USA > Wisconsin > Dane County > Madison > A history of Madison, the capital of Wisconsin : including the Four Lake country : to July, 1874, with an appendix of notes on Dane County and its towns > Part 2
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FOUR LAKE COUNTRY OF WISCONSIN.
region owe their origin to erosion, and not elevation. They are the outliers of an ancient world - land-marks of ages too remote to be computed by years - boundaries which remain to prove the existence of a former surface over all southern Wis- consin, of which in the lapse of epochs more than six hundred feet have been dissolved and carried away by the action of the elements. The Blue Mounds being the highest, dominate all others. Sharp cut valleys and ravines radiate from their hoary sides in nearly every direction. Springs break out along the margins of the successive layers, and streams run to the four points of the compass. It is the source and parent of river and rivulet, seamed by many a scar, but beautiful and grand from every point of observation.
The elevation of the mounds is such, that they can be seen fifteen to twenty miles distant. The Indian name is Mu-cha- wa-ku-nin, or the Smoky Mountains, applied to them, it is said, on account of their summits being usually enveloped in a blue haze. The following is a geological section of the eastern mound, as reported by Dr. LOCKE:
Feet.
Corniferous rock forming the peak of the mound, - 410
Geodiferous Lime rock or lead bearing rock,
169
Saccharoid Sandstone, 40
Alternations of Sandstone and Limestone, 188
Sandstone, - - - 3
Lower Limestone at the level of the Wisconsin, - 190
Total,
1,000
- Lapham's History of Wisconsin. ,
In the month of May, 1829, Hon. JAMES DUANE DOTY, * Judge of the U. S. Court, HENRY S. BAIRD and MORGAN L. MARTIN Esqrs, attorneys of Green Bay, performed a journey to Prairie du Chien on horseback. These gentlemen had in 1825, '26, '27 and '28 taken the same trip by water, by the way of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, which was then the usual and only
* For an interesting paper on the " Life and Public Services of Gov. DOTY," by Gen. A. G. ELLIS, see Collections State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Vol. 5, p. 369-377.
18
HISTORY OF MADISON AND THE
mode of communication between the two places. At the time above alluded, to they were anxious to obtain a knowledge of the country outside of this route, and of which no one had previously written. They were accompanied by a Menomonee Indian as guide who led or rode a pack horse. Their route was not a direct one, as the Indian was not well acquainted with the country west of Lake Winnebago, following the Indian trails as far as practicable, they traveled on the east side of that Lake to Fond du Lac, thence by way of Green Lake to the Four Lakes, crossing the outlet between the Second and Third Lakes, the site of Madison, the Blue Mounds, Dodgeville, and crossed the Wisconsin about six miles above its confluence with the Mississippi. They were about seven days in making the jour- ney, and saw no white people until they reached Blue Mounds. This was the first party of whites that had attempted and accom- plished the land journey from Green Bay to the Mississippi.
Attracted doubtless by the beauty of the location, as well as other considerations, Judge DOTY made another excursion to this place in 1832, after the termination of the Black Hawk war. It was very evident that with his usual foresight he was impressed as was Col. BRIGAAM with its desirability for a future town.
The year 1832 was memorable for the war of the Sacs and Foxes under BLACK HAWK against the whites, and as Blue Mounds and the Four Lake Country were intimately connected with the movements of the army and the flight of the Indians, it will be necessary to give a statement of the events occurring at that time as far as these localities were concerned.
In the spring of that year (1832) the Winnebagoes were pro- fessedly friendly, but they could not be depended on in case of reverses from the Sacs and Foxes. To guard against surprise, Col. BRIGHAM and the settlers in the vicinity of the Blue Mounds, built a block house in a commanding position on the prairie near the mounds, and about a mile and a half from the Colonel's residence. The buildings were commenced May 10, and completed about the 24th, and consisted of two block houses each about twenty feet square and a log building in the centre
19
FOUR LAKE COUNTRY OF WISCONSIN.
about thirty feet by twenty feet large for a store house and bar- rack. The whole was enclosed by a picket fence of about one hundred and fifty feet on each of the four sides-the pickets were of stout oak about sixteen feet high, planted about three feet in the ground. JAMES AUBREY had the first command of the men assembled at the fort; E. BEOUCHARD, 1st Lieutenant, and after AUBREY's death, succeeded to the command until June 14 when he resigned and was succeeded by Capt. JOHN SHERMAN. On the 6th of June, AUBREY was killed as will pres- ently be noticed; at this time there were in the fort, the fam- ilies of all the settlers in the neighborhood, as no one knew how long they would be free from attack.
In the latter part of May, Col. H. DODGE assembled a com- pany of fifty mounted volunteers commanded by JAS. H. GEN- TRY and JOHN H. ROUNTREE and proceeded with them to the head of the Four Lakes where, on the 25th of the month, he held a talk with the Winnebagoes, desiring to know their in- tentions as to the Sacs, whether or not they would aid, counsel or harbor them in their country (that nation then had nominal possession of the Four Lake region); if they would, it would be considered as a declaration of war on their part; informing them that the Sacs had lied to them and given them bad coun- sel, and that if they were unfaithful to the treaties, they must expect to share the fate of the Sacs. To all which the Winne- bagoes made fair promises and agreed to remain at peace.
About the first of June, Capt. SHERMAN who commanded at Mound Fort, fearing an attack from the Indians, sent word of his apprehensions to Col. DODGE, who immediately collected from the several posts, of which there were twelve or more in the mining districts, some two hundred mounted men. They proceeded to Mound Fort on the 3d of June, on which day the two Misses HALL, who had been captured by the Sacs at the massacre on Fox river, were delivered up by the Winnebagoes for the purpose of obtaining the reward which had been offered by Gen. ATKINSON for their recovery.
On the 6th of June, JAMES AUBREY, an inmate of Col. BRIG- HAM's family, was killed by the Sacs while getting water at
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HISTORY OF MADISON AND THE
the spring near the dwelling-house; this was about a mile and a half north of the fort, but in sight of it. It has since been ascertained that the Sacs had been piloted to this place by cer- tain Winnebagoes. Suspicion ever attached to this treacher- ous people.
On the 20th of June, some Indians were discovered in the vicinity of Mound Fort, and Lieut. WM. FORCE and a person of the name of GREEN, whose family was in the fort, mounted their horses and rode out to reconnoitre. In a short time they fell into an ambush of the Sacs, about two miles in front, and immediately in view of the fort. The unfortunate men were plainly seen endeavoring to escape to the fort, but they were soon surrounded and killed by the savages, who mutilated the bodies in a most horrible manner. Lieut. FORCE had a heavy gold watch by which the hours of standing guard were regulated; at the time he was killed it was in his pocket, and was taken - his body being chopped in pieces and scattered about the prairie. Shortly after, an Indian trader named WALLIS ROWAN, who will be noticed hereafter, was out on the trail, picked up five or six Indian saddles, the. horses having given out in the retreat. On coming up to the body of this savage, he found the prairie fire had passed over it, consuming his pack and clothing. The watch of FORCE was found in the ashes and identified by Mr. BRIGHAM a few days after. ROWAN kept the watch over ten years before finally parting with it.
In the march of the command under HENRY and DODGE in pursuit of the Indians, the detachment crossed the Crawfish river near Aztalan, and followed the trail until the high grounds between the Third and Fourth Lakes, the capitol grounds and the site of Madison, were reached, and struck the north end of Third Lake. In the timber between Gen. SIMEON MILLS' country residence and the Catfish bridge, then the ford, they overtook the rear guard of the flying foe, where an Indian was wounded, who crept away and hid himself in the thick willows, where he died.
A scouting party of fourteen men, one of whom was ABEL RASDALL, who will hereafter be noticed, was sent forward by
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FOUR LAKE COUNTRY OF WISCONSIN.
Col. DODGE, and preceded the main body about two miles, who crossed the Catfish just below where the bridge leading out of Williamson street, Madison, now stands. When they arrived at the point where PARKER's planing mill stood, since occupied by BILLINGS & CARMAN as a plow factory, an Indian was seen coming up from the water's edge, near the present watering place below the Lake, now Meredith, House, who seated himself upon the bank, apparently indifferent to his fate. In a moment after, his body was pierced with bullets, one of which passed in at the temple and out of the back part of his head. On ex- amination, it was found that he was sitting upon a newly made grave, probably that of his wife who had perhaps died of fa- tigue, hunger and exhaustion, and her disconsolate companion had resolved to await the advancing foe and die there also.
The trail was followed around the southern end of Fourth Lake, passing a little north of the Capitol Park and along the lake near the State University, where it appeared that an ad- mirable position for a battle-field, with natural defenses and places of ambush, had been chosen by the enemy; and here they had apparently lain the previous night. This place was near Col. W. B. SLAUGHTER'S farm, afterwards laid out as the City of the Four Lakes, about three quarters of a mile north of the present village of Pheasant Branch.
Of the further movements of the army, it is only necessary to say, that the pursuit continued July 21, with occasional glimpses of straggling Indians, some of whom were killed, until about five o'clock in the afternoon, when the Wisconsin river bluff was reached, and a battle took place, when about sixty were killed, and a great number of bodies were afterwards found on the northern side of the Wisconsin, on the route to Bad-Axe. The loss on the part of the whites, was one killed, and eight wounded. On the 2d of August the battle at the mouth of the Bad-Axe river took place, which resulted in the total destruction of a very large portion of BLACK HAWK's fol- lowers - men, women and children - and the capture and dis- persion of the remainder. BLACK HAWK soon after surrendered himself to the Chiefs CHA-E-TAR and ONE-EYED DECORRA, who
22
HISTORY OF MADISON AND THE
brought him and the PROPHET afterwards to Prairie du Chien, and delivered them to Gen. STREET, agent of the Winnebagoes, on the 27th of August, thus terminating the war much to the satisfaction of everyone.
In the month of September of this year, Col. CHAS. WHIT- TLESEY, now of Cleveland, Ohio, made a journey from Green Bay to Fort Winnebago, and thence to Galena, an account of which can be found in Vol. I, Collections of State Histori- cal Society of Wisconsin. He passed around the northern shores of Fourth Lake to Blue Mounds, and thence to his destination.
A correspondent of the "Madison Democrat" writes from Cadiz, Wis., July 1, 1871, and gives some reminiscences of his experiences in the United States army in 1832-3 in Illinois and Wisconsin, after the conclusion of the Black Hawk war, from which the following extracts are made: "His company, after the treaty with the Sacs and Foxes at Rock Island, September 25, 1832, received orders to go into winter quarters at Danville, Ill., where it remained until April 13, 1833. From that place it proceeded to Dodgeville, where the writer found a cluster of eight or ten log cabins, and where he met Col. HENRY DODGE. After remaining there a week the company started for Fort Winnebago via Blue Mounds. Here he found a block-house, but the people had all left on account of the Indians, who had killed some of the settlers. From here he went to the north- west side of Fourth Lake, and encamped for a few days. Near the encampment lived a solitary Frenchman in a log cabin. He, with Col. BRIGHAM, was the population of Dane county at that time. Between the lake and Bellfountain, a name we gave the place, they spent sometime resting them- selves and horses; they considered the country utterly worthless, and thought it would never be settled, except that there might be a settlement sometime at Blue Mounds, and one at Platte Mounds, and perhaps a small settlement at the Four Lakes. The company resumed its march, and, on the ground now oc- cupied by Portage City, they found the whole Winnebago tribe of Indians encamped. The company, after serving out the
23
FOUR LAKE COUNTRY OF WISCONSIN.
term of enlistment, returned to Dodgeville, and were discharged July 23, 1833."
In the year 1834, J. A. WAKEFIELD prepared and published a " History of the Black Hawk War," a little volume which is now extremely rare. The author served during the campaign. His description of the Four Lakes is interesting, and is here given:
"Here it may not be uninteresting to the reader to give a small outline of these lakes. From a description of the coun- try, a person would very naturally suppose that those lakes were as little pleasing to the eye of the traveler as the country is. But not so. I think they are the most beautiful bodies of water I ever saw. The first one that we came to, was about ten miles in circumference, and the water as clear as crystal. The earth sloped back in a gradual rise; the bottom of the lake ap- peared to be entirely covered with white pebbles, and no appear- ance of its being the least swampy. The second one that we came to appeared to be much larger. It must have been twen- ty miles in circumference. The ground rose very high all around; and the heaviest kind of timber grew close to the water's edge. If these lakes were anywhere else except in the country they are, they would be considered among the wonders of the world. But the country they are situated in, is not fit for any civilized nation of people to inhabit. It appears that the Almighty intended it for the children of the forest. The other two lakes we did not get close enough to, for me to give a de- scription of them; but those who saw them stated that they were very much like the others."
It is probable that Mr. WAKEFIELD would form a different idea of the country in this section, if he could see it at the present time. Forty years have made great changes, and lands which he thought were worthless have brought one hundred dollars an acre and upwards, not making mention of lots be- tween the Third and Fourth Lakes, now occupied by the city of Madison.
On the 15th and 16th of October of this year, 1832, Capt. Low, of Fort Winnebago, with JAMES HALPIN and ARCHIBALD
24
HISTORY OF MADISON AND THE
CRISMAN encamped on Fourth (Mendota) Lake ridge. At this time about five hundred Indians were located between the site of the present state capitol on the shores of the lake. These Indians came here for the purpose of traffic with a French trader named LOUIS ARMEL. Capt. Low came from the Fort in pursuit of some deserters whom they readily found, as they had imbibed too freely of the French traders' bad whiskey to be well qualified to secrete themselves. Mr. ARMEL had his goods in a temporary Indian-built hut near the present stone resi- dence of J. B. NORTON on Johnson street.
Another trader who was doing business in this section in 1832, was WALLACE ROWAN, a rough and hardy pioneer who located at the head of Mendota Lake, and was there at the outbreak of the Black Hawk war; reference has been made to his finding the gold watch of Lieut. WILLIAM FORCE. Not long after he removed to Squaw or Strawberry Point, on the eastern bank of Lake Monona, and with WILLIAM B. LONG entered, in 1835, the fractional tract embracing the point. He was afterwards joined by ABRAHAM WOOD; but selling out his fifty-two acres to Col. WM. B. SLAUGHTER, March 28, 1838, he removed to the present locality of Poynette, where, for sev- eral years he kept a house of entertainment, and still later to Baraboo, where he and Wood built a mill, and where he died. Unlike most early Indian traders, his wife was a white woman.
Another of the early traders at the Four Lakes, was ABEL RASDALL, who from his long residence here is entitled to par- ticular notice. He was a native of Kentucky, born August 15, 1805, in Barron county, son of ROBERT and ELIZABETH RAS- DALL. He was raised a farmer. When a young man he went to Missouri and engaged in lead mining, and in 1828 went to Galena and assisted awhile the late Col. JAMES MORRI- SON in his mining operations at Porter's Grove, about nine miles west of Blue Mounds, and soon engaged in the business of an Indian trader, locating his cabin on the eastern shore of First Lake, about a half mile south of its outlet. He married a Winnebago woman by whom he had three children, and was a real help-meet to him in the Indian trade, and accompanying
MRS. R. PECK.
HON. JOHN CATLIN.
JONES, Photo.
25
FOUR LAKE COUNTRY OF WISCONSIN.
him to Fort Winnebago at some Indian payment there, she sickened and died of small pox, RASDALL alone attending her and burying her remains. He had been vaccinated when young, and did not take the disease. He subsequently married another Winnebago woman; they had no issue, and when her people migrated west, she concluded to go with them - so RASDALL and his Indian wife cut a blanket in two, each taking a part, the Indian mode of divorce.
Mr. RASDALL's services in the Black Hawk war have previ- ously been referred to. In his trading with the Indians, he did not by any means, confine himself to his trading establishment, but would pack several ponies with goods, and would take a tour among the Indian camps and settlements, and dicker off his goods for skins and furs. He obtained his goods at Galena, where he disposed of his furs and peltry. Not only ponies were used for packing and transporting goods, but Indians also.
In 1846, he was married to MARY ANN PITCHER, in Madison, by whom he had three sons. Mr. RASDALL died at his home at Token Creek, Dane county, Wis., June 6, 1857, at the age of nearly 52 years. He will long be remembered as an early set- tler of Dane county, his trading adventures around the Four Lakes having commenced as early as 1831.
Another early trader, and perhaps the only one not hereto- fore referred to as doing business on the lakes, was MICHEL ST. CYR. An interesting biography of him has been prepared by L. C. DRAPER, LL. D., and published in Vol. VI of the Collec- tions of the State Historical Society, and from which the fol- lowing extract is taken:
" ST. CYR was a Canadian half-breed (his mother's name was KEE-NO-KAU, a Winnebago woman), born about 1806; had al- ways lived on the frontier and among the Indians, and could speak English quite well, though he was entirely illiterate. He was a man of ordinary size, about one hundred and fifty pounds weight; with a thin visage, dark complexion, black hair and eyes, a quick step, and a ready, active man generally, in both body and mind. He was amiable, and kind to all, and scorned a dishonest man or a liar. He exercised a commanding
3
.
26
HISTORY OF MADISON AND THE
influence over that portion of the Winnebagoes with whom he was associated. He succeeded ROWAN as a trader at the head of Fourth Lake - whisky and tobacco constituted his stock in trade. The whisky was at first dealt out to his Indian custom- ers in full strength, and pretty liberal quantities, until they became considerably oblivious, when the liquor was diluted, and finally, as they became still more intoxicated, water was freely substituted, and, as ST. CYR said, answered every pur- pose. But this trade was not sufficient for a livelihood, and ST. CYR cultivated about eight acres of ground, surrounded with a rude fence, raising corn, oats, potatoes, and a few vege- tables. His cabin was a small affair, about twelve feet square, with a dirt floor; and almost adjoining it was a stable of about the same dimensions. With a Winnebago woman for his wife, and two sons and two daughters, all young, he entertained the very few travelers that passed through the country. When A. F. PRATT and companion stopped there in February, 1837, as related in the first volume of the Wisconsin Historical Collec- tions, they had served up to them a kind of pot-pie which relished very well; and after finishing their meal, and inquiring what kind of meat they had eaten, they were informed that it was musk-rat. Indeed muskrats, and occasionally pheasants, seemed to form the principal viands for his table; and ST. CYR would pleasantly observe, that the Englishmen, meaning white people generally, 'would just as soon eat pheasant as rat, when all were cooked up together.'"
ST. CYR resided at a point a little north of the mouth of Pheasant Branch, where the City of the Four Lakes was lo- cated and platted, and now owned by Mr. JAMES LIVESEY, about six miles from the State University. His place was the near- est to the location of Madison. He received from Col. SLAUGH- TER some two hundred dollars for his trifling improvements, and about the first of July, 1838, he removed first to Minneso- ta, and soon after to the Winnebago Reservation in Iowa, and there he died about 1864. His two sons grew up worthless fel- lows among the Indians, and, as some of the Winnebagoes re- ported, "they drink heap of whisky."
27
FOUR LAKE COUNTRY OF WISCONSIN.
MICHEL ST. CYR was one of the half-breed Canadian race of the coureurs des bois, voyageurs and Indian traders, whose wants were few and simple, and who, in manners, customs and acquirements, were but slightly in advance of the Indians with whom they associated, lived and died. It was only the mere accident of his having been temporarily an early settler of this section of country, and the humble part he took in the primitive survey of Madison, as will hereafter appear, that led to the perpetuation of his name and career in these early rem- inisces of the country.
In the year 1834 the preliminary steps were taken by the General Government to have the lands in this locality surveyed and brought into market, and we find by the volume of Field Notes in the office of the School and University Land Com- missioners, that February 4, Mr. ORSON LYON contracted with M. T. WILLIAMS, Esq., United States Surveyor General for the States of Ohio, Indiana and Michigan, to survey fractional township seven, north of range nine, east of the fourth princi- pal meridian, in the Northwest Territory, comprising the pres- ent town of Madison.
These lands, including others adjacent, were surveyed in the month of December of that year, and certified to by ORSON LYON, Deputy Surveyor, HARRISON FLESHER and JOHN STRAIGHT, chain-bearers, and MADISON YOUNG, ax-man, on the 6th of that month. Accompanying the notes is a drawing of the grounds and the lakes.
In the summer or autumn, 1835, Col. WILLIAM B. SLAUGH- TER* entered the tract of land occupied by ST. CYR, and on the
* Col. William B. Slaughter was a native of Culpepper county, Va .; born April 19, 1797, and was educated at William and Mary's College, Va. He removed to Bardstown, Kentucky, where he practiced law from 1827 to 1829, and, in 1830, removed to Bedford, Lawrence county, Indiana. In 1832, was elected a member of the legislature, when he introduced the Indiana resolutions, sustaining President Jackson's proclamation on the subject of nullification and threatened secession in South Carolina. He was appointed Register of the Land Office at Indianapolis in 1833, which position he resigned the year following, and was appointed to the same office at Green Bay in 1835. While serving in that capacity he was elected
28
HISTORY OF MADISON AND THE
20th of December conveyed an undivided interest to Judge J. D. DorY, with a view of having a town laid out there, and eventually securing the location of the Territorial Capital at that point. Accordingly, Judge DOTY employed JOHN BAN- NISTER, a surveyor of Green Bay (who subsequently removed to Fond du Lac, and died there), to lay out the City of the Four Lakes, where ROWAN and St. CYR had successively traded, and where Gen. DODGE had held a conference with the Winneba- goes, May 25, 1832. It was surveyed and platted probably in June, 1836, as the certificate of the plat bears date July 7 of that year. This city (on paper) at one time had high aspira- tions for the seat of government, but owing to circumstances not necessary here to state, it failed to win the coveted prize.
J. V. SUYDAM, Esq., of Green Bay, in a letter to Dr. L. C. DRAPER, thus refers to his visit to Madison with Gov. DOTY for the purpose of laying out and surveying the plat for the vil- lage:
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