USA > Wisconsin > Sauk County > A standard history of Sauk County, Wisconsin, Volume I > Part 21
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Almost every lodge for forty miles around had its delegate. The Winnebagoes (Bagoes, they were called ) had pooled their wigwams, their feathers, their paint, their wampum, and were having a hilarious time, when their powwow was interrupted by the appearance of the uninvited
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boys in blue. The greatest consternation immediately prevailed, for the Indians knew that they must follow the bulk of their tribe to the reserva- tion in Nebraska. A parley followed and, as the Bagoes refused to be persuaded by mildness, they were surrounded by Captain Hunt's men and made prisoners to the number of nearly one hundred. -
With as little delay as possible, the captives were arranged in march- ing order and just before noon, with their families and all their festive paraphernalia, sullenly wound over the hill near the Catholic Church
CHIEF A-HA-CHO-KA Taken about 1898
escorted by the United States troops. They were marched to the depot, safely lodged in the cars, and a full supply of rations dealt out to them. After they had been housed, Captain Hunt set about to inform himself whether any of his captives had become real estate owners, or had done anything else to show that they had abandoned their tribal relations and were entitled to remain as citizens. In that connection, inquiry was made for Yellow Thunder, Good Village, War Club, Snake Swallow, McWima and Pretty Man, but it was found that only two of them were among the captives and they were allowed to depart as American citizens. Jolin Little John and Iligh Snake were taken with the more common Winnebagoes. Although not legally entitled to remain, as their characters
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were quite warmly endorsed by a number of respectable citizens, they were informed that they could return to Columbia County later, if they so desired. The ponies and all the other belongings of the Indians were then collected and loaded into the baggage ears, and at 6 o'clock the train was under way for Sparta, Monroe County, which was to be the ren- dezvous for all the Winnebagoes gathered by Captain Hunt, who was the official Government agent for the removal of the remuant of the tribe from Southern Wisconsin.
Sunday and Monday were busy days and nights for ex-Sheriff Pool, his specialty being the collection of the squaws and families of the Winne- bago braves who had not accompanied their lords to the Baraboo cele- bration. A writer of that time and event puts the matter thus: "As an Indian dance is very like a white man's frolic in some of its characteristics, it was not a matter of surprise to learn that a number of braves were alone at this dance, while the squaws were doing the menial work of housekeeping at home and attending to the papooses. Now Big Jim was just one of that kind, and several others might be named, but out of respeet for their families we will not put their names in print. The circumstances, however, made it necessary for Captain Hunt to dispatch Mr. Pool and other messengers for their families, which were at Briggs- ville (Marquette County, just above the Columbia line) and other places. By Monday evening Mr. Pool had two or three dozen of them congregated here, and on Tuesday evening they were forwarded to Sparta." It would thus appear that the Christmas festivities of the Winnebagoes were rather rudely disturbed in 1873. As we have seen, their beloved and venerable chief, Yellow Thunder, remained in Sauk County and died shortly after the last forcible removal of his people from the State of Wisconsin.
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CHAPTER VIII
SETTLEMENT BEFORE COUNTY ORGANIZATION
BARIBEAU, VOYAGEUR OF 1747-FIRST REAL ITEMS OF COUNTY HISTORY- OTHER SCATTERED REFERENCES-MAP RECORDS-WINNEBAGOES CEDE ALL THEIR LANDS-CAME TOO SOON-SETTLERS ON SAUK PRAIRIE- FIRST WHITE FAMILY IN THE COUNTY-ABE WOOD, FATHER OF BARA- BOO-KILLS AN INDIAN-MARRIES A SQUAW-RESIDES NEAR MADISON- THE LODESTONE AT BARABOO-THE FIRST DAM-BIG HEART UNDER ROUGH CRUST-ABE WOOD'S DEATH-ALBERT JAMESON-UNCLE WILL LIAM JOHNSON-WILSON, OF WILSON'S CREEK-THE SAUK VILLAGES -FIRST FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION-COUNT HARASZTHY AND HIS COLONY-FATHER AND SON-FOUNDING SAUK CITY-RETURNS TO EUROPE FOR FAMILY-THE OLD COUNT-STEAMBOAT VENTURES --- OTHER ENTERPRISES OF HARASZTHY & BRYANT-A TOWN BUILDER AND BOOMER-AS A FARMER-COUNTY SEAT FIGHT-PERSONAL CHARAC- TERISTICS-ABANDON HARASZTHY VILLAGE-LAST OF THE HARASZTITYS -THE PECKS COME TO MADISON-FIRST WHITE CHILD BORN IN MADI- SON-MRS. PECK ENTERS THE BARABOO VALLEY-MRS. PECK HOLDS CAPTAIN MOORE-SURVEYS IN SAUK COUNTY-THE COUNTY'S FIRST CENSUS-WILLIAM H. CANFIELD-DELL CREEK (NEWPORT)-FIRST SETTLERS OF GREENFIELD TOWNSHIP-TOWN OF SPRING GREEN-JONES- VILLE-HONEY CREEK SETTLERS-TOWNS OF FAIRFIELD AND MERRI- MACK.
All intelligent readers are fairly familiar with the steps and char- acters long since solidly incorporated into the human and historic chap- ter covering the pioneer explorers and explorations of the interior of North America, via the Fox and Wisconsin valleys. Only distantly and indirectly does the romantic journey of Joliet and Marquette from the upper lake regions to the strange villages of the Mascoutens and the Kiekapoos in the Valley of the Fox, during the late spring and early summer of 1673, concern those of this day and county; or even their passage down the Wisconsin, under the guidance of the more civil and intelligent Miamis, toward the greater waterway supposed to lead to the South Sea. It adds to the human interest of this phase of the subject to be quite certain that these great and intrepid men were the first of the white race to float along any of the borders of the present County of
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Sauk and to look upon some of its beautiful hills and vales. Perhaps they even set foot upon its soil.
Within the succeeding twenty years Louis Hennepin, the friar, and Le Sueur, the French traveler and explorer, "made the portage" between the Fox and Wisconsin rivers; and the same may be said of them as was said of Joliet and Marquette. They left graphie descriptions of the two valleys and of the Indians who occupied them-of the "Saukies" and "Ottigaumies" (Foxes), and all the rest-which may be read by. all who are within the radius of a circulating library.
BARIBEAU, VOYAGEUR OF 1747
A matter which has caused prolifie speculation, without bringing definite results, is the origin of the name Baraboo. The only point upon which the speculators all agree is that the word is of French derivation. It has also been ascertained that there was a Canadian voyageur, once upon a time, who might have roamed through the Baraboo Valley and the enphony of his name sunk into the consciousness of some of the early cartographers and thus become fixed on the maps. The first mention of the name Baribeau in American history is in the register of baptisms of the mission of St. Ignace de Michilimakinae. The original, from which an English translation has been made, is kept in the parish church of Ste. Anne, at Mackinac, and under date of July 22, 1747, is the follow- ing: "I solemnly baptized in the church of this mission a female neo- phyte, sufficiently instructed and desiring holy baptism, about 35 years old, born at Nipissing and her two children : the elder about three (thir- teen) years and the younger about nine years of age, both born in the direction of Matchidock, of the aforesaid neophyte and of Jean Baptiste Tellier, dit la fortune. The neophyte took the name of Marie Josephe in holy baptism. Her godfather was Mr. de Noyelle, the younger, the com- mandant of this post, and the godmother Mlle. de Selles, wife of Sieur Thomas Blondeau, voyageur. The older child took the name of Francois Xavier; his godfather was Sieur Baribeau, voyageur." "Possibly," says Doctor Thwaites in a footnote, "the person for whom the Baraboo river in Sauk county, Wisconsin, is named." And there let the matter rest.
FIRST REAL ITEMS OF COUNTY HISTORY
The first scars upon the soil of Sauk County, traces of which are still discernible, records of which are definite and authentic, and which mark the legitimate birth of its history, were those left on the Sauk Prairie in 1746 by the band of Saes and Foxes who had been driven by the French from the military post at Green Bay. The reason for their flight has been given in the preceding chapter. Jonathan Carver, the English traveler,
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on his way to St. Anthony's Falls and the upper Mississippi, in 1766, passed down the Wisconsin River from the portage and visited the Indian village on Sauk Prairie. In an account of his voyage he says: "On the 8th of October we got our canoes into the Ouisconsin river, which at this place is more than a hundred yards wide, and the next day arrived at the great town of the Saukies. This is the largest and best built Indian town I ever saw. It contains about ninety houses, each large enough for several families. These are built of hewn plank, neatly joined and covered with bark so compactly as to keep out the penetrating rains. Before the doors are placed comfortable sheds, in which the inhabitants sit when the weather will permit and smoke their pipes. The streets are regular and spacious; so that it appears more like a civilized town than the abode of savages. The land near the town is very good. In their plantations, which lie adjacent to their houses, and which are neatly laid out, they raise great quantities of Indian corn, beans, melons, etc., so that this place is esteemed the best market for traders to furnish themselves with provisions of any within eight hundred miles of it.
"The Saukies can raise about three hundred warriors, who are gen- erally employed ever summer in making incursions into the territories of the Illinois and Pawnee nations, whence they return with a great number of slaves. But those people frequently retaliate, and in their turn destroy many of the Saukies, which I judge to be the reason that they increase no faster.
"While I stayed here, I took a view of some mountains that lie about fifteen miles to the southward and abound in lead ore. I ascended one of the highest of these, and had an extensive view of the country. For many miles nothing was to be seen but lesser mountains, which appeared at a distance like haycocks, they being free from trees, Only a few groves of hickory and stunted oaks covered some of the valleys. So plentiful is lead here that I saw large quantities of it lying about the streets in the town belonging to the Saukies, and it seemed to be as good as the product of other countries."
This same Carver was the first traveler in the great Mississippi Valley to map any portion of Sauk County away from the Wisconsin River. In 1768 a map was published in his book of travels, not only locating the "Saukies' Chief Town" but giving a fair delineation of the course of the Baraboo River.
OTHER SCATTERED REFERENCES
In the first third of the nineteenth century various leaders of military expeditions, commanders of American posts and Government Indian agents, record their observations regarding the country embraced in the present County of Sauk ; also descriptive of the Indians then occupying it, as has been narrated in the previous chapter. Capt. Henry Whiting,
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PRESENT STATES OF OLD NORTHWEST TERRITORY
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for instance, commanding the Fifth United States Infantry, which made the voyage from Fort Howard to Prairie du Chien in 1819, says in one of his reports: "The limestone bluffs and highlands begin on the Wis- consin about eight miles below the portage. Just above Prairie du Sac appears to be the apex of the highland of that river, and the head of the great valley through which it winds." In 1827 General Cass passed over the Fox-Wisconsin River route to ascertain the feeling among the Winnebagoes toward the United States Goverment, but left nothing of record which particularly interests the historian of Sauk County.
MAP RECORDS
John Farmer, the historian and cartographer of Detroit, was the first to attempt anything like an accurate mapping of the new parts of the territories of Michigan and "Ouisconsin." In one of his maps issued in 1830 is noted "Bonibau's Creek" (Bariboo River) and several Winne- bago villages along its course. Soon afterward appeared the first "Map of Wiskonsin Territory compiled from the Public Surveys," with villages along its course. His revised map of 1836 does not even attempt to traee the Baraboo River, although there is a rude representation of the bluffs, and the present area of Sauk County is otherwise a blank; it is simply a virtually unknown attachment to Dane County, out somewhere in the wilderness. Soon afterward the first "Map of Wiskonsin Territory, Compiled from the Public Surveys," locates the Village of Prairie du Sac; and that is about all.
WINNEBAGOES CEDE ALL THEIR LANDS
When the Winnebagoes ceded their lands east of the Mississippi to the United States, in 1837, the attention of those who were looking for fertile lands and a beautiful country north of the Wisconsin River was drawn to what is now Sank County. Although the surveyors of the general government did not commence their work until three years later, the lands were thrown upon the market and quite a number staked out their claims, awaiting the time when they could have their lands aceu- rately recorded and their titles made clear.
CAME TOO SOON
Even before the Winnebagoes had signed the treaty, but doubtless knowing that they would do so, Archibald Barker and Andrew Dunn attempted to pre-empt a piece of land in the Indians' corn fields near the present site of Baraboo, but the Winnebagoes destroyed their shanty and compelled them to leave the country. Mr. Barker returned two years
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afterward and assisted Abe Wood and Wallace Rowan, in the improve- ments of the Baraboo River at the Rapids.
SETTLERS ON SAUK PRAIRIE
But before the coming of the Baraboo pioncers, Sauk Prairie received its first settlers. Early in the spring of 1838 Berry Haney, who was then staging between Mineral Point and Fort Winnebago, learned of the ratification of the Winnebago treaty, and on his next trip after receiving such information took with him Jonathan Taylor and Solomon Shore for the purpose of making a claim on Sauk Prairie. Taylor was left opposite the Prairie, while Shore accompanied Haney to Fort Winnebago (Portage City), and returned to him with a skiff in which they crossed the river. The two then marked out a claim for Haney on the present site of Sauk City. Taylor made a claim on an adjoining traet above, and Shore took a third claim further up the river. In June, 1838, Haney employed James Ensminger and Thomas Sanser to break ten acres, but when they came to performn their work the Indians threatened to burn their camp. They therefore dug a pit, walled it with logs, and protected it with a covering of earth as a fireproof dwelling. These were the first permanent locations and improvements made by white men in Sauk County.
FIRST WHITE FAMILY IN THE COUNTY
James S. Alban, on the twentieth of December, 1838, moved with his family to the south end of Sauk Prairie, where he built a cabin in the midst of a small cluster of trees. His was the first white family in the county. Mr. Alban was an Ohio man, and as a boy of eight years moved with the family from Jefferson to Stark County, that state, where he reached manhood and married Miss Amanda Harris, daughter of Stephen Harris. In 1836 they started for the West, spent the winter of that year and '37 near Chicago, and in the following spring set their faces toward Wisconsin. They stopped for a time at Blue Mounds, Dane County, and their next move was to the Wisconsin River opposite what is now Sauk City. There they remained a few months watching the negotiations between the United States and the Winnebagoes. At the first notice of the extinguishment of the Indian title to the lands north of the Wis- consin the young couple crossed the river and became "squatters," as stated, on the southern end of Sauk Prairie. There the pioneer family of the county remained until the death of Mrs. Alban on October 5, 1843, when Mr. Alban moved to Plover, Portage County. At that place he commeneed the practice of law, in which he attained prominence, and as the brave colonel of the Eighteenth Wisconsin Infantry was killed in the Civil war, at the battle of Shiloh, April 6, 1862.
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ABE WOOD, FATHER OF BARABOO
In the meantime, probably in the late fall of 1838," Abe Wood, the first permanent settler of Baraboo, had built his cabin on the bank of the Baraboo, at a point which has been located just west of the house ou the Ochsner place at the end of Seventh Avenue. It is said that "the chance for water power and quick riches was the lodestone that drew Wood to the Baraboo rapids."
As Mr. Wood was also one of the most eccentric characters who ever lived in the county, and materially pushed along its development, the events of his life are here given in detail. They are incorporated in a paper read before the Sauk County Historical Society by the author, in November, 1909.
"Abe Wood was from Kentucky; his wife, a Winnebago halfbreed," said Mr. Cole. "He was an adventurer; she was a child of the wilder- ness. It was Abraham Wood who first established a home at Baraboo, then on the outer rim of civilization. Abe Wood's wants were few and simple; in manners and customs he was but slightly in advance of the Indians amongst whom he associated during much of his life. It was only the accident of his being the first to bring a family to Baraboo to establish a home that has led to a perpetuation of his name in the chapters of local history.
"Just when Wood came to the territory of Wisconsin is not recorded. nor is it known from whence he journeyed. He was probably born in Kentucky. He came to Illinois possibly because a brother resided there. About 1836 or 1837 he is first mentioned in the local history of Madison and Portage. Black Hawk had been driven from Illinois, past the Madison lakes and across Sauk county to his defeat and doom on the banks of the Mississippi only a short time before. Like thousands of others, Wood followed in the wake of the subdued Indians, finding in the new country opportunity for speculation and adventure. Wood's friend Wallace Rowan, was in this region before the Indian war and possibly Wood was in the territory also, but if so he left no record of his presence.
KILLS AN INDIAN
"John T. De La Ronde and others record that Abe Wood onee kept a grog shop at Portage and that White Pawnce came to the place to get some liquor by force, with his knife in his hand. Wood was a very strong man and pushed the Indian and struck him with a club. White Pawnee's
* The exact date of the arrival of Wood is not certain. He may have come in 1838 or 1839. Mrs. Bella French in the "American Sketch Book" (Baraboo and Devils' Lakes) 1876, says that James S. Alban and Eben Peck met Abraham Wood and Wal- lace Rowan on Peck's Prairie in 1839. Just how long he had been here is not stated.
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skull was broken and he fell dead. White Pawnee was sometimes called Vane Blanc. Pawnee was an Indian tribe on the Missouri and Platte rivers; however, as this was the tribe from which eaptives were fre- quently made, the term 'Pawnee,' called 'Pania' by the French, eame to mean any Indian slave or servant. Probably Pania Blane was the son of some such captive mother whom White Crow, his father, had married according to the Indian custom. The use of the term, 'White Pawnee,' may indicate that the mother was some white woman captured or brought into servitude. The term might readily have been used for any fancied lightness of complexion or peculiarity. The dead Indian was the son of White Crow, a conspicuous figure in the Black Hawk war.
"As soon as the deed had been committed the Indians collected around Wood's place to butcher him in their own way. De La Ronde made a road through them to Wood's habitation for his protection. The next day De La Ronde advised Wood to go to Henry Merrill, a justice of the peace in Portage, and give himself up. Wood replied that Merrill had advised him to run off. Merrill, however, did issue a warrant at the request of the sub-agent, Thomas Buoy, which was served by Satterlee Clark, who overtook Wood at Springer's and brought him back to the portage. Wood was sent to Green Bay for trial, but the grand jury did not find a bill against him.
"White Pawnee was buried in a large conical mound five or six feet high at the city end of the Wisconsin river bridge in Portage. After- wards the mound was leveled for street improvement but whether or not the bones of White Pawnee came to the surface is not known.
MARRIES A SQUAW
"The killing of the Indian probably resulted in Abe Wood taking the daughter of Chief DeKaury for his wife. John L. Rowin, who now resides in Wonewoc, says that on account of Wood killing an Indian at Portage he had to marry the squaw to save his life. It may have been a romanee as it was with John Smith down in Virginia.
"Mrs. Wood was partly white. In that early day the races were much mixed, French and Winnebago especially, and in some degree, American and Winnebago also. All the DeKaury's were descended from a half breed. The original DeKaury was a fur trader on Doty's Island, located at Neenah, and married the daughter of the chief of the nation at that place. He left a large progeny, when, summoned to defend New France, he went to the lower colonies and was mortally wounded at Quebec, April 28, 1760. He died of his wounds at Montreal soon after.
"Now Mrs. Wood was the daughter of one of the numerous DeKaurys, partly white, and quite likely her mother was a half breed. The degree of relationship cannot definitely be determined.
"In this case there was probably no ceremony. That was the custom Vol. 1-13
Doty's Island tan Trading Pas-
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then. It is recorded that after Wood and his wife came to Baraboo they were legally married by Eben Peek, a justice of the peace.
"Abe Wood's wife was called Sarah. Previous to her marriage to Wood she had a Frenchman for a husband and there was a daughter named Hannah aged 10 years, born on the Rock river. This daughter became one of the family and was known as Hannah Wood. Unions between whites and Indians by mutual consent was a common occurrence in those days. Philip Covalle, Joseph Pelkie, Michael St. Cyr, Oliver Ermell and Lavec all resided on the Madison lakes, and all had Indian women for wives. Like Wood three of them were married in the presence of their children after the advent of a justice of the peace.
RESIDES NEAR MADISON
"Wood and his wife were residing at Winnequah on the south shore of Lake Monona early in 1837. His home was on the northeast fractional quarter of seetion 19, which contains 52 acres. The place has been vari- ously known as 'Old Indian Garden,' 'Wood's Point,' 'Strawberry Point,' 'Squaw Point,' and now Winnequah. The first name was derived from the fact that the Indians cultivated the land there before the advent of the whites.
"While residing here in the early months of 1837 Wood assisted two Frenchmen, Joe Pelkie and Lavec, in building the first house in Madison. It was occupied by Eben Peck and family, also early settlers in Baraboo.
"When Simeon Mills came to Madison from Chicago by way of Janes- ville he crossed the Catfish three times and finally landed at Winnequah. Here he found Wood and through him was able to bargain with two Indian boys for 50 cents apiece to carry him across the lake to Madison, a service which he was unable to persuade the boys to do before.
"While Wood lived across the lake from Madison he kept a little store and traded with the Indians. He, no doubt, knew where the sunfish bedded and the deer came down to drink. Here, in the humble cabin on 'Squaw Point,' March 7, 1837, Margaret, his only daughter, was born.
THE LODESTONE AT BARABOO
"The chance for water power and quick riches was the lodestone that drew Wood to the Baraboo rapids. Two years before the Winnebago Indians had ceded to the government all their land east of the Mississippi, which included the present location of Baraboo. This land was not to be occupied by the whites for several years. Very soon after the treaty, however, Archibald Barker and Andrew Dunn came across the country from Minerel Point to lay elaim to choice locations at the rapids. Here at the site of an old Indian corn field they commenced the erection of a cabin, but when the walls of the shanty had reached the dignity of
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