Series: 1 T (Volume 1)
Scope and Content Note

Original papers, 1804-1822, the majority of which concern the War of 1812. More than thirty letters, 1812-1817, by Governor Ninian Edwards of Illinois Territory and several by William Clark, then territorial governor of Missouri, discuss military operation in Illinois, American attempts to secure Indian allies, and Indian response. Two letters (1813-1814) by Benjamin Howard, brigadier general in command in the upper Mississippi River area, concern the military situation in and near Prairie du Chien. Despite his appointment as an American subagent and his close association with Governor Edwards, Forsyth not only had stores of whiskey and gunpowder destroyed in the debacle at Fort Dearborn in August 1812, but he also suffered heavier property losses at Peoria, where his post was looted by Illinois militia and Indians commanded by Thomas E. Craig later in 1812, and where its building was destroyed in the following year by Howard's troops. A copy of a deposition by Nathan Heald and a letter by Leonard Helm relate to the destruction of Fort Dearborn. Forsyth's detailed memorandum describing the Craig affair and itemized inventories of his property and building losses in 1812-1813 are among his papers. Also attesting to the unsettled conditions on the Illinois frontier is a list of horses, guns, and other possessions taken by James B. Moore's Illinois Rangers after massacring a group of friendly Potawatomi in the autumn of 1814.

Among the postwar papers is a long manuscript on the history and cultural life of the Sauk, Fox, and Kickapoo tribes written in 1820 for Jedediah Morse by Morrill Marston, major of the Fifth Regiment of U.S. Infantry then stationed at Fort Armstrong, Illinois. In covering such topics as religion, education, language, condition of women, and war customs, Marston included some comparisons with customs of the Chippewa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi, and gave credit to George Davenport and Forsyth as two of his major sources of information. Marston also gave transcriptions of his interviews with two Sauk and Fox chiefs and recorded his personal observations on the factory system in the fur trade and his recommendations on government Indian policy.

Also in this volume are a Michigan contract (1804) and a judgment of the Louisiana Supreme Court (1816) concerning an indentured black servant, Jeffrey Nash; a few fur trade engagements, bonds for licenses, and lists of trade goods for Jacques Mette in 1807 and for Jean B. Carron, George Davenport, Joseph Gurrette, Jacques Martin, and Samuel C. Muir in 1821-1833; Forsyth's commissions as subagent (1812, signed by William Eustis) and agent (1818, signed by President James Monroe and Secretary of State John Quincy Adams); letters from Thomas C. Rector (1821) and John C. Calhoun (1822); and testimony (1820) of two Missouri Sauk and Fox Indians accused of murder.

Includes a document in Sauk (p. 58-59).

Series: 2 T (Volume 2)
Scope and Content Note

Original papers, 1823-1833. Forsyth's incoming correspondence includes a long unsigned letter (1824) on the origins of the Arikara War and on the Missouri River fur trade by a writer at Fort Atkinson, Iowa, a “Mr. James” according to the endorsement; more than a dozen letters, 1825-1830, from William Clark, mainly on routine matters-licensing, accounts, and Forsyth's furloughs-with scattered references to treaties and to the Winnebago outbreak of 1827; several letters by Thomas L. McKenney, including one written in 1827 from Butte des Morts (Wisconsin) during the Winnebago unrest; and one letter by Pierre Menard (1829) on a site for treaty negotiation. Two drafts of letters by Forsyth to Joseph H. Vose, major of the Fifth U.S. Infantry, concern a personal dispute which Forsyth hinted might have to be settled by a duel.

Among other records are invoices for presents distributed to Indians, 1823-1825; lists of Sauk and Fox halfbreeds in 1824, with ages, names of parents, and place of residence; bonds for fur trade licenses issued to David and Moses D. Bates (1824), to Antoine Brisbois and Francis Bouthillier (1825), and to Ezekiel and James Lockwood (1825) with a letter listing the latters' merchandise for trade in the lead mining region near Prairie du Chien; passes for travel issued to Indians by Wabash agent John Tipton and by Forsyth, including one for Keokuk (1829); and the text of the treaty of Chicago (September 1833) with the Chippewa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi, accompanied by a list of claims submitted and accepted under terms of the treaty.

Also included are copies of land records, 1796-1809, for a Spanish tract west of the Mississippi granted to Julien Dubuque, with subsequent transfers involving Charles Gratiot, Auguste Chouteau, William Henry Harrison, and others; a list of American designations for ten Indian nations in the upper Mississippi and western Great Lakes regions, accompanied by the names by which each nation was known to other tribes and to the French; and a group of maps of river systems mainly in the upper Mississippi region.

Includes a document with several Native American languages (p. 60).

Series: 3 T (Volume 3)
Scope and Content Note: Indian agency records, 1822-1830, kept by Forsyth at Fort Armstrong, Illinois. The contents, arranged by year, include lists of persons employed at the agency with entries showing name, type of service, amount of time, and amount of payment for each employee; lists of persons licensed as traders giving also the amount of capital, names of others employed as interpreters and boatmen, place of trade, and Indian tribes involved; accounts showing all receipts and disbursements for operation of the agency; itemized lists of presents and provisions distributed to the Indians; abstracts of the annuities paid; and copies of the receipts signed by Indian chiefs and braves for the annuities they received.

Series: 4 T (Volume 4)
Scope and Content Note

Letterbook, 1814-1827, containing copies of Forsyth's outgoing letters to government, military, and business associates. His early letters deal with trade with tribes in Illinois and adjacent areas; among the many references to the War of 1812 are an account of the death of Tecumseh and a discussion of Forsyth's claims for his property losses. Amid the 1817 letters are biographical sketches of Tecumseh and the Potawatomi warrior known as the Main Poque. Descriptions of Forsyth's travels as Indian agent through northern Illinois and up the Mississippi to Prairie du Chien and Fort Snelling are found in letters, 1818-1820. During the 1820s numerous topics occur: intertribal warfare of the Sauk and Fox tribe against the Sioux (1822); Forsyth's protest against the evacuation of Fort Dearborn (1823); the rising tension occasioned by white hunters and lead miners invading Indian lands in northwestern Illinois and southwestern Wisconsin and the resultant harassment of the Indian owners; Forsyth's attempts to discourage white squatters from hunting and trapping on Indian territory; the treaty of Prairie du Chien (1825); the Winnebago unrest of 1826-1827; and Black Hawk's discontent and his desire to war on the Sioux (1827).

Scattered throughout the volume are reports on British policies and influence over the Indians and commentaries on the evils caused by overabundant distribution of whiskey to the Indians by traders. Forsyth's major correspondents were William Clark; Ninian Edwards; Benjamin Howard; Thomas L. McKenney; and successive Secretaries of War William Eustis, John C. Calhoun, and James Barbour, but occasional letters were also addressed to Lewis Cass, Rufus Easton, James Latham, William Lee, Alexander McNair, John Scott, Lawrence Taliaferro, Thomas T. Tucker, and A.P. Vanmatre.

Among the many prominent Indian leaders discussed are the Potawatomi Black Partridge and Gomo; the Sauk Keokuk; the Shawnee Prophet (brother of Tecumseh); the Sioux chiefs Red Wing, Little Crow (d. 1824), and Wabasha; and the Winnebago Prophet and Tomah (known as Thomas Carron). Fur traders mentioned include Maurice Blondeau, Nicolas Boilvin, George Davenport, Robert Dickson, Amos Farrar, Antoine Gautier (Gauthier, Gothier), Henry Gratiot, and Joseph Rolette. Most of the letters, 1814-1818, were published by t and Gomo; the Sauk Keokuk; the Shawnee Prophet (brother of Tecumseh); the Sioux chiefs Red Wing, Little Crow (d. 1824), and Wabasha; and the Winnebago Prophet and Tomah (known as Thomas Carron). Fur traders mentioned include Maurice Blondeau, Nicolas Boilvin, George Davenport, Robert Dickson, Amos Farrar, Antoine Gautier (Gauthier, Gothier), Henry Gratiot, and Joseph Rolette. Most of the letters, 1814-1818, were published by the Society in Wisconsin Historical Collections, XI (1888), 316-355.

Series: 5 T (Volume 5)
Scope and Content Note: Letterbook, 1817-1826, containing copies of some incoming letters and instructions which Forsyth received from John C. Calhoun, William Clark, and Thomas L. McKenney. Bound at the rear of the volume are copies of a letter (1822) by Edmund P. Gaines to Henry Atkinson and of one (1823) from Calhoun to Gaines on the problem of restricting traders from selling liquor to the Indians.

Series: 6 T (Volume 6)
Scope and Content Note

Letterbook, 1820-1833, another volume containing copies of outgoing correspondence written by Forsyth as Indian agent. For the years 1820-1827, many of the letters duplicate ones also entered in 4 T, but the later manuscripts, 1828-1833, comprise more than half of this volume.

The majority of the letters for 1828-1830 were addressed to William Clark; these chronicle not only the routine affairs of Forsyth's agency but also the rising tide of discontent among portions of the Sauk and Fox tribes due to their removal from Illinois, white encroachments on mineral lands still owned by the Indians, and white demands for still more treaties, i.e. more land cessions. Forsyth wrote (1830) sketches of more than a dozen leading chiefs and braves of the Sauk and Fox nations for Thomas L. McKenney, but did not include Black Hawk, although the latter figures prominently in contemporary correspondence.

To Lewis Cass, Forsyth sent (1831) an essay giving his observations on the fur trade radiating from St. Louis north up the Mississippi Valley, southwest to Santa Fe, and northwest to the Rocky Mountains and his suggestions for securing better qualified men as Indian agents. Letters in 1832 and 1833 pertain to Forsyth's removal in 1830, to his still-pending claims for 1812 damages, and to a few other events during his years as agent.

Among his other correspondents in the 1828-1833 period were numerous agents, subagents, and other government officials involved in Indian affairs, such as William H. Ashley, John H. Eaton, and William B. Lewis in Washington, D.C., John Green at Fort Armstrong, Andrew S. Hughes in Iowa, George Vashon in Kansas, and W. Warner in Galena, Illinois.

Series: 7 T - 8 T (Volumes 7-8)
Scope and Content Note: Manuscript transcripts from Forsyth's letterbooks, 4 T and 6 T, selected and copied by Daniel S. Durrie, librarian at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, for use in preparation of Volume XI of Wisconsin Historical Collections. Volume 7 T contains copies of letters, 1814-1823; 8 T contains copies for 1824-1833. In making his selections, Durrie omitted some items in the original letterbooks.

Series: 9 T (Volume 9)
Scope and Content Note

Forsyth's manuscript entitled “Manners and Customs of the Sauk and Fox Nations of Indians,” containing accounts of tribal traditions, history, government, religion, customs of war and of peace, family life, medicine, hunting practices, and language. Notations by the author state that a copy was delivered to William Clark in January 1827. Following the manuscript in this volume, however, are other writings and annotations added by Forsyth in subsequent years: place-names of Indian derivation; descriptive data on the Chippewa, Kickapoo, Ottawa, Potawatomi, and Winnebago tribes; a copy of a letter (1812) to Clark discussing the geographic features of Illinois and Indiana, the Shawnee Prophet and the regulations he imposed on his faithful adherents; a discussion of the cause of the Black Hawk War of 1832; a reminiscent anecdote from Forsyth's days as a clerk trading with the Chippewa in Michigan; a short narrative of his visit in October 1832, to an encampment of the segment of Kickapoo governed by the Kickapoo Prophet. On the outer cover of his volume, Forsyth wrote under the title the date of 1832, the year of his final annotations rather than the dates of his earlier compositions.

Includes documents in Sauk and Fox (p. 5, 22, 32-36).