USA > Wisconsin > Buffalo County > Biographical history of La Crosse, Trempealeau and Buffalo Counties, Wisconsin : containing portraits of all the presidents of the United States, with accompanying biographies of each; engravings of prominent citizens of the counties, with personal histories of many of the early settlers and leading families > Part 68
USA > Wisconsin > La Crosse County > Biographical history of La Crosse, Trempealeau and Buffalo Counties, Wisconsin : containing portraits of all the presidents of the United States, with accompanying biographies of each; engravings of prominent citizens of the counties, with personal histories of many of the early settlers and leading families > Part 68
USA > Wisconsin > Trempealeau County > Biographical history of La Crosse, Trempealeau and Buffalo Counties, Wisconsin : containing portraits of all the presidents of the United States, with accompanying biographies of each; engravings of prominent citizens of the counties, with personal histories of many of the early settlers and leading families > Part 68
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got up and took hold of the gun and passed eading the door with barrels of flour and the muzzle past my side, and, it being an old- beans, and loaded up several guns, with the intention of giving them a good fight, should they attempt to break in. fashioned flint-lock shotgun, opened the pan and turned the gun over and knocked the priming out. About that time a squaw came There was quite a large camp of Indians on the island, some fifteen or twenty camps, and when they heard the firing they rushed ont and joined with the one who had com- menced the row. While we were loading up our guns and getting ready for a battle or to proteet ourselves, a bullet came through the door, passed close by my head and through a tin kettle which was hanging on a nail in the shelf. We then saw the danger we were in by standing up in range of the door, and took a position, one on each side of the door, with our loaded guns and axes, calculating to give the Indians the best we had if they at- tempted to force open the door. The Indians continued to fire through the door and win- dows for about half an hour. The door was completely riddled with bullet holes. Soon after the Indians ceased firing, a rap at the door was heard, and I asked who was there, white man or Indian. The reply was, "Part white." I rolled the barrels away, opened the door and let him in, and, lo and behold! it was Alexis Baylie, a mixed blood, whose boat-load of goods was frozen in about ten miles above Prairie du Chien, and with whom I had staid over night on my way to Prairie du Chien. He had been up the river with two or three loads of goods, and was on his return when he heard the firing. while yet some distance from the island. When the Indians saw him coming they stopped firing; the Indians all knew Mr. Baylie. and they all flopped around the trading post. I asked Mr. Baylie to ask the Indians why they had made the attack on ns. They told him that we had commenced firing first. Baylie went on to a trader's cabin further down the river. to get him to go away, and I went out with them, keeping the muzzle past my side, he having hold of the gun too, until we got about 100 feet from the door. 1 then let go and started for the house, and just before I got to the house looked round and saw him aiming the gun at me. The gun snapped, as the priming had been knocked out; I sprang into the house in haste, elosed the door, and above the door was a half-window. I rolled a barrel up, looked out of the window, and saw the Indian reprime the gun and fire it; but it simply threw the ball out. I watched him and saw him reload with a bullet. I then said to Mr. Weld that we were going to have tronble and to load up some guns; and he replied that he would make a noise and that would be sufficient. "No, " I told him,- that the Indian had loaded up his gun and that we must defend ourselves, and to load up some guns. So we went to work and each loaded up a gun. About that time the Indian came to the door, and in a word or two of English said, "Me got no gun." To satisfy myself, I got up on the barrel and looked out of the window; he had got away about twenty-five or fifty feet. turned and saw me at the window, and quick as a flash leveled his gun at me and fired before I had time to get down, the ball passing through the win- dow. I got down, rolled the barrel away, opened the door, and Mr. Wekl rushed out and fired at an Indian who had got behind a big oak tree. I attempted to fire at another . Indian, who was running away, his blanket flying almost straight behind him, but my gun snapped and did not go off. We both retreated to the house and commenced barri- | Ile saw the Indian who had commenced the
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trouble going ahead of him down to this fired it off with a slow match. I expected eabin. The Indian, when he saw him, turned that it would blow the gun to pieces, but it did not. out of the trail and let him go by. After he had passed, the Indian fired at him, and Baylie heard the bullet whistle past his head.
When he got down to the trader's cabin the Indian soon came in. Ile asked the In- dian why he had fired at bim, and the Indian said that he had fired at a lump of ice along- side of the track; Mr. Baylie told him to leave and not come in the trading house while he was there; and he did so. I thought at the time that perhaps this trader did not like the idea of having us so close to his business, and tried to make trouble for us with the Indians.
We told the Indians that if this Indian ever came back we were going to kill him. This trouble hurt our trade for a few days. One day, after quite a while. this same Indian came into the cabin with several others one evening. I went and told Mr. Weld that this Indian was there, and asked him what we had better do about it. We made up our minds that we had better not pay any atten- tion to him, and pretend not to recognize him. He staid around there some time. IIe always was an ugly Indian and inelined to make trouble. I have often thought since that if we had shot any of the Indians both of us would have been killed, as there were two or three hundred Indians around there; but I didn't think of that at all at the ! time of the excitement. The gun which I had was a very long-barreled gun: the gun must have been six feet long!
After the excitement was over I found that I had loaded the gun nearly to the muzzle! Every time I heard a shot I must have put in a load. I was afraid to shoot the gun off, and I couldn't get any of the Indians to shoot it off, so I took the barrel from the stock breeen-pin, put it against an oak stump, and from one to the other, to support the board
There was another instance that I recollect. I was sitting on the counter in the store when an Indian eame in and sat down on the counter beside me. Ile put his left arm around me and pulled out his knife with his right hand and drew baek to stab me. I shook his arm off and threw him off the counter. Then I jumped behind the counter and put my hand under it as if I had a pistol. Ile thought I had and ran away. I never knew what was the cause of his wanting to kill me. He acted as if he was in earnest, and I think he was.
We had about one hundred cords of white-ash wood cut during the winter, and I banked it with a hand sled and sold it to the steamboats in the spring for $1.25 per cord. We got out logs to build a cabin on the main land at Prairie La Crosse, and put one end on a hand-sled and hauled them across the river on the ice. II. J. B. Miller (or Scoots Miller, as he was generally called) on his return from his Turkey river trading expedition, came up to the foot of Coon slough and established a trading post. 11. L. Dowsman, of Prairie du Chien, in charge of the American Fur Company's business, hired Mr. Miller to haul some Indian pro- visions from Prairie du Chien up to Black river, where Onalaska is now situated, to be distributed to the Indians, On his return I hired him to haul my logs, that we had hauled aeross the Mississippi river on a hand- sled and left on the shore, up to the prairie where I wanted to build, and he remained one or two days to assist in erecting the cabin. It consisted of hewn logs, about 16 x 20 feet in size, with a crutea in the ground at each end and a ridge pole across
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roof. The logs were put up by being notched down at the corners, chinked and mudded up after the weather became warmer. The roof was made mostly with boards running up from the top log to the ridge-pole in the center, and nailed to the ridge-pole and logs. I recollect vividly the first night I slept in the new cabin, which was the first one built where now stands the flourishing and second city in the State of Wisconsin. The cabin was built near the south side of State on Front street. We were anxious to get the roof on so we could sleep under cover that night, and worked until after dark. We had a sheet-iron stove, with no oven, a hole on top to put on a frying-pan, or to let a pot or kettle hang down in it when cooking. The stove was put up and a hole ent in the roof for the pipe to go through We cooked our supper. and afterward prepared for bed. Our bed consisted of a straw tick, filled with swamp-grass, and blankets, and was spread down on the ground alongside the sheet- iron stove. The weather was cold, and that night a northwest blizzard sprang up which thoroughly tested our cabin. On the sonth side of the ridge-pole the boards extended two or three feet above the ridge-pole, and they were not then nailed down on top. I lay in bed listening to the wind, and feeling it sensibly, too, and occasionally the part of the roof which extended above the ridge-pole ! was established there.
would rise up two or three inches and fall back on the pole again. The wind kept on rising until finally a gust of wind came, stronger than any of the others, and off went the roof with it. It left the little stove stick- ing up about six feet high. 1 got up and pulled the pipe apart and set the stove down on the ground, and lay down again, but there was no more sleep for me that night, as the wind howled and the snow was flying in all directions, and when morning came
about six inches of snow were in the cabin, and we were nearly frozen. We got up, cleared ont the snow, picked up the scattered boards and put the roof on again, and nailed it down. It was the bluest morning I ever experienced; I was siek, and homesick, too, and it was the only time I wished myself back home in the East.
When the weather got warmer we built a shed addition on the east end, covered with split puncheons and covered with dirt, which was shelved and a counter put across, and a space left between the counter and the end of the main building for the Indians to stand while trading. They had to come in through the main building to get to the store part. We made three double sleeping-bunks or berths, one over the other, in the front cabin by putting np poles and cross-pieces and boards across, put our straw ticks and blan- kets on them. We were then in clover. The trade had been good while on the island, and continued good during the spring. Prairie La Crosse was a central point for the Indians. A number of small rivers emptied into the Mississippi river within a radius of fifteen or twenty miles. Black river. Trempealeau river, La Crosse, Root, Coon and Bad Axe rivers, where the Indians used to hunt and trap, and Prairie La Crosse was their most central point to trade after a trading post
Some time in March, Mr. Weld, my partner, imagined he could do better farther np the river, and became dissatisfied and wanted to draw out; so I purchased his interest and he went up to Fort Snelling on the first steam boat and was hired as superintendent of the Indian farm. In the summer of 1842 I went up to Fort Snelling on the steamboat "Rock River," and saw him there, and we went from Fort Snelling on horseback to see the Falls of St. Anthony, where the city of
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Minneapolis is now located, with a population of 170,000. At that time there was not a soul living there on either side of the Missis- sippi river. There was a small corn-mill there, erected by the Government to grind feed for the animals at the fort when wanted.
In April I loaded my furs on the Govern- ment keel-boat, which General Brooks had so kindly loaned me, and started down the river to Prairie du Chien to sell my furs and purchase goods, and to return the keel-boat. On my way down, and below Coon slough, I overtook II. J. B. Miller, in a large canoe loaded with furs, on his way to Prairie du Chien. I took his whole outfit on board of the boat, and we went on down to Prairie du Chien together. We sold our furs to the
American Fur Company, at fair prices. 1 had formed a very favorable opinion of Mr. Miller, and desired to have him return with me to Prairie La Crosse. I made him a proposition in which I told him I had a claim there, a cabin, such as it was, and a few i goods on hand, and if he would return and go in partnership with me. I would give him a half interest in all I had. He asked for time to consider, and to hear from his brother in Illinois, and if favorable he would accept . the proposition. In a few days he received a letter which was favorable, and we entered into partnership on the above basis. We jointly purchased goods, and loaded up his | big canoe, which carried three or four tons. In our stock we purchased a small cast-iron cooking stove, which was a big improvement on the sheet-iron one I had, with no oven. We paddled and poled this big canoe, loaded to its full capacity, to La Crosse in four or five days, and it was not boys' play, either.
We unloaded our canoe and commenced trading jointly, both feeling satisfied with the arrangements and location. Ilaving no horses or oxen to do work with, Mr. Miller
soon left for Rockford, Illinois, and returned in two or three weeks with five yoke of oxen. During Mr. Miller's absence, I spaded up about two acres of land for a garden, and planted it. It embraced parts of blocks 7 and 19. With the oxen we plowed and en- larged the garden patch, and plowed a fur- row around our claim, which was the original plat of La Crosse, containing nearly 100 acres. We then plowed around a elaim made out at the bluffs, now known as the Miller farm, and also a claim at the lower end of the prairie. After this work was completed, Mr. Miller went to Prairie du Chien with the oxen, and put them on the road hanling Government freight out to Fort Atchison and Turkey River Agency. When through hauling freight, he returned to La Crosse with the outfit. In the early summer men were sent up Black river for the purpose of getting hewn pine logs for a new house, which were rafted and floated down to La Crosse, and a house 20 x 30 was erceted, one and one-half stories high, chinked and pointed up with lime mortar, inside and out- side, lathed and plastered and weather-boarded outside, with a shingle roof and brick chim- ney. We purchased bricks in Galena, which were brought up on a steamboat, and I built the chimney, which was the first one in La Crosse, and the only mason-work I ever did. The chimney remained there until the build- ing was torn down in the '50s or '60s. There was a cellar under the house, abont ten feet square, walled up with round logs. We looked upon this house as the best one at that time between Prairie du Chien and St. Peter or Fort Snelling. While constructing the house a little incident happened which I will relate. One day as we came out from dinner and went to the new house, we saw a large snake lying on the door sill in the sun, sunning itself. On secing ns approaching.
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it crawled into the house and out of sight. We went back to the cabin and remained awhile to see if the snake would return; after awhile it returned, and one of the men, with gun in hand, went out, and the snake again crawled into the house; the man followed and fired at the snake; it filled the room so full of smoke that we could not see around for two or three minutes; when the smoke cleared off no snake could be seen, but we saw the track of the snake in the sand down in the eellar. The floor was only partly laid below, but the upper floor was laid, and a short ladder, almost perpendienlar, was our only means of getting up into the upper part of the house. I had some boards laid fromn a cross tie or timber in the center of the building to the end log, on which I had my bed, and slept there. I recolleet having some hesitancy in retiring that night, as I always dream of snakes after killing or having an encounter with one. Well, I went to bed and took the chances. When I got to sleep I began to dream there was a snake in the bed. I woke up, got out of bed and felt and looked around for the snake, but found none, and so went back to bed. This was repeated during the night two or three times. In the morning I got up and went ont to the eabin
five and six feet long, and supposed to be a house-snake. I never could understand how the snake was able to come up from the eel- lar and into the attic, and get around behind my bed, there being no stairway, only a very steep ladder. I have not the least doubt but that the snake was there when I was dream- ing of it.
During the summer an Indian challenged me to run a foot-raee. It happened that there was no one around there but the Indian and inyself. Of course he had no money, and we put up a lot of silver ear-bobs, about 85 worth. We put them on a stake, about 100 yards off, and the first one there was to take them. It so happened that I won the raee, though I think he would have beaten mne if we had run a few yards farther, as he was gaining on me when the race ended. I afterward learned that he was the fastest runner and the best hunter in the Winnebago nation. After that a number of other Indians challenged me to run. They thought I must be a good runner because I had beaten this man, but I had made my reputation as a fast runner and I refused to hazard it again.
In the summer of that year. 1842, I went down to Prairie du Chien and hired Ira Brunson, who was a surveyor, to come up to get breakfast, and after breakfast one of and survey out a town site at Prairie La the men said he would like to have a smoke. Crosse. IIis survey embraced the land that
I told him to go up in the new house and in is now in the original plat of La Crosse; a plat was made of it, but not recorded, as the land had not been surveyed by the Govern- ment, and we had no title to the same. The buildings which were erected from that year to 1850 or 1851 were located on lots and bloeks as designated by that plat. back of my bed, in the corner, he would find an Indian tomahawk and some stone pipes. He went up and was reaching over, and had just taken hold of a tomahawk pipe when he discovered a snake on the top log behind the bed. It drew baek its head and hissed at him; he jumped back, threw the pipe, hit- In 1842 the steamboat "Rock River," commanded by Count Herasta, was the first steamboat that made regular trips from Ga- lena to Fort Snelling, once in two weeks. ting the snake, cutting it partly in two, and then "hollered" to me to hand him up a gun, which I did; he shot the snake and threw it out of the window. The snake was between ' Before that time there were two or three
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boats, each of which made a trip, loaded with deed to Jacob Spaulding, of Black River supplies for Fort Snelling, the American Fur Company at St. Peter, as it was then called, and now Mendota, and for the St. Croix Falls Lumber Company.
In August of that year I made a trip on the steamboat "Rock River" to where St. Paul now is, and to Fort Snelling; and there were then only about half a dozen houses there. The main settlement was at Pig's Eye, about one mile below St. Paul, containing twenty or thirty log houses, and occupied mostly by French and half-breeds. A few days before making this trip, the Sioux and Chippewa Indians had a severe battle on the St. Croix river, and many were killed on both sides, and the Sioux Indians at Crow's village and at Kapozie were painted in black, mourning for their lost friends in battle, and dancing around the scalps taken from their enemies. The sight was some- thing new to me, and their whooping and dancing was hideous in the extreme. At that time there were only a few landings be- tween La Crosse and Fort Snelling -Reed's Landing, twenty miles above; Home's Land- ing; Pratt's, where Wabashaw now is, at the Indian village; Mission and Indian farm, now Red Wing, month of the St. Croix river; Pig's Eye, St. Paul landing and Fort Snelling.
Colonel Mills came up from Dubuque to La Crosse, and liked the location very much, and I told him that I would give him a con tract to deed him a lot, when the title was obtained from the Government, if he would build a house. Ile accepted the offer, and selected a lot on the corner of Pearl and Front streets, where now stands the International Ilotel. The house was built of hewn pine logs, one and one-half stories high, shingled roof. Colonel Mills lived in it about a year and then sold the house and contract for the
Falls, and returned to Dubaque. Mr. Kounts and Scott came up, I think, from Potosi, Wisconsin, and made a claim adjoining ours to the south, embracing what is now known as Dunn, Dowsman & Cameron's addition. They went away and left the claim.
William Bunnell came up that year and located at Mountain de Trempealeau, about twenty-eight miles up the Mississippi river. Peter Cameron came in the fall. and seeing the claim made by Kounts and Scott appar- ently abandoned, took possession and built a log house and stable, and commenced trading with the Indians.
I recollect an incident that happened in the winter of 1842-43. Wats HIatakaw or Blind Decorah, the head chief of the Winne- bago nation, had a son who was a great hunter. Ile was out hunting deer on Root river, and had wounded one and was follow- ing him, and had thrown his blanket away so as not to be encumbered. The deer crossed Root river, and the Indian after him. He broke through the ice, but succeeded in get- ting out, and being without a blanket was frozen to death! Hle was found where he hal apparently walked around a tree for the pur- pose of getting warmed up and keeping from freezing, but was compelled to succumb to the severe cold. He was found partially in a sitting position, frozen stiff. The remains were carried to my house, and at the request of the old chief I had a coffin made to bury him in, which was nearly square, as he had frozen in a sitting position. A large number of Indians came to attend the Indian burial services, as the Indian had many friends. Some of his friends claimed that his blanket had been stolen, or taken from him, and that was the cause of his freezing to death. They. in consequence of this difference of opinion, got up quite a fight among themselves, an
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in the course of the row the coffin was broken open and the corpse was thrown out on the floor. I finally succeeded in getting them quieted down, and laid the corpse back into the box or coffin, and nailed it up again. At the request of the chief, I had a grave dug between State and Main on Front street, on quite a high place near the river, and buried him in it, put up a picket fence around the grave and erected a cross and painted it white. When the chief and his family would come there, they would put tin pans filled with food, tea and coffee on the head of the grave for him to feed on, on his way to the happy hunting grounds. The grave remained there until the street was graded in 1851 or 1852.
I have heard it claimed that La Crosse de- rived its name from that cross, which was put up at this Indian grave. At one time we had quite a lengthy controversy as to the origin of the name, in which I maintained the theory that it was given to the place be- eause the Indians used to assemble there to play la crosse, a game of ball, and after much argument and discussion it was decided that my version was correct.
In the winter of 1542 and 1843 Peter Cameron and myself made a trip jointly with goods np the river on the ice to Fort Snelling with three or four teams. We had to make a portage near the month of the Zunbro river, below Lake Pepin, to above what is now known as Reed's Landing. The portage alongside of the foot of Lake Pepin was a difficult and dangerous one along the hillside, there being some danger of sliding down into the lake, and we let our teams down with the aid of a rope tied to the sleds and around a tree; crossed Lake Pepin, and went on to where Red Wing now is, and camped with a missionary. The next day we went up to the mouth of St. Croix river, now Prescott, and from there to Pig's Eye, St. Paul and Fort
Snelling. At Red Wing, Count Herasta, Captain of the steamboat Rock River. over- took us and went up in company with us. Ilis boat was frozen the fall before just below St. Paul, and he was on his way up to look after his boat when the river opened, and to take lier down the river. We sold out our stock of goods and had quite a lot of furs in a few days, and shortly after started on our return trip. The second night we got to Mr. Weld's place, near the head of Lake Pepin; we sold him one of our horses, and took our pay in furs, which made the loads pretty heavy for the other horses, having to hanl an extra sleigh. The distance from Mr. Weld's place to the foot of Lake Pepin, where Wabashaw now is, is fifteen or eighteen miles, and we had the hardest trip I ever experi- enced for so short a distance. The snow was deep on the ice, and a crust over the snow which would bear a man for a few steps and then he would go down through the snow two or three feet. The distance being short, we did not take any food for ourselves or horses, expecting to get through in good season. We soon became tired, and our horses also; we tried to cut a hole through the ice for water, also to cut steps down in the ice with a long-handled ax, and had to give it up. We tried it at several places during the day, with the same result. Some time after dark, our horses as well as our- selves being nearly exhausted, we stopped, and Mr. Cameron suggested that we eamp on the ice, and one of us go on to Mr. Cratt's, who was the Government blacksmith for the Indians, and get something to eat, and return with food for our horses. I said to him, we had better not separate: if we camped, to camp together. After being rested awhile and talking the matter over, we concluded to go on. About twelve o'clock at night we succeeded in getting through to Cratt's place,
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