USA > Wisconsin > Brown County > History of Brown County, Wisconsin, past and present, Volume I > Part 11
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
In the meantime it was decided that in order to supply the demands of the large body of Indians in the vicinity of the Fox river waterway a government fur-trading factory should be established, and Major Matthew Irwin, a United States official who had gained some experience in the trade of furs, was assigned to the Green Bay post.
The letter of July 28. 1815. informing Major Irwin of his appointment remarks that as he had expressed a preference some time before for the posi- tion at Green Bay rather than Chicago, he might proceed to that place imme- diately on the receipt of the order, the salary fixed to be $1,000 per annum. and allowance for subsistence money, $365. Later, however, it was deemed best that the factor should not undertake to carry his goods, which were valued at $9,452.34, into the dangerous wilds surrounding Green Bay without military protection and Major Irwin was ordered to remain at Mackinac until the fol- lowing year when a fort would be established at the entrance to Fox river.
In consequence the first official representing the new government to arrive was Colonel Bowyer, who reached his post in the early summer of 1816. Later he purchased the property belonging to Judge Charles Reaume on la Riviere Glaise. Dutchman's creek, as the stream was called in later years, a name bestowed after Peter Ulrich, "the Dutchman," built a house upon its shore. Colonel Bowyer identified himself almost immediately with the life of the little river hamlet and was popular alike with the French residents and the Indians. There is still preserved a courteous note asking him to dine at Mr. Louis Grig- non's and his letters indicate a friendly spirit existing between the traders and himself.
Not so Matthew Irwin. From the first the factor's position was a difficult one. The resident traders were bitterly opposed to a trading post operated by government ; possibly the experience gained by their fathers during French domination had prejudiced them against this mode of Indian traffic ; they feared too that the large stock of goods sent by the government might prove disastrous to other peltry merchants. Their fears were groundless. for as employees of the American Fur Company and possessing wide experience in trading meth- ods and in maintaining friendly relations with the Indians they simply barred out competition.
Major Irwin seems to have worried greatly over his failure to make good as an agent of the government, and the commissioner of Indian affairs, McKenny, while recognizing the difficulties and annoyances to be faced by the Green Bay factor chafed under the meager and disappointing reports received from this important post.
Astor's monopoly received much blame and abuse from disgruntled out- siders. On June 20, 1816, William Ilenry Puthoft, Indian agent at Mackinac. wrote to his excellency, Lewis Cass, who had been appointed governor of the entire western territory. "Mr. Astor expresses surprise and regret at the passage of a law forbidding British subjects from trading with the Indians within the American limits, but observes that power is vested in the president to grant special licenses to that purpose." The letter proceeds to inform Gov- ernor Cass that a messenger has been dispatched to President Madison by John Jacob Astor asking that licenses be given to Jacob Franks and other of Astor's special friends in order that they may continue trading operations with the
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
Indians at Green Bay. "I hope in God," he adds, "no such license will be granted."
John Jacob Astor, "The old Tyger" as he was called in familiar trading house parlance, had resumed his commerce in furs on a much larger scale than before the war and the American Fur Company had gathered within its grasp not only the entire western country but also Canadian territory. Astor's prime agent was Ramsay Crooks and this tactful, experienced trader gradually gained boundless influence over the French Creoles in Green Bay and its vicinity.
In comparison with this fur-trading Solon the attempt of Major Irwin to run a rival business was mere absurdity. According to gossip of the time the United States factor did not secure during his incumbency of seven years fifty dollars' worth of peltries, although the Indians brought him maple sugar in prodigious quantities, which he always bought. and which proved an unprofitable investment. Ramsay Crooks gave his views before an investigat- ing committee as to the failure of the factory system at Green Bay and said that it was largely due to the fact that goods unsuitable to the Indian were provided. "Unless your committee should be of the opinion that men's and women's coarse and fine shoes, worsted and cotton hose, tea, Glauber salts. alum and anti-bilious pills are necessary to promote the comfort or restore the health of the aborigines; or that green silk fancy ribands and morocco slip- pers are indispensable to eke out the dress of our 'red sisters.'"
The prospective establishment of a permanent military post on Fox river was the occasion of much interest throughout the entire country, for it meant that the United States intended to definitely put a stop to English interference both in trade and government. British emissaries were still constantly creat- ing doubt and suspicion among the Indians and it was feared that chiefs such as the great Tomali, head of the Menominee nation, who had received a war medal and other marks of distinction from the English government, would not easily resign these in order to curry favor with the American interlopers.
With the idea that resistance might be expected from the Indians, Colonel John Miller, commandant at Mackinac, ordered two companies of infantry and a detachment of artillery from that post "to cover the landing and aid in secur- ing the encampment of the troops destined to garrison in Green Bay." Miller undertook the command of the expedition in person and early in July, 1816, orders to embark were received.
The fleet consisting of three schooners, the "Washington," "Wayne," "Mink," and a sloop, the "Amelia," sailed from Mackinac on the twenty-sixth of July. There were on board. Colonel Miller of the third regiment, Colonel Cham- bers of the Rifles, Major Gratiot of the Engineers, a detachment of artillery under Captain Pierce and four companies of the third infantry amounting in all to five hundred men. On the twenty-ninth of the month the transports with the whole command were lying off the mouth of Green Bay at anchor, light and contrary winds having delayed their passage. The Washington, which carried the officers, put into the sheltered harbor of a large, well-wooded island just at the entrance of the bay. Not knowing that they were treading on the ancient camping ground of the Pottawatomies the American officers christened the island "Washington" in commemoration of their flagship as well as the Father of his country.
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
As the fleet sailed up the bay another large island was sighted and to this they gave the name of the new commandant appointed to the Green Bay post. Colonel Talbot Chambers.
Augustin Grignon, who chaneed to be in Mackinac when the troops set sail, was pressed into the service of pilot on the Washington, the bay being an unknown and treacherous course to the American navigators and on either the seventh or eighth of August, contemporaries differing as to the day. the convoy entered the mouth of Fox river.
It was a martial and imposing debarkation; the four vessels, the largest heretofore seen on these waters and flying the American colors: the uniformed men descending into the small boats in military order ; the cannon showing their black muzzles above the bulwarks and on the shore the entire settlement assem- bled. French and Indians watching the spectacle with the greatest excitement and interest. It had been reported that eight hundred Indian warriors were under arms ready to oppose the American invasion, hence Colonel Miller's precaution in providing additional detachments from the Mackinac garrison, but there was no hostile feeling apparent and the few Indians in evidence wel- comed the new comers with much humility and friendship.
Major Gratiot immediately made a survey to fix the site for the new fori, finally deciding to build where could still be seen the ruins of the English fortification which superseded that of the French. It was decided that a high stockade with strong pickets should be erected with a bastion at each angle mounted by a piece of artillery amply sufficient it was believed to beat off any Indian force that could be brought against it. The site having been definitely located, Colonel Miller returned without delay to Mackinac, leaving Colonel Chambers in command and a garrison consisting of two companies of riflemen and the same of infantry.
At "old King's village," about half a mile above the fort, Chakauchakama, the Menominee king, was still living at a great age. As he was nearly blind and very feeble he was represented by Tomah, a fine looking, dignified young chief who spoke for the Menominees in the interview which took place with Colonel Miller. A member of the expedition, Dr. Henning, in speaking of these first days of American occupation says that the Winnebagoes were decid- edly opposed to the advent of the American troops, as were a part of the Meno- minees and that it was only the impression of force produced by the invasion of so large a number of armed men that kept them in subjection for the time being. Ile predicts, however, that a day of reckoning is at hand and adds that mutterings of the impending storm can already be heard.
Colonel Bowyer also found the Winnebagoes hostile to the coming of a military force among them, but after two or three talks with their chiefs the agent sent them off apparently satisfied. He busied himself with calling in all medals presented by the British while in command, and replaced them by those of the United States. Hardly a chief but had his handsome silver medal, which was hung suspended by a cord around his neck, in token that henceforth he would fight the battles of the nation that bestowed the decoration. There was also a great demand for arm bands and small flags.
The fort buildings were erected by the soldiers, although it is noted by a rival trader at the time that Lonis Grignon will probably receive the contract
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
for getting out the necessary timber. The work was done with a whip saw and an order issued by the government to the factor. Major Irwin instructs him to have suitable factory buildings constructed just outside the stockade by the soldiers and to give them in payment ten cents and a gill of whiskey per day. The commandant was urged to cooperate with the factory in placating the Indians and in persuading them not to sell their peltries to British traders.
In the American state papers is to be found the record of the amount appro- priated by government for the erection of a fortification on Fox river, $21,000, and the amount expended, $20,477.60. On the fort was bestowed the name of Howard, in memory of General Benjamin Howard of the United States army, a gallant officer who was in command of the western territory during the War of 1812, but who died before peace was concluded.
Major Gratiot remained at Green Bay only long enough to see the fort buildings well under way, leaving the superintendence of the work and its com- pletion to the commandant and Lewis Morgan, United States agent of fortifica- tions. In 1820 the government caused a sawmill to be erected at the Little Kakalin (Little Rapids), and from the lumber there sawed the later buildings of the fort were put up; the large house for the commanding officer, the ware- house, the hospital, and surgeon's quarters. They were comfortable and well built dwellings, with a broad hall running through the center, and spacious rooms opening from this on both sides. The officers' quarters were a story and a half in height, with wide dormer windows in the roof; the barracks for the men seem to have been of plainer and more practical construction, with two full stories and ample accommodations.
Green Bay is described at this time as containing from forty-five to forty- eight families, all openly professing to be subjects of Great Britain, and ruled by from ten to twelve traders, who lived in patriarchal comfort, were all in league with the American Fur Company, and included the names of Grignon, Lawe, and Porlier with their extensive connections. Times had become much more prosperous, and the want caused by the war was being rapidly replaced by plenty.
In October, 1816, the difficulties of Major Irwin were increased by having the rifle corps at the fort plunder his stores and application was made to the commandant to have the theft made good by his order. There was delay too in the erection of a factory building, also an agency house for the use of Colonel Bowyer. That gentleman, although described as all that could be desired in ability and tactful treatment of the Indians was far from pleased with Judge Reaume's old house into which he had moved on his first arrival. "No bet- ter than a hovel," he pronounced it, and calls for a residence more fitting his position as a government official: "Five hundred dollars per annum for house rent five dollars per cord for wood, the price established by the troops for fuel," made his establishment difficult to maintain on $5,000 a year. Colonel Talbot Chambers is described by one of the traders as "violent and exacting, but just and sociable," and Major Irwin as a gentleman, although not a success in the fur trade (Vol. 19, p. 447, Jacques Porlier).
In May, 1817, Colonel Chambers was transferred to Prairie du Chien, and his letters from that post illuminate the fur-trading situation, especially at Green Bay. The confidential correspondence of the American officer shows
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
him to have been in league with the British sympathizers, and that far from aiding his own government in the attempt to gain the loyalty and trade of the Indians he was in reality abetting the rival faction in order to favor his good friends, Jacob Franks, John Lawe and others. "You may certainly calculate." he writes, "on every exertion which I can make for you. The commanding officer here has a great deal in his power ; it shall be exerted to the utmost in your behalf, but keep everything which I write you quiet." This, while Major Irwin at Green Bay was writing in despair to the Indian department, "All the families here, except one, are British subjects, consisting of about fifty fami- lies. They were actively opposed to the United States, during the late war whilst these and other British subjects are suffered to enter and con- tinue in this country as traders it will be useless to continue this factory here." and so forth. Meantime Colonel Bowyer, the Indian agent, who was making excellent progress in conciliating the disaffected tribes and according to reports sent in by employees of the Astor company was absorbing the best of the pel- try traffic, promptly expelled from the Green Bay league one of its most aggressive members, John Drew, a prominent Mackinac trader. Drew pro- tested strongly against what he termed unjust partiality as the other British traders at Green Bay were not interfered with.
In the spring succeeding the arrival of the troops settlement was commenced on the bay shore eight miles below the fort, afterwards called Bay Settle- ment, and homesteaders on both sides of the river had taken up farms all the way through to Rapides des Pères. By the arrival of the Americans a home market was furnished for surplus products, for game and garden truck; ves- sels began to arrive with regularity bringing supplies to the garrison and the people experienced the advantages of lake commerce and navigation.
Already the lumber and milling industry destined to form such an important feature in Brown county's history began to compete with the fur trade and almost every prominent man among the early settlers owned milling interests. Among the most interesting records of early days are the Indian deeds to be found in the county register's office at Green Bay. Among these is one executed by the Menominee nation in favor of Jacob Franks in 1794, ceding land on la Rivière du Diable for a milling site, upon which, Franks, a few years later, erected the first mill to be found in the whole northwest territory.
The site of this old mill has been definitely located by the Green Bay His- torical Society and is just east of De Pere, near what is now the north line of private claim number 34. This was a sawmill. but the year following its con- struction Franks put up a gristmill. two houses and a large quantity of fence on the same property. These buildings were erected it is said by an Ameri- can named Bradley ; the gristmill was one run of stones and is spoken of by Augustin Grignon as "a very serviceable mill." Later Franks sold his interest to his nephew. John Lawe, who continued to operate it to the satisfaction of the people disposing of it finally to William Dickenson. Lawe's mill, for more than a quarter of a century a well known landmark, appears on the first plat made of Brown county property, the one mapped by Isaac Lee, government land commissioner in 1820. In Mrs. Baird's reminiscences, "Life in Terri- torial Wisconsin," Lawe's mill is mentioned as being often in early times visited by gay sleighing parties and many merrymakings were held there.
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COMBINED SUNDIAL AND COMPASS OF BRONZE, FOUND AT GREEN BAY
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AUTOR, LEMAX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONA.
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
Previous to the building of this first mill grinding was done entirely by hand mills with a double crank for two persons to turn and which held about half a bushel of grain. This style of portable machine was popular, as it could be easily carried in a canoe and the grinding process was more rapid than the Indian method of beating out the grain with a stone. During the War of 1812 Colonel Dickson ordered that the soldiers at La Baye grind their wheat with a hand mill and also requested John Lawe to send up one for his own use on Doty island.
Pierre Antoine Grignon, early in the nineteenth century, possibly 1804, put up a horse mill of about four horse power by which fifteen bushels of grain could be ground in one day. It was a slow and tedious process, and proving an expensive one, the mill was abandoned after a year's trial. Grig- non a few years later experimented with a small mill on the slough which in those days cut east from Fox river and on which was situated the historic home of his father Pierre Grignon. The stones to run this primitive mill were made at Baye Verte and were only three feet in diameter.
The little stream or "Adams street slough," as it was designated in later years proving insufficient for practical purposes, the ambitions miller made another and much more successful attempt, obtained a good pair of stones from Mackinac and built both a grist and sawmill in 1810 on Reaum's Creek or the "Rivière Glaise," as it was commonly called. This was the mill made famous by Colonel Dickson during the War of 1812, and which seems to have been damaged permanently by the constant harrying demands made upon it by the irascible hunger driven Englishmen ; possibly it was destroyed, for we hear nothing of it after the conclusion of the war except the general statement made by the army surgeon, Henning, in 1816. In speaking of the devastation of this vicinity by the war just concluded, he says, that previous to that period the people had grist and sawmills, distilleries and widely cultivated fields. One of the logs used in the foundation of Pierre Grignon's mill on Rivière Glaise was still to be seen only a few years ago extending out into the stream.
From the departure of Father Chardon in 1728, until 1825, one hundred years later, when Father Badin built the first church at Shantytown, there was no resident priest in Brown county. Religious instruction by a clergyman seems to have been suspended entirely throughout the territory traversed by the Jesuits so many years before. The French settlers along the shores of Fox River went by canoe load to Michilimackinac for the rite of baptism and some- times for the marriage ceremony. It is said that the vicar general of the Roman Catholic church in the west made a visitation to Green Bay in the sum- mer of 1821, saying mass for the devout among the residents in the house of Pierre Grignon, but no record remains to verify the supposition. There is also a tradition of a visiting priest and of a great cross raised on the west side of Fox river half way between Green Bay and De Pere, but there is not a single written line to support this story. We have instead the signature of Charles Reaume, "Juge ā Paix" affixed to certain marriage certificates and the resi- dent priest at Mackinac, Father Janon constantly records such data as the bap- tism of Marie Judith Lusignan, daughter of François Lusignan and Agathe Langlade, who say that they were married before two witnesses at Green Bay.
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
Sometimes there is a signed record of baptism privately performed by "Char- ley Reaume."
There is no mention of a chaplain at Fort Howard with the coming of the troops in 1816, nevertheless this record remains as evidence that religious rites were performed two years later.
"Green Bay, June 9th, 1818.
"I hereby certify that Elizabeth and Ursula, Daughters of Mr. Louis Grig- non and Mrs. Catherine, were Baptized according to the Rubrick of the Church of England, the Ninth Day of June, one thousand eight hundred and eighteen by me.
"SAMUEL PETERS, LL.D., A. D. D. and Clerk in Holy Orders."
Samuel Andrew Peters who visited Green Bay in the early summer of 1818, was a clergyman of the Church of England, and a native of the United States, having been born in Hebron, Connecticut, December 12, 1735. He graduated at Yale college and was placed in charge of the churches of Hartford and Hebron.
Peters was a Tory and an active one, giving warm support to the royalist cause during the Revolutionary war. He was obliged finally to flee to Eng- land, where he revenged himself on his patriotic Puritan friends by publish- ing a book called "General History of Connecticut," which has been charac- terized by irate Federalists as the "most inscrupulous and malicious of lying narratives." In 1794 the Church of England priest was chosen bishop of Ver- mont, but was never consecrated, as he was still a resident of England. He, however, returned to America in 1805, and at the age of eighty-two made a journey to the falls of St. Anthony, claiming a large tract of land in that region. In the spring following, on his return trip to New York, he made his visit to Green Bay and baptized the little French children of the hamlet. Dr. Peters was without doubt a man of learning and wit, of good family and of repute in the church, but his royalist sympathies wrought his ruin financially, and as "Parson Peters" he was much caricatured in the pamphlet literature of the day.
Although the homes and trading houses of the early French and English settlers, the Grignons, Porliers and Lawes were built not more than a mile beyond the fort and the knot of habitant cottages closely fringed the river shore to within a stone's throw of the stockade, American settlement began in what is now the town of Allouez on the east side of the river and three miles from its mnouth. No fairer site could have been chosen, for the ground was high, with open spaces in the woodland and the river unvexed by rapids at this point, swept on between its high banks a broad and tranquil stream.
Among the earliest and most highly respected of the American colonists was Robert Irwin, junior, who came from the east in 1817, and who was followed two years later by Daniel Whitney, the founder of the city of Green Bay. In 1822-23 Robert Irwin, senior, and his son, Alexander J. Irwin, prominent both in political and social life, joined their fortunes with the other Americans at the Bay, and in 1821 came Albert G. Ellis, eminent among the early educators of the state and later surveyor general of the territory of Wisconsin. It was fortunate that men of high character and sterling worth, all of whom were
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
active in promoting the best interests of Brown county, should have been instru- mental in its early settlement.
There was no village bearing the name of Green Bay for many years subse- quent, although "the bay" continued to be a designation for the settlements in its vicinity. In 1820, Colonel Joseph Lee Smith, commandant at Fort Howard, decided to move the cantonment to the high land midway between the mouth of the river and the Rapides des Pères, intending to erect stone fortifications, the stone to be quarried from the limestone ledge over which the rapids rushed. A detachment of troops was detailed to erect the buildings, which were placed on the high ground overlooking a wide stretch of country. Between the stockade and the river were built into the banks which rose quite steeply from the river's shore, a line of oddly constructed cabins, where all kinds of articles were sold for the convenience of the garrison. These curious dwellings with their stout door jambs and roofing of timber were situated all along the stretch of river bottom below the rising ground, and because of their lowly appearance and rough construction were called "shanties." From this grew the name of "Shanty- town," a title dear to the hearts of the old residents of this fair and fertile slope.
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