MOUNT FOREST ISLAND AND LAKE CHICAGO

Posted on March 3, 2020 by Pat Camalliere

My new release (due soon – stay tuned!) is titled The Mystery at Mount Forest Island. So where is Mount Forest Island, you may ask? It is a triangular-shaped elevation of land between Lemont, Willow Springs and Palos. Most of Mount Forest Island is Cook County Forest Preserves today, but its history is fascinating.

Blue areas indicate “super” Lakes Chicago and Maumee.
Photo: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

When the Wisconsin Glacier that covered Northern Illinois retreated 14,000 years ago, the melt waters collected in a glacial basin that geologists called Lake Chicago. The basin created was much larger than Lake Michigan, the shore extending roughly to where LaGrange Road is today.

The waters were held back by a pile of debris left as the glacier advanced and retreated, known as the Valparaiso Moraine. At the southwestern edge of Lake Chicago was a triangular-shaped island that geologists named Mount Forest Island.

Photo Credit: drupal.library.cmu.edu

Through a complex process over thousands of years, at some point in time the water broke through the moraine at the Chicago Outlet, flowing around Mount Forest Island, creating the Des Plaines River Valley to the northwest, and the Sag Valley to the south. The valleys met at the southwestern tip of Mount Forest Island, which is now not an island but an approximately one hundred foot elevation of land between the two valleys.

Native Americans lived, hunted and fished along the river and camped, hidden and protected, in the ravines along the valleys. From the bluffs of Mount Forest Island they were able to spot herds of bison and deer, normally hard to find in wooded areas. They could also easily spot invaders on the rivers or by land, making the area ideal for survival.

The Sag Valley was primarily swampland and not navigable. However, just north of Mount Forest Island the Des Plaines River approached the Chicago River, with only a long marsh called Mud Lake between. During spring rains the area between the two rivers became navigable. Native Americans used the rivers and developed trails along them.

Then an important event happened in 1673 when Pere Marquette and Louis Joliet traveled through the area. It is not documented, but is likely, that they stopped at Mount Forest Island, near where St. James at Sag Bridge is today on its southwestern tip. It is known that they learned from the natives of the portage at Mud Lake, and realized that a canal built between the rivers would establish a transportation route between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River via the Des Plaines and Illinois Rivers.

Marquette stated in his journal:

We have seen nothing like this river that we enter, as the fertility of the soil, its prairies and woods; its cattle (bison), elk, deer wildcats, bustards, swans, ducks, parroquets, and even beaver. There are many small lakes and rivers. That on which we sail is wide, deep and still…in the spring and during part of the summer there is only one portage of half a league. (Mud Lake)

The I and M Canal was eventually built and opened, but not until 1848, 175 years later. The Sag Valley also connects to Lake Michigan via the Calumet River. This geography had much to do with the development of Chicago as a major city and transportation hub, as the routes connected the interior of the country to established ports on the east coast and Gulf of Mexico by way of the Great Lakes and Mississippi River.

Photo: liskahaas.org

South of Mount Forest Island was dug deeper and became the Calumet-Sag Channel, part of the plan to reverse the flow of the Chicago River.  The northern portion of the glacial valley (north of Mount Forest Island) was dug deeper and became the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, drawing Lake Michigan water to flow toward and eventually reach the Illinois River.

However, by the end of the 1800s sanitation issues on the canal made it necessary to revise the canal system. The Sanitary and Ship Canal replaced the I and M Canal, the direction of the Chicago River was changed, and later the Cal-Sag Channel was dug through the Sag Valley to connect to the Sanitary Canal. The canals meet in Lemont at the southwest point of Mount Forest Island.


This photo shows where the Cal Sag meets the Sanitary Canal in today’s Lemont. The wider channel on the right is the Cal Sag, the narrow one on the left the Sanitary Canal. The body of water at top is Saganashkee Slough in the Sag Valley. The wooded wedge of land between the two canals is Mount Forest Island. The Des Plaines River runs parallel to the Sanitary Canal to the left (West) and cannot be seen in the photo. The lower bridge is railroad, the upper one Archer/Rt. 83. The Sag Quarries can be seen to the right of the upper bridge.

Today the elevation that was once Mount Forest Island is mostly Forest Preserves owned and managed by Cook County. At one time these preserves operated a golf course, and in the 1940s a laboratory that conducted research as part of the Manhattan Project. Today it is bike and bridle trails, picnic groves and lakes for the enjoyment of all. The towns of Lemont, Willow Springs, Palos Park, Palos Hills, and Hickory Hills ring its edges.

For the interested, I suggest you check out the Facebook page titled Exploring Mount Forest. I have only touched on its marvels in this blog.

Some months ago, I was driving from Lemont to La Grange, and left inbound Route 55 to exit onto Joliet Road. It was a clear day, and as I headed east past Indian Head Park I suddenly noticed the vast depressed landscape ahead. I realized with surprise and delight that what I was looking at was the ancient bed of Lake Chicago!

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Taming the Wilderness #3

Posted on January 29, 2020 by Pat Camalliere

Exciting news! My new novel, The Mystery at Mount Forest Island. is now in the design phase at Amika Press and should be out soon!

Meanwhile, enjoy reading the last article in the series about surveying Northern Illinois.

If you have read the first two posts in this series about surveying Northern Illinois, it is likely you are impressed by the magnitude of the task of our state’s surveyors. This series is concluded with some interesting facts about our early surveyors.

Information to be Recorded

It was crucial that surveyors report information as accurately as possible, since buyers often never saw the land they were investing in and were dependent upon those descriptions. It was also the surveyor’s responsibility to describe the land to its best advantage in order to bring the best price. Some surveyors did this better than others.
 
Yet the early descriptions, despite the skill of the surveyor, often stand and are used even today. Under current laws, the original monuments that marked the boundaries have priority, and will stand even if the original survey was in error, as demonstrated by a new survey.

Here are some of the elements surveyors were required to describe:

  • The exact length of every line. Any deviations in the line and the reasons for deviations.
  • All “bearing trees” and “witnesses,” the type and size, and the distance between true corners relative to witness corners.
  • Mounds and the materials of which they were made (earth, stone, etc.)
  • The kind, diameter, and distance to all trees that lines intersect.
  • The distance at which each line first intersects and then leaves every settler’s claim.
  • The inclusion or proximity to “improvements”: prairie; river, creek, “bottom”; swamp, marsh, grove, and wind fall.
  • Hills and ridges, the distance at which each ascent is begun, the top is reached, descent is begun, and foot is reached, and estimated height, in feet, above the level of the surrounding land, or above the nearby bottom lands, ravines, or waters.
  • All rivers, creeks, and streams that the line crosses; the distance at the points of intersection, and the width of each.
  • Whether the land is level, rolling, broken, or hilly.
  • Estimation of the quality of the land: first, second, or third rate.
  • Timber – description of the kinds of timber and undergrowth, and the quantity of each.
  • Bottom lands – either wet or dry. If subject to flooding, how deep.
  • Springs of water – whether fresh, saline, or mineral, and the course of the stream.
  • Lakes and ponds – description of the banks and their height, the depth of the water, and whether it was pure or stagnant.
  • Nearby towns and villages; Indian towns and wigwams; houses or cabins.
  • Cultivated fields or other improvements, such as sugar tree groves, camps, mills, forges, and factories.
  • All diggings, with description of quality and extent: coal banks or beds; peat or turf grounds; minerals and ores; salt springs and licks.
  • Roads and trails, with their directions, where they go to and come from.
  • Rapids, cascades, or waterfalls, and their height.
  • Precipices, caves, sink-holes, ravines, stone quarries, naming the kind of stone.
  • Curiosities, such as fossils, ancient works of art, mounds, fortifications, or similar objects.

As is obvious, a great deal of information was required to be reported once the actual measurements had been performed!

One might wonder about existing improvements–after all, this is wilderness. Yes, mostly it was wilderness, but some squatters, tradesmen, and merchants came ahead of surveyors to grab the best before the rush. Although they risked being unable to purchase the land for themselves, they were generally able to negotiate a sizeable profit from purchasers for the improvements they had made.

Some Interesting Survey Facts:

The country’s first county surveyor was George Washington.

 Abraham Lincoln became an assistant to John Calhoun, Sangamon County (Illinois) Surveyor, in 1833. His instruments are now on display at “Lincoln’s New Salem State Historic Site“. 

 For as long as 100 years, U. S. surveyors used instruments invented in the 16th and 18th centuries. Although techniques improved with time, the results were often less than perfect.  Today’s land surveyors spend much time finding and correcting errors to clear titles.

The instruments changed little from the early 1800s well into the twentieth century. Most work was done with a magnetic compass and a surveyor’s chain. (See previous post.) The compass, invented in 1511, was used until 1894.  The chain invented in 1620 by Edmund Gunter, was used until the steel tape measure replaced it in the late18th century.

 Survey procedures could be less than precise. Iron chains stretched with use.  The magnetic compass was subject to daily, annual and lunar variations in the earth’s magnetic field, solar magnetic storms, and static electricity. If a tree blocked a line of sight, a surveyor might sight to the trunk, walk around it and approximate the continuing line.

 To the surveyor, precision may not seem important when the land appeared endless and, at $1.25 an acre, cheap.  Surveyors were paid by the mile, lack of supervision was common, as well as a shortage of trained surveyors. But, on the other hand, hostile Indians, bears, wolves, wind, rain, snow, burning sun and rugged terrain were plentiful!

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TAMING THE ILLINOIS WILDERNESS #2

Posted on November 12, 2019 by Pat Camalliere
Early survey book, printed in 1716. Photo credit: www.touringohio.com

How Was Illinois’s Land Measured?

Surveying a state begins when an initial point is chosen. Then two lines, a baseline (east to west) and a principal meridian (north to sound) are created. These lines originate and intersect at the initial point. Next, Standard latitude lines are identified parallel to the baseline. All further surveying depends on this “lattice” of lines.

The land is then divided into survey townships of 36 square miles, 6 miles on each side. Township lines run parallel to the baseline (east-west), and range lines run north-south, each at six mile intervals. Townships are then subdivided into 36 sections of approximately one square mile (640 acres) and sections into four quarter-sections of 0.25 square mile (160 acres) each.

Defining uncharted wilderness by lines was a daunting task. Imagine hills, valleys, rivers, swamps, woods, etc. A typical location such as a heavily wooded area required surveyors to run a straight line through the woods from one fixed endpoint to the next. An axe man would clear a path through the trees and the underbrush while the flagman provided a sighting target for the surveyor. Once the straight line was cleared, two chainmen would measure and set a mark identifying the distance. The surveyor would then bring up the rear, sighting using a compass to make sure the crew stayed on course. A good surveying party could survey about 12 miles in one day.

After the township survey was finished, the chief surveyor made notes about the features of the land, how the land might be used, and the land’s general character (wooded, swampy, hilly, flat, etc.). This information would then be used in advertisements created by the land company to sell lots in the township.

Surveyed land was changed forever. A continuous stretch of wilderness from one geographic point to another had become a grid that could be identified and quantified. It had become a piece of property that could be titled and sold. Squatters and merchants were already rushing in ahead of the crowd, knowing that as soon as the land was opened for purchase it would be gobbled up in a very short time. Native Americans also knew they would soon have to leave their homes.

Surveyor’s Equipment Photo Credit: Pat Camalliere

Surveyors’ Tools: Land surveying dates back to 1700 BC and the ancient Egyptians. By the 18th Century, a simple compass or circumferentor, a Gunter’s chain, and a set of plotting instruments were the basic professional equipment. Surveyors of Illinois also brought along a good supply of gunpowder, a rifle, a blanket, and other personal items. Notes were jotted in a field book, and on-site markers, such as piles of rocks or wooden stakes, were used to mark the corners of each property.

Gunter’s chains were used as early as 1620.
Photo: Wikipedia

Survey Measurement: Distances were measured in chains and links, based on Edmund Gunter’s 66 foot measuring chain. The chain–an actual metal chain–was made up of 100 links, each link 7.92 inches long.

There were 80 chains in one U.S. Survey Mile (differs from an International Mile by only a few millimeters). Two chainmen, one at each end, made the measurements. In forested areas, the lead chainman had to follow the correct bearing at all times, and keep the chain level, since all surveying distances are based on the horizontal distance, not the slope. In steep terrain, this meant either shortening the chain, or raising one end of the chain relative to the other, or both. In areas where measuring by chain was not possible, such as extremely steep terrain or that with water obstructions, distances were calculated by triangulation.

Photo: Wikipedia

A groma was used to survey straight lines and right angles, thence squares or rectangles. They were stabilized on the high ground, and pointed in the direction it was going to be used. The helper would step back 100 steps and place a pole. The surveyor would tell him where to move the pole and the helper would set it down. Such simple tools have been used since Roman days.

Photo: Wikipedia

A circumferentor consists of a circular brass box containing a magnetic needle, which moves freely over a brass circle, or compass. A pair of sights is located on the North-South axis of the compass. Circumferentors were typically mounted on tripods and rotated on ball-and-socket joints.

Survey Monumentation: Permanent on-the-ground objects were identified to mark exact locations of surveyed points and lines. These markers are legally binding, used for setting property lines. Both corner monuments as well as accessory objects that “witness” to them were used. Witness objects allow subsequent surveyors and landowners to find the original corner monument location should the actual monument itself be destroyed.

Sometimes squatters or homesteaders destroyed corner monuments if they felt their residence on the land was threatened. For this reason, destruction of corner monuments and/or witness objects was, and still is, a federal offense.

In the 19th century, corner monuments might be a rock pile, a wooden post, or a combination. Trees could be used if the corner happened to fall at the exact spot where one grew. Witnesses can be trees, rocks, or trenches dug in the ground; their exact locations relative to the corner, and the markings made on them, are also recorded in the surveyor’s official field notes.

On each witness tree (also termed bearing tree), two blazes were typically required, one chest height and one at ground level, in case the tree were illegally cut. The trees were inscribed with the township, range, and section information. Sometimes the trees were used to retrace a surveyed line or as proof that the line had been run correctly.

Currently The Witness Tree Project, a collaboration of the Morton Arboretum, The Field Museum, Notre Dame University, and other institutions, is attempting to locate any remaining witness trees in Illinois. For more about the project go to: http://chicagorti.org/WitnessTrees?fbclid=IwAR1pWVPJXYAwpOP3R7jxCQ4y3hmFBrpG8fpKF-DlWLCzE079ZcK9rj9R4C8

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Taming the Illinois Wilderness

Posted on July 16, 2019 by Pat Camalliere
Palos Woods, Cook Country Forest Preserves Photo by Pat Camalliere

If you’ve walked through County Forest Preserve trails you have some idea of what Northern Illinois looked like before Illinois became a state in 1818. The land was wilderness: woods and grasslands. Native American trails were intended for foot traffic. Travel was on rivers and streams or following migratory herds after farming season was over. Although the Indian population could easily have grown produce for trade, for the most part they grew only what was needed for their own use. One reason for this is that there was no way to move harvested crops. Even rivers and streams were not an option, as much of the year waterways were not navigable; they were flooded in the spring, too shallow to float all except light canoes in summer and fall, and frozen in winter. Native Americans knew this well, and didn’t even try.

People from the East Coast and immigrants from Europe and elsewhere knew the land here was plentiful, and desired to purchase such land to farm and build villages and cities, and of course we all know that eventually this was done. But have you even wondered exactly how the wilderness was turned into today’s civilization? There was much more involved than cutting down trees and building a house and barn.

  • A farmer could not grow crops to sell until there was a way to transport the crops to a population who wanted to buy them. No means of transport existed.
  • Roads had to be built, and canals had to be dug.
  • Arrangements had to be made with Native Americans, who did not understand the concept of individual ownership of land.
  • And the land had to be measured into tracts that could be purchased.

The first step was to survey the land. When I was studying this time period to write my novel, The Mystery at Black Partridge Woods, I found surveying fascinating.

ILLINOIS’ SURVEYORS

From Wilderness to Real Estate: Before land could be purchased it had to be converted from uncharted wilderness into tracts of land to be marketed and sold. This was done by creating townships that, depending on who was doing the survey, were either 36 square miles or 25 square miles. Once the township was created, it could be subdivided into any size and configuration an individual wanted.

The Continental Congress had passed the Land Ordinance of 1785 and then the Northwest Ordinance in 1787 to control the survey, sale, and settling of the new lands. Rules were set down governing how the USA would continue forward. The precedent was set that the country could expand westward from the original 13 states, and that states north of the Ohio River would be admitted to the Union as slave-free states. Included in this ordinance were provisions to survey the Northwest Territory.

The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 not only defined rules for dividing and selling the land, but laws for how the land would be governed, including courts, law enforcement, sheriffs, militias, penalties and punishments. This document was drawn on heavily when drafting the Constitution of the United States in 1789.

Northwest Territory, 1878 Photo by touringohio.com

Surveying was a Dangerous Job: The surveying and subdividing of Illinois land was done during the years 1805 to 1855, but mostly between 1815 and 1835. By that time, various treaties had been negotiated with native populations, but the treaties allowed Indians to live on the land until it was sold. Indians knew that surveyors were here to measure the land for sale, and they would have to leave once that was done. You can imagine why the men were not welcome. Surveyors were also vulnerable because there were so few of them in comparison to significant Indian populations that largely did not leave Northern Illinois until 1835.

Surveyors were Land Marketers: When the land opened up to survey by Congress in 1790, there was a rush of surveyors into the land northwest of the Ohio River.  Premium prices would be paid by speculators for the best land. To insure these speculators got title to the best lands, they offered their surveyors generous contracts that more often than not awarded a portion of the surveyed land. In some instances even as much as one half for really good land was awarded the surveyor. In other cases the surveyors were paid in cash.

It was up to the surveyors to give not only accurate but sometimes glowing descriptions of the land. In most cases, those purchasing large tracts of land, especially speculators, had never seen and may never see the land they were buying. Therefore, it was left to the surveyor to describe the property so it would get top dollar.

Fees paid to early surveyors may seem extravagant but life on the frontier required a special person with a special skills: grit, determination and fearless personality. Surveying often took place during the winter months when the threat of attack by an Indian hunting parting was greatly reduced as they were more likely to stay in their winter quarters.

Survey Excursion Teams: Each survey team began with a team leader, or colonel. The leader was responsible for the entire excursion including selecting all the men that would take part. He was an experienced surveyor, familiar with the frontier. Under him would usually be three assistant surveyors, each surveyor accompanied by six men, each with a specific job.

In the field where Indians could be encountered at any time, great care was taken to insure the safety of the team. In the lead position walking about two or three hundred yards in front of the surveyor was the hunter. His job was to scout for game and be on the lookout for any signs of danger in the form of Indians. Next was the surveyor, two chainmen, a marker, and a pack-horse man that carried the baggage. This group kept close and were armed to fend off any attack. About two-hundred yards behind came the last member of the team, the spy. He kept on the back trail and made sure the surveyor party ahead was not followed. Each man in the team carried his own rifle, blanket and any other personal items required for survival in the wilderness. The packhorse carried cooking utensils and provisions that couldn’t be obtained from the wilderness.

Settling in for the Night: Each night the teams would come together, build a single fire, prepare and eat a meal. The men would tell stories and sing songs to pass away the evening. Then, about three-hundred yards from the fire, they brushed away the snow and made their bed for the night, each man keeping his rifle and personal gear at his side. When daylight arrived, two men would circle the smoldering campfires to make sure no Indians had set up an ambush during the night.

• The country’s first county surveyor was George Washington.
• Abraham Lincoln’s career as a surveyor began in 1833 when John Calhoun, Sangamon County Surveyor (Illinois), offered Lincoln a job as his assistant. Lincoln’s career as a surveyor lasted only a few years. His projects included government surveys, road surveys, town lots, and private surveys. His instruments now on display at “Lincoln’s New Salem State Historic Site”.

Photo credit: Wikipedia.com

References: touringohio.com, Wikipedia.com, landplats.ilsos.net

To be Continued . . .

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CHIEF SHABBONA – Peacemaker in a Turbulent Chicago

Posted on June 19, 2019 by Pat Camalliere
SHABBONA
Also spelled Shabonee, Chambly, Chabonne, Shab-ehnay, Sho-bon-ier, etc.
1775-1859 Photo credit: Wikipedia

One translation of Shabbona’s name is “Built like a Bear,” and from all reports the name fits. As the picture above shows, he was a tall man, with broad shoulders—a large, muscular man of commanding appearance. He was an important Potawatomi leader.

The exact date of his birth is not known, but Shabbona himself stated that he was born at the time of the American Revolution, which greatly affected his life. He was the grandnephew of the great Ottawa Chief Pontiac. Even as a young man, he advocated peace and a return to native teachings. He traveled with two Ottawa prophets, promoting the renunciation of European culture and institutions.

When still a young man, he married the daughter of Spotka, a Potawatomi chief. According to custom, he then became Potawatomi and a member of his wife’s tribe. When his father-in-law died, Shabbona took his place as Chief.

Living near the Fox River, Shabbona traded with and became close friends of John Kinzie, as well as other early residents of the area that would become Chicago. In 1807 his daughter (or sister: the exact relationship is unclear) married Jean Baptiste Beaubien, Chicago’s second permanent non-native resident.

When the great Shawnee Chief Tecumseh visited Shabbona’s village (located near today’s Aurora, IL) seeking supporters for his resistance against Americans in 1810, Shabbona joined him. In 1811 he led the Potawatomi against the American troops that had destroyed Tecumseh’s village at Prophetstown. He then followed Tecumseh to fight with the British against the Americans in the War of 1812, serving as a lieutenant in the Battle of the Thames, during which Tecumseh was killed.

Shabbona must have experienced great personal conflict during those battles. His beliefs and sympathies were with Tecumseh, but he was driven to protect his good friends among the whites.

Thus, in spite of his strong anti-American beliefs, he protected the Kinzies during the battle at Fort Dearborn in August, 1812. Some of the captured survivors of the conflict were taken to his village, where he saw to their protection until their release could be negotiated. It was customary that prisoners were exchanged for goods, but this did not always happen when emotions were high.

Photo Credit: www.wiskigeamatyuk.com

When the war ended, Shabbona saw the futility of further attacks against the Americans, saying, “…the army of palefaces you will have to encounter will be as numerous as the leaves on those trees.”  When Indian-settler hostilities developed, Shabbona turned his efforts toward negotiating the fairest agreement between his people and the Americans.

In June, 1827, a clash developed between miners and Big Foot’s tribe of Winnebago over lead-rich land in Wisconsin. Hostilities threatened to spread to Chicago. Shabbona joined with Potawatomi Chiefs Billy Caldwell, Alexander Robinson, and Shamagaw of Kankakee, to calm Big Foot and his warriors. The plan was for Shabbona to enter the village alone to arouse less suspicion, while the other leaders remained hidden near the village. But, when Shabbona entered the village he was seized and threatened. Using his negotiating skills, he was able throughout a long night to convince his captors to release him, on the promise that he would not report plans to the whites. The Winnebago warriors did not trust this promise and insisted on accompanying him back to his village. As Shabbona passed where the other chiefs were hiding, he complained loudly so they could know the plans. The chiefs then returned to Chicago and reported to the Americans.

In 1830 Shabbona served as a guide for surveyors who mapped the route for the I & M Canal, leading to the growth of Chicago.

During the Black Hawk attacks in 1832, Shabbona refused to support Black Hawk and warned settlers instead. After the conflict ended, he negotiated compensated removal rather than the sanctions that were initially contemplated by the settlers.

During this period, he moved his village about thirty miles west of Aurora, which made it equally accessible to Milwaukee, Chicago, and Peoria.

Shabbona’s name is found on multiple treaties. Without his wisdom, integrity, fair-mindedness and forgiving nature, the agreements that led to relocation of Indian tribes to west of the Mississippi would have taken many more of his people’s lives.

For his efforts on behalf of friendly treaties, Shabbona was given two sections of land in Paw Paw Township (southwest DeKalb County).  After the end of the removal period in 1838, Shabbona moved back and forth between his tribe west of the Mississippi and the land he owned in Illinois. After one lengthy visit of two to three years, he returned to Illinois in 1849 to find that squatters had claimed his land and it had been sold. The home he and his family had occupied for forty years was lost to him forever.

It wasn’t until 1857 that friends in Ottawa raised money and bought him twenty acres along the south bank of the Illinois River between Morris and Seneca.  He built a simple lodge there.

He remained active until his death in July, 1859. The previous day he had gotten wet and overexerted himself while hunting. He died at his lodge and was buried at Evergreen Cemetery near Morris. His wife, Pokanoka, drowned in the Mazon Creek in November, 1964, and is buried next to him.

The former picnic grove adjacent to Sand Ridge Nature Center was named Shabbona Woods on March 24, 1924. On May 22, 2015, this site reopened as the first of five new overnight camping venues of the Forest Preserves of Cook County as “Camp Shabbona Woods.”

Shabbona’s Grave Site
Photo credit: Wikipedia

During the two years I conducted research for The Mystery at Black Partridge Woods, I encountered a number of little-known but remarkable Native American persons. I thought my readers would be interested in knowing more about their lives. Today’s post concludes this series about the lives of historically-important leaders in the Chicago area.

My previous posts have included Billy Caldwell, Marie Rouensa, Black Partridge, and a guest post about Alexander Robinson by his historian, Dan Melone.  If you missed these posts, you can read them at: 
https://www.patcamallierebooks.com/blog/

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Chief Alexander Robinson – Early Chicago Leader – Guest Blog Dan Melone

Posted on May 21, 2019 by Pat Camalliere
Chief Alexander Robinson

Today’s guest blogger is Dan Melone, a Chicagoland Archaeologist and Robinson Family Historian. Dan received a M.A. in Archaeology and Heritage from the University of Leicester, in England. For over 20 years, Dan has documented numerous sites within many county forest preserves in Chicago and the suburbs, on private land throughout Northern Illinois, and Southern Wisconsin. The sites include a fort located in the Palos Forest Preserves.

 In 2015, Melone, along with Robinson descendent Verlyn Spreeman and historian Scott Markus, recovered the Robinson Family Cemetey’s lost and forgotten headstones and held a press release on May 5, 2016, where the stones were seen in public for the first time in sixty-eight years.

Chief Alexander Robinson’s history is long. This post highlights prominent parts of the Chief’s past. Dan’s book is in the works for those interested to learn more about this fascinating man.

Chief Alexander Robinson – Early Chicago Leader

      Certain periods of Alexander Robinson’s history are vague, due to antiquarian authors, unreliable secondary historical sources, data voids, and descendant memory lapse.

            Born c. 1787-1789 on Mackinac Island in Michigan, Robinson’s exact birth year is debatable. Métis recording methods differed from their European counterparts, and generally poor record keeping in the 19th and 20th centuries contributed to the confusion. His baptismal record indicates that he was baptized as a Catholic in Montreal at age seven months, on May 15, 1788, placing the birth and year November of 1787. This record also indicates that his mother died along the way to Montreal. A few years after, Alexander was supposedly adopted by Michilimackinac Governor Daniel Robinson and his wife Charlotte Ferly.

            Descendants Verlyn Spreeman (Menominee) and Judy Wing’s (Potawatomi) research indicates that Alexander Robinson was his birth father’s name. Most current historians agree his father was a British Officer of Scottish descent stationed in Mackinac, where young Alexander spent most of his childhood, and his mother of Ottawa descent. This combined heritage made Robinson a Métis.

            Although Catholic, Robinson practiced polygamy. Both of his wives were of Indigenous descent.  In 1810, he married his first wife Sasos Cynthia Caron in Michigan. Sasos was the daughter of Chief Little Wolf Caron. This marriage produced a daughter, where the Menominee lineage begins. While still married to Sasos, Alexander married Catiche Catherine Chevalier on September 28, 1826. Though she retained a position in the household, Sasos was omitted from further writing during that period. Sasos lived to be about 62 years old and died in 1847 in Illinois.

            The economy during the late 1700s and early 1800s weighed heavily on cross- cultural trading in resources such as fur, land speculation, government contracting, and later, taverns and inn keeping. Natural resources were abundant and settlement consisted of artisans and farmers accustomed to hard work and patient accumulation.

            Over time, Chicago transformed economically from sporadic trade into a region of manufactured materials and agricultural commodities.  Fort Dearborn’s establishment in 1803 signified a permanent foothold into what would become Chicago. It became a strategic military and trade hub due to easy access to and from Lake Michigan and the Chicago and Des Plaines Rivers.

            By the early 19th century, Chicago became an interwoven tapestry of influential Métis and European settlers keeping close ties to Detroit and Mackinac, Michigan, while expanding frontier outpost communities.  Other influential Métis included: Billy Caldwell, Jean Baptiste Beaubien, and Antoine Ouilmette.

            During the period between 1800 and 1810, as a young teen, Robinson worked as a fur trader for Joseph Bailly out of St. Joseph, Michigan. Both men traded extensively with the Ottawa throughout central Michigan. Later, he traveled to Chicago and the nearby Calumet River area. There, he worked for John Craft who represented the Mack and Conant Company.  Shortly after, Robinson settled in his new home, married Sasos and started a small family.

            During the period leading up to1812, John Kinzie supplied Fort Dearborn with dry goods. Prospering from his trade, Kinzie hired Robinson, Caldwell, and other Métis to work for him. Their work, along with Chicago’s expansion, would come to a halt with the attack on Fort Dearborn on August 5, 1812. However, Robinson would play a significant role in the aftermath. During a trip lasting longer than two weeks, Robinson guided survivors of the attack via canoe to St. Joseph, Michigan,and onward to Mackinac, where he safely left them with the British. He received $100 for his service. This event helped to solidify his reputation for his ability to negotiate and as being fair and approachable. When the U.S. Army returned in 1816, Robinson and Antoine Ouilmette had already grown corn in the garden of the now ruined Fort Dearborn and sold it to the garrison for profit. Fort Dearborn was rebuilt and Chicago would continue to grow.

            By the early 1820s, Robinson worked steadily as an interpreter. He negotiated between Indigenous groups and the U.S. government, and received a salary of $365.00. The second Treaty of Prairie du Chien of 1829 (the third was also signed in 1829) ceded southwestern Wisconsin and northwestern Illinois, as well as the areas around present day Evanston and Wilmette. Negotiations were handled between the Council of Three Fires (Ojibwa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi) and U.S. representatives. Prior to negotiations, Robinson and Caldwell were voted in as chiefs by the large majority to represent all of the main groups who attended the treaty, even though they were already chiefs of smaller bands within Chicago. Robinson, Caldwell, and Ouilmette, along with other notable Métis were granted land sections in the vicinity of Chicago under the provisions, as well as annual annuity payments. Robinson received 1,280 acres along the Des Plaines River that he split into five parcels for him and his children.

            During the 1830s, Robinson moved from Hardscrabble to Wolf Point, and established a store and tavern. Wolf Point became the center of public life, where drinking and gambling coincided with shipping and trading. Here the Métis mingled with assorted Euro-Americans, traders and voyageurs, becoming a center of blended ethnicity, where residents of various economic backgrounds socialized.

            Robinson’s dual Métis heritage came into play again in 1832. During the brief Black Hawk War, Chief Black Hawk threatened to attack Chicago by sending hundreds warriors over the Mississippi River. Black Hawk failed with his attack due to Robinson, Caldwell, Shabbona, and Chiefs Aptakisic and Waubansee, who prevented their people from joining the fight. They relocated all of their young men to a camp on the Des Plaines River where they stayed until the war was over.

            Robinson viewed continued fighting against the encroaching settlers as pointless, During the Indian removal process in the mid-1830s, Robinson accompanied his people west to Mayetta, Kansas; afterward returning to Chicago. This was a hard decision for him and disappointed his people.

After being incorporated into a town in 1833, Robinson and Caldwell helped organize the first town-trustee election and build the Chicago’s first Catholic church, St. Mary’s. Robinson’s two daughters attended Catholic school in the 1850s. In 1842, Robinson moved with his family to his reservation on the Des Plaines River (near Schiller Park) where he remained as a gentleman farmer until his death in 1872.

After many years during which the location of Robinson Family’s headstones remained unknown, they were found and recovered in October 2015 by Dan Melone and Verlyn Spreeman after the Illinois State Archaeological Survey got involved with the recovery.

This photo shows several headstones along with researchers Dan Melone and Verlyn Spreenman. Left to right. Front row: Dan Melone, Verlyn Spreeman. Middle row: Judy Wing, Charlene Holtzinger, Beverly Fernandez. Back row: Ed Wing, Terry Holtzinger, Tony Fernandez. (Credit: Scott Markus)

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BILLY CALDWELL (SAUGANASH, THE ENGLISHMAN) – EARLY CHICAGO LEADER

Posted on March 28, 2019 by Pat Camalliere

Marker from site of Billy Caldwell’s (Sauganash) reservation.
Photo from Kickstarter.
 

Although Billy Caldwell was an educated man, written records of his life, obtained mostly from interviews, contain contradictions, and are subject to debate. He is represented as both a hero and an opportunist. We do know he had significant effect on the development of Northern Illinois and the Potawatomi nation.

No pictures of Billy Caldwell exist, and few descriptions of his personality or physical characteristics have survived. From interviews we learned that he was lean, approximately six feet tall, at 155 pounds. He was a well-respected, generous, and kindly man.

Billy Caldwell was born near Fort Niagara in 1780, whether in the U.S. or Canada is debated. His mother was the daughter of a Mohawk chief, Sarah Rising Sun, and his father was Captain William Caldwell, a British officer of Irish descent. When Billy was two years old, his father moved to Amherstburg in Ontario, Canada about 25 miles from Detroit, deserting Billy and his mother. Soon he married Suzanne Baby of Detroit.

At some point in the late 1780s Suzanne became aware of Billy and sent her husband to take Billy from his mother. Billy was raised with their family of eight children. He received a formal education in the home that included English and French, was instructed in the Catholic faith, and had strong British loyalties.

His fluency in Native American, French, and English languages made him an asset to the fur trade. French, British, Americans and Indians were all involved in the trade at that time, and there was much competition. In 1797 Caldwell entered the trade as an apprentice to Thomas Forsyth at the St. Joseph and Wabash Rivers. Forsyth joined his half-brother, John Kinzie, in 1803, moving their fur trading partnership to what was to become Chicago, with Caldwell as chief clerk. The relationship between the three men lasted until 1833.

In 1804 Caldwell married a Potawatomi woman. According to custom, with the marriage he became a member of the powerful Potawatomi Fish Clan.

From 1808 until 1812 Billy ran operations for Forsyth-Kinzie’s trading post near Peoria, with much business being conducted near Lake Michigan. During this time he was also said to have been a runner for Tecumseh. It is possible that his relationship to Tecumseh was exaggerated.

Governor Harrison tried to get Caldwell to join the American cause in the War of 1812, but, having been raised in Canada with strong British loyalties, Caldwell sought a commission as captain in the British Indian Department. He was highly influential among the Potawatomi, Ottawa and Chippewa tribes, and took arms with Tecumseh against the Americans. After the Battle of the Thames (where Tecumseh was killed), Caldwell was discouraged when the British retreated and left the Indians alone to finish the battle.

In 1816 the British appointed Caldwell Superintendent of Indians for the Western District. This position was short-lived, but he was offered a large salary and trade rights if he agreed to keep the tribes friendly to the British. This time Caldwell refused.

Caldwell’s objective had always been to define a boundary line to separate Indian Territory from that of the Americans. Britain had promised to do that, but reneged, handing over Indian land to the Americans at the conclusion of each war.

In 1818, Caldwell came back to the Chicago area, then to Peoria, and set out to earn the Americans’ trust. He continued to work for Kinzie and Forsyth, he became a Justice of the Peace and later a judge at Peoria.


Sketch of Billy Caldwell’s house which was located on John Kinzie’s property, 

Caldwell played an influential role in treaties, obtaining fair benefits for the Indians. In 1829 the tribes gathered to negotiate a treaty at Prairie du Chien. Caldwell, and his close friend Alexander Robinson (also of mixed Potawatomi and white blood) were appointed by the Indian agent, Dr. Wolcott, to fill the vacancies of two chiefs who had recently died. Both men had white instincts coupled with a history of favorable actions on behalf of the Indian nations, and would have more influence among the tribes. Without their recommendation and vote, the Indians would not have been likely to sell their land.

Caldwell became recognized as Chief of the United Indian Nations. The result was that peaceful negotiations were concluded first at Prairie du Chien in 1829 and later at the Treaty of Chicago in 1833. By then, the remaining Indian lands were essentially surrounded by land ceded to the Americans in earlier treaties. The Americans argued that it made sense for the Indians to move west where they would have more land and be happier. All remaining land in northern Illinois was ceded in exchange for goods valued at $1,000,000 and land west of the Mississippi.

Both Caldwell and Robinson were well-compensated by the U. S. Government for their actions during the negotiations. Some have claimed that the chiefs played both sides against each other for personal advantage. But for Caldwell, the treaty of Chicago brought his dream of a boundary line, and a place for his people to live, to reality.

Caldwell continued to encourage peaceful relationships between the tribes and the Americans. During the Black Hawk wars, he urged his people not to join Black Hawk, and advised them to move their women and children closer to Chicago. He commanded scouts and sent them to warn settlers of hostile aggression, and after the rebellion he helped the military escort Black Hawk back across the Mississippi.

He guided surveyors who were laying out the course of the I & M Canal. He paid from his own resources to educate Indian children. He was instrumental in founding the first Catholic Church in Chicago, Saint Mary of the Assumption, in 1833. The first tavern in Chicago, built by Mark Beaubien, was named Sauganash in his honor.

When Caldwell’s people left Illinois in 1838 for their new home in the west, he went with them. He relocated to land that later became Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he became leader of a Potawatomi band of 2000, and where he died three years later in 1841 at the age of 61.

He ordered the lands he had obtained for his actions in treaty negotiations to be sold. These were located on the north side of Chicago, on both sides of the north branch of the Chicago River. Some of this area is now the Chicago neighborhood of Sauganash. A portion of the land that was not sold became the property of the Cook County Forest Preserves, which today includes Caldwell Woods and the Billy Caldwell Golf Course.

Since writing this article, I have found that there is dissention regarding the history of Billy Caldwell. Some of the sites I used in my research have been taken down, and the Wikipedia site has had some changes. For those interested in researching Billy Caldwell further, I would refer to Billy Caldwell(1780-1841): Chicago and the Great Lakes Trail, by Susan L. Kelsey, or the website livinghistoryofillinois.com.


Today’s Billy Caldwell Golf Course, formerly Caldwell’s Reservation.
Photo courtesy of Flickriver.

References: Chief Billy Caldwell, His Chicago River Reserve and Only Known Surviving Heir: A 21st Century Biography: Peter T. Gayford.

sites.google.com/site/chiefbillycaldwellhistory: Peter T. Gayford

Wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy-Caldwell

www.chicagohistorytoday


During the two years I conducted research for The Mystery at
Black Partridge Woods, I encountered a number of little-known but
remarkable Native American persons. I thought my readers would be interested in knowing more about their lives.

Today’s post is about Billy Caldwell, the Potawatomi Chief who
became Chief of the United Indian Nations and negotiated the Treaty of Chicago in 1833. Caldwell Woods and Billy Caldwell Golf Course is held today by the Cook County Forest Preserves. My previous posts
have included Marie Rouensa, a very interesting woman born in 1677, and Black Partridge who rescued residents during the Massacre at
Fort Dearborn.

The Mystery at Sag Bridge and The Mystery at Black Partridge Woods can be
purchased at Smokey Row Antiques in Lemont, Centuries and Sleuths Bookstore in Forest Park, and at Amazon.com. Amazon links are provided below.

As always, written reviews on Amazon and Goodreads are very much
appreciated.

Please visit my website at: www.Patcamallierebooks.com or
click here: Pat’s website

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BLACK PARTRIDGE: HERO OF THE BATTLE OF FORT DEARBORN

Posted on February 28, 2019 by Pat Camalliere

During the two years I conducted research for The Mystery at Black Partridge Woods, I encountered a number of little-known but remarkable Native American persons. I thought my readers would be interested in knowing more about their lives.


Today’s post is about Black Partridge, the man for whom Black Partridge Woods, and my book, was named. I also posted some time ago about Marie Rouensa, a very interesting woman born in 1677, who ended up a considerable property owner. If you missed Marie’s story, you can read it at this link:  https://www.patcamallierebooks.com/blog/


Illustration from Black Partridge, or, The Fall of Fort Dearborn / by H.R. Gordon. … Ellis, Edward Sylvester, 1840-1916.

Black Partridge was a major Potawatomi chief, best known for his actions during the battle at Fort Dearborn in 1812. During the years prior and immediately following the battle of Fort Dearborn, Black Partridge lived near the Chicago area. Dates conflict in the literature, but a reasonable estimation based on events of the time would put his birth in 1742 and his death in 1818.

His Potawatomi name has been spelled many ways on the multiple peace treaties he signed during his life: Mucketeypokee, Mucktypoke, Mka-da-puk-ke, Muccutay Penay, Makadebakii, Mkadébki for instance.

Black Partridge was a chief of significant stature and noted intelligence. He was highly respected by Native populations as well as whites. He was unusually tall, muscular, and handsome. He dressed simply with little adornment, yet made a commanding appearance.

After the American Revolution, the Northwest Territories (now the states of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin) had been ceded by England to the new United States. No consideration was made for the Native Americans who lived there. This led to disputes and battles.

Black Partridge was known to have fought against the United States in the battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, but after the battle he was one of the chiefs who signed the Treaty of Greenville, essentially relinquishing authority in the Northwest Territories to the United States. At the signing, he was given a peace metal, of which he was inordinately proud. He remained friendly to the U.S. from then on.

Early in the War of 1812, the various tribes in the area that is now Northern Illinois were unhappy with the U.S. for pushing the Indians off their land and reneging on promises. Many fought with Tecumseh and the English against the Americans. Black Partridge, and his younger brother, Waubansee, remained friendly to the U.S. against a hostile element made up of young men from multiple tribes who were determined to attack Fort Dearborn.

Although Black Partridge was the most prominent leader present, he was unable to control the young warriors who were not of his tribe. He went to Captain Heald at Fort Dearborn to warn him of the impending attack. In what must have been an emotional scene, he handed his prized peace metal to Heald, saying he could no longer wear it since he was unable to restrain the warriors.

Some call the attack that took place at Fort Dearborn a battle, others a massacre. As the soldiers, families, and escorts left the fort to escape to Fort Wayne, they were attacked by a large force of hostile Indians. Black Partridge was present to try to save the Americans he considered friends. Among these was Margaret Helm, the wife of the fort’s second-in-command and stepdaughter of John Kinzie. The photo below is that of a sculpture depicting this act. Black Partridge is reported to have stayed the hand of a warrior about to strike Mrs. Helm, saying he himself would dispatch her. Instead he took her to the lake and pretended to drown her for appearance’s sake, ultimately escorting her to a waiting boat where the Kinzie household took her to safety at St. Joseph, Michigan. He then intervened to see that as many as possible were taken prisoner instead of being killed.

His intervention did not end there. Prisoners had been taken to various Indian villages, and Black Partridge was able to locate and negotiate the release of some. One of these was Lieutenant Helm, the wounded husband of Margaret Helm. Having obtained ransom from the U.S. Indian Agent, Thomas Forsyth, Black Partridge added to it personal gifts: a pony, rifle, and a gold ring. He then escorted Lieutenant Helm to St. Louis and released him to Governor William Clark (of Lewis and Clark Expedition fame).

Returning to his home, a village north of Peoria on the Illinois River, Black Partridge found that while he was helping his American friends, his village had been burned to the ground by rangers sent by Governor Ninian Edwards in retribution for the attack on Ft. Dearborn.  Although most of the men were away at the time, the raid killed many women and children and burned the buildings to the ground. More died during the winter, as their food had been taken.

Nonetheless, Black Partridge remained loyal to the Americans and was instrumental in the negotiation and signing of additional peace treaties. On August 24, 1816, he signed a treaty which ceded a strip of land ten miles on either side of a line that would become a canal and wagon road. It was the completion of this canal (the Illinois and Michigan, or I and M Canal) that led to the growth of the city of Chicago. Black Partridge died at Peoria Lake within two years of signing this treaty.

Black Partridge Woods Forest Preserve, on a bluff of the Des Plaines River overlooking the village of Lemont, now bears his name. Whether or not Black Partridge resided at this particular spot, whether or not his activities to save the survivors of the battle at Ft. Dearborn took place there, it is well-established that the Potawatomi once lived on this bluff.


Sculpture of the Fort Dearborn Massacre.
Monument by Carl Rohl-Smith (1893).
The sculpture portrays the rescue of Margaret Helm by Potawatomi chief Black Partridge. Currently in storage at the Chicago History Museum.
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY ILLINOIS! 200 YEARS YOUNG TODAY!

Posted on December 3, 2018 by Pat Camalliere

 

Happy Birthday, Illinois! Two Hundred Years Young!

On December 3, 1818, Illinois became the 21st state in the Union.

Last month’s blog was part one of an excerpt from my mystery novel, The Mystery at Black Partridge Woods. Today’s post is the conclusion, and depicts what life was like in Northern Illinois near Chicago as it would have been at the time Illinois was granted statehood.

If you missed last month’s post, you can find it with my other posts at www.Patcamallierebooks.com.

To set the scene, the story of  The Mystery at Black Partridge Woods is told by Wawetseka, a fictional Potawatomi woman who lived on the north bluff of the Des Plaines River in the years immediately before and after Illinois became a state. In this preface to her tale, her descendent describes the impact of approaching statehood on her people.

Wawetseka’s Tale: Living Side by Side
A Story of Early Illinois An excerpt from The Mystery at Black Partridge Woods by Pat Camalliere

Continuation – Part Two of Two

Illinois tribes knew when white men would arrive. News traveled west, spread by eastern tribes and by honey bees that announced their coming, penetrating the forests fifty miles ahead of the frontier. Surveyors had already arrived and other men would follow to occupy the northern part of the new state. Wawetseka knew that Illinois was about to be granted statehood and what that meant.

Many of these men viewed us as intellectually inferior and called us “savages.” We had no written language, but we were shrewd negotiators. We generally got the better part of trades. Why, then, did we lose our land?

“Americans” of the newly formed United States did not understand the migratory nature of the Indian and thought unoccupied land was just that, available. Nor did Americans understand our communities and personal customs; they thought one Indian tribe represented all Indians, and negotiated land purchase with any tribe willing to deal. A tribe may have known the land in question was occupied by others, but thought they were being presented with gifts. As a result, Americans thought they had bought our land, another tribe thought they were recipients of good fortune, and we who had resided on the land for generations returned to find our traditional homeland forbidden to us.

By 1817, the area of Northern Illinois that presently includes the cities of Chicago, Peoria, and Rock Island was sparsely populated but widely traveled by a startling variety of people. This is contrary to the prevalent idea that prior to the Indian removal period, which began after the Treaty of Chicago in 1833, only Indians lived in Northern Illinois. Here are some people Wawetseka would have encountered, and why they claimed a right to these lands:

French priests followed a mission to educate and convert natives to what they believed was a better way of life. They thought of everyone as God’s people, and they lived in God’s land.

French traders and voyageurs had lived in the country since the sixteenth century and saw no reason to cease fur trade operations. Brides were sent over from France, and families gathered into hamlets. Some men lived with the Indians and intermarried. Both parties benefited from this “kinship” arrangement.

English trading companies established trade routes and had won the right to do so in the French and Indian War. The Northwest Territories were part of the United States by 1817, but the English didn’t all agree to abandon their successful private trade interests and relationships with the Indians.

American traders disagreed with English and French traders and attempted to license those who could trade legally. The territory belonged to America. Only Americans had rights there, and others should leave. They had fought and won a war to make it so.

Frontiersmen had already developed paths and small settlements as they pushed westward. These men had unique appetites: they craved adventure, were wanderers and explorers. They wanted to be the first to experience a new land and perhaps stay.

Soon to follow frontiersmen were the earliest settlers, mainly from eastern states and immigrants from Europe. Why did these people leave the comfortable eastern seaboard for the hardships they would encounter in Illinois? In the early 1800s eastern cities were already centers of industry, commerce, and finance, with factories, universities, and cultural activities—desirable places to live. But opportunity favored the wealthy. In cities, no jobs were to be had for common people who lived in crowded conditions. In rural areas the rich lived in mansions, while small farmers made small profits. Property went to the oldest son, leaving nothing for other family members. The young country was outgrowing itself. But land—and opportunity—awaited those willing to work for it in the west. Invaders fanned out like rivers and disappeared into the wilderness of the west.

Men who fought in the War of 1812 discovered the open lands of Illinois and found them attractive. After the war, they returned with their families for a chance at a better life than they had in the east.

Still others sought to lose themselves in the sparsely populated land. Some had miserable lives, were misfits, or unlucky at love. Some were lazy and deluded into thinking life would be easier. The poor and the well-to-do alike came, bringing all their possessions with them. Land would soon be available for purchase. Surveyors were already mapping out a new canal. The area was about to become prosperous. They wanted to be the first to stake claim to the best piece of the pie. Craftsmen and tradesmen followed the settlers, knowing their goods would be needed and their fortunes would soon be made.

Criminals, speculators, con artists, and opportunists, knowing the newcomers were carrying all they owned and were vulnerable, looked for easy pickings in a land with little if any law enforcement. Military and rangers were sent to build blockhouses and forts to protect and attempt to keep peace between the varied groups. Volunteer militias were raised among the frontiersmen, and agents were appointed to represent and trade with Indians. Judges rode circuits, sheriffs covered vast areas, alone but for men in positions of authority at trade posts or settlers they could recruit. Vigilantes enforced their own interpretation of justice.

And we Indians—invaded, bewildered—struggled to survive.

In this time, and in this place, Wawetseka lived. This is her story, and the authors of this book would like to tell it to you as we think, were she here today, she would tell it.

 

Photo from Mississinewa reenactment

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Illinois Bicentennial: Life in Northern Illinois Two Hundred Years Ago

Posted on November 6, 2018 by Pat Camalliere

ILLINOIS BICENTENNIAL
LIFE IN NORTHERN ILLINOIS TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO
PART ONE

 

After the Revolutionary War, the Northwest Territories were set aside as  lands belonging to the newly-formed United States. The territories were Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin. One by one, as sufficient population was reached, each territory became a state.
 
Settlement of Illinois began in the southern part of the Illinois Territory, near the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.  Like much of the northern Illinois Territory prior to permanent settlement, the Chicago area was occupied in the 1700s and 1800s primarily by Potawatomi Indians.  Northern Illinois and Lemont were not settled until the 1830s.
 
Prior to 1830, explorers and fur traders had traveled the rivers and lands since the mid-1600s. Early frontiersmen, speculators, and squatters came, anxious to be the first to see and stake their claim on the new land as statehood approached.
 
Plans were being made as early as the late 1700s. Between that time and 1835, Potawatomi and newcomers lived side by side, for the most part peacefully. In 1816, near what would later become Lemont, a Potawatomi village stood on the north side of the Des Plaines River and a fur station on the south side.
 
To set the scene, the story of  The Mystery at Black Partridge Woods is told by Wawetseka, a fictional Potawatomi woman who lived on the north bluff of the Des Plaines River before and after Illinois became a state. In this preface to her tale, her descendent describes the impact of approaching statehood on her people.

Wawetseka’s Tale: Living Side by Side

A Story of Early Illinois

 

D’Mouche-kee-kee-awh was a wealthy Potawatomi woman. In this painting she is proudly displaying the silver earrings and brooches popular among members of her tribe. Photo courtesy of Tippecanoe County Historical Society

Wawetseka, a Potawatomi woman, is my ancestor. She was born in the latter half of the 1700s in a village along the Des Plaines River where Lemont, Illinois is now located, and she lived into the mid-1800s. When she was a young woman, she was educated in a Jesuit mission. While there she was baptized in the Catholic religion and learned to read and write French. Later she returned to live with our people and married a Potawatomi man.

Indigenous people take great pride in their clan identity and ancestors. I grew up on stories about Wawetseka, and I often begged my mother to repeat my favorites. These stories, passed down through many generations, grounded me to what I found most valuable in my Native American heritage. I believe that the memoir Wawetseka wrote in her own hand, which is now in my possession, was written by her as a gift for her children, my children and my children’s children.

            Wawetseka was proud of both her white education and her native culture. She knew others were coming to her land, but like most American Indians of her time, she was hopeful she could maintain her traditional way of life. Her memoir relates a personal experience that included the sometimes-baffling changes she observed and her feelings about those changes, before the great disaster happened to her people. Later, when others of her tribe left the area, she made a decision to live among white people rather than migrate. Her story and her observations revealed the ultimate sense of loss she must have felt. The poignancy and loss resonates across almost two centuries.

            Most of our people lost their homes to treaties and left Northern Illinois for reservations in the west, especially after the Treaty of Chicago in 1833. Not everyone left. Some remained in the Midwest, and they still live in small communities in places such as Dowagiac, Michigan. Among those who stayed were people who were educated by missionaries, Catholics, and people who had established friendly or favorable relationships with white people. Wawetseka and some others from her village stayed. She lived in a small cabin near friends. There she improved her language skills to make possible the writing of a document that recorded an important event in her life.

            As her memoir begins, Wawetseka describes the arrival of men from Canada and eastern parts of the newly formed United States. As the Illinois Territory awaited imminent statehood, each man, whatever his origin, was convinced the land was rightfully his. Their reasons were as varied as were their origins.

            The Indian’s belief in his right to Illinois land was rooted in semi-migratory culture and seasonal moves. We farmed in the summer and hunted in the winter. We established lodging patterns traditional to our tribes, and sacred areas to bury our dead. We did not live in a single place but habitually returned to the same places.

            Indian farms in the Illinois Territory were extensive and well laid out, capable of producing crops for sale or trade. When we left our summer villages unoccupied to travel to winter hunting grounds, we expected to return to our fields, much as “snow birders” do today when they move from northern states to warm climates in the winter. We defended these home grounds from tribes that attempted to steal them and eventually from white men who thought our land was unoccupied.

            First to arrive, in the mid-1600s, explorers and priests came and established missions. Fur traders set up trade posts at approximately the same time. Missionaries taught religion to the native population, but they also taught white culture, including language and reading. Women and children attended mission schools, but our men were more interested in trade. They brought furs to the posts and bargained for items available only from white people. Native people initially welcomed them, anticipating trade for things we desired but did not have, items such as cloth, kettles, metal tools and weapons.

            By the time of Wawetseka’s story, white newcomers desired not only our furs but our land, spreading across the territory from crowded colonies in the east. We faced a dilemma. The fur supply was becoming depleted, leaving us with little to trade. The reduction in game forced us toward starvation and dependence on land to grow crops. We could fight for the land the white men wanted and become farmers, or we could trade land for annuities on which to survive.


To Be Continued…

Fans have been asking where they can purchase my books.

The Mystery at Sag Bridge and The Mystery at Black Partridge Woods can be purchased at Smokey Row Antiques in Lemont, Centuries and Sleuths Bookstore in Forest Park, and at Amazon.com. Amazon links are provided below.As always, written reviews on Amazon and Goodreads are very much appreciated.


Please visit my website at: www.Patcamallierebooks.com or click here: Pat’s website

 
 
 
 
The Mystery at Black Partridge Woods
A legendary water beast, mysterious wolves, and an unsolved murder echo through two centuries.

What lengths would a Potawatomi woman go through to save her son, and why would someone commit a violent act to keep people from knowing her story two hundred years later?

Order from Amazon

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Photo courtesy Richard Hoyt Lee

The Mystery at Sag Bridge

A century-old murder mystery
A dangerous ghost
An amateur historian…
What binds them together?

A ghost and an unsolved triple homicide lead Cora Tozzi to uncover a hundred-year-old mystery and the history of Sag Bridge, Illinois.

 

 

 

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