History of Grant County, Wisconsin, Part 71

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

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" The Winnebagoes on the steamboat must have either misunderstood what was told or did not tell it to the captain correctly, because I am confident he would not have fired upon us if he had known my wishes. I have always considered him a good man and too great a brave to fire upon an enemy when suing for quarter.

" After the boat had left us, I told my people to cross if they could and wished; that I intended going into the Chippewa country. Some commenced crossing, and such as had deter- mined to follow them remained, only three lodges going with me. Next morning (August 2). at daybreak, a young man overtook me, and said that all my party had determined to cross the Mississippi ; that a number had already got over safe, and that he had heard the white army last night within a few miles of them. I now began to fear that the whites would come up with my people and kill them before they could get across. I had determined to go and join. the Chippewas, but reflecting that by this I could only save myself, I concluded to return and die with my people if the Great Spirit would not give us another victory. During our stay in the thicket, a party of whites came close by us, but passed on withont discovering us.

" Early in the morning, a party of the whites, being in advance of the army. came upon- our people who were attempting to cross the Mississippi. They tried to give themselves up. The whites paid no attention to their entreaties, but commenced slaughtering them. In a little while the whole army arrived. Our braves, but few in number, finding that the enemy paid no respect to age or sex, and seeing that they were murdering helpless women and little children, determined to fight until they were killed. As many women as could commenced swimming the Mississippi with children on their backs. A number of them were drowned and some shot before reaching the opposite shore.

" One of my braves, who gave me this information, piled some saddles up before him when the fight commenced to shield him from the enemy's fire, and killed three white men ; but, seeing that the whites were coming too close to him, he crawled to the bank of the river and hid himself until the enemy retired. He then came to me and told me what had been done. After hearing this sorrowful news, I started with my little party for the Winnebago village at Prairie La Crosse."

The finale of this romantic melo-drama is given in an earlier part of this work.

Of the justness of the quarrel the reader can judge for himself; but, whatever the decision, the so-called battle of Bad Ax can only be characterized, according to testimony on both sides, as an indiscriminate massacre. Whatever may have been the provocation, and Black Hawk and his- band were by no means blameless, this indiscriminate slaughter of women and children, and refusal of quarter to the starving savages, is one scene in the chapter of early history to which none will look back with any great degree of pride.

HEIGHTS IN GRANT COUNTY.

The following list will show the elevation of different points in the county. All heights are computed from the level of Lake Michigan, and are just that number of feet above the lake's surface : Wyalusing, 33 feet ; Glen Haven, 28 feet ; Cassville, 30 feet ; North Andover, 260 feet ; Bloomington, 327 feet ; Patch Grove, 498 feet ; Mount Hope, 498 feet; Little Grant, 250 feet ; Beetown, 184 feet ; Potosi, 204 feet ; British Hollow, 287 feet : Rockville, 348 feet; Hurricane Grove, 363 feet ; Lancaster Court House, 502 feet; Mount Ida, 590 feet; Homer P. O., 400 feet ; Fennimore, 590 feet ; Liberty Ridge, 566 feet ; Annaton, 271 feet ; Ellenboro, 111 feet ; Dickeyville, 356 feet; Jamestown P. O., 334 feet; Fair Play P. O., 220 feet; Sinsin- awa Academy, 348 feet ; Hazel Green, 360 feet; St. Rose, 416 feet ; Big Patch, 239 feet ; Platteville, 257 feet ; Washburn, 263 feet; New California, +11 feet ; Montfort, 515 feet ; Castle Rock, 269 feet ; West Platte Mound, 694 feet ; Muscoda, 109 feet ; Boscobel, 89 feet. The Mississippi Bottom, at the southern extremity of Grant County, is 600 feet above the sea. The highest point within Grant County being the top of Sinsinawa Mound.

HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.

WEATHER REPORT.

Among other incidents connected with the history of the county, which live with vivid di tinctness in the memory of old settlers, are several winters noted for their unexceptional severit. Among the first spoken of was that of 1836, when the frost king's reign lasted long into Apri teams heavily loaded crossing the Mississippi River as late as the 20th of that month. Th was followed by another in 1843, which, if not quite as severe as its predecessor, was about : long continued. But all these paled before the terrible rigor that marked the ending of 185. and the commencement of 1856. This season was unexceptional in its severity. A heavy fa of snow marked the commencement of king winter's reign, over which formed, in time, a hal crust. This was followed by another storm that in turn melted enough under the limpid rays the sun to form a second crust. Everything outside was buried and frozen up. In many il stances, corn and fodder that had been left ont in the fields, owing to the sudden downward swoc of the icy temperature, was obliged to be left standing in the " stook " until the warm rays of late spring sun released it from its icy fetters. Especially hard did this winter bear upon th game in the forests, deer were reduced to such extremities that they would enter the outskirts . the villages in droves in order to obtain a morsel of hay from out the farmers' sleighs and wer killed by the score, many being massacred with clubs, so intent were they upon obtaining foo Corn that had been left in the fields was found in the spring half-eaten where these famin stricken creatures had sought to secure enough to keep them alive. This point marks the dec. ilence of this species of game in the county. They never recovered from the great losses su fered by starvation and slaughter made by their four-footed enemies. Of feathered game, quai were nearly entirely killed out, and it was many years before they were found again in muc abundance. The past winter of 1880 and 1881 will long be remembered as one ranking amon the most severe and long-continued of its noted predecessors. Travel was almost entirely in peded, mails blocked, and not until late in the spring was the country released from the embarg of ice and snow.

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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.

CHAPTER III.

THE FIRST OCCUPANT-THE SECOND TRADER-SHAW'S TRIP TO THE MINES-INDIAN MINING- THE ADVANCE OF WHITE MEN-THE FIRST WHITE WOMAN-EARLY MINING EXPERIENCES -. FIRST MILLS-GRAHAM'S WOLF FIGHT-PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE-THE FIRST THRESHING MACHINE-THE CALIFORNIA GOLD FEVER-MINING TROUBLES.

THE FIRST OCCUPANT.

There remains but little doubt that the pressure of a white man's foot upon Grant County soil was coeval with the presence of the earliest explorers, who, taking their lives in their hands, boldly plunged forward into the unknown wilderness and rescued from the realms of obscurity that mighty river which was afterward to become the diamond among diamonds in the crown of the conqueror and possessor.

But of the presence of these early explorers, we have only a traditionary and untangible knowledge, and up to the beginning of the eighteenth century, and, in fact, a few years later, there is no evidence which would show that this section had been used as a tarrying place by the white man. But later on, evidence tangible and authentic proves beyond question that one Capt. Morand, a French trader, not only visited the present county of Grant, but had estab- lished a place for the deposit of his stock upon the east bank of the Mississippi, at a point some eight or nine miles below the mouth of the Wisconsin, in what is now Bloomington Township. Of the early history of this trader but little can be gleaned, or how long he had occupied this site, which was known as Fort Morand. Besides this depot, he had still another some seven miles west of Mackinaw, known by the same name. And it is only by events which happened later in the century that we can, with any degree of reliability, fix the probable date of this occu- pation.

During the early part of the century, the Ottigaumies, or Foxes, were located at the Little Butte des Morts, on the western bank of Fox River, some thirty-seven miles from Green Bay. Here, following their predatory instincts and the practices of civilized man of early times, they were accustomed to levy blackmail from every passing craft, the usual course of procedure being, upon the appearance of a trader's boat, to plant a torch on the shore as a reminder that he was expected to land and deliver certain tribute, and woe to the unlucky wight who failed to comply with the hint so expressed. The imperious nature of these demands so vexed Morand that he finally resolved to put a stop to them once and for all. He accordingly raised a small force of volunteers at Mackinaw, in all probability increased somewhat at Green Bay by friendly Indians and French troops, and with this force felt assured of giving his ancient enemies a castigation that would effectually prevent their levying any more tribute-money for some time to come.

The exact date of this expedition is involved in some doubt. Carver gives it that as far back as 1706 "the French missionaries and traders having received many insults from this peo- ple, a party of French and Indians under the command of Capt. Morand marched to avenge their wrongs." The Rev. Alfred Brunson, in a paper on the 'Early History of Wisconsin,' pub- lished in 1858, thinks it must have been somewhat later than this, probably in 1714; while Grignon, in his Recollections, agrees with the Hon. Morgan L. Martin in placing this expedi- tion as late as 1745; yet this latter date seems too far on in the century, as Black Hawk, in 1832, claimed that the lands ceded by a portion of his tribe to the United States had been in the possession of the tribe over a hundred years, and it was not until after the third of Morand's expeditions when the Foxes were disastrously defeated and reduced almost to annihilation that they united with the Sacs, and afterward with them were driven out of their former country. However this may be, that this first expedition was previous to 1746 is absolutely certain, leav-

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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.

ing the date of Morand's first occupancy of the Mississippi River depot somewhere during the early part of the century. Of this expedition and those which followed so quickly after, ending in breaking the power of this tribe, the following interesting account is given in the Grignon Recollections.

" Morand's force was deemed sufficient, and his fleet of canoes started from Green Bay up the river, each canoe having a full complement of men well armed, and an oil-cloth covering large enough to envelope the whole canoe, as was used by the traders to shield their goods from the weather. Near the Grand Chute, some three miles below the Little Butte des Morts, and not yet within view of the latter, Morand divided his party, one part disembarking and going by land to surround the village and attack the place when Morand and his water division should open their fire in front. The soldiers in the canoes, with their guns all ready for use, were con- cealed by the oil-cloth coverings, and only two men were in view to row each canoe, thus pre- senting the appearance of a trader's fleet. In due time the Foxes discovered his approach and placed out their torch, and squatted themselves thickly along the bank as usual, patiently await- ing the landing of the canoes and the customary tribute offering. When sufficiently near to be effective the oil-cloth coverings were suddenly thrown off, and a deadly volley from a swivel gun loaded with grape and canister shot, and the musketry of the soldiers scattered death and dis- may among the unsuspecting Foxes ; and this severe fire was almost instantly seconded by the land party in the rear, and quickly repeated by both divisions, so that a large number of devoted Foxes were slain, and the survivors escaped by rapid flight up the river.

"The Foxes next took post about three miles above the Grand Butte des Morts, on the southern or opposite bank of the river, on a high, sandy point of land, with a marsh on its eastern border. Here Morand, the same season, followed them, but, of course, could not resort to his old ruse, and must have approached the town in the night, or just before daybreak. At all events, according to the general statement given me by my grandfather (Charles de Langlade) and aged Indians, another severe battle ensued, and many Foxes were killed, though not so many as at the Little Butte des Morts, and again they were forced to fly. The Indians always spoke of this place as the locality where Morand's second battle with the Foxes took place. My half-brother, Perrish Grignon, informed me that he had seen, many years ago, a crevice or cavity on the rocky shore of Lake Winnebago, some six or eight miles south of Oshkosh, near the old Indian village of Black Wolf, a large number of skulls and other human remains, and I have thought that when the Foxes fled from Little Butte des Morts, they may have passed around the head of Lake Winnebago, and thinking themselves safe from pursuit, tarried at this point and gave attention to their wounded, and that the remains of those who died were placed in that cavity.

"The surviving Foxes located themselves on the northern bank of the Wisconsin, twenty- one miles above its mouth, and some little distance below the creek next below the mouth of Kickapoo River. When I first passed there in 1795, I saw some crude remains of this village. As soon as the enterprising Morand heard of the new locality of his determined ene- mies, who still seemed bent on obstructing his great trading thoroughfare, he concluded it would be unsafe for him to suffer them to remain there, and consequently lost no time, even though winter had commenced, to collect his tried and trusty band of French and Indians and make a distant winter expedition against the Foxes. Perhaps he thought as he had once defeated them by stratagem, and then by the usual mode of Indian warfare, that it would now be policy to push his fortunes by a winter campaign, and fall upon his inveterate foes, and strike a fatal blow when they would least expect it. Capt. Morand pursued on foot with his troops, up Fox River and down the Wisconsin, taking with them snowshoes to meet the exigencies of the season, and pursue their tedious march over the snow for a distance of fully two hundred miles. The Foxes were taken completely by surprise, for Morand's men found them engaged in the amusement of jeu de paille, or game of straw, and surrounding the place and falling suddenly upon them, killed some and captured the others. So well planned was the attack, and so complete was the surprise, that not one of the Foxes escaped.

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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.

" It must have been on the return of this winter expedition of Capt. Morand's that the fol- lowing incident occurred, as narrated by Capt. Carver, on the authority of an Indian. 'On the return of the French,' says Carver, 'to Green Bay, one of the Indian chiefs in alliance with them, who had a considerable band of the prisoners under his care, stopped to drink ata brook. In the meantime, his companions went on, which, being observed by one of the women whom they had made captive, she suddenly seized him with both her hands, while he stooped to drink, by an exquisitely susceptible part, and held him fast until he expired on the spot. As the chief, from the extreme torture he suffered, was unable to call out to his friends, or give any alarm, they passed on without knowing what had happened; and the woman, having cut the bands of those of her fellow-prisoners, who were in the rear. with them made her escape. This heroine was ever after treated by her nation as their deliverer, and made a chieftainess in her own right, with liberty to entail the same honor on her descendants-an unusual distinction, and permitted only on extraordinary occasions.'"

These defeats broke the spirit of the tribe, and not only rendered them powerless for some time to come, but their severe chastisement had a restraining effect upon other tribes located near or upon these water highways between the great lakes and the Mississippi.

Of Morand himself, but little more can be said. A person of the same name was men- tioned in Gorrell's Journal as being, in 1763, at the head of an extensive body of traders, and was, in all probability, the same individual who years before humbled the power of the Foxes in so signal a manner. The mother of the wife of the Sac Chief, Keokuk, claimed in after years to be the daughter, by a Sac mother, of Capt. Morand. But the latter's disappearance was as sudden and complete as his former plans had been successful, leaving no trace behind by which the future history of the first known white man whose foot pressed Grant County soil could be traced.

THE SECOND TRADER.

The next resident in this section, and the one whose name the county now bears, was another Indian trader named Grant. He was here as early as 1810, and for many years was supposed to have been the first known white man in Grant County. The Grant County Herald, in an early isssue, speaking of this pioneer adventurer says :

"Grant was an Indian trader, one of those dauntless frontiersmen known to the earlier days of the Northwest, and who differed from the savage by possessing a thirst for gain and the enterprise to gratify it. As early as 1810, Grant was engaged in trade with the Indians occu- pying this region, making his headquarters at Prairie du Chien. He was noted for his hardi- hood and endurance, and for his disregard of every comfort and convenience of civilized life. His rifle supplied him with food; his cooking utensil consisted of a brass kettle, which was fitted to his head, and which he wore under his cap. One incident of his history has been pre- served, and is worth relating. The Sacs and Foxes were at war with the Winnebagoes. Grant was trading with the former, and was consequently regarded by the latter as their enemy. One day he happened to encounter a war party of the Winnebagoes, who immediately gave him chase. The foremost coming up struck him upon the head with his tomahawk, which produced no other effect than a sharp ring from the kettle before mentioned. The Indian recoiled with consternation and horror, exclaiming, Manitou (spirit)! and precipitately retreated, accom- panied by the whole party. This revelation of his divine character subdued the animosity of the Winnebagoes, and he was ever afterward regarded with the utmost awe by the Indians.'

Of the future career of Grant, even less is known than of Morand. Whether he returned to the Northeast, from which he had originally drifted, or whether he pressed on in the van of the advancing tide of civilization, must ever remain enwrapped in the fog-bank of unexplained. mysteries. It is enough that he left the imprint of his name upon the rivers and lands of his old trading-ground.

SHAW'S TRIP TO THE MINES.

John Shaw, who was engaged in boating on the river from 1816 to 1820, stopped during his trip in the first-named year at a point where Cassville is now situated, to obtain a return

HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.

cargo of lead ore. This could not be obtained here, and Mr. Shaw was requested to drop dow with his boat to the mouth of Fever River until the lead was brought down to him by the trader This he refused to do, and, being conversant with the French tongue, he was enabled to pa himself off as a Frenchman, and ascend the river to where the Indians had their furnaces, despi the refusal of the savages to allow "a white man," as they called the Americans, to see the mines. According to Mr. Shaw's narrative, the lead of each trader was stacked up separate on the bank. The lead was in a bowl-shaped form, called plats, each weighing about seven pounds.

That the Indians had discovered and worked the mines for a long period of years, exten ing well back into the middle of the eighteenth century, there is but little if any doubt. 1 Hardscrabble, and in other parts of this county, the remains of their rude smelting furnaces we to be seen, and in some parts remained visible to a recent date.

Jonathan Carver, whose visit to Wisconsin in 1766 has been noticed heretofore, says in b account of a visit to the great town of the Saukies (Sacs) in that year. " While I stayed her I took a view of some mountains that lie about fifteen miles to the south ward and abound in les ore. So plentiful is lead here, that I saw large quantities of it lying about the streets in tl towns of the Saukies, and it seemed to be as good as the produce of other countries."

This mining must necessarily have been of the most superficial character, both from lar of the proper tools with which to carry on the work to any great depth, and also from the inbre disinclination on the part of the lordly savage to do more manual labor than was absolute necessary.

INDIAN MINING.

The means by which these untutored sons of the forest were enabled to locate "leads with a definiteness not attained by later explorers, except in rare instances, and when the secr had been communicated by the original owners of the soil, was a small bluish bush, somewh resembling the sage, and known as " mineral weed." This bush grew to a height of son eighteen inches, and was topped by a large red, tasseled head. When the mineral was n more than a few feet below the surface, this weed was found growing luxuriantly over it, ar furnished a means for tracing the direction of the mineral not less certain than if the ore le bare before the explorer. A fine, rank growth of wire grass also furnished information of tl hidden wealth beneath when the mineral approached close to the surface.

The Indian method of mining was one on which the miners of to-day would look wit astonishment and disgust. Their " bucket " being a tough deer-skin, and their windlass stor thongs by which one or more muscular " bucks " would drag the loaded skin up the incline plane, which formed the entrance to their burrows ; for to dignify them with the names of min would be a mistake. When in their progress their way was found obstructed by a bowlder t. large to remove, a fire was kindled under it until it was heated to a high temperature, and the cold water was poured on, the immediate result being a splitting of the rock into the prope size to handle with ease. Ore, when found in large lumps, was encircled with thongs of stou green hide, and dragged by main strength to the surface. Here, by means of rude smeltin furnaces, the ore was reduced to pigs or plats of mineral, in which state it was sold to the trade who visited the region. These furnaces were a curiosity in themselves, and are thus described " A hole or cavity was dug in the face of a piece of sloping ground, about two feet in depth, an as much in width at the top. This hole was made in the shape of a mill-hopper, and was line or faced with flat stones. At the bottom, or point of the hopper, which was about eight or nir inches square, other narrow stones were laid across grate-wise. A channel or eye was dug from the sloping side of the ground inward to the bottom of the hopper ; this channel was about a for in width and in height, and was filled with dry wood and brush. The hopper, being filled wit the mineral, and the wood ignited, in a few minutes the molten lead fell through the stones : the bottom of the hopper, and thence was discharged through the eye over the earth. It wa certainly a simple but rough and improvident way of gathering the melted lead. But, in th great abundance of mineral, and ease of its procuration, it sufficed for the wants of the Indial

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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.

At many of these primitive smelting places, the white settlers afterward extracted a profitable harvest of rich lead from the slag and refuse of the Indian laborer's smelting." The Vinegar Hill mines are stated by old miners to have been thus worked long before the advent of the white miners.

THE ADVANCE OF WHITE MEN.

Of this mining region, its development, richness and peculiarities, extended mention is made in an earlier portion of this work, hence we will but pause to note that through the indus- tries and enterprise of DuBuque and others, this vast region of mineral-producing country had early in the century become known to the outside world. In 1822, a party of adventurous miners came up the river and progressed so far northward as the diggings afterward known as " Hardscrabble," while a second party landed on Grant River, at an Indian town called Pasca- nans, near where the town of Osceola was afterward located. This is the first authentic knowl- edge of the advent of white men in what is now Grant County other than the few traders already mentioned. A traditionary legend exists that a party of English founded a town close by the site of the present city of Muscoda, but no mention is made by any of the early voyagers or travelers through that region of the existence of such a town. The legend further avers that the town was destroyed by the Indians. However, the whole matter can but be dismissed for lack of corroborative proofs into the misty region of mythland.

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History of Grant County, Wisconsin, Part 71

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