History of Cook County, Illinois
In the summer of 1803, Capt. John Whistler, stationed with his company of United States troops at Detroit, was ordered to proceed to "Chicago" with his command and there to build a fort and occupy the post thus established. The company came here by land under the command of Lieut. James S. Swearingen. Captain Whistler, his wife, his two sons, Lieut. William and George and the young wife of William went as far as St. Joseph in the schooner "Tracy" and thence came to Chicago in a row boat. Upon their arrival there were here, according to Mrs. Lieut. William Whistler, but four Indian traders' huts or cabins all occupied by Canadian Frenchmen and their Indian wives, three of them being Le Mai, Ouilmette and Pettell. In 1804 John Kinzie, then residing near Niles, Michigan, bought the Le Mai property here, and with his wife and young son, John H., came on and occupied the same. Gradually, as time passed, the old cabin was changed, improved and extended until it became an attractive home for that period. The house stood on the north side at the bend where the river turned south before entering the lake. John Kinzie became known, and justly so, as "The Father of Chicago." He came here as an Indian trader in the employ of the American Fur Company, and in the end was much beloved by the Indians, whose friend he was. In addition to his Indian trade, he became sutler for the garrison in Fort Dearborn. No doubt the officers at Fort Dearborn were concerned in the Indian trade. At times John Whistler, Jr., and Thomas Forsyth were interested in business with Mr. Kinzie. In the spring of 1812, in an encounter, Mr. Kinzie killed John Lalime, Indian interpreter here. The officers at the fort investigated the case and acquitted Mr. Kinzie "justifiable homicide."
It is highly probable that from 1804 to 1812 the few log cabins here were occupied by traders. The Indian outbreaks in 1812 broke up the little settlement, and after an absence of four years Mr. Kin-zie returned with his family and occupied his former residence probably in the Fall of 1816. He resumed his trade with the Indians, not as a representative of the American Fur Company, but as an independent trader. However, in 1818, he sent his son John to Mackinac to become an apprentice of the American Fur Company. This company owned the only schooner on Lake Michigan; it registered about forty tons and came here regularly with supplies for the company's agency. Upon the arrival in 1818 of Gurdon S. Hubbard there resided here two families those of John Kinzie and Antoine Ouilmette, both living on the North Side, the latter about two blocks west of the former. Ouilmette was a French trader with an Indian wife and several half-breed children. A trader named M. Du Pin lived here a little later. At this date Captain Bradley was a commander at Fort Dearborn. Upon the formation of Pike county in 1821, Mr. Kinzie was recommended for justice of the peace, but there does not appear any record that he was commissioned at that date. He was one of the sub-agents of the government when the treaty of August 29, 1821, was concluded here with the Indians, having been appointed in 1816. The agency was established in 1804 and reestablished in 1816 when Charles Jouett became agent, under whom Mr. Kinzie served. He was sub-agent under Dr. Alexander Wolcott also and at the same time served as Indian interpreter. On July 28, 1825, Mr. Kinzie became justice of the peace at this point for Peoria county, and the same year became agent of the American Fur Company. He died here suddenly January 6, 1828.
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Biography And Reminiscence
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Table of Contents - Volume 2Incidents; East And West Boundary; Canal; Dearborn Park; Memorial
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Yards; Horse Railways; Tunnels; Park Boards; Lake Front; Twelve Labors
Of Hercules; Legislative Acts, Etc. Biography And Reminiscence
Illustrations
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Goodspeed, Weston Arthur. History of Cook County, Illinois: being a general survey of Cook County history, including a condensed history of Chicago and special account of districts outside the city limits: from the earliest settlement to the present time. Published Chicago, Goodspeed Historical Association, c1903
First Settler of "Chicago"
With the exception of the French cabin at Lee's place, occupied by Father Marquette many years before, the Garay (or Guarie) cabin or stockade on the North Branch at an early date, and a possible fort or stockade at a subsequent period, it seems clear that the first resident of the present site of Chicago was a colored man named Jean Baptiste Point De Saible, who lived in Chicago as early as 1779, as shown by the following extract from a letter dated July 4, 1779, and written by Col. Arent Schuyler De Peyster, a British commander at Michilli-mackinac : "Baptiste Point De Saible, a handsome negro, well educated and settled at Eschikagou (Chicago), but much in the French interest." His cabin was located on the north bank of Chicago river near its mouth and near the point where it turned south just before entering the lake. The fact that De Saible lived in Chicago is still further verified by Augustus Grignon, of Wisconsin. Perish Grignon, brother of Augustus, saw De Saible and said that he was large, a trader, pretty wealthy and drank freely, and that he had a commission of some sort, probably from the French government. In 1796 De Saible sold his cabin to a French trader named Le Mai, from Peoria, who occupied it as a home and trading house until 1804. Chi-cago was referred to by William Burnett, an Indian trader of St. Joseph, Michigan, in a letter dated May 14, 1786, and addressed to George Mildrum, a merchant at Mackinac. Again, on May 6, 1790, he referred to this place. On August 24, 1798, he wrote saying that he expected a garrison would be stationed at Chicago "this sum-mer." Other references to Chicago were made. It is probable, also, that an Indian trader named Guarie, as before stated, lived on the west side of the North Branch before the year 1800. Traders spoke of the North Branch as "River Guarie."