USA > Wisconsin > Brown County > History of Brown County, Wisconsin, past and present, Volume I > Part 10
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
Peyster calls them, "a horrid set of refractory Indians." Finally Charles de Langlade himself went to them and finding every appeal unavailing drew upon his knowledge of Indian superstition and caused a lodge to be built in the vil- lage center where a dog feast, dear to the Indian heart was prepared. A piece of dog's heart raw and bleeding was suspended at the door of the lodge and when the feast was over Langlade chanting a war song marched around the booth, biting, each time he passed the doorway, a piece from the raw heart. This irresistible appeal to all brave hearts among his guests brought one warrior after another to his feet, and soon all had joined in the march and song, had tasted of the dog's heart and were irrevocably pledged to follow their leader.
A version of De Peyster's speech to the western Indians at this same great council held at L'Arbre Croche, July 4. 1779, was in later years rendered into verse by that officer, and is seasoned with many allusions to prominent military leaders and chiefs engaged in the war. In his poetical review the Winnebagoes are said to :
"Skulk in dens, lest old Langlade Should give their heads the batonade ; These suck their paws, like Northern bears. Exposing nothing but their ears, To hear if Gautier de Verville Doth crave assistance from Lafeuille."
Although constantly demanding aid from Langlade and Verville the British leaders, De Peyster and Sinclair fretted and grumbled over the slow methods employed by the French creoles in their military operations. The Winnebagoes and Menominees were, De Peyster declares, naturally more brave than the Ottawas, and were therefore especially desired as allies, but the English captains could hardly realize that in order to enlist their interest and aid only the dila- tory Indian method of negotiation used by the experienced Langlade would be successful. They ignored too the fact that with the American cause went French sympathy and that Langlade and Verville in standing by the English arms must overcome among their followers national prejudice as well.
In his L'Arbre Croche speech De Peyster touches off the Menominee In- dians and the plenty which they enjoyed on the shores of Green Bay, from the fertility of the land and the large quantities of fish and game,
"While none on earth live more at ease, Than Carong's brave Menominees."
This same Carron, the half-breed interpreter for the old king Chakaucha- kama, was given in the days of Gorrell a handsome embroidered coat by Edward Moran, the trader, which partiality enraged the other Indians to the danger point. Carron's wife was the sister of Waupesin, the "Wild Potato," a promi- nent Menominee, and it was to him that the messengers from Pontiac gave the red wampum belt, thus inviting his tribe to assist in that conspiracy. As the bay Indians were loyal to Gorrell they resented the presentation of so highly esteemed a gift as an embroidered coat to any of the Wild Potato's kin, although Carron was a true friend to the English and was moreover "the handsomest man in the Indian village."
The only known autograph in existence of the Sieur Charles de Langlade is a letter written by him to Rocheblave and Porlier, a well known trading firm
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
which operated between Michilimackinac and La Baye. The communication is in regard to the sale of lands owned by him, through which he hoped to satisfy a debt of six thousand one hundred and eighty-three livres. It is a dignified. well-written letter and shows Langlade to have been an educated man, as well as a brave soldier.
Aukewingeketauso, "a military conqueror," was the name bestowed by his Indian followers on the Green Bay hero. Even as late as October, 1800, when seventy-one years old, Langlade was dreaded by the Spaniards of Louisiana as possibly contemplating an attack on New Orleans with his bands of loyal Indians, who never seemed to have questioned his authority. The Marquis de Casa Calvo writing from New Orleans at this date speaks of Langlade as "the famous interpreter and leader Captain Langlade." His grandson Augustin Grignon relates that he died in the first years of the nineteenth century and was buried in the old Roman Catholic cemetery at Green Bay, which lay just north of the intersection of Adams and Chicago streets.
WAR OF 1812
England formally yielded to the United States possession of the western coun- try and withdrew her garrisons in 1796, yet the settlement along Fox river extending from the ruins of the old French and English fort to the rapids at Little Kakalin recognized no other government. The fur trade was the great interest commercially, foremost in this traffic being Jacob Franks, his nephew John Lawe. Louis and Pierre Grignon, and Jacques Porlier. The settlement was a flourishing one "grist, saw, horse mills and distilleries, abounding with cattle and horses and some hogs" (W. H. C., Vol. 18, P. 438). The landscape is described as most beautiful and interesting, the soil fertile as that of Ken- tucky, growing "garden productions of great size." No gayer settlement could be found west of Montreal. The people, who are characterized as "indolent, gay and intemperate," lived in comfort on their little farms, all doing a bit of trade with the Indians, for peltries were still plentiful, and securing in addi- tion all the game and fish needed for their tables. Of the prominent fami- lies each had its following of Indian retainers who fished and hunted for them and brought in the spring quantities of most excellent maple sugar done up in bark mococks.
On November 26, 1803. Governor Ilarrison of Indiana Territory drew a commission appointing Charles Reaume as justice of the peace at Green Bay. Reaume, who had been a resident of the place for eleven years and owned a farm on La Rivière Glaise, now called Dutchman's Creek, assumed his judicial duties with much zeal, acquired a copy of Blackstone, as he was quite unlearned in the law, and on this and the customs of the country based his legal decisions.
To judge from the many papers signed in his handwriting this sole repre- sentative of justice west of Lake Michigan was kept busy with his varied and responsible duties. There was no priest resident in Baye Verte at that time so Reaume christened the children, married the young people and gave excel- lent satisfaction in adjudicating disputes between rival traders or their engagés. His old horn jackknife was displayed by the constable in place of a warrant,
Capt".JONATHAN CARVER. From the Original Picture in the Profession of Il Lettsom M.D., Published as the lot directs by R.Stewart, Nº28 7. near 6! Turnetile Holborn Nevie 1780.
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
AUTOR, LENNA AND TILDER FOUNDATIONE.
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
and as the county town of Vincennes was distant four or five hundred miles his rule was absolute, and his decisions supreme.
Reaume is described by a contemporary as appearing at all public occasions in a scarlet coat with facings of white silk and spangled buttons. His exer- cise of authority seems to have been tacitly acquiesced in by all, and although not read in the law his accurate knowledge of conditions in this part of the country was to be relied on and rendered his judiciary doubtless of some value ( H. S. Baird, Vol. 2, p. 87).
By the provisions of a law enacted by congress in 1802 trading licenses were to be granted to citizens of the United States and to no others, but the traders at La Baye independent of these restrictions, recognized no authority but that of Great Britain, and the advent in the autumn of great canoes loaded with merchandise from Montreal was the event of the year. The inhabitants would gather on the sandy point below Langlade's house, to watch the trader's fleet sweep in from the bay. AAmidships sat the manager of the expedition, the "bourgeoise" whose word was law, while the crew formed in their gay toggery a bit of vivid color to be seen from a long distance away. The paddles handled by these experts struck the water in sharp and perfect time to the song that rose and fell, choruses endless in repetition, and reciting most trivial incidents; the music to which this French doggerel was set. would charm the listener with its wild, thrilling cadences, and make the tears start. It was one of these voyageur songs that caught the ear of Thomas Moore on his visit to Canada, and inspired his "Canadian boat song" with its refrain.
"Row, brothers, row: the stream runs fast, The rapids are near, and the daylight is past."
John Jacob Astor and his Southwest Company had early in the century begun trading operations in Green Bay. The Astor Company dovetailed into the customs of La Baye as though to the manner born. Ramsay Crooks, Wil- son P. Hunt and Robert Stuart were veterans along fur-trading lines, and were hand-in-glove with John Lawe, the extensive Grignon connection and Jacques Porlier. Crooks, Astor's agent, was in constant and friendly correspondence with these leading men in the commerce of the Bay, giving advice or advancing money whenever required. A letter from Montreal (p. 336) 1810 says that the whole Indian trade is carried on by Americans. "Mr. Astore offered to pur- chase out the Machenan Company. He has a charter from Congress to an exclusive right to the Indian trade, and I understand that he is to be connected with the North West Company to make settlement of the Northwest coast of America." Before this letter reached its destination the adventurous founders of Astoria were already on their way to the Pacific coast. One party includ- ing Ramsay Crooks and Wilson P. Hunt stopped at the fur-trading depot at La Baye on its way across the continent ; another went by sailing vessel around Cape Horn, among these Gabriel Franchère, whose narrative published later, inspired Washington Irving's "Astoria."
Diplomatic relations were strained between the United States and England and commerce both on the ocean and the great lakes was much disturbed. The non-transportation act barring trade between the two nations was passed by congress, March 2, 1811, but Batteaux continued to bring goods for the Green
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
Bay fur traders, sometimes complying with the law, at others running the blockade at Michilimackinac, by passing that government station at night.
War was declared on June 18, 1812, and just one month later a British force of 1,000 whites and Indians from Fort St. Josephs secretly effected a landing on the northwest shore of Mackinac Island, known today as "British Landing." The American garrison finding itself at the mercy of the invaders promptly surrendered, this being the first intimation the fort's commander had received that hostilities had definitely commenced between the two nations.
Colonel Robert Dickson who in October, 1812, took charge of the Green Bay country for King George the Fourth, was an official well liked by the trad- ing community on jovial occasions when he was the life of the party, but who became fussy and irascible under responsibility. The king's vessel ran aground just as the colonel was about to embark on her for his post at Baye Verte and delayed to exasperation his departure. His destination finally reached, the British officer was kept in a constant state of ferment between the failure of his government to supply him with articles necessary to hold the allegiance of his Indian dependants and the strenuous daily effort required to get sufficient food and ammunition from the little village of Baye Verte.
By the king's orders all supplies and provisions needed for the soldiers encamped at the bay post, the garrison at Mackinac and for Colonel Dickson. who had set up royalist quarters on Garlic Island, Lake Winnebago, were to be furnished by the unfortunate inhabitants of the hamlet at the mouth of Fox river. Dickson's letters to the suave French gentlemen with whom he dealt are peremptory to the point of a dictatorial order. Hlis subordinate officers at Green Bay were:
Jacques Porlier, senior, captain of militia and commissary.
Jacques Porlier, junior, lieutenant of the Indian department.
Pierre Grignon, captain of the Indian department.
Louis Grignon, lieutenant of the Indian department.
John Lawe, lieutenant.
Jacob Franks, captain and commissary, and so on through a rather lengthy iist of Green Bay fur traders.
Young Jacques Porlier had just returned from school at Montreal when the war broke out and he entered with enthusiasm into the British ranks, serving with great credit as a lieutenant in the Michigan Fencibles and being later recommended by Captain Bulger of his majesty's troops as an ensign in the regular line.
Lawe, the Porliers and Grignons did all in their power to aid Dickson in his sorry plight, but the resources of the village were absolutely inadequate for a large body of men; the Creoles cached their wild rice and other grains and refused to sell for the paltry sum offered by the king's officers, for with the English government, as Louis Grignon writes at this time there was "always lack of money, lack of money."
On December 19, 1812, Captain Pullman with a small detachment of regu- lars and a hit and miss band of lawless Canadian voyageurs, called the Michi- gan Fencibles, was despatched by Dickson to Green Bay, where they barracked in a vacant house on the west side of Fox river, possibly one of the buildings remaining of old Fort Edward Augustus. Of the Michigan Fencibles Cap-
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
tain Bulger wrote later: "The Michigans are not the soldiers we ought to have here if we mean to retain the post. I would rather have 40 regular soldiers than 100 such men as the Michigans. The Indians too see the difference between them and Regulars. They in fact look upon them with contempt, having known them as voyageurs, they never can look upon them in the light of British sol- diers."
The troops levied mercilessly upon the impoverished settlement, until the forty or more families residing there were reduced to actual want. "You must do the best you can to feed them," writes Dickson to John Lawe. "If your provision fails and the people refuse to sell, seize what is necessary in the king's name. I would by no means wish to proceed to extremities, but his Majesty's soldiers must be furnished with provisions." In addition to Lieu- tenant Pullman's garrison the great bands of half starved Indians made con- stant raids on the village, carrying off horses, hogs and oxen. The herds of fine black cattle which Jonathan Carver admired so much were slaughtered without mercy and the plentiful fields of maize stripped of their grain.
A mill built by Pierre Grignon on Dutchman's Creek in Ashwaubenon was claimed by Dickson as king's property. "There must no Toll be paid at the till. I will account to you for it and be so good as to tell Rabbis ( Gabriel Rabbi), that he must not cheat the King, although he may cheat all the rest of the World, which I am convinced he does. If Masca will sell his Wheat without any further Stipulation at Three dollars a Bushel, take it; if not, we shall keep our Eye on it when Hunger shall make us keen." "Masca," the miller, whose real name was Dominique Brunette, was a well known French Creole at Baye Verte and he and his son. Dominique, were among those who thirty years later organized the "Town of Howard," and who became town officials.
On November 13, 1813. Dickson wrote to Grignon and Lawe that he had been directed by Captain Bullock, the commandant at Michilimackinac "to procure Beef, Flour and Pease for his garrison from La Baye. You will there- fore deliver Sergeant MeGalpin what you can collect, taking his receipt for the same. The price agreed for with you is what is given for the same kinds of provisions at Michilimackinac. You will please furnish the Detachment of Michigan Fencibles with Provisions while at La Baye and for their route to Mackinac, sending in an account of the same and also what else may be neces- sary for their voyage."
Later he writes, "The Indians are hurrying me and I want to get quit of them. . Dire necessity compels me to send to you for Ten Bushels Wheat. The Indians are all starving."
In reviewing this period the amount of food raised in the poverty-stricken little village of La Baye appears astonishing. Despite the devastation com- mitted by the starving Indians and the provisioning of Pullman's garrison, the commissary department consisting of John Lawe and Louis Grignon furnished in addition supplies sufficient to keep Dickson and his Indians alive and to send moreover to Mackinac thirty barrels of flour beside unground wheat. "Give the soldiers wheat and let them grind it with a hand mill," ordered Dickson from his lake fastness.
The winter wore away and spring again shone over bay and river. By the last of March ducks began to fly in great abundance and the sturgeon were
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plentiful from Lake Winnebago to Green Bay. On March 19, 1814, Dickson, always picturesque and pungent in language, wrote, "The season is advancing fast. This last fall of snow will accelerate the breaking up of the rivers. No news yet from the Mississippi. The express from Mackinac is late, but I trust that we shall have good news when it comes"; and in a postscript, "Had I not received the supply of wheat you sent I believe one-half of the Indians would have perished. I have been obliged to feed the people forty miles around me and have had other visitors in abundance. I am now looking out for ducks and the poissons dorr. We have not seen a sturgeon's Snout these ten days. The Bull is almost devoured, I shall send for no more Beef happen what will. Hunger is staring us in the face, but Providence will not abandon us. I am heartily tired of this kind of Life-anything for a Change. No news from the Prairie. Curse on their Negligence if no Accident has happened."
On June 28, Dickson was in Michilimackinac and remained there during the principal event of the year for the western country; the organizing of a force of whites and Indians to capture the American fort at Prairie du Chien. The motley troop under command of Colonel William McKay reached La Baye on July fourth. Here the force was augmented by all the able-bodied men of the hamlet, or as a report of the expedition expresses it; "Captain Pierre Grignon led all the inhabitants of La Baye," while young Jacques Porlier went as lieutenant with the Michigan Fencibles. The band was more than doubled by the reinforcement of French, Winnebagoes and Sauks who joined the detach- ment at the Fox River settlement. "1 believe that the expedition you have joined will succeed without the necessity of fighting; it seems to me that the number of savages ought to be sufficient to chase the enemy or at least divide them and make them yield," wrote the Indian agent at Mackinac to Jacques Porlier, on July fourteenth, and this prediction proved substantially true, the fort surrendering after some warlike skirmishing on July 17. 1814.
This martial invasion which took from the Green Bay settlement during the harvest season some thirty men did much damage, little grain was gath- ered and Louis Grignon wrote in September to friends at Mackinac that the country was much devastated, cattle and Indians had done infinite damage to the crops and the wheat was completely ruined in the fields.
On the thirteenth of November of that year Captain Bulger, of the Royal Newfoundland regiment, after a tempestuous passage from Macki- nac landed at La Baye, where he held by instructions from the English gov- ernment a court of inquiry as to the losses sustained by the inhabitants of Green Bay from depredations committed on their property by the Indians. The court consisted of Captain Bulger, president; Robert Dickson, Esquire. agent and superintendent of the western Indians, and Captain Duncan Gra- ham of the Indian department. The result of the inquiry showed that the total amount of losses in cattle, etc., was something over 2,981 pounds. There turn- ing a report of proceedings to Colonel MeDouall at Mackinac, the court recom- mends that reparation be made to the impoverished inhabitants and declares that "the valuation has been affixed by a committee appointed for that purpose by the court and is deemed fair." Bulger later writes that he has "reason to believe that the enormous sum is not exaggerated." His account of the Green Bay settlement is most deplorable ; he gives a truthful statement of the pov-
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
erty-stricken condition of the hamlet and of the serious devastation caused by the great bands of Indians, who roamed the surrounding country. "A vast concourse were assembled when I arrived .
. really a most distressing sight ; men, women and children, naked and in a state of starvation. Many of them had been from home all the summer fighting for us. Even those brave fellows, the Follesavoines, who behaved so nobly on the 4th of August, were starving before my eyes, and I had not the means of relieving them."
It is a tragic incident in Brown county's history, the War of 1812, a story of starvation and keen suffering. Peace between the two great nations was concluded at Ghent in December, 1814, but not until the month of May fol- lowing was the news brought to the inhabitants of far off Baye Verte. Orders were received to hand Fort McKay over to the Americans much to the sur- prised disgust of the commanding officer at Mackinac, Colonel MeDouall, who wrote to the fort's commandant, Captain Bulger, that the utmost caution and vigilance must be observed when the fort was evacuated ; and on his march to Green Bay, he must "have a light two-pounder mounted in one of the boats and always ready for service," lest the sudden change of governments should be resisted by the Indians. A gaunt and hunger depleted swarm of Indians gathered to receive the parting gifts presented by the conscientious Bulger and at La Baye there was barely grain enough left from English occupation to sow sparingly the fields.
(References used in Chapter VIII; Wis. Hist. Colls., Vols. 1. 11, 18. 19: Neville & Martin, Historic Green Bay ; Arndt, Green Bay and Fox River Valley. )
CHAPTER IX
AMERICAN OCCUPATION
Notwithstanding the crucial experiences of the Fox river valley inhabi- tants both whites and Indians, during the three years' war between England and the United States, public sentiment and sympathy at La Baye went with the conquered rather than the conqueror. The bluff, irritable Dickson and the just, outspoken Bulger were both thoroughly liked by, and good friends of. the western traders. The latter dreaded a change to a government of whose policy they were ignorant. Healths still went around the convivial board in the village of Baye Verte to "the King, the Prince Regent and Sir George Pro- vost," and it was predicted that the Americans would have a dangerous time in replacing officers armed with authority of "the King and the best of gov- ernments" by a provincial and less experienced corps of officials.
On February 1.4. 1815, the wary fur trader John Jacob Astor wrote jocosely to his favorite factotum, Ramsay Crooks, "You will have heard of the word of peace; this will not lessen the value of muskrat skins. I wish that you could sell them all, and come on here (New York), as I shall probably engage in the Indian trade." This pleasantry was promptly followed, after the official notification of the conclusion of peace, by the reorganization of the South- west Company under the name of the American Fur Company with Astor at the head. The commerce in furs, still a lucrative traffic in the northwest, immediately engrossed the attention of departmental officials in Washington. and Alexander J. Dallas, acting secretary of war, recommended to the presi- dent, James Madison, that an Indian agency be established without delay on "the Fox River in the neighborhood of Green Bay, as the menaces of the Indians throughout the Indian country require immediate attention." It was further stipulated that the Indian agent should receive as a full compensation for his services a salary of one thousand dollars payable quarterly, with an allowance of six rations per diem, or an equivalent in money according to the price of provisions at the nearest military post.
Of the Indians in the vicinity of the bay at that period the most numerous were the Menominees, who had villages not only near the French settlement of Baye Verte but also along the bay shore as far as their river, the Menomi- nee. Next to them in point of numbers came the Winnebagoes, with their largest village on Doty island, the Pottawatomies or Poux, as they were nick- named, a scattering of Outagamies and a few Sauks. The Indian agent first appointed by Secretary Dallas was Charles Jouett, in charge at that time of the same department at Chicago, but this appointment was later changed and the "very eligible" agency at Green Bay given to Colonel John Bowyer, then holding a like position at Detroit.
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