Show by ELMO SCOTT WATSON IY to picture a simple little frame house stand ing on the w coded shores of a lazily flowing stream only a few miles from a great city where the roar and clatter of traffic never ceases day or night but out here these sounds are muffled and lost in the rip pling of the stream and the murmur of the wind in the branches of the elms and maples around the house there bits a gray haired woman eves dimmed and head bowed by the of nearly a hundred sears dreaming perli aps of the long ago when her fa thera people ruled a wilderness into which but few white men had dared to venture that was the picture which you might have seen until recently in alie cook county forest preserve near chicago where mrs mary rager daughter of alexander robin son or chee chu pin quay chief of the and ot tawas made her home tor more than three quarters of a century the other day slie slipped quietly into end less sleep and her death snipped the last link between the modern oils and the little fort dearborn from which it prang it was the last echo too of the fort dearborn massacre a frontier biag edy which in the history of the middle est Is curiously analogous to the fort AVill tam aenry massacre in the east which forms the climax in conner s last of the mohicans cans for her father alexander was one of the friendly pottawatomie chiefs whose friendship for the whites saved that bloody affair from being one of utter horror himself was a half breed the eon of a scotch trader and an ottava indian woman who was born at mackinac Mackl nac mich in 1789 lie made his home with his mothers people and saw the ottaway and other tribes crushed by mad anthony aasne at the battle of fallen timbers in 1794 AI though he was only five sears old at the time robinson retained a vivid recollection of what he siw on eliat memorable oc ciston and in his later koars often told his thrilling story to his white friends later he married a woman and became a chief of that tribe at the outbreak of the war of 1812 robinson was living near fort dearborn which had been built on the ent site of chicago in 1803 lie had formed a fast friendship with john kinzle often called the father of chicago a trader and silversmith who settled near fort dearborn in 1804 and it was this friendship which probably influenced him to play the role which he did on the fateful day of august 15 1812 for some time previous to the mas sacre the little garrison commanded by capt nathan had been alarmed bv various hostile acts of the indians who were hanging around alie post but did not become threatening until alie middle of the eummer then on august 0 received order from general hull at detroit to evacuate evi cuate the post destroy the arms and ammunition distribute the stores aiom the government factory among the friendly indians and proceed to fort aane av ne ind although elenid realized fully how perilous the execution of thas order would be he had no other choice but to obey so the evacuation of the fort was planned for august 15 in the capt william wells a famous frontiersman who had scouted for wayne hastened to dear boru from fort W ayne with 15 friend ly miami to escort command to the post in indiana wells favorite niece rebekah wella was a wife and wells knowing well the temper of the indians around fort dearborn was willing to risk his life if need be the day before the evacuation the goods were distributed among the in deans who had begun to swarm around the post as soon as the news that it was to be abandoned had spread but all of the ettra ammunition and a large store of whisky were destroyed although it Is virtually certain that command would hae been at tad ed an way this destruction so in fur the indians that the garri sons doom was scaled then and there that black partridge a friendly pottawatomie chief came to and warned him that his young warriors were bent on mischief and that he probably could not restrain them from attack on the morrow but it was too late t en to turn back the next morning there issued forth from the fort the saddest procession michigan avenue has eer known the garrison of fort dearborn march ing to what they realized realised reali sed was their death at the head of the column rode captain wells his face painted black in anticipation of his fate dext came the regular soldiers and in the rear in wagons rode the women and children guarded by the citizens who ched near the fort and who had been enrolled by as militia A mile and a hal fouth of the fort the in deans hidden among the sand hills attacked the struggle was brief but in the short time it lasted there were deeds of heroism which would fill volumes when the battle was over 25 reg ular soldiers 12 militia 2 women and 12 children were dead and the remainder were in the of the indians as prisoners captain had surrendered to black bird the principal pottawatomie chief when he saw that further resistance was use less and would mean the death of all after they were overcome both he and his wife were badly wounded some of the prisoners were tortured to death that night and others saved for ransom among the latter were captain and sirs because the indians realized that they could demand a large sum of money tor the commander and they were turned ocr to alexander robinson the nest day their captors set out for the st joseph in michigan where the were left in the cus todi of a few indians while the othar indians sped aay to take part in an attack on fort wane in their ab eunce a chance to escape presented itself alexinder robinson was prevailed upon to conduct them to mackinac Mackl nac in hl canoe for which ice was to pay him a hundred dollars disregarding the danger to himself when his tribesmen returned and found that their prisoners had escaped robinson accompanied by his wife set out on the mile journey they paddled the entire length of lake michigan and after ag days ar rived at where the were turned over to the british commander captain roberts they were treated kindly and eventually paroled and allowed to return to their home in louisville ky the indians had burned fort dearborn after the massacre but it was rebuilt in 1810 robinson again made his home near the fort and became known as a steadfast friend of the whites at the outbreak of the vilace bago war in it was due to his efforts and to those of two other pot taw atomic chiefs Sh abbona and abash hilly caldwell that the pot did not join the bagdes and attack fort dearborn again in 1832 robinson held his tribesmen in check when they would have joined black hawk the sac leader in his war against the whites instead of turning hostile robinson and some of his warriors served as scouts for the armies of general at unson and general henry which finally subdued black hawk robinson bened as interpreter for gen lewis cass nt the treaty with the in 1820 and bis name appears on the two treaties of prairie du achlen of 1829 and 1834 by these treaties the sum of was granted to robinson tor his services to the whites and each of his children a son and two daughters was given in addition be was eh en a laige tract of land ou the river near chicago and there he lived until his death in 1872 ills wife and son died the next year and the land came into the possession of his daughter mary robinson who had married francis rager a trader later the principal part of the land was by cook county to be used a forest preserve but ten including the plot where her father mother and brother are burled were reserved tor her during her lifetime there she had ih ed for the last 75 ears on the border of civilization but utterly apart from it during all her lifetime she never rode in a street car or automobile and during the last SO years of it ehe never la eted the city of chicago there in the tiny fragment 0 the wilderness that had once been she lived in the forgotten past until her death on january 8 1027 closed forever the last chapter of indian history in the old |