Juliette Augusta Magill Kinzie

Juliette Augusta Magill Kinzie (September 11, 1806 - September 15, 1870) was an American, historian, writer and pioneer of the American midwest.

Biography

Juliette Magill was born in Middletown, Connecticut, she was well educated attending a boarding school in New Haven, Connecticut, and was tutored in latin and other languages by her uncle Alexander Wolcott. She also studied at Emma Willard's school in Troy, New York. Alexander Wolcott introduced Juliette to John Harris Kinzie, son of Indian trader John Kinzie. They married in 1830 and moved to Fort Winnebago, Wisconsin, where her husband was an Indian agent.

In 1834 they moved to Chicago, between 1833 and 1846 the couple had 7 children, 6 of which survived to adultood. The Kinzie family was involved in Chicago's civic and social development throughout the nineteenth century. They were active in the Episcopal church and founded the Chicago Historical Society (now the Chicago History Museum}. Kinze died in Amagansett, Long Island, in 1870.

Her granddaughter and namesake Juliette Gordon Low attained fame for introducing Girl Scouting to America in 1912.

Literary works

While in Fort Winnebago she heard stories of the Fort Dearborn Massacre at Chicago, which she would later write about in "Narrative of the Massacre at Chicago, August 15, 1812, and of Some Preceding Events", it was published in 1844. The account was published anonymously, however Kinze acknowledged authorship soon after publication.

Her second book "Wau-Bun: The "Early Day" in the North West", recounts her experiences of life at Fort Winnebago, Wisconsin, in the early 1830s. She describes her journeys back and forth to the early settlement of Chicago, her complex cultural encounters with a diverse frontier society. The book also describes in detail the lives of Native Americans at the time. It was published in by Derby and Jackson in 1856, and was well received.

In 1869 her novel "Walter Ogilby" was published. And her "Narrative..." was reworked and released as "Mark Logan, the Bourgeois" in 1871 following her death.

References

*Castagna, J. E. Kinzie, Juliette Augusta Magill. "American National Biography Online", Feb. 2000.

External links

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