USA > Wisconsin > Sheboygan County > History of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, past and present > Part 7
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38
The victory of English arms in Canada in 1760, terminated French rule . in the valley of the St. Lawrence, and the consequent treaty of Paris, con- cluded February 10, 1763, transferred the mastership of the vast north- west to the government of Great Britain. The first acts of the new pos- sessors were to protect the eminent domain from those ambitious men who sought to acquire wide estates through manipulation of Indian titles. A royal proclamation was made in 1763, interdicting direct transfer of lands
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by Indians. This wise policy has since been substantially adhered to b; the government of the United States.
For many years maps of the northwest contained what purported to be the boundaries of a grant from the natives of Jonathan Carver, cover- ing a tract nearly one hundred miles square and extending over portions of northern Wisconsin and Minnesota. The history of this grant forms one of the most noted pages in annals of congressional legislation. In the face of the proclamation of 1763, and within three years after its promulgation, Jonathan Carver made claim to ownership of this immense tract, through purchase or voluntary grant of the aborigines. He solicited a confirma- tion of his title at the hands of the king and his council. This was of course denied. After the establishment of American independence the representatives of Carver made application to congress for approval of the claim. This has been repeatedly denied.
The terms of peace between France and England provided for the security of the French settlers then upon the soil. Subsequent Indian outbreaks oc- curred in the eastern and more southerly sections of the new territory but Wisconsin was not involved in any of those bloody massacres. The ex- pedition of Colonel George Rogers Clark to the Illinois country, in 1778-79, opened the way for the tide of Anglo-American emigration to the Mis- sissippi. At the termination of the Revolutionary war, Great Britain re- nounced all claim to the lands lying east of the Mississippi river. As Clark's expedition was undertaken under the auspices of Virginia, that commonwealth laid claim to the so-called "Illinois country." It is a popular statement with some writers that Wisconsin was included in this general term and was therefore once under the government of Virginia, but better authorities maintain that such is not the fact. There were but two settle- ments then existing in Wisconsin-Green Bay and Prairie du Chien. These places were in the hands of French residents, and, being undisturbed, were really under the authority of Great Britain. They so remained, with the territory now composing this state, under the terms of the definite treaty of peace of 1783, between the English government and the United States, until 1796, at which date Great Britain yielded her domination over the western posts. The several claiming states of the American Union ceded their individual rights to the general government at different periods, ranging from 1783 to 1785, thereby vesting complete title in the United States, so far as they could.
A period is now reached where the public domain is held by the United States save only those claims possessed by right of occupation by the In- dians, and which could not be gainsaid or ignored by any nominal assump- tion of rights by the government.
First after the Revolutionary war came the Indian war, wherein Gen- eral Wayne distinguished himself. Then followed the treaty of August 3, 1795. One of the terms of this treaty was the relinquishment of title by the government to all Indian lands northward of the Ohio river, east- ward of the Mississippi, westward and southward of the Great Lakes and the waters united by them, excepting certain reservations. The title to the whole of what is now Wisconsin, subject to certain restrictions, became
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absolute in the Indian tribes inhabiting it. The Indians acknowledged themselves under the dominion of the United States, and pledged them- selves to sell their lands only to the United States. Settlement on their lands was prohibited white men.
The several treaties with the Indians, by which the domain of Wis- consin was transferred to the government are cited here: The treaty made at St. Louis, November 3, 1804, between the Sacs and Foxes and the United States, William Henry Harrison, commissioner, ceded a large tract both east and west of the Mississippi, and included the lead region of Wisconsin. The validity of this treaty was questioned by certain Sac bands and became the cause of the Black Hawk war in 1832. The treaty at Portage des Sioux, now St. Charles, Missouri, between certain Sacs and the government, Sep- tember 13, 1815, that of September 14, 1815, by certain Foxes, and that of May 13, 1816, at St. Louis, were pledges of peace, not affecting land titles, excepting those involved in the treaty of 1804. The Winnebagoes of the Wisconsin river signed a treaty at St. Louis, June 3, 1816, confirming all previous Indian cessions, and affirming their own independence. This act was followed by the Menominees, March 30, 1817. August 19, 1825, the several tribes in Wisconsin defined the boundaries of their respective lands, by council at Prairie du Chien. The Chippewas held a meeting on the St. Louis river, Minnesota, August 5, 1826, and specified their boundaries and also ratified previous treaties. The Chippewas, Menominees and Winne- bagoes again defined their boundaries by council at Butte des Morts, August I, 1827. The treaties of August 25, 1828, at Green Bay, and July 29, 1829, at Prairie du Chien, determined disputed points in the lead mine cession.
An important treaty was made at Green Bay, February 8, 1831, be- tween the Menominees and the United States. The vast territory, the eastern division of which was bounded by the Milwaukee river, the shore of Lake Michigan, Green Bay, Fox river and Lake Winnebago; the west- ern division by the Wisconsin and Chippewa rivers on the west, on the north by the Fox river, on the east by Green Bay, and on the north by the high- lands through which flow the streams into Lake Superior, all came within the range of this treaty. The eastern division, estimated at two and a half millions of acres, was ceded to the United States. The tribe was to occupy a large tract lying north of Fox river and east of Wolf river. Their terri- tory further west was reserved for their hunting grounds, until such time as the government should desire to purchase it. Another portion, amount- ing to four millions of acres, lying between Green Bay on the east and Wolf river on the west, was also ceded to the United States, besides a strip of country three miles wide, from near the portage of the Wisconsin and Fox rivers north, on each side of the Wisconsin river, and forty-eight miles long, still leaving the tribe in possession of a country about one hundred and twenty miles long and eighty broad. The treaty provided for two New York tribes, granting them two townships on the east side of Lake Winne- bago. The treaty of September 15, 1832, at Fort Armstrong, ceded all the Winnebago territory lying south and east of the Wisconsin, and Fox river of Green Bay. The Indians were excluded from that tract after June I, 1833. The treaty of October 27, 1832, at Green Bay, ceded to the New York
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Indians certain lands on Fox river. The treaty at Chicago, September 26, 1833, by the Chippewas, Ottawas and Pottawattomies, completed the United States title to the lands in southern Wisconsin.
On the 3d of September, 1836, the Menominees ceded lands lying west of Green Bay, and a strip on the Upper Wisconsin, the quantity being esti- mated at four millions of acres in the Green Bay tract, and nearly one hun- dred and eighty-five thousand acres on the Wisconsin. July 29, 1837, at Fort Snelling, the Chippewas ceded all their lands lying south of the divide between the waters of Lake Superior and those of the Mississippi. The Sioux nation of the Mississippi relinquished their claim to all their lands east of the Mississippi and the islands in that river, while on a visit to Wash- ington, September 29, 1837. The Winnebagoes gave up their rights, Novem- ber 1, 1837, at Washington, and agreed to leave the lands east of the Missis- sippi within eight months, retiring to their reservation west of the great river. The Oneidas, or New York Indians, at Green Bay, ceded their lands granted them in 1831 and 1832, excepting sixty-two thousand acres, Feb- ruary 3, 1838, at Washington. The Stockbridge and Munsee tribes of New York Indians ceded the east half of the tract of forty thousand and eighty acres which had been laid off for their use on the east side of Lake Winne- bago, September 3, 1839. The Chippewas, by treaty at La Pointe, October 4, 1842, ceded all their lands in northern and northwestern Wisconsin. The Menominees ceded all lands in the state, wherevr situated, October 18, 1848. A supplementary treaty was made, November 24, 1848, with the Stockbridges, the tribe to sell the town of land on the east side of Lake Winnebago; another supplementary treaty, May 12, 1854, the tribe receiv- ing a tract lying on Wolf river, being townships 28, 29 and 30, of ranges 13, 14, 15 and 16. The Chippewas of Lake Superior ceded their joint in- terest with the Chippewas of the Mississippi in lands lying in Wisconsin and Minnesota, September 30, 1854. On the 5th of February, 1856, certain small grants were made by the Stockbridge and Munsee tribes, at Stock- bridge, for which they received a tract near the southern boundary of the Menominee river, the Menominees ceding two townships for them. Thus ended the Indian title to all lands in Wisconsin, excepting some minor local grants, and the title to the vast domain became vested in the general govern- ment.
The original settlements of Green Bay and Prairie du Chien were made on lands, part of which were granted by the paternal governments to the first settlers. The question of title based on these claims came before con- gress, in 1820, by the revival of a similar case raised to cover claims at Detroit, in 1805, and resulted in the establishment of some seventy-five titles at Prairie du Chien and Green Bay.
The ordinance of 1787 provided that congress might establish one or two states of that territory lying north of a line drawn east and west through the southerly bend of Lake Michigan. In spite of this plain fact, Illinois was defined in its present northern line, and the Lake Superior region was added to Michigan, as the "Upper Peninsula." Efforts were made by Wis- consin at an early date to recover what was justly her right, but those efforts proved unavailing.
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CHAPTER II
STORY OF THE ROCKS AND FIELDS
VARIOUS PERIODS OF FORMATION-KETTLE RANGE OF HILLS AND RIDGES- RICH AND ENDURING SOIL-COMMERCIAL CLAY AND LIMESTONE-ALMOST IMPENETRABLE FORESTS OF VALUABLE TIMBER-A VERITABLE PARADISE FOR WILD BEASTS AND BIRDS-TOPOGRAPHY OF THE COUNTY-DRAINAGE AND RECLAMATION OF WASTE LANDS.
The lowest accessible rocks in Wisconsin consists of immense series of granites gneisses, syenites and hornblendic, micaceous, chloritic chists and allied, crystalline rocks. These rocks bear within themselves decisive evi- dence that they were once sediments derived from the wear of earlier rocks. Nowhere are these earlier rocks exposed at the surface. These lowest accessible rocks are called "fundamental gneiss" and upon them are piled layer upon layer the rock formations of the state. First were deposited the St. Peter's sandstone, all together called the Potsdam period of the lower silurian age (age of mollusks). Then in succession came the Trenton lime- stone, Galeria limestone and Hudson river shales of the Trenton period of the lower silurian age of the Paleozoic era. Then came the following strata :
Helderberg
[Oriskany { Lower Helderberg Salina
Upper Silurian
(Niagara Clinton
Niagara
1Medina | Oneida
All of the above strata were formed under the internal sea before any land in the present Wisconsin was above water except the famous "Isle Wisconsin," the only section of the state that was never under water. Dur- ing the upper silurian age mollusks in enormous numbers flourished; their casts are found in the rocks of the county. Among them are crinoids, corals, protozoans, bryozoans, brachipods, cephalopods, crustaceans and others. At the close of the upper silurian age what is now Sheboygan county rose above the sea and was never afterward submerged; but another agency deposited a vast amount of soil upon the upper silurian rocks of this county, namely, the quarternary age, or glacial period of epochs, thus :
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Terrace or Fluviatile Champlain or Lacustrine
Quarternary Age (Glacial Period)
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! Second Glacial Interglacial First Glacial
The glacial period was remarkable in many particulars. That immense fields of ice should be pushed down from the north shearing off the soil and rocks of the older periods and carrying large portions southward to be dropped upon the surface of this county and elsewhere as the sun gradually melted the ice, seems an extraordinary event, but is well authenticated by in- dubitable testimony. The evidence is also clear that the tertiary age was warm to such an extent that animals and plants flourished almost to the north pole and certainly in Alaska and other sections even farther north. But this age was succeeded by the quarternary age, which presented marked contrasts. It was intensely cold in northern latitudes and even in this sec- tion the heat of summer not being sufficient to melt the vast accumulations of snow and ice which thus formed immense glaciers which were forced slowly southward carrying the surface rocks and soil with them and deposit- ing them where the ice melted. What is now Sheboygan county was thus covered with an immense glacier which flowed southward, digging out Lake Michigan and topping over until united with the glacier which likewise scooped out Green Bay and Fox river valley. These glaciers or others ex- tended as far south as southern Illinois and southern Indiana. Of the ma- terial carried along there were thrown off at the sides great ridges now called terminal moraines which form many of the hills and elevations of this county. The material thus deposited is called "drift" and no doubt considerable deposited here was brought from Canada, the Lake Superior basin and the northern part of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan. No doubt all of the present Sheboygan county was swept by the ice of the first glacial epoch and subsequent glacial fields removed many evidences of the first glacial visitation. The second glacial epoch is represented by a wide band of drift and moraines stretching across the county northeast and southwest, a little east of north and west of south. This band was the area where the Lake Michigan and the Green Bay glaciers joined and where in the meet- ing and the grinding of the two together there were deposited the drift and moraines of the second glacial band above described. Thus the direction of glaciation is as follows: In nearly the eastern half of the county the markings show movement from the Lake Michigan glacier in almost exactly a slightly southwest direction. In the west third of the county they show that the Green Bay glacier crowded in a southeast direction until arrested by the edge of the Lake Michigan glacier ; and there the hills of drift and the moraines were deposited in the band already described. The western margin of the Lake Michigan glacier is now marked by what is called the Kettle Range which in this county is about co-extensive with the second glacial area. This range is thus described by the state geologist :
"The most striking result of the second glacial advance was the pro-
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duction along the margin of the ice sheet of a great moraine, the most gi- gantic and most remarkable yet known to characterize glacial action. It consists of a great ridged belt of drift disposed in grand loops along what was the glacier's margin. Its re-entrant angles penetrated deeply between the adjoining lobes marking their line of contact. That portion of the moraine which lay between and was formed by the joint action of the Green Bay and Lake Michigan glaciers constitutes a succession of irregular hills and ridges, locally known as the Kettle Range from the peculiar depressions by which it is characterized. This ridged belt of drift is a true terminal moraine formed of the heterogeneous material accumulated as the margin of the ice and plowed up before it at the time of its greatest advance.
The intermediate portions of the Kettle Moraine lie along the face of two approaching ice sheets which may have met and antagonized each other to some extent, but did not coalesce; and furthermore they lie transverse to the glacial motion and are strictly marginal and are in real nature ter- minal moraines, differing from other portions simply in being formed by two glaciers pushing from opposite directions. . The characteristics of the Kettle Moraine are striking. It is not merely a simple ridge plowed up by the smooth edge of the ice, but consists of an irregular assemblage of drift hills and ridges, forming a belt usually several miles in width.
The superficial aspect of the formation is that of an irregular intricate series of drift ridges and hills of rapidly, but often very gracefully, un- dulating contour, consisting of rounded domes, conical peaks, winding and occasionally genticulated ridges, short, sharp spurs, mounds, knolls and hummocks promiscuously arranged, accompanied by corresponding depres- sions that are even more striking in character. These depressions give rise to the various local names of potash kettles, pot holes, pots and kettles, sinks, etc. Those that have most arrested popular attention are circular in outline and symmetrical in form, not unlike the homely utensils that have given them names. However, some are irregular and shaped like a funnel, inverted bell, saucer, trough or even winding hollows. They vary in depth from a mere indentation to bowls sixty or more feet in depth. The kettles proper seldom exceed 500 feet in diameter. As a natural conse- quence of their forms many of the depressions are small lakes without inlet or outlet. Where there are depressions there also are hills and here they are the counterpart of the depressions, being inverted kettles or sharp ridges along trough-like hollows. As to material, clay, sand, gravel and boulders enter largely into the constitution of the Kettle Range, gravel being the most conspicuous element exposed to observation. The great core of the range consists of a confused commingling of clay, sand, gravel and boulders of the most pronounced type. Thus the range is essentially unstratified. .
It is undeniable that the agency which produced the range gathered its ma- terial all along its course for at least three hundred miles to the northward and its largest accumulations were in the immediate vicinity of the deposit. Thus the material of the range changes along its whole course and is quite often more or less stratified."
The glacial period was succeeded by an epoch when the southward flow of the water was checked and much of this northern country was sub-
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merged beneath the lakes and it was at this time that the red clays, beach deposits and other soils were left upon a considerable portion of the sur- face. The forest trees so often found buried no doubt grew between the glacial periods when warm weather prevailed, the change from heat to cold occurring every 10,500 years, due to the precession of the equinoxes.
"The retreat of the glaciers left spread over the surface subjected to their action a sheet of confused and commingled earthy and rocky material scraped from the surface of the areas lying northward and partaking of the diverse natures of the parent sources. This contained ingredients from a large variety of rocks of various mineral composition and therefore fur- nishing a substratum remarkably well fitted to yield a soil rich in all requi- site mineral constituents. Since then the sun, rain, air and frost have developed there from a deep, rich and enduring soil, to which vegetation has added humic products." (Geology of Wisconsin, Vol. I.)
At the close of the second glacial epoch elephants, mastodons, mammoths and other giant animals roamed over Wisconsin; among them were buf- faloes, deer, wolves, raccoon or species closely related to these animals.
How were the Kettle Hills formed? The answer would be by one of two ways: One by removing the land from around the hills and leaving them as is the case with clay hills, a part of the clay undisturbed deposit. The ridge east of the Rock mills at Sheboygan falls is of this kind, also the hill directly east of the same village on the river road, where the river formerly ran on both sides of it. This is the theory of J. H. Denison, in his interesting article which was made a part of Joerns Atlas of the county published in 1902. Mr. Denison goes on to say in the article that he is inclined to think the Dr. Seeley hill, near Sheboygan city, and every eleva- tion that is clay and hard pan down to the smooth rock, belong to this class. The other kind he says, is the gravel hills, mostly in the western part of the county, that are of later formation and are built by piling up the mate- rial brought together often from a distance and consisting of limestone, gravel and sand, sometimes mixed with clay. This material in what are called Kettle hills is the same that is found all along the Sheboygan river down to its mouth. A good example of it may be seen along the railroad track where it is used as ballast. That the Kettle hills belong to the same epoch as the formation of the river valleys, Mr. Denison concludes from the fact that the gravel hills and gravel beds are alike all covered with a deposit six inches to two feet of clay loam. There is not a gravel bed in the coun- try that was not originally covered with a sedimentary deposit.
The gravel hills and ridges in the county are found in the western and southern part of Rhine, the western and northern part of Plymouth, the southeastern portion of Greenbush, the western of Lyndon, and the east- ern and central part of Mitchell and Scott. The major portion of the land is tillable.
The Kettle Range of hills which traverse the eastern border of the state, crosses the western portion of the county obliquely, abruptly break- ing the generally undulating surface. Several small lakes dot the land- scape at different sections of the county, the principal ones of which are Sheboygan, Elkhart, Cedar and Random lakes. These have become at-
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tractive places as summer resorts, not only for the people living close by but are visited yearly by many people in the state, Chicago and other places. The county is abundantly supplied with streams of water, the most im- portant of which are the Sheboygan, Mullet, Onion and Pigeon rivers, with many tributary creeks. The courses of these streams are generally very circuitous, flowing in all directions, but many of them supply good water power which is utilized for manufacturing purposes. The county was originally covered with timber, both of fine pine and hard woods. The best of this has been used for many manufacturing purposes. Most of the soil is rich and fertile and adapted to almost any kind of a crop in this latitude. The cultivation of the cereals yields liberal returns and this sec- tion of the state cannot be surpassed for the development of dairy products. Sheep-raising is also quite an industry, while by reason of the peculiar qual- ity of soil and conditions along the shore of Lake Michigan, a superior quality of green peas were grown, which were eagerly sought by the markets of the east and west and of which thousands of barrels were put up in local canneries and large quantities were shipped both by land and water. This industry is no more. Worms finally got into the peas and the planting of them has long since ceased. Beautiful cream colored brick of fine quality are made of the red clay in certain localities, and in other localities a fine commercial limestone is quarried and burned into lime. The geological formation of the county was accurately shown a number of years ago by the boring of an artesian well in Fountain Park, which was sunk to a depth of 1,475 feet. The borings displayed a surface drift reaching 92 feet in depth, which was underlaid by 719 feet of Niagara limestone, 240 feet of Cincinnati shale, 213 feet of Trenton and Galena limestone and 212 feet of St. Peter sandstone. Water of a strongly saline character, tinctured with various mineral substances, was found here in abundance.
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