USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee, city and county, Volume I > Part 11
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Lincoln was called on by many of his admirers during his visit to Mil- waukee. Ile stopped at the Newhall House and in the evening he delivered a campaign speech. standing on a table while doing so. The presidential cam- paign of 1860 ocenrred a year later than the period of his visit above spoken of. All of Lincoln's speeches at that period were discussions of the issues raised during the debates of the previous year between himself and Senator Douglas. These debates had attracted nation-wide interest, and the able and original treatment of these subjects at the hands of Mr. Lincoln were doubtless responsible for the immense popularity he had achieved when the nominating convention met in Chicago in May, 1860.
Vieau Leaves Port Washington .- " In the spring of 1839." continues the narrative of A. J. Vieau, which is written remarkably in the vein of Sinbad. the Sailor's, narratives, "I closed up my post. bought a lot of sugar from the Indians, loaded a boat with the sugar and furs that I had collected and went up to Milwaukee, where I disposed of my venture, having had an ex- vellent winter's trade. i had started in with only seven hundred dollars' worth of goods. While at Port Washington I would take in loads of turkeys. venison. and other game by ox-teams to Milwaukee, in which enterprise I was particularly successful. "When I left Milwaukee for the Port. my frame house in the former place was rented from me by Governor Harrison Luding- ton, then a young man newly married. With the results of my venture 1 now built two new houses and had money enough left in the fall of 1839 to go into
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LIFE AND LABORS OF ANDREW J. VIEAU
business with Solomon Juneau who had traded but little since I originally bought him out. In the spring of 1840, we dissolved partnership and divided our stoek. That summer I bought and handled lumber from Two Rivers and other points, and dealt as well in dry goods, groceries and Indian sup- plies. This store was on the west side of East Water Street, between Huron and Michigan streets.
"I thus continued in trade in Milwaukee and made money, until the fall of 1843, when I went to Two Rivers, then called Twin Rivers, and took pos- session of John Lawe's old sawmill there. The place was then a small fish- ing village of some eight or ten houses, with perhaps twenty-five inhabitants. A part of the time I ran the sawmill myself, but leased it for the most part, at first to Bascom and Ward; then to Daniel Smith of Manitowoc; in 1845, to II. H. Smith of Milwaukee, who finally bought the plant about 1846. I also did some trading with the Indians while at Two Rivers."
Editor's Note .- It is not generally known to the people of Milwaukee that the small park bounded by National Avenue, South Pierce, Hanover and Greenbush streets was named Vieau Park at the publie opening of the same in memory of Jacques Vieau, father of Andrew J. Vieau, and father-in-law of Solomon JJuneau.
THE
WEST SIDE
BUISINESS DISTRIC
1860
STNUT S
MILWAUKEE
DRAWN FROM
MEMORY BY
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JohnLA, SINOWALTER
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AUG 1ยบ 190
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CHESTNUT STREET, CORNER OF THIRD STREET IN 1860
CHAPTER XI
MILWAUKEE IN THIE PIONEER PERIOD
The first permanent settlement of Milwaukee was made by Jacques Viean who came in 1795. Viean was an Indian trader and was quite successful. though he lost his property in 1832. He was well known for his integrity. Solomon Juneau bonght Vieau's trading post in 1819, at which time "he was already married to Viean's daughter, Josette, so that his relations with Vieau were necessarily close, " says Edwin S. Maek in a sketch entitled, "The Found- ing of Milwaukee," printed in the Proceedings of the Wisconsin State Ilis- torical Society for 1906.
Vieau, however, soon resumed trading, becoming the agent of Michael Donsman of Chicago. His son, Andrew J. Viean, is quoted at length in the Wisconsin Historical Society's Collections for 1888. He says that his father was "the first man to engage in the Indian trade on the ground now occupied by the City of Milwaukee." The editor in a note qualifies this statement (which also applies to the statement contained in the first sentence of the previous paragraph) by saying that "there were, off and on, several traders at the month of the Milwaukee River previous to the arrival of Jacques Vieau, chief among them, Alexander La Framboise, who commenced his trade in 1785."
Continuing his narrative Andrew says: "The family name was originally De Veau, but as that meant veal or ealf in the French, the language we were familiar with in childhood, other children would annoy my ancestors in their vonth by bleating in their presence; so the name was changed to Viean in self-defense." Other partienlars about his father are given. He was a full- blooded Frenchman but he married Angeline, daughter of Joseph Le Roy, a trader at Green Bay in 1786, and she was of Indian blood, so his children partook of that strain. Ilis father's family were quite numerous, the children, in order of their birth, were as follows: Madeleine, Josette, Paul. Jacques, Louis, Joseph, Amable, Charles, Andrew (the narrator), Nicholas, Peter, and Mary,-"a round dozen in all, " as he says.
Andrew's narrative is continued as follows: "My father (Jacques) first went to Mackinaw from Montreal as a voyageur for the Northwest Fur Company, in 1793, when he was forty-two years of age. Ilis first trip in that capacity was to La Pointe in Lake Superior. In 1794, he returned to La Pointe, but this time as a clerk for the company. In 1795, he was appointed one of the company's agents being sent out with a supply of goods to explore and establish posts on the west shore of Lake Michigan. The goods were eon-
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tained in a large Mackinaw boat, heavily loaded and maned by twelve men. Ile with his family, consisting then of mother, Madeleine, Paul and Jacques. followed in a large bark canoe, in which was stored also the camping equipage. My father's clerk on that trip was Mike le Pettrel."
Establishing a Site for a Trading Post .- The expedition started from Mackinaw in July, and the first important camping place was where Kewannee is now situated. Ilere he established a "jack-knife" post to open the trade, and left a man in charge of it. "My father's expedition." continues Andrew, "arrived at Milwaukee on either the 18th or 20th of August (1795). lle met at the month of the river a large number of Pottawatomies, but mingling freely with them were Saes and Foxes, and a few Winnebagoes who had mar- ried into the other three tribes. The Indians told my father that he was the first white man whom they had seen there, and he was warmly welcomed. He had a good stock of goods, and French traders were always particularly well received at the outposts of civilization in those days. He erected two log buildings, one for a dwelling and the other for a warehouse, a mile and a half up the Menomonee River, on the south side at the foot of the lime ridge. I was in Milwaukee during the Civil war period (nearly seventy years after the arrival of my father), and the places where the store and dwelling had stood were plainly visible from the remains of banks of earth which had sur- rounded them."
The editor of this narrative remarks in a note, as follows: "It will be noticed that nowhere does the narrator mention Jean Baptiste Mirandean, who is reported in all existing histories of Milwaukee to have been in JJacques Vieau's company. In answer to later questions relative to his recollections of Mirandean, I have letters from A. J. Vieau, dated October 27 and 29. 1887. in which he says in substance: 'I never heard my father say that Jean B. Mirandean went to Milwaukee in his company. I never heard him say what time Mirandean arrived there. I am of the opinion that Mirandeau came after my father, but not long after. He was never in any sort of partnership with my father. I have heard my father and mother and older brothers all say that Mirandeau carried on blacksmithing and did father's work whenever engaged to do it, like any other mechanic." He was, from my father's account of him, a very good man but had one bad fanlt-he drank whisky, and that was the cause of his death.
"Mirandean married a Pottawatomie squaw with whom he lived till his death in the spring of 1819. After his death she and her children went to live among the Pottawatomies again, except Victoria, who was raised by the Kinzies in Chicago, and in 1822 she married a Canadian named Joseph Por- thier. Mrs. Porthier is still living (1887) in the town of Lake near Mil- wankee. I think nearly all Mirandean's sons and daughters married Indians. Lonis was alive fifteen years ago near Grand Rapids, Wisconsin. Several of the others went with the Pottawatomies to Kansas in 1-37.
"Mirandean was buried on the slope of the hill on what is now the north- east corner of Main and Michigan streets. When in 1837 or 1538, Michigan Street was being graded Solomon Juneau told the workmen to take care of Mirandean's bones, their resting place being marked by a wooden cross. 1
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was standing near the grave with others when the blacksmith's skull came tumbling down the bank. The greater part of the hair was still attached to the skull, and some one remarked that the reason for this was that Mirandoau had drunk so much poor whisky that he had become sort of piekled. 1 do not know how much truth there was in the remark. The rest of the bones came down almost immediately after, and all the remains were picked up by Juneau's orders, put in a box and placed in the regular cemetery."
Life Routine of a Fur Trader .- " My father remained at his post during the winter of 1795-1796, and indeed, every winter thereafter for two or three years. Each spring, after packing up the winter's peltries and buying all the maple sugar obtainable from the Indians, father would start out with his family and goods on his return to Mackinaw, after leaving a clerk in charge of the post, to superintend the planting of potatoes and corn and the purchase of what were called 'summer furs.' These were the 'red skin' or summer skin of the deer: this was the only summer fur that was good for anything, for all other animals shed their hair during that season.
"Upon his return down the lake father would stop at his various 'jack- knife posts' and collect their furs and maple sugar, and often relieve the men stationed there by substituting others for them. This trip to Mackinaw would, with fair weather, take about a month. He would set out on his return in August, distributing goods to the lake shore posts, and stay at Milwaukee until May again. Thus he did not abandon any of his posts; he was not doing a roving business, but was in possession of the establishments the entire time."
It is stated in the further course of A. J. Vieau's narrative that his father while still in charge of the lake shore posts was ordered by the Fur Company to the Fox-Wisconsin portage in 1797 or 1798, and thither he went with h's family, remaining there in the company's behalf for two or three seasons. Then he returned to Milwaukee and resumed his former mode of life there, going either to Mackinaw or Green Bay, each spring, with 'long-shore goods and returning in the fall.
"After disposing of his interests to Juneau in 1819, " continues the narra- tive of A. J. Vieau, "my father was equipped by Michael Donsman of Chicago, and for several years traded at his old post on the Menomonee River near the bluff. He was an active man, very prompt and precise in his business deal- ings and sociable in his manner, so that he commanded much influence with the Pottawatomies. In the winter of 1832-33 the small-pox scourge ran through the Indian population of the state. Father and his erew were busy throughout the winter in burying the natives who died off like sheep. * * In this work and in assisting the poor wretches who survived, my * father lost much time and money, while of course none of the Indians who lived over were capable of paying their debts to the traders. This winter ruined my father almost completely, and in 1836, aged seventy-four years, he removed to his homestead in Green Bay where his father-in-law, Joseph Le Roy, still lived."
Cabins of the Pioneers .- Living conditions in the thirties while terri- torial goverment prevailed (1836 to 1848) were hard but wholesome. In the Wisconsin Magazine of History, for December, 1919, Miss Louise Phelps
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Kellogg describes some of the features of life among the settlers. "As a rule each family was a unit largely self-snffieing," she writes. "When necessity arose for combined labor, it was accomplished by voluntary services called 'bees,' which were made the occasion of social recreation. The most impor- tant 'bee' was that for cabin-making. The logs were ent and trimmed before- hand, and people came l'or miles around to take part in the 'raising.' The proper space having been marked off, the logs were quickly rolled and laid in place, notched at the ends to hold firm. The roof was made of bark or 'shakes,' the floor of puncheons-logs split in two with rounded side down. The interstiees between the logs were chinked in with clay or mud and usually whitewashed both inside and out. Sometimes the entire cabin was made withont the use of nails. A blanket was used for a door until a board one could be made. Windows were covered with shutters, but few had in them any glass.
"The most important part of the structure was the chimney, which some- times occupied all one side of the cabin. This was commonly built of small stones and clay, although sticks occasionally took the place of stones. Into this capacious fireplace great logs were hauled, sometimes by the help of a horse. to keep the family warm in the severe Wisconsin winters. Almost all the immigrants from the older states brought with them furniture, eook- ing utensils, linen for tables and beds, and some store of quilts and clothing. Additional furniture was quickly provided by the handy skill of the men and boys. Bedsteads were improvised with one side fastened between the logs, ticks were filled with straw or hay and most housewives brought with them a cherished feather bed. The 'truek patch' quickly furnished vege- tables, while the woods and streams abounded with fish and game. Deer were easily obtained, and plenty of smaller animals and game birds were within reach of a gun."
This attractive picture of living conditions among the pioneers is made more interesting by other matter-of-fact details. "Tools and implements were precious, " continues Miss Kellogg in her account. "Except the axe and hammer, tools were freely borrowed and lent, agricultural implements were almost common property. One grindstone usually served a considerable community." The neighbors assisted one another not only at house raising but at plowing and harvesting, clearing land and grubbing stumps, fencing and planting. "Sickness, death. and marriage were community affairs: everyone lent a helping hand, and any skill or ability he possessed was at the service of his neighbors."
A Pioneer Journey from New York State .- The incidents of a journey undertaken by one of the emigrating families from the eastern portion of New York State about the year 1820, form a picture of pioneer conditions such as was commonly experienced among the arrivals in the New West of that period. The following account, substantially quoted below, was written by one of the daughters of the family as she recalled the scenes of her girl- hood days. In an address prepared in later years and read before a small company of Friends, she said: "I will ask you to take with me the journey which seemed like a weary marehi from one world to another.
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MILWAUKEE IN THE PIONEER PERIOD
"No railroads had then been planned, and as a great internal improve- ment the Erie Canal was being constructed. My father and second brother had preceded ns and my mother and eldest brother had charge of the cara- van, the mental picture of which may increase your appreciation of the rail- way and palace ear of the later days. We may see several wagons waiting loaded with household necessities (all else had been sold at anetion), with only room for personal belongings and places for the accommodation of the members of our large family.
Breaking the Old Home Ties .- "When all was ready a tearful company assembled at the parting, and the caravan moved on toward 'the West' not knowing whither it was going beyond that indefinite destination. At Utiea we exchanged our teams for canal travel as far as Rochester, then wagons aga'n to Buffalo, where we arrived just in time for the steamer waiting with fires burning at the wharf. We were to sail on the 'Superior,' the second steamboat put afloat on Lake Erie. Only tine remained to get a hasty din- ner which I decided to forego,
"I had asked about the boat and it had been pointed out to me, so being somewhat enterprising, I set ont on my own account to make sure of my passage and got safely aboard without question. So when the family were ready to take ship one silly lamb was missing. In great consternation the missing one was sought for everywhere. The moments were growing pre- cious. If they should miss the steamer it might be two weeks before an- other trip would be made.
"At the last moment my mother remembered my question as to the whereabouts of the steamer, and with a faint hope of finding the lost one they all came dashing down to the wharf, the horses being urged to the top of their speed in dread of being left, when, behold, the lost child stood wait- ing for them, well satisfied with her performance and quite innocent of any intention to give the anxiety and trouble she had caused.
The Voyage on Lake Erie .- "Very soon we were steaming out into the open sea which practically was just as boundless as the broader Atlantic, for when you are out of sight of land, what matter whether the distance be one hundred or one thousand miles. And as for sea-sickness the inland sea is worse for the waves are shorter and the motion more upsetting. Well, as retribution for the trouble I had caused my friends, or as a precaution lest I climb over the guards to have a visit with the fishes, I was taken very ill and continued so during the four or five days between Buffalo and Detroit. The voyage, I think, was stormy but I only know that it seemed interminable and that I was very, very siek. I did not recover quickly and was still poorly when we embarked again on a small boat which plied between Detroit and Monroe, the place to which we were going."
A few words as to the status of both Michigan and Wisconsin at this period may be appropriate in this place. At the period referred to in the pioneer's narrative Lewis Cass was the governor of Michigan Territory which ineluded the present State of Wisconsin, the capital being at Detroit. This area had previously formed a part of the old Northwest Territory under the Ordinane of 1787, but in the organization of Indiana Territory in 1800 it was
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HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE
included in its boundaries. In 1809. it became a part of Illinois Territory after its formation. When Ilinois was admitted to the Union, in Isis. it became a part of Michigan Territory, and did not have a separate and dis- tinet existence until 1836. when it was organized under a territorial form of government and took the name of Wisconsin, although Governor Doty en- dravored long and hard to seenre the adoption of the name of " Wiskonsan" in which, fortunately, he did not succeed.
Territorial Days (1836-1848) .- "Previous to 1836." says I. E. Legler in his volume, "Leading Events in Wisconsin History. " "Wisconsin had been a neglected section, successively, of the territories of the Northwest, Indiana. Illinois and Michigan. As early as 1824. Judge James Duane Doty, who rep- resented the judicial authority of Michigan Territory in the region west of the lake, had begun an agitation to secure separate territorial government for Wisconsin. * Ile represented that the seat of goverment (Detroit i. being 600 miles distant. totally inaccessible during the winter season and nearly so by land at all periods of the year. the people regarded it as little more than the capital of a foreign government; that their votes for repro- sentatives could not be forwarded in time to be counted : that this being the home of some of the most unmerons and warlike nations of Indians within the United States, the people ought to have better facilities for protection." etc.
While Judge Doty was partial to the ungainly orthography of the name of "Wiskonsan," he also proposed as an alternative choice the name "Chip- pewan." Other names proposed during the long period of agitation were. "IInron" and "Superior, " but the enphonious rendering of the French "Quiseonsin " finally prevailed in the present form. Into the territorial Imp was included a large section of what is now lowa. Minnesota and a part of Dakota. "Until given separate territorial rights, " says Legler, " Wiscon- sin was an orphan in the negleetful charge, first of the Northwest Territory. then of the territories of Indiana, Ilinois and Michigan."
Albert Fowler, Early Settler .- The first county clerk of Milwaukee County was Albert Fowler, a sketch of whom is given in J. S. Buck's " Pioneer His- tory of Milwaukee." He was also the first justice of the peace in the county. lle was thirty-one years of age when he came to Milwaukee and soon after his arrival he entered the employ of Solomon .Innean as a clerk. "He was the first white man of Anglo-Saxon blood to settle in Milwaukee," says Watrous, and he held many town and county offices during his residence here. In 1853 he removed to Rockford. Ilinois, where he was three times elected to the mayoralty of that city. He died there at the age of eighty-one.
Mr. Fowler's narrative of his coming to Milwaukee in the fall of 1833 is full of interest and presents a lively picture of pioneer conditions. "Having acquired a few hundred dollars, " he relates. "by speculating in corner lots and trading with the Indians at Chicago, during the summer and autumn of 1833. I left during the early part of November of that year. in company with R. J. Currier, Andrew J. Lansing and Quartus G. Carley for Milwaukee. The journey passed without further incident than the difficulty experienced in getting through a country with a team, where neither roads nor bridges
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existed ; until the evening of the 12th of November. 1833, when we were en- eamped on the banks of Root River, and on which occasion the great meteoric display occurred that so alarmed the Indians and which has become a matter of historical remark to this day.
"We pursued our journey the day following, I being compelled to swim Root River no less than three times in getting over our baggage and team although the weather was so cold as to freeze our water-soaked clothing. At Skunk Grove we found Col. George H. Walker who had a small store of Indian goods and was trading there. We reached Milwaukee on the 18th of November, 1833. After our arrival in Milwaukee, my three companions and myself took possession of an old log cabin where we lived during the winter of 1833-4, doing our own cooking and amusing ourselves as best we could. there being no other white man in the place during the winter except Solo- mon JJuneau. "
Fowler made a trip to Chicago a few weeks after his arrival in Milwaukee which was the occasion of considerable hardship and suffering. "In the early part of the month of January, 1834," he says, "Mrs. Junean was taken ex- ceedingly ill, and there being neither medicines nor physicians nearer than Chicago, I was started off by Juneau on an Indian pony, clad in Indian mocassins and leggins and a spare blanket, for medical aid. The journey in mid-winter, through eighty-five or ninety miles of wilderness, was one of great hardships, and one. I should never desire to undertake again. The Indians predicted I would perish, but thanks to a vigorous constitution and a physique already inured to frontier life, I succeeded in reaching Chicago. obtaining the desired aid, and was rewarded with the double satisfaction of having assisted in relieving a most kind and noble hearted woman, besides the gift of a new su't of clothes from Mr. Junean."
"In the spring of 1834, my companions went up the river to the school section and made a claim, upon which they afterwards built a mill, and 1 went into Mr. Juneau's employ, kept his books and accompanied him in his trading expeditions among the Indians. I soon learned to speak the Potta- watomie and Menomonee languages with considerable Hneney, dressed in Indian fashion, and was known among them as 'Red Cap,' a name given me because I wore a red eap when I first came among them. I remained in Mr. Juneau's employ until 1836. After he was appointed postmaster I assisted him in the post office, and prepared the first quarterly report ever made out at that office."
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