[666] In describing Chicago in 1818 Hubbard says (Life, 38) once a month. A report of the Post-Office Department, January 14, 1825 (American State Papers, Vol. XV, Post-Office Department, 136), shows that at that time the mail was carried between Fort Wayne and Green Bay once a month. J. Watson Webb, who was post adjutant at Fort Dearborn in 1821-22 states (Letter to John Wentworth, October 31, 1882) that he sent a sergeant and a private to Fort Wayne fortnightly to bring the mail for Chicago and Green Bay, and that a similar detail from the latter place was always on hand to receive and carry forward the mail destined for that place.
[667] Keating, Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's River, I, 183. A letter from Captain Bradley of Fort Dearborn in the winter of 1816 (Drennan Papers, Bradley to McComb, December 3, 1816) announces that "a drove of hogs consisting of about three hundred recently arrived here for the contractor." At the time of the Chicago Treaty of 1821 two hundred head of cattle were driven from Brownstown to Chicago to supply fresh meat for the Indians in attendance on the negotiations (Schoolcraft, Travels in the Central Portions of the Mississippi Valley, 375). In June of this same year Rev. Isaac McCoy, while traveling from the mouth of the St. Joseph River to Fort Wayne, met a party engaged in driving cattle through the wilderness to Chicago (McCoy, History of Baptist Indian Missions, 108-9).
[668] Keating, op. cit., I, 164.
The existence of war interrupted but did not entirely prevent the conduct of the Indian trade at Chicago. The business of the American traders was broken up, but their lives were safe, even in the midst of the slaughter which attended the massacre.[669] The winter following the massacre two French traders, Du Pain and Buisson, established themselves with a stock of goods in the abandoned house of John Kinzie.[670] What success they met with, or whether they returned in the following years, does not appear, but the needs of the Indians were supplied to some extent by Robert Dickson, whose plans for stirring up the northwestern tribes against the Americans necessitated the sending of large quantities of goods to Chicago to distribute among his red allies.[671] The restoration of Fort Dearborn was the signal for the return of the American traders to Chicago. Among the early arrivals was John Crafts, the representative of a Detroit firm, who is said to have established himself at Chicago some time during the year 1816.[672] His trading house was on the South Branch, not far from the Lee Cabin, where the murders of April, 1812, occurred. Crafts pursued his calling with success for several years, but the competition of the American Fur Company at last proved too strong, and in 1822 his establishment passed into its possession. Crafts became its employee at the same time, and continued to reside at Chicago until his death, several years later.
[669] Kinzie and all his family passed through the massacre unscathed. Thomas Forsyth came to Chicago the day after the massacre and remained with the Kinzies several days (supra, note 632).
[670] Supra, note 613. Mrs. Kinzie gives the name as Du Pin (Wau Bun, 190). Her story of his rescue of Mrs. Lee and her baby from captivity and threatened matrimony at the hands of Black Partridge has already been told (p. 255).
[671] For a list of the goods to be sent from Mackinac to Chicago for Dickson at the opening of navigation in the spring of 1813 see Michigan Pioneer Collections, XV, 224.
[672] On Crafts see Hurlbut, Chicago Antiquities, passim; Andreas, History of Chicago, Vol. I, passim. It is usually said that he was in the employ of Mack and Conant of Detroit, but Hurlbut suggests (Chicago Antiquities, 409) that Abraham Edwards was his employer.
John Kinzie's interest in the restoration of Fort Dearborn has already been noted. The exact date of his return to Chicago is uncertain, but it apparently occurred during the latter half of the year 1816. In an affidavit made September 14, 1816, Kinzie described himself as "of the city of Detroit."[673] The last entry in his account book at Detroit bears date of June 16, 1816, and the first entry at Chicago occurs on January 10, following.[674] From the same source we learn that the revival of Kinzie's commercial activities at Chicago was coincident with the return of the garrison; for under date of June 13 occurs the invoice of a "Chicago Adventure," followed three days later by a second. The principal items of the first invoice are butter and whisky—four kegs and ten pounds of the former, and two barrels, containing sixty-eight gallons, of the latter. The contents of the second invoice pertain wholly to live stock, the principal items being five head of oxen and a mare and colt.
[673] Copy of affidavit concerning the wounds received by Heald in the Chicago massacre, MS in possession of Mr. Wright Johnson of Rutherford, New Jersey.