History of Crawford and Richland counties, Wisconsin, Part 3

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899. [from old catalog]; Union publishing company, Springfield, Ill., pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Springfield, Ill., Union publishing company
Number of Pages: 1298

USA > Wisconsin > Richland County > History of Crawford and Richland counties, Wisconsin > Part 3
USA > Wisconsin > Crawford County > History of Crawford and Richland counties, Wisconsin > Part 3

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In 1671 Father Lonis Andre was sent to the missions of St. Francis Xavier and St. Mark, as a co-worker with Allonez. At what is now the

+ Bancroft, in his History of United States, evidently mig- takes the course pursued from Kewcenaw, by Menard.

HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.

village of DePere, Brown Co., Wis., was located the central station of the mission of St. Francis Xavier. This mission included all the tribes inhabiting the vicinity of Green bay. A rude chapel, the third one within the present limits of Wisconsin, was soon erected. Allouez then left for other fields of labor ; but Andre re- mained here, working with zeal during the summer of 1671. However, during a temporary absence his chapel was burned, but he speedily erected another. Then his dwelling was de- stroyed, but although he erected another, it soon shared the same fate. He was at this time laboring among the Menomonees. When he finally left "the bay tribes" is not known. In 1676 Father Charles Albanel was stationed at what is now DePere, where a new and better chapel was erected than the one left by Andre. In 1680 the mission was supplied by Father James Eryalran, who was recalled in 1687. When he left, his house and chapel were burned by the Winnebagoes. It was the end of the mission of St. Francis Xavier. The mission of the Holy Spirit was deserted by Father James Marquette in 1671. It was the end for 170 years of a Roman Catholic mission at Che- goimegon.

WISCONSIN UNDER FRENCH DOMINATION.

In the year 1671, France took formal posses- sion of the whole country of the upper lakes. An agent, Daumont de St. Lusson, was dispatched to the distant tribes, proposing a congress of Indian Nations at the Falls of St. Mary, between Lake Huron and Lake Superior. The principal chiefs of the Wisconsin tribes were gathered there by Nicholas Perrot. When all were assem- bled, it was solemnly announced that the great northwest was placed under the protection of the French government. This was the begin- ning of French domination in what is now Wis- consin. The act of Daumont de St. Lusson, at the Falls of St. Mary, in 1671, in establishing the right of France to the regions beyond Lake Michigan, not being regarded as sufficiently def- inite, Nicholas Perrot, in 1689, at the head of

Green bay, again took possession of the country, extending the dominion of New France, not only over the territory of the upper Mississippi, but "to other places more remote;" so that then, all that is now included within the boundaries of the State of Wisconsin (and much more) passed quietly into the possession of the French king.

No fur-trader or missionary, no white man. had as yet reached the Mississippi above the month of the Illinois river. But the time for its exploration was at hand. Civilized men were now to behold its vast tribute rolling onward toward the Gulf of Mexico. These men were Louis Joliet and James Marquette. Joliet came from Quebec, having been appointed by the gov- ernment to "discover" the Mississippi. He found Marquette on the north side of the straits of Mackinaw, laboring as a missionary among the Indians. The latter was solicited and readily agreed to accompany Joliet upon his expedition .* The outfit of the party was very simple: two birch-bark canoes and a supply of smoked meat and Indian corn. They had with them five white men. They began their voyage on the 17th day of May, 1673. Passing into Lake Mich- igan, they coasted along its northern shore, and paddled their canoes up Green bay and Fox river to the portage. They then crossed to the Wisconsin, down which they floated, until, on the 17th of June, they entered the Mississippi. After dropping down the river many miles, they returned by way of the Illinois and Lake Mich- igan to Green bay, where Marquette remained to recruit his strength, while Joliet returned to Quebec to make known the extent of his dis- coveries.

Fontenac's report of Joliet's return from a voyage to discover the South sea, dated Nov. 14, 1674, is as follows:

"Sieur JJoliet, whom Monsieur Talon advised me, on my arrival from France, to dispatch for

* That Count Fontenac, governor of New France, and M Tolon, intendant, should have expressed a wish to Joliet that Father Marquette be invited to accompany bit in his contemplated journey, is to be inferred from the words of the missionary ; but nothing in the orders of these officers to Joliet is found to confirm the statement.

HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.

the discovery of the South sea, has returned three months ago, and discovered some very fine countries, and a navigation so easy through the beautiful rivers he has found, that a person can go from Lake Ontario and Fort Fontenac in a bark to the Gulf of Mexico, there being only one carrying place, half a league in length, where Lake Ontario communicates with Lake Erie. These are projects which it will be pos- sible to effect when peace shall be firmly estab- lished and whenever it will please the king to prosecute these discoveries. Joliet has been within ten days' journey of the Gulf of Mexico, and believes that water communications could be found leading to the Vermilion and Cali- fornia seas, by means of the river that flows from the west [the Missouri] into the grand river [the Mississippi] that he discovered, which runs from north to south, and is as large as the St. Lawrence opposite Quebec.

"I send you by my secretary the map he has made of it, and the observations he has been able to recollect, as he has lost all his minutes and journals in the shipwreck he suffered with- in sight of Montreal, where, after having com- pleted a voyage of twelve hundred leagues, he was near being drowned, and lost all his papers and a little Indian, whom he brought from those countries. These accidents have caused me great regret. Joliet left with the fathers at the Sault de Ste. Marie, in Lake Superior, copies of his journals; these we cannot get before next year. You will glean from them additional particulars of this discovery, in which he has very well acquitted himself."

It is not known that the copies of Joliet's journals, mentioned in Frontenac's report, were delivered to the French government; but an ac- count of the voyage by Marquette was published in 1681 by Thevenat. This fact has caused an undue importance to be attached to the name of the missionary in connection with the dis. covery of the Mississippi, and at the expense of the fame of Joliet .*

*"The Count of Frontenac, " says Shea (Wis Hist. Coll., Vol. VII, page 119), "on the 14th of November, [1674] in a dis

Explorations begun by Joliet were continued. La Salle, in 1679, with Father Louis Hennepin, coasted along the western shore of Lake Michi- gan, landing frequently. The return of Henry de Tonty, one of La Salle's party, down the same coast to Green bay, from the Illinois, fol- lowed in 1680. The same year, Father Henne- pin from the upper Mississippi, whither he had gone from the Illinois, made his way across what is now Wisconsin, by the Wisconsin and Fox rivers to Green bay .*

Ile was accompanied by Daniel Greysolon Duluth, who, on his way down the Mississippi bad met Hennepin in September, 1678. Duluth left Quebec to explore, under the authority of the governor of New France, the region of the up- per Mississippi, and establish relations of friendship with the Sioux and their kindred, the Assiniboines. In the summer of 1679 he was in the Sioux country and early in the autumn of that year at the head of Lake Superior hold- ing an Indian council. In June, 1680, he set out from that point to continue his explorations. Going down the Mississippi be met with Henne- pin, as stated above,journeyed with him to the Je- suit station, near the head of Green bay, across what is now the State of Wisconsin. Follow- ing the voyages of Hennepin and Duluth was the one by Le Sueur, in 1683, from Lake Michi- gan to the Mississippi, ascending that river to the Sioux country in the region about St. An- thony, and his subsequent establishment, said to have been in 1693, at La Pointe, in the pres- ent Ashland Co., Wis. He was, at least, a voyageur stationed at Chegoimegon during that year. He continued to trade with the Sioux at intervals to the year 1702.+

patch to Colbert announced the successful issue of Jollet's expedition;"but Shea then adds: " They had to wait for fullde- tails till the account drawn up by Father Marquette should be sent down, " as though such an account was really expected; but the fact was, as stated by Fontenac himself, that ceple of Joliet's journals were what was looked fer.

*Hist. of Northern Wis., page 44.

+Ibed.

HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.

Nicholas Perrot was again in the northwest in 1684. He was commissioned to have chief command, not only "at the bay," but also upon the Mississippi, on the east side of which stream, at the foot of Lake Pepin, he erected a post. Here he spent the winter of 1685-6. The next year he had returned to Green bay. He vibrated between Montreal and the west until 1697. In 1699 St. Cosme and his com- panions coasted along the west shore of Lake Michigan. Other explorations followed, but generally in the tracks of previous ones. Except at "the bay," there was not so long as the French had dominion over the northwest, a single post occupied for any length of time by regular soldiers. This post was called Fort St. Francis. There were other stockades-one at La Pointe in 1726, and, as we have already seen one upon the Mississippi; but neither of these had cannon. At the commencement of the French and Indian War, all three had disap- peared. At the ending of hostilities, in 1760, there was not a single vestage of civilization within what are now the bounds of Wisconsin, except a few vagrant Frenehmen among the Indians; there was no post; no settlement, west of Lake Michigan. But before dismissing the subject of French supremacy in the northwest, it is proper to mention the hostility that for a number of years existed between the Fox Ind- ians and Frenchmen.

In the year 1693, several fur-traders were plundered by the Fox Indians (located upon Fox river of Green bay), while on their way to the Sioux; the Foxes alleging that the French- men were carrying arms to their ancient enemies. We hear no more of their hostility to the French until early in the spring of 1712, when they and some Mascoutius, laid a plan to burn the fort at Detroit. It was besieged for nineteen days by these savages, but the besiegers were obliged finally to retreat, as their provis- ions had become exhausted. They were pursued, however, and near Lake St. Clair suffered a signal defeat at the hands of M. Dubisson and his

Indian allies. The Marquis de Vaudreuil, now that the Foxes continned their hostilities, de- termined on a war of extermination against them. De Lourigny, a lieutenant, left Quebec in March, 1716. He made his way with alacrity, entering Green bay and Fox river, it is said, with a force of 800 French and Indians, en- countering the enemy in a pallisaded fort, which would have been soon reduced had not the Foxes asked for peace. Hostages were given, and Lourigny returned to Quebec. In 1721 the war was renewed, and in 1728 another expedition was organized against these savages, commanded by Marchemd de Lignery. This officer proceeded by way of the Ottawa river of Canada and Lake Huron to Green bay, upon the northern shore of which the Menominees, who had also become hostile were attacked and defeated. On the 24th of August, a Winnebago village on Fox river was reached by De Lignery with a force of 400 French and 750 Indians. They proceeded thence up the river to the home of the Foxes, but did not succeed in meet- ing the enemy in force. The expedition was a signal failure. But the march of Neyon de Villiers, in 1730, against the Foxes, was more successful, resulting in their defeat. They suffered a loss of 200 killed of warriors, and three times as many women and children. Still the Foxes were not humbled. Another expedi- tion, this time under the direction of Capt. De Noyelle, marched against them in 1735. The result was not decisive. Many places have been designated upon Fox river as points where conflicts between the French and their allies, and the Foxes and their allies took place; but all such designations are traditionary and un- certain. The Sacs and Foxes finally became connected with the government of Canada, and during the French and Indian War were arrayed against the English.

WISCONSIN UNDER ENGLISH SUPREMACY.

On the 9th day of September, 1760, Governor Vaudreuil surrendered Canada to General Am- herst, of the British army, and the supremacy

HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.

over the northwest passed from France to Great Britain. But in what is now Wisconsin there was little besides savages to be affected by the change. The vagrant fur-trader represented all that there was of civilization west of Lake Michigan. Detroit was soon taken possession of; then Mackinaw, and finally, in 176], a squad of English soldiers reached the head of Green bay, to garrison the tumble-down post, where now is Fort Howard, Brown Co., Wis. This was on October 12 of the year just men- tioned. Lieut. James Gorrell and one ser- geant, one corporal and fifteen privates con- stituted the "army of occupation" for the whole country west of Lake Michigan from this time to June 21, 1763, when the post was abandoned by the commandant on ac- count of the breaking out of Pontiac's War, and the capture of the fort at Macki- naw by the savages. The cause of the war was this : The Indian tribes saw the dan- ger which the downfall of the French interests in Canada was sure to bring them. They banded together under Pontiac to avert their ruin. The struggle was short but fierce-full of " scenes of tragic interest, with marvels of suffering and vicissitude, of heroism and en- durance ;" but the white man conquered. The moving incidents in this bloody drama were enacted to the eastward of what is now Wis- consin, coming no nearer than Mackinaw, but it resulted in the evacuation of its territory by British troops, who never after took possession of it, though they continued until 1796 a nominal military rule over it after Mackinaw was again occupied by them.

No sooner had the soldiers under Gorrell left the bay than French traders seized upon the occasion to again make it headquarters for traffic in furs to the westward of Lake Michi- gan. Not that only, for a few determined to make it their permanent home. By the year 1766 there were some families living in the de- cayed Fort Edward Augustus and opposite thereto, on the east side of Fox river, where

they cultivated the soil in a small way and in an extremely primitive manner, living, now that peace was again restored, very comfort- ably. Of these French Canadians, no one can be considered as the pioneer-no one is entitled to the renown of having first led the way, be- coming, therefore the first settler of the State, much less the father and founder of Wisconsin. It was simply that "the bay," being, after Pon- tiac's war, occupied by Canadian French fur- traders, their station finally ripened into a per- manent settlement-the first in Wisconsin-the leading spirits of which were the two Lang- lades, Augustin and Charles, father and son. It had all the characteristics of a French settle- ment. Its growth was very slow. The indus- tries were few and simple. Besides the em- ployments of trading and transporting goods and peltries, the inhabitants engaged in hunt- ing and trapping. Attention was given to the cultivation of the soil only incidently. Gardens were cultivated to some extent for a supply of vegetables. Gradually, however, a few persons turned their chief attention to agriculture .*

In 1783 four white persons occupied in a per- manent manner the tract of land where now is Prairie du Chien, in Crawford Co., Wis. They were soon followed by a number of persons who located there. These became permanent traders with the Indians.

Besides the settlement at "the bay " and the one at Prairie du Chien some French traders were located where Milwaukee now is in 1795, but they could hardly be called settlers. Ten years before that date Laurence Barth lived at the portage between the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, now the site of Portage, Columbia Co., Wis., where he was engaged in the carrying trade. But his residence could not fairly be termed a settlement; so that when, in 1796, the English yielded possession of what is now Wis- consin to the Americans (a nominal one, how- ever,) there were really but two settlements- Green Bay and Prairie du Chien.

*Hist. Northern Wis., p. 49.

HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.

WISCONSIN AS A PART OF THE NORTHWEST TER- another and more famous one, providing for the RITORV.

The Congress of the United States, by their act of the 6th day of September, 1780, recom- mended to the several States in the Union hav- ing claims to waste and unappropriated lands in the western country, a liberal cession to the gen- eral government of a portion of their respective claims for the common benefit of the Union. The claiming States were Connectient, New York and Virginia, all under their colonial char- ters, and the last mentioned, in addition thereto, by right of conquest of the Illinois country. The region contended for lay to the northwest of the river Ohio. Virginia claimed territory westward to the Mississippi and northward to a somewhat indefinite extent. New York, and especially Connecticut, laid claim to territory stretching away to an unbounded extent west- ward, but not so far to the south as Virginia. The last mentioned State, by virtue of conquests largely her own, extended her jurisdiction over the Illinois settlements in 1778, and the year after, and erected into a county enough to in- clude all her conquests. But, what is now the State of Wisconsin, she certainly did not exer- rise dominion over. The three States finally ceded all their rights to the United States, leav- ing the general government absolute owner of the whole country, subject only to the rights, such as they were, of the Indian Nations who dwelt therein.

Under a congressional ordinance, passed in 1785, for ascertaining the mode of disposing of lands in the western territory, the geographer | of the United States was directed to commence the survey of them immediately beyond the Ohio river, upon the plan which has ever since been followed by the general government, re- sulting in regular latitudinal and longitudinal lines being run, so as to circumscribe every 640 acres of land, not only in Wisconsin but in all the west, wherever these surveys have been. brought to completion. Two years subsequent to the passage of the first ordinance, was that of

government of the territory northwest of the river Ohio. This is familiarly known as the ordinance of 1787; and to this day it is a part of the fundamental law of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, the live states since formed out of the region included within the limits affected by its provisions ;- an act of Con- gress, passed in 1789, having adapted it to the constitution of the United States. But neither the treaty with Great Britain of 1783, nor the ordinances of Congress which followed, gave the United States anything more than constructive possession of the whole of its western territory. The mother country, it is true, recognized the northern lakes as the boundary between her possessions and those of the now independent states, but finding an excuse in the fact of some of her merchants not being paid their claims as stipulated by the treaty of 1783, she retained possession of the whole northwest, including what is now Wisconsin, until 1796.

By the ordinance of 1787, the United States in Congress assembled declared that the terri- tory northwest of the Ohio, should, for the pur - poses of temporary government, be one distriet. subject, however, to be divided into districts, as future circumstances might, in the opinion of Congress, make it expedient. It was ordained. that a governor, secretary and three judges should be appointed for the territory; a general assembly was also provided for; and it was de- clared that religion, morality and knowledge. being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education should forever be encouraged. It was also ordained that there should be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the terri- tory, "otherwise than in the punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted." But this organic law was of course nugatory over that portion of the territory o(- enpied by the British, and so continued until the latter yielded possession, and in fact, for some time subsequent thereto.

HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.

By the treaty agreed upon in 1794, between the United States and Great Britain, usually known as the Jay treaty, the evacuation of the posts and places occupied by British troops and garrisons in the northwest, was to take place on or before the 1st day of June, 1796. All set- tlers and traders within the precincts or juris- diction of these posts were to continue to enjoy unmolested, all their property of every kind, and to be protected therein. They were at full liberty to remain there, or to remove with all or any part of their effects; and it was left free to them to sell their lands, houses, or effects, or to retain the property thereof, at their discre- tion. Such of them as should continue to reside there were not to be compelled to become citi- zens of the United States, or to take any oath of allegiance to the government thereof; but were at full liberty so to do if they thought proper; and they were to make and declare their election within one year after the evacuation of the posts by the military. Persons continuing after the expiration of one year without having declared their intentions of remaining subjects of his Britannic majesty, were to be considered as having elected to become citizens of the United States. It is believed that no citizen of Wisconsin, either in the settlement at "the bay" or at Prairie du Chien made such a declaration n but that all who remained, became thereby citi- izens of the new government.

The Indian war in the west; which followed the Revolution, was brought to an end by the victorious arms of Gen. Anthony Wayne, npon the banks of the Manmee river, in what is now the State of Ohio, in the year 1794. The treaty of Greenville was entered into the next year with twelve western tribes of Indians, none of which resided in Wisconsin. Nevertheless, one of the provisions of the treaty was that, in con- sideration of the peace then established and the cessations and the relinquishments of lands made by the Indian tribes there represented, and to manifest the liberality of the United States, claims to all Indian lands northward of

the Ohio, eastward of the Mississippi, and west- ward and southward of the great lakes and the waters uniting them, were relinquished by the general government to the Indians having a right thereto. This included all the lands within the present boundaries of Wisconsin. The meaning of the relinquishment by the United States was that the Indian tribes who had a right to those lands were quietly to enjoy them, hunting, planting and dwelling thereon as long as they pleased, without any molesta- tion from the general government; but when any tribe should be disposed to sell its lands, or any part of them, they were to be sold only to the United States; and until such sale, the general government would protect all the In- dian tribes in the quiet enjoyment of their land against all citizens of the country, and against all other white persons who might intrude upon them. And if any citizen of the United States, or any other white person or persons should pre- sume to settle upon the lands then relinquished by the general government, such citizens or other persons should be out of the protection of the United States: and the Indian tribe on whose land the settlement might be made might drive off the settler, or punish him in such manner as they might think fit; and because such settle- ments made without the consent of the general government would be injurious to them as well as to the Indians, the United States should be at liberty to break them up, and remove and punish the settlers, as they might think proper.

The titles of the Indians to their lands were thus acknowledged; and they were unquestion- able, because treaties made, or to be made with the various tribes had been declared by the constitution of the United States, the su- preme law of the land. But those titles could only be yielded to the general government. The principal question to be afterward deter- mined was, what lands were each tribe the rightful owners of. So long as Wisconsin formed a part of the northwestern territory, no treaty was made by the United States with any

HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.

tribe or tribes occupying any portion of the the country now lying within the limits of Wis- consin.

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History of Crawford and Richland counties, Wisconsin, Part 3

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899. [from old catalog]; Union publishing company, Springfield, Ill., pub. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Springfield, Ill., Union publishing company Number of Pages: 1298

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899. [from old catalog]; Union publishing company, Springfield, Ill., pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Springfield, Ill., Union publishing company
Number of Pages: 1298