Editing Fort Dearborn

{{Short description|Historic fort built at site of Chicago, Illinois, USA}}
{{otheruses|Fort Dearborn (disambiguation)}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox NRHP
 | name = Fort Dearborn
 | nrhp_type = cp
 | image = Fort Dearborn 1831 Kinzie.jpg
 | caption = 1856 drawing showing Fort Dearborn as it appeared in 1831<ref>Kinzie 1856; p. 182.</ref>
 | built = 1803
 | location= [[Chicago, Illinois|Chicago]], [[Illinois]]
 | coordinates = {{Coord|41.88806|-87.62389|format=dms|source:wikidata_region:US-IL_type:landmark|display=inline,title}}
 | locmapin = Chicago
 | area =
 | architect= [[United States Army|U.S. Army]]
 | architecture= log-built fort enclosed in a double [[stockade]]
 | designated_nrhp_type=
 | governing_body =
 | partof_refnum= 78001124
 | partof = [[American frontier]], [[Michigan–Wacker Historic District]]
 |nocat = yes
}}
'''Fort Dearborn''' was a [[United States]] [[fortification|fort]], first built in 1803 beside the [[Chicago River]], in what is now [[Chicago, Illinois]]. It was constructed by U.S. troops under [[Captain (U.S. Army)|Captain]] [[John Whistler]] and named in honor of [[Henry Dearborn]], then [[United States Secretary of War]]. The original fort was destroyed following the [[Battle of Fort Dearborn]] during the [[War of 1812]], and a replacement Fort Dearborn was constructed on the same site in 1816 and decommissioned by 1837.

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 the [[Great Chicago Fire]] of 1871. The site of the fort is now a [[Chicago Landmark]], located in the [[Michigan–Wacker Historic District]], at the southern end of the [[DuSable Bridge|DuSable Michigan Avenue Bridge]].

==Background==
[[File:Plan of first Fort Dearborn.png|thumb|right|250px|Diagram of the first Fort Dearborn]]

===Historic events===
Human activity in the Chicago area prior to the arrival of European explorers is mostly unknown, although it evidently served as a crossing point among many different peoples. <!-- What about oral histories of tribes and archeological work? -->In 1673, an expedition headed by [[Louis Jolliet]] and [[Jacques Marquette]] was the first recorded to have crossed the [[Chicago Portage]] and traveled along the Chicago River.<ref>{{Harvnb|Quaife|1913|pp=22–24}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Quaife|1933|p=18}}</ref> Archaeologists, however, have discovered numerous historic Indian village sites dating to that time elsewhere in the Chicago region.<ref>{{cite web | last=Swenson| first=John F| title=Chicago: Meaning of the Name and Location of Pre-1800 European Settlements| url=http://www.earlychicago.com/essays.php?essay=1| work=Early Chicago| publisher=Early Chicago Inc.| access-date=September 13, 2010}}</ref>

In 1682, [[René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle]] had claimed a large territory (including the Chicago area), for France.<ref>{{cite book | last=Worth| first=Richard| title=Louisiana, 1682-1803| year=2006| publisher=National Geographic Books| isbn=978-0-7922-6544-3| page=19}}</ref> Two of [[René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle|de La Salle]]'s men built a stockade at the portage in the winter of 1682/1683.<ref>{{cite book | last=Mason| first=Edward| title=Chapters from Illinois History| publisher=Herbert S. Stone and Company| location=Chicago| year=1901| page=[https://archive.org/details/chaptersfromilli00maso/page/144 144] | url=https://archive.org/details/chaptersfromilli00maso| access-date=August 25, 2010}}</ref>

In 1763, following defeat in the [[French and Indian War]], the French ceded this area to [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]]. It became a region within their [[Province of Quebec (1763–1791)|Province of Quebec]]. Great Britain later ceded the area to the [[United States]] (at the end of the [[American Revolutionary War]]), although the [[Northwest Territory]] remained under ''[[de facto]]'' British control until about 1796.<ref>{{Harvnb|Quaife|1933|pp=63–64}}</ref>

Following defeat of several Native American tribes in the [[Northwest Indian War]] of 1785–1795, the [[Treaty of Greenville]] was signed between the US and several chiefs at Fort Greenville (now [[Greenville, Ohio]]), on August 3, 1795. As part of the terms of this treaty, a coalition of [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] and [[Frontier|Frontiers men]], known as the [[Western Confederacy]], ceded to the [[United States]] large parts of modern-day [[Ohio]], [[Michigan]], [[Indiana]], [[Wisconsin]], and Illinois. This included "six miles square" centered from the mouth of the Chicago River for the establishment of a U.S. military base.<ref>{{cite web |author=Charles J. Kappler |title=Treaty With the Wyandot, etc., 1795 |url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/wya0039.htm#mn4 |year=1904 |work=U.S. Government treaties with Native Americans |publisher=Oklahoma State University Library |access-date=April 17, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101108135038/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/wya0039.htm#mn4 |archive-date=November 8, 2010 }}</ref><ref>[http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/477.html "Fort Dearborn"]; [[Encyclopedia of Chicago]] online; accessed August 8, 2009]</ref>

===Local events===
A French-Jesuit mission, the [[Mission of the Guardian Angel]], was founded somewhere in the vicinity in 1696, but was abandoned around 1700.<ref name="Briggs">{{cite encyclopedia | last=Briggs| first=Winstanley| title=Mission of the Guardian Angel| url=http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1729.html| encyclopedia=The Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago| publisher=Chicago Historical Society| access-date=August 6, 2010| year=2005}}</ref> The [[Fox Wars]] effectively closed the area to Europeans in the first part of the 18th century. An early non-native to re-settle in the area may have been a trader named Guillory, who might have had a trading-post near [[Wolf Point, Chicago|Wolf Point]] on the Chicago River around 1778.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Meehan| first=Thomas A.| title=Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, the First Chicagoan| journal=Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society| year=1963| volume=56| issue=3| pages=439–453| jstor=40190620}}</ref>

[[Jean Baptiste Point du Sable]], a French-speaking trader and settler 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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Pacyga|2009|p=12}}</ref> A settlement developed there and he is widely regarded as the founder of Chicago.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Baumann| first=Timothy E.| title=The Du Sable Grave Project in St. Charles, Missouri| journal=The Missouri Archaeologist| date=December 2005| volume=66| pages=59–76}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last=Graham| first=Shirley| title=Jean Baptiste Pointe De Sable Founder of Chicago| year=1953| publisher=Julian Messner| url=https://archive.org/details/jeanbaptistepoin009076mbp| access-date=April 16, 2011}}</ref> [[Antoine Ouilmette]] is the next recorded resident of Chicago; he claimed to have settled at the mouth of the Chicago River in July 1790.<ref>Letter of Antoine Ouilmette to John H. Kinzie, June 1, 1839; reproduced in {{cite book | last=Blanchard| first=Rufus| title=Discovery and Conquests of the Northwest, with the History of Chicago (volume 1)| year=1898| publisher=R. Blanchard and Company| page=[https://archive.org/details/discoveryconques00blan/page/574 574]| url=https://archive.org/details/discoveryconques00blan| access-date=September 7, 2010}}</ref>

== First Fort Dearborn ==
[[File:Birds eye view of first Fort Dearborn.jpg|thumb|left|Artist's rendering of a bird's-eye view of the original Fort Dearborn]]
On March 9, 1803, [[Henry Dearborn]], the [[United States Secretary of War|Secretary of War]], wrote to [[Jean François Hamtramck|Colonel Jean Hamtramck]], the commandant of [[Detroit]], 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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Quaife|1933|pp=65–66}}</ref> [[John Whistler|Captain John Whistler]] was 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 a [[schooner]] called the ''Tracy''. The troops reached their destination on August 17.<ref name="Pacyga13">{{Harvnb|Pacyga|2009|p=13}}</ref> The ''Tracy'' was 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 the ''Tracy''.<ref>{{Harvnb|Currey|1912|p=24}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Quaife|1933|p=72}}</ref> The troops had completed the construction of the fort by the summer of 1804;<ref>{{Harvnb|Quaife|1933|p=75}}</ref> it was a log-built fort enclosed in a double [[stockade]], with two [[blockhouse]]s (see diagram above).<ref name="Pacyga13" /> The fort was named ''Fort Dearborn'', after [[Secretary of War|U.S. Secretary of War]] [[Henry Dearborn]], who had commissioned its construction.

[[File:Fort Dearbon.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The Kinzie Mansion. Fort Dearborn is in the background.<ref>{{Cite book | last=Lossing |first=Benson |title=The Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1812 |publisher=Harper & Brothers, Publishers |year=1868 |page=303}}</ref>]]
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.<ref name="Pacyga13" /> 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 by [[Nathan Heald|Captain Nathan Heald]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Pacyga|2009|p=14}}</ref>

===Battle of Fort Dearborn===
{{Main|Battle of Fort Dearborn}}
During the [[War of 1812]], General [[William Hull]] ordered 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 500 [[Potawatomi]] Indians in the [[Battle of Fort Dearborn]]. The Potawatomi captured Heald and his wife, Rebekah, and ransomed them to the [[British Empire|British]]. 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==
[[File:Fort Dearborn in 1850.jpg|thumb|left|Fort Dearborn in 1850]]
[[File:Barracks of Second Fort Dearborn, 1856.jpg|thumb|left|Fort Dearborn in 1856]]
Following the war, a second Fort Dearborn was built (1816). This fort consisted of a double wall of wooden [[palisade]]s, officer and enlisted [[barracks]], 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 the [[Winnebago War|outbreak of war]] with the [[Winnebago (tribe)|Winnebago]] Indians.<ref>{{Harvnb|Currey|1912|p=188}}</ref> In her 1856 memoir, ''Wau Bun'', [[Juliette Augusta Magill Kinzie|Juliette Kinzie]] described the fort as it appeared on her arrival in Chicago in 1831:

{{Quote|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.&nbsp;... 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...<ref>{{Harvnb|Kinzie|1856|pp=183–184}}</ref>}}

The fort was closed briefly before the [[Black Hawk War]] of 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 became [[Grant Park (Chicago)|Grant Park]], was deeded to the city by the Federal Government.<ref>{{cite web | title=United States v. Illinois Cent. R. CO., 154 U.S. 225 (1894)| url=http://www.neweastside.org/1894.html| access-date=15 May 2011}}</ref> 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 {{convert|150|ft|m}};<ref>{{cite book | last=Andreas| first=Alfred T.| title=History of Chicago, Volume 1| year=1884| publisher=A. T. Andreas| url=https://archive.org/details/historyofchicago01inandr| access-date=September 19, 2010| page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofchicago01inandr/page/238 238]}}</ref> and in 1857, a fire destroyed nearly all the remaining buildings in the fort. The remaining [[blockhouse]] and few surviving outbuildings were destroyed in the [[Great Chicago Fire]] of 1871.

{{clear|left}}

==Legacy and monuments==
[[File:Old Fort Dearborn, erected at the mouth of Chicago River for defence against the Indians (NYPL Hades-118858-55009).jpg|thumb|right|Fort Dearborn in 1853]]
The southern perimeter of Fort Dearborn was located at what is now the intersection of [[Wacker Drive]] and [[Michigan Avenue (Chicago)|Michigan Avenue]] in the [[Chicago Loop|Loop]] [[Community areas of Chicago|community area]] of Chicago along the [[Magnificent Mile]]. Part of the fort outline is marked by [[Commemorative plaque|plaque]]s, and a line embedded in the sidewalk and road near the [[Michigan Avenue Bridge]] and [[Wacker Drive]]. A few boards from the old fort were retained and are now in the [[Chicago History Museum]] in [[Lincoln Park, Chicago|Lincoln 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 in [[Woodlawn, Chicago]]<ref>Eyre, Ethel. A History of the First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, 1933-1941. Works Progress Administration</ref>

On March 5, 1899, the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'' publicized a [[Chicago Historical Society]] replica of the original fort.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | url=http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/11295.html| title="Replica of the Original Fort Dearborn," Chicago Tribune, 5 March 1899| access-date=2011-12-30| encyclopedia=[[Encyclopedia of Chicago]]| publisher=[[Chicago Historical Society]]}}</ref>

In 1933, at the [[Century of Progress|Century of Progress Exhibition]], a detailed replica of Fort Dearborn was erected as a fair exhibit.<ref>{{cite book | title = Fair Management. The Story of a Century of Progress | url = https://archive.org/details/fairmanagement00lohrrich |author = Lohr, Lenox R. |publisher = The Cuneo Press | year = 1952 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Rebuilding Old Fort Tests Engineers' Skill|journal=Popular Mechanics|date=January 1931| volume=55| issue=1| pages=48–49| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=reMDAAAAMBAJ&q=Popular+Mechanics+1931+curtiss&pg=RA1-PA48| access-date=2011-04-18}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia | url=http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/11278.html| title=Reproduction of Fort Dearborn at the Century of Progress Exposition, 1933| access-date=2011-12-30| encyclopedia=[[Encyclopedia of Chicago]]| publisher=[[Chicago Historical Society]]}}</ref> As part of the celebration, both a United States one-cent [[postage stamp]] and a [[souvenir sheet]] (containing 25 of the stamps) were issued, showing the fort. The individual stamp and sheet were reprinted when [[Postmaster General]] [[James A. Farley]] gave [[imperforate]]d examples 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 the [[Flag of Chicago|city flag]] to represent Fort Dearborn. This star is depicted as the left-most, or first, star of the flag.<ref>{{cite web | title = Municipal Flag of Chicago | publisher = Chicago Public Library | year = 2009 | url = http://www.chipublib.org/cplbooksmovies/cplarchive/symbols/flag.php | access-date = 2009-03-04}}</ref>

The site of the fort was designated a [[Chicago Landmark]] on September 15, 1971.<ref name=CL>{{cite web| url=http://webapps1.chicago.gov/landmarksweb/web/landmarkdetails.htm?lanId=1307| title=Site of Fort Dearborn| publisher=City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development, Commission on Chicago Landmarks| year=2020| access-date=7 April 2022}}</ref>

An elementary school in the [[Chicago Public Schools]] system is named after Fort Dearborn.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cps.edu/schools/schoolprofiles/fort-dearborn|title = School Details Page &#124; Chicago Public Schools}}</ref>

==Gallery==
<gallery class="center" caption="Modern Commemorations" widths="180px" heights="120px">
File:Fort Dearborn 1808.jpg|Fort Dearborn 1808 layout
File:20070530 360 North Michigan Entrance.JPG|[[London Guarantee Building]] with large relief above the entrance commemorating Fort Dearborn
File:Fort Dearborn Plaque.jpg|A plaque on Michigan avenue
File:Fort Dearborn Chicago 2012-0238.jpg|A marker showing the fort's southern perimeter
</gallery>

==See also==
* [[Fort Chécagou]]
* [[History of Chicago]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
{{Refbegin}}
* {{cite book|last=Currey|first=J. Seymour|title=The Story of Old Fort Dearborn|year=1912|publisher=A. C. McClurg & Co.|location=Chicago|url=https://archive.org/details/oldfortdearborn00currrich}}
* {{cite book|last=Helm|first=Linai T.|title=The Fort Dearborn Massacre|year=1912|publisher=Rand McNally|url=https://archive.org/details/fortdearbornmass00helm|editor=Gordon, Nellie Kinzie}}
* {{cite book|last=Kinzie|first=Juliette|title=Wau-Bun, the "Early Day" in the North-West|year=1856|publisher=Derby and Jackson|author-link=Juliette Augusta Magill Kinzie|url=https://archive.org/details/waubunearlydayin00kinz|access-date=August 25, 2010}}
* {{cite book|last=Pacyga|first=Dominic A.|title=Chicago: A Biography|year=2009|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-64431-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wxJ9j6s_wRwC&q=Jean%20Baptiste%20Point%20du%20Sable&pg=PA12}}
* {{cite book|last=Quaife|first=Milo Milton|title=Chicago and the Old Northwest, 1673-1835|year=1913|publisher=The University of Chicago Press|url=https://archive.org/details/chicagooldnorthw00quai|access-date=August 25, 2010}}
* {{cite book|last=Quaife|first=Milo Milton|title=Checagou From Indian Wigwam To Modern City 1673-1835|year=1933|publisher=The University of Chicago Press|url=https://archive.org/stream/checagoufromindi001651mbp|access-date=August 26, 2010}}
{{Refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons}}
*{{cite web| url=http://webapps1.chicago.gov/landmarksweb/web/landmarkdetails.htm?lanId=1307| title=Site of Fort Dearborn| publisher=City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development, Commission on Chicago Landmarks}}

{{Chicago}}
{{Chicago Landmark memorials and monuments}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Fort Dearborn|*]]
[[Category:1803 establishments in Indiana Territory]]
[[Category:Central Chicago]]
[[Category:Chicago Landmarks]]
[[Category:Forts in Illinois|Dearborn]]
[[Category:Government buildings completed in 1803]]
[[Category:History of Chicago]]
[[Category:Military installations established in 1803]]
[[Category:War of 1812 forts|Dearborn]]