Chicago's first permanent resident

Drawing of the home of Jean Baptiste Point du Sable in Chicago as it appeared in the early 1800s

Jean-Baptiste Point du Sable lived near the mouth of the Chicago river in the 1770s which makes him the first recorded inhabitant of the settlement. Illinois was acquired as part of the United States through the Treaty of Paris of 1783 which also ended the American Revolutionary War. He owned the first trading post of the area in the 1770s. The African-Caribean founder was born in St Marc, Haiti.
He married a woman from Potawatomi descent named Kitihawa in 1788, although some sources report that they were married prior to this date in the Native American tradition. They had two children.
At some point he was arrested by the British military during the American Revolutionary War as they suspected he was an American sympathizer, but ended up being released.
The definition of his status varies as there are few records prior to the 1770s. Various historians debated on his origins. He was said to be a "free negro" by Indians, some historians state that he was a former slave from Kentucky and other research found that he was probably a fur trader from Canada.
Nonetheless a number of Chicago institutions have been named after him such as Schools, or the DuSable Museum of African American History which is the first and oldest museum founded in 1961 and dedicated to the study and conservation of African American history, culture, and art.