The history of Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, Part 54

Author:
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company
Number of Pages: 1082

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The mail carrier was a French boy of seventeen or eighteen, called Narcisse Baudoin. Upon one occasion, having left the mail-bag with Mr. Bannister, he jumped on his pony to go and spend the night as usual with Laborde, three miles distant. When about half a mile from the house, he was suddenly attacked by a pack of wolves, which bit his nag very badly as well as his own legs, and did not relinquish their purpose until he reached the house and people came out to his help with lights. If he had had much farther to go, he would have been inev- itably devoured by the ferocious brutes.

Improvement, I repeat, was slow. How could it be otherwise ? How far could fifty pairs of arms go toward improving this great county or developing its resources ? You need not be told that all improvements are the results of human labor and capital. The labor means men to perform it, and they were not here ; the capital, if we except a few tools, house furniture and provisions, was totally wanting. There was not a man who could show $200 in cash, and very few who had even $10. That was the time of wild-cat money. The banks of Michigan had all failed or suspended. There was one bank at Mineral Point which was good. There was also one bank at Green Bay, called the Bank of Wisconsin. In January, 1840, the cashier and teller took the assets of the bank and started in a double sleigh for Detroit. They were pursued and overtaken by some Green Bay people, and surrendered some of the wild-cat money, but it did not make much difference, for the money was good for nothing. Probably what the Waupun man took along with him was better money.

Everything has changed since the early days, but who would repine ? Who would regret the past ? Who would go back to the old hardships and privations ? Who would wish to see again the long caravans of Indian ponies, squalid squaws and uncombed papooses ? Who would desire to see again his bed sheets black with swarms of mosquitoes, to hear the whole night long their hateful music, to feel again their stings, as well as those of other unnamable insects ? For my part, I sav most emphatically that I would not; such experiences are enough for one human life.

Mr. and Mrs. Lo have long since vanished from the scene; the young Los are not within sight or hearing, and we do not regret them. Novelists and poets have invested the Indian character with romance and poetry. Hiawatha is very good as a work of fiction; but we, who have seen the Indian in all his squalor and debasement, cannot see the poetic side of him at all. We know what the Indians are, and we are extremely fond of their absence. We have tried to educate them in the arts of peace and civilization-in habits of industry and of self-supporting reliance. Our efforts have proved mainly miserable failures. Like the denizens of their native forests, they are untamable, and, like them, they will finally disappear. The onward march of civilization is not to be arrested by one species any more than by the other. Forward is the motto.

What a sublime spectacle is presented to us by this nineteenth century, the grandest of all those that preceded it! What great discoveries have been made by the astronomer, the

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HISTORY OF FOND DU LAC COUNTY.

chemist, the physicist, the mathematician, the geologist and the other men of science who are patiently interrogating nature and wresting from her grasp the most hidden seerets !

What grand results have already been achieved ! The steamboat, the railroad. the tele- graph, the photograph and many other wonderful inventions, are only the earnests of future dis- coveries and triumphs of scientific and mechanical skill. The steam engine and its workings are more familiar to us than the hand-loom and the donkey were to the people of Biblical history. The ten thousand voices of the press scatter news, science and literature broadcast, even to the dwelling of the humblest. By means of improved machinery, man or woman can earn more comforts by one day's labor than could formerly be procured by a week's laborious toil. Let us foster all laudable industries by honoring and rewarding those who have made discoveries bene- ficial to the human race. They who pass away from earth, without posterity being the gainer for their having lived, have lived in vain. From seientific research alone can mankind ever hope to attain advancement. Let us, then, by all means, encourage the spread and study of scienec. Let it be taught independently of any religious or politieal bias or prejudice, simply for the sake of the great truths which flow from the study of the history of our earth, as indel- ibly written in its strata, as well as in the ever active, unalterable laws and properties of matter.

Through the study of nature and her immutable laws only, can men hope to ever arrive at a comprehension of the true attributes of the Deity.

In this new land, on this fruitful soil, let all well-meant ideas and investigations have a hearing and a respectful examination, even though they may conflict with doctrines and beliefs hoary with age. Free discussion is never dreaded by those whose position is impregnable, or by the sincere friends of truth.

Ever since Adam ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, have his descendants, like Oli- ver Twist, felt an irrepressible desire for more. An impulse so persistent-and so universal can- not be wrong. It is an inalienable part of the human mind, and I, for one, never can believe that nature has yet spoken her last revelation to man. Her last word is to be obtained only by patient scientific research and investigation, if at all.

VII .- BY EDWARD PIER, 1877.

On the 17th of June, 1836, my father arrived at Green Bay, in search of his three sons, whom he had sent West two years before, to seek their fortunes. He had been quite sick on the boat coming up the Lakes, and was in feeble health. I had purchased one small pony and engaged others, so that when my father came, I could accompany him to where my brother Col- wert was. The Frenchmen at the Bay from whom I expected to hire ponies, tried or pretended to find theirs, but without success ; we, therefore, on the 20th, started with one only. I tried every man I met to hire a horse to ride to Fond du Lac, but without success. When we got to Shanty Town, about half-way to Depere, I asked an old Frenchman where I could hire a horse for my father to ride to Fond du Lac,'to be gone a week. Ile said that he had a good one, and that if I would give him a dollar a day for its use, I might have him. I asked him where his horse was. He told me it was on the commons. I told him several men had been looking three days for their ponies, and could not find one. Ile declared he could get his in one hour. We waited two and a half, when he came with his horse. That night we got as far as Grand Kaukalau, and stopped with one of the Stockbridge Indians over night. My father was quite sick during the night, so that I gave up the idea of going any farther. I was up early to look after the horses. The feed was good but the fence was poor. I found the animals all right. My father was very anx- ious to see Colwert and his wife, also the country where we intended to make our future homes. An old squaw gave him some medieine ; made him a strong cup of tea, which he drank, but he could not eat much breakfast. He said that he would go on as far as he could, for he did not like to go home until he had seen all his children. We found the way exceeding wet. It was almost one continuous slough of water and mud for sixteen miles to where the Stockbridge Mission was then building. Here we found the Rev. Cutting Marsh, a missionary to the Indians. He had a house up and partly inclosed ; also a stable completed. He let us have all the feed for our

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HISTORY OF FOND DU LAC COUNTY.

horses he had-about six quarts of oats. My friend, Mr. Joseph King, was with us, so that we had three horses. We got some dinner with the missionary, and about 3 o'clock we left to find our way as best we could to my brother's. Before our arrival at Fond du Lac, we encount- ered a severe rainstorm ; swam our horses across a swollen creek ; got lost in the darkness as night came on ; but, finally, after much difficulty, reached my brother's house.

We stayed here a few days, but it rained most of the time, and the creeks were overflowed and more than half of the surface of the country was under water. My brother and I were anxious to know what our father thought of the country for farming purposes ; but he was unwell, a long way from home, and quite outside of all civilization ; he said but little on any subject. All we got from him in relation to the place was that it looked like a good country for grass. As my father was a farmer, and had haying and harvesting at home to attend to, he soon felt it was necessary to start for home. A short distance before we arrived at the Bay, I asked him if he thought mother would ever see this country. After riding several rods he replied, that if she ever expected to see her children or be near them, she would have to come here, " for," said he. " three of her children are here now and the rest of them will come, and they will never leave such a country as you and Colwert are in and go back to Vermont." Before he started home, he gave me the money to pay for the 160 acres which we had reserved for him, and said that he was going to return to tell his family what he thought of our location, and to consult with them ; and that he should write us what they concluded to do. In a few days, he left Green Bay for home. And thus ended my second visit to Fond du Lac.

In September, I received a letter from my brother Colwert, in which he said that he had a quantity of hay ent and ready to stack, but that he had no one to help him stack it, and request- ing me to come to Fond du Lac and help him. On the 14th, I started to go there. When I reached Wright's (now called Wrightstown), I stopped-as was the custom with all others at that time-to feed my horse and get dinner. I there met a stranger from New York State, by the name of Harkness, who inquired where I was going. I replied that I was going to the upper country. " Well, sir," said he, " when you get to Fond du Lac, I would advise you to stop at least a week. I stopped there nearly two weeks to rest. Look at the country, and get acquainted. Why, sir, they are the best people I ever met, and that is the best-kept house this side of Buffalo. After you pass there, you will not find another such place if you travel 500 miles." I said to him that I thought I would avail myself of the benefit of his experience, and stop when I got there ! The next day I reached my brother's, but now came two days of damp weather. Mr. Benjamin Funk, from the region of the lead mines, came along the next day with a drove of cattle, going to the Bay. Of him we purchased two yoke of oxen and a cow and a calf, to pay for which I gave him an order on Daniel Whitney, at the Bay. The weather now became fair, and we stacked the hay.' I sold my horse to a man from Manitowoc, and walked back home. This ended my third visit to Fond du Lac.

Some time in December, 1836, I received another letter from my brother at Fond du Lac, in which he told me that he was getting short of provisions of all kinds, and that it was not expedient for him to leave his wife there alone for the length of time that it would take him to go to the Bay and return ; that he wished me to get some man to pack a couple of horses and bring him some provisions, if no other way could be found. I spoke to Mr. Whitney about the mat- ter, and he told me that he had agreed to send some goods to my brother to trade with the Indians, and that he ought to have done it before, " And now," said he, "I will furnish a horse and train if you will go and take a load up to your brother's." I said to him that there was no road, and that I could not get there with a team. He ridiculed the idea, and said there was not the least trouble, that the ice on the lake (Winnebago) was good. I said to him that I was not accustomed to the lake, and that I was not pleased with the idea of attempting to cross it alone. But his reply was that I was not accustomed to a frontier life : that there was not the slightest danger on the lake ; that I could not make a hole in the ice in half an hour large enough to get a horse into the water, and that, as yet, there were no cracks in the ice. Said he, " If you will go, I will risk the horse." So, on the 20th of December, I started from Green Bay, for the

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HISTORY OF FOND DU LAC COUNTY.

fourth time, for Fond du Lac. It was a mild, misty morning. Before I got to Wright's, it rained quite hard. While I was there, the wind came from the north and the rain changed to snow. I started, and before I reached the Stockbridge Mission, the weather was quite cold. The harness on the horse was frozen so stiff that it was hard to get it off. The next morning was extremely cold, so much so that the Rev. Mr. Marsh tried to dissuade me from going on that day ; " For," said he, "I fear you will perish before you reach your brother's."

However, knowing that my brother was short of provisions, I thought best to try to get to him. I went on the lake at Pipe Village. I found the snow so badly drifted that I was com- pelled to tread the snow for some rods before the horse could get through to the lake. This, I think, detained me near or quite an hour. In the mean time, the wind blew so severe from the southwest that it was with difficulty that I could keep my horse from turning around. After I got on the lake, the snow was so strongly driven by the force of the wind, that I could only see a few feet before the horse. The snow upon the lake was in drifts, with places of sometimes half a mile of smooth, uncovered ice. The cold was so intense that I was obliged to go on foot or perish. It was the worst day but one that I can remember, and that was January 1, 1864. I traveled as fast as possible until about 3 o'clock, when my horse dropped his hind fect through the ice into the water. I was behind the train. I sprang to him as soon as possible, and loosened him, but, in his struggles to get out, I saw that the ice was crumbling and break- ing off. Soon he was in the water all except his head. There was a drift of snow of several rods in width where he went in, so that I was able to stand. I put the lines around his neck and choked him, and, in his struggles, I pulled him on the ice, but it immediately broke, and when he went in again, he took me with him. I sprang on top of him and went over him. and caught on the ice on the other side. I was in the water up to my waist. I then got out. I believe it was pretty quick and spry work I did. My overcoat was frozen stiff. I now discovered that my hands were frozen. I then whipped them around my body until the blood was pressed into them, and they felt warm. I then went round the broken ice and placed the horse's head or neck across the shaft. He was quivering, but otherwise motionless. I saw that he was gone. and I now started to find the only house in Fond du Lac County.

My boots were filled with water and frozen stiff. My clothes were wet up to my waist. About this time, I saw the sun for the first time through the day. It appeared to be about an hour above the horizon. Where the ice was covered with snow I could get along very well ; but where it was smooth it required all my strength and utmost care to stand. I succeeded in reaching land just before the sun disappeared. The prairie had not been burned and the snow was abont seven or eight inches, including the grass. Near the lake it was blown to the depth of two feet or more. The wind was blowing strong from the southwest, and the weather was intensely cold. I made the best time possible to reach my brother's house, knowing that was the only chance for my life. Of course I was in great anxiety for fear I could not find it. I struck the timber about one hundred rods north of the house. The cattle had been out on the east side of the timber that day ; and I will here say that I never was so glad in my life to see the tracks of a cow, as it was just as darkness was closing in upon me, on the 21st of December, 1836! I soon reached the house, when I found that my hands were badly frozen, and also my cheeks. I found in the house my brother's wife and a lad from Brothertown, whom my brother had persuaded to stop with her until his return ; for, not having heard from me, and their pro- visions being short, he had started that morning in company with a traveler who came along, to go to the Bay. Some idea of the storm I encountered may be had when I state that we had passed very near without seeing each other's teams at all.

The next morning, the young lad accompanied me back to the spot where my horse had been left. I found him in the same position in which I had left him the night before.

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HISTORY OF FOND DU LAC COUNTY.

VIII .- BY LOUISA PARKER SIMMONS. 1879.

My husband, Reuben Simmons, was born in Litchfield, Conn., being left an orphan when quite young. He served an apprenticeship as carpenter and joiner, and then went to Bain- bridge at the age of cighteen. Soon after this, we were married. I was born at Old Milton, in Saratoga County, N. Y. We lived in Whitestown, that State, many years, where our five chil- dren were born, four sons and one daughter. In the fall of 1836, my husband took his eldest son, Alonzo, and went to Green Bay, then Wisconsin Territory. He remained there all winter, taking contracts for building, and accumulated quite a little sum of money. Early the next spring, leaving Alonzo at Green Bay, Mr. Simmons started for home on the steamer Hendrick Hudson, arriving in due time at Delta, Oneida County, where we then lived. We soon made preparations to move to Green Bay, starting on our journey on the 4th of July, 1837. At Rome, N. Y., my husband chartered a canal-boat, and in about two weeks we reached Buffalo, where we remained five days. We then took passage on the steamer Constitution for Detroit, arriving there in safety, and remaining there eleven days awaiting a boat for Green Bay.

We finally took passage on the old steamer Bunker Hill, a condemned boat. On the second day out, the steamer took fire, but by great labor and care of both passengers and crew, it was saved from burning, but it had to be continually watched during the residue of the pass- age. The next day. when out of sight of land, the main shaft breke, but by hoisting a jib we ran back over a hundred miles to Presque Isle, where a wooden shaft was put in in place of the broken one. By a constant application of oil, this was made to answer the purpose, and we all landed safely at Green Bay, after a long and stormy passage.

We took up our residence there, keeping a boarding-house, my husband working at his trade. In the fall, he, with three others, took a large log canoe and paddled up the Fox River to Lake Winnebago, carrying his own provisions and other necessaries, and camping on shore wherever night overtook him. After traversing the shore of the lake, he finally reached the mouth of the Fond du Lac River, up which he and his companions paddled their canoe, camp- ing near the log house which had been erected by the Fond du Lac Company in the spring of 1836. on Lot 9. Block 9, in "the town of Fond du Lac," better known as " The Old Fond du Lac House." It was a double log house, and was quite large and roomy. In the morning, they started out, and for some days traveled over the beautiful wild prairies-all in a state of nature, covered with wild flowers in every direction. My husband and his companions returned to Green Bay safely after a very pleasant trip.

James Duane Doty was a resident of Green Bay, though not at that date a Judge ; he had been out of office for over five years. He was, in addition to being one of the principal share- holders in the Fond du Lac Company, also the owner of much other real estate in the Territory. After his becoming acquainted with us, he was anxious to have my husband take his farm, afterward known as the George D. Ruggles farm (south half of the northeast quarter, and the north half of the southeast quarter of Section 6, in Township 15, of Range 18 east), in the pres- ent town of Taycheedah.

Mr. Simmons entered into a contract with Doty-the latter agreeing to furnish lumber and materials for building a house on the farm, my husband to erect it at Doty's expense.

In the winter of 1838-39, Mr. Simmons hauled all his lumber and materials for the house from Green Bay through the woods, he having. the previous fall, drawn a load of lumber up to what was to be our new home and built a board shanty, 12x16 feet. making three tiers of bunks on one side. He put a cook stove in one corner and provisions in another. In that way he. with his three men, lived during the winter while building the house, living very warm and cozy. My husband finished the house in the spring. It was large, and was the second frame house erected in Fond du Lac County. In March, 1839, we all came from Green Bay and moved in. Our family consisted of my husband and myself, our little daughter, eight years ohl, and our four sons : also, two hired men, one of whom was a Brothertown Indian. Our house had loose boards laid down for a floor and blankets hung up at the windows. Mr. Simmons afterward

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HISTORY OF FOND DU LAC COUNTY.

finished the house and we remained there until the next spring, when we moved on a larger farm of Mr. Doty's, afterward known as the Phillips farm. It was the south half of Section 7, in Township 15 north, of Range 18 east, in the present town of Empire. It had a large stock of cattle, from sixty to one hundred head, where my husband, with his four boys and two hired men, carried on farming on a large scale for the then new country. All our butter, cheese, honey (which was abundant, wild in the woods) and pork he had to take to Green Bay in win- ter or by boat in summer, there being no nearer market at that time. These articles he traded for necessaries for the family.

His usual way was to go to Green Bay each spring and fall with a Durham boat, taking his youngest son, Amasa P., to help guard the goods and talk to the Indians, and four Indians to propel the boat. On his return heavily loaded, arriving at the rapids, he would 'unload half of the goods, leaving his son to guard them, and, with the Indians, who would wade by the side of the boat, lift it over the entire rapids, then unload and, remaining there himself, send the Indians back to get the remainder of the goods, and so on over all the rapids until they arrived at Winnebago Lake. then, by coasting around the shore, he would get home, after a trip of about seven days. If the family ran short of any necessaries after that time, they had to go without until the next trip, as there were no stores nearer than Green Bay, sixty miles away.

I would sometimes run short of pins and the boys would ent thorns from the trees, which I used, making a very good substitute. On one occasion, the boys' boots gave out and for a long time they had to wear Indian moccasins. Yet, in all these years. the entire family were happy, being blessed with good health, plenty to eat and plenty of work to do.

In the fall of 1841 and the following winter, my husband built a house on what we now (1879) call our old homestead, which he had purchased while we were living at Green Bay. It adjoins the city limits of Fond du Lac and is the east half of the northeast quarter of Section 23, in Township 15 north, of Range 17 east, in the town of Fond du Lac. We moved on the place in the spring of 1842, where I have ever since resided-my husband dying ten years ago, at the age of seventy-three years. I am now (1879) in my eighty-fifth year.

In the fall of 1839, Mr. Simmons and our son, A. P. Simmons, went to Green Bay for their winter supply, taking four Indians along to propel the boat. They had a quick and pleas- ant trip going down, loaded the boat with necessaries and started back. That night it com- menced raining and rained nearly every day for two weeks. They had a hard time during the entire return trip, and when five days out their provisions were exhausted ; but as good luck would have it, they found some Indians on the river bank of whom they bought some wild rice, and, by boiling it, made it quite palatable. On that the entire party lived for eight days.

There were bands of four tribes of Indians here for some years after we came : Menomo- nees. Pottawatomies, Winnebagoes and Chippewas. The two latter were treacherous and very troublesome at times. On one occasion, the Menomonee chief gave out that as soon as the grass grew in the spring, so their ponies could live, they would drive off or kill all the whites. This alarmed the few settlers, and a meeting was held by them and cautionary measures taken. Dr. M. C. Darling wrote to the Department at Washington, informing the authorities of our situ- ation. but no reply was received.

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The history of Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, Part 54

Author: Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company Number of Pages: 1082

Author:
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company
Number of Pages: 1082