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 211

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 211

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In 1828, certain private land claims, which had been allowed by act of Congress some years before, were or- dered surveyed. This survey only covered these patents, so that Wisconsin was not yet open to settle- ment.

Samuel C. Stambaugh appeared as a new Indian Agent at Green Bay in 1830. He at once addressed himself to the business of securing the land for white settlement, and early in September, called a council of the Menomonees. He asked them why they were so poor and miserable ? Why their woman and children were so destitute ? And informed them in glowing terms of other Indian tribes who had plenty of money and goods furnished them every year by the Govern- ment, and then inquired as to what use to them was the vast wilderness of swamps and woods, while they had no blankets or money ? By this simple reasoning, they were very soon persuaded that they had too much land and too little money or goods. So it became easy to arrange a visit to Washington to see the Great Father. In October, following, the delegation started -Mr. Stambaugh, Indian Agent, fourteen chiefs, two women and two interpreters. They arrived in Decem- ber, and Mr. Eaton, who was Secretary of War. soon concluded a treaty, ceding all their land east of Green Bay, Fox River, Winnebago Lake and the Milwaukee River, to the Government.

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HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.

On account of the acquired rights of the New York Indians, already alluded to, this treaty had trouble in the Senate ; it was, however, ratified with a clause pro- tecting the rights of the New York Indians. As to the Winnebagoes, who occupied the country west of the Menomonees, in 1820 they had five villages on Win- nebago Lake, and fourteen on Rock River.

At St. Louis, in 1816, on the 3d of June, they had concluded a treaty of peace with the United States, as a supplement to the treaty of Ghent, as they had been engaged with the British in the war then just closed, and received annuities from that Government. No land was transferred at this time, and the tribe continued to levy tribute on all who passed up the Fox River. Their territorial claims were quite extensive, reaching from the Chippewa, on the north, to the small streams run- ning into the Mississippi and into Illinois, on the south, and the Menomonees on the east. In 1829, a large part of their territory in Southwestern Wisconsin was sold to the General Government, and in 1831, the resi- due lying south and east of the Wisconsin and the Fox River of Green Bay was transferred.

The treaty of 1825, by which the boundaries between the several tribes was established, conceded the Win- nebagoes to be the owners of the territory now sub- stantially covered by the counties of Clark, Columbia, Crawford, Dane, Dodge, Fond du Lac, Green Lake, Green, Grant, Iowa, Jefferson, Jackson, Juneau, La Fayette, La Crosse, Marquette, Monroe, Richland, Rock, Sauk, Vernon, Winnebago and Wood.

The consideration for the land ceded in 1829 and in 1831 was $1,500 000, to be paid in annual payments of $50,000 a year for thirty years.

The treaty which finally took the last acre from the Winnebagoes was secured in this way, as related by the Hon. Henry Merrill :

" Gov. Dodge, living at Portage, in 1837, invited the Winnebagoes to send a delegation to visit their Great Father at Washington. Suspicious of a purpose to ob- tain their lands, they asked, ' What for? to make a treaty ?' The Governor evaded the point, suggesting that they could get acquainted with their Great Father and obtain presents, and, after much persuasion, it was agreed to send a delegation-Yellow Thunder, One-eyed De Koury, Little De Koury, Winno Sheek and six other chiefs, with some young men, sons of chiefs. Satterlee Clark accompanied them as one of the conductors.

" As soon as they reached Washington, they were beset to hold a treaty, and cede their lands to the Gov- ernment. They finally declined, saying they had no authority for any such purpose; that the most of their chiefs were at home, who alone could enter into such a negotiation. Every influence was brought to bear upon them, and they began to get uneasy lest Winter should set in and prevent their returning home. They were without means to defray their expenses back, and those managing Indian matters in Washington availed themselves of the necessities of the delegation, keeping them there, and urging them to enter into a treaty.

" At length they yielded, not to their judgments, but to the pressure brought to bear upon them, and yet while reluctantly signing the treaty, all the while stout- ly protesting that they had no show of authority to do

so. The treaty, as they were informed, permitted them to remain in peaceful occupancy of the ceded lands for eight years, when, in fact, it was only that number of months, and as each went forward to attach his name, or rather mark, to the treaty, he would repeat what he understood to be the time they were to remain-' eight years.' And thus the poor red men were deceived and outwitted by those who ought to have been their pro- tectors."

One of the young men who was a party to this treaty dared not visit his father, a prominent chief, for some time. Yellow Thunder declared he would not go to Turkey River, in Iowa, where a reservation had been made for them. He and young Black Wolf were inveigled into Fort Winnebago, under pretense of holding a council, seized, manacled and started West, but he managed to escape, returned and entered forty acres of land from which he has never been driven. It is related that when a young chief " Dandy" learned that they were to be sent away he went with an inter- preter to Gov. Dodge.

" Well," says the governor, " what in - do you want ? "

" Tell him," said Dandy, "that I came to see him, and if he had come to see me, I should have received him in a gentlemanly way and waited patiently to learn his business ! "

" Well," said the governor, "what is it ?"

Dandy then produced from under the folds of his blanket a book. " Ask the Governor what book that is."

" Oh, yes, that is the Bible."

" Ask him if he ever read it, if he is acquainted with its contents."

" Yes, certainly."

" Ask him if it is a guide for human conduct, if it points out the whole duty of man."

" Yes, Dandy, you will find it all recorded in that book."

" Well," says Dandy, " if that book says I shall go to Turkey River, I will go, but if it don't say so, I won't!"

This fraudulent treaty of November 1, 1837, embit- tered the Winnebagos and cost the Government a large amount of trouble and expense, which is not over yet.

This treaty of 1837 granted a perpetual annuity to the Winnebagoes of #50,000 a year, and they were to have a fixed habitation, and be taught agriculture and the mechanical arts.

At this time as many as could be collected were re- moved to Turkey River, Iowa. In a few years they were removed to Long Prairie, Minn. Here mills were built, farms opened, houses built, and other improve- ments made, as it was supposed to be their permanent home. From here they were forcibly removed to Blue Eurth, Minn., which was guaranteed to them as their future home. Here, also, valuable improvements were made and they remained as a barrier between the wild tribes of the plains and the steady oncoming of civili- zation.

On the breaking out of the rebellion, 100 Winneba- goes out of 600 male adults, enlisted in the army of the Union.

In the Sioux outbreak, in 1862, the Winnebagoes refused to join, but assisted the whites and actually

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HISTORY OF NORTHERN WISCONSIN.

prevented it from being much more serious than it was. This Sioux massacre was seized upon by interested parties to have the Winnebagoes removed from Min- nesota, and in 1863 Congressional sanction was ob- tained for their removal to the Missouri River, in Dakota, where they were taken and left without prop- er supplies, or agent, or supervision. Hundreds died from want and exposure, and many were killed by the Sioux.

Realizing that they were practically abandoned by the Government to their fate among their hereditary enemies, they organized into two bands, one of which returned to Wisconsin, the other went to Nebraska and made a bargain with the Omahas for a part of their reservation, which was afterward ratified by Congress.

On the 25th of June, 1864, Congress, to repair to some extent the injustice practiced upon these people, passed an act providing that "the proportion of the annuities which would have been paid the stray In- dians if on their reservation, should be retained in the Treasury to their credit from year to year, to be paid to them when they should unite with their tribe, or to be used by the Secretary of the Interior in settling and subsisting them on any reservation which hereafter might be provided for them."

In 1871 Congress passed a joint resolution, appro- priating $15,000 for the removal of these stray Indians in Wisconsin. No action in the matter was taken until January, 1873, when Mr. C. A. Hunt, of Mel- vina, Wis., was appointed special agent to remove them from the State. Various devices were employed to induce them to go, and about 600 were got together in camp near Sparta.

H. W. Lee, Esq., was employed as attorney by the Indians, and on conferring with Mr. Delano, Secretary of the Interior, he was informed by Ed. R. Smith, Indian Commissioner, that there was no authority for the forcible removal of the Indians, "that the act simply appropriated money to defray the expense of removal, but did not provide that they should be re- moved." On the receipt of this information the Indians at once left the camp and went about their usnal work, cutting wood, harvesting, picking hops and berries, and whatever they could get to do.

The special agent, being without Indians to trans- port, secured the assistance of United States troops from Fort Snelling, who, with the assistance of the civil authorities, corraled the Indians and succeeded in transporting between 700 and 800 of them to Nebraska, where 240 died, and the rest found their way back to Wisconsin in the Spring of 1874. And now about one-half of them are scattered about the State and the other half on their reservation in Nebraska. Many of them are now actual settlers in Portage, Marathon and Jackson counties.

It is claimed that there is now due them from the General Government about $100,000 as their just pro- portion of the annuities due them for their proportion of the payments for their lands.

The Winnebagoes originally came from the South and conquered the territory in Wisconsin, which they occupied for perhaps 300 years, from the Sacs and Foxes.

This sketch embraces a brief history of this tribe since the advent of the white settlers upon their domain.

EARLY HISTORY.

The history of Portage County is intimately con- nected with the lumbering business on the Wisconsin River from its very first commencement.

Fort Winnebago, at Portage, between the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, was built by lumber got out on a small island in the Wisconsin River, a few miles above, and floated down. What little sawing was required was done by hand.

At the request of John Jacob Astor, the head of the American Fur Company, a military post was estab- lished at the Portage, where there had been a trading post for several years occupied by Peter Pauquette, the agent; John Kinzie, the sub-agent ; and Francis Le Roy and a few half-breeds. The exactions of the Winnebagoes, who believed in a high tariff for revenue, seemed to demand this military occupation.

The troops came in the Fall of 1828, and the lumber alluded to was floated down in the Spring of 1829, which marks the time of the first log driving on the Wisconsin River, and it was under the direction of Major Twiggs, afterward the general of Mexican war fame.

The next lumbering operations, and practically the beginning of the business on the. Wisconsin River, which was then Indian Territory, was in 1831, by Daniel Whitney, of Green Bay, who obtained a permit from the War Department, which then had control of such matters, as the Interior Department had not then been created, to build a saw-mill and cut timber on the river. The mill was erected in 1831-2, at Whit- ney's Rapids, below Point Bas.

In 1836 Amable Grignon and Samuel Merrill ob- tained a like permit and built a mill at Grignon's Rapids.

The establishment of these mills, foreboding the more extens ve encroachments of civilization, excited the apprehension of the Indians and they began to make serious complaints to the Government agents, and a treaty was made with the Menomonees in 1836, at Cedar Point, on the Fox River, by Gov. Dodge, by which the Indian title was extinguished to a strip of land up the Wisconsin, six miles wide, from Point Bas, forty miles up the stream, to what is now Wausau.

The great demand and high price for lumber down the stream had stimulated the business to a consider- able extent. Exploring parties immediately went up the river, and during the years 1837-8 and '39 every eligible place on the river as far as Big Bull Falls, was occupied.

Bloomer & Strong and George Cline secured Grand Rapids ; Fay, Kingston & Draper occupied Biron's Rapids ; A, Brawley was at Mill Creek; Perry & Veeder were on the same stream ; Conant & Campbell were located at Conant's Rapids ; on the Plover, at McGreer's Rapids, were Harper & McGreer.

Such was the activity on the river that these parties had all commenced in 1837.

The depressing panic of that year prevented new enterprises until 1839, when John L. Moore began op-

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HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.

erations at Little Bull Falls, now Mosinee, and Geo. Stevens at Big Bull Falls, now Wausau.

The tract ceded in the Cedar Point treaty was or- dered surveyed in 1839, and it was accomplished by Joshua Hathaway, of Milwaukee. The whole tract was offered for sale in 1840 at Mineral Point. Since that time for forty years there has been a constant sup- ply of lumber to furnish the business below.

The first family to locate in the original county of Portage, now Columbia County, was that of Wallace Rowan, who entered a quarter section of land near what is now the village of Poynette, in Columbia County, at the land office in Green Bay on the sixth day of June, 1836. He had a double log house and was engaged in trade with the Indians, and being on the military road between Prairie du Chien and Fort Howard via Fort Winnebago, he also enter- tained travelers, whom he and wife and his daughters always strove to make as comfortable as possible.

John B. DuBay's father, who was an old Indian trader, claimed that he spent a Winter, in 1790, at the very place where his son subsequently located at Du Bay's Trading Post, as it is still called, some twelve miles above Stevens Point, and where he yet lives.

In 1840, although most, if not all the mill sites on the upper Wisconsin, as it was then called, had been secured, the number of persons within the limits of what is now Portage County, was small. Those who are remembered as being in the county at that time were, John Boucher, Valentine Brown, Porter Bar- nard, Abraham Brawley Gilbert Conant, Peter Cane, Daniel Campbell, John Eckels, John G. Hebbard, Thomas Harper, James Harper, Horace Judd, H. W. Kingsburn, Solomon Leach, Th. McDill, Hugh Mc- Greer, E. H. Metcalf, Orrin Maybee, Charles Maddy, A. M. McCauley, Antoine Pricourt, Conrad Rather- man, John Raish, Solomon Storey, James Sitherwood and Richard Veeder.

The fame of the Wisconsin pineries spread far and wide, and the opening of the six mile strip was exten- sively known, and settlement from Southern Wiscon- sin and Northern Illinois was rapid.

S. A. Sherman came to Plover in October, 1848. A. L. Sherman and Charles P. Rice staked out their claims at a mere venture as to boundaries, as there had been no survey.

General Albert Galatin Ellis is supposed to be the oldest settler living in Wisconsin, having come with the New York Indians to Green Bay in September, 1822, whence he came to Stevens Point.

John R. Mitchell and Fannie Luther were the first couple married by E. G. Bean, magistrate. Mrs. M. Bliss was the first school teacher.

The early experience of S. A. Sherman is thus stated by himself :

"On the 5th of October, 1848, I left Worcester, Mass., to go West, taking Greeley's advice. I took the cars to Schenectady, and from there to Buffalo, by packet on the Erie Canal ; from Buffalo to Milwaukee with the noted Capt. Blake on the steamer ' Nile ;' ar- rived at Milwaukee on the 14th. After stopping three or four days, I fell in with Charles P. Rice and my cousin, A. L. Sherman, and came through with them to Plover. I arrived at Plover on the 25th of Octo-

ber. From Strong's Landing (now Berlin) to Plover there was not a house. While I was in Milwaukee, a treaty had been concluded with the Indians for all of this territory known as the Indian Lands. When we arrived at Plover, we were the first to bring the news of this treaty. Our nearest post-office was Portage City, and mail came only once in two weeks. The next day after our arrival, Rice, A. L. Sherman and myself went out to what was called Little Prairie, and each of us made a claim and were the first who made a claim in this country. There never having been a survey made, we stuck our corner stakes at random, then paced off and stuck the others. The claim I made was what is now known as the John Morgan farm, in Stockton ; but I have never been to look up the corner stakes since. At about this time, Matt. and John Campbell started a small store at Stevens Point and employed me to put up some shelves to hold their goods. In going to the Point I took the wrong track and got lost, but upon hearing some one chopping I went in that direction and came to a small hill or knoll, covered with brush, with some graves upon it ; I then saw the river and discovered my whereabouts. That knoll is now in the thickest settled part of the city of Stevens Point, and about where Dr. Rood's house stands. That night I was stowed away in the attic of the building, with Dr. Phillips as bedfellow, where we put in a long and tedious night, contesting our claim with an army of bed-bugs, but by perseverance and good generalship we held the fort and came out victo- rious. On my return to the county seat, I found per- sons fitting themselves out for an exploring expedition to look up water power for mill sites. I joined the party for the Wolf River, consisting of William Dun- ter, Goolsbery, Dave Lacount and others. Another party, consisting of Miner, Weston and Kingston, went to the Yellow River, and located at Necedah. At this time, the excitement in making claims was mostly for mill sites and hotels, the supplies for the pinery being brought from Illinois and Southern Wisconsin, and the country being considered of but little account for farm- ing purposes. Mr. Hartwell and Franklin were the first to experiment in farming in the pinery. On my return from the expedition, which was the hardest siege I ever experienced, I found Mitchell & Brown, who were keeping a hotel at Stevens Point, had made a claim at Buena Vista and erected a board shanty. Sherman & Rice were keeping a hotel at the county seat, at what is now called the Empire. At that time, it was the only house north of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers that was plastered or painted, or had chimneys. Before reaching home, I met them with a load of lum- ber, on their way to make a claim at the forks of the road leading to Berlin and Portage City. I built the building for them, which was the first frame building put up on the Indian land. This was near where the thriving village of Plainfield is now located. Mitchell and Brown went on beyond us four miles to the four lakes on the Berlin road, and built another set of shan- ties, making three hotels they were running. Then I went on beyond there to the edge of Big Prairie and made a claim and built a shanty, and stopped in it over night. In the Spring, I went down the river on lum- ber to Galena. On my return, I visited my claim, and

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HISTORY OF NORTHERN WISCONSIN.

found a man by the name of Firman had jumped it, so I sold out to him. And that claim is the one that Fir- man and Cartwright had so much trouble about, and which cost them and two others, Troop and Langdon, their lives. Shortly after that, I built a house on Lit- tle Prairie for Jolin L. Moore, which was the first house in Stockton. There being so much strife abont hotel- keeping, and just after the battle of Buena Vista, in Mexico, we named Mitchell & Brown's first shanties Buena Vista, and the place has gone by that name ever since. We also named Lone Pine. In 1850, I went East, and married in '51. Moved to Fond du Lac in 1852, and ran the first planing mill there and north of Milwaukee. Moved to this place in 1853, bought Gil- bert Conant out, and built at the Bloomer Rapids, about half a mile below Conant's, where I now reside."

THE WHITE PINE.

A few words in relation to this tree, the object of the early settlement of most of Northern Wisconsin : Unlike the oak and most other trees, the pine is not reproductive ; when a generation matures or is cut off, it will not again produce a crop on the same soil. It is confined to its peculiar territory, and when we re- member that the average age of a pine tree is only about 300 years, is seen that our pine forests were not in existence when Columbus discovered America.

The pine evidently succeeded some growth that could not be reproduced, and it evidently exhausts the soil of the special material for its growth, leaving it, however, in a condition to grow oak and a variety of other productions. In the growth of a pine forest, there is a constant death and decay of inferior or over- shadowed trees, and comparatively a small number come to a condition suitable for the Inmberman's ax. The pine has several causes of decay. There are no known insects that originate decay, but several that hasten it, when once started from any cause.

The three most prominent causes of decay in the pine are punk or rot, wind-shakes and loose knots. The punk is a kind of cancerous growth on the side of a tree, that eats into its very vitals. A low state of vitality will produce it. The black knot is a decayed limb that has not been closely grown around, and in- duces decay. The wind-shake is a most exasperating defeet of lumber, occurring near the butt, and is caused by the bending of the tree in high winds, when the annual growths are separated by sliding upon each other.

Another external enemy of the pine is fire. A pine tree that has been scorched must be promptly utilized, or the insects will render it useless. Among these is the pine weevil, tornicus zylographus, who goes for a sound tree, but not a live one. There is another worm that goes straight to the heart, leaving a small black hole. The hurricane may also be stated as one of the causes of destruction.

A full-grown pine is from ninety to 160 feet high, averaging 125. A log sixteen feet long will average 250 feet of Inmber, although some have yielded ten times this amount. The roots of a tree are supposed to equal one-half the lumber above ground. The di- ameter of a log averages thirty inches ; sometimes it is

six feet. A pine, as found standing in the forest, has branches for the top third of its height.

The task of reproducing the pine forests that are now falling with such remorseless rapidity, is a hope- less one, and science and art will combine to produce a substitute, for it is only a question of time as to when an article made of so common a material as pine, shall be eagerly sought after as a curiosity, to be carefully preserved among the bric-a-brac of future generations.

In years to come, when the pine lumber which is so plentiful to-day may have been superseded by a mate- rial resulting from the combined art and skill of the chemist and mechanic, it will be interesting to read an account of the peculiarities of lumbering on the Wis- consin ; the hazardous, uncertain and excitable part of which is even now among the things that were, having been supplanted by railway transportation al- most exclusively.

Realizing the rapidity with which old things are passing away and all things becoming new, the meth- ods of conducting the lumbering operations on the Wisconsin will be here recorded.

Lands are purchased up the river by the various lumber companies, who send an expert to estimate the amount of lumber per acre. This is done in various ways; the most simple is to count the trees, noting their average size, and by well tried rules estimating three, four or more trees to the thousand feet, arrive at a close approximation of the yield. On the ap- proach of Winter, camps are sent into the woods-so many teams, so many men, so much feed and so much provision. Contracts are sometimes made at a cer- tain price per thousand. The logs are cut in lengths of twelve, fourteen and sixteen feet, and exceptionally longer for specific purposes; hauled to the river to await the breaking-up of the ice and the rise in the river, in the Spring. Every lumberman has a regis- tered mark, which is one or more initials or some other device, which is cut into the log. When the freshet comes on, the logs consigned to the stream float on with the current; but in the sometimes nar- row and tortuous stream there is not infrequently a jam, where millions of feet will be piled up, tier upon tier, to finally break loose and, with the ac- companying flood, hurry on, to be caught in the booms below. The boom is a floating dam kept in position by piers or wing rudders, which can be ad- justed to maintain its position by the current itself. From the boom connected with the mill, the logs are hauled up by various devices, and sawed into timber, scantling or boards, as it will best work up. The boards are sawed one and one-eighth of an inch thick, so that they can be dressed down to one inch with little waste. The old New England method of marking the number of feet upon the board is not followed here. The manner of shipping by the river, formerly the only method of getting lumber to market, was by means of rafts, after being sawed. A raft was formed in this way : The lumber is laid up in cribs composed of three grub planks at the bottom, about five feet apart, with three two-inch auger holes to insert the grub-pins of hard wood, four feet long. The crib is made up this way 12x16 feet, or twelve feet square,

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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