Show jolls sl V mp I 1 S W OR r M IS a Q ar n 4 am chicago in 1570 0 from an old print AJ chicago in 1832 froen an old arnt hi JA y k A N ga ear rn in 1503 the Dearbo Z 13 e I 1 I 1 by ELMO SCOTT WATSON LIE HE city of 0 chicago is planning to celebrate its one hundredth birthday and when it does it will invite the whole world to join in the celebration recently ground was broken on the site where in 1933 will be held A century of 0 progress exposition position Rs and work on the erection of buildings already has begun although that event Is two years hence chicago this year began to look back upon its century of existence for it was on august 4 1830 that the town was platted the streets and lots lots laid laid out and the first map made in the total area of chica chicago go was three eights of a square mile it had a population of less than persons in 1930 chicago covers an expanse of 2105 square miles and it has a population of more than people and that tells the story in brief of the most amazing growth of a city in all history chicago Is the fourth largest city in the world with its years of history it bows only to london with its 2000 years to new york with its years and to berlin with its years although this child of a swamp bor for the greater part of its present area was once nothing but a mosquito ridden tract of sodden ground can count back only years as an organized sed com inanity and only 97 07 years it was incorporated in 1833 hence the celebration in 1933 as a municipality in reality its recorded history goes back nearly years its name was first spoken by an indian some time far back in the unrecorded years before the white man came to the middle west A party of indian fox hunters so runs the legend pursued a large skunk which made its home along the southern shore of lake michigan into the lake and killed it from that time on the southern part of lake michigan was known to the sauk sank fox and kickapoo Klc kapoo tribes as shek agua meaning skunk or meaning the place of the skunk that is the version of the origin of the name chicago as given in the publications of the american bureau of ethnology another version Is given in the journal of a certain boutel companion of la salle until the death of that ill fated explorer in texas in 1687 leading the s survivors of la salles texan expedition back to canada boutel arrived at the present site of chicago on march 29 20 IM 1088 bad weather compelled them to remain there ten miserable days during which time they almost starved to death they had only a small amount of corn meal but they supplemented this with edible plants plant among them woods garlic or the wild onion and boutel records the fact that the indians called this place chec aque meaning wild onion Chec aqua a slight variation of the word Is said to have been the indian adjective for strong powerful mighty or strong smelling boutel however was not the first white man to visit the site of the present chicago tor for countrymen of his were there nearly 20 years earlier it Is believed by some that la salle visited the place in 1670 but the first authentically recorded visit by white men was that of jollet joliet and marquette who passed that way on their return trip from the expedition down the mississippi in the autumn of 1673 marquette returned there again in december 1674 on his way to establish a m mission I 1 assion among the illinois indians and because of illness was forced to spend the winter there the next french visitor to chicago was father claude allouez successor of marquette who reached there in the spring of 1677 on his way to establish the promised to the illinois indians la salle was the next visitor in 1078 1678 and no doubt others passed that way for th the e chicago portage the short connecting link between the two great waterways of the continent the great lakes st SL lawrence aud and the mississippi made it the natural path of tile the explorers just as in later years it was to become the natural path of commerce and settlement and to be one of the main factors in building up the mighty city of the present As previously stated boutel was there in 1088 1699 and he at was as followed in igsa by la fontan explorer extraordinary according to his own account and maker of inaccurate maps chicago has been the butt of many jokes and one of the earliest ones was the product of indian humor for it was the red man who said that the first white settler of chicago was a ne cepro rol his name was jean baptiste point du kalble there Is much dispute about this man one account represents him as a native of san domingo while another states that he wal waa a runaway slave from the vicinity of lexington ky it is known that he was at chicago as eaily as 1779 although p I 1 re I 1 alt sw I 1 khz sa 1 4 V t e IA artie eltra the base of his trading operations was on the present site of michigan city ind the bear 5 ear 1790 found him established at chicago near the mouth of the river but how long he remained there Is unknown certainly lie he seems to be more entitled to the honor of being the first settler non indian than does john kinzie the reputed father of chicago that title might be applied to one of several men depending on what your definition of father might be for george washington father of his country might also be called the father of chicago in 1795 1705 president washington ordered gen anthony wayne who had bad just concluded his successful campaign against the indians of the northwest and was preparing to make a treaty of beace peace with them to purchase from the indians a piece of land six miles square at the mouth of the chicago river emptying into alno the southwest end of lake michigan where a fort formerly stood and this was included in the Treaty of greenville which was vlas signed on august 7 1795 washington clearly saw that this site was chekey to possession of the old northwest and no doubt decided that if the united states government held it they could hold bold that vast empire against the british and the indians that title also might be applied to capt john whistler who arrived there in 1803 with a body of troops to build a tort fort for when lie he erected the first fort dearborn named in honor of secretary of war henry dearborn it marked tile the real beginning of the present metropolis around that fort was to cluster the settlement which eventually was to become a town of inhabitants and a hundred years tears later a city of more than when whistler and his men came to chica chicago 0 they found four huts or cabins there belonging to some french canadian traders one wa was occupied by le mal mai who had bought boughs out du kalble gaible one by antoine whose those name Is preserved in the present chicago suburb of wilmette and a third by louis and his big indian wife the fourth belonged to john kinzle kinzie a trader and silversmith who apparently had his headquarters elsewhere at that time probably at st joseph mich kinzle kinzie did not come to chicago to make it his home until early in 1804 ile he then occupied the hut in which du kalble and le mal mai had in turn lived continued his trading business which prospered and made hirn him the leading member of the civilian population around fort dearborn the story of the first fort dearborn is so BO familiar as to need no repetition how for nine years a small body of american troops commanded first by captain whistler and later by capt nathan endured the privations of this lonely outpost on the frontier how tile the threat of an indian uprising became more ominous as the certainty of war with great britain increased and how that threat culminated in the tragedy of august 15 1812 popularly known as the fort dearborn massacre for on that day captain heald in obedience to orders froni from a superior officer which left him film no alternative but to obey evacuated the post and marched south along the sand dunes there to be attacked by the fierce in an orgy of bloodshed which will forever remain one of the tragic memories in the history of chicago that night the indians burned the fort and the next five years marks a hiatus in the story of chicago on july 4 1817 another body of troops arrived and began the construction of another fort dearborn which was occupied for tour four years when the government ordered its evacuation in 1827 IS occurred the winnebago war which for a time furnished plenty of excitement for chicago and led eventually to the reoccupation of the fort foot but this war was a short lived elivea one and in the spring of 1831 the fort was again abandoned less than a year later however it was again gar hotel and ana the outbreak of the war saw fort dearborn and the recently platted village of chicago crowded with panic stricken settlers the next few months were filled with suffering both from fear of the red man and from an epidemic of cholera but the plague and the war ended almost simultaneously and with the inrush of white settlers which followed the smashing of Elack hawks power the rise of the future great city began fort dearborn had not only been an important military post but it was also the center of the governments relations with the indians the outcome of the blackhawk war was the handwriting on the wall for the red man and as the tide of immigration into the rich illinois country set in it became evident that the indian must move on visitors to the exposition in 1033 will be able to see a landmark which symbolizes the pasI passing hg of the red man and the final conquest of the old northwest by the whites it is a giant elm curt curl audly bent by the indians while still a sapling stands in a part of chicago known as sauganash Sau ganash because it includes the reservation of 1600 acres granted chief sauganash Sau ganash billy caldwell leader of the and one of the heroes of the fort dearborn massacre under this elm were held the negotiations for the treaty made in 1835 1815 after chief sauganash Sau ganash had persuaded ILIS his tribesmen to accept the governments terms and leave their ancestral home forever another such landmark Is in the heart of the famous chicago loop it Is a bronze tablet marking the site of the sauganash Sau ganash hotel established by mark beaubien Beau blen in 1829 as Chi cagos first hostelry here on august 5 1833 a public meeting was held to decide upon the incorporation of achl chicago as a town A total of 12 votes was cast for incorporation and one against lt IL five days later the first town election was held in the sauganash Sau ganash six men who afterwards were voters arrived just before he election was held and in all 28 votes were cast electing four trustees and a president ert of the town ward board it Is this event which furnishes the motif for the celebration two yearn year hence but this Is only the beginning of the events which are to be celebrated for as the title of the exposition indicates it will be held in honor of the progress of chicago from a town with a population of less than in 1833 to a city of more than in 1937 and of more than by the time of the civil war then came chica Chi cagos gos great disaster the fire of 1871 to wipe out nearly all that had so far been accomplished but instead of 14 killing he city the conflagration seemed to only spur the young giant on chicago rose from the ashes to build and grow on an even greater scale and GO CO years after its organization as a municipality found it playing host to the world in fit one of the greatest celebrations ever held the he worlds columbian exposition of 1893 it was about this time that one of Chi Clil cagos leading citizens daniel H burnham father ot of the tha city improvement plan which is now making chicago not only one of the greatest but one of the most beautiful cities of the world uttered t these bese words make no little plans they have no magic to bair mens anens blood and probably themselves will not be realized slake make big plans remember that our sons nud and grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us let your watchword be order and your beacon bea beauty lity and it Is to show liow low well this child of a swamp has heeded those words that chicago Is the world to come to the pa party arty in 1933 Q by western newspaper union |