Show sh nan I 1 10 h t ID b cly P IN k H i en APT al A V V T q Y m by ELMO SCOTT WATSON ity if to picture it a Fill dimple uple little frame house lug ing oil MI the llie wooded shot shores es of a lazily flowing dotting only a few tulles froni from a great city where tile roar and clatter of traffic never day or night iut but out hero here those these hounds ands ni tire u muffled and lost in the rip ong of the stream atti nuil and the murmur of tho the wind lit in tho the branches branche i of tile elms elins and waples maples around the louse thero sits it gray haired bounin eyes dimmed aud and liend head bowed by the weight of nearly a hundred yearn dreaming perhaps of the long ago when tier her fathers people ruled a wilderness into which but few white wen nieu had dared to io venture that was tho the picture which you might have seen until recently in the cook county forest preserve near chicago cago where mrs mary alary robinson roger linger daughter of alexander robin aoh eon or choo chee chu aln quay chief of the ChIpp chippeway ewas ind and ot tawas made her ber homo home for more than 11 urte 1 quarters of a century tile ta PL 6 ather i 1 day sho slipped quietly into pud end I 1 lees ess bleep bleed and tier lier death snapped tho the lisk last link between the modern bjes chicago and tile tho little fort deni deal born from which it sprang the last echio too ton of tile fort inas sacre a frontier tragedy which in the lilb history tory of tile thu middle li 14 curiously to the rort rt william henry in III the alie kast t which forms the climax tit in coopers capers alast last of the lio Muhl Moli leans cans t for her father Alexan alexander clor robinson ilson w wa 4 our one or of tile friendly fil endly hofe whose hose friendship for the whites 11 macd ky 1 I eliat bloody affair from being one of utter horror himself ishii wan it a halfbreed half breed the son pon of it a scotch and an ottawa ottava indian woman yh apo 0 was wai born nt at midi mich it in 89 lie ile made hla his hoine with his bothers people and saw tile ottaway ad ol 01 other con federated trifles crushed by I 1 mad anthony wayne at tile alie brattle 11 atle of vallen fallen timbers in 1704 al ti though ugh lie was only ivo years eara old nt at I 1 time robinson retained a vivid recollection of what lie he saw on that morable toe occasion and in lits his inter ars years often told liln him thrilling story to alls white friends later lie he married it woman and become became a edlef of that tribe rat at the outbreak of tile the war of 1812 ith ingon wits was living near fort dearborn which had been built on the present site of chicago lit in 1803 lie ile ind had formed a fast friendship with john azle often called the tha father of chicago ten n 1 it trader ond and silversmith ho 1 aled rip nair ar fort dearborn lit in 60 1 and it was this friendship which f Robah ly influenced lihn to play tho the I 1 which he did on oil tile tho fateful day ft if 15 1812 for pome time to tile nm sicre ere tile thu little arilson arr lson EY ay capt nathan heald hit lind hin b n ial led by various hostile metr of tho adins who wore were hanging around alic yost but lid did not until the middle of thi I 1 rummer nimmer then on august 9 1 impald received ayed orders front from general hull at detroit to evacuates the post destroy ahe he arms and ammunition distribute yip hp stor ditona from the government factory tory among the friendly Indin indians ris and proceed proceed to fort wayne ind although beald aenid realized fully now haw perilous the tha of this order would he be he ad no other chalce but to obey so the e evacuation of tho fort wua planned for august 15 ar 1 I lu in the meantime capt Willi william aln wells a n famous frontiersman who had scouted for wayne hastened to dearborn from loin vort rort boyne with 15 friendly indiana to escort fealds command to tho the post in indiana wells favorite niece wells wellis was wag fealds wife und wells knowing well the temper of the around fort dearborn Dp arhorn was willing to risk ills his life if need be the day before tile the evacuation the goods were distributed tho the indians who had begun to awil beann rill around tho the post us as soon na its the news that it was to bo be abandoned had spread i but till nil 0 of tile the extra ammunition and 11 laige store of whisky were destroyed although it Is virtually certain that IIo alda command would have been attacked any anyway wity tills this destruction so ln in fur tho the indians that tho the carrl sons sona doom dooin was seated sealed then and there that evening black billack Il partridge artridge a friendly chief came to and warned him that his young warriors warr lora wore were bent ola OH rill mischief calef tind aliat he fie probably could not restrain them from attack on the morrow lint but it wits was too latt late then cien to turn back the next ironing there ther LS issued sued forth from the tort fort alij th saddest procession michigan elligan All avenue has ever known tile garrison of fort dearborn marching to what they realized was waa their death nt at the head of the column rode captain wells his fan palli painted ted black tit in anticipation of ills his fate next caino camo tho the regular soldiers and in the rear in wagons rodo rode the women and children guarded by the citizens who lived near the fort and who lind had been enrolled by heald as militia A mile and a halt half south of the fort the indians hidden among the sand rand hills attacked the struggle was brief but ln in the short time it lasted th thero pro were deeds of heroism which would fill volumes when the battle was over 20 25 regular soldiers 12 0 nil hillida lida 2 women and 12 children were dead and 11 the I 1 e remainder were in the hands hand 3 of tile the indiana us as prisoners captain Il heald ettlI had surrendered to black bird the principal chief when he saw that further was useless and would meau the death of all after they were overcome noth both ho hd and ills his wife wp were re badly wounded somo some of tile the prisoners were tortured to death that night and others saved fur dunsom among tho the latter were captain and mra because bause the indians realized that they could demund demand a I 1 largo sum mim of money fur for the und and they were turned over to alexander robinson tile tho next day their captors set act out for tile the st joseph river in where tho the were left in the custody of a few indiana while the other away to take part in an it attack on fort wayne in their absence a chance to escape presented itself alexander was wa prevailed upon to conduct them thein to lit in hasl hi canoe for which h tee li was to poy pay him blin a hundred IV Q ej e dollars disregarding the danger to himself when ills his tribe tribesmen returned and found that their prisoners had escaped by ills wife set out on oil the 30 mile journey them they paddled the entire length of luke lake michigan arid after 10 16 days nr rived nt at where tho the heald were turned over to the british S h c commander oin captain roberts they were treated kindly and eventually paroled and allowed to return to tbell honio in louisville ky IC Y tho the indians indiana had bad burned fort dearborn after tile massacre but it was waa rebuilt in islo robinson t eualo dill I 1 0 ills hla homo home near the fort and became known as a stead steadfast fait friend of tile tho whites 3 at the outbreak of tile winn wanne bago war in 1827 it was due to hla efforts and to those of two other pot ilot chiefs and sang billly kally caldwell CRl dwell that the pot ilot 4 did not join the winne bagdes and attack fort dearborn again in fit 1832 robinson held hla his tribesmen in check when they would have joined black the sac leader sri in his war agu against ilist the whites instead of turning hostile robinson and some come of ills his warr warriors Jors served as 09 scouts forthe fort lie armies anniles of at kindoll and general henry which finally subdued black hawk robinson served as interpreter for gen lewis cuss tit at the treaty with the chippeway ChIpp ewas in 1830 1820 and his namo name appears on the two treaties of prairie du ch achlen I 1 of 1829 and 1834 ily by these treaties the lh sum eum of was granted to robinson for his bla sery ices to the alie whites and each of hla his children a son nun and two daughters was given lit in oddi addition tion lie ho was waa given ji large tract of land ou on the desplaines Desplain Despi alnea ea river near chicago and there lie he lived until hla his death in 1872 ills wife and son died the next year and the land came into the possession of ills hla daughter mary robinson who had bad married francis It linger tiger R trader later the principal part of the land was purchased by cook county to be used as a forest preserve but ter ten acres including the plot where tier father mother and brother bir are bujel were reserved for her during her lifetime theresha there alio had lived for the haq las 75 years on the border of civilization but utterly apart from it duktig all tier her lifetime she never rode in fit a street car or automo bUp and daring the last 80 30 years of it she never vii visited tho the city of CIl chicago leago there in tile tiny fragment of the wilderness that had once been site shu lived in the forgotten past until tier her death deah on january 8 1027 closed forever tile the last chapter of indian history in tho tha old northwest |