History of Grant County, Wisconsin, preceded by a history of Wisconsin, Part 71

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: [Chicago : Western Historical Co.?]
Number of Pages: 1050

USA > Wisconsin > Grant County > History of Grant County, Wisconsin, preceded by a history of Wisconsin > Part 71

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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 at a 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 TIIE 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

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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.

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

That the Indians had discovered and worked the mines for a long period of years, extend- ing well back into the middle of the eighteenth century, there is but little if any doubt. At Hardscrabble, and in other parts of this county, the remains of their rude smelting furnaces were 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 his account of a visit to the great town of the Saukies (Sacs) in that year. " While I stayed here, I took a view of some mountains that lie about fifteen miles to the southward and abound in lead ore. So plentiful is lead here, that I saw large quantities of it lying about the streets in the 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 lack of the proper tools with which to carry on the work to any great depth, and also from the inbred disinclination on the part of the lordly savage to do more manual labor than was absolutely 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 secret had been communicated by the original owners of the soil, was a small bluish bush, somewhat resembling the sage, and known as " mineral weed." This bush grew to a height of some eighteen inches, and was topped by a large red, tasseled head. When the mineral was not more than a few feet below the surface, this weed was found growing luxuriantly over it, and furnished a means for tracing the direction of the mineral not less certain than if the ore lay bare before the explorer. A fine, rank growth of wire grass also furnished information of the 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 with astonishment and disgust. Their " bucket " being a tough deer-skin, and their windlass stout thongs by which one or more muscular " bucks " would drag the loaded skin up the inclined plane, which formed the entrance to their burrows; for to dignify them with the names of mines would be a mistake. When in their progress their way was found obstructed by a bowlder too large to remove, a fire was kindled under it until it was heated to a high temperature, and then cold water was poured on, the immediate result being a splitting of the rock into the proper size to handle with ease. Ore, when found in large lumps, was encircled with thongs of stout, green hide, and dragged by main strength to the surface. Here, by means of rude smelting furnaces, the ore was reduced to pigs or plats of mineral, in which state it was sold to the traders 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, and as much in width at the top. This hole was made in the shape of a mill-hopper, and was lined or faced with flat stones. At the bottom, or point of the hopper, which was about eight or nine 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 foot in width and in height, and was filled with dry wood and brush. The hopper, being filled with the mineral, and the wood ignited, in a few minutes the molten lead fell through the stones at the bottom of the hopper, and thence was discharged through the eye over the earth. It was certainly a simple but rough and improvident way of gathering the melted lead. But, in the great abundance of mineral, and ease of its procuration, it sufficed for the wants of the Indian.

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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.

Those miners who entered the southern coasts of the county as mentioned above, in 1822, remained but a short time, and in absence of all account to the contrary, it is safe to infer that they failed to unearth those stores of mineral wealth which a few years later brought a heavy tide of immigration into the new El Dorado. But the way had. been opened, and, in 1824, Thomas McKnight, John Ewin and several others made the first mining settlement at Hards- crabble." This name arose from a difficulty experienced in deciding the ownership to a newly discovered lead. The exact date of this ancient game of grab is not given, but apparently was soon after the first discoveries, as in 1826 the name had already become the distinctive appella- tion of this section. In the latter year came a large addition to the new mining camp, and the news of the richness of the diggings began to attract miners and adventurers from all directions, chiefly, however, from Missouri, with a moderate infusion of Kentucky and Illinois blood. It is from 1827 that Grant County must date its first permanent settlement. Although it is true that those coming to the new country in this year did so with no settled intention of remaining, still the richness of the diggings and the numerous evidences of untold wealth, that needed only the pick and shovel to unearth it, so worked upon the intentions of these early pioneers as to change their character from that of mere adventurers to that of permanent settlers. Among those who thus became the pioneer fathers of the future county of Grant were Maj. J. H. Roundtree, Hugh R. Colter, Ebenezer M. Orne, Edgerton Hough, Henry Bushnell, Col. Joseph Dixon, Orris Mc- Cartney, Henry Hodges, Thomas Shanley and A. D. Ramsey. There were many others who came the same year, some of whom, after going back and forth spring and fall for several years, finally settled in the county ; and others, by far the larger majority, who sucked the orange until it began to show signs of dryness, and then turned to new fields. Of the former class were Joseph, Harvey and Frank Bonham, and James Grushong and brother, these two latter, however, making their first entry into the county in 1826.

Of these pioneers, Maj. Roundtree, Hugh R. Colter, Ebenezer Orne and Col. Joseph Dixon settled at Platteville ; Edgerton Hough at Gibralter ; Orris McCartney first stopped at Platteville, and in 1828 settled at Beetown, but in the same year removed to his farm near Cassville. Henry Hodges and Thomas Shanley came to Hardscrabble in 1826, and, a few years later, set- tled a few miles southwest of the present city of Lancaster. Mr. Ramsey also settled near Cassville. The Winnebago troubles stopped for a moment the tide of immigration which had thus early began to flow in the direction of the new land, which, if not flowing with milk and honey, was at least supposed to exist on the surface of an aggregated mineral mountain, where all that was necessary was the removal of a few shovels of dirt, when, "presto!" the laborer was ready to take his seat among the Crosuses of the land. The following year this tide returned to its former

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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.

channel, and flowed, if not extravagantly, at least steadily, until the Black Hawk war of 1832. Across the wide open prairies they came, fording streams, following dimly shadowed trails, or striking out into the wild wilderness about them ; or loading the puffing, snorting steamer to the guards, the new seekers for the land of promise came hurrying in. Little villages began to arise here and there in the wilderness. First a mere collection of miners' cabins, then a store, again a rude smithy, the inevitable tavern, and then the family home, where, gathered around the broad hearthstone of the great open fire-place, they enjoyed the privileges and pleasures, and endured the privations of a pioneer life. But broad as was the hearthstone, and large as was the fire-place of which it formed the base, neither was so broad or opened so wide as the gener- ous, hospitable hearts of these early pioneers-men of brain and muscle, clear of head and stout of heart, who thus put behind them the comforts and luxuries of civilization to wrestle with the primeval wilderness, and tear from its grasp another star which they should add to the constantly increasing constellation that formed the insignia of the young Republic.

THE FIRST WHITE WOMAN.

Early in 1827, mineral in large quantities had been discovered at Beetown. The tradition of its discovery being that the discoverers, while hunting for wild bees, found at the foot of an uprooted maple tree, a large deposit of mineral. This discovery was made by James Meredith, Thomas Crocker, Curtis Caldwell and Cyrus Alexander. Among the miners attracted by the new discoveries to this section, was Mr. Thomas, who was accompanied by his wife, thus making Mrs. Thomas the first white woman in the present confines of Grant County. The "Winne- bago scare " came on soon after their arrival, and all pulled up stakes and started for Galena. Mr. Thomas afterward moved into La Fayette County and settled about two miles south of White Oak Springs, where he resided for many years. In the fall of this same year, Mr. Henry C. Bushnell located at Muscalonge, bringing with him his bride of a few months. They resided here until the following year, when, after the birth of their daughter, Dorethy J. Bushnell, they moved to a point just northwest of Lancaster, now known as "Bushnell Hollow." Thus Mrs. Bushnell was the second white woman in the county, and the first to actually settle within its limits, while her daughter, Dorethy, has the honor of being the first white child born in the county. When the Black Hawk war broke out, the Bushnells took refuge first in Fort Craw- ford, at Prairie du Chien, and afterward in the block-house at Cassville. Soon after the close of the outbreak, they returned. They returned to Lancaster where they remained some years, finally removing to Muscalonge, where they remained until called upon to prepare for the long journey upon which all, sooner or later, must start. Miss Bushnell was married to Mr. Charles Whipple, and, at last accounts, resided in California.

After the defeat of Black Hawk and his band in 1832 had settled forever the question of supremacy in this section, immigration again set in fierce and strong, as the spring torrent obstructed, for the time being, by an unexpected barrier, by its chafings and surgings tears aside the obstacle and rushes onward with a victorious roar. New diggings were being opened up, which, with the ranges already discovered, placed the county for the time being at the flood- tide of prosperity. Mining was then the principal, and indeed, almost the only employment. The man with a "prospect " was, for the time being, the coming man, too often, alas! to degen- erate by future developments into the disappointed adventurer.

EARLY MINING EXPERIENCES.

The following description of early mining, taken from a historic tale entitled "Struck a Lead," and published by James M. Goodhue, in the Grant County Herald at an early date, will give the younger generation, not "to the manor born," something of an idea of the country as it then appeared and the modes of procedure employed by the embryo millionaires to "make a strike:"

" The 'lead district' is embraced in the original Northwest Territory, ceded to Congress by the State of Virginia. Upon the extinguishment of the Indian title, the fee simple of course

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vested in Congress. The upper lead district as it was generally called, extended about seventy miles north and south on both sides of the Mississippi River, and about sixty miles east and west, embracing portions of Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois. Perhaps the most prominent feature in the face of the country is the 'Mounds.' They are quite numerous; among the most promi- nent of which are the Blue Mounds, the Sinsinawa and Platte Mounds. Some of these mounds are one or two hundred feet high, and appear to be nothing more or less than hills dis- solved by time, and by the gradual disintegration of the rocks of which they were composed- rugged mountains razed into smooth green mounds. Standing upon one of these the traveler sees the mining region spread out before him like a map. The greater part of the land is prairie; though there is abundance of forest and barrens. The prairie is mostly undulating ; but the forests and barrens are strongly marked with ridges and ravines. No country in the world is more abundantly watered. Every ravine has its rivulet. The most successful , mining operations have been in the barrens, where the land is broken into irregular lobes or swells, ranging in altitude from ten feet to one hundred. In 'prospecting,' the miner generally com- mences by digging a hole as large as a well, on the north and south side of these hills, in some small ravine leading up the side. If, in sinking the shaft he finds scattering mineral-' float' as it is termed-he infers that it descended from an east-and-west crevice above. It is then termed a prospect, and the miner is encouraged to sink another hole a few feet further up the ravine. If in the next shaft he finds the mineral still 'stronger,' that is, larger, more abundant, and of a character indicating the near approach to the crevice from which it 'floated,' he throws into a pile all the pieces of mineral he has found and calls it a 'show'-a good show or a bad show as the fact may be. The speculator, upon examination of a show, often buys the discoverer's show or prospect of a 'lead.' The mere prospect of finding a large body of mineral is fre- quently sold for hundreds of dollars. The miner now proceeds to prove his 'prospect;' that is, to extend a range of prospect holes up the hill to the crevice. If he should pass over the crevice, in prospecting, he will find no mineral in the holes he may sink; because mineral never floats up hill. He then commences 'drifting,' that is, digging horizontally from the bottom of the last hole in which he 'struck' mineral, toward the bottom of the next hole above, and in his progress he strikes the crevice, which may, after all the labor in finding it, be a barren crevice, containing but little mineral ; on the other hand, the lead may be worth many thousands of dollars ; since the labor of raising the mineral when discovered is comparatively little, and the ore is worth when raised, from $10 to $25 per thousand pounds. [In some years of late it has gone much beyond this figure .- ED.] 'Crevices,' of course, vary in depth and width. Some of these are openings thirty or forty feet wide, between perpendicular wall rocks. The ore is generally found mixed with ochre and flint-but is sometimes found in solid masses.

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History of Grant County, Wisconsin, preceded by a history of Wisconsin, Part 71

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899 Publication date: 1881 Publisher: [Chicago : Western Historical Co.?] Number of Pages: 1050

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: [Chicago : Western Historical Co.?]
Number of Pages: 1050