The history of Columbia county, Wisconsin, containing an account of its settlement, Part 59

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899, [from old catalog] ed; Western historical company, chicago, pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company
Number of Pages: 1104

USA > Wisconsin > Columbia County > The history of Columbia county, Wisconsin, containing an account of its settlement > Part 59

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).

*Chou-ke-ka lived to sign the treaty at St. Louis, June 3, 1816, and probably died not long after his return .- L. C. D.

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concluded I should see a little fun before their separation. I was not long kept in suspense, for the last fellow, having knocked off as much stone as he wanted, caught his horse and prepared to depart. He was not as large as the Sioux Indian, but he was splendidly dressed, after the manner of the Pyeur or Pillager, Chippewa chief, and was armed like the Sioux, with bow and arrow and shield. The Sioux, when he saw the Pyeur or Pillager preparing to depart, made like preparations, and the two left the bluffs together, keeping company until they were about three hundred yards distant from the rock. Then I saw the Sioux, keeping a little back, shoot an arrow at the Pyeur, whom he missed. The Pyeur, turning as quick as lightning, was ready for the fray. They were both good horsemen, but the Pyeur understood how best to guard himself and his horse. He succeeded in killing the horse of his enemy, sent an arrow into the heart of the Sioux, killing him on the spot. I ran down the bluff as fast as I could, but before I came up to him the Sioux was dead, scalped, and the Pyeur had mounted his horse and departed. I never learned the names of either of them.

I joined my partners. We wintered at the River St. Croix, and thence we went over to Canada. In the winter of 1832, I engaged myself as clerk to the American Fur Company ; and, early in the spring, we came West with 110 hired men for the company. Some were destined for Lake Superior, and some for Missouri. We came to Mackinaw in boats, and I remained a few weeks at that place. Then I took my departure in the schooner Nancy Dous- man. The passengers were H. L. Dousman, clerk for the American Fur Company; Maj. De Quant, Madame Coursolle and myself. When we left Mackinaw, in the night, there was a very heavy wind-so strong and rough that I believe I saw the bottom of Lake Michigan. We reached Green Bay about two hours before daylight, and we were obliged to wait two days for the keel-boats to come. Dousman started on horseback, and I took charge of the boat. We came to Kaukana, where there were two men of the name of Paul Ducharme, and a house belonging to Capt. Augustin Grignon ; and when we came to the place where is now the city of Oshkosh, there was a small log house, where Charles Grignon was living, and about four miles above, Nex, son-in-law of Charles Grignon, was residing. About six or seven miles above that, Capt. Grignon was living ; he had goods, and was trading with the Menomonee Indians. From there we came to Lake Puckaway, where there was a trader of the name of Luther Gleason, having a Winnebago woman for a wife. There was no house between Gleason's and the portage.

The fort was beginning to look very respectable, and there was a nice frame house for the sub-agent, on the same side as the post of the American Fur Company. There was another house, where William Gourdain, the blacksmith, was living; and still another, occupied by Louis Managre. At the other end of the portage, a little north of the landing, Pierre Grignon resided, half-brother to Capt. Grignon.

In the summer, about the 10th or 12th of July, I went, with Peter Pauqnette, Kau-kish- ka-ka, or White Crow, commander of the Indians, Rascal De-kau-ry, Pa-nee-wah-sa-ka, or Pawnee Blanc, and a dozen other Winnebagoes, to the Fox and Sauk war. We joined Col. Dodge, accompanied by a detachment of soldiers from the portage, under Lieut. Hooe,* per- haps the whole of his company. We went to Rock River, found the enemy's trail and followed it to the Heights of Wisconsin ; there we overtook Col. Dodge and Gen. Henry, and found the Indians. The battle began on the 21st of July, at 5 or 6 o'clock in the afternoon, the rain setting in about the commencement of the battle, and did not stop until after a heavy fall, about 11 at night.

Peter Pauquette, the interpreter, having received orders that we, the Indian party, should return to the portage, we started off in the night and arrived there in the morning. A few days after, I went over to the village of Car-a-mau-nee, or the Counselor of the Baraboo, a little north of where the present village of that name is located. I went and saw the Devil's Lake, which is a little south of the village of Baraboo. The lake is surrounded by high bluffs.

* Alexander Seymour Hooe, of Virginia, was a cadet from 1823 to 1827, when he entered the army as a Brevet Second Lieutenant. H . became First Lieutenant in 1833; a Captain in 1838; Brevet Major, for gallant and distinguished conduct in the battles of Palo Alto arul Resaca de la Palma, May 9, 1846 ; lost an arm in August following; died at Baton Rouge, La., December 9, 1847. L. C. D.

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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY.

and I could not see the sun until about 10 or 11 o'clock in the forenoon, and it would disappear from view about 2 or 3 o'clock, so hemmed in by bluffs is this romantic body of water. The Indians gave it the name of Holy Water, declaring that there is a spirit or manitou that resides there. I saw a quantity of tobacco that the Indians had deposited there for the manitou. The French voyageurs denominated it the Devil's Lake, from the sound resembling hammering and tinkling of a bell that we hear all the time, and from the darkness of the place.

From there, I went to a Winnebago town called the Little Sioux's Village, perhaps three- fourths of a mile above the present village of Reedsburg; and thence I proceeded to the Lemonweir River-Ca-na-man-woi Sepe-which means a child, or affluent.

L'Espagnol, the Menomonee chief, who served in the war of 1812-15, lived almost oppo- site where Mauston is now situated. Near there, I met with Chaetar, who subsequently died at Turkey River, and One-Eyed De-kau-ry ; they were bringing with them, as prisoners, the Prophet and Black Hawk, whom they had taken at the Big Dells,* a little above the mouth of the Dell Creek. Black Hawk's camp was between two rocks, on the west side of the river, close to the water. The Prophet only was with him in his lodge, and they made no resistance when told that they were wanted. This camp was a mile and a half or two miles above Kil- bourn City. Chaetar and One-Eyed De-kau-ry were going to take their prisoners to Gen. John M. Street, the Winnebago Indian agent at Prairie du Chien. This was some time pretty well along in August.

When I was stationed at Portage, Pauquette was interpreter, and used to pass boats from Fox River to the Wisconsin, and take the goods in wagons. We had a man that was attacked with the cholera. I left a man to take care of him, and obtained medicine for him from the doctor. I left him in an old house where no one was living, and the others of my party accom- panied me to Prairie du Chien.

Some time in November, there arrived at the portage, from Mackinaw, a boat with a large number of soldiers, some destined for Prairie du Chien, and others for St. Peters, on the Mis- sissippi. Eighty-nine of them were left at the portage. The Captain asked me to furnish him a guide to go down the Wisconsin. I supplied him one, and, the next morning, Peter Pau- quette passed the boat and their goods over the portage. Pauquette had three yoke of oxen to drag the boat from one river to the other. He was the strongest man I ever saw. When he had drawn the boat about a rod from the river with the oxen, one of the oxen broke his bow, and Pauquette sent a man named Bareau to get another. As he thought he was a long time in procuring it, he took the yoke against his shoulder and told the teamster to give the whip to the oxen, and Pauquette kept up his end of the yoke across the portage, where the mud was about knee-deep.+

On the 26th of November, a bark canoe passed the portage, conducted by four men. Judge Doty, afterward Governor, and Ebenezer Childs, Sheriff of Green Bay, took passage in it. As I had occasion to go down the Wisconsin to Prairie du Chien on business, I concluded to accompany them. I went to the landing-place on the Wisconsin, on the west side of the portage, where there was a warehouse belonging to Capt. Daniel Whitney. The same day, the Indians were receiving provisions from the Government, and among them was Chas-ka-ka, or White Ox, whose son had been killed by another Indian two days before. The murderer happened to be there, when the oldest son of White Ox took his rifle and shot the fellow, the ball pass- ing through his stomach and out a little above the right shoulder. The wounded Indian started on a run from the place where he was shot, near the warehouse and near the Fox River bridge. I met him about half-way between the two rivers. He was making wads in his mouth, and with thein plugging up the holes made by the rifle-ball ; but the blood would

* In previous articles on the geological formations of the county and on its rivers, the orthography " Dalles," has been preserved as 'being more in accordance with scientific usage than " Dells," but the spelling as last given is universal In Wisconsin, outside of works on geology, and is the one hereafter used in this history .- Eo.

+ There Is a tradition current in Columbia County that, instead of Panquette's taking " the yoke against his shoulder," he ran a long pole through the ox-how aud seizing hold of the farther end of the pole very easily managed to do his share of the work-taking, as he did, the ox wt a great disadvantage !- ED.

PORTAGE CITY.

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every now and then force out the wads. He succeeded in reaching the other end of the por- tage, near Whitney's warehouse, where his lodge was, and as he reached there he dropped ·dead.

On the 22d of December, Abraham Godin was brought to our post by a Winnebago Indian named Big Fox. Godin was one of the hired men I had engaged in Montreal for the Amercan Fur Company. He had run away, near the mouth of the Wisconsin, from Mr. Rouseaux, the clerk of the company. He was lost twenty-two days. He said that he intended to go to St. Louis. He had with him his gun, and some bags containing his clothes, and a blanket. When he first missed his road, he lived well for a time ; but after his ammunition became exhausted he began to suffer from starvation. He lived upon birds some time ; and some days he had noth-

ing whatever. He came to a lake and found dead fish ; and soon reached another lake where the city of Madison now stands. From there, he walked two days without food ; and then, fortunately, he found the carcass of a deer that the wolves had left, from which he got a supply, such as it was, that lasted him for two days. He then came across an Indian trail, which he followed, without knowing where it would lead him. Godin at length took his course through the woods. Reaching a little creek, he followed it. It was now three days since he had eaten anything; the bottoms of his feet were covered with blisters. He came to a deserted Indian camp where there was an old lodge made of grass and branches, and slept there. The next morning it was impossible for him to walk, his feet were so swelled and blistered, and he was well-nigh starved. He dragged himself out, picked up some branches to cover his body, and commended himself to the mercy of God, and laid down to die. Sleep overcame his ex- hausted nature, nor did he know how long he remained in that condition. When he awoke, he saw an old Indian that was administering to him refreshment with a wooden spoon. The Indian was Big Fox, who remained faithfully with him for two days, permitting him to eat only a little at a time, but very often of venison. He made some medicine for his feet, then left him, show- ing him where there was some venison. When Godin saw the Indian going off he felt very bad, thinking he was about to abandon him to his fate ; but he came back, bringing a horse for him to ride, and conveyed him to his lodge on Fox Lake-and from this Indian the lake took its name. As soon as Godin's feet got well, Big Fox brought him to us at Portage. Godin had given all the property he had to the Indian; but Big Fox returned to him all his clothes, re- taining the blanket and gun for his trouble. When the Indian brought him to us, I did not know him at all ; his long hair and beard added not a little to his haggard appearance. He asked me if I was willing to receive him to finish his time, according to agreement; which I did, and he never again undertook to run away.

In the summer of 1834, I went up to the head of the Lemonweir to establish a trading post for the winter. There were a good many Winnebagoes wintering there. On my way up, about the Seven Mile Creek, at the top of the bluff, I saw, at a considerable distance, an object which I took to be a deer ; but so far away that I was not certain about it. Leaving my horse at the foot of the bluff, I took my rifle and went up; but in some places, where there was sand, I saw the tracks of a man's feet, which I judged was a white man's. as when the white man walks he throws his feet outwards, while the Indian turns his quite the other way.

After I got upon the top of the bluff, I saw a man, his clothes all in rags, looking toward the prairie. He heard me walking, turned his head and saw me, then jumped np and ran off. I discovered that he was afraid, and hallooed to him in French ; but he did not answer me and kept

on running. I then called to him in English to stop, with assurances that I was not going to hurt him. He finally stopped and walked up to me, informing me that he came from the Mississippi; that he had been hired to cut cordwood near about Coon Channel. on the Missis- sippi, for Judge Lockwood, of Prairie du Chien. That, starting with his gun to hunt partridges. about the 4th of May, he got lost. He kept on walking till he came to a little creek that he followed for a long time in the direction that he thought would take him to the Mississippi ; he came across an Indian trail that he lost sight of in the woods. He said that he kept his . gun a long time after he had used up his ammunition ; but fatigue and weakness at length obliged

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him to throw it away. He said that he had often heard the report of guns, but was afraid . it proceeded from Indians ; and that he would rather die in the woods of starvation, than be butch- ered by the savages. On one occasion, he came to a place where he saw, at a distance, three Indians ; and he ran with all his might in the woods, thinking every moment they were after him, and if overtaken, his life would pay the forfeit. After his shoes and clothes were worn out, he came to a lodge ; he was so hungry and feeble that he resolved to venture in ; but it was empty, the owner having evidently gone off to hunt. He found plenty to eat of all kinds of meat, and indulged himself very heartily ; after which he went to sleep, and dreamed very bad dreams, causing him to get up earlier than he otherwise would have done. Taking a pair of moccasins, a pair of buckskin leggins, a blanket, as much venison as he could conveniently carry, a pouch full of tobecco, a flint and steel, some punk and a pipe, he took his departure.

About twenty days after, he found a dead Indian in the woods, which circumstance greatly increased his fears lest the Indians should think, if they came across him, that he had caused his death. He had with him a large butcher-knife ; and he told me that had he been chased by an Indian, he would have cut his own throat rather than to have been taken. He said that he had not lived very well, having subsisted on berries from about the 25th of June to the time I found him. He was lost 180 days. When I found him, he had scarcely the semblance of a human being. I made him ride behind me; and after visiting the place where I proposed establishing my trading-post, I took him to Portage. He told me that his name was Dodge, and that he desired to go to Green Bay. I never saw or heard anything of him afterward.

By the treaty made in 1832, at Fort Armstrong, by the Winnebagoes, Gens. Scott and Atkinson were the United States Commissioners. The Indians agreed to cultivate some of their lands, and the Government was to aid and instruct them in the effort. Peter Pauquette was employed by the Government to attend to the matter. Eight yoke of oxen, a plow, a drag and all the tools necessary for farming were furnished for the purpose. Pauquette chose for the Indians the place that used to be called Black Earth, now known as the Indian farm, in the town of Caledonia, Columbia County. The first plowing that was done there was on the 10th day of June, 1835.

At a subsequent treaty, made in 1837, between the United States and the Winnebagoes, ratificd by Congress the following year, the Indians sold all the lands they had east of the Mississippi. Capt.'Gideon Low, formerly of the Fifth Regiment of infantry, . located at Portage City, and made a claim on the same piece of land where the Indians had formerly their experi- mental farm. He employed Michael Arquette as farmer ; then Francis Provoncil, and, still later, his son-in-law, Temple, and many others. Capt. Low entered the land when it came into market, and Robert Tannant was the last man that managed his Indian farm. Low's heirs sold out to Mr. McKinzie, who now resides there.

In 1836, the Indians had the misfortune to lose the best of their chiefs-Scha-chip- ka-ka, or De-kau-ry. His death occurred April 20, at the age of ninety, at his village-the locality now known as the Caffrey place, in the town of Caledonia, at the foot of the bluff, between the Wisconsin and Baraboo Rivers. The schoolhouse of District No. 5 now occupies the spot where the old chief died. De-kau-ry's town contained over one hundred lodges, and was the largest of the Winnebago villages. Before he died, De-kau-ry called the Catholic priest, Mr. Vanderbrook, who was at the portage at the time, by whom he was baptized, according to Cath- olic rites, the day of his death, and was buried in their cemetery near the present court house in Portage City ; and since the abandonment of that burial ground, the old chief's resting-place cannot be identified. He was succeeded by his son, called by the whites Little De-kau-ry, whose Indian name was Cha-ge-ka-ka; and he did not long survive, dying six months after his father. He was succeeded by his brother, Ho-pe-ne-scha-ka, or White French.

This part of Wisconsin, at the portage, was considered to be part of Brown County. Daniel Whitney, of Green Bay, had obtained a permit from the War Department to erect a saw-mill and cut pine logs on the Wisconsin, within the territory of the Indians. He built the first saw-mill at Whitney's Rapids, a little below Point Basse in 1831-32. Amable Grignon

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and Lieut. Marcy had also obtained the privilege to build a saw-mill at Grignon's Rapids in 1836. These were the first saw-mills on the Wisconsin River.

In 1836, by the treaty with the Menomonee Indians at Cedar Point, on Fox River, held by Gov. Dodge, the Indian title was extinguished in this part of the country and the Upper Wisconsin region, six miles wide from Point Basse, for forty miles up the river. This was designed to open the route to the lumbermen. The high price and the large demand for lumber hurried the business. The river was explored from Point Baosse to Big Bull Falls that year, and no time was lost in the occupation and claim of the best localities. Messrs. Bloomer and Strong and George Cline took possession of the Grand Rapids ; Abraham Brawley commenced at Mill Creek ; Parry and Veeder on the same stream.

In the year 1839, John L. Moore occupied the Little Bull Falls and George Steele the Big Bull Falls, so that all that region was in the possession of the lumbermen before the year 1840. In 1839, the Cedar. Point section, three miles wide, on that river, was ordered to be reported to the Surveyor General, at Dubuque. Joshua Hathaway, of Milwaukee, was appointed sur- veyor, and surveyed the Upper Wisconsin region. All the land in that section of country was offered at public sale at Mineral Point from 1840 to 1845. The saw-mills increased with great rapidity, villages and towns sprang up, so that when Mr. W. Owen and his party passed Portage in 1847, coming down from the Upper Wisconsin, the population at Wausau was estimated at three hundred and fifty, and that of the Upper Wisconsin country at more than a thousand. The Wisconsin pinery soon became extensively known throughout all the Northwest, and it fur- nished the lumber needful for the improvement and habitation of the immense prairies of Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri.

In 1837, Leon Braux, who had a half-breed Winnebago woman named Mariette Grignon, daughter of Pierre Grignon, obtained permission to open a farm on the south side of the Baraboo, on the bluff where Moses Pauquette now lives. It was the second farm improved in the town of Caledonia. In the same year Silas Walsworth came to Portage on board a steamboat, the name of which I forget. Andrew Dunn, a man of the name of Baker, and Hugh McFarlane arrived the same year. The Indians were that year, 1837, invited to go to Washington to sell the remainder of their lands east of the Mississippi. One-eyed De-kau-ry,* Little De-kau-ry, Win- nosheek, Waukon De-kau-ry, and six other chiefs, complied with his request, taking me with them ; and ceded to the Government their remaining lands, but reserved the privilege of occu- pying them until 1840, and receive their annuity at Portage until that time. This did not prevent the whites from making claims on the ceded lands.

I had a trading-post at To-kau-nee's village, where Mauston is now situated, then a small village of only five or six wigwams, named after its chief, a mixed blood of Winnebago and Menomonee, though his people were called Winnebagoes.

Abraham Wood was keeping a grog-shop a little below Henry Carpenter's house, on the Wisconsin. An Indian came there to get some liquor by force, with his knife in his hand. Wood was a very strong man, and pushed old Vane Blanc, the Indian, and struck him on the head with a stick he had in his hand, breaking the skull, he falling dead. The Indians collected around the house to butcher him in their own way. I made myself a road through them to Wood's house for his protection. Early in the morning of the next day, I sent Wood to give himself up to Henry Merrell, who was then a Justice of the Peace ; and he told me that Merrell advised him to run off. Merrell did, however, issue a warrant at the request of the sub-agent, Thomas Buoy, which was served by Satterlee Clark, who overtook Wood at Asa Springer's and brought him back to the portage. He was sent to Green Bay for trial ; the grand jury did not find a bill against him.

Wood, together with Wallace Rowan, went and made a claim on the Baraboo, in the fall of 1840; they built a saw-mill just at the upper end of Baraboo Village. They supplied the lum- ber that was used in building up the place ; and they rafted lumber down the river, which is so

* Wadge-hut-ta-kaw, or the Big Canoe, commonly called One-Eyed De-kau-ry, son of Cha-post-ka-kaw, or the Buzzard, and grandson of the French De-kau-ry, died at the Channel, Monroe County, Wisconsin, in August, 1864. L. O. D.

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crooked that it caused them a good deal of fatigue and trouble to reach the Wisconsin. The same winter, I made up some square timber on the Lemonweir River near my trading-post. I took the mill site just where the town of Mauston now stands. I am the first person who tried to take square timber from the Lemonweir ; and was the first, in the same year, that undertook to make a wagon road from Portage to Lemonweir, and thence to La Crosse, where is now the city of La Crosse. At that time, there was but one trading-house at La Crosse, and that belonged to the American Fur Company.

Edward Pezenne, and two or three men with him, came to Portage in the summer of 1836. Near the end of June, I went to the Four Lakes. where the city of Madison now stands, to trade some red deerskins. I had with me Simon Lecuyer, Pierre and John Le Roy. We found there, A. Godin, Oliver Arimell, his squaw and three or four children, and Michael St. Cyr ; Arimell, and St. Cyr used to get goods from traders at Portage; and besides these, there were Charles Jalefoux and Joe Peltier, engaged in hunting and fishing. We met together, about the 4th of July, at the lake; they had venison and fish, and we had flour, pork, tea, coffee, sugar and whisky. John Le Roy had his violin, and we had a great feast; I believe we were the first to celebrate the fourth at Madison. I do not remember that as many white men had ever met there before.

In the spring of 1838, Martin Rowney, a discharged soldier, who had been trading with the Indians on the Puckaway Lake, came back to the portage, and had a spree for two weeks or more. I do not know whether he was tired of drinking. or wanted to break off; but he took an oath that he would not drink another drop of liquor as long as he lived. He was living with me in a house occupied by myself and Walsworth, a little below Carpenter's house. He slept in the same room that I did. He awoke in the night with terror, jumped close to my bed, and told me that the devil wanted to take him away. I pushed him with force, and told him that if the devil had him, he had no business with me. He began to cry and lament over his condi- tion, keeping it up some time. When tendered some liquor in the morning, he declined it, say- ing he had sworn not to drink any more, and he would rather die than taste it. I had toast and strong tea made for him at breakfast; he barely tasted the bread, but drank two. cups of tea, and appeared much better. He told me he had an idea of going to Madison to take a lot there, as it seemed a point of some promise. He left us about 8 or 9 o'clock ; and about 11 or 12, Smith, the mail carrier, told us that he saw a man four or five miles up the road crying, and appeared to be out of his mind. I started in company with J. Walsworth, Laront, Harin Carpenter, and old man Rowan ; we found the track about half a mile north of Rocky Run ; there was a little island surrounded by sand ; we measured it all around, and I found it twenty-five and a half feet on either side to where any trees or grass grew. On that patch of grass, thus surrounded, we found his coat, vest, pants, hat and other clothing, but no trace of himself. In his pocket there was a pocket-book containing some memorandum papers, and several dollars in money. We took all his things and brought them home. We met Capt. Low, and reported to him the sad story ; he told us to go and get some soldiers to aid us in making a further search. I engaged fifteen Indians, whom I promised to pay well, to find him dead or alive. Capt. Low came with twelve soldiers, and ten or twelve citizens joined in the search, which, with a brief intermission, was kept up till the close of the following day ; but no clew was found of him, and nothing was ever heard of him afterward. I knew him to be very clumsy, not being able to jump three feet to save his life, and what became of him was a mystery.

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The history of Columbia county, Wisconsin, containing an account of its settlement, Part 59

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899, [from old catalog] ed; Western historical company, chicago, pub. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company Number of Pages: 1104

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899, [from old catalog] ed; Western historical company, chicago, pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company
Number of Pages: 1104