Jean Baptiste Point du Sable (1745 - 1818)

Born 1745 in Haiti [uncertain]

Descendants

Died 28 Aug 1818 at about age 73 in St. Charles, Missouri

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Biography

Jean Point du Sable is Notable.

He is widely acknowledged to be the Founder of Chicago. His origins are shrouded in mystery. Jean was born around 1745.

(From Wikipedia) Jean Baptiste Point du Sable (or Point de Sable, Point au Sable, Point Sable, Pointe DuSable)[n 1] (before 1750[n 2] – August 28, 1818) is regarded as the first permanent non-Indigenous settler of what later became Chicago, Illinois, and is recognized as the "Founder of Chicago".[7] A school, museum, harbor, park, and bridge have been named in his honor. The site where he settled near the mouth of the Chicago River around the 1780s is identified as a National Historic Landmark, now located in Pioneer Court.

Point du Sable was of African descent but little else is known of his life prior to the 1770s. During his career, the areas where he settled and traded around the Great Lakes and in the Illinois Country changed hands several times among France, Britain, Spain and the new United States. Described as handsome and well educated, Point du Sable married a Native American woman, Kitiwaha, and they had two children. In 1779, during the American Revolutionary War, he was living on the site of present-day Michigan City, Indiana, when he was arrested by the British military on suspicion of being an American sympathizer. In the early 1780s he worked for the British lieutenant-governor of Michilimackinac on an estate at what is now the city of St. Clair, Michigan.

Point du Sable is first recorded as living at the mouth of the Chicago River in a trader's journal of early 1790, having settled there sometime earlier. He established an extensive and prosperous trading settlement in what would become the city of Chicago. He sold his Chicago River property in 1800 and moved to St. Charles, now in Missouri, where he was licensed to run a Missouri River ferry. Point du Sable's successful role in developing the Chicago River settlement was little recognized until the mid-20th century.

" DuSable’s largest contribution to early Midwestern history is his Chicago settlement. Founded around 1778/1779 (although some scholars put him there as late as 1790), DuSable’s estate consisted of a modest sized home, a horse mill, a bake house, a dairy, a smokehouse, a poultry house, a workshop, a stable, and a barn. The location of this settlement (on the north bank of the Chicago River at its junction with Lake Michigan) was at a natural crossroad for both Native Americans and Europeans seeking access to the Mississippi River. Many explorers and pioneers had come in passing prior to this settlement however none had stayed. Thus, DuSable established the first permanent settlement in present-day Chicago and lived at that site for at least a decade. He set up a trading post which supplied customers with flour, pork, and bread in exchange for cash and durable goods. DuSable had established a good reputation with trading relations as far as Detroit, Green Bay, Mackinac and St. Joseph, which helped his settlement flourish. More than a business, DuSable’s Chicago settlement was also the site of the first wedding-Suzanne DuSable to Jean Baptiste Pelletier and the first birth (DuSable’s granddaughter, Eulalia) in the city’s history."^[1]

The contemporary documents, long neglected and never assembled, tell a fascinating story of a successful free-born black entrepreneur, advancing through a series of significant careers to a position of prominence in Chicagou, and then in his final tragic years to poverty and ignominy. The founder of the modern city of Chicago merits nothing less than recognition of the facts of his life and achievements.^[2]

Sources

1. ↑ *https://www.dusableheritage.com/history
2. ↑ https://earlychicago.com/essays_7/

• Biography & Genealogy Master Index (BGMI) Ancestry Record 4394 #6190896
• U.S. Census Reconstructed Records, 1660-1820 Ancestry Record 2234 #160826
• U.S., Headstone Applications for Military Veterans, 1925-1963 Ancestry Record 2375 #1222044
• Association Frontenac-Amériques article on Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable[1]
• Owlcation Profile of Jean Baptiste Point DuSable[2]
• Black History Heroes Profile of Jean Baptiste Point DuSable[3]

See also:

• Find A Grave: Memorial #21035
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Baptiste_Point_du_Sable