History of northern Wisconsin, containing an account of its settlement, growth, development, and resources; an extensive sketch of its counties, cities, towns and villages, their improvements, industries, manufactories; biographical sketches, portraits of prominent men and early settlers; views of county seats, etc., Part 19

Author: Western historical co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company
Number of Pages: 1052

USA > Wisconsin > History of northern Wisconsin, containing an account of its settlement, growth, development, and resources; an extensive sketch of its counties, cities, towns and villages, their improvements, industries, manufactories; biographical sketches, portraits of prominent men and early settlers; views of county seats, etc. > Part 19

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There was no immigration to the Bay for the pur- pose of occupying the soil-no settling there in the common acceptance of the term-while French domin- ion lasted. The determination of the Government,

near the close of the seventeenth century, to permit no further settlement of new colonies, was never changed ; for Canada could at no subsequent period, so long as French domination lasted, afford to be thus weakened. The post (and Green Bay was no exception) occupied by the trading classes, was merely in the nature of a temporary residence. Frequently, the Canadian French- man resided among the Indians for an indefinite length of time. This practice began at a very early day, for it is thus recorded by Governor Vaudreuil, in 1718: " From Saquinam [Saginaw ] you go to Missilimackinac [Mackinaw ], the residence of the Jesuit Fathers and

of some Frenchmen. The Bay [Green Bay] is on the same side as Missilimackinac ; there are some French- men there also." These men domesticated themselves after the manner of the savages during convenient seasons, resuming their roving employment whenever it suited their inclinations. And thus with fur traders, voyageurs and roving French Canadians continued affairs at Green Bay so long as the country belonged to France. A distinctive settlement was not developed until a later period-at least, none that was permanent.

BRITISH RULE.

Governor Vaudreuil surrendered Canada to General Amherst, of the British army, September 9, 1760, and immediately notified the commandant at Mackinaw. for the information of the people of that neighborhood, that thereafter the inhabitants would be amenable to British authority, under stipulations which guaranteed to them the undisturbed possession of their goods and peltries, and full liberty to continue their trade in the same manner as the proper subjects of Great Britain. The fur trade of the Northwest had long been coveted by the new masters of the country. Many years before, for that reason, they encouraged the Iroquois to cut off the French communication with this region. When that failed they endeavored, through the intermediate tribes, to persuade the Indians to carry their peltries to the British frontier, and the disorders that at times confronted the French at the Bay were in some degree due to their overtures. They now quickly prepared to garrison the principal trading stations, and an expedi- tion for this purpose under Captain Balfour was sent forward in 1761. Arriving at the Bay on the 12th of October, Lieutenant James Gorrell, of the Sixtieth or Royal American Regiment, was there posted at the old French station with a garrison of seventeen men, with whom remained a French interpreter and two English traders - Mckay from Albany, and Goddard from Montreal. The dominion of Great Britain thus estab- lished was fully confirmed by the treaty of peace in 1763. The French, while outwardly preserving an appearance of submission to the conquerors, regarded them with hatred, and secretly employed every possi- ble means to hinder the Indians from entering into friendly relations with them, until the last hope that France would recover possession was disappointed. Some of them preceded the English soldiery on their way, passing on to the west, and endeavored to per- suade the natives to waylay and cut off the feeble detachment, but without success. They endeavored as well to prevent the English traders from venturing to the Bay by circulating tales of meditated attacks on

HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY.

the part of the Indians. In consequence of these things, the garrison was employed during the Winter in making the place defensible, for the buildings were found quite rotten, and the stockade ready to fall. The fort was named Fort Edward Augustus. The land was at that time claimed by the Menomonees. The Indians for a time kept aloof from the post, partly in consequence of the reports spread among them by the French, and partly because at the time of its occupa- tion they had betaken themselves to their Winter hunt- ing grounds. A few young men, however, from the different tribes, made their appearances occasionally, and were agreeably surprised by being well received. Their distrust was thus dispelled, and the ice being broken, the chiefs of the Menomonees and Winneba- goes assembled at the post in May, 1762, where they were met by the commandant in council, for the forma- tion of a friendly alliance. Envoys arrived a little later from the Ottawas, residing between the Bay and Mackinaw. Appropriate presents were distributed on such occasions, and the Indians were not backward in shrewdly suggesting the desirable favors of that kind it had been the habit of the French to grant them. By attention to these things, the permanent friendship of all the neighboring tribes was secured in the British interest. They were the more readily disposed to the new alliance from the fact that the traders whom they met at the post gave them much better terms than the French, and there was a universal request for En- glish traders to come among them. The difficulties and dangers in the way of the English merchants were by no means overcome, however, by the removal of their apprehensions of hostility from the Indians. Their lack of acquaintance with the language and manners of the Western tribes was a serious impedi- ment. At the post it was overcome by the employ- ment of French clerks and interpreters ; but this ex- pedient was of no avail at the hunting grounds and Winter villages of the Indians, the favorite resorts of French traders, against the jealousy of the latter, which was dangerously manifested by the murder of two Englishmen who ventured to go among the Sacs. Yet, upon the whole, the English made substantial progress in establishing a secure foothold.

The formidable uprising of all the Indian tribes east of Lake Michigan against the English, in 1763, known as the Pontiac War, made a great change temporarily in the face of affairs. On the 15th of June, Gorrell received information from the command- ant at Mackinaw that the place was in the hands of the hostile Chippewas and himself a prisoner, accom- panied by an order to evacuate the post and come to his assistance. Preparations for this step were speedily made, and on the twenty-first the little band set out for Mackinaw, accompanied by a strong escort of Me- nomonees, Winnebagoes, Sacs and Foxes, who evinced the sincerity of their friendship by procuring the re- lease of the prisoners in the hands of the Chippewas, and full permission for them, as well as Gorrell's party, to proceed safely to Montreal. Mackinaw was re-oc- cupied the following year, but the Bay never received another British garrison. Its hasty evacuation com- pelled the English traders to leave their goods in the care of French clerks. Except that two or three of

them returned thither with the Indian escort to dis pose of their remaining stock, the French Canadians, by this complete revolution, temporarily recovered command of its traffics.

BEGINNING OF ACTUAL SETTLEMENT.

Soon after Gorrell's evacuation, the Bay trading station ripened into a permanent settlement. The in- flux of English traders had threatened to deprive the Canadian-French of their principal means of subsist- ence, and had a strong tendency to crowd numbers of them from their settlements to more remote places. The evacuation of the post at the Bay offered an extraor- dinary inducement for some of the more enterprising ones, by promptly seating themselves there in a perma- nent manner to secure what the English had been forced to abandon, and deter them from returning, or enable themselves to meet their competition success- fully. That they improved the occasion, is evident from the fact that during 1764-65, while no traders were permitted to visit the Bay from Mackinaw, its traffic was in the hands of local traders, who avoided British posts with the design of transferring their trade, by way of the Mississippi, to the French prov- ince of Louisiana. As soon as this design became manifest to the British authorities, communication was at once re-opened, and in 1766 both English and Cana- dian traders were enabled to ascend to Green Bay and the Mississippi.

The explorer, Jonathan Carver, found a favorable opportunity not long after the close of Pontiac's War to visit this region. He reached Fort Edward Augustus (Green Bay) September 18, 1776.

" This fort, [he wrote,] is situated on the southern ex- tremity of a bay in Lake Michigan, termed by the French the Bay of Puants, but which, since the English have gained possession of all the settlements on this part of the conti- nent, is called by them the Green Bay. The reason of its being thus denominated, is from its appearance; for on leaving Michimackinac in the Spring season, though the trees there have not even put forth their buds, yet you find the country around La Baye, notwithstanding the passage has not exceeded fourteen days, covered with the finest verdure, and vegetation as forward as it could be were it Summer. This fort, also, is only surrounded by a stockade, and being much decayed is scarcely defensible against small arms. The land adjoining to the bottom of this bay is very fertile, the country in general level, and the perspective view of it, pleasing and extensive. A few families live in the fort, which lies on the west side of the Fox River, and opposite to it, on the east side of its entrance, are some French settlers who cultivate the land, and appear to live very comfortably."

The year after Carver's visit, Sir William Johnson, British Indian agent in America, wrote to the Lords of Trade, that the Indians at the Bay were desirous of having the post re-established. He said that it was so well situated by reason of water communication with the Mississippi, and so well calculated for all the Indians west of Lake Michigan, that it deserved to be taken much notice of. He also referred to a claim laid to the post by a gentleman of the name of William Grant in virtue of a purchase from the Governor of Canada. Hle concluded that unless some action was taken in the matter, difficulties might arise.

HISTORY OF NORTHERN WISCONSIN.

In June. 1780, John Long, an English trader was sent from Mackinaw to Prairie du Chien to collect a quantity of peltries left at that place in charge of Lang- lade. He spent a few days at Green Bay where he obtained plenty of deer, bear, Indian corn, melons and other fruit ;- he saw that the houses were covered with birch bark, decorated with bows and arrows and weapons of war. The next year an effort was made by the English Lieutenant Governor of Canada to pur- chase the country of Green Bay and much more terri- tory, of the savages, but nothing came of it.

As late as 1785, there were at the Bay but seven families, who with their assistants and employés, did not exceed a half-hundred souls. In 1788, an Indian council was held at Green Bay, at which time permis- sion was given Julien Dubuque to work the lead mines on the Mississippi River. On the 1st of July, 1796, the British surrendered to the American authorities what posts were then occupied by them in the North- west, but this had little or no effect on affairs in the vicinity of Green Bay.

Soon after the declaration of war in June, 1812, against Great Britain, by the United States, Colonel Robert Diekson, an English trader at Prairie du Chien and Indian agent, collected a considerable body of In- dians at Green Bay for the purpose of rendering as- sistance to the British forces in their operations on the Great Lakes. After the taking of Mackinaw by the British, Colonel MeKay, of the British army, proceeded west to Green Bay, and passing up the Fox and down the Wisconsin, captured the fort at Prairie du Chien. In 1815, an United States trading post was established at Green Bay, and Colonel John Boyer appointed In- dian agent.

BUILDING OF FORT HOWARD.

On the 16th of July, 1816, Colonel John Miller commenced the erection, at Green Bay, of Fort How- ard, with United States troops. They came up the bay in three schooners, entering Fox River under the American flag, displaying to the astonished inhabitants of Green Bay their decks covered with United States · uniforms. They bore three or four companies of troops of the Third United States Infantry whose purpose, as just intimated, was the establishment of a garrison at the place. Immediately on their arrival, the officers waited on the Menomonee Chief, Tomah, whose village was near at hand on the west side of the river, of whom Colonel Miller asked permission to build a fort. The request was readily complied with, and in return the chief asked that his French brothers should not be molested. The rendezvous of the troops was upon the east side of the river, four or five miles above the head of the bay and was called " Camp Smith." Sub- sequently, a delegation of Winnebagoes came to remon- strate against the occupation of the place, but offered no violence, and at the end of two months the garri- son was established in barraeks enclosed with a stock- ade. The extent of French settlement at this time upon the Fox River, in the vicinity, was limited-forty or fifty French Canadians were here eultivating the soil ; but the settlement was a promising one ; the res- idents having comfortable houses, with small farms,

under good cultivation. The entire population was. about one hundred and fifty.

" During the Summer of 1816 [says James H. Lock- wood,] it was projected to establish a United States fort at Green Bay ; and, in July of that year, Colonel John Mil- ler, then Colonel of the Third Regiment, United States In- fantry, was ordered on that service, and soon chartering three vessels, embarked three or four companies of rifle- men and infantry with some artillery. Among the vessels was the 'Washington,' the largest of the fleet, commanded by Captain Dobbins, on board of which vessel was the commandant. I had that year engaged myself as a clerk to some traders, to take charge of an outfit or trading es- tablishment near the head of the St. Peters River, and the Colonel apprehending difficulty from the Indians in land- ing at Green Bay, proposed to take the goods of several boats in the vessel, and tow the boats, and use them, if necessary, in landing, and then return them to their owners.

" Accordingly Augustin Grignon, myself and a French clerk by the name of Chappin embarked on board the 'Washington,' Mr. Grignon and Chappin, acting in some measure as pilots. During the night of the second or third day out from Mackinaw, the other two vessels became sep- arated from the 'Washington,' and arriving in the vicinity of what is now called Washington Island and Harbor, and learning from Mr. Grignon that there was a good harbor, Colonel Miller ordered the ' Washington ' to put in there to wait for her consorts, We remained there nearly two days, during which time the officers and passengers rambled over the island, and finally in honor of our vessel, supposed to be the first one that had entered the harbor, we gave its name to Washington Island and Harbor, which they have ever since retained. Finding the other vessels had got into Green Bay ahead of us, and had found a harbor at Ver- million Island, and were waiting for us, we proceeded up- the bay, and arrived at Green Bay settlement about two days after, when the troops landed without the anticipated opposition from the Indians.

" This was in the month of July, 1816. Green Bay and Prairie du Chien were then the only settlements in what is now the State of Wisconsin, if we except Solomon Junean's trading house at Milwaukee ; and they could not well be called settlements according to the American idea of set- tling and improving a country. [This statement is mislead- ing. Juneau did not go to Milwaukee until 1818. The trading post, however, was established by others; and at the time stated the site was occupied by Mirandeau. Jacques Vieau, of Green Bay, was a trader at this date, and sent Juneau to Milwaukee in 1818 .- ED.]

"Green Bay was a kind of traders' depot for the trade of that bay, the Fox and upper part of Wisconsin Rivers, which were considered dependents of it.

" There then resided at Green Bay, as a trader, John Lawe, and four or five at the Grignons. Augustin Grignon resided and traded at the Little Kaukalin. Those traders who pretended to make Green Bay their home, resided gen- erally but a small portion of the year there, as most of them wintered in the Indian country, and generally spent two or three months of the Summer at Mackinaw. The traders of Green Bay mostly married, after the Indian manner, women of the Menomonee tribe, there being no white women in the country. I saw at this time but one woman in the settlement that pretended to be white, and she had accidentally been brought there at an early day, but her history, however, I do not now recollect. There were at Green Bay some forty or fifty Canadians of French extraction who pretended to cultivate the soil; but they

HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY

were generally old worn out voyageurs or boatmen, who, hay- ing become unfit for the hardships of the Indian trade, had taken wives, generally of the Menomonee tribe, and set- tled down on a piece of land. As the land did not cost any thing, all they had to do, was to take up a piece not claimed by any other person, and fence and cultivate it. But they had generally been so long in the Indian tribe that they had, to a great extent, lost the little knowledge they had acquired of farming in Canada, so that they were poor cultivators of the soil, although they raised consider- able wheat, barley, peas and other crops. Green Bay was at that time a part of the Territory of Indiana, of which the seat of government was at Vincennes, which was also the county town of the county to which Green Bay was attached-between four or five hundred miles distant by the tedious and circuitous route of that day."

S. A. Storrow, Judge Advocate in the army of the United States, visited in 1817 the northwestern posts, and on the 19th of September arrived at Fort Howard in an open boat. He found Major Zachary Taylor in command, by whom he was kindly treated. While there he made observations on the ebb and flow of the waters of the lake. Two young men left the Green Bay settlement this year, in a bark canoe, for Prairie du Chien, by way of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, at which place they met Major S. H. Long, and proceeded with him up the Mississippi to the Falls of St. An- thony, with a view to establish their right to lands claimed to have been granted by the Indians to their grandfather, Jonathan Carver. The tract, nearly one hundred miles square, included large portions of what is now Northern Wisconsin and Minnesota. It had, while under English supremacy, been refused con- firmation by the king and council. The heirs of Car- ver, however, after the change of government to the United States, continued for a series of years to pre- sent their claims to Congress, asking for a confirmation of the " grant," but the request has ever been refused. For many years "Carver's Grant " was conspicuously represented on maps of the western country ; but of late it has wholly disappeared.

UNDER MICHIGAN TERRITORY.

Soon after the district of country now embraced in the State of Wisconsin was made a part of Michigan Territory, Governor Lewis Cass (October 26, 1818) erected the county of Brown, naming it in honor of Major General Jacob Brown, of the United States army. It was soon after organized by the appoint- ment of the proper officers. Those whose names have been preserved were: Matthew Irwin, Chief Justice ; Charles Reaume and John Lane, Associate Justices of the County Court ; Matthew Irwin and John Bonyer, County Commissioners ; Matthew Irwin, Judge of Probate ; Robert Irwin, Jr., Clerk; George Johnston, Sheriff; Charles Reaume, Justice of the Peace. After Matthew Irwin removed from the place, in 1821, James Porlier was appointed Chief Justice ; and, upon Reaume's death, a little later, Henry B. Brevoort suc- ceeded him as Associate Justice. In 1823 a Territorial Circuit was established for judicial purposes, embracing the counties of Brown, Crawford and Michilimackinac - to which James Duane Doty was assigned as Judge, who, during the Summer of 1824, took up his residence

at Green Bay, and organized the first term of his court for Brown County on the 4th of October, in that year.

A census of the Indians taken in 1819 showed that there were 4,800 in the Green Bay Agency. On the 20th of August, of the next year, an expedition under Governor Lewis Cass, appointed by the General Gov- ernment to visit the Northwestern posts, arrived at Green Bay. With him came Dr. Alexander Wolcott, Captain D. B. Douglas, Lieutenant A. McKay, R. A. Forsyth, C. C. Trowbridge, A. R. Chase, J. D. Doty and H. Schoolcraft. They found at the Bay over sixty dwellings and five hundred inhabitants. The fort consisted of log barracks, facing three sides of a square parade, surrounded by a stockade of timber thirty feet high, whitewashed, and garrisoned by three hundred men, under Captain William Whistler, in the absence of Colonel J. L. Smith. There were also in camp, three miles above Fort Howard, three hundred in- fantry.

In 1819, Daniel Whitney, a very enterprising man, came to the Bay. In some respects, he should be con- sidered the first American settler in the county. He was not only born a citizen of the United States, but he came to the Bay to make it his permanent home- to invest his money here ; in short, to " settle," as it is familiarly termed in the West. Before him were Robert Irwin, Sr., and his son Robert, who remained here ; but they came to engage in trade, not with the intention, at the time, of making it their permanent home. During this year, Isaac Lee visited Green Bay to collect evidence of title and claims to land held by French and Canadian settlers under Jay's treaty, and to report them to the United States Commissioners at Detroit. The claims of none were allowed, at the time, except such as could prove occupation on or be- fore July, 1796, and there were few of this description ; however, a subsequent act of Congress made provision for making valid all such as were occupied on or before July 1, 1812.

Ebenezer Childs, writing of Green Bay at this date, says :

" At Mackinaw I engaged with a man of the name of Burr, who was going to Green Bay with a stock of goods. I took charge of the goods, and, placing them on board of a small schooner, sailed for Green Bay, where I arrived on the 9th of May, 1820. I rented a store three miles above Fort Howard, opened my goods and groceries, and com- menced trading. About that time a detachment of troops was sent to Green Bay to build another fort on the east side of Fox River, a short distance above where I was located. The soldiers were daily passing and re-passing from one garrison to the other; and would frequently call at my place and get something to drink. The officers, finding it out, forbade the soldiers calling at my trading establishment. A few days after, an officer called and inquired what I kept for sale. I replied that I kept all kinds of groceries, and invited him to take a drink of good brandy. He did so. Then, learning for a certainty that I kept liquor, he asked me if I sold any to the soldiers. I frankly confessed that I had done so, when he told me that I must not do so any more, and advised me to close up my business and leave the country, or I would be sent out. I asked him who would send me out, and he said the commanding officer would. Mounting his horse, he still made use of abusive language. By this time my ebenezer got up to the boiling

HISTORY OF NORTHERN WISCONSIN.

point, when I sprang toward him, with the intention of pulling him off his horse, and giving him a sound thrash- ing ; but he was too quick for me, for he put spurs to his horse, and was soon out of my reach. The next day a sergeant and file of men made their appearance to appre- hend me and convey me to the fort. The sergeant was a fine fellow, and I reasoned with him, that I was a free-born Yankee, in my own castle, and should not go to the fort alive ; and added that I did not wish to have any trouble with him, and if the commanding officer wished to see me, he had better come where I was. I then treated the ser- geant and his men, and they left me unmolested. The sergeant afterward told me that when he reported to the commanding officer, the latter flew into a great passion, charging the sergeant with cowardice, and declaring that he would go himself and take me, dead or alive, and send me out of the country. I presume, upon sober, second thought, he concluded it would be the better part of valor to let me alone, for I never heard any thing more about send- ing me out of the country. By way of punishment, he issued an order forbidding me entering the fort -a thing I did not care to do. So the prohibition amounted to nothing. After that the soldiers' wives would come and buy sugar of me, first carefully depositing a two-quart canteen, well filled with whisky, in the bottom of a large tin kettle, and pack- ing the sugar on top, and smuggle it into the fort. The sentinel would hail them, as they were re-entering the fort, to learn what they had ; when they would answer, "Sugar," and, looking into the pail, the sentinel would let them pass. I remained unmolested for six months, while two other establishments similar to mine were torn down and their goods destroyed.

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Author: Western historical co., Chicago, pub Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company Number of Pages: 1052

Author: Western historical co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company
Number of Pages: 1052