USA > Wisconsin > Sheboygan County > History of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, past and present > Part 3
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HISTORY OF SHEBOYGAN COUNTY
their perilous journey, many times upon what is now territory of Wiscon- sin-the Menominee forming the northeastern boundary of the state. On their arrival at the lake they implored the aged missionary not to attempt a journey evidently beyond his strength. But to their remonstrance he interposed, "I must go if it cost me my life." He set out with one French- man and some Hurons. His seventeen other companions returned to the St. Lawrence. Menard was soon left by the Hurons, and was after- ward lost from his companion, who sought for him, but in vain. It seems that while his attendant was employed in transporting a canoe, Father Menard accidentally became separated from him. This was probably at the first rapids in the Menominee river as we ascend that stream. It is possible, therefore, that the father may have perished upon what is now the soil of Wisconsin. This was about the 10th of August, 1661. With him perished the first mission-if, indeed, it can be called one-upon the shores of Lake Superior. His faithful companion, Donne John Guerin, reached the Huron village in safety. There was not at that time, another missionary station nearer than Montreal. But the failure of this first at- tempt did not discourage the Jesuits or quench their enthusiasm. But who was the man to cope with the thousand difficulties surrounding the estab- lishment of a mission so far in western wilds?
With better hopes, undismayed by the sad fate of Menard, indifferent to hunger, nakedness and cold; to the wreck of their ships of bark; and to fatigue and privations by night and by day-in August, 1665, Father Claude Allouez embarked on a mission, by way of the Ottawa, to the far west. Early in September he reached the rapids through which the waters of. Lake Superior rush to Lake Huron, and admired the beautiful river, with its woody isles and inviting bays. On the 2d of that month he en- tered the Great Lake, which the savages reverence as a divinity, and of which the entrance presents a spectacle of magnificence rarely excelled in the rugged scenery of the north. He passed the lofty ridge of naked sand which stretches along the shore its drifting heaps of barrenness; he urged his canoe by the cliffs of pictorial sandstone, which for twelve miles rise three hundred feet in height, fretted by the chafing waves into arches and bastions, caverns and towering walls, heaps of prostrate ruins, and erect columns crowned with fantastic entablatures. Landing on the south shore, he said mass, thus consecrating the forests which he claimed for a Christian king. Sailing beyond the bay of St. Theresa (so named by Menard, now Keweenaw Bay), and having vainly sought for a mass of fine copper, of which he had heard rumors (this being the first known of that metal by the whites), on the Ist day of October he arrived at the great village of the Chippewas, on the west shore of the bay of Chagouamigong, or Che- goimegon (now Chequamegon or Ashland bay, in Ashland and Bayfield counties). It was at a moment when the young warriors were bent on a strife with the warlike Sioux. A grand council of ten or twelve neigh- boring nations was held, to wrest the hatchet from the hands of the rash braves; and Allouez was admitted to an audience before the vast assembly. In the name of Louis XIV, and his viceroy, he commanded peace, and of- fered commerce and an alliance against the Iroquois; the soldiers of France
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would smooth the path between the Chippewas and Quebec; would brush the pirate canoes from the rivers; would leave to the Five Nations no choice between tranquility and destruction. On the shores of the bay, to which the abundant fisheries attracted crowds, a chapel soon rose, and the Mission of the Holy Spirit was founded. As this chapel was the first house erected by civilized man upon territory now constituting the state of Wisconsin, some interest is attached to the place where it was built. The exact spot is not known. The fact that it was not on the Madaline, one of the Apostle islands, tradition and the tenor of the "Relations" seem conclusively to establish. It was probably built upon section 22, in town- ship fifty, of range four west, of the government survey, at a place now known as Pike's Bay, in Bayfield county, on the main land west of La Pointe. The claim is also made that the site is the section south of the one here named-27, but the spot is merely a matter of speculation. He afterward removed near the present site of the last mentioned place on Madaline Island, where a second chapel was raised.
To the new chapel in the forest admiring throngs, who had never seen a European, came to gaze on the white man, and on the pictures which he displayed of the realms of hell and of the last judgment; there a choir of Chippewas was taught to chant the pater noster and the Ave Marie. During his sojourn here he lighted the torch of faith for more than twenty different nations. The dwellers round the Sault, a band of the Chippewas, pitched their tents near his cabin for a month, and received his instructions. The scattered Hurons and Ottawas that roamed the deserts north of Lake Superior, appealed to his compassion and, before his return, secured his presence among themselves. From Lake Michigan came the Pottawattomies, and these worshippers of the sun invited him to their homes. The Sacs and Foxes traveled on foot from their country, which abounded in deer, beaver and buffalo. The Illinois, a hospitable race, unaccustomed to canoes, having no weapon but the bow and arrow, came to rehearse their sorrows. Their ancient glory and their numbers had been diminished by the Sioux on one side and by the Iroquois, armed with muskets, on the other. Curi- osity was aroused by their tale of the noble river (the Mississippi) on which they dwelt, and which flowed toward the south. They had no forests but instead, vast prairies, where herds of deer and buffalo and other animals grazed on the tall grasses. They explained also the wonders of the peace pipe and declared it their custom to welcome the friendly stranger with shouts of joy. "Their country," said Allouez, "is the best field for the gospel. Had I had leisure I would have gone to their dwellings to see with my own eyes all the good that was told of them." Then, too, at the very extremity of the lake, the missionary met the wild, impassive Sioux, who dwelt to the west of Lake Superior, in a land of prairies, with wild rice for food, and skins of beasts, instead of bark, for roofs to their cabins, on the banks of the great river, of which Allouez reported the name to be "Messipi." After two years of labor, Allouez, having founded the missions of the Ottawas and Chippewas, and revived those of the Hurons and Nipissings, returned to Quebec, to lay before his superior a full account of the west and of his doings there; and then, two days later, set out again for Chegoi-
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megon, having with him a companion, Father Louis Nicholas. They reached the mission in safety. Nicholas soon left but his place was afterward sup- plied in the person of Father James Marquette, who left Quebec in April, 1668, for the upper country, stopping with his superior, Father Claudius Coblon, at Sault Ste. Marie. Here a station was begun at the foot of the rapids, on the southern side, by them called the Mission of St. Mary. From this Marquette made his way to the Mission of the Holy Spirit at Chegoi- megon, which he reached in September, 1669, and found there five villages of Indians-four Algonquin and one Huron. Allouez, in the meantime, planned a new mission on the waters of the lake, of the Puants; that is, among the tribes inhabiting the country of Green Bay and vicinity. How- ever, before following the missionary to this interesting field of labor, let us return to the Mission of the Holy Spirit, where was left Father James Marquette. This missionary, anxious to extend the faith, had sent an interpreter to the Sioux, bearing a present to the tribe to obtain protection and safe conduct for the European heralds of the Cross. Afterward the Ottawas and Hurons of Chegoimegon provoked a war with the Sioux which compelled the tribes first mentioned to flee the country. The Sioux, how- ever, returned the missionary his pictures and other presents before they declared war. The Ottawas fled to the Great Manitoulin Island. The Hurons remained for a time with Marquette, but finally embarked on Lake Superior, and, descending the rapids, doubled the cape, and landed at Mack- inaw, where they had dwelt some years previous. Marquette followed these tribes in 1671, raising a new chapel on the main land, on the north shore of the straits, opposite the island of Mackinaw, calling his mission St. Ignatius. The chapel at Chegoimegon was, of course, deserted. It was the end, for one hundred and seventy years, of a mission upon that bay.
On the 3d of November, 1669, two canoes set out from the Mission of Sault Ste. Marie for Green Bay. They contained some Pottawattomies, re- turning to their homes, and were accompanied by Father Claude Allouez. They had requested him to visit their country for the purpose of restraining some traders who had ill treated them there. He was very willing to undertake the journey, as it was taking him to the field he had chosen for the founding of his new mission. A month was consumed in the passage. November clouds hung heavily overhead and broke in storms that came near drowning the party in the lake. Floating pieces of ice opposed their progress. On the 25th they reached a cabin of the Pottawattomies, where they were supplied with a limited amount of beech nuts. Two days later they visited some lodges of the Menominees. These Indians they found pressed with hunger, and being themselves at the end of their provisions, they pushed forward. Eight leagues from the river of the Menominees they arrived at the village, which was the home of the companions of Allouez. This was on the 2d of December, the eve of St. Francis Xavier. This saint, Allouez chose as the patron of his mission, giving it his name. He found here eight Frenchmen, whom he assembled to join with him in thanksgiving for his preservation in his perilous journey from the Sault. The village was the winter quarters of about six hundred Pottawattomies, Winnebagoes, and Sacs and Foxes. Allouez passed the chief part of the
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winter, giving religious instruction. Thus was founded by him the Mission of St. Francis Xavier, the second mission within the present bounds of Wisconisn.
In February, 1670, he crossed the bay upon the ice to a Pottawattomie village of about three hundred people, where he labored for a few days. He was able to visit only one or two of the smaller villages. With the thaws of March the Indians began to disperse for better means of sub- sistence. The ice broke up on the 12th of April. By the 16th Allouez had reached the entrance to Fox river, at the head of Green Bay. Passing a village of the Sacs, a place now known as Depere, Brown county, he af- terward reached the mouth of Wolf river, up which stream he turned his canoe, to a large village of the Foxes, probably within the present county of Outagamie. Here the missionary founded another mission, which he called St. Mark, the third one in Wisconsin.
Allouez afterward ascended Fox river, of Green Bay, to the homes of the Miamis and Mascoutins, returning subsequently to the place where he had passed the winter. Thence he proceeded to the Menominees; also to the Winnebagoes upon the opposite side of the bay; and to the Potta- wattomies. On the 20th of May, 1670, he started on his return to Sault Ste. Marie. In September he again visited Green Bay, accompanied by the su- perior of the Ottawa missions, Claude Dablon. At the previous winter quarters of Allouez, they quieted a disturbance between the Indians and some fur traders. "We found affairs," says Dablon, "in a pretty bad pos- ture, and the minds of the savages much soured against the French, who were trading; ill treating them in deeds and words, pillaging and carrying away their merchandise in spite of them, and conducting themselves toward them with insupportable insolences and indignities.": The soldiers in particular were complained of, for thus early had the arms of.France been carried to the waters of Green Bay. The missionaries held here a council with the congregated tribes, where, as they harangued their unbred audience their gravity was often put to a sore test; for a band of warriors, anxious to do them honor, walked incessantly up and down, aping the movements of the soldiers on guard before the governor's tent at Montreal. "We could hardly keep from laughing, writes Dablon, "though we were discoursing on very important subjects, namely : the mysteries of our religion, and the things necessary to escaping eternal fire."
The fathers were delighted with the country, which Dablon calls an earthly paradise; but he adds that the way to it is as hard as the path to heaven. From here they proceeded up Fox river to the towns of the Mas- coutins, and the Miamis, which they reached on the 15th of September. In passing the lower rapids of that stream, they observed a stone image that the savages honored, "never failing in passing to make some sacrifice of tobacco, or arrows, or paintings, or other things, to thank him that, by his assistance, they had, in ascending the river, avoided the dangers of the waterfalls which are in this stream; or else, if they had to descend, to pray him to aid them in this perilous navigation." These missionaries caused this idol, as they termed it, "to be lifted up by the strength of arm and cast into the depths of the river to appear no more" to the idolatrous Vol. 1-2
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people. Crossing Winnebago lake, the two priests followed the river to the village of the two tribes. This village was enclosed with palisades. The missionaries, who had brought a highly colored picture of the Last Judg- ment, called the Indians together in council and displayed it before them, while Allouez, who spoke Algonquin, harangued them on hell, demons and eternal flames. They listened with open ears, beset him night and day with questions, and invited him and his companions to unceasing feasts. Dablon returned to the Sault, and Allouez, during the winter made his way to his mission of St. Mark, though not without danger, as the Foxes were in ex- treme ill humor. They were incensed against the French by the wrong usage which some of their tribes had lately met with on a trading visit to Montreal.
In the summer of 1671, Father Louis Andre was sent to the Green Bay region as a co-worker. The Sac village, at the lower falls of the Fox river, was observed to be a great resort for all the surrounding tribes, whose num- bers were estimated at 15,000. They were drawn here for the purpose of traffic, also by the abundance of water fowl, and by its somewhat remark- able fishery, prepared by means of stakes set in the water across the river. The fish in ascending congregated at this barrier, where they were taken in great numbers by means of dip nets. Here, at what is now the village of Depere, was located the central station of St. Francis Xavier, which mis- sion included all the bay tribes. A rude chapel, the first upon these waters, was erected, the third one within the present limits of the state. It has been frequently published that the Mission of St. Francis Xavier was founded at Depere in 1669. This, however, is a misapprehension, as, until 1671, the mission was a roving one, though confined to the bay tribes.
Allouez, leaving his companion in charge, employed himself among the Foxes and Miamis. He continued his missionary work, extending his labors to other tribes, until 1676, when, on the 6th of April, he was joined by Father Anthony Siloy. In October following he succeeded Marquette in the Illinois mission. About 1679 Siloy was recalled and his place filled by Father Peter A. Bormeault. Allouez, driven from the Illinois, soon af- ter returned to the Mascoutins and Miamis, but went again to the Illinois in 1684, where he probably remained some time. He was there in 1687 and died about the year 1689.
Andre worked with zeal in the mission of St. Francis Xavier. His rude chapel was hung with pictures calculated to strike the imaginations of the savages with powerful force. One represented the twelve apostles; an- other showed Jesus dying on the cross, while a third portrayed the general judgment. At the top of this last one parents could not help but observe the contrast between the places occupied by the baptized children and the one where Satan endured horrible torments.
During Andre's temporary absence, his chapel was burned, with all his household goods and winter's provisions, by savages opposed to his labors. He reared a cabin upon the ruins of the former one, and continued to teach the gospel to the benighted heathen. His dwelling was next burned but he built another on the Menominee, which shared the same fate. Still he kept
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on with his labors, living in his canoe, and going from place to place among the six tribes of his mission.
In 1676, Father Charles Abanel, superior of the Ottawa mission, was stationed at what is now Depere, where a new and better chapel was built, partly by the aid of fur traders. But the prosperous days for the mission were well nigh ended. In 1680 Father John Enjalran was alone at this mission. At this date the Winnebagoes were hostile to the efforts of the missionary. Enjalran was recalled in 1687. Upon his departure his house and chapel were burned. He returned no further than Mackinaw and the mission of St. Francis Xavier was ended.
UNDER FRENCH DOMINION
The governor of Canada, John Talon, was an able, vigorous and patrio- tic Frenchman. He cherished high hopes for the future of New France. He not only labored strenuously to develop the industrial resources of the colony, but addressed himself to discovering and occupying the interior of the continent; "controlling the rivers, which were its only highways; and securing it for France against every other nation." But the region was still, to a very great extent, an unknown world; yet sufficient knowledge had he of the upper lakes and circumjacent regions to resolve that possession must be taken at once of the country, to secure it to France; meanwhile, an ac- tive search was to be carried on for mines of copper.
The agent employed by Talon for the work of securing the great west to the king of France, was Daumont de St. Lusson. The latter set out in 1670, from the St. Lawrence, accompanied by a small party of men. With him was Nicholas Perrot, a Canadian voyageur, who was to act as inter- preter. Perrot spoke Algonquin fluently and' was favorably known to many of the tribes of that family. He was a man of enterprise, courage and ad- dress. His influence with many of the western nations was great. It was arranged that St. Lusson should winter at the Manitoulin Islands, while Perrot, having first sent messages to the tribes of the north, inviting them to meet the deputy of the governor at the Sault Ste. Marie, in what is now the state of Michigan, not far from the foot of Lake Superior, in the fol- lowing spring, should proceed to Green Bay to urge the nations seated upon its waters to the meeting.
Perrot wintered among the tribes at the bay, and was industrious in making preparations for the journey of the principal chiefs of surrounding nations to the Sault, where they were to meet the representatives of many other tribes gathered for the conference with St. Lusson. Sachems of the Pottawattomies who also represented the Miamis, chiefs of the Sacs, head men of the Winnebagoes and Menominees, all embarked for the place of rendezvous, along with the indomitable interpreter, where they arrived May 5, 1671, finding that St. Lusson with his men, fifteen in number, had pre- ceded them more than a month. Indians came from other directions- among them were Creez, Monsonis, Amikoues, Nipissings and others. When all had reached the rapids, the governor's deputy prepared to exe- cute the commission with which he was charged-the taking possession of
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the country in the name of the French king, with the full consent of all the assembled chiefs deputed to give acquiescence for the surrounding nations.
The ceremony was to be an imposing one. To this end a large cross of wood had been prepared. It was now reared and planted in the ground. Then a post of cedar was raised beside it, with a metal plate attached, en- graven with the royal arms. "In the name," said St. Lusson, "of the most high, mighty and redoubtable monarch, Louis, fourteenth of that name, most Christian king of France and of Navarre, I take possession of this place, Sainte Marie du Sault, as also of Lakes Huron and Superior, the is- land of Manitoulin, and all countries, rivers, lakes and streams contiguous and adjacent thereunto; both those which have been discovered and those which may be discovered hereafter, in all their length and breadth, bounded on the one side by the seas of the north, and of the west, and on the other by the south sea; declaring to the nations thereof, that from this time forth they are vassals of his majesty, bound to obey his laws and follow his cus- toms; promising them on his part all succor and protection against the in- cursions and invasions of their enemies; declaring to all other potentates, princes, sovereigns, states and republics to them and their subjects-that they cannot and are not to seize or settle upon any parts of the aforesaid countries, save only under the good pleasure of his most Christian majesty, and of him who will govern in his behalf ; and this on pain of incurring his resentment and the efforts of his arms." This was followed by a great shout of assent on part of the assembled savages and of "Vive le Roi" by the Frenchmen. Thus it was that the great northwest was not only placed under the protection of France, but became a part of her American pos- sessions. And why not? She had discovered it-had, to a certain extent, explored it-had, to a limited extent, established commerce with it-and her missionaries had proclaimed the faith to the red men of its forests.
The act of St. Lusson in establishing French supremacy in the country beyond Lake Michigan not being regarded as sufficiently definite, Perrot, in 1689, at the head of Green Bay, again took possession of this region, ex- tending the dominion of New France not only over the territory of the up- per Mississippi, but "to other places more remote." This completed the work so auspiciously carried forward in 1671, by this intrepid voyageur.
DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI
The gathering of the nations at the Sault Ste. Marie by St. Lusson, was followed by an event of the utmost importance to French interest in the west. This was the discovery, if such it can be called, of the Upper Mis- sissippi. Now, for the first time, the upper half of that river was, to a certain extent, explored. For the first time white men beheld its vast tri- bute in this upper country, rolling onward toward the Mexican gulf. The discoverer was Louis Joliet. He had visited the upper lakes in previous years, knew well of the existence of the great river through Indian reports, was a man of close and intelligent observation, possessing considerable mathematical acquirements. He was born at Quebec in 1645, and was edu- cated by the Jesuits, resolving at first to be a priest but afterward turned
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fur trader. In 1673 he was a merchant, courageous, hardy, enterprising. He was just the man for the French authorities to entrust with the pro- posed discovery and exploration of the Upper Mississippi. This was in 1672. Said the governor of Canada, on the 2d of November of that year : "It has been judged expedient to send Sieur Joliet to the Mascoutins (then located in what is now Green Lake county, Wisconsin), to discover the South Sea, and the great river they call the Mississippi, which is supposed to discharge itself into the Sea of California." He is a man," continued Frontenac, "of great experience in these sorts of discoveries, and has al- ready been almost at the great river, the mouth of which he promises to see."
Joliet reached the mission of St. Ignatius, a point north of the Island of Mackinaw, in the spring of 1673, finding there Father James Marquette, missionary, whom he invited to join the expedition. The invitation was gladly accepted. On the 17th of May, Joliet, having with him Marquette and five other Frenchmen, left the mission on his voyage of exploration. He had two bark canoes. Every possible precaution was taken that, should the undertaking prove hazardous, it should not be foolhardly. So, what- ever of information could not be gathered from the Indians who had fre- quented those parts, was laid under contribution, as he paddled merrily up the waters of Green Bay. The first Indian nation met by him was the Menominee. He was dissuaded by these savages from venturing so far to the westward, assured that he would meet tribes which never spared strangers, but tomahawked them without provocation; that a war which had broken out among various nations on his route, exposed him and his men to another evident danger-that of being killed by war parties con- stantly in his path. He was told that the great river was very dangerous unless the different parts were known; that it was full of frightful monsters who swallowed men and canoes together ; that there was even a demon there who could be heard from afar, who stopped the passage and engulfed all who dared approach; and lastly, that the heat was so excessive in those countries that it would infallibly cause their death. Nevertheless, Joliet de- termined to go forward.
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