USA > Wisconsin > Vernon County > History of Vernon County, Wisconsin, together with sketches of its towns, villages and townships, educational, civil, military and political history; portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens > Part 44
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* This should read, the first taught in the village.
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HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY.
The village of De Soto is beautifully located in a wide valley, with majestic bluffs towering toward the sky on the north and south sides. A spring branch of pure and sparkling water courses its way down through the valley. There are good roads leading into the country, and they are extensively traveled by those who do their marketing at this point. The village was laid out in the spring of 1854, by Dr. E. B. Houghton, a former resident of Lansing, Iowa, who purchased the land from John Mobley. The first settlers were Dr. Houghton, J. Osgood, S. D. Powers, and C. B. Worth, the latter being the only one of the first families now (1870) re- siding here.
At that time, the only building here was an old log cabin previously built by a French trader. This was called a hotel, and named the Winneshiek House. Here the pioneers boarded and spent their leisure time in play- ing euchre and other games for the hickory nuts. Capt. J. B. Wilcox built what could really be called the first house, in the fall of 1854. Mr. S. G. Wait now (1870) resides in the house Dr. Houghton opened the first store ; Capt. Worth the second ; and if the tales which are told of those primitive days are to be believed, we are led to the conclusion that a more roys- tering, jolly lot of hardy pioneers never got together.
In 1855, other eastern people began to arrive, and new buildings were put up, and the place began to assume the appearance of a lively set-
tlement. The principal steamboat landing was at Victory, where old Unele Berry used to charge twenty cents a pound for mouldy crack- ers, and fifty cents for storing a trunk a few hours in a building without siding, roof or floor.
The large steam saw mill built by S. N. Cate & Co., of Maine, was put up in 1858, and run until the fall of 1861, when the company failed. This mill furnished settlers building materials. Stores, dwellings, and warehouses were erected, and De Soto,in her prosperity became noted as an active business point. Like all new towns, there came a day when prosperity for a time ceased, and little or no advancement was made. But that time has passed and " progression" is now the watchword.
De Soto is about equi-distant between Prairie du Chien and LaCrosse. The principal busi- ness part of the town is in Vernon county, the county seat of which is Viroqua, twenty- five miles distant in the interior. A drive of about three miles over a fine valley road, brings yon to a nice upland farming country, which contains many highly cultivated farms. Wood and water is abundant; and better facil- ities for making a good, comfortable home, can- not be found anywhere. Lansing, Iowa, is sit- uated on the opposite side of the river, about four 'miles down stream, connections with which place are made during navigation, by a steam ferry-boat, and in the winter, nature sup- plies a bridge of ice for crossing.
HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY.
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CHAPTER XXVI.
MISCELLANEOUS.
VERNON COUNTY ONCE SIOUX TERRITORY.
[A paper read by Alfred Brunson before the Minister- ial Association of the Methodist Church, held at Viro- qua, Sept. 7, 1858.]
History is among the most pleasing and en- tertaining of human studies. By it we converse and become familiar with men and things of ages long in the past, and live, as it were, from the beginning of time to the present hour; but we cannot extend our researches into the future. History relates to the past. Prophecy to the future.
History embraces the biography of men and Nations; their ups and downs, rise and fall, de- tailing the incidents which have been, the changes which have occurred, the improve- ments which have been made, and when known, the reasons therefor, which is the philosophy of history.
There are, however, many things of interest on the face of the earth of which we have no history, for the reason that none has reached us, if any was ever written; of such we can can only draw inferences of their causes from the effects which lie before us. Such is the case in reference to the ancient tumuli which abound to an unknown extent in the western States, but in none of them more numerously than in our own.
Their forms, and the materials of which they are made, clearly indicate the work of human hands, and intelligence and design on the part of the builders. The forts and fortifications indicate the existence of wars among them, and that the combatants had more or less knowl- edge of military seience. In some of them
the existence of something like brick or pottery indicates some advances in the arts of civiliza- tion, much more so than anything found among the aborigines which the Anglo-Saxon race found in the country. But the present race of Indians have no traditions of the people who made these mounds nor of the design for which they were built.
The age in which these builders lived, or the distance of time from the present, is inferred from the age of trees found growing in the mounds, some of which, from their annual rings, are supposed to be 400 years old. But who were the builders, whence they came, whither they went, or by what means they became ex- tinct, lies in the impenetrable darkness of the past, and is not likely to be known in time. But there is an interest excited in the mind on see- ing these ancient works, a written history of which would highly gratify, if it were authen- tie, or believed so to be. This interest in us shows the duty to the future, to record what we know of the past or present, for its edifiea- tion, as we would that others should have done unto us, even so we should do to those who are to follow us.
As the matter relative to these mounds now stands, conjecture alone ean answer the inquiries of the antiquarian, which in most cases is as unsatisfactory as the total darkness in which the history of those times is now enveloped. Some have thought that these mounds were thrown up as monuments over the distinguished dead, and have inferred this from the fact that in some of them relies have been found. But
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as the most and the largest of them, on exam- ination, are found to contain no such remains, the inference is not well founded.
That human bones and Indian relies have been found in some of them of late years is no proof that they were erected for places of in- terment; for since the whites have been in the country, our modern Indians have been in the habit, more or less, of burying their dead in them, and frequently guns, axes, kettles, ete., have been found with the bones-and some- times without them-which shows that the inter- ment took place since the whites came to the continent, and the fact that such metallic sub- stances have been found without the bones, shows that if men were buried there at first, their bones could not have continued in a state of preservation until this time.
It is worthy of remark that while in Ohio the most prominent of these tumuli were forts or fortifications in Wisconsin, but few of that de- seription are found. I can now call to mind but one such, that at Aztalan, and in traveling extensively in the State for twenty-two years, I have noticed but few of these mounds south of a line drawn east from the month of the Wis- consin river to the lake, while north of this line and between the Wisconsin and Mississippi rivers there are probably 1000 of them. In Crawford county alone there are at least 500, one hundred of which can be found in the towns of Prairie du Chien and Wauzeka.
The evidence of ancient mining found in the Lake Superior copper region, with trees ( 11 them of 400 years' growth or more, indicating some degree of intelligence and skill, makes it probable that those mines were wrought by the same race of people who made the mounds, and at about the same time; and yet, their being no copper relies found in these mounds, makes it probable that either they had no commerce with each other, or that they were few in number and emigrated from place to place, to avoid their pur- suing enemies, and that those mines were their last retreat, from which they disappeared from
this country, either by emigration or by being destroyed. The latter, I think, is the most probable.
The earliest inhabitants of the district now ineluded within this State of whom we have positive knowledge, were the ancestors of pres- ent Indians of this vicinity, and from the best light I have been able to obtain upon the sub- ject, from Indian traditions, and the earliest history of the country, the Dakota or Sioux were the occupants and owners of the soil of what is now our entire State, together with Minnesota and the northern parts of Iowa and Illinois. This occupaney we can trace back about 150 years, and if the growth of trees on the mounds and mines, which indicate at least 400 years to the time of the mound builders, be a true index, it is very strange that the Sioux have no traditions of them, as there would have been but 150 years between them. This makes it probable that the time of the mound builders was farther back in the world's history than is generally supposed.
Of the origin of the Sioux, or how long they had inhabited and hunted over this country be- fore the whites came to it, we have no means of determining. They claim, and their tradi- tions, together with the traditions of the Chip- pewas and the earliest history of both by the whites, sustain the claim; the earliest occupancy of the country to which any known history or tradition refers.
In 1639, (1634), Nieholet (John Nicolet), found the Pottawottomies in the vicinity of Green Bay. But in 1641 they were at Sault Ste. Marie, fleeing before the Sioux, who elaiming the country as far at least as to that point, were driving the intruders from their soil and coun- try. In 1642 a missionary was killed near Ke- wee-we-na, by the Sioux, as an intruder upon their territory. From 1652 to 1670 the Hurons appear to have been wandering about the eoun- try between Green Bay and La Pointe, when they were expelled by the Sioux. In 1667 the Kiskasons, a band of the Ottawas, were driven
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HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY.
by the Sioux from the western shore of Lake Michigan, south of Green Bay.
In 1660 Father Maret and others established a mission among the Sioux, on the Che-goi-me- gon bay, which lies south of La Pointe. In 1668 there appears to have been a large gather- ing of the floating bands of the Algonquin or Chippewa race, who were encroaching upon the territory of the Sioux, at this mission, amounting to 800 warriors, for a kind of protracted religious meeting. The Jesuit missionaries coming to the country through Canada, first became acquainted with the Algonquins, and being kindly received by them, of course felt partial to them; and know- ing that the Sioux and they were enemies, it would be natural for them to favor their early friends, and gathered them around their mission notwithstanding they were intruders in the country.
Not a Sionx appears to have been there at the meeting, and the preaching was in the Algon- quin tongne. But this meeting of the enemies of the Sioux, in their own territory, seems to have aronsed them to a defense of this right; and in 1670 they drove all these intruders, with the missionaries who had been the means of gathering them at that place, as far as Sault Ste. Marie. This proves that the Sioux claimed and exercised jurisdiction over the country as far east as Lake Michigan and St. Mary, as late as that period, which they did upon a more ancient right and occupancy of the country.
In 1681 Hennepin was taken prisoner by the Sioux, on the Mississippi, below the mouth of the Wisconsin river, as an intruder npon their country. This shows their claim to the country in that direction.
WHY THE FOX INDIANS LEFT THE LOWER WIS-
CONSIN. [By Jonathan Carver, 1766.]
On the 8th of October, (1766) we got our canoes into the Ousconsin river, which at this place is more than a hundred yards wide; and the next day arrived at the great town of the
Saukies. This is the largest and best built Indian town I ever saw. It contains about ninety houses, each large enough for several families. These are built of hewn plank, neatly jointed and covered with bark, so com- pactly as to keep out the most penetrating rains. Before the doors are placed comfortable sheds, in which the inhabitants sit, when the weather will permit, and smoke their pipes. The streets are regular and spacious, so that it appears more like a civilized town than the abode of savages. The land near the town is very good. On their plantations, which lie adjacent to their houses, and which are neatly laid out, they raise quantities of Indian corn, beans, melons, etc., so that this place is esteemed the best markets for traders to furnish themselves with provisions, of any within 800 miles of it.
The Sankies can raise about 300 warriors, who are generally employed every summer in making excursions into the territories of the Illinois and Pawnee Nations, from whence they return with a great number of slaves. But those people frequently retaliate, and, in their turn, destroy many of the Saukies, which I judge to be the reason why they increase no faster.
Whilst I staid here I took a view of some mountains [Blue Mountains], that lie about fifteen miles to the southward, and abounded in lead ore. I ascended one of the highest of these, and had an extensive view of the coun- try. For many miles nothing was to be seen but lesser mountains, which appeared at a dis- tance like haycocks, they being free from trees. Only a few groves of hickory and stunted oaks, covered some of the valleys.
So plentiful is lead here, that I saw large quantities of it lying about the streets in the town belonging to the Saukies, and it seemed to be as good as the produce of other countries.
On the 10th of October we proceeded down the river, and the next day reached the first town of the Ottiganmies. This town contained about fifty houses, but we found most of them
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HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY.
deserted, on account of an epidemical disorder that had lately raged among them, and carried off more than one-half of the inhabitants. The greater part of those who survived had retired into the woods to avoid the contagion.
On the 15th we entered that extensive river, the Mississippi. The Ouisconsin, from the car- rying place to the part where it falls into the Mississippi, flows with a smooth but strong cur- rent; the water of it is exceedingly clear, and through it you may perceive a fine and sandy bottom, tolerably free from rocks. In it are a few islands, the soil of which appeared to be good, though somewhat woody. The land near the river also seemed to be, in general, excel- Jent; but that at a distance is very full of moun- tains, where, it is said, there are many lead mines.
About five miles from the junction of the rivers, I observed the ruins of a large town, in a very pleasing situation. On inquiring of the neighboring Indians why it was thus deserted, I was informed that, about thirty years ago, the Great Spirit appeared on the top of a pyramid of rocks, which lay at a little distance from it toward the west, and warned them to quit their habitations; for the land on which they were built belonged to him, and he had occasion for it. As a proof that he, who gave them these orders, was really the Great Spirit, he further told them that the grass should immediately spring up on those very rocks from whence he now addressed them, which they knew to be bare and barren. The Indians obeyed, soon af- ter discovered that this miraculous alteration had taken place. They showed me the spot, but the growth of the grass appeared to be no ways supernatural. I apprehended this to have been a strategem of the French or Spaniards to answer some selfish view; but in what manner they affected their purpose I know not. This people, soon after their removal, built a town on the bank of the Mississippi, near the month of the Ouisconsin, at a place called by the French La Prairies les Chiens, which signifies the Dog
Plains; it is a large town, and contains about 300 families; the honses are well built, after the Indian manner, and pleasantly situated on a very rich soil, from which they raise every ne- cessary of life in great abundance. I saw bere, many horses of a good size and shape. This town is a great mart, where all the adjacent tribes, and even those who inhabit the most re- mote branches of the Mississippi, annually as- semble about the latter end of May, bringing with them their furs to dispose of to the traders. But it is not always, that they conclude their sale here, this is determined by a general coun- cil of the chiefs, who consult whether it would be more conducive to their interest, to sell their goods at this place, or carry them on to Louis- iana, or Michillimackinac, according to the de- cision of this council, they either proceed far- ther, or return to their different homes.
The Mississippi, at the entrance of the Ouis- consin, near which stands a mountain of con- siderable height, is about half a mile over; but opposite to the last mentioned town, it appears to be more than a mile wide, and full of islands, the soil of which is extraordinary rich, and but thinly wooded.
CONCERNING THE FOX INDIANS.
(By Schoolcraft, 1820.)
The first we hear of these people (the Foxes) is from early missionaries of New France, who eall them, in a list drawn up for the goveru- ment in 1736, "Gens du Sang," and Miskaukis. The latter I found to be the name they apply to themselves. We get nothing, however, by it. It means red earth, being a compound from misk-wau, red, and aukie, earth. They are a branch of the great Algonquin family. The French, who formed a bad opinion of them as their history opened bestowed on them the name of Renouard, from which we derive their longstanding popular name. Their traditions attribute their origin to eastern portions of America. Mr. Gates, who acted as my inter- preter, and is well acquainted with their lan- guages and customs, informs me that their tradi-
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HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY
tions refer to their residence on the north banks of the St. Lawrence near the ancient cataraqui. They appear to have been a very erratie, spirited, warlike and treacherous tribe, dwelling but a short time at a spot, and pushing west- ward as their affairs led them, till they finally reached the Mississippi, which they must have crossed after 1766, for Carver found them liv- ing in villages on the Wisconsin. At Saginaw they appeared to have formed a fast alliance with the Saus, a tribe to whom they are closely allied by language and history. They figure in the history of Indian events about old Michili- mackinac, where they played pranks under the not very definite title of Muscodainsug, but are first conspicuously noted while they dwelt on the river bearing their name, which falls into Green bay, Wis. * The Chippewas, with whom they have strong affinity of language, call their Otagami, and ever deemed a sanguin- ary and unreliable tribe. The French defeated them in a sanguinary battle at Butte de Mort, and by this defeat drove them from Fox river.
Their present numbers cannot be accurately given. I was informed that the village I visited contained 250 souls. They have a large village at Rock Island, where the Foxes and Sauks live together, which consists of sixty lodges, and numbers 300 souls. One-half of these may be Sauks. They have another village at the mouth of Turkey river; altogether they may muster from 460 to 500 souls. Yet, they are at war with most of the tribes around them, except the Iowas, Sauks and Kickapoos. They are en- gaged in a deadly, and apparently successful war against the Sioux tribes. They recently killed nine men of that Nation, on the Terre Blue river, and a party of twenty men are no v absent, in the same direction, under a half-breed named Morgan. They are on bad terms with the Osages and Pawnees of the Missouri, and not on the best terms with their neighbors, the Winnebagoes.
I again embarked at 4 o'clock A. M. (8th). My men were stout fellows, and worked with hearty will, and it was thought possible to reach the prairie during the day by hard and late pushing. We passed Turkey river at 2 o'clock, and they boldly plied their paddles, sometimes animating their labors with a song; but the Mississippi proved too stout for us, and some- times after night-fall we put ashore on an island, before reaching the Wisconsin.
In ascending the river this day, observed the pelican, which exhibited itself in a flock stand- ing on a low sandy spot of an island. This bird has a clumsy and unwieldly look, from the dupli- cate membrane attached to its lower mandible, which is constructed so as when inflated to give it a bag-like appearance. A short sleep served to restore the men, and we were again in our canoes the next morning (9th) before I could certainly tell the time by my watch. Daylight had not yet broke when we passed the influx of the Wisconsin, and we reached the prairie under a full chorous and landed at 6 o'clock.
TREATIES WITH THE SAC AND FOX INDIANS AND TIIE WINNEBAGOES.
Twelve treaties were held at different times between the United States and the Sac and Fox Indians and the Winnebagoes, affecting. im- mediately or remotely, the territory now inclu- ded within the limits of Vernon county, as fol- lows:
1. A treaty was held at St. Louis, Nov. 3, 1804, between the Sacs and Foxes and the United States. William Henry Harrison was acting commissioner on the part of the govern- ment. By the provisions of the treaty, the chiefs and head men of the united tribes ceded to the United States a large tract on both sides of the Mississippi, extending on the east from the mouth of the Illinois to the head of that river, and thence to the Wisconsin; and including on the west considerable portions of Iowa and Missouri, from the mouth of the Gasconade
* This name was first applied to a territory in 1836.
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HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY.
northward. In what is now the State of Wiscon- sin, this grant embraced the whole of the present counties of Grant and Lafayette and a large portion of Iowa and Green connties. The lead region was included in this purchase. In con- sideration of this cession, the general govern- ment agreed to protect the tribes in the quiet enjoyment of their land, against its owns citizens and all others who should intrude on them. The tribes permitted a fort to be built on the upper side of the Wisconsin river near its mouth, and granted a tract of land two miles square adjoin- ing the same. The government agreed to give them an annuity of $1,000 per annum. The validity of this treaty was denied by one band of the Sac Indians, and this cession of land became, twenty-eight years after, the alleged canse of the Black Hawk War.
2. Another treaty was held at Portage des Sionx, now a village in St. Charles Co., Mo., on the Mississippi river, Sept. 13, 1815, with certain chiefs of that portion of the Sac Nation then residing in Missouri, who, they said, were com- pelled since the commencement of the late war, to separate themselves from the rest of their Națion. They gave their assent to the treaty made at St. Louis in 1804, and promised to remain separate from the Sacs of Roek river, and to give them no aid or assistance, until peace should be conelnded between the United States and the Foxes of Rock river.
3. On the 14th of September, a treaty was made with the chiefs of the Fox tribe at the same place. They agreed that all prisoners in their hands should be delivered up to the govern- ment. They assented to,recognized, re-established and confirmed the treaty of 1804 to the full extent of their interest in the same.
4. A treaty was held at St. Louis, May 13, 1816, with the Sacs of Rock river, who affirmed the treaty of 1804, and agreed to deliver up all the property stolen or plundered, and in failure to do so, to forfeit all title to their annuties. To . this treaty, Black Hawk's name appears with others. That chief afterward affirmed that
though he himself had "touched the quill" to this treaty, he knew not what he was signing, and that he was therein deceived by the agent and others, who did not correctly explain the nature of the grant; and in reference to the treaty of St. Louis in 1804, and at Portage des Sioux in 1815, he said he did not consider the same valid or binding on him or his tribe, inas- much as by the terms of those treaties; territory was described which the Indians never intended to sell, and the treaty of 1804, particularly, was made by parties who had neither authority in the Nation nor power to dispose of its lands. Whether this was a true statement of the case or otherwise, it is quite certain that the grant of lands referred to was often confirmed by his Nation, and was deemed conclusive and binding by the government. The latter acted in good faith to the tribes, as well as to the settlers, in the disposition of the lands.
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