USA > Wisconsin > Sauk County > A standard history of Sauk County, Wisconsin, Volume I > Part 19
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PRIMITIVE HIGHWAYS OF TRAVEL
If the reader has considered the details presented in the foregoing pages he will have decided that the remains, both of prehistorie life and those of somewhat doubtful origin in Sauk County go to prove the general statements made in the introductory matter-that all the primi- tive peoples of North America hovered along and around the streams
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and the lakes, in making the choice for their homes, their hunting grounds and their habitat as a whole. The same may be said of their highways of travel; the forerunners of the iron and steel ways of the white man.
How long the natives of the soil, as found by the first white men who invaded it, had been using the beaten trails along the streams, through the valleys and the easy grades of the land, is perhaps more difficult to determine than the age of some of the prehistorie mounds, as no such data is available as soil deposits and tree growths. In the case of the trails, all is a matter of pure, or rather blind, conjecture. It is simply known that neither memory nor tradition runneth beyond the time when the correlated valleys of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers were not well worn passageways between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi Valley. The southern part of Sauk County was a central link in that superb chain.
THE WISCONSIN RIVER TRAIL
The commencement of the great Wisconsin River Trail was Portage, whence the main route was to Dekorra, which was a favorite point for crossing the river. At that point the trail branched, one line passing to the south of the Wisconsin to the Galena lead region, and the other following the valley in a general way to Prairie du Chien. This, which was generally considered the main route, cut across what is now the southern part of Sauk County. In Merrimack it passed over the rolling land between the bluffs and the river. In Prairie du Sac it left the Wisconsin and crossed the prairie to the valley of Honey Creek which it followed for some distance. In Prairie du Sae the trail has been defi- nitely located where it cut off the southeast corner of section 26, and the northwest corner of section 35, and passed almost diagonally through section 34.
Several other trails, besides that of the Wisconsin River, centered near the Honey Creek Valley. One of these passed diagonally from southeast to northwest across sections 8 and 9, thence in the same general direction, through Westfield and Ironton townships toward LaCrosse.
SAUK PRAIRIE TO BARABOO RAPIDS
The Indian trail from Sauk Prairie to Baraboo Rapids crossed the South Bluff in nearly the same course as does the present West Sauk road. South of the bluff it evidently led to the villages about Honey Creek, near the site of Lodde's Mill of today, although in earlier times it may have led to the Sauk village. In a letter to Mr. Canfield ("Outline Sketches of Sauk County") C. O. Baxter says: "Some time in October, 1839, five of us crossed the bluffs over to the Baraboo Valley. The trail led us over the bluffs immediately back of what is now known as the
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Teal's Place, the highest peak, I think, in the center range between the prairie and Baraboo. The trail led us directly to the Baraboo River at the place where Maxwell's Mill Dam now stands. Here we forded the river and entered the Indian chief's (Caliminee's) village."
Teal's Place, mentioned by Mr. Baxter, was about half a mile east of King's Corners, the West Sauk Road in the town of Sumpter.
BARABOO VALLEY TRAILS
Several Indian trails followed the general trend of the Baraboo Valley between the bluffs; one wider and more pronounced than the others met them all, like a trunk line, at the Baraboo Rapids. Thenee it followed along the foot of the north range to the ford at Garrisonville, whence several trails radiated. Another trail connected the same points, but followed closer to the river bottoms. Still another from the Rapids extended along the base of the south range, through the Palmer Village site, up Rowley Creek and so on to Dekorra. From the ford at Garrison- ville, an important trail led up the ravine north of the residence of Samuel Brown to the upper slopes of the quartzite range; thenee, in almost a direct line, to Dekorra. Possibly this trail joined with the one from Jackson Creek. From the ford another trail led through the Lower Narrows on the east side of the river to Portage.
NORTH AND SOUTH FROM THE BARABOO
Two important trails led north from the Baraboo River-one from the Baraboo Rapids and the other, from the Garrisonville Ford. They met on Yellow Thunder's Forty, a leading rendezvous of the Winnebagoes in the extreme eastern part of what is now the Town of Delton. The trail from the Rapids still shows quite distinctly about forty rods east of the public road and nearly opposite the residence of Edmund Calvert. The trail from Garrisonville Ford passed through the Lower Narrows ou the west bank of the Baraboo River, followed the upland bordering the Big Marsh, crossed near the Leach Creek Group of mounds, and led almost directly to Yellow Thunder's Forty. This trail may be easily traced on the Thomas Farm, northeast quarter of the northeast quarter of section 7, in the southwestern part of the Town of Delton. There is also said to have been a southern trail from Garrisonville Ford to the Merrimack region.
THE DELLS AND THE PORTAGE ROUTE
The Dells and Portage Trail followed the Wisconsin River along the northeastern corner of Sauk County. It erossed Dell Creek near the Newport Mounds and passed close to the Lower Dells Group. There, on
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the Eaton property, the trail is well defined for a distance of nearly half a mile. Hence it passed to the lower lands through the Herwig Village site along the Wisconsin River Group of mounds and on through the Stage Road Group, mecting other trails near Yellow Thunder's Forty. In its course along the river from this point the trail passed through the Polson Group, and for several miles in Fairfield Township substan- tially followed the publie road. Between that highway and Chapman's Lake the trail still shows plainly. In the northeast corner of Fairfield it led to the edge of the river opposite Pine Island, which was a favorite camping site of the later Indians. Thence the trail followed the river to l'ortage.
WERE THEY TRAVELED BY THE MOUND BUILDERS ?
The trails noted, and doubtless others, were used by the Winnebagoes and the pioneer whites. As a rule, and the map upholds the statement, the trails followed the easier routes of travel, led for objective points and passed through many important groups of mounds. It therefore seems reasonable to conclude that they were used in part by the original builders of the mounds, and that the natives who came after them continued to use the main lines of travel established by their forefathers. After the establishment of Fort Winnebago that point of special interest to the Indians of this section and, as noted, many of the trails led toward that place. But the Sauk Village on the Prairie and Yellow Thunder's Forty, with the numerous and remarkable region of prehistorie mounds in East- ern Sauk County, have tended to set apart this section of the state as an area of sacred ground for the red man and of absorbing scientific and speculative interest for the white man.
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CHAPTER VII
SAUK COUNTY INDIANS
THE MASCOUTENS OF SAUK COUNTY-FORCED COMING OF THE SAUKS AND FOXES-INFLUX OF THE WINNEBAGOES-THE WINNEBAGO WAR-THE BLACK HAWK WAR-BATTLE OF WISCONSIN HEIGHTS-BLACK HAWK'S FLIGHT THROUGH SAUK COUNTY-YELLOW THUNDER VISITS WASHING- TON-MRS. FLANDERS' RECOLLECTIONS OF YELLOW THUNDER-MEETS THE DAUGHTER OF WHITE CROW-CHARACTER SKETCH OF MADAME WASHINGTON-THE EXODUS OF 1840-YELLOW THUNDER ENTERS HIS "FORTY"-JAMES H. HILL'S MEMORIAL ADDRESS-THE YOUNG BRAVE, YELLOW THUNDER-CHEATED OUT OF THEIR LANDS-OUTRAGE UPON OUTRAGE-BECOMES A LAND OWNER IN SAUK COUNTY-STATELY IN MIEN, NOBLE OF CHARACTER-BURIAL OF YELLOW THUNDER'S SQUAW -DEATH AND BURIAL OF YELLOW THUNDER-THE MEMORIAL PILLAR -REMAINS REMOVED FROM FORMER GRAVES-REMAINS INCLOSED IN MEMORIAL PILLAR-THE NAME PLATES-FINAL EXPULSION OF THE WINNEBAGOES.
The Indians directly and historically identified with Sauk County were the Sacs (Sauks) and Foxes and the Winnebagoes. The two tribes first mentioned seemed to have been distinguished for their invariable and close association, and yet for the persistency with which they main- tained their separate existence. Members of the dual nation were forced into what is now Eastern Sauk County from the Green Bay Region shortly before the middle of the eighteenth century, left, after a residence there of some forty years, and never returned. The Winnebagoes drifted after them and had several villages in what is now Sauk County when the territory commeneed to be settled by the whites. But there were many shiftings and changes among the tribes who occupied the Fox and Wisconsin valleys, which determined their more or less permanent occu- pancy in the periods of fragmentary history.
THE MASCOUTENS OF SAUK COUNTY ( ?)
The first positive knowledge of the native tribes of this region which sifted into history came to Champlain who heard of a family of Indians living many leagues beyond Lake Huron called the Fire Nation, or Mas-
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coutens. It is believed that their homes, at that time, were upon the Fox River; at least, they were visited by French missionaries and travelers a score of years later, and they claimed as their hunting grounds so much other territory to the south as probably to have included what is now Sauk County. Further south, well up Rock River, was the coun- try of the Illinois. The latter, who lived in a region "where there was a quantity of buffaloes," were afterward driven beyond the Mississippi, but returned to the river which bears their name.
FORCED COMING OF THE SAUKS AND FOXES
Meanwhile, there commenced an emigration of the mass of the Mascou- tens, with their kindred, the Kiekapoos and Miamis, toward the southern shores of Lake Michigan. They were replaced by the Foxes and Sauks, who later migrated to the west and southwest. For some time they had established the seat of their considerable power around the shores of Green Bay and some distance up the Fox River, and had become very autocratic in their dealings both with the whites and neighboring Indian tribes. The result was disastrous to them, one incident of their expulsion from the Green Bay and Lower Fox River Region being the founding of a village by them in Sauk County.
Augustin Grignon, the famous fur trader, Indian agent and land holder of Green Bay and of the Fox and Wisconsin valleys, gives the following account of that event as he heard it from his grandfather, Charles De Langlade, who actively participated in some of the occur- rences narrated; "The Outagamies or Foxes were at this time (1746) located at the Little Butte des Morts, on the western bank of Fox river and some thirty-seven miles above Green Bay. Here they made it a point, whenever a trader's boat approached, to place a torch upon the bank as a signal for the traders to come ashore and pay the customary tribute, which they exacted from all. To refuse this tribute was sure to incur the displeasure of the Foxes, and robbery would be the mildest punish- ment inflicted. This haughty, imperious conduct of the Foxes was a source of no little annoyance to the traders, who made their complaints to the commandants of the western posts, and, in due time, these griev- ances reached the ears of the governor of Canada.
"Captain De Velie was at this time commandant of the small garrison at. Green Bay. He was relieved by the arrival of a new officer whose name I have forgotten, and the new commandant brought with him demands for the Sauks of the village opposite the fort, who had hith- erto demeaned themselves well, to deliver up the few Foxes living among thein in consequence of intermarriage, or otherwise. All were readily given up, except a Fox boy who had been adopted by a Sauk woman. De Velie and his successor were dining together and, becoming somewhat intoxicated by wine, some sharp words passed between them relative
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to the tardiness of the Sauks in delivering the boy ; when De Velie arose and, taking his gun and a negro servant, crossed the river to the Sauk village which was surrounded with palisades or piekets. He found the Sauks in council and was met by the Sauk chief, of whom he demanded the immediate surrender of the remaining Indian. The chief said he and his principal men had just been in council about the matter, and though the adopted mother of the youth was loath to part with him, yet they hoped to prevail upon her peaceably to do so. The chief proceeded to visit the old woman, who still remained obstinate, and De Velie, renew- 'ing his demands for immediate compliance, again would the chief renew his efforts; and thus three times did he go to the sturdy old woman and endeavor to prevail upon her to give up the boy, and returning each time without success, but assuring De Velie that if he would be a little patient he was certain the old squaw would yet comply with his demands, as she seemed to be relenting. But, in his warm blood, the Frenchman was in no mood to exercise patience; and he at length drew up his gun and shot the chief dead. Some of the young Sauks were for taking instant revenge, but the older and wiser men present begged them to be cool, and refrain from inflicting injury on their French father, as they had provoked him to commit the act. By this time De Velie, whose anger was yet unap- peased, had got his gun reloaded by his servant, and wantonly shot down another chief, and then a third one; when a young Sauk only twelve years of age, named Ma-kau-ta-pe-na-se, or the Black Bird, shot the enraged Frenchman dead.
"The garrison was too weak to attempt the chastisement of the Sauks, but upon the arrival of a reinforcement joined by the French settlers. Charles De Langlade among them, the Sauks were attacked at their village, where a severe battle occurred in which several were killed on both sides and the Sauks finally driven away. In this Sauk battle, two of my father's uneles were among the slain on the part of the French.
"The Sauks now retired to the Wisconsin river and located at Sauk Prairie, where they still resided and had a fine village, with comfortable houses, and were apparently doing something in mining lead, when Carver visited the country in 1766; but which appears to have been several years deserted when I first saw the place in 1795, as there were then only a few remains of fireplaces and posts to be seen. The brave young Sauk, Black Bird, became a distinguished chief among his people, and Mr. Laurent Fily, an old trader, told me many years since, that he knew Black Bird well at the Sauk village at the mouth of Rock river; that he lived to a good old age, and, Fily added, that he was the same person who in his youth had so fearlessly shot De Velie."
INFLUX OF THE WINNEBAGOES
As the Sauks and Foxes were pressed toward the southwest, the Winnebagoes came down from the north in a strong current. From
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the head of Green Bay they gradually moved up the Fox River, having outlying villages on the shores of Winnebago Lake and in the valley of Rock River. They finally reached the Portage and pressed down the valley of the Wisconsin. They now became so powerful and occupied so much territory that the Government of the United States began to make treaties with them. The first of these was with the Wisconsin River Winnebagoes, who occupied the soil of Sauk County as a small portion of their great domain; it occurred at St. Louis June 3, 1816, and was a treaty of peace, not one of cession. They had served with the British in the war of 1812, and were considered the most treacherous and dan- gerous tribe opposed to American sovereignty east of the Mississippi. In 1820 they had five villages on Winnebago Lake and fourteen on the Rock River. The acknowledged southeast boundary of their territory stretched from the sources of that stream to within forty miles of its mouth in Illinois, where they had a large village. On the west it extended to the headwaters of the small streams flowing westwardly into the Mis- sissippi, and to the northward as far as Black River and the Upper Wisconsin, or to the region occupied by the Chippewas. The Winnebago country, however, did not extend across the Fox River to the lands of the north side, although they contended for the whole of Winnebago Lake. In 1824, when a rough enumeration of the tribe was taken, the Winnebagoes were found to number about 6,000. At that time Sauk County was well within their domain.
THE WINNEBAGO WAR
The Chippewas and Winnebagoes often clashed on the borders of their territories, and in 1827 the Winnebago war was precipitated by the attack of a war party of Winnebagoes upon some Chippewas who were on their way to Fort Snelling. The commandant of the United States troops at the fort took four of the Winnebagoes prisoners and delivered them into the hands of the infuriated Chippewas, who imme- diately put them to death. This aet was generally resented by the chief of the Winnebagoes, Red Bird, who harbored an additional grievance against the whites in the invasion of the Galena mining country, which was Winnebago territory. Red Bird first led a war party against the Chippewas, by whom he was defeated, and then turned against the United States. The result, which culminated at the mouth of the Bad Axe, is familiar history, and does not directly concern the progress of this his- tory, only so far as it marks the decadence of the Winnebagoes as a nation elaiming dominion over the present area of Sauk County.
By treaties held with the Winnebagoes in 1829 and 1832 all their territory south and east of the Wisconsin River was acquired by the general Government. West of the Wisconsin, including the present County of Sauk, the country was still Winnebago land, but on the first
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of November, 1837, they ceded to the United States all of their lands east of the Mississippi, which, of course, included the present County of Sauk.
THE BLACK HAWK WAR
The Black Hawk war of 1832 put as definite a period to the strength of the Sauks and Foxes, as the so-called Winnebago war had to the aggressiveness of the Winnebagoes. It is thought that the treacherous Winnebagoes even instigated the more serious campaigns led by the brave and able chief of the Sauks. The first campaign, in the spring of the year, resulted in the defeat of the white volunteers and the con- tinued oceupaney of the defiant Indians of the country which they claimed along Rock River.
In June of the same year (1832) a new force was raised and placed in command of General Henry Atkinson, of the regular army, who com- meneed his mareh up Rock River. Before the campaign reopened a number of settlers and miners in the lead region of Southwestern Wis- consin and Northwestern Illinois had been killed by the Indians. Squads of volunteers had encountered the red men on several occasions, and at Pecatonica, Lafayette County, Wisconsin, an entire band of seventeen Sauks and Foxes had been exterminated. Atkinson's marchi up Rock River was attended by some skirmishing; when, being informed that Black Hawk and his force were at Lake Koshkonong, in the southwest corner of what is now Jefferson County, the American commander moved thither with a portion of his little army, where the entire force was ordered to concentrate. But the Sauk chief with his warriors had dis- appeared. Cols. Henry Dodge and James D. Henry, with the troops under them, discovered the trail of the Indians leading toward the Wis- consin River. It was evident that the retreating force was large, and that it had but recently passed. The pursuing troops hastened their march.
BATTLE OF WISCONSIN HEIGHTS
On the twenty-first of July, 1832, the American troops arrived at the hills which skirt the banks of that stream in what is now Roxbury Town- ship, Dane County. At that locality Black Hawk's entire camp, includ- ing women and children, the aged and the infirm, were frantically has- tening to escape across the Wisconsin. That this might be effected, it became necessary for the chief to make a firm stand in order to cover the retreat. The Indians were in the botom lands when the pursuing whites made their appearance on the heights in their rear. Colonel Dodge held the advance and sustained the first attack of the Indians. He was soon joined by Colonel Henry, with his force, the combined party obtaining a complete victory. The action commenced about 5 o'clock in the after-
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noon and ended at sunset. The Indians, numbering not less than 500, sustained a loss of about 60 killed and a large number wounded. The loss of the Americans was one killed and eight wounded. This conflict has since been known as the battle of Wisconsin Heights.
BLACK HAWK'S FLIGHT THROUGH SAUK COUNTY
During the night of the battle Black Hawk sent the women and chil- dren, with other helpless members of the tribe, down the Wisconsin in canoes, while he himself with a band of chosen warriors crossed the river and landed near the present site of the Village of Prairie du Sac. It is believed that the war party under the noted chief then crossed the north- east corner of what is now Prairie du Sac Township to the Wisconsin River Trail, followed up Honey Creek Valley to its head, leaving the valley at that point and striking toward the west. The Indians were pur- sued in their flight and were not brought to a stand until they had reached the Mississippi, near the mouth of the Bad Axe, on the western boundary of what is now Vernon County, Wisconsin. About two o'clock on the morning of the second of August, 1832, the line of march began to the scene of the last conflict in the Black Hawk war. Dodge's volunteers, Taylor's regulars and a military force which attacked from a steamboat which had moved up the Mississippi, made the battle of the Bad Axe the complete overthrow of Black Hawk and his power. The Sauk chief tem- porarily escaped, but was captured and brought under the sovereignty of the general Government.
But the Sauks and Foxes had long since relinquished elaim upon the soil of Sank County, and, as stated, the Winnebagoes ceased to hold any title in it by their treaty of 1837. Surveys of the lands in Sauk County were at once made. In the following year successful settlements were made on the present site of Sauk City, and in 1839 the regular sales commeneed for the two land distriets, the land office of the Wisconsin District (in which Sauk County was situated) being at Mineral Point and that of the Green Bay District being at the town by that name.
YELLOW THUNDER VISITS WASHINGTON
While the Winnebagoes were negotiating with the general Govern- ment, in 1837, their venerable and beloved chief, Yellow Thunder, went to Washington, accompanied by two young hereditary chiefs, to see the President. He then resided in Columbia County and was universally honored by the Winnebagoes and the white settlers. As the last war chief of his tribe he received many marks of attention, but history has reached the verdiet that he and his people were deceived and induced wrongfully to make over their lands to the Government of the United States.
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MRS. FLANDERS' RECOLLECTIONS OF YELLOW THUNDER
Among those who knew Yellow Thunder best during his residence in Columbia County was Mrs. Lydia A. Flanders, of Portage, who in her "Personal Recollections" speaks of him thus: "More than fifty years ago, when a child of nine years, 1 wandered one October day, a short distance from my home, then a settler's cabin. Glancing along the trail, I saw an Indian approaching. Terrorized and unable to move, I stared, but did not utter a sound. He approached nearer and held out his hand and in the most pleasant of voices said, 'How? How?' I still felt uneon- vinced of my safety, even if the face before me was not at all formidable, and the expression one of extreme good nature, and murmuring some- thing that I suppose was meant as a farewell, he passed on. That was my introduction to Chief Yellow Thunder, and the beginning of a friend- ship which lasted many years, in fact, to the time of his death.
"On a stream of water flowing through my father's farm and near the point made memorable by Mrs. Kinzie in that most delightful book, 'Wau-Bun,' is an old-time camping ground of the Indians. On the ont- side eurve of this stream, on a slight elevation thiekly covered with trees, is where, on their journeys to and from Madison, where they went for their annuity, they camped sometimes for days and often for weeks, hunting, fishing, and some of the tribes begging, in which last-mentioned pastime, however, our chief did not in the slightest degree participate. Combined with the dignity of his bearing was an air of self-respect, which enveloped him as a mantle. He was tall and well proportioned, with a hand that was shapely and slender, and a voice deep and clear, devoid of the gutturals which are characteristic of the voices of many of these people.
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