History, Winnebago County, Wisconsin: Its Cities, Towns, Resources, People, Part 6

Author: Publius Virgilius Lawson
Publication date: 1948
Publisher: Chicago : C.F. Cooper
Number of Pages: 773

USA > Wisconsin > Winnebago County > History, Winnebago County, Wisconsin: Its Cities, Towns, Resources, People > 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).

A brother of One-Eyed Decorah was Wa Kon Han Kaw, or Wa kon Decorah, or Snake Skin, commonly called Washington Decorah, the orator of the Winnebago. The name is also ren- nered Wau kon cauhaga, or Waukon. His likeness was painted by J. O. Lewis in 1825. When Mr. Burnett steamed up the Mis- sippi river on the "Enterprise" to secure the Winnebago canoes from Black Hawk, July 25, 1832, at sixty miles up the river from Prairie du Chien, he found Washington Decorah with the princi- pal part of the band from the ,Wisconsin and Kickapoo rivers. The Waukon had a village on the headwaters of De Sota creek, below La Crosse. He died at the Black Earth agency about 1864.

Among those who bear the name and boast descent from this famous line of Winnebago chieftains there is one who is destined

THE WINNEBAGO CHIEFS.

to become famous in the white man's finest art. She is Angel De Cora (this is the official spelling), of the reservation in Ne- braska, but practicing her art in New York city. She studied art in the art department of Smith college at Northampton, Mass., and under the famous artist Howard Pyle, who has inter- ested himself in her success. She has been since 1906 an art in- structor in Carlisle Indian School.

Four Legs, or Neokau tah, had his village at the outlet of Lake Winnebago, on Doty island, now Menasha and Neenah. This has been the ancient home of the Winnebago since first known to the whites in 1632. He was known as Neokautah by the Menominee ; but his Winnebago name was Hootschope, pronounced Hooshoo. Hon. Morgan L. Martin made a journey up the Fox river with Jude Doty from Green Bay to Prairie du Chien to the trial of Red Bird in 1828, and describes this village: "On Doty island, very near the mouth, on West channel, was the village of Hoot- schope, or Four Legs, the well-known Winnebago chieftain. There were from 150 to 200 lodges covered with bark or mats." Augustin Grignon also mentions this village "on Doty island, at the mouth of Winnebago lake." On August 16, 1830, Mr. Mc- Call, one of the commissioners to arrange the differences between the New York Indian and the Winnebago, met in council Four Legs and ten other chiefs at Four Legs' lodge on Doty island, and mentions "that the head chief was seated on his mat, cross- legged, in all the majesty of an Asiatic prince," describing Four Legs "as about forty years of age, of middle stature, a most in- teresting man in appearance and deportment, speaks his own tongue fluently. In short, he is a great man." Mrs. Kinzie men- tions Four Legs as the "great chief of the Winnebago, whose vil- lage was on Doty island," in 1830, and says, "It was at the en- trance to Lake Winnebago, a picturesque cluster of huts spread around on a pretty green glade and shaded by fine lofty trees," and she furnishes an illustration of the village. She says in an- other place, "It was a cluster of neat bark wigwams." Four Legs died in 1830, but his village was still occupied in 1832, re- ported by Cutting Marsh as "occupied by a small band of the Winnebago tribe." This was the last mention of this village. Its name is preserved in the word Menasha, the city which with the city of Neenah occupy its site. Menasha was the name of this most ancient Indian village on the American continent. The name was by both Curtis Reed and Governor J. D. Doty, the founders of the modern town, said to mean the name of the vil-

HISTORY OF WINNEBAGO COUNTY.

lage on the island, and in Dakatah would be Mini haha, or Laugh- ing Water, a possible reference to the double rapids which ran around their village. At the council held in Green Bay, August 24, 1830, Four Legs was head chief. Duck was head orator. There was also present Shounk Schunk siap, or Black Wolf; Wheauk Kaw, or Big Duck, and Monk Kaw Kaw. For enter- tainment to amuse their visitors Four Legs was active. At night a band of Winnebago appeared "painted all colors," "naked ex- cept breach clout," before the house where McCall boarded; en- couraged by drink, they held a war dance until 10 o'clock "with disfigured and distorted countenances." "The head chief Four Legs displayed great activity." The report of the commission- ers of the Council of 1830 at Green Bay recites that Four Legs and Black Wolf were the only speakers, and that they had signed the treaty of 1822 with the New York Indians. Schoolcraft men- tions that Four Legs levied tribute from travelers immediately after the war of 1812. He assumed to be the keeper of the Fox River valley. Colonel T. L. Kinney alludes to this custom of exacting tribute, and relates that General Leavenworth, going up stream with his command in 1816, was accosted by Four Legs and notified that the lake was locked. The General rose with his gun resting on his arm, and asked the interpreter to inform the chief that he had the key to unlock it. Four Legs replied, "Let him pass." This incident marks the last challenge of the Win- nebago, and it is said that it took place beneath the Treaty Elm that for many years stood a conspicuous landmark in the county. The "Treaty Elm," or "Council Tree," beneath whose wide- spreading branches the chiefs of the neighboring tribes are said to have been wont to gather in council, was located on Riverside park point at the mouth of the Neenah channel of the Fox river in the city of Neenah. It was of immense size and girt, towering above all the surrounding forest, and could be seen from points eight miles distant. Such was its prominence as a landmark that it was for many years used as a guide by sailors and steamer pilots on the lake. It was destroyed by a charge of dynamite June 12, 1887, by the employees of the Government in cutting away the point to widen the channel to increase the flow of water in flood times.

As Four Legs was supposed to be forty years of age in 1830, the year he died, and he must have been born about 1790, he could have taken part in the war of 1812, where he is frequently found on the side of the British. Mrs. Kinzie mentions the death of

THE WINNEBAGO CHIEFS.

Four Legs by drinking too much sutler whisky when waiting at Fort Winnebago with the assembled Winnebago for the arrival of the silver from the Government for payment of their annuities. "His body was wrapped in a blanket and placed in a rude coffin along with his guns, tomahawk, pipes and a quantity of tobacco." He was buried on the "most elevated point of the hill opposite the fort" in presence of "an immense procession of his people." A stake was placed at head of his grave "on which was painted in vermilion a series of hieroglyphics descriptive of deeds and events of his life," and a small white flag also waved over the grave. His wife who survived him was a Fox woman, but spoke the Chippewa language, which brought her services into use as an interpreter, as that was the court or universal language among all the tribes. He is said to have been a big chief and "a great and mighty warrior." In 1887 there were two descendants living -one was Good Cloud, a woman residing at Tomah. She had a son whose name was Good Year. One descendant was Will Dandy, a boy who was at school in Wittenberg mission. He had two cousins also living at Wittenberg.

Sau-sa-mau-nee was a younger brother of Four Legs and fought with him under the British flag in the war of 1812.

Wild Cat or Pe-Sheu had his village on Gerlic island, now Island Park, a small island on the west margin of Lake Winne- bago, seven miles south of Menasha and the same distance north of Oshkosh. The village was also located across the solent on the mainland. The corn hills are still visible both on the island and mainland. Just when this village was established here cannot be ascertained, yet it is highly probable that Pe-Sheu himself was its founder and that he and his tribesmen came from the principal Winnebago village on Doty's island. One of the earliest descrip- tions of this village is that of Mrs. (Governor) James D. Doty, who records in her journal under the date of August, 1823, of a canoe journey which she made with her husband, who was on the way up river to hold court at Prairie du Chien. "We coasted along the west shore of Lake Winnebago to Garlic island, on the opposite point to which is a Winnebago village of fine permanent lodges and fine cornfields." The late Judge Morgan L. Martin made the same journey in birch-bark canoes with Judge Doty and others in 1828 on their way to try Red Bird, the Winnebago, for murder. "Garlic Island was the next stopping place. There was a Winnebago village there of about the same size as that over which Four Legs (Doty Island) presided (150 to 200 lodges cov-

64 HISTORY OF WINNEBAGO COUNTY.

ered with bark and mats). The lodges, however, were longer and neater. We purchased supplies of vegetables of the island vil- lagers." From these descriptions it would appear that the village occupied both the island and mainland, that the wigwams were well constructed, the fields of Indian maize of considerable extent, and the population at that time one of 1,000 or more persons. Chief Wild Cat was a large and bulky savage with a hasty and ferocious temper which often got him into difficulties. He was probably born at Doty Island at some time just previous to the Revolution. The earliest knowledge we have of this chieftain is from a remark he once made when he and Sarcel, a Winnebago chief, had a dispute in regard to their relative bravery. On this occasion Wild Cat is said to have exclaimed, "Don't you .remem- ber the time we aided the Shawanoes (English) in attacking the fort that you ran off so fast that you lost your breech clout?" This remark had reference to the Indian war of 1793, when the British had incited the Western Indians to frequent depredations against the straggling white settlers in Ohio and Michigan. There is a possibility also that he may have served with Charles de Langlade under the British flag in the war of the Revolution. Certain it is that in 1797 he was considered of sufficient import- ance to receive from the royal officers the medal of their King. This bronze medal, given as a memento of distinguished favor by King George III to his savage ally in his wildwood home on the shore of Lake Winnebago, now reposes in the museum of Lawrence University at Appleton. It was deposited there about the year 1875 by Mr. D. C. Church, of Vinland, who obtained it from Louis B. Porlier, of Butte des Morts, a trader and son of Judge Porlier.1

Mrs. Kinzie says the Wild Cat was "our Indian Falstaff in all save cowardice and falsehood." Being made drunk, he was unable to get to Fort Armstrong at Rock Island in time to object to the treaty of 1831, and when he found it granted the lands on which stood his village he wept. It is said that he was found dead against an oak tree in the center of the woods where Oshkosh now stands. He was at the payments in Portage in 1830- 1831, and is said to have died soon after the Black Hawk war, which would make the date of his death about 1833. He is re- ported to have gone under the partisan British leader of the Wis- consin savages, Col. Robert Dickson. early in 1812, to the capture of Mackinac. The following spring he fought with Tecumseh at

' Harney, "Hist. Win. Co.," pp. 271-3. Wis. Archeologist, 60-5, do., 416.

THE WINNEBAGO CHIEFS.

Fort Meigs, and after this defeat was beaten off of Fort Stephen- son or Sandusky. He was also a part of the Winnebago contingent under Mckay in the capture of Prairie du Chien. In the winter of 1814 Dickson, with his convoy of supplies, was ice bound until January on Garlic Island at Pesheu's village.

Black Wolf or Shounktshunksiap was a celebrated character in the border days of a century past. Mrs. Kinzie has left a racy sketch of this bold warrior Black Wolf, "whose lowering, surley face well described his name. The fierce expression of coun- tenance was greatly heightened by the masses of heavy black hair, contrary to the usual custom of the Winnebago, who for the most part cut away a portion of the hair, drawing the remainder to the back of the head, clubbed and ornamented with beads, rib- bons, cocks' feathers, or if entitled an eagle feather for every scalp taken from an enemy."

On a point of land now known as Black Wolf point (Sec. 21), in town of Black Wolf, jutting out into Lake Winnebago, at a distance of seven miles south of the City of Oshkosh, there was formerly located Black Wolf's Winnebago Indian village. It is said to have numbered not more than forty huts. The date of its establishment here is not exactly known, but it is supposed to have been about the year 1800 or slightly before. Mrs. G. A. Randall, who formerly resided at Randall's point, remembers to have seen the Indian tepees and campfires along the shore of Black Wolf point as late as the year 1846. Chief Black Wolf was a character of some importance. He was a large man and much respected by his people and was called a war chief. In the attacks on Mackinac in the War of 1812 he fought under the leadership of Col. Robert Dickson. After the war the British, still seeking to hold the Winnebago in their interest for purposes of trade, called them to Mackinac to a council or treaty with Col. Robert McDonald, the British commissioner. Black Wolf was one of those in attendance at this gathering. He also participated with the British and their allies in the capture of Prairie du Chien in the year 1814. He was one of the signers of the land grant negotiated by Eleazer Williams in 1821 with Four Legs, the Win- nebago head chief, and others, by which the New York Indians were to receive a strip of land five miles in width along the Lower Fox, "from Grand Kachalin rapids to Winnebago rapids" in Winnebago county. He also participated in the councils held at Green Bay and Doty Island for a similar purpose in 1830. He is said to have died at Portage in the year 1847. During the Black

66 .

HISTORY OF WINNEBAGO COUNTY.

Hawk war, Black Wolf camped with the Winnebago assembled at the site of Portage on both sides of the Wisconsin river. The prin- cipal chiefs in these camps were Black Wolf, his son Dandy, White Eagle, White Crow and Broken Arm.

Dandy, the Beau Brummell of the Winnebago, was a son of Black Wolf and a cousin of Four Legs. "He wore fancy dress shirts of the brightest color ornamented with rows of silver brooches and displayed two pair of arm bands. His leggins and moccasins were of the most elaborate embroidery in ribbons and porcupine quills. Numerous ornaments were dangling from his club of black hair. A feather fan was in one hand and a mirror in the other. His face was brilliantly colored and daubbed." LaRonde says Dandy, son of Black Wolf, was also known as Little Soldier. His village is reported by Mr. W. H. Canfield as being in 1839 on the Baraboo river five or six miles above the present city of Baraboo. Old Dandy was one of those Paquette went after, then seventy years old, who was a small, thin man, and the only Winnebago who, after the breaking of tribal relations in 1848, was generally respected as chief of the tribe. He went to Wash- ington in 1828 with War Eagle and others to see the President. His camp was then near the Dalles. He said he would not go to Long Prairie and was allowed to remain. In 1844 Captain Sum- mer was sent back to Portage to hunt for Dandy. He was found at the head of Baraboo river and made to ride horseback with his legs chained under the animal with an oxchain. He demanded to be taken to Governor Dodge at Mineral Point. Dodge asked him what was wanted. Dandy took a Bible from his bosom and asked the Governor if it was a good book. He answered it was a good book-he could never have a better in his hand. "Then," said Dandy, "if a man would do all that was in that book, could any more be required of him?" He answered, "No." "Well," said Dandy, "look that book all through. and if you find in it that Dandy ought to be removed by the Government to Turkey river, then I will go right off; but if you do not find it I will never go there to stay." The Governor informed him his trick would not work. He was then replaced on the horse, his feet chained up again and taken to Prairie du Chien. The chain blistered his feet and legs so he was unable to walk for three weeks. IIe was then put in charge of a corporal, who was obliged to carry Dandy on his back to a buggy to be taken to Turkey river. Dandy claiming he was unable to walk. The buggy was at the fort gate and the corporal, supposing Dandy unable to walk, left him for a moment

THE WINNEBAGO CHIEFS.

to re-enter the fort. Dandy jumped from the buggy and ran into the forest, where the corporal could not find him. He remained in Wisconsin and died on the Peten Well bluff, an isolated rocky peak on the Wisconsin river, in June, 1870, aged seventy-seven years.

The Yellow Thunder "was a fine looking Indian, tall, straight and stately." His old encampment was about five miles below Berlin, on the Fox river, at the Yellow banks. This would locate his village in Section 31, near Eureka, in Winnebago county. In 1832 at the close of the Black Hawk war Col. Charles Whittlesey with four others made a saddle journey over the Tomahawk trail along the left bank of the Lower Fox and right bank or east side of the Upper Fox river. Before arriving at Fort Winnebago he passed two Winnebago villages, one of which was that of Yellow Thunder. He mentions crossing the Fox river in a flatboat and landing near the spot where the father of "Grizzly Bear," a Menominee, is said to have lived. Here, he says, commenced a rolling prairie that continued for fifty miles (since known as Democrat prairie). "The trail passed two Winnebago villages, one of which was called Yellow Thunder from its chief." The villagers, much to their annoyance, followed the party out of their village on horseback. Hon. Morgan L. Martin mentions passing a "Winnebago village on Green Lake prairie" in 1829, which may have been the village of Yellow Thunder. In 1828 Yellow Thunder and his squaw, a daughter of White Crow, made a journey to Washington to interview the President, and thereafter this squaw was known as Washington Woman. Yellow Thunder was a con- vert to the Catholic Church and became zealous in its offices and was called the head war chief of his tribe. By false pretenses he was induced with others to visit Washington in 1837 and signed the false treaty which granted the Government all their lands east of the Mississippi river, under which three years after he was one of the first to suffer by being forcibly put in irons at Portage and removed to Yellow river, Iowa. Yellow Thunder soon re- turned and requested La Ronde to go with him to Mineral Point to enter a forty of land on the west bank of the Wisconsin river. In reply to an inquiry if Indians could enter lands, "Yes, Government has given no orders to the contrary." So Yellow Thunder, the head war chief of the Winnebago, entered, lived and died on his forty of land. He was again forcibly removed to Iowa with Black Wolf, but was allowed to return, as he was a land owner. Yellow Thunder owned the southwest quarter of

HISTORY OF WINNEBAGO COUNTY.

the southeast quarter of section 36, on Wisconsin river, town of Delton, Sauk county, two log huts having been constructed for his own use and that of families who lived with him. About five acres of land was cultivated, raising corn, beans and potatoes. During big feasts as many as 1,500 Indians gathered in the vicinity. Shortly before his death he sold his land to Mr. John Bennett. It is related that when he paid his taxes he placed a kernel of corn in a leather pouch for each dollar of taxes paid, and when he sold the land he demanded as many dollars as there were kernels of corn in the old pouch. His summer village was sixteen miles up river from Portage in 1840, where Dandy and Little Duck also camped. Yellow Thunder died in 1874, said to have been childless, and was buried on a sandy knoll. Near by are the graves of Washington woman and several other Indians. She was buried sitting up facing the east. A painting of Yellow Thunder hangs in the rooms of the Wisconsin Historical Society, and an unpublished manuscript giving "personal reminiscences" by Mrs. A. C. Flanders is deposited in the Public Library at Portage.

THE COMING OF NICOLET.

The magnificent cenotaph raised on the Menasha park, under the inspiration of the women's clubs of Menasha, unveiled on Labor Day, September 3, 1906, with fitting ceremony, com- memorates one of the greatest voyages in the history of the world. And as it was the event which made known the interior of the continent and opened to the world the vast empire of the West, it may easily be regarded by its results as the greatest event in the history of the West.

For ten years after this remarkable voyage over unsailed seas of 2,000 miles by the first white man, the records seem silent on the remarkable event. It was "Vimont's Relations of 1643" which first described the event and sent it to Paris, where it was published to the world.

Nicolet with his seven IIuron Indians braved the terrors of darkest America fourteen years after the Pilgrims landed and twenty-four years after Canada was founded, but thirty years before Marquette followed in his wake to push his way still farther toward the setting sun and forty years before La Salle entered the Illinois. There were then scarcely 1,000 white people in America, and yet it was only 270 years ago.

Stories had been brought to Quebec, which was a log cabin vil- lage then, of the Indians who resided about the great lakes, and from such narratives the French governor, Champlain, had made up a map of our country in the West in which he had located Lake Winnebago, which he called "Lae des Puans," way up north of Lake Superior, and made the Fox river run south into Lake Superior (1632). At this time it was supposed by the scholars and government of France that the rich empire of China lay somewhere in the West beyond the setting sun. It had for many years been the great desire of numerous hardy and reckless ad- venturers to get at the fabled riches of this mythical China. They supposed if they could reach this far-off land they could return home laden with diamonds, sparkling gems, gold and silver, and be the envy of all their neighbors. In their story the visiting

HISTORY OF WINNEBAGO COUNTY.

Indians at Quebec had told of a people living upon a large lake, who were lighter colored and with other peculiarities spoke a strange language. They were said to live upon or had come from a salt sea and they named them Ouenibegoutz, meaning feted, and since written Winnebago, and which the French translated "na- tion des puans" and called "men of the sea." .In some way the notion prevailed that this lake was the China sea and these people the long sought Chinese. It was afterward learned that these were our Winnebago Indians, who gave their name to our lake. They had left their Siouan family sometime in their migration from the South and settled on Doty island at the foot of Lake Winnebago, where they were surrounded by tribes of the great Alqonkin nation.

The romantic love of adventure and discovery and possible riches inspired Champlain to look about for someone he could send out to discover the truth of these rumors, make peace and raise the standard of France in these distant lands. At this time Jean Nicolet was in the colony. He had come over from France in 1618 and had spent most of his time for sixteen years among the Alqonkin Indians, trading with them and had for a number of years acted as "agent and interpreter." He knew the natives and their language and habits very well, and was just the man for such a dangerous undertaking. So, as related by the only chronicles, "while in the exercise of this office (of agent and in- terpreter) he was sent, delegated to make a journey to the na- tion called People of the Sea, and arrange peace between them and the Hurons." He started out from the country now known as lower Canada, at Quebec, but then called the Huron country, as inhabited by that tribe of Indians, in a single canoe, made of the bark of a birch tree, accompanied by seven Huron Indians, in the summer of 1634.

One single white man, alone facing thrilling experience over unknown waters and streams known to be inhabited by savage men and wild animals which might justly strike terror to any person. But this brave, little whiskered Frenchman pushed into the unknown and mysterious setting sun, ran the cavernous and frightful rapids of the St. Louis river into the tempestuous water of Lake Huron, where he swiftly crossed the channel from island to island. Then on through the straits of Mackinac, where, if he had any poetry in his soul, and what brave man has not, he must have remarked upon the glorious scenery of island, lakes and wooded shores about him.

"vand tomate that this 11. :

good at the Foot of Lake

!! tribes of the great

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.

History, Winnebago County, Wisconsin: Its Cities, Towns, Resources, People, Part 6

Author: Publius Virgilius Lawson Publication date: 1948 Publisher: Chicago : C.F. Cooper Number of Pages: 773

Author: Publius Virgilius Lawson
Publication date: 1948
Publisher: Chicago : C.F. Cooper
Number of Pages: 773