A Brief History of Frontier Chicago

Jay Laurent
Oregon High School, Oregon

What is the frontier? I define the frontier as "the beginning of a settlement caused by the movement of people to new territories." According to Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, the definition of frontier is, "a region that forms the margin of settled or developed territory." In this paper I describe and explain the frontier as it relates to the city of Chicago.

From 1681 to 1785, the French possessed the area, and later they ceded it to England. Little is known about Chicago and the surrounding area in this time period. Later, when peace was declared between the colonists and the English, border Indian warfare became common in the western states. This warfare continued until 1795 when General Wayne invited chiefs of tribes to arrange a peace treaty. The Indians gave up a piece of land six miles square by Lake Michigan. This was the first land trade of Chicago and marked the beginning of thousands of future land transfers.

The Potawatomi Indians occupied the region where Chicago exists today. They lived throughout most of northeastern Illinois, but mainly lived in the Chicago region. They were the largest of nations in the west and were very active in the wars against the whites.

Before Chicago had been settled, explorers knew about it and visited it. Indians and frontiersmen commonly traded there, but no actual settlement existed until the 1850s.

The first place people started to build their cabins in Chicago was called Wolf's Point. It was envisioned to be the center of the town, and was thought to be the most practical site for a village. On the north side was the Miller House, a log house that served as a tavern. Opposite the Miller house was another tavern called "Rat Castle" that served as the school house, the church, and the store. Elijah Wentworth, who was usually known by the name "Old Geese," owned this place. North of Wentworth's tavern, Father Walker erected a place of worship and a school house. Wentworth's tavern was no doubt the best kept in Chicago and it is where individuals considered "men of character" visited when they were in town. It was also the headquarters of General Scott during the Black Hawk War. South of "Rat Castle" was the residence of James Kinzie. Nearby was the storehouse of Robert A. Kinzie, who continued the Indian trade his father began. His store carried groceries, Indian goods, and other supplies for settlers. There were also many other taverns in the area.

In 1804 the government built Fort Dearborn on the south bank of the river. Kinzie and his son, John H., were traders and the only white settlers until 1812, when the Potawatomi Indians massacred them as they were trying to escape. In 1816 Fort Dearborn was rebuilt and was commonly used as a rest stop for immigrants moving westward.

No more than six or seven families lived there prior to 1827. In that year Congress made a grant of land so that a canal could be dug to connect the waters of Lake Michigan and the Illinois River. In 1829 the state legislature directed a committee to mark out the path of the canal and had a surveyor plat out the town. In his inaugural speech in 1818 and his valedictory speech in 1822, Governor Shadrach Bond, Illinois' first governor, stressed the importance of connecting the Illinois River and Lake Michigan. From 1821 to 1822, Congress passed an act granting "permission to the State of Illinois to cut a canal through the public lands connecting the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and granting to it the breadth of the canal and ninety feet on each side of it." The act stipulated "that the State should permit all articles belonging to the United States, or to any person in their employ, to pass toll free, forever." This canal greatly influenced Chicago's development. As one early Illinois historian wrote, "The Illinois-and-Michigan Canal gave Chicago the first start in modern times and now it bids fair to be the largest city in the valley of the Mississippi." In 1829 commissioners accepted the idea of laying out Chicago on the land surrounding the canal. When surveyor James Thompson made the first map of Chicago in 1830, it marked the legal start of the city. At that point, the frontier age of Chicago drew to a close because its development had earned it a spot on the map.— [From John Reynolds, The Pioneer History of Illinois; James W. Sheahan, Chicago.]

ILLINOIS HISTORY / DECEMBER 2000 13