Chicago and the Old Northwest, 1673-1835 / A study of the evolution of the northwestern frontier, together with a history of Fort Dearborn

by Milo Milton Quaife

As early as the autumn of 1804 a quarrel developed among the garrison officers of Fort Dearborn. The details left us are meager, but we know that Lieutenant Campbell raised charges against Doctor Smith,[425] who in turn preferred charges against Lieutenant Whistler,[426] and that Captain Whistler placed Smith under arrest.[427] Thus, to quote from a contemporary letter, "a flame" was "kindled at Chicago."[428] Unfortunately for the historian. Captain Whistler found the affair "to disagreeable" for him to report, further than the bare announcement of the surgeon's arrest.[429] Possibly the difficulty was settled by the elimination of Lieutenant Campbell, for he resigned from the army a few months later,[430] while both Smith and the Whistlers continued to serve at Fort Dearborn for several years.

[425] Ibid., Smith to Kingsbury, November 3, 1804; Clemson to Kingsbury, October 27, 1804.

[426] Ibid., Clemson to Kingsbury, October 27, 1804.

[427] Kingsbury Papers, Whistler to Kingsbury, November 3, 1804.

[428] Ibid., Clemson to Kingsbury, October 27, 1804.

[429] Ibid., Whistler to Kingsbury, November 3, 1804.

[430] Heitman, Dictionary of the United States Army, I, 276.

The feud which culminated in 1810 was far more serious. Our sources of information are scanty as to the origin of the quarrel, but fuller and more satisfactory for its course and conclusion. That there existed a rivalry at Fort Dearborn over the garrison trade, and that this rivalry was the cause of the feud, is clear. As early as the summer of 1807 Kinzie and John Whistler, Jr., a younger son of the commander, entered into a partnership for the purpose of supplying this trade.[431] The connection lasted until August 21, 1809, when for some reason not now known it was dissolved.[432] That some discord had developed is, however, reasonably apparent from what followed. Six weeks after the dissolution, Doctor Cooper, who had become the firm friend of Captain Whistler,[433] sought and obtained permission from the Secretary of War to suttle for the garrison.[434]

[431] Barry Transcript, entry for July 26, 1807; Kingsbury Papers, Matthew Irwin to Kingsbury, April 29, 1810. That it was John Whistler, Jr., who was Kinzie's partner is apparent from the county records at Detroit cited by Hurlbut, Chicago Antiquities, 469.

[432] Barry Transcript, entry for August 21, 1809.