John Whistler was a brave and efficient soldier and the progenitor of a distinguished posterity. His son William was, as we have seen, a lieutenant in his father's company, and long after the events we are here treating of was placed in command of Fort Dearborn (in the year 1832), and his daughter became the wife of Robert A. Kinzie, one of the sons of John Kinzie, the pioneer. George Washington Whistler, the infant son of Captain John Whistler, was brought to Fort Dearborn in 1803, as we have already narrated, and afterward was graduated at West Point. Eventually he resigned his commission in the United States army and entered the service of the Russian Government as an engineer, where he rendered distinguished services.
The eminent painter, James A. McNeill Whistler, was a descendant of Captain John Whistler. In the life of Whistler, the artist, by Joseph and Elizabeth Pennell, it is mentioned that Whistler once said to a visitor from Chicago that he (Whistler) ought to visit the place some day, "for," said he, "you know, my grandfather founded the city."
John Kinzie has been called "The Father of Chicago," and also "Chicago's Pioneer." He was born at Quebec about the year 1763, and he was therefore about forty years of age when he arrived in Chicago, in 1804. His father was a Scotchman named John McKenzie, but instead of retaining his patronymic in the usual manner, John of Quebec changed it to conform to a usage established by his boyish companions and others, who called him "Little Johnny Kinzie."
Young John's father died while he was yet an infant; the widow married William Forsyth, and soon thereafter the family moved to New York. Here he was placed in school, but at the age of ten he ran away and took passage on a sloop bound for Albany, with the purpose of finding his way back to his old home at Quebec. By good fortune he found a friendly fellow traveler bound for the same destination, who assisted him on the way. Arriving at Quebec he found employment with a silversmith and learned the trade. He remained with the silversmith three years, at the expiration of which time he returned to his parents, who had in the meantime removed to Detroit.
John Kinzie had an active and enterprising disposition which led him as he grew older to live much upon the frontier. He entered the Indian trade while he was yet very young and became an adept in his intercourse with the Indians. He learned their language and was esteemed by them as a reliable and fair-dealing trader. He soon began trading on his own account, and before he came to Chicago he had trading establishments at Sandusky and Maumee, and pushing farther west, he established a post at St. Joseph. It was in the pursuance of a general policy of business expansion that he bought the Le Mai house at Chicago, a house which afterward became historic. Kinzie himself has become of historic importance to a degree he could never have dreamed of, and which would not have been possible but for the fact that the place he chose for his residence has since become one of the world's great cities.
While by no means the first settler at Chicago, John Kinzie is generally accorded the title of "Chicago's Pioneer," although it is quite probable that there were traders, hunters, and trappers residing here for longer or shorter periods even earlier than De Saible and Le Mai.
"I doubt if any known person can safely be called the 'earliest settler' of Chicago," writes Thwaites. "The habitants and traders went back and forth like Arabs. No doubt there was a succession of temporary visitors residing any time from a few months to several years at this site during the entire French régime, but especially in the eighteenth century, concerning which period the records are unfortunately scanty."
When John Kinzie arrived here he found Ouilmette, Pettell, Le Mai, and Guarie, all of whom were permanent residents. Mr. Kinzie was a man of character and influence. He had been well educated for those times, and possessed civic virtues in an eminent degree. Through all the vicissitudes of frontier life he maintained and brought up a large family, assisted those who were related to him as step-children and half-brothers, and his descendants became honorable members of the community with which they were identified.
Mr. Kinzie was generally known as the "Indians' Friend," and had received from them the name of Shaw-ne-aw-kee; that is, Silverman, on account of his having learned the trade of a silversmith, which he practiced on occasion.
When he came here from Detroit Mr. Kinzie was accompanied by his family, consisting of his wife and son, John Harris Kinzie, then an infant one year old, and his step-daughter, Margaret McKillip. Three other children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Kinzie during the next few years, and at the time of the massacre these children as well as their parents escaped harm through the assistance of several friendly Indian chiefs.