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Rebecca Wells Heald
The life of this woman is associated
with one of the most prominent incidents and horrible scenes of
the War of 1812, the massacre at Fort Dearborn, Chicago.
Rebecca Heald was the daughter of
Captain Wells of Kentucky. In her early life she resided with
her uncle, Captain William Wells, whose life was one of the most
singular and romantic of the early border days. He was captured
by the Miami Indians when but a very small child, and was
adopted by the son of Little Turtle, one of the most famous
Indian warriors of the day. After living and becoming completely
identified with the lives of his captors, he saw and realized
the superior power of the white settlers then fast filling up
that section of the country, and he determined to leave his
adopted friends and return to his own people, which he did
without severing the bonds of friendship then existing.
He joined the army of General Wayne, and
his services were most conspicuous and valuable through his
knowledge of the country and the Indian character. He commanded
an organization of spies and fought in the campaign of Wayne
until the treaty of Greenville in 1795, which restored peace
between the whites and the Indians, when Wells again rejoined
his old friends and foster-father, Little Turtle.
Captain Wells was chosen to escort the
troops from Chicago to Fort Wayne at the time of the outbreak in
1812, and while living there with her uncle, Miss Wells met
Captain Heald, and in 1812 Captain Heald was placed in command
of the garrison at Chicago, at that time a remote outpost of the
American frontier. The communication between the posts at Fort
Wayne, Detroit, and Chicago was carried on over an Indian trail
with a friendly savage as guide frequently. Opposite the fort
which stood at the junction of the Chicago River with Lake
Michigan and separated by the river stood the home of Mr.
Kinsey. They were the first to have knowledge of the outbreak,
which occurred on the night of the 7th of April, 1812.
The commander of the fort, Captain
Heald, received, on the 7th of August, dispatches from General
Hull at Detroit, announcing the declaration of war between the
United States and Great Britain. Captain Heald decided upon a
plan of action which brought forth the greatest indignation and
resentment from his officers and men. He had received orders to
distribute all the supplies of United States property equally
among the Indians in the neighborhood, and evacuate the post.
The officers and men urged upon him the necessity to remain and
fortify themselves as strongly as possible, hoping for aid from
the other side of the peninsula, but Captain Heald announced
that he was going to carry out what seemed to them a foolhardy
decision on his part and distribute the property among the
Indians and ask them to escort the garrison to Fort Wayne, with
the promise of reward for the safe conduct of all, adding that
he felt a profound confidence in the profession of friendship on
the part of the Indians. This brought on a most unhappy
condition of affairs. The troops became almost mutinous, and the
Indians set in defiance the restraint which had heretofore been
maintained over them.
A council with the Indians was held on
the 12th of August, none of the officers attending from the fort
but Captain Heald. Secret information had been brought that the
Indians intended falling upon the officers and murdering them
all. Among the chiefs were several who held personal regard for
many of the officers and troops in the garrison, and did their
utmost to allay the war like feeling, which was constantly
arising and increasing each day among the Indians. On the
evening following the last council Black Partridge, a prominent
chief, came to the quarters of Captain Heald and said: ''Father,
I come to deliver up to you the medal I wear. It was given me by
the Americans and I have long worn it in token of our mutual
friendship, but our young men are resolved to imbrue their hands
in the blood of the whites.' I cannot restrain them and I will
not wear a token of peace while I am compelled to act as an
enemy.
This should have been enough to allow
Captain Heald to appreciate the seriousness of the temper of the
Indians, but he went on with his preparation for departure,
which was to take place on the 15th.
Everyone was ready, reduced to the
smallest equipment possible in view of the journey before them.
Mr. Kinsey had offered to accompany the troops, entrusting his
family to the care of some friendly Indians who had promised to
carry them in a boat around the head of Lake Michigan to a place
on the St. Joseph River, where they should be joined if the
march proved successful. The following morning Mr. Kinsey
received word from the chief of St. Joseph's Band that they must
expect trouble from the Pottawattamies, urging him to give up
his plan to accompany the troops and promising that the boat
would be permitted to pass in safety to St. Joseph's, and urged
him to go with his family instead, but Mr. Kinsey declined this,
believing he might have some influence in restraining the
savages. When they reached the point between the prairie and the
beach the Pottawattamies took the prairie instead of the beach
with the Americans and their purpose was soon evident. They
attacked the whites, being about five hundred strong. This
little band was soon reduced to about one-third of their number
and finally Captain Wells was obliged to surrender, under the
agreement that their lives should be spared, and that all should
be delivered at one of the British posts to be ransomed later by
their friends.
Mrs. Heald took an active part in this
fight, and through her heroic conduct her life was spared by one
of the Indians, who placed her and Mrs. Kinsey and their
children in a boat where they were covered with buffalo robes,
their rescuer telling the Indians that it contained only the
family of Shawneaukee. They were taken back to the home of Mr.
Kinsey, closely guarded by the Indians who intended later to
take them all to Detroit. After the work of plunder and
destruction was complete on the part of the Indians, the fort
was set afire.
Black Partridge and Wabansee with three
others constituted themselves protectors to the family of Mr.
Kinsey. Mrs. Heald and Mrs. Kinsey later succeeded in disguising
themselves as French women with some of the clothes they found
in the house, and were conducted by Black Partridge to the home
of Ouilmette, a Frenchman with a half-breed wife, who had been
employed by Mr. Kinsey and whose home was near. Only the
absolute devotion on the part of Black Partridge saved these
women from massacre. Later they were successfully placed in a
boat, and under the care of a half-breed interpreter were taken
to St. Joseph and later to Detroit under the escort of
Chandonnai, a faithful Indian friend, and the entire party with
their servants delivered up as prisoners of war to the British
commanding officer.
General Hull at the surrender of Detroit
had stipulated that all American inhabitants should remain
undisturbed in their homes, and here Mrs. Kinsey and Mrs. Heald
were allowed to peacefully reside. Mr. Kinsey, through anxiety
for his family, ultimately joined them and surrendered as a
prisoner of war. During the fight of which we have spoken Mrs.
Heald received seven wounds. Lieutenant Helm was taken by some
friendly Indians to their village of the Au Sable, and then to
St. Louis, where he was ultimately liberated. Mrs. Helm
accompanied her father's family to Detroit. During the
engagement, she had a horse shot from under her. The little
remnant of the garrison at Fort Dearborn with their wives and
children were distributed among the villages of the
Pottawattamies upon the Illinois, Wabash, Rock River and
Milwaukee until the spring, when they were taken to Detroit and
ransomed.
Mrs. Helm, spoken of, was the daughter
of Captain Killip, a British officer attached to one of the
companies, who in 1794 aided the Indian tribes against the
United States Government. On the death of her husband, Colonel
Killip, she afterward became the wife of John Kinsey and removed
to Chicago, there establishing a thriving trading post among the
Pottawattamie Indians. Their daughter married Lieutenant Lina J.
Helm, of Kentucky, and is the one spoken of in this account.
Women of
America
Source: The Part Taken by Women in
American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle
Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.
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