ly on whatever they could find in the
woods. It appears that Providence furnished them with a "kind of
manna" to eat with their meal. This seems to have been maple sap.
They also procured in the woods garlic and other plants. The name
Chicago may have come from the Indian word _ske-kog-ong_, wild
onion place.

After the departure of Father Marquette several other mission
settlements were attempted at Chicago, but these were all abandoned in
1700 and for almost a century Chicago ceased to be a place of residence
for white men.

The strategic value of Chicago as a centre of control for the regions of
the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River had long been recognized, but
it was not until after the Battle of Fallen Timbers (1794), that the
government took active steps to establish a fort here. The treaty made
by Gen. Wayne with the Indians after that battle provided for the
cession to the American government of a tract of land at the southern
end of Lake Michigan including the site of the present city. In 1803 Ft.
Dearborn, a block-house and stockade, was constructed by the government
on the southern bank of the Chicago River near the present site of the
Michigan bridge.

In 1812, during the Indian War of Tecumseh, the Ft. Dearborn massacre
occurred. The garrison, 93 persons in all, including several women and
children, were attempting to escape to Ft. Wayne, when they were set
upon by some 500 Indians about a mile and a half south of the fort
(southern part of the present Grant Park). The Americans killed included
39 soldiers, 2 women and 12 children. The survivors were captured by the
Indians and though some were tortured and put to death, the majority
finally escaped to civilization A tablet now marks the site of the old
fort and a monument has been erected near Grant Park commemorating the
massacre. In 1816 the fort was rebuilt and a settlement rapidly grew up
around it. By 1837 the Federal government had begun the improvement of
the harbor and had started the Illinois and Michigan Canal. The lake
trade grew to enormous proportions, and the building of the railways,
especially the New York Central Lines connecting Chicago with the East,
as well as other lines connecting it with the Northwest, and the South,
gave the city an extraordinary impetus.

At the Republican convention held at Chicago in 1860, Abraham Lincoln
was nominated for the presidency and during the Civil War, Camp Douglas,
a larg