Chapter XX: Appendix: G

IMPORTANT REMINISCENCES OF AN OLD SETTLER (A. H. EDWARDS).--[from "FORT DEARBORN"; FERGUS' HISTORICAL SERIES, NO. 16.]

Sheboygan (Wis.), May 24th, 1891.

Hon. John Wentworth:

_Dear Sir_--I have had the pleasure of reading your account and also
the remarks of others in regard to Chicago and Illinois history. I
am acquainted with some facts derived from conversation with one who
was there, and witnessed the fight and killing of many of those who
lost their lives on that memorable day. She was a daughter of one of
the soldiers, and was one of the children who, with her mother and
sisters, occupied the wagons, or conveyances that was to convey them
from the fort. She told me she saw her father when he fell, and also
many others. She, with her mother and sisters, were taken prisoners
among the Indians for nearly two years, and were finally taken to
Mackinac and sold to the traders and sent to Detroit. On our arrival
in Detroit, in 1816, after the war, this girl was taken into our
family, and was then about thirteen years old, and had been scalped.
She said a young Indian came to the wagon where she was and grabbed
her by the hair and pulled her out of the wagon, and she fought him
the best she knew how, scratching and biting, till finally he threw
her down and scalped her. She was so frightened she was not aware of
it until the blood ran down her face. An old squaw interfered and
prevented her from being tomahawked by the Indian, she going with
the squaw to her wigwam, and was taken care of and her head cured.
This squaw was one that often came to their house. The bare spot on
the top of the head was about the size of a silver dollar. She saw
Captain Wells killed, and told the same story as related in your
pamphlet.

My father was well acquainted with Captain Wells; was stationed with
him at Fort Wayne, Indiana, where I was born, in 1807, and he was
surgeon of the post. My mother was a daughter of Col. Thomas Hunt of
the Fifth Infantry.

I think there must be a mistake as to the year the Kinzies returned
to Chicago. My father and family arrived in Detroit in June, 1816;
the Kinzies were there then, and I was schoolmate of John, Robert,
Ellen and Maria during that year, and I think they returned to
Chicago in 1817. Mr. Kinzie went in the fall of 1816, and the family
in the spring of 1817.

I was in Chicago in 1832 in the Black Hawk War time, as First
Lieutenant of cavalry, from Michigan. The regiment was commanded by
General Hart L. Stewart, now living in Chicago.

During the Black Hawk War, and when in Chicago, we heard of the
killing of the Hall family and the carrying off of the two girls. Our
company camped that night at the mouth of the Little Calumet, and
next morning went into Chicago, and the fort was occupied by women
and children of the surrounding country.

Then I saw for the last time my schoolmate, R. A. Kinzie. My brother.
Col. L. A. H. Edwards, was in command of the fort after we left, and
had a Cass County regiment of military from Michigan. We met him on
our return at Door Prairie. He remained there until the arrival of
Major Whistler, in June, 1832; he retired from the fort before the
landing of any of the U. S. troops, on account of cholera being among
them, and he wished to avoid any contact with them on that account.
His command camped on the prairie, about a mile from the fort, and
remained only a day or two. Fearing the cholera might get among his
men, he left for home, as he saw they were not needed any longer, and
was so informed by Major Whistler.

Captain Anderson, Ensign Wallace and myself camped under the
hospitable roof of General Beaubien, on the bank of the lake, not
very far from the fort, who had kept the only house there. Mark
Beaubien Jr. went into Chicago with us, he having joined us at Niles,
on his way home from school. He was the son of the one called the
fiddler.

Our family lived in Detroit and were well acquainted with the
Whistlers. My father. Major Edwards, was in Detroit at the surrender
of Hull, as Surgeon-General of the Northwestern Army. He went from
Ohio, and arriving in Detroit, received his appointment. Our family
was then living in Dayton, Ohio. At the close of the war he resigned,
and in 1816 removed to Detroit and was appointed sutler to all
Northwestern posts--Fort Gratiot, Mackinac, Green Bay [Fort Howard],
and Chicago [Fort Dearborn]--his books, now in my possession,
showing his dealings with each of these stores, and all the officers
mentioned in your paper.

It is pleasant to note that at the disastrous fire at the Calumet Club, which occurred while these pages were preparing, the Beaubien fiddle and the Wells hatchet were saved.

* * * * *

Sheboygan (Wis.), Jan. 10, 1881.

Your letter of the 5th came to hand to-day. The person I named as
being present at the massacre, was a daughter of Cooper,[AV] one
of the soldiers who was killed in the fight. Her account, as given
to me, as also her mother's, was that as soon as all the soldiers
were disposed of, the Indians made a rush for the wagons, where
the women and children were. Her mother, and sister younger than
herself, were taken from the wagon and carried away. A young Indian
boy about fourteen or fifteen years old dragged her by the hair
out of the wagon, and she bit and scratched him so badly that he
finally scalped her and would have killed her if an old squaw had
not prevented him. I think she married a man by the name of Farnum
and lived many years in Detroit. Her mother died there about the
year 1832. The sisters were living in Detroit in 1828. I have since
heard they were living in Mackinac. I do not know the first name of
Cooper. He was killed and the girl said she saw her father's scalp
in the hands of an Indian afterward. He had sandy hair. I think she
said they were Scotch. Isabella had children. The girl said she saw
Wells when he fell from his horse, and that his face was painted.
What became of her sister I do not know, as I left Detroit in 1823,
but my father and mother remained there until 1828. You will receive
with this a statement written by my father regarding himself, a short
time before his death, which occurred in October, 1860, at Kalamazoo,
Mich., where he had resided for many years. The statement will give
you all the information in regard to himself as well as who my
mother was. Her father, Thomas Hunt, was appointed a surgeon in the
army directly after the battle of Bunker Hill, where he was brought
into notice by an act of gallantry, then only a boy of fifteen. He
remained in the army until his death, in 1808, in command of his
regiment, at Bellefontaine, Missouri. His sons and grandsons have
been representatives in the army ever since. Captain Thomas Hunt,
mentioned in your letter, was a son, and the present General Henry
J. Hunt, of the Artillery, and General Lewis C. Hunt, commanding the
Fourth Infantry, grandsons, whose father (my mother's brother) was
Captain Samuel W. Hunt of the army.

My grandfather, Thomas Hunt, was a captain under Lafayette, and was
wounded at Yorktown in storming a redoubt of the British. Afterward
he was with General Anthony Wayne in his campaign against the
Indians, and was left in command of Fort Wayne as its first commander
after the subjection of the Indians.

A. H. Edwards.

[AV] "John Cooper, Surgeon's Mate," is found in the muster-roll shown on page 150. He also signed the certificate to the roll.

For other extracts from this interesting paper see Appendix E--"The Wells and Heald families."