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Memories of the Meyn family buildings in the Downtown Triangle

by Betty Hodges Wooten

While talking to my cousin Delores on the phone today, I got some news from home that has sent memories racing through my mind. She told me that the ‘triangle’ in Mt. Prospect is due to be razed and there are already roped off areas around the original store and the “new building” on Busse Avenue. She does not know if Grandpa’s house is included in this demolition but we suspect it is. Most of the old towns along Northwest Highway have torn down the ancient buildings in their downtown areas and have replaced them with tall multiple family condominiums with businesses on the lower floor. This triangle of land which was first owned by John Moehling and sold to our grandfather to build his Blacksmith shop and home in about 1885, is now a prime area for high rise development. There is a restaurant on the point where the old shop stood, the two story house he built there in 1897 or ’98, the original barn which that was turned sideways to front on Busse Avenue and remodeled into a small store with living quarters upstairs, the two story building Uncle Bill and Aunt Martha built when Delores was about 7 years old in 1939, and a strip of small shops developed in the 1940 or ’50s.

We have long dreaded the demise of these buildings because in our mind’s eye, we see them as they were when we were children and just seeing them again, even though drastically changed, triggers many rich memories. I would like to walk you around this triangle as I see it in my memory. First, the Homestead was built in 1897 or 98. Before that, a small bungalow stood on this spot, the first family dwelling (not a farmhouse or business) built in Mt. Prospect. This house was built about 1885 for a cost of $350 by Grandpa John Meyn and the home he brought my grandmother, Christine Henningmeier, to when they were married on the 26th of April, 1886. This is where their first five children were born; Laura, Herman, Bertha, Elsie and William. By the time this 5th child arrived, it was time to build a larger home for their growing family and they moved the bungalow a block away to the East side of Main Street. It was used for many years as a schoolhouse, home, and finally a business until it was demolished in to make way for a parking lot in 1957.

About 1897, after William’s birth and the removal of the house, Grandpa engaged William Wille, a local carpenter and his crew to build the stately two story “Homestead” on that spot. I have recovered a picture of this house under construction with Grandpa standing in the front entry and the carpenters working on the roof and facia of the house. There are several young boys in the picture too, and I often wonder who they were. To the left of the house (west) the blacksmith shop stood. I believe the original building had been moved from the comer of Rt. 83 and Nw Hgwy to the western point of the triangle and another wing was added to make it larger. Behind the house was a two story barn which was later turned on the lot and remodeled into Bill and Martha Meyn’s first grocery store. Upstairs was a small apartment where they lived with their one child, Delores. The apartment was very small with a kitchen to the rear, a dining and living room, and one bedroom and bath. The picture of Martha behind the counter of this store is a treasure and you can clearly see some of the prices on the merchandise, a real time warp from today’s fare. Behind the store was a small wooden shed where Uncle Bill stored onions, potatoes, gunny sacks of nuts in the shell, etc. This small store and living area were soon outgrown and “new building” was erected one door to the east. This building had a full basement, a large grocery store with eating area and bathroom to the rear, an enclosed garage, and a lovely apartment upstairs. The rooms were large and sunny with two bedrooms, bath, a large living and dining room, a beautiful cabinet kitchen, back porch and stairwell to the downstairs both front and back. Notice I said cabinet kitchen. This was specified in those days because not all kitchens had cabinets on the walls. Most had pantries or free standing storage space in the kitchen. This is where Delores grew up and later lived with her own family after she was married. We both have so many memories of fun times in this sheltered area with family on almost every comer between her house and mine. It was a secure and special place in which to grow.

Behind this building on Busse Avenue and stretching to the Highway, was a yard that was located to the east side of Grandpa’s house. Along one side were grapevines and there were fruit trees in that yard with two large mulberry trees toward the street. The branches hung draped almost to the ground and Delores and I could hide under that tree and pick and eat mulberries to our heart’s content. Grandpa made wine from the grapes and mulberries and would serve it to his guests in his old red thumbprint wine glasses.

There were steps going up to a small porch at the front entry door of the homestead and inside the front door you came into a hallway with an open staircase to the left, and a hallway to the right with a colored glass doorway leading into the living areas. There was a mirrored hall tree there at the entrance for hats and umbrellas. Actually, through the years as the family married and grew smaller, the house was used as a two apartment dwelling and since Grandpa lived in the upstairs quarters while I was growing up, I have few recollections of the downstairs. But as I remember it, through the glassed doorway you walked into a large dining room with a bay built on the east side. This has two windows on the wide part and one window at a 45 degree angle to either side so it is an actual walk-in bay window area. Opposite the bay, I believe I remember a built in china cabinet. To the right of the windows were oak pocket doors leading into what was a living room. Mother remembered these doors were kept closed during the week and opened only for special occasions or on Sunday. To the rear was a bedroom which was used by my grandparents, and I believe a bath was added later.

Through another doorway from the dining area you walked into a large kitchen with a door to a porch in front and a door to a back hallway to the rear. A few steps down to the outside entrance and then a few more in the opposite direction to the basement. The kitchen has ample windows on two sides. Originally, there was a wood stove there in the center with a dining table to the front and work area to the rear of the kitchen. I never knew my grandmother but was told she kept her home in good order and had a ritual of housekeeping so tasks were followed on a daily schedule. I can imagine her in that kitchen, preparing food for her large family, happily doing whatever chores she was busied with and all the time hearing the ringing of the hammer and anvil from the blacksmith shop just a short distance from her kitchen windows. Mother used to say that when her Dad came in from the shop at suppertime he would wash up, her Mother would have dinner prepared, the girls had the table set, and they ate supper there in the kitchen. Silence at mealtimes was observed and when you were finished, you had to walk behind your father’s chair and say, “Sut”, which evidently meant you were done and wanted permission to be excused. He would either give permission, or you had to return to your place without question. After the meal was finished and the girls did the dishes, the school-age children would bring their lessons and all would again gather at the table to do homework. If it was already getting dark outside, the oil lamps were lit and Pa would sit there reading the paper while the children worked on their lessons. When he was finished reading, he would fold the paper and say, “Time for bed.” The books were cleared away and the children went to their rooms for the night. In the morning he would be in the shop starting his fire and getting ready for the new day before daylight and then come back in for breakfast. The rhythm of life in these old German households was a far cry from the life we lead now. Discipline was necessary to bring up well regulated and successful children and the father was the person upon whom the success or failure depended. The well being of the family was his and his wife’s responsibility and if you were not a successful provider, the family failed to thrive. My grandparents were successful providers. They were steadfast in their love to each other and their family.

Up the stairs there was an open walkway to the right leading to the door of a front bedroom. At the top of the stairs you found two bedrooms, one to the left front and one to the left rear. On the right, at the beginning of the open hallway, was a door leading to a center room. From there you could go to a kitchen and bath in the rear, or the front bedroom also reached from the open hallway.

When I was young Grandpa lived in that upstairs apartment so it is more familiar to me. The front bedroom was then used as his living room. In the center, or sitting room, he had a coxwell chair at right angles to the double windows overlooking Main street with a table radio next to it and a brass spittoon on the right side. His desk and bookcase was on the wall facing with a wind up clock on it and an iron horse. In the center of the room was a table and on this he had a multicolored candy dish which he kept stocked with hard candies. When we grandchildren would come to visit he would say with his heavy German dialect, “Open that dish and get yourself a piece of candy.” He also always the hardest oatmeal cookies you can imagine and without milk, it was impossible to chew them. Of course he would offer Carnation canned milk and water but my brother and I found this so distasteful, we would usually politely turn down the offer of cookies!

Delores and I have warm memories of a Christmas gift planned for Grandpa. He would regularly walk to Uncle Bill’s store to get his groceries and would be gone for while visiting with the family there. Christmas was coming soon and they sold trees at the store so Uncle Bill gave us a small tree and made a simple stand for it and Aunt Martha pulled out some boxes of ornaments and tinsel for us. We waited patiently for grandpa to leave for his usual walk over to the store. When he left, we quickly went up to his apartment, entered his living room, set up and decorated the tree. When he came back, he was surprised to see these two granddaughters in his apartment and we took his hands and led him in to see the lighted tree. He had tears in his eyes and thanked us for the gift. He had not had a tree for a long time and the tree remained up until well into February when his children said it must come down. He would sit there in the evenings and just look at it for hours even when it dried and he could not use the lights. That was a lesson to be learned. There is so much joy in doing something to make others happy!

There was a short time Aunt Laura and uncle Fred lived there with Grandpa, probably after Fred retired from the Post Office in Chicago and they were building their home on Island Lake. Through the years Martha and Bill lived there while Delores was a baby. Mom and Dad lived there in their early marriage and Elsie and Edwin too for a while. Cousin Vanetta and her husband Pete Winkelmann lived downstairs for several years so actually, Grandpa was not entirely alone most of the time. In 1942 he was living alone but was getting more infirm with age. One night, he had no water pressure in the kitchen sink, walked away and left the tap on, and when the pressure returned the kitchen flooded. He worked a long time drying it all up without letting anyone know he needed help. After this he had a heart attack. He laid in the second bedroom for weeks in very critical condition. There was little they could do for heart trouble in those days so the family came in and took turns caring for him and expected this was the end. Slowly, slowly, he recovered but it was evident his old strength was gone. Aunt Elsie and Uncle Edwin were living in their big house on Emerson Street alone then since Edward and Wallace were fighting in WWII. They rented their house and moved in with Grandpa. Following the war in 1945-’46, when the boys all returned home, they moved back to Emerson Street and took Grandpa to live in their big house with them. My family celebrated Thanksgiving Day of 1947 at their home. Grandpa sat in the living room most of the day not feeling well. He had a cold and went up to bed early. From then on he never came back downstairs but stayed in his room. I stopped a few days later and Aunt Elsie said, “You had better go up and say Hi to Grandpa. It will cheer him up.” He was pale and only smiled and held and squeezed my hand. Shortly after, they took him to the hospital with pneumonia. They have always called pneumonia the “old man’s friend” and it was that for Grandpa. He said he had been with out “Ma” for over 20 years and he was ready to go home. He died on December 2, 1947 and is buried next to Grandma and Adele (Della) at St. John Ev. Lutheran Cemetery in Elk Grove. He came a long way from his youth in Germany. He immigrated to a the new country, worked hard to refine his trade, built his own successful business, married the woman he loved, fathered 8 children and but for one, raised them all to adulthood, and praised and served God all of his life.

Memories in that Homestead? John Jr., Christine and Adele (Della) were born there and four year old Adele died there in 1914 at age four of diphtheria. Grandma Christine fell out of the cherry tree and broke her ankle. While being doctored for this, it was discovered she had incurable cancer and she died in the downstairs bedroom in 1925 with her family all around her. I was told she said just before her death, “I have seen where I am going, and it is beautiful!” My brother, Lawrence Jr. was born there in 1926 and even though I was born in Palatine Hospital, that is where we lived for the first months of my life. It occurs to me now that 59 years have passed since Grandpa last lived in that home, and many different people have lived there and used it since so there are many further stories to recount, but for us grandchildren, it will always be Grandpa’s House.

I have memories and a camcorder tape of my Mother telling stories of Christmas and holidays in the homestead. She described how her father would hitch Polly, their horse, to the sleigh and the experience of a trip to St. John’s Church in the moonlight on a cold, snowy Christmas Eve. How each family had their own stall at the church and how Polly knew exactly where to go. She recounted how beautiful the church was with the kerosene lamps lit all around the balcony and how the women and small children sat on one side, and the men on the other. After the service it was a thrill to receive the fruit and nut treats given to all the children. When they arrived home there were presents of warm hand knit socks, mittens, and scarves. Most presents had been hand made by their mother. Dad and she remembered the special present he slipped on her finger there in the front hall on Christmas Eve in 1924, after she hurried to meet him at the door.

She told stories of Grandma cooking several geese or ducks for Holidays and how good it smelled. Mother had clear memories of Aunt Bertha and Uncle August’s wedding celebration at the homestead. She was had just turned 8 years old but described in detail the music and dancing in the shop, the whipped cream cakes laid out on the basement table, and the two day celebration. With such a large family in attendance, Grandma was one of 10 girls, you can imagine it was a real Hochzeit!

As far as I can find out, Grandpa put in a gasoline pump in the 1920’s to service the new automobiles in town. I don’t know if it was the first. There is a story that Grandpa was catching a train to Chicago, had forgotten his pocket watch, and the conductor held the train while he hurried back home for it. I still can see him in my mind’s eye on a Sunday afternoon, sitting on his hand made bench on the front lawn, smoking his pipe and watching the cars and trains go by. Or, sitting in his chair in his upstairs sitting room watching activity on Main Street. I am sure he was fascinated by all the changes going on around him since he first chose this spot to build his life and family.

This “Homestead”, this triangle of land, is a place where a family was born, lived, and died. It is hallowed ground to those of us who knew and remember those pioneers who came and were part of the building of a community. They left us rich memories of a God fearing, hard working people, who settled there so long ago and carved out a new life on this prairie. Who were the John and Christine Meyn Family? They lived on a little triangle of land there in Mt. Prospect Illinois, bounded by Northwest Highway, Main Street and Busse Avenue. You know where that is! It is the place they are tearing down those buildings on Busse Avenue and perhaps that 104 year old “Homestead” to make room for a condominium.

Bibliography

Alvord, Clarence Walworth. The Illinois Country, 1673-1818. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987.

Armistead, Betsy. Schaumburg. Portsmouth, NH: Arcadia Publishing, 2004.

Baerreis, David Albert. Indians of Northeastern Illinois. New York: Garland Pub. Inc., 1974.

Black Hawk. Life of Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak or Black Hawk. Edited and Translated by Roger L. Nichols. Boston: Russell, Odiorne & Metcalf, 1834.  Reprinted as Black Hawk’s Autobiography. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1999.

Clifton, James A. The Potawatomi. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987.

Edmunds, R. David. The Potawatomis, Keepers of the Fire. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1978.

Jablow, Joseph. Illinois, Kickapoo, and Potawatomi Indians. New York: Garland Pub., 1974.

Kleespies, Gavin W. and Jean Powley Murphy. Mount Prospect. Portsmouth, NH: Arcadia Publishing, 2003.

Larkin, Jack. The Reshaping of Everyday Life, 1790-1840. New York: HarperPerennial, 1988.

Palatine Historical Society. Palatine, Illinois. Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 1999.

Quaife, Milo Milton. Chicago and the Old Northwest, 1673-1835, a study of the evolution of the northwestern frontier, together with a history of Fort Dearborn. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1913.

Whitney, Ellen M. Editor. The Black Hawk War, 1831-1832. Introduction by Anthony F. C. Wallace. Springfield, IL: Illinois State Historical Society, 1970-1978.

Straus, Terry Editor. Indians of the Chicago Area. Second Edition. Chicago: NAES College, 1990.

Temple, Wayne Calhoun. Indian Villages of the Illinois Country: Historic Tribes. Illinois State Museum, 1977.

http://www.chicagohs.org – Encyclopedia of the History of Chicago

http://media.library.uiuc.edu – Maps Collection

http://memory.loc.gov – Travels in America Collection, Monroe Collection, and Jefferson Collection.

Penny Berlet, Curator of Education, Mitchell Museum of the American Indian, Evanston. No primary documents.

Newberry Library has a large collection of original maps that can be extremely helpful and some books that are useful.

Chicago Historical Society has a collection of letters from perhaps the early 1800s that may be of use or of interest, as well as some maps.

Shari Caine, Special Projects Coordinator, Des Plaines Historical Society.  Material focuses mainly on the local history of Des Plaines.  They are interested in furthering knowledge of the area of Des Plaines before its settlement.  Primarily a limited number of secondary sources on the Potawatomi and other tribes.  Only a small collection of “projectile points and stone axe heads”.

The majority of the books had the same information and was more or less repetitive.  I do recommend the book by Straus.  It seems to have the same information as the other books, but it differs in a couple of ways.  One, it goes into a little more depth than some of the books.  Two, it does not go into too much depth to make the information in accessible, which also leads to the third, that of readability.

As for primary documents, the website memory.loc.gov, is a U.S. history website sponsored by Library of Congress.  The documents that proved useful were contained in the Monroe Collection and Jefferson Collection.  There was a little information also in the Travels in America Collection.  By and large these documents can be hard to read, but collected material of printed books, rather than the letters of the Monroe and Jefferson Collections are highly readable, but are often more questionable as primary sources.

The most useful primary information was maps and primary documents that can be found in limited quantity and readability at the Newberry Library website.  Although the Newberry has a large collection that seems to be of some degree of usefulness, the ability to view these materials online is non-existent.  However, they are a good source for catalog work on finding potential materials before going to the Newberry.  Furthermore, the Newberry website can help direct you to the holdings of the University of Illinois on U of I’s website, media.library.uiuc.edu.

The material on the U of I website is mainly in the form of maps and very few letters or printed material.  The material provided is much in the form of that that will be found at the Newberry.  However, U of I provides a small amount viewable online with a handy zoom function.  The maps were very useful as they ranged in dates from the mid-eighteenth century German and French produced to American maps of the early-nineteenth century.  Many of the maps mark major rivers and the City of Chicago, or Chicagu, or Chikagu.  Also, on occasion the map would list specific Native American nations in an area or villages and nearby cities or other land marks to get a better understanding of the natives in the area.  Coupled with secondary sources a more reliable idea of tribes and their locations at various times can be found.  There are primary sources out there from French missionaries, but they are hard to locate, read, and find available in an on-line format or to even obtain in hardcopy.  Much of the information from these can be found in the secondary sources in any case.

By William Holderfield

The history of Native Americans in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago is a complex issue when looking at the “pre-settler” era.  Due to a lack of  permanent settlements and the “plowing over” of Native American lands during the growth of the Northwest Suburbs it is a difficult task to correctly identify the tribes that lived in the area or know what their daily lives may have been.

Few, if any, artifacts exist for various tribes.  Arrow heads, projectile points, and axe heads are all that remain of many of the native inhabitants.  Woven baskets, decorative beadwork, and other material items tend to be found closer to the present homes of the tribes that left the Northwest Suburbs.  What written records exist take the form of correspondence between agents of the French, British, or Americans and their country’s government or publishing house. There are also some maps, made for these governments, with indications of what tribes lived in what is today the Northwest Suburbs.  Without permanent European or American settlements in the area, documents that describe daily life in the Chicago area before 1833 are difficult to come by.  Few travelers undertook journeys or survived the harsh winter climate and the various calamities of the Illinois/Indian Territory, making it that much more difficult to come across any written records of what took place in this region.

Although documentation is hard to establish, it is known that the inhabitants of the Chicago area before the 1630s were made up primarily of the tribe known as the Illini.  During the 1630s the Illini and Winnebago were at war with one another. The Winnebago were a tribe from Wisconsin while the Illini occupied an area that ran from the Chicago River, perhaps a little further south, to the Wabash River Valley, all the way to the present day border of Illinois and Wisconsin, and then west to the Mississippi River.  Some accounts describe the Illini controlling land all the way to the tip of Southern Illinois and the St. Louis areas.  In any event, the area that the Illini traveled and controlled was vast and contained the majority of Illinois before the mid-1660s.  By the early part of the 1640s the Illini had control of the Illinois Territory, according to records of Jesuit priests, such as Father Le Jeune.  By 1640 the Illini had decimated the Winnebago to the north, gaining Northern Illinois, while continued warfare with the Sioux nation to the west of the Mississippi was an ongoing struggle.  It is unclear if the Illini fought against the Sioux and Winnebago at different times, but the majority of the writings of the time period suggest that the conflicts were ongoing and that the defeat of the Winnebagos came around 1640.

A small portion of land along the southern part of Lake Michigan into Northern Indiana and the northern portion of the border of Illinois and Indiana was inhabited by a band of the Sioux tribe during a small part of the early 1640s.  However, the Sioux would not inhabit this area long, as their enemies, including the Illini, would push the Sioux further into Illinois near the Wabash River Valley, then to the area near present day Champaign. By the mid-1640s the Illini would push the Sioux west of the Mississippi River.  As previously mentioned the battles with the Sioux continued until the 1830s, perhaps lasting as late as the 1860s.  As the Illini pressed west after the invasion of the Iroquois during the Beaver Wars, the Illini encountered the Sioux west of the Mississippi River and conflicts began over the land that the Illini had fled to.  By early part of the 1800s, as tribes of the Illinois region were being removed from their lands by treaty, force, among other methods as well, these tribes came into conflict with the Sioux over land west of the Mississippi River.  By 1835, various treaties between the United States government and the Sioux allotted a small amount of land for Illinois tribes to occupy while leaving the rest of the land west of the Mississippi River free for the Sioux nation.  Later the Sioux would begin their struggle against the United States government over the expansion of settlers to the land west of the Mississippi River.

By the end of the early 1600s, the Illini were the primary Native American Tribe that inhabited this region, although by other accounts there were other tribes that would become predominant in later years, such as the Pottawatomi, the Illini are credited as being the largest and therefore the dominant tribe in the region at this time. There were some non-indigenous settlers in the area as can be seen through the evidence of individuals of mixed race that are discussed. From this information it can be assumed that the first settlers in the region were of African decent, with many of these settlers being Haitian. By the mid-1600s the first Europeans came to this area, the earliest were fur traders and later settlers settled in the region. These “settlers” were primarily missionaries of French decent who followed the paths laid down by the French fur traders.

With the profits from the fur trade heating up in the early part of the 1600s clashes began to take place. The French controlled the fur trade in present day Canada and parts of the western United States while the Dutch and British controlled the trade in the United States, near New York and Maine respectively. The trade of beaver pelts for European weapons and tools became increasingly profitable and led to increased demand on limited resources which led to intense conflicts between different tribes. This eventually led to the Beaver Wars or 70 years of inter-tribal conflict.

The next major change in the control and inhabitation of this area came when the Iroquois began a conquest of the Great Lakes region.  They swooped down from the New York area along the waterways that connected the Great Lakes, defeating their enemies on either side of each lake as they pushed west towards the Mississippi River.  As the Iroquois pushed further and further west, they pushed the other tribes who were trying to escape their wrath.  Many of these tribes entered southern Canada, while others entered Illinois, Wisconsin, and Upper Michigan.  Between 1665 and 1701 the Iroquois began to attack the Illini in the Illinois area, pushing the Illini to the west of the Mississippi River and to the border of present day Missouri and Iowa.  The Illini remained in their new home until the mid-1760s.  During their push west, the Iroquois chased bands of the Miami, Kaskaskia, Shawnee, and Ottawa into the Chicago area around 1679.

The first written accounts of the natives of this area were from the mid-1660s from a Jesuit priest that ventured to the area to try and convert the tribes to Christianity or at least make them interested in trading.  Father Jacques Marquette established his mission of St. Ignace in upper Michigan. He later made contact with Louis Joliet.  In 1673 the two launched their famous expedition.  Taking local waterways from the Michigan area to Wisconsin and then through northern Illinois before making their way down the Mississippi River.  On their trip down the river Marquette noted that they had encountered the Illini along the banks of the river, predominantly along the western bank.  On their return trip up the river, Joliet and Marquette stopped at one of the villages of the Illini and become “friends” with the Illini people.  In 1674 the Illini agreed to take Marquette and Joliet back towards Chicago through a different route, one that the duo thought would be quicker and lead to a trade route if successful. Marquette noticed along the trip that they encountered a band of Kaskaskia near the Starved Rock.

Other than the missions that had been established, the French also established a couple of forts near the present day area of the Northwest suburbs.  One of these forts was near present day Peoria and was deserted during the Iroquois raids in 1682.  After a peace treaty was signed with the Iroquois, the Ft. St. Louis was built and controlled by Rene Robert Cavelier and Sieur de La Salle at Starved Rock, near the sight that Joliet and Marquette had stopped on their return journey.  La Salle and Cavelier took in some of the Native Americans in an attempt to convert them to Christianity, while giving them a place to live and protection from the advancing Iroquois.

Another group of Native Americans that settled in this area was the Pottawatomi. This tribe was first encountered and documented by Father Claude Allouez on Lake Superior in 1666.  Marquette later documented further contact with the Pottawatomi in Green Bay, WI around 1679 and La Salle mentioned contact with them around 1684.

The Pottawatomi had covered an area similar in size to the Illini, however the Pottawatomi lived on the other side of the Great Lakes. Their area was from the eastern border of present day Ohio to the eastern coast of Lake Michigan.  During the conquest of the Iroquois, the Pottawatomi began to move further west, until the majority of their tribe was contained in the area from the Lower Michigan peninsula to northern Indiana and along the southern border of Canada.  As the Iroquois continued to move west the Pottawatomi took to Lake Michigan, moving into the upper Michigan peninsula and into the eastern part of Wisconsin.  As a result of the Pottawatomi moving into the upper Michigan and eastern part of Wisconsin, the Miami, the inhabitants of these areas at that time, began to move south along Lake Michigan into the northern part of Illinois and along the coast of Lake Michigan.  The Miami had moved to the Chicago area around 1679 and in 1696 the Jesuit priest Francois Pinet came into contact with the Miami when he setup his mission, the Guardian Angel.

In 1701, one year after the closing of the Guardian Angel mission, the Montreal Peace Treaty was signed by the Iroquois and the other Indian tribes in the territory which is now Illinois.  As a result, the various tribes in the Illinois territory began to seek peace within the intermingled tribes that had sought refuge by banding together against the Iroquois.  As the Iroquois left the Illinois region the tribes that had moved to the area and the Illini began to make contact as the Illini and other tribes began to seek to move back to their former ancestral lands.  The Illini would make peace with the Miami and with the Wea, a band of the Miami nation, in 1715.  The Wea and Miami moved into Indiana, vacating much of the land they had inhabited in Wisconsin and Illinois.  The Illini remained in southwestern Illinois, ranging towards present day Champaign, but never regaining the land near the Northwest Suburbs.  This land remained in the control of the Pottawatomi who found that the waterways suited their needs and the land was a good spot for hunting.

Not much is known between 1701 and the 1760s.  With the wars between the French and some of the Native American tribes, there came a new movement of tribes to the area of the Northwest Suburbs.  The Pottawatomi had grown in size and controlled a large region around Chicago, west to perhaps the Mississippi, south towards Champaign, and north to areas near Green Bay, and as far north as Michigan.  With the French wars with the Indians, from 1742-1743, the Sauk and Fox tribes had been pushed into Wisconsin and then west of the Mississippi River. The Fox had allied with the Iroquois, and therefore against the French, and ended up in a major conflict with the French.  After the Fox were decimated by French and Algonquin forces, the Sauk and Fox combined their tribes, near Rock Island in 1730. The Sauk and Fox would move into northwestern Illinois and eventually make their way to the Fox River Valley area by the 1760s.   After the French and British concluded the French and Indian war, 1754-1763, with the Treaty of Paris in 1763 the Ottawa, Ojibwa, and Chippewa moved to the Chicago area.  Many of the Ottawa had moved to a French fort, which would later be called Ft. Ottawa, after the British had taken control of the French fort at Detroit in 1760.  The Ottawa would remain near Ft. Ottawa after the end of the war.

For many tribes that had moved from their native lands, such as the Ottawa from Detroit, the Treat of Paris was viewed as a let down by the French who many of the tribes had good relationships with.  The Native Americans wanted their lands back, but the French had basically given up fighting for the land or asking for the land in peace with the British.  The famous chief, Pontiac, of the Ottawa tribe decided to combine the forces of the tribes that lived in the Illinois and Wisconsin regions in a battle against the British to regain their ancestral lands.  As the French were set to leave North America, Pontiac gathered forces from western New York all the way to the Mississippi River Valley and on May 8, 1763, began a revolt.  In part, the revolt was an attempt by the forces led by Pontiac to keep the British from moving into the Illinois territory.  The British issued a Royal Proclamation on October 7, 1763 to keep the colonists from settling any further west than the Appalachian Mountains as an attempt to buy peace with the Indian tribes and to keep raids from continuing on the boarders of the colonies.  In August 17, 1765 a peace treaty was signed at Detroit, which ended the Indian raids.

When war broke out between the U.S. colonies and British, many border dwellers of the colonies embarked on a conquest to gain the territory that they had been barred from settling by the Royal Proclamation of 1763.  In their advances into the frontier, the Americans clashed with local tribes and came into contact with a mixture of trappers, settlers and traders that had moved into the area before then. By 1770, the Chicago area was home to Haitians, French, British, and Scot-Irish as the fur trade had become a booming business.   Maps became a very important means to locate the conquered land and establish new landing holdings for ones personage and for America.

One such map was created with a printed text in 1778 by Patrick Kennedy and Capt. Thomas Hutchinson.  This map remarks on the large and high quality of the trout in the fresh water of the region of Illinois.  Furthermore, tribes were located in regards to villages that were established at that time.  Among them, Hutchinson would remark on this expedition, as well as future expeditions in the years to come, that the Pottawatomi numbered about 200 and the Ottawa 150.  The Pottawatomi and Ottawa lived in the area between Lake Michigan and the Miami Fort, which would more than likely be the Ft. St. Louis.  There were also approximately 300 Kaskaskia, Peoria, and Mitchigamas as well as 4,000 Kickapoo, Outtagowies, Masquatons, Miscotins, Outtawacks, and Musquakeys in the area between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River.  The city of Chikagu, with a fort at the mouth of the Chicago River, was also listed on the map.

A mixing of tribes had taken place over a number of years, starting with the first movement of tribes west during the Iroquois conquest in an attempt to gain alliances.  By the 1830s the tribes had begun to intermix with the fur traders and settlers in the area and it was noted that the tribes contained mixed race individuals that could claim ancestors outside tribal lines.  Other maps of notability listed Mouscutens or the Nation of Fire, which included the Pottawatomi as the main tribe in the Nation, were given two villages near the two main rivers in Chicago by the French in 1718.  A map produced in Germany in 1734 also gave the area around Chicago to the inhabitants of the Nation of Fire.  In 1806 a map marked the Chicago region being bounded to the north by the Winnebagoes, to the west by the Saugees, and to the south by the Pottawatomis.

After the end of the American Revolution, the Americans could turn their attention to the west and establishing a system of expanding their control over the continent.  As a result, wars with the Indians increased.  After the defeat of Native American tribes at Fallen Timbers on August 3, 1795, the Treaty of 1795 or Treaty of Greenville was enacted.  Southern Ohio and other strategic points of portage were taken by the Americans, including “One piece of land six miles square at Chicago River, emptying into the south-west end of Lake Michigan.”  As a result of this treaty Ft. Dearborn was built in 1803.

The Americans would begin to use treaties with the Indians to gain more and more land.  According to the Treaty of Greenville the Indians had ceded all lands east of the Mississippi River to the Americans while retaining the right to hunt on the land until such time that the American government decided they wanted to use the land.  According to Black Hawk, in his autobiography, the treaty was signed by Indians who were made drunk by the Americans before signing the treaty.  The use of alcohol, fear, bullying, and false pretenses became common in the treaties between the Americans and the Native Americans.

When war broke out in 1812 between the British and the Americans, the tribes in the Illinois territory sided with the British. After the message from Madison to conquer Canada in the face of British invasion, the fear of war in the west prompted the inhabitants of Ft. Dearborn to prepare for a retreat to Ft. Wayne.  The Pottawatomi and Miami waited for the Ft. Dearborn inhabitants to begin their trek to Ft. Wayne.  Just as the Americans were leaving Ft. Dearborn the Indians attacked and massacred the Ft. Dearborn residents.  As a result, two months later, U.S. troops were sent to slaughter the Pottawatomi and Miami near Peoria.  In 1816 the Pottawatomi signed a peace treaty at St. Louis which ceded the land southwestward from Lake Michigan to the Illinois and Fox Rivers 20 miles wide.  This would become known as the Indian Boundary Line.  This land was seen as enough space for military support during the construction of the proposed Illinois-Michigan Canal, which was begun in 1836 and completed in 1848.  This treaty also allowed enough American settlers to come to the Illinois region in order to vote on establishing Illinois as a state in 1818.

For years the United States used various tactics to gain treaty after treaty and the Native Americans lost their land piece by piece.  One tactic in the treaty process was to give parts of the land to individual Indians that had helped in getting the treaty passed. By the 1830s some of the tribes had had enough. The governor in the Illinois area had removed the Sauk and Fox from their native lands thanks to the Treaty of 1804 and moved the tribes west of the Mississippi River to Iowa.  After a particularly devastating corn growing season, the starving Sauk and Fox moved back to their native lands to find food.  They were led by Black Hawk.  Near present day Prophetstown the party was joined by the Winnebago.  The Treaty of 1829 gave the areas of Rogers Park, Wilmette, Evanston, and Kenilworth to the United States, while plots of land were given to specific Indians.  The tribes that lived on these lands, as well as throughout Illinois and Wisconsin areas, came together and started a revolt to regain their lost territory. Their land had been given away in piecemeal fashion or by other tribes that signed treaty for land they did not control so as to hold onto their own lands.  Led by Black Hawk, Black Hawk’s War began in 1831 and lasted until 1832.  The Pottawatomi remained outside of the actual war as their leader, Billy Caldwell, who was given a large plot of land and large annuities if he kept the Pottawatomi out of any wars with the Indians in the area.  Black Hawk was defeated at the hands of the Americans after fighting for almost a year in various areas in the Midwest.  He was caught and placed under arrest before being removed to a reservation where he eventually died.

However, the Treaty of Chicago, 1833, was signed by the remaining tribes in Illinois and the remaining land east of the Mississippi River were ceded to the United States, with reservations being established west of the Mississippi River for the majority of the tribes. Some tribes either moved to Wisconsin or fled to Canada.  By 1838 any remaining Native Americans were sent to live on their allotted reservations.  Billy Caldwell left his land holdings and moved with his tribe west of the Mississippi River, to continue leading the Pottawatomi until his death.

From 1833 until the present, the Chicago area has slowly expanded.  It wasn’t until after the end of the Second World War and the rise of modern consumerism that the suburbs begin their quick rise to their present state.  In an attempt to reclaim part of the lost heritage of the Northwest Suburbs for the Native American, the American Indian Center of Chicago established the Trickster Gallery in Schaumburg, IL in an attempt to bring the modern art of the Native American culture that is still living and alive in the Northwest Suburbs and Chicago area to the front for future generations.

Sources on Native American History