Trading Mystery
Elementary: Grades 3–4
Story
Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
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"Wait a minute, Grandpa," Lily said. "What did they trade? What did Uncle Boots do for fun? I want to ask him!"
"I know!" Joseph agreed. "I want to know that it was like at the fort. Can we wake him up and find out?"
Grandpa chuckled. "Not scared of him anymore, are you? We should let him sleep. You can ask him tomorrow when we go downtown."
Joseph and Lily sighed; they'd have to wait to find out.
The next day, the family made their way downtown to near where the river met Lake Michigan. "Like I said, I moved here in 1820, when I was nine. We came from Vermont. My father worked for the American Fur Company." Uncle Boots spoke over the din of Michigan Avenue as horse carts clattered over the Rush Street bridge and trains rumbled in and out of the nearby rail yard. "The city looks nothing like it did then. There wasn't much here. The fort was right there," he said, pointing to the south bank of the river. "Across the river near the factory, that's where the Kinzie house stood."Joseph and Lily were surprised.
"It wasn't busy like it is now?" Lily asked.
Uncle Boots laughed, "Busy! There were just small clusters of buildings near the mouth of the river and at Wolf Point. Fort Dearborn had a wooden wall outside and barracks, a store, and an area where the soldiers could march inside."
 and the home of fur trader John Kinzie (right) were important buildings in the frontier community. John Kinzie\'s home was originally built by Chicago\'s first permanent settler, John Baptiste Point DuSable, around 1785.'))
"Why did you and your papa come to Chicago when there was nothing here?" Joseph was a city kid unfamiliar with the idea of so much empty land.
"My papa worked with the American Fur Company. They sent people to trade with American Indians for fur pelts. Tribes like the Potawatomi caught beavers and foxes and traded the skins for things they didn't have."
"What were the fur pelts used for?" Joseph asked.
"Oh, men in Europe and big cities in the East wanted fancy top hats made of fur. Most of the fur pelts were used to make fine hats and other clothes," Uncle Boots continued. "When we came, there weren't many settler kids here. My mother died when I was small, and Papa brought me when he took the fur company job. He thought it would be an adventure; it was. It was after the massacre at the fort during the 1812 war, and some people were afraid of the tribes. But we made friends with the Potawatomi. We lived over at Wolf Point with other settlers, and I used to play with the American Indian boys. Some of them became my very best friends."
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