Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber Note

Text emphasis denoted by _Italics_.

_Henry Dearborn was born in New Hampshire in 1751. He was an officer in the American army, took part in the battle of Bunker Hill, was present at the capture of Burgoyne's army, and remained in the service until the end of the war. In 1801 he was appointed Secretary of War under President Jefferson, and held that office for eight years._

_In 1812 Dearborn was appointed Major-General and did excellent service on the Niagara frontier during the Second War with Great Britain. John Wentworth said of him that "history records no other man who was at the battle of Bunker Hill, the surrender of Burgoyne and Cornwallis, and then took an active part in the War of 1812."_]

THE STORY
OF
OLD FORT DEARBORN

BY

J. SEYMOUR CURREY

WITH ELEVEN ILLUSTRATIONS

CHICAGO
A. C. McCLURG & CO.
1912

Copyright
A. C. McCLURG & CO.
1912
------
Published August, 1912

W. F. HAL PRINTING COMPANY, CHICAGO

This Volume is Dedicated to
NELLY KINZIE GORDON

_PREFACE_

THERE were two Fort Dearborns, the first one having been built in 1803. This was occupied by a garrison of United States troops until 1812, when it was destroyed by the Indians immediately after the bloody massacre of that year. The second Fort Dearborn was built on the site of the former one in 1816, and continued in use as a military post, though at several intervals during periods of peaceful relations with the surrounding tribes the garrisons were withdrawn for a time. In 1836 the fort was finally evacuated by the military forces. The events narrated in the succeeding pages of this volume concern the first or Old Fort Dearborn.

The name "Chicago," as descriptive of the river and its neighborhood, was in use for more than a century before the first Fort Dearborn was built; it appears on Franquelin's map printed in 1684 as "Chekagou," and is mentioned in various forms of spelling in the written and printed records of that and succeeding periods. It has been said that Chicago is the oldest Indian town in the West of which the original name is retained; thus its name enjoys a much greater antiquity than that of Fort Dearborn, familiar as the latter name is in our local annals.

In the course of its history Chicago has existed under three flags; first, under the domination of the French kings, from the period of its discovery to the year 1763, when, after the French and Indian War, it passed into the possession of the English. As British territory it remained until the close of the Revolutionary War, when the Western Territories were ceded by the English to the Americans at the treaty of peace concluded in 1783; and thus the region in which Chicago is situated finally came under the Stars and Stripes.

CONTENTS

Preface

PAGE
I Wilderness Days 3

II Fortifying the Frontier 17

III The Tragedy 95

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

General Henry Dearborn _Frontispiece_

Chicago from 1803 to 1812 3

The Wild Onion Plant 12

Bird's-Eye View of Old Fort Dearborn 27

Residence of John Kinzie 32

Mr. and Mrs. John H. Kinzie 47

Rebekah Wells Heald 58

Captain William Wells 58

Hardscrabble 74

Facsimile of Letter of General Hull to Captain Heald 103

Memorial Monument to the Massacre 136

Franquelin's Map of 1684 165

Map of Chicago in 1812 165

_This broad view, while not accurate, gives a good general idea of the appearance of the site of Chicago, with old Fort Dearborn and the surrounding region, in the years from 1803 to 1812. Some of the details are out of proportion, for instance the long sand-bar extending to the south opposite the mouth of the river is much exaggerated, and the view of the Kinzie house is not correct._

_Reproduced from a lithograph in the possession of The Chicago Historical Society._]

THE STORY OF
OLD FORT DEARBORN

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