USA > Wisconsin > Brown County > History of Brown County, Wisconsin, past and present, Volume I > Part 41
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The town of Suamico was set off from Pittsfield in November, 1857. The district had been an important one from carly times one of the first county roads declared being that between Suamico and Fort Howard, which required from the amount of travel over it that it be attended to and kept in some degree of repair. It was a famous fishing ground in the days when Father Andre lived in the Indian village of Oussaouamigong. The shore of the bay at this point is still largely given over to fishermen's cabins and reels of fish nets and fishing boats are along the shore. The great industry of the '50s and '60s was milling, and along the Big Suamico there were several large sawmills.
Among the first to settle at this point were A. Sensiba, Stephen- Burdon, Charles Kitchen and Willard Lamb, and later A. Bouchard, C. J. Lucia, C. E. Kanute and W. E. Burdeau.
Like the rest of Brown county the great interest of the present day is agri- culture. The soil is a sandy loam with a clay subsoil and is of a very fertile nature, giving abundant products of crops, wheat, rye, oats, barley, corn, peas and potatoes.
Suamico is on the line of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, and is the shipping point for the surrounding farming country.
Flintville, named after Richard Flint, an early settler and the first super- visor from the town of Suamico is a flourishing village on the Suamico river with a Roman Catholic and Methodist church, and a postoffice, Sarah G. Burdeau, postmistress.
The town of Green Bay once embraced all the territory now comprised in those towns lying on the east shore of the river and bay including also the city of Green Bay. After the secession of the city of Green Bay the town of Green Bay was yet one of the largest townships in the state, its northern boundary line having over twenty miles of shore on the bay; and it continued to be so until 1858 when the present towns of Preble, Humboldt and Scott also seceded. Its area up to that time was about ninety-eight square miles. It is now so reduced in size that its territory is only about eight miles long and three miles wide. The town is thus described by Xavier Martin, an early Belgian colonist, in a paper published in the Wisconsin Historical Collections. Its dense for- ests gradually gave way under the axes of its inhabitants. The wolves and the bears which made sad havoc among the pigs of the early settlers, and the In- dians who hunted them, have all disappeared ; the town is now thickly dotted with well cultivated farms, substantial homes, barns, churches and schoolhouses. Its soil is good and well watered by creeks and rivulets which empty into the bay, except a few which constitute the head of Kewaunee river, emptying into Lake Michigan at Kewaunee. Its soil is well adapted for the cultivation of wheat, rye, barley, oats, corn and all vegetables cultivated in the state of Wis- consin.
Tobacco of a superior quality is also cultivated in this town, and almost every farm has a patch of the weed which the farmer cultivates and cures either for his own use or for market.
Of its first settlers who immigrated from Belgium in 1853, a few lines ought to be written, not only for the many difficulties and privations to which they
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were subjected for the first few years, but because the first eight families who first settled in this town formed the nucleus of the thousands of Belgians who followed them in 1854 and 1855, and settled the peninsula between Green Bay and Lake Michigan as far north as Sturgeon Bay and even beyond; which ter- ritory now constitutes the counties of Door, Kewaunee and the east part of the county of Brown. The names of those people who have opened the way to so many thousands of intelligent and industrious men, women and children, and who have contributed so much to the wealth of the county of Brown are as follows: Francois Petinoit, Philip Hannon, Etienne Detienne, Joseph Jossart, Joseph Moreau, Lambert Bodart, Jean Bt. Detienne and Adrien Massey. These families sailed from Antwerp on the 18th of May, 1853, and arrived in New York on the 5th of July and in Green Bay in August of the same year.
Leaving their families in the now city of Green Bay, most of the men went out prospecting for their settlement, and finally concluded to settle along the Fox river near Kaukauna ; and were it not for a little incident which occurred in one of those families, the Belgian settlement would in all probability be situ- ated between Wrightstown and Kaukauna. But it was otherwise ordered. The death of a child in the family of Philip Hannon caused a delay of a few days. The child was buried by the Catholic priest of St. John's church in the city of Green Bay, and on the day of the funeral Rev. Father Daems of Bay Set- tlement happened to be visiting the pastor of St. John's, formed the acquaintance of the families named and by the glowing description made by Father Daems of the country beyond Bay Settlement the little squad abandoned their first prospect, forfeited the entries of land they had made near Kaukauna and deter- mined to strike their tents in the present town of Green Bay. *
A word about the chapel ( Robinsonville) may be of interest to the reader. It may or may not be known generally to the people of this state, that in this town, and within fifteen miles of the city of Green Bay, there exists a chapel and a shrine, built to the Virgin Mary to which thousands of pilgrim worship- pers come yearly from far and near to offer up their devotions, and if we are to believe the reports of some of the faithful, many invalids have found a permanent cure, which is attributed by them to the virtues and power of the Virgin Mary ; many having left their canes and crutches on the altar in the chapel, and gone home repeating Ave Maria Gracia Plena Dominus Tecum.
The building of this chapel and shrine deserves to be noted. In the month of August, 1858, on the spot where the chapel is now built, there stood two small trees, a few feet apart, between which it is said appeared the Virgin Mary in person, and addressed a Miss Adele Brice, who was passing at the time on her way home from church and to whom she spoke in the French language, requesting the said Adele Brice to devote all her time to the service of the Virgin Mary, and the dissemination of the Catholic faith, and to build a chapel on the sacred spot. The report of this strange apparition spread all over the settlement in this and adjoining counties with lightning speed and the people came in large numbers to see what they considered holy ground, and to listen to the words of Adele Brice. Without going into the details of this event and the result, I will simply say that Adele Brice for several years met with con- siderable opposition from the clergy of this diocese, who declared publicly that the apparition of the Virgin Mary to Miss Brice was a myth, and an imposi-
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tion, and for a time the holy sacrament was even refused to Adele Brice for her perseverance and assertion of this strange apparition. But in spite of this the multitude would congregate on the spot and in company with Miss Brice would worship, and even say mass on certain days. In the same year a small chapel was built, afterwards a church, and now a chapel, church, and even a convent in which young boys and girls are educated. The Right Reverend Bishop of the diocese has never recognized the authenticity of this apparition, but has virtually sanctioned the building of a church or chapel on the spot, and allows the faithful to congregate there for the purpose of worship according to the Roman Catholic faith."
The town of Hobart was set off in 1906, and comprises a part of the orig- inal Oneida reservation and the majority of the population is of that nation. Oneida within the last ten years has made progress along many lines. Agri- culture is the principal industry, and much of the finest farming land of the county is situated here. Hobart is on the line of the Green Bay & Western Railroad. Near the station is situated the commodious buildings belonging to the United States government school, which is beautifully situated on a high level ridge and can be seen from all directions.
Hobart church and mission buikling, rectory, guild house, and hospital form quite a group of buildings, and are perhaps three-quarters of a mile from the government school, an interesting place to visit, for here can be found sam- ples of the work of the Indian women, the fine lace. basket weaving and bead- work of which they make such a success. There are also flourishing Methodist and Roman Catholic missions, situated several miles beyond.
The history of the Oneidas is an interesting one, but the people are rapidly getting away from the old traditions and customs and have become good American citizens, tilling the land and making for themselves comfortable attractive homes. Dairying as well as agriculture is pursued.
Preble was settled as early as 1836, by Peter Faenger and other German colonists. The stretch of country which it comprises is the high and very rolling ground east of Green Bay known as the kettle moraine section, the deep inden- tations showing where the glacier pushed its way, rested and melted and which have formed numerous streams and ponds. Preble was set off in 1859, and it is said was named in honor of Admiral Preble. Through here runs East river, Hill creek or Ellis creek, as it is now designated, and Baird's creek. The busi- ness of dairying and cheesemaking is increasing here as in other parts of the county, and multitudes of truck gardens stretch far and wide. Enormous crops of onions, peas, beans, and cabbage are raised throughout this part of the county. In Preble, John M. Smith made his experiment in market gardening, showing the people what could be accomplished by intelligent methods of work. The land was considered worthless by the older inhabitants when Smith purchased it some time in the sixties largely because it was cheap and near a market. In 1876, the well known gardener reports that from thirteen acres planted to vegetables and fruits he realizes yearly about $7,000. This was considered phenomenal profit, and acted as a spur for the whole country about, so that market gardening became a great industry.
The Forsythes, Mahons, Rothes, Laus, Krieschers, Doughertys, Cryans, Cleermans, Bins, and C. N. Aldrich were all early settlers in the town.
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One of the earliest grist mills was on Cedar creek in the town of Preble, belong- ing to the Deuster company, a still earlier one being the old stone windmill on the upper road to Wequiock, to which the farmers from miles around brought their grain to be ground into coarse flour.
On July 8, 1861, the Board of Supervisors agreed upon the following plan of division for Brown county : First District to be composed of the towns of : Pittsfield, Suamico, Howard, borough of Fort Howard, city of Green Bay.
Second District : Preble, Scott. Humboldt, Eaton, Green Bay, Denmark.
Third District: Bellevue, Depere, Lawrence, Glenmore, Rockland, Wrights- town, Holland, Morrison, village of De Pere.
The Bay City Press commenting on the districting of the county remarks : "With the exception that Preble should be attached to the first district this seems to be a very judicious division."
Ashwaubenon, an irregularly shaped town lying on the west side of Fox river opposite Allouez, is quite as historie in its way as is the more lofty shore across the stream, for this township contains the tract of land deeded by the famous Menominee chief Ashwaubemie, to his descendants, the families of Franks and LaRose. This is also the territory where Waubenuqua, the beau- tiful "Morning Star," was brought according to legend, when Ashwanbemie carried her away from her hostile people to make her his wife.
Ashwaubenon creek, a lovely stream, navigable for some distance for small boats, is overhung by willows and sumach bushes, and is fed by numerous branches, while a short distance northward flows into the Fox river, Dutchman's creek, on which was situated the mill used so continually by the English marauders during the War of 1812. Thirty years later the miller of that war time, Dominick Brunette, or "Masca," as he was nicknamed by his Creole neighbors, was among the first supervisors on the Iloward town board, holding successively the office of fence viewer, highway commissioner and member of election board.
On Dutchman's creek lived Colonel Bowyer and Peter Ulrich, "the Dutch- man," as he was nicknamed, and two mills are marked as being on this stream in the early plats of the county. On this creek was later located John Hocker's brickyard. which turned out in 1881, 2,000,000 bricks, both yellow and red, and is still in operation, and the Barkhausen coal docks are also in Ashwaubenon. The Morrises, Cormiers, Greens and others had extensive farms at an early day. This part of the county has been a great pea-growing district, furnishing im- mense quantities for the large canning factories in Green Bay. Well cultivated farms stretch from Fox river westward to the heights of Fox hill and the Oneida reservation, and the whole town speaks of thrift and prosperity. The interurban line of electric road runs through the towns on the west and east sides of Fox river, connecting them by rapid and easy transit.
(References for Chapter XXVI: Records of Town of Howard : Records of Borough of Fort Howard : Proceedings of Common Council, City of Green Bay, De Pere Village and City Records ; Journal of Proceedings Board of Supervisors ; French, Hist. of Brown County : J. H. M. Wigman. )
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CHAPTER XXVII
FISHERIES-AGRICULTURE-BRICK YARDS-BRIDGES
The fishing industry has always been a heavy asset in the wealth of Brown county. As far back as 1674, Father Louis Andre, living at the Indian vil- lage of Oussaoumigong. now Suamico, wrote that it was almost impossible to conduct service in the cabins because of the immense piles of drying fish. The air was heavy with the pungent odor and the priest could hardly find space to stand and perform the holy offices of the church.
The Indians who could not successfully spear sturgeon and other fish through the ice were despised by the more facile tribes. "The Puans who can not fish have gone into the woods to live on deer and bears," wrote Father Allonez in recounting one of his winter excursions to the east shore of the bay.
The primitive fish weir that the Indians built across Fox river at the Rapides des Peres as a barrier for the rush of shoals of fish down stream was much admired by the Jesuit fathers, who speak of it as a most practical and suc- cessful method. The Indian standing upon the weir speared with his stone pointed instrument the mass of finny monster fish, pike, sturgeon and muskellunge as well as smaller fry.
The fisheries at De Pere became of great importance during the fifties and continued until 1870, and even later. Racks were constructed across the river much like those of an earlier day and from above the fish were hooked and landed with little difficulty.
The amount of fish taken in the racks which were built across the river at De l'ere was enormous ; in the fall, pike, whitefish, herring, sturgeon were taken by the million. The farmers would come in when the catch was brought to shore and would buy for twenty-five cents apiece, sturgeon from four to five feet in length, which now sell for twenty-five and thirty cents a pound. After the rail- road went through the fish were dumped in a flat car and ice thrown on top of them, and they were shipped to Chicago. Twenty or thirty men were employed at the seines and fish rack at De Pere. The fish racks were about sixteen feet wide, much on the same principle as the fish weirs built by the Indians long ago. The force of the current carried the fish down stream where they were carried into the pocket of the rack and were caught by means of hooks. Hundreds of sturgeon were trapped and hooked in this way.
With the invention of pound nets the fishermen down the bay would take at every catch more than they could possibly dispose of. Only the choice fish were retained for market, the rest were either thrown on the ground and left as a fertilizer or were tossed back in the bay. The fish fertilizing scheme was much used, whole farms were covered a foot deep with choice fish that today would be eagerly sought after.
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In 1854 there were 2,236 barrels of fish exported. In 1888 the annual product was over 700 tons and Brown county reported as the largest fishing sta- tion in Wisconsin. The bay has always been a prolific fishing ground; whitefish, sturgeon, herring, pike, pickerel, trout, muskellunge, dory, catfish, white and black bass are still caught in large quantities and shipped to all parts of the west. Still another branch of this industry all along the bay is the crawfish catch ; crab- pots being set closely at convenient points on the shore.
At Bay Settlement and on the west shore the fishermen grew lavish and wasteful of the great accumulation secured at every catch. L. G. Schiller, who went into the fish business in Green Bay in 1872, says that the decline in num- ber of the sturgeon is largely owing to the wasteful methods employed by fishermen of that time, who would cord great bundles of this big fish and leave them rotting on the shore. There was no profit in carrying them to market at Green Bay, where from the largest to the smallest the price was only twenty- five cents. The plan of smoking the sturgeon was begun by Schiller and became a profitable industry, the product selling readily at nine cents a pound.
A great many people on both sides of the bay northward from Green Bay are employed in the fishing business and depend upon it for a livelihood and the capital invested in it is large. The Booth Fisheries Company and the John- son-Schiller Company are the largest exporters.
The catch for 1912 shows no decrease from that of thirty years ago, a con- servative estimate placing the number of fish caught at over a million. This is due to the strict game laws enforced, which limit the fishing season. Large quantities of fry from the state hatcheries are planted yearly in Green Bay to replenish the supply. There were nearly twenty-five million of fry deposited in the bay last season.
The catch consists of carp ( the largest ), herring, whitefish, bayfish, trout, pike, catfish, pickerel, black bass and white bass. No fishing can be done in pike, black bass, white bass, catfish and pickerel during the month of June. From April ist to May toth, herring and bayfish are protected, whitefish and trout from October 10th to December Ist.
It was in 1856 that Brown county fishermen, always an independent guild, lent a hand toward expelling the Mormon colony, on Beaver Island, from their stronghold. St. James. The newspapers of that period are filled with accounts of the high-handed doings of King Strang and his followers. The colony had become very prosperous, was in fact a veritable little kingdom. manufacturing its own supplies along different lines, raising crops for food. and above all doing a most thriving fishery business, a fact much resented by the fishermen along Green Bay and on Washington Island. It was this last industry that caused the constant warfare waged between the Gentiles on the mainland and the islanders, and the record of skirmishes and bloody battles, and of raids for the purpose of plunder, recall the tales of ancient border wars. They fought with anything that came to hand, with pike poles, blunt dory oars. clumsy knives, and whenever the flying scud of a Gentile boat crossed the bow of a Mormon craft war was the result. The fishermen hated the Mormons for their religion, for the deadly quiet and secrecy with which they pursued their daily avocations, above all for the prosperity and comfort that year by year grew more marked in the saints' colony, so different in its systematized thrift from their own haphazard methods of gaining a livelihood.
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A passenger on the steamer Michigan writes to "Friend Robinson" of the Advocate on June 26, 1856: "I assure you in all soberness matters are becoming desperate hereaway, and it would be no seven wonder if all our Mormon friends at the Beavers were, before next Tuesday evening, completely routed and cleaned out' from the island. The sheriff from Mackinac with his posse of about fifty men, mostly collected at the Bay ( Green Bay) and Washington Island, have taken five of the Mormon gang, and two more for witnesses. Some shots were fired and some kicks and cuffs exchanged in the meantime. Good and strong resistance was offered but to no purpose-they had to come aboard dead or alive.
"The plan now is to return this week with at least one hundred and fifty men, properly armed and equipped, and just clear every Mormon from the island, peaceably if possible -- if not, at the range of the rifle. Judging from today's manipulations I have no doubt but they will carry out their plans to the letter. God help them. If half their wrongs and grievances be true, the Mormon king- dom richly deserves extermination."
It is sixty-five years since James Jesse Strang and his band of zealots took possession of this detached bit of land in Lake Michigan, and only green mounds of earth remain to mark the spot where stood "the castle," the wide- roofed "tabernacle." the substantial homes of the resident saints, yet the leader's personality is still vivid, and reading of his wonderful influence gives one even now an uneasy sense of glamour, so potent does it seem to have been with his followers.
Strang and his adherents after their expulsion from Illinois, in 1844, at first settled at Voree, near Burlington, Wisconsin, but two years later this point was abandoned, Strang having discovered the lonely and isolated group of islands in Lake Michigan-the Big and Little Beavers. Only two or three fishermen's families were living there when the Mormons took possession, and these were unceremoniously driven out by the newcomers.
At Washington Island, and near the city of Green Bay, were large fishing hamlets and the inhabitants resented fiercely this high-handed interference with their rights of trade. Jealous spies kept constant watch for Mormon delinquen- cies and occasion for complaint was not lacking. The saints, conciliatory at first, grew strong enough to fight their own battles and gave vigorous return for the rough treatment received on their first landing from the native islanders.
The isolation of a Highland fastness seems to have brooded over this corner of the northwest. Not twenty miles away lay Mackinac Island with its garrisoned fort, whose officers hardly recked of such a place as Beaver Island. The United States cruiser Michigan, plying her route through summer days, sometimes touched at the port of St. James, and her officers made acquaintance with the community's agreeable ruler, James Strang, through formal calls back and forth.
Strang's pretensions grew with his increasing power and culminated when he was formally proclaimed king of Beaver Island and crowned as such on July 8, 1850. The ceremony took place on the wide stretch of turf before his castle, a large wooden structure resembling more a barn than a royal residence; on Strang's head was placed a metal crown with a cluster of stars on its front and the words were pronounced, "God hath chosen His servant James to be King. He hath made him His apostle to all nations. He hath established him a prophet
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above the kings of the earth and appointed him King in Zion." Burnt offer- ings smoked on an altar close by, and the whole ceremony, grotesque though it was in many respects, gained a certain dignity from the seriousness and apparent sincerity of the prophet and his followers. Picturesque the scene certainly was with its setting of green water and diversified woodland, its reverent attentive congregation of saints, the smoke from the rude altar rising dimly toward the blue of the July sky, and the central figure, Strang, in his red robe.
After this ceremony Strang's arrogance knew no bounds, his will became absolute and revolt among his followers ensued as a result. Meanwhile Gentile residents on other islands in the archipelago, as well as those living on the mainland, grew ever more and more impatient of the increasing prosperity which attended the Mormon community. Formal complaint was entered in the United States court at Detroit that fish nets were plundered and destroyed by Beaver Island marauders, that raids were made by them on the mainland for purposes of theft, and that Strang sanctioned a scheme for levying on his Gentile neighbors, which was nothing less than piracy.
Again, as in past summers, the black hulk of the steamer Michigan hove in sight of Grand Beaver Island. It was a day in the middle of June, 1856, warm and bland, and through the still air came a rattling of chains as the cable slipped over the ship's side and splashed in the green water below. King Strang made hasty preparations for a friendly call by invitation of Captain Stewart. As he crossed the wharf to take his seat in a small wherry moored there, two shots rang sharply through the absolute calm of the summer air. The conspirators from among his own people had taken sure aim and Strang fell mortally wounded. He was carried away from the island to die.
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