USA > Wisconsin > Winnebago County > History of Winnebago County, Wisconsin, and early history of the Northwest > Part 16
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The miners and first settlers in the lead regions were generally from Cincinnati, Ken- tucky and Missouri, from which places they came in keel boats, or barges and canoes. Their supplies were brought from those places, and their lead shipped to Cincinnati and St. Louis.
By the year 1826 the miners had extended their diggings to what is now known as the Southwestern part of this State, which was then Winnebago territory, the Winnebagoes being the neighbors of the Sauks and Foxes, with whom they were on amicable terms.
A miner, in prospecting on what is now the site of Hazel Green, commenced- sinking a shaft; when at the depth of four feet, he found block mineral. In one day he took out of the hole seventeen thousand pounds of the mineral, a feat that has not been equalled by one man since,
By the year 1827 the lead mines had become famous, and a belief in their great wealth created an intense excitement in various parts of the Union, and immigration began to flow in. At this period occurred what is known as the Winnebago outbreak.
In 1825 a grand council was held at Prairie du Chien by Governors Cass and Clark, at which was assembled a large number of the tribes of the Northwest. £ It had for its chief
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1827.]
purpose the establishment of friendly relations between the several Indian nations, as their belligerent feelings towards each other kept the country in disturbance and endangered the safety of the whites.
They concurred in the proposed boundaries, feeling that they were obliged to do so: but the Sioux were dissatisfied, as their territory was greatly abridged. The other tribes com- plained that they did not receive such pres- ents as the British agents bestowed on them, and were especially indignant at the small allowance of whiskey.
To show that the liquor was not withheld on account of stinginess, the Commissioners had two barrels of it brought on the ground. The Indians were now in great glee; but when the Commissioners stove in the heads of the casks and suffered all the liquor to run to waste on the ground, their disappointment and indigna- tion knew no bounds. "It was a great pity," said old Wakh-pa-koo-tay, speaking of the ever-to-be-remembered event; " there was enough wasted to have kept me drunk all the days of my life."
This council was attended with very bad results, as the Indians dispersed for their res- pective homes in an ugly state of mind.
The next year a band of Chippewas, on a visit to the American Agency at St. Peters, were treacherously assailed by a band of Sioux, who killed three or four of the former.
In the spring of 1827 a Frenchman by the name of Methode went to his sugar camp, two miles from Prairie du Chien, to make sugar; he was accompanied by his wife, a most beau- tiful woman, and his five children. One of his friends went on a visit to his camp, and found that the whole family had been murdered by Indians.
A party of militia now went to the nearest Winnebago camp, and found what they sup- posed to be one of the assassins. Colonel Morgan next caused two Winnebago chiefs to be seized, and informed the tribe that they would not be released until the murderers were delivered up. They were brought in and sent to St. Peters, for safe keeping. While there, a band of Chippewas were encamped on the grounds of the agency. A party of Sioux made a visit to their wigwams, and was friendly received. Just as they took their departure, they suddenly turned, and discharged their pieces at the Chippewas, reclining in their lodge, killing several of the latter. The com- mandant of the fort immediately sent out a party of a hundred soldiers, which captured some thirty Dacotahs, whom they brought in. Among these the survivors of the Chippewas
recognized two of the assassins, which were delivered up to them. "You must not shoot them under our walls;" said the officer. The Chippewas led their prisoners a short distance, and one of them struck up his death song. The party halted, when the Dacotahs were told to run for their lives. They were given thirty yards start, when six guns were dis- charged, and they dropped dead. The chief culprit was afterwards captured and suffered a similar death.
The Dacotalis were now incensed at the whites, and, as they and the Winnebagoes were like kindred people, and felt as if they had mutual grievances, the former, therefore, determined to instigate the Winnebagoes to acts of hostility against the common enemy.
Red Bird one of the Winnebago war chiefs, had just returned from an unsuccessful expedition against the Chippewas, and was peculiarly susceptible to the impressions his Dacotah friends desired to make. They succeeded in arousing in him a feeling of revenge. "You have become a by-word and a reproach among our people," said they. "Your kindred have been taken by the Big Knives. and killed, and you dare not avenge their deaths. The Chip- pewas scoff at you, and the Big Knives laugh at you. '
Red Bird was a noble specimen of an Indian -young and brave, and had heretofore enjoyed a high reputation among the whites for his good qualities. He was one of the last who would be suspected of any treacherous act; but he brooded over the supposed injuries of his people, until his nature seemed changed.
The Winnebagoes, too, were in a state of great excitement, caused by the intrusion of the whites upon their territory. A large num- ber of whites were over the prescribed lines, and the aspect of affairs was threatening.
A farmer by the name of Gagnier, with his wife and three children, lived about three miles from Prairie du Chien. Whither repaircd Red Bird with three other Indians. They were hospitably received and entertained, when suddenly they leveled their pieces and shot Gagnier and his man; both dropped dead. Madam Gagnier turned to flee with her infant, when a wretch snatched it from her, stabbed and scalped it, and then threw it on the floor. She seized a gun, and presenting it at the cowardly brute, he jumped aside, when she fled and made her escape to the village. Her eldest son also escaped.
A party of armed men now repaired to the scene of massacre, but the Indians had fled.
Red Bird and his companions in crime imme- diately proceeded to a rendezvous, where a
,
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[1827-32.
number of warriors were assembled. A keg of whiskey which they hadobtained, gave zest to the proceedings. For two days they con- tinued their revels, concluding with the scalp dance. They were now ready for a contem- plated attack on keel boats which were expected
down the river from Fort Snelling.
"These
were in charge of Mr. Lindsley. When they reached the mouth of the Bad Axe, they observed the Indians, and their hostile appear- ance. The Frenchmen on the boat advised
keeping out in the stream; but the Americans, more ignorant of the Indian character, urged the boat with their sweeps towards the camp; when suddenly the woods echoed with the yell of the war-whoop, and a shower of balls rattled on the sides and deck of the boat. . The first fire disabled one man, and the second volley another. The Winnebagoes now took to their canoes and attempted to board the keel boats, when a severe engagement occurred in which several of the Indians were killed. They were repulsed, but continued their efforts. For three hours a most desperate encounter was kept up. At last, the boat escaped under cover of the darkness of night. Seven Indians were killed, and fourteen wounded; of the whites, two were killed and two mortally wounded.
The arrival of the boats at Prairie du Chien with the news of the encounter, created the greatest consternation.
The settlers in the country fled from their homes and took refuge in the fort, and large numbers in the mining districts left the country.
Bodies of volunteers were now formed, and the frontier assumed an aspect of war. Gen- eral Atkinson arrived with a regiment and a force of volunteers from Galena. He pro- ceeded to Portage, where Red Bird and his associates voluntarily presented themselves as prisoners, and thus ended the Winnebago out- break.
Emigration now poured into the country, and encroachments on the lands of the Sauks and Foxes began to occasion new trouble.
CHAPTER XXI.
The Black Hawk War- It's Origin - Black Hawk's State- ment - The Battle of Sycamore Creek - Massacre of Three Families - Battle of the Wisconsin - Battle of Bad Axe - Defeat and Capture of Black Hawk.
MAODANN
S stated in the preceding pages, the Sauks and Foxes, after their expul- sion from the Fox River Valley by the French, settled near the mouth of the Wisconsin, and gradually extended their possessions southward until they embraced what now constitutes the Southwest-
ern portion of Wisconsin and Northwestern part of Illinois. One of their principal villages was on Rock Island, and there Black Hawk was born. Two or three generations must have been born there at the time the whites commeneed to settle in that country. In 1829 the Indians complained that the whites were eneroaching on their territory. A collision seemed imminent, when a treaty was made by which it was alleged that the Indians had relin - quished their claims to the Rock River country. This treaty Black Hawk declared to be fraud- ulent, and that his bands were not parties to it. They were, however, induced to move across the Mississippi; partly through induce- ments, and partly through compulsion.
In 1831, Black Hawk, with a large body of his warriors, crossed back to the east side, deelaring that they were unjustly deprived of their possessions, and that it was their inten- tion of again taking possession of their old homes. They were induced, by the payment of a lot of corn and other provisions to recross. Black Hawk says:
"The trader, Colonel Davenport, explained to me the terms of the treaty that had been made, and said we would be obliged to leave the Illinois side of the Mississippi, and advised us to select a good place for our village and remove to it in the spring. He has great influence with the principal Fox chief, (his adopted brother,) and persuaded him to leave his village and go to the west side of the Miss- issippi River and build another, which he did in the spring following.
"We learned, during the winter, that part of the lands where our village stood had been sold to individuals, and that the trader, Colonel Davenport, had bought the greater part that had been sold. The object was now plain to me why he urged us to remove. His object, we thought, was to get our lands. We held several councils that winter to determine what we should do, and resolved in one of them to return to our village, in the spring, as usual; and concluded that if we were removed by force the trader, agent, and others must be the cause, and that if found guilty of having driven us from our village, they should be killed."
In 1832 the entire band of Black Hawk with the women, children and old men, crossed to the Illinois side of the Mississippi, declaring their intention of settling on their old possess- ions.
Although they made no warlike demonstra- tions, the white settlers fled from their homes and took refuge in the fort. Before any actual hostilities commenced, a large body of Illinois militia, under Colonel Stillman, marched to
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1832.]
the Indian encampment, which was on the Sycamore, a small stream bordered with a heavy growth of timber. Having approached the vicinity of the Indians, the regiment, late in the afternoon, halted and prepared for encamping for the night. While engaged in their work they partook liberally of the whiskey with which they were abundantly supplied, even knocking in the heads of the barrels to facilitate the filling of their canteens.
Suddenly, three Indians were seen approach - ing them across the prairie, who had been sent by Black. Hawk to procure an interview for the purpose of avoiding a collision; he alleging that he intended no hostilities, and only con- templated peaceably returning to his old home, the truth of which would seem to be confirmed by the fact of his being accompanied by the women and children.
As soon as Black Hawk's messengers were seen approaching, a shout was raised "Every man draw his rations of Sank." Then a rush was made for the horses; and without any order or discipline they gave chase. Two of the Indians were overtaken and killed. At length, the rear of the regiment reached the timber. Here they met the whole van in rapid retreat with Black Hawk's whole force in pur- suit.
A company under Captain Adams stood their ground and endeavored to cover the retreat, or rather, stampede. They lost about one-fourth of their men and were obliged to fly. The regiment, panic-stricken, fled in dismay for Ottawa, where they arrived in about four days, many of them without hats, coats, guns or horses.
Black Hawk was now unable to control his young men, so exultant were they with their victory, and so exasperated at what they deemed an uncalled for attack, that they divided up into war parties, scoured the country and attacked the poor, defenseless settlers. Fortunately, most of them had fled to places of safety. Three families living near each other, Hall's, Pettigrew's and Davis', were assembled at Davis's house when a party sur- rounded it. After a desperate encounter, they were all killed except young Hall, who escaped and reached Ottawa, and the Misses Hall who were taken prisoners, but were subsequently delivered up; having sustained no injury except that arising from the terror of the occurrence, the fatigue of their rapid march, and their ago- nized feelings at the terrible fate of their rela- tives.
A large force was now organized to take the field against Black Hawk. It was com-
posed of Illinois and Wisconsin militia, and a few companies of U. S. regulars.
Black Hawk, having failed in his attempt to form a confederacy of the Northwestern tribes, now commenced his retreat up the Rock River, with his women and children, intending to cross the Mississippi, and find an asylum for the latter.
From April till July, the Indians had evaded the force sent against them, by sometimes scattering into small parties, taking separate trails and rendezvousing at some place difficult of approach. During this time they had been driven from Sycamore Creek in Illinois, to Lake Koshkonong, in Wisconsin. For a period of over two months, they had been so closely pursued and harrassed that they had but little time for hunting or fishing. They suffered fearfully from hunger, and their women and children were exhausted from fatigue and want of food. Their dead bodies were frequently found on the trail. They endured famine rather than to kill and eat the ponies on which their squaws and pappooses rode.
There are not many instances of greater devotion to a cause and leader, than that exhibited by this warlike tribe, under the terri- ble discouragements that surrounded them. Encumbered by women and children, har- rassed by a superior force, they still desper- ately gave battle when overtaken, and then pushed forward again, in their effort to reach and cross the Mississippi.
The command having been divided, one brig- ade proceeded to Koshkonong, but the Indians apprised by their scouts, had moved up the Rock River.
Dodge & Henry's commands, on the nine- teenth of July, struck the trails of the fugitives and followed in rapid pursuit. On the bank of Third Lake, the advance guard killed an Indian who was sitting on the newly made grave of his wife, who had probably died from exhaustion. He boldly opened his breast and invited the shot that killed him. The discon- solate creature had resolved to die on the grave of his squaw -resolutely facing his implacable foes. The next Indian shot was a Winnebago, about five miles west of the lake. From this point the scouts were continually chasing Indians, and on the twenty-first inst., came upon a large body of the enemy, secreted in the undergrowth of the Wisconsin bottom, They attacked the scouts, driving them up the slope of a ridge, on the other side of which the advance forces of Dodge's com- mand were rapidly coming up. They there- fore met, near the top, when the Indians com- menced firing; this was returned by the
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EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTHWEST.
[1832.
whites with deadly effect. The Indians then took shelter in the underbrush, when a vigor- ous charge destroyed them, and they fell back to the main body on the Wisconsin bottom. It having rained, and being nearly dark, the pursuit was not pushed any further.
It was ascertained that the Indians lost some sixty - killed and wounded. The whites one killed and seven wounded.
Black Hawk states that the Indians who participated in this engagement - the battle of the Wisconsin, were his rear guard, and that they only fought to gain time, to get their squaws, children and old people across the river.
That night the camp was startled by the clear high sounding voice of an Indian on an adjoining height, addressing his braves, pre- paratory to a night attack, as was supposed. It was afterwards ascertained that the Indian was offering terms of peace; which was to sur- render, if protection was offered their women and children. Receiving no answer, they con- cluded that no mercy was to be expected, and under cover of the darkness rapidly took up their line of retreat.
When the command learned that the Indians had effected a crossing, it marched to the Blue Mounds, and on the twenty-sixth of July, the entire army rendezvoused at a point on the Wisconsin, and from there set out again in pursuit of the enemy. After striking the trail. dead bodies of Indians were found at intervals, who had died from wounds. They also lost a number of women and children, who died from exhaustion, produced by fatigue and hun- ger. On the second of August, the Indians were overtaken near the mouth of the Bad Axe, collected together on the bank of the Mississippi. The command opencd a fire of musketry on them, and while the battle was in progress, the Steamer Warrior came up from Prairie du Chien, and kept passing back and forth, running down all who attempted to cross the river. The cannon on the Warrior poured into the ranks of the Indians, three discharges of canister, with fearful effect. On board the Warrior was a squad of regular troops and a body of Menominee Indians, who kept up a rapid fire of musketry on them. The Indians fought desperately, returning vigor- ously the fire of the boat, and that of the attacking party on the shore. It is said that many of them, naked to the breech-cloth, slid down into the river, where they laid with only their mouths and nostrils above water.
But bravely as they fought, there was no chance for them. It was wholesale slaughter. The forces of Black Hawk were annihilated.
He managed to escape after the battle, but was captured by a Winnebago chief and deliv- ered a captive to the whites.
It is related by John H. Fonda, the veteran pioneer, and a participant in the battle, that 'after its close, a little Indian boy, with one of his arms most shot off, came out of the bushes and made signs for something to eat. He seemed perfectly indifferent to pain, and only sensible of hunger; for when he carried the little naked fellow on board the boat some one gave him a piece of hard bread, and he stood and ate it, with the wounded arm dangling by the torn flesh; and so he remained until the arm was taken off."
The wretched creatures must have have suf- fered fearfully with hunger in their rapid march to the Mississippi; and cruel and hostile as they had been, their fortitude, bravery and suffering somewhat relieves the obloquy that rests on their name.
But a small remnant of these once powerful tribes was now left in existence. From the early days of the French traders they had struggled against their fate. They were once the dominant tribes of this Fox River valley. with which their name is inseparably asso- ciated; and the Battle of the Petite Buttes des- Morts and those of the Black Hawk War, will make their name ever memorable in the historic annals of Wisconsin.
CHAPTER XXII.
The American Fur Company -Social Circles in the Early Day-Adventurous Journey from Fort Winnebago to Chi- cago by a Lady on Horse-back-Lost and nearly Famished - Relief Found in an Indian Wigwam.
P to the close of the Black Hawk War the chief business in the Northwest was the fur trade; first by French Com- panies, then English, and lastly by the American Fur Company, estab- lished by John Jacob Astor.
The agents and traders, and the military officers of the several garrisons, with their res- pective wives and families, constituted the elite of the society of those early days; but if it was an aristocracy, it was not snobbish, and merit, cultivation and good breeding, were always duly appreciated. The social circles of those times embraced in the range of intimate acquaintances and neighbors, those who lived fifty or a hundred miles apart, and included many distinguished names. Colonel Zach Taylor, in command at Fort Crawford, which was constructed under his superintendence in
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EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTHWEST.
1829-31.]
1829-30, and who afterwards became famous as the hero of the Mexican war, and was ele- vated to the presidency; Jeff Davis, noted at Fort Crawford for his mechanical handiwork; General Harney, then a Captain at Fort Win- nebago, afterwards second in command in the American army, and famous among the Indians as the great Indian fighter. Mrs. John H. Kinzie found a son of Alexander Hamilton, a hghly educated gentleman, living in a log cabin in the lead mines.
The social pleasures of the times were entered into with great zest; parties visiting one another from great distances, the long canoe voyages and camping out on the route, or the trip by land with pony trains, afforded novelty and enjoyment. Those who never lived among the scenes of the early West - the West of thirty-five or forty years ago, can have no full comprehension of the picturesque beauty, the wild loveliness of the country in its primeval condition, fresh from the hand of nature. Its broad, unbroken expanse of prairie, dotted with openings and groves like islands in a sea of emerald, with its profusion of wild flowers and luxuriant vegetation, all blending into one harmonious picture, the vista of which was only limited by the encircling horizon. The Indian fires then kept down all undergrowth except on the margins of the streams, whose meandering course was marked by a fringe of dense foliage gracefully outlin- ing the domain of prairie.
Sometimes those long journeys across the country were not journeys of pleasure, and the relation of one from Fort Winnebago to Chicago in the spring of 1831, made by Mrs. John H. Kinzie, wife of the agent of the Amer- ican Fur Company, will serve to illustrate life in the West in those days. Mrs. Kinzie was from New York city, and a lady of much cul- ture, as her writings clearly indicate. She
was young, and this was during the first year of her married life. Major Twiggs, the com- mandant of the fort, endeavored to disstiade her from making such a journey at such an inclement season of the year, but the resolute and high-spirited young woman would not be deterred.
" Having taken a tender leave of our friends, the morning of the eighth of March saw us mounted and equipped for our journey. The weather was fine; the streams already fringed with green, were sparkling in the sun; everything gave promise of an early and genial season. In vain, when we reached the ferry at the foot of the hill, on which the fort stood, did Major Twiggs repeat his endeavors to dissuade us from commencing a journey which he assured me would be perilous beyond what I could anticipate. I was resolute.
On reaching Duck Creek, we took leave of our young
friends, who remained on the bank long enough to witness our passage across-ourselves in the canoe, and the poor horses swimming the stream, now filled with cakes of floating ice.
Beyond the rising ground which formed the opposite bank of the stream, extended a marsh of, perhaps, three hundred yards across. To this the men carried the canoe which was to hear us over. The water was not deep, so our attendants merely took off the pack-saddle from Brunet, and my side sad- dle from Le Gris, for fear of accidents, and then mounted their own steeds, leading the two extra ones. My husband placed the furniture of the pack horse and my saddle in the cen- tre of the canoe, which he was to paddle across.
".Now, wife,' said he, 'jump in, and seat yourself flat in the bottom ot the canoe.'
"' Oh, no,' said I; ' I will sit on the little trunk in the cen- tre. I shall be so much more comfortable, and I can balance the canoe exactly.'
' As you please, but I think you will find it is not the best way,
" A vigorous push sent us a few feet from the bank. At that instant two favorite greyhounds whom we had brought with us, and who stood whining upon the bank, reluctant to take to the water as they were ordered, gave a sudden bound, and alighted full upon me. The canoe balanced a moment - then yielded-and, quick as thought, dogs, furniture and lady were in the deepest of the water.
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