History of Grant County, Wisconsin, Part 59

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 1044

USA > Wisconsin > Grant County > History of Grant County, Wisconsin > Part 59

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The letters, reports, etc., made in regard to these esrly mines, sre very interesting. In one of the reports made by one Ls Guis, in 1743, he speaks of the miners of that day, and his description of them would apply, in many respects, to the miners in the Fever River, or Gslena, lead mines half a century sgo. He says :

" Most of these miners, numbering eighteen or twenty when I left Illinois, have been driven there by fast living, unable to satisfy their passions any longer. Then, everybo ly here works for himself, and only gives his attention to a few veins or branches, not being able to dig far enough to resch the heart of the mine. In their search they use an auger four or five feet long. which they sink into the ground in different places until they find one of these veins. When they do strike one, they make a big hole and dig all the mineral they can out of it. If they meet with any obstacle, in the way of stones or water, they give up that vein and try elsewhere. As soon as one man has gathered soough mineral to live the rest of the year, he quits work and begins to smelt it."

Further along in this report, M. Le Guis gives an account of the manner in which these miners smelted their ore in I743, and it is almost precisely the same method which was followed in the Galeno up to within three or four years

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HISTORY OF THE LEAD REGION.

before I located there in 1840. There were then the remains of many old log furnaces throughout the mines. It was about in 1836, I think, that the log furnaces were supplanted by the Drummond blast furnace. The amount of waste or scoria by the old log method of smelting was very great. This waste was in a great measure avoided by the blast furnace, of which the inventor was Robert A. Drummon I, of Jo Daviess County, the uncle of the Hon. Willis Drum- mond, of Iowa, late Commissioner of the General Land Office at Washington.

The following is the description of the log furnace one hundred and thirty-seven years ago :

" They cut down two or three big trees aud divide them in logs five feet long ; then they dig a small basin in the ground and pile three or four of these logs on top of each other over this basin ; then they cover it with the game wood, and put three more logs, shorter than the first, on top, and one at each end, crosswise. This makes a kind of box, in which they put the mineral ; then they pile as much wood as they can on top and around it. When this is done, they set fire to it from under, the logs burn up, and partly melt the mineral. They are sometimes obliged to repeat the same operation three times in order to extract all the matter. This matter, falling into the basio, forms a lump, which they afterward melt over again into bars, weighing from sixty to eighty pounds, in order to facilitate the transportation to Kaskaskia. This is done with horses, who are quite vigorous in this country. One horse carries generally four or five of these bars. It is worthy of remark, gentlemen, that in spite of the bad system these men have to work, there have been taken out of the La Motte mine 2,500 of these bars in 1741 ; 2,228 in 1742 ; and these nien work only four or five months in the year at most."

Mr. Margry also observes that he is unable to throw direct light upon the occupation of the Fever River section by the French, in the eighteenth century. A history of Louisiana, written by Lepage Dupratz in 1758, forty-five years before the ownership of the colony was transferred, con- tains the statement that " the region is not frequented." This is but natural, since the French Governors held quasi court in Canada and the Lower Mississippi region, leaving the western tract of the present Illinois out of the range of more frequent mention.

DUBUQUE'S SETTLEMENT.

In 1788, Julien Dubnque, a French trader with the Indians, who had heard of the region in the course of his business, located on the site of the city bearing his name. He was accom- panied by a party of miners. Dubuque obtained a grant of a large tract of land from the chiefs of the Sacs and Foxes, and was, fortunately, able to secure the confirmation of his claim from Carondelet, then Governor of Louisiana. The grant was confined to the western bank of the Mississippi. Dubuque remained in occupation of these lands, engaged in mining, until the time of his death, which occurred in 1810.

Julien Dubuque's grave is on the summit of a high bluff overlooking the Mississippi River, about two miles below the city of Dubuque, and above the mouth of Catfish Creek.

When Dubuque located on the west shore, it is said that a man named D'Bois also located on the east bank. nearly opposite the Frenchman's trading and mining post, probably a short distance below the Dunleith of to-day. But so little is known of this man that his residence is traditionary. The period between 1788 and 1811 is one of vague and uncertain historic charac- ter in this region. It is said that traces of white occupants at a very early period were discov- ered on the Sinsinawa by the "first " settlers of Jo Daviess County, who were miners. It would be strange, indeed, with the knowledge of the immense deposits of lead and the abundance of game in this region, as well as the mining operations of Dubuque, so near at hand, if no adven- turers or traders ever visited the Riviere au Feve, or ventured among the Sacs and Foxes east of . the Mississippi ; especially since the success of Dubuque in gaining a grant could not be kept a matter of absolute secrecy. Roving traders and agents of the American Fur Company-that corporation which has left its tracks everywhere throughout the Northwest-must surely have been cognizant of the rich stores of peltry annually obtained along the Wisconsin and its many tributaries, and engaged in competition with the miner and trader on the west side. But thus far no record of occupation or irregular traffic has been discovered. The first evidence of occupation of Jo Daviess County after D'Bois, and prior to 1819-20, is the testimony of Capt. D. S. Harris, of Galena, an old steamboat Captain who ran upon the Mississippi at a very early day, and who furnished the information hereinafter given, as late as 1878.

A MISSING ISLAND.

Capt. Harris says that, in 1811, George E. Jackson, a Missouri miner, had a rude log furnace and smelted lead on an island then existing in the Mississippi, but which has since dis.

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appeared. The island was on the east side of the main channel, a short distance below Danleith, nearly opposite the mouth of the Catfish Creek. Jackson floated his lead to St. Louis by flat- boat, and experienced much trouble with the Indians. He was joined in 1812-13 by John S. Miller, but soon after the island was abandoned. Jackson went to Missouri, and Miller went down the river and built the first cabin and blacksmith-shop on the site of Hannibal, Mo. It is said that in 1818, Miller, in company with George W. Ash and another man, ascended the Mis- sissippi with a boat load of merchandise as far as Dubuque's mines, trading with the Indians. It is believed he penetrated to the site of Galena, and spent some time on Fever River, in this region.

The first permanent settlement by white men on the east shore, within the lead district, of which any reliable knowledge remains, dates from 1820, on what is now Galena River. In 1823, Miller and Jackson again visited this spot.

In 1803, when the United States purchased the province of Louisiana from Napoleon, of France, the existence of lead mines in this region was well known. In 1807, Congress enacted that these mines should be reserved from sale and held in fee simple, under the exclusive control of the Government. Leases of three to five years were issued to various individuals to work them as tenants of the United States, but, until about 1823, most of the work was done in Mis- souri, and the operations appear to have been carried on without much system. Miners through- out all the lead-mining districts paid but slight attention to Congressional enactments. Lessees were not properly supported in their rights, and, of course, became constantly involved in dis- putes with claimants and trespassers, which often proved ruinous to their undertakings.

DUBUQUE'S OPERATIONS ON THE EAST SIDE.

The veteran Capt. Harris says that, unquestionably, Julien Dubuque operated on both sides of the Mississippi, and mined on Appie River, near the present village of Elizabeth, worked the old Buck and Hog leads, near Fever River, the Cave Diggings, in what is now Vinegar Hill Township, and others, as early as 1805, and very probably at a still earlier date. The Indians were on very friendly terms with Dubuque, and, when they reported a discovery to him, he sent his assistants, Canadian Frenchmen and half-breeds, to prove them, and, in some cases, to work them. All over this region, when Capt. Harris came to Fever River, a lad of fifteen, in 1823, traces of old mining operations existed, which were evidently not the work of the Indians. At what was called the Allenwrath Diggings, at Ottawa, about two miles from the present city of Galena, a heavy sledge-hammer was found under the ashes of one of those primitive furnaces, in 1826. This furnace had been worked long before the date generally assigned to the first white settlement in this region. This ancient hammer, weighing from fifteen to twenty pounds, was- and probably still is-preserved by Mr. Houghton, a well-known editor of the Northwest. The Indians never used such an implement, and it was unquestionably left by some of Dubuque's miners where it was found in 1826.

All these important considerations, in connection with the fact that the Mississippi River was the great highway of the pioneers of that day ; that Prairie du Chien was a thriving French village, and had been a French military post as early as 1755, long before Dubuque located above the mouth of Catfish Creek; that a military and trading post existed at Fort Armstrong (Rock Island) previous to the later " first settlements " on the east side of the Mississippi, now Jo Daviess County, lead almost irresistibly to the conclusion that " La Pointe " was well known to the earlier Indian traders, and that the lead-mining region around Riviere au Feve had been visited and occupied, temporarily at least, by white men, for many years prior to 1819-20. But by whom ? History is silent, and those hardy pioneers have left no footprints on the shifting sands of time.

It must be considered as reasonably certain, as previously stated, that the lead-mining dis- trict, now lying in Jo Daviess County, Ill., and in Grant, Iowa and La Fayette Counties, Wis., was more or less occupied by Dubuque's men before any permanent settlements were made in the territory. Dubuque, by his wonderful magnetic power, had obtained great influence among

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the Indians, then occupying this entire region. They believed him to be almost equal to the Great Spirit, and they feared him nearly as much. They implicitly obeyed him, and it is not a mere chimera to presume that they reported to him the existence of leads on the east as well as on the west side of the Father of Waters ; and it is reasonable to suppose, when such reports were made to him, that he verified them by actual observations made by himself or his men. From the remembrances of the oldest residents of this region, now surviving, and the traces of mining done by whites long before any permanent settlements were made, it seems more than probable that Dubuque and his men were the first whites who occupied the Fever River lead- mining district, in common with the aboriginal inhabitants.

It must also be considered certain that " La Pointe " was familiar to them as a trading-post, long previous to actnal white settlement. The total absence of records leaves the subject enshrouded in a darkness that is relieved only by tradition. The locality here designated as " La Pointe " is that also known as " The Portage," near the present city of Galena.

In February, 1810, Nicholas Boilvin, then agent for the Winnebagoes at Prairie du Chien, passed through this region on foot from Rock Island, with Indians for guides, and by them was shown a lead mine, which, from his memoranda, written in the French language, was near Fever River, and was probably what was afterward known to the early settlers as the Old Buck Lead.

EARLY NAVIGATION AND COMMERCE.

In 1810, Henry Shreeve is said to have worked his way up to Fever River, and there obtained a small cargo of lead, which he floated back to the towns on the Lower Mississippi.

The following extract from Moses M. Strong's forthcoming " History of Wisconsin," con- firms the fact of early-time navigation and intercourse between the lead region and St. Louis : " In the period between 1815 and 1820, Capt. John Shaw made eight trips, in a trading- boat, from St. Louis to Prairie du Chien, and visited the lead mines where the city of Galena now is, and where the Indians smelted the lead in rude furnaces of their own construction ; and at one time Mr. Shaw carried away seventy tons, which they had produced from the ores obtained by themselves, in their primitive modes.

" Capt. Shaw afterward lived in Green Lake County, in this State, where he died a few years since."

In 1816, by a treaty made at St. Louis with various tribes to settle the disputes that had arisen under the treaty of 1804, by which the Sacs and Foxes had ceded to the United States all the lands lying between the Illinois and Wisconsin Rivers, east of the Mississippi, all the lands north of a line running west from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan to the Missis- sippi, were relinquished to the Indians, except a tract five leagues square on the Mississippi River, to be designated by the President of the United States. These reservations were intended to be sufficient to embrace the lead mines known to be worked by the squaws and presumed to be valuable, although their location was not known to the Government, and probably the unde- fined character of the reservation is thus accounted for.

DAVENPORT AT FEVER RIVER.

In 1816, the late Col. George Davenport, agent of the American Fur Company, trading with the Sacs and Foxes, occupied the trading-post at the Portage, on Fever River, and lived there, but how long is not now known. He soon after left that point and went to Rock Island. The post was afterward occupied by Amos Farrar, of the firm of Davenport, Farrar & Farnham, agents of the American Fur Company. This important fact in the early history of this district is given on the authority of William H. Snyder, of Galena, who had the statement direct from Col. Davenport in 1835.

Previous to 1819, the Sacs and Foxes, both noted as warlike and dangerous tribes, had killed several traders who had attempted to traffic among them. It was currently reported that a trader met his death at their hands, at Sinsinawa, in 1813.

GE06. AugEllero

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HISTORY OF THE LEAD REGION.

THE BUCK LEAD.

In 1819, the historic diggings known for more than half a century as the " Buck Lead," were being worked by the Indians, the labor being mainly performed by squaws. It was the largest body of mineral then ever discovered on Fever River, and an immense amount of galena ore was taken out by the natives and sold to traders, before the lead was worked out by Johnson, as hereinafter referred to. Mr. Farrar estimated that several million pounds had been taken from this lead by the Indians ; more, in fact, than was taken from it by white miners afterward. This lead took its name from "The Buck," a Sac or Fox chief, who was encamped with his band on Fever River in 1819, and worked it. Its existence had been known to the Indians for many years, and unquestionably by Dubuque, previous to its working by Buck and his band. Close by it and parallel with it, was a smaller lead, which may be called the "Doe " lead, in honor of Buck's favorite squaw. Before the arrival of Johnson, in 1820-21, the Indians took from this lead the largest nugget of mineral ever raised in the region. It took all the force they could muster to raise it, and, when they had succeeded in getting it out, the Indian miners urged that it be sent to Washington as a gift to the Great Father, but, since no record of its hav- ing been so disposed of is extant, it is reasonable to believe that the traders outweighed their inclinations by offering a slight advance on the customary price, which was a peck of corn for a peck of mineral.

JESSE SHULL'S TRADERSHIP.

In 1819, when the Buck Lead was being worked by the Indians, Jesse W. Shull was trad- ing at Dubuque's mines, for a company at Prairie du Chien. That company desired him to go to Fever River and trade with the Indians; but he declared that it was unsafe, that the Sacs and Foxes had already murdered several traders, and declined to go unless he could have the protection of the United States troops. Col. Johnson, of the United States Army, subsequently was induced to summon a council of the Sac and Fox nations at Prairie du Chien, and when the chiefs had assembled, he informed them that the goods which Mr. Shull was about to bring among them were sent out by their Father, the President of the United States (it was not con- sidered a sin to lie to the Indians even as long ago as then), and told them that they must not molest Shull in his business.

Having received from the Government officers and from the Indians assurances of protec- tion, Shull came to Fever River late in the summer of 1819, and erected a trading-house on the bottoms at the river, probably near the foot of the present Perry street. Mr. Seymour, in his " History of Galena," published in 1848, fixes the location as the "site of the American House; " but, as that landmark has long since disappeared, the location is indefinite. During 1848, Mr. Seymour had a personal interview with Mr. Shull, then residing in Green County, and gathered from his lips the information given herein. Mr. Shull stated that he and Dr. Samuel C. Muir were the first white settlers on Fever River at that point. Dr. Muir began trading, with goods furnished by Col. Davenport, at that place, the same year. Mr. Shull also said that Francois Bouthillier, a French trader known about Prairie du Chien as early as 1812, "occupied " a rude hut at the bend, on the east side of Fever River, in 1819; but whether he built the same, or merely occupied a shanty already constructed by some earlier trader, is unde- termined. This leaves the subject in a vague state ; but the inference is that Bouthillier not only lived in but also built the hut.

Mr. Shull does not appear to have been a permanent fixture at Fever River, for he soon moved to other places, and changed his base as the Indians shifted their hunting and trapping grounds. He subsequently removed to what is now La Fayette County, as is shown in the his- tory of that county proper.

DR. SAMUEL C. MUIR.

Dr. Samuel C. Muir, mentioned by Mr. Shull as trading in the district in 1819, may have been the companion of that pioneer, but no evidence goes to prove the fact. Just when he first came and how long he remained is unknown. Dr. Muir was an educated physician, a graduate of

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Edinburg, and a man of strict integrity. He was Surgeon in the United States Army previ- ous to his settlement at La Pointe. He married an Indian woman of the Fox Nation. In 1819-20, Dr. Muir was stationed at Fort Edwards, now Warsaw. He resigned in the latter year, and built the first house on the site of Keokuk, but leased his claim to parties in St. Louis, and again came to La Pointe in 1820, to practice his profession. He was the first regular phy- sician in the district. He remained ten years. Subsequently, he returned to Keokuk, where he suddenly died, leaving an estate badly involved. His widow and her two surviving children (two had previously died) disappeared, some say to resume her old relations with her tribe, on the Upper Missouri.

A. P. VAN MATRE.

In the summer of 1819, A. P. Van Matre located on the east side of the river, at La Pointe, where he engaged in smelting. From an article on the carly settlement of this district published in the Galena' Sentinel in 1843, the following is taken relative to this man :

"In the fall of the year 1819, our old friend, Capt. D. G. Bates, started from St. Louis, with a French crew, for Fever River, Upper Mississippi, lead mines. His vessel was a ' keel,' the only means of conveyance then of heavy burthens on the Upper Mississippi ; and the boat- men in those days were, some of them, 'half-horse and half-alligator.' But the merry French, after arriving off Pilot Knob, commenced hunting for Fever River. After a search of three days they found the mouth, and, on the 13th of November, after pushing through the high grass and rice lakes, they arrived safely at where Galena now stands, where they were greeted by some of the natives, from the tall grass, as well as by our old acquaintances, J. W. Shull and A. P. Van Matre, who had taken to themselves wives from the daughters of the land, and were traders for their brethren. [A portion of the scrap is here gone. Others are evidently mentioned ; Dr. Muir, for one.] Capt. Bates, after disposing of or leaving his cargo in exchange for lead, etc., returned to St. Louis for another cargo."

Future generations will be glad to learn what the primitive "keel-boat " was. The novel craft was built to fill the peculiar demand of the locality. It was something like a modern "scow-barge," only its hull was lower. These boats were from fifty to eighty feet long and from ten to fifteen feet beam, with two to three feet depth of hold. On the deck was built the " cargo- box," which generally extended to within about ten feet of the ends of the boat, with about two feet space between gunwales and box. This space was called a " walking-board." Sometimes there was no room for this runway, and it was projected over the hull. The rudder was a gigantic sweep. The boat was propelled by oars, sails, poles, or any other contrivance which ingenuity or necessity suggested. When the water was high and the boat near shore, the crew would seize the bushes and "bushwhack " along. The character of many men who engaged in this life was such as to render " bushwhacking " a term of severest reproach even to this day. Frequently, a long rope was attached to the boat, and the crew organized into a towing-club. This style of navigation was called " cordelling." Sometimes a rope was made fast to a tree or an anchor and hauled upon, the crew walking from stem to stern until the craft was alongside of the anchorage, when another " hitch " was made. This laborious work was the only method of securing navigation in the Upper Mississippi at the time mentioned.

Francois Bouthillier, the other and later occupant of the Fever River trading-post in 1819, was a roving trader, who followed the nomadic habits of his dusky customers. Whether he remained in his shanty, calling it home, from that time on, is unknown. The second mention of him is made in the statement of J. G. Soulard, who, while on his way to Fort Snelling, in 1821, found Bouthillier at Fever River, still acting as trader. Mr. Shull, in the interview with Mr. Seymour, already mentioned, said : "Mr. Bouthillier, after he occupied a shanty at the ' Bend,' in 1819, purchased a cabin then known as the cabin of Bagwell & Co., supposed to be near the lower ferry. In 1824, and previous to Bouthillier's purchase, the house and lot had been sold for $80." Here Mr. Bouthillier engaged in trade and established a ferry, which is the first permanent settlement made by him of which authentic account is given. Capt. Harris is authority for saying that such a ferry and trading-house were built near that point.

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In this connection, it is well to add that Mr. George Ferguson and Mr. Allan Tomlin, early settlers and reliable men, both express the opinion that there was a trading-post at the Portage, three and a-half miles below La Pointe, before either of those whose names have been mentioned were at the place. However this may be, in the absence of further evidence, it must be admit- ted that there were a large number of Indians encamped or living in the region referred to at that time, whose women and old men were engaged in raising lead from the Buck lead, and the fame of their rude though, for them, extensive mining operations, must have naturally attracted the attention of traders, who probably came to traffic with them. The inference, if not the proof, sustains the statements of Messrs. Ferguson and Tomlin. The Portage was a narrow neck of land between Fever River and the Mississippi, so named because the Indians and traders were accustomed to transport their canoes and goods across to save the journey down to the mouth, some two and a half miles, the neck being only a few rods in width. A furrow was plowed across the neck in 1834, by Lieut. Hobart, and now there is a deep channel, called the " cut- off." This was certainly a good location for a trading-post.

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History of Grant County, Wisconsin, Part 59

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899 Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Co. Number of Pages: 1044

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 1044