American Historical Ephemera & Photography

SPRINGS, Giles (ca 1809-1851). Manuscript stampless letter signed ("Giles Spring"), 1 September 1840. Spring served as judge at the Fort Dearborn Tribunal, was was one of Chicago's first lawyers having arrived to practice in 1833. Spring is listed among "500 Chicagoans" on the census which Commissioner Thomas J.V. Owen took prior to the incorporation of Chicago as a town in early August 1833. -- DYER, Charles V. (1808-1878). Partly printed deed signed ("Charles V. Dyer"), 17 November 1852. A graduate of Middlebury College's medical department, Dyer served as surgeon for the garrison at Fort Dearborn in the late 1830s and later earned recognition for his abolitionist activities. -- BEAUBIEN, Alexander (1822-1907). Autograph letter signed ("Alex. Beaubien"), 20 June [ca 1860s]. On verso of "Department of Police. City of Chicago" report form. The son of Jean Baptiste Beaubien, a fur trader and agent, and Josette La Framboise, Beaubien is said to have been the first Caucasian child born in Chicago, likely on the premises of Fort Dearborn, in 1822. In later years he worked for the Chicago Police Department.

[With:] Report of The Committee of Claims, on The Petition of Kenzie & Forsythe. December 31, 1813. Read, and committed to a committee of the whole house to-morrow. Washington: A. & G. Way, Printers, 1814. 4pp, 5 x 8 1/8 in. (disbound, toning, scattered spotting at center).

John Kenzie ( Kinzie) and William Forsythe, identified in the pamphlet as "traders at Chicago at the time of its evacuation by the American forces, and were in possession of a quantity of gunpowder and whiskey" entered a claim made for their lost goods following the Battle of Fort Dearborn in August 1812. The traders were granted compensation for horses and mules, but not whiskey and gunpowder.

[With:] Report No. 316. 46th Congress, 3rd Session. House of Representatives. "Title to Certain Lands in Chicago." 19 February 1881. A report of the claims regarding the sale of Fort Dearborn and whether the sale and subdivision were legal. -- Clipped color illustration "Chicago in 1833." 7 3/4 x 3 3/4 in. -- Illustration "Mrs. Heald and the Savages at Chicago." 9 3/4 x 7 1/8 in.

[Also with:] DRENNAN, Daniel Ogilvie (1846-1908), Corresponding Member of the Chicago Historical Society. Manuscript document "The Early Day in Chicago. Missing Links in the Chain of History. Doubtful Events and Dates Reconciled. " 16pp, 4 1/4 x 8 1/2 in., written on halved blank rectos of a society annual report (light soil, toning, some creasing at corners). Top of first page with "Copyright by Geo. H. Fergus, 1903."

Handwritten text with minor corrections, possibly recorded by Drennan who presented a lecture on Fort Dearborn to the Chicago Historical Society on 20 October 1903. The lecture is recorded in the 1908 Chicago Historical Society's Annual Report which memorialized the deceased Drennan. Text may also have been recorded by George H. Fergus, a longtime member of the CHS. As a member of the publications committee, Fergus was responsible for publishing on behalf of the CHS transcripts of addresses presented to the members, an undertaking he spearheaded from 1876 through 1903. 

Irish-born Drennan served as a Corresponding Member of the CHS starting in 1894. He came to America in 1863, enlisted in 1864 with Co. G 15th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, and ultimately rose from a clerk at the headquarters of the army to serve as General Philip H. Sheridan's confidential clerk and private secretary. Upon his death in 1908, the Chicago Historical Society noted that it was "indebted to Mr. Drennan for the many valuable papers relating to early Chicago obtained through his painstaking search through the various departments in Washington." The paper offered here, likely authored to commemorate the 100th anniversary fo the construction of the original Fort Dearborn, includes details regarding the construction of Fort Dearborn and entries from the journal of Lt. James S. Swearingen describing an 1803 march from Detroit to Chicago.