Ann Durkin Keating talked to the Chicago Civil War Round Table on February 11th on Juliette Kinzie, the Civil War, and the Making of Chicago 

For more information: WWW. ChicagoCWRT.Org  

After spending the 1832 Black Hawk War at Portage, Wisconsin, Juliette settled with her husband, John H. Kinzie at Chicago, where they were central figures in the city's early political, social and religious life. The family witnessed the arrival of the first railroad and the opening of the canal. John was an enthusiastic Whig and then an early supporter of the Republican Party alongside Abraham Lincoln. But the Kinzie family was split by the Civil War. Juliette's husband and three sons served in the Union Army, while her son-in-law was an officer in the Confederacy. Juliette kept in contact with her daughter who lived in Savannah Georgia through letters. This presentation will explore her experiences with a war that fundamentally split her family.  Ann Durkin Keating is Toenniges Professor of History at North Central College in Naperville where she has taught for more than 30 years. She is the co-editor of the Encyclopedia of Chicago (2004) and is the author of several books on Chicago history, including most recently The World of Juliette Kinzie: Chicago Before the Fire (2019).