History of Trempealeau County, Wisconsin, Part 9

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

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HISTORY OF TREMPEALEAU COUNTY

XXXIII, 275-279, just mentioned, is found: L. P. Kellogg, Early Narratives of the North- west (New York, 1917), 11-16.

3-Thwaites, editorial note, Jouan, Nicolet, Wis. Hist. Colls., XI, 1-2.

4-Juan, Nicolet, Ibid., 13, notc.

5-Thwaites, The French Regeme in Wisconsin, Part 2, Wis. Hist. Colls., XVII, 207.

6-Richard Peters, ed., Treaties Between the United States and the Indian Tribes, U. S. Statutes at Large (Boston, 1861), VII, 272. See same volume for all Indian treaties from 1778 to 1842.

7-Chas. C. Royec, Indian Land Cessions, 18th Annual Report, Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1899), II, 710-712. Sce same volume for all Indian Land Cessions.

8-Return I. Holcombe, Minnesota in Three Centurics (New York, 1908), II, 207-218. Also : L. H. Bunnell, Winona and Its Environs (Winona, 1897), 337-341. Also: Maj. J. E. Fletcher, Report, Ex. Doc., No. 1, Second Session, Thirtieth Congress. Also: Eben D. Pierce, Recollections of Antoine Grignon, Wis. Hist. Soc., Proceedings, 1913, 118-119.

9-Thwaites, The Wisconsin Winnebago, Wis. Hist. Colls., XII, 414. (The entire arti- cle,-399-433,-is a most excellent history of the Winnebagoes in Wisconsin since 1828.)

10-J. W. Powell, Indian Linguistic Families, 7th Annual Report, Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1891), 111-112.

11-N. H. Winchell, ed., Aborigines of Minnesota (St. Paul, 1911), 541 et seq.

12-Peters, ed., Treaties, U. S. Statutes at Large, VII, 538. Royce, Indian Land Cessions, 18th Annual Report, Bureau of Ethnology, II, 766.

13-Holcombe, Minnesota in Three Centuries, II, 108-109.

14-For the story of the Wabasha dynasty, see: Winchell, Aborigines of Minnesota, 540-558. Also: F. Curtiss-Wedge, History of Winona County (Chicago, 1913), I, 18-31. Also: Bunnell, Winona and Its Environs, 151-154. Also: Hodge, Handbook of American Indians, II, 911.

15-Henry R. Schoolcraft, The American Indian, History, Conditions and Prospects (Rochester, 1851), 137.

16-For Indian myth concerning the removal of the band to this region, see: Bunnell, Winona and Its Environs, 111-117.

17-Ibid., 209.

18-Curtiss-Wedge, History of Winona County, 117, 123-124, 127-128.

19-Edward D. Neill, History of Minnesota (Minneapolis, 4th ed., 1882), 394-395. Also: Wm. J. Snelling (supposed author), Winnebago Outbreak of 1827, Wis. Hist. Colls., V, 143. 20-Hodge, Handbook of American Indians, II, 358.

21-For story of Red Bird troubles, see: Snelling (supposed author), Winnebago Outbreak of 1827, W'is. Hist. Colls., V, 143-154. Also: Moses M. Strong, Indian Wars of Wisconsin, Id., VIII, 254-265. Also: Col. Thos. L. McKenny, Winnebago War, Id., V, 178-204. Also: James H. Lockwood, Early Times and Events in Wisconsin, Id., II, 156-168. Also: Ebenezer Childs, Recollections, Id., IV, 172-174.

22-In an interview with Eben D. Pierce, M. D.

23-Jonathan Carver, Travels (Philadelphia, 1796), 20. Also: Geo. Gale, Upper Mis- sissippi (Chicago and New York, 1867), 81, 82, 189. Also: Mrs. John H. Kinzie, Wau Bun, 1856), 89, 486. Also: Lockwood, Early Times and Events in Wisconsin, Wis. Hist. Colls., II, 178. Also: Lyman C. Draper's note to: Daniel Steele Dnrrie, Jonathan Carver and Carver's Grant, Id., VI, 224. Also: John T. De La Ronde, Narrative, Id., VII, 347, Also: Augusten Grignon, Recollections, Id., III, 286-289. Also: Andrew Jackson Turner, History of Fort Winnebago, Id., 86, note.

24-Lyman C. Draper's note to: Black Hawk War, Id., V, 297.

25-Gale, Letter in Galesville Transcript (Galesville, Feb. 1, 1861), I, No. 46, 2. But Walking Cloud, Thwaites, ed., Wis. Hist. Colls., XIII, 465, says that One Eyed Decorah was not a chief until after the Black Hawk War-that it was not until after that war that Decorah settled on the Black River. And Burnett, in a letter to General William Clark, June 29, 1831, speaks of a rumor that a few days previous One Eyed Decorah had left his village at Prairie La Crosse, and gone down to the Sacs and Foxes (Alfred Brunson, Memoire of Thomas P. Burnett, Id., II, 253).

26-Brunson, Memoire of Burnett, Id., II, 257, 259-260.

HISTORY OF TREMPEALEAU COUNTY

27-Ibid. 261. Also: Thwaites, The Wisconsin Winnebagoes, Id., XII, 430-431. 28-Bunnell, Winona and Its Environs, 227.

29-Spoon Decorah, a cousin of One Eyed Decorah, tells still another Indian tradition and locates the capture near the headquarters of the La Crosse River. (Thwaites, ed., Narrative of Spoon Decorah, Wis. Hist. Colls., XIII, 454-455.) Thwaites in a note to Walking Cloud's Narrative, Ibid., 465, refutes the various Indian traditions and discusses the unreliability of Indian tradition in general. Draper, in a note to Satterlee Clark's Early Times at Ft. Winne- bago, Id., VIII, 316, mentions the various traditions of the capture and refutes them by a quotation from the official report locating the capture near the Dalles of the Wisconsin. For various accounts of the capture sec: De La Ronde, Narrative, Id., VII, 351. Also: John T. Kingston, Early Wisconsin Days, Ibid., 332. Also: Thwaites, The Black Hawk War, Id., XII, 261, text and note. Also: Strong, Indian Wars of Wisconsin, Id., VIII, 285. Also: David McBride, Capture of Black Hawk, Id., V, 293-297.

30-Willard Barrows, Death of Black Hawk, Id., V, 305. Also: Thwaites, The Black Hawk War, Id., XII, 262.

CHAPTER VI

EXPLORERS AT TREMPEALEAU MOUNTAIN

The scenery in the vicinity of Trempealeau Mountain is perhaps as beautiful as any in the great Mississippi Valley. The bluffs along the river extend about three miles above the village, from Liberty Peak to Trempea- leau Mountain, and present many varieties of shape and form, from a low, graceful mound to a towering, rugged cliff. The highest elevation is Brady's Peak, which rises to a height of over five hundred feet above the river, and from its summit a broad view may be had of the surrounding country.

Looking up the river from this peak, Trempealeau Mountain appears far beneath, with its wooded sides sloping towards its crest of evergreens, and its base washed by the waters of the bay that separates it from the mainland. Extending from the bay is a chain of lakes ; farther up, is Trem- pealeau River, winding among the woods and tall grasses; and in every direction from the river gleam the waters of sloughs where the wild rice bends above the haunts of the wild duck. Far below, gliding in solemn majesty, is the tawny Mississippi, bounded by ragged bluffs and dotted with islands of innumerable shape and size, that rest on the glassy surface like huge wooded rafts. Across the river rise the Minnesota bluffs, holding in their embrace numerous cozy valleys. The hills seem to roll like great green waves, breaking the land into a succession of valleys; and reposing among them are many sequestered homes.

Indian tradition early associated itself with one peculiarly situated mountain among the Trempealeau range. This, they believed, had been carried off by supernatural force from the neighborhood of a Sioux village on the site of modern Red Wing. When warriors of this tribe found it at its present location they are said to have called it Pah-hah-dah (The moved mountain) ; while the neighboring Winnebago gave it the appellation of Hay-nee-ah-chah (Soaking Mountain).1 The French voyageurs translated these terms into La Montagne qui trempe a l'eau (The mountain that is steeped in the water).

The first civilized men ? to gaze upon the towering crags of Trempea- leau Mountain were probably Father Louis Hennepin, a priest of the Order of Recollects of St. Francis, and his two companions, Antoine du Gay Auguel, known from his birthplace as "le Picard," and Michel Accault.3 They were sent out by Robert Cavelier de La Salle from Fort Crevecoeur, near Lake Peoria, Illinois, February 28, 1680. They were on their way up the Mississippi when they were captured by a band of Sioux warriors on the warpath against the Illinois and Miami nations. These Sioux took the white men to the Mille Lacs region, in northern Minnesota. Hennepin does not mention Trempealeau Mountain. He speaks of the Black River

HISTORY OF TREMPEALEAU COUNTY

(R. Noire) and declares that the Sioux called the stream Cha-be-de-ba or Cha-ba-ou-de-ba. He is believed to have spent a night at what is now the site of Winona. He mentions the Buffalo River (R. de Beeufs), which he said was full of turtles. It is probable that by Buffalo River he meant the Chippewa River, which he possibly entered through Beef Slough.4 He also speaks of Lake Pepin, which he calls the Lake of Tears (Lac des Pleurs). After spending a while in the Mille Lacs region, Hennepin and Auguel leaving Accault as a hostage, were taken down the Mississippi by the Indians looking for supplies which La Salle was to have sent to the mouth of the Wisconsin. On their way down the river, guarded by a chief Quasicoude (Wacoota) and a company of Indians, Hennepin and Auguel came to St. Anthony Falls (near Minneapolis) which Hennepin named. They continued down the river, and again passed Trempealeau Mountain. July 11, 1680, while hunting for the mouth of the Wisconsin River, the party was overtaken by more Indians, headed by Aquipaguetin, a Sioux chief who had taken Hennepin into his family as an adopted son. Some time was spent in hunting in the region between the Chippewa River and the Wisconsin River. The squaws hid meat at the mouth of the Chippewa and on various islands. Then the party descended the river and hunted over the prairies further south. July 25, 1680, while again ascending the river, the party encountered Du Luth and a bodyguard of French soldiers." Daniel Greysolon, better known as the Sieur Du Luth (variously rendered), had started out from Montreal on September 1, 1678, explored the Lake Superior region and the territory westward, met the Sioux in the Mille Lacs region, and on July 2, 1779, set up the standard of New France at their village. He returned to Lake Superior from that lake the next summer, ascended the Brule River, made the portage to the St. Croix and was on his way down the Mississippi when he learned that Hennepin and his two companions were in slavery among the Sioux. Hastening to the rescue, Duluth journeyed down the Mississippi with an Indian and two Frenchmen, and after a canoe trip of two days and two nights, overtook Hennepin and about 1,000 Indians. This meeting probably took place near Trempealeau Mountain or possibly somewhat further south. Du Luth fearlessly took Hennepin in his own canoe and started up the river to the Mille Lacs region, which they reached August 14, 1680. There, at a council he upbraided the Indians in scathing terms. He told them that Hennepin was his brother; he denounced them for making Hennepin and the two companions slaves and taking away Hennepin's priestly robes; he taunted them that after receiving his peace offerings and being associated with Frenchmen for a year, they should have kidnaped other Frenchmen on their way to make them a friendly visit. As a climax, Du Luth returned the peace calumets which the Indians gave him. The savages began to make excuses, but this did not deter Du Luth from his resolution to take Hennepin away. Hennepin himself was rebuked by Du Luth for suffering insult without resentment, as such conduct lowered the prestige of the French. Toward the end of September, Du Luth, Hennepin, and their party once more descended the Mississippi River and reached Canada by way of the Wisconsin River, the Portage, the Fox River and Green Bay.

HISTORY OF TREMPEALEAU COUNTY

Thus, in the fall of 1680, Hennepin and Du Luth and their companions beheld for the last time the picturesque surroundings of Trempealeau Mountain.

Hennepin's account of his adventures contains many interesting descriptions of life on this portion of the Mississippi in that far-distant time. One day the Indians in the party captured and killed a deer while it was swimming across the Mississippi. But the weather was so hot the flesh spoiled in a few hours. Thus left without food, the Indians caught a few turtles, but the capture was difficult, Hennepin says, because the turtles would plunge into the water and evade capture. They caught but four fish and were very thankful whenever they could secure a Buffalo fish dropped by an eagle. Hennepin was particularly interested in the peculiar appearance of the Shovelnose Sturgeon. He saw one which an otter caught, and Auguel declared that it reminded him of a devil in the paws of an animal. But after frightening the otter away, they ate the fish and found it very good.

The first white man to maintain a habitation beneath the shadows of Trempealeau Mountain was Nicolas Perrot, who for some twenty years was a trader and interpreter in the Northwest for the French." Perrot arrived at Green Bay, where he was already well known, in the late summer of the year 1685. He found the Indians restless and inclined to intertribal warfare, so that some time was spent in their pacification. It was later than he had planned, therefore, when he set out for the country of the Sioux, where he hoped to secure a great harvest of valuable furs. After crossing the Wisconsin portage, and proceeding down that river to its mouth, he turned his little fleet of canoes boldly upstream; but as the weather was growing cold and traveling difficult, they "found a place where there was timber, which served them for building a fort, and they took up their quarters at the foot of a mountain, behind which was a great prairie abounding in wild beasts."s To one familiar with the topography of this section, the description of the site of Perrot's wintering quarters in 1685-86 is very clearly that of the Trempealeau bluffs, because these are the only bluffs near the river having a large prairie in their rear, and Trempealeau Mountain, moreover, is a well-known landmark on the upper Mississippi.

In addition to this, ruins have been discovered which clearly prove the existence of a post at this point at an early period.º To connect these ruins with Perrot's post, there is the well-known map of Jean Baptiste Louis Franquelin, published in 1688, and based undoubtedly on information obtained from Perrot himself.1º Franquelin, an engineer of repute and royal hydrographer, visited New France in 1683 and remained several years. His famous map of Louisiana in 1684, drawn to display La Salle's discoveries, has but few indications of upper Mississippi sites. That of 1688, however, records with much accuracy the upper Mississippi region, and since we know Perrot to have been in Quebec in the autumn of 1687, there is every reason to suppose that he furnished Franquelin with the data appearing thereon. Not far above the mouth of Riviere Noire-tne Black River of today-there is written La Butte d' Hyvernement (the

HISTORY OF TREMPEALEAU COUNTY

hill of the wintering place), which seems to be intended for Trempealeau Mountain, near where the commandant and his party wintered. Fort St. Nicolas, at the mouth of the Wisconsin, and Fort St. Antoine, above the Chippewa, both founded by Perrot, are likewise indicated.

Just when Perrot left his wintering place on the Mississippi and built Fort St. Antoine higher up the river is not certain, but it was probably during the summer of 1686. He was continuously in the upper Mississippi region until the spring of 1687, when he was ordered to proceed eastward with allies and join the French in a war against certain Indians of New York State. In the meantime he had amassed a stock of furs worth 40,000 livres. In his absence on the warpath these were left at the mission house at Green Bay, which was burned by hostile Indians, with the loss of all his peltry.11

In the autumn of 1687 he set out once more for the Northwest to retrieve his ruined fortunes. After the ice had begun to form on the Fox River he passed down the Wisconsin to the Mississippi and ascended the Mississippi to this region.12 Whether he then occupied the old wintering place at Trempealeau or Fort St. Antoine further up the river on the lake is not clear.13 At Fort St. Antoine, on May 8, 1689, he took possession of the Sioux country in the name of the King of France, annexing the Minnesota and St. Croix River districts and all headwaters of the Mississippi.14

One of the witnesses to this document was Pierre Charles le Sueur, an explorer and trader, whose work added to the knowledge given to the world by Perrot. In 1695 Le Sueur built a fort on Pelee Island ( a short distance above Red Wing), which was maintained about four years, during his own absence in France. He later returned and conducted an expedition in search of copper in the Blue Earth country, Minnesota. In ascending the Mississippi from its mouth, he found that the remains of Fort St. Antoine, on Lake Pepin, and his own island fort above Red Wing, were plainly to be seen.15 He passed Trempealeau Mountain on his upward journey between September 10 and September 14, 1700. The Red (Black) River, the River Paquitanettes (possibly the Buffalo), the River Bon Secours (Chippewa) and Lake Bon Secours (Pepin) are mentioned in the account of the voyage, as are the prairies extending back from the bluffs.16 In Trempealeau County one of the party killed a deer.

More than one-fourth of the eighteenth century passed away before another attempt was made to build a post on the upper Mississippi. The Fox Indian wars had made the Fox-Wisconsin waterway untenable, and any approach to the Sioux had to take the difficult route from the end of Lake Superior through the tangled marshes and ponds at the head of the Mississippi.

In 1727, however, the French government determined to establish a post among the Sioux. In September of the same year the new fort was erected near what is now Frontenac, on the Minnesota side of Lake Pepin, and dedicated amid imposing ceremonies as Fort Beauharnois. The failure of the expedition against the Foxes the following year made this post untenable, however, and it was hastily abandoned by the alarmed garrison.17

HISTORY OF TREMPEALEAU COUNTY

In writing from Fort Beauharnois, May 29, 1727, Father Michel Guignas describes the bluffs, islands and scenery in this vicinity, but makes no particular mention of Trempealeau Mountain.18

In 1731 the Foxes, being temporarly subdued, another expedition to build a Sioux post was placed in charge of Rene Godefroy, sieur de Linctot. With him went his son, Louis Rene, Augustin Langlade, and his brother, Joseph Jolliet, grandson of the explorer ; one Campeau, a skilled blacksmith, brother of the one at Detroit, and Father Michel Guignas, chaplain of the expedition.

They arrived on the Mississippi in the autumn of 1731, and, according to the official report, built "a fort On the Mississippy at a Place called the Mountain * * *"19 * (a Montagne qui trempe dans l'Eau) *

The winter did not pass without events. During the deep snows food became so scarce that Linctot was obliged to send his voyageurs and traders to winter in the camps of the Indians. One of the voyageurs, named Dorval, had a thrilling experience with refugee Foxes, fleeing from an attack of mission Iroquois and Detroit Huron. Later some of the same fugitives came to Linctot to beg for their lives. The Sioux began coming in large numbers when they learned of Linctot's presence, and a camp of Winnebago wintered near by.

The succeeding years were replete with danger and difficulty for the officers and traders of the little Sioux post. Although the Foxes had been defeated and large numbers of them had been destroyed, desperate remnants remained scattered over the western country, and attacking parties of mission Indians and others allied with the French made frequent excursions to harass the wretched fugitives. The Sioux promised protec- tion to the French, but their situation among the fierce belligerents was almost that of prisoners. In April, 1735, one of the Jesuits wrote from Quebec: "We are Much afraid that father Guignas has been taken and burned by a tribe of savages called the renards."2º The anxiety in Canada over his fate was allayed, however, the same summer, when Linctot finally arrived in the colony, bringing an immense quantity of beaver skins and other peltry.21 He reported that he had left Father Guignas with but six men at the little fort in the Sioux country, and asked for himself that he be relieved from command.22

To succeed Linctot in the post of the Sioux the governor-general of New France chose Jacques le Gardeur, sieur de St. Pierre, sending him with a party of twenty-two men to make their way to the upper Mississippi. This small convoy reached its destination late in 1735, and early the following spring St. Pierre determined to remove the post twenty-five leagues (about sixty miles) higher up the Mississippi.23 There for a year they held a hostile tribe at bay, employing every device of strategy and dissimulation and finally, on May 30, 1737, abandoned the post with all its goods and belongings in order to save their lives.24

The records would seem to indicate that the post near Trempealeau occupied by Linctot in the autumn of 1731, was maintained until the removal to the fort on Lake Pepin in the spring of 1736.25

Thirteen years later, in 1750, the French government established

HISTORY OF TREMPEALEAU COUNTY

another Sioux post under the leadership of Captain Pierre Paul Marin, a well-known Wisconsin commandant.26 He was recalled two years later to serve on the Allegheny frontier, and his son Joseph succeeded to the command. The latter maintained his post for three years, but during the French and Indian War was obliged to withdraw the garrison and destroy the post-the last under French occupation upon the upper Mississippi.27

While of these French commanders, from 1685 to 1755, Perrot, Linctot and St. Pierre were probably the only ones who located in Trempealeau County, it is apparent that this region was familiar to all the French voyageurs of the upper Mississippi throughout this period of French dominion.

French rule in the upper Mississippi Valley ended with the treaty of February 10, 1763, when the Mississippi, nearly to its mouth, became the boundary line between the possessions of England and Spain.28 Three years later, in 1766, Jonathan Carver, a native of Connecticut, set out to explore the new British domains in the Northwest.29 Starting from Boston in June, 1766, Carver traveled to the Strait of Mackinaw and Green Bay, and thence, by the canoe route of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, to the Mississippi. Then he ascended the Mississippi, accompanied by a French- Canadian and a Mohawk Indian. He spent the winter of 1766-67 among the Sioux of the Northwest. In the spring of 1767 he descended the Missis- sippi to the present location of Prairie du Chien in the hope of securing goods. Disappointed there, he ascended the Mississippi to the Chippewa River and reached Lake Superior by way of that stream and the upper tributaries of the St. Croix. It was afterward claimed that he had made a treaty with the Sioux, granting him a tract of land about a hundred miles wide along the east bank of the Mississippi, from the Falls of St. Anthony (at Minneapolis) to the southeastern end of Lake Pepin.30 It included the north half of Trempealeau County, the south line running east and west somewhat north of Whitehall. On the strength of this alleged treaty many claims were from time to time presented to the United States Govern- ment, but Congress has always refused to recognize the claim of Carver's heirs and successors ..

Carver passed Trempealeau Mountain three times. In speaking of the locality he says :

"On the first of November I arrived at Lake Pepin, which is rather an extended part of the River Mississippi, that the French have thus denominated, about two hundred miles from the Ouisconsin. The Missis- sippi below this lake flows with a gentle current, but the breadth of it is very uncertain, in some places it being upwards of a mile, in others not more than a quarter. This river has a range of mountains on each side throughout the whole of the way; which in particular parts approach near to it, in others lie at a greater distance. The land betwixt the mountains, and on their sides, is generally covered with grass, with a few groves of trees interspersed, near which large droves of deer and elk are frequently seen feeding. In many places pyramids of rocks appeared, resembling old ruinous towers ; at others amazing precipices ; and what is very remarkable,

HISTORY OF TREMPEALEAU COUNTY

whilst this scene presented itself on one side, the opposite side of the same mountain was covered with the finest herbage, which gradually ascended to its summit. From thence the most beautiful and extensive prospect that imagination can form opens to your view. Verdant plains, fruitful meadows, numerous islands, and all these abounding with a variety of trees that yield amazing quantities of fruit, without care or cultivation, such as the nut-tree, the maple which produces sugar, vines loaded with rich grapes and plum-trees bending under their blooming burdens, but above all, the fine river flowing gently beneath and reaching as far as the eye can extend, by turns attract your admiration and excite your wonder.

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History of Trempealeau County, Wisconsin, Part 9

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