USA > Wisconsin > Buffalo County > History of Buffalo County, Wisconsin > Part 18
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struck with its appearance, those he saw before must have been of the usual description among Indians. Capt. Carver says: "Whilst I stayed here, I took a view of some mountains, that lie about fifteen miles to the southward, and abound in lead ore (probably the Blue Mounds.)
I ascended on one of the highest of these, and had an extens- ive view of the country. For many miles nothing was to be seen but lesser mountains, which appeared at a distance like hay-cocks, they being free from trees. So plentiful is lead here that I saw large quantities of it lying about the streets, in the town of the Saukies, and it seemed to be as good as the produce of other coun- tries.
On the 10th of October we proceeded down the river (Wis.) and the next day reached the first town of the Ottigamies (Outa- gamies-Foxes). The town contained about fifty houses, but we found most of them deserted, on account of an epidemical disorder that had lately raged among them, and carried off more than one half of the inhabitants. The greater part of those who survived had retired into the woods to avoid the contagion."
This town was probably near Muscoda. The next village which, he says, was deserted thirty years previous, and in ruins was about five miles above the mouth of the Wisconsin on that river. He thinks the inhabitants had removed to Prairie des Chiens, which he calls a large town of about three hundred fami- lies and the great mart where furs and peltries were brought an- nually about the last of May from the remote branches of the Mis- sissippi, for transporting them either to Mackinaw or Louisiana.
It is a remarkable circumstance, that the traders with him did not stop at that town, but made their winterquarters about ten miles up the river, on the opposite side, and near the confluence of the Yellow River.
Although the season was considerably advanced he with one voyageur and a Mohawk Indian pushed on in his canoe towards the Falls of St. Anthony.
On the first day of November he reached Lake Pepin, where he observed the ruins of the French factory, where Capt. St. Pierre had formerly resided and carried on a great trade with the Nau- dowissies (Nadowessioux or Sioux). Here he staid for some time and among other things he observed and to a certain extent ex-
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plored some ancient earthworks which he, however, seems to have considered as fortifications. His description will be found under the article of " Moundbuilders" because there seems to have been a disposition of claiming these earthworks as " pre-historic tumuli," and also an entirely opposite one, of considering them of no im- portance or significance whatever.
Near the mouth of the St. Croix River he came in contact with the Dakota Indians, and in some way mediated a truce or local and temporary peace between them and the Chippewas, at the time of an imminent battle, and was treated with great con- sideration by both parties. At the mouth of St. Peters River he had to give up navigation (Nov. 17,) and to walk to the Falls of St. Anthony. These he describes very accurately and must have made some sketch, as his book contains a copper-plate engraving of them. He proceeded northward as far as the St. Francis or Elk River but returned and commenced, on the 25th of Novem- ber, to ascend the St. Peters, now Minnesota River, which he was able to ascend about 200 miles, without being prevented by ice .. There dwelt at that time the Naudowissies, whom Mr. Strong is inclined to consider as Western Dakotas, though it is notorious that the Dakotas were called Sioux everywhere, and that the name of Dakota is of comparatively modern use.
Among these people Carver remained five months and was well treated. He learned their language, and acquired all the geo- graphical information they could impart. He went with them in the latter part of April to their grand national council, which was held at or near their cave on the Mississippi River, a description of which is given below. It has also been claimed, that on this occasion he received. of two of the chiefs of these same Naudo- wissies a grant of land or territory, of which we will speak some- where else. It appears that, having first ascertained that the goods promised him by Gov. Rogers had not arrived at the Falls of St. Anthony, he determined to return to Prairie du Chien and not to proceed any further northwest for the time being. Having procured some goods from traders at Prairie du Chien, he started for Lake Superior by way of the Chippewa River and a number of tributaries and lakes, but during the summer seems to have wandered off towards the St. Croix on some branches of which he claims to have seen "mines of virgin copper." After finally
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reaching the shores of Lake Superior and coasting round to the Western extremity of the lake, he discovered that he could not get the necessary goods, he was compelled to give up the one great object of his travels, and to return to Mackinaw, where he spent the winter, and returned to Boston the following spring, having been absent two years and five months, and traversed seven thous- and miles.
He wrote a book in which he laid down his adventures and his ideas of the future prospects of the country he had visited. He is regarded as the first writer who called attention to the an- cient monuments in the Mississippi Valley. His visit to the Da- kotas had the effect of bringing them into better acquaintance and friendly relations with the governor of Mackinaw. He expressed many intelligent opinions respecting the country, and thought, from its beauty and fertility it would attract many settlers. Speak- ing of its future population and their ability to convey their pro- duce to seaports with great facility by the Mississippi River, he adds almost a prediction of the Erie Canal with its present lakc and river connections: "This might in time be facilitated by canals or short cuts and a connection opened by water to New York by way of the lakes." He also thought of a route to the Pacific as a means of communication with China and the English possessions in India.
Carver went afterwards to England, probably for the publica- tion of his book, and for the purpose of interesting people of in- fluence in his ideas concerning the future occupancy of the coun- try, and it was proposed to build a fort on Lake Pepin and to carry out the enterprise. All these schemes were destined to come to nothing, for only seventeen years after his visit to this country the whole eastern part of the Mississippi Valley passed from the possession of Great Britain to that of the United States: Carver, who seems to have been more English than American, did not take any part in the American Revolution, but died in England, poor and neglected, in 1780. He left a family, consisting of his widow, two sons, and five daughters in Connecticut, and one child, by an- other woman in England. As related above, he attended the na- tional council of the Dakotas and at that time was made ac- quainted with a cave, some thirteen miles below the Falls of St. Anthony on the Mississippi. It has since been known as
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Carver's Cave.
The following is his account of it: About thirteen miles be- low the Falls of St. Anthony, at which I arrived on the tenth day after I left Lake Pepin, is a remarkable cave of an amazing depth. The Indians term it Wakon-teebe (Wakan-tipi). The entrance to it is about ten feet wide, the height is five feet. The arch within is nearly fifteen feet high, and about thirty feet broad; the bottom consists of fine clear sand. About thirty feet from the entrance begins a lake, the water of which is transparent, and extends to an unsearchable distance, for the darkness of the cave prevents all attempts to acquire a knowledge of it. I threw a small pebble towards the interior part of it with my utmost strength; I could hear that it fell into the water, and notwithstanding it was of a small size, it caused an astonishing and terrible noise, that reverbe- ted through all these gloomy regions. I found in this cave many Indian hieroglyphics, which appeard very ancient, for time had nearly covered them with moss, so that it was with difficulty I could trace them. They were cut in a rude manner upon the in- side of the wall, which was composed of stone so extremely soft, that it might be penetrated with a knife-a stone everywhere found near the Mississippi." (Potsdam Sandstone.)
I have studied diligently to find out the exact location of this cave, but had to give it up. Schoolcraft seems (1820) to have consid- ered Fountain Cave near St. Paul as the one described by Carver, but Mr. Strong considered that opinion erroneous. He does not locate it, but says, that it has been materially altered by the ele- ments, the roof has fallen in and the entrance choked up by rock and earth. The track of a railroad runs along the bank of the river directly in front of the cave, in the construction of which the cave is virtually destroyed, and the stream which flowed through it now supplies a watertank, while the subterranean lake has disap- peared.
Visitors from this county do therefore not need to try to satisfy their curiosity in hunting up this cavern.
Carver's Grant.
It has been claimed by the descendants of Captain Carver, and their actual or presumptive representatives, that at the national council of the Naudawessies to which Carver was admitted as related above, a grant of land was given to him by two of the chiefs
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Hau-na-pau-je-tin or Snake, and O-gou-si-gum-lith-go or Turtle, The description of the land contained in this grant is as follows:
From the Falls of St. Anthony along the eastern bank of the Mississippi River to the lower end of Lake Pepin and the mouth of Chippewa River, thence due East five days travel at twenty miles a day, thence North six days travel at twenty miles a day, thence in a straight line to the Falls of St. Anthony. This is an item of interest to the citizens of Buffalo County, especially those residing in the northern part of it.
It so happens, that the line between townships twenty-two and twenty-three north, crosses the Chippewa River, but a very short distance above its mouth, and therefore all of township twenty- three and twenty-four located in this county lies within the tract described, which formerly on maps of Wisconsin and Minnesota was designated as the Carver Tract. We will subsequently discuss the ultimate fate of the claim, but may as well relate here that sales have been made of lands in this county by Dr. Wmn, Pea- body and Hannah his wife, then residents of the city of Chicago under a color of title based on a pretended abstract of the Carver Tract. I think it was in 1868 when Mr. DeGroff, then County Clerk, and the writer of this, then County Surveyor, and engaged in entering names in the plat-books, had a good deal of amuse- ment in the perusal of a printed copy of such an abstract. I took a copy of the document, which was rather lengthy, but can not find it any more. As it related to land in township twenty-five north, it could not be recorded in this county, but I remember the contents and some of the peculiar expressions quite well, and will give them here, as nearly as possible in the original language.
The instrument was in good imitation of what may have been the more ancient form of a deed in Great Britain and the Colonies. By it the above named chiefs of the Naudowessies granted to their very much honored friend, Captain Jonathan Carver, "a subject of George the Third, King of the English and other nations" the above described tract for his great services to the nation of the Naudo- wessies. The nature of these services was not expressed. The abstract proceeded to relate, that the original grant signed by the above named chiefs was deposited in the "Plantation Office in the City of London in England." There was more of it, mainly relating to the pedigree of Mrs. Hannah Peabody, who was represented to
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be a lineal or collateral descendant of the renowned captain. The paper looked as if it had been cut out of a book or pamphlet, prob- ably a printed report of some Congressional Committee on the claim.
I can not dismiss this subject without giving the objections to the claim and its history and final rejection by Congress.
In the first place the deed or grant is not mentioned by Car- ver in the " Journal " of his travels. The objection of Mr. Strong to the validity of the grant, if made, because the Naudowessies or Sioux were not in possession of the land granted, is not conclusive, because it is almost impossible to prove pro or contra in the matter.
But if we were willing to concede the authenticity of the deed, its validity is still seriously impaired by the fact, that the king had by express proclamation forbidden, that any private person should presume to make any purchase of any land from any In- dians. This proclamation, having been made three years previous to the date of the grant, must have been known to Capt. Carver. It would, also, have prevented his acceptance or solicitation of the grant.
Another very serious objection is that not any of his surviving 1 children seem to have known anything of this supposed wealth or at least did not lay any claim to it in a legal way.
The first trace of the intention of getting possession of the property appears to have come to light in 1817, thirty-seven years after the death of Captain Carver. That year two young men (names not given) left the Green Bay settlement, in a bark canoe, for Prairie du Chien, by way of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, at which place they met Major S. H. Long, and proceeded with him up the Mississippi to the Falls of St. Anthony, with a view to es- tablish their right to lands claimed to have been granted by the Indians to their grandfather Jonathan Carver. The claim had, while under English supremacy been refused confirmation by the king and council.
But it appears that the first claim had been made to Congress in 1806 with no result. In 1823 Mr. Van Dyke, from the commit- tee on public lands reported to the senate adversely to the claim.
In a report of 1825 Mr. Campbell of Ohio, also from the com- mittee on public lands, demonstrated, after an exhaustive discus-
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sion of the questions involved, that there was no foundation for the pretended claim, and that it was utterly worthless.
In a letter from Lord Palmerston, dated Feb. 8, 1834 to Hon. Aaron Vail, charge d'affaires of the United States to Great Britain, is the statement in reference to this claim, that "No statement has been found of any ratification of the grant in question by His Majesty's government."
Finally by the treaties made with Sioux and Winnebagoes all - their title to lands in Wisconsin and adjacent parts of Minnesota became vested in the United States, which was the final extinction of any hopes, that the " Carver Grant " would cver be recognized. :
All this, however, did not prevent the transactions of Dr. Pea- body above stated, which he must have known to be fraudulent. The reader is now left to his own judgment in the matter.
In the "History of Minnesota " by Rev. E. D. Neill, I no- ticed among the headings of a chapter the item: "One of Carver's . sons killed," but could not find a description of the deed. It is improbable that it happened in Minnesota or in the West. The only trace of relatives of the captain who made actual inspection were the two grandsons mentioned above,
THE FORTS ON LAKE PEPIN.
The reader has in the biographies of Hennepin and Du Luth, and in the narrative of Captain Carver, noticed the proximity of Lake Pepin to the County of Buffalo. After the return of Henne- pin to Canada a change in the government was made. In the place of the Marquis de Buade, Count of Frontenac, a certain De la Barre, a French officer of some public credit, and what accounts for it, a favorite of the Jesuits, was appointed in his place. We cannot from our impartial standpoint exonerate the Count of Fron -. tenac from the formal charges brought against him by his enemies, for he was certainly arbitrary and despotic, but he was a ruined nobleman and bent on mending his desperate fortunes. He would have been an exceptional Frenchman, if he had been troubled with many pangs of conscience in the choice of the means to that end. But he was wiser than his king and the court surrounding the lat- ter, and, had he been left in power, it is a question, whether in after times it would nave been possible to wrench the province of Canada from the grasp of the French. His policy, selfish as it may have been in several ways, was neither narrow nor short-
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sighted. He was the friend of La Salle, and his removal was equivalent to the destruction of La Salle's colony on the Illinois river. The incapacity of De la Barre was so apparent that after three years he was superseded by the Marquis de Denonville. Within the three years of his reign falls the sending of Nicholas Perrot to the Mississippi for the purpose of establishing a trading- post on Lake Pepin. This Nicholas Perrot was one of the many interpreters, who were in government employ, sometimes under the direction of the governor, but oftener under that of the intendant of the colony. Most people have a very confused idea of the French government of Canada. It would appear to anybody but a Frenchman of the old regime (ancien regime) that the govern- ment was a sort of military despotism, arbitrary enough, but highly concentrated. So it was in all, except the finances. The King did not consider the government as a machine to extend his power so much, as to increase his revenues. Kings like Louis XIV, and Louis XV, and the intervening regency, needed money, and not a little of it. Hence an instrument was created to make sure of that money everywhere. The intendant was this instru- ment. Canada was, according to the view of King and court nothing but a large trading station; colonies were out of the question for they might cost money, and might wish to get rich themselves. The fur-trade was yet the ruling interest and the governor, then in accordance with the intendant, selected Perrot to open up a new source of it among the Sioux. The character of Perrot is not without suspicions. One of his name, attempted to poison La Salle, but it may not be possible to identify the two as the same. Certain it is that any enemy of La Salle was sure of favor and promotion under De la Barre. It was, however, late under his government that Perrot was dispatched to the new post, for in 1685, the year of Perrot's expedition, De la Barre himself was superseded by Denonville. The post established by Perrot was near the lower end of Lake Pepin on the Westside and may have been at Frontenac. He seems to have remained less than two years, for he went down to Quebec or Montreal during 1687, and took part in the war against the Iroquois in company with Du Luth and Durantay. It is reported that Indians, of the tribe of the Miamis, brought lead to his trading post. Circumstances make it improbable that this should have happened, though it is quite
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possible that about that time the Miamis, who dwelt upon the lower part of the Wisconsin, worked some of the lead mines in their neighborhood. The intervening space, a distance of perhaps two hundred miles (160 from Prairie du Chien to Frontenac) was occupied by Winnebagoes and Sioux, and probably by Sacs and Foxes. In 1689, the same year in which Denonville was sup- planted again by Frontenac, Perret, after convening all the neigh- boring nations at Sault St. Marie for a general treaty of peace among themselves and submission to the French government, re- - turned on the 8th of May to his abandoned post with forty men. But he must soon have left again, and was afterwards among the Miamis. With him was Pere Marest of the Jesuits. It is not known what became of him and his post afterwards.
After the reinstatement of the energetic Frontenac there seems to have been more enterprise in the Canadian government. The first adventurer on the Mississippi was
Le Sueur,
said to have come in 1683. His first post was upon an island in the Mississippi opposite or below the mouth of the St. Croix River. Le Sueur was eminently a pioneer of Minnesota. It does not ap- pear that he established any post on the Lake, nor that he found Perrot's post occupied. His life and achievements are quite inter- esting, but not of any importance for our purpose. He came again in 1695, took some Sioux and Chippewas to Montreal 1696 and went to France 1697, was captured on the high sea by the English, released 1698, and came up the Mississippi I700. Abandoned his fort on the Minnesota in 1702, after which he was in Louisiana or in France. His associate Penicau left some papers about their ad- ventures. If Le Sueur should have been at his first post in 1683, he would in that case have preceded Perrot. The next fort on the lake was built by.
Boucher de la Perriere,
who arrived at the place on the 17th of September 1727. It was near Stockholm on the eastside of the lake. With him was the Jesuit Father Guignas, who gives a glowing description of how the birthday of Charles de Beauharnois, then governor of Canada, was celebrated at the fort, which was named after him. In the follow- ing spring, after a winter remarkable for the want of snow or the small quantity of it, the greatest flood on record occurred, but it
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is an error to suppose that the fort was abandoned on account of it, for the flood did only reach to the floor of the buildings. The narrative of Guignas makes it probable that it was evacuated on account of the hostility of the Foxes or Outagamies, though it is rather odd to think, that at that time they should have had the power to molest a post'in a country so near the Sioux, and after- ward claimed by that nation. It is however certain that the Foxes. were at that time a powerful nation, and almost always at war with the French.
The trading posts and forts on Lake Pepin must have been occupied, and have probably been repaired from time to time, although Capt. Carver says nothing of them. One thing is strange, that is, that of all the places on the Lake, or on the river for some distance above it, none retained a French name, except Frontenac. It is hardly necessary to caution the reader not to confound this Frontenac with the fort of the same name built by La Salle on Lake Ontario, on the site of which now stands the city of Kings- ton, near the outflow of the St. Lawrence from the lake. Fronte- nac in Minnesota' is in Goodhue County, on Lake Pepin, opposite Maiden Rock. There were several forts, which in this case always means trading-posts surrounded with palisades, in the neighbor- hood, one at Point au Sable or Sandy Point, and one on Prairie Island, which the French called Isle Pelee, but where these points really, or exactly, were, is not now to be found out very easily. Charlevoix who wrote in 1721 placed Isle Pelee above the Lake. The history of French forts is almost as puzzling as that of Indian tribes. The influence of these temporary possessions was almost nothing, except that in later or more modern times the trading posts were much more numerous and important on the Minnesota side than on that of Wisconsin. This may be ascribed to the fact that the ancient trading posts attracted the Indians, and the In- dians in turn attracted the traders, most of whom were of French extraction, pure or mixed. Prominent examples of these later traders in this neighborhood were La Bath and Alexis Bailey, but in their times the necessity of forts was no longer very urgent, ex- cept for military establishments.
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EARLY SETTLEMENT.
The early settlenient of the western country in general and our portion of the Mississippi Valley in particular, had to con- tend with difficulties which are unknown to the present genera- tion. Similar conditions may still exist in frontier settlements, as existed in our neighborhood forty years ago, but in general the obstacles to the rapid settlement and development of any new country are now-a-days much less numerous and formidable. At that time the western part of our state was, for all intents and pur- poses, much farther from Milwaukee or Chicago than it may now be considered to be from New York, or any city on the Atlantic. Railroads, which are now crossing all the states and territories west of us, began just about to be thought of in the East. The rivers, those natural highways, of course, were here, but the steam- boats, which afterwards became of such importance in the march of settlement, were not yet built, or employed in more favored localities. Transportation and intercourse were slow and difficult. From the table given in the chapter on "Transportation " we find that as late as 1844 there were but 41 arrivals of steamboats at Fort Snelling or Mendota, and ten years later there were not yet ten times as many, and all of the boats of very small size, com- pared with the floating palaces of later times.
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