History of Trempealeau County, Wisconsin, Part 11

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn; Pierce, Eben Douglas
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Chicago Winona : H.C. Cooper
Number of Pages: 1318

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The first trapper to whom tradition ascribes a fur trading camp in Trempealeau County, after the early French explorers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, was Joseph Roque,1 a prominent interpreter and officer of the Indian department in the days when the British ruled over Mackinac and its western dependencies. Roque was much trusted by the British officers, and accompanied (1780) Wabasha on his raid against St. Louis and the forces of George Rogers Clark in Illinois. He ranked as lieutenant in the Indian service, and at the close of the Revolution remained in the pay of the British government, being likewise prominent in the fur trade. During the War of 1812-15 he was employed by the English authori- ties and accompanied Colonel William McKay as lieutenant and interpreter on his Prairie du Chien expedition in 1814. According to Winnebago tradi- tion, he had a wintering ground on a branch of Beaver Creek, not far from Galesville, and the occupancy of this region by him and a companion gave to this branch its name of French Creek.

Joseph's half-breed son, Augustin, was likewise an interpreter in the service of the British. With his father he accompanied Mckay's Prairie du Chien expedition of 1814 with the rank of lieutenant. At the conclusion of the war Augustin took up his home with Wabasha's Indians and estab- lished several trading posts on the upper Mississippi. The same Winnebago tradition that ascribes a camp in Trempealeau County to the father, Joseph, also ascribes a post on Beaver Creek to the son, Augustin. The Indian name of Beaver Creek, Seen-tah-ro-cah, is from St. Roque, the original French family name of this hunter. The valley was rich in beaver and elk, and hunting and trapping in this region were productive of rich results.

In 1823 Augustin Roque accompanied Major Stephen H. Long's expe- dition, but his services were unsatisfactory. Some time before 1826 he

HISTORY OF TREMPEALEAU COUNTY

seems to have had a trading post at the mouth of the Buffalo River. In 1826 he moved to the present site of Wabasha. Featherstonhaugh men- tions this trading house on Lake Pepin in 1835 and gives his Indian name as Wahjustahchay, or Strawberry.2

The occupancy of this region by the trappers is also attested by docu- mentary evidence. As early as 1820 Louis Grignon had a fur trading camp at Trempealeau Mountain,3 and the following year Augustin Grignon had a camp near the mouth of Black River, to which point he moved from a camp four miles below the Zumbro, which had been burned by the Wabasha Indians at the instigation of Joseph Rolette, who worked for a British firm.+ In 1824 Trempealeau Mountain was recommended to the superintendent of Indian affairs as a suitable place for the location of an Indian agent. It was described as being desirable because there was plenty of firewood and because it was convenient to Wabasha's band of Dakota, as well as the place where all the Winnebago and Menominee stopped in ascending and descending the Mississippi.5

Trempealeau Bay thus became a prominent rendezvous for trappers and traders, and favorite stopping place for river voyagers.

The story of the settlement of Trempealeau County dates from 1836, when an attempt was made to establish a mission station at this point. A Protestant missionary society of Basle, Switzerland, desirous of sending the gospel to the North American Indians, commissioned two young Swiss for the work. They decided upon the field among the Dakota as the most promising, and proceeded to Prairie du Chien, where they spent a short time studying the language and learning the location of the tribes. Rev. Daniel Gavin concluded to settle near Wabasha's band, while his comrade, Samuel Denton, went on to Red Wing.

At Prairie du Chien Gavin secured the services as interpreter and man of all work of a Swiss emigrant, Louis Stram. Together they proceeded to Trempealeau and built a loghouse east of Mountain Lake, at the site of a clear spring. Stram opened a farm and endeavored to teach the Indians agriculture, but Wabasha, their chief, did not take kindly either to the mission or the farming, and after the treaty of 1837, by which all the Sioux claim east of the Mississippi was ceded to the United States, Gavin aban- doned the mission and joined his confrere in Red Wing.7 Although the enterprise was temporary, it was the first attempt made in the county in the nature of a permanent settlement and was the first farming therein under the direction of a white man.8

The permanent settlement of Trempealeau County finally came about under the auspices of the fur trade. Francois la Bathe, a shrewd half-breed and a near relative of Wabasha, was confidential agent of Hercules L. Dousman, representative of the American Fur Company at Prairie du Chien. Even before the cession of 1837, La Bathe had tried to secure a steamboat landing site at the modern La Crosse, and as soon as the treaty was concluded he made similar arrangements for Trempealeau by inducing John Doville and Antoine Reed to proceed thither and cut cordwood for steamboats, while holding a stretch of river front as a landing. His object in this was to prevent any trade drifting away from Wabasha's

HISTORY OF TREMPEALEAU COUNTY

village, at the present City of Winona.º A wood yard was established at the head of the island opposite Trempealeau, and La Bathe vouched for the sale of all wood the men might cut. Doville remained at Trempealeau and became its first permanent settler. He cultivated the land that the Swiss missionaries had cleared and broke some of his own in the upper part of the present village. He raised stock upon a small scale and devoted his time to farming and cutting cordwood for steamboats.

James A. Reed, in his journeys up and down the Mississippi in the interest of the fur trade, had noticed the Trempealeau Bluffs and resolved to stop and look the country over with a view of settling later if the place came up to his expectation. He climbed Liberty Peak and looked down on the new land and was charmed with its wild grandeur, its lavish wealth still undeveloped, its inviting valleys and wooded slopes. It was a delectable land, steeped in an alluring solitude-untouched as yet by the white settler. Reed decided to locate in the new country. Circumstances delayed him and gave to his son-in-law, Doville, the credit of being the first settler. In 1840, however, his plans were perfected and, bringing his family by boat from Prairie du Chien, he built a log cabin on the banks of the Mississippi River on the site of modern Trempealeau. Not long afterward his wife died, and he later married the widow of Amable Grignon, of Prairie du Chien, who was a sister of Francois La Bathe and a relative of Wabasha.

The locality soon became known as Reed's Town. Outside of the time that he devoted to his duties as government farmer to Wabasha's band of Indians at Winona (from 1842 to 1848) Reed occupied his energies in tending his stock and in hunting and trapping. The Trempealeau bluffs and adjoining prairie offered an excellent stock range for Reed's horses, swine and cattle, which he brought from Prairie du Chien; and the swine proved to be good rattlesnake hunters, killing and eating many of the Winnebagoes' sacred serpents. Reed used his large log home, for a while, as a tavern, and many a weary traveler and homeseeker found a hospitable welcome at his fireside. For a while it was known as Reed's Place; after- ward he sold out and it became the Washington Hotel.

The next settlers after the family and relatives of Reed arrived at Trempealeau in June, 1842. The party consisted of Willard B. Bunnell and wife, and his brother, Lafayette H. Bunnell. They were from Detroit, and, seeking a location upon the upper Mississippi, had been induced at Prairie du Chien to settle at Trempealeau. To the younger of these two pioneers much of the early history of the region is due. Gifted with a good memory and a taste for historical studies, he has preserved many incidents of pioneer life that would otherwise be lost. Upon the arrival of this party at Trem- . pealeau Reed went back from the village a few rods and shortly came in with a red deer to supply the family with provisions. Buffalo had disap- peared soon after the Black Hawk War, but elk abounded upon Trempealeau River, and beaver were plenty enough to give their name to one of the inland streams.10

A number of French families, mostly from Prairie du Chien, came up the river and joined Reed, but they were mostly connected with the fur trade and made little progress toward developing the country from an agri-

HISTORY OF TREMPEALEAU COUNTY

cultural standpoint. Some of them lived at Reed's home and some built houses near by. Peter Rosseau, who helped Reed build his house, remained for a while. Charles H. Perkins, Joseph Borette, Michael Goulet and Paul and Antoine Grignon were among the early members of the household.

The Bunnells lived at Trempealeau for several years, but spent the first two winters at what is now Fountain City. L. H. Bunnell left Trem- pealeau in 1847 and enlisted in the Mexican War. W. B. Bunnell and his wife left in 1849 and settled at Homer, in Minnesota. Soon after the arrival of the Bunnells, Alexander Chenevert joined the Reed settlement. In 1844 a Frenchman named Assalin came. He was a carpenter by trade and made the woodwork for the first wagon in the county. He also made sleds and French trains. Antoine La Terreur came the same year. He was a cabinet maker and made much of the early furniture used in the pioneer homes of Trempealeau. Michael Bebault arrived in 1845 and hired out as a wood- chopper on the island. In 1848 Leander Bebault and John La Vigne arrived with their families, and about the same time Edward Winkleman settled here.

It was after 1850 that the settlement of the interior of the county took place, and for a period of fifteen years settlers poured into the valleys of Trempealeau County, principally from southern and eastern Wisconsin. Many were from New York State originally, with a goodly number from the New England States. They came in all manner of ways, but steamboat, by stage, afoot, on horseback, with ox teams and covered wagons, with wagons drawn by horses, and often driving behind their caravan a herd of cattle, while tied to the rear of the wagon in a well-constructed box was the vociferous porker, proclaiming his presence at every stop.

The routes they selected depended on the section from whence they hailed. Many came by way of La Crosse and thence over the rough road to Gordon's or McGilvray's Ferry and crossed these ferries into the county. Others arrived by steamboat and outfitted in La Crosse for their journey into the new country. Some came to Trempealeau by steamboat and then went by stage into the interior. Still others went to Fountain City and took the trail across the bluffs, over the Glencoe Ridge, and through the Glencoe Valley to the Trempealeau River. Some came down the Trem- pealeau valley from Jackson County. The northern part of the county was settled largely by people who drifted into the county from Black River Falls and vicinity. A few of the pioneers poled up Black River in flat boats to the falls and then took the overland trail back to Trempealeau County. Other settlers came across the Mississippi River from Minnesota, where they had settled in Pickwick or some other of the valleys that reach back from the river. The later settlers came into the Trempealeau County by the railroad, but it was not until 1870 that a railroad was built into the county.

Aside from those who followed the main routes of travel, there were many settlers who sifted into the county from adjoining territory following whatever route was most convenient and striking out across the prairies or up the ravines to find, removed from the settled haunts of man, a plot of land where they might establish themselves and build their future homes.

HISTORY OF TREMPEALEAU COUNTY

The best sources of authority regarding the early settlement of Trempealeau County previous to 1850 are Antoine Grignon and L. H. Bunnell, both of whom arrived here in the forties. E. D. Pierce, from stories heard from pioneers, as a boy, from interviews with Antoine Grignon, and conversations with descendants of early settlers, gathered the information for three articles on the subject, all published in the Proceedings of the Wis. Hist. Society as follows: Early Days of Trempealcau, 1906, 246-255; Recollections of Antoine Grignon, 1913, 110-136; James Allen Reed, 1914, 107-117. Dr. Bunnell's vivid recollections are found in: Bunnell, Winona and Its Environs (Winona, 1877), 183 et seq.

1-Roque (variously spelled) is mentioned as interpreter for the Sioux, Wis. Hist. Colls., III, 229; VII, 167; XI, 134-135, 142, 156; XII, 61, 63, 81; and XII, 94, apparently fixes this interpreter as Joseph Roque. Whether Joseph or Augustin is meant in XII, 125, and XIII, 67, is uneertain. Id., IX, 264, presents a confusing problem. Among the lieutenants at Ft. MeKay (Prairie du Chien) are given Joseph Rock, Sr., and Augustin Rock, Jr. Whether this is the Joseph of the earlier days is not apparent. The use of "Jr." and "Sr." would indi- cate that these two men were not father and son, that Augustin indeed was not the son of Joseph but of an Augustin, Sr. It is possible, however, that the use of the "Sr." and "Jr."' was a elerical error arising from the fact that one may have been called Roque, Sr., and the other Roqne, Jr., without regard to their first names. Angustin is mentioned as an inter- preter, Id., 1X, 254, 256, and an employe of the American Fur Co., Id., XII, 162. For a mention of the early activities of the Roques in the region, see: L. H. Bunnell, Winona and Its Environs (Winona, 1897), 69, 147, 371. "'Joe"' Roque, known to the early settlers, was the son of Augustin and grandson of Joseph.

2-G. W. Featherstonhaugh, Gcological Reconnaissance (Wash., 1836), 130.

3-Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed., Fur Trade in Wisconsin, 1812-1825, Wis. Hist. Colls., XX, 160-162, 241-242, 258-259.

4-Ibid., 236. 5-Ibid., 365.

6-Nearly three miles northwest of the village of Trempealeau on the Trowbridge farm. The cellar and stones from the chimney could be seen in 1888. The excavation can still be seen, 1917 .- E. D. P.

7-Lyman C. Draper, Early French Forts in Western Wisconsin, Wis. Hist. Colls., X, 367; also note to same artiele, 506-507. See also: Minn. Hist. Colls., VI, 134. An official report in 1838 (U. S. Executive Documents, 1, 494) says: "Mr. D. Gavin removes this year from the 'Mountain in the Waters, East,' to the west with Wabasha's band of Sioux."

S-The land broken by Stram was afterward used by pioneer settlers, who burned the log house in 1842 to deprive the troublesome Indians of a shelter for themselves and stolen horses, Bunnell, Winona and Its Environs, 71.

9-Ibid., 209. Bunnell and others give the name as James Douville. His descendants say it was John Doville. His divoree proceedings (First Minute Book, Distriet Court of Trempealeau County, 21) give his name as John Do Ville.

CHAPTER VIII

LOCALITY SETTLEMENTS

When the first white man gazed upon the Trempealeau country he beheld a vastly different land physically than we live in today. It was dressed in its primitive clothes, so to speak. The bluffs, save for the work of the mound builder, had not been defaced by man. The contour of the hills and valleys was influenced only by the alluvium and the wash of storms, for scarcely any land was cultivated, in the modern sense of the word, by the Indians.

Here and there in secluded places along the hills were forests, but generally the country was untimbered and covered with brush and wild grass, which was burned over each year by the Indians.

The Indians, no doubt, had some particular reason for doing this, though it is difficult to conjecture why they deemed it necessary to burn over the land annually. No doubt they could travel through a burned-over country much easier than over one obstructed with a tangle of grass and brush, and traveling more swiftly mean more game. New grass grew better also in the burned-over places, and thus the ponies of the Indians had better grazing on account of this primitive method of land clearing.

Indian trails took the place of our modern roads, and no guide board pointed its inartistic hand to direct the inquiring traveler. Along these indistinct trails many of the early settlers made their way with difficulty and along the wooded streams were obliged to pick their way by blazed trees.

There were many small lakes or sloughs in the county when the pioneer came that have since gone dry. On Trempealeau Prairie were a number . of these tiny lakes where James Reed trapped muskrat, but today we see no sign of the former outline of these bodies of water. Arcadia was built in a marshy slough which has since been filled with dirt hauled from a range of hillocks in the rear of the village. On the other hand, we have a number of lakes in our county that were not here in the early day. These artificial bodies of water represent our waterpower and are usually desig- nated by the undignified name of mill ponds. One would hardly dare apply that name to beautiful Lake Marinuka of Galesville, reposing in the valley of Beaver Creek, and possessing all the charm and reflecting qualities of a natural lake.

But perhaps even greater changes have taken place in the flora and fauna of our county since the early day than in the physical features. In order to appreciate more fully these changes, let us picture the early settler and his wild environment ; his log cabin in the clearing of one of our secluded valleys, nestling at the foot of a hill where a spring trickles into a dugout water trough a few feet from the cabin door. Standing against the log

HISTORY OF TREMPEALEAU COUNTY

barn is the yoke for the oxen, and near-by is the upturned breaking plow, while the mattock and ax repose on a half cut log near the woodpile. At the side of the cabin is the rude wash bench made from a slab of wood and four wooden pegs for legs. We may also see the grindstone in the back yard, and hanging under the rafters of the barn is the scythe, the cradle and the flail. And we must not overlook the lye-leach and soap kettle, nor the half-sled and stone-boat.

Herds of deer can be seen grazing on the hillside, and in the spring and autumn days the honking of wild geese fills the air. The boom and hoot of prairie chickens can be heard in the early spring days, and, during the summer, from across the hot green fields, comes the plaintive note of the plover and the whistle of the gopher. The sound of the drumming partridge comes from the thicket near the clearing, and the whistling quail proclaims his presence by his far-carrying "Bob White."

The bark and chatter of the grey and red squirrel can be heard in the woodlands, while at night the hoot of the owl mingles at times with the howl of the wolf or barking fox.

During the spring and summer the woods ring with the songs of a variety of birds. From early dawn until dark the tireless songsters fill the air with music, and in season the whip-poor-will lashes the silence of the night with his rhythmic strain.

Wild flowers grow in profusion, and many a sloping hillside blushes scarlet with painted cups in the May days, and in June time the wild roses light with a pink glow the wilderness where the pioneer came to build his cabin home.

Along the hills grow blueberries, blackberries and raspberries, while wild plum and cherry thickets offer their fruits in many of the valleys and by the streams in the bottom lands.

In June the odor of wild strawberries comes floating from some hidden patch-a breath of perfume that has the aroma of shortcake, and what a pleasant adventure to hunt out the hidden patch and gather the luscious berries in ruddy clusters.

But time and change have wiped the picture out. Cultivation and pasturing has removed the wild touch-the rustic element-and obliterated many of our wild flowers, while the hunter has killed o driven away all of our big game.

The buffalo disappeared from this region before the coming of the white settler, but elk were found here as late as 1865, and wild deer were seen in our county as late or even later than 1890. The wild pigeons disap- peared about forty years ago, and our decreasing wild ducks will soon be of the past. The beaver, the otter, the martin, lynx, the bear and panther, have long since disappeared from our county, and of all the larger native wild animals we have the wolf fox and bobcat, still to be found in the wild recesses of the county today.

The process of extermination is taking place among our wild flowers, and many of the rare varieties will soon become extinct unless some means is taken to preserve them. The white lady-slipper is becoming a very rare flower, and even the yellow lady-slipper is growing alarmingly scarce, as

HISTORY OF TREMPEALEAU COUNTY

is also our painted cup that grew in such abundance in the early days ; still rarer is the showy orchid and other species of the orchid family.

There seems to be an increasing demand to preserve our noble forests and to keep in a wild state our most beautiful mountain districts. The government has seen fit to establish a large number of forest reserves, besides maintaining its national parks. We all appreciate this, though we cannot all visit these national wonders of beauty, and that is the reason why it seems to us that each county should have its wild playground.

In order to appreciate sweet sounds there must be silent places, and in order to appreciate our tame and subdued surroundings we need the wild touch to recuperate our blunted senses, to rest our minds and restore our mental poise. The natural park, with its native forests, its wild flowers and unsubdued grandeur offers the only relief to these conditions, and it also offers a solution to the problem of keeping our native flora from extermination.

Trempealeau-Reed's Town in the forties consisted of about half a dozen log cabins scattered along the river front near James Reed's large log house, and occupied by French families, most of whom had moved into the new settlement from Prairie du Chien. Beside these there were a few French-Canadians, and after 1846 a few American families joined the community.

The fur trade and the Indian trade furnished the principal industries, though some farming was done on a small scale, and the inhabitants kept their stock (cattle, hogs, and horses) on a common range which extended across Trempealeau Prairie and included the Trempealeau Bluffs.

Life in the French settlement was filled with adventures of the back- woods type, and the hunter and trapper matched his skill of woodcraft with the Indian. With an abundance of fish and game and wild berries and plums, and with the vast expanse of wild grass lands for grazing, there was little need of food shortage.

John Doville, who maintained a wood camp on the island opposite Reedstown, had the first farm in Trempealeau. He sowed oats, wheat, flaxseed, potatoes and beans.

Stram broke the first land in the county, but he used the ground for garden purposes only, while Doville extended his agricultural pursuits to grain raising, and has the honor of being the first Trempealeau County farmer. Though Doville worked on the island and had a temporary camp there, at the woodyard, he found it necessary, on account of high water, to erect a permanent cabin on the main land near the river and not far from the lower end of the present main street. He afterwards built a house on the site, used later for Melchoir's brewery.

In 1842 James Reed found employment in the Government Indian service at Winona, where he was engaged as farmer and storekeeper for Wabasha's band of Sioux. A few years later he was joined by John Doville and Charles H. Perkins, who likewise entered the Indian service. They still kept in touch with Reed's Settlement, however, and when their contract with the Government expired returned to their Trempealeau homes and became permanent settlers in the county.

HISTORY OF TREMPEALEAU COUNTY

Intermarriage between these early inhabitants of Trempealeau and the Indians took place as in other frontier settlements, with a resultant mixed blood offspring, whose descendants can be traced down to the present generation.

But few family records of this period remain, though one has been preserved of the Willard B. Bunnell family, which discloses the fact that his son, David Porter Bunnell, who was born in November, 1843, was the first white child born in the territory of Trempealeau County. His daughter, Louise, born in 1848, was also the first white girl born in this locality. Bunnell located on land about a mile above the present village of Trem- pealeau, which later became the Jack McCarty farm.

The Americanization of Reed's Town came about rather slowly, and it was not until after 1850 that the influx of Americans began.

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History of Trempealeau County, Wisconsin, Part 11

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn; Pierce, Eben Douglas Publication date: 1917 Publisher: Chicago Winona : H.C. Cooper Number of Pages: 1318

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn; Pierce, Eben Douglas
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Chicago Winona : H.C. Cooper
Number of Pages: 1318