USA > Wisconsin > Lafayette County > History of Lafayette county, Wisconsin > Part 59
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Yellowstone Diggings, Pierce & Son .- Some work has been done here during the winter seasons of the last three years, in a range a quarter of a mile north of the New Kirk range, situated on the southwest quarter of Section 14, Township 4, Range 4 east. The lead ore is found in a vertical sheet in a crevice opening about fourteen feet below the surface.
In the winter of 1874-75 the product was 18,000 pounds, and in the following winter about one thousand eight hundred pounds. No mining is done here in the summer.
WIOTA DISTRICT.
This is a small group of east-and-west ranges, crossed by north-and-south crevices, situated on the northwest quarter of Section 19, Township 2, Range 5 east. But very little mining is done here; the annual production of the whole district does not exceed 40,000 pounds. The ore is lead, occurring in the middle portion of the Galena limestone, and there does not seem to be any regular opening. There are several parties here, among whom the principal ones are as follows :
Purcell & Harden .-- They are at work in the old Hamilton Diggings, removing the pillars from the old workings, which were abandoned many years since. They are unable to go any deeper, or make any new discoveries, on account of the water, which is here quite plentiful. The ground is owned by the Ridgeway Mining Company, of Madison. Messrs. Purcell & Harder have worked here two years, and during that time have produced 20,000 pounds of lead ore.
Smith & Anderson .- Situated a short distance north of the preceding, and from the north- ern part of the Hamilton Diggings. This does not appear to form any regular range. The ore occurs in east-and-west sheets, in very hard rock, and seldom in openings. The diggings have now been worked since January, 1873, and have produced 80,000 pounds.
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HISTORY OF THE LEAD REGION.
COPPER IN THE LEAD REGION.
The last mining for copper in this region was done at Mineral Point from 1873 to 1876. Mr. James Toay is authority for the following sketch of the work in past years: "Sometime in 1837-38, copper was discovered on the southeast quarter of Section 32, Township 5 north, Range 3 east, one mile northeast of the Mineral Point Court House. The crevice had a course south 85° east, and was traced for over one-third of a mile. The locality has not been worked since 1842. A great amount of copper was obtained. Some of the ore was smelted by William Kendall & Co. Sometime in 1844, S. P. Preston came to the region and went into partnership with Kendall & Co. Two other furnaces have been worked; one by Charles Bracken and one by Curtiss Beach."
From 1873 to 1875, Mr. Toay produced about two hundred tons of copper ore from the mines near Mineral Point.
For a detailed statement of the statistics of the amount and kinds of ore raised prior to 1877, reference is made to the State Geological Report of 1877.
SETTLEMENT OF THE LEAD REGION.
A brief narrative of the settlement of the lead region is necessary to a complete under- standing of the growth which eventuated in the formation of Iowa, La Fayette and Grant Counties.
In the general history of the State, which precedes these pages, can be found a sketch of the several explorations of the Wisconsin River, or rather the fact that they were used as ave- nues for the still further exploration of the Mississippi Valley during the seventeenth century. Those rapid journeys cannot be considered as bearing upon the subsequent selection of this region by white men, save in so far as they made known the existence of a habitable section, and one which contained valuable mineral deposits as well as fertile agricultural lands.
THE FIRST EXPLORER.
Nicholas Perrot is said to have discovered lead in this region during his visit here in 1692, but this assertion is not proved by his written statements concerning his trip.
Probably the first explorer of what is called the lead district, including Dubuque County, Iowa, and Jo Daviess County, Ill., was Le Sueur, a French trader, who, on the 25th of August, 1700, while on an expedition to the Sioux on St. Peter's River, now in Minnesota, discovered a small river entering the Mississippi on the east side, which he named " The River of the Mines." He describes it as a small river running from the north, but turning to the east, and he further says that " a few miles up this river is a lead mine." Le Sueur was unquestionably the first white man who trod the banks of Fever (Galena) River. He visited lead mines which were then known to and probably operated in a crude manner by the Indians.
Whatever may have been done in the way of mining by the natives during the unrecorded years of their occupancy, it is clear that the primitive methods of work have left no traces visible to-day.
A natural sequence of the ownership of the territory now known as the Mississippi Valley was the exploration of the river by French adventurers. Le Sueur pointed the way for other brave men, who were inspired both by a love of wild life and that universal hope of pecuniary gain. When reports of discoveries of rich mineral deposits in the hills of the section defined by the Ouisconsin and Mississippi Rivers reached the lower settlements, numerous parties undoubtedly attempted to speedily profit by the knowledge thus gained.
THE MISSOURI DIGGINGS.
Some twenty years after the voyage of Le Sueur (who unquestionably did find lead at sev- eral different points on the Upper Mississippi, besides obtaining specimens in the Fever River
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country), mining was actually begun in what are known as the Missouri Diggings, although it was not until 1798 that it became a regular business or was systematically carried on.
The sparse settlement of the Lower Mississippi Valley at the beginning of the century did not conduce to a rapid invasion of the Indian country, as in the present days the discovery of val- uable minerals in forbidden regions would do.
THE MARGRY LETTERS.
A most valuable contribution to historic information was recently made through the medium - ship of Hon. E. B. Washburne, late United States Minister to France, and formerly a resident of Galena. Mr. Washburne dates his interest in the lead region from 1840, and because of those years of prosperity there he gladly improved opportunities presented while he was in France to gain further knowledge of its early history. The subjoined extract explains itself, and is most timely in its appearance.
MR. A. D. HAGEN, Librarian of the Chicago Historical Society.
CHICAGO, December 13, 1880.
DEAR SIR : From the great interest you have taken in the early discoveries and explorations in Canada (or New France) and Louisiana, you are aware that Pierre Margry is one of the most thoroughly studied men of the present day in all those matters, as he is also one of the best-known men in historical circles, both in Europe and in this country. The Chicago Historical Society honored itself, some time since, by making him an honorary member. In view of his extended and accurate researches, he has been decorated by the French Government as a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. It may be said that he has spent most of his life in the archives of the Ministry of the Marine of France. It is a mine of historic wealth of unsurpassed richness. Under the patronage of our Congress he has brought out a vast mass of material, hitherto unpublished, in relation to the discovery and explorations of the French on the North American Continent. This material is in the course of publication at Washington, and will be looked for with great interest by all students of history.
I had the pleasure, during my residence in Paris, of knowing Mr. Margry quite well, and talked with him often in regard to the early history of New France and Louisiana. In the course of our conversation, I took the opportunity to talk with him touching the early discoveries of lead mines in what is now Illinoisand Missouri, and received a letter in reply, which I inclose herewith. He was kind enough to send me a transcript of certain documents which are to be published by Congress, and which I have not yet seen. By these documents I am more convinced than ever that the Galena and Dubuque lead mines were the earliest ever discovered by the French explorers, either in Illinois, Iowa or Missouri. The accounts of the discovery, about the year 1719, of the mine of M. de la Motte and the Maramek mines of Missouri, are very interesting, but I cannot here refer to them particularly. What interested me very much is an extract from a letter, written from Fort de Chartres, on the 21st day of July, 1722, by one Le Gardeur de Lisle, which I copy herewith, and which is in relation to the discovery of minerals on the Illinois River:
" I have the honor to inform you, gentlemen, that I have been sent in command of a detachment of twelve soldiers, to accompany Mons. Renaud to the Illinois River, where the Indians have found some lumps of copper, which they brought to Mons. de Boisbriant, and more particularly to a coal mine, said to be very rich.
" When we reached the place of our destination, M. Renaud commenced the search for the copper mine, but without success, no sign of that metal being visible anywhere. However, in looking for the coal mine, which we had been told was near the spot we had examined before, we discovered a silver and copper mine, of which Mons. Renaud made an assay, and which upon the surface of the ground is much richer than M. de la Motte's.
" I have kept a little diary of that journey ; I take the liberty of sending it to you. It will enable you to locate the spot where this mine is situated. It is a most beautiful site ; the mine is easy to work, and close to a magnificent country for settlers. I am delighted with my trip and with the success which has attended it, for the assay made by Mons. Renaud was upon ore found on the surface, and it has proved to be much better than that of M. de la Motte's mine," etc.
The alleged discovery of silver and copper mines on the Illinois River has never been verified to any extent. As to the coal mine said to be " very rich," a question which now arises is, Where was it located ? All of the expeditions for the discovery of mines were fitted out at Fort Chartres, which was then evidently the commercial as well as the military headquarters of all the country.
The letters, reports, etc., made in regard to these early mines, are very interesting. In one of the reports made hy one Le 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 Galena, lead mines half a century ago. 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, everybody here works for himself, and only gives his attention to a few veins or branches, not being able to dig far enough to reach 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 enough 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 ju 1743, and it is almost precisely the same method which was followed in the Galena up to within three or four years
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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. Drummond, 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 and 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 same 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 basin, 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 men 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 Dubuque, 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 Dunleith, 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 Apple 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 Dubnque 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 actual 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.
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