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1750 ca1770s-18181818, Aug 28
Regarded as the first permanent resident of what later became Chicago, Illinois, and is recognized as the "Founder of Chicago". The site where he settled near the mouth of the Chicago River around the 1780s is identified as a National Historic Landmark, now located in Pioneer Court. Point du Sable was of African descent but little else is known of his life prior to the 1770s. During his career, the areas where he settled and traded around the Great Lakes and in the Illinois Country changed hands several times among France, Britain, Spain and the new United States. Described as handsome and well educated, Point du Sable married a Native American woman, Kitiwaha, and they had two children.
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06/06/1772-Haitian explorer Jean Baptiste Point du Sable settles Chicago 
03/12/1773-Jean Baptiste Point du Sable founds settlement now known as Chicago 
 Contemporaries
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Jean Baptiste Point du Sable1750 ca1770
 
18181818, Aug 28

Philip Livingston1716, Jan 151737
 
17781778, Jun 12
 an American merchant and statesman from New York City. He was a delegate for New York to the Cont...
Joseph Hewes1730, Jan 231763
 
17791779, Nov 10
 Hewes attended Princeton but there is no evidence that he actually graduated. What is known is th...
Francis Lewis1713, Mar 211734
 
17801802, Dec 31
 a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of New York. He was...
George Taylor1716 ca1736
 
17811781, Feb 23
 a Colonial ironmaster and a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence as a represen...
Cornelius Harnett1723, Apr 101740
 
17811781, Apr 28
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John Hanson1715, Apr 31750
 
17831783, Nov 15
 a merchant and public official from Maryland during the era of the American Revolution. In 1779, ...
Jonathan Trumbull1710, Oct 121731
 
17841785, Aug 17
 one of the few Americans who served as governor in both a pre-Revolutionary colony and a post-Rev...
Silas Deane1737, Dec 241759
 
17841789, Sep 23
 an American merchant, politician, and diplomat, and a supporter of American independence. Deane s...
Esek Hopkins1718, Apr 261740
 
17861802, Feb 26
  the only Commander in Chief of the Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War. He wa...
Henry Laurens1723, Feb 241757
 
17881792, Dec 8
 an American merchant, slave trader, and rice planter from South Carolina who became a political l...
Benjamin Franklin1705, Jan 61718
 
17891790, Apr 17
 one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A renowned polymath, Franklin was a leading aut...
Adam Smith1723, Jun 51748
 
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 a Scottish economist, philosopher, and author. He was a moral philosopher, a pioneer of political...
Ethan Allen1737, Jan 101757
 
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 a farmer, businessman, land speculator, philosopher, writer, lay theologian, and American Revolut...
Michael Hillegas1729, Apr 221765
 
17891804, Sep 29
 a merchant, sugar refiner, and iron magnate who used his wealth to assist the American revolution...
John Odellunknown1780
 
 
1789unknown
 a carpenter from New York. A contract for the construction of St.Peter’s Church in the Bronx wa...
Benjamin Harrison V1726, Apr 51745
 
17911791, Apr 24
 an American politician, planter, and merchant, a revolutionary leader and a Founding Father of th...
George Mason1725, Nov 301747
 
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 a Virginia planter and politician, and a delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787, ...
John Hancock1736, Jan 121754
 
17931793, Oct 8
 an American merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He served as p...
Nathaniel Gorham1738, May 271759
 
17961796 Jun 11
 Starting at 15, Gorham served an apprenticeship with a merchant in New London, Connecticut, after...
George Clymer1739, Mar 161765
 
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 an American politician and Founding Father of the United States. He was one of the first Patriots...
Robert Morris Jr.1734, Jan 201750
 
17981806, May 8
 a Founding Father of the United States, was a Liverpool-born American merchant who financed the A...
Justin Morgan1747, Feb 281771
 
 
17981798, Mar 22
 a U.S. horse breeder and composer. Morgan was a composer, best known for his hymns and fuguing tu...
Ashley Bowen1728, Jan 81741
 
17991813
 the first American sailor to write an autobiography. Although Bowen's career as a sailor was not ...
Joseph McDowell Jr.1756, Mar 81776
 
 
17991801, Feb 5
 an American planter, soldier, and statesman from North Carolina. He was known as "Quaker Meadows ...
John Fitch1743, Jan 211780
 
 
17991798, Jul 2
 an American inventor, clockmaker, entrepreneur and engineer. He was most famous for operating the...
John Fearn [1]1768, Aug 241790
 
 
1799unknown
 an English whaling ship captain, notable as the first European to discover the Pacific island of ...
John Hetheringtonunknown1790
 
 
1799unknown
 a presumed apocryphal English haberdasher, often credited as the inventor of the top hat, which i...
Jeremiah Wadsworth1743, Jul 121761
 
18011804, Apr 30
 an American sea captain, merchant, and statesman from Hartford, Connecticut who profited from his...
William Felton [2]unknown1790
 
 
1809unknown
 a London coachmaker from 36 Leather Lane in Holborn, and 254 Oxford Street near Grosvenor Square,...
Ezra Weeksunknown1800
 
 
1809unknown
 a successful builder who served as a witness in a sensationalized murder trial. John McComb, the...
Paul Revere1734, Dec 211756
 
18111818, May 10
 an American silversmith, engraver, early industrialist, and a Patriot in the American Revolution....
William Williams [3]1731, Apr 231771
 
 
18111811, Aug 2
 a merchant, and a delegate for Connecticut to the Continental Congress in 1776, and a signatory o...
Sybil Ludington1761, Apr 51777
 
 
18111839, Feb 26
 celebrated as a heroine of the American Revolutionary War. She reportedly rode to alert militia f...
Samuel Osgood1747, Feb 31771
 
 
18131813, Aug 12
 an American merchant and statesman born in Andover, Massachusetts, currently a part of North Ando...
Elbridge Gerry1744, Jul 61765
 
18141814, Nov 23
 an American statesman and diplomat. As a Democratic-Republican he was selected as the fifth Vice ...
Charles Holtunknown1797
 
1819unknown
 printer, political provacateur
Jao de la Portaunknown1810
 
1819unknown
 along with his older brother Morin, was a Portuguese Jewish merchant important in the early settl...
Moses Austin1761, Oct 41784
 
18211821, Jun 10
 an American businessman and pioneer who played a large part in the development of the lead indust...
Betsy Ross1752, Jan 11773
 
18271836, Jan 30
 widely credited with making the first American flag. According to family tradition, upon a visit ...
William Maclure1763, Oct 271782
 
18271840, Mar 23
 an Americanized Scottish geologist, cartographer and philanthropist. He is known as the 'father o...
Daniel Sargent Jr.1764, Jan 151780
 
18291842, Apr 2
 a successful American merchant and politician in Boston, Massachusetts. He was a successful merch...
Samuel Morey1762, Oct 231780
 
18341843, Apr 17
 an American inventor, who worked on early internal combustion engines and was a pioneer in steams...
Stephen F. Austin1793, Nov 31814
 
18361836, Dec 27
 an American empresario. Known as the "Father of Texas", and the founder of Texas, he led the seco...
William Henry Ashley1778 ca1808
 
18381838, Mar 26
 an American who pioneered as a miner, land speculator, manufacturer, territorial militia officer,...
Johnny Appleseed1774, Sep 261794
 
18391845, Mar 18
 an American pioneer nurseryman who introduced apple trees to large parts of Pennsylvania, Ontario...
John Jacob Astor1763, Jul 171779
 
18411848, Mar 29
 a German–American businessman, merchant, real estate mogul and investor who mainly made his for...
Alpheus Babcock1785, Sep 111809
 
18421842, Apr 3
 a piano and musical instrument maker in Boston, Massachusetts and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania duri...
Petro Prokopovych17751798
 
18501850
 the founder of commercial beekeeping. He introduced novelties in traditional beekeeping that allo...
Zachariah Allen1795, Sep 151815
 
18791882, Mar 17
 an American textile manufacturer, scientist, lawyer, writer, inventor and civil leader from Provi...
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