USA > Wisconsin > Columbia County > A history of Columbia County, Wisconsin : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests > Part 12
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INHABITANTS OF COUNTY (1846), 1,200
With the spread of the land surveys and the establishment of land tenures on a solid basis, immigrants came to Columbia County for the purpose of making permanent homes within its borders; so that by 1846, when it assumed a civic body, there were over 1,200 persons under the protection of the county government. But before commencing the story of the political creation of the county, there are several topics which seem best to be considered as logically belonging to the earlier, or pioneer era: First, the importance of the portage, as indicated by various French, English and American maps covering more than two centuries; and secondly, the natural and artificial means of transpor- tation for which Columbia County has become marked in the develop- ment of interior Wisconsin.
COLUMBIA COUNTY ON EARLY MAPS
As early as 1632 Champlain, then at Quebec, drew a map of the valley of the St. Lawrence and of the region of the upper lakes-the first attempt to cover that territory. His delineations of the country to the westward and the northwestward of Lake Huron were wholly from Indian reports. Upon this map Fox River is placed to the north of Lake Superior and the Wisconsin is rudely given as leading into a northern sea. There is a narrow space between the two rivers, and possibly it had been described to him by the savages.
But the first map of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers and the portage made with any accuracy was by Father Marquette, and we have seen how it was made from actual observation. The portage is distinctly traced and the general course of the two rivers given.
Other maps were published down to 1768, when a very creditable one in consideration of the circumstances under which it was made, appeared in the "Travels" of J. Carver, the English voyager already alluded to. This map locates the "carrying place," and depicts Swan
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Lake and traces with much precision the course of Baraboo River along which Carver passed on his way toward the far Northwest. On the south side of Lake Puckaway is located the Winnebago Upper Town and on Sauk Prairie, down the Wisconsin, the "Saukies Chief Town." At the time Carter drew his map the portage was substantially the boundary line between the hunting grounds of the Winnebagoes upon the Fox River and the Sacs on the Wisconsin. But in the course of a few years the former had crowded the Saes far down the Wisconsin River.
In 1830 John Farmer, of Detroit, published a "Map of the Terri- tories of Michigan and Ouisconsin." Fort Winnebago appears as if situated between the Fox and Wisconsin, while Roi's (Le Roy's) house occupies the site where the fort was, in fact, located-that is, on the east side of the Fox. Pauquette's place is designated farther down the last mentioned stream, but on the west side. The Baraboo River is noted as Bonibau's Creek, while Duck Creek appears by its proper name, but in French-Riviere aux Canards. Neenah Creek is put down as The Fork of the Fox. Winnebago villages are represented down the Fox and the Wisconsin and upon the Baraboo, but none so near the Portage of the Ouisconsin as to bring them within the present bounds of Columbia County.
In Farmer's revised map of 1836 Fort Winnebago appears in its correct location, and but one road-the Military-is represented as leading from it.
The first "Map of Wiskonsin Territory, Compiled from Public Sur- veys" published in the late '30s, contains a representation of so much of the present Columbia County as lies east of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, the northwest section being still held by the Menominees. Fort Winnebago is correctly located on the east side of the Fox River, the Grignon Tract occupying the space between the two rivers. The pro- posed canal runs from the outlet of Swan Lake to the point on Duck Creek where the stream is crossed by the main road leading south from Fort Winnebago. This road continues on to Pauquette, afterward called Poynette, then in a southwesterly direction toward the Blue Mounds. Duck Creek appears as Wanonah River, Rock Run as Taynah River and Spring Creek as Ockee River. Pauquette is a small village. A larger one is Ida, on the north side of Swan Lake and a still larger one De Korra, on the Wisconsin. A road leads out of De Korra due east into Dodge County, to what is now Horicon, a branch leading in a more northerly direction toward Fond du Lac.
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CHAPTER VII
MEANS OF TRANSPORTATION
THE MILITARY ROAD-IN COLUMBIA COUNTY-TERRITORIAL AND OTIIER HIGHWAYS-PRELIMINARY SURVEY OF THE FOX AND WISCONSIN RIVERS-THE OLD PORTAGE CANAL-THE CANAL IN 1851-NEW CANAL COMPLETED BY THE GOVERNMENT-BOSCOBEL REALLY THROUGH-CONTROL OF FLOODS BY LEVEE SYSTEMS-COST AND HIS- TORY OF GREAT PUBLIC WORK-FIRST DYKE GIVES WAY-LEWISTON LEVEE REBUILT-ANOTHER LEVEE TO PROTECT CALEDONIA AND PORTAGE-FLOODS OF THE WISCONSIN RIVER-LA CROSSE & MIL- WAUKEE RAILROAD-REACHES POINTS IN COLUMBIA COUNTY- DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE AND ST. PAUL- CHICAGO & NORTH WESTERN-WISCONSIN CENTRAL COMMENCED AT PORTAGE-COMPLETION OF LINE (1871)-THE M., ST. PAUL & S. STE. MARIE.
As the Fox and Wisconsin valleys formed the natural highway connecting the Great Lakes with the Mississippi, their protection by the General Government meant everything for the development of Central and Southern Wisconsin. Hence the construction of Fort Howard at the eastern terminus, Fort Crawford at the western, and Fort Winnebago, midway at the portage. For about half of the year furs and provisions could be transported by water, but the Government troops passing from post to post, or engaged in movements against the Indians, had to do the best they could, forcing their way through uncharted forests, wading through swamps, throwing rough bridges over swollen streams, and, when they were on the march or called into active service, being obliged to endure great hardships.
The experiences of the Black Hawk war, and the probability that there might be further trouble with the Indians before the country could be considered fairly safe for purposes of settlement, induced the Government to build a erude military road along the historic Indian trails up the Fox and down the Wisconsin to the Mississippi.
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THE MILITARY ROAD
Therefore early in 1835, Lewis Cass, then secretary of war, sent out orders to open, lay out and bridge a road from Fort Howard to Fort Crawford, via Fond du Lac and Fort Winnebago. The soldiers at Fort Crawford were to build and bridge this Military Road to Fort Winnebago; those stationed at Fort Winnebago from their post to the Fond du Lac River, bridging that stream, and those at Fort Howard to open the road from their post to Fond du Lac. The garrisons at the three posts were under the general command of Brigadier Gen. George M. Brooke, and comprised the Fifth Regiment of the Regular Army. The active survey and building of the road were entrusted to Lieuten- ant Centre and James Duane Doty. The latter was then forty-five years old, and years before, as secretary to Lewis Cass and judge under appointment of President Monroe, had traveled through the territory and became especially familiar with the Fox and Wisconsin valleys. Both were splendid men to put through the Military Road.
IN COLUMBIA COUNTY
As for Columbia County, the road entered it from the south on Section 31, Township 10, Range 9 east (Town of Arlington), ran in a northeasterly direction to what is now Poynette, and thence almost due north to Fort Winnebago. From that post it ran through the southern sections of the present towns of Fort Winnebago, Marcellon, Scott and Randolph, to Fox Lake, Dodge County, and thence to Wau- pun, Fond du Lac and Fort Howard.
It was, as stated, a crude affair, but a great improvement over no highway whatever. The road was built by cutting through timber land, clearing a track about two rods wide, and setting mile stakes. On the prairies the latter were set and small mounds of earth thrown up. Where stone could be found, it was used; otherwise the earth was thrown up. On the marshes and other low places corduroy roads were made by crossing timbers and covering them with brush and earth.
TERRITORIAL AND OTHER HIGHWAYS
In 1837 a Territorial Road was opened from Fort Winnebago, run- ning east through the town by that name into Marcellon, thence in a northeasterly direction into Marquette County, intersecting the Mili- tary Road at Fond du Lac. This highway has often been mistaken for
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the Military Road, from the fact that during certain seasons of the year it was traveled more than the other.
About the same time two roads were opened from the village of De Korra-one taking an easterly course and intersecting the Military Road .near Fox Lake; the other running east, through Horicon, Dodge County, and thence to Lake Michigan, at a point then called Sauk Harbor (now Saukville, Ozaukee County). This road was surveyed by the General Government.
Another road was opened from Swan Lake, taking a southeasterly direction into Jefferson County. From Pauquette (Poynette) a road was opened south to the City of the Four Lakes, and another, to Madi- son. These comprised all the roads laid out in the county previous to 1838.
PRELIMINARY SURVEY OF THE FOX AND WISCONSIN RIVERS
In the following year (1839) a preliminary survey of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers was made by Government engineers, with the idea of finally perfecting a great navigable waterway across the state. Even ten years before, the subject of the improvement had been agitated, one of its chief features being the construction of a canal at the portage. To tell the truth, in a few words, the building of the canal at Portage City and the construction of a score of locks along the Fox River comprise the sum total of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers Improvement, about which tons of literature have been created. And it has taken over sixty years to accomplish this. The scheme is a good one, but it has been terribly bungled.
CHANGES IN MANAGEMENT
Active work was not begun on the Upper Fox until after the admis- sion of Wisconsin as a state in 1848. In 1853 the governor advised that as the enterprise was in a hopeless state financially it be incor- porated as the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers Improvement Company. His suggestion was followed and in 1854 Congress added to the land grants which had already been voted by the state to aid the work. In 1856 the company was obliged to reconstruct a portion of the work already done, but capital was scarce and a little later Eastern capitalists bought the enterprise and reorganized it as the Green Bay & Mississippi Canal Company. In 1866, after 680,000 acres of land and $2,000,000 had gone into the "improvements," the work was turned over to the Fed- eral Government, and whatever has really been accomplished has been
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by United States engineers. To all outward appearances the great waterway scheme has been abandoned, although it may be resuscitated, and of late years the Federal Government has confined its work to the Lower Fox.
THE OLD PORTAGE CANAL
The harrowing experience of the two-mile canal at Portage is typ- ical of the general history of the Fox and Wisconsin Improvement. As early as 1837 a company was chartered as the Portage Canal Com- pany. The incorporators, owners of the village plat, were Sheldon Thompson, of Buffalo; DeGarmo Jones, of Detroit ; Robert MePherson, Daniel Whitney, S. P. Griffith and others. Digging for the canal com- menced in 1838 at a point on the Fox River now erossed by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad. Its course may be described as on the line of Bronson Avenne about two rods north, entering the Wisconsin River near Mae Street. After $10,000 had been spent by the company work was abandoned. Then the scheme slumbered for eight years, when Congress granted the State of Wisconsin alternate sections of land for three miles on each side of the Fox River to aid in the build- ing of locks and the canal. The state accepted the grant and on the 1st of June, 1849, work was again commenced under the common- wealth. But the contractors and the State. Board of Public Works quarreled, the workmen did not get their wages for weeks and some- times months at a time, and after a couple of years of vexations com- plications the canal was again abandoned.
THE CANAL IN 1851
A resident of Portage thus describes the state of affairs in March, 1851: "The banks of the canal at this place are crumbling before the thaw, in many places, and falling into the stream. The planking is in great part afloat. By prompt attention the work done on the canal may be saved to the state. As it is now it presents a melancholy spec- taele of premature decay. The unpaid laborers, lately employed on the work, whose destitution and wrongs have aroused the indignation and sympathies of our citizens, will hardly assist in its repair unless they are secured in their pay, nor will they suffer strangers to be duped and wronged as they themselves have been."
Repairs were subsequently made, the water let in, and on May 24. 1851, a boat attempted to pass the canal. The "attempt" is thus ehron- ieled hy a local paper : "The beautiful steamer, 'John Mitchell,' nearly
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accomplished the feat of passing through the canal at this place on Saturday last. She came up as far as Main street. As the 'John Mit- chell' came up the canal, the 'Enterprise' came up the Wisconsin river to the head of the canal. The blustering rivalry between these inhab- itants of different waters (the throat of each giving its best puff and whistle alternately) was quite exhilarating, and called out a large con- course of citizens to gaze upon the scene presented and make predic- tions for the future. After a short time boats and citizens withdrew, amid strains of music, and the noise and confusion were over."
The water was drawn off and the work of strengthening the banks and bottom, to prevent the quicksand from pouring in and filling up
WISCONSIN RIVER LOCK, PORTAGE
the bed, was proceeded with. But evidently somebody had sadly blun- dered, for on August 31st the water was let in, and on the following morning the bottom planking was floating about on the surface. Dur- ing the next month the high waters of Wisconsin River cut a channel through the southern bank of the canal, some fifty yards wide and ten feet deep, and a warehouse, several dwellings, a quantity of lumber and most of the canal planking were washed into the Fox River.
NEW CANAL COMPLETED BY THE GOVERNMENT
Virtually no further work was done on the canal for more than twenty years, or until the Government engineers under Colonel Hous-
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ton, commenced operations in the fall of 1874. It was virtually a new undertaking. The contractors were Conro, Starke & Company, of Milwaukee, who commenced work at the lower end of the old canal channel, using a steam excavator, wheelbarrows and small construction cars. By June, 1876, the canal had been completed-two and a half miles long, seventy-five feet wide and seven feet from the top of the revetment to the bed. There was six feet of water.
On the 30th of June, 1876, the United States steamer Boscobel passed through the canal-the first boat to do so.
As completed, the Portage City lock connects it with the Wisconsin River, having a lift of nine feet, and the Fort Winnebago lock, with a lift of six feet conneets it with the Fox River. Between gates, the locks are thirty-five feet wide and 160 long.
BOSCOBEL REALLY THROUGH
As a little item of interest, it may be mentioned that when the con- tractors turned the canal over to the Government on July 30, 1876, the party selected to make the trip of inspection comprised Hon. Alva Stewart, Hon. R. L. D. Potter, and Messrs. G. J. Cox, E. E. Chapin, A. J. Turner, T. L. Kennan, W. D. Fox, Fred W. Schulze, E. S Baker and John Cable. The trial trip on the Boscobel, which concluded with- ont a hitch, was the natural occasion for the unloading of considerable history. "One who was there" remarked: "As the steamer coursed its way down to the Fox, trains passed by on the several divisions of the railroad. For some distance the theme of conversation was the change wrought in the line of trade and commerce by the introduction of steam power, and we all wondered how Louis Joliet regarded it, if his spirit was floating about in this vicinity, where 203 years before, on the 17th of June, he had hauled his batteau across this same port- age on his voyage of discovery, where steamboats and railroads now hold sway."
CONTROL OF FLOODS BY LEVEE SYSTEMS
But the problems growing out of the natural relations which exist between the Fox and Wisconsin rivers were not confined to joining their waters by an artificial channel; a greater one and a more press- ing problem was how to regulate them so that property and life would be conserved. With the Wisconsin level eight feet above that of the Fox at all average stages, and twenty feet, at flood tide, evidently something had to be done to protect the low lands adjacent to the
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Wisconsin and the entire Upper Fox Valley for a distance of 100 miles. Hence the Levee System, the most important section of which is the twenty miles constructed in Portage, the Town of Lewiston northwest of it, and in Caledonia and Pacific, to the south and southeast. In the earlier years, commeneing with 1882, the system, which extended along the Baraboo River into Sauk County, was controlled by the General Government, but since 1901 the work has been supervised by the State Levee Commission, of which Leonard S. Smith is chief engineer.
COST AND HISTORY OF GREAT PUBLIC WORK
From first to last fully $150,000 have been expended on the levee system by the General Government, the state, the towns named, the City of Portage-about $50,000 by the last named. It is by far the most important publie work prosecuted in Columbia County.
On December 31, 1900, a memorial was presented to Congress, signed by J. E. Jones, mayor of Portage; Peter A. Paulson, chairman of Lewiston; Hugh Roberts, chairman of Caledonia, and George Ker- shaw, chairman of Pacific, asking that the levee system in Columbia County be inspected, strengthened and enlarged. From this memo- rial is condensed a history of the great publie work, so essential to the safety of the settlers of the Upper Fox Valley, the City of Portage and adjacent country.
The territory bordering on the Wisconsin River in Columbia County for a distance of about ten miles above the City of Portage and six miles below, is for the greater part so low that in seasons of unusual floods the adjacent lands were formerly submerged, the waters over- flowing the right bank of the river expanding across the prairie to the Baraboo River, and those over the left bank finding an outlet across the low lands above Portage into the Big Slough, or Neenah Creek, and thenee to the Fox River. The lowest point where the Wisconsin River first left its banks was about six miles above Portage on its left bank, where the Big Slough at its course was separated from the river by a short distance.
FIRST DYKE GIVES WAY
As the country in the valleys of the Neenah and Fox rivers became occupied and highways and railroads were constructed, the necessity for shutting off the discharge of the Wisconsin River into those streams became fully apparent, and in 1861 a small dyke was constructed across the most exposed points, from money arising from the sale of
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reclaimed Government lands in the Town of Lewiston. This dyke answered its purpose very well, except in emergencies, but during the high waters of 1880-it was swept away at several points. The valleys of the Neenah and Fox were converted into a lake 100 miles in length and several miles in width, inflicting vast damage to owners of prop- erty and interrupting the running of trains on the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul and the Wisconsin Central lines for from a week to ten days.
LEWISTON LEVEE REBUILT
Property owners in the devastated district at first charged the dams at the outlet of Lake Winnebago with being the source of the floods; but the state saw the matter in its true light, and in 1882 to guard against a recurrence of the disaster appropriated from its swamp land fund $6,000 to construct a suitable levee at the exposed places on the north side of the river above Portage, in the Town of Lewiston. Upon a survey being made the amount advanced to the General Government was found to be inadequate, and Congress in the same year, to prevent further damage to its locks and other improvements along the Fox River, appropriated another $6,000 to aid in the construction of the Lewiston Levee. But the President vetoed the bill which embraced this item, and the measure finally passed cut down the appropriation to $3,000. But the Town of Lewiston and the County of Columbia applied what resources they could, although the Lewiston Levee is still consid- ered the weakest section in the entire system.
ANOTHER LEVEE TO PROTECT CALEDONIA AND PORTAGE
The construction of the levee in Lewiston resulted in throwing the waters of the Wisconsin that had formerly escaped to the north into the Fox River, over the lowlands south of the river and so into the valley of the Baraboo, through which they found their way back into the Wisconsin River some five miles south of Portage. This result necessitated the building of a levee by the Town of Caledonia and the City of Portage, some ten miles in length on the right bank of the river. This was constructed in 1883, but with repeated strengthening was found to be quite inadequate to withstand floods of any severity.
GOVERNMENT LEVEE, LAST OF THE SYSTEM
In 1886 Congress passed an act providing for the construction of a levee on the east bank of the Wisconsin River, in the City of Portage
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and Town of Pacific. At the time of the unusual rise of 1900 the Gov- ernment engineer requested the mayor to act as his agent, and all possible efforts were made by the city authorities to preserve the levee intact. But the river rose to such an unprecedented height that crevasses occurred in it and much damage followed. During the sum- mer the breaks were repaired by the Government and strengthened in some degree, but in a manner quite insufficient to withstand a second flood later in the season. The upper, or Wisconsin River lock, narrowly escaped destruction by the terrible floods of 1900. The Fox River lock was badly shattered.
Since 1901 the state has assumed charge of the levee system and has appropriated some $60,000, most of the late work being designed to reconstruct the Government levee which protects the eastern part of the City of Portage, the Government canal and the four lines of rail- road radiating therefrom. The last appropriation was made in 1912 and considerable work was accomplished along these lines in 1913.
FLOODS OF THE WISCONSIN RIVER
That the people of Portage and of the Fox and Wisconsin valleys had cause for constant alarm before the levee system of Columbia County was as effective as it is now, will be evident even to those who have not lived in the threatened, and often ravaged territory, by a brief review of the seasons when the Wisconsin River has gone on a rampage and uproariously left its banks. The last occasion for general alarm was on October 11, 1911, on the afternoon of that day the United States gauge at Portage recording 12.9 feet, which was within a foot of the Wisconsin River lock and three-tenths of an inch higher than the water mark of the 1905 flood. But the levees held, and a news- paper prediction of what might happen was not especially appalling to even timid people: "If the rise continues it is likely the water will go over the levees on the Caledonia side first, and thus relieve the situa- tion on the city side. The water is now within a foot of the top of the Wisconsin River lock. A break at the lock would let a big head of " water down the canal and do immense damage, but that is regarded as almost impossible. The river certainly would go over the levees in . many places and lower the flood before it could reach the top of the lock."
The first flood of the Wisconsin at Portage was in 1838. There were two feet and a half of water on the flat between the Wisconsin and Fox rivers in the main current between those streams. It is said that a loaded boat from Galena drawing two feet of water crossed from Vnl 1-7
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the Wisconsin River to Fort Winnebago. The flat between Portage and Baraboo was a sea. The water was eight feet above the low water mark.
The second very high water occurred in 1845 and lacked one inch of reaching the mark of 1838. It occurred in July and lasted five days. The third flood occurred in 1866, and was an inch lower than that of 1845. There was also very high water in 1850 and 1852.
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