Battle of Fort Dearborn Park Investigation

The site of the original Fort Dearborn can be seen in downtown Chicago at the intersection of Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive, just south of the Chicago River.  General Anthony Wayne had envisioned the fort in 1795 as a necessary measure to dislodge the British from this sector.  The fort was built in the summer of 1803 by Captain John Whistler. Captain Nathan Heald was put in charge of the garrison.  With the War of 1812 approaching and the British using unfriendly Indians to dislodge the Americans, it was only a matter of time before real bloodshed began.

The final declaration of war came on June 1812 but even two months before the declaration, a band of Forest Potawatomi from Wisconsin burned the farm of Charles Lee on the south branch of the river.  They left the mutilated corpses of Lee and another man to be brought in by a patrol from the fort.  John Kinzie, who was born in Quebec circa 1763 and was called the “Father of Chicago”, had many contacts among friendly Indians who reported big trouble ahead and a chief named Black Partridge came to the fort and said that his young men were taking to the warpath.  He returned a medal he had received from General Anthony Wayne.

After the surrender of Fort Mackinac, instructions reached Captain Heald on Saturday, August 9, 1812 to evacuate the fort but the final decision was Heald’s.  The next day he read the instructions at morning parade and asked for opinions.  Some thought it best to stay there and await reinforcements rather than move the 100 or so garrison, many that were sick and unable to march.

The following day excitement and great hope arose as Captain William Wells, who had come from Fort Wayne at the head of thirty Miami braves to act as trail escort.  He was also well known as a great Indian fighter.

On the morning of August 15^th, the small garrison of fifty-five regulars, accompanied by the militia company of twelve citizens, nine woman and eighteen children loaded in two wagons drawn by oxen.  They filed out of the fort and turned south in line with the river and then along the lakeshore on the road to Fort Wayne.  William Wells had been talking with his Miami’s who gave him news that caused him to ride with a blackened face, as was the custom of any Miami warrior who expected to be killed before the sun went down.

 As they approached the corner, which is now Sixteenth, and Indiana, a large sand hill rose just ahead to their right.  Wells galloped up the hill and saw many Indians - six hundred, maybe more - rising from the prairie and rushing to attack.  He rode back, warned the column and offered to lead to forlorn charge against the warriors streaming over the sand hill.  Bugles blew, and Wells headed a charge through the attackers.  Here the Indians surrounded the troopers who might have done better if they had stayed with the wagons.  Captain Wells had fought many a fight, and he killed several braves before they cut him down, beheaded him, and tore out his heart, which some of them ate while others drank his blood in accordance with beliefs that the virtues of an enemy could be acquired by cannibalism.

With Wells down and the garrison surrounded, a detachment of young braves hopped in among the wagons and killed two women, twelve children and twenty-eight soldiers.  At the height of the massacre, Black Partridge appeared, seized Lieutenant Helm’s wife, Margaret, and dragged her to the lake, where he hid her neck-deep in water until the killing frenzy died down.

About fifteen minutes into the battle, one half of the garrison had fallen.  Of the 96, 43 now survived; 30 soldiers, 7 of the 19 women and 6 of the 18 children.

Captain Heald now saw that the Indian’s commander was the bloodthirsty Black Bird (Assikinic) Chief of Ottawa’s.   Black Bird stood at the dune top, saw the captured wagons on one hand and the troops in a hopeless position on the other and called Heald for a parley.  Heald accepted the terms but in a few hours Black Bird decided his agreement did not cover wounded prisoners. Mrs. Helm saw an old squaw kill a wounded soldier with a stable fork.  All night long they were to hear the screams and of five more wounded men as Indians tortured them to death.

The Indians then threatened to kill John Kinzie but a rescuer appeared in the person of Billy Caldwell, whose Indian name was “The Englishman” (Sauganash), although he was the son of an Irishman and a Potawatomi girl.  He was able to persuade the intruders to leave Kinzie’s place and join their colleagues who were now burning the fort. Other friendly Indian Chiefs who helped save many of the settlers included: To-Pee-Ne-Be - friendly Indian chief of St. Joseph’s Band, Black Partridge (Maw-Kaw-Be-Penay) friendly chief of Potawatomie’s, Chippewa’s and friendly Miami’s and Alexander Robinson (Chee-Chee-Pin-Quay).

The second Fort Dearborn began construction on July 4, 1816 under supervision of architect Lt. William S. Evileth and with trooper support of two companies of the Third Regiment under temporary command of Captain Hezekiah Bradley.

At the northeast corner of 18^th and Prairie, on a former redbrick building used to be a small plaque commemorating the needless slaughter of the early pioneers during the Fort Dearborn Massacre.  Designed by sculptor Carl Rohl-Smith, this monument portrays the rescue of Margaret Helm by Potawatomi chief Black Partridge.  Dr. Isaac Van Voorhees lies dying at their feet and a child with outstretched arms represents the 12 children killed in the struggle. 

Prior to that, in 1893 George Pullman erected a monument to the Fort Dearborn Massacre under “Massacre Tree”, a large cottonwood tree which stood next to his house which had witnessed the infamous event as a young sapling in 1812.  Could the apparitions be calling out still for justice?   Or are they simply unhappy at being disturbed?  Perhaps they are trying to tell us that a proper Christian burial would be appreciated.

George Pullman commissioned a monument for erection on the site.  Carl Roehl-Smith forged the mammoth bronze, entitled “Black Partridge Saving Mrs. Helm,” depicting a scene from the bloody clash of 1812. Legend has it that the commission stemmed at least partly from Pullman’s wish to placate the Massacre victims he believed to haunt his Prairie Avenue home. The monument did not remain long at the site, being removed not long after the demolition of Pullman’s mansion and the deterioration of the elegant Prairie Avenue district.  In 1931 it was installed in the lobby of the Chicago Historical Society before disappearing into storage in recent years, the victim of lobbying by the American Indian Center, who called the monument racist. According to accounts, the piece is now in storage in a garage near Roosevelt and Wells. The park replaced it, marked by the bronze plaque remembering the “Battle” of Fort Dearborn.

Sometime in the 1980s, it was moved back close to its original location and just south of the John Glessner House in a park-like area which once was the site of two older homes; the O.R. Keith and George H. Wheeler.

In 2006, the developers of Central Station, a Planned Urban Development, conveyed an improved 1/2 acre passive park at 18th and Calumet the Chicago Park District. Community members and civic groups including the Prairie District Neighborhood Alliance (PDNA) had many meetings to select a name for the park. They decided to name the site Battle of Fort Dearborn Park in honor of an extremely significant historical event that happened very near to what is now the park.  The park was named in 2009.

Many still believe that this event in 1812 was a massacre and not a battle. There were very few soldiers and fighting personnel from Ft. Dearborn and many killed by the Native American’s were non-combatants, women and children.

As for the Massacre victims, exactly where they were buried—or “half buried”—along the sandy lakefront expanse of the time is hard to discern. Some accounts placed the mass grave at the house of Fernando Jones, 1834 S. Prairie. Others thought the burials were done near the Pullman mansion, which stood until its 1922 demolition at 1729 S. Prairie.  Most, however, believe that the burials occurred at 18th and Calumet, the site of today’s “Battle” of Fort Dearborn Park, and early maps show a “Massacre Cemetery” at that site.

It is also not entirely certain that all or any of the Massacre victims were re-interred at the Fort Dearborn Cemetery along the river when the complex was rebuilt in 1816.  In fact, it is more certain that at least some remain at the ambush site, turned into the soil and built on by the Chicagoans that came after.

Those who survived the Fort Dearborn Massacre, however, always marked the spot in their memories by that cluster of cottonwood saplings that had sprung up shortly before the fateful day.  The tender shoots which witnessed the horror on the dunes that summer mostly died away as the years went on, except for one:  a towering specimen which became known as the Massacre Tree.  When locals called it an eyesore and petitioned for its removal, old timers asked the Chicago Historical Society to protect it, which they did. When a storm finally killed it, a portion of its felled trunk was reportedly sawed out and given to the Society, where it is said to remain today, stored among its countless curiosities.

(Some text courtesy of American Ghost Walks www.americanghostwalks.com)

Address: 1801 S. Calumet Ave., Chicago, IL 60616

Phone: 312-328-0821

Hauntings: This type of senseless brutal loss of life is often the beginning of apparitional sightings and this site is no different.  In the early 1980's while ripping up some streets for repair, construction workers unearthed the bones of several people.  At first thought to be victims of a cholera epidemic in 1840, the bones were dated more closely to the time of the Fort Dearborn Massacre of 1812.  They were later buried elsewhere.  However, within a few weeks, near the intersection of 16^th and Indiana passersby began to see semi-transparent figures of people dressed in pioneer clothing from the early 1800's!; moccasins, leather and coonskin hats.   They were seen to wander the vacant field just north of 16^th within the shadow of Soldier Field.  Some were seen to be running haphazardly in all directions while others tended to be moving in slow motion.  Women and children were mostly observed and while not solid figures and in perfect clarity, they appeared to be screaming in silence.

Besides the paranormal events that were caused to happen here; on the northeast corner of 18^th and Prairie Avenue once stood the home of George Pullman. He was an American engineer and industrialist and creator of the Pullman Sleeper Car. He created a town called Pullman for the workers who manufactured this car.

The famous Pullman Strike of 1894 happened due to the high rent; low wages and long hours the employees had to endure. Due to the strike, Pullman cut wages in half and increased the hours employees had to work, all the while refusing to lower the rents and goods in his town.

President Grover Cleveland eventually sent federal military troops to quell the riot but instead left thirty strikers dead. Pullman died of a heart attack in 1897 and was buried in Graceland Cemetery in Chicago.

Fearing that some of his former employees or other labor supporters might try to dig up his body, his family arranged for his remains to be placed in a lead-lined mahogany coffin, which was then sealed inside a block of concrete. At the cemetery, a large pit had been dug at the family plot. At its base and walls were 18 inches of reinforced concrete. The coffin was lowered, and covered with asphalt and tarpaper. More concrete was poured on top, followed by a layer of steel rails bolted together at right angles, and another layer of concrete. The entire burial process took two days.

It is this kind of paranoia that is often later associated with some ghost stories or the paranormal. Combine his life, poor treatment of his employees, unique burial and the site of the Massacre Tree and the helpless people slain here.

The gruesome events that occurred on the Chicago dunes that summer day in 1812 seem to demand commemoration via haunting legends. Indeed, the site of the fort itself is reported to be well-protected by marching troops of massacred soldiers who stand guard over the phantom fort site, now the south end of the Michigan Avenue bridge. Yet the site of the actual massacre remained placid until many decades later, after the physical formation of the city of Chicago.  Only then, during routine roadwork near the site, did workers uncover remains dating to the early 1800s which were probably massacre victims.

Whatever the identity of the remains, after the accidental excavation, apparitions described as "settlers" began to present themselves to passers-by near 16^th and Indiana. At the bend of the intersection of 16^th and Prairie used to be a coach bus terminal for cleaning up the buses after a charter. I used to rent buses from that particular company and was told more, than a few times, that drivers at the end of their shift and in the process of dropping off their buses had spied full-bodied apparitions of what appeared to be pioneers dressed in the style of the early frontier in what would become Chicago.

They would describe people dressed in leather, coonskin caps, and moccasins running through the area just north of 16^th between Indiana and Prairie Avenues. They appeared to be screaming but no sounds were heard. Some were seen just wandering as if in a daze of some kind, while the others appeared to be running for their lives! The drivers claimed that a few simply fell over and disappeared exactly where they fell. Perhaps this was a reenactment of what took place there in 1812?

The entire area from 16^th and Indiana through 18^th and Calumet seems to produce some kind of paranormal activity and the installation of the park doesn’t seemed to have slowed this activity down just one bit.

The Ghost Research Society visited The Battle of Fort Dearborn Park on May 20, 2022 team members included: Paul Adams and Dale Kaczmarek.