It is evident that the number of civilians clustered around the fort in the years prior to the massacre was considerably greater than has ordinarily been supposed. Cooper says there was a house a mile to the southeast of the fort, owned by a farmer who supplied the garrison with butter and eggs, and one near the forks of the river occupied by a man named Clark who was a cattle dealer. Whistler's drawing represents two houses at the forks, one occupied by a discharged soldier, and a house and inclosed field north of the river, belonging to Mr. "Coursoll." There were two Courselles, one of them a well-known trader, but the only other record of either of them being at Chicago is the recurrence of their names in Kinzie's account books. The farmer mentioned by Cooper was probably Lee, at whose farm on the South Branch the preliminary massacre of April, 1812, occurred. But Cooper does not mention the Burns family, which Mrs. Kinzie describes as living on the North Side at the time of the massacre. In addition to these were the houses which Whistler shows belonging to the Indian agent's and the factor's departments. The conclusion drawn from these various bits of evidence concerning the number of dwellers around Fort Dearborn is confirmed by the fact that after the murders at the Lee farm, Captain Heald enrolled fifteen militiamen from the civilian population outside the fort. It should be noted, too, that three of the long-time residents of Chicago, La Lime, Ouilmette, and Kinzie, were not included in this number.
Of the officers stationed at Fort Dearborn before the massacre, the régime of Captain John Whistler was the longest and in many respects the most important. Whistler was descended from an old English family, but he himself was born in Ireland, whither his immediate ancestors removed, in 1758.[414] In a youthful freak he ran away from home and joined the army, coming to America during the Revolution with the troops under Burgoyne. He was thus one of the members of that general's ill-fated army captured by the Americans at Saratoga. On his return to England Whistler received his discharge from the army, and soon after, forming an attachment for the daughter of one of his father's friends, eloped with her, coming a second time to America and settling at Hagerstown, Maryland. He entered the American army in 1791 and served continuously on the northwestern frontier under St. Clair, Wayne, and others, from that time until the breaking out of the War of 1812. He was commander at Fort Dearborn from 1803 to 1810, when he was transferred to Fort Detroit, under circumstances which will shortly demand our attention. He served under Hull in 1812 and, if family tradition is to be credited, was so enraged over the capitulation that he broke his sword rather than surrender it to the enemy.
[414] Whistler family genealogy, MS in Chicago Historical Society library.
The founder of Fort Dearborn thus enjoyed the unique experience of having been captured, along with the British army in which he served, by the Americans, and thirty-five years later, as a member of Hull's army, of being taken by the British. His connection with Chicago history is not limited to building and commanding Fort Dearborn. His eldest son served under him here as lieutenant for several years; his eldest daughter, as we have seen, became Chicago's first bride; and another daughter married Lieutenant Joseph Hamilton, who also served under Whistler at Fort Dearborn.
William Whistler came with his father to Fort Dearborn as second lieutenant in 1803, accompanied by his bride of a year. She was even now but sixteen years of age, and was destined to be the last surviving witness of the building of the first Fort Dearborn. After several years of service here, Lieutenant Whistler was transferred to Fort Wayne. His term of service in the army lasted sixty years, during which time he had, according to Mrs. Whistler, but six short furloughs.[415] Like his father he was captured along with Hull's army at Detroit. In 1845 he became colonel of the Fourth Infantry, the regiment to which General Grant belonged during the Mexican War; and in after life the famous general told many anecdotes concerning his former commander.[416]
[415] Hurlbut, Chicago Antiquities, 27.
[416] Heitman, Dictionary of the United States Army, I, 470, 1026; Wilson, Chicago from 1803 to 1812.
Two other descendants of Captain John Whistler demand attention at this point. George Washington Whistler was a toddling child three years of age when the commander brought his family to the new home in the summer of 1803. Here, on the banks of the Chicago River, during the next few years the child developed into sturdy boyhood. At the age of nineteen he graduated from West Point and was assigned to the artillery branch of the service. Until 1833, when he resigned his commission, he was engaged largely in engineering and topographical enterprises. After his resignation from the army he rose to eminence as an engineer, and during the remainder of his life was engaged in many important enterprises. In 1842 he went to Russia to enter the service of the Czar in the construction of the railroad from St. Petersburg to Moscow. In recognition of his services in this and other engineering enterprises in Russia Emperor Nicholas in 1847 conferred upon him the decoration of the Order of St. Anne.[417]
[417] On George Washington Whistler see Vose, Sketch of the Life and Works of George W. Whistler, Civil Engineer.
A son of the famous engineer, James Abbott McNeil Whistler, achieved in the realm of art an even greater reputation than had his father in that of engineering. Whistler's artistic achievements are so well known that there is no need to discuss them here. His connection with Fort Dearborn is not so commonly understood, although the very names he bore served constantly to advertise it. James Abbott was Chicago's first bridegroom, who, as we have seen, married Sarah Whistler here in the fall of 1804. The artist himself never saw Chicago, but with the exception of West Point there was no other place in the United States in which he was so much interested.[418] He regarded his grandfather as the founder of Chicago, and more than once lamented his failure to visit the place.