The Chicago Massacre of 1812: With Illustrations and Historical DocumentsKirkland, Joseph
History
The Chicago Massacre of 1812: With Illustrations and Historical Documents
Kirkland, Joseph
Chicago (Ill.) -- History; Fort Dearborn Massacre, Chicago, Ill., 1812
On April 29th, 1891, there was unearthed at the southwest corner of
Cass and Illinois streets, a skeleton. Workmen were digging a cellar
there for a large new building, and were startled by having the shovel
stopped by a skull, wherein its edge made a slight abrasion. Further
examination brought to light some spinal vertebrae, some fragments of
ribs, some remains of shoulder-blades and pelvis-bones, some bones
of the upper and lower arms and the hip-bones, besides two bones of
the lower part of one leg; also fragments, nearly crumbled away, of
a rude pine coffin. The rumor of the discovery spread through the
neighborhood, and luckily reached the ears of Mr. Scott Fergus, son of
the veteran printer, Robert Fergus, whose establishment stands within
ten feet of the place where these relics of mortality had so long lain
unnoticed.
Mr. Fergus at once tried to save and collect the bones, and finding
some disposition on the part of the laborers to disregard his requests,
he rang for the police-patrol wagon, which bundled the little lot into
a soap-box and carried them to the East Chicago Avenue station.
I was out of town at this time and did not hear of the interesting
occurrence until Mr. Fergus told me of it upon my return, about a month
later. I then went to the station, only to learn that the bones, being
unclaimed, had been sent in the patrol-wagon to the morgue at the
County Hospital, on the West Side. However, on looking up the officer
who carried them over, he freely and kindly offered to try to reclaim
them, and have them delivered to the Historical Society. The morgue
officials, after a few days, at a merely nominal expense, complied with
the request, and they are now here. Was this, _is_ this the skeleton of
John Lalime?
The place where the bones were found is within a stone's throw of the
exact spot indicated by Gurdon Hubbard as the place where the picket
fence marked the grave, "two hundred yards west of the Kinzie house."
Dr. Arthur B. Hosmer, and Dr. Otto Freer, who have examined the relics
independently of each other, and assisted me in arranging them in human
semblance, consider them to be the skeleton of a slender white man,
about five feet and four inches in height.
The color, consistency and general conditions indicate that they had
lain in the ground (dry sand) for a very long time, reaching probably
or possibly the seventy-nine years which have elapsed since Lalime's
death.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account