USA > Minnesota > Wabasha County > History of Wabasha County : together with biographical matter, statistics, etc. : gathered from matter furnished by interviews with old settlers, county, township, and other records, and extracts from files of papers, pamphlets, and such other sources > Part 5
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Coon creek was called Wah-keh-ne-shan-i-galı, and the mounds situated on Coon prairie were said to have been remarkable for the number of stone and copper implements found in and about them. Black river was appropriately called Minnesap-pah, by the Dah-ko-
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PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS.
tahs, and Ne-sheb-er-ah by the Winnebagoes, both names signity- ing black-water. The Trempealeau river was called Ne-chaun-ne- shan-i-gah by the Winnebagoes, and Wat-a-Pah-dah, both meaning the overflowing river. The Chippewa was called by the Winne- bagoes Day-got-chee, ne-shan-i-ga, meaning the river of the gartered tribe, as they called the Chippewas, and the Sioux called it Ha- ha-tone Wat-pah, meaning the river of the dwellers at the falls (as the Chippewas were known to the Sioux), as it was one of the prin- cipal routes of travel to the Chippewa country. Beef slough and Beef river were both called by the Sioux Talı-ton-kah-wat-pal, and by the Winnebagoes Te-chay-ne-shan-i-gah, because of the locality being the last resort of the buffalo east of the Mississippi, thongh some were seen on Trempealeau prairie at a very late date. The Winnebagoes called the site of Winona, De-cone-uck, and the whole prairie Ose-cah-le-aitch-chaw, meaning the prairie village, or its equivalent. The Dah-ko-tahs called it Ke-ox-ah, translated to mean the homestead. The French called it La Prairie Aux-Ailes (pro- nounced O'Zell), or Prairie of Wing's,-for what reason I have been unable to learn, but as the Wah-pa-sha village was colonized from the Red Wing band, it would appear as if the Indians of the village of Ke-ox-ah might have been known to the early French traders as one of the Red Wing villages.
Ke-ox-alı seems to have a specific meaning, like Tee-pe-o-tah, or O-ton-we, both of which mean a village or collection of tents, but Reed thought "The Homestead " as good an interpretation as conld be given the word. Reed was not a very good linguist, and said that he had been frequently misled like Gov. Doty, who, while mapping Fox river, supposed Ne-nah, or water, to be the Indian name of the river, and at once put it down on his map as Ne-nah, or Fox river, and for a number of years it so appeared on the official maps of the state. James Reed informed us that he had been in the United States army under Col. Zachary Taylor at Prairie du Chien, and that during trips to the pineries of the Chippewa, under com- mand of Lieut. Jefferson Davis and others, the beauty of the site of Trempealeau, and the scenery of the river above and below, had so impressed him that he had resolved to settle there when his term of service should have expired. His purpose was delayed for various causes, as he came to Prairie du Chien when quite young, but finally, after many years, Reed had established himself and was in comfortable circumstances. At the time of our arrival Reed had a
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HISTORY OF WINONA COUNTY.
large drove of cattle and young horses, which the Indians never stole, but would ride occasionally, to his great annoyance, as they galled the backs of his horses and thus exposed their brutality. The houses erected by Gavin, the Swiss missionary, and his associates, Louis Stram and others, in 1837-8, upon the land now owned by the Trowbridge brothers, east of the Lake of the Mountain, were used by the Winnebagoes and their Sioux relations to catch the horses, as in fly-time the horses would go into the dark log cabins to escape these pests. During the summer of our arrival Reed burnt up the cabins to abate the nuisance, saying that they would never be of further use for missionary purposes. By the treaty of 1837 the Sioux, and the Winnebagoes allied to them, had agreed to remove west of the Mississippi. This agreement was not fulfilled until 1840, the year of Reed's settlement at " Monte-ville," as he used to call his location at times, and this fact will account for the persistent efforts of the Swiss to establish their mission. The Sionx Indians, according to Reed, were very willing to have Monsieur Gavin, Lewis Stram, and others on the east side of the Mississippi, culti- vate corn and vegetables to give them (all for the love of God), but they preferred their dog-feasts, sun and scalp dances, to the pious teachings of the missionaries, and after one or two years of hopeless work the missionaries left their Trempealeau mission and farm work in disgust.
Like most Kentuckians, Reed was very fond of horses, and had improved his stock by the importation of a young thoroughbred stallion. The brute was a very intelligent animal, and refused to be ridden by any of Reed's family of boys, who were then quite young. Reed bantered me to ride the horse, saying, "If you will subdue him yon can use him as your own."
Reed himself was a good horseman, but thought himself rather old to ride the colt. I accepted the old Kentuckian's kindly offer, and so won upon him by subduing his stallion that a horse was always at my service. The stallion, a beautiful iron-gray, after a term of service, was sold to an officer at Fort Snelling.
James Reed was a remarkable man in many respects, and one of the best types of a pioneer hunter and trapper I ever knew. His first wife was a Pottawatomie woman, by whom he had five children, four of whom are still living ; his son John, also a great hunter, died from a gunshot wound accidentally inflicted by his own hand while hunting deer. Reed's second wife was the widow of the trader
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PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS.
Farnam, a partner of Col. Davenport, who was murdered at Rock Island a number of years since. Reed's stepdaughter, Miss Mary Ann Farnam, married Mr. Charles H. Perkins, and is still living near Trempealeau. Reed's last wife was the estimable widow Grig- non, mother of Antoine and Paul Grignon, of Trempealeau. Mrs. Grignon was the sister of Francis La Bath, the noted fur-trader, and a cousin to the younger chief Wah-pa-sha. She was first married to a French Canadian named Borrette, to whom was born Joseph Bor- rette, who so many years managed La Batlı's post at the Rolling Stone.
To Mrs. Grignon-Reed and her intelligent family I am much indebted for interesting facts connected with the pioneer settlement of Trempealeau and Winona counties. Mrs. Reed's deatlı was an irreparable loss to her family, and a subject of regret to all who knew her. For several years in succession Reed used the land cultivated by Lonis Stram, the first Indian farmer, who had tried to act in concert with his countrymen the Swiss missionaries; and while thanking his stars for finding land already for his use, Reed said that the austere and industrious character of the missionaries ren- dered them unpopular with Wah-pa-sha and his band.
According to La 'bath, both Stram and the government black- smith at the present site of Homer were somewhat afraid of the Sioux Indians. Francis du Chouquette, the blacksmith, removed his forge to the island opposite Homer, known as The Blacksmith's Island, and after a raid by a war-party upon the Wah-pa-sha village he left his forge and anvil upon the island and fled to Prairie du Chien. My brother Willard found the anvil, and it was in use for some years in Homer. Upon the site of Du Chouquette's shop in Homer I occasionally find fragments of iron and cinder, and the spring, walled up by him, was intact only a few years since.
The next attempt to proselyte the Sioux and establish in their village at Winona was made by the Rev. J. D. Stevens, who, ac- cording to my information, had an appointment of some kind as farmer and chaplain. His efforts were no more successful than had been his Swiss predecessors Louis Stram and Mr. Gavin. Reed used to regard the discomfiture of Protestant missionaries with resigna- tion, and say that if the Sioux would not receive the Roman Catholics, with the influence of the French mixed bloods to aid them, it was simply out of the question for Protestants to succeed.
According to Reed and La 'bath, Stevens got lost in an attempt
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HISTORY OF WINONA COUNTY.
to reach the camp of Wah-pa-sha, but was found and kindly treated by one of the band, and after an interview with the chief, in which he was told that no white man would be allowed to settle on their territory, Stevens crossed over to the Wisconsin shore opposite Winona and made a temporary shelter for himself and assistants, and then left for provisions and to confer with the authorities. He finally abandoned his attempt to make unwilling christians of heathen savages. La 'batlı could probably have changed the order- ing of affairs in Wah-pa-sha's counsels, but it was not his interest to do so, and besides, he believed that but one revealed religion existed upon earth, the Catholic, which he professed. The half-breeds were all Catholics; and although they exerted a most potent influence against any Protestant interference with the Sioux, they never inter- fered with the medicine-men, but joined, like Frontenac, in their scalp-dances and ceremonies. Hence their great influence with them.
In 1841 another attempt to settle upon the site of Winona was made by Thomas Holmes and Robert Kennedy and their families, but they were not allowed to establish themselves on the prairie. After several offers made to Wah-pa-sha, and his refusal to allow the establishment of those men among his people, they opened a trading-post at the Wah-ma-dee, or Eagle Bluffs. This point of trade was for some years known as Holmes' Landing, but is now called Fountain City, from the numerous fountain-like springs that supply its inhabitants. Soon after we arrived at Reed's village of " Monte- ville," we made the acquaintance of Holmes and Kennedy and their families, and a man in their employ named Smothers. Tom Holmes, the moving spirit of the trio, was the most persistent of pioneers, and had aided in the early settlement of Rockford, and other towns in Illinois, and after leaving the " Landing," commenced the settle- ment of Shockpay on the Minnesota river.
Holmes' first wife was the sister of Kennedy, who was from Baltimore, and both were accustomed to good living and knew how to prepare it, as they had kept a hotel in Maryland. My brother and myself took dinner at their house while aiding Captain Eaton (of the firm of Carson & Eaton) to drive cattle up the Chippewa. Eaton and a man named Darby had had their horses stolen from them by the Winnebagoes near La Crosse, and were left on foot to drive a large drove of cattle. Near the head of what is now called the Mississippi slough six shots were fired at us by a small party of
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WINONA CITY IN EMBRYO.
Sioux from Red Wing's band, one of which broke a leg of an ox, and the others cut twigs of trees over our heads. While this in- teresting target practice was going on I ambushed the Sioux rifle- men, and but for Captain Eaton and my brother would have killed two of the war party, as I had them at my merey. While relating our experience to Holmes, I observed a peculiar smile and glance of intelligence from his wife, and upon inquiry found that in our ignorance of Dah-ko-tah, Captain Eaton had offered a deadly insult to the Indians while trying to ask our way. However, the Red Wing band subsequently paid for the ox disabled by the Sioux, as I was informed, a year or two afterward.
CHAPTER VI.
WINONA CITY IN EMBRYO.
AFTER considerable exploration of the country, charmed with the scenery and pleased with the soil and water, we decided to build a house in the little valley pointed out to us by Reed, and where we had before built a small eabin. When our determination was made known, Reed, his son-in-law Dauville, and a hired man and team, came at onee to aid us, and we soon had raised up a comfortable log house. A year or two after Reed's appointment as farmer and sub- agent of the Wah-pah-sha band, I returned the favor in part by aid- ing Reed to construct the body of the first house ever built in Winona. The men who aided me in "carrying up the corners" were Joseph Borrette, Reed's wife's son, a nephew of La Bath, James Dauville, Reed's son-in-law, and a Canadian named Goulet, alternately em- ployed by Reed as cattle-grazer, woodehopper and storekeeper. Goulet had been previously employed by La Bath at Minnesota City, knew Wah-pa-sha and his band thoroughly, and was quite a favorite with them. While in Reed's service at Prairie island, he was found by some of the Sioux in a state of intoxication, badly burnt from having fallen in the fire, and died soon after from the effects of his debauch. After the loss of his office by the prospective removal of the Sioux, Reed took down the building and floated the sawed lumber, the valuable portion of it, to Trempealean, where it was used as an addition to his residence. When he settled upon his
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HISTORY OF WINONA COUNTY.
farm at Little Tamarach, he sold his residence and lots in the village to Mr. Ben Healy, and some clear joists and other lumber that had been used in Reed's Winona building now constitute a part of the large wooden store building of Mr. Fred Kribs, the principal hard- ware merchant of Trempealeau. During a recent visit Mr. Kribs and Antoine Grignon pointed out to me some of the identical joists used in 1844 by us in the construction of Reed's storehouse for gov- ernment supplies, and which was also used as a residence for him- self and men while performing their duties. The body of the house was built of white-ash logs, cut by John La Point and Goulet, Reed's men, and floated from the islands above the present city, and it occupied a spot near the store of S. C. White. It has been sup- posed by some that the Rev. J. D. Stevens built a temporary abode upon the site of Winona, but there were no inducements offered him to do so, and after his decided repulse by the Wah-pa-sha band, it would have been foolhardy for him to have attempted it. Reed, the Grignons, and the Indians all agree in this, that no missionaries were acceptable to Wah-pa-sha, and when he made his final treaty, he insisted as a condition of the treaty that money alone should be paid him, and that he should be allowed to manage his own affairs without interference of any kind with his band. Some ash logs left by Reed were used in erecting a cabin which was pulled down by Capt. Johnson, and they were finally cut up for firewood.
My brother Willard was much pleased with the game the country afforded, and made frequent excursions with Reed for brook-trout and deer. Reed was a great hunter, but had been too long among Indians to needlessly offend them by slaughtering their game, but as he had a large family he needed large supplies of meat, and it was no unusual occurrence for him and my brother to return from a fire-hunt with three or four red deer in their canoes, or from a fish- ing excursion with a gross or more of brook-tront. A favorite resort for trout was the spring brook or creek upon which the Pick-Wick mills are situated, and which Willard named Trout creek. The east branch of the creek, where he caught six dozen in about two hours' fishing, he called "Little Tront."
As for deer, there was never a scarcity, for the whole range of bluffs on the Minnesota side, or right bank of the Mississippi, was a favorite resort for them. Here were acorns in plenty, and after they had eaten what satisfied them, the deer went out upon some prom- ontory of bluff to watch their enemies, or descended to some breezy
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WINONA CITY IN EMBRYO.
sandbar to escape the stings of the deer-fly. At nightfall the mer- ciless attacks of gnats and mosquitos drove the deer into the waters of creeks and rivers, and as the bewildering firelight of the hunter noiselessly approached them in the light canoe, the deer fell a victim to his curiosity. The flashing eyes of the deer reflected back the torchlight, and told with unerring certainty where to direct the mur- derous shot. Outside of the timber, on the borders of the prairies but a short distance from Winona, elk were abundant, and a little farther west buffalo were still to be found quite numerous. We were told by Reed that only a few years previous to our arrival buffalo were seen on Trempealean prairie and on the big prairie slough at the mouth of the Chippewa river known as Buffalo Slough prairie.
Upon one of my numerous excursions to St. Paul and Fort Snelling I remember seeing Gen. Sibley return from a successful buffalo hunt, and he told me that in times past they had been seen from the knobs almost in sight of his establishment. The General was noted as an expert hunter and scientific rifle-shot, but upon the expedition referred to his delight in the chase was cut short by a sprained ankle received by the fall of his horse.
On the buffalo slough or channel of the Chippewa, around jutting points, deep trails were visible, where buffalo had repeatedly passed to water, and these were in common use by elk and deer at the date of our arrival in the country.
Willard's use of the Chippewa tongue for a time prejudiced his interests as a trader, and he did not embark in the business among the Sioux for some time after his arrival here. In the autumn of 1842 he and a Menominee Indian of great repute went up the Trein- pealeau river to hunt and trap, and in order to escape observation, and perhaps for convenience, he duplicated his Indian comrade's cos- tume throughout. At that time there was some danger from raiding parties of Chippewas, and Will said that if any should be encoun- tered, his knowledge of their language and his costume, unlike that of the Sioux, would be his safeguard.
Will made a very successful hunt, and as furs were quite high in those days, the skins brought in sold for a considerable sum of money. In an oak grove above the site of Dodge my brother killed. three bears in one day. His dog, a very noted one, obtained from Capt. Martin Scott, brought the bears to a stand, and he killed them in quick succession. At Elk creek, named during his hunt, he killed a couple of elk, and the Indian killed some also, but how many I
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HISTORY OF WINONA COUNTY.
have forgotten. The Menominee had, during the fall before, caught over fifty beavers, but while upon the hunt with Willard he had almost totally failed to trap that cunning animal. Finding himself outwitted by the beaver, and surpassed in skill as a hunter, the Indian became moody, and began a fast to propitiate the evil influ- ences that he believed were assailing him. Will tried to reassure him, but to no purpose ; so, after repeated successes on Will's part, and failures of the Menominee to catch the coveted beaver, they dried their meat, and taking the skins of the elk killed, they stretched them over a willow boat-frame, and thus equipped, their hunting canoes on each side of their skin boat, they descended the Trem- pealeau just as the ice was about to close the Mississippi. Will returned alone to that once noted resort of beaver, mink and otter, and as the warm spring branches were seldom closed by ice, he was able to catch those valuable furred animals in winter. The beaver skins were at that time worth about $4 per pound. Game was quite abundant in those early days, for there were no vandal hunters to wantonly destroy it, or if they did the Indians were very likely to destroy them. Wild fowl and pigeons nested in the country and raised their broods undisturbed. As for myself, I was no hunter in its proper sense, and having repeatedly missed deer at short range, and standing broadside to me, I determined to learn the only art that would command the respect of the pioneer settlers, or instill a wholesome dread of my marksmanship among the warlike Sioux. My failure to kill deer was more a habit of preoccupation than a want of ability to shoot, for with my rifle, a target gun, I could pick off the heads of grouse or pigeons, and at a mark I had repeatedly excelled Willard and Reed, who were noted among the Indians even as the best hunters on the Mississippi, excepting, perhaps, Joe Rock, of Wah-pa-sha, and Philo Stone, of the Chippewa river. The grand climax, to my chagrin, was reached when Reed accused me of "buck fever." I repelled the accusation with scorn, and aiming at the eye of the next deer I shot at, it fell in its tracks, and for ever after I was able to kill elk, bear and deer, with about equal facility.
In September, 1843, in company with Tom Holmes, Wm. Smothers and my brother, I went up the Trempealeau river for the purpose of hunting elk, but our purpose was frustrated by almost incessant rain while we were on the hunt. A few deer were killed by my brother, who knew the ground hunted over, but I killed nothing but a few pinnated grouse, and a goose which I brought
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WINONA CITY IN EMBRYO.
down with my rifle as it was flying over our camp. Neither Holmes nor Smothers killed anything, but they caught a few beavers and muskrats, the skins of which were not prime. While at the mouth of Elk creek we saw an aerolite pass over our camp, which must have been of unusual size, judging from the attending phenomena. We were afterward informed that several had been seen within the memory of some old Indians, to their great bewilderment.
During the winter of 1842-3 we made some improvements, vis- ited La Crosse, Holmes' Landing, Black River Falls, and made a few trading expeditions to winter encampments of the Sioux and Winnebagoes. Our commerce was carried on principally by the sign-language, sticks often representing numerals above the capacity of the fingers and memory of the Indians to carry. Although the Sioux still called my brother Ha-ha-tone, the Chippewa, he was rap- idly gaining their esteem, and his success as a hunter commanded their admiration. As a consequence he was in demand as a trader. I made several trips with him that were very successful, and one with Nathan Myrick that was memorable. Upon one occasion, while Nathan Myrick and myself were attempting to reach Decorah's camp upon the "Broken Gun Slough," a branch of Black river, during an exceedingly cold night in winter, Myrick drove his horse into an air-hole that had been filled by drifted snow, and but for the well-known war-whoop of Decorah, who I had informed of the event upon running to his camp, the horse would have disappeared under the ice, for Myrick was nearly benumbed with the cold when I re- turned to him with the aid the war-whoop had instantly called to our assistance. A few minutes sufficed for the Winnebagoes to get the horse out of the Mississippi, but being unable to rise to his feet, the horse was dragged to the shore, blanketed and rubbed until warmth was restored, when he was taken to Decorah's camp and a fire built for his comfort by order of the chief. It is due to savage hospitality that the event be recorded.
The Indians of those early times were not always as humane and considerate as Decorah. Many times I have been fired at while passing them in a canoe, simply to gratify their innate dislike of white men. Sometimes my canoe would be hit, but as a rule they would direct their shots so as to skim the water at my side or just ahead of me. To vary their diversion, if they caught me pre- occupied, they would steal upon me and discharge their rifles so near as to give the impression that it was not really all fun that was
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HISTORY OF WINONA COUNTY.
intended. Reed assured me that I was daily gaining in favor among the Sioux, and that if I would join in one of their sun-dances and go through the ordeal I might become a chief. He further informed me that I was called Wah-sheets-sha, meaning the Frenchman, a dis- tinguishing mark of their favor, that most likely had saved my scalp from adornment with vermilion and ribbons. Partly to reciprocate their interest in me, and to confirm them in the good opinion Reed had facetiously said they were forming of me, against the advice of the old traders, I pitched two Winnebagoes out of the house when the next proof of their friendship was offered me, and giving the oldest son of Decorah (then head chief by inheritance) a deserved thrashing for a wanton display of his affection, I was not again troubled by any of their ordeals.
Previous to that time Willard and myself had been frequently annoyed, and sometimes angered, by the insults offered us, although aware that our nerve was simply being tested; but we had decided to put an end to all future attempts at Indian levity; and when soon after five rifles of a hunting party were leveled at me when I was unarmed, I told the Indians, who complemented me for not flinch- ing, that it was well for them I had no rifle to aim at them !
Willard and myself were both able, in due time, to make the Indians respect ns, but many white people had their traps stolen and their blankets appropriated by the young warriors anxious to win a reputation for bravery.
Early in the spring of 1843 Peter Cameron, a transient trader and fur buyer, came to La Crosse with a kind of keelboat loaded with goods, and after taking possession of an unoccupied cabin, and securing the services of Asa White to manage his affairs in La Crosse, concluded to make a trading voyage up the Mississippi in advance of any steamboat.
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