oubles of
1812.[27] It was denominated Lee's Place, or Hardscrabble. Here lived,
at this time, a settler named Heacock.

Owing to the badness of the roads a greater part of the year, the usual
mode of communication between the fort and the Point was by a boat rowed
up the river, or by a canoe paddled by some skilful hand. By the latter
means, too, an intercourse was kept up between the residents of the fort
and the Agency House.

There were, at this time, two companies of soldiers in the garrison, but
of the officers one, Lieutenant Furman, had died the autumn previous,
and several of the others were away on furlough. In the absence of Major
Fowle and Captain Scott, the command devolved on Lieutenant Hunter.
Besides him, there were Lieutenants Engle and Foster--the latter
unmarried. Dr. Finley, the post surgeon, was also absent, and his place
was supplied by Dr. Harmon, a gentleman from Vermont.

My husband's mother, two sisters, and brother resided at the Agency
House--the family residence near the lake being occupied by J.N. Bailey,
the postmaster.

In the Dean House lived a Mr. and Mrs. Forbes, who kept a school.
Gholson Kercheval had a small trading establishment in one of the log
buildings at Wolf Point, and John S.C. Hogan superintended the sutler's
store in the garrison.

There was also a Mr. See lately come into the country, living at the
Point, who sometimes held forth in the little school-house on a Sunday,
less to the edification of his hearers than to the unmerciful slaughter
of the "King's English."

I think this enumeration comprises all the white inhabitants of Chicago
at a period less than half a century ago. To many who may read these
pages the foregoing particulars will, doubtless, appear uninteresting.
But to those who visit Chicago, and still more to those who come to make
it their home, it may be not without interest to look back to its first
beginnings; to contemplate the almost magical change which a few years
have wrought; and from the past to augur the marvellous prosperity of
the future.

The origin of the name Chicago is a subject of discussion, some of the
Indians deriving it from the fitch or polecat, others from the wild
onion with which the woods formerly abounded; but all agree that the
place received its name from an old chief who was drowned in the stream
in former times. That this event, although so carefully preserved by
tradition, must have occurred in a very remote period,