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 8

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 8

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

" From the day after our landing, we put our axes to the wood; on the fourth day following, the fort was entirely finished. It is a square plat of one hundred feet, sur- rounded by pickets twelve feet long, with two good bas- tions. For so small a space, there are large buildings, quite distant and not huddled together, each thirty, thirty-eight and twenty-five feet long by sixteen feet wide. All would go well there if the spot were not inundated; but this year [1728], on the fifteenth of the month of April, we were obliged to camp out, and the water ascended to the height of two feet eight inches in the houses, and it was idle to say that it was the quantity of snow that fell this year. The snow in the vicinity had melted long before, and there was absolutely only a foot and a half from the 8th of February to the 15th of March ; all the rest of the Winter you could not use snow-shoes. I have great reason to think that this spot is inundated more or less every year ; I have always thought so; but they were not obliged to believe me, as old people, who said they had lived fifteen or twenty years, declared that it was never overflowed. We could not enter our much- devastated houses till the thirtieth of the same month of April, and the disorder is scarcely repaired even now. Before the end of October, all the houses were finished and fur- nished, and each one found himself tranquilly lodged at home. They then thought only of going out to explore the neighboring hills and rivers, to see those herds of all kinds of deer, of which they tell such stories in Canada. They must have retired or diminished greatly since the time that the old voyageurs left the country; they are no longer in such great numbers, and are killed with diffi- culty.

"After beating the field for some time, all re-assembled at the fort, and thought only of enjoying the fruits of their labors. On the fourth of the month of November, we did not forget that it was the General's birthday. Mass was said for him in the morning, and they were well-disposed to celebrate the day in the evening, but the tardiness of the pyrotechnists and the inconstancy of the weather, caused them to postpone the celebration to the fourteenth of the same month, when they let off some very fine rockets, and made the air ring with a hundred shouts of Vive le Roi, and Vive Charles de Beauharnais. It was on this occasion that wine of the Sioux was broached ; it was par excellence, although there are no vines here finer than in Canada. What contributed much to the amusement was the terror of some cabins of Indians, who were, at the time, around the fort. When these poor people saw the fire-works in the air, and the stars fall from heaven, the women and children began to take flight, and the most courageous of the men to cry mercy, and implore us very earnestly to stop the sur- prising play of the wonderful medicine.

"As soon as we arrived among them, they assembled in a few days around the French fort to the number of ninety-

.Undoubtedly an error In translation or printing. It should read. 44º, 41 .

HISTORY OF NORTHERN WISCONSIN.

five caluns, which might make, in all, one hundred and fifty men ; for there are at most two men in their portable cabins of dressed skins, and in many there is only one. This is all that we have seen, except a band of about sixty men, who came on the twenty- sixth of the month of February, who were of those nations called Sioux of the Prairies.

"At the end of November the Indians set out for their Winter quarters; they do not, indeed, go far, and we saw some of them all through the Winter ; but from the second of the month of April last, when some cabins re-passed here 10 go in search of them, we sought them in vain, during a week, for more than sixty leagues up the Mississippi. We arrived yesterday without any tidings of them. Although I said above, that the Sioux were alarmed at the rockets, which they took for new phenomena, it must not be sup- posed from that they are less intelligent than other Indians we know. They seem to me more so, at least they are much gayer and open, apparently, and far more dexterous thieves, great dancers and great medicine men. The men are almost all large and well made; but the women are very ugly and disgusting, which, however, does not check debauchery among them, and is, perhaps, an effect of it."

The subsequent events of this region are of great interest, but we are especially in the dark as to the movements of the party at Fort Beauharnais. In spite of Guignas's opinion of the Foxes, they continued to be hostile, and in 1728, the year of this letter, De Ligneris marched against them. The traders had pre- viously withdrawn, to a great extent, from Fort Beau- harnais, and Father Guignas, in attempting to reach the Illinois country, fell into the hands of the Mascou- tins and Kickapoos, who sided with the Foxes, and remained a prisoner for five months, narrowly escaping a death by torture at the stake. His eaptors then took him to the Illinois country, and left him there on parole till November, 1729, when they led him back to their town. Nothing has yet appeared to show whether he then returned to the fort, or whether he made his way to some other French post. In 1736, he again appears on Lake Pepin, with M. de St. Pierre, perhaps the same to whom Washington, at a later date, presented Dinwiddie's letter. Nothing is known of his later history.

French traders reached this point at intervals, for a number of years thereafter-probably until near the commencement of the war between France and Great Britain in 1755; after which the Mississippi seems to have been virtually abandoned by the French. Jona- than Carver was the first to ascend the Mississippi after the country had passed under the control of the English. He visited this region with a view of ascer- taining favorable situations for new settlements. He left Mackinaw in 1766, pursuing his journey by way of Green Bay and the Fox and Wisconsin rivers to the mouth of the last named, where near by he found the Indian village called by the French " La Prairies les Chiens," signifying " Dog Plains," now written Prairie du Chien.

"On the ist of November, I arrived at Lake Pepin, which is rather an extended part of the river Mississippi, that the French have thus denominated, about two hun- dred miles from the Ouisconsin. The Mississippi below this lake flows with a gentle current, but the breadth of it is very uncertain, in some places it being upwards of a

mile, in others not more than a quarter. This river has a range of mountains on each side throughout the whole of the way ; which in particular parts approach near to it; in others, lie at greater distance. -

"About sixty miles below this lake is a mountain re- markably situated; for it stands by itself exactly in the middle of the river, and looks as if it had slidden from the adjacent shore into the stream. It can not be termed an island, as it rises immediately from the brink of the water to a considerable height. Both the Indians and the French call it, the Mountain in the River [Trempealean].

"One day I walked some miles below Lake Pepin, to take a view of the adjacent country. I had not proceeded far, before I came to a fine, level, open plain, on which I perceived, at a little distance, a partial elevation that had the appearance of an intrenchment. On a nearer inspec- tion I had greater reason to suppose that it had really been intended for this many centuries ago. Notwithstanding it was now covered with grass, I could plainly discern that it had once been a breastwork of about four feet in height, extending the best part of a mile and sufficiently capacious to cover five thousand men. Its form was somewhat circu- lar, and its flanks reached to the river. Though much de- faced by time, every angle was distinguishable and appeared as regular, and fashioned with as much military skill, as if planned by Vauban himself. The ditch was not visible, but I thought on examining more curiously, that I could perceive there certainly had been one. From its situation, also, I am convinced that it must have been designed for this purpose. It fronted the country, and the rear was covered by the river ; nor was there any rising ground for a considerable way that commanded it; a few straggling oaks were alone to be seen near it. In many places small tracks were worn across it by the feet of the elks and deer, and from the depth of the bed of earth by which it was covered, I was able to draw certain conclusions of its great antiquity. I examined all the angles and every part with great attention, and have often blamed myself since, for not encamping on the spot, and drawing an exact plan of it. To show that this description is not the offspring of a heated imagination, or the chimerical tale of a mistaken traveler, I find on inquiry since my return, that Mons. St. Pierre and several traders have, at different times, taken notice of similar appearances, on which they have formed the same conjectures, but without examining them so mi- nutely as I did."

No other explorer has given an account of the Mis- sissippi River above the Wisconsin in the years which follow Carver's visit down to the time of the taking possession of the country by the United States; but the General Government soon determined to be placed in possession of facts concerning the Upper Mississippi compatible with exercising jurisdiction over it.

In the year 1805, Major Z. M. Pike, of the Sixth Infantry, U. S. A., was delegated by his official superi- ors to " trace the Mississippi to its sonree." He set out from St. Louis in August of that year, with a party consisting of three officers and seventeen men. He was accompanied by Lieutenant James Wilkinson and Dr. John H. Robinson. The record left by this officer is so circumstantial and so easy of access withal, that the account of the exploration of the Mississippi in this volume may properly end here with a reference to that journal. Since the beginning of the present century, the student of history will find few obstacles in the prosecution of his work.

HISTORY OF NORTHERN WISCONSIN.

THE TERRITORIAL PERIOD.

The nature and especial purpose of this work pre- cludes the elaboration of Territorial and State history. The greater portion of the region herein described was in a state of wildness when Wisconsin was created a Territory, and therefore little of the business trans- acted by the earlier sessions of the legislatures applied to the northern portion of the present State. Green Bay was included, but that section, like all others treated of herein, receives detailed attention in the fol- lowing portions of the work. It is the design of. this record to omit those generalizations which are easy of access, and devote the entire space to the elaboration of county or local histories. Therefore the period of time embraced within the years 1787-1848, the end of Territorial Government, is dismissed with few words, and the subsequent era of State existence is not taken up at all. Unless full and accurate work is done, the time devoted to an historical record is valueless ; and since the history of the counties includes a history of northern Wisconsin as a vast section of an immense commonwealth, it would be but a vague iteration of facts to attempt here to give an outline sketch of the State.

The political epochs of Wisconsin, being those peri- ods of distinct jurisdiction over this region from the passage of the Ordinance of 1787 to the time of the erection of a State, are as follows :

The Northwest Territory proper (1787-1800), hav- ing jurisdiction over all the lands referred to in the Ordinance of 1787. In this tract Wisconsin was included. Ohio was set out as a State in 1802.

Indiana Territory was formed July 4, 1800, with Vincennes as its capital, and Wisconsin was under that political division.

Michigan Territory was formed June 30, 1805. It was bounded on the south by a line drawn east from the south bend of Lake Michigan, on the west by the center of Lake Michigan. It did not include Wiscon- sin. The upper peninsula was annexed in 1836. The State of Michigan was formed January 26, 1837, with its present boundaries.

Illinois Territory was formed March 2, 1810. It included all of the Indiana Territory west of the Wa- bash River and Vincennes and a line running due north to the Territorial line. All of Wisconsin was included therein, except what lay east of the line drawn north from Vincennes.

Indiana was admitted as a State April 19, 1816, in- cluding all of the territory of Indiana Territory, except a narrow strip east of the line of Vincennes, and west of Michigan Territory, her western boundary.

Illinois was admitted as a State April 11, 1818. All of Wisconsin was added to Michigan Territory, Illinois extending northward only to 42 30'.

The counties of Michilimackinac, in the present State of Michigan, and Brown and Crawford - being all of now Wisconsin-were formed in October, 1818. Iowa-as much as was then ceded to the United States -was attached, for judicial and political purposes, June 30, 1834.

Wisconsin Territory was formed April 20, 1836. The State of Wisconsin was created May 29, 1848.

Wisconsin Territory originally embraced the area of Wisconsin, lowa, Minnesota and a part of Dakota. The counties were Brown, Milwaukee, Iowa, Crawford, Dubuque and Des Moines, with a portion of Chippewa and Michilimackinac. The jurisdiction of Michigan Territory over the new Territory ceased on July 4, 1836.

April 30, 1836, President Jackson commissioned Henry Dodge, Governor of Wisconsin. The remaining officers were: John S. Horner, Secretary ; Charles Dunn, Chief Justice; David Irvin and William C. Frazer, Associate Judges ; W. W. Chapman, Attorney ; Francis Gehon, Marshal.

The census taken in 1836 gave Des Moines County 6,257; Iowa County. 5,234; Dubuque County 4,274; Milwaukee County 2,893 ; Brown County 2,706 ; Craw- ford County 850; making a total in Wisconsin proper, 11,683, and in the entire region, 22,214. Under this appointment Brown and Milwaukee counties each received two Councilmen and three Representatives ; Iowa County three Councilmen and six Representa- tives, while Crawford two Representatives, but no Councilmen. The members chosen were : to the Coun- cil, Henry S. Baird and John Arndt, from Brown; Gilbert Knapp and Alanson Sweet from Milwaukee ; E. Brigham, J. B. Terry and J. R. Vineyard from Iowa ; to the House, Ebenezer Childs, A. G. Ellis and A. J. Irwin from Brown ; W. B. Sheldon, M. W. Cornwall and Charles Durkee from Milwaukee; James H. Lock- wood and James B. Dallam from Crawford ; William Boyles, G. F. Smith, D. M. Parkinson, T. McKnight, T. Shanley and J. P. Cox from Iowa County. Bel- mont, in the present La Fayette County, was chosen as the seat of government. October 26, 1836, was the time of the first session. Henry S. Baird was elected President of the Council.

The judicial districts were : First, Crawford and Iowa, Chief Justice Dunn ; Second, west of the Mis- sissippi, Judge Irvin ; Third, Brown and Milwaukee, Judge Frazer.

Madison was chosen as the permanent capital-the seat being temporarily removed to Burlington, Iowa. At the first session the counties of Walworth, Racine, Jefferson, Dane, Portage, Dodge, Washington, Sheboy- gan, Fond du Lac, Calumet, Manitowoc, Marquette, Rock, Green and Grant were defined and established.

George W. Jones, of Sinsinawa Mound, was elected Delegate to Congress.

The first session of the Supreme Court was held at Belmont, December 8, 1836. Charles Dunn, Chief Justice ; David Irvin, Associate ; John Catlin, Clerk ; Henry S. Baird, Attorney General.

The second session of the first Legislature was held at Burlington, now the county seat of Des Moines County, Iowa. Among the resolutions passed was one asking Congress to appropriate twenty thousand dol- lars and two townships of land for a " University of Wisconsin." The land-forty-six thousand and eighty acres - was subsequently granted, but the money was not. The State buildings were put under contract in April, 1838. The only change thus far in Territorial officers was that of William B. Slaughter, for J. S. Horner, Secretary, which was made February 16, 1837. June 19, 1838, Edward James was commissioned Mar-

HISTORY OF NORTHERN WISCONSIN.

shal, and July 5, Moses M. Strong was appointed United States Attorney.

July 3, 1838. the region west of the Mississippi was set off as a separate Territory, and named Iowa. The population of the eastern or Wisconsin counties at that time was 18,149.

The first session of the Supreme Court at Madison after the re-organization of the Territory was held on the third Monday of July, 1838. In September of that year, James Duane Doty was elected Delegate to Con- gress from Wisconsin. On the 8th of November, Andrew G. Miller was appointed Associate Judge of the Supreme Court, to succeed Judge Frazer who died at Milwaukee, October 18.

On the 25th of November, 1838, the Legislature met for the first time in Madison-being the first session under the re-organized condition of affairs, but the second Legislature in reality.

On March 8, 1839, Henry Dodge was re-commis- sioned Governor by the President of the United States. James Duane Doty re-elected Delegate to Congress, taking his seat December 8, 1840. Francis J. Dunn succeeded Mr. Slaughter as Secretary of the Territory January 25, 1841, but was himself succeeded, April 23, following, by A. P. Field. On the 15th of March, Daniel Hugunin was commissioned Marshal, and April 27, T. W. Sutherland was appointed Attorney. Sep- tember 13, Governor Dodge was removed by President Tyler, and James Duane Doty appointed in his place. Henry Dodge was thereupon elected to Congress to fill that vacancy, taking his seat December 7, 1841. Oc- tober 30, 1843, George Floyd was appointed Secretary of the Territory. On the 21st of June, 1844, N. P. Tallmadge received the appointment of Governor, and August 31, Charles M. Prevost that of Marshal. April 8, 1845, President Polk re-instated Henry Dodge in the gubernatorial office. The official changes this year were: March 14, John B. Rockwell as Marshal ; July 14, W. P. Lynde as Attorney; Morgan L. Martin as Delegate to Congress, to succeed Henry Dodge. On January 22, 1846, A. Ilyatt Smith became Attorney, and John Catlin was named as Secretary, February 24. Jolin H. Tweedy was elected Delegate, September6, 1847.

On the 27th of September, 1847, Governor Dodge issued a proclamation for a special session of the Legislature, to commence on the eighteenth of the ensuing month, to take action concerning the admis- sion of Wisconsin to the Union as a State. The Con- stitutional Convention met at Madison, December 15, 1847. The Constitution then provided was ratified by the people on the second Monday of March, 1848. On the 29th of May, 1848. Wisconsin became a State.

region now known as the State of Wisconsin, and the several peaceful treaties by which governmental title was gained, as well as the changes in national domina- tion by purchase or warfare, are briefly given in the following paragraphs.

The year 1634 witnessed the arrival of the first European at a point west of Lake Michigan. Jean Nieolet came hither to confirm a state of peace be- tween the French and the Winnebago Indians. This

overture was made at Green Bay. In furtherance of the plan, the Jesuits attempted to found a mission at La Pointe, in the present county of Ashland, on Lake Superior. in 1660. The French Government realized the importance of possessing formal rights over the new Northwest, and so, in 1670, Daumont de St. Lusson, with Nicholas Perrot as interpreter, started from Quebec for the purpose of inviting all tribes within a circuit of a hundred leagues of Sault Ste. Marie, to meet him in council at that place the follow- ing Spring. This invitation included the Indians of Wisconsin. In accordance with this request, fourteen tribes, including the Winnebagoes and Menomonees, assembled at the Sault Ste. Marie, in May, 1671. There St. Lusson planted a cedar post on the top of the hill, and loudly proclaimed the entire Northwest under the protecting ægis of his royal master, Louis XIV. This act not appearing sufficiently definite, on the 8th of May, 1689, Perrot, then commanding at the post of Nadousioux, near Lake Pepin, west of the Mississippi, commissioned by the Marquis de Denon- ville to conduct the interests of commerce west of Green Bay, took possession of the counties west of Lake Michigan, as far as the St. Peter River, in the name of France. For ninety years the ownership and dominion over these lands remained unquestioned. The white men who knew by personal experience of this country were few in numbers and devoted to fur trading or commerce with the Indians. No attention was paid to agriculture, nor did the Government offer a suggestion to induce settlement by men of humble birth. A few grants of land were made to French governors, or commanders. Within the limits of this State an extensive grant was made, including the fort at Green Bay, with exclusive right to trade, and other valuable privileges, from the Marquis de Vaudreuil to M. Rigaud, in October, 1759. It was sold by the lat- ter to William Gould and Madame Vaudreuil, to whom the King of France confirmed it in January, 1760, at a time when Quebec had been taken by the British, and only Montreal was wanting to complete the con- quest of Canada. The grant was not confirmed by the British Government.

The victory of English arms in Canada, in 1760, terminated French rule in the valley of the St. Law- rence ; and the consequent treaty of Paris, concluded February 10, 1763, transferred the mastership of the vast Northwest to the Government of Great Britain. The first acts of.the new possessors were to protect the eminent domain from those ambitions men who sought to acquire wide estates through manipulation of Indian titles. A royal proclamation was made in THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. 1763, interdicting direct transfer of lands by Indians. This wise policy has since been substantially adhered The arbitrary assumption of authority over the_ to by the Government of the United States.

For many years maps of the Northwest contained what purported to be the boundaries of a grant from the natives to Jonathan Carver, covering a tract nearly one hundred miles square, and extending over portions of northern Wisconsin and Minnesota. The history of this graut forms one of the most noted pages in an- nals of congressional legislation. In the face of the proclamation of 1763, and within three years after its promulgation, Jonathan Carver made claim to owner-

HISTORY OF NORTHERN WISCONSIN.

ship of this immense tract, through purchase or volun- tary grant of the aborigines. He solicited a confirma- tion of his title at the hands of the king and his council. This was, of course, denied. After the establishment of American independence the represen- tatives of Carver made application to Congress for approval of the claim. This has been repeatedly de- nied.

The terms of peace between France and England provided for the security of the French settlers then upon the soil. Subsequent Indian outbreaks occurred in the eastern and more southerly sections of the new Territory, but Wisconsin was not involved in any of those bloody massacres. The expedition of Col. George Rogers Clark to the Illinois country, in 1778-79, opened the way for the tide of Anglo- American emigration to the Mississippi. At the term- ination of the Revolutionary War, Great Britain re- nounced all claim to the lands lying east of the Mis- sissippi River. As Clark's expedition was undertaken under the auspices of Virginia, that commonwealth laid elaim to the so-called " Illinois country." It is a popular statement with some writers that Wisconsin was included in this general term, and was therefore once under the government of Virginia; but better authorities maintain that such is not the fact. There were but two settlements then existing in Wisconsin : Green Bay and Prairie du Chien. These places were in the hands of French residents, and, being undis- turbed, were really under the authority of Great Britain. They so remained, with the territory now composing this State, under the terms of the definite treaty of peace of 1783, between the English Govern- ment and the United States, until 1796, at which date Great Britain yielded her domination over the Western posts. The several elaiming States of the American Union ceded their individual rights to the General Government, at different periods, ranging from 1783 to 1785, thereby vesting complete title in the United States, so far as they could.

A period is now reached where the public domain is held by the United States save only those elaims pos- sessed by right of occupation by the Indians, and which could not be gainsaid or ignored by any nomi- nal assumption of rights by the Government.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

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