USA > Wisconsin > Winnebago County > History of Winnebago County, Wisconsin, and early history of the Northwest > Part 10
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Military expeditions were now fitted out in New England and sent to Canada, and a large fleet from Boston started to aid in the reduction of Quebec. These were repulsed,
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EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTHWEST.
1699.]
and the English colonies, found themselves even unable to defend their own frontier. Their borders were scenes of sorrows, horrors, cap- tivity and death. The heart sickens in the contemplation of the terrible massacres of the defenseless settlers.
The Algonquins were exasperated at the former treachery and bad treatment they had received at the hands of the English author- ities. From Virginia to Acadia, the Indians regarded the English with implacable hatred. The kidnapping of Pocahontas by Argall; his destruction of Port Royal; the treacherous capture of friendly Indians by the hundred, for the purpose of selling them into foreign slavery, and the many wrongs they had sustained, rankled in their breasts as bitter memories.
It must be remembered, too, that the Indian is a bloodthirsty savage, in time of war, who neitherasks nor grants quarter. He is a bitter, relentless foe, with neither pity nor remorse.
The French have been censured by some writers, for the atrocities committed by their Indian allies; but it ought to be remembered that the course of the French had been peace- ful up to the time of the aggressions of the English, and that the French forces did not number one-tenth of those of the English; that the latter first instigated the Indians to make war on the French, and armed the Iroquois, preparatory to their massacre of La Chine.
The French were, therefore, compelled to have recourse to their Indians allies, as a means of self-defense. There is no question that the English authorities, knowing the defenseless situation of the French, the paucity of their numbers, the weakened condition of the Algonquin allies, and the formidable power of the Iroquois, which threatened them at every point, believed that they could make an easy conquest of the whole French possessions. That they did not do so, under such circum- stances, must be a wonder to every discrimin- ating reader of the history of that struggle.
The policy of England was the conquest of New France, and then the extermination of the Indians.
English historians, in commenting bitterly on the conduct of the French, seem perfectly obliv - ious of the fact, that after England's conquest of the country, through the valorand enterprise of the mixed races who inhabited the English colonies, and who suffered untold miseries and horrors, on account of the perfidy and incom- petency of their aristocratic rulers, she next attempted to subject them to her unjust demands; and when they resisted her tyran- nous authority, she set the Indians upon her
own people, in the frontier settlements, even offering bounties for their scalps.
Having defeated the English and driven in the frontier settlers, Frontenac next turned his attention to the Iroquois. La Motte Cadillac, Governor at Michilimakinac, had, at the head of the Chippewas, Pottawattamies and Ottawas, made a vigorous resistance to the Iroquois, in the West, routing them at all points, and driving their marauding bands out of the country; and now, that the English had been repulsed, the French, as victors, were exalted in their eyes. Frontenae, therefore, resolved to pursue his advantage, and teach them a lasting lesson. At the head of a large body of French and Indians, he marched for the country of the Five Nations. He was at this time seventy- four years of age, but he conducted the army in person. From Fort Frontenac he proceeded to Oswego, and ascended the river; arriving at the rapids, the canoes were carried over the portage at night by torch-light. The next day they found the Indian defiance-two bundles of reeds suspended in a tree - signifying that fourteen hundred warriors defied them. When they reached the villages of the Onondagas it was night. The inhabitants, on their approach, applied the torch, and the invaders witnessed the conflagration of the village. The Iroquois fled in all directions, and the invading army ravaged the country, destroying the growing crops and taking many prisoners. The army then returned to Montreal. The Indians had been humbled, and left to suffer from the effects of famine. They were now experiencing some of the evils they had so mercilessly inflicted on their Algonquin neighbors.
By the year 1700, the Five Nations were glad to seek for peace. They sent envoys to Montreal, "to weep for the French who had died in the war," and a treaty of peace and alli- ance was concluded.
In 1701, La Motte Cadillac, with one hundred Frenchmen, built a fort and trading-post at Detroit, and took possession of the beautiful surrounding country. Two years previous to this, D'Iberville set sail for the mouth of the Mississippi, at which place he subsequently established a colony.
The French were now in the possession of the country from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, and the trade with the Northwest, through the lakes and rivers was uninterrupted.
48
EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTHWEST.
[1649.
CHAPTER XV./
The Fox River and Lake Winnebago Country - Traders and Voyageurs - Beautiful Scenery - The Busy Channel of Aboriginal and Frontier Life, Trade and Travel - Game and Fur-bearing Animals - Here Occurred the First Inter- course Between the Indians of the West and the Whites - Captain Jonathan Carver at Doty Island, in 1766 - Loca- tion of the Several Indian Nations - The Hostile Sauks and Foxes - Siege of Big Buttes des Morts, by De Louvigny, in 1716-Official Account of the Expedition from the Archives of France - De Lignery's Expedition to the Fox River, and Lake of the Winnebagoes - Official Documents from the French Archives, Relative to Affairs in the Fox Valley.
HE Fox River country had now become the initial point in the traffic and travel G rue of the Northwest. The traders and voyageurs were generally mere birds of passage, leading like the natives a nomadic life, which was but a slight modifica- tion of the aboriginal. The whole country bordering these great water-courses, from Green Bay to the far-off land of the Dacotahs, on the one hand, and the Spanish possessions on the other, was their home. They set out in their canoes from Green Bay to make voyages to distant lands, like vessels sailing for foreign countries, and that place became the great point of Western travel, and the first perma- nent habitation of civilized man in the North- west.
These pioneers, after traveling from Michili- mackinac, along the dreary coast extending from the straits to Green Bay, were enamored, after entering the Lower Fox, with the beau- tiful scenery of that broad river, which, from its mouth to Lake Winnebago, is a succession of lovely views; its high sloping banks, in some places quite open, in others covered with a dense forest; the river for distances sweeping along in placid flow, and at some points foam- ing and tearing along in rapids and falls, which in one place are over half a mile in width. The head of the river is divided by a large island at the outlet of the lake; the present beautiful site of the manufacturing cities of Neenah and Menasha. Here the broad waters of Lake Winnebago break on the view, stretch- ing away as far as the eye can reach.
A few miles travel along its shores, and the great prairie and opening country of the West is reached. Here is the beginning of the beati- tiful tract now known as Winnebago County. Its broad rivers and lovely lakes, the pic- turesque surface, with its distant views of rolling prairie, like vast, smooth, grassy lawns, inter- spersed with groves and stretches of dense forest; the rank, luxuriant vegetation of its fertile soil; and the vastness of that great agri- cultural territory which stretches from here away to the South and West, for an almost
illimitable distance, in all the wild loveliness of a state of nature, formed a scene well calcu- lated to inspire the grandest emotions and the most glowing visions of the future civilized development of this favored region.
Here was the great, busy channel of frontier and aboriginal life, trade and travel. The abundance of game, fish and fur-bearing ani- mals, the wild rice which grew luxuriantly in the shallow portion of its. waters, the rich, warm soil of its planting-grounds, its facilities for canoe-travel, and the easy portages between the great water-courses, made it the center of Indian population, and one of the chief seats of Indian diplomacy and power. Here dwelt some of the most powerful tribes of the Sacs, Foxes or Outagamies, Winnebagoes and Menominees, and their noted chieftains, famous in Indian song and legend. On these lakes and river-banks were the picturesque sites of their villages and planting-grounds, their coun- cil fires and war-dances; and here occurred great tribal wars and some of the most sangui- nary conflicts of Indian warfare, in their strug- with a race which was destined to . supplant them.
Here the first intercourse took place between the two races in the west; and here the French- men met the diplomats of the Indian tribes to form treaties of alliance to facilitate that nomadic traffic which pioneered the earlier civili- zation of the country; and here, for a century and a half, the two races mingled alternately in friendly intercourse or deadly conflict.
Captain Jonathan Carver, of the English army, ascended the Fox River in 1766. Arriv- ing at the Island, now the site of Neenah and Menasha, he found a great Indian town- Winnebagos. The tribe was ruled by a queen, who received him with great civility and enter - tained him sumptuously during the four days he remained there. "The town contained fifty houses. The land," he says, "was very fertile; grapes, plums, and other fruits grew abund- antly. The Indians raised large quantities of Indian corn, beans, pumpkins, squashes, watermelons and some tobacco." On the Wisconsin River he found the largest and best built Indian town he ever saw. "It contained about ninety houses, each large enough for several families, built of hewn planks, neatly jointed, and covered so completely with bark as to keep out the most penetrating rains. * * The streets were both regular and spacious, appearing more like a civilized town than the abode of savages. The land was rich, and corn, beans and melons were raised in large quantities. "
Many of the planting-grounds on the banks
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EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTHWEST.
1700-16.]
of the lakes were lovely spots, and in the corn- husking time, or in the wild-rice harvest, when multitudes of canoes were engaged in gather- ing the grain, presented a cheerful scene.
The voyageur's camping-ground was fre- quently adjoining; and many a festive summer night has echoed with the song and mirth of the backwoods frolic, in which both races have enjoyably participated.
An Indian summer scene on these lakes, when nature was garlanded in all the gorgeous colors of her autumnal beauty, was an enchant- ing sight. The weird-like hush, the softened outlines and shadows, the distant vistas fading in the hazy air, the reflections in the placid waters of the flitting figures in the silently gliding canoe, and the picturesque groups of wigwams on the banks, all mingled harmon- iously in the exquisite picture.
The wild-rice, which grew spontaneously in the shallow waters, in tracts of a thousand acres, or more, in a place, furnished great quantities of nutritious food. When this grain was ripe, the squaws paddled their canoes into it, and, bending the stalks in bunches over the canoe, threshed off the grain by beating it with small sticks, the kernels, of course, falling in the bottom of the canoe, which, when loaded, was paddled to the placc of deposit on the shore, and the process repeated until the harvest was gathered. The grain grew so abundantly that it was a staple article of food with the Indians inhabiting this section ; hence the name Menominees ( wild rice men ).
Myriads of wild water-fowl frequent thesc rice marshes; deer and other wild animals con- gregate around these lakes and rivers, and the waters abound in fish, among which is the sturgeon, generally weighing from fifty to a hundred pounds - a valuable fish for food, its flesh being very thick and rich -great quan- tities of which are captured in the season of running up the streams. White and black bass and pike are also plentiful.
The soil of the planting-grounds was very fer- tile, and corn, beans and squash were raised with comparatively little labor; and the maple forests yielded them a supply of sugar. It was, therefore, a land of plenty for the Indian - an aboriginal paradise. But their improvi- dence and wretched habits of indolence often induced great suffering and want, which was frequently aggravated by tribal wars.
When the French first came to this country, the Indians of this vicinity were the Mascou- tins, on the Upper Fox; their village occupy- ing the site of Buttes des Morts (Hills of the Dead); the Winnebagoes, inhabiting the tract
south of the Upper Fox, and also what is now Doty's Island and the site of Menasha and its vicinity. The Ou-ta-ga-mies, or Foxes, at the foot of Lake Winnebago, and on the Lower Fox, their principal village on the western shore of Little Buttes des Morts, near the site of Neenah; the Sauks at the mouth of the Lower Fox, and the Menominees (wild rice eaters) occupying the tract from the mouth of the Lower Fox to the Menominee, and the land adjacent to the latter river .*
These tribes were all, except the Winneba- goes, originally from Canada. Black Hawk, the great Sauk chief, said that his people were originally from the country near Quebec.
The original occupants of Wisconsin were the Sioux, who were dispossessed of this terri- tory by the Chippewas and other Algonquin tribes, and driven across the Mississippi.
The Sauks and Foxes were united by so close an alliance, as to be practically one nation. In the early days of the French traders, they were the strong tribes of this valley, warlike and hostile to the whites, resisting all the allure- ments of civilization and continually making predatory incursions on the Menominecs and other tribes. Their warlike and marauding habits kept the country in constant disturb- ance; they were the dominant power, and seemed determined to compel all others to yield to their supremacy. One of their prin- cipal villages was at Petite Buttes des Morts, on the handsome rise of ground, on the expan- sion of the Fox, below Doty's Island. Some time after Allouez's visit to the Mascoutins, in the village at Big Buttes des Morts, they seem to have come into possession of that place; for in 1716, they were fortified at that point in resistance to the French and were in possession of the Upper Fox. The rivers were named after the Foxes, they being the occu- pants of the country. They were the only Algonquin tribes against which the French ever made war. The French expelled them from this valley and their country came into the possession of the Menominees.
War having broken out between the French and English colonies, the Foxes leagued with the English against the former power.
In 1712, the Sauks and Foxes attempted the destruction of Detroit, the garrison at that place numbering only thirty men. The garri- son being reinforced by a number of friendly Indians, who opportunely came to its rescue, then attacked the Foxes, who had entrenched themselves in earthworks. After nineteen
*NOTE -For more specific boundaries of these Indian nations, see subsequent page in History of Winnebago County. 7
50
EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTHWEST.
[1716.
days desperate fighting the Sauks and Foxes adroitly escaped in the darkness of the night, but being pursued and overtaken at Presque Isle, they were attacked, and, suffered great loss. This was the beginning of a series of battles between these tribes and the French which resulted in the expulsion of the former from the valley of the Fox. The most noted of these are the battles of the Big and Little Buttes des Morts, the sites of two of their chief villages.
Charlevoix, the historian of New France, in his relations of De Louvigny's expedition against the Sauks and Foxes in 1716, says: "The Outagamies (Foxes) notwithstanding the blow which they had received at Detroit in 1712, were more exasperated than ever against the French. They collected their scattered bands on the Fox River of Green Bay, their natural country, and infested all the communi- cations between the colony and its most distant posts, robbing and murdering travelers, and in this they succeeded so well that they brought over the Sioux to join them openly, while many of the Iroquois favored them clandes- tinely. In short, there was some danger of a general confederacy amongst all the savages against the French."
"This hostile conduct on the part of the Foxes induced the Marquis De Vaudreuil, who was then governor-general, to propose a union of the friendly tribes with the French, in an expedition against the common enemy; the other tribes readily gave their consent; a party of French was raised and the command of the expedition was confided to M. De Louvigny, the King's Lieutenant at Quebec. A number of savages joined him on the route, and he soon found himself at the head of eight hundred men, all resolved not to lay down their arms while an Outagamie remained in Canada. Every one believed that the Fox nation was about to be entirely destroyed, and so the Outagamies themselves judged, when they saw the storm gathering against them, and there- fore determined to sell their lives as dearly as possible."
De Louvigny proceeded with his forces to Big Buttes des Morts, where the Foxes with five hundred warriors and two thousand women and children had surrounded themselves with three ranges of oak palisades, with a deep ditch in the rear.
The following is the official account of the battle, a copy of which was procured by General Lewis Cass, while officiating as Ameri- can minister in that country:
OCTOBER 14. 1716. I have the honor to thank very humbly the Council for
the Lieutenancy of the King, which it has pleased them to grant me, and I will endeavor to fulfill my duty in such a way that they will be satisfied with my services. I will also have the honor to render to them an account of the expedition I have made against the Foxes, from whence I returned the 12th of this month, having started from here the 14th of March :
" After three days of open trenches sustained by a continu- ous fire of fusileers, with two pieces of cannon, and a grenade mortar, they were reduced to ask for peace, notwithstanding they had five hundred warriors in the fort, who fired briskly, and more than three thousand women; they also expected shortly a reinforcement of three hundred men. But the prompti- tude with which the officers who were in this action pushed forward the trenches that I had opened at only seventy yards from their fort, made the enemy fear, the third night, that they would be taken. As I was only twenty-four yards from their fort, my design was to reach their triple oak stakes by a ditch of a foot and a half in the rear. Perceiving that my balls had not the effect I anticipated, I decided to take the place at the first onset, and to explode two mines under their curtains. The boxes being properly placed for the purpose, I did not listen to the enemy's first proposition ; but they having made a second one, I submitted it to my allies, who consented to it on the following conditions :
That the Foxes and their allies would make peace with all the Indians who are submissive to the King, and with whom the French are engaged in trade and commerce; and that they would return to me all the French prisoners that they have, and those captured during the war from all our allies. This was complied with immediately. That they would take slaves from distant nations, and deliver them to our allies to replace their dead; that they would hunt to pay the expenses of this war; and, as a surety of the keeping of their word, they should deliver me six chiefs, or children of chiefs, to take with me to M. La Marquis De Vaudreuil as hostages, until the entire exe- cution of our treaty; which they did, and I took them with me to Quebec. Besides I have reunited the other nations at variance among themselves, and have left that country enjoying universal peace. "
" I very humbly beseech the Council to consider, that this expedition has been very long and very laborious ; that the vic- torious armies of the King have been led by me more than five hundred leagues from our towns, all of which has not been executed without much fatigue and expense ; to which I ask the Council to please give their attention, in order that they may allow me the gratification they may think proper, as I have not carried on any kind of commerce. On the contrary, I gave to all the nations which were with me, the few beaver skins that the Foxes had presented me with, to convince them that in the war the French were prosecuting, they were not guided by motives of interest. All those who served in the campaign with me can testify to what I take the liberty to tell the Council. LOUVIGNY.
The following is M. De Vaudreuil's letter, dated Quebec, October 30th, 1716, relative to the services of M. De Louvigny :
" By my memorial of the sixteenth of this month, I informed the Council of the manner in which the Sieur De Louvigny put an end to the war with the Foxes. "
" I now feel it my duty to call the attention of the Council to the merits of that officer. He has always served his country with much distinction ; but in his expedition against the Foxes,
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EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTHWEST.
1716-28.]
he signalized himself still more by his valor, his capacity, and his conduct, in which he displayed a great deal of prudence. He urged the canoes that ascended with him to make all possi- ble speed, and he obliged those in Detroit to accompany him. He showed the Hurons and other Indians of that place, that he was going to the war in earnest ; that he was not a trader, and he could dispense with their services. This brought them back to their duty. But it was especially at Michili- mackinac, where he was anxiously expected, that his pres- ence inspired in all the Frenchmen and Indians a confidence which was a presage of victory. Again; he made the war short, but the peace which resulted from it will not be of short duration."
" I shall be obliged to dispatch him in the very commence . ment of next spring to return to Michilimackinac to confirm this peace, embracing in it all the nations of the Upper Coun- try, and to keep the promise he made to the chiefs of the Foxes who are to come down to Montreal, that they would find him at Michilimackinac. All these movements are not made with- out great labor and many expenses, and I cannot omit saying that this officer deserves that the Council should grant him some favor."
Signed : VAUDREUIL.
On the margin is written: Approved by the Council, Feb- ruary 26, 1717.
Signed : LA CHAPELLE.
Notwithstanding the assurance of peace on the part of the Foxes, and the hopes enter- tained by the French that quiet would prevail between them and the neighboring tribes, still they had committed so many depredations when on the war-path in times past, that they were regarded with the greatest hostility by other tribes, who only waited an opportunity for revenge; and while a party of Foxes were on a summer hunt, they were attacked by a party of Illinois, a tribe that they had long aggrieved, who surrounded them, killing and capturing the entire band. Hostilities now broke out afresh and the various tribes were in commotion.
English emmissaries availed themselves of the general disturbance among the Indians to incite them against the French. Secret wam- pums were sent by the English to the tribes of the Upper Country, and the Foxes once more took the war-path against the French and their allies. An expedition was, therefore, sent against them under the command of M. De Lignery, in 1728, composed of 1,000 Indians and 450 French. The expedition proceeded up the Fox River; but the Foxes and Winnebagoes, who were then in alliance, having been apprised of the formidable force moving against them, fled, deserting their villages and planting grounds in the greatest possible haste. The French destroyed the four principal Indian villages on the Lower and upper Fox; and also the growing crops on their planting grounds, and their stores of
Indian corn, peas, beans and gourds, of which they had a great abundance.
The following is an account of De Lignery's expedition in 1728: * * ₭ * * *
" The tenth of August we left Michilimackinac, and entered Lake Michigan. As we had been detained there two days by the wind, our savages had had time to take a hunt, in which they killed several moose and elk, and they were polite enough to offer to share with us. We made some objections at first, but they compelled us to accept their present, saying that since we had shared with them the fatigues of the journey, it was right that they should share with us the comforts which they had found, and that they should not consider themselves as men if they acted in a different manner toward others. This dis- course, which one of our men rendered in French for me, affected me very much. What humanity in savages ! And how many men might be found in Europe to whom the title of bar- barian might much better be applied than to these inhabitants of America. "
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