John H. Kinzie

Who was John H. Kinzie?

John Harris Kinzie was the eldest son of John Kinzie, one of Chicago's first permanent settlers. Kinzie arrived in Chicago with his parents when he was one year old.

After living with his family in Detroit, Michigan following the Battle of Fort Dearborn, the Kinzies returned to Chicago in 1816 and from 1818 until 1823, he worked for the American Fur Company. He spent some time working for the governor of the Michigan Territory in the 1820s and became an Indian subagent at Fort Winnebago until he returned to Chicago in 1833. On August 11, 1834, Kinzie became the second president of Chicago. On May 2, 1837 he ran against William Butler Ogden for mayor when Chicago became a city and lost. In 1857 he was voted president of the Chicago Board of Underwriters and his wife Juliette Augusta Magill Kinzie published a memoir titled Wau-bun that included second hand descriptions of the Battle of Fort Dearborn.

Kinzie died suddenly on a railroad train on June 21, 1865.