USA > Wisconsin > Columbia County > A history of Columbia County, Wisconsin : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests > Part 5
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"Turning from the course I was 'steering,' for I had missed my way, I found the road which lead to the Dells' bridge; that is stretched from rock to rock over the Dells, where the water is now eighty feet deep. On the bridge is a fine view, both up and down, of a dirty, spiteful and wicked looking river (speaking nautically). Here a river hundreds of miles in length that has leaped cataracts and rushed almost unchecked over rapids, spread at will over plains and piled up in its playfulness
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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
acres of sandbars, suddenly finds itself contracted; high walls of rough rocks, built up layer upon layer until they attain at some places from fifty to a hundred feet in height, have prescribed its limits. As if mad- dened beyond control, in the height of its anger apparently, it dashes into the jaws of the rocky monster that appears to swallow it.
"Taking a good look at the stream from the top of the bridge, I crossed, and proceeding for some distance up its side I soon came in view of some rafts preparing to enter what to many a poor fellow has been the Valley of Death. A request that I might have a passage was readily granted, and in a few minutes by some maneuvering the raft was started, and on we went gliding gracefully down the stream. The current appeared to me to get swifter and swifter, until the whole raft of cribs of lumber pinned together seemed to tremble and twist and be determined to go to pieces just because I was on it. I have heard of a lake somewhere up here called Devil's Lake; the same name should be given to this part of the Wisconsin River, in my opinion.
"We are fairly afloat on the fierce, rolling, rushing tide, speeding down toward the turn above the bridge, where projecting into the stream is the dangerous rock, on the starboard hand of the river, called Notch Rock. Having sheered too much, or given too wide a berth to the eddy or some whirl on the opposite side of the stream, we swung too far and came too near the Notch, passing, it seemed to me, within four feet of the savage-looking point of the rock. On we went, the men plying their sweeps or oars with a vigor that appeared to denote a danger at hand. Looking up at the sides of the Dells when close to the bridge I beheld a scene of which I have never seen the equal.
"In some places the points of the massive masonry of rocks seemed ready to fall on the raft and crush it to atoms. Their upper points or promontories that hung over and far above the stream seemed held in their places only by the strong roots of some towering pines, whose points or apex seemed lost in the clouds, and the roots of which had grappled with the monstrous stone or wall, running into every crevice, rift or fissure, as though the two had united their strength to resist the efforts of some hurricane that had sought to dislodge them. Upon the outward limbs of some of these Norway pines here and there was seen a bird greatly resembling the kingfisher, calmly looking down upon the swift water that here, in its narrowest limits, was maddened and infuri- ated, writhing, twisting, whirling, seething and foaming, like some huge monster that was in an agony of pain as it forced itself through the craggy passage.
"Little birds were seen hopping about the crevices of the rocks, pick- ing up insects from the moss; and pretty little shrubs could be seen
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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
snugly stowed away 'under the lee,' or in the crooks of the stony banks, safe from rain or wind, as though they had
" 'Chosen the humble valley, and had rather Grow a safe shrub below, than dare the winds And be a cedar.'
"Just as we passed the bridge, a hole or concave place appeared in sight close ahead of the raft, looking as if some leviathan had suddenly sucked down a hollow in the water; this place of hollow water seemed twenty feet across, and into this eddy the two forward cribs of the raft appeared to sink and to disappear, the water rushing upon the lumber and the whole raft feeling as if it was about to turn over with a twirl and go to the bottom of the vortex. I fancied I read in the faces of two of those belonging to the raft a sign of more than common danger; and a rushing backward and forward with the sweeps as the men put forth all their strength and activity induced me to commence the process of taking off an overcoat. This elicited a langh from two of the 'red shirts ;' however it was apparent to me that unless the raft speedily righted it would soon be 'every man for himself and God for us all.' This was the Grand Eddy. I call it the Maelstrom on a small scale, but large enough.
"I have no doubt that men accustomed to running the Dells get blunted to the danger, but I fully believe that to the unfortunate who gets overboard in the Wisconsin near the Dells, death is certain. I have passed many years of my life at sea, been tempest-tossed in some of the worst gales that ever swept any ocean. I have seen the crested waves of Cape Horn kiss the top-sail yard-arms of more than one good ship. I was off Nantucket shores in that memorable equinoctial gale that some eighteen years since hurled dozens of vessels upon the Atlantic coast, in which two pilots boats foundered off New York and hundreds of sail- ors went to their ocean sepulcher. I have laughed at the Atlantic, when the good old liner 'Caledonia' reeled to and fro like a drunken man, and cries came up out of the deep; but never have I felt as I did when that raft dipped its forward end into the Grand Eddy below Dells bridge, when I believed danger was really near."
THE GREAT PRAIRIE BELT OF LIMESTONE
The most important land feature of the county is the high limestone prairie belt which separates the systems of the Rock and Wisconsin riv- ers. It crosses Green Lake County in a southwesterly direction, enters
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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
Columbia County on the north line of Scott and Randolph townships, traverses the county in a line gradually veering to the west and, enter- ing Dane County, turns due west. The western and northern face of this divide forms the eastern and southern side of the Wisconsin Valley continuously from the month of the river to the most eastern point of its great bend in Columbia County, and a spur of it is thrust out between the. Wisconsin and Fox rivers to separate their waters. Further north the main ridge continues its northeasterly trend, leaving the Wisconsin entirely and becoming the eastern boundary of the upper Fox River as far as Lake Winnebago.
THE WATER COURSES OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
The western and central sections of Columbia County depend upon the Wisconsin River and its tributaries for drainage. The main stream enters the gorge already mentioned as the Dells not far above the south- ern boundary line of Juneau and Adams counties. This wonderful pass- age of seven miles has already been described. At its foot between the counties of Sauk and Columbia, the river enters upon the most remark- able bend in its whole length of 450 miles through the entire State of Wisconsin. Through the Dells its general course is southward, but it is now turned almost due east by a hard, sharp quartzite range, like a flint arrow head, which stands for the union of the Baraboo bluffs pushing themselves in from Sauk County. Rising some four hundred feet above the river bottom it effectually turns the Wisconsin from its southerly course through the narrow Dells. The river then widens and naturally flows between low sand banks for seventeen miles to Portage.
Above Portage, where the Wisconsin forms the southern boundary line of the Town of Lewiston, the ground immediately north is lower than the water in the river; the heads of Neenah Creek, a tributary of the Fox, rising a short distance from its banks. In times of high water the Wisconsin naturally overflowed into these streams, and the two river systems-those of the Fox and Wisconsin-mingled their waters in the earlier times, and often flooded Portage and the adjacent country to the north, devastating property and destroying life.
At Portage the Fox, after flowing south of west for twenty miles approaches the Wisconsin, coming from the opposite direction. Where the two streams are nearest their natural channels are less than two miles apart. Before the days of the canal they were separated by a low sandy plain resting on the limestone belt described before. In a state of nature the water in the Fox was five feet below that of the Wisconsin at ordi- nary stages, and in times of high water the greater part of the inter-
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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
vening low ground was overflowed by the latter. To this fact was chiefly due the disastrous spring rises in the Fox.
These natural conditions made necessary the construction of the canal and the levees, hereafter to be described.
After doubling the eastern end of the Baraboo bluffs, the Wisconsin turns again to the west, being forced in this direction by the high belt of limestone which separates it from the Rock River system. Soon after striking the limestone region the Wisconsin Valley in Columbia County assumes an altogether new character, which it retains to its mouth. It has now a nearly level and generally treeless bottom from three to six miles in width, bounded on both sides by bold bluffs of sandstone capped with limestone and rising to a height of two or three hundred feet.
The Fox River, which drains the northern sections of Columbia County, rises in the northeastern Town of Scott and the adjoining sec- tions of Green Lake County, on the west edge of the limestone belt previ- ously noted. Flowing southwest and west, nearly parallel to the Duck Creek branch of the Wisconsin, expanding into several little lakes in its course (Swan Lake, among others), it approaches the latter stream at Portage, where it turns abruptly northward on its way toward Lake Winnebago and Green Bay. It has already been said that in the spring, before the building of the levees, this portion of the Fox received a large amount of water from the Wisconsin, much of which reached it through a branch known as the Big Slough, or Neenah Creek, which, heading within a mile of the Wisconsin, in the Town of Lewiston, reaches the Fox just south of the north line of Columbia County near Fort Hope, Fort Winnebago Township.
The Rock River system, which drains the eastern portious of Colum- bia County, is represented by the Crawfish River.
There are several pretty little lakes in the county, which abound in fish and are favorites with summer tourists, like Silver Lake, at Portage, which is also an old-time haunt of the curlers; Swan Lake, a link in the Fox River, lying in Wyocena and Pacific townships ; Lakes Loomis, Corn- ing and Whiting, Town of Lewiston; Mud Lake, Town of Lowville, the head of Rocky Run, and Crystal Lake, in the Town of West Point. To tell the truth, however, though we would not be without such little gems of water, they are more ornamental than useful, and up to date have had small effect upon the destiny or progress of Columbia County.
PRAIRIES, MARSHES AND TIMBER LAND
In further expansion of the physical features of Columbia County, upon which so much of history depends, it may be said that its surface
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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
is roughly divided into prairies, marshes and timber land, although all these have been materially changed, and are even now in process of transformation, by the modifying influences of civilization and devasta- tion. The prairies are not coextensive with those of the pioneer times, because in places trees have been planted and natural second growths have matured. In general, Columbia County presents the flat prairies, chiefly seen along the Wisconsin River bottoms, and the more ordinary rolling or broken lands. In some cases as in the Town of West Point, the prairie area includes both lowland and bold outlying bluffs, reaching 300 feet in height.
The limestone prairie belt in Columbia County occupies large por- tions of the towns of West Point, Lodi, Arlington, Leeds, Hampden and Lowville, continuing northeast though somewhat broken, through the towns of Otsego, Courtland and Randolph, and finally passing into Green Lake County. This extensive prairie area is mostly on high land, occupying the summit of the watershed between the Wisconsin and Rock rivers, to which reference has been made. It is nearly always under- laid by the lower magnesia limestone, whose irregular upper surface con- tributes much to the rolling character of the prairie.
In the earlier times several of the most marked prairie regions had their special designations, like Empire Prairie in the south-central tiers of townships, Fountain Prairie in the southeast, and Welsh and Portage prairies in the northeast.
With regard to the timber areas, the whole of the county outside the prairie regions was covered with a prevailing growth of oaks, inter- spersed with other forest trees. Along the Wisconsin and Baraboo rivers were belts of heavy timber, composed of oak, basswood, elm, hick- ory, butternut and soft maple. There were a few growths of heavy oaks in the more northern and eastern parts of the county, as in the towns of Lewiston, Fort Winnebago, Marcellon, Wyocena and Lowville, and further south in De Korra and Lodi. But there are now few continuous belts of heavy timber in the county; on the other hand there are many homesteads which are protected and beautified by groves and stretches of timber which, in their natural state, were on the bare prairie.
The marshes of Columbia County are usually small and the area of swamp, or waste lands, has greatly decreased within recent years. Both scientific drainage by the farmers, and the work of the state and national governments in diverting the flood waters into safe channels, have cut down the percentage to very small proportions. Prior to these improve- ments the marshes along Duck Creek and the Upper Fox River, east of Portage, stretched along as a dreary waste several miles in extent.
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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
BUILDING STONE
Although Columbia County is rich in deposits of sandstone and lime- stone, and numerous outcroppings are visible in various parts of its area, these valuable building stones have not been utilized to any great extent. Small quarries are scattered throughout the county, such as those of limestone in Randolph, Courtland and Columbus townships, in the east, and Lowville in the central area, and sandstone workings in the Town of Fort Winnebago; also near Lodi and other sections in the Wis- consin valley region. There are valuable deposits of granite and iron in the Town of Caledonia, but they have not yet been developed commercially.
DAIRYING AND AGRICULTURE
It is not in the quarrying of building stone that the soil of Columbia County has yielded its riches to the people who have settled within its borders. But few counties in Southern Wisconsin have better natural advantages for the development of all dairy industries than Columbia. The territory is abundantly watered, grasses and all forage plants are abundantly grown, and the varied nature of the land furnishes much natural protection to live stock, even if the farmer fails to provide it. The result is that no industry is growing more rapidly, and fully sev- enty per cent of the milch cows owned by the agriculturists of the county are employed to maintain the supply of its creameries and cheese fac- tories. Another good result is that Columbia County butter and cheese is hard to beat, although Wisconsin is preeminent as a dairy state.
The soil of Columbia county is rich in those elements required by corn and oats, by potatoes and vegetables, which are therefore its leading crops. It may be argued that because oats are so readily raised horses should be the main species of livestock ; or it may be inferred that because well-to-do citizens will have good horses, they have set abont to raise good oats and plenty of them. Which ever horn of the dilemma you take, it is certain that both oats and horses are large sources of wealth to Columbia County.
The details of these general statements are brought out in the chap- ter devoted to picturing the county as it is today. The story begun in the foregoing pages aims to tell what Nature had done for this section of the state, before either red man or white man came to improve upon its ways.
CHAPTER II THE ORIGINAL SETTLERS
MOUND BUILDERS KEEP TO THE WATER COURSES-MOUNDS OF THE KIL- BOURN REGION-FIRST TIDINGS OF COLUMBIA COUNTY INDIANS-THE WINNEBAGOES AND MENOMINEES-LAST OF THE INDIAN LANDS-WIN- NEBAGO VILLAGES-DE KORRA, THE NOBLE CHIEF-INDIAN PAYMENT OF 1830-MRS. KEDZIE DESCRIBES THE CHIEFS-YELLOW THUNDER, LAST WINNEBAGO WAR CHIEF-PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF YELLOW THUNDER (MRS. LYDIA A. FLANDERS)-LAST FORCED MARCH OF THE WINNEBAGOES-THE PAYMENT OF 1914.
Most of the relics left by prehistoric man, the predecessor of the Indian, indicate that his habitations and his migrations were largely fixed and guided by the availability of the region for sustenance and facility of transportation provided by the water courses of the land. The old forts, and shrines, and hearths of the Mound Builders stretch through the great valleys of the Northwest, usually not far from the present-day streams. Both prehistorie man and historic Indian appear to have had in mind, in the selecting of their habitations and territorial domain, attractiveness of village sites and lands, riches of streams and forests, and facilities of migration, whether undertaken in movements of offence or defence.
MOUND BUILDERS KEEP TO THE WATER COURSES
In Columbia County, as in other localities where the original inhabi- tants have left evidences of their life and works, prehistoric relics and structures are sometimes found stranded on inland hillsides, but almost uniformly near a valley formation or a pronounced depression. Not only is it certain that there has been a notable decrease in the volume of all existing bodies of water, but inland valleys and sinks and ancient shore lines, are evidences that many have entirely disappeared ; but, as stated, Vol. I '-2
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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
the works of the Mound Builders are never far away from such evidences of old-time streams or lakes.
In some of the mounds examined in Columbia County are found near the surface relies of Indian origin, such as flint arrowheads, beads and pottery, while further below, and always near the base line, come the stone implements and the remnants of human bones that crumble into dust as soon as brought to the surface; striking evidences of primitive, if not prehistorie occupancy. There is still another class of remains and relies, like those discovered some years ago near Wyocena where the branches of Duck Creek come together. In an oak grove, about a mile from the old Military road running from Green Bay via Portage to Prairie du Chien, is a well defined chain of earth works and depres- sions. The latter are pronounced rifle pits, and local antiquarians have dug from them not only Indian arrow heads, rusty bayonets of the American flint-lock musket, and pewter buttons stamped with the U. S. of the "regulars," but skulls and bones-all indicating a battle-field contested by the reds and whites at that point. Now in midstream, oppo- site the earth works and rifle pits, is a little rise of land which once formed a portion of the site of an Indian village.
MOUNDS OF THE KILBOURN REGION
The most pronounced evidences of prehistoric habitation have been found in the romantic region of the Dells, especially in and near Kil- bourn City. One of the largest of the mounds was destroyed, years ago, in the construction of a village street. It was lizardlike in shape, with its head pointing toward the west, and originally the figure must have been 200 feet long.
Very often one of these image or animal mounds will be surrounded by several which are conical in shape. A few miles from Kilbourn may be found one of the most curious groups to be seen in that section of the state. It occupies a plat of ground about 300 feet long and 80 feet wide. Near the southeast corner of the plat is the figure of a deer, the head being toward the west. Immediately to the north is a representation of a lizard, some 300 feet in length, around its head being eight or ten conical mounds, some of them twelve feet in height.
About four miles south of Kilbourn, on the east bank of the Wisconsin River, is another interesting group. The mounds, in fact, are found in . a number of other localities within a few miles of Kilbourn City.
That the mounds were built at a remote period is evident. On many of them trees more than two hundred years old are found growing, and how many more have attained their maturity, died and fallen into decay,
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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
LOUIS' BLUFF, HEAD OF THE WISCONSIN DELLS-OLD INDIAN SIGNAL STATION.
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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
it is impossible to tell. Another proof of the great antiquity of the mounds is the depth of the alluvial soil which covers them.
FIRST TIDINGS OF COLUMBIA COUNTY INDIANS
It is believed that the first historie evidences of human life within the present limits of Columbia County were the recorded tidings brought to Champlain of the tribe of Indians who hunted, fished and warred in a region many leagues beyond Lake Huron. They were called Mashkou- tenec; later, Mascoutens. The Hurons translated the word as Fire Nation, and such French authorities as Marquette adopted their interpre- tation ; others, like the scholarly Dablon and Charlevoix claimed the word was derived from Muskoutenec, a prairie, and should be translated "Men of the prairie," or "prairie people." But whether that tribe, of whom Champlain heard, should be called the Fire Nation or Men of the Prairie, it is certain that its members were long known as the Mascoutens; that they had numerous villages in what is now Green Lake County and that their hunting grounds, at least, stretched along the Fox River well into the present bounds of Columbia County.
THE WINNEBAGOES AND MENOMINEES
The nearest tribe to the Mascoutens down the Fox River was that of the Winnebagoes, whose homes were at the mouth of that stream and around Lake Winnebago. To the south, extending well up Rock River, were the Illinois, who were afterward driven beyond the Mississippi. The Foxes then crowded the Mascoutens southward to the shores of Lake Michigan, and after occupying territory which included the Colum- bia County of today for a time, migrated toward the southwest.
Then came the Winnebagoes from the Green Bay and Lake Winne- bago regions, their territory gradually extending up the Fox River, across the portage and down the Wisconsin. They seemed to be both a strong and patient tribe and founded several villages within the county which flourished for a number of years. Although several treaties of peace were made with the Winnebagoes, who had succeeded to the great Chippewa Territory of Northern Wisconsin and the lands of the Foxes in the central and southern parts of the state, the general Government did not finally obtain a cession of the Winnebago lands in Columbia County until 1833 and 1837. The treaty of the former year ceded all except the area now included in the Town of Caledonia, and that section of the county became Government property in the latter year.
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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
LAST OF THE INDIAN LANDS
The Indian lands of Columbia County now included the tract between the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, including the extreme northwest embraced by the towns of Newport and Lewiston, that portion of Fort Winnebago west of the Fox, the village of Kilbourn City and a part of the City of Portage. This section of Northwestern Columbia County was included in the Menominee lands until January 23, 1849, although the Indians of that tribe had never settled upon them. The treaty of that date ceded all these lands to the general Government; but they remained in actual possession of them until 1851.
WINNEBAGO VILLAGES
The Winnebagoes were the only red men who became actual residents of Columbia County. The largest of their villages, which was two miles south of the portage, consisted of more than one hundred lodges, and was occupied by their principal chief, De Korra, from whom the town is named. The village was afterward moved to land known as the Caffrey place, Town of Caledonia, at the foot of a bluff between the Wisconsin and Baraboo rivers. The school house of District No. 5 subsequently occupied a part of the site. Soon after the completion of Fort Winne- bago in 1830, the Winnebago villages commenced to disintegrate, and there were few remains of them when the title to their lands was extinguished in 1837.
DE KORRA, THE NOBLE CHIEF
It is said that De Korra, perhaps the best known of the early chiefs in Columbia County, was the grandson of Sebrevoir de Carrie, an officer in the French army who was mortally wounded at Quebec in 1760, and who had previously been a fur trader among the Winnebago Indians. His name, at least, has been derived from that source. He was a favor- ite with white settlers and a picturesque figure at the annual gathering of his tribe, when the Government paid the Indians their annuities at Fort Winnebago.
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