USA > Wisconsin > Brown County > History of Brown County, Wisconsin, past and present, Volume I > Part 16
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In 1817, a French gentleman, Monsieur Carron and his wife were detained in the hamlet for a few months on their way to St. Louis and were induced to open in the interim a boarding and day school in a house belonging to Judge Lawe. This was the first regular school organized in Brown county. Later in the year a petition written in French and English and signed by Major Whistler, Louis Grignon, John Lawe and others was circulated, wherein it was stated that Thomas S. Johnson of New York city, proposed to open a school or seminary near the fort for teaching reading, writing, arithmetic and the English language.
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
Thirty-three children from the fort and village attended the Green Bay "semi- mary," but as barely one year had elapsed since the first coming of the Americans, feeling between the children as well as among the older people was antagonistic. The oddly dressed little natives were brought across the river each morning for the day's schooling, but the difference in dress and breeding were constant cause for dissension ; the French youngsters jeered the "Bostonians" or Yankees, who, no doubt, returned insults in kind and fierce squabbles resulted. The cost of tuition in this pioneer school was five dollars per quarter.
This effort at education proving unsuccessful, nothing further was done until 1820, when one Jean Baptiste St. Jacobs essayed to instruct the youth of this vicinity. An agreement drawn up between him and his patrons stipulates that the latter are to pay "twenty dollars for one child, and quantity of vegitables," a schoolroom to be provided free of expense. The year following Mr. St. Jacobs bewails his sad lot in a letter written to John Lawe, saying: "I have twenty four Scholars, but I suppose half will pay and the others will not pay very well," and confesses that he, himself, is "a poor reatch." After a vain attempt to make both ends meet St. Jacobs abandoned the school, writing to Lawe from his retreat on the Menominee river that had he "been incourage to keep a school at the Bay I should be there yet, but one Gallon Pease, 15 lbs. Pork per Month was
not anueff to supp me. * I could not make a Livelywood on 1 Gallon Pcase 15 lbs. Pork per Month." It must be said that St. Jacobs taught a French school, and he was doubtless more proficient in the common branches of learning in that language than in English.
At a meeting of the citizens of Green Bay in 1821 it was resolved :
Ist. That a subscription should be set on foot and measures taken for the erection of a suitable building for a schoolhouse ;
2d. That when a tutor shall be obtained and instruction commenced the subject of religion as it regards the difference of sects shall be excluded from the school, as it is presumed the subscribers will be of various denominations of Christians ;
3d. That the erection of the building and superintendence of the school rules established be assigned to four persons chosen by a majority of the subscribers.
4th. That every person having subscribed and paid five dollars shall be en- titled to a vote touching any matter relative to the school or schoolhouse to be established.
5th. That Messrs. John Lawe. Jacques Porlier, George Johnson and Louis Grignon be requested to take the necessary steps to carry these resolutions into effect and that Mr. John Lawe be requested to receive such pecuniary subscrip- tions as may be made in materials or labor. Signed, John Biddle.
By 1827 it was manifest that comparatively few Indians of the New York tribes had immigrated westward and that fewer still had any purpose of coming. The reservation, twelve miles from Green Bay, had been set off for their use in 1825, and here a settlement had been formed but there were constant warring factions not only rousing discontent between the first and second Christian parties and the pagan party among the Oneidas, but also fostering dissension among the Menominees and resistance to the ratification of the treaty made by them. Wil- liams was not a man strong enough to constitute himself a leader among these diverse factions and to bring harmony out of the muddle, and accordingly in
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
1827, an attempt was made in this direction by government. A treaty known as that of Little Butte des Morts was made with the Menominees by Governor Lewis Cass and Thomas L. Mckinney, long an agent for the Indian tribes in Michilimackinac and the Green Bay region. In this treaty even the manifestly just claims of the New York Indians were almost entirely ignored. In the con- tention which arose against the ratification of this treaty Eleazer Williams ap- peared before President Adams as the representative of the St. Regis tribe.
Strong influence was brought to bear in maintaining the rights of the Oneidas and the other tribes by senators from New York, for these Indians were still regarded as wards of that state; therefore, in 1830, the United States govern- ment essayed yet again to adjust the critical situation by sending to Green Bay three commissioners, General Erastus Root, James McCall and J. T. Mason, to confer with the disgruntled tribes.
For the attitude of the New York Indians McCall seemed to hold Williams in part at least responsible, "he has the advantage of a liberal education and is said to be a cunning man, and claims in right of his wife a large tract of land."
McCall's journal kept with careful notes of the negotiations and also of the country and inhabitants is a diverting bit of historical data. "August 10th, 1830, Arrived in Fox river-Green Bay fort-about ten o'clock. Landded first at
* left some passengers and goods, then dropped down Shanty Town, * *
to Judge John P. Arndt's.
*
*
%
Navirino is the name of the village opposite
the fort. * * The steamboat got under way at 7 o'clock p. m. to return to Detroit." A bateau with a voyageur crew was furnished for the commissioners by Judge Arndt and they proceeded up the river, McCall commenting on the way on all that occurred. "Mr. Eleazer Williams is a half blood St. Regis, with a half Blood Menominie wife. He is paid by government $250 annually as chap- lain for the Oneida Indians. I expect he will make us difficulty in satisfying the New York Indians, in making them believe their claim is more extensive than it is. Note : it is common in this region for the business men to marry those half Blood Ladies."
The commissioners stopped at the mission house near where Kaukauna stands today. and where the settlement of the Stockbridges began on the east side of the river. The Presbyterian organization at this place was the first to hold service in Brown county or Wisconsin, and was under the supervision of Rev. Cutting Marsh. McCall reports it as in most prosperous condition, and here the party halted for a day before proceeding to the village of the Winny- bagoes at Doty Island.
Four Legs. head chief of the Winnebagoes for many years, received the com- missioners on the shores of Lake Winnebago, "seated on his Mat cross-legged. in all the majesty of an Asiatic prince. After a profound silence he arose from his seat and shook hands with each of us." Four Legs' speech was given in the Winnebago tongue and interpreted by a chief named "The Duck" in the Chip- pewa to Connor, who as interpreter for the commissioners in turn translated it to them. The difference in dialect among Indians of this region made it especially difficult to communicate with them, the Menominees not understanding that of the Winnebagoes or the Oneidas and vice versa. Four Legs said: "When the Wappenackys (Oneidas) came to this country I was the first to take them by hand. They asked us for a small piece of land to raise bread for their children.
DANIEL BREAD, HEAD CHIEF OF THE ONEIDAS
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
At first few came, but since, they have been coming every year in great numbers, as though they would claim the whole country in spite of us."
Arrangements having been made with the Stockbridges and Winnebagoes for a council to be held on Tuesday, August 24th, in a council house which Judge Arndt had covenanted to build for this purpose near his house and close to the river, the commissioners made the return trip to Green Bay. On the day ap- pointed the council convened in a "Bowery covered with Boards," as McCall describes it, and with capacity for five hundred people. On Sunday the first installment arrived; fourteen canoe loads came down the river and four or five up the bay. On Monday, the twenty-third, a fleet of sixty canoes loaded with Indians came to port, augmenting the number to about 1,200. At night revelling and drunkenness began, and the commissioners found it impossible to enforce the law prohibiting the sale of liquor to the Indians. S. C. Stambaugh, the Indian agent at Green Bay, acted as secretary for the council, Connor as interpreter, and there were delegates from the Oneida, Stockbridge, Tuscarora and Brother- town Indians, "private gentlemen, French and a motley crew of mixed and full
blood Indians *
* Invited Four Legs, a Winnebago chief, to dine with sundry gentlemen. This man about forty years of age is the most interesting man in his appearance and deportment. Speaks in his own tongue fluently and forcible. In short, he is a great man."
The names of the great chiefs attending this famous and final council between the western tribes and the New York Indians were: For the St. Regis-Rev. Eleazer Williams; Brothertown-William Dick, N. Towles and John Johnson. Oneidas-John Anthony, Daniel Bread, Henry Powless, Comly Stevans, Ned Atsequitt. Stockbridge-John Metoxen, John W. Quinney, B. Kunkipot, Jacob Cheaks and Andrew Miller.
The Winnebago chiefs were: Hoot-Schoop or Four Legs; Shounk-tshunk or Black Wolf : Wheank-Kaw or Big Duck : Monk-kaw-kaw.
The Menominee chiefs were: Oshkosh-The Brave ; Carron-Josette : Pono- we-gon-na-Big Soldier; Kaush-kaw-no-nawe-Bear's Grease; Pe-wit-ta-nit- The Rain ; Wa-ba-se-The Hare : Mha-nanon-pork-The Wave ; Tau-kau-mha. ki-chin-Little Chief : Tche-nawn-pau-ma-All looks upon.
The Menominees clamored that they should be allowed an interpreter and chose that one of the Grignons be given the position. A French woman acted as interpreter for the Winnebagoes, and Connor translated the various dialects into English. By Friday, McCall records that 1,740 Indians in all had arrived. The Winnebagoes and Menominees through their chiefs, Four Legs and Osh- kosh, absolutely repudiated any treaty prior to that of 1827, declaring that not one inch more of land would they cede to their. brethren from the east and in this decision they were upheld by their tribes.
Meantime private dissensions arose between the commissioners, Root and Mason. "Agreed to invite some of the officers from the fort and some, private gentlemen to dinner and about fourteen chiefs. About the time of dining some words passed between General Root and Mr. Mason in relation to the invitations to dinner, some of the company present refused to sit at the table. and some very hard words passed to the mortification and dissatisfaction of all present, and the whole was confusion." In this exhibit of choleric temper and dissipation, among undisciplined white and red men, the conduct of the Oneidas
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
seems to have been admirable. Calm, sober, unruffled under the guidance of their great chiefs, Bread and Anthony, they, and indeed all the eastern tribes seemed part of another race from the wild Winnebagoes and crafty Menominees. "At night a band of the Winnebagoes appeared painted all colors-not only their faces but their bodies-before the door of the house where we boarded, encour- aged by some, and treated by others with whiskey. They held the war dance and kept it up until ten o'clock at night, with all their disfigyred and distorted coun- tenances-naked except breech clouts. All with some kind of warlike weapon and horrid yell made them resemble so many infernals."
At the end of a week there seemed some prospect of agreement among the contestants. Each day the commissioners and their retinue met in council. After the quarrel between the principals "public table" was discontinued, but the chiefs were still invited and those among the white men who were con- nected with the council, and it remains a marvel how this great company could have been furnished with excellent meals day after day even with the efficient management of Judge Arndt. The large concourse of Indians with the excep- tion of the chiefs, camped all along the river shore to the number of seventeen hundred, in wigwams or conical houses which they constructed quickly and effectively by driving stakes in the ground, young, casily bent saplings,-then tying these strongly at the top, and covering the whole with woven mats of puckaway grass.
In this encampment of nearly two thousand savages, with white men passing among them and instigating them to evil doing, there were constant brawls and outbreaks. The whole affair recalls the days when Nicholas Perrot led his great bands of Indians to Montreal for the annual turning in of peltries. One of the soldiers from Fort Howard placed as guard over a field of potatoes near the Indian encampment got drunk and immediately proceeded to stab Big Soldier, a harmless old chief of the Menominees; this circumstance added to the clamor and caused much ill feeling, although the wounded brave's anger was appeased by the gift of a blanket, a shirt, and some tobacco, 11 pounds of pork, I barrel of flour and 3 bushels of corn.
The ultimatum of the assembled chiefs among the Winnebagoes and Meno- minees was that they would allow the New York Indians land extending from the Little Butte des Morts on the northwest side of Fox river, Brown county, to the head of the rapids : then north about thirty miles and ten miles and a half wide, making a strip in all of about 201,600 acres of land. This was something less than one-third of the amount asked by the New York Indians. "At evening the Winnebagoes held another war dance in which the head chief, Four Legs, displayed great activity."
The New York Indians finally agreed to accept this proposition as they said they desired to live in peace with their brethren the Winnebagoes and Meno- minees, both tribes declaring emphatically that they would give no more, "they would not, and as Four Legs, who was speaking made his last expression he seized his sword as though he would go to war first." Then came the settling up of expenses incurred and the signing of necessary papers. The whole cost of this great concourse was $2,664.98, this amount being paid largely for pork, flour and corn to feed the 1.740 Indians in the encampment and the followers among the white residents. A surveyor. A. G. Ellis, was sent out immediately
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
to make the necessary surveys of the land deeded, and McCall made an attempt to visit the Oneida settlement at Duck Creek but got mired in an ash swamp, with difficulty rescued his horse and returned without reaching his destination. He saw enough of the country, however, to convince him that the Oneidas had fared well in the treaty just concluded.
Samuel C. Stambaugh was appointed Indian agent at Green Bay by Presi- dent Jackson in 1831, succeeding Major Brevoort, and in the fall of that year took a delegation of Indians on his own responsibility to treat with government for a cession of a portion of their lands. Later the treaty made at that time, February 9. 1831, called the "Stambaugh treaty," was repudiated by the Menomi- nees although from their request that he be the person selected to lead them to the Black Hawk war it might be thought that personally he was a favorite with them. Stambaugh's report on "The quality and condition of Wisconsin Terri- tory. 1831," made in compliance with instructions from the war department is an interesting and valuable document, a minute description of the country, its population and characteristics.
"Green Bay settlement ( Menomineeville ) in the township of Green Bay is the seat of justice for Brown county ; and is situated immediately at the head of the bay in 44º 4om of N. Latitude, and 79º of W. Longitude. It embraces a tract of country commencing at a point about half a mile above the entrance of Fox river and extends up and along the river on both sides, six miles run- ning back on each side, three miles so as to form a square containing a town- ship or twenty-three thousand and forty acres of land." This included the set- tlements at De Pere, Menomineeville and Navarino, but later in this report there is mention of "Bay Settlement" made up at that time of French and Creoles, who had cleared and cultivated several hundred acres of land, and which was the only white settlement on the Green Bay peninsula outside of the confirmed claims. "Between this settlement and the Green Bay settlement there is a very extensive prairie, which is very valuable as a meadow on account of its conven- ience to those settlements. The Mountain or ledge of rocks which extends from the east side of Lake Winnebago the whole length of the Peninsula to Green Bay approaches this settlement at the nearest point * * within a distance
of six miles. * * A very conspicuous promontory called the Red Banks
* at the highest point is about a hundred feet above the level of the bay. The ground of these banks presents the appearance of having once been under cultivation, probably by the early French settlers." (Vol. 15.) The corn fields commented on by Stambaugh dated back much farther than the coming of the first French settlers, and were those planted by the Indians in prehistoric times. The Indian fort which crowned Red Banks was the one constructed by the Winne- bagoes ( Puants) when entrenched upon this conspicuous promontory they defied for perhaps centuries,-the length of time can only be computed from legendary sources, the other and less powerful tribes about Green Bay. Around the heights of Red Banks cling many Indian legends relating to the first coming of the Winnebagoes to their "Garden of Eden," and to the great and decisive battle which many years after depleted the tribe so that they were never again as strong in numbers and influence as before.
Legend of the Red Banks, by Charles D. Robinson, as related by Onoka, a Menominee squaw of great age and intelligence :
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
"Upon a high bank, on the eastern shore of Green Bay, about twelve miles north of the town, is an interesting earthwork, bearing a singular resemblance to military defences of modern times. Its walls, at one time, must have been some seven feet in height, or thereabouts, having a ditch or moat on the outside, and provided on its three exposed sides with regular bastions. Its fourth side fronts on a precipice of perhaps one hundred feet in height, whose base is washed by the waters of the bay : and leading down this steep bank impassable at any other immediate point. is what seems to have been once a protected passage cut into the clay, and perhaps covered with boughs of trees. This was the communi- cation from the fort to the water ; and standing here now, it needs but little fancy to see those grim warriors of the olden time filing down their covered way, with less of the pomp, and more of the nerve of the mailed knights of feudal days, issuing from their rock-bound castles.
"In, or near the center, are two parallel walls, about twenty-five feet long, which were probably united at the ends, as there is some appearance of it now. It is very difficult to imagine the use of this part of the structure, unless it was to protect the valuables, or such inmates of the fort as were incapable of aiding its defense. llad the place been constructed in these days, it would have made a magazine of the most approved kind. A few rods to the north, outside the walls, and on the very brink of the precipice, is what was once apparently, a look-out-a mound of earth, a few feet high, now half carried off by the wearing away of the cliff. To the southward and eastward of the fort occupying some hundreds of acres, were the planting grounds of the people who inhabited the place. Large trees now overgrow the ground, yet the fur- rows are as distinctly marked as if made but last year, and are surprisingly regular. The whole work is admirably placed, and would do credit to the fore- thought and judgment so necessary in correct military positions of modern times."
This is the only ancient earthwork, it is believed, which possesses an un- doubted history or tradition, and that is but the history of its fall. When, and by whom it was built, there is no story-nothing but the persistent declarations of the Indians of the vicinity that it was the work of red men long, long ago. The tradition which follows, is related by O Kee-Wah, or The Sea, an Indian woman living now near the Red river, on the eastern shore of Green Bay, and who, beyond doubt, is upwards of one hundred years of age. She sat over a wig- wam fire, only a few nights ago and related this story, while the light of other days faintly illumined her face as she marked out in the ashes the plan of the campaign ; and as she told of the long days of desperate fighting, in which her ancestors engaged, her withered arms seemed nerved with the strength of youth, like the old soldier, who
-"Shouldered his crutch, And fought his battles o'er again."
"It was long ago," said O Kee-Wah-"I was so high"-placing her hand about three feet from the ground, "when my grandfather told me the story. The Sauks and the Ontagamies lived in the old fort at Red Banks. They had lived there a long time, and had their planting grounds there, and ruled the whole country. The forests castward were full of deer, the waters of the bay were full
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
of fish, and they possessed the whole. We (the Menominees) lived over the bay (at the Menominee river), and we sent down the lakes, inviting the other tribes to come up and help us drive out the Sauks and the Outagamies. They came in canoes-the Chippewas, and Pottawatomies, and Ottawas, and many more. You see how wide this bay is; their canoes stretched half way across : the bay was half full of canoes, and each canoe was full of fighting men ; they sent their greatest braves. They landed here at the Red river, after coming across from Menominee, and for two miles along the beach their canoes were so thick that no more could be crowded in. From here they all went. in the night to the Red Banks. They had bows and arrows, and the heads of the arrow's were of flint. Silently they paddled along until they came to the fort, and then the canoes were stationed all along in front, out of reach of arrows from the shore. A part of the warriors stayed in the canoes, and a part went on shore and formed a line around the fort, so that, with those on shore and those on the water, it was completely surrounded, and there was no escape for the people inside. So cautiously was all this done, that of all within that fated fort, but one discovered it. A young woman, whose parents lived within the walls, had that day been given, against her will, to be the wife of one of the Sauks living in the immediate vicinity. In the night she ran away from his wigwani and went home passing on her way the lines of the besiegers. Rushing into the fort, she awakened her family, with the cry, 'we are all dead.' The father laughed at her story, and laid down to sleep again.
"Just before daylight the battle began, and it lasted many days. The besieged fought bravely, standing in the trenches within the walls, and the blood was up to their ankles. They had no water, for the supply was cut off by the party on the beach. They tried in every way to obtain it. Vessels attached to cords were let down to the water by night, but the cords were cut before they could be drawn up. 'Come down and drink,' eried out the Menominees ; 'here is plenty of water, if you dare to come down and get it.' And they did go down many times. These taunts, and their great necessity, made that narrow way the scene of many desperate sallies, but all to no purpose. The besiegers were too strong.
"The heat of the burning sun, and the dreadful suffering for the want of water became intolerable. Some rain fell once, but it was only a partial relief for those who were perishing in the sight of that sparkling water which was almost within reach. At length one of the youngest chiefs, after fasting strictly for ten days, thus addressed his companions: 'Listen-last night there stood by me the form of a young man clothed in white, who said: "I was alive once- was dead, and now live forever ; only trust in me, now and always, and I will deliver you. Fear not. At midnight I will cast a deep sleep upon your enemies. Then go forth boldly and silently, and you shall escape.'"
"Thus encouraged, and knowing this to be a direct revelation, the besieged warriors decided to leave the fort. That night an unusual silence pervaded the whole host of their enemies, who had been before so wakeful. So in silent. stealthy lines, the wearied people passed out and fled. Only a few who dis- believed the vision, preferred to remain, and they were massacred with fiercer
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