USA > Wisconsin > Brown County > History of Brown County, Wisconsin, past and present, Volume I > Part 36
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The net proceeds of the Green Bay postoffice according to the government
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
1 .. SŁA.
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CITY HALL, GREEN BAY
1.1
FEDERAL BUILDING, GREEN BAY
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
census of 1840, averaged $682.69, as the entire population of Brown county at that time was 2,107. On the seventh of June, 1838, proposals were invited by the postmaster general for carrying the mail from January 1, 1838 to June 30, 1842 on the different post routes throughout the territory. The majority had weekly service, but on five of the routes it was to be carried tri-weekly. These were from Milwaukee to Green Bay and Green Bay to Fort Winnebago. From Chicago to Milwaukee, four-horse post coaches were to be used, but on the majority of routes the carrier on foot was the accepted mode of mail transporta- tion. There was not a daily mail throughout Wisconsin territory.
On August 20, 1846, the "Mail Arrangements" were as follows :
GREEN BAY POSTOFFICE
The mail leaves for Milwaukee via Sheboygan, Mondays at 4 o'clock, A. M. Via Fond du Lac on Thursdays at 4 o'clock. A. M. Arrives via Sheboygan on Wednesdays at 6 o'clock A. M. Via Fond du Lac on Saturdays at 7 P. M.
Mails close on Sunday and Wednesday evenings at 8 o'clock P. M. Letters should be deposited in the office by 7 o'clock P. M.
The office will be open on Sundays from 8 to 9 A. M. and from 6 to 7 P. M. for the reception of letters to be prepaid.
J. S. Fisk, P. M.
In large black type under date of March 16, 1848, the Advocate advertises
"MAIL LOST"
"We hear that the U. S. Mail was lost on Tuesday, the 14th inst, on the Milwaukee and Green Bay route, some ten or fifteen miles beyond Fond du Lac. We do not hear particulars."
The mail was at that date carried in a wagon and it was supposed and the explanation given that the mail had been stolen. Paul Juneau and fifteen others. started from Milwaukee in search of the robbers but with fruitless result.
In the morning two Indians, Kittatanee and Weseyre, came in and informed Narcisse Juneau that they had found a mail bag in the road. Narcisse immedi- ately went after it and found its contents all safe, and just as it had dropped from the wagon of the careless mail carrier. Among new post routes established by a bill passed August 26, 1850, are noted the following for Brown county. From Green Bay, via: Bridgeport ( Wrightstown), Konomac. Menasha, Wanekuna, Omro, Waukaut, Berlin, Bluffton, Namahhkun, Marquette, Kingston and Belle- fontaine to Fort Winnebago. From Green Bay, via : Okanto, Mouth of Menom- inee River, Cedar Fork, Eskanawba, Wooster, Iron Mountain, Mouth of Carp River, and L'Anse to Copper Harbor. From Green Bay to Sturgeon Bay. From Green Bay to Kewaunee. From Green Bay, via : Neenah and Wisconsin Rivers to Prairie du Chien. From Two Rivers to Green Bay.
The long lists of uncalled for letters in the Green Bay postoffice during the '50s were for the benefit of the towns throughout the county, the residents only coming occasionally to town for the mait. At the end of each list is advertised Foreign Letters, indicative of the large crowd of immigrants coming to Wis- consin without as yet any settled place of abode.
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
In 1854 the schedule of routes is published and shows that the mail from Fond du Lac was delivered three times a week, leaving Green Bay on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 4 A. M. and reaching Fond du Lac the same day at 10 P. M. During the season of navigation, mail was received from Two Rivers three times a week, but the regular mail from Sheboygan only came twice a week ; once a week from Stockbridge. Bids for carrying the mail were called for in Washington, and the contract ran for four years. The population of the county had increased in 1850, to 6,153, but that also included, beside the bay towns, territory south to Grand Chute.
On August 17. 1861, it is recorded that. "By mail coaches we have had the mail every day at 4 o'clock."
The mail service for Lake Superior under the management of Captain Daniel M. Whitney, "who directs the motions of the Swan," was an unusually well managed route. The mail steamer Swan took in the bay circuit with its ter- minus. Bay de Noquet, from there by pony express the mails were carried to the Lake Superior country. In speaking of Captain Whitney's appointment as special mail agent the Press remarks: "If there are any emoluments we con- gratulate the Captain for dear knows his Sheriff's office is mighty poor pay just now."
When daily boats ran between the railway terminus in the Fox river valley and Green Bay, the mails were usually sent that way during the summer, but in winter the mail coach brought letters and papers from the eastern and southern outside world. With the coming of the railroad the mail coach and boat dis- appeared in the river towns as a bearer of mail, but continued for the county at large and the bay towns until the continuation of the Chicago & Northwestern line to the Lake Superior country in 1871. The rural delivery established by government, now delivers a daily mail throughout Brown county and every farmer's house has at its gate a mail box for the daily newspaper and letter.
As towns were set off throughout the county, postoffices were established at the points distant from mail centers, for the distribution of mail. . A post- office was established at Cooperstown as early as 1848, with Allen A. Cooper as postmaster. In June 19, 1856, the Wequiock postoffice was in operation with John B. A. Masse, postmaster in charge, and doubtless there were others in towns throughout the county at an early day. At the city of Green Bay today, although all trains do not carry mails, there are 24 mails despatched each day, except Sundays, by railway trains and 22 mails received. The postal sales for the calendar year 1912 were $86,428.66.
WATER TRANSPORTATION
During the past two hundred years a great variety of boats have been used in navigating the river and bay, the first and most widely constructed being the birch bark canoe. This graceful, gondola-shaped craft, its building and use is minutely described by Baron LaHontan in 1684. He tells of how the large clean pieces of bark are stripped from the tree, the workman being very careful to select the smoothest and most satiny sections and to peel it from the trunk with extreme care in order to preserve it in a large unmarred square, the bark being soaked with hot water in the winter season to make it peel easily.
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
"The bottom of the Boat is all of one piece to which the sides are so artfully sewed by the savages that the whole Boat appears as one continued Bark. They are trimm'd and strengthen'd with wicker Wreaths and ribs of Cedar-wood, which are almost as light as Cork; the Wreaths are as thick as a Crownpiece; but the bark has the thickness of two Crowns, and the Ribs are as thick as three.
"They are very convenient upon the account of their extreme lightness and the drawing of very little water; but at the same time their brittle and tender Fabrick is, an argument of an equivalent inconveniency ; for if they do but touch or grate upon Stone or Sand the cracks of the Bark fly open upon which the Water gets in and spoils the Provisions and Merchandise. Every day there is some new chink or seam to be gummed over." ( LaHontan.)
The batteau came with the necessity of the fur trade which required stouter boats in which to transport merchandise and peltries. These batteaux were dark heavily built structures about thirty feet in length. The Canadian boatman who paddled or rowed this clumsy craft always sang at his task, keeping time in exact rhythm to the beat of the oar. The "Bourgeoise" or captain of the crew usually led the song, the crew coming in with a chorus, as for instance :
"Bourgeoise ; Par derriere chez ma tante, Par derriere chez ma tante Chorus ; Par derriere chez ma tante. Par derriere chez ma tante."
and so on through an endless number of verses.
"The batteau or canoe was manned, according to size and capacity, by a crew consisting of from four to ten Canadian voyageurs. The Canadian voyageurs came originally from Canada, principally from Quebec and Montreal. They were employed by the principal traders, under written contracts, executed in Canada, for a term from three to five years, their wages from two hundred and fifty livres to seven hundred and fifty livres per year, to which was added what was termed an "outfit," consisting of a Mackinaw blanket, two cotton shirts, a capote or loose sack coat, two pairs of coarse pants, shoes, and socks, and some other small articles, including soap. Their food, when in the "wintering ground," con- sisted for the greater portion of the time, of corn and tallow, occasionally enriched by a piece of pork or venison and bear meat when they happened to be plenty. With this spare and simple diet, they were always healthy and always cheerful and happy. Their power of endurance was astonishing and they would row or paddle all day, and when necessary would carry on their backs, suspended by a strap or band crossing their breast or forehead, large packs of furs or mer- chandise, weighing from one hundred to one hundred and thirty pounds, for whole days. In the spring of the year, they returned to their settlements or principal trading posts, to spend the summer months in comparative ease, and in the enjoyments of the pastimes and frolics they so highly prized. Always improvi- dent, openhearted and convivial, they saved nothing, nor thought of the wants of the future, but spent freely the whole of their hard-earned and scanty wages in a few weeks of their stay among their friends.
It is supposed that the first vessel to float on Green Bay's waters was La Salle's "Griffen." The first steamboat was "Walk in the Water."
John P. Arndt who with Daniel Whitney was ever foremost in commercial
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
improvements built a Durham boat in 1825, the first to navigate the waters of the Fox. The boat was equipped and loaded with a stock of goods for Fever river (now Galena) in the lead mine region, the idea being to reload with lead and bring it by way of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers to Green Bay. After one year's trial the scheme was abandoned as impracticable as the boat must be carried across the portage usually by ox team. The Durham boat of which much use was made on Fox river at an early day was built primarily to navigate streams with rapids and shallow water. It was of simple build, from forty- five to sixty feet in length, ten to twelve feet beam.
In building the first Durham Arndt had difficulty in procuring the right kind of lumber. "Plank was required from twenty to thirty feet long, both pine and oak. The mills of Brown county had not heretofore sawed lumber of that length, and a whip saw was the only resource. The timber was cut the proper lengths, hewn on two sides and by the use of two men and a whip saw made into lumber. In some of the old houses in this vicinity, whip sawed lumber can still be found, marking the days when sawmills were scarce and small. The prin- cipal propelling power of the Durham boat was the socket pole with a good strong man at the other end of it. The pole was made of the best and tough- est white ash, fifteen feet long, one and a quarter inches in its largest part, and tapering to one and one-half inches at the top on which was placed a button to ease the pressure on the shoulder. The pocket was of iron, armed with a square steel point, well tempered and kept sharp. The ordinary oar was seldom used, although one for each man was provided in case of need. A mast, sail and oilcloths were a part of the outfit, beside a heavy block and tackle and a long tow line.
"The French voyageur with his batteau carrying a crew of ten or twelve men and not quite half the amount of freight transported in the Durham boat, looked askance at this marked innovation in river travel, and prophesied that the craft was 'too big' and they could not get her 'over the rapids' and so forth, but in the end the Durham won out and kept in the front until the steamboat on an improved river took its place." (Arndt, Fox River. )
Six men was the ordinary crew besides the captain or steersman. Three poles were set on each side of the boat, and the men quickly and deftly in regular order, by a twist of the wrist and the help of the right knee threw the pole into posi- tion, walked to the stern end of the boat, returned the pole, set again and became so proficient in its use that they easily covered the distance of three miles or a little more in one hour in a heavily loaded boat. The Durham boat became the accepted vehicle for transportation on the Fox until the "Aquila," the first steam- boat of the Fox and Wisconsin improvement made its way through the chain of locks and amid general rejoicing landed at Green Bay.
The following is a record of the season's navigation in 1835, copied from day book of that date. List of boats entering and leaving Fox river in 1835 :
May 22-Little sloop called Frances; Jesse Smith from Chicago, Captain Dillyoir.
June 8-The schooner Supply.
June 11-Steamboat Jefferson.
June 20-Sloop Frances; Schooner Ohio.
June 21-Steamboat Michigan.
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
July 7-Steamer Uncle Sam ; Schooner Jesse Smith ; Schooner Detroit.
July 8-Schooner Minerva ; Schooner Marshall Ney.
July 13-Steamboat U. S.
July 23-Mariner & Brig Kinzie.
July 24-Steamboat Michigan.
July 26-Nancy Dousman and the New York; The Gen Warren.
Aug. 11-Schooner Swan.
Aug. 18-Marshall Ney.
Aug. 20-The Bridget from Chicago; The Jesse Smith, Chicago; The Jeffer- son from Detroit ; The Mariner ; The Chancy, a small craft from Staten Island.
Sept. 1-Steamboat Pennsylvania.
Sept. 2-The New York.
Oct. 10-The White Pigcon.
Oct. 12-The Brig Kinzie: Steamer United States.
Oct. 14-Sloop Frances.
Oct. 15-Steamboat Monroe.
Oct. 20-The Mariner.
Oct. 21-The Detroit.
Nov. 2-The Commerce.
Nov. 7-The Gen. Harrison ; Detroit from Mackinaw.
This list gives the class of boats navigating the bay and river as far as De Pere, up to the completion of the improvement, when steamboats as well as Dur- ham boats were able to make the trip between Green Bay and Lake Winnebago.
The schooner was the mode of transportation for lumber on the bay. It is reported in a letter written in 1850, that the docks look busy, but that there is a strange lethargy brooding over the streets of Green Bay and De Pere. Fort Howard is reported as more lively, but the reason assigned for this lack of busi- ness energy and push is first, the great tracts of land including much of the town owned by the American Fur Company magnates and the heirs to their estates : second, the military lands owned by the government or by officers who have in former times been stationed at the garrison, by the prevailing inefficiency and sloth of the French Canadians who depended on fishing and hunting for a livelihood, and also to the very ease with which people could get food and fuel alinost without money or price. A certain amount had been appropriated by the Fox River Improvement Company toward the building of docks, warehouses, barges and boats. Two freight barges of two hundred tons each were con- structed, one freight propeller, of one hundred and forty tons and one steamer, the Aquila, of the largest size capable of navigating the river. In addition they report one barge as still on the stocks making an aggregate of nine hundred and forty tons ready for the season of 1855.
The exports from Green Bay in 1854. for the year were :
7,835,000 feet of lumber $70,680
2,236 barrels of fish. 16,282
21,110,000 shingles. 43,973
200 cords of bolts. 1,000
100,000 feet of timber 6,000
4.383 bushels of wheat. 5.483
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
162 casks of ashes ( pearl ) 3,000
1.385 dozen pails. 3,010
6,150 pounds of butter 1,230
950,000 lath. 1,900
Produce ( vegetables ) 3,000
From the bay shore was brought and shipped from the Green Bay port twenty- one million feet of lumber, and four thousand barrels of fish, making a total in valuation of $180,000.
In 1856, five sail vessels of a morning might be seen on Fox river waiting for a favorable wind to take them to Chicago and Milwaukee. The Congress, India Undine, etc., all heavily laden with lumber. During the winter not a transportation line advertised, but early in the spring the boats bloomed out with new paint and attractive advertisements.
Between Buffalo and Green Bay "the splendid low pressure steamer Mich- igan, Captain A. Stewart in command," cleared alternately every two weeks from the port of Green Bay and Buffalo. John and Lewis Day were freight agents for this steamer, which probably ran for more years and was more fami- liar to the people of this part of the country than any boat that preceded or followed her. The Day Brothers did a lucrative transportation business, beside being dealers in fish and lumber. Docks were built by them, by the firm of Whit- ney & Goodell, and by other river and bay transportation companies.
Daniel M. Whitney's lines of boats were manifold during the '50s and early `6os and the Fox & Wisconsin Transportation Company under the management of Charles W. and William H. Green in 1856, seem to have been kept busy with a prosperous trade. Between Green Bay and Chicago ran the steamer Columbia, operated by the Days. With Captain Glazier in command, it plied regularly be- tween those ports leaving the dock at Green Bay at seven in the evening every ten days, and on the Green line ran the Lorrimer and Cleveland for Chicago. On the river the Fannie Fisk made trips three times a week, and the Pioneer Aquila and Morgan L. Martin, all on the completion of the locks filled the tri- weekly schedule to Menasha. "Those with time can do no better than to put it in with Captain Whitney" was the slogan of the press notices of that day in recommending passenger traffic on the river. In war times the river boats Bay City, Fountain City and Berlin City, under the management of E. A. Buck, did a thriving business.
In February, 1862, the Appleton Belle a "little witch of a steamer" which used to run on the old Fox between Fond du Lac and Green Bay turned rebel and was burned on the Tennessee river on the approach of a Federal expedition.
Captain Loy of De Pere was a successful steamboat captain and manager for a number of years, and built not a few of the old time river steamboats. He was a popular captain in the steamboat line as well as in the army, and his boat, the Elwood Loy, was regarded as one of the smartest on the river. A much liked clerk on the river boats was Reuben Doud, with "his pseudo-comic coun- tenance" who in after years became a wealthy lumberman.
The lodging house at one of the sparsely populated river ports is thus de- scribed : "The Captain would have been somewhat disappointed I reckon if he had seen that night how we warmed ourselves thankfully by the big fireplace
VIEW OF FOX RIVER, LOOKING NORTH
THEN 1 PUBLIC LII !!! --
-
AUTOR, LEMAX L' TILABA FOUNDATION.
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
which flanked one side of the house, casting a fitful light over the bed of the host and hostess, over the trundle bed of the little folks, over the dining table, cooking stove, the rifle on the mantel, the ladder that led to the upper floor, the watch dog that dozed on the hearth."
In 1867 the fine side wheelers Saginaw and George L. Dunlap, made daily trips to Escanaba, where connection was made with the Lake Superior branch of the Northwestern Railroad, which had been built from Marquette to that port. The Rocket and Comet commanded respectively by Captain George Gaylord and Captain Martin Lake were the favorite route to Buffalo during the warm weather.
Immediately after the close of the war, the steamer Swan, proving insuffi- cient for the mail service, the Sarah Van Epps was pressed into the service. This steamer was built at Sorenson's shipyard on the west side of the river, and was familiarly spoken of by her crew and those acquainted with her pecu- liarities as "the Sally." Robert Campbell worked on her two seasons after his return home with the marching 12th. Traffic, both passenger and freight grew, the Sarah Van Epps was an uncertain jade, apt to balk when she had gone no farther than the Long Tail Point lighthouse. The Arrow was added to the list of transportation boats, not the pleasure boat under command of Captain John Dennison, that later took out the youth of the whole surrounding country on jolly excursions, but a narrow unserviceable craft.
The Goodrich Transportation Line in 1873, ran the Depere, Truesdell and Oconto, between Green Bay and Chicago, L. J. Day & Company, agents. El- more and Kelly's Green Bay elevator at Fort Howard was doing a rushing busi- ness as agent of the Lake & River Transportation Company's line of propellers, for the Onondaga Salt Company and for the Green Bay Transit Company and various canal lines from Buffalo. Freight of all kinds was handled at the ele- vator in addition to grain, salt, lime and coal.
Thirty-two years after the list of exports for 1854 the record showed in 1886, 653 boats as arriving with a tonnage of 130,221 and 673 departing, having a tonnage of 133,403.
The port of Green Bay is a busy one. During the past year of 1912, the larg- est imports are hard and soft coal, barley and lumber. Exports barley, oats and lumber.
In 1912 the arrivals are 632, tonnage 483,608, departures 636, with a tonnage of 454.376. A large number of these are great coal barges that unload their sooty freight all along the river from Green Bay to De Pere. Fourteen coal laden boats discharged their cargoes at De Pere. During the past season the boats carried 11, 172 tons of soft coal and 11.256 tons of hard coal. The total amount was 22.428 tons.
UPRIVER BUSINESS
The upriver business done consisted in handling 2,515,470 bushels of barley as imports, and 35,940 tons of soft coal, 8,694 tons of hard coal and 528 tons of cement as exports.
Vol. I-19
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
THE HLAART LINE
By Cyrus F. Hart of Oconto
"The first regular means of transportation between Oconto and Green Bay was established by Captain C. B. Hart, then a boy sixteen years of age. In 1841 his father Edwin Hart purchased a sailing vessel in Green Bay and loaded in it his family of eight children and his wife, their household effects, horses, a cow. a yoke of cattle and then they waited for a week for a fair wind to take them to their new home in the northern wilderness, where the head of the family was to open up a trading post. So one June day, when the wind blew fair they started for Oconto, made the voyage safely and landed there in June, 1841.
"When they reached Oconto the mouth of the river was almost choked with sawdust which had been driven in by a northeast wind and it was with difficulty that the family made a landing from the schooner's skiff which drew but a few inches of water. The mills at Oconto had then just recently been erected and at that time were allowed to dump their sawdust into the river which was car- ried out to the mouth of the stream and whenever there was a wind from the northeast, the refuse was blown back into the river choking its mouth and impeding navigation. There were three mills here at that time, a steam mill owned by Colonel Jones and two water mills up the river one owned by Colonel Jones also, and another by Mr. Hubbell. The only homes were rude shacks sur- rounding these places of industry and they were occupied by the mill hands.
"In those days the mills cut only the best of white pine from the most access- ible places and the capacity of each mill was not more than from 10,000 to 12,000 per day. They were of course operated in the most primitive fashion and it was no trouble for a yoke of oxen to keep each mill clear of lumber. The lumber was piled on rafts and transferred with kedge anchors to the Chicago vessels that were anchored out in the bay to receive it. As many as forty-six sailing vessels would be anchored in the bay at one time in the early days. Later the lumber was towed out on the rafts by tugs. The site of the present city of Oconto was then a tamarack swamp whose intricacies were known only to its wild denizens and to the red man who hunted and trapped in its shady realm. In those days the howl of a wolf was a familiar sound while the screech of a locomotive was as yet unheard. The quavering cry of the loon echoed far across the waters of the bay and the whistling wings of the wild fowl traveling to and from their feeding grounds then assailed the ear rather than the varied and unharmonious noises of modern civilization. On the south side of the Oconto river there was a populous village of Menominees, scores of their cylindrical- shaped wigwams lining the bank of the stream. These wigwams were made of wild rushes woven together into matting by the squaws and they afforded ample protection from the inclement weather. Hundreds of birch bark canoes were moored to the south bank of the river swinging idly with the stream, scores of wigwams lined the river bank above, in irregular rows were the babies strapped to their carved and painted boards which served the Indian youngster for a cradle. In 1852, Captain Hart bought a two-masted open sail boat, and made trips between Oconto and Green Bay as often and as regularly as wind and weather permitted. He ran this boat for one year.
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