER BROTHER, CHARLES L. HARMON, DECEASED. CHICAGO, October 3ist, 1831. Dear Brother: We have had a flattener pass over the face of our pros- pects in Chicago. The light-house, that the day before yesterday, stood in all its glory, the pride of this wonderous village, is now "doused." For about a week past, cracks have been observed in it, and yesterday they began to look "squally. " Mr. Jackson, (the man who contracted to erect the building), [Probably Samuel Jackson, alderman in 1837,] ordered some of the bottom stones, which looked likely to fall, to be taken out. Yet he and his men assured people there was no danger of its falling. Jackson said, "You can't get it down," but there were others who were not so sure. My father, [Dr. Elijah D. Harmon], in the afternoon, told them it leaned to one side. They laughed at him, and so confident were some of its standing, that, but a few hours before it fell, they went upon the top of it; and amongst the rest, some women. Stones kept dropping from the hole in it; and, about nine o'clock in the evening, down tumbled the whole work with a terrible crash and a noise like the rattling of fifty claps of thunder. The walls were three feet thick, and it had been raised fifty feet in height; so you must know it made some stir when it fell. The first thing father said to the workmen when he went out was, "Does it lean any now." They were 'shorn of their locks,' and had nothing to say. Various reasons are assigned as the cause of its falling. Jackson wants to make it appear that it was owing to the quicksand under the building, which made it settle, and says that a light-house can not be made to stand here. It would be greatly for his interest to have this story believed; as, by this means he would probably get pay for what he has done; otherwise, he will not. People here, and those that are well qualified to judge, say there is no such thing as quicksand about it, and that it was all owing to the wretched manner in which it was built. I am inclined to believe them. Judging from the piece of wall now standing, the mortar looks like dry sand, and the wall is two-thirds filled up between with stones not bigger than a man's head. Finis. CHARLES L. HARMON, Yours affectionately, Burlington, Vt. ISAAC D. HARMON. Q- COL. JOSEPH PLYMPTON. Joseph Plympton 'was born Feb. 24th, 1787, at Sudbury, Mass. He was a direct descendant of Thomas Plympton, who was born in Sudbury, Suffolk County, England, landed in Massachusetts in 1633, founded the town of Sud- bury, Mass., and was slain by the Indians on Boone's Plain, April 16, 1667. Joseph was appointed ad-lieutenant, Jan. 3d, 1812, in the 4th U. S. Infantry; promoted to ist-lieutenant, July ist, 1813; to captain, June 1st, 1821, in the 5th U. S. Infantry, and brevetted major, June i, 1831, "for ten year's faith- ful service." On March 15, 1824, he married Eliza Matilda Livingston, daughter of Peter William Livingston, of New -York City. Among the places commanded by Brevet-Maj. Plympton, before coming to Fort Dear- born, are St. Louis, Mo.; Fort Snelling, Minn.; Fort Armstrong, Mississippi River; Fort Howard, (Green Bay, Wis. ); and Fort Winnebago, (Winnebago, Wis. ) After his command of Fort Dearborn he was ordered to Florida, and 82 FORT DEARBORN. distinguished himself in the Seminole war. On Sept. 22d, 1840, he was pro- moted to major in the ad U. S. Infantry, and on Sept. gth, 1846, to lieuten- ant-colonel in the 7th U. S. Infantry, and ordered to Mexico in command of that regiment. For "gallant and meritorious conduct " at the battle of Cerro Gordo, he was brevetted colonel. From 1851, for two years, he was in New- York City, as general superintendent of the recruiting -service, U. S. army. Feb. 9, 1854, he was promoted to colonel of the 1st U. S. Infantry, and ordered to Galveston, Texas. Col. Plympton died at Staten Island, N. Y., June 5, 1860. Among the many officers under his command during his long military service were Gens. U. S. Grant, Philip A. Sheridan, and Nathaniel Lyon. Mrs. Col. Plympton died, June 2Oth, 1873. Of their children, not elsewhere mentioned, are Cornelia De Peyster, born at Fort Howard, Green Bay, Wis., and married to Lieut. Henry M. Black, now colonel in the U. S. army; also, Gilbert M., of New -York City; also, Louisa E., born at Fort Snelling, and married to Lieut. John Pitman, Ordinance-Corps, U. S. army. LITTLE TURTLE. Drake's Book upon the Indians says: "Little Turtle died 14 July, 1812, aged 65 years, at his residence upon Eel River, near Fort Wayne, where the government had built him a house and provided him with the means of living. His portrait, by Stewart, is now in the War Department at Washington." [From this it appears that he had been dead over a month at the time of the Chicago massacre.] AN INTERESTING RELIC. A letter has been received from Charles P. Greenough, an attorney of Boston, a little yellow with age, which was among a collection of historical letters and papers the gentleman had, and deemed it appropriate to send to Mayor Harrison. It will prove interesting to old Chicagoans. It is addressed to "John John- son, Esq., U. S. Factor, Fort Wayne. Per the express." On the outside margin is the name of the writer, Mr. Lalime. The letter reads as follows : "CHICAGO, yth July, 1811. "Sir: Since my last to you we have news of other depredations and murders committed about the settlement of Cohokia. The first news we received was that the brothers-in-law of Mainpoe went down and stole a number of horses. Second, another party went down, stole some horses, killed a man, and took off a young woman, but they being pursued were obliged to leave her to save themselves. Third, they have been there and killed and de- stroyed a whole family. The cause of it, or in part, is from the little chief that came last fall to see Gov. Harrison under the feigned name of Wapewa. He told the Indians that he had told the Governor that the Americans were settling on their lands, and what should be done with them. He told the Indians that the Governor had told him they were bad people; that they must drive them off, kill their cattle, and steal their horses, etc. APPENDIX KILLING OF LALIME EXPLAINED. 83 "Being the quarter ending the 3oth June I am busy with the Factory, and have a number of Indians here paying their visit to Capt. Heald. From those circumstances, I hope, sir, you will excuse my hurry. Please give my respects to Mrs. Johnston. I am with respect, sir, your obedient servant, J. LALIME."* * THE KILLING OF LALIME EXPLAINED. CHICAGO, June 25th, 1881. HON. JOHN WENTWORTH, Dear Sir: Your note of the 22d inst. I received yesterday. Thanks for the slip you enclosed. In reply to your inquiries I have to say, that I think Mathew Irwin was not sub-agent at Fort Dearborn, but that he was United States factor, acting also as Indian-agent. His duties were principally confined to Indian affairs, under the direction of the commanding officer, when he was not specially instructed by the Department at Washington. As regards the unfortunate killing of Mr. LaLime, by Mr. John Kinzie, I have heard the account of it related by Mrs. Kinzie, and her daughter, Mrs. Helm. Mr. Kinzie never, in my hearing, alluded to or spoke of it. He deeply regretted the act. Knowing his aversion to converse on the subject, I never spoke to him about it. Mrs. Kinzie said that her husband and LaLime had been for several years on unfriendly terms, and had had frequent altercations; that at the time of the encounter, Mr. Kinzie had crossed the River alone, in a canoe, going to the Fort; and that LaLime met him outside of the garrison and shot him, the ball cutting the side of his neck. She supposed LaLime saw her husband crossing, and, taking his pistol, went through the gate purposely to meet him. Mr. Kinzie closing with LaLime stabbed him, and retreated to his house cov- ered with blood. He told his wife what he had done, that he feared he had killed LaLime, that probably a squad would be sent for him, and that he must hide. She, in haste, took bandages, and with him retreated to the woods, where, as soon as possible, she dressed his wounds, returning just in time to meet an officer with a squad, with orders to seize her husband. He could not be found. For some days he was hid in the bush, and cared for by his wife. LaLime was, I understood, an educated man, and quite a favorite with the officers, who were greatly excited. They decided he should be buried near Mr. Kinzie's house, and he was buried near the bank of the River, about the present terminus of Rush Street, and within about two hundred yards of Mr. Kinzie's house, in plain view from his front-door and piazza. Tlie grave was enclosed by a picket-fence, which Mr. Kinzie, in his life-time, kept in perfect order. My impression has ever been that Mr. Kinzie acted, as he told his wife, in self-defence. This is borne out by the fact that, after a full investi- gation by the officers, whose friend the deceased was, they acquitted Mr. Kin- zie, who then returned to his family. In some of these details I may be in error, but the fact has ever been firm in my mind that LaLime made the attack, provoking the killing in self-defence. Most certainly Mr. Kinzie deeply regretted the result, and avoided any refer- ence to it. Yours, G. S. HUBBARD. 6 84 FORT DEARBORN. THE FIRST LAKE-STEAMER. THE OLD STEAMBOAT WALK-IN-THE- WATER. Levi Bishop, of Detroit, in a series of articles, in the Post and Tribune of that City, on the early history of lake navigation, gives the following account of the old steamboat Walk-in-the- Water, the first steamer that plied Lake Erie: "Capt. Newhall is doing good work as a historian of our lake marine. He has an old registry of the Custom-House of Detroit, of 1818, when William Woodbridge was the Collector of the Port. This record settles the point that the Walk-in-the- Water, being the first steamboat that ever navigated on Lake Erie, arrived at Detroit, August 27, 1818, and that she cleared for her return trip to Buffalo the next day. She was in general form a schooner, with an engine and two side-wheels, and she was named after an Indian chief, who found a local habitation and a name somewhere on the borders of the Detroit River, and probably in many other places too numerous to mention. She was doubtless a clumsy craft, but was a good experiment for the early days of steam navigation. The record referred to is in a good state of preservation, and it contains much valuable historical information. The pioneer steamboat went ashore and was wrecked on or near Long Point, in the year 1819 or 1820, and thus she ceased to walk in the water and found a grave therein. From that small beginning, the steamboats on the lakes went on increasing till they rivaled the sail vessels in number and far surpassed them in magni- tude, accommodations, and attractions. Between 1830 and 1840, and on from the latter date till the railroads began to acquire the through carrying business, the lake steam marine was surpassed by but few, if any, in the world. The old North America, the Commodore Perry, the Illinois, and the Michigan are with others well remembered. Then the great steamboat line was from Buffalo to Chicago, about 1000 miles, and a Chicago boat, with such men as Capts. Blake and Appleby and others on deck, was looked upon as one of the great 'institutions' of the country. They were positively traveling luxuries. Of course it took longer to make the trip than it now does by rail,, but those large steamboats presented attractions and comforts which no railroad-cars can afford. The old Michigan had two engines, one on each side, which, with the side-wheels, ran wholly independent of each other. This was all well in a smooth sea, but in rough weather one wheel would be deep in the water or in a swell, and would move slow, while the other at the same time would be all, or nearly all, out of the water, and would, consequently, fly like lightning. This had the effect to jerk the boat about in different directions, and make the navigation unpleasant and difficult. The double independent engines were, doubtless, an experiment, and, so far as I know, have never been imitated. It seems to be thought better to have the two wheels connected by a long .shaft, so that when one does the work the other shall be kept in order and inseparable attachment. It was sometimes positively thrill- __ ing to~seeoldCap^ Blake on the upper deck in a storm, as he maintained his perfect self-possession and directed the ship beneath him, while the noble vessel 'Walked the water like a thing of life, And seemed to dare the elements to strife.' "Passengers had most perfect confidence in him, as they, no doubt, had in many other of our lake captains. The owner of the old Illinois was a well- known citizen. He was popularly known as the 'Commodore of the Lakes.' He was a Whig of the Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and John J. Crittenden school. He was a patriotic citizen, and, as expressing his sentiments and the true spirit of the State and National Governments, he placed at the masthead of the Illinois a streamer, nearly or quite forty feet long, with the words APPENDIX CHICAGO'S FIRST PIANO. 85 'State Sovereignty and National Union' boldly inscribed upon it in large and conspicuous letters.* That old steamboat and that National sentiment were the pride of Oliver Newberry [of Detroit], as well as the pride and boast of all beholders. When the railroads came into full operation, two grand float- ing palaces the Plymouth Rock and the Western World were put on Lake Erie, between Detroit and Buffalo, by the Michigan Central Railway Com- pany. They were popular, and a great relief and comfort to the traveling public, but they were soon discontinued by railroad interests, since which our first-class steam navigation has disappeared, except on the Lake Superior lines. " CHICAGO'S FIRST PIANO. To the Editor of The Chicago Tribune: CHICAGO, July 9, 1881. In your issue of July 7, you published a letter from Charles Cleaver, Esq., one of our oldest and most honored citizens, whose reminiscences are in the main correct; he is, however, mistaken in some things, which I desire to cor- rect: 1. The first piano brought to Chicago was by John B. Beaubien, about 1834, as Mr. Wentworth states, and not by Mr. Samuel Brooks. Mrs. Capt. J. B. F. Russell and Mrs. John H. Kinzie came here prior to Mr. Brooks, bringing their pianos. 2. He says, in speaking of the old residence of John Kinzie, that he was, at the time he came here, living in a "spacious log-house about opposite Dear- born Street." It was his son, John H. Kinzie, who was then living there; and the house was the United States Indian- Agency, the logs of which were put up by the Indian Agent, Jouett, and left without either roof or floors, and finished and occupied by his successor, Alexander Wolcott, and located where is now the S.-W. corner of North State and North Water Streets, now em- braced in Wolcott's Addition. Mr. Wolcott married a sister of John H. Kinzie before there was any one authorized to perform the marriage ceremony nearer than Peoria, 111., "from which place, Mr. John Hamlin, a Justice of the Peace, was sent for and married them. Mrs. Wolcott, after the death of her husband, obtained a patent from the Government, under the preemption law,, for this eighty acres, now Wolcott's Addition to Chicago. 3. I differ with Mr. Cleaver in regard to the continued inundation of the prairie between the Chicago and Desplaines Rivers. It was only during spring and fall rains, or unusually heavy rains, that the roads were in the con- dition described by him. Generally in summer and early fall the road was perfectly dry, and very fine and smooth for horse and driver; there was an elasticity to our high or low prairie roads that made them far superior to macadamized ones; they were delightfully free from ruts or sloughs. I trust Mr. Cleaver will continue to give us his valuable information, and that he will pardon me for this correction. We old settlers are making history for generations that may come after us, and we should be careful to make it correct. I will thank him to correct any mistatements that may come from me. G. S. HUBBARD. * The Steamer fllitiois, Capt. Chelsey Blake, was presented with a suit of colors, on July 23, 1839, by the citizens of Chicago. Hon.- Wm. B. Ogden made the presentation speech, and Walter L. Newberry, Esq-, replied. Gen. Winfield Scott was present, and Mr. Ogden referred to him as the tried jpund of Chicago. See Chicago Daily American, July 24, 1839. 86 FORT DEARBORN. Chicago, July 20, 1881. HON. J. WEXTWORTH; Dear Sir: Referring to yours of the I5th inst., in which you submit, for my criticism, the cut representing " Fort Dearborn and Chicago in 1831," taken from Wau-Bun, by Mrs. Juliette A. Kinzie, published in 1857: I can not believe that Mrs. Kinzie saw the picture until it appeared in her Wau-Bun. It was probably engraved from a sketch by her, and sent to her APPENDIX ADDITIONAL EARLY RECORDS. 87 publishers, without an opportunity for her correction. It is certainly unlike the Fort and surroundings, as I recollect them. The view appears to be from the north-east, as the enclosure of the Fort was nearly north and south, east and west. The River is intended to be shown inland probably not farther than Dearborn or Clark Streets, as the Agency house was at the corner of North- Water and North-State Streets. Fort Dearborn is represented as located on a high elevation, much above the Kinzie House. This is incorrect, as the ground at the Fort was not over eight feet above the River at its lowest stage, while the Kinzie House was two or three feet higher than the Fort. There was no sharp point in front of the Fort, north, as shown in the cut. The slope to the River was gradual. At no place fronting the north line of pickets was there over 80 feet to the water's edge; and at the narrowest point, opposite the north gate, from 50 to 60 feet. The bend of the River, westerly from the Fort, was gradual. The direc- tion of the River from the bend, westerly, was almost straight to Franklin Street. From Franklin Street it turned gradually southward to the junction of the north and south branches. The point of junction of the two streams was in sight from the Kinzie House. There was no sharp inlet in front of the Kinzie House, as represented in the cut, but there was a slight bend cor- responding with the slight curve opposite. The direction of the cut through the sand-bar and the piers erected conformed to the general course of the River at the Kinzie House. The cut shows the Block- House to be the highest building. It was consid- erably lower than the officers' or soldiers' quarters. The brick building, erected in about 1824 or '25, not shown in this cut, was the most prominent structure. It was located about 10 feet south of and parallel with the north picket, and about 10 or 15 feet west of the north gate. It was within the Fort enclosure, and would partially hide in this view the officers' original quarters. There was no fence along the River edge, east of the stockade. The Kinzie House was about 200 feet from the River, with a piazza the whole length of its south front. The yard in front was enclosed by a split- picket fence. Inside and close to the east-and-west fence was a row of Lom- bardy poplar trees. From the piazza, the inside of the Fort was visible through to the south gate. G. S. HUBBARD. FORT-DEARBORN MUSTER-ROLL, THE LATEST ox FILE AT WASHINGTON BEFORE THE MASSACRE. From a letter received from Hon. Robert T. Lincoln, Secretary of War, July 19, 1 88 1, after most of this pamphlet had been printed, it appears that no Muster- Roll, giving the names of the garrison at Fort Dearborn in 1811 or '12, is on file in the War Department. But the general returns of the U. S. Army show that the Fort was garrisoned from June 4, 1804, to June, 1812, by a portion of the 1st Infantry, In these returns, the strength of the garrison, including commissioned and non-commissioned officers, musicians, and privates, is given at various times as follows: June 4, 1804, Capt. John Whistler, 69; Dec. 31, 1806, - , 66; Sept. 30, 1809, Capt. John Whistler, 77; Sept. 30, 1810, Capt. Nathan Heald, 67; Sept. 30, 1811, Capt. Nathan Heald, 51; June , 1812, Capt. Nathan Heald, 53. The name of Fort Dearborn appears upon record as early as June 4, 1804. The Muster- Roll of the garrison of Fort Dearborn, that is here given, was obtained from the Third Auditor's Office of the Treasury Department, where it is on file as a voucher. It is of the latest date that can be found. From the same office was obtained the affidavit of William Griffith and the letter by Capt. Nathan Heald. 88 FORT DEAR15ORX. Muster-Rcll of a Company of Infantry under the command of Captain Nathan Heald in the First Regiment of the United States, commanded by Colonel Jacob Kingsbury, from Nov. 30, when last Mustered, to Dec. 31, 1810: 1 NO NAMES. RANK. App'ed or Enlib.u d. Re narks and Changes since last Muster. I Nathan Heald, - - Captain, 31 Jan., 1807, On furlough in Massachusetts. Av 2 Phillip O'Strander, - ad Lieu't, i May, 1808, Present, of Capt. Rhea's Co., Act. asst. ^^ 3 Seth Thompson, - - n 18 Aug., 1808, n M'y agent. Sick. 4 !)hn Cooper, - Surg.Mate,i3 June, 1808, n \ t >seph Glass, Sergeant, 18 June, 1806, n [Term of all enlisted men, 5 yrs. 2 >hn Crozier. - ii 2 July, 1808, n [ 3 ichard Rickman, - n ro May, 1806, n i 1 homas Forth, - Corporal, 6 July, 1807, n 3 Asa Cambell, - - - t, 26 Jan., 1810, if \ 3 4 Rhodias Jones, Richard Garner, - - ;; 9 Dec., 1807, 2 Oct., 1810, 11 RECAPITULATION t Present, fit for duty, 50; \ > 1 2 3 George Burnet, John Smith, - John Hamilton, - Fifer, - Drummer T Oct., 1806, 27 June, i8c6, , 5 July, 1808, ii n sick, 6; unfit for service, 3. On command, i. On furlough, i. Discharged, 6. Total, 67. 4 Hugh McPherson, - n 20 Oct., 1807, n 1 ' I John Allen, Pr vate, 27 Nov , 1810, n 2 George Adams, - , 21 Aug., 1806, it 3 Presley Andrews, - i ii July, 1806, n Sick. 4 Thomas Ashbrook, - , 29 Dec., 1805, Term of service expired, 29 Dec., 1810. 5 Thomas Burnes, - - 8 June, 1806, Presei t. 6 Patrick Burk, - - 27 May, 1806, n Sick. 7 Redmond Berry, - . 2 July, 1806, it 8 William Best, - - 22 April, 1806, n Unfit for service. . 9 James Chapman, - - i Dec., 1805, Time expired, i December, 1810. V 10 James Corbin, 2 Oct., 1810, Preser t 1 ti Fielding Corbin, - . 7 Dec., 1805, Time expired, 7 December, 1810. 1 '^^ 12 Silas Clark, - - - 15 Aug., 1806, On co mmand at Fort Wayne. * l^> \ 3 James Clark, - 4 Dec., 1805, Time expired, 4 December, 1810. V" 4 14 Dyson Dyer, i Oct., 1 8 10, Preser t. Sick. J r -y '5 Stephen Draper, - - 19 July, 1806, n vl T J 16 Daniel Doryherty, - 13 Aug., 1807, it X 1 ^ 17 Michijah Denison, - T 24 April, 1806, n y\ U. 18 Nathan Edson, - 6 April, 1810, ii H V\ '9 John Fury, - 19 Mch, 1808, ii J\ 20 21 Paul Grummo, - William N. Hunt, - i Oct , 1810, 8 Oct., 1 8 10, i k 22 John Kelso, - 17 Dec., if 05, Time of service expired, 17 Dec., 1810. K 1 23 David Kennison, - . 14 Mch, 1808, Preser t. * 24 Samuel Kilpatrick, - 20 Dec., 1810, it Re-enlisted, 20 Dec., 1810. 4 \ 25 Jacob Laudon, . 28 Nov., 1807, n Unfit for service. * 26 James Latta, - - 10 April, 1810, ii A \ 27 Michael Lynch, - - 20 Dec., 1 8 10, n Re-enlisted, 20 Dec., 1810. X* 1 1 2$ Michael Leonard, 13 April, 1810, n i v t 29 Hugh Logan, - - 5 May, 1806, ii 4 > 3 Frederick Locker, - 13 April, 1810, n A s 1 Andrew Loy, - 6 July, 1807, ii M ^ k 3 2 August Mortt, - 9 July, 1806, I! , V 3? Ralph Miller, - - - 19 Dec., 1805, Time of servipe expired, 19 Dec., 1810. t v ^ 34 35 30 37 38 39 40 41 42 Peter Miller, Duncan McCarty, Patrick McGowen, - James Mabury, William Moffitt, - - John Moyan, - John Needs, - Joseph Noles. - Thomas Poindexter, - - 13 June, 1806, 31 Aug., 1807, 30 April, 1806, 14 April, 1806, 23 April, 1806, 28 June, i So 5 , 5 July, 1808, 8 Sept., 1810, 3 Sept.. 1810, Preser n ii t. Unfit fat. service. t^e certify on honor that this Muster -Roll exhibits a trvJe statement of the company commanded by Capt. Nathan Heald. and that the remarks * > ^ > I k k 43 44 William Prickitt, - Frederick Peterson, - - 6 June, io6, i June, 1808, ii n set opposite their names are accurate and just. PH. O'STRANDER, Lieut., n Y ^ v 47 John Suttonfield,l - John Smith, - > . 8 Sept", 1807', 2 April, 1808, t| Commanding the Company, J. COOPER, S.-Mate. [ f 4 3 James Starr, - 1 8 Nov., 1809, H 1 i 49 Phillip Smith. - - - 30 April, 1806, It' 1 / 5 John Simmons, - 14 Mch, 1810, Ii Pay due from i July, 1810; sick. I / 5> James Van Home, - . 2 May, 1810, tt Sick. 9 L a 52 Anthony L. Waggoae r, 9 Jan., 1806, K- 4 / * j*^. APPENDIX ADDITIONAL EARLY RECORDS. So > THK LAST PAYMENT TO THE GARRISON OF FORT DEARBORN BEFORK. ;, THE MASSACRE. TERRITORY OF MICHIGAN, ) DISTRICT OF DETROIT. \ Personally appeared before me, the undersigned, a justice-of-the-peace in and for the district aforesaid, William Griffith, late lieutenant of the 28th United States Regiment of Infantry, who, being duly sworn, deposeth and saith that in the month of June, 1812, he, deponent, was orderly-sergeant of Capt. Heald's company of the 1st Regiment of U. S. Infantry, stationed at Fort Dearborn, Chicago, and well knows that said company was paid in the month of June, 1812, by Lieut. Eastman*, through Capt. Heald, nine months' pay to the said month of June inclusive, and that the company at that time consisted of sixty-five rank and file, who, together with the officers, received nine months' pay as aforesaid; and deponent further saith that as he then understood and verily believes there was at the same time a deposit made and left in the hands of Capt. Heald of three months' addition- al pay, which, together with other public property, was taken by the Indians on the 1 5th of August, following, in consequence of the capture of the place. JFNtt, GRIFFITHS Sworn to and subscribed before me, THOMAS ROWLAND, this 22d day of July, A. D. 1818. Justice-of-the- Peace. STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, ) Hollis, Sept. 25, 1819. >V HILLSBOROTGH,' ss. \ I, the undersigned, a justice-of-the-peace c\j \1 in and for the County aforesaid, do certify that I have carefully examined and \ V compared the foregoing copy with the original, and find it true and correct. ^ ^ BENJA. FARLEY, Justice- Peace. v< ^ ST. CHARLES, MISSOURI TERRITORY, May i8th, 1820. ^ SIR: I had the honor of receiving your letter of the 3Oth of March, a few ^ days since. The garrison at Chicago, commanded by me at the time Detroit ^ was surrendered by Gen. Hull, were every man paid up to the 3 j ^.uu.u XUI.JL.<.U~I<., .. July 6, '36, Ft. Dearb'n, 3 Sept. 22, '36, it 1 John Bryson, - - Corpl., June 10, '35, Rochester, 3 Oct. 6, '36, 2 James Youngs, - Pvt, June 24, '35, Albany, 3 Oct. 16, '36, 3 James A. Lynch, - it 4 Alvarado Burt, - Mv 5 Peter Shepperd, - Pvt. 6 Thomas Brady, - 7 George Gardner, - 8 William Brady, - 9 David H. Pierson, RESIGNED : i T. Stockton, - - June 17, '35, Rochester, 3 Dec. 25, '36, n it Oct. 21, '36, Ft Dearb'n, 3 Dec. 26, '36, it 2d-Lt, July i, '34, [Del.] - Resigned, Oct. 31, i RECAPITULATION: Present, fit for duty, 26; on extra duty, 3. Absent on detached ser- vice, i: in confinement, i. Total, 37. Alterations since last muster: enlisted in 12; trans- ferred, i; desertion, i: total, 14. Discharged by expiration of service, 2; deserted, 19. [Certificates signed by] ST. CLAIR DENNY, Captain sth Infantry. [Dated at] Camp Brady, Wisconsin Terr'y, Dec. 31, '36. Received at A.-G. O., Feb. 25, '37. Left Ft. Dearb'n, Chicago, 111., on Dec. 29, '36, and arr'd at C'p Brady, W. T., Dec. 30, '36. APPENDIX ADDITIONAL EARLY RECORDS. Semi-Annual Muster-Roll of Capt. and Bvt.-Maj. Wilcox's Company, (" B,") of the Fifth Regiment of Infantry, Army of the United States, (Col. Bvt. Brig. -Gen. George M. Brooke,) from June 30, 1836, when last mustered, to Dec. 31, 1836. NO. NAMES. RANK 1 D. Wilcox, Capt. & Bt. Mj. April i, 2 J. H. Whipple, - 2d-Lt., Oct. 31, '36, REMARKS. - On Detached Serivce, Recruting. - At Fort Winnebago, not having [joined since promotion. [Mass.] 1 Dudley Johnson, Or. Serg., Aug. 17, '34, Ft. Dearb'n, 3 2 Conrad Schopfer, - Sergt, Feb. 23, '33, Buffalo, 5 3 Hiram Bogert, - May 9, '35, Rochester, 3 Promoted to Sergt., Nov. 21, '36. 1 Arnold Reynolds,- Corpl., April 18, '36, Ft. Dearb'n. 3 Des'd 15, app'd Aug. 20/36, pard. 2 Richard Vennor, u June 27, '35, Albany, 3 Appointed Corpl., Nov. 21, '36. Henry I. Ostrom, Mus., Aug. 29, '36, Ft. Dearb'n, 3 Priv'te, Dec. 7, '36, ir n 3 i' Oct. 3, '36, ir u 3 Reenlisted, Oct. 3, 1836. " May 29, '35, Rochester, 3 " April 12, '36, Ft. Dearb'n, 3 June 30, '35, Albany, 3 'i May 25, '35,. u 3 Left sick at Chicago. i. Sept. 28, '36, Ft. Dearb'n, 3 Reenlisted, Sept. 28, 1836. " June 29, 'y, Philadelp'a, 5 Dec. 24, '36, Ft Dearb'n, 3 Dec. 28, '3 s , ii ti 3 June 24, '35, Syracuse, 3 Nov. 13, 36, Ft. Dearb'n, 3 Feb. 12, '35, New York, 3 1 Edward Burrows, 2 William Bell, - 3 Luke Brennan, 4 Michael Enghart, 5 John Foss, - - 6 Samuel Granger, - 7 John Guy, - - - 8 Peter Johnson, - - 9 John King, - - 10 John B. LaFontine, u John F. Mapes, - 12 Wesley B. Porter, 13 William Reed, - 14 John Summers, 15 John Smith, - - 1 6 Peter Sang, - - - 17 Robert Wi liston, TRANSFERRED : i A. H. Tappen, Bvt 2d-Lt., July i, '35, June 27, '35, May i, 34, June 18, '35, Dec. 28, '32, Albany, Utica, Albany, Buffalo, [joined since transfer. 3 At Fort Winnebago, not having ["E," at Ft. Winnebago. - Prom'd and transfd to Company < T? > 2 L. T. Jamison, - ist-Lt , April 30, '36, [Virginia.] - Prom'd to Capt. of Comp'y "F." 3 J. L. Thompson, - 2d-Lt., July i, '28, [Tennessee,] - Prom'd to ist-Lt. of Comp'y "F." 4 Joseph Adams, Or. Sergt., May i, '34, Ft. Dearb'n, 3 Left at Chicago. DISCHARGED : i Robert Lingard, - Priv'te, Aug. 14, '33. Chicago, 3 Term expired, Aug. 14, 1*36. Oct. 10, '33, Ft. Dearb'n, 3 u Oct. 10, 183*. Oct. 23, '33, u 3 u ' Oct. 23, 1836. 11 Oct. 30, '33, New York, 3 Oct. 30, 1836. i Oct. 20, '56, Ft Dearb'n, 3 Disch'g'd, Nov. 29, '36; Disable, u Dec. 28, '33, Chicago, 3 Term expired, Dec. 28, 1836. Priv'te, April 25, '34, Rochester, 3 July 18, ^36, from Ft. Dearborn, July i, '35, Rochester, 3 July 22, '36, u u u 11 Feb. 17, '33, Buffalo, 5 July 25, '36, n 11 u June 6, '35, Utica, 3 July 26, '36, u n u June 16, '35, Rochester, 3 July 30, '36, i n H April 2q, '34, Albany, 3 Aug. 6, '36, 2 William Bell, - - 3 John Guy, - - 4 Antonie Ritchner, 5 Hugh Livingston, 6 William Adams, - DESERTED : 1 Robert Rand, - - 2 Moulton Bartlett, - 3 Otto Miller, - - 4 Rich. YanYraukin, 5 George B. Mack, 6 William Tripp. - - 7 Arnold Reynolds, Corpl., April 18, "3^, Ft. Dearb'n, 3 Aug. 15, '36, u 8 David Sherman, - Priv'te, April 17. '34, Rochester, 3 Aug. 30, '3^, > 9 Daniel W. Johnson, Corpl , June 6, '35, u 3 Oct. 6, '3^, John P. Bennett, Priv'te, June 2, '35, " 3 Oct. 12, '36, 1 Martin Redding, - > June 16, '35, Albany. 3 Occ. 12, '36, 2 Thomas D. Yault, n May 8, '36, Ft Dearb'n, 3 Nov. 17, '36, 3 Palmer Robinson. Mus., May 25, '35, Syracuse, 3 Dec. 15, '36, 4 Joseph. C. M. Cole.Priv'te, June 27, '35, R >che^ter, 3 Dec. 15, '36, 5 Horace H. Wheeler, i April 18, '35, 3 Dec. 15, '36, 6 Horatio PeeHe, - i Sei t. 12, '3^, Ft. Dearb'n, 3 Dec. 19, '36, 7 Patrick McMullen, i June 10, '35. Baltimore. 3 Dec. 21, '36, 8 Patrick Welch, - i April 2. '35, Freder'kt'n, 3 Dec. 25. '36, 9 Richard Parker, - i May 16. '34, Utica, 3 Dec 27, '36, it u it RECAPITULATION : Present for duty, 21; absent on detached service, 3; sick, i; Total, 25. Alterations since la-t muster: recruits from depots. 7; reenlisted, 2; by transfer, i; deser- tion, i; total, u. Discharged. 6: transferred. 5: deserted, 19. [C'tifs signed by] J. H. WHIPPLE, Lt. Com'd'g Co., [andj ST.CLAIR DENNY, Capt. sth Infy. [Dated at] Camp Brady, Wisconsin Terr'y, Dec. 31, 1836. Left Ft. Dearb'n, Chicago, 111 , Dec. 29, '36, and arr'd at Camp Brady, W. T., Dec. 30, '36. APPENDIX FORT DEARBORN, ETC. XlttraiTsii:J7Y2 "11135 I i|i6^1|f^j *TCS|1* sills 3z?=a f ji4J 57, 61, 82, 94. Hays, Sergeant, 18. Hawley, Perez, 66. Heald, Darius, 5, 20-22. Heald, Eliza, 15. Heald, Jonas, 15. Heald, Margaret, 20. Heald, Maria, 15. Heald, Mary, 20. Heald, Nathan, 3, 14-6, 18-21, 45-7, 50-1, 53-5, 57, 83, 87, 88, 89. Heald, Mrs. Rebekah (Wells), 14, 1 6, 18-20, 47, 53. Heald, Mrs. Sybel (Adams), 14. Heald, Thomas, 14. Heald, Judge Thomas, 15. Helm, Charles J., 1 6. Helm, Francis T., 16. Helm, Linai T,, 16, 52, 53. Helm, Mrs. Louise (Whistler), 16. Helm, Mrs. Margaret (McKillup), 16, Helm, William Edwin, 16. Helm, William Willis, 16. Henry Clay (steamboat), 37, 38, 72. Hernandez, General Joseph, 24. Herndon, John F., 65. Hesler, Alexander, 93. Hickling, William, 27. Hill, Thomas M., 69. Hilliard, Maria (vessel), 93. Hobson, Basley, 66. INDEX. 99 Hogan, John S. C., 25, 64. H olden," Charles C. P., 5. Holt, Sergeant, 1 8. Holt, wife of Sergeant, 18. Hooke, Moses, n. Hotchkiss, Miles, 26. Howell, George, 76. Howell, Lewis, 69. Hoyne, Frank, 5. Hoyne, Thomas, 3, 4, 6. Hoyt, William M., 3, 5, 6. Hubbard, Gurdon S., 4, 6, 31, 76, 83, 85, 87, 93- Hull, Gen. William, 15, 18, 42, 51, 53, 55, 59, 60, 67, 79, 89. Humphreys, Gen. A. A., 34, 36. Hunt, Alexander, 59. Hunt, Gen. Henry J., 56, 59. Hunt, Gen. Lewis C., 56. Hunt, Ruthy, 55, 59. Hunt, Samuel W., 56. Hunt, Thomas, 54, 56, 57, 59. Hunt, Thomas, jr., 56, 57, 59. Hunt, William N., 88. Hunter, Gen. David, 28, 30, 48, 93. Hurlbut, H. H., 12. I. Illinois (steamboat), 75, 84, 85. Irwin, Mathew, 25, 49, 83. Irvine, Mathew, 49. J- Jack, John, 90. Jackson, Pres. Andrew, 38, 60, 63. Jackson, John, 39. Jackson, Samuel, 81. James Allen (steamboat), 34. "fames Madison (steamboat), 75. Jameson, Judge John A., 4. Jamison, Lewis T., 33, 36, 48, 70, 71, 9i- Jefferson, Pres. Thomas, 9, 59, 62. Jewett or Jouett, Charles, 25, 85. Tocelyn & Chamberlin (firm), 76. Johnson, Daniel W., 91. Johnson, Dudley, 91. Johnson, Harriet, 32. Johnson, Peter, 91. Johnson, Richard M., 58. Johnson, Seth, 32, 37, 48, 74. Johnston, John, 49, 82, 83. Johnston, Mrs. John, 83. 7 Jones, Rhodias, 88. Jones, Gen. Roger, 47, 49. Jordon, Walter, 50, 51. Jouett, Charles, 25, 85. Joy, James F., 42. K. Kane, Elias K., 26. Kane, John, 90. Keamble, , 18. Kello, William O., 69. Kelso, John, 88. Kenney, T. B., 35. Kennison, David, 88. Kerchival, Gholson, 25, 64. Keyes, Erasmus D., 69. Kilpatrick, Samuel, 88. Kimball, Mark, 5. Kimball, Walter, 4. Kimball, , 18. Kimberly, Dr. Edmund S., 93. King, John, 91. King, Sherman, 66. King, W. H., 5 . King, Vicc-Pres. William R., 60. Kingsbury, Gaines P., 69. Kingsbury, Jacob, 88. Kingsbury, Julius J. B., 32, 48. Kinzie, Mrs. Eleanor (McKillup), 26, S3- Kinzie, Ellen M., 26, 54. Kinzie, James, 65, 71. Kinzie, John, 16, 21, 25, 26, 30, 54, 83, 85, 86. Kinzie, John H., 10, II, 16, 17, 23, 54, 85, 93- Kinzie, Mrs. Juliette A., n, 14, 17, 27, 50. 85, 86, 93. Kinzie, Mrs. Louise (Whistler), 16. Kinzie, Maria H., 30, 54. Kinzie, Nellie (Gordon), 23. Kinzie, Robert A., 12, 1 6, 25, 54, 55. 67, 93- Kinzie, Mrs. Robert A., 12, 16. Kinzie & Hunter (firm), 76, 93. Kirk & Co., James S. (firm), 86. Klokke, E. F. C., 4. Knapp, H. S., 17, 57. Knickerbocker, A. V., 34. Knowles, Joseph [or Noles], 17, 53. 88. L. Labaque, Francis, 65. IOO INDEX. LaDake, Mary, 13. Lafayette, Marquis de, 56. LaFontine, John B., 91. Lafromboise, Claude, 24, 65. Lafromboise, Francis, 24. Lafromboise, Francis, jr., 24. Lafromboise, Joseph, sen., 24. Lafromboise, Joseph, 24, 65. Lafromboise, Josette, married Benj. K. Pierce, 24. Lafromboise, Josette, married John B. Beaubien, 24. Lafromboise, Madeline (Marcotte), 24. Lafromboise, Therese ( Schindler), 24. Lafromboise, Therese (Watkins), 24. Lalime, J., 82, 83. /M Landon N., 4. Lane, Isaac, 90. Lane, James, 4. Langdon, Daniel, 66. Larrabee, C. Rolin, 93. Larrabee, Wm. M., 93. Lasby, Samuel C., 44, 80. Latta, James, 88. Laudon, Jacob, 88. Leavenworth, Gen. Henry, 70. Leavenworth, Jesse H., 36, 78. Leavenworth, Mrs. Jesse H., 36. Le Clerc, Peresh, 26. Lee, or See, , 5- Leonard Michael, 88. LeMoyne, John V., 93. Lincoln, Pres. Abraham, 29. Lincoln, Robert T., 87. Lindsley, A. B., 26. Lingard, Robert, 91. Little Turtle, or Me-che-kau-nah-qua (Indian chief), 45, 46, 54, 82. Livingston, Eliza Matilda, 36, 81. Livingston, Hugh, 91. Livingston, Peter William, 81. Locker, Frederick, 18, 88. Logan, -Hugh, 18, 53, 88. Long, Edwin R., 33, 48. Long, James, 44. Lossing, Benson J. , 17. Lovell, Mansfield, 36. Loy, Andrew, 88. Lynch, James A., 90. Lynch, Michael, 18, 88. Lyon, Hiram, 90. Lyon, Nathaniel, 82. M. Mabury, James, 88. Mack, George B., 91. Macomb, Gen. Alexander, 27, 30, 35, 47, 49- Macomb, John M., 37, 69. Madison, Pres. James, 46, 59, 62. Magie, Haines H., 93. Mainpoe (Indian chief), 82. Mapes, John F., 91. Manning, John, 66. Marcotte, Jean Baptiste, 24. Marcotte, Madeline, 24. Marcy, Randolph B. , 69. Marfitt, - , 1 8. Maria Hilliard (vessel), 93. Martin Van Buren (schooner), 94. Marquette, Jacques, 6. Marshall, Humphrey, 31, 69. Marshall, James A., 77. Mathews, Elizabeth, 68, 79. Mathews, George, 68, 79. Maxwell, Dr. Philip, 31, 32, 48. McArthur, Gen. Duncan, 59. McBride, , 17. McCarty, Duncan, 88. McCausland, David, 20. McCausland, Mrs. Mary (Heakl), 20. McChesney, , 5. McClellan, John, 36. McClellan, Robert, 36. McClure, Gen. George W., 33. McClure, Airs. Harriet (Johnson), 32. McClure, Josiah E., 32. McConnell, Murray, 39. McCoy, Rev. Mr., 46. McDuffie, Franklin, 31, 69. McFadyen, Capt. John, 75. McGowan, Patrick, 88. McGregor, George, 90. McKee, David, 25, 64, 65, 68, 94. McKeever, Chauncey, 49. McKillup, Eleanor, 26. McKillup, Margaret, 16. McKillup, Capt. , 16. McKenzie, Donold, 90. McMullen, Patrick, 91. McNeil, Gen. John, 23, 24, 47. McNeil, J. W. S., 24. McPherson, Hugh, 18, 88. Meacham, Silas, 44. Me-che-kau-nah-qua, or Little Tur- tle (Indian chief), 45, 46, 54, 82. INDEX. IOI Michigan (steamboat), 75, 84. Miller, Gen. James, 59. Miller, Otto, 91. Miller, Peter, 88. Miller, Ralph, 88. Miller, Samuel, 65. Milliken, Isaac L. , 5. Mills, Elias, 17, 18, 53. Mills, - , 18. Mills, Franklin, 90. Miranda, Victoria, 25. Moffitt, William, 88. Monroe, Pres. James, 22, 60. Monroe (steamboat), 75. Morfit, - , 1 8. Mooris, H. V., 76. Mortt, August [or Motte], 18, 53, 88. Moselle, Charles, 65. Motte, August [or Mortt], 18, 53 88. Moyan, John, 88. Murray, Robert N., 66. N. Naper, John, 66. Naper, Joseph, 65, 66. Napton, Ezekiel, 90. Nash, Frederick A., 77. Neads, John [or Needs], 18, 53, 88. Nelson, , 18, 53. Newberry, Oliver, 73, 75, 85. Newberry Walter L., 85. Newberry & Dole (firm), 76, 93. Newby, E. W. B., 35. Newcastle, Duke of, 29. Nevvhall, Capt. , 84. Nichols, Luther, 31. Noles, Joseph [or Knowles], 17, 53, 88. North American (steamboat), 84. Nourse, Charles J., 47. O. O'Connell, Daniel, 90. O'Fallon, John, 20. Ogden, William B., 76, 85. Ogilvie, P. H., 76, 77. Ogee, Mrs. Sophia (Beaubien), 44, 79- "Old Tempest," i.e., Anthony Wayne, 28, 61. Ostrom, Henry J., 91. Osborn, James T., 65. O'Strander, Philip, 88. Ouilmette,