Jean Baptiste Point(e) DuSable: 1745-1818

Haitian of African and French descent

In 1772, established trading post near what is now Pioneer court, north of the Chicago river, eventually building: "a forty by twenty foot house, a horse-powered gristmill, a backhouse, a dairy, a smokehouse, a poultry house, a workshop, a thirty by forty foot cattle barn, another barn, and a horse stable. In addition, there were thirty head of cattle, two spring calves, thirty-eight hogs, two mares, and forty-four hens. Equipment for farming and building included: a plow, scythes, sickles, axes, a plank saw, a large ripsaw, a cross-cut saw, a cooper's handsaw, and other tools. The house was furnished with a large feather bed, an armoire of French walnut, pictures. mirrors, and a coffee mill from France."

In 1800, DuSable sold his holdings and went south to Peoria.

drawing (imagined), Chicago Public Library Municipal Reference Collection