The history of the first settlers in Chicago was purposely shrouded in mystery for many years. For nearly a century, Chicagoans were led to believe that the first settler was a runaway slave who lived along the Chicago River for a short time and then faded into oblivion. However, Jean Baptiste Point du Sable was a trader who had been born to a Frenchman and a black woman on the Caribbean island of Santo Domingo. He was never a slave. He was well educated and he went on to develop a trading post and farm that paid him handsomely.

For many decades, John Kinzie, the influential trader of the early 1800s, was lauded as the so-called "Father of Chicago." Although he offered many great services, including saving some of the troops from Fort Dearborn from being killed, he was also selfish and troublesome and his bickering with Captain John Whistler eventually led to the officer being removed from Fort Dearborn. Although tradition calls Kinzie the successor to Point du Sable's trading post, he actually took it over from a man named Jean Lalime --- Chicago's first murder victim. The killer? The "Father of Chicago" himself!

Jean Baptiste du Sable built a cabin on the north bank of the Chicago River in 1779. His wife was an Indian woman named Catherine, who he married in Cahokia in 1788. They had two children together, a boy and a girl. In 1795, the land around the Chicago River was acquired from the Native Americans by treaty and, in 1800 the first commercial transaction took place on the banks of the Chicago. For unknown reasons (some claim that he failed in a bid to become the head of the Potawatomi Indians), du Sable sold his trading post to Jean Lalime, a trader who had been active on the St. Joseph River.

Du Sable moved on to Peoria and then St. Charles, Missouri, where he died and was buried, but two men associated with the sale of the trading post became an integral part of Chicago's early history. Those men are Jean Lalime and the man who witnessed the sale, John Kinzie.

 Jean Lalime was Chicago's original "man of mystery." As the second owner of the trading post that was started by du Sable, he played an important part in the development of the city, but he has been all but ignored by historians. Oddly, when John Kinzie took over the trading post a few years later, there is nothing to show that Lalime was paid anything for it. Did he purchase the post from du Sable as a front man for Kinzie? Some believe so, for there is evidence that the two men knew one another before Kinzie came to Chicago, dating back to a contract that Lalime witnessed for Kinzie and his half-brother, Thomas Forsyth.

Regardless, Lalime took up residence in the du Sable cabin and in 1803 Dr. William C. Smith, the first surgeon at Fort Dearborn, called him "a very decent man and a good companion." The following year, Kinzie moved to Chicago and took over the trading post. Lalime moved into a nearby cabin. There is no record to say what happened between the two men or what became of the goods that Lalime purchased from du Sable. Lalime is never mentioned again as the owner of the post. He became an Indian interpreter for Fort Dearborn, which suggests that he earned little income, but he was still a respected man, for Charles Jouett, the government Indian agent, named his son after him.

As time passed, it became evident that the split that occurred between John Kinzie and Jean Lalime was not a friendly matter. The two men became bitter enemies and were in constant conflict with one another. Lalime had likely sided with the Captain Whistler and the other officers at the fort during the disagreements with Kinzie, further complicating matters with the civilian populace. Then, finally, in April 1812, the animosity between Kinzie and Lalime boiled over into violence.

One afternoon, Lieutenant Helm warned Kinzie that Lalime was looking for him. A few moments later, Lalime confronted him outside of the fort and the two men exchanged heated words. A brief struggle ensued, leading to Kinzie being shot in the shoulder and to Lalime being stabbed to death. Kinzie fled to Milwaukee and remained in hiding there until word came that the murder had been ruled as "justifiable homicide." Kinzie soon returned to Chicago, only to find that some of the officers at the fort who had been friends of Lalime had buried the dead man in Kinzie's own yard. Rather than be angry, though, Kinzie erected a fence around the gravesite and tended it until his own death. After he died, Lalime's bones were forgotten until they were accidentally disturbed during a construction project many years later at the southwest corner of Cass and Illinois streets.

The war ruined Kinzie. He fell deeply in debt and after losing his fortune when Fort Dearborn was abandoned. Though in no danger from the Indians, he was captured by the British and accused of high treason since he was a British subject. He was placed in irons and held on a prison ship off Quebec for seven weeks. He was freed in 1814 and re-joined in family.

Two years later, he returned to Chicago, but found that much had changed. He failed in re-starting his business, thanks to a bad loan, and soon was working for his largest competitor, the American Fur Company. In time, the fur trade ended and Kinzie worked as a trader and Indian interpreter until his death in 1828. Thirty years later, his daughter-in-law would write a book that named Kinzie as the founding settler of Chicago. The book would overlook Kinzie's questionable business practices and the murder of Jean Lalime and would be accepted as fact for many years. Later, it would be seen as evidence of Juliette Kinzie's affinity for social climbing and her need to be part of a Chicago dynasty. At that point, her historical "facts" were called into question.

Today, John Kinzie is still regarded as a prominent settler of early Chicago, although his place in history has certainly changed over the years – from founding father to Chicago’s first murderer.