Thus in gloom and defeat departed the man who, with more propriety than any other, may be called the father of Chicago. That he felt keenly the blow that had been dealt him is shown by his letters to Kingsbury.[449] He was old and infirm, his wife was ill, and he had a large family of young children to support, with little property, and burdened with debt.
[449] Kingsbury Papers, Whistler to Kingsbury, May 27, 1810; Drennan Papers, Kingsbury to Nicoll, February 15, 1811.
Nathan Heald, the new commander at Fort Dearborn, was born at Ipswich, New Hampshire, in 1775.[450] He entered the army as an ensign in 1799, serving continuously at various places on the frontier and in the recruiting service until January, 1807, when he was promoted to the rank of captain and given command at Fort Wayne. That he was chosen to succeed Whistler at Fort Dearborn under the circumstances which have been described may fairly be regarded as an indication of confidence on the part of his superiors in his ability and good judgment. Rhea, who succeeded him at Fort Wayne, reported that he found everything had been going on "very correct" there, and that he intended to "take the Track of Captain Heald" as nearly as possible.[451] Rhea was much pleased with his new post and expressed the hope he might continue there. Heald, on the contrary, was dissatisfied with Fort Dearborn, and at once announced his intention of spending the coming winter in New England.[452] If the necessary leave of absence were not granted him he would resign the service rather than remain at Fort Dearborn.
[450] Nathan Heald's Journal printed as Appendix III. The original is among the Heald papers in the Draper Collection.
[451] Kingsbury Papers, Rhea to Kingsbury, May 17, 1810.
[452] Ibid., Heald to Kingsbury, June 8, 1810.
Unfortunately for Heald the furlough was granted,[453] and thus he returned to Chicago to participate in the massacre two years later. After spending the winter in Massachusetts, Heald returned to the West by way of Pittsburgh and the Ohio River, stopping at Louisville to marry Rebekah Wells, the daughter of Colonel Samuel Wells and the niece of Captain William Wells, with whom Heald had long been associated at Fort Wayne.[454] The wedding occurred on May 23, 1811, and in June the commander reached Chicago with his bride, after an absence of seven months. The bridal journey was made from Louisville to Chicago on horseback through the wilderness which lay between the two places. Mrs. Heald's slave girl, Cicely, accompanied them on their journey, and was an inmate of Fort Dearborn from this time until the massacre the following year. The statement preserved in the Heald family chronicle that the bridal party was received by the garrison with all the honors of war may well be believed, for the addition of a woman like Mrs. Heald to the garrison circle was an event of rare interest in the life of the little community.
[453] Heald's Journal; Kingsbury Papers, Heald to Kingsbury, December 31, 1810, and May 1, 1811; Wentworth, Early Chicago, 88.
[454] Heald's Journal; Darius Heald's narrative of the Chicago massacre, in Magazine of American History, XXVIII, 114.
In March, 1811, George Ronan, a young cadet direct from West Point, was given the rank of ensign and ordered to repair at once to Fort Dearborn.[455] On the fourth of the same month Lieutenant Thompson died. With him the last military officer involved in the quarrel of the preceding year disappeared from Fort Dearborn. Three months later his place was filled by the transfer of Lieutenant Linai T. Helm from Detroit to Fort Dearborn. The transfer was made at Helm's own request, the reasons for his desiring it being, apparently, his straitened financial circumstances and the cheaper cost of living at Fort Dearborn as compared with Detroit.[456] During the summer the place made vacant by Doctor Cooper's resignation was filled by the appointment of Isaac Van Voorhis, like Cooper a native of Fishkill, New York, born a few years after his predecessor, but a member of the same class in college.[457] The officers of Fort Dearborn were now the same as on the fatal day of evacuation, August 15, 1812.