s a singular fatality that the unhappy mother should have been
twice called to suffer a similar affliction--the loss of a child in a
manner worse than death, inasmuch as it left room for all the horrors
that imagination can suggest. The particulars of the loss of this little
brother were these. As he came from school one evening, he met the
colored servant-boy on horseback, going to the common for the cows. The
school-house stood quite near the old fort, and all beyond that, towards
the west, was a wild, uncultivated tract called "the Common." The child
begged of the servant to take him up and give him a ride, but the other
refused, bidding him return home at once. He was accompanied by two
other boys, somewhat older, and together they followed the negro for
some distance, hoping to prevail upon him to give them a ride. As it
grew dark, the two older boys turned back, but the other kept on. When
the negro returned he had not again seen the child, nor were any tidings
ever received of him, notwithstanding the diligent search made by the
whole little community, until, as related in the record, his remains
were found the following year by an Indian. There was nothing to
identify them, except the auburn curls of his hair, and the little boots
he had worn. He must have perished very shortly after having lost his
way, for the Prairie Ronde was too near the settlement to have prevented
his bearing the calls and sounding horns of those in search of him, had
he been living.

Mr. Kinzie's enterprising and adventurous disposition led him, as he
grew older, to live much on the frontier. He early entered into the
Indian trade, and had establishments at Sandusky and Maumee. About the
year 1800 he pushed farther west, to St. Joseph's, Michigan. In this
year he married Mrs. McKillip, the widow of a British officer, and in
1804 came to make his home at Chicago. It was in this year that the
first fort was built by Major John Whistler.

By degrees more remote trading-posts were established by him, all
contributing to the parent one at Chicago; at Milwaukie with the
Menomonees; at Rock River with the Winnebagoes and the Pottowattamies;
on the Illinois River and Kankakee with the Pottowattamies of the
Prairies, and with the Kickapoos in what was called "_Le Large_," being
the widely extended district afterwards erected into Sangamon County.

Each trading-post had its superintendent, and its complement of
engages--its train of pack-horses