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diff --git a/38137-8.txt b/38137-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8547595 --- /dev/null +++ b/38137-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6569 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Stories of the Badger State, by Reuben Gold Thwaites + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Stories of the Badger State + +Author: Reuben Gold Thwaites + +Release Date: November 25, 2011 [EBook #38137] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORIES OF THE BADGER STATE *** + + + + +Produced by Roberta Staehlin, David Garcia, Matthew Wheaton +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + STORIES OF THE BADGER STATE + + BY + + REUBEN GOLD THWAITES + + + NEW YORK CINCINNATI CHICAGO + AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY + + + COPYRIGHT, 1900, BY + + REUBEN GOLD THWAITES. + + STO. BADGER STA. + + W. P. I. + + + + +PREFACE + + +The student of nature lives in a broader and more interesting world than +does he who has not learned the story of the birds, the streams, the +fields, the woods, and the hedgerows. So, too, the student of local +history finds his present interest in town, village, city, or State, +growing with his knowledge of its past. + +In recognition of this fact, these true stories, selected from +Wisconsin's history, have been written as a means to the cultivation of +civic patriotism among the youth of our commonwealth. It is not the +purpose of the book to present a continuous account of the development +of the State; for this, the author begs to refer to his larger work, +"The Story of Wisconsin" (in the Story of the States Series). Rather is +it desired to give selections from the interesting and often stirring +incidents with which our history is so richly stored, in the hope that +the reader may acquire a taste for delving more deeply into the annals +of the Badger State. + +Wisconsin had belonged, in turn, to Spain, France, and England, before +she became a portion of the United States. Her recorded history begins +far back in the time of French ownership, in 1634. The century and a +third of the French régime was a picturesque period, upon which the +memory delights to dwell; with its many phases, several of the following +chapters are concerned. The English régime was brief, but not without +interest. In the long stretch of years which followed, before Wisconsin +became an American State, many incidents happened which possess for us +the flavor of romance. The formative period between 1848 and 1861 was +replete with striking events. In the War of Secession, Wisconsin took a +gallant and notable part. Since that great struggle, the State has made +giant strides in industry, commerce, education, and culture; but the +present epoch of growth has not thus far yielded much material for +picturesque treatment, perhaps because we are still too near to the +events to see them in proper perspective. An attempt has been made to +present chapters representative of all these periods, but naturally the +earlier times have seemed best adapted to the purpose in hand. + +R. G. T. + + + + + CONTENTS + + + The Mound Builders + Life and Manners of the Indians + The Discovery of Wisconsin + Radisson and Groseilliers + The Story of Joliet and Marquette + The Jesuit Missionaries + Some Notable Visitors to Early Wisconsin + A Quarter of a Century of Warfare + The Commerce of the Forest + In the Old French Days + The Coming of the English + Wisconsin in the Revolutionary War + The Rule of Judge Réaume + The British capture Prairie du Chien + The Story of the Wisconsin Lead Mines + The Winnebago War + The Black Hawk War + The Story of Chequamegon Bay + Wisconsin Territory formed + Wisconsin becomes a State + The Boundaries of Wisconsin + Life in Pioneer Days + The Development of Roads + The Phalanx at Ceresco + A Mormon King + The Wisconsin Bourbon + Slave Catching in Wisconsin + The Story of a Famous Chief + A Fight for the Governorship + Our Foreign-born Citizens + Swept by Fire + Badgers in War Time + INDEX + + + + +STORIES OF THE BADGER STATE + + + + +THE MOUND BUILDERS + + +In the basin of the Mississippi, particularly in that portion lying east +of the great river, there are numerous mounds which were reared by human +beings, apparently in very early times, before American history begins. +They are found most frequently upon the banks of lakes and rivers, and +often upon the summits of high bluffs overlooking the country. No +attempt has ever been made to count them, for they could be numbered by +tens of thousands; in the small county of Trempealeau, Wisconsin, for +instance, over two thousand have been found by surveyors. Most of the +mounds have been worn down, by hundreds of years of exposure to rain and +frost, till they are but two or three feet in height; a few, however, +still retain so majestic an altitude as eighty or more feet. The conical +mounds are called by ethnologists _tumuli_. Other earthworks are long +lines, or squares, or circles, and are probably fortifications; some of +the best examples of these are still to be traced at Aztalan, Wisconsin. +In many places, especially in Ohio and Wisconsin, they have been so +shaped as to resemble buffaloes, serpents, lizards, squirrels, or +birds; and some apparently were designed to represent clubs, bows, or +spears--all these peculiarly shaped mounds being styled _effigies_. + +The mounds attracted the attention of some of the earliest white +travelers in the Mississippi basin, and much was written about them in +books published in Europe over a hundred years ago. Books are still +being written about the mounds, but most of them are based on old and +worn-out theories; those published by the Ethnological Bureau, at +Washington, are the latest and best. Many thousands of these earthworks +have been opened, some by scientists, many more by curiosity seekers, +and their contents have, for the most part, found their way into public +museums. Many of the mounds have been measured with great accuracy, and +pictures and descriptions of them are common. + +Until a few years ago, the opinion was quite general, even among +historians and ethnologists, that the mounds were built by a race of +people who lived in the Mississippi basin before the coming of the +Indians, and that the mound builders were far superior to the Indians in +civilization. Many thought that this prehistoric race had been driven +southward by the Indians, and that the Aztecs whom the Spaniards found +in Mexico and Central America four hundred years ago were its +descendants. We have in Wisconsin a reminder of the Aztec theory, in the +name Aztalan, early applied to a notable group of earthworks in +Jefferson county. + +There were many reasons why, in an earlier and more imperfect stage of +our knowledge concerning Indians, this theory seemed plausible. It was +argued that to build all these mounds required a vast deal of steady +labor, which could have been performed only by a dense population, +working under some strong central authority, perhaps in a condition of +slavery; that these people must have long resided in the same spot; and +must have been supported by regular crops of grain, vegetables, and +fruit. It was shown that Indians, as we found them, lived in small +bands, and did not abide long in one place; that their system of +government was a loose democracy; that they were disinclined to +persistent labor, and that they were hunters, not farmers. Further, it +was contended that the mounds indicated a religious belief on the part +of their builders, which was not the religion of the red men. The result +of these arguments, to which was added a good deal of romantic fancy, +was to rear in the public mind a highly colored conception of a mythical +race of Mound Builders, rivaling in civilization the ancient Egyptians. + +But we are living in an age of scientific investigation; scientific +methods are being applied to every branch of study; history has had to +be rewritten for us in the new light which is being thrown upon the path +of human development. This is not the place to set forth in detail the +steps by which knowledge has been slowly but surely reached, regarding +the history of the once mysterious mounds. The work of research is not +yet ended, for the study of ethnology is only in its infancy; +nevertheless, it is now well established that the Indians built the +mounds, and we may feel reasonably certain for what purpose they used +them. + +Indian population was never dense in North America. The best judges now +agree that the entire native population consisted of not over two +hundred thousand at the time when the Pilgrim Fathers came to Plymouth. +Of these, Wisconsin probably had but nine thousand, which, curiously +enough, is about its present Indian population. But, before the first +whites came, many of the American tribes were not such roamers as they +afterward became; they were inclined to gather into villages, and to +raise large crops of Indian corn, melons, and pumpkins, the surplus of +which they dried and stored for winter. We shall read, in another +chapter, how the white fur trader came to induce the Indian +agriculturist to turn hunter, and thereby to become the wandering savage +whom we know to-day. Concerning the argument that the modern Indian is +too lazy to build mounds, it is sufficient to say that he was, when a +planter, of necessity a better worker than when he had become a hunter; +also, that many of the statements we read about Indian laziness are the +result of popular misunderstanding of the state of Indian society. It is +now well known that the Indian was quite capable of building excellent +fortifications; that the most complicated forms of mounds were not +beyond his capacity; and that, in general, he was in a more advanced +stage of mental development than was generally believed by old writers. +Modern experiments, also, prove that the actual work of building a +mound, with the aid of baskets to carry the earth, which was the method +that they are known to have employed, was not so great as has been +supposed. + +It has been recently discovered, from documents of that period, that +certain Indians were actually building mounds in our southern States as +late as the Revolutionary War. In the north, the practice of mound +building had gone or was going out of fashion about a hundred and +twenty-five years before, that is, in the days when the French first +came to Wisconsin. It is thought that some of our Wisconsin mounds may +be a thousand years old; while others are certainly not much over two +hundred years of age, for skeletons have been found in some of them +wearing silver ornaments which were made in Paris, and which bear dates +as late as 1680. + +It is easy to imagine the uses to which the Wisconsin mounds were put by +their Indian builders. We can the more readily reason this out, because +we know, from books of travel published at the time, just what use the +southern Indians were making of their mounds, in the period of the +Revolutionary War. The small tumuli were for the most part burial +places for men of importance, and were merely heaps of earth piled above +the corpse, which was generally placed in a sitting posture; he was +surrounded with earthen pots containing food, which was to last him +until his arrival at the happy hunting ground, and with weapons of stone +and copper, to enable him there to kill game or defend himself against +his enemies. The larger tumuli were, no doubt, the commanding sites of +council houses or of the huts of chiefs. Each Indian belonged, through +his relationship with his mother's people, to some clan; and each clan +had its symbol or _totem_, such as the Bear, the Turtle, the Buffalo, +etc. The Indians claimed that the clan had descended from some giant +animal whose figure, or effigy, was thus honored. Many white people +place their family symbol, or crest, or coat of arms on their letter +paper, or on the panels of their carriage doors, or upon their +silverware; so Indians are fond of displaying their respective totems on +their utensils, weapons, canoes, or wigwams. In the mound building days, +they reared totems of earth, and probably dwelt on top of them. As in +each village there were several clans, so there were numerous earth +totems, many of them of great size. This, no doubt, is the origin of the +so-called effigies. Add to these the mystic circles of the medicine men, +the fantastic serpents, and the fortifications necessary to defend the +village from the approach of an enemy up some sloping bank or +sharp-sided ravine, and you have the story of the mounds. An Indian +village in those old mound building days must have presented a +picturesque appearance. + +Just why the Indians stopped building mounds is not settled; but it is +noticeable that they were being built in various parts of the country +about up to the time of the white man's entry. It may be that the coming +of the stranger, with his different manners, hastened the decay of the +custom; or perhaps it had practically ceased about that time, as many +another wave of custom has swept over primitive peoples and left only +traces behind. + +The mounds, with which the forefathers of our Indians dotted our land, +remain to us as curious and instructive monuments of savage life in +prehistoric times. No castles or grand cathedrals have come down to us, +in America, to illustrate the story of the early ages of our own race; +but we have in the mounds mute, impressive relics of a still earlier +life upon this soil, by our primitive predecessors. It should be +considered our duty, as well as our pleasure, to preserve them intact +for the enlightenment of coming generations of our people. + + + + +LIFE AND MANNERS OF THE INDIANS + + +At the time when white men first came to Wisconsin, there were found +here several widely differing tribes of Indians, and these were often at +war with one another. The Winnebagoes, an offshoot of the Sioux, +occupied the valleys of the Wisconsin and the Fox, and the shores of +Green Bay as far down as Sturgeon Bay. If the theory of the ethnologists +be correct, that most of the Wisconsin mounds were built by the +Winnebagoes, then at times they must have dwelt in nearly every corner +of the State. This is not unlikely, for the centers of Indian population +were continually shifting, the red men being driven hither and thither +by encroachments of enemies, religious fancies, or the never-ending +search for food. We know only that when the whites found them, they were +holding these two valleys, between Green Bay and Prairie du Chien. A +broad-faced people, with flat noses, they were in personal appearance, +habits, and morals the least attractive of all our tribes. Their +cousins, the wild and dashing Sioux, were still using northwest +Wisconsin as a hunting ground, and had permanent villages in Minnesota, +and elsewhere to the west of the Mississippi River. The Chippewas (or +Ojibways, as the name was originally spelled), the best of our +Wisconsin aborigines, were scattered through the northern part of the +State, as far south as the Black River, and perhaps as far eastward as +the Wolf. East of them were the Menominees (Wild-Rice Eaters), a +comparatively gentle folk, who gathered great stores of grain from the +broad fields of wild rice which flourishes in the bayous and marshy +river bottoms of northeast Wisconsin. The Pottawattomies, with feminine +cast of countenance, occupied the islands at the mouth of Green Bay, and +the west shore of Lake Michigan, down into Illinois. The united Sacs (or +Saukies) and Foxes (Outagamies) were also prominent tribes. When first +seen by whites, the Sacs and Foxes were weak in numbers, but, being a +bold and warlike people, they soon grew to importance, and crowded the +Winnebagoes out of the Fox valley and, later, out of much of the +Wisconsin valley, becoming in their pride and strength bitter enemies of +the French. + +Scattered elsewhere through the State were some smaller tribes: the +Mascoutins (Fire Nation), chiefly in the neighborhood of the present +city of Berlin; the short-limbed Kickapoos, in the Kickapoo valley; and, +at various periods, bands of Hurons, Illinois, Miamis, and Ottawas, none +of whom ever played a large part here. The Stockbridges, Oneidas, +Brothertowns, and Munsees, now numerous in northeast Wisconsin, are +remnants of New York and Massachusetts tribes who were removed hither by +the general government in 1822 and later. + +No two tribes spoke the same language. In Wisconsin, the Indians were +divided by language into two great families, the Algonkin and the +Dakotan. The Sioux and the Winnebagoes belonged, by their similar +speech, to the Dakotan family, just as the English and the Germans +belong to the great Teutonic family. All the others were of the Algonkin +group, just as the French, the Spanish, and the Italians belong to what +is called the Latin family, and speak languages which have the same +origin. The Indian history of Wisconsin is the more interesting, because +here these two great families or groups met, clashed, and intermingled. +Despite the diversity of tongues, they were, with certain variations, +much the same sort of people; and for our present purpose, the +description of one tribe will serve for the description of all. + +In size, Indians resemble Europeans; some are shorter than the average +white man, some taller; the Kickapoos were among the short men. Indians +have black eyes and coarse, black hair. Most of them wear no beard, but +as the hairs appear, pluck them out with tweezers of wood or clam shell. +They have thin lips, high cheek bones, broad faces, and prominent noses; +the Winnebago's nose is large, but much flattened. + +In primitive times, the summer dress of the men was generally a short +apron made of the well-tanned skin of a wild animal, the women being +clothed in skins from neck to knees; in winter, both sexes wrapped +themselves in large fur robes. In some parts of North America, +especially in the south, where the Indians were more highly developed +than those in the north, they wove rude cloths of thread spun from +buffalo hair, or of sinews of animals killed in the chase. It is not +supposed that there was much of this cloth made in Wisconsin. What +specimens have been discovered in our mounds, no doubt were obtained +from the native peddlers, who wandered far and wide carrying the +peculiar products of several tribes, and exchanging them for other +goods, or for wampum, the universal currency of the forest. Moccasins of +deerskin were in general use; also leggins, with the fur turned inward +or outward according to the weather. Much of their clothing was stained +red or black or yellow; some was painted in stripes or lace work, and +some was decorated with pictures of birds and beasts, or with scenes +which they wished to commemorate. One old writer quaintly speaks of "a +great skinne painted and drawen and pourtrayed that nothing lacked but +life." Their dress was also ornamented by beads and porcupine quills; in +the fringed borders of their leggins and robes were often fastened +deer's hoofs, the spurs of wild turkeys, or the claws of bears or +eagles, which rattled as their wearers walked along. Around their necks +were strings of beads, and their ears and noses were pierced for the +hanging of various other ornaments. In their hair, the men tied eagle +feathers, one for each scalp taken. + +The "war bonnet," worn by the leading warriors, was a headdress of skins +and feathers, which trailed down the back and often to the ground, and +was highly picturesque. Add to this, the general habit of tattooing, or, +on ceremonial occasions, of fantastically, often hideously, painting the +face and neck and breast in blue, black, and red, and one can well +imagine that an Indian village, on a fête day, or at other times of +popular excitement, presented a striking scene. + +Each tribe could be readily distinguished from others, by the shape and +material of its wigwams or huts. The Chippewas, for instance, lived in +hemispherical huts, covered with great sheets of birch-bark; the +Winnebago hut was more of the shape of a sugar loaf, and was covered +with mats of woven rushes; the Sioux dwelt in cone-shaped huts +(_tepees_), covered with skins, the poles sticking out at the top. These +huts were foully kept, and all manner of camp diseases prevailed; +pulmonary complaints and rheumatism were particularly frequent, and both +men and women looked old and haggard before they reached middle age. + +In the old mound building days, the huts of the village leaders or +chiefs were no doubt built upon the tops of the mounds, while the common +people lived on the lower level. On top of a very large, conspicuous +mound was the council house, where important events were discussed and +action taken. Every warrior, that is, every man who had taken the scalp +of an enemy, was permitted to be heard around the council fire; but the +talking was for the most part done by the privileged class of headmen, +old men, wise men, and orators. + +The political organization of the Indians was weak. The villages were +little democracies, where one warrior considered himself as good as +another, except for the respect naturally due to the chiefs or headmen +of the several clans, or to those who had the reputation of being wise +and able. The sachem, or peace-chief, whose office was hereditary +through connection with his mother's family, had but slight authority +unless his natural gifts commanded respect. + +When war broke out, the fighting men ranged themselves as volunteers +under some popular leader, perhaps a regular chief, or perhaps only a +common warrior. When the village council decided to do something, any +man might, if he wished, refuse to obey. It was seldom that an entire +tribe, consisting of several villages, united in an important +undertaking; still more unusual was it, for several tribes to unite. +This was, of course, a weak organization, such as a pure democracy is +sure to be. The Indian lacked self-control and steadfastness of purpose, +and the tribes and villages were jealous of one another; so they yielded +before the whites, who better understood the value of union in the face +of a common foe. The formidable conspiracies of King Philip, Pontiac, +and some others were the work of Indians of quite unusual ability in +the art of organization; but the leaders could find few others equal to +their skill, and the uprisings were shortlived. + +The Indian's strength as a fighter lay in his capacity for stratagem, in +his ability to thread the tangled forest as silently and easily as the +plain, and in his habit of making rapid, unexpected sallies for robbery +and murder, and then gliding back into the dark and almost impenetrable +forest. He soon tired of long military operations, and, when hard +pressed, was apt to yield to the white men who were often inferior in +numbers, but who soon learned to adopt the aborigine's skulking method +of warfare. + +Lord of his own wigwam, and tyrannical over his squaws, the Indian was +kind and hospitable to unsuspected strangers, yet merciless to a +captive. Nevertheless, prisoners were often snatched from the stake, or +the hands of a cruel captor, to be adopted into the family of the +rescuer, taking the place of some one killed by the enemy. The red man +was improvident, given to gambling, and, despite the popular notion, was +a jolly, easy-going sort of fellow around his own fire; but in council, +and when among strangers, he was dignified and reserved, too proud to +exhibit curiosity or emotion. He indulged in a style of oratory which +abounded in metaphors drawn from his observations of nature. He was +superstitious, peopling the elements with good and bad spirits; and was +much influenced by the medicine men, who were half physicians and half +priests, and who commanded long fastings, penances, and sacrifices, with +curious dances, and various forms of necromancy. + +The Indian made tools and implements which were well adapted to his +purpose; the boats which he fashioned of skins, of birch-bark, or of +hollowed trunks of trees have not been surpassed. He was remarkably +quick in learning the use of firearms, and soon equaled the best white +hunters as a marksman. A rude sense of honor was developed within him; +he had a nice perception of what was proper to do; he knew how to bend +his own will to the force of custom, thus he overcame to some extent the +natural evils of democracy. He understood the arts of politeness when he +chose to practice them. He could plan admirably, and often displayed +much skill in strategy; his reasoning was good. He knew the value of +form and color, as we can see in his rock-carvings, in his rude +paintings, in the decorations on his leather, and in his often graceful +body-markings. In short, he was less of a savage than we are in the +habit of thinking him; he was barbarous from choice, because he had a +wild, untrammeled nature and saw little in civilized ideas to attract +him. This is why, with his polite manner, he always seemed to be +yielding to missionary efforts, yet perhaps never became thoroughly +converted to Christianity. + +When first discovered by white men, Wisconsin Indians were using rude +pottery of their own make. Their arrowheads and spearheads, axes, +knives, and other tools and weapons were of copper obtained from Lake +Superior mines, or of stone suitable for the purpose. They smoked +tobacco in pipes wrought in curious shapes from a soft kind of stone +found in Minnesota, and ornaments and charms were also frequently made +from this so-called "pipestone." Game they killed with arrows or +sling-shots, and in war used these, as well as stone spears and hatchets +and stone-weighted clubs. The bulk of their food they obtained by +hunting, fishing, and cultivating the soil, although at times they were +forced to resort to the usually plentiful supply of fruits, nuts, and +edible roots. Indian corn was the principal crop. Beans were sown in the +same hills, while sometimes between the rows were planted several +varieties of pumpkins, water-melons, and sunflowers. Tobacco and sweet +potatoes were grown by some tribes, but not in Wisconsin. In our State, +wild rice (or oats) furnished a good substitute for corn, and was +similarly cooked. + +The whites wrought a serious change in the life and manners of the +Indians. They introduced firearms among the savages, and induced them to +become hunters, and to wander far and wide for fur bearing animals, the +pelts of which were exchanged for European cloths, glass beads, iron +kettles, hatchets, spears, and guns and powder. Thus the Indian soon +lost the old arts of making their own clothing from skins, kettles from +clay, weapons from stone and copper, and wampum (beads used both for +ornament and money) from clam shells. It did not take them long to +discover that their labor was more productive when they hunted, and +purchased what they wanted from the white traders, than when they made +their own rude implements and utensils and raised crops. But the result +was bad, for thereby they ceased to be self-sustaining; their very +existence became dependent on the fur traders, who introduced among them +many vices, not least of which was a love for the intoxicating liquors +in which the traders dealt. + +The Indian, at best, was never a lovable creature. He was dirty, +improvident, brutal; he was, as compared with a European, mentally and +morally but an undeveloped man. He is to-day, as we find him upon the +reservations, pretty much the same as when found by the French over two +and a half centuries ago, except that to his original vices he has added +some of the worst vices of the white man. The story of the Indian is +practically the story of the fur trade, and that is the story of +Wisconsin before it became a Territory. + + + + +THE DISCOVERY OF WISCONSIN + + +In the year 1608, the daring French explorer, Samuel de Champlain, +founded a settlement on the steep cliff of Quebec, and thus laid the +foundations for the great colony of New France. This colony, in the +course of a century and a half, grew to embrace all of what we now call +Canada and the entire basin of the Mississippi River. + +[Illustration: CHAMPLAIN] + +New France grew slowly. This was largely owing to the opposition of the +fierce Iroquois Indians of New York, whom Champlain had greatly angered. +Another reason was the changing moods of the Algonkin Indians of Canada +and the Middle West; and still another, the enormous difficulties of +travel through the vast forests and along streams frequently strewn with +rapids. Champlain was made governor of New France, and varied his duties +by taking long and painful journeys into the wilderness, thus setting +the fashion of extensive exploration. There were two very good reasons +for encouraging explorers: in the first place, New France was then +largely controlled by a company of merchants, called the Hundred +Associates, who desired to push the fur trade far and wide among the +savage tribes; in the second place, the French Catholic missionary +priests were anxious to reach the Indians, to convert them to the +Christian religion. Thus it came about that, during the twenty-five +years when the energetic and enterprising Champlain was governor, there +was little talked or thought about in New France but exploration, the +fur trade, and the missions to the Indians. + +In order to carry out his schemes for opening new fields to the traders +and missionaries, Champlain found it necessary to train young men to +this work. Only those were selected for the task who had a fair +education, and were healthy, strong, well-formed, and brave. They were, +often when mere boys, sent far up into the country to live among the +Indian tribes, to be adopted by them, to learn their habits and +languages, and to harden themselves to the rough life and rude diet of +the dusky dwellers in the forest. It took several years of this +practice, with patient suffering, for a youth to become an expert who +could be trusted to undergo any hardship or daring task that might be +asked of him. It was one of these forest-bred interpreters who became +the first white discoverer of Wisconsin. + +In those early days of New France, most of its people were from the west +and northwest provinces of France. The crews of the ships which engaged +in the trade to New France were nearly all from the ports of Rouen, +Honfleur, Fécamp, Cherbourg, Havre, Dieppe, and Caen; in these +north-coast cities lived the greater part of the Hundred Associates, and +from their vicinity came nearly all of the Jesuit missionaries and the +young men who were trained as interpreters. + +Jean Nicolet was born in or near Cherbourg, and was the son of a mail +carrier. He was about twenty years of age when, in 1618, he arrived in +Quebec; "and forasmuch as," says an old Jesuit writer of that time, "his +nature and excellent memory inspired good hopes of him, he was sent to +winter with the Island Algonkins, in order to learn their language. He +tarried with them two years, alone of the French, and always joined the +Barbarians in their excursions and journeys, undergoing such fatigues as +none but eyewitnesses can conceive; he often passed seven or eight days +without food, and once, full seven weeks with no other nourishment than +a little bark from the trees." These "Island Algonkins" lived on +Allumettes Island in the Ottawa River, nearly three hundred miles from +Quebec; their language was the principal one then used by the Indians in +the country on the north bank of the St. Lawrence and in the great +valley of the Ottawa. + +Although the life was so hard that few white men could endure it, +Nicolet, like most of the other interpreters, learned to enjoy it; and, +passing from one tribe to another, in his search for new languages and +experiences, he remained among his forest friends for eight or nine +years. He had been with the Algonkins for three or four years when he +went, at the head of four hundred of them, into the Iroquois country, +and made a treaty of peace with this savage foe, whom the Algonkins +always greatly feared. It is related that thence he went to dwell with +the Nipissing Indians, living about Lake Nipissing, "where he passed +for one of that nation, taking part in the very frequent councils of +those tribes, having his own separate cabin and household, and fishing +and trading for himself." + +Possibly Nicolet might have been recalled from the woods before this, +but, between 1629 and 1632, Canada was in the hands of the British; and +he remained among the Indians, inspiring them to hostility against the +strangers. In 1632, when the country was released to France, Champlain +and his fellow-officers returned to Quebec, and Nicolet was summoned +thither, and was employed as clerk and interpreter by the Hundred +Associates. + +Champlain was eager to resume his explorations. He had once been up the +great Ottawa River, and thence had crossed over to Lake Huron, and had +become keenly interested in what were then termed the "upper waters." Of +Lakes Ontario and Erie he knew nothing, for the dreaded Iroquois had +prevented the French from going that way; and Lakes Superior and +Michigan were, as yet, undiscovered by whites. Vague rumors of these +unknown regions had been brought to Quebec by bands of strange savages +who had found their way down to the French settlements in search of +European goods in exchange for furs. + +Among the many queer stories brought by these fierce, painted barbarians +was one which told of a certain "Tribe of the Sea" dwelling far away on +the western banks of the "upper waters," a people who had come out of +the West, no man knew whence. In those early days, Europeans still clung +to the notion which Columbus had always held, that America was but an +eastern projection of Asia. This is the reason that our savages were +called Indians, for the discoverers of America thought they had merely +reached an outlying portion of India; they had no idea that this was a +great and new continent. Governor Champlain, and after him Governor +Frontenac, and the great explorer La Salle, all supposed that they could +reach India and China, already known to travelers to the east, by +persistently going westward. When, therefore, Champlain heard of these +strange Men of the Sea, he at once declared they must be the long-sought +Chinese. He engaged Nicolet, in whom he had great confidence, to go out +and find them, wherever they were, make a treaty of peace with them, and +secure their trade. + +Upon the first day of July, 1634, Nicolet left Quebec, a passenger in +the second of two fleets of canoes containing Indians from the Ottawa +valley, who had come down to the white settlements to trade. Among his +fellow passengers were three adventurous Jesuit missionaries, who were +on their way to the country of the Huron tribe, east of Lake Huron. +Leaving the priests at Allumettes Island, he continued up the Ottawa, +then crossed over to Lake Nipissing, visited old friends among the +Indians there, and descended French Creek, which flows from Lake +Nipissing into Georgian Bay, a northeastern arm of Lake Huron. On the +shores of the great lake, he engaged seven Hurons to paddle his long +birch-bark canoe and guide him to the mysterious "Tribe of the Sea." + +Slowly they felt their way along the northern shores of Lake Huron, +where the pine forests sweep majestically down to the water's edge, or +crown the bold cliffs, while southward the green waters of the inland +sea stretch away to the horizon. Storms too severe for their frail craft +frequently detained them on the shore, and daily they sought food in the +forest. The savage crew, tiring of exertion, and overcome by +superstitious fears, would fain have abandoned the voyage; but the +strong, energetic master bore down all opposition. At last they reached +the outlet of Lake Superior, the forest-girt Strait of St. Mary, and +paddled up as far as the falls, the Sault Ste. Marie, as it came to be +called by the Jesuit missionaries. Here there was a large village of +Algonkins, where the explorer tarried, refreshing his crew and gathering +information concerning the "Tribe of the Sea." The explorers do not +appear to have visited Lake Superior; but, bolder than before, they set +forth to the southwest, and passing gayly through the island-dotted +Straits of Mackinac, now one of the greatest of the world's highways, +were soon upon the broad waters of Lake Michigan, of which Nicolet was +probably the first white discoverer. + +Clinging still to the northern shore, camping in the dense woods at +night or when threatened by storm, Nicolet rounded far-stretching Point +Detour and landed upon the shores of Bay de Noquet, a northern arm of +Green Bay. Another Algonkin tribe dwelt here, with whom the persistent +explorer smoked the pipe of peace, and they gave him further news of the +people he sought. Next he stopped at the mouth of the Menominee River, +now the northeast boundary between Wisconsin and Michigan, where the +Menominee tribe lived. Another council was held, more tobacco was +smoked, and one of Nicolet's Huron companions was sent forward to notify +the Winnebagoes at the mouth of the Fox River that the great white chief +was approaching; for the uncouth Winnebagoes were the far-famed "Tribe +of the Sea" whom Nicolet had traveled so far to find. + +The manner of their obtaining this name, which had so misled Champlain, +is curious. The word was originally "ouinepeg," or "ouinepego," and both +Winnipeg and Winnebago are derived from it. Now "ouinepeg" was an +Algonkin term meaning "men of (or from) the fetid (or bad-smelling) +water." Possibly the tribe, far back in their history, once dwelt by a +strong-smelling sulphur spring. The French, in their eagerness to find +China, fancied that the fetid water must necessarily be salt water, +hence the Western Ocean or "China Sea;" that is why they called the +Winnebagoes the "Tribe of the Sea," and jumped at the conclusion that +they were Chinese. + +By this time, Nicolet had his doubts about meeting Chinese at Green Bay. +As, however, he had brought with him "a grand robe of China damask, all +strewn with flowers, and birds of many colors," such as Chinese +mandarins are supposed to wear, he put it on; and when he landed on the +shore of Fox River, where is now the city of Green Bay, strode forward +into the group of waiting, skin-clad savages, discharging the pistols +which he held in either hand. Women and children fled in terror to the +wigwams; and the warriors fell down and worshiped this Manitou (or +spirit) who carried with him thunder and lightning. + +"The news of his coming," says the old Jesuit chronicler, "quickly +spread to the places round about, and there assembled four or five +thousand men. Each of the Chief men made a feast for him, and at one of +these banquets they served at least six-score Beavers." There was a +great deal of oratory at these feasts, with the exchange of belts of +wampum, and the smoking of pipes of peace, and no end of assurances on +the part of the red men that they were glad to become the friends of New +France and to keep the peace with the great French father at Paris. + +Leaving his new friends at Green Bay, the explorer ascended the Fox +River as far as the Mascoutins, who had a village upon a prairie ridge, +near where Berlin now lies. He made a similar treaty with this people, +and learned of the Wisconsin River which flows into the Mississippi, but +did not go to seek it. He then walked overland to the tribe of the +Illinois, probably returning to Quebec, in 1635, by way of Lake +Michigan. Nicolet had proceeded over nearly two thousand five hundred +miles of lake, river, forest, and prairie; had been subjected to a +thousand dangers from man and beast, as well as from fierce rapids and +stormtossed waters; had made treaties with several heretofore unknown +tribes, and had widely extended the boundaries of New France. + +For various reasons, it was nearly thirty years before another visit was +made by white men to Wisconsin. Nicolet himself soon settled down at the +new town of Three Rivers, on the shores of the St. Lawrence, between +Quebec and Montreal, as the agent and interpreter there of the great fur +trade company. He was a very useful man both to the company and to the +missionaries; for he had great influence over the Indians, who loved him +sincerely, and he always exercised this influence for the good of the +colony and of religion. He was drowned in the month of October, 1642, +while on his way to release a poor savage prisoner who was being +maltreated by Indians in the neighborhood. + + + + +RADISSON AND GROSEILLIERS + + +In the preceding chapter, the story was told how, in the year 1634, only +fourteen years after the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock, Jean Nicolet +was sent by Governor Champlain, of Quebec, all the way out to Wisconsin, +to make friends with our Indians, and to induce them to trade at the +French villages on the lower St. Lawrence River. Whether any of them +did, as a result of this visit, go down to see the palefaces at Three +Rivers or Quebec, and carry furs to exchange for European beads, +hatchets, guns, and iron kettles, we do not know; there is no record of +their having done so, neither are we aware that any white man soon +followed Nicolet to Wisconsin. + +Fur traders were in the habit of wandering far into the woods, and +meeting strange tribes of Indians; sometimes they would not return to +Quebec until after years of absence, and then would bring with them many +canoe-loads of skins. The fur trade was under the control of the Company +of the Hundred Associates. The laws of New France declared that there +could be no traffic with the Indians, except what this great company +approved; for they had bought from the king of France the right to do +all the trading and make all the profits, and New France really existed +only to make money for these rich Associates. The fur trade laws +provided severe punishments for those violating them; nevertheless, +although the population was small, and everybody knew everybody else in +the whole country, there were many brave, daring men who traveled +through the deep forests, traded with the Indians on their own account, +and paid no license fees to the Associates. These men, whom an +oppressive monopoly could not keep down, were the most venturesome +explorers in all this vast region; they were known as _coureurs des +bois_, or "wood rangers." La Salle, Duluth, Perrot, and many other early +Western explorers, were, at times in their career, _coureurs des bois_. + +Now, as a _coureur de bois_ was an outlaw, because he wandered and +traded without a license, naturally he was not in the habit of telling +where he had been or what he had seen; then again, though brave men, few +of these outlaws were educated, hence they seldom wrote journals of +their travels. For these reasons, we are often obliged to depend on +chance references to them, in the writings of others, and to patch up +our evidence as to their movements, out of many stray fragments of +information. + +So far as we at present know, there were no white men in Wisconsin +during the twenty years following the coming of Nicolet. It is uncertain +when the next white men came upon our soil, but there is good reason to +believe that it was in the autumn of 1654. These men were Pierre-Esprit +Radisson and Médard Chouart des Groseilliers. Like so many others in New +France, they were from the northern part of old France, and came to +Canada while yet lads, Groseilliers in 1641, and Radisson ten years +later. In 1653, Groseilliers married a sister of Radisson, and after +that the two men became inseparable companions in their long and +romantic wanderings. + +They experienced a number of thrilling adventures with Indians, both as +traders to the forest camps of savages friendly to New France, and as +prisoners in the hands of the French-hating Iroquois of New York. +Nevertheless they had grown accustomed to the hard, perilous life of the +wilderness, and were thoroughly in love with it. It was, as near as we +can ascertain, early in the month of August, 1654, when these two +adventurers started out "to discover the great lakes that they heard the +wild men speak of." They followed, most of the way, in the footsteps of +Nicolet, up the Ottawa River, and by the way of Lake Nipissing and +French River to Georgian Bay of Lake Huron. This had now become a +familiar route to the fur traders and Jesuit missionaries; but of the +country west of the eastern shore of Lake Huron scarcely anything was +yet known, except what vague and often fanciful reports of it were +brought by the savages. + +Like Nicolet, our two adventurous explorers traveled by canoes, with +Indians to do the paddling. Passing between the Manitoulin Islands, in +the northern waters of Lake Huron, they visited and traded with the +Huron Indians there, thence proceeded through the Straits of Mackinac, +and across to the peninsula of Door county, which separates Green Bay +from Lake Michigan. Here they spent the winter with the Pottawattomies; +they held great feasts with them, at which dogs and beavers, boiled in +kettles into a sort of thick soup, were the greatest delicacies; they +smoked pipes of peace with them, at wordy councils which often lasted +through several days; they hunted and fished with them, in a spirit of +good fellowship; and, in general, they shared the fortunes of their +forest friends, whether feasting or starving, after the manner of all +these early French explorers and fur traders. In the curious journal +afterward written in wretched but picturesque English by Radisson, he +says, "We weare every where much made of; neither wanted victualls, for +all the different nations that we mett conducted us & furnished us with +all necessaries." + +Springtime (1655) came at last, and the two traders proceeded merrily up +the Fox River, still in the wake of Nicolet, past the sites of the +present cities of Green Bay, De Pere, Kaukauna, Appleton, Neenah, and +Menasha. They frequently had to carry their boats around the rapids and +waterfalls, but after passing Doty's Island they had a smooth highway. +Paddling through Lake Winnebago, and past the site of Oshkosh, then an +Indian village, they pushed on through the winding reaches of the Upper +Fox, and at last came to a broad prairie near Berlin, whereon was +stationed the village of the Mascoutins, or Fire Nation. + +The Mascoutins treated the strangers, as they had Nicolet, with great +kindness. With this village as headquarters, the explorers made frequent +expeditions, "anxious to be knowne with the remotest people." Radisson +quaintly writes, "We ware 4 moneths in our voyage without doeing any +thing but goe from river to river." The explorers cared little, we may +suppose, except to have a good time and make a profitable trade with the +Indians; they do not appear to have made any map. Writing about their +travels, many years after, Radisson says, in one place, that they went +into a "great river" which flowed southward, and journeyed to a land of +continual warmth, finer than Italy, where he heard the Indians describe +certain white men living to the south, who might be Spaniards. It is +supposed by many historians that Radisson meant that he was on the +Mississippi; if this supposition be true, then the two explorers +undoubtedly found the great river by going up the Fox from the Mascoutin +village, carrying their canoe over the mile and a half of intervening +marsh at Portage, and gliding down the Wisconsin to its junction with +the Mississippi at Prairie du Chien. This is important, for the credit +of discovering the Upper Mississippi is usually given to Louis Joliet +and Father Marquette, who took this very course in 1673, eighteen years +later. But the whole question of what "great river" Radisson meant to +describe is so involved in doubt, that very likely we shall never know +the truth about it. + +Leaving their Mascoutin friends at last, apparently in the autumn of +1655, the two adventurers returned down the Fox River to Green Bay; +thence on to the large villages of Indians which clustered around the +Sault Ste. Marie. Received there, as elsewhere, with much feasting and +good will, Radisson and Groseilliers conducted trade with their hosts, +and explored a long stretch of the southern coast of Lake Superior, but +do not appear to have ventured so far as the Pictured Rocks. They also +made long expeditions into the country, on snowshoes, to visit and trade +with other tribes in the Michigan Peninsula and northern Wisconsin, and +even as far off as Hudson Bay, at one time being accompanied by a +hundred and fifty Indian hunters. + +In this wild fashion they spent the winter of 1655-56, and finally +reached Quebec in August, 1656. They had been absent from home for two +years, and had experienced many singular adventures. It happened that +during their absence the Iroquois had succeeded in keeping the Hurons +and other friendly Indians from visiting Quebec, so that the fur trade, +upon which New France depended, was now quite ruined; for this reason +the arrival of Radisson and Groseilliers, with a great store of furs +from far-away Wisconsin and Lake Superior, was hailed as a joyful event, +and, despite their having departed without a license, they were made +welcome at Quebec, the cannons being fired and the people flocking on +the beach to meet them. + +Men who love adventure cannot be kept out of it long, whatever the risk. +Three years later, in the summer of 1659, Radisson and Groseilliers +again set off for Lake Superior, up the old Ottawa and Georgian Bay +routes. This time they were specially bidden by the king's officers at +Quebec not to go, so that they were obliged to slip off secretly, and +join a fleet of Indian canoes returning home after the annual trade at +the French settlements. + +At Sault Ste. Marie they spent a short time with their savage friends, +and then paddled westward, along the southern shore of Lake Superior. In +their company were several Huron and Ottawa Indians, who had recently +been compelled to flee to Wisconsin because of Iroquois raids, which now +extended as far west as Michigan. The travelers were obliged to carry +their boats across Keweenaw Point, and at last found their way to +Chequamegon Bay, a noble sheet of water, hemmed in by the beautiful +Apostle Islands, and to-day a popular summer resort. + +Not far to the west of where Ashland now lies, somewhere near +Whittlesey's Creek, they built for themselves a rude hut, or fort, of +logs. The place was a small point of land jutting out into the water, a +triangle, Radisson describes it, with water on two sides and land at the +base. The land side of the triangle was guarded with a palisade of +pointed stakes, and to prevent surprises by night, for Indians were +always prowling about looking for plunder, the traders surrounded their +house with boughs of trees piled one upon the other, intertwined with a +long cord hung with little bells. + +After staying at their fort for a few weeks, they managed to _cache_ +(secretly bury) the greater part of their goods; and then set out on a +hunt with their Huron neighbors upon the headwaters of the Chippewa +River. Unusually severe weather set in, and a famine ensued, for there +was no game to kill, and the snow was so deep that they could hardly +travel. + +In the following spring (1660) the Frenchmen went with their Hurons on a +long search for provisions, getting as far west as the Sioux camps in +northern Minnesota. Then they returned to Chequamegon Bay, where they +built another little fort, and from which they visited some Indians on +the northwest shore of Lake Superior. In August they returned home, +again in a fleet of Huron canoes going down to Montreal to trade. But +this time the officers of the colony punished them for being _coureurs +des bois_, and confiscated most of their valuable furs, which meant the +loss of nearly all the property they possessed. + +Angered at this treatment, Groseilliers went to Paris to seek justice +from the king; but, obtaining none, he and Radisson offered their +services to the English, whom they told of Hudson Bay and its great +furtrading possibilities. It took several years, however, for +negotiations to be completed; and it was while in London that Radisson, +for the information of the English king, wrote his now famous journal of +explorations in the Lake Superior country. Finally, after some +unfortunate voyages, our explorers, in 1669, reached Hudson Bay in an +English ship; and, as a result, there was formed in England the great +Hudson Bay Company, which from that day to this has controlled the rich +fur trade of those northern waters. + +In later years (1678), we find Radisson and Groseilliers, who had been +pardoned by Louis XIV., king of France, for their desertion to the +English, back again in Paris. But after a time, suspicions as to their +loyalty spread abroad, and they again joined the English, to whom they +were useful in attracting Indian trade away from the French to the +Hudson Bay Company. They died at last, in London, considered by the +French as traitors to their own country. They will, however, live in +history as daring explorers, who opened to the fur trade the country now +known as Wisconsin, the waters of Lake Superior, and the vast region of +Hudson Bay. + + + + +THE STORY OF JOLIET AND MARQUETTE + + +In history there are two "discoveries of the Mississippi"; the lower +waters were discovered by the Spanish explorer, De Soto (April, 1541); +and the upper waters, by Frenchmen from Canada or New France. Nothing +came of De Soto's discovery for over a hundred years, for the Spaniards +had no love for exploration that gave no promise of mines of precious +metals, and it is to the French that we give chief credit for finding +the Mississippi; for their discovery immediately led the way to a +general knowledge of the geography and the savages of the great valley, +and to settlements there by whites. + +It is seldom safe to say who was the first man to discover anything, be +it in geography, in science, or in the arts; generally, we can tell only +who it was that made the first record of the discovery. Now it is quite +possible that Frenchmen may have wandered into the Upper Mississippi +valley before Radisson and Groseilliers appeared in Wisconsin (1654); +but, if they did, we do not know of it. It is still a matter of dispute +whether the "great river" described in Radisson's journal was the +Mississippi; some writers think that it was, and that to him and to +Groseilliers belongs the honor of the first-recorded discovery. Then, +again, there are some who think that in 1670 the famous fur trader La +Salle was upon the Mississippi; but that is a mere guess, and honors +cannot be awarded upon guesswork. We do know, however, that in 1673 +Joliet and Marquette set out for the very purpose of finding the +Mississippi, and succeeded; and that upon their return they wrote +reports of their trip and made maps of the country. Having thus opened +the door, as it were, white men were thereafter frequent travelers on +the broad waterway. Hence it is idle to discuss possible previous +visits; to Joliet and Marquette are due the credit of regular, +premeditated discovery. + +Louis Joliet, who led this celebrated expedition, was at the time but +twenty-eight years old. He was born in Quebec, had been educated at the +Jesuit college there, and early in life became a fur trader. He learned +several Indian languages, and made numerous long journeys into the +wilderness, and, like Jean Nicolet before him, was regarded by the +officers and the missionaries at Quebec as a man well fitted for the +life of an explorer. In 1671 he went with Saint Lusson, one of the +officials of New France, to Sault Ste. Marie. St. Lusson made peace with +the Indians of the Northwest, and, in the name of the king of France, +took possession of all the country bordering on the upper Great Lakes. + +Upon returning to Quebec, Joliet met the famous Count Frontenac, but +recently arrived from Paris, where he had been appointed as governor of +New France. Frontenac was curious to know more about the Mississippi +River, especially whether it flowed into the Pacific Ocean, or the +"Southern Sea" as it was then called in Europe. In looking about for a +man to head an expedition to the great river, he could hear of no one +better prepared for such service than Joliet. + +In those early days, no exploring party was complete without a priest; +the conversion of the savages to Christianity was quite as important, in +the eyes of the king, as the development of the fur trade. Father +Jacques Marquette, then thirty-six years of age, was the Jesuit +missionary at Point St. Ignace, on the Straits of Mackinac. When Joliet +reached that outpost, after a long and weary canoe voyage up the now +familiar Ottawa River and Georgian Bay route, he delivered orders to +Marquette to join his party. Joliet was a favorite with his old +instructors, the Jesuits, so that the two young men were well pleased +with being united upon this project, Joliet to attend to the worldly +affairs of the expedition, and Marquette to the religious. Both of them +had had long training in the hard life of the wilderness, and +understood Indian character and habits as well as any men in New France. + +It was upon the 17th of May, 1673, that the two explorers, in high +spirits, set forth from Marquette's little mission at Point Ignace. Five +French boatmen paddled their two canoes, and did most of the heavy work +of the journey, carrying the boats and cargoes around rapids, or along +portage trails from one river to another. Marquette says in his journal: +"Our joy at being chosen for this expedition roused our courage, and +sweetened the labor of paddling from morning to night." + +The course they took was, no doubt, that followed through nearly two +hundred years thereafter by persons journeying in canoes from Mackinac +to Green Bay. They paddled along the northern shores of Lake Michigan +and Green Bay, until they could cross over through the stormy water +known as "Death's Door," to the islands beyond the Door county +peninsula; and then crept down the east shore of Green Bay, under the +lee of the high banks. + +They seem to have made good time, for on the 7th of June they reached +the village of the Mascoutins, on the south shore of Fox River, near +where Berlin now is, the same village, it will be remembered, where +Nicolet, Radisson, and Allouez had already been entertained. We do not +know upon what day our two explorers had reached De Pere, where the +Jesuit mission was established, but they probably stayed among their +friends there for some days, before going up the Fox. + +In his journal, the good missionary described nearly everything he saw, +with much detail. The Menominee Indians interested him greatly; he calls +them "the People of the Wild Oats," and tells how they gather the grain +of these wild oats (or wild rice), by "shaking the ears, on their right +and left, into the canoe as they advance" through the swamps. Then they +take the grain to the land, strip it of much of the chaff, and "dry it +in the smoke on a wooden lattice, under which they keep up a small fire +for several days. When the oats are well dried, they put them in a skin +of the form of a bag, which is then forced into a hole made on purpose +in the ground; then they tread it out, so long and so well, that the +grain being freed from the chaff is easily winnowed; after which they +reduce it to meal." There are still to be seen, on the shores of Lake +Koshkonong, and several other Wisconsin lakes and rivers, the shallow, +bowl-like holes used by the Indians in threshing this grain, as +described by Marquette two and a quarter centuries ago. + +The Mascoutin village also claims much attention in the missionary's +diary. The Mascoutins themselves are rude, he says; so also are the +Kickapoos, many of whom live with them. At this village are also many +Miami Indians, who had fled from their homes in Indiana and Ohio, +through fear of the fierce Iroquois of New York. These Miamis are, +Marquette tells us, superior to the Wisconsin Indians, being "more +civil, liberal, and better made; they wear two long earlocks, which give +them a good appearance," and are brave, docile, and devout, listening +carefully to the missionaries who have visited them. The Father also +describes the site of the village: "I felt no little pleasure in +beholding the position of this town; the view is beautiful and very +picturesque, for from the eminence on which it is perched, the eye +discovers on every side prairies spreading away beyond its reach, +interspersed with thickets or groves of lofty trees. The soil is very +good, producing much corn; the Indians gather also quantities of plums +and grapes, from which good wine could be made, if they chose. As bark +for cabins is rare in this country, they use rushes, which serve them +for walls and roof, but which are no great shelter against the wind, and +still less against the rain when it falls in torrents. The advantage of +this kind of cabins is that they can roll them up, and carry them easily +where they like in hunting-time." + +Above the Mascoutin village, the Fox begins to narrow, being hemmed in, +and often choked, by broad swamps of reeds and wild oats. The canoe +traveler who does not know the channel, is sometimes in danger of +missing it, and getting entangled in the maze of bayous. Two Miami +guides were therefore obtained from their hosts, and on the 10th of June +the travelers set off for the southwest, "in the sight of a great crowd, +who could not wonder enough to see seven Frenchmen alone in two canoes, +dare to undertake so strange and so hazardous an expedition." The guides +safely conducted them to the place where is now situated the city of +Portage, helped them over the swampy plain of a mile and a half in +width, and, after seeing them embarked upon the broad waters of the +Wisconsin River, left them "alone in an unknown country, in the hands of +Providence." + +The broad valley of the Wisconsin presents a far different appearance +from that of the peacefully flowing Upper Fox, with its outlying marshes +of reeds, and its numerous lakes. The Wisconsin, or Meskousing, as +Marquette writes it, is flanked by ranges of bold, heavily wooded +bluffs, which are furrowed with romantic ravines, while the channel is, +at low water, studded with islands and sand bars, and in times of flood +spreads to a great width. Marquette himself describes it thus: "It is +very broad, with a sandy bottom, forming many shallows, which render +navigation very difficult. It is full of vine-clad islets. On the banks +appear fertile lands diversified with wood, prairie, and hill. Here you +find oaks, walnut, whitewood, and another kind of tree with branches +armed with long thorns. We saw no small game or fish, but deer and moose +in considerable numbers." About ninety miles below Portage, they thought +that they discovered an iron mine. + +At last, on the 17th of June, they swiftly glided through the +picturesque delta of the Wisconsin, near Prairie du Chien, and found +themselves upon the Mississippi, grateful that after so long and +tiresome a journey they had found the object of their search. Joliet's +instructions were, however, to ascertain whether the great stream flowed +into the "Southern Sea"; so they journeyed as far down as the mouth of +the Arkansas. There they gathered information from the Indians which +led them to believe that the river emptied into the Gulf of Mexico; thus +the old riddle of the supposed waterway through the heart of the North +American continent was left unsolved. + +In returning, Joliet and Marquette came up the Illinois River, and +reached Lake Michigan by portaging over to the Chicago River. They were +back at the Jesuit mission at De Pere, in September. Marquette having +fallen ill, Joliet was obliged to return to Quebec alone, leaving the +missionary to spend the winter with his Wisconsin friends. When almost +within sight of the French settlement at Montreal, at the mouth of the +Ottawa River, poor Joliet lost all his papers in the dangerous Lachine +rapids, and could make only a verbal report to the government. He later +prepared a map of his route, with great care, and forwarded that to +France; it is one of the best maps of the interior parts of North +America made in the seventeenth century. Joliet, as the leader of the +expedition, had hoped to receive, either in office or lands, substantial +rewards for his great discoveries; but there were now new officials at +Quebec, with whom he had little influence, and the recompense of this +brave spirit was small. Others reaped what advantages there were in the +opening of the Mississippi valley to the fur trade. + +On the other hand, the unworldly priest who was his friend and +companion, and who neither desired nor needed special recognition for +what he had done, has, all unconsciously, won most of the glory of this +brilliant enterprise. Under the rules of the Jesuit order, each +missionary in New France was obliged to forward to his superior at +Quebec, once each year, a written journal of his doings. Marquette +prepared his report at leisure during the winter, while at De Pere, and +in the spring sent it down to Quebec, by an Indian who was going thither +to trade with the whites. Accompanying it was a crudely drawn but fairly +accurate map of the Mississippi basin. The journal and map arrived +safely, but for some reason neither was then printed; indeed, they +remained almost unknown to the world for a hundred and seventy-nine +years, being at last published in 1852. Marquette never learned the fate +of either Joliet's elaborate records or his own simple story of the +expedition, for he died in May, 1675, on the eastern shore of Lake +Michigan, worn out by disease and by excessive labors in behalf of the +Indians. + +By the time Marquette's journal was finally published, Joliet had been +well-nigh forgotten; and to Marquette, because his journal was the only +one printed, is given the chief credit in nearly every American history. +The legislature of Wisconsin has placed a beautiful marble statue of the +gentle Marquette, as the discoverer of the Mississippi, in the capitol +in Washington; whereas the name of his sturdy chief is perpetuated only +in the principal prison city of Illinois. + + + + +THE JESUIT MISSIONARIES + + +In planting settlements in Canada (or New France, as it was then +called), the French had two principal objects in view: the fur trade +with the Indians, and the conversion of these Indians to the Christian +religion. Roman Catholic missionaries from France therefore accompanied +the first settlers, and were always prominent in the affairs of the +colony. Governor Champlain brought to Quebec some missionaries of the +Recollect order, a branch of the Franciscans; but after a few years, the +difficulties of their task proved so great that the Recollects asked the +Jesuits, a much stronger order, to come over and help them. It was not +long before nearly all the Franciscans returned home, and the Jesuits +were practically the only missionaries in New France. + +During the first few years, these missionaries spent their winters in +Quebec, ministering to the colonists, and each spring went out to meet +the Indians in their summer camps. It was soon found, however, that +greater persistence was needed; and after that, instead of returning +home in the autumn, they followed the savages upon their winter hunts. +In order to convert the Indians, the missionaries studied their many +languages, their habits, and their manner of thought, lived as they +lived, and with them often suffered untold misery, for life in a savage +camp is sometimes almost unbearable to educated and refined white men, +such as the French Jesuits were. They did not succeed in winning over to +Christianity many of their savage companions; indeed, the latter +frequently treated them with great cruelty, and several of the +missionaries were tortured to death. + +Such were the ignorance and superstition of the Indians, that every +disaster which happened to them, poor luck in hunting, famine, accident, +or disease, was attributed to the "black gowns," as the Jesuits were +called because of their long black cassocks. When the missionaries were +performing the rites of their church, baptizing children or sick people, +or saying mass, it was thought by these simple barbarians that they were +practicing magic for the destruction of the red men. Thus the Jesuits, +during the hundred years or more which they spent in traveling far and +near through the forests of New France, seeking new tribes to convert, +while still laboring with those already known, were in a state of +perpetual martyrdom for the cause of Christianity. No soldier has ever +performed greater acts of heroism than these devoted disciples of the +cross. Several of the best and bravest of them were among the pioneers +of the Wisconsin wilderness. + +The first Jesuit missionary to come to Wisconsin was Father René Ménard +(pr. _Ray-nay' May-nar'_). He had sailed from France to Canada in the +year 1640, when he was thirty-five years old, and on his arrival was +sent to the savages east of Lake Huron, among whom he labored and +suffered for eight years. Later, he went to the Iroquois, in New York, +and at last had to fly for his life, on account of an Indian plot to +murder all the French missionaries in that country. He was for some time +the superior of his order, at the Three Rivers mission, on the St. +Lawrence, halfway between Quebec and Montreal, and in the early autumn +of 1660 was summoned to go to Lake Superior, which had been made known +through the explorations of Radisson and Groseilliers. + +These brave adventurers had returned from their second voyage into the +Northwest, accompanied by a fleet of Indian canoes; several of the +canoes were manned by Hurons from the Black River, who had come down all +the way to Montreal to trade their furs for European goods. The red men +spent some ten days there, feasting with the fur trade agents, and about +the first of September set out on their return. With them were Ménard, +his servant, and seven other Frenchmen. + +Ménard was now only fifty-five years old, but so severe had been his +life among the Indians, that his hair was white, he was covered with the +scars of wounds, and "his form was bent as with great age." The long +journey was therefore a severe strain upon the good man, for in addition +to the exposure to weather, he was forced to paddle most of the time, to +carry heavy packs over the numerous portage trails, and to suffer many +indignities at the hands of his hosts. By the time the company had +finally made their weary way up the Ottawa River, over to Georgian Bay, +and through to Sault Ste. Marie, the missionary was in a deplorable +condition. An accident happened to his canoe, and the Frenchmen and +three Indians were abandoned on the south shore of Lake Superior, at +Keweenaw Bay. There he was forced to spend the winter in a squalid +Ottawa village, and nearly lost his life in a famine which overtook the +natives of that region. + +In the spring of 1661, while at Keweenaw Bay, Ménard received an +invitation to visit a band of poor, starving Hurons at the headwaters of +the Black River. Several of these Indians had been baptized by Jesuits +before the Iroquois had driven them out from their old home to the east +of Lake Huron. In spite of his weak condition, and the many perils of +this journey of a hundred and fifty miles through the dense forest, the +aged missionary bade farewell to the Keweenaw Ottawas, among whom had +also wintered several French fur traders, and in July set out to obey +the new summons. In his company were his servant and several Hurons who +had come to trade with the Ottawas. + +They proceeded along the narrow trail which ran from Keweenaw Bay to +Lake Vieux Désert, the headwaters of the Wisconsin River, but the +feeble missionary's gait was too slow for the Indians, who, after the +manner of their kind, promptly deserted their white friends, leaving +them to follow and obtain food as best they might. At the lake the +Frenchmen embarked in a canoe upon the south-flowing Wisconsin, and +paddled down as far as Bill Cross Rapids, some five or six miles above +the mouth of Copper River, and not far from where is now the city of +Merrill. From the foot of these rapids, they had intended leaving their +canoe, and following a trail which led off westward through the woods to +the headwaters of the Black, near the present town of Chelsea. Ménard's +servant took the canoe through the rapids, while the missionary, as +usual, to lighten the boat, walked along the portage trail. He must have +lost his way and perished of exposure in the depths of the dark and +tangled forest, for his servant could not find any trace of him. Thus +closed the career of Wisconsin's pioneer missionary, who died in the +pursuit of duty, as might a soldier upon the field of battle. + +The death of Ménard left the Lake Superior country without a missionary; +but four years later (1665), another Jesuit was sent thither in the +person of Claude Allouez (pr. _Al-loo-ay'_), who chose Chequamegon Bay +for the seat of his labors. There he found a squalid village, near +Radisson and Groseilliers' old forts, on the southwest shore; it was +composed of remnants of eight or ten tribes, some of whom had been +driven westward by the Iroquois and others eastward by the Sioux. He +called his mission La Pointe, from the neighboring long point of land +which, projecting northward, divides Chequamegon Bay from Lake Superior. + +Allouez could make little impression upon these poor savages. After four +years of hard service and ill-treatment, he was relieved by Jacques +Marquette, a youthful and enthusiastic priest. Late in the autumn of +1669, Allouez went to Fox River, and there he founded the mission of St. +Francis Xavier, overlooking the rapids of De Pere.[1] This was a more +successful mission than the one at Chequamegon Bay; for, during the next +summer, the western Sioux furiously attacked the Indian neighbors of +Marquette and sent them all flying eastward, like dry leaves before an +October gale. The zealous Marquette accompanied them, and, with such +bands as he could induce to settle around him, opened a new mission on +the mainland near Mackinac Island, at the Point St. Ignace of to-day. + +[Footnote 1: Called by the early French _Rapides des Pères_, or "The +Fathers' Rapids"; but it was soon shortened into _Des Pères_, and +finally, by the Americans, into _De Pere_.] + +[Illustration: SITE OF THE MISSION AT DE PERE] + +Meanwhile, Allouez continued his mission at De Pere, making long trips +throughout Wisconsin, preaching to the Indians, and establishing the +mission of St. Mark on the Wolf River, probably on or near Lake Shawano, +where the Chippewas then lived in great numbers. Later, he opened St. +James mission at the Mascoutin village near Berlin. His churches were +mere huts or wigwams built of reeds and bark, after the manner of the +natives. Another Jesuit, Louis André, was sent to Wisconsin to assist +this enterprising missionary, and they traveled among the tribes, +preaching and healing the sick in nearly every Indian village in the +wide country between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi. The career of +these good missionaries was not one of ease. Their lives were frequently +in peril; they suffered severely from cruel treatment, hunger, cold, and +the many hardships of forest travel; and were rewarded by few +conversions. + +Allouez remained in Wisconsin until 1676, when he departed to carry on a +similar work in Illinois, dying thirteen years later, after a score of +years spent in Western missions. In Wisconsin, he was succeeded, in +turn, by several others of his order; chief among them were Fathers +Silvy, Albanel, Nouvel, Enjalran, and Chardon. Chardon was the last of +his kind, for he, with other Frenchmen, was driven out of Wisconsin in +1728, at the time of the Fox War. + +It was during the time of Enjalran, at De Pere, that Nicolas Perrot, a +famous fur trader, was military commandant for the French in the country +west of Lake Michigan. In all this vast district, Enjalran was then the +only priest. In token of his appreciation of its work, Perrot presented +to the mission a beautiful silver _ostensorium_ (or _soleil_) made in +Paris. The _ostensorium_ is one of the vessels used at the altar, in +celebrating the mass. This was in the year 1686; the following year, +during one of the frequent outbursts of Indian hostility against the +missionaries, Enjalran was obliged to fly for his life. In order to +lighten his burden, he buried this silver vessel, evidently intending to +return some time and regain possession of it. + +In 1802, a hundred and fifteen years later, a man was digging a cellar +in Green Bay, several miles lower down the bank of the Fox River than is +De Pere, when his pickax ran through this piece of silver. It was +brought to light, and for safe keeping was given to the Catholic priest +then at Green Bay. Nobody would have known its story except for the +clearly engraved inscription on the bottom; the words are in French, but +in English they signify: "This soleil was given by Mr. Nicolas Perrot to +the mission of St. Francis Xavier, at the Bay of the Puants, 1686"; for +the early French name for Green Bay was "Bay of the Puants." The old +_ostensorium_, with its inscription just as plainly to be read to-day as +when engraved over two centuries ago, can now be seen among the +treasures of the State Historical Society, at Madison. It is an enduring +memorial to the labors and the sufferings of Wisconsin's first +missionaries. + + + + +SOME NOTABLE VISITORS TO EARLY WISCONSIN + + +It has been pointed out that wandering fur traders were in Wisconsin at +a very early date. We have seen that Nicolet, Radisson, and Groseilliers +made Wisconsin known to the world, at a time when Massachusetts colony +was still young. It will be remembered that when Father Ménard went to +Lake Superior, in 1660, to convert the Indians, there were several +French fur traders with him. As early as the spring of 1662, these same +traders had gone across country to the mouth of the Fox River. Three +years later the Menominees and Pottawattomies, then living on both sides +of the bay, were visited by Nicolas Perrot, a daring young spirit from +Quebec, who had come to the then Far West to make his fortune in trading +with the red men. + +Perrot was one of the most picturesque characters in Wisconsin history. +In Canada he had been a servant of the Jesuit missionaries, acquiring in +this work an education which was slight as to books, but broad as to +knowledge of the Indians and of forest life. He was now twenty-one years +of age, and started out for himself as soon as he was his own master. +For five years Perrot wandered up and down the eastern half of +Wisconsin, frequently visiting his friends, the Mascoutins and Miamis, +on the Fox River. He smoked pipes of peace with them and with other +forest and prairie tribes, and joined in their feasts of beaver, dog, +and other savage delicacies. + +In 1670 he and four other Frenchmen, packing their furs into bundles of +convenient size, joined a large party of Indians going down to Montreal +in canoes, to trade. Perrot did not return with his companions, but +visited Quebec, and there received an appointment from the government to +rally the Western tribes in a great council at Sault Ste. Marie. Here a +treaty was to be made, binding the savages to an alliance with France. +The French were very jealous of the English, who had, through the +guidance of Radisson and Groseilliers, commenced fur trade operations in +the Hudson Bay country. It was feared that they would entice the Indians +of the upper Great Lakes to trade with them, for the English offered +higher prices for furs than did the French. + +Perrot spent the winter in visiting the tribes in Wisconsin and along +the northern shores of Lakes Michigan and Huron, and succeeded in +inducing large bands of them to go to the Sault early in May (1671). The +council was attended by an enormous gathering, representing tribes from +all over the Northwest, even from the north shores of Lake Superior and +Hudson Bay. Father Marquette was there with the Ottawas, and several +other famous missionaries came to the council. The interpreter, who knew +Indian dialects by the score, was no less a person than Louis Joliet. +The French government was represented by Saint Lusson, who concluded +the desired treaty, with great ceremony, took formal possession of all +this country for the king of France, and reared on the spot a great +cedar pole, to which he fastened a lead plate bearing the arms of his +country. This symbol the simple and wondering savages could not +understand: and as soon as the Frenchmen had gone home again, they tore +it down, fearing that it was a charm which might bring bad luck to the +tribesmen. + +And now we find Perrot suddenly losing his office, and forced for ten +years to live a quiet life in the French settlements on the lower St. +Lawrence. He married a well-to-do young woman, reared a considerable +family, and became a man of some influence. But he was always eager to +be back in the forest, wandering from tribe to tribe, and engaging in +the wilderness trade, where the profits were great, though the risks to +life and property were many. In 1681 he returned to the woods, but not +till three years later was he so far west as Mackinac. + +In 1685 he appeared once more at Green Bay, this time holding the +position of Commandant of the West, with a little company of twenty +soldiers. He now had almost unlimited authority to explore and traffic +as he would, for the only salary an official of that sort used to get, +in New France, was the right to trade with the Indians. He had already +lost money in working for the government as an Indian agent, and his +present operations were wholly directed toward getting it back again. He +went up the Fox and down the Wisconsin, and then ascended the +Mississippi to trade with the wild Sioux tribe. For headquarters, he +erected a little log stockade on the east bank of the Mississippi, about +a mile above the present village of Trempealeau, and south of the mouth +of Black River. In the year 1888, the site of this old stockade was +discovered by a party of historical students, and many of the curious +relics found there can now be seen in the museum of the State Historical +Society, at Madison. + +All through the winter of 1685-86, Perrot traded here with the Sioux. He +had a most captivating manner of treating Indians; for a long time, few +of them ventured to deny any request made by him. Chiefs from far and +near would come to the Trempealeau "fort," as it was called, and hold +long councils and feasts with the great white chief, and more than once +he was subjected to the curious Sioux ceremony of being wept over. A +chief would stand over his guest and weep copiously, his tears falling +upon the guest's head; when the chief's tear ducts were exhausted, he +would be relieved by some headman of the tribe, who in turn was +succeeded by another, and so on until the guest was well drenched. This +must have been a very trying experience to Perrot, but he was shrewd +enough to pretend to be much pleased by it. + +In the spring of 1686, the same year in which he gave the silver +_ostensorium_ to the Jesuit chapel at De Pere, the commandant proceeded +up the Mississippi to the broadening which was, about this time, named +Lake Pepin by the French. On the Wisconsin shore, not far above the +present village of Pepin, he erected another and stronger stockade, +Fort St. Antoine. It was here, three years later, that, after the manner +of Saint Lusson at Sault Ste. Marie, he formally took possession, in the +name of his king, of all the Upper Mississippi valley. + +Several other forts were built by Perrot along the Mississippi, none of +them more than groups of stout log houses. These were surrounded by a +stockade wall of heavy logs well planted in the ground, sharpened at the +top, pierced for musket fire, and sometimes surmounted by a small +cannon. The stockade whose ruins were unearthed at Trempealeau, measured +about forty-five by sixty feet. One of his stockades, Fort Perrot, was +on the Minnesota shore of Lake Pepin; still another, Fort St. Nicholas, +was near the "lower town" of the Prairie du Chien of to-day, at the +confluence of the Wisconsin and the Mississippi; and it also appears +that he had a stockade lower down the Mississippi, to guard a lead mine +which he had discovered near Galena, because lead was an important +article for both fur traders and Indians. Sometimes traders fought among +themselves, for the possession of a lead mine. + +Perrot made frequent voyages to the settlements on the St. Lawrence +River, and engaged in some of the French expeditions against the hostile +Iroquois of New York. While, on the whole, he was successful in holding +the Western tribes in friendship to New France, his position was not +without grave perils. One time his old friends, the Mascoutins, rose +against him, claiming that he had killed one of their warriors. The +claim may have been true, for he was a man of violent temper, and ruled +the Wisconsin forests after the despotic fashion of an Asiatic prince. +The Mascoutins captured Perrot, in company with a Pottawattomie chief, +and carrying them to their village, robbed the commandant of all his +furs, and decided to burn the prisoners at the stake. But while being +conducted to the fire, the two managed by artifice to escape, and at +last reached in safety their friends at the mouth of the Fox River. +Another time, the Miamis captured Perrot, and would have burned him +except for the interference of the Fox Indians, with whom he was +friendly. + +In 1699, owing to the uprising of the Foxes, the king ordered that all +the Western posts be abandoned, and their little garrisons removed to +Montreal and Quebec. Thus suddenly ended the career of Perrot, who +returned a poor man, for his recent losses in furs had been heavy, and +his expenses of keeping up the posts large. Again and again he sought +redress from the government, and the Wisconsin Foxes earnestly pleaded +that he be sent back to them, as "the best beloved of all the French who +have ever been among us." But his star had set, he no longer had +influence; and it had just been decided to punish his friends the Foxes. +Perrot lived about twenty years longer, on the banks of the Lower St. +Lawrence, and died in old age, like Joliet, in neglect and poverty. + +During much of the time that Perrot was commandant of the West, several +other great fur traders were conducting operations in Wisconsin. The +greatest of these was the Chevalier La Salle, the famous explorer, who +plays a large part on the stage of Western history, particularly in the +history of the Mississippi valley. It has been claimed for La Salle that +he was in Wisconsin in 1671, two years before Joliet, and actually +canoed on the Mississippi River, but this is more than doubtful. We do +know that in 1673 one of his agents was trading with the Sioux to the +west of Lake Superior; and that in 1679 he came to Green Bay in a small +vessel called the _Griffin_, the first sailing craft on the Great Lakes +above the cataract of Niagara. La Salle was a _coureur de bois_, most of +this time, for he operated in a field far larger than that for which he +had a license. Leaving his ship, which was afterward wrecked, he and +fourteen of his men proceeded in canoes southward along the western +coast of Lake Michigan, visiting the sites of Milwaukee and other +Wisconsin lakeshore cities. Finally, after many strange adventures, they +ascended St. Joseph River, crossed over to the Kankakee River, and spent +the winter in a log fort which they built on Peoria Lake, a broadening +of the Illinois River. + +At least one priest was thought necessary in every well-equipped +exploring expedition. La Salle had quarreled with the Jesuits, and hated +them; hence the ministers of religion in his party were three Franciscan +friars, one of them being Father Louis Hennepin, who afterward became +famous. When La Salle determined to spend the winter at Peoria Lake, he +sent Hennepin forward with two _coureurs de bois_, to explore the upper +waters of the Mississippi. These three adventurers descended the +Illinois River in their canoe, and then ascended the Mississippi to the +Falls of St. Anthony, where now lies the great city of Minneapolis; +there they met some Sioux, and went with them upon a buffalo hunt. But +the Indians, although at first friendly, soon turned out to be a bad +lot, for they robbed their guests, and practically held them as +prisoners. + +This was in the early summer of 1680. Luckily for Hennepin and his +companions, the powerful _coureur de bois_, Daniel Graysolon Duluth (_du +Luth_) appeared on the scene. Duluth was, next to Perrot, the leading +man in the country around Lake Superior and the Upper Mississippi +valley. He had been spending the winter trading with the Sioux in the +lake country of northern Minnesota, and along Pigeon River, which is now +the dividing line between Minnesota and Canada. With a party of ten of +his boatmen, he set out in June to reach the Mississippi, his route +taking him up the turbulent little Bois Brulé River, over the mile and a +half of portage trail to Upper Lake St. Croix, and down St. Croix River +to the Mississippi. On reaching the latter, he learned of the fact that +Europeans were being detained and maltreated by the Sioux, and at once +went and rescued them. The summer was spent among the Indians in company +with Hennepin's party, who, now that Duluth was found to be their +friend, were handsomely treated. In the autumn, Duluth, Hennepin, and +their companions all returned down the Mississippi, up the Wisconsin, +and down the Fox, and spent the winter at Mackinac. After that, Duluth +was frequently upon the Fox-Wisconsin route, and traded for buffalo +hides and other furs with the Wisconsin tribes. + +Another famous visitor to Wisconsin, in those early days, was Pierre le +Sueur, who in 1683 traveled from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi, over +the Fox-Wisconsin route, and traded with the Sioux at the Falls of St. +Anthony and beyond. His fur trade grew, in a few years, to large +proportions; for he was a shrewd man, and was related to some of the +officials of New France. This enabled him to secure trading licenses for +the Western country, and other valuable privileges, which gave him an +advantage over the unlicensed traders, like Duluth, who had no official +friends. In 1693, Le Sueur was trading in Duluth's old country; and, in +order to protect the old Bois Brulé and St. Croix route from marauding +Indians, he built a log fort at either end, one on Chequamegon Bay, and +the other on an island in the Mississippi, below the mouth of the St. +Croix. A few years later, Le Sueur was in France, where he obtained a +license to operate certain "mines of lead, copper, and blue and green +earth," which he claimed to have discovered along the banks of the Upper +Mississippi. In the summer of 1700, he and his party opened lead mines +in the neighborhood of the present Dubuque and Galena, and also near the +modern town of Potosi, Wisconsin. He does not appear to have been very +successful as a miner; but his fur trade was still enormous, and his +many explorations led to the Upper Mississippi being quite correctly +represented on the maps of America, made by the European geographers. + +A missionary priest, Father St. Cosme, of Quebec, was in Green Bay in +October, 1699, and proposed to visit the Mississippi region, by way of +the Fox and Wisconsin rivers. But the warlike Foxes, who were giving +the French a great deal of trouble at this time, had forbidden any white +man passing over this favorite waterway, so St. Cosme was obliged to go +the way that La Salle had followed, up the west shore of Lake Michigan +and through Illinois. The party stopped at many places along the +Wisconsin lake shore, but the only ones which we can identify are the +sites of Sheboygan and Milwaukee, where there were large Indian +villages. + +It is not to be supposed that these were all the Frenchmen to tarry in +or pass through Wisconsin during the latter half of the seventeenth +century. Doubtless there were scores, if not hundreds of others, fur +traders, _voyageurs_, soldiers, and priests; we have selected but a few +of those whose movements were recorded in the writings of their time. +Wisconsin was a key point in the geography of the West; here were the +interlaced sources of rivers flowing north into Lake Superior, east and +northeast into Lake Michigan, and west and southwest into the +Mississippi River. The canoe traveler from Lower Canada could, with +short portages, pass through Wisconsin into waters reaching far into the +interior of the continent, even to the Rocky Mountains, the lakes of the +Canadian Northwest, and the Gulf of Mexico. This is why the geography of +Wisconsin became known so early in the history of our country, why +Wisconsin Indians played so important a part on the stage of border +warfare, and why history was being made here at a time when some of the +States to the east of us were still almost unknown to white men. + + + + +A QUARTER OF A CENTURY OF WARFARE + + +Wisconsin was important, from a geographical point of view, because here +were the meeting places of waters which flowed in so many directions; +here were the gates which opened upon widely divergent paths. The +explorer and the fur trader soon discovered this, and Wisconsin became +known to them at a very early period. France had two important colonies +in North America, New France (or Canada), upon the St. Lawrence River, +and Louisiana, extending northward indefinitely from the Gulf of Mexico. +It was found necessary, in pushing her claim to the ownership of all of +the continent west of the Alleghany Mountains and east of the Rockies, +to connect New France and Louisiana with a chain of little forts along +the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. The forts at Detroit, +Mackinac, Green Bay, Prairie du Chien, and Kaskaskia (in Illinois) were +links in this chain, at the center of which was Wisconsin; or, to use +another figure, Wisconsin was the keystone of the arch which bridged the +two French colonies. + +There were six principal canoe routes between the Great Lakes and the +Mississippi: one by way of the Maumee and Wabash rivers, another by way +of St. Joseph River and the Kankakee and the Illinois, another by way +of the St. Joseph, Wabash, and Ohio rivers, still another by way of the +Chicago River and the Illinois, and we have already seen that from Lake +Superior there were used the Bois Brulé and the St. Croix routes. But +the easiest of all, the favorite gateway, was the Fox-Wisconsin route, +for all the others involved considerable hardship; this is why Wisconsin +was so necessary to the French military officers in holding control of +the interior of the continent. + +Affairs went well enough so long as the French were on good terms with +the warlike and crafty Fox Indians, who held control of the Fox River. +But after a time the Foxes became uneasy. The fur trade in New France +was in the hands of a monopoly, which charged large fees for licenses, +and fixed its own prices on the furs which it bought, and on the Indian +goods which it sold to the forest traders. On the other hand, the fur +trade in the English colonies east of the Alleghanies was free; any man +could engage in it and go wherever he would. The result was that the +English, with the strong competition among themselves, paid higher +prices to the Indians for furs than the French could afford, and their +prices for articles which the Indians wanted were correspondingly lower +than those of the French. + +The Indians were always eager for a bargain; and although the French +declared that those trading with the English were enemies of New France, +they persisted in secretly sending trading parties to the English, who +were now beginning to swarm into the Ohio valley. The Foxes, in +particular, grew very angry with the French for charging them such high +prices, and resented the treatment which they received at the hands of +the traders from Quebec and Montreal. At one time they told Perrot that +they would pack up their wigwams, and move in a body to the Wabash River +or to the Ohio, and form a league with the fierce Iroquois of New York, +who were friends and neighbors of the English. Had they done so, the +French fur trade in the West would have suffered greatly. + +The Foxes began to make it disagreeable for the French in Wisconsin. +They insisted on collecting tolls on fur trade bateaux which were being +propelled up the Fox River, and even stopped traders entirely; several +murders of Frenchmen were also charged to them. The French thereupon +determined to punish these rebellious savages who sat within the chief +gateway to the Mississippi. In the winter of 1706-07, a large party of +soldiers, _coureurs des bois_, and half-breeds, under a captain named +Marin, ascended the Fox River on snowshoes and attacked the Foxes, +together with their allies, the Sacs, at a large village at Winnebago +Rapids, near where is now the city of Neenah. + +Several hundreds of the savages were killed in this assault, but its +effect was to make the Foxes the more troublesome. A few summers later, +this same Marin arranged again to surprise the enemy. His boats were +covered with oilcloth blankets, in the manner adopted by the traders to +protect the goods against rain; only two _voyageurs_ were visible in +each boat to propel it. Arriving at the foot of Winnebago Rapids, the +canoes were ranged along the shore, and nearly fifteen hundred Indians +came out and squatted on the bank, ready to collect toll of the traders. +All of a sudden the covers were thrown off, and the armed men appeared +and raked the Indians with quick volleys of lead, while a small cannon +in Marin's boat increased the effectiveness of the attack. Tradition +says that over a thousand Foxes and Sacs fell in this massacre; this is +one of the many incidents in white men's relations with the Indians, +wherein savages were outsavaged in the practice of ferocious treachery. + +Despite the great slaughter, there appear to have been enough Foxes left +to continue giving the French a great deal of annoyance. There were +fears at Quebec that it might be necessary to abandon the attempt to +connect New France and Louisiana by a trail through the Western woods, +in which case the English would have a free run of the Mississippi +valley. There seem, however, not to have been any more warlike +expeditions to Wisconsin for several years. But in May, 1712, the +French induced large numbers of the Foxes, with their friends, the +Mascoutins, the Kickapoos, and the Sacs, to come to Detroit for the +making of a treaty of peace. At the same time the French also assembled +there large bands of the Pottawattomies and Menominees from Wisconsin, +with Illinois Indians, some camps from Missouri, and Hurons and Ottawas +from the Lake Huron country; all of these were enemies of the Foxes. + +The records do not show just why it happened; but for some reason the +French and their allies fired on the Foxes and their friends, who were +well intrenched in a palisaded camp outside the walls of Detroit. A +great siege ensued, lasting nineteen days, in which the slaughter on +both sides was heavy; but at last the Foxes, worn out by loss of +numbers, hunger, and disease, took advantage of a dark, rainy night to +escape northward. They were pursued the following day, but again +intrenched themselves with much skill, and withstood another siege of +five days, when they surrendered. The French and their savage allies +fell upon the poor captives with fury and slew nearly all of them, men, +women, and children. + +The poor Foxes had lost in this terrible experience upward of fifteen +hundred of the bravest of their tribe, which was now reduced to a few +half-starved bands. But their spirit was not gone. Next year the +officers at Quebec wrote home to Paris: "The Fox Indians are daily +becoming more insolent." They had begun to change their tactics; instead +of wasting their energies on the French, they began to make friends +with, or to intimidate, neighboring tribes. By means of small, secret +war parties, they would noiselessly swarm out of the Wisconsin forests +and strike hard blows at the prairie Indians of Illinois, who preferred +to remain their enemies. In this manner the Illinois Indians were +reduced to a mere handful, and were compelled to seek shelter under the +guns of the French fort at Kaskaskia. At the same time the Foxes were in +close alliance with the Sioux and other great western tribes, who helped +them lock the gate of the Fox-Wisconsin rivers, and plunder and murder +French traders wherever they could be found throughout Wisconsin. + +Again it seemed evident that New France, unless something were done, +could never maintain its chain of communication with Louisiana, or +conduct any fur trade in the Northwest. The something decided on was an +attempt to destroy the Foxes, root and branch. For this purpose there +was sent out to Wisconsin, in 1716, a well-equipped expedition under an +experienced captain named De Louvigny, numbering eight hundred men, +whites and Indians. The Foxes were found living in a walled town upon +the mound now known as Little Butte des Morts, on the west side of Fox +River, opposite the present Neenah. The wall consisted of three rows of +stout palisades, reënforced by a deep ditch; tradition says there were +here assembled five hundred braves and three thousand squaws and other +noncombatants. + +The French found it necessary to lay siege to this forest fortress, just +as they would attack a European city of that time; trenches and mines +were laid, and pushed forward at night, until, at the close of the third +day, everything was ready to blow up the palisades. At this point the +Foxes surrendered, but they gained easy terms for those days, for De +Louvigny was no butcher of men, and appeared to appreciate their +bravery. They gave up their prisoners, they furnished enough slaves to +the allies of the French to take the place of the warriors slain, they +agreed to furnish furs enough to pay the expenses of the expedition, and +sent six hostages to Quebec to answer for their future behavior. The +next year, De Louvigny returned to the valley of the Fox, from Quebec, +and made a treaty with the Foxes, but nothing came of it. Treaties were +easily made with Indian tribes, in the days of New France, and as easily +broken by either side. + +In the very next year, the Foxes were again making raids on the +French-loving Illinois, and the entire West was, as usual, torn by +strife. It was evident that the Foxes were trying to gain control of the +Illinois River, and thus command both of the principal roads to the +Mississippi. The French were at this time enthusiastic over great +schemes for opening mines on the Mississippi, operating northward from +Louisiana; agriculture was beginning to flourish around Kaskaskia; and +grain, flour, and furs were being shipped down the Mississippi to the +French islands in the West Indies, and across the ocean to France. More +than ever was it necessary to unite Louisiana with Canada by a line of +communication. + +But just now the Foxes were stronger than they had been at any time. +Their shrewd warriors had organized a great confederacy to shut out the +French, and thereby advance the cause of English trade, although it is +not known that the English assisted in this widespread conspiracy. Fox +warriors were sent with pipes of peace among the most distant tribes of +the West, the South, and the North, and it seemed as if the whole +interior of the continent were rising in arms. A French writer of the +period says of the Foxes: "Their fury increased as their forces +diminished. On every side they raised up new enemies against us. The +whole course and neighborhood of the Mississippi is infested with +Indians with whom we have no quarrel, and who yet give to the French no +quarter." + +This condition lasted for a few years. But Indian leagues do not +ordinarily long endure. We soon find the Foxes weak again, with few to +back them; in 1726, at a council in Green Bay, they were apologizing for +having made so much trouble. The French were, however, still afraid of +these wily folk, and two years later (1728) a little army of four +hundred Frenchmen and nine hundred Indian allies advanced on the Fox +villages by way of the Ottawa River route and Mackinac. The Foxes, +together with their Winnebago friends, had heard of the approach of the +whites, and fled; but the white invaders burned every deserted village +in the valley, and destroyed all the crops, leaving the red men to face +the rigor of winter with neither huts nor food. + +Fleeing from their native valley before the onset of the army, the +unhappy fugitives, said to have been four thousand in number, descended +the Wisconsin and ascended the Mississippi, to find their Sioux allies +in the neighborhood of Lake Pepin. But the Sioux had been won by French +presents, distributed from the fur trade fort on that lake, and turned +the starving tribesmen away; the ever-treacherous Winnebagoes of the +party sided with the Sioux; the Sacs expressed repentance, and hurried +home to Green Bay to make their peace with the French; the Mascoutins +now proved to be enemies. Thus deserted, the disconsolate Foxes passed +the winter in Iowa, and sent messengers to the Green Bay fort, begging +for forgiveness. + +But there was no longer any peace for the Foxes. Indians friendly with +the French attacked one of their Iowa camps; and in the autumn of 1729 +they sought in humble fashion to return to the valley of the Fox; but +they were ambuscaded by a French-directed party of Ottawas, Menominees, +Chippewas, and Winnebagoes, and after a fierce fight lost nearly three +hundred by death and capture; the prisoners, men, women, and children, +were burned at the stake. + +Turning southward, the greater part of the survivors of this ill-starred +tribe sought a final asylum upon the Illinois River, not far from +Peoria. Three noted French commanders, heads of garrisons in the Western +country, now gathered their forces, which aggregated a hundred and +seventy Frenchmen and eleven hundred Indians; and in August, 1730, gave +battle to the fugitives, who were now outnumbered full four to one. The +contest, notable for the gallant sorties of the besieged and the +cautious military engineering of the besiegers, lasted throughout +twenty-two days; probably never in the history of the West has there +been witnessed more heroic conduct than was displayed during this +remarkable campaign. It was inevitable that the Foxes should lose in the +end, but they sold themselves dearly. Not over fifty or sixty escaped; +and it is said that three hundred warriors perished in battle or +afterwards at the stake, while six hundred women and children were +either tomahawked or burned. + +It is surprising, after all these massacres, that there were any members +of the tribe left; yet we learn that two years later (1732) three +hundred of them were living peaceably on the banks of the Wisconsin +River, when still another French and Indian band swept down upon and +either captured or slaughtered them all. Of another small party, which +sought mercy from the officer of the fort at Green Bay, several, +including the head chief of the Foxes, Kiala, were sent away into +slavery, and wore away their lives in menial drudgery upon the tropical +island of Martinique. + +The remainder took refuge with the Sacs, on Fox River; and the following +year the French commander at Green Bay asked the Sacs to give them up. +This time the Sacs proved to be good friends, and refused; and in the +quarrel which followed at the Sac town, eight French soldiers were +killed. This led to later retaliation on the part of the French, but in +the battle which was fought both sides lost heavily; and then both Sacs +and Foxes fled from the country, never to return. They settled upon the +banks of the Des Moines River, in Iowa, whither French hate again sought +them out in 1734. This last expedition, however, was a failure, and the +Fox War was finally ended, after twenty-five years of almost continuous +bloodshed. During this war not only had the great tribe of the Foxes +been almost annihilated, but the power of France in the West had +meanwhile been greatly weakened by the persistent opposition of those +who had held the key to her position. + + + + +THE COMMERCE OF THE FOREST + + +We have seen in previous chapters why Wisconsin, with her intermingling +rivers, was considered the key to the French position in the interior of +North America; why it was that fur traders early sought this State, and +erected log forts along its rivers and lakes to protect their commerce +with the people of the forest. It remains to be told what were the +conditions of this widespreading and important forest trade. + +The French introduced to our Indians iron pots and kettles, which were +vastly stronger than their crude utensils of clay; iron fishhooks, +hatchets, spears, and guns, which were not only more durable, but far +more effective than their old weapons of stone and copper and bone; +cloths and blankets of many colors, from which attractive clothing was +more easily made than from the skins of beasts; and glass beads and +silver trinkets, for the decoration of their clothing and bodies, which +cost far less labor to obtain than did ornaments made from clam shells. +To secure these French goods, the Indians had but to hunt and bring the +skins to the white men. The Indian who could secure a gun found it +easier to get skins than before, and he also had a weapon which made him +more powerful against his enemies. It was not long before the Indian +forgot how to make utensils and weapons for himself, and became very +dependent on the white trader. This is why the fur trade was at the +bottom of every event in the forest, and for full two hundred years was +of supreme importance to all the people who lived in the Wisconsin +woods. + +All trade in New France was in the control of a monopoly, which charged +heavy fees for licenses, severely punished all the unlicensed traders +who could be detected, and fixed its own prices for everything. French +traders were obliged, therefore, to charge the Indians more for their +goods than the English charged for theirs; and it was a continual and +often bloody struggle to keep the Indians of the Northwest from having +any trade with the English colonists from the Atlantic coast, who had +with great labor crossed the Alleghany Mountains and were now swarming +into the Ohio River valley. It was impossible to prevent the English +trade altogether, but the policy was in the main successful, although it +cost the French a deal of anxiety, and sometimes great expense in +military operations. + +During the greater part of the French régime in Wisconsin, the bulk of +the goods for the Indians came up by the Ottawa River route, because the +warlike Iroquois of New York favored the English, and for a long time +kept Frenchmen from entering the lower lakes of Ontario and Erie. +Finally, however, after the fort at Detroit was built (1701), the lower +lakes came to be used. + +It was, by either route, a very long and tiresome journey from Quebec or +Montreal to Wisconsin, and owing to the early freezing of the Straits +of Mackinac, but one trip could be made in a year. It was not, however, +necessary for every trader to go to the "lower settlements" each year. +At the Western forts large stocks of goods were kept, and there the furs +were stored, sometimes for several seasons, until a great fleet of +canoes could be made up by bands of traders and friendly Indians; and +then the expedition to Montreal was made, with considerable display of +barbaric splendor. When the traders reached Montreal, the inhabitants of +the settlement turned out to welcome their visitors from the wilderness, +and something akin to a great fair was held, at which speculators bought +up the furs, feasts were eaten and drunk, and fresh treaties of peace +were made with the Indians. A week or two would thus pass in universal +festivity, at the end of which traders and savages would seek their +canoes, and, amid volleys of cannon from the fort, martial music, the +fluttering of flags, and the shouts of the _habitants_, the fleet would +push off, and soon be swallowed again by the all-pervading forest. + +When the French were driven out of Canada, in 1760, and the British +assumed control, the English Hudson Bay Company began spreading its +operations over the Northwest. But in 1783, at the close of the +Revolutionary War, the Northwest Company was organized, with +headquarters at Montreal. The British still held possession of our +Northwest long after the treaty with the United States was signed. Soon +sailing ships were introduced, and many goods were thus brought to +Mackinac, Green Bay, and Chequamegon Bay; nevertheless, canoes and +bateaux, together with the more modern "Mackinac boats" and "Durham +boats," were for many years largely used upon these long Western +journeys from Montreal. To a still later date were these rude craft sent +out from the Mackinac warehouses to Wisconsin, or from Mackinac to the +famous headquarters of the company at the mouth of Pigeon River, on the +western shore of Lake Superior, the "Grand Portage," as it was called. + +It was a life filled with great perils, by land and flood; many were the +men who lost their lives in storms, in shooting river rapids, in deadly +quarrels with one another or with the savages, by exposure to the +elements, or by actual starvation. Yet there was a glamour over these +wild experiences, as is customary wherever men are associated as +comrades in an outdoor enterprise involving common dangers and +hardships. The excitement and freedom of the fur trade appealed +especially to the volatile, fun loving French; and music and badinage +and laughter often filled the day. + +After the Americans assumed control, in 1816, Congress forbade the +British to conduct the fur trade in our country. This was to prevent +them from influencing the Western Indians to war; but turning out the +English traders served greatly to help the American Fur Company, founded +by John Jacob Astor, and having its headquarters on the Island of +Mackinac. Nevertheless the agents, the clerks, and the _voyageurs_ were +still nearly all of them Frenchmen, as of old, and there was really very +little change in the methods of doing business, except that Astor +managed to reap most of the profits. + +[Illustration: JOHN JACOB ASTOR] + +The fur trade lasted, as a business of prime importance to Wisconsin, +until about 1835. It was at its greatest height in 1820, at which time +Green Bay was the chief settlement in Wisconsin. By 1835 new interests +had arisen, with the development of the lead mines in the southwest, and +with the advent of agricultural settlers from the East, upon the close +of the Black Hawk War (1832). + +The fur trade led the way to the agricultural and manufacturing life of +to-day. The traders naturally chose Indian villages as the sites for +most of their posts, and such villages were generally at places well +selected for the purpose. They were on portage trails, where craft had +to be carried around falls or rapids, as at De Pere, Kaukauna, Appleton, +and Neenah; or they were on portage plains, between distinct water +systems, as at Portage and Sturgeon Bay; or they were at the mouths or +junctions of rivers, as at Milwaukee, Sheboygan, Oshkosh, Lacrosse, and +Prairie du Chien; or they occupied commanding positions on lake or river +bank, overlooking a wide stretch of country. Thus most of the leading +cities of Wisconsin are on the sites of old Indian villages; for the +reasons which led to their choice by the Indians held good with the +white pioneers in the old days when rivers and lakes were the chief +highways. Thus we have first the Indian village, then the trading post, +and later the modern town. + +The Indian trails were also largely used by the traders in seeking the +natives in their villages; later these trails developed into public +roads, when American settlers came to occupy the country. Thus we see +that Wisconsin was quite thoroughly explored, its principal cities and +highways located, and its water ways mapped out by the early French, +long before the inrush of agricultural colonists. + + + + +IN THE OLD FRENCH DAYS + + +In establishing their chain of rude forts, or trading posts, along the +Great Lakes and through the valley of the Mississippi, the French had no +desire to plant agricultural settlements in the West. Their chief +thought was to keep the continental interior as a great fur bearing +wilderness; to encourage the Indians to hunt for furs, by supplying all +their other wants with articles made in Europe; and to prevent them from +carrying any of their furs to the English, who were always underbidding +the French in prices. + +The officers of these forts were instructed to bully or to persuade the +Indians, as occasion demanded; and some of them became very successful +in this forest diplomacy. Around most of the forts were small groups of +temporary settlers, who could hardly be called colonists, for they +expected when they had made their fortunes, or when their working days +were over, to return to their own people on the lower St. Lawrence +River. It was rather an army of occupation, than a body of settlers. +Nearly every one in the settlement was dependent on the fur trade, +either as agent, clerk, trapper, boatman, or general employee. + +Sometimes these little towns were the outgrowth of early Jesuit +missions, as La Pointe (on Chequamegon Bay), or Green Bay (De Pere); +but sooner or later the fur trade became the chief interest. Most of the +towns, however, like Milwaukee, La Crosse, or Prairie du Chien, were the +direct outgrowth of commerce with the savages. There were trading posts, +also, on Lakes Chetek, Flambeau, Court Oreilles, and Sandy, but the +settlements about them were very small, and they never grew into +permanent towns, as did some of the others. + +At all these places, the little log forts served as depots for furs and +the goods used in trading with the Indians; they were also used as +rallying points for the traders and other white inhabitants of the +district, in times of Indian attack. They would have been of slight +avail against an enemy with cannon, but afforded sufficient protection +against the arrows, spears, and muskets of savages. + +The French Canadians who lived in these waterside hamlets were an +easy-going folk. Nearly all of them were engaged in the fur trade at +certain seasons of the year. The _bourgeois_, or masters, were the +chiefs. The _voyageurs_ were men of all work, propelling the canoes and +bateaux when afloat, carrying the craft and their contents over +portages, transporting packs of goods and furs along the forest trails, +caring for the camps, and acting as guards for the persons and property +of their employers. The _coureurs de bois_, or wood rangers, were +everywhere; they were devoted to a life in the woods, for the fun and +excitement in it; they conducted trade on their own account, far off in +the most inaccessible places, and were men of great daring. Then there +were the _habitants_, or permanent villagers; sometimes these worked as +_voyageurs_, but for the most part they were farmers in a small way, +cultivating long, narrow "claims" running at right angles to the river +bank; one can still find at Green Bay and Prairie du Chien, traces of +some of these old "French claims." The object of having them so narrow +was, that the _habitants_ could live close to one another, along the +waterside. + +They were of a very social nature, these French _habitants_. They liked +to meet frequently, enjoy their pipes, and tell stories of the hunt or +of old days on the St. Lawrence. They were famous fiddlers, too. No +wilderness so far away that the little French fiddle had not been there; +the Indians recognized it as a part of the furniture of every fur +trader's camp. Music appealed strongly to these warm natures, and the +songs of the _voyageurs_, as they propelled their canoes along the +Wisconsin rivers, always greatly interested travelers. French Canadians +are still living in Wisconsin, who remember those gay melodies which +echoed through our forests a hundred years ago. + +The old French life continued in Wisconsin until well into the +nineteenth century. Although New France fell in 1760, and the British +came into control, they never succeeded in Anglicizing Wisconsin. +English fur companies succeeded the French, and British soldiers +occupied the Wisconsin forts; but the fur trade itself had still to be +conducted through French residents, who alone had the confidence of the +Indians. Great Britain was supposed to surrender all this country to the +United States in 1796; but it was really 1816 before the American flag +floated over Green Bay, and the American Fur Company came into power. +But, even under this company, most of the actual trading was done +through the French; so we may say that as long as the fur trade remained +the chief industry of Wisconsin, about to the year 1835, the old French +life was still maintained, and French methods were everywhere in +evidence. + +It is surprising how strongly marked upon our Wisconsin are the memories +of the old French days. A quiet, unobtrusive people, were those early +French, without high ambitions, and simple in their tastes; yet they and +theirs have displayed remarkable tenacity of life, and doubtless their +effect upon us of to-day will never be effaced. Our map is sprinkled all +over with the French names which they gave to our hills and lakes and +streams, and early towns. We may here mention a few only, at random: +Lakes Flambeau, Court Oreilles, Pepin, Vieux Désert; the rivers Bois +Brulé, Eau Claire, Eau Pleine, Embarrass, St. Croix; the counties Eau +Claire, Fond du Lac, La Crosse, Langlade, Marquette, Portage, Racine, +St. Croix, Trempealeau; the towns of Racine, La Crosse, Prairie du +Chien, Butte des Morts. Scores of others can readily be found in the +atlas. In the cities of Green Bay, Kaukauna, Portage, and Prairie du +Chien, and the dreamy little Fox River hamlet of Grand Butte des Morts, +are still to be found little closely-knit colonies of French Creoles, +descendants of those who lived and ruled under the old French régime. + +The time must come, in the molding of all the foreign elements in our +midst into the American of the future, when the French element will no +longer exist among us as an element, but merely as a memory. If our +posterity can inherit from those early French occupants of our soil +their simple tastes, their warm hearts, their happy temperament, their +social virtues, then the old French régime will have brought a blessing +to Wisconsin, and not merely a halo of historical romance. + + + + +THE COMING OF THE ENGLISH + + +Upon the eighth day of September, 1760, the French flag ceased to fly +over Canada. In a long and bitter struggle, lasting at intervals through +an entire century, French and English had been battling with each other +for the control of the interior of this continent; and the former had +lost everything at the decisive battle on the Plains of Abraham, before +the walls of Quebec. + +Reduced to the last extremity, the authorities of New France had ordered +her fur traders, _coureurs de bois_ and all, to hurry down to the +settlements on the St. Lawrence, and aid in protecting them against the +English. Thus in the Wisconsin forests, when the end came, there were +left no Frenchmen of importance. Leaving their Indian friends, and many +of them their Indian wives and half-breed families, they had obeyed the +far away summons, and several lost their lives in the great battle or in +the skirmishes which preceded it. The others, who at last returned, were +quick to show favor to the English, for little they really cared who +were their political masters so long as they were let alone. The +Indians, too, although personally they preferred the French to the +English, were glad enough to see the latter, because they brought +better prices for furs. + +Wisconsin was so far away that it took a long time for British soldiers +to reach the deserted and tumbledown fort at Green Bay. About the middle +of October, 1761, there arrived from Mackinac Lieutenant James Gorrell +and seventeen men to hold all of this country for King George. The +station had been called by the French Fort St. Francis, but the name was +now changed to Fort Edward Augustus. + +It was a very lonely and dismal winter for the British soldiers, for +nearly all the neighboring savages were away on their winter hunt and +did not return until spring. Mackinac, then a poor little trading +village, was two hundred forty miles away; there was a trading post at +St. Josephs on the southeast shore of Lake Michigan, four hundred miles +distant; and the nearest French villages on the Mississippi were eight +hundred miles of canoe journey to the southwest. All between was +savagery: here and there a squalid Indian village, with its conical +wigwams of bark or matted reeds, pitched on the shore of a lake, at the +foot of a portage trail, or on the banks of a forest stream. Now and +then a French trading party passed along the frozen trails, following +the natives on the hunt and poisoning their minds against the newcomers, +who were struggling to make their poor old stockade a fairly decent +shelter against the winter storms. + +But, when the savages returned to Green Bay in the spring, they met with +fair words from Gorrell, a plentiful distribution of presents, and good +prices for furs, and their hearts were won. In 1763 occurred the great +uprising led by Pontiac against the English in the Northwest, during +which the garrison at Mackinac was massacred. This disturbed the +friendship of Gorrell's neighbors, with the exception of a Menominee +band, headed by chief Ogemaunee; and in June of that year the little +garrison, together with the English traders at Green Bay, found it +necessary to leave hastily for Cross Village, on the eastern shore of +Lake Michigan, escorted by Ogemaunee and ninety painted Menominees, who +had volunteered to protect these Englishmen from the unfriendly Indians. + +At Cross Village were several soldiers who had escaped from Mackinac, +and the two parties and their escorts soon left in canoes for Montreal, +by the way of Ottawa River. This old fur trade route was followed in +order to escape Pontiac's Indians, who controlled the country about +Detroit and along the lower lake. They arrived safely at their +destination in August. The following year there was held a great council +at Niagara, presided over by the famous Sir William Johnson, who was +then serving as British superintendent for the Northern Indians. At this +council Ogemaunee was present representing the Menominees of Wisconsin. +In token of his valuable services in escorting Lieutenant Gorrell's +party to Montreal, and thereby delivering them safely from the great +danger which threatened, Ogemaunee was given a certificate, which reads +as follows:-- + +[Illustration: + + [SEAL OF WAX] By the Honourable Sir William Johnson Baronet, + His Majesty's sole agent and superintendent of the affairs of + the Northern Indians of North America, Colony of the six United + Nations their allies and dependants &c. &c. &c. + +To OGemawnee a Chief of the Menomings Nation: + + Whereas I have received from the officers who Commanded the Out + posts as well as from other persons an account of your good + behaviour last year in protecting the Officers, Soldiers &c. of + the Garrison of La Bay, and in escorting them down to Montreal + as also the Effects of the Traders to a large amount, and your + having likewise entered into the strongest Engagements of + Friendship with the English before me at this place. I do + therefore give you This Testimony of my Esteem for your + Services and Good behaviour. + + Given under my hand & Seal at Arms at + Niagara the first day of August 1764. + + Wm. Johnson.] + +This piece of paper, which showed that he was a good friend of the +English, was of almost as great importance to Ogemaunee as a patent of +nobility in the Old World. He carried it with him back to Wisconsin, and +it remained in his family from one generation to another, for fully a +hundred years. One day a blanketed and painted descendant of Ogemaunee +presented it to an American officer who visited his wigwam. This +descendant, doubtless, knew little of its meaning, but it had been used +in his family as a charm for bringing good luck, and in his admiration +for this kind officer he gave it to him, for the Indian is, by nature, +grateful and generous. In the course of years the paper was presented to +the State Historical Society, by which it is preserved as an interesting +and suggestive relic of those early days of the English occupation of +Wisconsin. + + + + +WISCONSIN IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR + + +We ordinarily think of the Revolutionary War as having been fought +wholly upon the Atlantic slope. As a matter of fact, there were enacted +west of the Alleghanies, during that great struggle, deeds which proved +of immense importance to the welfare of the United States. Had it not +been for the capture from the British of the country northwest of the +Ohio River by the gallant Virginia colonel, George Rogers Clark, it is +fair to assume that the Old Northwest, as it came to be called, the +present States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, +would to-day be a part of the Dominion of Canada. + +After the brief flurry of the Pontiac conspiracy (1763), the Indians of +the Old Northwest became good friends of the British, whose aim was to +encourage the fur trade and to keep the savages good-natured. The +English have always been more successful in their treatment of Indians +than have Americans; they are more generous with them, and while not +less firm than we, they are more considerate of savage wants. The French +and the half-breeds, too, were very soon the warm supporters of British +policy, because English fur trade companies gave them abundant +employment, and evinced no desire other than to foster the primitive +conditions under which the fur trade prospered. + +The English were not desirous of settling the Western wilderness with +farmers, thereby driving out the game. Our people, however, have always +been of a land-grabbing temper; we have sought to beat down the walls of +savagery, to push settlement, to cut down the forests, to plow the land, +to drive the Indian out. This meant the death of the fur trade; hence it +is small wonder that, when the Revolutionary War broke out, the French +and Indians of the Northwest upheld the British and opposed the +Americans. + +A number of scattered white settlers and a few small villages had +appeared along the Ohio River and many of its southern tributaries. In +Kentucky there were several log forts, around each of which were grouped +the rude cabins of frontiersmen, who were half farmers and half hunters, +tall, stalwart fellows, as courageous as lions, and ever on the alert +for the crouching Indian foe, who came when least expected. The country +northwest of the Ohio River was then a part of the British province of +Quebec. Here and there in this Old Northwest, as we now call it, were +small villages of French and half-breed fur traders, each village +protected by a little log fort; some of these villages were garrisoned +by a handful of British soldiers, and others only by French Canadians +who were friendly to the English. Such were Vincennes, in what is now +Indiana; Kaskaskia and Cahokia, in the Illinois country; Prairie du +Chien and Green Bay, in Wisconsin; and Mackinac Island and Detroit, in +Michigan. Detroit was the headquarters, where lived the British +lieutenant governor of the Northwest, Henry Hamilton, a bold, brave, +untiring, unscrupulous man. + +Hamilton's chief business was to gather about him the Indians of the +Northwest, and to excite in them hatred of the American settlers in +Kentucky. In 1777, war parties sent out by him from Detroit, under cover +of the forts of Vincennes, Kaskaskia, and Cahokia, swept Kentucky from +end to end, and the whole American frontier was the scene of a frightful +panic. The American backwoodsmen were ambushed, many of the blockhouse +posts were burned, prisoners were subjected to nameless horrors, and it +seemed as if pandemonium had broken loose. By the close of the year, +such had been the rush of settlers back to their old homes, east of the +mountains, that but five or six hundred frontiersmen remained in all +Kentucky. Had the British and the Indians succeeded in driving back all +of the settlers, they would have held the whole interior of the +continent, and the American republic might never have been permitted to +grow beyond the Alleghanies and the Blue Ridge; hemmed in to the +Atlantic slope, this could never have become the great nation it is +to-day. + +Prominent among the defenders of Kentucky in 1777 was George Rogers +Clark. He was but twenty-five years of age, had come from a good family +in Virginia, and had a fair education for that day, but had been a wood +rover from childhood. He was tall and commanding in person, a great +hunter, and a backwoods land surveyor, such as Washington was. With +chain and compass, ax and rifle, he had, in the employ of land +speculators, wandered far and wide through the border region, knowing +its trails, its forts, its mountain passes, and its aborigines better +than he knew his books. Associated with him were Boone, Benjamin Logan, +and others who were prominent among American border heroes. + +Clark saw that the best way to defend Kentucky was to strike the enemy +in their own country. Gaining permission from Patrick Henry, governor of +Virginia, for Kentucky was then but a county of Virginia, and obtaining +some small assistance in money, he raised, in 1778, a little army of a +hundred fifty backwoodsmen, clad in buckskin and homespun, who came from +the hunters' camps of the Alleghanies. The men collected at Pittsburg +and Wheeling, and in flatboats cautiously descended the Ohio to the +falls, where is now the city of Louisville. Here, on an island, they +built a fort as a military base, and the strongest of the party pushed +on down the river to the abandoned old French Fort Massac, ten miles +below the mouth of the Tennessee, from which they marched overland, for +a hundred twenty miles, to Kaskaskia in western Illinois. + +Capturing Kaskaskia by surprise (July 4), and soon gaining the good will +of the French there, Clark sent out messengers who easily won over the +neighboring Cahokia; and very soon even Vincennes, on the Wabash River, +sent in its submission. It was not long before Hamilton, at Detroit, +heard the humiliating news. He at once sent out two French agents, +Charles de Langlade and Charles Gautier, of Green Bay, to raise a large +war party of Wisconsin Indians. They succeeded so well, that Hamilton +set out from Detroit in October, to retake Vincennes. His force +consisted of nearly two hundred whites (chiefly French) and three +hundred Indians. Such were the obstacles to overcome in an unbroken +wilderness, that he was seventy-one days in reaching his destination. +Clark had left but two of his soldiers at Vincennes, and as their French +allies at once surrendered, there was nothing to do but to give up the +place. + +Now came one of the most stirring deeds in our Western history. Clark, +at Kaskaskia, soon learned of the loss of Vincennes; at the same time, +it was told him that the greater part of Hamilton's expedition had +disbanded for the winter, the lieutenant governor intending to launch a +still larger war party against him in the spring. Thereupon Clark +determined not to await an attack, but himself to make an attack on +Hamilton, who had remained in charge of Vincennes. + +The distance across country, from Kaskaskia to Vincennes, is about two +hundred thirty miles. In summer it was a delightful region of +alternating groves and prairies; in the dead of winter, it would afford +fair traveling over the frozen plains and ice-bound rivers; but now, in +February (1779), the weather had moderated, and great freshets had +flooded the lowlands and meadows. The ground was boggy, and progress was +slow and difficult; there were no tents, and the floods had driven away +much of the game; and Clark and his officers were often taxed to their +wits' ends to devise methods for keeping their hard-worked men in good +spirits. Often they were obliged to wade in the icy water, for miles +together, and to sleep at night in soaked clothes upon little +brush-strewn hillocks, shivering with cold, and without food or fire. + +But at last, after nearly three weeks of almost superhuman exertion and +indescribable misery, Vincennes was reached. The British garrison was +taken by surprise, but held out with obstinacy, and throughout the long +moonlight night the battle raged with much fury. The log fort was on the +top of a hill overlooking the little town; it was armed with several +small cannon, but Clark's men had only their muskets. They were, +however, served freely with ammunition by the French villagers; and, +being expert marksmen, could hit the gunners by firing through the +loopholes, so that by sunrise the garrison was sadly crippled. The +fight continued throughout the following morning, and in the afternoon +the British ran up the white flag. Hamilton and twenty-six of his +fellows were sent as prisoners overland to Virginia. + +Clark remained as master of the Northwest until the close of the +Revolutionary War. The fact that the flag of the republic waved over +Vincennes, Kaskaskia, and Cahokia when the war ended, had much to do +with the decision of the peace commissioners to allow the United States +to retain the country lying between the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and +the Great Lakes. + +During the Revolution, none of the forts in Wisconsin were occupied by +British soldiers, and they were allowed to tumble into decay. Wisconsin +was, however, used as a recruiting ground for Indian allies. Not only +did Langlade and Gautier raise a war party of Wisconsin Indians to help +Hamilton in his expedition against Vincennes, but they were frequently +in Wisconsin on similar business during the war. In 1779 Gautier led a +party of Wisconsin Indians to Peoria, in the Illinois country, where +there was an old French fort which, it was thought, might fall into the +hands of the Americans. Gautier burned this fort, and then hastily +retreated because he found that Clark was making friends with all the +Illinois Indians. + +Clark's agents traded as far north as Portage, in Wisconsin. At Prairie +du Chien they induced Linctot, a famous French fur trader, to join the +Americans. Linctot put himself at the head of a party of five hundred +French and half-breed horsemen, who were of much assistance to Clark in +his various movements after the capture of Vincennes. Meanwhile another +large party, chiefly of Indians, assembled at Prairie du Chien in the +British cause, led by three French traders, Hesse, Du Charme, and Calvé. +They raided the upper Mississippi valley, capturing provisions intended +for the Americans, and making a futile attack on the Spanish village of +St. Louis, which was thought to be assisting Clark. + +Despite these military operations in Wisconsin, the English fur trade +continued in full strength, with headquarters upon the Island of +Mackinac, but with French agents and boatmen, whose principal dwelling +places were at Green Bay and Prairie du Chien. Upon Lake Superior large +canoes and bateaux were used; but upon Lake Michigan were three small +sloops, the _Welcome_, the _Felicity_, and the _Archangel_, which +carried supplies and furs for the traders, and made frequent cruises to +see that the "Bostonians," as the French used to call the Americans, +obtained no foothold upon the shore of the lake. + +Just before the close of the war, the British commander at Mackinac +Island, Captain Patrick Sinclair, held a council with the Indians, and +for a small sum purchased for himself their claims to that island and to +nearly all of the land now comprising Wisconsin. But the treaty of 1783, +between the British and the Americans, did not recognize this purchase, +and Sinclair found that he was no longer the owner of Wisconsin. It had +become, largely through the valor of Clark, and the persistence of our +treaty commissioners, a part of the territory of the United States. + + + + +THE RULE OF JUDGE RÉAUME + + +By the treaty of peace with Great Britain, in 1783, the country +northwest of the Ohio River was declared to be a part of the territory +of the United States; but it was many years before the Americans had +anything more than a nominal control of Wisconsin, which was a part of +this Northwestern region. The United States was at first unable to meet +all of its obligations under this treaty; hence Great Britain kept +possession of the old fur trade posts on the Upper Lakes, including +Mackinac, of which Wisconsin was a "dependency." A British garrison was +kept at Mackinac, thus controlling the fur trade of this district, but +no troops were deemed necessary within Wisconsin itself. + +To the few white inhabitants of the small fur trade villages of Green +Bay and Prairie du Chien, there was slight evidence of any of these +various changes in political ownership. Beyond the brief stay among them +of Lieutenant Gorrell and his little band of redcoats, in the years +1761-63, the French and half-breeds of Wisconsin led much the same life +as of old. + +In 1780, an English fur trader, John Long, passed up the Fox River and +down the Wisconsin, and bought up a great many furs in this region. Some +years later he wrote a book about his travels, and from this we get a +very good idea of life among the French and Indians of the Northwest. +Long was at Green Bay for several days, and tells us that the houses +there were covered with birch bark, and the rooms were decorated with +bows and arrows, guns, and spears. There were in the village not over +fifty whites, divided into six or seven families. The men were for the +most part engaged as assistants to the two or three leading traders; +they spent their winters in the woods, picking up furs at the Indian +camps, and in summer cultivated their narrow strips of gardens which ran +down to the river's edge. It mattered little to them who was their +political master, so long as they were left to enjoy their simple lives +in their own fashion. + +To this primitive community there came one day, in 1803, a portly, +pompous, bald headed little Frenchman, named Charles Réaume. Wisconsin +was then a part of Indiana Territory, of which William Henry Harrison +was governor. It was for the most part a wilderness; dense woods and +tenantless prairies extended all the way from the narrow clearing at +Green Bay to the little settlement at Prairie du Chien. There were small +clearings at Portage, Milwaukee, and one or two other fur trading posts. +There was no civil government here, and the few white people in all this +vast stretch of country practically made their own laws, each man being +judge and jury for himself, so long as he did not interfere with other +people's rights. + +Réaume bore a commission from Governor Harrison, appointing him justice +of the peace at Green Bay, which meant nearly all of the country west of +Lake Michigan. Thus "Judge Réaume," as he was called, was the only civil +officer in Wisconsin, and although apparently never reappointed, he +retained this distinction by popular consent until after the War of +1812-15; indeed, for several years after that, he was the principal +officer of justice in these parts. + +The judge was a good-hearted man, when one penetrated beneath the crust +of official pomposity with which he was generally enveloped. He appears +to have owned a volume of Blackstone, but the only law he understood or +practiced was the old "Law of Paris," which had governed Canada from the +earliest time, and which still rules in the Province of Quebec, and it +is related that he knew little of that. His decisions were arbitrary, +but were generally based on the right as he saw it, quite regardless of +the technicalities of the law. + +A great many queer stories are told of old Judge Réaume. He loved +display after his simple fashion, and invented for himself an official +uniform, which he wore on all public occasions. This consisted of a +scarlet frock coat faced with white silk, and gay with spangled buttons; +it can still be seen in the museum of the State Historical Society. He +issued few warrants or subpoenas; it is told of him that whenever he +wanted a person to appear before him, either as witness or principal, he +sent to that person the constable, bearing his honor's well-known large +jackknife, which was quite as effectual as the king's signet ring of +olden days. + +Quite often did he adjudge guilty both complainant and defendant, +obliging them both to pay a fine, or to work so many days in his garden; +and sometimes both were acquitted, the constable being ordered to pay +the costs. It is even said that the present of a bottle of whisky to the +judge was sufficient to insure a favorable decision. The story is told +that once, when the judge had actually rendered a decision in a certain +case, the person decided against presented the court with a new +coffee-pot, whereupon the judgment was reversed. + +There may be some exaggeration in these tales of the earliest judge in +Wisconsin, but they appear to be in the main substantiated. +Nevertheless, although there doubtless was some grumbling, it speaks +well for the old justice of the peace, and for the orderly good nature +of this little French community without a jail, that no one appears ever +to have questioned the legality of Réaume's decisions. These were +strictly abided by, and although he was never reappointed, he held +office under both American and British sway, simply because no one was +sent to succeed him. + +Not only was Réaume Wisconsin's judge and jury during the first two +decades of the nineteenth century, but as there was, during much of his +time, no priest hereabouts, he drew up marriage contracts, and married +and divorced people at will, issued baptismal certificates, and kept a +registry of births and deaths. He certified alike to British and +American military commissions; drew up contracts between the fur traders +and their employees; wrote letters for the _habitants_; and performed +for the settlers all those functions of Church and state for which we +now require a long list of officials and professional men. He was a +picturesque and important functionary, illustrating in his person the +simple fashions and modest desires of the French who first settled this +State. We are now a wealthier people, but certainly there have never +been happier times in Wisconsin, all things considered, than in the +primitive days of old Judge Réaume and his official jackknife. + + + + +THE BRITISH CAPTURE PRAIRIE DU CHIEN + + +Although the Northwest was obtained for the United States by the treaty +with Great Britain in 1783, the fur trade posts on the Upper Great Lakes +were openly held by the mother country until the new republic could +fully meet its financial obligations to her. After thirteen years, a new +treaty (1796) officially recognized American supremacy. Nevertheless, +for another thirteen years English fur traders were practically in +possession of Wisconsin, operating through French Canadian and +half-breed agents, clerks, and _voyageurs_, until John Jacob Astor +(1809) organized the American Fur Company, and English fur traders were +forbidden to operate here. + +The military officers in Canada were firmly convinced that the Americans +could not long hold the Northwest. They believed that some day there +would be another war, and the country would once more become the +property of Great Britain. Therefore they sought to keep on good terms +with our Indians and French, giving them presents and employment. + +Thus, when our second war with Great Britain did break out, in 1812, +nearly all the people living in Wisconsin, and elsewhere in the wild +northern parts of the Northwest, were strong friends of the British +cause. To them the issue was very clear. British victory meant the +perpetuation of old times and old methods, so dear to them and to their +ancestors before them. American victory meant the cutting down of the +forests, the death knell of the fur trade, and the coming of a swarm of +strange people, heretofore almost unknown to Wisconsin. These people had +been described to them as an uneasy, selfish, land grabbing folk, who +knew not how to enjoy themselves, and were for turning the world upside +down with their Yankee notions. Naturally, the easy-going, comfort +loving Wisconsin French looked upon their coming with great alarm. + +The principal event of the war in Wisconsin was the capture of Prairie +du Chien by the British, in 1814. Wisconsin was then a part of Illinois +Territory, and west of the Mississippi River lay the enormous Missouri +Territory. General William Clark, a younger brother of George Rogers +Clark, was governor of Missouri Territory, and had in charge the conduct +of military operations along the Upper Mississippi River. + +Governor Clark had heard that the British, by this time strongly +intrenched on Mackinac Island, intended to send an expedition up the Fox +River and down the Wisconsin, to seize upon Prairie du Chien, which had +not been fortified since the old French days. Clark recognized that the +power that held Prairie du Chien practically held the entire Upper +Mississippi River, and controlled the Indians and the fur trade of a +vast region. Accordingly, early in June (1814) he ascended the river +from his headquarters at St. Louis, with three hundred men in six or +eight large boats, including a bullet-proof keel boat, and erected a +stockade on the summit of a large Indian mound which lay on the bank of +the Mississippi a mile or two above the mouth of the Wisconsin. The name +given to this stockade was Fort Shelby. Lieutenant Joseph Perkins was +left in charge of the garrison, which was divided between the fort and +the keel boat, the latter being anchored out in the Mississippi. + +The British expedition from Mackinac had been greatly delayed. During +the preceding autumn, Robert Dickson, an English fur trader, had been +engaged in recruiting a large band of Indians in the neighborhood of +Green Bay, and with them intended to occupy Prairie du Chien. But the +Indians were evidently afraid to fight the Americans, and delayed +Dickson so that the canoes of his party were caught in the ice on Lake +Winnebago (December, 1813), and he was obliged to go into winter +quarters on Island Park (known to the white pioneers as Garlic Island). + +Poor Dickson had a sorry time with his war party. As soon as it was +learned that provisions were being freely given out at this island camp, +Indians from long distances came to visit him, under pretense of +enlisting under the banner of the British chief. Councils innumerable +were held, presents and food had to be given the visitors continually, +and Dickson was put to sore straits to keep them satisfied. He found it +impossible to get sufficient supplies from British headquarters on +Mackinac Island, and was being severely criticised by the officers +there, for his exorbitant demands upon them. Nevertheless, unless he +kept his Indians good-natured, they would promptly desert him. He was, +therefore, forced to rely upon the French of Green Bay for what food he +needed. This came grudgingly, and at so high prices that Dickson roundly +scolded the Green Bay people, and promised to report them for punishment +to the British king, for daring to take advantage of his Majesty's +necessities. + +While Dickson was thus engaged in Lake Winnebago, a British captain was +drilling a number of young Frenchmen at Green Bay, and trying to make +soldiers of them; at Mackinac, a similar work was being done among the +_voyageurs_ by the two leading fur traders of Prairie du Chien, Brisbois +and Rolette. On the other hand, at Prairie du Chien, the American Indian +agent, Boilvin, was issuing circulars calling on the people to claim +American protection before it was too late. + +Late in June the leaders of the expedition started from Mackinac, under +the command of Major William McKay, and at Green Bay, Lake Winnebago, +and Portage picked up various parties of French and Indians. These bands +were much reduced from those who had been so liberally maintained during +the winter, for most of the Indians were anxious to keep away from the +fighting until it should be evident which side would win, and many of +the French were of the same mind. By the time Fox River had been +ascended by the fleet of canoes, and the descent of the Wisconsin begun, +the allied forces consisted of but a hundred twenty whites and four +hundred fifty Indians. All of the latter, according to McKay's report, +proved "perfectly useless." + +On the 17th of July, the British war party landed at Prairie du Chien, +to find the Americans, some sixty or seventy strong, protected by a +stockade and two blockhouses, on which were mounted six small cannon. In +the river, the keel boat contained perhaps seventy-five men and fourteen +cannon. The British had, besides their muskets, only a three-pounder, +and the situation did not look promising. + +Perkins was summoned to surrender, but he declared that he would "defend +to the last man." For two days there was a rather lively discharge of +firearms on both sides. Apparently, the British were the better gunners; +their cannonading soon forced the men on the keel boat to desert their +comrades on shore, and McKay then centered his attention on the fort. +The Indians were unruly, being principally engaged in plundering the +Frenchmen's houses in the village. The British supply of ammunition had +quite run out by the evening of the 9th, and McKay was seriously +contemplating a retreat, when he was surprised to see a white flag put +out by the garrison. + +It appears that the stock of food had become exhausted in the fort, and +Perkins had formed an exaggerated idea of the strength of the invaders. +The British guaranteed that the Americans should march out of Fort +Shelby at eight o'clock in the morning of the 20th, with colors flying +and with the honors of war, and that the Indians should be prevented +from maltreating them. This last agreement McKay found it very difficult +to carry out, for the savages wished, as usual, to massacre the +prisoners. To the honor of the British, it should be recorded that they +exercised great vigilance, and spared neither supplications nor threats, +to insure the safety of their prisoners, whom they soon sent down the +river to the American post at St. Louis. + +When the British flag was run up on the stockade, the name was changed +to Fort McKay, in honor of the British leader. During the long autumn +and succeeding winter, the British experienced their old difficulties +with the Indian allies. The warriors sacked the houses of the French +settlers, all over the prairie, and destroyed crops and supplies. +Council after council was held at Fort McKay, and large bands of lazy, +quarrelsome savages, encamped about the fort, were fed and were loaded +with presents; altogether, the occupation of Wisconsin proved an +expensive luxury. It was no doubt with some relief that the British +garrison at last learned, late in May 1815, of the treaty of peace +signed on the previous 24th of December, and made arrangements to +withdraw up the Wisconsin and down the Fox, and across the great lake to +Mackinac. + +In point of fact, the withdrawal of Captain Bulger, at that time in +charge of Fort McKay, was in reality a hasty and undignified retreat +from his own allies. The Indians had learned with amazement that the +British palefaces were going to surrender to the American palefaces, +without showing fight, and simply because somewhere, far away in another +part of the world, some other palefaces, whom these Englishmen had never +even seen, had held a peace council and buried the hatchet. This sort of +thing could not be understood by the savages encamped outside the walls +of Fort McKay, save as an evidence of rank cowardice. They called the +redcoats a lot of "old women," became insolent, and even threatened +them. + +Captain Bulger saw that it would not do to await the arrival of the +American troops from St. Louis, so he sent an Indian messenger with a +letter to the American commander, telling him to help himself to +everything in Fort McKay. Then, only forty-eight hours after the arrival +of the peace news, he pulled down his flag and hurried home as fast as +he could, fearful all the way that an Indian war party might be at his +heels. Thus ignominiously ended the last British occupation of +Wisconsin. + + + + +THE STORY OF THE WISCONSIN LEAD MINES + + +It was the fur trade that first brought white men to Wisconsin. The +daring Nicolet pushed his way through the wilderness, a thousand miles +west of the little French settlement at Quebec, solely to introduce the +traffic in furs to our savages, and others were not long in following +him. Soon it was learned that there were lead mines in what is now +southwest Wisconsin. + +It is not probable that the aborigines, before the coming of white men, +made any other use of lead than from it to fashion a few rude ornaments. +But the French at once recognized the great value of this mineral, in +connection with the fur trade. They taught the Indians how to mine it in +a crude fashion, and to make it into bullets for the guns which they +introduced among them. + +The French traders themselves mined a good deal of it for their own use, +and shipped it in their canoes to other parts of the West, where there +were no lead mines, but where both white men and Indians needed bullets. +For in a remarkably short period nearly all the Indians had turned from +their old pursuits of raising maize and pumpkins, and killing just +enough game with slings and arrows to supply themselves with skins for +their clothing and flesh for their food. They had now become persistent +hunters for skins, which they might exchange with white men for +European-made guns, ammunition, kettles, spears, cloths, and ornaments. + +Some of the Indians in the neighborhood of the lead mines found it more +profitable to mine lead for other hunters, than to hunt; hence we find +that, at an early date, the mines came to be regarded as the particular +property of the Indians, a fact which had considerable influence upon +the history of the region. With the French, most of our Wisconsin +Indians were quite friendly. The French were kind and obliging, often +married and settled among them, and had no thought of driving them away. +They throve upon the fur trade with the Indians, and in general did not +care to become farmers. The English and the Americans, on the contrary, +felt a contempt for the savages, and did not disguise it; the aim of the +Americans, in particular, was gradually to clear the forest, to make +farms, and to build villages. In the American scheme of civilization the +Indian had no part. Therefore we find that Frenchmen were quite free to +work the lead mines in company with the savages; but the Anglo-Saxons, +when they arrived on the scene, were obliged to fight for this right. In +the end they banished the Indians from the "diggings." + +Marquette and Joliet had heard of the lead mines, and of the Frenchmen +working at them, when they made their famous canoe trip through +Wisconsin, in 1673. Through the rest of the seventeenth century, +wherever we pick up any French books of travel in these regions, or any +maps of the Upper Mississippi country, we are sure to find frequent, +though rather vague, mention of the lead mines. + +The first official exploration of them appears to have been made in 1693 +by Le Sueur, the French military commandant at Chequamegon Bay, on Lake +Superior. He was so impressed by the "mines of lead, copper, and blue +and green earth" which he found all along the banks of the Upper +Mississippi, that he went to France to tell the king about his great +discoveries, and seek permission to work them. It was forbidden to do +anything in New France without the consent of the great French king, +although the free and independent fur traders did very much as they +pleased out here in the wilderness. But Le Sueur was a soldier, and had +to ask permission. Obtaining it, he returned at great expense with +thirty miners, who proceeded up the Mississippi from New Orleans; but +somehow nothing came of these extensive preparations. + +Several French speculators, in succeeding years, thought to make money +out of supposed mines of gold, silver, lead, and copper along the upper +waters of the Mississippi. Some of them came over from France with bands +of miners and little companies of soldiers to guard them; but, like Le +Sueur, they spent most of their time and money in exploration, not +content with those lead mines that were well known to exist, and +invariably left the country in disgust, their money and patience +exhausted. Now and then a more practical man came quietly upon the +scene, and seemed well satisfied with lead when he could not find gold; +most of such miners were French, but a few were Spanish, for Spain then +owned all the country lying westward of the Mississippi River. + +Occasionally the French commandant at Mackinac or Detroit would come to +the mines, and with the aid of his soldiers and the Indians, get out a +considerable quantity of the ore, and take it home with him in his fleet +of canoes; or a fur trader would do the same, for the purposes of his +own trade with the savages. The little French village of Ste. Geneviève, +near St. Louis, had become, by the opening of our Revolutionary War, a +considerable lead market, from which shipments were made in flatboats +and bateaux down the Mississippi to New Orleans, or up the Ohio to +Pittsburg. Lead was, next to peltries, the most important export of the +Upper Mississippi region, and throughout the West served as currency. + +During the Revolutionary War, the British were at first in command of +the upper reaches of the great river, and guarded jealously the approach +to the lead mines, for bullets were necessary to the success of the fast +growing Kentucky settlements; American military operations against the +little British garrisons at Vincennes, Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and Detroit +would be powerless without lead. Gradually the influence of the American +fur trade grew among the Indians, and it was not long before the +Americans in the West were able to obtain through them all the lead they +wanted. + +Toward the close of the war, Julien Dubuque, a very energetic French +miner, bought up large claims from the Spaniards, in Missouri and Iowa, +and for about a quarter of a century was the principal man in the lead +region. He was remarkably successful in dealing with the Indians, whom +he employed to do the principal work. His mining and trading operations +were not confined to the Spanish side of the river, but were carried on +in American territory as well, and his influence with the savages for a +time prevented American miners and fur traders from obtaining a +foothold. + +When at last (1804) the United States obtained possession of the lands +west of the Mississippi, numerous enterprising Americans forced their +way into the lead district. They managed to mine a good deal of the +metal, here and there, but frequently met with armed opposition from the +Indians. It was fifteen years before the Americans equaled the French +Canadians in number. In 1819, the Indian claims to the mining country +having at last been purchased by the federal government, there was a +general inrush of Americans. Among the earliest and most prominent of +these was James W. Shull, the founder of Shullsburg, in Iowa county. +Another man of note was Colonel James Johnson, of Kentucky, who brought +negro slaves into the region, to do his heaviest labor, and maintained a +fleet of flatboats to carry lead ore from Galena River to St. Louis, New +Orleans, and Pittsburg. + +At first the operations of Johnson, Shull, and others had to be carried +on under military protection; for the Indians, although they had sold +their claims, persisted in annoying the newcomers, being urged on by the +French miners and traders who were still numerous in the mining +country. But so soon as the news spread that a large trade in lead was +fast springing up, other Americans began to pour in; mining claims were +entered in great numbers, a federal land office was opened, and by 1826 +two thousand men, including negro slaves brought in by Kentucky and +Missouri operators, were engaged in and about the mines. The following +year the town of Galena was founded, and in 1829 there was a stampede +thither. + +Henceforth, for many years, the lead trade of southwestern Wisconsin, +northwestern Illinois, and parts of Missouri and Iowa was the chief +interest in the West. By this time the fur trade had almost died out, +and the old French Canadian element had become but a small proportion of +the population of the Mississippi valley. In those days, Galena, Mineral +Point, and other lead mining towns were of much more importance than +Chicago or Milwaukee, and their citizens entertained high hopes of the +future. The lead trade with St. Louis and New Orleans was very large; +but the East also wanted the lead, and the air was filled with projects +to secure routes by which lead might be carried to vessels plying on the +Great Lakes, which could transport it to Buffalo and other far away +ports. + +For a time the most popular of these projects was the old fur trade +route of the Wisconsin and Fox rivers. A canal was dug along the famous +carrying trail at Portage, and the federal government was induced to +deepen Fox River, which is naturally very shallow, and to attempt to +create a permanent channel in the Wisconsin River. But, although much +money has been spent on these schemes, from that day to this, the +Fox-Wisconsin route is still impracticable save to boats of +exceptionally light draft; and in our time the project of connecting the +Mississippi River with Lake Michigan, by the way of Portage and Green +Bay, is almost wholly abandoned. Another scheme was the proposed +Milwaukee and Rock River canal, by which Milwaukee was to be connected +with the Rock River, which joins the Mississippi at Rock Island; but +this plan died a still earlier death. It was the struggle to connect the +port of Milwaukee with the lead region that finally led to the building +of the railroad between that city and Prairie du Chien. + +More immediately effective for the benefit of the lead trade, was the +opening of a wagon road from the lead mining towns, through Madison, to +Milwaukee, along which great canvas-covered caravans of ore-laden +"prairie schooners" toiled slowly from the mines to the Lake Michigan +docks, a distance of about a hundred and fifty miles. Other roads led +to Galena and Prairie du Chien, where the Mississippi River boats +awaited similar fleets of "schooners" from the interior. A good deal of +the lead was sent by similar conveyances to Helena, a little village on +the Wisconsin River, where a shot tower had been built against the face +of a high cliff; from here, shallow-draft boats took the shot to Green +Bay, by way of the Portage Canal and Fox River, or descended the +Wisconsin to Prairie du Chien. + +From various causes, the lead trade of the Upper Mississippi region had +sadly declined by 1857. Among these causes was the finding of gold in +California (1849), which attracted large numbers of the miners to a more +profitable field; again, the surface or shallow diggings having been +exhausted, much more capital was required to operate in the lower +levels; more serious was the lack of sufficient transportation +facilities, and these did not come until the great silver mines of the +Rocky Mountains had been opened, lead being thenceforth more profitably +produced in connection with silver. + +The effect of the lead industry upon the development of Wisconsin was +important. Many years before farmers would naturally have sought +southern Wisconsin in their pushing westward for fresh lands, the +opening of the mines brought thither a large and energetic industrial +population, and a considerable capital, and awakened popular interest in +land and water transportation routes. + + + + +THE WINNEBAGO WAR + + +The world over, white men, representing a higher type of civilization, +have wrested, or are still wresting, the land from the original savage +occupants. This seems to be inevitable. It is one of the means by which +civilization is being extended over the entire globe. We glory in the +progress of civilization; but we are apt to ignore the hardship which +this brings to the aborigines. While not relaxing our endeavor to plant +the world with progressive men who shall make the most of life, we +should see to it that the savage races are pushed to the wall with as +kindly and forbearing a hand as possible; that we apply to them humane +methods, and give them credit for possessing the sentiments of men who, +like us, dearly love their old homes, and are willing to fight for them. +These sentiments have certainly not often been applied in the past, by +our Anglo-Saxon race, to the Indians of North America. + +We have failed to appreciate that the Indian, in being driven from his +lands, has retaliated from motives of patriotism. His methods of +fighting are often cruel and treacherous; but it must be remembered that +he is in a stage of development akin to that of the child, and that +white men upon the frontier have often been quite as cruel and +treacherous toward the Indian as he was toward them, for such are ever +the methods of the weak and the primitive. The Indian is blamed for his +custom of wreaking vengeance upon all white men, when but an individual +has injured him; yet, on the border, it has always been seen that white +men have retaliated on the Indians in exactly the same spirit. "The only +good Indian is a dead Indian," has been their motto, the offense of one +Indian being considered the offense of all. Our dealings with the red +men, both as individuals and as a nation, have, for over a hundred +years, often been such as we should blush for. We are doing better now +than formerly; but our treatment of the weak and unfortunate aborigines +is still far from being to our credit. + +The story of the Winnebago War, in Wisconsin, is illustrative of the +old-time method of treating our barbaric predecessors. No doubt it would +have been better if the United States had, from the first, held all the +Indians to be subjects, and forced them to obey our laws. But the tribes +were considered in theory to be distinct nations, over whom we exercised +supervision, and with whom we held treaties. This at first seemed +necessary, owing to the patriarchal system among the Indians, by which +heads of families or clans are supposed to control the younger members, +all affairs being decided upon in councils, in which these wise old men +participate. It was thought that, through the chiefs, binding agreements +could be made with entire tribes. It was not then generally understood +that each Indian is, according to the customs of those people, really a +law unto himself; that the chiefs, in signing a treaty, are seldom +representative in the sense that we use the word, and that they +generally represent no one but themselves; that the only way in which +they can commit their tribes is through the respect or fear which they +may foster in the minds of their followers. + +In the month of August, 1825, when Wisconsin was still a part of +Michigan Territory, there was a treaty signed at Prairie du Chien +between the United States and the Indians of what are now Illinois, +Wisconsin, and Minnesota. The treaty set boundaries between the +quarrelsome tribes, and agreed on a general peace upon the border. Like +most Indian treaties, this document was drawn up by the officers of the +general government; and the chiefs, knowing little of its contents, were +simply invited to sign their names to it. They signed as requested, but +went home in bad temper, because the American commissioners would not +make them costly presents of guns, ammunition, beads, hatchets, cloths, +and rum, as the British in Canada always did; and the savages were not +even allowed to celebrate the treaty by a roistering feast. The +Americans, from their cold, businesslike conduct, impressed the Indians +as being "stingy old women." + +Nobody on the frontier, the following winter, seemed to pay the +slightest attention to the terms of the treaty. The Sioux, who lived +west of the Mississippi, the Winnebagoes in southern and western +Wisconsin, and the Chippewas in the north, quarreled with one another +and scalped one another as freely as ever; while French traders, in +British employ, stirred up the red men, and told them that Great Britain +would soon have the whole country back again. The Winnebagoes, in +particular, were irritated because two of their braves had been +imprisoned for thieving, at Fort Crawford, in Prairie du Chien. They +held numerous councils in the woods, and resolved to stand by the +British when the war should break out. In the midst of this uneasiness, +the troops at Fort Crawford were suddenly withdrawn to Fort Snelling, on +the Upper Mississippi River, near where St. Paul now is. This was +supposed by the Indians to mean that the American soldiers were afraid +of them. + +The spring of 1827 arrived. A half-breed named Methode was making maple +sugar upon the Yellow River, in Iowa, a dozen miles north of Prairie du +Chien. With him were his wife and five children; all were set upon by +some Winnebagoes and killed, scalped, and burned. Naturally there was an +uproar all along the Upper Mississippi. Excitement was at its height, +when word was brought in by Sioux visitors to the village of Red Bird, a +petty Winnebago chief, that the two men of his tribe who had been +imprisoned in Fort Crawford had been hung when the troops reached Fort +Snelling. The wily Sioux suggested vengeance. The Winnebago code was two +lives for one. Inflamed with rage, Red Bird set out at once upon the +warpath to take four white scalps. + +Meanwhile the clouds were gathering for a general storm. The American +Indian agent at Prairie du Chien, with singular indiscretion, was not +treating his Winnebago visitors with kindness. English and French fur +traders were, on behalf of Great Britain, making liberal promises for +the future. Winnebagoes were being brutally driven from the lead mines +by the white miners, who were now swarming into southwest Wisconsin. The +Sioux along the west bank of the Mississippi, in Minnesota, were +encouraging the Winnebagoes to revolt; and were displaying a bad temper +toward Americans, whom they thought cowardly because apparently +unwilling to use military force to keep the Indians in order. + +One day in June, Red Bird, a friend named Wekau, and two other +Winnebagoes, appeared at the door of a log cabin owned by Registre +Gagnier, a French settler living on the edge of Prairie du Chien +village. Gagnier was an old friend of Red Bird, and invited the four +Indians in to take dinner with him and his family. For several hours the +guests stayed, eating and smoking in apparent good humor, until at last +their chance came. Gagnier and his serving man, Lipcap, were instantly +shot down; an infant of eighteen months was torn from the arms of Madame +Gagnier, stabbed and scalped before her eyes, and thrown to the floor as +dead; but the woman herself with her little boy, ten years of age, +escaped to the woods and gave the alarm to the neighbors. The Indians +slunk into the forest and disappeared. The villagers buried Gagnier and +Lipcap, and, finding the infant girl alive, restored her to her mother. +Curiously enough, the scalped child recovered and grew to robust +womanhood. + +According to the Winnebago code, four white scalps must be taken in +return for the two Indians supposed to have been killed at Fort +Snelling. Red Bird had now secured three, those of Gagnier, Lipcap, and +the infant; a fourth was necessary before he could properly return to +his people in the capacity of an avenger, the proudest title which an +Indian can bear. How he obtained these scalps was, to the mind of his +race, unimportant; the one idea was to get them. + +On the afternoon of the third day after the massacre, Red Bird and his +friends were visiting at a camp of their people, near the mouth of the +Bad Ax River, some forty miles north of Prairie du Chien. A drunken +feast was in progress, in honor of the scalp taking, when two keel boats +appeared on their way down the Mississippi from Fort Snelling to St. +Louis. The Sioux, at what is now Winona, had threatened the crews, but +had not attempted to harm them. The Winnebagoes now appeared on the bank +and raised the war whoop, but the crew of the foremost boat thought it +only bluster, so in a spirit of bravado ran their craft toward shore. +When it was within thirty yards of the bank, the Indians, led by Red +Bird, poured a volley of rifle balls into the boat. The crew were well +armed, and, rushing below, answered by shooting through the portholes. +The boat ran on a bar, and a sharp fire lasted through three hours, +until dusk, when the craft was finally worked off the bar, and dropped +downstream in the dark. Although seven hundred bullets penetrated the +hull, only two of the crew were killed outright, two others dying later +from wounds, and two others were slightly wounded. The Indians lost +seven killed and fourteen wounded. + +The "battle of the keel boats" was the signal for military activity. In +July a battalion of troops from Fort Snelling came down to Prairie du +Chien; and a little later a full regiment from St. Louis followed. +General Henry Atkinson was in command, and early in August he ordered +Major William Whistler, then in charge of Fort Howard, to proceed up Fox +River with a company of troops, in search of the fugitives Red Bird and +Wekau. At a council held with the Winnebagoes, at Butte des Morts, the +chiefs were notified that nothing short of the surrender of the leaders +of the disturbance would satisfy the government for the attack on the +boats; were they not delivered up, the entire tribe should be hunted +like wild animals. + +Great consternation prevailed among the tribesmen, as the runners sent +out from the Butte des Morts council carried the terrible threat to all +the camps of the Winnebagoes, in the deep forests, in the pleasant oak +groves, and upon the broad prairies throughout southern Wisconsin. +Whistler had reached the ridge flanking the old portage trail between +the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, but had not fully completed the +arrangements of his camp when an Indian runner appeared in hot haste, +saying that Red Bird and Wekau would surrender themselves at three +o'clock in the afternoon of the following day, that the tribe might be +saved. + +Whistler and his officers, as true soldiers, were prompt to appreciate +bravery. They were broad enough to judge these savages by the standards +of savagery, not by those of a civilization from which the Indian is +removed by centuries of human progress. They knew full well that the +culprits were but carrying out the law of their race in seeking white +scalps in vengeance for the Winnebagoes supposed to have been slain at +Fort Snelling. Whistler knew that the Indians considered Red Bird and +Wekau as heroes, and could feel no pangs of conscience, because +treachery toward enemies was the customary method of Indian warfare. +Realizing these facts, the American officers recognized that it required +a fine type of heroism on the part of these simple natives thus to offer +themselves up to probable death, to redeem their tribe from destruction. + +For this reason the soldiers were brought out on parade; and when, +prompt to the hour named, Red Bird and Wekau, accompanied by a party of +their friends, came marching into camp, clad in ceremonial dress, and +singing their death songs, they were received with military honors. The +native ceremony of surrender was highly impressive. Red Bird conducted +himself with a dignity which won the admiration of all. Wekau, on the +contrary, was an indifferent looking fellow, and commanded little +respect. + +Red Bird made but one request, that, although sentenced to death, he +should not be placed in chains. This was granted; and while, during his +subsequent imprisonment at Prairie du Chien, he had frequent +opportunities to escape, he declined to take advantage of them. A few +months later he fell an easy victim to an epidemic then raging in the +village, thus relieving the government from embarrassment, for it was +felt that he was altogether too good an Indian to hang; indeed, his +execution might have brought on a general border war. + +The murderers of Methode were also apprehended and given a death +sentence; but upon the Winnebagoes promising to relinquish forever their +hold upon the lead mines of southwestern Wisconsin and northwestern +Illinois, President Adams pardoned all the prisoners then living. The +following year (1828), a fort was erected at the Fox-Wisconsin portage, +near the scene of Red Bird's surrender; being in the heart of that +tribe's territory, it was called Fort Winnebago. Thereafter the +Winnebagoes were kept in entire subjection. Indeed, the three forts, +Howard at Green Bay, Winnebago at Portage, and Crawford at Prairie du +Chien, now gave the United States, for the first time, firm grasp upon +the whole of what is now Wisconsin. + + + + +THE BLACK HAWK WAR + + +In November, 1804, the Sac and Fox Indians, in return for a paltry +annuity of a thousand dollars, ceded to the United States fifty million +acres of land in eastern Missouri, northwestern Illinois, and +southwestern Wisconsin. There was an unfortunate clause in this compact, +which quite unexpectedly became one of the chief causes of the Black +Hawk War of 1832; instead of obliging the Indians at once to vacate the +ceded territory, it was stipulated that, "as long as the lands which are +now ceded to the United States remain their property, the Indians +belonging to said tribes shall enjoy the privilege of living and hunting +on them." + +Within the limits of the cession was the chief seat of Sac power, a +village lying on the north side of Rock River, three miles above its +mouth. It was picturesquely situated on fertile ground, contained the +principal cemetery of the tribe, and was inhabited by about five hundred +families, being one of the largest Indian towns on the continent. + +From the beginning of the nineteenth century, the principal character in +this village was Black Hawk, who was born here in 1767. Black Hawk was +neither an hereditary nor an elected chief, but was, by common consent, +the village headman. He was a restless, ambitious, handsome savage; was +possessed of some of the qualities of successful leadership, was much of +a demagogue, and aroused the passions of his people by appeals to their +prejudices and superstitions. It is probable that he was never, in the +exercise of this policy, dishonest in his motives. A too confiding +disposition was ever leading his judgment astray; he was readily duped +by those who, white or red, were interested in deceiving him. The effect +of his daily communication with the Americans was often to shock rudely +his high sense of honor; while the studied courtesy accorded him upon +his annual begging visit to the British military agent at Malden, in +Canada, contrasted strangely, in his eyes, with his experiences with +many of the inhabitants on the Illinois border. + +[Illustration: BLACK HAWK] + +At the outbreak of hostilities between Great Britain and the United +States in 1812, Black Hawk naturally allied himself with Tecumseh and +the British. After burying the hatchet, he settled down into the +customary routine of savage life, hunting in winter and loafing about +his village in summer, improvidently existing from hand to mouth, +although surrounded with abundance. Occasionally he varied the monotony +by visits to Malden, whence he would return laden with provisions, arms, +ammunition, and trinkets, his stock of vanity increased by wily +flattery, and his bitterness against the Americans correspondingly +intensified. It is not at all surprising that he hated the Americans. +They brought him naught but evil. The even tenor of his life was +continually being disturbed by them; and a cruel and causeless beating +which some white settlers gave him, in the winter of 1822-23, was an +insult which he treasured up against the entire American people. + +In the summer of 1823, squatters, covetous of the rich fields cultivated +by the "British band," as Black Hawk's people were often called, began +to take possession of them. The treaty of 1804 had guaranteed to the +Indians the use of the ceded territory so long as the lands remained the +property of the United States and were not sold to individuals. The +frontier line of homestead settlement was still fifty or sixty miles to +the east; the country between had not yet been surveyed, and much of it +not explored. The squatters had no rights in this territory, and it was +clearly the duty of the general government to protect the Indians within +it so long as no sales were made. + +The Sacs would not have complained had the squatters settled in other +portions of the tract, and not sought to steal the village which was +their birthplace and contained the cemetery of their tribe. There were +outrages of the most flagrant nature. Indian cornfields were fenced in +by the intruders, squaws and children were whipped for venturing beyond +the bounds thus set, lodges were burned over the heads of the occupants. +A reign of terror ensued, in which the frequent remonstrances of Black +Hawk to the white authorities were in vain. Year by year the evil grew. +When the Indians returned each spring from the winter's hunt, they found +their village more of a wreck than when they had left it in the fall. It +is surprising, in view of their native love of revenge, that they acted +so peaceably while the victims of such harsh treatment. + +Returning to his village in the spring of 1831, after a gloomy and +profitless winter's hunt, Black Hawk was fiercely warned away by the +whites; but, in a firm and dignified manner, he notified the settlers +that, if they did not themselves remove, he should use force. This +announcement was construed by the whites as a threat against their +lives. Petitions and messages were showered in by them upon Governor +John Reynolds, of Illinois, setting forth the situation in exaggerated +terms that would be amusing, were it not that they were the prelude to +one of the darkest tragedies in the history of our Western border. + +The governor caught the spirit of the occasion, and at once issued a +flaming proclamation calling out a mounted volunteer force to "repel the +invasion of the British band." These volunteers, sixteen hundred strong, +coöperated with ten companies of regulars in a demonstration before +Black Hawk's village on the 25th of June. During that night the Indians, +in the face of this superior force, quietly withdrew to the west bank of +the Mississippi, whither they had previously been ordered. On the 30th +they signed a treaty of capitulation and peace, solemnly agreeing never +to return to the east side of the river without express permission of +the United States government. + +The rest of the summer was spent by the evicted savages in a state of +misery. It being now too late to raise another crop of corn and beans, +they suffered for want of the actual necessaries of life. White Cloud, +the eloquent and crafty Prophet of the Winnebagoes, was Black Hawk's +evil genius. He was half Sac and half Winnebago, a hater of the whites, +an inveterate mischief maker, and, being a "medicine man," possessed +much influence over both tribes. He was at the head of a Winnebago +village some thirty-five miles above the mouth of the Rock, on the east +side of the Mississippi; and to this village he invited Black Hawk, +advising him to raise a crop of corn there, with the assurance that in +the autumn the Winnebagoes and Pottawattomies would join him in a +general movement against the whites in the valley of the Rock. + +Relying on these rose-colored promises, Black Hawk spent the winter on +the west bank of the Mississippi, recruiting his band, and on the 6th of +April, 1832, crossed the great river at Yellow Banks, below the mouth of +the Rock. Thus he invaded the State of Illinois, in the face of his +solemn treaty of the year before. With him were his second in command, +Neapope, a wily scoundrel, who was White Cloud's tool, and about five +hundred Sac warriors with their women and children, and all their +belongings. Their design was to carry out the advice of the Prophet, in +regard to the corn planting, and if possible to take up the hatchet in +the autumn. + +But it became evident to Black Hawk, before he reached the Prophet's +town, that the main body of the Pottawattomies, now controlled by the +peace loving Chief Shaubena, did not intend to go to war; and that the +rascally Winnebagoes, while cajoling him, were preparing as usual to +play double. He tells us in his autobiography that, crestfallen, he was +planning to return peacefully to the west side of the Mississippi, when +of a sudden he became aware that the whites had raised an army against +him, and he was confronted with a war not in the time and manner of his +asking. + +The news of his second invasion had spread like wildfire throughout the +Illinois and Wisconsin settlements. The United States was appealed to +for a regiment of troops; and meanwhile, under another fiery +proclamation from the governor of Illinois, an army of eighteen hundred +militiamen was quickly mustered. Amid intense popular excitement, during +which many settlers fled from the country, and others hastily threw up +log forts, the army was mobilized by General Atkinson, who appeared at +the rendezvous with three hundred regulars. There were many notable men +upon this expedition: Abraham Lincoln, then a rawboned young fellow, was +captain of a company of Illinois rangers; Zachary Taylor, famous for his +bluff manner, was a colonel of regulars; and Jefferson Davis, who was +wooing Taylor's daughter, was one of his lieutenants; also of the +regulars, was Major William S. Harney, afterward the hero of Cerro Gordo +in the Mexican War; and the mustering-in officer was Lieutenant Robert +Anderson, who was to become famous in connection with Fort Sumter. + +Black Hawk was foolish enough to send a message of defiance to General +Atkinson, and, retreating up the Rock, he came to a stand at Stillman's +Creek. Here he repented, and sent out runners with a flag of truce, to +inform the white chief that he would surrender; but the drunken pickets +of the militia advance wantonly killed these messengers of peace. This +so angered the Hawk that with a mere handful of thirty-five braves, on +foot, and hid in the hazel brush, he turned in fury upon the two hundred +seventy-five horsemen who were now rushing upon him. The cowardly +rangers, who fled at the first volley of the savages, without returning +it, were haunted by the genius of fear, and, dashing madly through +swamps and creeks, did not stop until they had reached Dixon, +twenty-five miles away. Many kept on at a keen gallop till they reached +their own firesides, fifty or more miles farther, carrying the absurd +report that Black Hawk and two thousand bloodthirsty warriors were +sweeping northern Illinois with the besom of destruction. + +Rich in supplies captured in this first encounter, and naturally +encouraged at the result of his valor, the Hawk thought that so long as +the whites were determined to make him fight, he would show his claws +in earnest. Removing the women and children to far-away swamps on the +headwaters of the Rock River, in Wisconsin, he thence descended with his +braves for a general raid through northern Illinois. The borderers flew +like chickens to cover, on the warning of the Hawk's foray. There was +consternation throughout the entire West. Exaggerated reports of his +forces, and of the nature of his expedition, were spread throughout the +land. His name became coupled with fabulous tales of savage cunning and +cruelty, and served as a household bugaboo the country over. The effect +on the Illinois militia was singular enough, considering their haste in +taking the field; in a frenzy of fear, they instantly disbanded! + +A fresh levy was soon raised, but in the interval there were irregular +hostilities all along the Illinois-Wisconsin border, in which Black Hawk +and a few Winnebago and Pottawattomie allies succeeded in making life +miserable enough for the frontier farmers of northern Illinois and the +lead miners of southwest Wisconsin. In these border strifes fully two +hundred whites and nearly as many Indians lost their lives; and there +were numerous instances of romantic heroism on the part of the settlers, +men and women alike. + +In about three weeks after Stillman's defeat the reorganized militia +took the field, reënforced by the regulars under Atkinson. Black Hawk +was forced to fly to the swampy region of the upper Rock; but, when the +pursuit became too warm, he hastily withdrew with his entire band +westward to the Wisconsin River. Closely following upon his trail were a +brigade of Illinois troops under General James D. Henry, and a +battalion of Wisconsin lead mine rangers under Major Henry Dodge, +afterwards governor of Wisconsin Territory. + +The pursuers came up with the savages at Prairie du Sac. Here the south +bank of the Wisconsin consists of steep, grassy bluffs, three hundred +feet in height; hence the encounter which ensued is known in history as +the Battle of the Wisconsin Heights. With consummate skill, Black Hawk +made a stand on the summit of the heights, and with a small party of +warriors held the whites in check until the noncombatants had crossed +the broad river bottoms below, and gained shelter upon the willow-grown +shore opposite. The loss on either side was slight, the action being +notable only for the Sac leader's superior management. + +During the night, the passage of the river was accomplished by the +fugitives. A large party was sent downstream upon a raft, and in canoes +begged from the Winnebagoes; but those who took this method of escape +were brutally fired upon near the mouth of the river by a detachment +from the garrison at Prairie du Chien, and fifteen were killed in cold +blood. The rest of the pursued, headed by Black Hawk, who had again made +an attempt to surrender his forces, but had failed for lack of an +interpreter, pushed across country, guided by Winnebagoes, to the mouth +of the Bad Ax, a little stream emptying into the Mississippi about forty +miles above the mouth of the Wisconsin River. His intention was to get +his people as quickly as possible on the west bank of the Mississippi, +in the hope that they would there be allowed to remain in peace. + +The Indians were followed, three days behind, by the united army of +regulars, who steadily gained on them. The country between Wisconsin +Heights and the Mississippi is rough and forbidding in character; there +are numerous swamps and rivers between the steep, thickly wooded hills. +The uneven pathway was strewn with the corpses of Sacs who had died of +wounds and starvation; and there were frequent evidences that the +fleeing wretches were sustaining life on the bark of trees and the flesh +of their fagged-out ponies. + +On Wednesday, the 1st of August, Black Hawk and his now sadly depleted +and almost famished band reached the junction of the Bad Ax with the +Mississippi. There were only two or three canoes to be had, and the +crossing of the Father of Waters progressed slowly and with frequent +loss of life. That afternoon there appeared upon the scene a government +supply steamer, the _Warrior_, from Fort Crawford (Prairie du Chien), at +the mouth of the Wisconsin. The Indians a third time tried to surrender, +but their white flag was deliberately fired at, and round after round of +canister swept the camp. + +The next day the pursuing troops arrived on the heights above the river +bench, the _Warrior_ again opened its attack, and thus, caught between +two galling fires, the little army of savages soon melted away. But +fifty remained alive on the spot to be taken prisoners. Some three +hundred weaklings had reached the Iowa shore through the hail of iron +and lead. Of these three hundred helpless, half-starved, unarmed +noncombatants, over a half were slaughtered by a party of Sioux, under +Wabashaw, who had been sent out by our government to waylay them. So +that out of the band of a thousand Indians who had crossed the +Mississippi over into Illinois in April, not more than a hundred and +fifty, all told, lived to tell the tragic story of the Black Hawk War, a +tale that stains the American name with dishonor. + +The rest can soon be told. The Winnebago guerrillas, who had played fast +and loose during the campaign, delivered to the whites at Fort Crawford +the unfortunate Black Hawk, who had fled from the Bad Ax to the Dells of +the Wisconsin River, to seek an asylum with his false friends. The proud +old man, shorn of all his strength, was presented to the President at +Washington, imprisoned in Fortress Monroe, forced to sign articles of +perpetual peace, and then turned over for safe keeping to the Sac chief, +Keokuk, his hated rival. He died on a small reservation in Iowa, in +1838. But he was not even then at peace, for his bones were stolen by an +Illinois physician, for exhibition purposes, and finally were +accidentally consumed by fire in 1853. + +Black Hawk, with all the limitations of his race, had in his character a +strength and manliness of fiber that were most remarkable, and displayed +throughout his brief campaign a positive genius for military evolutions. +He may be safely ranked as one of the most interesting specimens of the +North American savage to be met with in history. He was an indiscreet +man. His troubles were brought about by a lack of mental balance, aided +largely by unfortunate circumstances. His was a highly romantic +temperament. He was carried away by mere sentiment, and allowed himself +to be deceived by tricksters. But he was honest, and was more honorable +than many of his conquerors were. He was, above all things, a patriot. +The year before his death, in a speech to a party of whites who were +making a holiday hero of him, he thus forcibly defended his motives: +"Rock River was a beautiful country. I liked my town, my cornfields, and +the home of my people. I fought for them." No poet could have penned for +him a more touching epitaph. + + + + +THE STORY OF CHEQUAMEGON BAY + + +Chequamegon Bay, of Lake Superior, has had a long and an interesting +history. Nearly two and a half centuries ago, in the early winter months +of 1659, two adventurous French traders, Radisson and Groseilliers, +built a little palisade here, to protect the stock of goods which they +exchanged with the Indians for furs. This was on the southwestern shore +of the bay, a few miles west of the present city of Ashland, and in the +neighborhood of Whittlesey's Creek. + +These men did not tarry long at Chequamegon Bay. For the most part, they +merely kept their stock of goods hid in a _cache_ there, while for some +ten months they traveled through the woods, far and wide, in search of +trade with the dusky natives. But they made the region known to +Frenchmen in the settlements at Quebec and Montreal, as a favorite +meeting-place for many tribes of Indians who came to the bay to fish. + +The first Jesuit mission on Lake Superior was conducted by Father René +Ménard, at Keweenaw Bay; but he lost his life in the forest in 1661. In +1665 the Jesuits determined to reopen their mission on the great lake, +and for that purpose sent Father Claude Allouez. Having heard of the +advantages of Chequamegon Bay, Allouez proceeded thither, and erected +his little chapel in an Indian village upon the mainland, not far from +Radisson's old palisade, and possibly at the mouth of Vanderventer's +Creek. He called his mission La Pointe. + +Conversions were few at La Pointe, and Allouez soon longed for a broader +field. He was relieved in 1669 by Father Jacques Marquette, a young and +earnest priest. But it was not long before the Sioux of Minnesota +quarreled with the Indians of Chequamegon Bay; and the latter, with +Marquette, were driven eastward as far as Mackinac. + +Although the missionaries had deserted La Pointe, fur traders soon came +to be numerous there. One of the most prominent of these was Daniel +Grayson Duluth, for whom the modern lake city of Minnesota was named. +For several years he had a small palisaded fort upon Chequamegon Bay, +and, with a lively crew of well-armed boatmen, roamed all over the +surrounding country, north, west, and south of Lake Superior, trading +with far-away bands of savages. He had two favorite routes between the +Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. One was by way of the narrow and +turbulent Bois Brulé, then much choked by fallen trees and beaver dams; +a portage trail of a mile and a half from its headwaters to those of the +St. Croix River; and thence, through foaming rapids, and deep, cool +lakes, down into the Father of Waters. The other, an easier, but longer +way, was up the rugged St. Louis River, which separates Wisconsin from +Minnesota on the northwest, over into the Sand Lake country, and thence, +through watery labyrinths, into feeders of the Mississippi. + +Another adventurous French forest trader, who quartered on Chequamegon +Bay, was Le Sueur, who, in 1693, built a fort upon Madelaine Island. +During the old Fox War the valleys of the Fox and the Wisconsin were +closed to Frenchmen by the enraged Indians. This, the most popular route +between the Great Lakes and the great river, being now unavailable, it +became necessary to keep open Duluth's old routes from Lake Superior +over to the Upper Mississippi. This was why Le Sueur was sent to +Chequamegon Bay, to overawe the Indians of that region. He thought that +his fort would be safer from attack upon the island, than upon the +mainland. As La Pointe had now come to be the general name of this +entire neighborhood, the island fort bore the same name as the old +headquarters on land. It is well to remember that the history of +Madelaine Island, the La Pointe of to-day, dates from Le Sueur; that +the old La Pointe of Radisson, Allouez, Marquette, and probably Duluth, +was on the mainland several miles to the southwest. + +In connection with the La Pointe fort protecting the northern approach +to Duluth's trading routes, Le Sueur erected another stockade to guard +the southern end, the location of this latter being on an island in the +Mississippi, near the present Red Wing, Minnesota. The fort in the +Mississippi soon became "the center of commerce for the Western parts"; +and the station at La Pointe also soon rose to importance, for the +Chippewas, who had drifted far inland with the growing scarcity of game, +were led by the presence of traders to return to Chequamegon Bay, and +mass themselves in a large village on the southwest shore. + +Although Le Sueur was not many years in command at the bay, we catch +frequent glimpses thereafter of fur trade stations here, French, +English, and American in turn, most of them doubtless being on Madelaine +Island. We know, for instance, that there was a French trader at La +Pointe in 1717; also, that the year following, a French officer was sent +there, with a few soldiers, to patch up and garrison the old stockade. +Whether a garrisoned fort was kept up at the bay, from that time till +the downfall of New France (1763), we cannot say; but it seems probable, +for the geographical position was one of great importance in the +development of the fur trade. + +We first hear of copper in the vicinity, in 1730, when an Indian brought +a nugget to the La Pointe post; but the whereabouts of the mine was +concealed by the savages, because of their superstitions relative to +mineral deposits. + +The commandant of La Pointe, at this time, was La Ronde, the chief fur +trader in the Lake Superior country. He and his son, who was his +partner, built for their trade a sailing vessel of forty tons burden, +without doubt the first one of the kind upon the great lake. We find +evidences of the La Rondes, father and son, down as late as 1744; a +curious old map of that year gives the name of "Isle de la Ronde" to +what we now know as Madelaine. + +We find nothing more of importance concerning Chequamegon Bay until +about 1756, when Beaubassin was the French officer in charge of the +fort. The English colonists were harassing the French along the St. +Lawrence River; and Beaubassin, with hundreds of other officers of +wilderness forts, was ordered down with his Indian allies to the +settlements of Montreal, Three Rivers, and Quebec, to defend New France. +The Chippewas, with other Wisconsin tribes, actuated by extravagant +promises of presents, booty, and scalps, eagerly flocked to the banner +of France, and in painted swarms appeared in fighting array on the banks +of the St. Lawrence. But they helped the British more than the French, +for they would not fight, yet with large appetites ate up the provisions +of their allies. + +The garrison being withdrawn from La Pointe, Madelaine Island became a +camping-ground for unlicensed traders, who had freedom to plunder the +country at their will, for New France, tottering to her fall, could no +longer police the upper lakes. In the autumn of 1760 one of these +parties encamped upon the island. By the time winter had set in upon +them, all had left for their wintering grounds in the forests of the far +West and Northwest, save a clerk named Joseph, who remained in charge of +the goods and what local trade there was. With him were his wife, his +small son, and a manservant. Traditions differ as to the cause of the +servant's action; some have it, a desire for plunder; others, his +detection in a series of petty thefts, which Joseph threatened to +report. However that may be, the servant murdered first the clerk, then +the wife, and in a few days, stung by the child's piteous cries, killed +him also. When the spring came, and the traders returned to Chequamegon, +they inquired for Joseph and his family. The servant's reply was at +first unsatisfactory; but when pushed for an explanation, he confessed +to his terrible deed. The story goes, that in horror the traders +dismantled the old French fort, now overgrown with underbrush, as a +thing accursed, sunk the cannon in a neighboring pool, and so destroyed +the palisade that to-day certain mysterious grassy mounds alone remain +to testify of the tragedy. They carried their prisoner with them on +their return voyage to Montreal, but he is said to have escaped to the +Huron Indians, among whom he boasted of his act, only to be killed by +them as too cruel to be a companion even for savages. + +Five years later a great English trader, Alexander Henry, who had +obtained the exclusive trade on Lake Superior, wintered on the mainland +opposite Madelaine Island. His partner was Jean Baptiste Cadotte, a +thrifty Frenchman, who for many years thereafter was one of the most +prominent characters on the upper lakes. Soon after this, a Scotch +trader named John Johnston established himself on the island, and +married a comely Chippewa maiden, whose father was chief of the native +village situated four miles across the water, on the site of the +Bayfield of to-day. + +About the beginning of the nineteenth century, Michel, a son of old Jean +Baptiste Cadotte, took up his abode on the island; and from that time to +the present there has been a continuous settlement there, which bears +the name La Pointe. Michel, himself the child of a Chippewa mother, but +educated at Montreal, married Equaysayway, the daughter of White Crane, +the village chief on the island, and became a person of much importance +thereabout. For over a quarter of a century this island nabob lived at +his ease; here he cultivated a little farm, commanded a variable but +far-reaching fur trade, first as agent of the Northwest Company, and, +later, of the American Fur Company, and reared a large family. His sons +were educated at Montreal, and become the heads of families of traders, +interpreters, and _voyageurs_. + +To this little paradise of the Cadottes there came (in 1818) two sturdy, +fairly educated young men from Massachusetts, Lyman Marcus Warren, and +his younger brother, Truman Warren. Engaging in the fur trade, these two +brothers, of old Puritan stock, married two half-breed daughters of +Michel Cadotte. In time they bought out Michel's interests, and managed +the American Fur Company's stations at many far-distant places, such as +Lac Flambeau, Lac Court Oreilles, and the St. Croix. The Warrens were +the last of the great La Pointe fur traders, Truman dying in 1825, and +Lyman twenty-two years later. + +Lyman Warren, although possessed of a Catholic wife, was a Presbyterian. +Not since the days of Marquette had there been an ordained minister at +La Pointe, and the Catholics were not just then ready to reënter the +long-neglected field. Warren was eager to have religious instruction on +the island, for both Indians and whites; and in 1831 succeeded in +inducing the American Home Missionary Society to send hither, from +Mackinac, the Rev. Sherman Hall and wife, as missionary and teacher. +These were the first Protestant missionaries upon the shores of Lake +Superior. For many years their modest little church building at La +Pointe was the center of a considerable and prosperous mission, both +island and mainland, which did much to improve the condition of the +Chippewa tribe. In later years the mission was moved to Odanah. + +Four years after the coming of the Halls, there arrived at the island +village a worthy Austrian priest, Father (afterward Bishop) Baraga. In a +small log chapel by the side of the Indian graveyard, this new mission +of the older faith throve apace. Baraga visited Europe to beg money for +the cause, and in a few years constructed a new chapel; this is +sometimes shown to summer tourists as the original chapel of Marquette, +but no part of the ancient mainland chapel went into its construction. +Baraga was a man of unusual attainments, and spent his life in laboring +for the betterment of the Indians of the Lake Superior country, with a +self-sacrificing zeal which is rare in the records of any church. At +present, the Franciscan friars, with headquarters at Bayfield, on the +mainland, are in charge of the island mission. + +La Pointe has lost many of its old-time characteristics. No longer is it +the refuge of squalid Indian tribes; no longer is it a center of the fur +trade, with gayly clothed _coureurs de bois_, with traders and their +dusky brides, with rollicking _voyageurs_ taking no heed of the morrow. +With the killing of the game, and the opening of the Lake Superior +country to the occupation of farmers and miners and manufacturers, its +forest trade has departed; the Protestant mission has followed the +majority of the Indian islanders to mainland reservations; and the +revived mission of the Mother Church has also been quartered upon the +bay shore. + + + + +WISCONSIN TERRITORY FORMED + + +What we now know as Wisconsin was part of the vast undefined wilderness +to which the Spaniards, early in the sixteenth century, gave the name +Florida. Spain claimed the country because of the early discoveries of +her navigators and explorers. Her claim was undisputed until there came +to North America the energetic French, who penetrated the continent by +means of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa rivers and the Great Lakes, and +gradually took possession of the inland water systems, as fast as +discovered by their fur traders and missionaries. It should be +understood, however, that there were very few, if any, Spaniards in all +this vast territory, except on or near the Gulf of Mexico. + +In 1608 Quebec was founded. It is supposed that twenty-six years later +the first Frenchman reached Wisconsin, which may, from that date (1634) +till 1763, be considered as a part of French territory. When Great +Britain conquered New France, Wisconsin became her property, and so +continued till the treaty of 1783, by which our Northwest was declared +to be American soil. + +Owing to the vague and undefined boundaries given by the British +government to its original colonies on the Atlantic slope, several of +the thirteen States claimed that their territory extended out into the +Northwest; but finally all these claims were surrendered to the general +government, in order that there might be formed a national domain, from +which to create new States. By the famous Ordinance of 1787, Congress +created the Northwest Territory, which embraced the wide stretch of +country lying between the Great Lakes and the Ohio and the Mississippi +rivers. The present Wisconsin was a part of this great territory. + +In the year 1800 Indiana Territory was set off from the rest of the +Northwest Territory, and took Wisconsin with it. Nine years later +Illinois Territory was formed, Wisconsin being within its bounds. Nine +years after that, when Illinois became a State, all the country lying +west of Lake Michigan was given to Michigan Territory; thus was the +ownership of Wisconsin once more changed, and she became a part of +Michigan. + +By this time settlers were coming into the region west of the lake. +There had long been several little French villages; but, in addition to +the French, numerous American farmers and professional men had lately +arrived. The great distance from Detroit, at a time when there were no +railways or telegraphs, was such as to make it almost impossible to +carry on any government here. Hence, after a good deal of complaint from +the frontiersmen living to the west of Lake Michigan, and some angry +words back and forth between these people and those residing east of the +lake, Congress was induced, in 1836, to erect Wisconsin Territory, with +its own government. + +Thus far, this region beyond Lake Michigan had borne no particular name. +It was simply an outlying part of the Northwest Territory; or of the +Territories of Indiana, Illinois, or Michigan, as the case might be. +But, now that it was to be a Territory by itself, a name had to be +adopted. The one taken was that of its principal river, although +"Chippewau" was preferred by many people. Wisconsin is an Indian name, +the exact meaning of which is unknown; some writers have said that it +signifies "gathering of the waters," or "meeting of the waters," but +there is no warrant for this. The earliest known French form of the word +is "Misconsing," which gradually became crystallized into "Ouisconsin." +When the English language became dominant, it was necessary to change +the spelling in order to preserve the sound; it thus, at first, became +"Wiskonsan," or "Wiskonsin," but finally, by official action, +"Wisconsin." The "k" was, however, rather strongly insisted on by +Governor Doty and many newspaper editors, in the days of the Territory. + +The first session of the legislature of the new Territory of Wisconsin +was held at the recently platted village of Belmont, in the present +county of Lafayette. The place of meeting was a little story-and-a-half +frame house. Lead miners' shafts dimpled the country round about, and +new stumps could be seen upon every hand. There were many things to be +done by the legislature, such as dividing the Territory into counties, +selecting county seats, incorporating banks, and borrowing money with +which to run the new government; but the matter which occasioned the +most excitement was the location of the capital, and the bitterness +which resulted was long felt in the political history of Wisconsin. + +A month was spent in this contest. The claimants were Milwaukee, Racine, +Koshkonong, Fond du Lac, Green Bay, Madison, Wisconsinapolis, Peru, +Wisconsin City, Portage, Helena, Belmont, Mineral Point, Platteville, +Cassville, Belleview, and Dubuque (now in Iowa, but then in Wisconsin). +Some of these towns existed only upon maps published by real estate +speculators. + +Madison was a beautiful spot, in the heart of the wild woods and lakes +of central southern Wisconsin. It was unknown save to a few trappers, +and to the speculators who had bought the land from the federal +government, and thought they saw a fortune in inducing the legislature +to adopt it as the seat of government. Madison won, upon the argument +that it was halfway between the rival settlements on Lake Michigan and +the Mississippi, and that to build a city there would assist in the +development of the interior of the Territory. + +When Madison was chosen, a surveyor hurried thither, and in a blinding +snowstorm laid out the prospective city. The village grew slowly, and it +was November, 1838, before the legislature could meet in its new home. + + + + +WISCONSIN BECOMES A STATE + + +Some of the people of Wisconsin were not long content with a Territorial +government. The Territory was only two years old when a bill was +introduced in Congress for a State government, but the attempt failed. +In 1841 Governor Doty, the leader in the movement, had the question put +to popular vote; but it was lost, as it also was in the year following. +In 1843 a third attempt was defeated in the Territorial council (or +senate); and in 1845, still another met defeat in the Territorial house +of representatives (or assembly). + +But at last our Territorial representative in Congress gave notice +(January 9, 1846), "of a motion for leave to introduce a bill to enable +the people of Wisconsin to form a constitution and State government, and +for the admission of such State into the Union." He followed this, a few +days later, by the introduction of a bill to that effect; the bill +passed, and in August the measure was approved by President Polk. + +Meanwhile, the council and house of Wisconsin Territory had favorably +voted on the proposition. This was in January and February, 1846. In +April the question of Statehood was passed upon by the people of the +Territory, the returns this time showing 12,334 votes for, and 2487 +against. In August, Governor Dodge issued a proclamation calling a +convention for the drafting of a constitution. + +The convention was in session in the Territorial capitol at Madison, +between October 5 and December 16, 1846. But the constitution which it +framed was rejected by the people. The contest over the document had +been of an exciting nature; the defeat was owing to differences of +opinion upon the articles relating to the rights of married women, +exemptions, banks, the elective judiciary, and the number of members of +the legislature. + +As soon as practicable, Governor Dodge called a special session of the +Territorial legislature, which made provisions for a second +constitutional convention. Most of the members of the first convention +declined reëlection; six only were returned. The second convention was +in session at Madison from December 15, 1847, to February 1, 1848. The +members of both conventions were men of high standing in their several +communities, and later many of them held prominent positions in the +service of the State and the nation. + +The constitution adopted by the second convention was so satisfactory to +most people, that the popular verdict in March (16,799 ayes and 6384 +noes) surprised no one. Arrangements for a new bill in Congress, +admitting Wisconsin to the Union, were already well under way. Upon the +very day of the vote by the people, before the result was known, the +Territorial legislature held its final meeting, and left everything +ready for the new State government. + +The general election for the first State officers and the members of the +first State legislature was held May 8. President Polk approved the +congressional act of admission May 29. Upon the 7th of June, Governor +Nelson Dewey and his fellow-officials were sworn into office, and the +legislature opened its first session. + +In the old lead mining days of Wisconsin, miners from southern Illinois +and still farther south returned home every winter, and came back to the +"diggings" in the spring, thus imitating the migrations of the fish +popularly called the "sucker," in the south-flowing rivers of the +region. For this reason the south-winterers were humorously called +"Suckers." On the other hand, lead miners from the far-off Eastern +States were unable to return home every winter, and at first lived in +rude dugouts, burrowing into the hillsides after the fashion of the +badger. These burrowing men were the first permanent settlers in the +mines north of the Illinois line, and called themselves "Badgers." Thus +Wisconsin, in later days, when it was thought necessary to adopt a +nickname, was, by its own people, dubbed "The Badger State." + + + + +THE BOUNDARIES OF WISCONSIN + + +In the Ordinance of 1787, whereby Congress created the old Northwest +Territory out of the triangle of country lying between the Ohio and +Mississippi rivers and Lake of the Woods and the Great Lakes, it was +provided that this vast region should eventually be parcelled into five +States. The east-and-west dividing line was to be "drawn through the +southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan"; south of this line were to +be erected three States, and north of it two. "Whenever," the ordinance +read, "any of the said States shall have sixty thousand free inhabitants +therein, such State shall be admitted" to the Union. + +It should be said, in explanation of this east-and-west line, that all +the maps of Lake Michigan then extant represented the head of the lake +as being much farther north than it was proved to be by later surveys. +The line as fixed in the ordinance proved to be a bone of contention in +the subsequent carving of the Northwest Territory into States, leading +to a good deal of angry discussion before the boundaries of Ohio, +Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, the five States eventually +formed from the Territory, became established as they are to-day. + +Ohio, the first State to be set off, insisted that Maumee Bay, with the +town of Toledo, should be included in her bounds, although it lay north +of the east-and-west line of the ordinance. Michigan, on the other hand, +stoutly insisted on the line as laid down in the law. In 1835 and 1836 +there were some popular disturbances along the border; one of these, +though bloodless, was so violent as to receive the name of "the Toledo +war." Congress finally settled the quarrel by giving Ohio the northern +boundary which she desired, regardless of the terms of the ordinance; +Michigan was compensated by the gift of what we now call the "northern +peninsula" of that State, although it had all along been understood that +the country lying west of Lake Michigan should be the property of the +fifth State, whenever that was created. Thus, in order that Ohio might +have another lake port from Michigan, Wisconsin lost this immense tract +of mining country to the north. + +When Indiana came to be erected, it was seen that to adopt the +east-and-west line, established by the ordinance, would be to deprive +her entirely of any part of the coast of Lake Michigan. In order, +therefore, to satisfy her, Congress took another strip, ten miles wide, +from the southern border of Michigan, and gave it to the new State. +Michigan made no objection to this fresh violation of the agreement of +1787, because there were no important harbors or towns involved. + +Illinois next knocked at the door of the Union. The same conditions +applied to her as to Indiana; a strict construction of the ordinance +would deprive her of an opening on the lake. The Illinois delegate who +argued this matter in Congress was shrewd; he contended that his State +must become intimately connected with the growing commerce of the +northern lakes, else she would be led, from her commercial relations +upon the south-flowing Mississippi and Ohio rivers, to join a Southern +confederacy in case the Union should be broken up. This was in 1818, and +shows how early in our history there had come to be, in the minds of +some far-seeing men, a fear that the growing power of slavery might some +time lead to secession. The argument prevailed in Congress, and there +was voted to Illinois a strip of territory sixty-one miles wide, lying +north of the east-and-west line. + +Thus again was the region later to be called Wisconsin deprived of a +large and valuable tract. When Wisconsin Territory was created, there +was a great deal of indignation expressed by some of her people, at +being deprived of this wide belt of country embracing 8500 square miles +of exceedingly fertile soil, numerous river and lake ports, many miles +of fine water power, and the sites of Chicago, Rockford, Freeport, +Galena, Oregon, Dixon, and numerous other prosperous cities. + +An attempt was made in 1836, at the time the Territory was established, +to secure for Wisconsin's benefit the old east-and-west line, as its +rightful southern boundary. But Congress declined to grant this request. +Three years later, the Wisconsin Territorial legislature declared that +"a large and valuable tract of country is now held by the State of +Illinois, contrary to the manifest right and consent of the people of +this Territory." + +The inhabitants of the district in northern Illinois which was claimed +by Wisconsin, were invited by these resolutions to express their opinion +on the matter. Public meetings were consequently held in several of the +Illinois towns interested; and resolutions were adopted, declaring in +favor of the Wisconsin claim. The movement culminated in a convention at +Rockford (July 6, 1839), attended by delegates from nine of the fourteen +Illinois counties involved. This convention recommended the counties to +elect delegates to a convention to be held in Madison, "for the purpose +of adopting such lawful and constitutional measures as may seem to be +necessary and proper for the early adjustment of the southern +boundary." + +Curiously enough, the weight of public sentiment in Wisconsin itself did +not favor the movement. At a large meeting held in Green Bay, the +following April, the people of that section passed resolutions "viewing +the resolutions of the legislature with concern and regret," and asking +that they be rescinded. With this, popular agitation ceased for the +time; and in the following year the legislature promptly defeated a +proposition for the renewal of the question. + +Governor Doty, however, was a stanch advocate of the idea, and at the +legislative session of 1842 contrived to work up considerable enthusiasm +in its behalf. A bill was reported by the committee on Territorial +affairs, asking the people in the disputed tract to hold an election on +the question of uniting with Wisconsin. There were some rather fiery +speeches upon the subject, some of the orators going so far as to +threaten force in acquiring the wished-for strip; but the legislature +itself took no action. However, in Stephenson and Boone counties, +Illinois, elections were actually held, at which all but one or two +votes were cast in favor of the Wisconsin claim. + +Governor Doty, thus encouraged, busily continued his agitation. He +issued proclamations warning Illinois that it was "exercising an +accidental and temporary jurisdiction" over the disputed strip, and +calling on the two legislatures to authorize the people to vote on the +question of restoring Wisconsin to her "ancient limits." At first, +neither the legislatures of Illinois nor Wisconsin paid much attention +to the matter. Finally, in 1843, the Wisconsin legislature sent a rather +warlike address to Congress, in which secession was clearly threatened, +unless the "birthright of Wisconsin" were restored. Congress, however, +very sensibly paid no heed to the address, and gradually the excitement +subsided, until eventually Wisconsin was made a State, with her present +boundaries. + +We have seen that the northern peninsula was given to Michigan as a +recompense for her loss of Toledo and Maumee Bay. But when it became +necessary to determine the boundary between the peninsula and the new +Territory of Wisconsin, now set off from Michigan, some difficulty +arose, owing to the fact that the country had not been thoroughly +surveyed, and there was no good map of it extant. + +There were various propositions; one of them was, to use the Chocolate +River as part of the line; had this prevailed, Wisconsin would have +gained the greater part of the peninsula. But the line of division at +last adopted was that of the Montreal and Menominee rivers, by the way +of Lake Vieux Désert. This line had been selected in 1834, because a map +published that year represented the headwaters of those rivers as +meeting in Lake Vieux Désert; hence it was supposed by the congressional +committee that this would make an excellent natural boundary. When, +however, the line came to be actually laid out by the surveyors, six +years later, for the purpose of setting boundary monuments, it was +discovered that Lake Vieux Désert had no connection with either stream, +being, in fact, the headwaters of the Wisconsin River; and that the +running of the line through the woods, between the far-distant +headwaters of the Montreal and Menominee, so as to touch the lake on the +way, involved a laborious task, and resulted in a crooked boundary. But +it was by this time too late to correct the geographical error, and the +awkward boundary thus remains. + +As originally provided by the Ordinance of 1787, Wisconsin, as the fifth +State to be created out of the Northwest Territory, was, even after +being shorn upon the south and northeast, at least entitled to have as +her western boundary the Mississippi to its source, and thence a +straight line running northward to the Lake of the Woods and the +Canadian boundary. But here again she was to suffer loss of soil, this +time in favor of Minnesota. + +As a Territory, Wisconsin had been given sway over all the country lying +to the west, as far as the Missouri River. In 1838, all beyond the +Mississippi was detached, and erected into the Territory of Iowa. Eight +years later, when Wisconsin first sought to be a State, the question +arose as to her western boundary. Naturally, the people of the eastern +and southern sections wished the one set forth in the ordinance. But +settlements had by this time been established along the Upper +Mississippi and in the St. Croix valley. These were far removed from the +bulk of settlement elsewhere in Wisconsin, and had neither social nor +business interests in common with them. The people of the northwest +wished to be released from Wisconsin, in order that they might either +cast their fortunes with their near neighbors in the new Territory of +Minnesota, or join a movement just then projected for the creation of +an entirely new State, to be called "Superior." This proposed state was +to embrace all the country north of Mont Trempealeau and east of the +Mississippi, including the entire northern peninsula, if the latter +could be obtained; thus commanding the southern and western shores of +Lake Superior, with the mouth of Green Bay and the foot of Lake Michigan +to the southeast. + +The St. Croix representative in the legislature was especially wedded to +the Superior project. He pleaded earnestly and eloquently for his +people, whose progress, he said, would be "greatly hampered by being +connected politically with a country from which they are separated by +nature, cut off from communication by immense spaces of wilderness +between." A memorial from the settlers themselves stated the case with +even more vigor, asserting that they were "widely separated from the +settled parts of Wisconsin, not only by hundreds of miles of mostly +waste and barren lands, which must remain uncultivated for ages, but +equally so by a diversity of interests and character in the population." +All of this reads curiously enough in these days, when the intervening +wilderness resounds with the hum of industry and "blossoms as the rose." +But that was long before the days of railroads; the dense forests of +central and western Wisconsin then constituted a formidable wilderness, +peopled only by savages and wild beasts. + +Unable to influence the Wisconsin legislature, which stubbornly +contended for the possession of the original tract, the St. Croix people +next urged their claims upon Congress. The proposed State of Superior +found little favor at Washington, but there was a general feeling that +Wisconsin would be much too large unless trimmed. The result was that +when she was finally admitted as a State, the St. Croix River was, in +large part, made her northwest boundary; Minnesota in this manner +acquired a vast stretch of country, including the thriving city of St. +Paul. + +Wisconsin was thus shorn of valuable territory on the south, to please +Illinois; on the northeast, to favor Michigan; and on the northwest, +that some of her settlers might join their fortunes with Minnesota. The +State, however, is still quite as large as most of her sisters in the +Old Northwest, and possesses an unusual variety of soils, and a great +wealth of forests, mines, and fisheries. There is a strong probability +that, had Congress, in 1848, given to Wisconsin her "ancient limits," as +defined by the Ordinance of 1787, the movement to create the proposed +state of "Superior" would have gathered strength in the passing years, +and possibly would have achieved success, thus depriving us of our great +northern forests and mines, and our outlet upon the northern lake. + + + + +LIFE IN PIONEER DAYS + + +So long as the fur trade remained the principal business in Wisconsin, +the French were still supreme at Green Bay and Prairie du Chien; and, +until a third of the nineteenth century had passed away, there existed +at these outposts of New France a social life which smacked of the "old +régime," bearing more traces of seventeenth-century Normandy than of +Puritan New England. With the decline of the fur trade, a new order of +things slowly grew up. + +There being little legal machinery west of Lake Michigan, before +Wisconsin Territory was erected, local government was slow to establish +itself. Nothing but the good temper and stout common sense of the people +prevented anarchy, under such a condition of affairs. For many years, +the few public enterprises were undertaken at private expense. At Green +Bay, schools were thus conducted, as early as 1817. In 1821 the citizens +of that village raised a fund by popular subscription, and built a jail; +and eleven years later, they asked the legislature of Michigan Territory +to pay for it. There were some Territorial taxes levied in 1817, but the +gathering of them was not very successful. The first county to levy a +tax was Crawford, of which Prairie du Chien was the seat, but +considerable difficulty appears to have been experienced in collecting +the money. + +Finally, Wisconsin Territory was organized, and the legislature +assembled (1838) in Madison, the new capital. The accommodations at that +raw little woodland village were meager, even for pioneer times. The +Territorial building of stone, and a few rude frame and log houses in +the immediate neighborhood, were all there was of the infant city. Only +fifty strangers could be decently lodged there, and a proposition to +adjourn to Milwaukee was favored. But as the lakeshore metropolis, also +a small village, could offer no better accommodations, it was decided to +stay at the capital, and brave it out on the straw and hay mattresses, +of which, however, there were not enough to supply the demand. + +This was long before railroads had reached Wisconsin. Travel through the +new Territory was by boat, horseback, or a kind of snow sledge called a +"French train." There were no roads, except such as had been developed +from the old deep-worn Indian trails which interlaced the face of the +country, and traces of which can still be seen in many portions of the +State. The pioneers found that these trails, with a little +straightening, often followed the best possible routes for bridle paths +or wagon roads. It was not long before they were being used by long +lines of teams, transporting smelted lead from the mines of southwest +Wisconsin to the Milwaukee and Galena docks; on the return, they carried +supplies for the "diggings," and sawmill machinery into the interior +forests. Farmers' wagons and stagecoaches followed in due time. Bridges +were but slowly built; the unloaded wagons were ferried across rivers in +Indian "dugout" canoes, the horses swimming behind, and the freight +being brought over in relays. + +In 1837 there was a financial crisis throughout the country, and this +checked Western immigration for a few years. But there was not enough +money in Wisconsin for bank failures materially to affect the people; +so, when the tide of settlement again flowed hither, the Badgers were as +strong and hopeful as ever. + +People coming to Wisconsin from the East often traveled all the way in +their own wagons; or would take a lake boat at Buffalo, and then proceed +by water to Detroit, Green Bay, or Chicago, thence journeying in +caravans to the interior. + +Frontier life, in those days, was of the simplest character. The +immigrants were for the most part used to hard work and plain fare. +Accordingly the privations of their new surroundings involved relatively +little hardship, although sometimes a pioneer farmer was fifty or a +hundred miles from a gristmill, a store, or a post office, and generally +his highway thither was but a blazed bridle path through the tangled +forest. + +Often his only entertainments throughout the year were "bees" for +raising log houses or barns for newcomers, and on these occasions all +the settlers for scores of miles around would gather in a spirit of +helpful comradery. Occasionally the mail carrier, either afoot or on +horseback, would wish accommodation over night. Particularly fortunate +was the man who maintained a river ferry at the crossing of some +much-frequented trail; he could have frequent chats with strangers, and +collect stray shillings from mail carriers or other travelers whose +business led them through the wilderness. + +Often the new settler brought considerable flour and salt pork with him, +in his journey to the West; but it was not at first easy to get a fresh +supply. Curiously enough, although in the midst of a wild abundance, +civilized man at the outset sometimes suffered for the bare necessaries +of life. As soon, however, as he could garner his first crop, and become +accustomed to the new conditions, he was usually proof against disaster +of this kind; fish and game were so abundant, in their season, that in +due time the backwoodsman was able to win a wholesome livelihood from +the storehouse of nature. + +Satisfactory education for youth was a plant of comparatively small +growth. At first there was not enough money in the country to pay +competent teachers. The half-educated sons and daughters of the pioneers +taught the earliest schools, often upon a private subscription basis; +text-books were few, appliances generally wanting, and the results were, +for many years, far from satisfactory. As for spiritual instruction, +this was given by itinerant missionary preachers and priests, of various +denominations, who braved great hardships while making their rounds on +horseback or afoot, and deserve to rank among the most daring of the +pioneer class. In due time churches and schools were firmly established +throughout the Territory. + +In addition to these farmer colonists, there came many young +professional and business men, chiefly from New York and New England, +seeking an opening in the new Territory for the acquisition of fame and +wealth. Many of these were men of marked ability, with high ambition and +progressive ideas, who soon took prominent part in molding public +opinion in the young Wisconsin. There are, all things considered, no +abler, more forceful men in the Wisconsin of to-day than were some of +those, now practically all passed away, who shaped her destinies in the +fourth and fifth decades of the nineteenth century. + +The sessions of the legislature were the principal events of the year. +Prominent men from all over Wisconsin were each winter attracted to +Madison, as legislators, lobbyists, or visitors, crowding the primitive +little hotels and indulging in rather boisterous gayety; for humor in +those pioneer days was often uncouth. There was overmuch "horseplay," +hard drinking, and profanity; and now and then, as the result of a warm +discussion, a tussle with fists and canes. + +The newspapers were given to rude personal attacks upon their enemies; +one would suppose, to read the columns of the old journals, that editors +thought it their chief business in life to carry on a wordy, bitter +quarrel with some rival editor or politician. But this was largely on +the surface, for effect. As a matter of fact, strong attachments between +men were more frequent then than now. There was a deal of dancing and +miscellaneous merrymaking at these legislative sessions; and travelers +have left us, in their letters and journals, statements which show that +they greatly relished the experience of tarrying there on their winter +journeys across the Territory, and of being entertained by the +good-hearted villagers. + +Pioneers, in their stories of those early years, are fond of calling +them the "good old times," and styling present folk and manners +degenerate. No doubt there was a certain charm in the rude simplicity of +frontier life, but there were, as well, great inconveniences and rude +discomforts, with which few pioneers of our day would wish to be +confronted, after having tasted the pleasures arising from the wealth of +conveniences of every sort which distinguishes these latter days. As far +back in time as human records go, we ever find old men bewailing +prevalent degeneracy, and sighing in vain for "the good old times" when +they were young. It is a blessing given to the old that the disagreeable +incidents of their youth should be forgotten, and only the pleasant +events remembered. As a matter of fact, we of to-day may well rejoice +that, while Wisconsin enjoyed a lusty youth, she has now, in the +fullness of time, grown into a great and ambitious commonwealth, lacking +nothing that her sisters own, in all that makes for the prosperity and +happiness of her people. + + + + +THE DEVELOPMENT OF ROADS + + +When white men first came to our land, the Indian trails formed a +network of narrow, deep-sunken paths over the face of the country, as +they connected village with village, and these with the hunting and +fishing resorts of the aborigines. Many of the most important trails +simply followed the still earlier tracks of the buffalo, which in great +herds wandered from plain to plain, in search of forage, or in hiding +from man, through the dark forest and over the hills. The buffalo +possessed an unerring instinct for selecting the best places for a road, +high ridges overlooking the lowlands, and the easy slopes of hills. In +the Far West, they first found the passes over the Rockies, just as, +still earlier, they crossed the Alleghanies by the most favorable +routes. + +The Indian followed in the footsteps of the buffalo, both to pursue him +as game, and better to penetrate the wilderness. The white man followed +the well-defined Indian trail, first on foot, then on horseback; next +(after straightening and widening the curving path), by freight wagon +and by stagecoach; and then, many years later, the railway engineer +often found his best route by the side of the developed buffalo track, +especially in crossing the mountain ranges. The Union Pacific and the +Southern Pacific railways are notable examples of lines which have +simply followed well-worn overland roads, which were themselves but the +transcontinental buffalo paths of old. + +An interesting story might be written concerning the development of the +principal Indian trails in Wisconsin into the wagon roads of the +pioneers, and some of these into the military roads made by the federal +government for the marching of troops between the frontier forts. +Without fairly good roads, at least during the winter and summer months, +it would have been impossible for Wisconsin to grow into a great State; +for good roads are necessary to enable settlers, tools, and supplies to +get into the country, and to afford an outlet for crops. For this +reason, in any newly settled region, one of the first duties of the +people is to make roads and bridges. + +We have still much to do in Wisconsin, before we can have such highways +as they possess in the old eastern States. In many parts of our State, +the country roads in the rainy seasons are of little credit to us. But +the worst of them are much better than were some of the best in pioneer +days, and some of our principal thoroughfares between the larger cities +are fairly good. + +The federal government set a good example by having its soldiers build +several military roads, especially between Forts Howard (Green Bay), +Winnebago (Portage), and Crawford (Prairie du Chien). In Territorial and +early Statehood days, charters were granted by the legislature for the +building and maintenance of certain tollroads between large towns; some +of these were paved with gravel or broken stone, others with planks. +Many of the plank roads remained in use until about 1875; but before +that date all highways became the property of the public, and tollgates +were removed. Bridges charging tolls are still in use in some parts of +the State, where the people have declined to tax themselves for a public +bridge, which therefore has been built by a private company in +consideration of the privilege of collecting tolls from travelers. + +Early in the year when Wisconsin Territory was erected (1836), and while +it was still attached to Michigan Territory, there was a strong +movement, west of Lake Michigan, in favor of a railway between Milwaukee +and Prairie du Chien, connecting the lake with the Mississippi River. +Congress was petitioned by the legislative council of Michigan to make +an appropriation to survey the proposed line. There were as yet very few +agricultural settlers along the route; the chief business of the road +was to be the shipment of lead from the mines of the southwest to the +Milwaukee docks; thence it was to be carried by vessels to Buffalo, and +sent forward in boats, over the Erie Canal, to the Hudson River and New +York. + +This was in January; in the September following, after Wisconsin +Territory had been formed, a public meeting was held in Milwaukee, to +petition the Territorial legislature to pass an act incorporating a +company to construct the proposed lead-mine road, upon a survey to be +made at the expense of the United States, and there was even some talk +of another road to the far-away wilderness of Lake Superior. + +But this early railway project was premature. Wisconsin had then but +twenty-two thousand inhabitants, and Milwaukee was a small frontier +village. Then again, railroading in the United States was still in its +infancy. In Pennsylvania there was a small line, hardly better than an +old-fashioned horse car track, over which a wheezy little locomotive +slowly made occasional trips, and the Baltimore and Ohio railway had not +long before experimented with sails as a motive power. It is not +surprising, therefore, that Congress acted slowly in regard to the +overambitious Wisconsin project, and that it was nearly fourteen and a +half years before a railway was actually opened in this State. + +Indeed, many people thought at that time that canals, costing less in +construction and in operation, were more serviceable for Wisconsin than +railways. The people of northern Wisconsin were particularly eager for +canals; in the southern part, railways were most popular. The most +important canal project was that known as the Fox and Wisconsin rivers +improvement. From the earliest historic times, these two +opposite-flowing rivers, whose waters approach within a mile and a half +of each other at Portage, had been used as a boat route between the +Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. We have seen, in preceding +chapters, what an important part was played by this route in the early +history of Wisconsin. But when large vessels became necessary to the +trade of the region, and steam navigation was introduced, it was found +that the historic water way presented many practical difficulties: the +Fox abounds in rapids below Lake Winnebago, and in its upper waters is +very shallow; the Wisconsin is troubled with shifting sand bars. In +order to accommodate the traffic, a canal was necessary along the +portage path, and extensive improvements in both rivers were essential. + +As early as 1839, Congress was asked to aid in this work, and from time +to time such aid has been given. But, although several millions of +dollars have, through all these years, been spent upon the two streams, +there has been no important modern navigation through them between the +Great Lakes and the great river. The chief result has been the admirable +system of locks between Lake Winnebago and Green Bay, making available +the splendid water power of the lower valley of the Fox. + +Another water way project was that of the Milwaukee and Rock River +Canal. This was designed to connect the waters of the Milwaukee and Rock +rivers, thereby providing an additional way for vessels to pass from +Lake Michigan to the Mississippi. A company was incorporated, with a +capital of a million dollars, and Congress made a large grant of land to +Wisconsin Territory. But after some years of uncertainty and heavy +expense the project was abandoned as impracticable. + +The Territorial legislature began to charter railway companies as early +as 1836, but the Milwaukee and Mississippi was the first road actually +built. The track was laid in 1851 and a train was run out to Waukesha, a +distance of twenty miles. In 1856 the line reached the Mississippi. This +was the modest beginning of the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul system. + +The Chicago and Northwestern Railway entered Wisconsin from Chicago +about the same time (1855). Numerous small lines were built before the +War of Secession, nearly all of them being soon swallowed up by the +larger companies. During the war, there was stagnation in railway +building, but when peace was declared there was renewed activity, and +to-day Wisconsin is as well provided with good railways as any State of +its size and population in the Union. + + + + +THE PHALANX AT CERESCO + + +In the fourth decade of the nineteenth century there was much agitation, +both in France and America, over the teachings of a remarkable man named +François Marie Charles Fourier. He claimed that if people would band +themselves together in communities, in the proper spirit of mutual +forbearance and helpfulness, and upon plans laid down by him, it would +be proved that they could get along very well with no strife of any +sort, either in business, or religion, or politics. Then, if the nations +would but unite themselves in the same way, universal peace would reign. + +During the stirring times of the French Revolution and of the great +Napoleon, there had been much social agitation of the violent sort. A +reaction had come. The talk about the rights of man was no longer +confined to the violent, revengeful element of the population; it was +now chiefly heard among the good and gentle folk, among men of wealth +and benevolence, as well as those of learning and poverty. + +In France, Fourier was the leader among this new class of socialists. In +France, England, and Holland, colonies more or less after the Fourier +model were established; and it was not long before communities came to +be founded in the United States. The most famous of these latter was +Brook Farm, in Massachusetts, because among its members were several +well-known authors and scientists, who wrote a great deal about their +experiences there. But the only community in America conducted strictly +on Fourier's plan, flourished in Wisconsin. + +The _New York Tribune_, edited by Horace Greeley, a noted reformer, was +earnest in advocating Fourierism, as it was called, doing much to +attract attention to "the principle of equitable distributions." One of +the many readers of the _Tribune_ was Warren Chase, of Kenosha, a young +New Hampshire man, thirty years of age, who became much attached to the +new idea. + +This was during the winter of 1843-44. Chase gathered about him at +Kenosha a group of intelligent men and women, some of whom had property, +and they formed a stock company, incorporated under the laws of +Wisconsin Territory, but based strictly on the plans laid down by +Fourier. + +Having purchased six hundred acres of government land, in a gentle +valley within the present Ripon township, in Fond du Lac county, +nineteen pioneers, led by Chase, made their way thither in May. There +were no railroads in those days, and the little company proceeded +overland through flower-decked prairies, and over wooded hills, in +oxcarts and horse wagons, with droves of cattle, and tools and utensils. + +The reformers called their colony "Ceresco," after Ceres, the goddess of +agriculture. Plowing was commenced, buildings were erected, shops and +forges established. Very soon some two hundred men, women, and children +had arrived, and in due time many branches of industry were in full +operation. + +The Ceresco community was, as suggested by Fourier, styled a "phalanx." +The members were classified, according to their capacity to labor, in +educational, mechanical, and agricultural series, each series being +divided into groups. The government was headed by a president and nine +councilors; each series had a chairman, and each group a foreman. + +Labor was voluntary, the shops being owned by the community at large; +while the land was divided equally among all the members, old and young, +save that no family might possess over forty acres. As the community +grew, more land was purchased for their use. The council laid out the +work to be done, or the policy to be pursued. When there was a question +to be decided, the series interested voted upon it; but in some +important cases, the matter was referred for final action to the several +groups. Each person received pay according to his value as a worker, the +record being kept by the foreman of his group. They were not paid upon +the same scale; for instance, the members of the council and the +school-teachers received more than skilled mechanical laborers, and +these in turn more than ordinary workmen. + +The phalanx at first lived in temporary quarters, and a year later +erected a large building "four hundred feet in length, consisting of two +rows of tenements, with a hall between, under one roof." Each family +lived in its own compartments, but all ate in common at a boarding +house called the "phalanstery," where a charge was made of seventy-five +cents a week for each person. The "unitary" was a large building used +for business and social meetings, these being held in the evenings; each +Tuesday evening the literary and debating club met, Wednesday evening +the singing school, and Thursday evening a dancing party. + +Unlike many other communities, the Fourier colonies were not religious +in character. Each member of the phalanx at Ceresco might worship as he +pleased. At various times, for the membership fluctuated somewhat, +ministers of different denominations were members of the colony, and +frequently there were visits from wandering missionaries. + +None of the colonists were allowed to use intoxicating liquors as a +beverage. There must be no vulgar language, swearing, or gambling; and +one of the by-laws commanded that "censoriousness and fault-finding, +indolence, abuse of cattle or horses, hunting or fishing on the first +day of the week, shall be deemed misdemeanors, and shall be punishable +by reprimand or expulsion." These punishments were the only ones which +the community could inflict upon its members, for it had no judicial +powers under the law. + +But there was small need of punishments at Ceresco. Its members were, as +a rule, men and women of most excellent character. There was never any +dishonesty, or other serious immorality, within the phalanx; the few +neighboring settlers regarded the reformers with genuine respect. All +the proceedings of the community were open, and its carefully kept +accounts and records might be inspected by any one at any time. +Whenever charges were brought against a member, they were laid before +the full assembly at the next weekly meeting; a week elapsed before +consideration, in order to give ample opportunity for defense; then the +entire body of colonists, women as well as men, voted on the question, +acquitting the offender or reprimanding him or, by a two-thirds vote, +expelling him from the phalanx. + +Wisconsin was then sparsely settled at best; the peaceful little valley +of Ceresco was equally far removed from the centers of population at +Green Bay and in the southern portion of the Territory. Yet many +pioneers came toiling over the country, to apply for admission to this +Garden of Eden. But it is recorded that not one in four was taken into +fellowship, for the phalanx desired "no lazy, shiftless, ne'er-do-well +members," and only those believed to be wise, industrious, and +benevolent were taken into the fold. + +And thus the Ceresco phalanx seemed mightily to prosper. Its stock +earned good dividends, its property was in excellent condition, the +quality of its membership could not be bettered. Far and near were its +praises sung. The _New York Tribune_ gave weekly news of its doings, and +was ever pointing to it as worthy of emulation; the Brook Farm paper +hailed it as proof that socialism had at last succeeded. + +Had each member been equally capable with his fellows, had the families +been of the same size, had there been no jealousies, no bickerings, had +these good folk been without ambition, had they, in short, been +contented, the phalanx might have remained a success. They were +clothed, fed, and housed at less expense than were outsiders; they had +many social enjoyments not known elsewhere in the valley; and, according +to all the philosophers, should have been a happy people. + +The public table, the public amusement rooms, and all that, had at first +a spice of pleasant novelty; but soon there was a realization that this +had not the charm of home life, that one's family affairs were too much +the affairs of all. The strong and the willing saw that they were yoked +to those who were weak and slothful; there was no chance for natural +abilities to assert themselves, no reward for individual excellence. + +Wisconsin became a State in 1848. Everywhere, ambitious and energetic +citizens in the rapidly growing commonwealth were making a great deal of +money through land speculations and the planting of new industries, +everywhere but in Ceresco, where the community life allowed no man to +rise above the common level. The California gold fields, opened the +following year, also sorely tempted the young men. The members of the +phalanx found themselves hampered by their bond. Caring no longer for +the reformation of society, they eagerly clamored to get back into the +whirl of that struggle for existence which, only a few years before, +they had voted so unnecessary to human welfare. + +In 1850 the good folk at Ceresco voted unanimously, and in the best of +feeling toward one another, to disband their colony. They sold their +lands at a fair profit to each; and very soon, in the rush for wealth +and for a chance to exercise their individual powers, were widely +distributed over the face of the country. Some of them ultimately won +much worldly success; others fell far below the level of prosperity +maintained in the phalanx, and came to bemoan the "good old days" of the +social community, when the strong were obliged to bolster the weak. + + + + +A MORMON KING + + +In the year 1843 there came from New York to the village of Burlington, +Racine county, an eccentric young lawyer named James Jesse Strang. +Originally a farmer's boy, he had been a country school-teacher, a +newspaper editor, and a temperance lecturer, as well as a lawyer. +Possessed of an uneasy, ambitious spirit, he had wandered much, and +changed his occupation with apparent ease. Strang was passionately fond +of reading, was gifted with a remarkable memory, and developed a +fervent, persuasive style of oratory, which he delighted in employing. +He often astonished the courts by the shrewd eloquence with which he +supported strange, unexpected points in law. It is related of him that, +soon after he came to Wisconsin, he brought a suit to recover the value +of honey which, he claimed, had been stolen from his client's hives by +the piratical bees of a neighbor, and his arguments were so plausible +that he nearly won his case. + +In less than a year after his arrival in Burlington, the village was +visited by some Mormon missionaries. They came from Nauvoo, Illinois, on +the banks of the Mississippi River, where there was a settlement of +so-called Latter-Day Saints, who lived under the sway of a designing +knave named Joseph Smith. Strang at once became a convert, and entered +into the movement with such earnestness that, with his oratory, his +ability to manage men, and his keen zest for notoriety, he became one of +the most prominent followers of the faith. + +Six months after Strang's conversion, Joseph Smith, the president and +prophet of the Mormons, was killed by an Illinois mob. At once there +arose a desperate strife among the leaders, for the successorship to +Joseph. Two of the number, Brigham Young and Strang, were men of +ability, and the contest soon narrowed down to them. Young had the +powerful support of the council of the church, known as "the twelve +apostles"; but Strang produced a letter said to have been written by +Joseph just before his death, in which Strang was named as his +successor, with directions to lead the Mormons to a new "city of +promise" in Wisconsin, to be called "Voree." + +The "apostles" at Nauvoo denounced Strang as an impostor, declared that +his letter was a forgery, and attacked him bitterly in their official +newspapers, published at Nauvoo and at Liverpool, England. But Strang +was not easily put down. A great many of the fanatics at Nauvoo believed +in this impetuous young leader, who defended his cause with tact and +forceful eloquence; and for a time it looked as if he might win. + +However, in the end the "apostles" had their way, and the adroit Young +was elected to the headship of the church. Strang at once called forth +his followers, and in April, 1845, planted the "City of Voree" upon a +prairie by the side of White River, in Walworth county, Wisconsin. It +soon became a town of nearly two thousand inhabitants, who owned all +things in common, but were ruled over, even in the smallest affairs of +life, by the wily President Strang, who claimed to be divinely +instructed in every detail of his rigorous government. + +The people dwelt "in plain houses, in board shanties, in tents, and +sometimes, many of them, in the open air." Great meetings were held at +Voree, and the surrounding settlers gathered to hear Strang and his +twelve "apostles" lay down the law, and tell of the revelations which +had been delivered to them by the Almighty. Strang, who closely imitated +the methods of Joseph, pretended to discover the word of God in +deep-hidden records. Joseph had found the Book of Mormon graven upon +plates dug out of the hill of Cumorah, in New York; so Strang discovered +buried near Voree similar brazen plates bearing revelations, written in +the rhythmic style of the Scriptures, which supplemented those in the +Book of Mormon. + +President Strang was a very busy man as the head of the Voree branch of +the Mormon church. He obtained a printing outfit, and published a little +weekly paper called _Gospel Herald_, besides hundreds of pamphlets, all +written by himself, in which he assailed the "Brighamites" in the same +violent manner as they attacked him in their numerous publications. He +also, with his missionaries, conducted meetings in Ohio, New York, and +other States in the East, gathering converts for Voree, and boldly +repelling the wordy attacks of the Brighamites, whose agents were +working the same fields. + +Despite some backslidings, and occasional quarrels within its ranks, +Voree grew and prospered. By 1849 there was a partially built stone +temple there, which is thus described by an imaginative letter writer of +the time: "It covers two and one-sixth acres of ground, has twelve +towers, and the great hall two hundred feet square in the center. The +entire walls are eight feet through, the floors and roofs are to be +marble, and when finished it will be the grandest building in the +world." + +Nevertheless, it was early seen by Strang that the growing opposition of +neighboring settlers would in the end cause the Mormons to leave +Wisconsin, just as the Nauvoo fanatics were compelled (in 1846) to flee +from Illinois, to plant their stake in the wilderness of the Far West. + +He therefore made preparations for a place of refuge for his people, +when persecutions should become unbearable. In journeying by vessel, +upon one of his missions, he had taken note of the isolation of an +archipelago of large, beautiful, well-wooded islands near the foot of +Lake Michigan. The month of May, 1846, found him with four companions +upon Beaver Island, in this far-away group. They built a log cabin, +arranged for a boat, and returned to Voree to prepare for the migration +of the faithful. + +The new colony at first grew slowly, but by the summer of 1849 the +"saints" began to arrive in goodly numbers. Strang himself now headed +the settlement; and thereafter Voree ceased to be headquarters for the +"Primitive Mormons," as they called themselves, although a few remained +in the neighborhood. + +Very soon, about two thousand devotees were gathered within the "City of +St. James," on Beaver Island, with well-tilled farms, neat houses, a +sawmill, roads, docks, and a large temple. A hill near by they renamed +Mount Pisgah, and a River Jordan and a Sea of Galilee were not far away. + +One beautiful day in July, 1850, Strang, arrayed in a robe of bright +red, was, with much ceremony, crowned by his "apostles" as "King of the +Kingdom of St. James." Foreign ambassadors were appointed, and a royal +press was set up, for the flaying of his enemies. Schools and debating +clubs were opened; the community system was abolished; tithes were +collected for the support of the government; tea, coffee, and tobacco +were prohibited; and even the dress of the people was regulated by law. +Never was there a king more absolute than Strang; doubtless, for a time, +he thought his dream of empire realized at last, and that here in this +unknown corner of the world the "saints" might remain forever +unmolested. + +But the sylvan archipelago, and Beaver Island itself, had other +inhabitants; these were rude, sturdy, illiterate fishermen, who lived in +huts along the coast, and had little patience with the fantastic +performances of their neighbors, King Strang and the court of St. James. +His majesty had, also, jealous enemies among his own subjects. + +Trouble soon ensued. The fishermen frequently assaulted the "saints," +and carried on a petty warfare against the colony at large, in which the +county sheriff was soon engaged; for false charges came to be entered +against these strange but inoffensive people, and they were now and then +thrown into jail. The king, thereupon, in self-defence, "went into +politics." Having so many votes at his command, he easily secured the +election of Mormons to all the county offices, and of himself to the +legislature of Michigan. + +But despite these victories over outside foes, matters at home went from +bad to worse. The enemies in his camp multiplied, for his increasingly +despotic rule gave them abundance of grievances. At last, about the +middle of June, 1856, two of the malcontents shot their monarch from +behind. He was taken by vessel to his old home in Voree, where he was +tenderly cared for until his death, a month later, by his poor, +neglected wife, who had remained behind when he went forth to the +island. His kingdom did not long survive him. The unruly fishermen came +one day with ax and torch, leveled the royal city to the ground, and +banished the frightened "saints." + +To-day the White River prairie gives no evidence of having once borne +the city of Zion, and even in the Michigan archipelago there remain few +visible relics of the marvelous reign of King Strang. + + + + +THE WISCONSIN BOURBON + + +Two years after Louis the XVI., Bourbon king of France, and his +beautiful queen, Marie Antoinette, were beheaded by the revolutionists +in Paris, in the closing decade of the eighteenth century, their +imbecile child of eight years, called the "dauphin," was officially +reported to have died in prison. But the story was started at the time, +and popularly believed, that the real dauphin, Louis the XVII., had been +stolen by the royalists, and another child cunningly substituted to die +there in his place. The story went that the dauphin had been sent to +America, and that all traces of him were lost; thus was given to any +adventurer of the requisite age, and sufficiently obscure birth, an +opportunity to seek such honor as might be gained in claiming identity +with the escaped prisoner. + +Great was the excitement in the United States, when, in 1853, it was +confidently announced by a New York magazine writer that the long lost +prince had at last been discovered, in the person of the middle-aged +Eleazer Williams, an Episcopal missionary to the Oneida Indians at +Little Kaukauna, in the lower valley of the Fox. + +The Bonaparte family, represented by Louis Napoleon, were just then in +control of France; but the Bourbon family, of which Louis the XVII., +were he alive, would naturally be the head, considered themselves +rightful hereditary masters of that country. Of course, there was at the +time no opportunity for any Bourbon actually to occupy the French +throne; but the people of that country are highly emotional, revolutions +have been numerous among them, and displaced royalists are always hoping +for some turn in affairs which may enable them once more to gain the +government. It was this possible chance of the Bourbons getting into +power once more, that added interest to the story. + +Let us see what sort of person this Eleazer Williams of Wisconsin was, +and how it came about that he made the assertion that he was the head of +the Bourbons, and an uncrowned king. It had heretofore been supposed by +every one who knew him that he was the son of Mohawk Indian parents, +both of whom had white blood in their veins, living just over the New +York border, in Canada. Certain Congregationalists had induced this +couple to allow two of their sons, Thomas and Eleazer, to be educated in +New England as missionaries to the Indians; and for several years they +attended academies there, becoming fairly proficient in English, +although their aboriginal manners were not much improved. + +At last returning to his Canadian home, Eleazer neglected his +Congregational benefactors, and soon became interested in the Episcopal +Church. He would have become one of its missionaries at once, but just +at that time the War of 1812-15 broke out; and instead he became a spy +in the pay of the United States, conveying to his employers important +information concerning the movements of British troops in Canada. When +the war was over, having, as an American spy, incurred the dislike of +the Canadian Mohawks, he was sent as an Episcopal missionary to the +Oneida Indians, then living in Oneida county, New York. + +Williams appears to have differed from the ordinary Indian type, +although he was thickset, dark haired, and swarthy of skin. Some took +him to be a Spaniard; others there were who thought him French; and +comments which he had heard, concerning his slight resemblance to the +pictures of the Bourbons, doubtless caused Eleazer in later years to +pretend to be the lost dauphin. He was a fair orator, and in his earlier +years succeeded well in persuading the simple red men about him. His +plausible manner, and this ease of persuasion, finally led him astray. + +The Oneida Indians in New York and their neighbors (formerly from New +England), the Munsees, Stockbridges, and Brothertowns, were just then +being crowded out of that State. A great company had acquired the right +from the federal government to purchase the lands held by these Indians, +whenever they cared to dispose of them. In order to hurry matters, the +company began to sow among the poor natives the seeds of discontent. + +Certain of their leaders, among them Williams, advocated emigration to +the West. It appears that Williams, who was a born intriguer, conceived +the ambitious idea of taking advantage of this movement to establish an +Indian empire in the country west of Lake Michigan, with himself as +dictator. + +Moved by the clamor of the red men, the federal government sent a +delegation to Wisconsin, in 1820, to see whether the tribes west of the +lake would consent to accept the New York Indians as neighbors. This +delegation was headed by Dr. Jedediah Morse, a celebrated geographer and +missionary. Morse visited Mackinac and Green Bay, and returned with the +report that the valley of the lower Fox was the most suitable place in +which to make a settlement. That very summer, Williams himself, with +several other headmen, had on their own account journeyed as far as +Detroit on a similar errand, but returned without discovering a +location. + +The owners of the land selected by Morse were the Menominees and +Winnebagoes, with whom Williams and his followers held a council at +Green Bay, the following year. A treaty was signed, by which the New +York Indians were granted a large strip of land, four miles wide, at +Little Chute. + +The ensuing year (1822), at a new council held at Green Bay, the New +Yorkers asked for still more land. The Winnebagoes, much incensed, +withdrew from the treaty, but the Menominees were won over by Williams's +eloquence, and granted an extraordinary cession, making the New York +Indians joint owners with themselves of all Menominee territory, which +then embraced very nearly a half of all the present State of Wisconsin. + +Ten years of quarreling followed, for there was at once a reaction from +this remarkable spirit of generosity. In 1832 there was concluded a +final treaty, apparently satisfactory to most of those concerned, and +soon thereafter a large number of New York Indians removed hither. The +Oneidas and Munsees established themselves upon Duck Creek, near the +mouth of the Fox, and the Stockbridges and Brothertowns east of Lake +Winnebago. As for Williams, the jealousies and bickerings among his +people soon caused him to lose control over them, thus giving the +deathblow to his wild dreams of empire. + +During the next twenty years, in which he continued to serve as a +missionary to the Wisconsin Oneidas, Williams was a well-known and +picturesque character. His home was on the west bank of the river, about +a mile below Little Kaukauna. Although a man of much vigor and strength +of mind, he soon came to be recognized as an unscrupulous fellow by the +majority of both whites and reds in the lower Fox, and his clerical +brethren, East as well as West, appear to have regarded him with more or +less contempt. + +Baffled in several fields of notoriety which he had worked, Williams +suddenly posed before the American public, in 1853, as the hereditary +sovereign of France. He was too young by eight years to be the lost +dauphin; that he was clearly of Indian origin was proved by a close +examination of his color, form, and feature; his dusky parents protested +under oath that the wayward Eleazer was their son; every allegation of +his in regard to the matter has often been exposed as false; and all +his neighbors who knew him treated his claims as fraudulent. + +Nevertheless, he succeeded in deceiving a number of good people, +including several leading clergymen of his church; one of the latter +attempted in an elaborate book, "The Lost Prince," to prove conclusively +that Williams was indeed the son of the executed monarch. + +The pretensions of Eleazer Williams, who dearly loved the notoriety +which this discussion awakened, extended through several years. They +even won some little attention in France, but far less than here, for +several other men had claimed to be the lost dauphin, so that the +pretension was not a new one over there. Louis Philippe, the head of the +Bourbon-Orleans family in France, sent him a present of some finely +bound books, believing him the innocent victim of a delusion; but, +further than that, and a chance meeting at Green Bay, between Eleazer +Williams and another French royalist, the Prince de Joinville, then on +his travels through America, the family in France paid no attention to +the adventurous half-breed American Indian who claimed to be one of +them. + +The reputation of Williams as a missionary had at last fallen so low, +and the neglect of his duties was so persistent, that his salary was +withdrawn by the Episcopal Church, and his closing years were spent in +poverty. He died in 1858, maintaining his absurd claims to the last. + + + + +SLAVE CATCHING IN WISCONSIN + + +There had been a few negro slaves in Wisconsin before the organization +of the Territory and during Territorial days. They had for the most part +been brought in by lead miners from Kentucky and Missouri. But, as the +population increased, it was seen that public opinion here, as in most +of the free States, was strongly opposed to the practice of holding +human beings as chattels. Gradually the dozen or more slaves were +returned to the South, or died in service, or were freed by their +masters; so that, at an early day, the slavery question had ceased to be +of local importance here. + +As the years passed on, and the people of the North became more and more +opposed to the slave system of the South, the latter lost an increasing +number of its slaves through escape to Canada. They were assisted in +their flight by Northern sympathizers, who, secretly receiving them on +the north bank of the Ohio River, passed them on from friend to friend +until they reached the Canadian border. As this system of escape was +contrary to law, it had to be conducted, by both white rescuers and +black fugitives, with great privacy, often with much peril to life; +hence it received the significant, popular name of "The Underground +Railroad." Wisconsin had but small part in the working of the +underground railroad, because it was not upon the usual highway between +the South and Canada. But our people took a firm stand on the matter, +sympathizing with the fugitive slaves and those who aided them on their +way to freedom. + +When, therefore, Congress, in 1850, at the bidding of the Southern +politicians, passed the Fugitive Slave Law, Wisconsin bitterly condemned +it. This act was designed to crush out the underground railroad. It +provided for the appointment, by federal courts, of commissioners in the +several States, whose duty it should be to assist slaveholders and their +agents in catching their runaway property. The unsupported testimony of +the owner or agent was sufficient to prove ownership, the black man +himself having no right to testify, and there being for him no trial by +jury. The United States commissioners might enforce the law by the aid +of any number of assistants, and, in the last resort, might summon the +entire population to help them. There were very heavy penalties provided +for violations of this inhuman law. + +The Fugitive Slave Law was denounced by most of the political +conventions held in our State that year. In his message to the +legislature, in January, 1851, Governor Dewey expressed the general +sentiment when he said that it "contains provisions odious to our +people, contrary to our sympathies, and repugnant to our feelings." But +it was three years before occasion arose for Wisconsin to act. + +In the early months of 1854, a negro named Joshua Glover appeared in +Racine, and obtained work in a sawmill four miles north of that place. +On the night of the 10th of March, he was playing cards in his little +cabin, with two other men of his race. Suddenly there appeared at the +door seven well-armed white men,--two United States deputy marshals from +Milwaukee, their four assistants from Racine, and a St. Louis man named +Garland, who claimed to be Glover's owner. + +A desperate struggle followed, the result being that Glover, deserted by +his comrades and knocked senseless by a blow, was placed in chains by +his captors. + +Severely bleeding from his wounds, he was thrown into an open wagon and +carted across country to the Milwaukee county jail, for the man hunters +feared to go to Racine, where the antislavery feeling was strong. It was +a bitter cold night, and Glover's miseries were added to by the brutal +Garland, who at intervals kicked and beat the prisoner, and promised +him still more serious punishment upon their return to the Missouri +plantation. + +The news of the capture was not long in reaching Racine. The next +morning there was held in the city square a public meeting, attended by +nearly every citizen, at which resolutions were passed denouncing the +act of the kidnapers as an outrage; demanding for Glover a trial by +jury; promising "to attend in person to aid him, by all honorable means, +to secure his unconditional release"; and, most significant of all, +resolving that the people of Racine "do hereby declare the slave +catching law of 1850 disgraceful and also repealed." There were many +such nullifying resolutions passed in those stirring days by mass +meetings throughout the country, but this was one of the earliest and +most outspoken. That afternoon, on hearing where Glover had been +imprisoned, a hundred indignant citizens of Racine, headed by the +sheriff, went by steamer to Milwaukee, arriving there at five o'clock. + +Meanwhile, Milwaukee had been active. News of the capture had not been +circulated in that city until eleven o'clock in the morning. One of the +first to learn of it was Sherman M. Booth, the energetic editor of a +small antislavery paper, the _Wisconsin Free Democrat_. Riding up and +down the streets upon a horse, he scattered handbills, and, stopping at +each crossing, shouted: "Freemen, to the rescue! Slave catchers are in +our midst! Be at the courthouse at two o'clock!" + +Prompt to the hour, over five thousand people assembled in the +courthouse square, where Booth and several other "liberty men" made +impassioned speeches. A vigilance committee was appointed, to see that +Glover had a fair trial, and the county judge issued in his behalf a +writ of _habeas corpus_, calling for an immediate trial, and a show of +proofs. But the federal judge, A. G. Miller, forbade the sheriff to obey +this writ, holding that Glover must remain in the hands of the United +States marshal, in whose custody he was placed by virtue of the Fugitive +Slave Law. + +The local militia were called out to suppress the disorder, but they +were without power. It soon became noised about that Glover was to be +secretly removed to Missouri. This made the mob furious. Just at this +time the Racine contingent arrived, adding oil to the flames. The +reënforced crowd now marched to the jail, attacked the weak structure +with axes, beams, and crowbars, rescued the fugitive just at sunset, and +hurried him off. An underground railroad agency took the poor fellow in +charge, and soon placed him aboard a sailing vessel bound for Canada, +where he finally arrived in safety. + +Throughout Wisconsin the rescue was approved by the newspapers and +public gatherings. Sympathetic meetings were also held in other States, +at which resolutions applauding the action of Booth and his friends, and +declaring the slave catching law unconstitutional, were passed with much +enthusiasm. There was also held at Milwaukee, in April, a notable State +convention, with delegates from all of the settled parts of the +commonwealth; this convention declared the law unconstitutional, and +formed a State league for furnishing aid and sympathy to the Glover +rescuers. + +In 1857, as a result of the Glover affair, the Wisconsin legislature +passed an act making it a duty of district attorneys in each county "to +use all lawful means to protect, defend, and procure to be discharged +... every person arrested or claimed as a fugitive slave," and throwing +around the poor fellow every possible safeguard. Such was Wisconsin's +final protest against the iniquity of the Fugitive Slave Law. + +Naturally, Booth had been looked upon by the United States marshal as +the chief abettor of the riot. He was promptly arrested for violating a +federal law by aiding in the escape of a slave; but the State supreme +court promptly discharged him on a writ of _habeas corpus_. Thereupon he +was brought before the federal court, but again the State court +interfered in his favor, because of a technical irregularity. + +On the first of these occasions, the State court issued a very +remarkable decision upon State rights, that attracted national attention +at a time when this question was violently agitating the public mind. It +declared, after a clear, logical statement of the case, that the +Fugitive Slave Law was "unconstitutional and void" because it conferred +judicial power upon mere court commissioners, and deprived the accused +negro of the right of trial by jury. One of the justices of the court, +in an individual opinion, went still further: he held that Congress had +no power to legislate upon this subject; that "the States will never +quietly submit to be disrobed of their sovereignty" by "national +functionaries"; that the police power rested in the State itself, which +would not "succumb, paralyzed and aghast, before the process of an +officer unknown to the constitution, and irresponsible to its +sanctions"; and that so long as he remained a judge, Wisconsin would +meet such attempts with "stern remonstrance and resistance." + +The federal court reversed this action, and again arrested Booth in +1860, but he was soon pardoned by the President, and met with no further +trouble on account of the Glover affair. + +As for the people of Racine, they made life rather uncomfortable for the +men who had assisted the Milwaukee deputy marshals in arresting Glover. +The city became a fiercer hotbed of abolition than ever before, and +several times thereafter aided slaves to escape from bondage. +Fortunately for their own good, as well as for the cause of law and +order, they found no further occasion to take the law into their own +hands, in the defense of human liberty. + + + + +THE STORY OF A FAMOUS CHIEF + + +One of the best-known Indians with whom Wisconsin Territorial pioneers +were thrown into personal contact was Oshkosh, the last of the Menominee +sachems, or peace chiefs. It is worth while briefly to relate the story +of his career, because it was the life of a typical Indian leader, at +the critical time when the whites were coming into the country in such +numbers as to crowd the reds to the wall. + +Oshkosh was born in 1795, at Point Bas, on the Wisconsin River. +Cha-kau-cho-ka-ma (meaning Old King), the peace chief of the Menominees +at that time, was his maternal grandfather. The war chief was Glode, the +orator of the tribe, and a mighty hunter. The Old King lived until 1826, +but Glode died in 1804, his successor being Tomah (the French +pronunciation of Thomas, his English name). + +In the War of 1812-15, a large band of Wisconsin Indians joined the +ranks of Tecumseh, in raiding upon the American borderers. The principal +Menominee chiefs were Tomah, Souligny, Grizzly Bear, and Iometah, and +among the young men was Oshkosh. + +Their first expedition was against Fort Mackinac, in 1812, that +stronghold being captured from the Americans without bloodshed. Among +white men, such an enterprise would not seem to offer much opportunity +for the display of personal bravery; but savage and civilized standards +of courage differ, and young Oshkosh appears to have satisfied the old +men upon this occasion, so that he then received the name by which we +know him, meaning in the Menominee tongue, "brave." + +By the following May, Oshkosh, now in his nineteenth year, and prominent +among the young warriors, went out with Souligny and Tomah, and joined +Tecumseh in the siege of Fort Meigs at the rapids of the Maumee River. +Later, during the same summer, he was engaged in the memorable +British-Indian siege of Sandusky. The succeeding year he was one of a +large party of Menominees assisting the British to repel a fierce but +futile American attempt to recapture Fort Mackinac. This was his last +campaign, for peace between Great Britain and the United States soon +followed. + +Oshkosh, now living upon the lands of the tribe in northeastern +Wisconsin, appears to have passed a quiet existence, after his exploits +of 1812-15. Lacking the stimulus of war, he maintained a state of +artificial excitement by the use of fire water, and soon won a bad +reputation in this regard. But he was not wholly debased. Few in council +had more power than he. Although he was slow to speak, his opinion when +given had much weight, because of a firm, resolute tone, beside which +the impassioned flights of Tomah and Souligny often failed in effect. + +When the Old King died without any sons, a contest arose over the +successorship to the chieftaincy. In many tribes there would have been +no question about the election of Oshkosh, for he was the son of Old +King's daughter; but the Menominees did not recognize any heirship +except through sons. So many claimants arose, each determined to fight +for the position, that the United States government feared an outbreak +of civil war within the tribe, with possible injuries to the neighboring +white settlers. + +Hence a court of claims was organized, to choose a chief among the +contestants. This court, headed by Governor Lewis Cass, of Michigan +Territory, met at Little Butte des Morts (near Neenah) in August, 1827, +and selected Oshkosh. Cass, in the presence of the tribesmen, hung a +medal about the neck of the victor, shook hands with him, and ordered a +feast in honor of the event. + +The first five years of the reign of this dusky chieftain were peaceful +enough, so far as relations with other tribes were concerned. But within +the Menominee villages there were frequent drunken frolics, which +sometimes ended in bloodshed or in endless disputes between families; +and in these disturbances, which often greatly alarmed the white +settlers, Oshkosh had his full share. + +When in June, 1832, the great Sac leader, Black Hawk, was harassing the +settlements in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin, while being +slowly driven northward by the white troops, fears were entertained in +the valley of the lower Fox that he would turn toward Green Bay. With +the hope of preventing this, a force of three hundred Menominee Indians +was recruited there, and sent to the seat of war, officered by American +and French residents. Oshkosh headed his people, but arrived too late to +do any fighting; Black Hawk had already been vanquished by white +soldiers, at the battle of the Bad Ax. Oshkosh and his braves found no +more savage foe than a small party of Sacs, old men and women and +children, flying from the battlefield, and these they promptly +massacred, proudly carrying the scalps back with them to Green Bay. + +Four years later, the Menominees sold all of their lands in Wisconsin to +the federal government, and were placed upon the reservation at Keshena, +where they still live. + +In 1840, the little four-year-old white settlement at the junction of +the upper Fox with Lake Winnebago thought itself large enough to have a +post office, hence the necessity for adopting a permanent name. The +place had at first been known to travelers as Stanley's Tavern, because +here a man named Stanley ran a ferry across Fox River, and kept a log +hotel. Then the Green Bay merchants fell into the habit of marking +"Athens" on boxes and bales which the boatmen carried up to Stanley's. + +When the question arose over the name for the post office, there were +several candidates, "Osceola," "Galeopolis," and "Athens" being +prominent. Robert Grignon, a French fur trader at Grand Butte des Morts, +desiring to be on good terms with his Menominee neighbors, proposed +"Oshkosh." Thereupon party spirit ran high. Upon a day named, a popular +election without distinction of race was held at the office of the +justice of the peace, who provided a free dinner to the voters; among +them were a score of Indians, brought in by Grignon. Several ballots +were taken, between which speeches were made in behalf of the rivals. +"Oshkosh" finally won, chiefly by the votes of Grignon's Indians. +Harmony was soon restored, and the election ended in drink and smoke, +after the fashion of border gatherings in those days. + +We hear little more of old chief Oshkosh, until fifteen years later. In +the year 1852 occurred a kidnaping case, which became famous in the +frontier annals of Wisconsin. Nahkom, a Menominee squaw, was accused of +having stolen a little white boy, the son of Alvin Partridge, of the +town of Neenah, in Winnebago county. The Indians stoutly denied the +truth of this accusation; indeed, Partridge himself failed to recognize +his lost son in the person of Nahkom's boy. But the relatives and +neighbors of Partridge were confident as to the identity, and the +bereaved father was induced to ask aid of the courts in obtaining the +child. + +The case hung fire for three years, the courts always deciding in favor +of Nahkom, although Partridge regained temporary possession of the boy +under writs of _habeas corpus_. Finally, pending the decision of a +Milwaukee judge upon the application for a writ, the little fellow was +placed in the jail of that city. From there the Partridges kidnaped him +and fled to Kansas, leaving poor Nahkom childless, for undoubtedly it +was a case of mistaken identity, and the child was really hers. +Ultimately the boy was found and restored to her. + +This was in 1855. Oshkosh and a number of Menominee headmen went at once +to Milwaukee, upon learning of the jail delivery, and laid their +complaints before the judge. Recognizing the press as a medium of +communication with the public, Oshkosh and Souligny also visited the +editor of the _Sentinel_, asking him to state their grievance and plead +their cause. The speech which Oshkosh made to the editor was given in +full in that paper, and is a good specimen of the direct, earnest method +in Indian oratory. + +He said, among other things: "Governor Dodge told us that our great +father [the President] was very strong, and owned all the country; and +that no one would dare to trouble us, or do us wrong, as he would +protect us. He told us, too, that whenever we got into difficulty or +anything happened we did not like, to call on our great father and he +would see justice done. And now we come to you to remind our great +father, through your paper, of his promise, and to ask him to fulfil +it.... We thought our child safe in the jail in the care of the +officers; that none could get the child away from them unless the law +gave them the right. We cannot but think it must have been an evil +spirit that got into the jail and took away our child. We thought the +white man's law strong, and are sorry to find it so weak." Upon the +conclusion of his visit, Oshkosh and his friends returned to their +reservation, determined never again to mingle with the deceitful and +grasping whites. + +Upon their way home to Keshena, Oshkosh stopped at the thriving little +city which had been christened for him, and expressed pride at having so +large a namesake. It was his first and only visit. Three years later he +died in a drunken brawl, aged sixty-three years. He was a good Indian, +as savages go, his chief vice being one borrowed from the whites, who +forced themselves upon his lands and contaminated him and his people. + + + + +A FIGHT FOR THE GOVERNORSHIP + + +Between the time when Wisconsin became a state (1848), and the opening +of the War of Secession (1861), party feeling ran high within the new +commonwealth. Charges of corruption against public officials were freely +made; many men sought office for the plunder supposed to be obtained by +those "inside the ring"; newspaper editors appeared to be chiefly +engaged in savage attacks on the reputations of those who differed from +them, and general political demoralization was prevalent. When, however, +important issues arose out of the discussions of the strained relations +between North and South, a higher and more patriotic tone was at once +evident, and this has ever since been maintained in Wisconsin politics. + +The most striking event of the years of petty partisan strife which +preceded the war, was the fight for the governorship of the State, +between William A. Barstow and Coles Bashford. + +Barstow, a Democrat from Waukesha county, had been secretary of state +during Governor Dewey's second term (1850-51). Owing to bitterness +occasioned by the rejection of the first State constitution, the +Democratic party in Wisconsin was torn into factions, at the head of one +of which was Barstow. While serving as secretary of state, he made many +enemies, who freely accused him of rank official dishonesty, and +associated him with the corrupt methods of the early railway companies +which were just then seeking charters from the legislature. +Nevertheless, like all strong, positive men, he had won for himself warm +friends, who secured his election as governor for the year 1854-55. + +[Illustration: COLES BASHFORD] + +His enemies, however, grew in number, and their accusations increased in +bitterness. His party renominated him for governor; but he had lost +ground during the term, and could not draw out his full party strength +in the November election of 1855. Besides, the new Republican party, +although as yet in the minority, was making rapid strides, and voted +solidly for its nominee, Bashford, a Winnebago county lawyer. As a +result, the voting for governor proved so close that for a full month no +one knew the outcome. Meanwhile there was, of course, much popular +excitement, with charges of fraud on both sides. + +[Illustration: WILLIAM A. BARSTOW] + +Finally, in December, the State board of canvassers met at Madison. It +consisted of the secretary of state, the State treasurer, and the +attorney-general, all of them Barstow men. Their report was that he had +received one hundred fifty-seven more votes than his opponent. The +Republicans at once advanced the serious charge that the canvassers had +deliberately forged supplemental returns from several counties, +pretending to receive them upon the day before the count. Large numbers +of people soon came to believe that fraud had been committed, and +Bashford prepared for a contest. + +Upon the day in early January when Barstow was inaugurated at the +capitol, with the usual military display, Bashford stepped into the +supreme court room and was quietly sworn in by the chief justice. +Thereupon Bashford appealed to the court to turn Barstow out, and +declare him the rightful governor. + +There followed a most remarkable lawsuit. The constitution provides that +the State government shall consist of three branches, legislative, +judicial, and executive. It was claimed that never before in the history +of any of the States in the Union had one branch of the government been +called upon to decide between rival claimants to a position in another +branch. Barstow's lawyers, of course, denied the jurisdiction of the +court to pass upon the right of the governor to hold his seat; for, they +argued, if this were possible, then the judiciary would be superior to +the people, and no one could hold office to whom the judges were not +friendly. There was a fierce struggle, for several weeks, between the +opposing lawyers, who were among the most learned men of the State, with +the result that the court decided that it had jurisdiction; and, on +nearly every point raised, ruled in favor of the Bashford men. + +Before the decision of the case, Barstow and his lawyers withdrew, +declaring that the judges were influenced against them by political +prejudices. However, the court proceeded without them, and declared that +the election returns had been tampered with, and that Bashford really +had one thousand nine majority. He was accordingly declared to have been +elected governor. + +This conclusion had been expected by Barstow, who, determined not to be +put out of office, resigned his position three days before the court +rendered its decision. Immediately upon Barstow's resignation, his +friend, the lieutenant governor, Arthur McArthur, took possession of the +office. He claimed that he was now the rightful governor, for the +constitution provides that in the event of the resignation, death, or +inability of the governor, the lieutenant governor shall succeed him. +But the supreme court at once ruled that, as Barstow's title was +worthless, McArthur could not succeed to it, a logical view of the case +which the Barstow sympathizers had not foreseen. + +It was upon Monday, March the 24th, that the court rendered its +decision. Bashford announced that he would take possession of the office +upon Tuesday. There had been great popular uneasiness in Madison and the +neighboring country, throughout the long struggle, and the decision +brought this excitement to a crisis. Many of the adherents of both +contestants armed themselves and drilled, in anticipation of an +encounter which might lead to civil war within the State. There were +frequent wordy quarrels upon the streets, and threats of violence; and +many supposed that it would be impossible to prevent the opposing +factions from fighting in good earnest. + +Affairs were in this critical condition upon the fateful Tuesday. Early +in the day people began to arrive in Madison from the surrounding +country, as if for a popular fête. The streets and the capitol grounds +were filled with excited men, chiefly adherents of Bashford; they +cheered him loudly as he emerged from the supreme court room, at eleven +o'clock, accompanied by the sheriff of the county, who held in his hand +the order which awarded the office to Bashford. + +Passing through the corridors of the capitol, now crowded with his +friends, Bashford and the sheriff rapped upon the door of the governor's +office. McArthur and several of his friends were inside; a voice bade +the callers enter. The new governor was a large, pleasant-looking man. +Leisurely taking off his coat and hat, he hung them in the wardrobe, and +calmly informed McArthur that he had come to occupy the governor's +chair. + +"Is force to be used in supporting the order of the court?" indignantly +asked the incumbent, as, glancing through the open door, he caught sight +of the eager, excited crowd of Bashford's friends, whose leaders with +difficulty restrained them from at once crowding into the room. + +"I presume," blandly replied Bashford, "that no force will be +essential; but in case any is needed, there will be no hesitation +whatever in applying it, with the sheriff's help." + +McArthur at once calmed down, said that he "considered this threat as +constructive force," and promptly left his rival in possession. As he +hurried out, through rows of his political enemies, the corridors were +ringing with shouts of triumph; and in a few moments Bashford was +shaking hands with the crowd, who, in the highest glee, swarmed through +his office. + +The legislature was divided in political sentiment. The senate received +the new governor's message with enthusiasm, and by formal resolution +congratulated him upon his success. The assembly at first refused, +thirty-eight to thirty-four, to have anything to do with him; but upon +thirty of the Democrats withdrawing, after filing a protest against the +action of the court, the house agreed, thirty-seven to nine, to +recognize Governor Bashford. Thereafter he had no trouble at the helm of +State. + + + + +OUR FOREIGN-BORN CITIZENS + + +It is probable that no other State in the Union contains so many +varieties of Europeans as does Wisconsin. About seventeen per cent of +our entire population were born in Germany; next in numbers come the +Scandinavians, natives of Great Britain, Irish, Canadians, Poles, +Bohemians, Hollanders, Russians, and French. + +These different nationalities are scattered all over the State; often +they are found grouped in very large neighborhoods. Sometimes one of +these groups is so large that, with the American-born children, it +occupies entire townships, and practically controls the local churches +and schools, which are generally conducted in the foreign tongue. There +are extensive German, Scandinavian, and Welsh farming districts in our +State where one may travel far without hearing English spoken by any +one. Some crowded quarters of Milwaukee are wholly German in custom and +language; and there are other streets in that city where few but Poles, +Bohemians, or Russians can be found. + +Although these foreign-born people, as is quite natural, generally cling +with tenacity to the language, the religion, and many of the customs in +which they were reared, it is noticeable that all of them are eager to +learn our methods of government, and to become good citizens; and their +children, when allowed to mingle freely with the youth of this country, +become so thoroughly Americanized that little if any difference can be +distinguished between them and those whose forefathers have lived here +for several generations past. + +There is, however, hardly a family in Wisconsin which is not of European +origin. Some of us are descended from ancestors who chanced to come to +the New World at an earlier period than did the ancestors of others of +our fellow-citizens; that is all that distinguishes these "old American +families" from those more recently transplanted. + +It is a very interesting study to watch the gradual evolution of a new +American race from the mingling on our soil of so many different +nationalities, just as the English race itself was slowly built up from +the old Britons, Saxons, Norsemen, and Norman French. But we must +remember that this "race amalgamation," although now proceeding upon a +larger scale than was probably ever witnessed before, has always been +going on in America since the earliest colonial days, when English, +French, Hollanders, Swedes, Scotch, and Irish were fused as in a melting +pot, for the production of the American types that we meet to-day. + +A variety of reasons induced foreigners to come to Wisconsin in such +large numbers; they may, however, be classified under three heads, +political, economic, and religious. The political reason was +dissatisfaction with the government at home, chiefly because it +repressed all aspiration for liberty and forced young men to sacrifice +several of the best years of their lives by spending them in the army. +The most powerful economic reason was inability to earn a satisfactory +living in the fatherland, because worn-out soils, low prices for +produce, overcrowding of population, and excessive competition among +workmen resulted in starvation wages. The religious reason was the +disposition of European monarchs to interfere with men's right to +worship God as they pleased. + +In 1830 there were serious political troubles in Germany, and thousands +of dissatisfied people emigrated from that country to America. Many of +the newcomers were young professional men of fine education and lofty +ideals. In those early days American society was somewhat crude, +especially upon the frontier. These spirited young Germans complained +that, both in religion and politics, the life of our people was sordid +and low, with little appreciation for the higher things of life; and +especially did they resent our popular lack of appreciation of their +countrymen. + +Therefore, in 1835, there was formed in New York a society called +"Germania," which was to induce enough Germans to settle in some one of +the American States to be able to gain control of it and make it a +German State, with German life and manners, with German schools, +literature, and art, with German courts and assemblies, and with German +as the official language. A great deal of discussion followed, as to +which State should be chosen; some preferred Texas, others Oregon, but +most of the members wished some State in what was then called the +Northwest, between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. The +society disbanded without result; but the agitation to which it gave +rise was continued throughout many years on both sides of the ocean. + +Wisconsin was strongly favored by most of the German writers on +immigration, especially about the time that it became prominent through +being admitted to the Union (1848). Nothing came of all this agitation +for a German State, except the very wide advertising which Wisconsin +obtained in Germany, as a State admirably suited for Germans, in soil, +climate, liberal constitution, and low prices for lands, and as +possessing social attractions for them, because it had early obtained an +unusually large German population. + +The counties near Milwaukee were the first to receive German settlers. +This movement began about 1839, and was very rapid. Soon after that, +Sauk and Dane counties became the favorites for new arrivals. Next, +immigrants from Germany went to the southwestern counties, about Mineral +Point, and northward into the region about Lake Winnebago and the Fox +River. By 1841 they had spread into Buffalo county, and along the +Mississippi River; but since 1860 they have chiefly gone into the north +central regions of the State, generally preferring forest lands to +prairies. The first arrivals were mainly from the valley of the Rhine; +next in order, came people from southern Germany; but the bulk of the +settlers are from the northern and middle provinces of their native +land. + +The principal Swiss groups in Wisconsin are in Green, Buffalo, Sauk, +Fond du Lac, and Taylor counties. That at New Glarus, in Green county, +is one of the most interesting. In the sterile little mountainous +canton of Glarus, in Switzerland, there was, about 1844, much distress +because of over population; the tillable land was insufficient to raise +food for all the people. It was, therefore, resolved by them to send +some of their number to America, as a colony. + +Two scouts were first dispatched, in the spring of 1845, with +instructions to find a climate, a soil, and general characteristics as +nearly like Switzerland as possible. These agents had many adventures as +they wandered through Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, before finally +selecting Green county, Wisconsin, as the place best suited for their +people. + +It was supposed that those left behind would wait until a report could +be sent back to them. But one hundred ninety-three of the intending +emigrants soon became restless, and started for America only a month +later than the advance guard. The party had a long and very disagreeable +journey, down the Rhine River to the seaport, where after many sore +trials they obtained a vessel to take them across the Atlantic. This +ship was intended for the accommodation of only one hundred forty +passengers; but nearly two hundred crowded into it, and had a +tempestuous and generally disheartening passage of forty-nine days, with +insufficient food. + +At last, reaching Baltimore, they proceeded by canal boat to the foot of +the Alleghanies, crossed the mountains by a crude railway, and then +embarked in a steamer down the Ohio River, bound for St. Louis. After +their arrival at that city, there ensued a long and vexatious search +for the scouts, who, not expecting them, had left few traces behind. But +perseverance finally won, and by the middle of August all of these weary +colonists were reunited in the promised land of New Glarus, five +thousand miles away from their native valleys. + +The experience of the first few years was filled with privations, +because these poor Swiss, fresh from narrow fields and small shops at +home, did not comprehend the larger American methods of farming, with +horse and plow. But, by the kindness of their American neighbors, they +finally learned their rude lessons; and, soon adopting the profitable +business of manufacturing Swiss cheese, by thrift and industry they in +time succeeded in making of New Glarus one of the most prosperous +agricultural regions in Wisconsin. + +It is estimated that in Green county there are now eight thousand +persons of Swiss birth, or the descendants of Swiss, about one-third of +the entire population. The language which they still use in business +affairs is the German-Swiss dialect. + +[Illustration: FIRST NORWEGIAN CHURCH] + +The first Norwegian immigrants to America arrived in 1825, after some +strange adventures on the ocean, and settled in the State of New York; +this was before Wisconsin was ready for settlers. From 1836 to 1845, +thousands of Norwegians came to Illinois and Wisconsin, their first +settlement in Wisconsin being made in 1844, in the town of Albion, Dane +county. They are now scattered quite generally over the State, in large +groups, with hundreds of ministers and churches, and many newspapers; +but they are still strongest in Dane county, where, probably, there are +not less than fourteen thousand who were either born in Norway or are +the children of Norwegian-born parents. + +The Belgians are closely massed in certain towns of Door, Kewaunee, and +Brown counties, in the northeastern portion of the State. The beginning +of their immigration was in 1853, when ten families of the province of +Brabant, in Belgium, determined to move to America, where they could win +a better support for themselves, and suitably educate their children. +The vessel in which they crossed the Atlantic was forty-eight days in +sailing from Antwerp to New York, the passage being tedious and rough, +accompanied by several terrific hurricanes. The poor pilgrims suffered +from hunger and thirst, as well as sickness, and lost one of their +number by death. + +It was while on board ship that the majority decided to settle in +Wisconsin, and upon landing, hither they promptly came. Arriving in +Milwaukee, they knew not what part of the State was best suited for +them; but began to prospect for land, and finally settled near Green +Bay, simply because a large portion of the population of that village +could speak French, which was their own language. At first they had +determined to locate near Sheboygan, but were annoyed at not being able +to make themselves understood by the inhabitants of that place. The +little band of Belgians was at last established within rude log huts, in +the heart of a dense forest, ten miles from any other human habitation, +without roads or bridges, or even horses or cattle. They experienced the +worst possible inconveniences and hardships naturally appertaining to +life in the frontier woods, and for the first year or two the colony +seemed in a desperate condition. Its hopeful members, however, hiding +their present misery, sent cheerful letters home, and enticed their old +neighbors either to join them, or to form new settlements in the +neighborhood. In due time, the Belgians of northeastern Wisconsin became +prosperous farmers and merchants. + +Similar tales might be related, of the great difficulties and hardships +bravely overcome by several other foreign groups in Wisconsin: for +instance, the Poles, the Dutch, the Welsh, the Bohemians, the Cornishmen +of the lead-mine region, and the Icelandic fishermen of lonely +Washington Island. But the foregoing will suffice to show of what sturdy +stuff our foreign-born peoples are made, and cause us to rejoice that +such material has gone into the upbuilding of our commonwealth. + + + + +SWEPT BY FIRE + + +Before the great inrush of agricultural settlers, in 1836, most of the +surface of Wisconsin was covered with dense forests. In the northern +portion of the State, pines, hemlocks, and spruce predominated, mingled +with large areas of hard wood; elsewhere, hard wood chiefly prevailed, +the forests in the southern and eastern portions being frequently broken +by large prairies and by small treeless "openings." + +In the great northern pine woods, lumbermen have been busy for many +years. They leave in their wake great wastes of land, some of it covered +with dead branches from the trees that have been felled and trimmed; +some so sterile that the sun, now allowed to enter, in a rainless summer +bakes the earth and dries the spongy swamps; while all about are great +masses of dead stumps, blasted trunks, and other forest débris. Settlers +soon pour in, purchase the best of this cut-over land, and clear the +ground for farms. But there are still left in Wisconsin great stretches +of deforested country, as yet unsettled; some of these areas are +worthless except for growing new forests, an enterprise which, some day, +the State government will undertake for the benefit of the +commonwealth. + +Now and then, in dry seasons, great fires start upon these "pine +barrens," or "slashings," as they are called, and spread until often +they cause great loss to life and property. These conflagrations +originate in many ways, chiefly from the carelessness of hunters or +Indians, in their camps, or from sparks from locomotives, or bonfires +built by farmers for the destruction of rubbish. + +Nearly every summer and autumn these forest fires occur more or less +frequently in northern Wisconsin, working much damage in their +neighborhoods; but usually they exhaust themselves when they reach a +swamp, a river, or cleared fields. When, however, there has been an +exceptionally long period of drought, everything in the cut-over lands +becomes excessively dry; the light, thin soil, filled with dead roots +and encumbered by branches and stumps, becomes as inflammable as tinder; +the dried-up marshes generate explosive gases. + +The roaring flames, once started in such a season, are fanned by the +winds which the heat generates, and, gathering strength, roll forward +with resistless impetus; dense, resinous forest growths succumb before +their assault, rivers are leaped by columns of fire, and everything goes +down before the destroyer. In a holocaust of this character, all +ordinary means of fire fighting are in vain; the houses and barns of +settlers feed the devouring giant, whole towns are swept away, until at +last the flames either find nothing further upon which to feed, or are +quenched by a storm of rain. + +The most disastrous forest conflagration which Wisconsin has known, +occurred during the 8th and 9th of October, 1871. There had been a +winter with little snow, and a long, dry summer. Fires had been noticed +in the pine forests which line the shores of Green Bay, as early as the +first week in September. At first they did not create much alarm; they +smouldered along the ground through the vegetable mold, underbrush, and +"slashings," occasionally eating out the roots of a great tree, which, +swayed by the wind, would topple over with a roar, and send skyward a +shower of sparks. + +Gradually the "fire belt" broadened, and, finding better fuel, the +flames strengthened; the swamps began to burn, to a depth of several +feet; over hundreds of square miles the air was thick and stifling with +smoke, so that the sun at noonday appeared like a great copper ball set +on high; at night the heavens were lurid. Miles of burning woods were +everywhere to be seen; hundreds of haystacks in the meadows, and great +piles of logs and railroad ties and telegraph poles were destroyed. + +For many weeks the towns along the bay shore were surrounded by cordons +of threatening flame. The people of Pensaukee, Oconto, Little Suamico, +Sturgeon Bay, Peshtigo, and scores of other settlements, were frequently +called out by the fire bells to fight the insidious enemy; many a time +were they apparently doomed to destruction, but constant vigilance and +these occasional skirmishes for a time saved them. + +Reports now began to come in, thick and fast, of settlers driven from +blazing homes, of isolated sawmills and lumber camps destroyed, of +bridges consumed, of thrilling escapes by lumbermen and farmers. On +Sunday, the 8th of October, a two days' carnival of death began. In +Brown, Kewaunee, Oconto, Door, Manitowoc, and Shawano counties the +flames, suddenly rising, swept everything within their path. Where +thriving, prosperous villages once had stood, blackened wastes appeared. +Over a thousand lives were lost, nearly as many persons were crippled, +and three thousand were in a few hours reduced to beggary. The horrors +of the scenes at New Franken, Peshtigo, and the Sugar Bush, in +particular, were such as cannot be described. + +This appalling tragedy chanced to occur at the same time as vast prairie +fires in Minnesota, and the terrible conflagration which destroyed +Chicago. The civilized world stood aghast at the broad extent of the +field of needed relief; nevertheless, the frenzied appeals for aid, +issued in behalf of the Wisconsin fire sufferers, met with as generous a +response as if they alone, in that fateful month of October, were the +recipients of the nation's bounty. Train loads of clothing and +provisions, from nearly every State in the Union, soon poured into Green +Bay, which was the center of distribution; the United States government +made large gifts of clothing and rations; nearly two hundred thousand +dollars were raised, and expended under official control; and great +emergency hospitals were opened at various points, for the treatment of +sick and wounded. + +As for the actual financial loss to the people of the burned district, +that could never be estimated. The soil was, in many places, burned to +the depth of several feet, nothing being left but sand and ashes; grass +roots were destroyed; bridges and culverts were gone; houses, barns, +cattle, tools, seed, and crops were no more. It was several years before +the region began again to exhibit signs of prosperity. + +In the year 1894, forest fires of an appalling magnitude once more +visited Wisconsin, this time in the northwestern corner of the State. +Again had there been an exceptionally dry winter, spring, and summer. +The experience gained by lumbermen and forest settlers had made them +more cautious than before, and more expert in the fighting of fires; but +that year was one in which no human knowledge seemed to avail against +the progress of flames once started on their career of devastation. + +During the summer, several fires had burned over large areas. By the +last week of July, it was estimated that five million dollars' worth of +standing pine had been destroyed. The burned and burning area was now +over fifty miles in width, the northern limit being some forty miles +south of Superior. Upon the 27th of the month, the prosperous town of +Phillips, wholly surrounded by deforested lands, was suddenly licked up +by the creeping flames, the terrified inhabitants escaping by the aid of +a railway train. Neighboring towns, which suffered to a somewhat less +degree, were Mason, Barronett, and Shell Lake. + +In 1898 Wisconsin was again a heavy sufferer from the same cause. The +fires were chiefly in Barron county, upon the 29th and 30th of +September. Two hundred fifty-eight families were left destitute, and the +loss to land and property was estimated at $400,000. Relief agencies +were established in various cities of the state, and our people +responded as liberally to the urgent call for help as they had in 1871 +and 1894. + +A more competent official system of scientifically caring for our +forests, restricting the present wasteful cutting of timber, and +preventing and fighting forest fires, would be of incalculable benefit +to the State of Wisconsin. The annual loss by burning is alone a +terrible drain upon the resources of the people, to say nothing of the +death and untold misery which stalk in the wake of a forest fire. + + + + +BADGERS IN WAR TIME + + +The men of Wisconsin who had fought and conquered the hard conditions of +frontier life, developing a raw wilderness into a wealthy and +progressive commonwealth, were of the sort to make the best of soldiers +when called upon to take up arms in behalf of the nation. + +From the earliest days of the War of Secession until its close, +Wisconsin troops were ever upon the firing line, and participated in +some of the noblest victories of the long and painful struggle. General +Sherman, in his "Memoirs," paid them this rare tribute: "We estimated a +Wisconsin regiment equal to an ordinary brigade." It is impracticable in +one brief chapter to do more than mention a few of the most brilliant +achievements of the Badger troops. + +In April, 1862, the Fourteenth, Sixteenth, and Eighteenth Wisconsin +infantry regiments, although new in the service, won imperishable +laurels upon the bloody field of Shiloh. The men of the Fourteenth were +especially prominent in the fray. Arriving on the ground at midnight of +the first day, they passed the rest of the night in a pelting rain, +standing ankle-deep in mud; and throughout all the next day fought as +though they were hardened veterans. + +A Kentucky regiment was ordered to charge a Confederate battery, but +fell back in confusion; whereupon General Grant asked if the Fourteenth +Wisconsin could do the work. Its colonel cried, "We will try!" and then +followed one of the most gallant charges of the entire war. Thrice +driven back, the Wisconsin men finally captured the battery; confusion +ensued in the Confederate ranks, and very soon the battle of Shiloh was +a Union victory. + +In the Peninsular campaign of the same year, the Fifth Regiment made a +bayonet charge which routed and scattered the Confederates, and turned +the scales in favor of the North. In an address to the regiment two days +later, General McClellan declared: "Through you we won the day, and +Williamsburg shall be inscribed on your banner. Your country owes you +its grateful thanks." His report to the War Department describes this +charge as "brilliant in the extreme." + +Some of the highest honors of the war were awarded to the gallant Iron +Brigade, composed of the Second, Sixth, and Seventh Wisconsin, the +Nineteenth Indiana, and the Twenty-fourth Michigan. At Gainesville, in +the Shenandoah Valley campaign, also in 1862, this brigade practically +won the fight, the brunt of the Confederate assault being met by the +Second Wisconsin, which that day lost sixty per cent of its rank and +file; the brigade itself suffered a loss of nine hundred men. + +The Third opened the battle at Cedar Mountain, and very soon after that +was at Antietam, where it lost two-thirds of the men it took into +action. The Fifth also was prominent near by, and the Iron Brigade, +behind a rail fence, conducted a fight which was one of the chief events +of the engagement. + +At the battle of Corinth, several Wisconsin regiments and four of her +batteries won some of the brightest honors. In the various official +reports of the action, such comments as the following are frequent: +"This regiment (the Fourteenth) was the one to rely upon in every +emergency;" a fearless dash by the Seventeenth regiment, one general +described as "the most glorious charge of the campaign"; there was an +allusion to the Eighteenth's "most effectual service"; in referring to +the Sixth battery, mention is made in the reports, of "its noble work." + +At Chaplin Hills, in Kentucky, a few days later, the First Wisconsin +drove back the enemy several times, and captured a stand of Confederate +colors. The Tenth was seven hours under fire, and lost fifty-four per +cent of its number. General Rousseau highly praised both regiments, +saying, "These brave men are entitled to the gratitude of the country." +The Fifteenth captured heavy stores of ammunition and many prisoners; +the Twenty-fifth repulsed, with withering fire, a superior force of the +enemy, who had suddenly assaulted them while lying in a cornfield; and +the Fifth battery three times turned back a Confederate charge, "saving +the division," as General McCook reported, "from a disgraceful defeat." + +At Prairie Grove, in Arkansas, at Fredericksburg, and at Stone River, +still later in the campaign of 1862, Wisconsin soldiers exhibited what +General Sherman described as "splendid conduct, bravery, and +efficiency." + +Men of Wisconsin were also prominent in the Army of the Potomac, during +the famous "mud campaign" of the early months of 1863. At the crossing +of the Rappahannock, theirs was the dangerous duty to protect the makers +of the pontoon bridges. In the course of this service, the Iron Brigade +made a splendid dash across the river, charged up the opposite heights, +and at the point of the bayonet routed the Confederates who were +intrenched in rifle pits. + +At Chancellorsville, the Third Wisconsin, detailed to act as a barrier +to the advance of the Confederates under Stonewall Jackson, was the last +to leave the illfated field. + +At Fredericksburg, not far away, the Fifth Wisconsin and the Sixth Maine +led a desperate charge up Marye's Hill, where, in a sunken roadway, lay +a large force of the enemy; this force, a few months before, had killed +six thousand Union men who were vainly attempting to rout them. This +second and final charge overcame all difficulties, and succeeded. As the +Confederate commander handed to the colonel of the Wisconsin regiment +his sword and silver spurs, he told the victor that he had supposed +there were not enough troops in the Army of the Potomac to carry the +position; it was, he declared, the most daring assault he had ever seen. +Such, too, was the judgment of Greeley, who declared that "Braver men +never smiled on death than those who climbed Marye's Hill on that fatal +day." The correspondent of the _London Times_ also wrote, "Never at +Fontenoy, Albuera, nor at Waterloo was more undaunted courage +displayed." + +In the campaign which resulted in the fall of Vicksburg, in 1863, +numerous Wisconsin regiments participated, many of them with conspicuous +gallantry. It was an officer of the Twenty-third who received, at the +base of the works, the offer of the Confederates to surrender. + +The part taken by Wisconsin troops at Gettysburg, was conspicuous. The +Iron Brigade and a Wisconsin company of sharpshooters were, day by day, +in the thickest of the fight, and gained a splendid record. At +Chickamauga, several of our regiments fought under General Thomas, and +lost heavily. They afterward participated in the struggle at Mission +Ridge, which resulted in the Confederate army under Bragg being turned +back into Central Georgia. + +The Iron Brigade was in Grant's campaign against Richmond, serving +gallantly in the battles of the Wilderness, in the "bloody angle" at +Spottsylvania, at Fair Oaks, and in the numerous attacks before +Petersburg. + +Wisconsin contributed heavily to the army of Sherman, in his "march to +the sea," and in the preliminary contests won distinction on many a +bitterly contested field. Several of our regiments were in the assault +on Mobile, the day when Lee was surrendering to Grant, in far-off +Virginia. Others of the Badger troops, infantry and cavalry, served in +Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas, fighting the Confederate guerillas, +while our artillerymen were distributed throughout the several Union +armies, and served gallantly until the last days of the war. + +Wisconsin soldiers languished in most of the great Southern military +prisons. A thrilling escape of Union men from Libby Prison, at Richmond, +was made in February, 1864, by means of a secret tunnel. This was +ingeniously excavated under the superintendence of a party of which +Colonel H. C. Hobart of the Twenty-first Wisconsin was a leader. + +Another notable event of the war, of which a Wisconsin man was the hero, +occurred during the night of the 27th of October, 1864. The Confederate +armored ram _Albemarle_, after having sunk several Union vessels, was +anchored off Plymouth, North Carolina, a town which was being attacked +by Federal troops and ships. Lieutenant W. B. Cushing of Delafield, +Waukesha county, proceeded to the _Albemarle_ in a small launch, under +cover of the dark; and, in the midst of a sharp fire from the crew of +the ram, placed a torpedo under her bow and blew her up. The daring +young officer escaped to his ship, amid appalling difficulties, having +won worldwide renown by his splendid feat. + +The saving of the Union fleet in the Red River was an incident which +attracted national attention to still another Wisconsin man. The +expedition up the river, into the heart of the enemy's country, was a +failure, and immediate retreat inevitable. But the water had lowered, +and the fleet of gunboats found it impossible to descend the rapids at +Alexandria. The enemy were swarming upon the banks, and the situation +was so hazardous that it seemed as if the army would find it necessary +to desert the vessels. Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Bailey of the Fourth +Wisconsin infantry, serving as chief engineer on General Franklin's +staff, proposed to dam the river, then suddenly make an opening, and +allow the boats to emerge with the outrush of imprisoned water. The plan +is a familiar one to Wisconsin lumbermen, in getting logs over shoals; +but it was new to the other officers, and Bailey was laughed at as a +visionary. However, the situation was so desperate that he was allowed +to try his experiment. It succeeded admirably; the fleet, worth nearly +two millions of dollars, was saved, and the expedition emerged from the +trap in good order. Bailey was made a brigadier general, and the +grateful naval officers presented him with a valuable sword and vase. + +No account of Wisconsin's part in the War of Secession should, however +brief, omit reference to a conspicuous participant, "Old Abe," the war +eagle of the Eighth Regiment. He was captured by an Indian, on the +Flambeau River, a branch of the Chippewa, and until the close of the +long struggle was carried on a perch by his owners, the men of Company +C. He was an eyewitness of thirty-six battles and skirmishes, and +accompanied his regiment upon some of the longest marches of the war. +Frequently he was hit by the enemy's bullets, but never was daunted, his +habit in times of action being to pose upon his perch or a cannon, +screaming lustily, and frequently holding in his bill the corner of a +flag. No general in the great struggle achieved a wider celebrity than +"Old Abe." Until his death, in 1881, he was exhibited in all parts of +the country, at State and national soldiers' reunions, and at fairs held +for their benefit. At the great Sanitary Fair in Chicago, in 1865, it is +said that the sales of his photographs brought $16,000 to the soldiers' +relief fund. + +Upon the opening of the Spanish-American War, in April, 1898, +Wisconsin's militia system was one of the best in the country, and its +quota of 5390 volunteers was made up from these companies. + +The First Regiment was sent to Camp Cuba Libre, at Jacksonville, +Florida; the Second and Third to Camp Thomas, at Chickamauga; and the +Fourth, at first to the State military camp at Camp Douglas, and later +to Camp Shipp, Alabama. The First was the earliest raised, and the best +equipped, but its colonel's commission was not so old as those held by +the other regimental commanders from this State; therefore, when two +Wisconsin regiments were to be sent in July to Puerto Rico, the Second +and Third were selected, leaving the First reluctantly to spend its +entire time in camp. After the war, it had been intended to detail the +Fourth, not mustered in until late in the struggle, to join the +American army of occupation in the West Indies; but, owing to the fact +that a large percentage of the men were suffering from camp diseases, +they were finally mustered out without leaving the country. + +The Second and Third had an interesting experience in Puerto Rico. +Arriving at the port of Guamico upon the 25th of July, they took a +prominent part in the bloodless capture of the neighboring city of +Ponce. This task completed, they were detailed, with the Sixteenth +Pennsylvania, to form the advance guard of the army, which prepared at +once to sweep the island from south to north. Our men were almost daily +under fire, particularly in road clearing skirmishes under General Roy +Stone. + +Two days after the landing at Guamico, Lieutenant Perry Cochrane, of Eau +Claire, an officer of the Third, was sent forward with seventeen other +Eau Claire men, to open up the railway line leading to the little +village of Yauco, lying about twenty miles westward of Ponce, and to +capture that place. The track and the bridges had been wrecked by the +fleeing enemy, so that Cochrane's party endured much peril and fatigue +before they reached their destination; and Yauco was not disposed to +succumb to this handful of men. Cochrane successfully held his own, +however, until the following day, when reënforcements arrived. + +A few days after the fall of Ponce, the Sheboygan company was acting as +guard to a detachment repairing the San Juan road, several miles out of +town. Hearing that a party of Spanish soldiers had taken a stand at +Lares, eighteen miles away, a detail was sent with a flag of truce, to +treat with them. The squad consisted of Lieutenant Bodemer, four +privates, and a bugler. The Spaniards were not in a pleasant frame of +mind, and but for their officers would have made short shrift of the +visitors, despite the peaceful flag which they bore. Finally, the +Spaniards agreed to receive a deputation of native Puerto Ricans, and +talk the matter over with them. Our men withdrew, and sent natives in +their stead; but the latter were treacherously assaulted, and only one +of them escaped to tell the story. + +Upon the 9th of August, there was a sharp fight at Coamo. Both of our +regiments were actively employed in this encounter, and were of the +troops which finally raised the American flag over the town walls. + +The final engagement was fought two days later, at the mountain pass of +Asomanta, near Aibonito, where 2500 Spanish troops were centered. The +Second Wisconsin was the last American regiment in this fight, and lost +two killed and three wounded. These were Wisconsin's only field losses +during the war, although her deaths from camp diseases were about +seventy. + + + + +INDEX + + + Albanel, Father Charles, 57. + Albion, 227. + Algonkin tribes, 16, 24. + Allouez, Father Claude, 45, 55-57, 147, 149. + American Fur Company, 85, 86, 90. + André, Father Louis, 57. + Apostle Islands, 40. + Appleton, 36, 86. + Ashland, 40, 146. + Astor, John Jacob, 85. + Atkinson, General Henry, 131, 139-141. + Aztalan, 7, 8. + + Bad Ax River, 130, 142, 143, 212. + Badger State, origin of term, 161. + Bailey, Colonel Joseph, 242, 243. + Baraga, Father Frederick, 153. + Barron County, 235. + Barronett, 235. + Barstow, Colonel William A., 216-221. + Bashford, Governor Coles, 216-221. + Bayfield, 154. + Beaubassin, Hertel de, French commandant, 150. + Beaver Island, 193, 194. + Belgians in Wisconsin, 228, 229. + Belleview, 158. + Belmont, 157, 158. + Berlin, 15, 37. + Bill Cross Rapids, 55. + Black Hawk, Sac chief, 212. + Black Hawk War, 86, 134-145. + Black River, 15, 53-55, 62. + Bohemians in Wisconsin, 222, 229. + Bois Brulé River, 67, 71, 90, 148. + Booth, Sherman M., 205-208. + Brisbois, Michel, 113. + Brothertown Indians, 15, 198, 200. + Brown County, 228, 233. + Buffalo County, 225. + Bulger, Captain Alfred, 116. + Burlington, 190. + Butte des Morts, Grand, 91, 131, 213. + Butte des Morts, Little, 76, 211. + + Cadotte, Jean Baptiste, 152. + Cadotte, Michel, 152. + Calvé, Joseph, 104. + Cass, Governor Lewis, 211. + Cassville, 158. + Ceresco Phalanx, 183-189. + Cha-kau-cho-ka-ma (Old King), 209, 211. + Champlain, Samuel de, 24, 25, 27, 28, 33, 51. + Chardon, Father Jean B., 57. + Chase, Warren, 184. + Chelsea, 55. + Chequamegon Bay, 40, 55, 56, 67, 84, 87, 88, 146-154. + Chippewa Indians, 14, 15, 18, 57, 78, 127, 149, 150, 152, 153. + Chippewa River, 40, 243. + Clark, General George Rogers, 97-104, 111. + Clark, General William, 111. + Cochrane, Lieutenant Perry, 244, 245. + Copper mines, 21. + Copper River, 55. + Cornish in Wisconsin, 229. + Crawford County, 171. + Cushing, Lieutenant W. B., 241, 242. + + Dakotan tribes, 16. + Dane County, 225, 227, 228. + Davis, Jefferson, 140. + Delafield, 242. + De Louvigny, French captain, 75, 76. + De Pere, 36, 45, 49, 50, 56-58, 86, 88. + Dewey, Governor Nelson, 161, 203, 216. + Dickson, Robert, 112, 113. + Dodge, Major Henry, 142, 160, 214. + Door County, 35, 45, 228, 233. + Doty, Governor James D., 157, 159, 166. + Doty's Island, 36. + Dubuque, Julien, 120, 121. + Ducharme, Jean Marie, 104. + Duck Creek, 200. + Duluth, Daniel Graysolon, 34, 66, 67, 147-149. + Dutch in Wisconsin, 222, 229. + + Eau Claire, 244. + Eau Claire County, 90. + Eau Claire River, 90. + Eau Pleine River, 90. + Embarrass River, 90. + English in Wisconsin, 92-98, 104-106, 110-116, 118. + Enjalran, Father Jean, 57, 58. + Equaysayway, Chippewa maid, 152. + + Flambeau River, 243. + Fond du Lac, 158, 182. + Fond du Lac County, 90, 184, 225. + Fort Crawford, 128, 133. + Fort Edward Augustus, 93. + Fort Howard, 131, 133. + Fort McKay, 115, 116. + Fort Perrot, 63. + Fort St. Antoine, 63. + Fort St. Francis, 93. + Fort St. Nicholas, 63. + Fort Shelby, 112-116. + Fort Snelling, 128, 130-132. + Fort Winnebago, 133. + Fox Indians (Outagamies), 15, 57, 64, 69, 71-80, 134. + Fox River, 14, 15, 30, 32, 36-38, 45, 56, 58-61, 64, 67, 68, 71, + 72, 76, 79, 111, 113, 114, 122-124, 131, 133, 148, 180, 182, 199, + 200, 212, 213, 225. + French in Wisconsin, 15, 24-91, 97, 98, 104-110, 117-122, 127, 155, + 222. _See_, also, Fur Trade. + Frontenac, Governor of New France, 28, 43, 44. + Fur Trade in Wisconsin, 22-25, 27, 28, 32-41, 43, 44, 49, 51, 53, + 59-93, 97, 98, 104, 105, 109-113, 117, 118, 120, 127, 146, 149, + 152, 171. + + Gagnier, Registre, 129, 130. + Galena, Illinois, 63, 68, 122, 124, 172. + Galena River, 121. + Gautier, Charles, 100, 101, 103. + Germans in Wisconsin, 222, 224, 225. + Glode, Indian chief, 209. + Glover, Joshua, 204-208. + Gorrell, Lieutenant James, 93-96, 105. + Grand Portage, 84. + Green Bay, 14, 15, 29, 30, 35, 36, 38, 45, 58, 61, 65, 68, 70, + 77-79, 84, 85, 88-91, 93-96, 98, 104-106, 112, 113, 123, 124, 131, + 158, 166, 171, 173, 178, 182, 187, 199, 212, 213, 228, 232, 234. + Green County, 225-227. + Grignon, Robert, 213. + Grizzly Bear, Indian chief, 209. + Groseilliers, Médard Chouart des, 34-41, 53, 55, 59, 60, 146. + + Hall, Rev. Sherman, 153. + Harrison, Governor William H., 106. + Helena, 124. + Hennepin, Father Louis, 66, 67. + Henry, General James D., 142. + Hesse, English captain, 104. + Hobart, Colonel H. C., 241. + Hudson Bay Company, 41, 60, 84. + Huron Indians, 15, 28-30, 39-41, 53, 54, 74, 151. + + Icelanders in Wisconsin, 229. + Illinois Indians, 15, 32, 74-76. + Indians, as mound builders, 7-14, 19; life and manners of, 14-23; + pottery, 21; copper and stone implements, 21, 22. _See_, also, + the several Tribes. + Iometah, Indian chief, 209. + Iowa County, 121. + Irish in Wisconsin, 222. + Iron Brigade, 237-240. + Iroquois Indians, 24, 27, 38, 39, 45, 53, 63, 72. + + Janesville, 182. + Jesuit Missionaries in Wisconsin, 25, 26, 29, 31, 32, 35, 42-59, + 62, 66, 87, 88. + Johnson, Colonel James, 121. + Johnson, John, 152. + Joliet, Louis, 37, 38, 42-50, 60, 65, 118. + Joseph, fur-trade clerk, 151. + + Kaukauna, 36, 86, 91. + Kenosha, 184. + Keokuk, Sac chief, 145. + Keshena, 212, 215. + Kewaunee County, 228, 233. + Kiala, Fox chief, 79. + Kickapoo Indians, 15, 16, 46, 74. + Kickapoo River, 15. + Koshkonong, 158. + + La Crosse, 86, 88, 91. + La Crosse County, 90. + Lafayette County, 157. + Lake Chetek, 88. + Lake Court Oreilles, 88, 90, 153. + Lake Flambeau, 88, 90, 153. + Lake Koshkonong, 46. + Lake Michigan, 15, 27, 29, 32, 35, 49, 57, 60, 65-67, 69, 93, 94, + 104, 123, 157, 158, 162, 164, 171, 179, 182, 193, 198. + Lake Pepin, 62, 63, 78, 90. + Lake St. Croix (Upper), 67. + Lake Sandy, 88. + Lake Shawano, 56, 57. + Lake Superior, 27, 29, 38-41, 53-56, 59, 60, 65, 66, 71, 104, 146, + 148, 150, 151, 154. + Lake Vieux Désert, 54, 55, 90, 167. + Lake Winnebago, 37, 112, 113, 181, 200, 212, 225. + Langlade, Charles de, 100, 101, 103. + Langlade County, 90. + La Pointe, 55, 56, 147-150, 152-154. + La Ronde, fur trader, 150. + La Salle, Chevalier de, 28, 34, 43, 64-66, 69. + Lead Mining in Wisconsin, 63, 68, 117-124. + Le Sueur, Pierre, 67, 68, 119, 148, 149. + Lincoln, Abraham, 139. + Linctot, Godefroy, 103, 104. + Lipcap, killed by Indians, 129, 130. + Little Chute, 199. + Little Kaukauna, 196, 200. + Little Suamico, 233. + Long, John, 105, 106. + + McArthur, Lieutenant Governor Arthur, 219, 220. + McKay, Major William, 113, 114. + Mackinac, 29, 35, 44, 45, 56, 61, 67, 70, 78, 83, 84, 93, 94, 98, + 99, 104, 105, 111-114, 120, 147, 199, 209, 210. + Madelaine Island, 148-150. + Madison, 123, 158, 160, 165, 172, 175, 182, 217, 220. + Manitowoc County, 233. + Marin, French captain, 72, 73. + Marquette, Father Jacques, 37, 38, 42-50, 56, 60, 118, 147, 149, + 153. + Marquette County, 90. + Mascoutin Indians (Fire Nation), 15, 37, 38, 45-47, 57, 60, 63, 64, + 74, 78. + Mason, destroyed by fire, 235. + Massachusetts Indians in Wisconsin, 15. + Ménard, Father René, 52-55, 59, 146. + Menasha, 36. + Menominee Indians, 15, 46, 59, 74, 78, 94-96, 199, 209-214. + Menominee River, 30, 167, 168. + Merrill, 55. + Methode, killed by Indians, 128, 133. + Miami Indians, 15, 46, 47, 60, 64. + Miller, A. G., 206. + Milwaukee, 66, 69, 86, 88, 106, 122, 123, 158, 172, 179, 180, 182, + 204, 214, 222, 225, 228. + Mineral Point, 122, 158, 225. + Mississippi River, 14, 32, 37, 42-50, 57, 62, 63, 65-70, 72, 73, + 76-78, 87, 93, 104, 111, 112, 119, 120, 123, 124, 127, 128, 138, + 139, 142, 143, 148, 149, 156, 158, 162, 164, 168, 169, 179, 180, + 182, 190, 225. + Mohawk Indians, 197, 198. + Montreal River, 167. + Mormons in Wisconsin, 190-195. + Morse, Dr. Jedediah, 199. + Munsee Indians, 15, 198, 200. + + Nahkom, Indian woman, 213, 214. + Neapope, Sac leader, 139. + Neenah, 36, 73, 76, 86, 211, 213. + New Franken, 233. + New Glarus, 225, 227. + New York Indians in Wisconsin, 15. + Nicolet, Jean, 26-33, 36, 37, 43, 45, 59, 117. + Northwest Company, 84. + Nouvel, Father Henri, 57. + + Oconto, 233. + Oconto County, 233. + Odanah, 153. + Ogemaunee, Menominee chief, 94-96. + "Old Abe," Wisconsin war eagle, 243 + Oneida Indians, 15, 196, 198, 200. + Oshkosh (city), 37, 86, 213. + Oshkosh, Indian chief, 209-215. + Ottawa Indians, 15, 39, 53, 60, 74, 78. + + Partridge, Alvin, 213, 214. + Pensaukee, 233. + Perkins, Lieutenant Joseph, 112, 114. + Perrot, Nicolas, 34, 57-64, 66, 72. + Peshtigo, 233. + Phillips, 235. + Platteville, 158. + Point Bass, 209. + Poles in Wisconsin, 222, 229. + Pontiac's War, 94, 97. + Portage, 37, 47, 48, 86, 90, 91, 103, 106, 113, 122, 131, 133, 158, + 178, 180. + Portage County, 90. + Potosi, 68. + Pottawattomie Indians, 15, 36, 59, 64, 74, 138, 141. + Prairie du Chien, 14, 37, 48, 63, 70, 86, 88, 89, 91, 98, 103-105, + 110-116, 123, 124, 127-133, 142, 144, 172, 178, 179. + Prairie du Sac, 142. + + Racine, 91, 158. + Racine County, 90, 190. + Radisson, Pierre-Esprit, 34-41, 45, 53, 55, 59, 60, 146, 147, 149. + Réaume, Charles, 105-109. + Red Bird, Winnebago chief, 128-133. + Roads in Wisconsin, 177-182. + Rock River, 123, 134, 138, 141, 145, 182. + Rolette, Joseph, 113. + Russians in Wisconsin, 222. + + Sac Indians, 15, 73, 74, 78-80, 134-145, 212. + St. Cosme, Father Jean François Buisson, 68, 69. + St. Croix County, 90. + St. Croix River, 67, 68, 71, 90, 148, 169, 170. + St. Francis Xavier mission. _See_ De Pere. + St. James, Jesuit mission, 57. + St. Louis River, 148. + St. Mark, Jesuit mission, 56, 57. + Sauk County, 225. + Sault Ste. Marie, 43, 60, 61, 63. + Scandinavians in Wisconsin, 222, 227, 228. + Scotch in Wisconsin, 222. + Shawano County, 233. + Sheboygan, 69, 86, 228. + Shell Lake, 235. + Shull, James W., 121. + Shullsburg, 121. + Silvy, Father Antoine, 57. + Sinclair, Captain Patrick, 104. + Sioux Indians, 14, 16, 18, 40, 56, 62, 66, 67, 78, 127-130, 144, + 147. + Slavery in Wisconsin, 202-208. + Souligny, Indian chief, 209, 210, 214. + Spaniards in lead mines, 120, 121. + Spanish-American War, Wisconsin in, 243-245. + Stockbridge Indians, 15, 198, 200. + Strang, James Jesse, 190-195. + Sturgeon Bay, 86, 233. + Sturgeon Bay (water), Indians on, 14. + Sugar Bush, 233. + Superior, 235. + Swiss in Wisconsin, 225-227. + + Taylor, Zachary, 139. + Taylor County, 225. + Tecumseh, 135, 209, 210. + Tomah, 209, 210. + Trempealeau, 62, 63, 169. + Trempealeau County, 7, 90, 91. + + Vanderventer's Creek, 147. + Voree, 191-193, 195. + + Wabashaw, Sioux chief, 144. + Walworth County, 192. + War of Secession, Wisconsin in, 236-245. + Warren, Lyman Marcus, 152, 153. + Warren, Truman, 152, 153. + Washington Island, 229. + Waukesha, 182. + Waukesha County, 216, 242. + Wekau, Winnebago avenger, 129-133. + Welsh in Wisconsin, 222, 229. + Whistler, Major William, 131, 132. + White Cloud, Sac leader, 138, 139. + White Crane, Chippewa chief, 152. + White River, 192, 195. + Whittlesey's Creek, 146. + Williams, Eleazer, 196-201. + Winnebago County, 213. + Winnebago Indians, 14-16, 18, 30-32, 78, 125-133, 138, 139, 141, + 142, 144, 199; as mound builders, 14. + Winnebago Rapids, 73. + Wisconsin City, 158. + Wisconsin River, 14, 15, 32, 37, 48, 55, 61, 63, 67, 68, 71, 78, + 79, 113, 114, 122-124, 133, 141, 142, 148, 167, 180. + Wisconsinapolis, 158. + Wolf River, 15, 56. + + Yellow Banks, 138. + + +TYPOGRAPHY BY J. 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