USA > Wisconsin > Fond du Lac County > Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, past and present, Volume I > Part 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48
From the 5th to the 9th he made ten and a half leagues and passed the rivers Cachee and Aux Ailes. The same day he perceived canoes filled with savages, descending the river.
35
HISTORY OF FOND DU LAC COUNTY
Monsieur Le Sueur made, the same day, three leagues, passed a stream on the west and afterward another river on the east, which is navigable at all times, and which the Indians call Red river.
1271400
From the 10th to the 14th M. Le Sueur made seventeen and a half leagues, passing the rivers Raisin and Paquilenettes. The same day he left on the east side of the Mississippi a beautiful and large river, which descends from the very far north, and called Bon Lecours (Chippeway), on account of the great quantity of buffalo, elk, bears and deer which are found there. Three leagues up this river there was "a mine of lead," and seven leagues above on the same side, they found another long river, in the vicinity of which there "was a copper mine," from which he had taken a lump of sixty pounds in a former voyage. "In order to make these mines of any account, peace must be obtained between the Sioux and the Outagamies (Foxes), because the latter, who dwell on the east side of the Mississippi, pass this road continually when going to war against the Sioux."
"In this region, at one and a half leagues on the northwest side, commenced a lake, which is six leagues long and more than one broad, called Lake Pepin."
Le Sueur made on this day seven and a half leagues,, and passed another river called Hiambouxecate Outaba, or the River of Flat Rock.
On the 15th he crossed a small river and saw in the neighborhood several canoes filled with Indians, descending the Mississippi. He supposed they were Sioux, but he could not distinguish whether the canoes were large or small.
The party was composed of forty-seven men of different nations who dwell far to the east, about the forty-fourth degree of latitude. Le Sueur, discovering who the chiefs were, said the king whom they had spoken of in Canada, had sent him to take possession of the north of the river, and that he wished the nations who dwell on it, as well as those under his protection, to dwell in peace.
He made this day three and three-fourths leagues, and on the 16th of Sep- tember he "left a large river on the east side, named St. Croix, because a French- man of that name was shipwrecked at its mouth. It comes from the north-north- west."
After Le Sueur no attempt was made to visit the Upper Mississippi for over a quarter of a century, for the reason that the governor of Canada had resolved to abandon the country west of Mackinaw, so far as trade was concerned. The first attempt at renewal of the fur trade with the Sioux was in 1727, by the Sieur de Laperriere, who erected on the north side of Lake Pepin a post called Fort Beauharnais.
Rev. Father Louis Ignatius Guignas, missionary of the Society of Jesus, left Montreal on the 16th of June, 1727, to found a mission among the Sioux on the Mississippi. He reached Green Bay on the 8th of August. The record of his journey to and his voyage up the Mississippi as given below, is very brief. It is an extract from a letter to the Marquis de Beauharnais, for whom the fort on the Mississippi, where the mission was located, was named. After describing the journey by lakes and streams, the missionary says :
"Forty-eight leagues from the mouth of the Ouisconsin, according to my calcu- lation, ascending the Mississippi, is Lake Pepin, which is nothing else but the river itself, destitute of islands at that point, where it may be half a league wide. The river, in what I traversed of it, is shallow and has shoals in several places, because its bed is a moving sand, like that of the Ouisconsin. On the 7th of
36
HISTORY OF FOND DU LAC COUNTY
September, 1727, at noon, we reached this lake, which had been chosen as the bourne of our voyage. We planted ourselves on the shore, about the middle of the north side, on a low point where the soil is excellent. The wood is very dense there (as Perrot also reported), but it is already thinned in consequence of the rigor and length of the winter, which has been severe for the climate, for we are here on the parallel of 43°, 41'. It is true that the difference of the winter is great compared to that at Quebec and Montreal, for all that some poor judges say.
"From the day after our landing, we put our axes to the wood; on the fourth day following, the fort was entirely finished. It is a square plat of one hundred feet, surrounded by pickets twelve feet long, with two good bastions. For so small a space, there are large buildings, quite distant and not huddled together, each thirty, thirty-eight and twenty-five feet long by sixteen feet wide. All would go well there if the spot were not inundated, but this year (1728), on the fifteenth of the month of April, we were obliged to camp out and the water ascended to the height of two feet eight inches in the houses, and it was idle to say that it was the quantity of snow, that fell this year. The snow in the vicinity had melted long before and there was absolutely only a foot and a half from the 8th of Feb- ruary to the 15th of March; all the rest of the winter you could not use snow shoes. I have great reason to think that this spot is more or less inundated every year ; I have always thought so; but they were not obliged to believe me, as old people, who said they had lived there fifteen or twenty years, declared that it was never overflowed. We could not enter our much devastated houses till the 13th of the same month of April, and the disorder is scarcely repaired even now. Be- fore the end of October, all the houses were finished and furnished, and each one found himself tranquilly lodged at home. They then thought only of going out to explore the neighboring hills and rivers, to see those herds of all kinds of deer, of which they tell such stories in Canada. They must have retired or diminished greatly since the time that the old voyageurs left the country ; they are no longer in such numbers, and are killed with difficulty.
"After beating the field for some time, all reassembled at the fort, and thought only of enjoying the fruits of their labors. On the 4th of the month of Novem- ber we did not forget that it was the General's birthday. Mass was said for him in the morning and they were well disposed to celebrate the day in the evening, but the tardiness of the pyrotechnists and the inconstancy of the weather. caused them to postpone the celebration to the 14th of the same month, when they let off some very fine rockets and made the air ring with a hundred shouts of Vive le Roi, and Vive Charles de Beauharnais. It was on this occasion that wine of the Sioux was broached ; it was par excellence, although there are no vines here finer than in Canada. What contributed much to the amusement was the terror of some cabins of Indians, who were, at the time, around the fort. When these poor people saw the fireworks in the air, and the stars fall from heaven, the women and children began to take fright, and the most courageous of the men to cry mercy and implore us very earnestly to stop the surprising play of the wonderful medicine.
*Undoubtedly an error in translation or printing. Should read 44°, 41'.
37
HISTORY OF FOND DU LAC COUNTY
"As soon as we arrived among them, they assembled in a few days around the French fort to the number of ninety-five cabins, which might make in all, one hundred and fifty men, for there are at most two men in their portable cabins of dressed skins, and in many there is only one. This is all that we have seen, ex- cept a band of about sixty men, who came on the 26th of February, who were of those nations called Sioux of the prairies.
"At the end of November the Indians set out for their winter quarters ; they do not, indeed, go far, and we saw some of them all through the winter ; but from the 2d of the month of April last, when some cabins repassed here to go in search of them, we sought them in vain, during a week, for more than sixty leagues up the Mississippi. We arrived yesterday without any tidings of them. Although I said above that the Sioux were alarmed at the rockets, which they took for new phenomena, it must not be supposed from that they are less intelligent than other Indians we know. They seem to be more so, at least they are much gayer and open, apparently, and far more dexterous thieves, great dancers and great medi- cine men. The men are almost all large and well made, but the women are very ugly and disgusting, which, however, does not check debauchery among them, and is, perhaps, an effect of it."
The subsequent events of this region are of great interest, but we are espe- cially in the dark as to the movements of the party at Fort Beauharnais. In spite of Guignas' opinion of the Foxes, they continued to be hostile, and in 1728, the year of this letter, De Ligneris marched against them. The traders had pre- viously withdrawn, to a great extent, from Fort Beauharnais, and Father Guig- nas, in attempting to reach the Illinois country, fell into the hands of the Mascou- tins and Kickapoos, who sided with the Foxes, and remained a prisoner for five months, narrowly escaping a death by torture at the stake. His captors then took him to the Illinois country, and left him there on parole till November, 1729, when they led him back to their town. Nothing has yet appeared to show whether he then returned to the fort, or whether he made his way to some other French post. In 1736 he again appears on Lake Pepin with M. de St. Pierre, perhaps the same to whom Washington, at a later date, presented Dinwiddie's letter. Nothing is known of his later history.
French traders reached this point at intervals for a number of years there- after-probably until near the commencement of the war between France and Great Britain in 1755, after which the Mississippi seems to have been virtually abandoned by the French. Jonathan Carver was the first to ascend the Missis- sippi after the country had passed under the control of the English. He visited this region with a view of ascertaining favorable situations for new settlements. He left Mackinaw in 1766, pursuing his journey by way of Green Bay and the Fox and Wisconsin rivers to the mouth of the last named, where near by he found the Indian village called by the French "La Prairies les Chiens," signify- ing "Dog Plains," now written Prairie du Chien.
"On the Ist of November I arrived at Lake Pepin, which is rather an ex- tended part of the river Mississippi, that the French have thus denominated, about two hundred miles from the Ouisconsin. The Mississippi below this lake flows with a gentle current, but the breadth of it is very uncertain, in some places it being upwards of a mile, in others not more than a quarter. This river has a range of mountains on each side throughout the whole of the way, which in par- ticular parts approach near to it, in others, lie at greater distance.
38
HISTORY OF FOND DU LAC COUNTY
"About sixty miles below this lake is a mountain remarkably situated, for it stands by itself exactly in the middle of the river and looks as if it had slidden from the adjacent shore into the stream. It cannot be termed an island, as it rises immediately from the brink of the water to a considerable height. Both the Indians and the French call it the Mountain in the River. (Trempealeau.)
"One day I walked some miles below Lake Pepin, to take a view of the adja- cent country. I had not proceeded far before I came to a fine, level, open plain, on which 1 perceived at a little distance, a partial elevation that had the appear- ance of an intrenchment. On a nearer inspection I had greater reason to sup- pose that it had really been intended for this many centuries ago. Notwithstand- ing it was now covered with grass, I could plainly discern that it had once been a breastwork of about four feet in height, extending the best part of a mile and sufficiently capacious to cover five thousand men. Its form was somewhat circu- lar and its flanks reached to the river. Though much defaced by time, every angle was distinguishable and appeared as regular and fashioned with as much military skill as if planned by Vauban himself. The ditch was not visible, but I thought on examining more curiously, that I could perceive there certainly had been one. From its situation also, I am convinced that it must have been designed for this purpose. It fronted the country and the rear was covered by the river; nor was there any rising ground for a considerable way that commanded it; a few straggling oaks were alone to be seen near it. In many places small tracks were worn across it by the feet of the elks and deer, and from the depth of the bed of earth by which it was covered, I was able to draw certain conclusions of its great antiquity. I examined all the angles and every part with great attention, and have often blamed myself since for not encamping on the spot and drawing an exact plan of it. To show that this description is not the offspring of a heated imagination, or the chimerical tale of a mistaken traveler, I find on inquiry since my return that M. St. Pierre and several traders have, at different times, taken notice of similar appearances, on which they have formed the same conjectures, but without examining them so minutely as I did."
No other explorer has given an account of the Mississippi river above the Wisconsin in the years which follow Carver's visit, down to the time of the tak- ing possession of the country by the United States, but the general government soon determined to be placed in possession of facts concerning the Upper Missis- sippi compatible with exercising jurisdiction over it.
In the year 1805, Major Z. M. Pike, of the Sixth Infantry, U. S. A., was dele- gated by his official superiors to "trace the Mississippi to its source." He set out from St. Louis in August of that year, with a party consisting of three officers and seventeen men. He was accompanied by Lieutenant James Wilkinson and Dr. John H. Robinson. The record left by this officer is so circumstantial and so easy of access withal, that the account of the exploration of the Mississippi in this volume may properly end here with a reference to that journal. Since the beginning of the present century, the student of history will find few obstacles in the prosecution of his work.
The political epochs of Wisconsin are those periods of distinct jurisdiction over this region from the passage of the ordinance of 1787 to the time of the erec- tion of a state, and are as follows :
39
HISTORY OF FOND DU LAC COUNTY
The northwest territory proper (1787-1800), had jurisdiction over all the lands referred to in the ordinance of 1787. In this tract :Wisconsin was included. Ohio was set out as a state in 1802.
Indiana territory was formed July 4, 1800, with Vincennes as its capital, and Wisconsin was under that political division.
Michigan territory was formed June 30, 1805. It was bounded on the south by a line drawn east from the south bend of Lake Michigan, on the west by the center of Lake Michigan. It did not include Wisconsin. The upper peninsula was annexed in 1836. The state of Michigan was formed January 26, 1837, with its present boundaries.
Illinois territory was formed March 2, 1810. It included all of the Indiana territory west of the Wabash river and Vincennes and a line running due north to the territorial line. All of Wisconsin was included therein, except what lay east of the line drawn north from Vincennes.
Indiana was admitted as a state April 19, 1816, including all of the territory of Indiana territory, except a narrow strip east of the line of Vincennes, and west of Michigan territory, her western boundary.
Illinois was admitted as a state April II, 1818. All of Wisconsin was added to Michigan territory, Illinois extending northward only to 42°,,30'.
The counties of Michilimackinac, in the present state of Michigan, and Brown and Crawford-being all of now Wisconsin-were formed in October, 1818. Iowa-as much as was then ceded to the United States-was attached, for judi- cial and political purposes, June 30, 1834.
Wisconsin territory was formed April 20, 1836. The state of Wisconsin was created May 29, 1848.
Wisconsin territory originally embraced the area of Wisconsin, Iowa, Minne- sota, and a part of Dakota. The counties were Brown, Milwaukee, Iowa, Craw- ford, Dubuque and Des Moines, with a portion of Chippewa and Michilimackinac. The jurisdiction of Michigan territory over the new territory ceased on July 4, 1836.
April 30, 1836, President Jackson commissioned Henry Dodge governor of Wisconsin. The remaining officers were: John S. Horner, secretary; Charles Dunn, chief justice; David Irvin and William C. Frazer, associate judges; W. W. Chapman, attorney ; Francis Gehon, marshal.
The census taken in 1836 gave Des Moines county 6,257 ; Iowa county, 5,234; Dubuque county, 4,274; Milwaukee county, 2,893; Brown county, 2,706; Craw- ford county, 850; making a total in Wisconsin proper, 11,683, and in the entire region, 22,214. Under this appointment Brown and Milwaukee counties each received two councilmen and six representatives, while Crawford received two representatives but no councilmen. The members chosen were: to the council, Henry S. Baird and John Arndt, from Brown; Gilbert Knapp and Alanson Sweet, from Milwaukee; E. Brigham, J. B. Terry and J. R. Vineyard, from Iowa; to the house, Ebenezer Childs, A. G. Ellis and A. J. Irwin, from Brown; W. B. Sheldon, M. W. Cornwall and Charles Durkee, from Milwaukee; James H. Lockwood and James B. Dallam, from Crawford; William Boyles, G. F. Smith, D. M. Parkinson, T. McKnight, T. Shanley and J. P. Cox, from Iowa county. Belmont, in the present La Fayette county, was chosen as the seat of
40
HISTORY OF FOND DU LAC COUNTY
government. October 26, 1836, was the time of the first session. Henry S. Baird was elected president of the council.
The judicial districts were: First, Crawford and lowa, Chief Justice Dunn; second, west of the Mississippi river, Judge Irvin; third, Brown and Milwaukee, Judge Frazer.
Madison was chosen as the permanent capital, the seat being temporarily re- moved to Burlington, lowa. At the first session the counties of Walworth, Ra- cine, Jefferson, Dane, Portage, Dodge, Washington, Sheboygan, Fond du Lac, Calumet, Manitowoc, Marquette, Rock, Green and Grant were defined and estab- lished.
George W. Jones, of Sinsinawa Mound, was elected delegate to congress.
The first session of the supreme court was held at Belmont, December 8, 1836. Charles Dunn, chief justice; David Irvin, associate; John Catlin, clerk ; Henry S. Baird, attorney general.
The second session of the first legislature was held, at Burlington, now the county seat of Des Moines county, Iowa. Among the resolutions passed was one asking congress to appropriate twenty thousand dollars and two townships of land for a university of Wisconsin. The land, forty-six thousand and eighty acres, was subsequently granted, but the money was not. The state buildings were put under contract in April, 1838. The only change thus far in territorial officers was that of William B. Slaughter, for J. S. Horner, secretary, which was made February 16, 1837. June 19, 1838, Edward James was commissioned mar- shal, and July 5, Moses M. Strong was appointed United States attorney.
July 3, 1838, the region west of the Mississippi was set off as a separate ter- ritory and named Iowa. The population of the eastern or Wisconsin counties at that time was 18,149.
The first session of the supreme court at Madison after the reorganization of the territory was held on the third Monday of July, 1838. In September of that year, James Duane Doty was elected delegate to congress from Wisconsin. On the 8th of November Andrew G. Miller was appointed associate judge of the supreme court, to succeed Judge Frazer, who died at Milwaukee, October 18th.
On the 26th of November, 1838, the legislature met for the first time in Madi- son, being the first session under the reorganized condition of affairs, but the sec- ond legislature in reality.
March 8, 1839, Henry Dodge was recommissioned governor by the president of the United States. James Duane Doty was reelected delegate to congress, taking his seat December 8, 1840. Francis J. Dunn succeeded Mr. Slaughter as secretary of the territory, January 25, 1841, but was himself succeeded, April 23d following, by A. P. Field. On the 15th of March, Daniel Hugunin was com- missioned marshal, and April 27th, T. W. Sutherland was appointed attorney. September 13th, Governor Dodge was removed by President Tyler and James Duane Doty was appointed in his place. Henry Dodge was thereupon elected to congress to fill that vacancy, taking his seat December 7, 1841. October 30, 1843, George Floyd was appointed secretary of the territory. On the 21st of June, 1844, N. P. Tallmadge received the appointment of governor, and August 31, Charles M. Prevost that of marshal. April 8, 1845, President Polk reinstated Henry Dodge in the gubernatorial office. The official changes this year were: March 14, John B. Rockwell as marshal; July 14, W. P. Lynde, as attorney ;
41
HISTORY OF FOND DU LAC COUNTY
Morgan L. Martin as delegate to congress to succeed Henry Dodge. January 22, 1846, A. Hyatt Smith became attorney and John Catlin was named as secretary February 24th. John H. Tweedy was elected delegate, September 6, 1847.
September 27, 1847, Governor Dodge issued a proclamation for a special session of the legislature to commence on the 18th of the ensuing month, to take action concerning the admission of Wisconsin to the Union as a state. The con- stitutional convention met at Madison, December 15, 1847. The constitution then provided was ratified by the people on the second Monday of March, 1848. On the 29th of May, 1848, Wisconsin became a state.
THE PUBLIC DOMAIN
The arbitrary assumption of authority over the region now known as the state of Wisconsin, and the several peaceful treaties by which governmental title was gained, as well as the changes in national domination by purchase or warfare, are briefly given in the following paragraphs:
The year 1634 witnessed the arrival of the first European at a point west of Lake Michigan. Jean Nicolet came hither to confirm a state of peace between the French and the Winnebago Indians. This overture was made at Green Bay. In furtherance of the plan the Jesuits attempted to found a mission at La Pointe, in the present county of Ashland, on Lake Superior, in 1660. The French gov- ernment realized the importance of possessing formal rights over the new north- west, and so, in 1670, Daumont de St. Lusson, with Nicholas Perrot as inter- preter, started from Quebec for the purpose of inviting all tribes within a circuit of a hundred leagues of Sault Ste. Marie to meet him in council at that place the following spring. This invitation included the Indians of Wisconsin. In accord- ance with this request, fourteen tribes, including the Winnebagoes and Menomo- nees, assembled at the Sault Ste. Marie, in May, 1671. There St. Lusson planted a cedar post on the top of the hill and loudly proclaimed the entire northwest under the protecting aegis of his royal master, Louis XIV. This act not appear- ing sufficiently definite, on the 8th of May, 1689, Perrot, then commanding at the post of Nadousioux, near Lake Pepin, west of the Mississippi, commissioned by the Marquis de Denouville to conduct the interests of commerce west of Green Bay, took possession of the counties west of Lake Michigan, as far as the St. Peter river, in the name of France. For ninety years the ownership and domin- ion over these lands remained unquestioned. The white men who knew by per- sonal experience of this country were few in numbers and devoted to fur trad- ing or commerce with the Indians. No attention was paid to agriculture, nor did the government offer a suggestion to induce settlement by men of humble birth. A few grants of land were made to French governors, or commanders. Within the limits of this state an extensive grant was made, including the fort at Green Bay, with exclusive right to trade, and other valuable privileges, from Marquis de Vaudreuil, to whom the king of France confirmed it in January, 1760, at a time when Quebec had been taken by the British, and only Montreal was wanting to complete the conquest of Canada. The grant was not confirmed by the British government.
The victory of English arms in Canada in 1760, terminated French rule in the valley. of the St. Lawrence, and the consequent treaty of Paris, concluded
12
HISTORY OF FOND DU LAC COUNTY
February 10, 1763, transferred the mastership of the vast northwest to the gov- ernment of Great Britain. The first acts of the new possessors were to protect the eminent domain from those ambitious men who sought to acquire wide es- tates through manipulation of Indian titles. A royal proclamation was made in 1763. interdicting direct transfer of lands by Indians. This wise policy has since been substantially adhered to by the government of the United States.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.