Wikipedia

Fort Dearborn

Not to be confused withFort Dearborn (New Hampshire).

Fort Dearbornwas aUnited Statesfort,first built in 1803 beside theChicago River,in what is nowChicago,Illinois.It was constructed by U.S. troops underCaptainJohn Whistlerand named in honor ofHenry Dearborn,thenUnited States Secretary of War.The original fort was destroyed following theBattle of Fort Dearbornduring theWar of 1812,and a replacement Fort Dearborn was constructed on the same site in 1816 and decommissioned by 1837.

Fort Dearborn
1856 drawing showing Fort Dearborn as it appeared in 1831[1]
Fort Dearborn is located in Chicago metropolitan area
Fort Dearborn
LocationChicago,Illinois
Coordinates41°53′17″N87°37′26″W/ 41.88806°N 87.62389°W/41.88806; -87.62389
Built1803
ArchitectU.S. Army
Architectural stylelog-built fort enclosed in a doublestockade
Part ofAmerican frontier,Michigan–Wacker Historic District(ID78001124)

Parts of the fort were lost to the widening of the Chicago River in 1855, and a fire in 1857. The last vestiges of Fort Dearborn were destroyed in theGreat Chicago Fireof 1871. The site of the fort is now aChicago Landmark,located in theMichigan–Wacker Historic District,at the southern end of theDuSable Michigan Avenue Bridge.

Background

edit
Diagram of the first Fort Dearborn

Historic events

edit

Human activity in the Chicago area prior to the arrival of European explorers is mostly unknown. In 1673, an expedition headed byLouis JollietandJacques Marquettewas the first recorded to have crossed theChicago Portageand traveled along the Chicago River.[2]Marquette returned in 1674, and camped for a few days near the mouth of the river. He moved to the portage, where he camped through the winter of 1674–75. Joliet and Marquette did not report any Native Americans living near the Chicago River area at that time.[3]Archaeologists, however, have discovered numerous historic Indian village sites dating to that time elsewhere in the Chicago region.[4]

In 1682,René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Sallehad claimed a large territory (including the Chicago area), for France.[5]Two ofde La Salle's men built a stockade at the portage in the winter of 1682/1683.[6]

In 1763, following defeat in theFrench and Indian War,the French ceded this area toGreat Britain.It became a region within theirProvince of Quebec.Great Britain later ceded the area to theUnited States(at the end of theAmerican Revolutionary War), although theNorthwest Territoryremained underde factoBritish control until about 1796.[7]

Following defeat of several Native American tribes in theNorthwest Indian Warof 1785–1795, theTreaty of Greenvillewas signed between the US and several chiefs at Fort Greenville (nowGreenville, Ohio), on August 3, 1795. As part of the terms of this treaty, a coalition ofNative AmericansandFrontiers men,known as theWestern Confederacy,ceded to theUnited Stateslarge parts of modern-dayOhio,Michigan,Indiana,Wisconsin,and Illinois. This included "six miles square" centered from the mouth of the Chicago River.[8][9]

Local events

edit

A French-Jesuit mission, theMission of the Guardian Angel,was founded somewhere in the vicinity in 1696, but was abandoned around 1700.[10]TheFox Warseffectively closed the area to Europeans in the first part of the 18th century. The first non-native to re-settle in the area may have been a trader named Guillory, who might have had a trading-post nearWolf Pointon the Chicago River around 1778.[11]

Jean Baptiste Point du Sable,a French-speaking colonist of African descent, built a prosperous farm and trading post near the mouth of the Chicago River in the 1780s, at a site directly across the river from the future fort.[12]A settlement developed there and he is widely regarded as the founder of Chicago.[13][14]Antoine Ouilmetteis the next recorded resident of Chicago; he claimed to have settled at the mouth of the Chicago River in July 1790.[15]

First Fort Dearborn

edit
Artist's rendering of a bird's-eye view of the original Fort Dearborn

On March 9, 1803,Henry Dearborn,theSecretary of War,wrote toColonel Jean Hamtramck,the commandant ofDetroit,instructing him to have an officer and six men survey the route from Detroit to Chicago, and to make a preliminary investigation of the situation at Chicago.[16]Captain John Whistlerwas selected as commandant of the new post, and set out with six men to complete the survey. The survey completed, on July 14, 1803, a company of troops set out to make the overland journey from Detroit to Chicago. Whistler and his family made their way to Chicago on aschoonercalled theTracy.The troops reached their destination on August 17.[17]TheTracywas anchored about half a mile offshore, unable to enter the Chicago River due to a sandbar at its mouth. Julia Whistler, the wife of Captain Whistler's son, Lieutenant William Whistler, later related that 2000 Indians gathered to see theTracy.[18][19]The troops had completed the construction of the fort by the summer of 1804;[20]it was a log-built fort enclosed in a doublestockade,with twoblockhouses(see diagram above).[17]The fort was namedFort Dearborn,afterU.S. Secretary of WarHenry Dearborn,who had commissioned its construction.

The Kinzie Mansion. Fort Dearborn is in the background.[21]

A fur trader,John Kinzie,who bought the old Du Sable property, arrived in Chicago in 1804, and rapidly became the civilian leader of the small settlement that grew around the fort.[17]In 1810, Kinzie and Whistler became embroiled in a dispute over Kinzie supplying alcohol to the Indians. In April, Whistler and other senior officers at the fort were removed; Whistler was replaced as commandant of the fort byCaptain Nathan Heald.[22]

Battle of Fort Dearborn

edit
Main article:Battle of Fort Dearborn

During theWar of 1812,GeneralWilliam Hullordered the evacuation of Fort Dearborn in August 1814. Captain Heald oversaw the evacuation, but on August 15, the evacuees were ambushed along the trail by about 500PotawatomiIndians in theBattle of Fort Dearborn.The Potawatomi captured Heald and his wife, Rebekah, and ransomed them to theBritish.Of the 148 soldiers, women, and children who evacuated the fort, 86 were killed in the ambush. The Potawatomi burned the fort to the ground the next day.

Second Fort Dearborn

edit
Fort Dearborn in 1850
Fort Dearborn in 1856

Following the war, a second Fort Dearborn was built (1816). This fort consisted of a double wall of woodenpalisades,officer and enlistedbarracks,a garden, and other buildings. The American forces garrisoned the fort until 1823, when peace with the Indians led the garrison to be deemed redundant. The temporary abandonment lasted until 1828, when it was re-garrisoned following theoutbreak of warwith theWinnebagoIndians.[23]In her 1856 memoir,Wau Bun,Juliette Kinziedescribed the fort as it appeared on her arrival in Chicago in 1831:

The fort was inclosed [sic] by high pickets, with bastions at the alternate angles. Large gates opened to the north and south, and there were small portions here and there for the accommodation of the inmates.... Beyond the parade-ground which extended south of the pickets, were the company gardens, well filled with currant-bushes and young fruit-trees. The fort stood at what might naturally be supposed to be the mouth of the river, yet it was not so, for in these days the latter took a turn, sweeping round the promontory on which the fort was built, towards the south, and joined the lake about half a mile below...[24]

The fort was closed briefly before theBlack Hawk Warof 1832 and by 1837, the fort was being used by the Superintendent of Harbor Works. In 1837, the fort and its reserve, including part of the land that becameGrant Park,was deeded to the city by the Federal Government.[25]In 1855, part of the fort was demolished so that the south bank of the Chicago River could be dredged, straightening the bend in the river and widening it at this point by about 150 feet (46 m);[26]and in 1857, a fire destroyed nearly all the remaining buildings in the fort. The remainingblockhouseand few surviving outbuildings were destroyed in theGreat Chicago Fireof 1871.

Legacy and monuments

edit
Fort Dearborn in 1853

The southern perimeter of Fort Dearborn was located at what is now the intersection ofWacker DriveandMichigan Avenuein theLoopcommunity areaof Chicago along theMagnificent Mile.Part of the fort outline is marked byplaques,and a line embedded in the sidewalk and road near theMichigan Avenue BridgeandWacker Drive.A few boards from the old fort were retained and are now in theChicago History MuseuminLincoln Park.

First Presbyterian Church (Chicago),the longest continuously-operating institution in Chicago was founded in the carpentry shop of Fort Dearborn on June 26, 1833 and today is located inWoodlawn, Chicago[27]

On March 5, 1899, theChicago Tribunepublicized aChicago Historical Societyreplica of the original fort.[28]

In 1933, at theCentury of Progress Exhibition,a detailed replica of Fort Dearborn was erected as a fair exhibit.[29][30][31]As part of the celebration, both a United States one-centpostage stampand asouvenir sheet(containing 25 of the stamps) were issued, showing the fort. The individual stamp and sheet were reprinted whenPostmaster GeneralJames A. Farleygaveimperforatedexamples of these, and other stamps, to his friends. Because of the ensuing public outcry, millions of copies of "Farley's Follies" were printed and sold.

In 1939, the Chicago City Council added a fourth star to thecity flagto represent Fort Dearborn. This star is depicted as the left-most, or first, star of the flag.[32]

The site of the fort was designated aChicago Landmarkon September 15, 1971.[33]

An elementary school in theChicago Public Schoolssystem is named after Fort Dearborn.[34]

edit
  • Modern Commemorations
  • Fort Dearborn 1808 layout
  • London Guarantee Buildingwith large relief above the entrance commemorating Fort Dearborn
  • A plaque on Michigan avenue
  • A marker showing the fort's southern perimeter

See also

edit

References

edit
  1. ^Kinzie 1856; p. 182.
  2. ^Quaife 1913,pp. 22–24
  3. ^Quaife 1933,p. 18
  4. ^Swenson, John F."Chicago: Meaning of the Name and Location of Pre-1800 European Settlements".Early Chicago.Early Chicago Inc.RetrievedSeptember 13,2010.
  5. ^Worth, Richard (2006).Louisiana, 1682-1803.National Geographic Books. p. 19.ISBN978-0-7922-6544-3.
  6. ^Mason, Edward (1901).Chapters from Illinois History.Chicago: Herbert S. Stone and Company. p.144.RetrievedAugust 25,2010.
  7. ^Quaife 1933,pp. 63–64
  8. ^Charles J. Kappler (1904)."Treaty With the Wyandot, etc., 1795".U.S. Government treaties with Native Americans.Oklahoma State University Library. Archived fromthe originalon November 8, 2010.RetrievedApril 17,2011.
  9. ^"Fort Dearborn";Encyclopedia of Chicagoonline; accessed August 8, 2009]
  10. ^Briggs, Winstanley (2005)."Mission of the Guardian Angel".The Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago.Chicago Historical Society.RetrievedAugust 6,2010.
  11. ^Meehan, Thomas A. (1963). "Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, the First Chicagoan".Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society.56(3): 439–453.JSTOR40190620.
  12. ^Pacyga 2009,p. 12
  13. ^Baumann, Timothy E. (December 2005). "The Du Sable Grave Project in St. Charles, Missouri".The Missouri Archaeologist.66:59–76.
  14. ^Graham, Shirley (1953).Jean Baptiste Pointe De Sable Founder of Chicago.Julian Messner.RetrievedApril 16,2011.
  15. ^Letter of Antoine Ouilmette to John H. Kinzie, June 1, 1839; reproduced inBlanchard, Rufus (1898).Discovery and Conquests of the Northwest, with the History of Chicago (volume 1).R. Blanchard and Company. p.574.RetrievedSeptember 7,2010.
  16. ^Quaife 1933,pp. 65–66
  17. ^abcPacyga 2009,p. 13
  18. ^Currey 1912,p. 24
  19. ^Quaife 1933,p. 72
  20. ^Quaife 1933,p. 75
  21. ^Lossing, Benson (1868).The Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1812.Harper & Brothers, Publishers. p. 303.
  22. ^Pacyga 2009,p. 14
  23. ^Currey 1912,p. 188
  24. ^Kinzie 1856,pp. 183–184
  25. ^"United States v. Illinois Cent. R. CO., 154 U.S. 225 (1894)".Retrieved15 May2011.
  26. ^Andreas, Alfred T. (1884).History of Chicago, Volume 1.A. T. Andreas. p.238.RetrievedSeptember 19,2010.
  27. ^Eyre, Ethel. A History of the First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, 1933-1941. Works Progress Administration
  28. ^""Replica of the Original Fort Dearborn," Chicago Tribune, 5 March 1899 ".Encyclopedia of Chicago.Chicago Historical Society.Retrieved2011-12-30.
  29. ^Lohr, Lenox R. (1952).Fair Management. The Story of a Century of Progress.The Cuneo Press.
  30. ^"Rebuilding Old Fort Tests Engineers' Skill".Popular Mechanics.55(1): 48–49. January 1931.Retrieved2011-04-18.
  31. ^"Reproduction of Fort Dearborn at the Century of Progress Exposition, 1933".Encyclopedia of Chicago.Chicago Historical Society.Retrieved2011-12-30.
  32. ^"Municipal Flag of Chicago".Chicago Public Library. 2009.Retrieved2009-03-04.
  33. ^"Site of Fort Dearborn".City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development, Commission on Chicago Landmarks. 2020.Retrieved7 April2022.
  34. ^"School Details Page | Chicago Public Schools".

Bibliography

edit
edit
Wikimedia Commons has media related toFort Dearborn.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fort_Dearborn&oldid=1254053215"