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The Chicago Massacre of 1812: With Illustrations and Historical Documents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
Lieutenant Helm, who was likewise wounded, was carried by some
friendly Indian to their village on the Au Sable, and thence to
Peoria, where he was liberated by the intervention of Mr. Thomas
Forsyth, the half-brother of Mr. Kinzie. Mrs. Helm had accompanied
her parents to St. Joseph's, where they resided in the family of
Alexander Robinson,[AE] receiving from them all possible kindness and
hospitality for several months.
[AE] This Pottowatomie chief, well known to many of the citizens of
Chicago, was residing at Aux Plaines when Wau-Bun was written.
After their arrival in Detroit Mrs. Helm was joined by her husband,
when they were both arrested, by order of the British commander, and
sent on horseback, in the dead of winter, through Canada, to Fort
George, on the Niagara frontier. When they arrived at that post there
seemed no official appointed to receive them, and notwithstanding
their long and fatiguing journey, in weather the most cold and
inclement, Mrs. Helm, a delicate woman of seventeen years, was
permitted to sit waiting in her saddle, without the gate, for more
than an hour before the refreshment of fire or food, or even the
shelter of a roof, was offered to her. When Colonel Sheaffe, who had
been absent at the time, was informed of this brutal inhospitality,
he expressed the greatest indignation. He waited on Mrs. Helm
immediately, apologized in the most courteous manner, and treated her
and Lieutenant H. with the most considerate kindness, until, by an
exchange of prisoners, they were liberated and found means to reach
their friends in Steuben County, New York.
Captain Heald had been taken prisoner by an Indian from the
Kankakee who had a strong personal regard for him, and who, when
he saw the wounded and enfeebled state of Mrs. H., released her
husband that he might accompany his wife to St. Joseph's. To the
latter place they were accordingly carried, as has been related,
by Chandonnais and his party. In the mean time, the Indian who
had so nobly released his prisoner returned to his village on the
Kankakee, where he had the mortification of finding that his conduct
had excited great dissatisfaction among his band. So great was the
displeasure manifested that he resolved to make a journey to St.
Joseph's and reclaim his prisoner. News of his intention being
brought to To-pee-nee-bee and Kee-po-tah, under whose care the
prisoners were, they held a private council with Chandonnais, Mr.
Kinzie and the principal men of the village, the result of which
was, a determination to send Captain and Mrs. Heald to the island of
Mackinac and deliver them up to the British. They were accordingly
put in a bark canoe and paddled by Robinson and his wife a distance
of three hundred miles along the coast of Michigan, and surrendered
as prisoners of war to the commanding officer at Mackinac.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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