History of Dane County, Wisconsin, Part 49

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899; Western Historical Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Company
Number of Pages: 1304

USA > Wisconsin > Dane County > History of Dane County, Wisconsin > Part 49

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"The four men now endeavored to return, but it seemed evident, for some time, that it was impossible. The intricate passages on every side of them seemed to baffle every effort to retrace their steps, while their nearly exhausted candle gave them but little hope. Seeking for the out- let, Walter discovered on a number of the pillars supporting the arches, a portion of the rock assuming the shape of a spear or arrow-head, and always pointing one way. Concluding to fol- low these marks, they finally found them point toward the mouth of the cave, where they arrived in safety, although very late in the evening. With deep gratitude for their fortunate deliver- ance and second escape, they made all possible haste to relieve the anxiety of those at home, feeling satisfied that the deep and intricate passages of the cave were no longer a myth to them.

" It is supposed by some that the marks on the pillars were caused by the action of the water as it rushes through the passages during the heavy rain-falls ; but these men were of the

*From the pen of H. A. Tenney, of the town of Madison,

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impression that they gave evidence of having been cnt by human hands, perhaps by Indians, and that at one time the cave was known to them in all its intricate windings by these marks. " The first white man known to have entered the cave was John MacDonald, Jr., who in 1845, went in about 8 o'clock in the morning and, losing his way, was unable to make his escape until far on in the afternoon of the same day. His intention was to go no farther than he could observe the rays of light reflected from the mouth, and which he endeavored to keep steadily watching, by walking in a half-turned position from the mouth to the interior. Finally thinking he had lost the light, he started back, and was only able to extricate himself after the lapse of time above stated. His case would have been a hopeless one, had he been unable to find his way out, as none of his friends knew of his intention ; indeed, it was only a thought of the moment with himself .*

*From " Madison, Dane County and Surrounding Towns," pp. 581-583, note.

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CHAPTER II.

ANCIENT EARTHWORKS-INDIAN OCCUPANCY-WAS JOHN NICOLET IN DANE COUNTY IN 1634 ?- FIRST WHITE MEN IN DANE COUNTY-EARLY FRENCH EXPLORERS-JONATHAN CARVER'S VISIT IN 1766-THE WISCONSIN RIVER AN EARLY HIGHWAY-THE WINNEBAGO WAR.

ANCIENT EARTHWORKS.

Perhaps no county in Wisconsin is more prolific of ancient earthworks -- traces of the so-called Mound-Builders-than Dane. Indications of the former occupancy and industry of a people long since passed away, are seen on every hand. The United States Surveyors, when they sur- veyed the different townships of the county into sections in 1832, 1833 and 1834, noted many of the mounds. Early visitors to "the Four Lake Country " also noticed them. A writer in 1838, says :

" The [ancient] earthworks which have been constructed in the shapes of animals, abound in the Iowa District [county] of Wisconsin. They occur, mixed with the other varieties, in great numbers around the highlands which skirt the 'Four Lakes,' forming a species of alto relievo of gigantic proportions. This district appears to have been originally much resorted to by the early tribes, whose relics we here behold, mixed with those of the modern Winnebagoes. At one spot alone, probably, at least one hundred tumuli may be counted. The Indian path, along which we passed, has, for near half a mile in length, a series of these, mixed with circular mounds, in tiers several deep, on both sides ; forming a cemetery in magnitude of itself sufficient, one would imagine, for the chiefs and warriors, and their descendants, of a whole tribe, if such was the original design of these earthworks. On the summit of some might be seen the recent graves, protected by palisades, of the last Indian possessors of the soil.

"The site of a singular group of mounds, where are seen the effigies of at least six quad- rupeds ; six mounds in parallelograms ; one circular tumulus; one human figure ; and one circle or ring-is about eighteen miles west of the Four Lakes, and seven miles east of the two remarkable hills called the Blue Mounds. The great Indian trail or war-path which leads from Lake Michigan, near Milwaukee, to the Missisippi, above Prairie du Chien, passes along the edge of this chain of works, and is now for many miles adopted as the route of the military to the latter fort [Crawford]. We pursued this route for a great distance along the dividing ridge between the northern and southern waters [that is, between the waters of Rock River and those of the Wisconsin]; and we continually saw memorials of the character above described, along its borders.

" What animals were intended to be represented by these rude monuments of earth, now covered with the rank prairie grass, is not altogether apparent. If of the horse, the design is somewhat doubtful. We were rather inclined, however imperfect the representation, to attribute the intention of the constructors to be that of exhibiting the figure of the buffalo, an animal which had here the finest pasturage and almost boundless range, within one of the most ample hunting-grounds, and was exceedingly numerous at the time of the first exploration of the country by the French. It is nevertheless to be admitted that the hump, a remarkable char- acteristic of the buffalo, which it would seem unlikely to have been omitted in the representa- tions of that animal, is never seen in these figures, which are distributed over the surface of so many hundred square miles of this country.

"The respective dimensions of these animal effigies in the group before described, are 90, 100, 102, 103, 120 and 126 feet in length ; all of them apparently represent the same descrip- tion of animal. Figures having precisely the same proportions in their outlines, may be seen at

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very short intervals throughout the Territory of Wisconsin, being generally from 90 to 120 feet, and extending to 150 feet long. This form, although the most prevalent, is by no means the only one. In the midst of the group before mentioned, and forming a very important portion of it, we have now to notice the representation of a human figure, lying in an east-and-west direction ; the head toward the west, and the arms and legs extended. Its length is 125 feet, and it is 140 feet from the extremity of one arm to that of the other. The body or trunk is thirty feet in breadth, the head twenty-five feet, and its elevation above the general surface of the prairie is about six feet. Its configuration is so distinct that there can be no possibility of a mistake in assigning it to the human figure.

" There is nothing remarkable about the oblong mounds. The circular tumulus in the center is the highest and overlooks the whole group. Whether all or any of these earthworks contain bones, we bad no opportunity of determining. They probably all do.

"The site of this interesting series is an elevated open prairie on the dividing ridge be- tween the waters of the Wisconsin and Rock Rivers. These monuments are covered with the same green carpet of prairie grass, intermixed with bright and brilliant flowers, as the prairie itself. There is an intervening space near the center of the group, now overgrown with bushes, which probably conceals some unnoticed mounds. Half a mile westward of this remarkable group, and on the same elevated prairie, occurs a solitary mound about ninety feet in length, representing an animal in all respects like those we have described, but with the head toward the southwest.

"Along the space of twenty miles from this position, extending to the For Lakes east- ward. similar monuments, intermixed with plain tumuli, are seen almost every mile, in the lowest situations as well as crowning the highest swells of the prairies ; and they are still more numerous all around those beautiful but almost unknown lakes.

"An effigy ninety feet long, in form resembling the animal outlines previously described, is placed nearly at the foot and at the point of a remarkable picturesque, perpendicular bluff of coarse friable sandstone, fronting a rich meadow, the favorite resort, no doubt, of numerous buffa- loes in olden times. In front of this bluff, and inclosing the mound or effigy, is a long earth- work in an exact straight line, about 200 yards in length, having an opening in the center opposite to the animal. The position of this earthwork indicates its having been designed for the purposes of defense or fortification against an enemy ; perhaps as an outwork to the strong- hold in the rear, formed by the bluff itself. The great Indian road to which we have already referred, skirts along the outer or southern side of this embankment.

" The same path passes between a couple of animal-shaped mounds, at a distance of six miles west of the Four Lakes. One, if not both, of these figures, represents a different species of animal from those already described. They are respectively 120 and 102 feet long."*

Another early traveler to the Four Lake country, has left a record of what he saw of these ancient earthworks. He says :

" The path we were upon was an ancient Indian trail, holding its course steadily from the waters of the Mississippi to Tycoberah, or the Four Lakes ; and, as if all things rare in their nature had here gathered together to enhance the interest which was inspired by this romantic country, we came to some Indian [prehistoric] monuments of a very remarkable character.

"These were figures of animals and men, formed of the soil, upon the surface of the ground, about six feet high, in alto-relievo, all of them perfectly distinct, and covered with a sod that appeared to be coeval with that of the prairie itself. "Not one of them appeared to have been opened; and this circumstance, with the novelty of the spectacle, could not fail to detain me until I had examined, measured and sketched these interesting objects. They were very nu- merous, and extended more than half a mile on each side of our road, which, as before mentioned, was an ancient Indian war-path, leading from the waters of the Mississippi, in the direction of the Four Lakes, to Lake Michigan.

*Adapted from "Notes respecting certain Indian mounds and earthworks, in the form of Animal Effigies, chiefly in the Wisconsin Terri- tory, U.S .; hy Richard C. Taylor, Esq." -- Silliman's Journal, Vol. XXXIV-July 1838, pp. 88-91.

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"At a point very near to the trail was a figure of a man, amid some oblong mounds ; his arms extended north and south, his head lying to the west, and his legs to the east; east from this figure, about 200 feet, was a round tumulus, sufficiently high to overlook everything around ; and about 600 feet east from it was a line of seven buffalo mounds, each representing distinctly, the head, horns, neck, fore and hind legs, body and tail, of that animal. Each of these animal mounds measured, from the nose to the tip of the tail, about 120 feet, of which the tail alone measured thirty-six feet. The figure of the man was about 150 feet long, from one extremity to the other ; the limbs twenty feet apart at the east, and all the parts stood in bold relief, about six feet high from the face of the prairie. To the left of the trail was a circle about 60 feet in diameter.

"As we proceeded westward, we found other mounds of a similar character ; a few, how- ever, differed from them, and appeared rather to take the form of a beaver, as others, in distant parts of the Wisconsin Territory, did that of the turtle. At one point near to the trail was a large animal mound embossed upon the prairie betwixt a rampart of earth at least 200 yards long and a vertical escarpment of incoherent sandstone, of the same quality with the friable sand-rock I had seen on the banks of the Wisconsin, which underlies the metalliferous limestone. "From the great abundance of mounds of various kinds which exist in this fertile territory, it is evident that it must have been in ancient times a favorite abode of powerful tribes remark- able for their ingenuity. We know that, having separated into tribes, the buffalo, the turtle, the beaver and other animals became the totems or badges of the Indians, and that, after their rude and simple manner, they used them as heraldic symbols. Among the various Indian nations, of which we have any knowledge, in the continent of America, we find its principal beasts and birds selected by them to designate their races, just as those objects in nature, the lion, the eagle, the horse, have been adopted in various parts of the old world; and it deserves notice that the presumption that the horse was not indigenous to America is strengthened by the fact that no Indian tribe has ever taken that animal for its totem or badge, and that no ancient name for it is to be found in any of their languages.

" That these mounds, whatever form has been given to them, are deposits of the dead, has been proved upon numerous occasions. Some of them, of all kinds, have been opened, and have uniformly been found to contain human bones. Nor is each mound the tomb of one individual, for bones are found distributed throughout, and in such a manner as to show that layers of bodies have been placed side by side, then covered over by earth, and another layer deposited. I can speak with certainty of this, having been present at the opening of more than one of them. A collection of such mounds, then, is to be regarded as an Indian cemetery, placed near one of their great war-paths ; while those representing men may really have been so figured in honor of some conspicuous warrior, whose tomb, thus situated, could seen and honored by all who passed up and down the war-path."*

A figure on Lake Monona, at the intersection of Wilson street with Wisconsin avenue, in the present city of Madison, was that of a man, but different, in some respects, from other effigies representing the human form, in having a neck and proportionately smaller body. Like most mounds of this general character, it had its head directed toward the water. It occupied high ground, having a gentle slope toward the lake, and was very near the steep, broken cliff. Its total length was 318 feet; length of head, 33 feet; length to first pair of legs, 63 feet; length to second pair of legs, 105 feet; breadth of head, 27 feet; breadth of neck, 21 feet; breadth of the body, 40 feet ; diameter of two mounds near by, 42 feet.

On Section 22, in the town of Madison, formerly, but now within the limits of the city, and north of Lake Wingra, there was once a row of artificial mounds. The row was irregular, being accommodated to the shape of the ground. Two quadrupes, one bird, one mound with lateral projections, five oblong and twenty circular tumuli made up this group.

Near the south angle of Lake Monona were also, formerly, remains of the Mound-Builders. The rows presented more the appearance of order and system than is usual in works of this

* From "A Canoe Voyage up the Minnay Sotor," hy G. W. Featherstonhaugh. Vol. II, pp. 89-93.

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character. Around the east end of the lake are other interesting earthworks. On the shores of Lake Wanbesa and Lake Kegonsa are numerous works; so, too, in other parts of the county. Along the northern shore of Lake Mendota, many ancient works may be found. The animal- monnds represent bears, deer and squirrels, also animals that are now extinct ; while a few are made in the form of birds, some of which are very large. Three of them are located very near each other, and resemble eagles with expanded wings. The largest of these birds has a body of 100 feet long, whose expanded wings measure 300 feet on either side of the body, while the tail is 40 feet wide. The head is quite perfectly formed ; the outline of the beak is 15 feet in length. The form of a deer, about 3 feet high, is found near the left wing of the gigantic bird. The body measures 65 feet and the legs are 14 feet long; the head measures 12 feet from- the tip of the nose to the origin of the antlers. These latter are each 10 feet long, and have a branch extending at right angles from their center. Near the left wing of the other bird, there is the form of a bear, with a well-defined body, head and legs.

While many animal mounds are found near Lake Mendota, there are also circular and oblong mounds. Their elevation varies from 93 to 96 feet above the lake, and on some of them trees are growing, measuring 52 feet in circumference. The largest circular mound of this group measures 188 feet in circumference, and 35 feet from the base to its summit. It is the highest mound, and from its elevated position could have been used for observation and as a means of communication by signal with other mounds in the adjacent country. From its sum- mit you have an extended view of the surrounding country for many miles in all directions.

INDIAN OCCUPANCY.

As early as the year 1615, Samuel Champlain heard of a tribe of Indians living many leagues beyond Lake Huron, called the Fire Nation, better known at a later date as the Mas- coutins. Their homes were upon the Fox River at that time, as it is believed, and here they were visited by civilized man a little less than a score of years after. It is presumed that their villages were located within the present limits of Green Lake County, somewhere on Fox River, between Berlin and Lake Puckaway. The nearest tribe to the Mascontins, down the Fox River, was the Winnebagoes, whose homes were at the mouth of that stream. To the south, extending perhaps as far north as the Wisconsin and well up Rock River, was the territory of the Illinois. In the immediate neighborhood of the Mascoutins (but in what direction is uncertain) were the Kickapoos and the Miamis.

The Illinois, who lived in a country " where was a quantity of buffaloes," were afterward driven beyond the Mississippi, but subsequently returned to the river which still bears their name. Meanwhile, there commenced an emigration of the Mascoutins and their kindred, the Kickapoos and Miamis, to the southward, as far at least as the south end of Lake Michigan. Their place was taken by the Foxes, and their relatives, the Sacs; and, in time, probably near the close of the Revolution, these also emigrated, but not to the southward ; the course taken by them was to the west and southwest. It is certain the Foxes claimed for a time the country now forming Dane County, as well as much circumjacent territory. Then came the Winneba- goes from below, that is, from the head of Green Bay, moving up the Fox River by degrees, hav- ing outlying villages on the shores of Winnebago Lake and in the valley of Rock River. They finally reached the "portage," and their territory extended down the Wisconsin. This brings us to the time when the United States began making treaties with them. The first of these was held at St. Louis, June 3, 1816, with that portion of the tribe residing on the Wisconsin. This treaty (held soon after the war with Great Britain, in which the Winnebagoes engaged on the side of the British) was one for peace only, no cession of land on the part of the Indians being made to the United States. In 1820, the Winnebagoes had five villages on Winnebago Lake and fourteen on Rock River. In 1825, the claim of this tribe was extensive, so far as territory. was concerned. Its southeast boundary stretched away from the sources of Rock River to within forty miles of its mouth, in Illinois, where they had a village. On the west, it extended to the heads of the small streams flowing westward and southward into the Mississippi. To the north-

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ward, it reached as far as Black River and the Upper Wisconsin ; in other words, to the Chip- pewa territory ; but did not extend across the Fox to the lands of the north side, although the tribe contended for the whole of Winnebago Lake. Within their territory, then, in 1825, was the whole of the present county of Dane.

Early in 1829, a provisional boundary was established between the Indian lands, strictly such, and those belonging to, or expected soon to be purchased by, the United States. By this line, white people could settle in the western part of what is now Dane County without being trespassers upon the domain of any tribe, the boundary being a line drawn from the Wisconsin River nearly due south until it reached a point a little east of the East Blue Mound, when it turned and ran a southeast course to the head of that branch of the Pecatonica Creek, which runs near the " Spotted Arm's Village." All east of this line still remained Indian territory.

By a treaty held with the Winnebagoes on the 1st day of Angust, 1829, at Prairie du Chien, these Indians relinquished, among much other territory, all of their land in what is now Dane County, lying west of a line drawn along Sugar River, from its mouth to the source of the eastern branch thereof; thence due north to the road leading from the Eastern Blue Mound, by the most northern of the Four Lakes, to the crossing of Duck Creek, in what is now Columbia County. Three years later, at a treaty held at Fort Armstrong, Rock Island, the residue of the Winnebago lands lying in the present County of Dane-that is, all east of the line just men- tioned-was ceded to the United States. This treaty was proclaimed February 13, 1833, and on that day all of what had been before that time, in what is now Dane County, the lands of the Winnebagoes, belonged to the General Government.

West of the Wisconsin was still a part of Winnebago territory ; but, in November, 1837, this nation ceded to the General Government all their lands east of the Mississippi. Not an acre was reserved.

It will be observed that the Winnebago occupation of the Four Lakes and adjacent country was not of very long duration. At the time this tribe ceded all of its lands east of the Missis- sippi to the United States, there were two divisions of its people ; the headquarters of the one were at Prairie du Chien, and of the other at Fort Winnebago-that is, it was at these places the Indians were paid their annuities by the General Government. The principal villages of the last-mentioned division (those who were paid at Fort Winnebago) were at Lake Winnebago, Green and Fox Lakes, the Barribault (now written Baraboo), Mnd Lake (in the present Dodge County), the Four Lakes, Koshkonong (White Crow's village), and Turtle Creek (now Beloit).

During the occupation of the country of the Four Lakes, the Winnebagoes had, at different times, villages in what is now Dane County ; one on the north side of Lake Mendota, one at the mouth of Token Creek, a third on the south side of Lake Monona, a fourth on the southeast side of Lake Waubesa, and a fifth on what is now the south boundary of the town of Primrose, on the south line of Section 36.

When, in 1837, the Winnebagoes disposed of all their land to the United States east of the Mississippi, they stipulated that, within eight months, they would move west of the great river." This arrangement was not carried out fully, and many of the Winnebagoes were afterward forcibly carried beyond the Mississippi. They were in Dane County in considerable numbers at times until 1840, when force was first used to induce them, wherever they could be found, to migrate; but, after their last treaty (that of 1837), they had no particular abiding-place in the country of the Four Lakes. As late as 1873, there was a forcible removal of a party of them from the State. Not a single Indian of any tribe has now a permanent home in Dane County.

WAS JOHN NICOLET IN DANE COUNTY IN 1634 ?*

The question is no longer an open one as to whether John Nicolet was the first white man who set foot upon any portion of what is now Wisconsin. It has been definitely settled. It is

*By O. W. Butterfield, of Madison, Wie. "Mr. Shea avers, and Parkman twice repeats, that Nicolet partly descended the Wisconsin [sailing along a portion of what is now Dane County]."

Collectione of the State Hist. Soc. of Wie., Vol. VIII, p. 188. This article hy Mr. Butterfield is introduced to show that ench was not the fact .- PUB.

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also quite as well determined that his explorations and discoveries were made in the great West during the last half of the year 1634-only fourteen years after the landing of the Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock-and the first half of the following year. He, therefore, who would read understandingly the first chapter in the history of Wisconsin ought to investigate the life-history of that remarkable man. He will find him, at an early age, leaving his home in Normandy for the New World, landing at Quebec in 1618, and immediately starting for the Ottawa River to immure himself in the dark forests of the Algonquins, sent thither by the Governor of Canada to learn their language. He will see how the young Norman applied himself to his task "in the midst of those hardships which may be readily conceived if we will reflect what it must be to pass severe winters in the woods under a covering of cedar or birch bark ; to have one's means of subsistence dependent upon hunting ; to be perpetually hearing rude outcries ; to be deprived of the pleasant society of one's own people ; and to be constantly exposed, not only to derision and insulting words, but even to daily peril of life." He will note how the youthful Frenchman followed the Indians in their wanderings ; how he partook of their dangers, their fatigues and their privations ; how, finally, having become familiar with their language, he entered into their frequent councils.

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History of Dane County, Wisconsin, Part 49

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899; Western Historical Co., Chicago, pub Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Company Number of Pages: 1304

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899; Western Historical Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Company
Number of Pages: 1304