[418] Statements of General James Grant Wilson, January 7, 1908, in letter to Chicago Historical Society library. Wilson was a personal acquaintance of Whistler.
The connection of James Strode Swearingen, the youthful second lieutenant who conducted the troops from Detroit to Chicago in the summer of 1803, with Fort Dearborn was but brief. Because of the physical infirmity of Captain Whistler, Swearingen offered to lead the troops from Detroit to Chicago for him, and this made it possible for Whistler to proceed around the lakes on the sailboat, "Tracy."[419] With the arrival of the troops at Chicago Swearingen's duty was discharged. He accordingly returned to Detroit on the "Tracy" and there rejoined his company. He retired from the army in 1815, owing to the importunity of his wife, and settled at Chillicothe. Ohio, where he lived in affluence until his death in 1864.[420]
[419] Swearingen's account of the expedition from Detroit to Chicago in 1803, MS in Chicago Historical Society library, Proceedings, 1856-64, 348.
[420] Heitman, Dictionary of the United States Army, I, 939; Wilson, Chicago from 1803 to 1812.
Doctor William C. Smith, the first surgeon at Fort Dearborn, was succeeded in 1808 by John Cooper, who was sent here immediately after he entered the service. Cooper's grandfather fought under Wolfe at Quebec, and was near his leader when he fell.[421] The grandson was born at Fishkill, New York, in 1786. He came to Fort Dearborn by way of Albany and Buffalo, where he boarded the brig, "Adams," commanded by Commodore Brevoort. The voyage across Lake Erie consumed a week, and another week, including stops, was spent in passing through the River and Lake St. Clair and on to Mackinac. After several days' delay at the latter place the brig proceeded by way of Green Bay to Chicago, which was reached in three days. After three years' service at Fort Dearborn, Cooper resigned from the army and returned to the East by way of the overland route to Detroit, which had been followed by the troops under Swearingen eight years before. The journey to Detroit required fourteen days. From Detroit he went by way of Fort Wayne and Pittsburgh to Poughkeepsie, New York, where he made his home and practiced his profession for over half a century, dying in 1863.[422]
[421] Wilson, op. cit.
[422] Ibid.
The year 1810 saw the culmination at Fort Dearborn of a garrison quarrel which resulted in the dispersion of the official family far and wide and the appearance of a new set of officials at the post. It might be supposed that the sense of isolation and the need of mutual assistance would bind together the little group of inmates of a frontier post, such as Fort Dearborn, as with bands of steel. But, alas for erring human nature, all too often conditions quite the contrary prevailed. "When society is thin," wrote the same British officer from Mackinac whose complaint in 1796 of the dullness, envy, and jealousy in existence there has already been noted, "I agree with you. They should make the most of it, but I don't know how it is. I have always found it the reverse...."[423] "The Amusements have not been general this Winter in Detroit. Indeed there has been none worth mentioning. Society a good deal divided," runs a letter to Kingsbury in the winter of 1805.[424]
[423] Michigan Pioneer Collections, XII, 211.
[424] Kingsbury Papers, Clemson to Kingsbury, February 24, 1805.