USA > Wisconsin > Marathon County > History of Marathon County, Wisconsin and representative citizens > Part 4
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It was fortunate that General Cass was on the ground and by his authority directed all available troops to the disturbed area before the revolt could spread and involve the Sauks and Foxes with the Winnebagoes in a bloody Indian war.
Red Bird died in prison at Prairie du Chien in 1828.
The southwest corner of the territory was again disturbed in 1832 by the Black Hawk war. He was the chief of the Sauks and Foxes, who had been driven across the Mississippi about seventy-five years before. In this war up- wards of fifty white men were killed and murdered by the Indians, houses burned and property destroyed, before Black Hawk was finally defeated at Bad Ax, about forty-three miles from Prairie du Chien. He himself fled, seeking refuge among his pseudo friends, the Winnebagoes in the valley of the Lemon- weir, where he expected to hide among the bluffs and cliffs weil known to him. The Winnebagoes did not dare to sympathize with their fallen friend, and he fled upwards to the Dalles of the Wisconsin, where he was captured (given up by a Winnebago) about two miles above Kilbourn, in August, 1827.
Black Hawk was sent as a prisoner to Jefferson Barracks near Washington, in charge of Lieut. Jefferson Davis, then in charge of the United States Army at Prairie du Chien, and thirty years later president of the Confederated States.
Black Hawk was first taken before President Andrew Jackson, who ex- pressed himself very emphatically to him on the subject of Indian wars, and was then sent as a prisoner to Fort Monroe.
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HISTORY OF MARATHON COUNTY
On June 4, 1832, he was liberated . and sent home, being conducted through the principal cities to impress him with the futility of any conflict with the whites. He remained quiet afterwards, and died in 1838.
This was the last Indian rising in the Wisconsin territory.
The influx of white settlers was still at low ebb. Only the lead mines flourished and the population in that part of the territory rapidly augmented.
Lead mining had attracted many persons to the mines with no intention to settle permanently, solely prompted from the motive of rapidly acquiring wealth. Many arrived in spring and returned on the approach of winter; some met with success, but many were compelled by the necessity resulting from bad luck to remain. The latter class became permanent settlers in the country which they had visited first only as an adventurous experiment.
The amount of lead shipped out was :
In 1825 · 439,473 pounds
In 1826 1,560,536 pounds
In 1827 6,824,389 pounds
In 1828 12,957,100 pounds
In 1829, first three months 2,494,444 pounds
Estimated number of inhabitants in the lead region :
In 1825 200
In 1826 1,000
In 1827
4,000
In 1828 10,000
About 1/20 were females, and 100 were free blacks.
When it is remembered that the Indians were still the owners of the soil, it is not surprising that troubles and hostilities in the lead region should occur, but after the Black Hawk war the Indians ceded the land and the sur- veys were pushed with vigor.
CHAPTER III.
Wisconsin as a Territory-Act of Congress approved April 20, 1836-
Population when Organized-Counties-First Lumbering on Black and Wisconsin Rivers-Attempts to Improve Navigation at Little Bull Falls -Railroad Charters Applied For-Constitutional Convention of 1847- Population in 1847-Admitted as a State May 29, 1848-The Public Domain.
WISCONSIN AS A TERRITORY.
The act of congress, establishing the "Territory of Wisconsin," was ap- proved April 20, 1836. It included then all which is now embraced in the state of Wisconsin. It was first organized in four counties: Brown, Craw- ford, Iowa and Milwaukee.
The population according to census was :
Brown County
2,706
Crawford County 850
Iowa County (lead region) 5,234
Milwaukee County 2,893
Total
11,683
After much debating and voting the first legislature, meeting then in Bel- mont, passed an act, on November 28, 1836, fixing Madison as the capital. Provisions were made for the erection of a capitol-or state house. Augustus A. Bird was appointed as one of the commissioners to begin and later super- vise the work. Pursuant to his appointment, he left Milwaukee May 31, 1837, with thirty-six workmen and six yoke of cattle for Madison. There was no road then and they had to make one, cutting out trees, repairing bridges, etc., which kept them on their way until June roth, when they arrived at Madison.
It took them ten full days to make this trip of about eighty miles.
From 1825 to 1830 the settlements were limited to the lead regions, and the older towns near Green Bay and Prairie du Chien, but now lumbering began.
The first mill was erected on Black river in 1819 by Colonel Shaw, but worked on a very small scale, on a fall of six feet, and under the hostility with the Indians, who burned it the following year.
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HISTORY OF MARATHON COUNTY
In the winter of 1827-1828, Daniel Whitney obtained permission from the Winnebago Indians to make shingles on the Upper Wisconsin. He employed about twenty-two Stockbridges and one white man to supervise them.
Major Twiggs, commanding at Fort Winnebago, ordered Whitney to leave the country, and upon his refusal, standing upon his lease with the Indians, Major Twiggs took half of the shingles and burned the other half. They had made about two hundred thousand. The shingles taken by Major Twiggs were used in the building of the fort, and Whitney had the melancholy satisfaction of asserting that he had furnished the shingles for the military barracks free of charge. By the arbitrary act of Major Twiggs, Whitney lost about $1,000 by the transaction, a large amount of money in those days.
In 1831 Whitney obtained government permission to erect a sawmill and cut timber, and then built the first mill on the Wisconsin river at Whitney Rapids in 1831-1832.
Grignon and Merrill obtained a similar permit, and put up a mill at Grig- non Rapids in 1836, and when the Indian title was extinguished in 1836, mills were put up in succession at Grand Rapids, one at Mill Creek, one at McGreer Rapids on the Plover, and one at Conant Rapids in 1837. That was the beginning of the lumber industry on the Wisconsin.
With the extinguishment of the Indian titles the pinery man appeared, though with no more intention of staying than the lead miners at Galena, but the settlement already attracted the attention of the government, and in 1842 congress established the first post route, from Fort Winnebago via Grand Rapids to Plover Portage.
The necessity of improving navigation on the Wisconsin river was also early recognized, and the territorial legislature authorized Alb. Brawley to build and maintain a dam and boom on the Wisconsin river between sections 31 and 32, township 24, range 8 east, which dam became afterwards the property of the Stevens Point Boom Company.
The census of 1842 was 46,678, in which census the county of Portage appears with 648 inhabitants. That county included all the territory from Fort Winnebago up to the state line, including the present counties of Colum- bia, Wood, Portage, Marathon and all directly north from Marathon county to the state line .*
*The county of Columbia was formed out of territory of Portage county. The village of "Portage City" retained its name, but the new county was named Columbia, and thus it happened that Portage City is in Columbia county.
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An act was passed in the session of the legislature of 1842 locating a terri- torial road from the Fox river, opposite Green Bay to the Wisconsin river between Plover Portage and Big Bull Falls. This road may have been located, but if it was there is no record of it, and it certainly was not opened farther than Plover if it was opened at all.
An important act was passed by the legislature in 1845 (important if it had been carried out, but it was not) incorporating "The Wisconsin Navi- gation Company, with authority to erect a dam across the Wisconsin river below the Little Bull Falls of such height as would raise the water on the falls as high as the surface of the water above them, with a slide for the passage of rafts and boats, and to receive tolls for the passage of lumber, shingles and timber."
A number of charters were asked for the construction of railroads; but the members evidently entertained the notion that the granting of a charter for a railroad upon any particular route would injure the prospects of the construction of one upon any other route, and so they were all defeated. A correspondent of the Galena Gasette, writing from Madison, and who prob- ably gave expression to the opinions of many of that time, said:
"The only points on Lake Michigan and the Mississippi river to be connected by a railroad for the next 50 years, are Chicago and Galena," -- which shows that as late as 1846, there was little confidence in the future of Wisconsin, but that correspondent proved a false prophet.
Still the population of the territory was growing, and growing rapidly now. The census in 1846 showed a population of 155,277, exclusive of La Point, Chippewa and Richland, from which counties no returns were received.
The question of sumptuary laws received attention from the territorial legislature as early as 1847, which passed a local option law, by which the electors of the municipalities were annually to vote "for license" or "no license," and if a majority of the votes cast in any municipality were "against license" then no license could be granted for the year next ensuing.
On November 28, 1847, an election was held for delegates to a convention to formulate a constitution for a state government, and the act further provided for the taking of a census between the first and fifteenth day of December, 1847, which census was taken with the following result :
Counties.
Population.
Brown
2,914
Calumet 1,066
Columbia
3,791
Chippewa
No returns
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HISTORY OF MARATHON COUNTY
Counties.
Population.
Crawford
1,409
Dane
10,935
Dodge
14,906
Fond du Lac.
7,409
Grant
11,720
Green
6,487
Iowa
7,728
Jefferson
11,464
La Fayette
9,335
La Point ( Ashland)
367
Manitowoc
1,285
Marquette
2,26I
Milwaukee
22,791
Portage
1,504
Racine
19,539
Richland
235
Rock
14,729
Sauk
2,178
Sheboygan
5,580
St. Croix
1,674
Walworth
15,039
Washington
15.547
Waukesha
15,866
Winnebago
2,787
Total
210,546
The convention met, formulated a constitution, which was submitted to a vote of the people, and was on March 13th, 1848, ratfied and adopted by a vote of 16,797 yeas to 6,313 noes, and by act of congress approved May 29th, 1848, Wisconsin was admitted as a state, being the seventeenth of the states admitted, and the thirtieth in the list of states.
To summarize :
Wisconsin was under French rule from 1670 to 1763-93 years.
Wisconsin was under Great Britain from 1763 to 1794-31 years.
Wisconsin was under Virginia from 1794 to 1800-6 years.
Wisconsin was under Indiana from 1800 to 1809-9 years.
Wisconsin was under Illinois from 1809 to 1818-9 years.
Wisconsin was under Michigan from 1818 to 1836-18 years.
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AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS
The population in 1848 was 310,546
The population in 1850 was 405,12I
The increase in two years 94,575
THE PUBLIC DOMAIN-INDIAN TREATIES.
The public domain was acquired from the Indians by treaty in the follow- ing order by dates :
1804, November 3, at St. Louis, between Governor William Henry Harri- son and the Sacs and Foxes, by which southern Wisconsin was purchased.
1816, May 18th, by which the above mentioned treaty was confirmed by the Winnebagoes residing on the Wisconsin river.
1816, August 24th, at St. Louis, with the Ottawas, Chippewas and Potta- watamies residing on the Illinois and Wisconsin rivers, and lands relinquished by the Indians, except nine miles square, at Prairie du Chien.
. 1825, August 19th, the several tribes in Wisconsin defined the boundaries of their respective claims, and on August 5, 1826, the Chippewas assented to these boundaries.
1827, August IIth, at Butte de Mort, the Menominees relinquished their right to a tract of land near Green Bay.
1828, at Green Bay, the lead mine region was purchased.
1829, July 29th, the Winnebagoes, at Prairie du Chien, confirmed that purchase.
1831, February 8th, at Washington, the Menominees ceded all their lands east of the Milwaukee river, Lake Winnebago and Green Bay.
1833, September 26th, at Chicago; lands south and west of the Milwaukee river purchased from the Chippewas, Ottawas and Pottawatamies.
1836, September 3d, at Green Bay, the Menominees ceded lands west of Green Bay, and a strip on the Wisconsin up to Big Bull Falls.
1837. July 29th, at Fort Snelling, the Chippewas ceded the land south of the divide between the waters of Lake Superior and those of the Mississippi.
1837, September 29th, the Sioux ceded their lands east of the Mississippi.
1837, November Ist, the Winnebagoes ceded all their lands east of the Mississippi.
1842, October 4th, at La Point, the Chippewas ceded all their remaining lands in northern and northwestern Wisconsin (being all they still claimed) to the government.
1848, October 18th, the Menominees ceded the remaining of their lands, and by this treaty all Indian titles were fully extinguished in Wisconsin.
CHAPTER IV.
The Wisconsin Valley-First and Natural Highway-W'ater Powers Devel- oped-Drainage: Il'isconsin River Improvement and Water Storage Res- ervoirs-Annual Precipitation-Physical Geography-Soil of Marathon County and Elevations-Minerals, Climate and Health.
THE WISCONSIN VALLEY.
A history of Marathon county without a description of this, the greatest river in the state, this first and natural highway to the Wisconsin pinery, of which Marathon county was the most important part, would be like the play of Hamlet with Hamlet left out. The pioneers came up the Wisconsin river ; over its turbulent waters they poled up their supplies; from its banks and the banks of its tributaries they cut the pine which was sawed and floated down the Mississippi and built up the cities and farms of the western states; on its bosom over the falls and rapids they brought the products to market. To navigate the river and bring down its thousands of millions feet of logs and the fleets of lumber of enough value to pay the national debt, required brave and nervy men who feared no danger. Year after year the river exacted its tributes in drowned men in driving logs as well as running lum- ber. The early pinery required men of brains as well as brawn and muscles; it did not hold out the hope of sudden riches which animated the gold seekers of California in 1849, but it promised independence after years of hard labor; and that was what animated the sturdy pinery pioneers.
Lumber prices were low; to keep down costs only trees close to the banks were cut; crotch hauling with ox teams was then in vogue, and in order to get timber close to the banks, lumbermen invaded the tributaries, and as early as 1856, logs were cut on Eagle river, about one hundred miles above Wausau, and driven to Big Bull Falls, and even to Grand Rapids.
The demand for foodstuffs invited farming, but it took years before the attempt was made, there being a belief that neither the soil nor climate was favorable. For many years Galena was the base of supplies, from where flour and pork and blankets were brought up in log canoes as far as Big Bull Falls, and from here still higher up. Later on, supplies could be taken to
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AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS
Fort Winnebago and Plover from the prairies of Wisconsin, by ox teams, and brought to that place, which was made the county seat of Portage county in the spring election of 1844, a solid vote of 28 given for that place in the election precinct in Little Bull being the deciding factor. That led to the formation of Columbia county by detaching the southern tiers on February 3rd, 1846.
In spite of the difficulties of getting provisions, and the still greater diffi- culty of bringing the timber and lumber to market, the number of men engaged in this business gradually increased, enough to justify the creation of a new county, and by act of the state legislature, Marathon county was estab- lished out of Portage county.
The Wisconsin river, because of its length, its great drainage area, and its central location is preeminently the main river of the state. Its extreme source is Lake View desert, of about eight square miles on the state boundary line between Wisconsin and Michigan, and about 1,650 feet above sea level. The general course of the river is south for three hundred miles, then near Portage City it makes a turn to the west, emptying in the Mississippi at Prairie du Chien. Its drainage basin is 12,280 square miles, a little less than one-fourth of the state.
Its chief tributaries from its source to the south boundary of this county are, on the left bank: the Eagle river, emptying at Eagle River (city) ; the Pelican river, joining immediately below Rhinelander; the Prairie river, which joins the Wisconsin in the city of Merrill, and the Pine river, emptying four miles below Merrill; in Marathon county : the Trappe and Eau Clair rivers. On the west bank of the Wisconsin are, beginning in the north: the Toma- hawk, the Somo, Spirit, Newwood and Copper rivers, and in Marathon county, the Rib river and the Big Eau Plain. In addition to these are many smaller ones and numerous creeks, all of them navigable in the sense that logs could be floated out. On the banks of all these rivers and creeks there was the splendid white pine, which attracted the eye of the pioneer. But the pine is now cut; only a small portion is still left in the hands of small owners, farmers, who save it jealously for their own use.
Nevertheless the importance of the Wisconsin river will be even much greater in the future than it ever was in the past, because of the immense water powers that are and can be developed for manufacturing purposes.
It has a fall of 634 feet in the one hundred and fifty miles from Rhine- lander to Necoosa, and an average fall of 4.233 feet per mile which gives splendid opportunities for the development of water powers, thereby off- setting the want of coal in this state. It is not too much to say, that the
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AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS
Wisconsin river valley will, in a not far time, be one of the great manufac- turing valleys of the United States.
The water power of the Fox river is already used to its fullest extent. The paper industry is coming to the Wisconsin, because the wood supply for the manufacture is better here than on the Fox, and more power can be devel- oped on this river. Railroads parallel the course of the river for hundreds of miles, or touch on the most important points.
In Marathon county alone the following powers are developed on the Wisconsin river :
The Mosinee Paper Co. Mill; fall, 22 feet.
The Rothschild Paper Mill; fall, 20 feet.
The Street Railway Co. at Wausau; fall, 20 feet.
The McEachron Co. at Wausau; fall, 8 feet.
The Brokaw Paper Mill, at Brokaw ; fall, 16 feet.
Water powers still undeveloped in the Wisconsin river in Marathon county :
The Battle Island power below Knowlton, where a 15 feet head will develop 4,000 horsepower.
Trappe Rapids, six miles above Brokaw, where a head of 20 to 25 feet can be developed.
An accurate description of the mills operated by water power will appear under proper heading hereafter.
There are now eight dams across the Wisconsin river in Lincoln and Oneida counties which are used for manufacturing purposes, and more will be put in, in the near future.
WISCONSIN RIVER IMPROVEMENT AND WATER STORAGE RESERVOIRS.
As early as 1878, Hon Thad C. Pound, of Chippewa, then member of con- gress, conceived the idea of storing the spring freshets and the rainfall which supply the Wisconsin, the Chippewa and St. Croix rivers in Wisconsin, as well as the Mississippi in Minnesota, by constructing dams at proper stations, thereby creating reservoirs with a view of regulating the flow of water in those streams.
A beginning of surveys was made while he was in congress, but after his retirement from congress in 1882 was not prosecuted with vigor, and the project slept for some time, until taken up by the mill owners on the Wis- consin for their own benefit, assisted later on somewhat by the state.
As the logging on streams has practically disappeared, or log driving has given way to railroad transportation, the water powers of the rivers can now be permanently developed.
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HISTORY OF MARATHON COUNTY
The United States engineers have surveyed thirty-two large reservoirs in Wisconsin, and have constructed five such reservoirs in Minnesota.
The total storage capacity of the proposed reservoirs to regulate the flow of the Wisconsin river is 19,557,000,000 cubic feet, which would overflow an area of 25,832 acres.
It is proposed to fill the reservoirs during the spring freshets and then allow the waters to escape at times of low water. The United States engineers estimated that these reservoirs would maintain a flow of three thousand second feet for three months of the year. Such a flow would nearly double the present low water flow of the river and its resulting water power. Inci- dentally, the use of such reservoirs will to a large extent serve to reduce the dangers of high floods, both to dams and overflowed lands. It would, in fact, tend to restore the regulation of the river to that which it possessed before deforestation and cultivation began to transform a great and primeval forest region into cleared and well cultivated fields.
The Wisconsin Valley Improvement Company is authorized to construct and maintain dams and reservoirs, and has begun the work. It has in opera- tion now reservoirs with a capacity of two billion cubic feet planed by the United States engineers, but it is only the beginning of a very important improvement.
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.
The rocks underlying Marathon county, indeed the whole of the Wis- consin valley northward, belong to the Archean area. The county is an ele- vated highland, gradually rising from about 1,250 feet above sea level on the south boundary to about 1,400 feet on the north line, and from there the land is still slowly rising to the north to about 1,650 feet to the headwaters of the Wisconsin, or to the watershed between the rivers flowing south and the waters flowing into Lake Superior. The area of crystalline rocks underlying all of Marathon county, is covered on the surface with old glacial clay several feet in thickness, which makes an excellent soil for agricultural products and is distinguished for lasting productiveness. Its capacity for holding water prevents loss of crops even in more than moderate draughts, while on the other hand the undulating character of the surface drains all surplus water from the lands. In some small portions, mainly east of the Wisconsin river and in the Eau Claire valley a sandy loam prevails, which is the best soil for potato and corn culture, but the clay soil largely predominates. All of Mara- thon county was originally covered with magnificent forest, interspersed with wild meadows along the bottomlands of the rivers and creeks. On the banks of the rivers stood the majestic white pine, and receding one mile or more
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AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS
from the banks, hardwood predominated, such as maple, birch, elni, ash, oak. basswood, and butternut, liberally interspersed with pine and hemlock. This forest now has largely given away to over six thousand five hundred farms, hewed out of the forest, highly cultivated, with modern frame and brick, even concrete houses, fine large barns, stables and silos. It is not too much to say, that the farm buildings in Marathon county compare favorably with most in the United States in size, comfort and practical construction. Numerous creeks and brooks traverse the land, and fresh and good water is in abundance on every farm.
soit
"Soit:
QUARTZITE EXPOSURE ON RIB HILL, MARATHON COUNTY.
The whole of Marathon county drains into the Wisconsin river, except a small strip on the extreme east, in range 10, where the waters flow east, empty- ing in the Little Wolfe and ultimately reach the gulf of St. Lawrence through the Great Lakes. On the west shore of the Wisconsin river, about three miles from the city of Wausau southerly, rises the Rib Hill, a bold isolated crest, said to be the highest point in the state, having an elevation of 1,263 feet above Lake Michigan, and a little more to the south by east are the Mosinee Hills, reaching an elevation of 880 feet, or 280 feet above the river which flows at the foot of both hills.
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