Chapter I: Preface

There are many histories of Chicago in existence, yet none of them supplies the want which has induced the preparation of the present work. It has been written under the conviction that there is ample justification for a comprehensive and scholarly treatment of the beginnings of Chicago and its place in the evolution of the old Northwest. I have endeavored to produce a readable narrative without in any way trenching upon the principles of sound scholarship. To what extent, if any, I have succeeded must be for the reader to judge. I may, however, claim the negative virtue of entire freedom from the motives of commercial gain and family partisanship, which enter so largely into our local historical literature.

In preparing the work I have made as diligent a study of the sources as practicable, at the same time availing myself freely of the studies of others in the same field. With one exception acknowledgment of my obligations to the latter is made in the footnotes. The manuscript of a lecture by the late Professor Charles W. Mann on the Fort Dearborn massacre was put at my disposal. I have used it as far as it served my purpose without attempting to cite it in the footnotes.

In many places I have broken new ground and I can scarcely expect my work to be entirely free from error. I am particularly conscious of this in connection with chap, xiii on the Indian Trade, a subject to which a volume might well be devoted. In controversial matters I have written without fear or favor from any source. If in many cases my conclusions seem to differ from those of other writers, I can only say that the words of a recent historian with reference to history writing in the Middle Ages, "Recorded events were accepted without challenge, and the sanction of tradition guaranteed the reality of the occurrence," apply with almost equal force to much of the literature pertaining to early Chicago.

I desire to express my obligation for courtesies rendered, or facilities extended, to the Chicago Historical Society, the Wisconsin State Historical Society, the Detroit Public Library, the Division of Manuscripts of the Library of Congress, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the War Department. I am indebted also for many favors to Miss Caroline McIlvaine, librarian, and Mr. Marius Dahl, record clerk, of the Chicago Historical Society; to Mr. C. M. Burton, of Detroit; to the descendants of Nathan Heald, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas McCluer and Mrs. Arthur McCluer, of O'Fallon, Mo., Mrs. Lillian Heald Richmond and Dr. and Mrs. Ottofy of St. Louis, and Mr. and Mrs. Wright Johnson, of Rutherford, N.J.; and to my wife and to my father-in-law, Rev. G. W. Goslin, for unwearied assistance in the preparation and revision of the manuscript. Finally I wish to record my deep obligation to Dr. Otto L. Schmidt, president of the Illinois State Historical Society, for much sympathetic advice and encouragement.

M. M. Quaife

Chicago
September, 1913

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Chicago Portage 1

II. Chicago in the Seventeenth Century 21

III. The Fox Wars: A Half-Century of Conflict 51

IV. Chicago in the Revolution 79

V. The Fight for the Northwest 105

VI. The Founding of Fort Dearborn 127

VII. Nine Years of Garrison Life 153

VIII. The Indian Utopia 178

IX. The Outbreak of War 195

X. The Battle and Defeat 211

XI. The Fate of the Survivors 232

XII. The New Fort Dearborn 262

XIII. The Indian Trade 285

XIV. War and the Plague 310

XV. The Vanishing of the Red Man 340

Appendix I: Journal of Lieutenant James Strode Swearingen 373

Appendix II: Sources of Information for the Fort Dearborn
Massacre 378

Appendix III: Nathan Heald's Journal 402

Appendix IV: Captain Heald's Official Report of the Evacuation
of Fort Dearborn 406

Appendix V: Darius Heald's Narrative of the Chicago Massacre,
as Told to Lyman C. Draper in 1868 409

Appendix VI: Lieutenant Helm's Account of the Massacre 415

Appendix VII: Letter of Judge Augustus B. Woodward to Colonel
Proctor concerning the Survivors of the Chicago Massacre 422

Appendix VIII: Muster-Roll of Captain Nathan Heald's Company
of Infantry at Fort Dearborn 425

Appendix IX: The Fated Company: A Discussion of the Names
and Fate of the Whites Involved in the Fort Dearborn Massacre 428

Bibliography 439

Index 459