Fort Dearborn, established 1803, and now the site of America’s second largest city, was captured in 1812 by the Indians, and as late as 1832 the Blackhawk War was fought in their last effort to retain title.
Due probably to the entrenched squatter settlements scattered through the area, the “first American settlements” are disputed, although Bellefontaine in the present Monroe County is regarded as the first. Shawneetown and Edwardsville were early land offices, along with Kaskaskia and Vincennes.
When lead ore was discovered at Galena in northwestern Illinois, settlement spread rapidly there. As has been said, Chicago began with Fort Dearborn in 1803, but at the time it was incorporated as a city in 1837, the village had but 4,170 inhabitants.
In 1809 the separate Territory of Illinois was created by Congress. The territory entered its second phase of elective officers in 1812, and in 1818 was admitted into the Union. Capitals had been at Kaskaskia, 1809-18; Vandalia, 1819-39; and thereafter at Springfield.
It is impossible to interpret the American phase of Michigan’s history without a fairly thorough understanding of the earlier French and English occupancies.
DETROIT IN 1815
Drawn by Helen Jean Marshall, Grand Ledge, Michigan
The French explorer-missionary-trader parties had followed the water courses of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi and other rivers, and founded posts substantial enough, particularly at strategic points, to survive as English and later American communities.