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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA   SAN  DIEGO 


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american  Commontoealtyg 


WISCONSIN 


WISCONSIN  ^ 

TO  ACCOMPANY 

REUBEN  G.THWAITES'S 

WISCONSIN  in  AMERICAN  COMMONWEALTHS 

f  Ar*lTT  f\W  \f  tT  va 


American  €ommontoeaitt)g 


WISCONSIN 

THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  A  FRENCH 
SETTLEMENT 


BY 


REUBEN  GOLD  THWAITES 


BOSTON  AND  NEW   YORK 
HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 
rejs#  Cambri&0e 

1908 


COPYRIGHT,    1908,   BY   REUBEN   GOLD  THWAITES 
ALL   RIGHTS   RESERVED 

Published  November  iqoS 


PREFACE 

THE  history  of  Wisconsin  concerns  itself  with 
three  political  regimes  —  those  of  New  France, 
Great  Britain,  and  the  United  States.  Its  civiliza- 
tion, however,  is  of  the  first  and  third,  for  the 
influence  of  the  second  was  negligible.  When,  in 
1816,  American  troops  first  took  possession  of  Green 
Bay  and  Prairie  du  Chien,  the  country  between 
Lake  Michigan  and  the  Mississippi  River  was  still 
French  to  the  core.  Indeed,  still  another  decade  was 
to  pass  before  the  Americanizing  process  began  to 
show  results.  These  came,  not  by  transforming  the 
character  or  habits  of  our  mild-mannered  and  non- 
progressive  habitans  and  voyageurs,  who  remained 
quite  unchanged  through  full  two  centuries  of  resi- 
dence in  Wisconsin,  but  by  means  of  the  influx  of 
New  Yorkers  and  New  Englanders,  who  gradually 
crowded  them  to  the  wall.  It  was  nearly  twenty 
years  after  American  occupation  began,  before  the 
fur-trade,  now  managed  by  Americans  but  almost 
wholly  manned  by  French,  ceased  to  be  Wiscon- 
sin's dominating  industry. 

So  far  as  it  differs  materially  from  that  of  its 
neighbors,  the  story  of  Wisconsin  is  that  of  the 
Americanization  of  a  French  settlement,  —  or 


2046885 


vi  PREFACE 

rather  of  a  cordon  of  widely  scattered  although 
closely  related  French  fur-trade  outposts.  Long 
after  the  greater  part  of  the  Old  Northwest  had 
become  a  vigorous  American  community,  this  far 
northwestern  corner,  with  a  history  all  its  own, 
was  practically  a  foreign  land. 

During  the  twelve  years  of  territorial  experience 
(1836-48),  the  element  of  growth  in  Wisconsin  was 
distinctly  American.  But  immediately  upon  enter- 
ing the  Union,  the  state  became  a  centre  of  attrac- 
tion for  German  immigrants,  and  was  for  a  time 
perhaps  better  known  for  its  Teutonic  than  for  its 
native-born  population.  Norwegians,  Poles,  Swiss, 
and  other  European  peoples  likewise  found  in 
Wisconsin  those  climatic,  industrial,  and  political 
conditions  favorable  to  their  development.  The 
result  was  that  by  1890  Wisconsin  was  credited 
with  a  larger  variety  of  foreign-born  folk  than 
could  be  found  in  any  other  American  common- 
wealth, save  perhaps  Pennsylvania.  In  the  Ameri- 
canization of  these  people,  Wisconsin  throughout 
her  statehood  career  has  been  actively  engaged. 
That  this  task  has  been  successfully  performed  is 
evident  to  any  one  familiar  with  her  record.  For- 
tunately, in  becoming  Americans  European  im- 
migrants brought  from  Old- World  experiences 
and  culture  much  that  was  of  use  to  the  life  of 
the  young  state.  The  results  show  themselves  in 
the  conservative  tendencies  of  Wisconsin  political 
thought,  in  the  frank  welcome  here  given  to  mod- 


PREFACE  vii 

ern  ideas,  in  the  generous  sustenance  awarded  to 
every  form  of  popular  and  higher  education,  in 
evidences  of  a  civic  patriotism  that  must  work  still 
larger  triumphs  for  the  commonwealth. 

Space  within  the  volume  has  been  devoted  to  the 
consideration  of  these  matters  rather  than  to  a 
marshaling  of  annals,  although  I  hope  that  none 
of  the  essentials  of  the  state's  history  have  been 
neglected.  As  for  errors  of  fact  or  of  judgment,  no 
historical  work  ever  has  been  or  will  be  free  from 
them;  history  is  a  growing  science,  ever  subject 
to  new  interpretations  as  fresh  material  comes  to 
light,  or  points  of  view  differ.  It  will  be  noticed 
that  the  present  treatment  of  the  French  and  much 
of  the  British  regime  .in  Wisconsin  differs  mate- 
rially from  previous  historical  writing  on  this  sub- 
ject ;  indeed,  it  must  frankly  be  admitted  that 
there  are  herein  many  statements  varying  from 
what  I  have  myself  asserted  in  earlier  writings. 
But  within  the  past  few  years  the  discovery  and 
publication  of  documentary  material  by  the  Wis- 
consin Historical  Society  has  made  necessary  an 
entirely  new  view  of  that  period,  and  this  volume 
has  thereby  been  the  gainer.  The  "  deepest  deep  " 
has,  doubtless,  not  yet  been  sounded,  hence  to-day's 
opinions  may  still  need  to  be  corrected.  It  would 
be  strange,  indeed,  were  this  not  so. 

In  the  preparation  of  the  book,  I  have  been 
privileged  to  receive  aid  of  varying  sort  from  sev- 


viii  PREFACE 

eral  persons,  some  of  whom  have  even  done  me  the 
service  of  reading  the  manuscript  in  whole  or  in 
part.  Miss  Deborah  B.  Martin,  one  of  the  authors 
of  that  admirable  local  history,  "  Historic  Green 
Bay,"  has  kindly  examined  those  portions  having 
reference  to  that  ancient  town,  and  much  is  owing 
to  her  fruitful  suggestions.  President  William 
Ward  Wight,  of  the  Wisconsin  Historical  Society, 
did  for  me  a  similar  favor  in  the  matter  of  Eleazer 
Williams,  the  "  lost  Dauphin."  Dr.  Louise  P.  Kel- 
logg, my  editorial  assistant  on  the  staff  of  the 
Wisconsin  Historical  Library,  has  been  especially 
helpful  in  research  cooperation,  particularly  in  the 
French  and  British  regimes.  I  have,  in  occasional 
footnotes,  acknowledged  aid  from  other  sources; 
but  owing  to  the  popular  nature  of  the  work  have  not 
sought  to  fortify  every  statement  by  citations  of 
authorities. 

R.  G.  T. 

WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  LIBRARY, 
MADISON,  October,  1908. 


CONTENTS 

I.  THE  COMING  OF  NICOLET 1 

II.  FRENCH  EXPLORERS  AND  MISSIONARIES  .        .  34 

m.  FRENCH  EXPLOITATION 62 

IV.  THE  Fox  WARS  AND  THE  FALL  OF  NEW  FRANCE  85 

V.  UNDER  THE  BRITISH  FLAG        ....  102 

VI.  FROM  THE  PEACE  OF  PARIS  TO  JAY'S  TREATY  .  142 

VII.  BRITISH  INFLUENCE  CONTINUED       .        .        .  161 

VEIL  AMERICAN  DOMINATION  ESTABLISHED  .        .        .  179 

IX.  LEAD-MINING  AND  INDIAN  WARS     .        .        .  199 

X.  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  WISCONSIN  TERRITORY        .  229 

XL  TERRITORIAL  PIONEERS  AND  PIONEERING       .  246 

XII.  TERRITORIAL  AFFAIRS 270 

XIII.  ECONOMIC  EXPERIENCES 288 

XFV.  "  POLITICS  "  AND  NATIONAL  RELATIONS       .        .  305 

XV.  THE  WAR  CLOUD 326 

XVI.  NEWS  FROM  THE  FRONT 342 

XVII.  INCIDENTS  OF  ECONOMIC  DEVELOPMENT          .  371 

XVIII.  SOME  NOTABLE  CONTESTS 400 

XIX.  WISCONSIN  TO-DAY 417 

INDEX     .....  .433 


WISCONSIN 


CHAPTER  I 

THE   COMING   OF  NICOLET 

IN  the  year  made  memorable  in  Jamestown  an- 
nals through  association  with  the  legend  of  Captain 
John  Smith's  rescue  by  the  romantic  Pocahontas, 
twelve  and  a  half  years  before  the  Pilgrims  landed 
on  Plymouth  Rock,  Samuel  de  Champlain,  navi- 
gator, explorer,  and  statesman,  reared  on  the  gray 
cliff  of  Quebec  (July,  1608)  the  stronghold  destined 
to  become  the  capital  of  New  France. 

As  early  as  1498  Devonshire  men,  "  coming  out 
of  Bristow  [Bristol],"  had  caught  fish  and  bartered 
with  savages  in  the  fiords  of  Newfoundland,  being 
soon  joined  in  this  profitable  undertaking  by  Span- 
ish Basques,  Portuguese,  and  Normans  and  Bretons. 
Throughout  the  sixteenth  century  the  polyglot  fish- 
ing village  of  St.  John's  was  well  known  as  a  port  of 
call  for  maritime  adventurers  into  the  western  seas, 
who  obtained  there  water,  provisions,  and  recruits ; 
and  later  the  pioneers  of  Virginia,  New  France, 
and  New  England  not  infrequently  resorted  thither 
for  succor  of  various  kinds. 


2  WISCONSIN 

In  1604  a  trading  and  planting  company,  under 
grant  from  Henry  IV  of  France,  founded  New 
France  on  the  mainland  of  the  continent,  their 
initial  choice  for  a  site  being  Port  Royal,  near  the 
present  beautiful  little  town  of  Annapolis  Royal, 
in  Nova  Scotia.  Their  first  winter,  however,  was 
miserably  spent  upon  the  rocky  islet  of  St.  Croix, 
in  Passamaquoddy  Bay,  on  the  boundary  between 
Maine  and  New  Brunswick.  The  river  St.  Law- 
rence had  in  1534  been  ascended  as  far  as  the 
island  of  Montreal  by  the  French  explorer,  Jacques 
Cartier,  and  a  similar  expedition  had  been  made 
by  Champlain  in  1603.  Port  Royal  had  proved  too 
easily  accessible  to  roving  English  corsairs,  jealous 
of  this  foreign  intrusion  upon  a  domain  claimed  by 
their  own  sovereign,  and  its  facilities  for  trade  with 
the  aborigines  were  found  to  be  meagre.  It  was, 
therefore,  determined  to  remove  the  capital  of  the 
western  possessions  of  the  French  king  to  a  stronger 
position.  Champlain,  now  appointed  governor  of 
New  France,  wisely  selected  the  easily  defensible 
rock  of  Quebec,  which  lay  far  from  the  path  of  the 
meddlesome  English.  It  was  so  situated,  also,  as  to 
command  an  apparently  unlimited  native  traffic, 
and  thence  might  easily  be  dispatched  exploring 
and  military  expeditions  into  the  far  interior. 

The  motives  that  impelled  the  planting  of  New 
France  remained  to  the  end  its  chief  characteristics : 
love  of  territorial  conquest,  that  which  in  the  politi- 
cal jargon  of  our  day  we  dub  "imperialism;"  the 


THE  COMING  OF  NICOLET  3 

missionary  zeal  of  the  Catholic  Church,  eager  at  any 
hazard  of  martyrdom  to  gather  within  her  fold  the 
heathen  savages  of  the  New  World ;  the  spirit  of 
commercial  enterprise,  finding  in  the  fur-trade  with 
North  American  natives  a  field  at  first  rich  in 
profits,  but  in  time  becoming  a  gambling  venture, 
beset  by  enormous  risks  ;  and  the  generous  yearn- 
ing of  the  French  people  for  adventure  in  strange 
lands,  in  a  period  when  the  area  of  the  known 
world  was  being  rapidly,  enlarged  by  the  explora- 
tions of  Europeans,  and  popular  imagination  was 
readily  kindled  by  travelers'  tales. 

Such  were  the  dominating  passions  of  the  enter- 
prise. Subsidiary  to  these  were  the  hopes  of  pro- 
spectors, who  thought  in  this  vast  wilderness  to 
discover  mines  of  metals  and  precious  stones ;  the 
ambition  of  army  and  naval  officers,  who  in  the 
stirring  colonial  arena  sought  recognition  and  rapid 
promotion ;  and  the  cupidity  of  officials  in  every 
branch  of  service,  military  and  civil,  who,  in  an  age 
far  more  corrupt  than  our  own,  too  often  deemed 
public  office,  particularly  in  over-sea  colonies,  but 
an  opportunity  for  private  peculation. 

In  Champlain's  day,  — indeed,  for  nearly  a  cen- 
tury after  he  had  planted  Quebec,  —  Europeans  had 
small  notion  of  the  enormous  width  of  the  North 
American  continent.  Not  until  Vitus  Bering's  ex- 
ploit in  1741  were  they  quite  certain  that  it  was  a 
continent,  and  not  an  outlying  portion  of  Asia.  In 
their  many  sorry  adventures,  the  Spanish  followers 


4  WISCONSIN 

of  Columbus  were  ever  seeking  an  American  trans- 
continental waterway  connecting  the  Atlantic  and 
the  Pacific.  The  early  Virginians  fancied  that,  once 
successfully  surmounting  the  Appalachian  moun- 
tain wall  by  way  of  the  James,  the  Potomac,  or  the 
Roanoke,  they  might  reach  the  headsprings  of 
streams  flowing  directly  into  the  Pacific.  Hendrik 
Hudson  at  first  thought  that  he  had  found  the  way 
through,  in  Hudson  River ;  he  was  still  more  confi- 
dent when  later  he  discoyered  Hudson  Strait  and 
Bay.  Throughout  nearly  two  and  a  half  centuries 
of  effort,  European  navigators  one  by  one  exhausted 
the  possibilities  of  North  American  inlets  opening 
into  both  oceans ;  the  quest  for  what  came  to  be 
known  as  the  Northwest  Passage  was  thus  gradu- 
ally moved  farther  and  farther  up  the  map,  until  at 
last  that  mythic  waterway,  that  should  shorten  the 
sea  route  between  Europe  and  Asia,  was  consigned 
to  the  impenetrable  Arctic. 

This  prevalent  misconception  of  the  width  of 
North  America,  the  lingering  notion  that  it  was  a 
part  of  Asia,  and  the  theory  that  a  waterway  would 
yet  be  found  that  directly  connected  the  two 
oceans,  were  three  basic  facts  in  the  story  of  the 
discovery  of  Wisconsin.  Perhaps  equally  signifi- 
cant was  the  circumstance  that  the  sources  of  rivers 
connected  with  the  several  divergent  drainage  sys- 
tems of  the  continent  in  numerous  places  here 
closely  approach  each  other,  making  it  possible  for 
primitive  travelers  to  proceed  from  one  system  to 


THE  COMING  OF  NICOLET  5 

another,  and  thus  readily  traverse  the  greater  part 
of  the  country.  We  shall  have  abundant  opportun- 
ity to  observe  wherein  these  factors  shaped  the 
early  history  of  Wisconsin ;  indeed,  they  profoundly 
affected  the  course  of  exploration  throughout  al- 
most the  entire  continental  interior. 

We  have  seen  that  in  choosing  Quebec  as  the 
capital  of  New  France,  Cham  plain  purposely 
planted  himself  well  within  the  continent,  upon  a 
great  east-and-west  drainage  trough  whose  afflu- 
ents in  lake  and  river  were  to  the  adventurous 
people  of  New  France  destined  to  prove  far-stretch- 
ing highways.  Their  imagination  was  easily  fired 
by  the  prospect  of  thereby  penetrating  an  immense 
area  of  forested  wilderness  peopled  with  strange 
tribes  of  wild  men. 

At  the  head  of  this  trough  of  the  St.  Lawrence 
valley  is  another  low  area,  extending  transversely 
north  and  south,  practically  between  the  Arctic 
Ocean  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  with  the  Missis- 
sippi River  flowing  through  the  greater  part  of  its 
enormous  length.  Now  the  basin  of  the  Mississippi 
is  separated  from  that  of  the  St.  Lawrence  by  only 
a  low  and  narrow  watershed  running  parallel  to 
the  Great  Lakes.  Flowing  into  these  lakes  are 
many  short  rivers,  easily  ascended  by  the  light  In- 
dian canoes,  which  the  whites  soon  learned  to  con- 
struct and  operate  quite  as  skillfully  as  the  abo- 
rigines. Portage  paths,  varying  in  length  from  one 
mile  to  ten,  and  seldom  difficult  of  passage,  lead 


6  WISCONSIN 

from  these  waterways  over  the  height  of  land  to 
other,  and  for  the  most  part  leisurely,  streams 
pouring  into  larger  rivers  that  in  their  turn  empty 
directly  or  indirectly  into  the  Mississippi.  While 
possible  portages  are  numerous  along  this  water- 
shed, certain  routes  had  in  the  course  of  time  been 
selected  as  the  most  practicable  by  aboriginal  war, 
trading,  and  hunting  parties.  Well-defined  before 
the  coming  of  Europeans,  they  were  freely  used  by 
the  latter  in  exploring  and  exploiting  the  country. 

Proceeding  westward,  the  first  of  these  St.  Law- 
rence-Mississippi routes  was  one  by  which  the  trav- 
eler from  Lake  Erie  might,  through  Lake  Chau- 
tauqua,  gain  the  waters  of  the  Ohio  River,  the 
Mississippi's  great  eastern  tributary.  The  Ohio 
could  also  be  reached  from  Lake  Erie  by  way  of  the 
present  Pennyslvania  town  of  Erie  and  French 
Creek,  a  confluent  of  the  Allegheny.  The  Beaver, 
Muskingum,  and  Scioto  (by  way  of  the  Cuyahoga), 
and  the  Maumee  and  the  Wabash  rivers  were  also 
well-worn  trade  and  war  routes  between  the  lower 
Great  Lakes  and  the  Ohio. 

From  Lake  Erie  it  was  possible  to  ascend  the 
Maumee  and  carry  over  to  the  St.  Josephs,  which 
debouches  into  Lake  Michigan,  —  thus  making  a 
short  cut  across  the  base  of  the  lower  Michigan 
peninsula ;  or,  paddling  up  the  St.  Josephs  from 
Lake  Michigan,  one  might  at  the  present  South 
Bend,  Indiana,  portage  over  to  the  Kankakee,  a 
tributary  of  the  Illinois,  itself  a  feeder  of  the  Mis- 


THE  COMING  OF  NICOLET  7 

sissippi ;  this  route  was  used  by  La  Salle  in  1679, 
and  afterwards  became  famous  as  a  French  high- 
way. Chicago  River  could  be  ascended,  as  it  was 
in  1674  by  Marquette,  to  the  swamps  closely  ap- 
proaching the  Des  Plaines,  the  latter  being  then 
followed  to  the  Illinois. 

For  the  French,  undoubtedly  the  favorite  path 
between  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  Mississippi  was 
that  of  the  Fox-Wisconsin  rivers,  in  the  heart  of 
central  Wisconsin.  From  Green  Bay,  the  canoeist 
might  work  his  way  up  the  frequently  sluggish  but 
here  and  there  rapids-strewn  Fox  to  where  is  now 
the  small  city  of  Portage,  carry  his  craft  and  its 
cargo  across  a  marshy  plain  of  a  mile  and  a  half, 
and  then  reembark  on  the  swift-flowing  Wisconsin, 
whose  current  would  quickly  convey  him  to  the 
Mississippi.  Sometimes  the  Wisconsin,  when  in 
high  spring  stage,  would,  as  despite  modern  levees 
it  still  occasionally  does,  leap  the  scarcely  percept- 
ible watershed  and  pour  its  flood  into  the  Fox,  thus 
sending  to  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  waters  ordi- 
narily flowing  toward  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  In  like 
manner  the  Chicago  portage  plain  was  sometimes 
flooded  from  Lake  Michigan,  the  lake  thus  seeking 
a  southern  outlet  through  the  Des  Plaines,  —  an 
egress  properly  its  own  in  an  earlier  geological  era, 
and  in  our  own  day  regained  through  the  Chicago 
drainage  canal. 

Between  Lake  Superior  and  the  upper  waters  of 
the  Mississippi  there  were,  not  to  mention  several 


8  WISCONSIN 

minor  because  more  difficult  paths,  two  much-used 
routes.  One  followed  the  narrow  and  somewhat 
turbulent  Bois  Brule",  from  whose  head-springs  there 
was  and  still  is  a  carrying  path  of  a  mile  and  a  half 
to  the  willow  marshes  whence  flows  the  beautiful 
St.  Croix,  an  affluent  of  the  great  river ;  another  was 
by  way  of  the  foaming  St.  Louis,  from  which  can 
be  reached  the  watery  plain  of  the  Mille  Lacs,  and 
thence  the  uppermost  pools  of  the  Mississippi.  By 
ascending  Pigeon  River,  on  the  present  interna- 
tional boundary,  the  traveler  might  by  means  of  a 
score  or  two  of  portages  and  a  network  of  lakes 
ultimately  reach  Lake  Winnipeg ;  whence  by  other 
interlacing  waters  could  be  penetrated  the  great  sys- 
tems of  the  Saskatchewan  and  the  Assiniboin,  which 
touch  the  feet  of  the  Canadian  Rockies.  Still  other 
portages  in  the  far  north  and  northwest  brought 
him  in  connection  with  streams  debouching  into 
both  the  Arctic  and  the  Pacific  oceans. 

These  important  geographical  facts  were  but 
slowly  revealed  to  the  French.  At  first  cartogra- 
phers depended  on  the  vague  statements  of  Indians 
who  sought  the  lower  settlements  for  purposes  of 
trade  ;  later,  on  the  reports  of  explorers,  fur-traders, 
missionaries,  and  soldiers,  who  upon  their  respect- 
ive errands  had  followed  returning  tribesmen  into 
the  wilderness,  and  through  close  contact  with  con- 
ditions were  enabled  to  extend  the  bounds  of  the 
map  of  New  France. 

Champlain  was  a  born  rover,  and  in  person  con- 


THE  COMING  OF  NICOLET  9 

ducted  several  exploring  parties,  chiefly  up  the 
Saguenay,  into  the  country  around  Lake  Cham- 
plain,  and  up  the  broad  Ottawa.  The  deep  trough 
of  the  Saguenay  led  him  through  picturesque  scenes 
to  the  north  and  northeast,  into  the  rich  fur-bear- 
ing region  around  Lake  St.  John,  among  the  rudest 
of  his  savage  neighbors.  His  first  visit  to  the  Lake 
Champlain  country  (1609)  resulted  unfortunately  ; 
for  in  order  to  please  his  Algonkin  friends  he 
attacked  and  routed  the  confederated  Iroquois,  who 
lived  for  the  most  part  in  the  northern  half  of  New 
York  State  and  in  northeastern  Pennsylvania. 
Thereby  he  incurred  for  New  France  the  undying 
hostility  of  the  most  astute  and  vengeful  warriors 
among  the  North  American  tribes.  The  effect  was, 
for  a  century  and  a  half,  at  times  highly  disastrous 
to  missionary  and  trading  enterprises  throughout 
the  great  length  of  New  France,  from  the  Atlantic 
seaboard  to  the  Mississippi. 

Lake  Erie  was  firmly  held  by  these  implacable 
enemies,  who  long  stoutly  refused  to  allow  French- 
men to  pass  through,  so  that  Champlain's  westward 
exploration  must  needs  be  by  way  of  the  Ottawa. 
Stemming  its  strong  flood  and  portaging  around 
its  numerous  rapids,  the  governor  ascended  to  the 
Mattawan  ;  after  tracing  that  tributary  to  its  source, 
he  followed  the  Indian  portage  trail  over  to  Lake 
Nipissing,  and  thence  descended  its  many-chan- 
neled outlet,  French  River,  to  Georgian  Bay.  Thus 
in  1615  was  discovered  Lake  Huron,  first  of  the 


10  WISCONSIN 

Great  Lakes  to  be  unveiled  by  the  French.  Later 
in  the  year,  Champlain  returned  by  Lake  Ontario. 
We  shall  find  that  Lake  Michigan  was  apparently 
first  seen  by  a  Frenchman  in  1634,  and  doubtless 
Superior  also  by  the  same  adventurer ;  while  seven 
years  later  (1641),  Jesuit  missionaries  at  Sault  de 
Ste.  Marie  wrote  familiarly  of  the  "other  great 
lake  above  the  Sault."  Erie  was  seen  by  the  French 
as  early  as  1640,  but  unnavigated  by  them  until 
twenty-nine  years  later,  save  as  unlicensed  fur- 
traders  conducted  an  illicit  commerce  with  English 
and  Dutch  allies  of  the  Iroquois. 

The  French  had  not  long  been  settled  at  Quebec 
before  news  began  to  reach  them  of  what  in  later 
years  proved  to  be  the  Mississippi  River.  At  first 
the  information  brought  by  Indians,  who  annually 
came  down  in  their  fleets  of  birch-bark  canoes  to 
barter  with  the  fur-traders  on  the  St.  Lawrence, 
was  of  the  vaguest.  It  might  mean  either  that  in 
the  far-away  western  country  certain  "great  waters" 
flowed  directly  into  the  Pacific,  or  that  somewhere 
in  what  we  now  call  the  Middle  West  might  act- 
ually be  found  the  coast  of  the  Pacific  itself.  Sav- 
ages themselves  had  necessarily  but  a  limited  stock 
of  geographical  knowledge.  They  understood  well 
their  particular  tribal  range  for  fishing,  hunting, 
trading,  and  war ;  the  Iroquois  at  times  raided  over 
much  of  the  country  north  of  the  Ohio,  from  New 
England  to  the  Mississippi.  But  this  was  excep- 
tional ;  to  most  tribes  all  beyond  their  own  habitat 


THE  COMING  OF  NICOLET  11 

was  apt  to  be  a  region  of  myth,  peopled  by  enemies, 
man-devouring  monsters,  and  angry  spirits.  The 
aboriginal  imagination  was  well  developed  ;  tribes- 
men cowered  before  the  unknown. 

Information  thus  coming  at  second  and  third 
hand,  obviously  distorted  by  the  fears,  superstitions, 
and  personal  exaggerations  of  the  tale-tellers,  but 
whetted  the  curiosity  of  Champlain.  His  desire  to 
solve  the  mysteries  of  this  western  wilderness  had 
been  accentuated  by  reports  of  rich  copper  mines 
in  that  quarter,  for  among  the  officials  of  New 
France  the  discovery  of  mineral  deposits  ranked 
only  second  in  importance  to  the  fur-trade.  He  tells 
us  in  his  "Voyages"  l  that  in  June,  1610,  an  Al- 
gonkin  chief  whom  he  was  entertaining  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Quebec  "  drew  from  a  sack  a  piece  of 
copper  a  foot  long,  which  he  gave  me.  This  was 
very  handsome  and  pure.  He  gave  me  to  under- 
stand that  there  were  large  quantities  where  he  had 
taken  this,  which  was  on  the  bank  of  a  river,  near 
a  great  lake.  He  said  that  they  [the  savages  of 
those  parts]  gathered  it  in  lumps,  and  having 
melted  it,  spread  it  in  sheets,  smoothing  it  with 
stones." 

In  the  light  of  modern  knowledge,  it  is  not  diffi- 
cult to  recognize  Lake  Superior  as  the  home  of 
this  historic  lump  of  copper.  The  governor's  guest 
had,  possibly,  never  been  there ;  the  specimen  may 

1  Champlain'8  Voyages  (Paris,  1613),  pp.  246,  247 ;  Prince  So- 
ciety ed.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  236,  237. 


12  WISCONSIN 

easily  have  reached  him  from  the  west  through 
the  medium  of  intertribal  barter.  North  American 
savages  were  keen  traders ;  in  intervals  between 
warfare  they  held  markets  with  their  neighbors, 
at  certain  well-known  aboriginal  rendezvous  (like 
Mackinac,  Green  Bay,  or  Prairie  du  Chien),  for 
the  exchange  of  tribal  specialties,  and  of  curiosi- 
ties from  a  distance.  By  means  of  this  widespread 
commerce,  European  articles,  bartered  to  natives 
by  early  explorers  along  the  Atlantic  coast,  are 
known  to  have  reached  the  forest  camps  of  the  far 
interior  long  in  advance  of  the  arrival  of  white 
men  themselves. 

After  his  own  laborious  journey  to  Lake  Huron, 
five  years  later,  in  search  of  more  definite  informa- 
tion concerning  the  mysterious  West,  further  news 
continued  to  reach  Champlain,  slowly  percolating 
through  the  uncertain  channel  of  savage  report. 
New  France  was  still  weak,  both  in  population  and 
in  resources.  In  1629  a  predatory  English  fleet 
had  secured  the  unresisting  surrender  of  Quebec. 
It  was  not  until  three  years  after  (1632)  that  the 
country  was  restored  to  its  French  owners,  and  the 
governor  returned  to  his  charge.  In  the  year  of 
restoration  probably  not  over  a  hundred  and  eighty 
of  the  inhabitants  of  New  France  might  properly 
be  called  settlers,  with  perhaps  a  few  score  military 
men,  seafarers,  and  visiting  commercial  adventur- 
ers—  during  a  time  when  (1627-37)  upward  of 
twenty  thousand  settlers  were  emigrating  from 


THE  COMING  OF  NICOLET  13 

Europe  to  the  English  colonies.  Because  of  this 
weakness,  exploration  in  New  France  long  kept  at 
a  lagging  pace.  There  were  also  affairs  on  the 
St.  Lawrence,  among  them  a  protracted  hand-to- 
hand  struggle  with  the  exasperating  Iroquois,  that 
sapped  the  slender  resources  of  the  province.  Not 
until  1634  could  Champlain  carry  out  his  long- 
cherished  scheme  of  dispatching  an  exploring  agent 
into  the  country  beyond  Lake  Huron,  to  make 
trading  treaties  with  its  uncouth  tribes,  and  to 
bring  back  what  information  he  might  of  the  great 
western  water  and  the  reputed  mines  of  copper. 

In  the  year  of  his  own  visit  to  Lake  Huron, 
Champlain  inaugurated  the  policy  of  selecting 
certain  adventurous  and  vigorous  youths  of  good 
character  and  sending  them  out  into  the  Indian 
camps  to  become  through  years  of  experience 
schooled  to  the  forest  life,  familiarized  with  abo- 
riginal languages,  customs,  and  thought,  and  pos- 
sessed of  the  confidence  of  the  tribesmen.  From 
among  the  graduates  of  this  rude  seminary  he 
chose  his  interpreters  and  explorers :  men  with 
fibre  toughened  to  the  work  before  them,  adding 
to  the  physical  endurance  of  the  savage  the  intel- 
ligent persistence  and  tact  of  the  European. 

Among  the  best  of  these  was  Jean  Nicolet,  who, 
immediately  upon  his  arrival  from  Normandy  in 
1618,  being  then  twenty  years  of  age,  was  dis- 
patched by  the  governor  to  the  friendly  Algonkins 
of  Allumette  Island,  far  up  on  the  Ottawa  River. 


14  WISCONSIN 

The  associations  and  language  of  this  tribe  were 
in  close  touch  with  the  West,  where  men  such  as 
Nicolet  were  most  needed.  Says  the  quaint  old 
chronicle : 1  — 

Forasmuch  as  his  nature  and  excellent  memory  in- 
spired good  hopes  of  him,  he  was  sent  to  winter  with 
the  Island  Algonquins,  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. 

During  his  residence  with  the  Algonkins,  Nico- 
let accompanied  a  party  of  four  hundred  of  his 
forest  friends  to  New  York  to  patch  up  a  tempo- 
rary peace  with  the  Iroquois,  who  had  recently 
been  harrying  the  Ottawa  valley.  This  mission 
successfully  accomplished,  he  took  up  his  residence 
with  the  Indians  around  Lake  Nipissing,  fifty 
leagues  farther  westward  on  the  route  to  Georgian 
Bay.  During  the  "  eight  or  nine  years  "  that  he  is 
reported  to  have  dwelt  among  these  people,  "  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.  .  .  .  He  was  able  to  control 
and  to  direct  [the  savages]  whither  he  wished, 
with  a  skill  that  will  hardly  find  an  equal." 
1  Thwaites,  Jesuit  Relations,  vol.  xxiii,  pp.  275-277. 


THE  COMING  OF  NICOLET  15 

It  seems  likely  that  Nicolet  was  even  longer  than 
"  eight  or  nine  years "  among  the  Nipissings,  or 
perhaps  also  with  their  neighbors  to  the  west,  on 
Georgian  Bay ;  for  the  close  of  that  term  would 
have  brought  him  to  the  time  of  the  surrender  of 
Quebec,  and  under  the  brief  English  regime  there 
could  have  been  no  official  employment  for  French- 
men of  his  profession.  There  is  no  evidence  that 
he  left  the  woods  until  the  restoration  of  New 
France  in  1632.  In  the  latter  year  we  find  him 
returning  to  Quebec,  having  withdrawn  from  the 
undoubted  fascination  of  his  wild  life  —  "  only  in 
order  to  secure  his  salvation  in  the  use  of  the  sac- 
raments," declares  the  Jesuit  "  Relation."  Here  he 
received  employment  as  agent  and  interpreter  for 
the  Company  of  the  Hundred  Associates.  To  this 
trading  monopoly,  directed  by  Cardinal  Richelieu, 
had  been  granted  almost  sovereign  jurisdiction 
throughout  the  vast  transatlantic  territory  claimed 
by  the  French,  extending  from  Florida  to  the  Arc- 
tic Circle,  and  from  Newfoundland  to  the  farthest 
west.  Upon  the  restoration,  the  company  resumed 
sway,  Governor  Champlain  now  being  little  more 
than  its  resident  manager. 

The  route  to  Georgian  Bay,  by  way  of  the  Ot- 
tawa and  the  Mattawan,  Lake  Nipissing,  and 
French  River,  was  now  fairly  well  known  to  the 
French.  Beyond,  all  was  still  obscurity.  The  gift  of 
copper  from  the  Algonkin  chief  spoke  eloquently 
of  the  commercial  possibilities  of  the  illimitable 


16  WISCONSIN 

West;  still  more  so  the  rich  furs  that  annually 
found  their  way  from  the  upper  lakes  to  the  market 
on  the  strand  of  Quebec.  But  at  the  time  Cham- 
plain  appears  to  have  been  particularly  interested 
in  persistent  rumors  then  reaching  him,  concerning 
a  certain  tribe  called  "  Men  of  the  Sea,"  whose 
home  was  reputed  to  be  less  than  four  hundred 
leagues1  westward  of  the  Algonkin. 

It  was  reported  by  the  Algonkins  that  these  peo- 
ple had  come  to  their  present  habitat  from  a  point 
still  farther  west,  by  the  shore  of  a  salt  sea  ;  that 
annually  there  came  out  of  that  country,  to  trade 
with  them,  a  people  without  hair  or  beards,  and 
with  manners  and  dress  so  described  to  Champlain 
as  to  suggest  what  he  had  read  concerning  the 
appearance  of  Tartars  or  Chinese ;  and  it  was  con- 
fidently asserted  that  in  the  course  of  their  coming 
these  western  traders  traveled  upon  a  great  water 
in  large  canoes  of  wood  (not  bark,  the  material 
used  by  Canadian  tribes). 

Later  knowledge  has  revealed  the  fact  that  the 
Men  of  the  Sea  were  but  the  Winnebago  of  bur 
day,  —  a  name  derived  from  the  Algonkin  word 
ouinipegou,  meaning  "  men  of  the  fetid  (or  stink- 
ing) water."  When  we  take  into  consideration  the 
then  prevalent  notion  that  North  America,  if  not 

1  The  standard  French  league  is  about  equal  to  2.42  English 
miles ;  the  common  league,  2.76.  But  the  early  French  explorers 
used  the  term  approximately  —  it  is  not  safe  to  hold  them  too 
closely  to  their  estimates  of  distance. 


THE  COMING  OF  NICOLET  17 

a  portion  of  Asia,  was  at  least  a  narrow  continent 
washed  on  the  west  by  a  probably  narrow  ocean 
that  touched  Asia ;  and  further,  the  fact  that  the 
widely-diffused  Algonquian 1  stock,  embracing  most 
of  the  eastern  tribes  known  to  the  French,  often 
applied  to  salt  water  an  adjective  equivalent  to 
"stinking,"  it  is  not  difficult  to  comprehend  why 
this  term  was  translated  into  Gens  de  Mer.  We 
understand,  also,  why  the  active  imagination  of 
Champlain  impelled  him  to  accept  these  unknown 
Men  of  the  Sea,  or  their  curious  visitors,  as  pos- 
sible Mongolians,  and  to  hope  that  through  their 
lands  was  at  last  to  be  found  that  short  route  to 
the  Orient  sought  by  Europeans  since  the  days 
of  Columbus,  for  which  they  still  were  searching 
a  century  after  Champlain's  death.  Ethnologists 
now  believe  that  the  term  ouinipeg  (stinking 
water)  as  applied  by  the  Algonkins  to  the  Win- 
nebago,  had  no  reference  to  the  sea,  but  to  certain 
ill-smelling  sulphur  springs  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Lake  Winnipeg.  Whence  the  swarthy  Winnebago, 
an  outcast  and  somewhat  degenerate  branch  of  the 
Dakota  linguistic  stock,  are  thought  to  have  mi- 
grated to  the  shores  of  Green  Bay  by  way  of  the 
Wisconsin  and  Fox  rivers, — a  thin  foreign  wedge 
projected  into  the  far-stretching  territory  of  the 

1  Algonkin  is  the  name  of  a  tribe,  whose  chief  seat  in  the  days 
of  New  France  was  the  valley  of  the  Ottawa ;  Algonquian  is  the 
name  of  the  linguistic  stock,  which  included  the  Algonkins  and 
nearly  all  tribes  east  of  the  Mississippi  and  north  of  the  Tennes- 
see, except  the  Iroquois,  the  Huron,  and  a  few  of  their  kindred. 


18  WISCONSIN 

Algonquian  race.  We  now  recognize,  also,  that  the 
"  great  water  "  was  no  other  than  the  Mississippi 
itself ;  upon  it  there  came,  in  long  "  dug-out " 
canoes l  to  trade  with  the  Winnebago,  many  of  the 
Western  and  Southern  tribes,  such  as  the  Sioux 
and  the  Illinois,  to  whom  the  exuberant  fancy  of 
the  Algonkin  attributed  physical  peculiarities  that 
were  intensified  as  the  tale  passed  from  tribe  to 
tribe  on  its  way  to  the  great  white  chief. 

It  is  a  curious  etymological  fact  that  as  soon  as 
the  French  discovered  that  the  Men  of  the  Sea  were 
but  ordinary  Indians,  they  ceased  to  call  them 
Gens  de  Mer,  thenceforth  translating  ouinipeg  into 
the  French  word  for  "  stinking,"  puant.  Thus  in 
their  phraseology  the  Winnebago  early  became 
known  as  Les  Puants*  or  "  The  Stinkards,"  —  an 
opprobrious  term  ill  merited  by  those  people,  who 
were  quite  as  cleanly  as  most  of  their  neighbors. 

Jesuit  missionaries  had  first  been  introduced 
into  New  France  in  1611,  but  withdrew  after  two 
years  of  unhappy  experiences  at  Port  Royal  and 
Mount  Desert  Island.  In  1615  Champlain  invited 
to  Quebec  two  missionaries  of  the  Recollect  order,  a 
branch  of  the  Franciscan  "  gray  friars."  For  ten 
years  these  austere  brethren,  in  cowl  and  sandals, 

1  Dug,   or  rather  burned,  out  of  trunks  of  trees ;  the  Winne- 
bago of  to-day  use  similar  "  dug-outs." 

2  Hence  La  Baye  des  Puans,  by  which  Green  Bay  (both  the 
bay  itself  and  the  hamlet  at  the  mouth  of  the  Fox)  was  known 
throughout  the  French  regime  ;  although  generally  abbreviated 
to  La  Baye. 


THE   COMING  OF  NICOLET  19 

practiced  the  rites  of  the  Church  in  the  Canadian 
woods,  all  the  way  from  the  mouth  of  the  Saguenay 
to  Lake  Nipissing,  the  scene  of  Nicole t's  long  and 
arduous  training.  But  when  Richelieu  came  into 
control  of  French  policy,  it  was  contended  that  a 
mendicant  order  like  the  Recollects  was  unsuited  for 
missionary  work  among  the  savages  ;  that  the  situ- 
ation required  men  of  a  sterner  type,  with  ample 
financial  resources.  For  this  reason  the  Company 
(or  Society)  of  Jesus,  a  highly  successful  proselyt- 
ing and  teaching  agency,  then  having  a  strong 
hold  upon  the  French  court,  was  requested  to  send 
representatives  to  this  new  and  promising  field. 

In  1625  three  of  these  Jesuit  priests  arrived, 
—  "  black  gowns,"  the  Indians  called  them,  from 
their  sombre  cassocks,  —  and  immediately  the  field 
of  missionary  operations  broadened ;  although  it 
was  in  due  time  to  be  discovered  that  the  task  of 
promulgating  Christian  doctrines  among  the  war- 
like tribes  of  North  America  was  no  holiday  under- 
taking. The  work  was  abruptly  closed  by  the 
English  conquest ;  but  upon  the  retrocession  in 
1632  the  Jesuits  came  in  larger  numbers  than 
before,  and  rapidly  developed  the  celebrated  mis- 
sions of  the  interior,  the  Recollects  being  there- 
after confined  to  the  maritime  districts  of  Nova 
Scotia,  New  Brunswick,  and  much  of  Maine,  an 
ill-defined  region  then  known  to  the  French  by  the 
general  term  of  Acadia. 

A  great  part  of  what  we  know  concerning  the 


20  WISCONSIN 

people  and  affairs  of  New  France,  especially  be- 
tween 1632  and  1673,  is  obtained  from  small  vol- 
umes called  "  Relations,"  annually  published  by 
the  society  in  Paris,  and  containing  accounts  of 
the  far-spread  work  of  the  French  Jesuit  missions 
in  North  America.  Upon  these  contemporaneous 
documents  we  in  large  measure  depend  for  our 
understanding  of  the  circumstances  leading  to  the 
discovery  of  Wisconsin,  and  indeed  for  not  a  little 
of  its  subsequent  history  during  the  French  regime. 

The  several  tribes  of  Indians  whom  the  French 
called  Huron  occupied  the  country  to  the  east 
and  south  of  Georgian  Bay  of  Lake  Huron. 
Among  these  people  the  Jesuits  maintained  sev' 
eral  important  stations,  which  in  time  were  to  be' 
come  scenes  of  martyrdom  for  many  of  the  devoted 
"  black  gowns ; "  for  the  war-loving  Iroquois,  al" 
though  related  to  the  Huron,  frequently  laid  waste 
the  villages  of  the  latter,  chiefly  because  of  their 
adhesion  to  the  French.  Ultimately  the  impover- 
ished Huron,  decimated  by  slaughter,  were  driven 
from  their  scarified  lands  like  autumn  leaves  before 
a  gale,  and,  with  their  surviving  French  pastors, 
forced  to  seek  refuge  in  far  distant  recesses  of  the 
country  drained  by  the  upper  Great  Lakes. 

On  the  first  and  fourth  of  July,  1634,  respec- 
tively, two  fleets  of  birch-bark  canoes  left  Quebec 
for  the  confluence  of  the  St.  Maurice,  where,  sev- 
enty-seven miles  above  the  capital,  was  to  be  laid 
out,  on  the  northern  bank  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  the 


THE  COMING  OF  NICOLET  21 

fur-trade  and  missionary  station  of  Three  Rivers, 
then  the  farthest  western  outpost  of  the  province. 
So  far  back  as  native  tradition  went,  the  site  of 
Three  Rivers  had  been  a  favorite  rendezvous  for 
Indian  bands  when  going  to  or  from  their  winter 
hunts.  As  in  many  a  similar  case  in  North  Amer- 
ica, this  circumstance  had  induced  the  French  to 
establish  themselves  here ;  and  within  the  protect- 
ing shadow  of  their  little  log  fort  was  in  due  time 
reared  a  hamlet  of  habitans  that  eventually  grew 
into  the  present  modern  industrial  town. 

The  two  companies  of  Frenchmen  borne  in  these 
flotillas  consisted  about  equally  of  men  who  had 
been  dispatched  by  the  Hundred  Associates  to 
build  the  fort,  and  a  party  consisting  of  the  Jesuit 
Fathers  Jean  de  Bre'beuf,  Antoine  Daniel,  and 
Ambroise  Davost,  with  six  lay  assistants,  who 
were  first  to  establish  a  mission  to  the  Indians  of 
that  neighborhood  and  then  proceed  to  a  like  serv- 
ice in  the  country  of  the  Huron.  Accompanying 
these  pioneers  of  the  cross  was  Jean  Nicolet,1  in- 

1  Parkman,  in  his  Jesuits  in  North  America  (1870),  placed 
the  date  of  Nicolet's  voyage  as  "in  or  before  the  year  1639," 
•wherein  he  but  followed  Shea  in  the  latter's  Discovery  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi (1852).  Benjamin  Suite,  in  his  Melanges  d'histoire  et  de 
litterature  (1876),  first  showed  that  the  proper  date  could  be  none 
other  than  1634.  This  was  adopted  by  Butterfield  in  Discovery  of 
the  Northwest  (1881),  who  still  more  conclusively  established  that 
as  the  year.  Hebberd,  in  Wisconsin  under  the  Dominion  of  France 
(1890),  vigorously  contends  for  1638 ;  but  Abbe1  Gosselin's  appar- 
ently definitive  Jean  Nicolet,  1618-1642  (1893),  accepts  Suite's  and 
Butterfield's  conclusion,  as  does  the  present  writer. 


22  WISCONSIN 

tent  upon  his  assigned  task  of  discovering  and 
treating  with  the  Men  of  the  Sea. 

The  Jesuits  had  anticipated  meeting  at  Three 
Rivers  a  large  party  of  Huron,  expected  down  the 
Ottawa  to  trade  with  the  French  ;  they  intended  to 
seek  from  these  savages  permission  to  return  with 
them  to  their  country.  u 

They  waited  there  some  time  for  the  Hurons,  who 
did  not  come  down  in  so  great  numbers  this  year  as 
usual,  because  the  Iroquois,  having  been  informed  that 
five  hundred  men  of  this  nation  were  moving  toward 
their  country  to  make  war  upon  them,  themselves  went 
on  ahead  to  the  number  of  fifteen  hundred,  it  is  said ; 
and,  having  surprised  those  who  were  to  surprise  them, 
they  killed  about  two  hundred  of  them,  and  took  more 
than  one  hundred  prisoners.1 

At  first  readily  granting  the  request,  the  fickle 
Huron  soon  expressed  reluctance  at  taking  these 
ten  Frenchmen  back  with  them,  pleading  illness 
and  making  all  manner  of  flimsy  excuses.  It  was 
only  after  much  coaxing  and  present-giving,  and  a 
solemn  promise  that  the  white  passengers  should 
do  their  full  share  of  paddling,  that  the  tribesmen 
yielded.  It  was  a  toilsome  journey  against  the 
sweeping  currents  of  the  Ottawa  —  "three  hun- 
dred leagues  to  make,"  says  the  giant  Bre'beuf, 

1  Jesuit  Eelations,  vol.  vii,  pp.  213-215,  being  Father  Bre1- 
beuf's  letter  to  his  superior,  Le  Jeune,  in  the  Relation  for  1634, 
upon  which  we  depend  for  details;  but  Nicolet  is  not  therein 
mentioned  by  name. 


THE  COMING  OF  NICOLET  23 

"  over  a  route  full  of  horrors."  Owing  to  an  out- 
break among  the  savage  boatmen  of  an  epidemic 
resembling  measles,  the  Frenchmen  found  that 
theirs  was  indeed  the  laboring  oar.  "  We  start 
so  early  in  the  morning,"  writes  Brebeuf,  "and 
lie  down  so  late,  and  paddle  so  continually,  thai 
we  hardly  have  time  enough  to  devote  to  our 
prayers ;  indeed,  I  have  been  obliged  to  finish 
this  by  the  light  of  the  fire."  At  best  their  food 
was  of  the  scantiest,  and  there  were  days  when 
none  was  forthcoming  to  the  poor  missionaries, 
who  as  yet  had  not  so  fully  accustomed  them- 
selves to  the  privations  of  savage  life  as  had 
Nicolet,  to  whom  both  route  and  conditions  were 
familiar. 

The  immediate  destination  of  the  Jesuits  was 
Allumette  Island,  where  Nicolet  tarried  awhile 
with  them,  among  his  old  friends  the  Algonkins. 
At  last  bidding  his  countrymen  farewell,  the  ex- 
plorer pushed  on  up  the  Ottawa,  doubtless  with 
Indian  companions,  in  due  course  ascended  the 
Mattawan,  whose  headsprings  lie  close  to  Lake 
Nipissing,1  carried  his  canoe  and  baggage  over 
the  easy  portage,  crossed  the  stormy  lake,  and  fol- 
lowed its  outlet,  French  River,  down  into  the 
beautiful  vistas  of  Georgian  Bay.  Champlain  had 
preceded  him  thither  by  nineteen  years,  and  prob- 
ably Nicolet  himself,  during  his  long  life  among 

1  There  is  evidence  that  in  an  earlier  geological  age  Lake  Hu- 
ron here  found  an  outlet  to  the  Ottawa. 


24  WISCONSIN 

the  Nipissing,  had  more  than  once  journeyed  to 
these  waters. 

Here,  apparently  at  the  uttermost  limit  of 
French  discovery  to  the  west,  Nicolet  spent  some 
time  in  parleys  with  the  Huron,  cementing  their 
friendly  relations  with  the  whites,  and  from  them 
gaining  such  information  as  was  obtainable  con- 
cerning the  Men  of  the  Sea  and  other  tribes  along 
the  shores  of  the  upper  lakes.  From  the  Huron 
villages,  also,  he  secured  seven  tribesmen  to  accom- 
pany and  assist  him  upon  his  voyage.  In  a  long 
canoe  of  birch  bark,  the  eight  travelers  into  the 
unknown  threaded  their  way  cautiously  among  the 
almost  countless  islands  that  fringe  the  pine-forested 
shore  of  Georgian  Bay ;  a  region  in  our  time  familiar 
to  ever-increasing  shoals  of  summer  tourists. 

From  French  River  the  course  lies  almost  west- 
erly, between  La  Cloche  Island  and  the  Grand 
Manitoulin,  thence  through  the  picturesque  archi- 
pelago of  the  North  Channel,  past  Cockburn, 
Drummond,  and  St.  Joseph  islands,  and  into  the 
tortuous  River  St.  Mary's,  the  outlet  of  Lake  Su- 
perior. Fifteen  miles  below  the  foot  of  that  inland 
sea  they  encountered  the  stairlike  rapids  afterwards 
named  by  the  Jesuits  the  Sault  de  Ste.  Marie ;  and 
there  Nicolet,  first  of  all  recorded  white  men,  prob- 
ably set  foot  on  the  soil  of  what  a  century  and  a 
half  later  became  the  Northwest  Territory.1 

1  The  Chippewa  village  wherein  the  French  mission  was  later 
established,  was  on  the  east  (Canadian)  side  of  the  Sault;  bat 


THE  COMING  OF  NICOLET  25 

At  the  Sault  he  found  a  considerable  village 
of  the  Chippewa,  engaged  in  fishing.  Here  again 
Nicolet,  as  an  ambassador  of  the  great  white  chief, 
was  entertained  at  gluttonous  feasts  of  fish  and 
dog-meat,  and  engaged  in  solemn  councils  whereat 
prolix  oratory  and  innumerable  pipef  uls  of  tobacco 
were  the  distinguishing  features.  It  is  fair  to  pre- 
sume that  the  traveler's  curiosity  led  him  to  the 
great  lake  above,  or  at  least  to  its  outlet  from  White 
Fish  Bay,  but  there  is  no  record  of  such  a  visit. 
Released  from  Chippewa  hospitality,  he  returned 
down  the  St.  Mary's  with  his  faithful  Huron  boat- 
men, and  thence  turning  to  the  west  and  southwest 
hugged  the  wooded  islands  and  picturesque  head- 
lands lining  the  north  shore  of  Lake  Huron  as  far 
as  the  Straits  of  Mackinac.  Stemming  its  swift 
tide,  and  probably  resting  for  a  time  with  the  na- 
tives of  the  richly  verdured  Island  of  Mackinac, 
that  divides  these  narrow  waters,  Nicolet's  canoe 
was  soon  dancing  upon  the  green  waves  of  Lake 
Michigan  ;  he,  so  far  as  we  can  tell,  their  first  white 
discoverer. 

It  was  now  essential  for  the  explorer  closely  to 
skirt  the  northern  coast  of  this  new-found  lake, 
frequently  camping  upon  the  sandy  edges  of  its 
dense  mantle  of  pine,  either  to  await  the  passage  of 
storms  or  to  refresh  his  weary  crew.  Now  and  then 

there  is  little  doubt  that  Nicolet  touched  also  the  Michigan  side 
of  the  rapids.  His  approach  to  the  Sault  was  presumably 
through  the  Canadian  channel. 


26  WISCONSIN 

they  "encountered  a  number  of  small  tribes  in 
coming  and  going,"  1  for  even  in  aboriginal  times 
Lake  Michigan  was  a  somewhat  busy  thoroughfare 
between  the  East  and  the  West,  connecting  with  the 
Mississippi  region  by  way  of  the  Fox- Wisconsin, 
the  Chicago,  and  the  St.  Josephs  portage  routes. 
Unfamiliar  with  the  savages  west  of  Georgian  Bay, 
and  untaught  in  their  several  dialects,  Nicolet  was 
obliged  to  communicate  with  them  by  the  all  but 
universal  Indian  sign  language  in  which  from  his 
training  he  must  needs  have  been  long  familiar. 
According  to  the  Jesuit  chronicler,  the  strangers 
"  fastened  two  sticks  in  the  earth,  and  hung  gifts 
thereon,  so  as  to  relieve  these  tribes  from  the  notion 
of  mistaking  them  for  enemies  to  be  massacred." 

Projecting  southward  from  the  northwest  shore 
of  Lake  Michigan  is  a  rock-bound  peninsula,  some 
thirty  miles  in  length,  terminated  by  the  cliff  and 
reefs  of  Point  Detour.  It  is  presumable  that  the 
experienced  and  therefore  cautious  Nicolet  received 
good  local  advice  at  the  Indian  villages  nestled 
at  wide  intervals  along  this  somewhat  forbidding 
coast.  No  doubt  following  the  route  afterwards 
commonly  adopted  by  the  French,  and  called  by 
them  "grand  traverse,"  he  proceeded  in  his  frail 
craft  southwestward  to  Point  Detour,  thence  across 
the  entrance  of  Green  Bay,2  under  shelter  of  the 

1  Relation  of  1642-43,  which  we  are  now  following. 

2  Locally  called  "  Death's  Door,"  because  wind,  current,  and 
dangerous  rocks  often  combine  to  render  its  navigation  difficult. 


THE  COMING  OF  NICOLET  27 

outlying  fringe  of  tree-girt  islands,  —  Summer, 
Poverty,  St.  Martin,  Rock,  Washington,  and  their 
lesser  fellows,  in  our  day  the  homes  of  Icelandic 
and  other  hardy  fishermen,  —  and  gained  the  south- 
ern mainland  at  the  imposing  cliff  now  known  as 
Death's  Door  Bluff. 

Green  Bay  is  shaped  much  like  a  gigantic  letter 
V,  opening  to  the  northeast.  Fox  River  enters  from 
the  southwest,  at  the  vertex  of  the  angle.  The  east- 
ern shore  of  the  bay  is  formed  by  the  Green  Bay 
peninsula,  separating  it  from  Lake  Michigan  — 
substantially  a  ridge  of  Niagara  limestone,  the 
same  formation  that  constitutes  the  basis  of  Detour 
peninsula  to  the  north.  The  connecting  string  of 
islands  is  evidence  of  a  local  breaking  down  of  the 
ledge.  Thus  the  eastern  shore  of  Green  Bay  is  gen- 
erally high,  deeply  indented  by  several  small  bays, 
and  exhibiting  many  bold,  rocky  headlands  and 
abrupt  clay  slopes,  their  heights  well  clothed  with 
both  hard  and  soft  woods.  Its  western  banks,  how- 
ever, are  low  and  sandy,  with  frequent  harbors 
separated  by  shallow  stretches. 

It  is  stated  by  the  Jesuit  recorder  that  the  ex- 
plorer rested  at  a  native  camp,  doubtless  either  of 
Menominee  or  Potawatomi,  two  days  distant  from 
the  Men  of  the  Sea.  There  was  at  the  time  a  con- 
siderable village  of  this  character  on  the  west  shore 
of  Green  Bay  at  the  mouth  of  Menominee  River, 
now  a  natural  boundary  between  Wisconsin  and 
Michigan ;  but  it  seems  improbable  that  Nicolet 


28  WISCONSIN 

crossed  the  broad  bay  to  reach  it.  More  reason- 
able is  it  to  suppose  that  his  tarry  ing-place  was 
either  on  the  mainland  or  upon  one  of  the  islands 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Death's  Door  Bluff,  which 
is  ninety  miles,  or  two  short  days'  canoe  journey, 
from  his  objective.  Here  the  ambassador  explained 
his  errand,  and  after  the  manner  of  the  Indians 
one  of  the  local  tribesmen  was  sent  forward  as  a 
herald,  with  tidings  of  the  coming  of  the  white 
stranger  who  bore  offers  of  peace  and  good-will  to 
the  savages  of  the  upper  lakes.  "  Which  word," 
says  the  "Relation,"  "was  especially  well  received 
when  they  heard  that  it  was  a  European  who  car- 
ried the  message." 

About  twelve  miles  down  the  bay  from  the  mouth 
of  Fox  River,  the  east  shore  consists  of  a  long 
precipice  of  reddish  clay,  rising  about  a  hundred 
feet  above  a  broad,  pebbly  strand.  For  perhaps  a 
century  past,  this  conspicuous  bluff  has  locally  been 
known  as  Red  Banks.  In  the  days  of  Nicolet  it 
was  surmounted  by  a  large  palisaded  fort ;  to  the 
southward  and  eastward  stretched  several  hundreds 
of  acres  rudely  cultivated  in  the  native  manner 
and  grown  to  maize,  pumpkins,  and  beans  ;  while 
ancient  burial  and  effigy  mounds  dotted  the  field, 
bespeaking  a  long-continued  aboriginal  occupation. 
At  this  vantage  point,  apparently,  was  the  long- 
sought-for  village  of  the  Winnebago. 

It  is  probable  that  these  people  had  long  been 
on  the  way  thither,  from  the  country  beyond  Lake 


THE  COMING  OF  NICOLET  29 

Superior ;  for  migrations  of  primitive  people  have 
usually  been  by  easy  stages,  dictated  by  the  exi- 
gencies of  food  supply  or  the  pressure  of  hostile 
tribes.  But  it  is  unlikely  that  the  establishment  of 
the  seat  of  their  power  at  Red  Banks  antedated 
Nicolet's  arrival  by  more  than  a  few  generations 
— long  enough  for  the  story  of  their  origin  to  have 
become  shrouded  in  tradition,  and  yet  not  so  long 
that  that  story  and  their  personal  characteristics 
did  not  still  attract  the  curiosity  of  Algonquian 
neighbors,  causing  them  to  be  talked  about  as  com- 
parative strangers,  and  called  Men  of  the  Sea. 

Little  doubt  can  be  entertained  that  by  the 
time  Nicolet  had  reached  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  or  in 
any  event  Mackinac  Island,  he  had  become  dis- 
abused of  the  notion  that  the  Winnebago  were 
other  than  ordinary  savages.  As  he  had  slowly 
drawn  nearer  them,  the  reports  of  tribesmen  whom 
he  visited  must  have  become  more  and  more  vivid 
concerning  the  Dakota  outcasts.  Long  before  he 
reached  their  habitat,  their  features  and  characteris- 
tics had  probably  assumed  something  like  definite- 
ness  in  the  mind  of  this  astute  student  of  North 
American  Indians. 

When  starting  on  his  journey  from  Quebec, 
expecting  to  meet  Asiatics  in  this  far-away  corner 
of  the  continent,  the  diplomatic  Nicolet  had  placed 
in  his  scanty  pack  "  a  grand  robe  of  China  damask, 
all  strewn  with  flowers  and  birds  of  many  colors." 
There  was  perhaps  little  need  for  displaying  so 


30  WISCONSIN 

extraordinary  a  garment  among  the  naked  savages 
of  the  upper  lakes  ;  nevertheless  Nicolet  well 
understood  the  value  of  ceremonial  in  appealing  to 
the  imagination  of  primitive  peoples,  and  doubtless 
his  sense  of  humor  was  also  aroused,  for  on  ap- 
proaching the  palisaded  village  he  donned  his  gaudy 
mandarin  attire.  The  Winnebago  had  sent  out 
several  of  their  most  athletic  young  warriors  to 
meet  "the  wonderful  man,"  who  apparently  was 
the  first  European  to  visit  these  people.  In  the 
strong  and  simple  language  of  the  Jesuit  "  Rela- 
tion," "  they  meet  him  ;  they  escort  him,  and  carry 
all  his  baggage."  But  as  the  strange  procession 
ascended  the  cliff  by  an  angling  path  and  entered 
the  excited  town,  —  Nicolet  in  his  variegated  gown, 
his  seven  breech-clouted  Huron  companions,  and 
the  delegation  of  young  Winnebago  burden-bearers, 
—  "  the  women  and  children  fled,  at  the  sight  of  a 
man  who  carried  thunder  in  both  hands ;  for  thus 
they  called  the  two  pistols  that  he  held." 

News  traveled  quickly  among  Indian  tribes.  At 
night  signal  fires  were  lighted  on  the  hilltops,  and 
swift  runners  and  canoe-men  were  dispatched  to 
acquaint  neighboring  villages  verbally  of  the  com- 
ing of  the  great  white  chief.  Soon,  says  the  "  Rela- 
tion," "  there  assembled  "  at  Red  Banks  "  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  sixscore  Beavers."  Thus,  amid  much 
feasting,  harangue,  and  mutual  giving  of  presents, 


THE  COMING  OF  NICOLET  31 

Nicolet  negotiated  a  solemn  treaty  with  the  Men  of 
the  Sea,  who,  having  but  slight  conception  of  what 
it  all  meant,  courteously  bound  themselves  to  re- 
main the  firm  commercial  and  military  allies  of 
their  new  father  the  King  of  France,  and  to  consider 
themselves  his  most  dutiful  children. 

From  their  position  on  Green  Bay  the  Winne- 
bago  commanded  the  Great-Lakes  terminus  of  the 
Fox- Wisconsin  portage  route  from  the  Mississippi. 
There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  they  had  some 
knowledge  of  the  latter  drainage  trough ;  for  al- 
though some  of  the  tribes  upon  the  upper  Fox  and 
along  the  Wisconsin  may  at  times  have  been  hos- 
tile to  them,  it  is  recorded  by  the  Jesuits  that 
in  peaceful  periods  wanderers  from  toward  the 
Mississippi  frequently  passed  through  Green  Bay 
on  the  road  to  Mackinac  and  still  farther  east- 
ward. 

The  curiosity  of  the  explorer  appears  to  have  led 
him  to  ascend  the  Fox  for  about  ninety  miles  to  an 
interesting  Indian  village  which  we  shall  find  promi- 
nently identified  with  later  visits  of  the  French.  Its 
location  has  been  the  subject  of  much  dispute,  but 
historians  now  generally  agree  that  the  site  was  in 
the  immediate  neighborhood  of  Berlin,  in  Green 
Lake  County.  In  the  Jesuit  "  Relation  "  for  1640, 
Father  le  Jeune  wrote :  "  Sieur  Nicolet,  who  has 
advanced  farthest  into  these  distant  countries,  has 
assured  me  that,  if  he  had  sailed  three  days'  jour- 
ney farther  upon  a  great  river  which  issues  from 


32  WISCONSIN 

this  lake  [Huron]  he  would  have  found  the  sea."  1 
This  is  rather  enigmatical,  and  has  in  our  own 
time  given  rise  to  much  speculation.  Some  allow- 
ance, however,  must  be  made  for  Nicolet's  ignor- 
ance of  languages  differing  widely  from  the  dialects 
with  which  he  was  familiar ;  for  the  lapse  of  six 
years  between  his  voyage  and  the  printed  ac- 
count of  it ;  also  for  geographical  confusion  on  the 
part  of  his  chronicler,  Le  Jeune,  who  was  not  con- 
versant with  the  region.  Without  here  discussing 
the  matter  in  detail,  it  is  quite  evident  to  students 
in  this  field  that  the  reference  is  to  Fox  River, 
despite  the  fact  that  that  stream  flows  into  Lake 
Michigan  rather  than  from  Lake  Huron ;  that 
three  days'  farther  journey  from  the  Indian  village, 
in  the  ascent  of  the  Fox,  would  have  brought  Nico- 
let  to  the  Fox-Wisconsin  portage,  and  that  four 
days'  additional  canoeing  down  the  west-flowing 
Wisconsin  would  have  carried  him  into  the  Missis- 
sippi.2 

Just  why  Nicolet  did  not  pursue  his  journey  to 
the  supposed  Western  Sea,  which  his  hosts  must 
have  informed  him  could  be  reached  within  a  week, 
is  of  course  now  unknowable.  It  is  possible  that  he 
considered  his  mission  ended  when  treating  with 
the  Winnebago  and  other  Fox  River  tribes  ;  again, 
the  autumn  must  now  have  been  reached,  for  he 

1  Jesuit  Relations,  vol.  xviii,  p.  237. 

2  See   argument  in  Butterfield,   Discovery  of  the   Northwest, 
pp.  67-69. 


THE  COMING  OF  NICOLET  33 

had  been  subjected  to  many  long  and  weary  delays 
in  protracted  pow-wows  with  the  tribes  along  his 
route.  Certain  it  is  that,  in  the  words  of  the  Jesuit 
annalist,  "  The  peace  concluded,  he  returned  to  the 
Huron,  and  some  time  later  to  the  Three  Rivers, 
where  he  continued  his  employment  as  Agent  and 
Interpreter,  to  the  great  satisfaction  of  both  the 
French  and  the  Savages,  by  whom  he  was  equally 
and  singularly  loved."  1 

1  Relation  of  1642-43. 


CHAPTER  II 

FRENCH  EXPLORERS   AND  MISSIONARIES 

AFTER  wintering  with  the  Hurons,  Nicolet  re- 
turned to  Quebec  in  the  summer  of  1635.  The  fol- 
lowing Christmas  came  the  death  of  Champlain, 
one  of  the  most  valorous  and  enterprising  spirits  of 
his  time.  The  new  governor,  Montmagny,  possessed 
little  of  his  predecessor's  enthusiasm  for  explora- 
tion, so  that  whatever  plans  Champlain  may  have 
entertained  regarding  the  imperial  and  commercial 
exploitation  of  the  country  of  the  upper  Great 
Lakes  were  for  a  long  period  allowed  to  lapse.  It 
must  be  remembered,  moreover,  that  as  the  water- 
ways ran,  Wisconsin  and  the  Men  of  the  Sea  were 
a  full  fifteen  hundred  miles  distant  from  seven- 
teenth-century Quebec  —  thirty-six  hours  of  pas- 
sive, luxurious  travel  upon  a  modern  railway,  but 
two  or  three  months  of  irksome  toil  in  the  primi- 
tive days  of  Nicolet.  The  long  route  was  beset  by  a 
thousand  difficulties  —  powerful  currents,  swirling 
rapids,  great  waterfalls,  laborious  portages,  the 
dangers  of  navigating  stormy  and  rock-bound  in- 
land seas  in  frail  canoes  of  bark,  the  annoyances 
of  extortion  and  mutinies  by  savage  crews,  the  often 
pressing  problem  of  food  supply,  and  deadly  perils 


FRENCH  EXPLORERS  AND   MISSIONARIES    35 

from  hostile  tribes  who  frequently  resented  with 
violence  the  intrusion  of  a  stranger  upon  their  wild 
domains.  Boldly  adventurous  as  were  the  handful 
of  pioneers  of  New  France,  it  is  small  wonder  that 
Wisconsin  did  not  at  first  tempt  many  to  emulate 
the  enterprising  journey  of  Champlain's  agent  to 
the  wilderness  of  this  far  Northwest. 

So  far  as  we  are  now  aware,  it  was  twenty  years 
before  a  European  again  set  foot  upon  the  soil  of 
our  state.  But  let  us  not  be  over-ready  to  make 
definite  assertions  regarding  priority  of  exploration 
in  New  France.  Under  the  fur-trade  monopoly  of 
the  Company  of  the  Hundred  Associates  (ending 
in  1663,  but  followed  by  governmental  control 
almost  equally  galling),  it  was  a  felony  to  carry 
on  commerce  with  the  Indians  that  was  not  duly 
licensed  by  that  corporation.  Articles  needed  for 
barter  with  the  aborigines  must  be  obtained  from 
the  company  at  prices  absurdly  high  ;  to  it  must  in 
turn  be  sold  the  resultant  furs  at  such  rates  as  it 
cared  to  pay.  Every  operation  of  the  licensed  forest 
trader  was  subject  to  regulations  fettering  his  free- 
dom and  curbing  his  profits,  to  the  advantage  of 
the  monopolists. 

The  man  who  dared  conduct  unlicensed  trade 
was  styled  a  coureur  de  bois  (wood  ranger). 
Legally  he  was  an  outlaw,  the  lightest  punishment 
he  might  expect  being  the  liability  at  any  time  to 
lose  his  property  by  confiscation.  Official  attitude 
towards  the  coureurs  de  bois  varied  greatly,  how- 


36  WISCONSIN 

ever,  according  to  the  prevalent  temper  of  the 
French  court  at  Versailles.  Free-traders,  who  at 
such  risks  either  openly  or  covertly  defied  oppress- 
ive commercial  restrictions  set  up  by  the  greed  of 
government  favorites,  at  times  constituted  perhaps 
a  majority  of  those  engaged  in  the  fur  traffic  of 
New  France.  Among  them  were  many  of  the  most 
daring  and  picturesque  characters  of  their  day, 
some  of  whom  are  entitled  to  honorable  recognition 
in  any  history  of  our  continental  interior. 

Following  Indian  bands  upon  war  and  hunting 
trails,  and  associated  with  red  folk  by  ties  of  prim- 
itive marriage  and  genuine  comradeship,  their 
travels  into  strange  lands  were  apt  often  to  be 
years  in  advance  of  official  exploration.  Even  when 
they  possessed  the  requisite  taste  and  education 
for  making  such  records,  they  seldom  kept  journals 
of  their  adventurous  wanderings.  Neither  were  they 
accustomed,  these  outlaws  of  the  "  bush,"  to  talk 
freely  of  their  affairs  when  revisiting  the  small 
settlements  on  the  lower  St.  Lawrence ;  for  their 
every  word  might  readily  be  brought  to  the  atten- 
tion of  the  king's  gainful  officials,  who,  though 
themselves  usually  engaged  in  illicit  trade,  were 
too  often  eager  to  curry  favor  at  Versailles  by 
reporting  the  ill  deeds  of  others. 

The  closer  one's  study  of  official  documents  and 
ecclesiastical  journals  of  the  time,  with  their  often 
shadowy  allusions  to  the  operations  of  coureurs  de 
6ois,  the  stronger  grows  the  conviction  that,  de- 


FRENCH  EXPLORERS  AND  MISSIONARIES    37 

spite  the  honors  which  history  showers  upon  dis- 
coveries by  the  governmental  explorers  and  Jesuit 
missionaries  of  New  France,  the  palm  must  not 
seldom  in  all  honesty  be  awarded  to  nameless  forest 
traders ;  these  men  familiarly  dwelt,  hunted,  and 
bartered  with  the  aborigines  of  the  upper  lakes  and 
the  Mississippi  basin  long  previous  to  the  appear- 
ance of  those  commonly  reputed  to  be  first  of  Eu- 
ropeans upon  the  savage  scene. 

By  assembling  scattered  patches  of  information, 
it  has  chanced  that  the  personality  of  a  few  of  these 
wandering  bush  merchants  has  been  revealed  to  us, 
and  their  names  added  to  the  slowly  lengthening 
bead-roll  of  early  Western  explorers.  Such  were 
Pierre  Esprit,  the  Sieur  Radisson,  and  his  com- 
panion and  brother-in-law,  Medard  Chouart,  the 
Sieur  des  Groseilliers. 

It  is  recorded  in  the  Jesuit  "  Relation "  for 
1655-56, l  that  "  On  the  sixth  of  August,  1654,  two 
young  Frenchmen,  full  of  courage,"  and  incited 
thereto  by  Governor  Jean  de  Lauson,  left  Quebec 
for  the  upper  lakes,  upon  "  a  journey  of  more  than 
five  hundred  leagues,"  under  the  guidance  of  a 
party  of  returning  savages  from  that  region,  who 
had  ventured  in  their  canoes  down  the  St.  Lawrence 
to  barter  rich  furs  for  the  manufactures  and  gew- 
gaws of  Europe.  The  adventurous  twain  returned 
to  Quebec  "  toward  the  end  of  August  of  this  year, 
1656.  Their  arrival  caused  the  Country  universal 
1  Jesuit  Relations,  vol.  xliii,  pp.  219  et  seq. 


38  WISCONSIN 

joy,  for  they  were  accompanied  by  fifty  canoes, 
laden  with  goods  [furs]  which  the  French  came  to 
this  end  of  the  world  to  procure." 

The  travelers  related  their  interesting  story  to 
the  Jesuit  fathers,  who  eagerly  sought  news  from 
the  farthest  wilderness,  among  other  things  telling 
of  their  visit  to  "  the  great  Lake  of  the  Hurons, 
and  another  near  it  [Michigan],  being  as  large  as 
the  Caspian  Sea."  In  that  distant  region  they  had 
fraternized  with  the  Winnebago,  or  the  Men  of  the 
Sea,  to  whom  Nicolet  displayed  his  gorgeous  robe ; 
"  they  also  caused  great  joy  in  all  Paradise,  during 
their  travels,  by  Baptizing  and  sending  to  Heaven 
about  three  hundred  little  children."  Moreover, 
the  missionary  journalist  adds  in  a  note  of  worldly 
satisfaction,  "these  two  young  men  have  not  under- 
gone hardships  for  naught  in  their  long  journey  .  .  . 
they  enriched  some  Frenchmen  upon  their  return." 

Nine  years  later,  Radisson,  then  at  the  court  of 
London  seeking  for  his  enterprises  the  patronage 
of  King  Charles  II,  wrote  in  English  for  His  Ma- 
jesty's information  a  curious  journal  of  his  adven- 
tures, or  "  voyages,"  covering  the  years  1652-64. 
After  nearly  two  centuries  of  neglect,  this  manu- 
script was  purchased  by  a  collector  of  antiquities 
and  eventually  drifted  into  the  Bodleian  Library 
at  Oxford.1  Crude  and  sometimes  chaotic  in  liter- 
ary form,  as  might  be  expected  of  an  ill-educated 

1  A  narrative  in  French  of  later  travels  by  Radisson  and  Groseil- 
liers  (1682-83)  has  found  a  resting-place  in  the  British  Museum. 


FRENCH  EXPLORERS  AND  MISSIONARIES    39 

man  writing  in  a  language  other  than  his  own, 
generally  destitute  of  dates,  abounding  in  almost 
hopeless  ambiguities  and  contradictions,  and  exas- 
peratingly  vague  as  to  geography,  this  remarkable 
human  document  was  first  published  two  centuries 
after  it  was  written  (1885). 1 

Allowing  for  the  prevalent  note  of  exaggeration 
as  to  details,  customary  in  travelers'  stories  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  it  is  but  fair  to  assume  that 
in  all  essentials  Radisson's  narrative  is  to  be  taken 
at  its  face  value. 

In  the  record  of  their  earlier  wanderings  among 
the  savages  of  the  Northwest,  he  had  no  reason, 
now  apparent  to  us,  for  serious  misrepresentation. 
That  Radisson  and  Groseilliers  are  identical  with 
"  the  two  young  Frenchmen  "  of  the  "  Relation  " 
of  1655-56,  and  that  the  circumstances  narrated 
by  the  former  actually  occurred  in  the  main  as 
stated,  seems  reasonably  assured. 

By  piecing  together  the  "Relations"  and  the 
journal  of  Radisson  it  would  appear  that  these  two 
adventurers,  starting  from  Quebec  in  August,  1654, 
followed  the  trail  of  Nicolet  up  the  Ottawa  River 
and  over  to  Lake  Huron,  where  they  traded  with 
the  Huron  Indians ;  thence  proceeding  by  the  way 
of  Mackinac  Straits  to  Lake  Michigan,  on  the  west 
shore  of  which  they  wintered  with  the  Potawatomi 
and  visited  neighboring  tribes. 

1  By  the  Prince  Society,  Boston,  under  the  editorship  of 
Gideon  D.  Scull  of  London. 


40  WISCONSIN 

We  weare  every  where  much  made  of ;  neither  wanted 
victuals,  for  all  the  different  nations  that  we  mett  con- 
ducted us  &  furnished  us  wth  necessaries.  .  .  .  We  weare 
Cesars,  being  nobody  to  contradict  us.  We  went  away 
free  from  any  burden,  whilst  those  poore  miserable 
thought  themselves  happy  to  carry  our  Equipage,  for 
the  hope  that  they  had  that  we  should  give  them  a 
brasse  ring,  or  an  awle,  or  an  needle. 

In  the  spring  of  1655  the  two  traders,  still  on 
the  track  of  Nicolet,  seem  to  have  ascended  the 
Fox  River,  and  to  have  visited  the  large  native 
village  upon  its  upper  reaches,  where  vivid  memo- 
ries of  Nicolet  must  still  have  lingered.  Exactly 
where  they  wandered  after  this  is  uncertain  ;  but 
Radisson  quaintly  writes,  "  We  ware  4  moneths  in 
our  voyage  without  doeing  any  thing  but  goe  from 
river  to  river.  .  .  .  anxious  to  be  knowne  with 
the  remotest  people."  Once  they  visited  a  "  great 
river  "  with  "  2  branches,  the  one  toward  the  west, 
the  other  toward  the  South,  wch  we  believe  runns 
towards  Mexico,  by  the  tokens  they  gave  us."  Vague 
reports  reached  them  that  upon  this  southern-flowing 
stream  were  "  men  that  build  great  cabbans  &  have 
great  beards  &  had  such  knives  as  we  have  had  .  .  . 
w°h  made  us  believe  they  weare  Europeans."  It  is 
not  difficult  for  us  to  believe  that  the  forked  river,  al- 
though unknown  to  Radisson  as  such,  was  the  Missis- 
sippi with  its  Missouri  affluent,  and  that  these  uneasy 
wanderers  had  accidentally  discovered  the  former 
eighteen  years  previous  to  Jolliet  and  Marquette. 


FRENCH  EXPLORERS  AND  MISSIONARIES    41 

Returning  down  the  Fox,  apparently  in  the 
autumn  of  1655,  the  adventurers  proceeded  to  the 
native  fishing  villages  clustered  along  the  Sault 
Ste.  Marie,  there  spending  the  winter,  hunting  and 
trading  with  their  hosts,  exploring  a  portion  of  the 
southern  coast  of  Lake  Superior,  making  long  in- 
land expeditions  with  the  Indians  on  snowshoes, 
and  even  penetrating  to  far-distant  Hudson  Bay. 
The  Jesuit  chronicler  has  told  us  of  their  reaching 
Quebec  the  following  August. 

The  thirst  for  exploration  and  wild  sport  strong 
within  them,  Radisson  and  Groseilliers  soon  made 
preparations  for  another  voyage.  But  there  had 
come  a  change  in  official  policy,  and  they  were  no 
longer  in  favor  at  the  governor's  house.  The 
Vicomte  d'Argenson  was  then  the  representative 
of  the  king  in  New  France,  and  warned  these  un- 
licensed merchants  that  they  must  not  again  venture 
into  the  Northwest.  Nevertheless,  in  the  spring  of 
1659  they  contrived  to  escape  governmental  vigi- 
lance, and  clandestinely  departed  for  the  upper 
lakes  in  the  company  of  a  party  of  Chippewa  who 
were  returning  to  Sault  Ste.  Marie  from  the  annual 
fur  market  at  the  French  settlements.  Tarrying  for 
a  second  time  at  the  village  of  their  hosts,  the  adven- 
turers paddled  westward  along  the  south  shore  of 
Lake  Superior,  accompanied  by  some  twenty-three 
canoe-loads  of  Huron  and  Ottawa  tribesmen  who 
were  fleeing  to  the  Wisconsin  wilds  to  escape  Iro- 
quois  raiders,  just  then  ravaging  the  country  to  the 


42  WISCONSIN 

east  of  Lake  Huron.  Carrying  their  boats  across 
the  short  portage  route  which  nearly  bisects  Ke- 
weenaw  Point,1  the  party  finally  found  their  way  to 
Chequamegon  Bay,  a  deep  notch  in  the  southern 
shore-line  of  Superior,  studded  by  the  beautiful 
Apostle  Islands. 

The  savages  here  left  the  lake,  continuing  their 
journey  over  various  land  and  water  routes  to 
camps  of  their  tribesmen  in  the  interior.  Huron 
and  Ottawa  had  established  hiding-places  upon  the 
upper  waters  of  the  south-flowing  Chippewa,  the 
Black,  and  the  St.  Croix;  there,  just  over  the  di- 
vide, two  or  three  days'  journey  south  of  Lake  Su- 
perior, in  a  rolling  country  densely  clad  with  pines 
and  thickly  strewn  with  inter-communicating  lakes 
and  streams,  they  felt  reasonably  secure  against 
their  bloodthirsty  enemies  from  the  Niagara  fron- 
tier. On  their  part,  the  two  traders  remained  on 
Chequamegon  Bay  to  traffic  with  the  several  neigh- 
boring tribes  who  resorted  to  this  shore  for  fishing, 
and  who  entertained  a  superstitious  reverence  for 
some  of  the  islands,  particularly  Madelaine,2  as  the 
supposed  abode  of  spirits. 

Erecting  a  rude  fortified  hut  of  bushes  and  logs, 
apparently  on  the  southwest  shore  of  the  bay,  the 
coureurs  de  bois  spent  a  few  weeks  in  becoming 

1  Now  completed  by  a  federal  canal,  which  is  used  by  some  of 
the  largest  vessels  afloat  on  Lake  Superior.  This  cut-short  saves, 
to  boats  following  the  south  shore,  a  journey  of  nearly  two  hun- 
dred miles  around  the  peninsula. 

8  Site  of  the  La  Pointe  village  of  to-day. 


FRENCH  EXPLORERS  AND  MISSIONARIES    43 

familiar  with  the  country  and  its  people.  Then,  con- 
cealing the  greater  part  of  their  trading  goods  in 
a  pit,  or  cache,  they  set  out  on  a  hunt  with  their 
Huron  and  Ottawa  friends  about  the  headwaters  of 
the  Chippewa.  Kadisson's  narrative  is  Hogarthian 
in  its  realism.  We  have  in  his  pages  a  startlingly 
vivid  report  of  the  horrors  as  well  as  the  joys  of 
the  winter's  experience.  Unusually  severe  weather 
set  in,  game  fled  before  the  northern  blasts,  a  famine 
ensued,  even  moccasins  and  robes  and  bark  were 
boiled  for  food ;  so  deep  was  the  snow  that  the 
hunters  traveled  only  with  the  greatest  difficulty, 
and  five  hundred  men,  women,  and  children  were 
left  dead  upon  the  trail.  "  If,"  says  Radisson,  "  I 
should  expresse  all  that  befell  us  in  that  strange 
accidents,  a  great  volume  would  not  containe  it."1 
With  the  coming  of  spring  and  hope,  the  party 
set  out  on  a  long  search  for  food,  penetrating  as 
far  west  as  the  Sioux  camps  stretched  along  the 
upper  reaches  of  the  Mississippi.  At  last  returning 
to  Chequamegon,  they  built  another  small  fort, 
visited  some  Indians  on  the  northwest  shore  of 
Lake  Superior,  and  in  August  returned  to  the  lower 
country  in  a  fleet  of  fur-laden  Huron  canoes  bound 
for  the  Montreal  market.  Their  second  home-com- 
ing, however,  was  a  far  different  experience  from 
the  greeting  accorded  them  four  years  before.  Now 
treated  as  outlaws,  their  furs  were  confiscated  by 

1  The  journal,  so  far  as  it  relates  to  Wisconsin,  is  given  in  full 
in  Wisconsin  Historical  Collections,  vol.  xi. 


44  WISCONSIN 

the  governor,  which  meant  to  them  an  almost  com- 
plete loss  of  property,  while  their  great  services  to 
New  France  as  explorers  were  quite  ignored. 

Angered  at  this  harsh  treatment,  the  adventurers 
first  sought  redress  from  the  king,  on  the  plea  of 
having  opened  to  trade  new  and  vast  countries  in 
the  West ;  but  justice  being  refused,  they  turned 
to  England  for  recognition.  It  was  while  in  London 
on  this  errand  that  Radisson  wrote  his  now  famous 
journal.  Eventually,  in  1669,  the  vengeful  explor- 
ers piloted  an  English  ship  into  Hudson  Bay,  an 
enterprise  which  led  at  once  to  the  organization  of 
the  great  Hudson's  Bay  Company,  which  from  that 
day  to  this  has  controlled  for  England  the  fur 
traffic  of  the  far  North.  The  after  career  of  Radis- 
son and  Groseilliers  was  marked  by  periods  of  vacil- 
lation between  adherence  to  France  and  England 
by  turns.  They  finally  died  in  London,  ill  con- 
sidered by  the  English,  and  by  the  French  dubbed 
traitors  to  their  native  land.  Nevertheless,  this 
singular  pair  were  men  of  elemental  genius  and 
uncommon  enterprise  and  daring.  To  them  we  owe 
in  large  measure  the  introduction  of  Europeans  to 
Lake  Superior,  Hudson  Bay,  and  the  vast  solitudes 
lying  between. 

But  while  Radisson  and  Groseilliers  were  dis- 
credited by  officials,  who  were  in  the  interest  of  the 
commercial  monopoly  of  New  France,  their  tale 
deeply  interested  the  Jesuits,  who  ever  were  seek- 
ing new  fields  of  missionary  labor.  Some  of  the 


FRENCH  EXPLORERS  AND  MISSIONARIES    45 

canoes  in  the  fur-trading  fleet  in  which  the  wan- 
derers had  returned  to  Montreal  were  manned  by 
Huron  from  Black  River,  in  Wisconsin.  These 
savages  spent  some  ten  days  at  the  island  settle- 
ment, feasting  with  their  customers,  and  about  the 
first  of  September  (1660)  set  out  on  the  long  home- 
ward trip,  taking  with  them  Father  Rend  Menard, 
together  with  his  body  servant  and  seven  other 
Frenchmen  —  lay  brothers,  devoted  to  the  material 
interests  of  the  mission. 

The  first  Jesuit  representative  to  penetrate 
west  of  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  Me"nard  was  then  only 
some  fifty -five  years  of  age ;  but  so  arduous  had 
been  his  long  life  among  the  Indians  that  his  hair 
was  white,  he  was  thickly  scarred  by  wounds,  and 
"  his  form  was  bent  as  with  great  age."  The  long 
journey  into  the  Northwest  proved  too  severe  a 
strain  upon  one  so  spent.  He  suffered  much  from 
exposure  to  inclement  weather,  was  forced  to  pad- 
dle almost  continuously,  to  carry  heavy  packs  over 
the  frequent  rough  portages,  and,  as  usual  with 
Jesuit  guests  on  similar  voyages,  was  the  victim  of 
many  indignities  at  the  hands  of  his  hosts.  By 
the  time  the  little  party  had  made  their  weary  way 
up  the  Ottawa,  through  Georgian  Bay,  around 
Sault  Ste.  Marie,  and  alongshore  as  far  as  Kewee- 
naw  portage,  an  accident  happened  to  his  canoe, 
and  he  and  his  fellow  Frenchmen  were  there  de- 
serted to  shift  for  themselves. 

The  winter  was  passed  in  a  squalid  Ottawa  vil- 


46  WISCONSIN 

lage,  where  the  father  nearly  lost  his  life  in  a 
famine  that  overtook  the  natives  of  the  region. 
In  the  spring  of  1661  came  an  invitation  to  visit 
and  baptize  some  starveling  Huron,  skulking  in 
the  pine  forest  around  the  headsprings  of  the 
Black,  people  who  had  known  the  Jesuits  while 
dwelling  in  their  own  country  to  the  east.  Thither 
Me*nard  sought  them,  over  a  difficult  portage  route 
of  a  hundred  and  fifty  miles,  by  way  of  Lake 
Vieux  Desert  and  the  Wisconsin  River,  his  com- 
panions being  his  serving  man  and  several  re« 
turning  Huron  who  had  come  to  trade  with  the 
Ottawa.  While  portaging  around  Bill  Cross  Rap- 
ids, not  far  from  the  present  city  of  Merrill,  on 
the  Wisconsin,  Me'nard  —  bearing  his  scanty  pack 
of  sacred  pictures,  silver  altar  vessels,  and  camp 
kettle,  with  which  every  forest  missionary  was 
provided  —  lost  his  way  in  the  woods,  either  fall- 
ing victim  to  the  club  of  some  covetous  savage, 
or  dying  of  exposure  and  starvation ;  certain  it 
is,  he  was  never  after  seen  of  white  men.  Thus 
miserably  ended  the  career  of  Wisconsin's  pioneer 
herald  of  the  Gospel,  who  fell  in  the  active  dis- 
charge of  duty,  as  might  a  soldier  on  the  field  of 
battle  or  one  of  his  own  martyred  brethren  in  ill- 
fated  Huronia. 

Four  years  passed  before  the  Lake  Superior 
mission  was  reopened.  When  Father  Claude  Al- 
louez  arrived  in  1665,  he  chose  Chequainegon  Bay 
as  the  seat  of  his  work,  erecting  a  chapel  of  bark 


FRENCH  EXPLORERS  AND  MISSIONARIES    47 

on  the  southwestern  mainland,  probably  not  far 
from  the  site  of  Radisson  and  Groseilliers'  first 
trading-hut.  In  the  neighborhood  was  an  aborig- 
inal village,  composed  of  remnants  of  eight  or  ten 
fugitive  tribes  that  had  either  been  driven  west- 
ward by  the  all-conquering  Iroquois  or  eastward 
by  the  scourging  Sioux  of  the  Western  plains.  A 
long,  northward-projecting  tongue  of  land,  a  nat- 
ural breakwater,  bounds  Chequamegon  Bay  on  the 
east,  and  this  object  gave  name  both  to  the  mission 
and  the  region,  "  La  Pointe  du  Saint  Esprit,"  a 
term  soon  abbreviated  to  La  Pointe. 

Although  a  successful  veteran  in  the  work,  Al- 
louez  found  his  present  flock  singularly  obdurate 
and  unmannerly.  After  four  years  of  fruitless  la- 
bor, he  was,  in  the  autumn  of  1669,  relieved  by  a 
younger  and  less  jaded  missionary,  Father  Jacques 
Marquette.  He  himself  was  dispatched  by  his 
superior  to  Green  Bay,  and  for  two  years  labored 
zealously  among  its  shore  tribes,  and  as  far  up  the 
Fox  as  the  large  polyglot  native  village  near  Berlin, 
which  Nicolet  had  been  first  to  visit.  In  the  win- 
ter of  1671-72  he  founded  the  more  favorably 
situated  mission  of  St.  Francis  Xavier,  overlooking 
the  rapids  of  De  Pere.1  This,  the  first  obstruction 
in  the  navigation  of  the  Fox,  had  confronted 
Nicolet  and  Radisson  in  their  canoe  voyages,  and 

1  Originally  "  Rapides  des  Peres,"  in  allusion  to  the  mission- 
aries stationed  there;  but  under  English  occupation,  this  was 
corrupted  to  De  Pere. 


48  WISCONSIN 

by  now  was  no  doubt  familiar  to  many  unrecorded 
Frenchmen  who,  as  wandering  fur-traders,  had  fol- 
lowed them  to  this  distant  wilderness. 

At  St.  Francis  Xavier,  Allouez,  with  patient 
toil,  achieved  considerable  success,  as  success  was 
measured  among  the  wilderness  missionaries  of 
New  France.  To  the  west,  among  the  Outagami 
(Foxes),  he  established  the  mission  of  St.  Mark, 
probably  near  the  present  New  London,  on  Wolf 
River,  a  tributary  of  the  upper  Fox ;  and  farther 
up  the  latter  stream,  that  of  St.  James  at  the  vil- 
lage already  mentioned.  Among  wandering  bands 
of  many  tribes,  scattered  throughout  the  broad 
country  between  Lake  Michigan  and  the  Missis- 
sippi River,  he  painfully  toiled  along  tangled  forest 
paths  and  by  interlocking  waterways.  In  far-away 
Indian  camps,  and  in  his  crude  chapels  of  bark 
and  reeds,  he  baptized  many  of  the  red  folk,  chiefly 
women  and  infants,  and  now  and  then  nominally 
convinced  a  tribesman  that  the  white  man's  "  medi- 
cine "  was  more  efficient  than  the  machinations  of 
the  aboriginal  soothsayer.  Nominally,  we  say,  for 
there  is  room  for  strong  doubt  whether,  despite  the 
splendidly  heroic  efforts  and  not  infrequent  mar- 
tyrdom of  European  missionaries,  which  illumine 
the  pages  of  our  history,  any  considerable  number 
of  normal  North  American  savages  were  ever  fully 
converted  to  the  Christian  faith. 

In  due  time,  Father  Louis  Andre*  came  to  assist 
Allouez  in  these  truly  arduous  labors  and  frequent 


FRENCH  EXPLORERS  AND  MISSIONARIES    49 

sufferings  and  perils.  They  in  turn  were  followed 
by  Fathers  Silvy,  Albanel,  Nouvel,  Enjalran,  and 
Chardon,  —  the  last-named  closing  the  old  Jesuit 
regime  in  Wisconsin ;  for  the  uprising  of  the  Fox 
Indians,  of  which  we  shall  read  later,  came  to 
make  life  unendurable  for  Frenchmen  in  this  re- 
gion beyond  Lake  Michigan,  that  they  had  so  long 
exploited  for  king,  commerce,  and  the  Church. 

Marquette,  who  succeeded  Allouez  at  the  Che- 
quamegon  Bay  mission  of  La  Pointe,  was  a  man  of 
commanding  enterprise,  as  a  Jesuit  missionary  in 
New  France  had  well  need  to  be  ;  at  the  same  time, 
he  was  one  of  the  purest  souls  known  to  the  glow- 
ing history  of  his  order,  and  a  preacher  of  un- 
doubted power  and  persuasiveness.  Yet  he  won  no 
greater  ascendency  over  this  polyglot  flock  than  had 
his  predecessor.  "  They  turn  Prayer  to  ridicule," 
he  complains  to  the  father  superior,  "  and  scarcely 
will  they  hear  us  speak  of  Christianity ;  they  are 
proud,  and  without  intelligence,"  and  he  must  fain 
content  himself  with  baptizing  the  sick  and  dying, 
who  have  not  the  strength  to  oppose  such  proced- 
ure. 

In  view  of  his  future  work,  however,  his  time  at 
La  Pointe  was  well  spent.  Here  he  met  tribesmen 
from  the  Illinois  country,  who  brought  him  vague 
accounts  of  the  Mississippi,  and  his  letters  to 
Jesuit  headquarters  in  Quebec  breathe  deep  yearn- 
ings to  visit  the  great  river  of  the  south,  to  solve 
the  puzzle  of  its  course,  and  to  carry  to  its  nations 


50  WISCONSIN 

the  gospel  of  the  cross.  "This  discovery,"  he  writes 
with  the  optimistic  spirit  of  a  born  explorer,  "  will 
give  us  full  knowledge  either  of  the  South  Sea  or 
of  the  Western  Sea."  * 

Marquette's  proposal  to  his  superior,  to  seek 
the  Mississippi  from  Chequamegon  Bay  by  means 
of  the  closely  connecting  waterways  abounding  in 
northwest  Wisconsin,  was  not  destined  to  bear 
fruit.  In  the  spring  of  1671,  the  Ottawa  and 
Huron  of  La  Pointe  became  embroiled  in  a  serious 
quarrel  with  the  Sioux  encamped  at  the  extreme 
western  end  of  Lake  Superior,  and  with  their  pas- 
tor precipitately  fled  eastward  to  escape  the  wrath 
with  which  they  were  threatened.  The  Ottawa 
found  a  home  on  Manitoulin  Island,  in  the  north- 
ern waters  of  Lake  Huron.  The  Huron  settled  on 
the  Straits  of  Mackinac,  and  with  them  Marquette 
willingly  cast  his  fortunes,  for  this  was  the  princi- 
pal pathway  toward  the  Mississippi. 

A  twelvemonth  previous  the  Jesuits  had  estab- 
lished upon  the  turtle-shaped  Island  of  Mackinac 
the  modest  mission  of  St.  Ignace,  the  advantages 
of  which  are  thus  set  forth  by  Dablon,  father  super- 
ior at  Quebec,  in  the  "  Relation "  of  that  year : 
"  [The  island]  forms  the  key  and  the  door,  so  to 
speak,  for  all  the  peoples  of  the  South,  as  does  the 

1  Marquette  doubtless  meant  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  by  the  terra 
"  South  Sea,"  although  this  was  by  most  geographers  of  the  time 
the  name  given  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  which  is  here  called  "  West- 
ern Sea." 


FRENCH   EXPLORERS   AND  MISSIONARIES    51 

Sault  [de  Ste.  Marie]  for  those  of  the  North ;  for 
in  those  regions  there  are  only  those  two  passages 
by  water  for  very  many  Nations,  who  must  seek 
one  or  the  other  of  the  two  if  they  wish  to  visit  the 
French  settlements.  This  circumstance  makes  it 
very  easy  both  to  instruct  these  poor  people  when 
they  pass,  and  to  gain  ready  access  to  their  coun- 
tries." The  "  Kelation  "  of  1671-72  also  refers  to 
the  island  as  "  the  great  resort  of  all  Nations  go- 
ing to  or  coming  from  the  North  or  the  South." 

We  have  seen  that  from  the  earliest  days  of 
New  France,  Frenchmen  had  been  thinking  much 
of  the  Mississippi  River  and  the  road  thither. 
Champlain  had  dreamed  of  reaching  its  banks,  but 
after  venturing  as  far  as  Lake  Huron,  was  drawn 
homeward  by  colonial  affairs.  Nicolet  closely  ap- 
proached the  goal.  There  is  strong  probability  that 
Radisson  and  Groseilliers  were  upon  the  great  river 
in  the  summer  of  1655.  Some  have  thought,  but  in 
our  opinion  on  insufficient  evidence,  that  La  Salle 
traded  for  furs  on  the  Mississippi  as  early  as  1670. 
In  that  same  year  Fathers  Dablon  and  Allouez 
were  at  the  Indian  village  on  the  upper  Fox,  only 
a  short  distance  from  the  Wisconsin  —  "a  beau- 
tiful river,"  writes  the  latter  in  the  "  Relation " 
for  1669-70,  "running  southwest  without  any 
rapid.  It  leads  to  the  great  river  called  Messisipi, 
which  is  only  six  days'  sail  from  here."  The 
matter  of  definite  exploration  of  the  valley,  so  long 
the  object  of  profound  popular  curiosity,  was, 


52  WISCONSIN 

among  a  roving  people  like  those  of  New  France, 
merely  a  question  of  time  and  of  the  proper  men. 

When  Marquette,  twenty-nine  years  of  age, 
arrived  at  Quebec  from  France  in  1666,  he  found 
there  at  the  Jesuit  house,  in  training  for  the  priest- 
hood, Louis  Jolliet,  eight  years  his  junior.  The  two 
became  fast  friends,  but  Jolliet  appears  soon  to 
have  abandoned  his  theological  studies  and  entered 
the  field  of  professional  exploration,  in  which  Nico- 
let  had  won  such  marked  success.  A  man  of  ad- 
venturous spirit  and  fine  physique,  he,  like  Nicolet, 
rapidly  acquired  a  considerable  number  of  Indian 
dialects,  and  through  arduous  training  became  a 
master  of  woodcraft  and  aboriginal  diplomacy.  At 
the  time  when  Marquette  was  sent  by  his  superior 
to  La  Pointe  mission,  Jolliet  was  dispatched  by 
the  governor  of  New  France  to  accompany,  as  inter- 
preter and  Indian  expert,  an  official  party  engaged 
in  prospecting  for  copper  in  the  Lake  Superior  re- 
gion. He  remained  for  several  years  in  the  country 
of  the  upper  Great  Lakes,  and  we  find  him  fre- 
quently referred  to  in  official  and  Jesuit  reports 
from  that  quarter  as  possessed  of  discretion,  brav- 
ery, and  unusual  ability.  His  maps  and  statements 
concerning  the  Northwest  did  much  to  renew  ec- 
clesiastical and  official  interest  in  the  discovery  of 
the  Mississippi,  concerning  which  he,  like  Mar- 
quette, assiduously  collected  information  from  many 
sources. 

Great  was  the  delight  of  Marquette,  at  the  lonely 


FRENCH  EXPLORERS  AND  MISSIONARIES    63 

mission  of  St.  Ignace,  now  removed  to  Point  Ignace 
on  the  northern  shore  of  Mackinac  Straits,  when, 
on  the  8th  of  December,  1672,  —  the  day  of  the 
feast  of  the  immaculate  conception  of  the  Virgin, 
to  whom  the  father  had  vowed  to  dedicate  his  long- 
proposed  mission  to  "  the  Nations  who  dwell  along 
the  Missisipi  River," — "Monsieur  Jollyet  arrived 
with  orders  from  Monsieur  the  Count  de  frontenac, 
Our  Governor,  to  accomplish  This  discovery  with 
me.  I  was  all  the  more  delighted  at  This  good 
news,  since  I  saw  my  plans  were  about  to  be  ac- 
complished." Jolliet  was  likewise  the  bearer  of 
Marquette's  marching  orders  from  the  father  su- 
perior. Jesuit  missionaries  were  under  the  strictest 
discipline,  and  might  undertake  no  enterprise  with- 
out specific  authority  from  headquarters. 

The  long  northern  winter  was  spent  by  the  two 
comrades  in  careful  preparations  for  the  hazardous 
journey  to  which,  as  the  result  of  their  petitions, 
they  had  at  last  been  assigned  by  their  respective 
chiefs.  The  exciting  news  of  the  proposed  expedi- 
tion spread  quickly  and  widely  among  the  tribes 
of  the  district.  The  intending  explorers  were  visited 
by  all  manner  of  aboriginal  delegations,  eager  to 
give  of  their  meagre  geographical  knowledge,  or 
more  often  to  caution  the  adventurers  against  un- 
duly risking  their  lives  in  this  strange  enterprise 
into  unknown  lands  abounding  in  nameless  horrors, 
and  among  strange  peoples  reputed  to  be  in  league 
with  the  spirits  of  evil. 


54  WISCONSIN 

Writes  Marquette  in  his  journal : 

We  obtained  all  the  Information  that  we  could  from 
the  savages  who  had  frequented  these  regions ;  and  we 
even  traced  from  their  reports  a  Map  of  the  whole  of 
that  New  country ;  on  it  we  indicated  the  rivers  which 
we  were  to  navigate,  the  names  of  the  people  and  of  the 
places  through  which  we  were  to  pass,  the  Course  of  the 
great  River,  and  the  direction  we  were  to  follow  when 
we  reached  it.1 

With  the  earliest  canoes  from  the  lower  country, 
came  young  Father  Philippe  Pearson  to  succeed 
Marquette  at  St.  Ignace.  A  few  days  later,  upon 
the  17th  of  May,  1673,  the  epoch-making  expedi- 
tion set  forth  —  "Monsieur  Jollyet  and  myself, 
with  5  men,  in  2  Bark  Canoes,  fully  resolved  to  do 
and  suffer  every  thing  for  so  glorious  an  Under- 
taking." Following  the  path  broken  by  Nicolet  and 
Radisson  and  Groseilliers,  and  no  doubt  by  several 
other  of  their  compatriots,  the  discoverers  voyaged 
cautiously  along  the  north  shore  of  Lake  Michigan 
and  past  the  dangerous  bluffs  of  Point  Detour, 
crossed  Death's  Door  with  its  swirling  tide,  and 
ascended  Green  Bay  and  Fox  River  to  De  Pere, 
where  they  no  doubt  tarried  briefly  at  the  Jesuit 
mission  of  St.  Francis  Xavier.  Thence  alternately 
portaging  and  paddling  up  the  Fox,  and  stopping 

1  The  original  of  what  apparently  is  this  map  rests  in  the 
archives  of  St.  Mary's  College,  Montreal.  It  is  published  in  Jesuit 
Relations,  vol.  lix,  where  also  will  be  found  the  full  text  of  Mar- 
quette's  journals  of  both  his  1673  and  his  1674  expeditions. 


FRENCH  EXPLORERS  AND  MISSIONARIES    55 

for  three  days  at  the  native*  village  near  Berlin, 
they  found  their  way  to  the  broad  and  picturesque 
Wisconsin,  which  was  rapidly  descended  to  its 
mouth,  near  the  present  Prairie  du  Chien.  On  the 
17th  of  June  their  canoes  emerged  from  the  flood- 
washed  delta  of  the  Wisconsin  into  the  broad, 
sweeping  current  of  the  Mississippi,  at  this  point 
nearly  a  mile  in  width.  With  "  a  Joy  that  I 
cannot  Express,"  writes  the  gentle  Marquette, 
they  gazed  on  one  of  the  noblest  scenes  in  Amer- 
ica. At  last  they  had  found  the  object  of  their 
quest. 

However,  their  dangerous  journey  was  still  far 
from  its  end.  After  numerous  adventures,  many 
of  them  pleasing  because  of  the  fresh  charm  of  the 
country,  but  now  and  then  alarming  from  the  hos- 
tile attitude  of  several  of  the  native  villages  along 
the  shores,  the  little  flotilla  reached  the  mouth  of 
the  Arkansas.  It  was  now  the  middle  of  July. 
Heat  and  mosquitoes  sadly  vexed  the  adventurers ; 
the  opposition  of  the  tribesmen  was  intensifying 
as  they  proceeded  southward ;  it  was  at  last  evident 
that  the  river  flowed  neither  into  the  Pacific  nor 
into  the  waters  of  Virginia,  but  "into  the  florida 
or  Mexican  gulf;"  reports  of  Spaniards  on  the 
lower  reaches  or  along  the  gulf  shore  became  daily 
more  pronounced ;  and  "  Finally,"  writes  the  black- 
gowned  journalist,  "  we  had  obtained  all  the  infor- 
mation that  could  be  desired  in  regard  to  this 
discovery." 


56  WISCONSIN 

Upon  the  seventeenth,  two  months  after  they 
had  bidden  farewell  to  Pearson  at  St.  Ignace,  and 
one  after  the  discovery  of  the  great  river  at  Prairie 
du  Chien,  the  explorers  took  formal  leave  of  their 
treacherous  Arkansas  hosts  and  turned  homeward. 
The  canoes,  heretofore  gliding  easily,  now  made 
slow  progress  against  the  strong  descending  cur- 
rent ;  the  mosquito  pest  was  well-nigh  unbearable  ; 
malaria  beset  the  wearied  travelers,  who  were 
scorched  by  day  and  chilled  by  night  fogs ;  hostile 
savages  often  compelled  them  to  sleep  in  their  an- 
chored canoes  ;  camps  had  frequently  to  be  made 
without  fires  that  might  betray  their  presence,  — 
so  that  they  were  in  a  sorry  plight  by  the  time  the 
Illinois  River  was  reached.  Learning  that  this  route 
to  Lake  Michigan  was  shorter  than  the  Fox-Wis- 
consin, they  ascended  the  Illinois,  where  Marquette 
preached  in  the  numerous  native  villages  and  Jol- 
liet  discoursed  bravely  of  the  power  of  New  France 
and  the  advantage  of  its  fur-trade.  Reaching  either 
the  Chicago  or  the  Calumet  River  over  a  portage 
path  that  traversed  the  scarcely  perceptible  water- 
shed, the  explorers  descended  to  the  great  lake. 
Thenceforth  they  painfully  worked  their  way  for 
three  hundred  miles  northward  along  the  whitish 
clay  bluffs  lining  the  Wisconsin  shore,  crossed 
over  to  Green  Bay  by  means  of  the  Sturgeon  Bay 
portage  route, *  and  at  the  end  of  September  were 
warmly  welcomed  by  the  Jesuit  missionaries  at  De 

1  Now  penetrated  by  a  federal  canal. 


FRENCH  EXPLORERS  AND  MISSIONARIES    57 

Pere,  to  whose  house  Marquette  had  by  this  time 
been  formally  assigned. 

The  party  had  been  much  enfeebled  by  the  long 
and  hazardous  journey,  and  were  pleased  enough 
thus  early  to  settle  down  in  peace  for  the  pro- 
tracted winter.  The  two  leaders  occupied  them- 
selves with  their  respective  reports  and  maps. 
Marquette's  simple  narrative  was  addressed  to  his 
superior,  Father  Dablon,  at  Quebec ;  Jolliet's, 
doubtless  more  detailed,  to  his  chief,  the  governor 
of  New  France.  In  the  spring  (1674)  Jolliet,  the 
stronger  of  the  two,  bade  farewell  to  his  still  ail- 
ing colleague,  and  with  their  boatmen  set  forth  in 
high  spirits  upon  his  long  voyage  homeward.  He 
had  successfully  compassed  the  many  dangers  of 
lake  navigation  and  those  of  the  turbulent  Ottawa, 
and  was  gayly  shooting  the  great  rapids  at  La 
Chine,  above  Montreal,  when  his  canoe  upset,  his 
crew  and  his  papers  were  lost  in  the  tumultuous 
waters,  and  he  barely  escaped  with  his  life.  The 
poor  fellow  was  in  a  sorry  plight  on  his  return  to 
the  diminutive  capital  of  New  France,  with  little 
to  show  of  his  great  discovery.  He  was,  however, 
promptly  seen  by  Father  Dablon,  who  managed  to 
catch  the  mail  for  France  with  a  hurried  report  of 
the  trip,1  "  put  together  after  hearing  him  converse, 
while  waiting  for  the  relation,  of  which  father  Mar- 
quette is  keeping  a  copy." 

In  due  time  Marquette's  narrative  reached  Da- 
1  Jesuit  Relation  for  1674. 


68  WISCONSIN 

blon,  doubtless  by  the  hands  of  an  Indian  messenger 
descending  the  St.  Lawrence  in  one  of  the  annual 
trading  fleets  to  Quebec.  It  is  this  report  that 
has  come  down  to  us  as  the  only  journal  of  the 
famous  expedition,  which  accounts  for  the  fact 
that  Marquette's  name  has  in  history  become  much 
more  intimately  connected  with  the  discovery  than 
that  of  his  almost  forgotten  companion.  The  good 
father,  however,  went  to  his  grave  quite  uncon- 
scious of  the  fame  that  had  been  thrust  upon  him. 
In  the  brief  life  remaining  to  Marquette  he  could 
never  have  known  of  the  sad  fate  of  Jolliet's 
papers.  Dablon's  "  interview  "  with  the  latter  was 
not  published  in  the  "  Relations "  until  the  mis- 
sionary was  dying  in  the  land  of  the  Illinois  ;  his 
own  priceless  journal  did  not  see  print  until  six 
years  after  he  himself  had  passed  away. 

Marquette  did  not  rally  at  St.  Francis  Xavier, 
to  the  extent  he  had  expected.  Fretting  continu- 
ously with  a  desire  to  be  again  at  work  among  the 
simple  Illinois  tribesmen,  who  had  clamored  for  his 
return,  the  good  father  was  obliged  to  remain  thir- 
teen months  in  enforced  idleness.  At  last,  consent 
having  arrived  from  his  superior,  he  ventured  forth 
at  the  close  of  the  season,  although  still  but  a  phys- 
ical wreck. 

Starting  from  De  Pere  on  the  25th  of  October 
(1674),  with  two  French  servants,  he  experienced 
a  cold,  stormy  voyage  of  a  month  along  the  Wis- 
consin coast,  and  early  in  December  entered  Chi- 


FRENCH  EXPLORERS  AND  MISSIONARIES    59 

cago  River,  "  which  was  frozen  to  the  depth  of 
half  a  foot."  His  ailment,  a  chronic  dysentery,  re- 
turned in  vigor,  and  he  was  obliged  to  pass  the  re- 
mainder of  a  peculiarly  severe  winter  in  a  wretched 
cabin  erected  by  his  men,  "  near  the  portage,  2 
leagues  up  the  river."  In  April,  scarcely  able  to 
sit  in  his  canoe,  he  nevertheless  persisted  in  pene- 
trating to  the  great  village  of  the  Illinois,  near  the 
present  city  of  Peoria,  where  "  he  was  received  as 
an  angel  from  Heaven."  But  his  disease  increased 
in  severity,  soon  impelling  him  to  hurry  back  either 
to  De  Pere  or  Mackinac  in  order  to  obtain  from  his 
brethren  the  last  sacrament.  His  servants  carried 
him  tenderly  by  way  of  the  Chicago  portage  and 
down  the  east  side  of  Lake  Michigan,  that  the  canoe 
might  gain  advantage  of  the  north-setting  current 
which  sweeps  that  shore  ;  but  the  dying  missionary 
finally  yielded  up  his  life  on  the  18th  of  April 
(1675),  at  their  camp  near  the  site  of  the  modern 
Michigan  town  of  Ludington,  and  was  there  buried. 
The  following  year  a  party  of  Mackinac  Indians 
reverently  visited  the  grave  of  their  black-gown 
friend,  and  with  native  ceremonial  removed  his 
bones  to  St.  Ignace.  To-day  these  relics  are  di- 
vided between  the  old  church  at  St.  Ignace  and 
the  Jesuit  university  in  Milwaukee,  which  latter  is 
proud  to  bear  his  name. 

It  is  idle  in  our  day  to  inquire  to  whom  should 
be  awarded  the  greatest  credit  for  the  discovery  of 
the  Mississippi, — De  Sotoin  the  South,  or  Radisson 


60  WISCONSIN 

or  La  Salle  or  the  heroes  of  our  present  chapter, 
in  the  north.  Nothing  came  of  the  De  Soto  ex- 
pedition ;  it  was  as  inconsequent  as  the  landing 
of  Leif,  son  of  Eric,  at  the  North  American 
Vineland,  nearly  five  centuries  before  the  com- 
ing of  Columbus.  If  Radisson's  journal  be  rightly 
interpreted  as  indicating  his  early  visitation  to  the 
Mississippi,  that  chance  voyage  was  equally  fruit- 
less for  civilization.  La  Salle's  possible  priority  of 
presence  on  the  great  river  was  far  more  signifi- 
cant than  that  of  Radisson  or  De  Soto ;  but  the 
claim  in  his  behalf  is  based  on  the  merest  sur- 
mise. 

There  is  some  reason  to  believe  that  an  inquisi- 
tive Virginian  traveler,  Abraham  Wood,  may,  pre- 
vious to  1670,  have  penetrated  as  far  westward  as 
the  Mississippi  —  indeed,  the  story  of  early  Eng- 
lish exploration  in  the  trans- Alleghany  has  yet  to 
be  written ;  but  even  if  the  tale  be  accepted,  nothing 
came  of  Wood's  exploit. 

Jolliet  and  Marquette  went  about  their  famous 
task  unsuspecting  possible  European  predecessors. 
So  far  as  they  knew,  the  region  was  a  mysterious 
wilderness,  untrodden  by  white  men.  Persistently 
and  systematically  they  sought  information  concern- 
ing it,  and  proceeded  upon  their  journey  in  the  spirit 
and  the  manner  of  true  explorers.  They  wrote  their 
narratives  with  care,  and  prepared  excellent  maps 
for  publication,  and  the  announcement  of  their 
discovery  at  once  resulted  in  the  opening  of  the  re- 


FRENCH  EXPLORERS  AND  MISSIONARIES    61 

gion  to  commerce,  missionary  enterprise,  and  set- 
tlement. They  were  as  much  the  real  discoverers 
of  the  Mississippi  as  was  Columbus  of  the  New 
World. 


CHAPTER  III 

FRENCH  EXPLOITATION 

WE  have  seen  that  Nicolet  piloted  the  way  to 
Wisconsin.  Radisson  and  Groseilliers,  and  doubt- 
less many  another  adventurer  now  unknown,  proved 
the  capabilities  of  the  fur-trade  in  the  broad  region 
westward  of  Lake  Michigan.  With  that  zealous 
fortitude  that  makes  men  martyrs,  the  Jesuit  mis- 
sionaries here  planted  seed  that  was  slow  of  growth 
and  uncertain  as  to  fruit,  but  through  the  medium 
of  the  much-thumbed  "  Relations  "  they  familiar- 
ized Europeans  with  this  heathen  wilderness.  Jol- 
liet  and  Marquette  opened  a  highway  through  the 
land,  and  showed  the  Fox- Wisconsin  route  to  be 
in  many  respects  the  most  feasible  path  to  the  inter- 
ior of  the  continent.  Their  adventure  practically 
closed  the  era  of  exploration  ;  the  period  of  French 
occupation  promptly  followed. 

In  June,  1671,  two  years  before  the  departure 
of  the  expedition  of  discovery  from  Mackinac, 
Saint-Lusson,  a  political  agent  of  New  France, 
with  much  ceremony  took  possession  at  Sault  Ste. 
Marie,  in  the  name  of  King  Louis,  of  the  entire 
Western  country.  In  the  fashion  of  the  day,  his 
proces-verbal  was  broad  enough  in  its  terms  to  em- 


FRENCH  EXPLOITATION  63 

brace  all  lands  "  as  well  discovered  as  to  be  dis- 
covered, which  are  bounded  on  the  one  side  by  the 
Northern  and  Western  Seas  and  on  the  other  side 
by  the  South  Sea  including  all  its  length  or 
breadth."  *  In  his  train  were  several  Jesuit  mis- 
sionaries, including  Dablon  and  Allouez  ;  but  per- 
haps the  most  interesting  character  in  this  little 
company  at  the  Sault  was  their  guide  and  inter- 
preter, Nicolas  Perrot. 

It  is  known  that  Perrot,  following  closely  the 
footsteps  of  Radisson  and  Groseilliers,  had  wan- 
dered into  Wisconsin  as  early  as  1665,  when  but 
twenty-one  years  of  age.  As  a  fur-trader,  he  at- 
tained remarkable  influence  over  the  wild  tribes, 
which  power  was  frequently  utilized  by  the  Quebec 
government  in  winning  over  Northwest  Indians 
to  the  acceptance  of  French  exploitation  of  their 
country.  Twenty  years  later  (1685)  he  was  ap- 
pointed French  "commandant  of  the  West;" 
doubtless,  as  was  generally  the  case  on  the  fron- 
tiers of  New  France,  wholly  maintaining  himself 
and  his  small  corps  of  twenty  soldiers  from  the 
profits  of  his  trade  with  the  natives. 

Through  the  winter  of  1685-86  we  find  Perrot 
quartered  in  a  little  log  stockade  on  the  eastern 
bank  of  the  Mississippi,  near  the  modern  village  of 
Trempealeau,  exchanging  Paris-made  beads,  brass 
and  silver  ornaments,  and  tools  and  arms  of  iron 
for  the  buffalo  and  other  fur  peltries  brought  to 

1  Text  in  Wisconsin  Historical  Collections,  vol.  xi. 


64  WISCONSIN 

his  gates  by  the  bargain-loving  Sioux.  Others  of 
his  fortified  trading-posts  were  Fort  Perrot,  on  the 
Minnesota  side  of  Lake  Pepin,  Fort  Nicolas,  in  the 
outskirts  of  the  Prairie  du  Chien  of  to-day,  and 
one  lower  down  the  Mississippi  to  guard  a  lead 
mine  near  Galena,  which  he  discovered  and  worked. 
The  beautiful  silver  ostensorium  which  in  1686  he 
presented  to  the  Jesuit  mission  at  De  Pere,  has, 
after  some  curious  adventures,  at  last  found  a  rest- 
ing place  in  the  museum  of  the  Wisconsin  Histori- 
cal Society  at  Madison,  where  it  is  treasured  as 
probably  the  oldest  historical  relic  in  the  trans- 
Alleghany,  that  bears  upon  it  a  contemporaneously 
engraved  date. 

Perrot  appears  to  have  been  a  man  of  excellent 
character,  of  unusual  bravery  and  enterprise,  and 
to  have  displayed  rare  diplomatic  capacity  in  treat- 
ing with  the  Indians  of  the  Northwest;  but  he 
was,  also,  the  victim  of  violent  passions,  and  ruled 
his  turbulent  wards  after  the  manner  of  an  Asiatic 
despot.  His  haughty  temper,  while  doubtless  in 
general  a  source  of  strength  to  a  man  in  his  rude 
situation,  sometimes  brought  him  into  trouble,  and 
among  his  many  thrilling  adventures  were  not  in- 
frequent attempts  upon  his  life;  more  than  once 
he  narrowly  escaped  death  by  torture  at  the  stake. 
In  the  closing  year  of  the  seventeenth  century  the 
uprising  of  the  Fox  Indians  led,  as  we  shall  see,  to 
the  withdrawal  of  French  garrisons  from  the  West- 
ern posts,  and  Perrot  returned  to  the  lower  country 


FRENCH  EXPLOITATION  65 

a  poor  man.  His  military  expenses  had  far  outrun  his 
fur-trading  profits,  a  not  unusual  experience  among 
the  captains  of  the  great  Louis  who  were  serving 
him  upon  the  far-away  frontiers  of  North  America. 

Another  French  adventurer  whose  name  is 
closely  linked  with  that  of  early  Wisconsin  was 
Robert  Cavelier,  Sieur  de  la  Salle,  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  characters  in  our  Western  history.  In 
partnership  with  officials  at  Quebec  and  Montreal, 
he  conducted  a  far-reaching  but  seldom  profitable 
fur-trade  with  the  savages  of  the  interior,  and  in- 
cident to  the  extension  of  the  bounds  of  that  com- 
merce won  lasting  repute  as  an  explorer. 

After  some  experience  as  a  Jesuit  novice  in 
France,  where  he  was  born  of  a  wealthy  Rouen 
family,  La  Salle  had  come  to  Canada  in  1666, 
when  but  twenty-three  years  of  age.  Befriended 
by  Governor  Frontenac,  a  man  of  lofty  ambition 
but  of  kindly  nature,  young  La  Salle  promptly 
entered  upon  the  one  field  in  New  France  that  gave 
promise  to  a  fellow  of  spirit,  that  of  explorer  and 
fur-trader.  Hard  study  made  him  master  of  several 
of  the  difficult  Indian  dialects,  and  an  expert  in 
savage  customs  and  methods.  He  was  soon  wander- 
ing widely  upon  hunting  and  prospecting  trips, 
with  both  native  and  French  companions.  It  has 
been  claimed,  but  not  proven,  that  in  1671  he  was, 
earliest  of  known  white  men,  at  the  Falls  of  the 
Ohio  (Louisville),  and  about  that  time  discovered 
the  Mississippi. 


66  WISCONSIN 

In  1673  he  first  set  out  upon  the  several  re- 
corded expeditions  toward  and  in  the  Mississippi 
basin,  that  have  made  his  name  one  of  the  most 
famous  in  American  history.  In  that  year,  as 
Frontenac's  representative  and  partner,  he  estab- 
lished the  fur-trading  post  of  Fort  Frontenac 
(Kingston)  at  the  outlet  of  Lake  Ontario.  After 
a  voyage  to  France,  seeking  royal  favor  and  en- 
couragement, we  find  him  in  1676  strengthening 
this  fort,  and  building  vessels  for  trade  upon  the 
lake.  The  following  year  he  was  again  in  France, 
receiving  from  the  king  a  patent  of  minor  nobility 
and  a  license  to  conduct  a  far  Western  trade  in 
buffalo  wool  and  skins,  as  well  as  to  build  posts  in 
the  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  concerning  which 
Jesuit  reports  of  the  adventures  of  Jolliet  and 
Marquette  had  greatly  quickened  public  interest. 
But  in  his  operations  in  that  wonderful  land, 
"  through  which  would  seem  that  a  passage  to 
Mexico  can  be  found,"  the  Sieur  de  la  Salle  was 
cautioned  not  to  involve  the  crown  in  expense,  nor 
trade  with  tribes  trafficking  direct  with  the  settle- 
ments on  the  lower  St.  Lawrence.  Like  Perrot,  he 
was  to  recoup  himself  from  his  fur-trade  monopoly 
in  the  region  to  be  explored. 

Better  than  any  royal  license,  however,  was  his 
acquisition  of  a  lieutenant  in  the  person  of  Henri  de 
Tonty,  a  young  Italian  soldier  of  fortune,  who  had 
lost  his  right  hand  at  the  battle  of  Libisso,  and 
thereafter  wore  one  of  metal,  which  he  kept  gloved. 


FRENCH  EXPLOITATION  67 

Tonty's  was  a  bold,  adventurous  spirit,  like  that  of 
his  chief ;  but,  unlike  his  cold,  hard,  and  domineer- 
ing leader,  who  had  few  friends,  the  Italian  was  of 
a  tactful,  sunny  temperament.  Under  the  thousand 
trying  circumstances  incident  to  wilderness  travel, 
he  only  of  the  two  could  hold  their  followers 
together. 

La  Salle  and  Tonty  arrived  at  Niagara  in  Janu- 
ary, 1679,  with  material,  supplies,  and  crew  for  a 
ship  to  be  constructed  above  the  cataract,  for  the 
navigation  of  the  upper  lakes.  In  the  first  week  of 
August  the  Griffon  sailed,  and  in  twenty  days 
arrived  at  Mackinac,  to  the  consternation  of  the 
free-traders  assembled  there,  for  La  Salle's  whole- 
sale and  organized  methods  seemed  to  spell  ruin  to 
the  calling  of  the  coureurs  de  bois.  At  an  island 
rendezvous  in  or  near  Green  Bay  the  vessel  found 
a  rich  cargo  of  peltries  awaiting  her,  gathered  by 
La  Salle's  buyers,  who  had  preceded  him  to  Wis- 
consin. Clearly  he  was  here  violating  the  terms  of 
his  agreement  with  the  king,  for  the  Ottawa  and 
other  tribes  around  the  foot  of  Lake  Michigan 
were  certainly  in  the  habit  of  trading  direct  to 
Montreal.  However,  the  question  was  never  raised ; 
for  soon  thereafter  the  Griffon  was,  with  her  entire 
freightage,  lost  in  a  gale  on  the  great  lake. 

La  Salle  and  Tonty  having  themselves  left  the 
vessel  on  its  approach  to  Green  Bay,  it  was  many 
months  before  they  heard  of  the  disaster.  With 
fourteen  men,  the  former  voyaged  up  Lake  Michi- 


68  WISCONSIN 

gan  along  the  Wisconsin  shore,  while  Tonty  led  a 
like  contingent  by  the  east  bank.  The  two  parties, 
reuniting  at  St.  Josephs  River,  descended  to  Illinois 
Ifaver  by  the  Kankakee  portage,  and  celebrated 
New  Year's  Day  (1680)  at  the  great  village  of  the 
Illinois  on  Peoria  Lake,  where  Marquette  had 
ministered  six  years  before. 

Here  Fort  Creveco3ur  was  built,  with  Tonty  in 
command,  and  late  in  February  La  Salle  returned  to 
Fort  Frontenac  for  supplies  to  fit  out  a  vessel  for 
the  exploration  of  the  lower  Mississippi.  A  few 
days  before  his  departure  he  dispatched  a  small 
party  to  report  upon  the  upper  waters  of  that  river. 
This  branch  expedition  was  headed  by  Michel 
Accau  and  his  lieutenant,  Antoine  Augel,  in  their 
company  being  Father  Louis  Hennepin,  a  Francis- 
can friar,  who  was  consumed  by  a  most  unchurchly 
appetite  for  roving  and  for  wild  adventure.  It  was 
customary  in  New  France,  as  we  have  seen,  for 
priests  to  accompany  explorers,  in  order  not  only 
to  meet  their  spiritual  needs,  but  to  instruct  such 
heathen  aborigines  as  might  be  encountered.  Hen- 
nepin was  not  only  the  pastor  but  the  journalist  of 
the  expedition ;  indeed,  this  first  Western  enter- 
prise of  La  Salle  is  largely  known  to  us  through 
the  medium  of  Hennepin's  narrative.  The  lively 
but  sadly  braggart  and  often  unveracious  account 
of  the  friar's  many  remarkable  experiences,  which 
lost  nothing  in  the  telling,  was  published  two  years 
later  in  France,  and  became  one  of  the  most  widely- 


FRENCH   EXPLOITATION  69 

read  books  of  the  day.  Well  it  might ;  for  despite 
glaring  inaccuracies  it  remains  one  of  the  most 
valuable,  as  it  is  one  of  the  most  entertaining,  con- 
temporary records  of  travel  and  observation  in 
seventeenth-century  North  America. 

Accau's  party  reached  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony, 
the  site  of  the  modern  Minneapolis,  some  five  hun- 
dred miles  above  the  mouth  of  Illinois  River. 
Taken  prisoners  by  the  Sioux,  who  objected  to  the 
intrusion,  they  were  kindly  treated  by  their  captors ; 
but,  as  not  infrequently  was  the  case  in  Indian 
camps,  food  was  sometimes  so  scarce  that  the 
Frenchmen  were  inadequately  nourished.  After 
extended  wanderings  in  northwestern  Wisconsin 
and' northeastern  Minnesota,  they  were  rescued  by 
Tonty's  cousin,  Daniel  Greysolon  Duluth,  who, 
with  a  small  band  of  followers,  was  then  trading 
among  the  Sioux  in  behalf  of  Frontenac.  Duluth 
accompanied  the  explorers  down  the  Mississippi, 
and  by  way  of  the  Fox-Wisconsin  route  to  Macki- 
nac,  where  the  Jesuits  entertained  them  until 
spring,  when  they  could  proceed  down  the  lakes  to 
Niagara  and  Fort  Frontenac. 

In  a  later  work  (1697),  published  after  La 
Salle's  death,  Hennepin  unblushingly  claimed  that 
his  party  —  he  always  pretended  to  be  the  leader 
—  had,  during  their  sojourn  on  the  Mississippi, 
not  only  explored  its  upper  waters,  but  descended 
the  great  river  to  its  mouth,  thus  preceding  La 
Salle  himself  by  two  years.  But  this  impossible 


70  WISCONSIN 

tale  was  soon  discredited,  as  it  should  be,  and  Hen- 
nepin's  last  ten  years  were  spent  in  neglect  and 
obscurity. 

The  gallant  Tonty  had  an  unfortunate  experi- 
ence during  the  absence  of  his  chief.  Most  of  his 
men,  corrupted  by  rival  fur-traders,  deserted  dur- 
ing the  spring  and  summer.  When  a  large  force  of 
Iroquois  raiders  appeared  before  his  new  fort  of 
St.  Louis,  on  Starved  Rock,  a  high  cliff  on  the  Illi- 
nois River,  he  had  but  four  white  companions. 
With  these  he  retreated  to  Lake  Michigan,  de- 
scending along  the  Wisconsin  coast  to  the  Jesuit 
mission  at  De  Pere,  which  was  reached  in  Decem- 
ber. At  the  same  time,  La  Salle,  well  stocked  with 
supplies,  was  advancing  up  the  Michigan  coast  to 
his  lieutenant's  relief,  but  missed  him.  On  reach- 
ing the  Illinois  the  leader  found  nothing  but  traces 
of  disaster,  and  retired  to  his  fort  on  the  St.  Josephs. 1 
The  next  spring  (1681)  he  had  news  of  his  dis- 
tressed companions  and  rejoined  them  atMackinac, 
whence  the  reunited  party  returned  to  their  base  at 
Fort  Frontenac. 

In  August,  with  credit  now  stretched  to  the  ut- 
most, for  his  disasters  had  resulted  in  debts  of 
enormous  proportions,  La  Salle  again  ventured 
forth  into  the  West,  with  Tonty  and  a  party  of 

1  La  Salle's  Fort  Miami,  built  in  1679,  was  at  the  mouth  of  St. 
Josephs  River,  where  it  debouches  into  Lake  Michigan.  The  later 
French  and  English  fort  on  the  St.  Josephs  was  sixty  miles  up 
stream,  near  the  present  South  Bend,  Indiana,  and  guarded  the 
portage  of  half  a  league  to  the  Kankakee. 


FRENCH  EXPLOITATION  71 

fifty-two  others.  In  two  sections  they  reached  the 
Illinois  by  both  the  Kankakee  and  Chicago  port- 
ages, and  entered  the  Mississippi  on  February  6 
(1682).  On  March  9,  while  among  the  Arkansas, 
—  Jolliet  and  Marquette's  southern  limit,  —  the 
great  adventurer  formally  took  possession  for  his 
sovereign  of  the  entire  Mississippi  basin,  a  cere- 
mony repeated  with  great  solemnity  on  April  9  at 
one  of  the  mouths  of  the  Mississippi. 

But  the  lower  reaches  were  found  to  be  unhealth- 
ful,  food  was  scarce,  the  Indians  hostile,  and  for 
forty  days  La  Salle  lay  ill  with  malarial  fever. 
Once  more  the  expedition  dragged  its  way  back  to 
far-away  Mackinac.  With  the  coming  of  autumn, 
however,  the  commercial  explorers  were  again  on 
the  march  and  descended  to  their  old  haunts  on 
Illinois  River,  where,  amid  a  population  of  six 
thousand  natives,  they  for  a  year  conducted  a 
gainful  trade  in  buffalo  hides. 

But  there  had  been  a  change  in  the  political  con- 
trol of  New  France.  La  Salle's  fur-trade  partner, 
Frontenac,  was  replaced  as  governor  by  La  Barre, 
who  disliked  and  sought  to  ruin  the  austere  and 
ambitious  fur-trader  who  dreamed  of  a  great  com- 
mercial empire  in  the  West.  When  La  Salle  was 
on  his  way  in  the  autumn  of  1683  to  visit,  and  if 
possible  to  propitiate,  the  new  governor,  he  met 
along  the  east  coast  of  Lake  Michigan  Chevalier 
de  Baugis,  who  had  been  dispatched  to  seize  La 
Salle's  forts  and  succeed  him  as  military  command- 


72  WISCONSIN 

ant  in  the  Illinois.  With  more  tact  than  he  was 
accustomed  to  display,  the  latter  sent  by  De  Baugis 
a  note  to  Tonty  to  yield  gracefully,  and  soon  La 
Barre's  traders  were  monopolizing  the  district. 

On  reaching  Quebec,  La  Salle,  paying  slight  at- 
tention to  the  governor,  departed  at  once  for  France 
to  lay  his  case  before  the  throne.  Hennepin's  first 
book,  with  its  glowing  reports  of  Canada  and  the 
vast  interior,  was  just  then  being  eagerly  read  by 
court  and  people.  The  great  explorer,  freshly  re- 
turned from  the  farthest  wilds  of  that  wonderful 
land,  was  everywhere  welcomed,  and  found  eager 
audiences.  The  king  promptly  ordered  La  Barre 
to  restore  to  the  adventurer  his  several  forts,  — 
Frontenac,  St.  Josephs,  and  St.  Louis.  The  hero 
of  the  day  was  further  authorized  to  found  colonies 
throughout  the  broad  tract  then  known  as  Louisi- 
ana, and  to  wield  military  control  all  the  way  from 
Lake  Michigan  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  To  assist 
him  in  carrying  out  this  imperial  enterprise,  the 
court  sent  with  him  four  ships  and  four  hundred 
men. 

Exultantly  La  Salle  left  Kochelle  (July  24, 
1684),  heading  an  expedition  at  last  befitting  his 
lofty  ambition.  But  a  bitter  quarrel  soon  arose  be- 
tween him  and  Beaujeu,  his  principal  ship  captain. 
The  Spanish  captured  one  of  the  vessels  ;  the  other 
three,  through  lack  of  good  charts,  failed  to  find 
the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  and  rendezvoused  to 
the  westward,  in  Matagorda  Bay  (January,  1685). 


FRENCH  EXPLOITATION  73 

Here  one  of  the  ships  was  soon  wrecked.  In  mis- 
erable plight  the  leader  landed  his  ill-equipped 
pioneers,  most  of  their  tools  having  been  lost  with 
the  vessel,  and  built  another  Fort  St.  Louis.  Beau- 
jeu  now  left  the  wretched  colony  to  its  fate,  and 
sailed  home  to  France  in  one  of  the  two  remaining 
ships ;  later  in  the  year,  the  last  of  the  craft  was 
lost  in  a  wreck. 

The  strength  of  the  squalid  and  fever-stricken 
settlement,  feeble  at  best,  was  soon  wasted  in  expe- 
ditions through  the  neighboring  forests  and  swamps, 
in  vain  search  for  the  great  river's  mouth.  Deser- 
tions were  frequent,  a  mutinous  spirit  arose,  disor- 
der was  rampant.  Early  in  January  (1687),  the 
commander  and  sixteen  ragged,  half-starved,  and 
for  the  most  part  desperate  followers,  set  out  for 
Canada  overland,  leaving  behind  them  about 
twenty  men  to  garrison  the  little  palisaded  fort. 
On  March  19,  on  Trinity  River,  La  Salle,  whose 
harsh  and  overbearing  temper  had  made  him  bit- 
terly hated  by  the  majority,  was  murdered  by  some 
of  the  disaffected,  who  fled  into  the  wilderness, 
leaving  his  handful  of  friends  to  pursue  their  way 
as  best  they  might.  These  eventually  reached 
Starved  Rock,  whence  the  grieved  and  despairing 
Tonty  had  dispatched  numerous  toilsome  expedi- 
tions to  find  the  chief  to  whom  he  himself  appears 
to  have  been  passionately  devoted.  Outfitted  by  the 
lieutenant,  the  miserable  refugees  at  last  reached 
Mackinac  and  Quebec.  Two  years  later  Spanish  ex- 


74  WISCONSIN 

plorers,  coming  overland  from  Mexico,  discovered 
the  ruins  of  Fort  St.  Louis  on  Matagorda  Bay. 
Several  of  the  garrison  had  been  killed  by  Indians 
and  the  rest  imprisoned  ;  these  latter  were  promptly 
ransomed  by  the  Spanish,  thus  closing  one  of  the 
most  tragic  chapters  in  the  checkered  story  of 
American  exploration. 

We  have  alluded  to  the  fortunate  meeting  be- 
tween Duluth,  the  cousin  of  Tonty,  and  Father 
Hennepin's  exploring  party,  captive  among  the 
Sioux.  Duluth  was  a  picturesque  personage  in  our 
history.  Born  about  1647,  in  a  little  village  near 
Paris,  he  was  in  his  youth  a  member  of  the  Royal 
Guard,  a  command  composed  exclusively  of  gentle- 
men, and  later  won  a  captaincy  in  the  marines,  to 
which  corps  was  committed  the  military  protection 
of  French  colonies.  Retiring  from  this  service,  on 
half  pay,  Duluth  entered  the  broader  field  of  the 
fur-trade,  and  in  the  autumn  of  1678  left  Montreal 
for  the  far  West.  For  several  years  he  wandered 
and  trafficked  among  the  Sioux,  Assiniboin,  and 
other  tribes  beyond  Lake  Superior. 

It  was  while  thus  roving  that  in  June,  1680,  he, 
with  four  men  in  his  employ,  ascended  the  Bois 
Brule"  from  Lake  Superior,  and  portaged  over  to 
Upper  St.  Croix  Lake,  the  headwaters  of  St.  Croix 
River.  Arriving  at  the  mouth  of  the  latter,  he  heard 
of  the  French  prisoners,  and  descending  the  Missis- 
sippi for  some  two  hundred  and  forty  miles  vis- 
ited the  camp  of  the  captors,  there  meeting  Accau, 


FRENCH   EXPLOITATION  75 

Augel,  and  Hennepin.  The  friar  he  had  possibly 
met  in  Holland,  six  years  before,  at  the  fierce  bat- 
tle of  Seneffe,  wherein  Hennepin  was  an  almoner 
and  Duluth  a  squire  to  the  Marquis  de  Lassay.  The 
fur-trader's  dominance  over  his  savage  customers 
was  well  evinced  in  his  ability  to  secure  the  release 
of  his  countrymen,  whom,  as  we  have  seen,  he  es- 
corted to  Mackinac  by  way  of  the  Fox-Wisconsin 
route. 

While  at  Mackinac,  Duluth  learned  that  he  had 
incurred  the  enmity  of  officials  on  the  lower  St. 
Lawrence.  He  was  accused  of  being  a  coureur  de 
6ois,  and  of  heading  a  combination  of  nearly  eight 
hundred  free-traders  roaming  through  the  upper 
country.  What  was  still  worse,  he  was  said  to  be 
trading  with  the  English,  who,  from  Albany  as  their 
commercial  base,  were  now  boldly  operating  along 
the  Ohio  Eiver  and  its  branches.  By  means  of 
higher  prices  and  better  goods,  they  were  attracting 
a  large  share  of  the  native  trade  which  New  France 
deemed  to  be  legally  and  morally  hers. 

This  news  determined  Duluth  to  go  to  France 
and  have  it  out  with  the  minister  of  the  marine. 
He  appears  to  have  convinced  this  official  that 
he  was  a  regular  trader,  that  he  had  at  his  own 
expense  won  the  Indians  over  to  favor  French  do- 
minion, and  that  up  to  this  time  his  followers  had 
been  an  insignificant  handful.  He  returned  to  Can- 
ada with  license  to  traffic  among  the  Sioux  by  way 
of  Wisconsin  River,  and  to  their  country  he  at 


76  WISCONSIN 

once  repaired ;  although  La  Salle  vainly  protested 
that  the  Wisconsin  was  clearly  within  his  own 
assigned  territory,  and  might  not  properly  be  in- 
vaded by  a  rival  merchant. 

In  the  first  week  of  May,  1683,  Duluth  was  again 
at  La  Baye  (the  Green  Bay  of  our  time),  with 
thirty  men,  and  valiantly  helped  to  defend  that 
place  —  apparently  the  mission  stockade  at  De 
Pere  —  against  an  incursion  of  the  Iroquois,  just 
then  raiding  the  tribesmen  who  had  fled  to  Wiscon- 
sin from  the  neighborhood  of  Lake  Huron.  Thence 
proceeding  to  the  north  shore  of  Lake  Superior,  he 
built  forts  near  Lake  Nepigon  and  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Pigeon ;  the  latter  being  called  Kaministi- 
quia,  and  afterwards  serving  as  the  eastern  base  of 
a  long  line  of  fortified  places  by  way  of  Lake  Win- 
nipeg and  the  Saskatchewan,  collectively  called  the 
"  Post  of  the  Western  Sea."  By  means  of  this  cor- 
don, the  French  sought  commercially  to  connect 
Lake  Superior  and  the  Pacific  Ocean,  overland: 
hoping  thus  to  cut  off  interior  trade  from  the  Eng- 
lish Hudson's  Bay  Company,  which  strenuously 
claimed  the  "whole,  entire,  and  only  liberty  of 
Trade  and  Traffick  "  in  the  vast  northwestern  wil- 
derness which  the  English  then  called  "Rupert's 
Land." 

Three  years  later  (1686)  we  find  Duluth  erect- 
ing a  fort  near  Detroit,  to  bar  the  proposed  en- 
trance of  English  traders  into  the  upper  lakes. 
Thereafter,  he  was  prominently  connected  with 


FRENCH  EXPLOITATION  77 

various  French  military  enterprises  between  De- 
troit and  Montreal,  several  of  them  involving  rare 
enterprise  and  daring.  He  died  in  1709,  the  victim 
of  diseases  induced  by  prolonged  hardships  suf- 
fered in  behalf  of  New  France,  no  doubt  well  earn- 
ing the  encomium  of  Governor  Vaudreuil,  who, 
in  notifying  the  government  at  Versailles  of  the 
decease  of  this  battered  veteran  of  the  frontier, 
declared  that  "He  was  a  very  honest  man." 

Another  Frenchman  to  leave  his  mark  on  the 
pages  of  Wisconsin  history  was  Pierre  Charles  le 
Sueur.  Coming  from  France  to  Canada  in  his 
youth,  he  also  joined  the  ranks  of  the  Western  fur- 
trade  adventurers.  As  early  as  1683,  ten  years 
after  Jolliet  and  Marquette,  we  hear  of  his  jour- 
neying from  Mackinac  to  the  Mississippi  over  the 
Fox-Wisconsin  route,  ascending  to  St.  Anthony's 
Falls,  whither  Hennepin  had  preceded  him  by 
three  years,  and  trafficking  with  the  Sioux  about 
the  headwaters  of  the  Mississippi. 

In  1689  Le  Sueur,  then  prominent  among  the 
licensed  traders  of  the  Northwest,  and  evidently  a 
man  of  talent  and  unusual  enterprise,  was  one  of 
the  witnesses  to  Perrot's  act  of  taking  possession 
for  France  of  the  region  of  the  upper  Mississippi, 
on  Lake  Pepin.  Four  years  later  (1693),  by  order 
of  Governor  Frontenac,  he  built  a  stockaded  fort 
on,  Madelaine  Island,  in  Chequamegon  Bay,  over- 
looking the  site  of  Radisson's  landfall  of  twenty- 
four  years  previous,  and  another  long  fortress  on 


78  WISCONSIN 

an  island  in  the  Mississippi,  some  eight  miles  below 
the  mouth  of  the  St.  Croix.  The  purpose  of  these 
posts  was  to  keep  open  for  French  trade,  as  against 
possible  raids  by  the  now  rebellious  Fox  Indians, 
the  Bois  Brule-St.  Croix  route,  Duluth's  favorite 
highway  between  Lake  Superior  and  the  great 
river.  This  Mississippi  River  fort  soon  became  an 
important  rendezvous  for  tribesmen  having  furs  to 
offer  for  barter,  and  is  alluded  to  by  the  Jesuit  his- 
torian Charlevoix  as  "a  centre  of  commerce  for 
the  Western  parts,  and  many  French  of  Canada 
pass  the  winter  here,  because  it  is  a  good  country 
for  hunting." 

Thus  far,  Le  Sueur  had  been  strong  in  favor 
with  Frontenac,  but  in  time  their  commercial  in- 
terests clashed,  and  friction  naturally  arose.  In 
1697  the  former  had  obtained  from  the  ministry 
permission  to  work  certain  lead  mines  and  colored 
earths  on  the  Mississippi  and  copper  deposits  on 
Lake  Superior,  which  he  had  discovered.  Delay  in 
the  execution  of  his  project,  however,  resulted 
from  the  capture  by  an  English  fleet  of  the  vessel 
on  which  he  was  returning  to  New  France,  and  he 
was  imprisoned  in  England  until  the  conclusion  of 
King  William's  War,  later  in  the  year.  When  re- 
leased, he  obtained  a  new  royal  commission  (1698) 
and  again  started  for  Canada.  Frontenac,  then  all- 
powerful,  now  represented  to  the  court  that  these 
mines  were  too  far  away  from  the  lower  St.  Law- 
rence to  be  of  any  use  to  Canada ;  that  Le  Sueur 


FRENCH  EXPLOITATION  79 

could  support  himself  in  that  distant  country  only 
through  a  license  to  trade  in  beaver  skins,  there 
being  no  small  game ;  and  if  he  did  this  it  would 
exclude  others  from  that  profitable  traffic.  "I 
think,"  slyly  suggests  the  governor  to  the  minister 
of  marine,  "  that  the  only  mines  he  seeks  in  those 
regions  are  mines  of  beaver  skins." 

Thus  repulsed  by  the  Canadian  authorities,  Le 
Sueur  again  went  to  France  and  obtained  fresh 
permission  from  the  court  to  go  out  to  America ; 
this  time  to  join  his  gallant  relative,  Iberville,  who, 
in  February,  1699,  had  founded  at  Biloxi  the  new 
colony  of  Louisiana,  which  La  Salle  had  failed  to 
establish. 

Le  Sueur  arrived  in  Louisiana  during  the  first 
week  of  December.  At  the  head  of  twenty-nine  pro- 
spectors and  miners  he  was  promptly  dispatched 
up  the  Mississippi  by  Iberville,  to  investigate  more 
fully  the  deposits  of  metal  and  colored  earths  con- 
cerning which  he  had  reported.  After  visiting 
mines  in  Illinois,  near  the  present  Galena,  and 
having  numerous  conferences  with  the  Indians,  the 
adventurers  passed  the  mouth  of  Wisconsin  River 
on  the  first  of  September  (1700).  Later  they  as- 
cended to  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony  and  built  a 
wintering  fort  on  Blue  River,  a  branch  of  the  Min- 
nesota, a  league  above  the  present  town  of  Man- 
kato.  Here  they  conducted  a  profitable  fur-trade 
with  the  Sioux,  and  discovered  what  Le  Sueur  took 
to  be  a  copper  deposit.  Some  three  thousand 


80  WISCONSIN 

pounds  of  this  supposed  ore  were  transported  in 
their  slender  craft  to  Biloxi,  which  was  reached  in 
February,  1702.  But,  like  the  miners  at  James- 
town colony,  in  the  previous  century,  Le  Sueur 
was  doomed  to  disappointment ;  for  on  arrival  in 
France  the  cargo  that  had  cost  so  much  to  procure 
proved  to  be  but  worthless  greensand.  This  prac- 
tically closed  the  career  of  the  now  discredited  Le 
Sueur ;  eight  years  later  he  died,  while  crossing  the 
ocean.  However,  the  lead  deposits  discovered  by 
him  in  northwestern  Illinois,  and  probably  in 
southwestern  Wisconsin  and  in  adjacent  districts 
to  the  west  of  the  Mississippi,  continued  to  be 
worked  at  intervals  throughout  the  French  regime, 
being  of  the  highest  importance  to  the  fur-trade  of 
the  entire  Mississippi  basin ;  for  without  bullets 
the  firearms  of  the  white  men  were  of  small  avail. 
Conditions  of  life  under  the  French  regime 
upon  the  rude  frontiers  of  Canada  and  Louisiana 
—  and  we  shall  see  that  southwestern  Wisconsin 
was,  for  a  time,  considered  a  part  of  the  latter  pro- 
vince —  were  such  as  to  foster  strong  personalities. 
Conspicuous  among  them  was  Louis-Armand  de 
Lorn  d'Arce,  known  to  history  as  Baron  de  Lahon- 
tan.  His  father  was  a  famous  French  engineer  in 
Gascony,  whose  once  ample  fortunes  had,  about  the 
time  of  his  son's  birth  (1666),  been  wasted  through 
legal  strife,  so  that  the  boy  inherited  only  a  title 
and  a  shattered  estate.  When  but  seventeen  years 
of  age  he  went  out  to  Canada  as  a  petty  officer  in 


FRENCH  EXPLOITATION  81 

a  company  of  the  marine  corps  sent  from  France 
to  chastise  the  turbulent  Iroquois.  Engaged  in  two 
rather  exciting  Iroquois  campaigns,  the  young  Gas- 
con acquired  a  close  knowledge  of  Indian  languages 
and  customs,  and  won  repute  as  a  fellow  of  spirit. 
Despite  his  caustic  temper  and  his  cordial  hatred 
of  the  priests,  — he  was  an  avowed  agnostic, — he 
came  to  be  regarded  as  a  valuable  man-at-arms, 
particularly  when  engaged  upon  somewhat  desper- 
ate enterprises.  At  heart  he  was  a  wanderer,  as 
well  as  a  cynic,  and  the  ready  victim  of  ennui. 

Dispatched  in  1687  to  command  the  little  stock- 
ade of  Fort  St.  Joseph,  "at  the  strait  of  Lakes 
Huron  and  Erie,"  — one  of  Duluth's  chain  of  forts, 
— Lahontan  went  out  in  the  company  of  Duluth  and 
Tonty,  who  tarried  with  him  a  few  days  at  his  new 
station,  the  two  cousins  then  disappearing  into  the 
farthest  West.  For  a  year  the  restless  commandant, 
paying  little  heed  to  his  post,  roamed  through  the 
region  of  Mackinac  and  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  ostensibly 
in  search  of  corn  for  his  garrison,  among  the  In- 
dians, but  really  in  quest  of  adventure.  Late  in 
the  summer  of  1688  he  declared  St.  Joseph  unten- 
able because  of  Iroquois  encroachment,  and  aban- 
doning the  fort  retreated  with  his  detachment  to 
Mackinac. 

From  here,  so  he  claimed  in  after  years,  he  made, 
in  the  autumn  and  winter  following,  an  extended 
journey  with  his  men  and  some  Indian  allies  west- 
ward to  Green  Bay,  over  the  Fox- Wisconsin  route 


82  WISCONSIN 

to  the  Mississippi,  and  a  long  distance  up  an  alleged 
westerly  affluent  of  the  Mississippi,  which  he  called 
River  Long.  On  this  apocryphal  river,  which  cor- 
responds to  no  stream  on  the  maps  of  to-day  ? 
Lahontan  claims  to  have  visited  the  wonderful  na- 
tions of  Eokoros,  Esanapes,  and  Gnacsitares,  from 
whom  he  learned  of  still  other  strange  tribes  be- 
yond, and  of  a  river  flowing  westward  into  a  large 
salt  lake.  That  he  actually  was  at  Green  Bay  and 
on  Fox  River,  there  seems  no  reason  to  doubt; 
but  relative  to  the  Wisconsin  and  the  country  west- 
ward, his  published  account  is  vague,  and  evidently 
based  on  second-hand  information. 

Leaving  these  nations  of  the  West,  whose  idyl- 
lic life  he  describes  in  glowing  terms,  which  may 
have  given  a  hint  to  Swift  for  "  Gulliver's  Travels," 
Lahontan  reports  that  he  and  his  companions  de- 
scended to  the  Mississippi,  reached  Lake  Michigan 
by  way  of  the  Illinois-Chicago  route,  and  returned 
to  Mackinac ;  whence  —  and  this  is  established  his- 
tory —  the  commandant,  in  the  company  of  some 
Ottawa  savages,  proceeded  to  Montreal  in  canoes, 
by  way  of  Ottawa  River.  The  following  autumn 
(1690)  his  friend  Frontenac  sent  him  to  France, 
with  dispatches  reporting  the  withdrawal  of  the 
discomfited  English  from  the  St.  Lawrence.  Two 
years  later  he  was  again  ordered  to  France,  to  pre- 
sent at  Versailles  in  person  a  sagacious  plan  of  his 
own  invention,  for  defending  the  upper-lake  region 
from  the  Iroquois.  His  vessel  stopping  at  New- 


FRENCH  EXPLOITATION  83 

foundland  en  route,  he  was  conspicuous  in  repuls- 
ing a  British  naval  attack  on  Plaisance,  and  once 
more  was  the  bearer  of  welcome  news  to  the  min- 
istry. 

Overlooking  his  cherished  scheme  for  guarding 
the  upper  country,  the  court  ordered  him  back  to 
Newfoundland  as  lieutenant  of  the  king  for  that 
island  and  Acadia,  a  highly  honorable  but  to  him 
distasteful  task ;  for  his  heart  was  in  the  free,  rov- 
ing life  of  the  Western  frontier.  At  Plaisance  he 
quarreled  with  the  governor,  De  Brouillon,  who 
seems  to  have  been  almost  insanely  jealous  of  the 
young  lieutenant  who  had  been  thrust  upon  him. 
Pretending  to  be  in  danger  of  his  life,  the  latter 
fled  in  a  fishing  vessel  to  Portugal,  and  was  there- 
after an  exile  from  France,  for  his  government 
would  not  countenance  this  desertion  of  a  post  of 
duty. 

In  1703  the  poor  fugitive,  beset  by  ill  fortune, 
drifted  between  Portugal,  Holland,  Germany,  and 
England,  and  published  his  "Voyages  to  North 
America."  It  was  a  racy  work  of  travel  and  philo- 
sophical reflection,  filled  to  the  brim  with  well-told, 
stirring  adventures  among  a  people  and  in  a  land 
concerning  which  there  was  then  universal  curi- 
osity ;  it  abounded,  also,  in  satirical  references  to  the 
governments  and  priests  of  Europe,  and  throughout 
breathed  the  fierce  spirit  of  a  social  democrat  and 
religious  agnostic.  The  vogue  of  this  heterodox  but 
fascinating  publication  was  immediate  and  wide- 


84  WISCONSIN 

spread ;  its  various  editions  in  several  European 
languages  must,  if  properly  managed,  soon  have 
replenished  his  slender  purse.  Dying  about  1715, 
the  closing  years  of  this  unfortunate  adventurer 
were  marked  by  ill  health  and  popular  neglect, 
save  that  a  few  choice  spirits,  like  the  philosopher 
Leibnitz,  at  Hanover,  held  him  in  high  esteem. 

It  has  long  been  the  fashion  for  historians  to 
condemn  Lahontau's  book  as  a  tissue  of  falsities ; 
but  with  the  one  exception  of  his  fanciful  account 
of  the  country  and  people  of  the  River  Long  — 
which  he  seems  to  have  introduced  as  a  medium 
for  lampooning  the  European  civilization  of  his 
time  —  the  "  Voyages  "  constitutes  one  of  the  most 
valuable  contemporary  descriptions  of  the  North 
American  wilderness  in  the  later  decades  of  the 
seventeenth  century ;  for  this  reason,  deserving  far 
better  treatment  than  it  has  been  accorded.  Further, 
as  laying  bare  to  us  the  heart  and  motives  of  one 
of  the  most  gallant  and  picturesque  of  early  Ameri- 
can adventurers,  it  is  a  human  document  of  the 
greatest  value. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  FOX   WARS   AND   THE   FALL   OF  NEW  FRANCE 

IN  their  exploitation  of  Wisconsin,  through  which 
lay  diagonally  the  favorite  Fox- Wisconsin  trade 
route  between  the  upper  Great  Lakes  and  the 
upper  waters  of  the  Mississippi,  it  must  not  be 
supposed  that  the  French  were  meeting  with  no 
aboriginal  opposition.  Instead,  Fox  Indians  long 
pestered  commercial  operations  by  the  Canadians ; 
in  the  end  their  enmity  brought  about  a  condition 
of  affairs  that  did  much  to  disrupt  French  do- 
minion over  the  continental  interior. 

The  royal  charters  of  English  colonies  on  the 
Atlantic  coast,  in  the  easy  land-grabbing  temper 
of  European  monarchs  of  that  time,  carried  their 
bounds  indefinitely  westward.  At  first,  however, 
Englishmen,  busy  in  settling  the  coastal  plain, 
cared  little  for  the  hinterland,  which  was  not  yet 
needed.  Meanwhile,  the  adventurous  French,  push- 
ing their  inquiring  way  up  the  Ottawa,  early  reached 
the  upper  Great  Lakes.  We  have  seen  Champlain's 
commercial  agent,  Nicolet,  setting  foot  in  Wiscon- 
sin and  learning  of  the  great  Mississippi,  at  a  time 
when  the  Mayflower  child  was  but  a  lad  of  four- 
teen ;  Radisson,  early  exploring  the  Lake  Superior 


86  WISCONSIN 

region ;  Saint-Lusson,  Perrot,  and  La  Salle,  by  su- 
preme right  of  discovery,  each  in  his  turn,  for- 
mally taking  possession  of  the  entire  Mississippi 
basin  for  the  king  of  France ;  Jolliet  and  Mar- 
quette,  Duluth,  Hennepin,  and  Le  Sueur  exploring 
vast  areas  heretofore  unknown  to  Europeans ;  Jesuit 
missionaries  building  bark  chapels  and  rearing 
huge  log  crosses  in  the  widely-scattered  villages  of 
the  tribesmen  ;  fur-traders  ranging  everywhere  to 
the  west  of  the  mountains;  military  commandants 
building  cordons  of  log  posts  along  vast  stretches 
of  connecting  lakes  and  rivers ;  and  even  mines  of 
lead  and  copper  being  worked  in  the  name  of 
France. 

Not  only  in  Canada:  but  with  the  coming  of 
Iberville  there  was  founded  the  southern  province 
of  Louisiana,  which,  joining  hands  with  New  France 
on  the  north,  now  claimed  French  mastery  over  the 
whole  of  the  trans- Alleghany.  And  it  seemed  in  all 
fairness,  despite  paper  claims  by  the  English,  to 
belong  to  the  great  Louis,  by  virtue  of  both  dis- 
covery and  occupation.  His  ambitious  scheme  of 
North  American  empire  needed  for  its  validity, 
however,  in  that  predatory  age,  the  backing  of 
power;  and  France  in  America  was  lamentably 
weak.  The  entire  population  of  New  France  was 
at  the  time  of  King  William's  War  (1689-97) 
not  greater  than  twelve  thousand,  whereas  New 
England  and  New  York  alone  supported  a  hundred 
thousand  inhabitants  —  although  it  must  be  said 


FOX  WARS  AND  FALL  OF  NEW  FRANCE    87 

that  the  English  colonists  were  torn  by  dissen- 
sions and  their  militia  system  lacked  organization; 
whereas  New  France  possessed  in  her  hardy  pea- 
santry a  well-trained  fighting  corps  that  might 
readily  be  mobilized. 

But  Quebec  and  New  Orleans  were  separated 
by  a  vast  wilderness,  only  laboriously  to  be  trav- 
ersed by  canoes  and  batteaux ;  the  little  waterside 
stockades  were  for  the  most  part  days  distant  from 
each  other,  and  looked  more  formidable  on  the 
map  than  in  reality ;  much  dependence  was  placed 
on  Indian  support,  but  in  need  the  savages  often 
proved  but  fair  weather  allies.  Moreover,  the  offi- 
cials of  New  France  and  Louisiana  were  often  at 
loggerheads,  with  conflicting  trade  and  military 
interests,  and  with  ill-defined  bounds  to  their  re- 
spective provinces.  For  a  time,  it  was  claimed  that 
Louisiana  extended  northward  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Wisconsin ;  at  others,  New  France  governed  not 
only  all  of  Wisconsin,  but  the  whole  of  the  Illinois 
country.  Almost  universal  official  corruption,  also, 
was  a  besetting  weakness  in  the  over-sea  domin- 
ions of  the  king ;  and  this  was  encouraged  by  the 
penurious  folly,  long  persisted  in,  of  obliging  ex- 
plorers and  military  commandants  to  recoup  them- 
selves from  the  fur-trade  of  their  several  districts. 
Opposition  to  the  exacting  fur-trade  monopoly 
bred  hundreds  of  free-traders,  who  lawlessly  roamed 
the  farthest  streams  and  forests  with  bands  of  half- 
savage  retainers ;  seeking  better  prices  and  cheaper 


88  WISCONSIN 

goods,  these  rovers  oftentimes  carried  peltries  to 
thrifty  English  merchants  operating  from  either 
Albany  or  Hudson  Bay,  whose  commerce  with 
Western  savages  it  was  the  policy  of  France  to 
repress  at  every  hazard. 

Plymouth  was  about  sixty  years  old  before 
Americans  on  the  seaboard,  slowly  spreading  into 
the  western  uplands,  began  to  bestir  themselves 
relative  to  their  claims  beyond  the  Alleghanies. 
In  1686  Governor  Denonville  of  New  France  re- 
ported to  Versailles  that  New  York  was  displaying 
"  pretensions  which  extend  no  less  than  from  the 
lakes,  inclusive,  to  the  South  Sea  [Pacific]  ; " 
and  that  traders  from  that  province  had  already 
penetrated  to  Mackinac  to  purchase  furs  from 
"  our  Outawas  and  Huron  Indians,  who  received 
them  cordially  on  account  of  the  bargains  they 
gave,"  But  Denonville's  plea  that  such  irregu- 
larities should  harshly  be  checked,  was  vain.  As 
usual,  Versailles  waited. 

During  the  next  thirty  years  English  explorers 
and  traders,  with  Wanderlust  at  last  strongly  devel- 
oped within  them,  advanced  boldly  through  the 
trans-Alleghany,  as  far  south  as  the  Creek  tribes, 
all  through  the  Ohio  basin,  and  even  to  the  upper 
lakes.  Duluth's  strongholds  could  not  stem  their 
progress.  In  1721  Governor  Keith  of  Pennsyl- 
vania desired  the  lords  of  trade  at  London  to 
"  fortify  the  passes  on  the  back  of  Virginia,"  also 
to  build  forts  upon  the  Great  Lakes,  in  order  to 


FOX  WARS  AND   FALL  OF  NEW  FRANCE    89 

"  interrupt  the  French  communication  from  Quebec 
to  the  River  Mississippi."  Official  England  would 
not  hurry,  however;  she,  also,  played  a  waiting* 
game.  In  due  time,  of  growing  strength  came 
action,  and  France  was  compelled  to  release  her 
weak  hold  upon  the  transmontane  hinterland  that 
American  borderers  to  the  east  of  the  range,  eager 
for  new  pastures  as  well  as  for  trade  with  the  In- 
dians, had  now  come  to  demand  as  their  heritage, 
under  the  royal  charters. 

In  this  long  and  glowing  struggle  for  racial 
supremacy  on  the  North  American  continent,  Wis- 
consin waterways  and  Wisconsin  Indians  played  a 
significant  part.  It  has  been  shown  that  French 
supremacy  could  not  permanently  exist  in  the  in- 
terior of  the  continent  without  free  communication 
by  boat  between  the  divergent  drainage  systems  of 
the  Great  Lakes  and  the  Mississippi  River.  Only 
by  this  means  might  New  France  and  Louisiana 
be  kept  in  touch,  and  their  commercial  and  mili- 
tary expeditions  maintained  from  the  bases  of 
Quebec,  Montreal,  and  New  Orleans.  The  Fox- 
Wisconsin  trade  route  being  early  recognized  as 
in  many  respects  the  most  feasible  connection  be- 
tween the  two  systems,  Wisconsin  was  the  keystone 
of  the  arch  of  French  occupation,  and  thus  essential 
to  the  integrity  of  the  plan.  Interruption  of  this 
highly  strategic  path  to  the  Mississippi  was  bound 
to  weaken  the  fabric  by  forcing  Frenchmen  to 
attempt  other  and  less  satisfactory  portages  — 


90  WISCONSIN 

from  the  lower  lakes  over  into  the  Ohio,  from 
Lake  Michigan  to  the  Illinois,  or  from  Lake  Su- 
perior to  the  upper  Mississippi. 

It  is  probable  that  the  Fox  Indians,  then  in  con- 
trol of  the  Fox  River  of  Wisconsin,  once  dwelt  in 
the  valley  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  but  from  various 
economic  reasons  slowly  drifted  westward  together 
with  other  Algonquian  peoples.  We  first  hear  of 
them,  in  historic  times,  in  lower  Michigan ;  but  by 
1665  Father  Allouez  met  Foxes  on  Lake  Superior, 
whither  they  had,  like  so  many  of  their  linguistic 
family,  retreated  before  the  advancing  scourge  of 
the  Iroquois.  But  in  fleeing  to  the  protection  of  our 
inland  lakes  and  rivers  they  had  lost  nothing  of 
their  independent,  warlike  temper.  French  traders 
and  missionaries  found  them  haughty,  ungovern- 
able, vengeful,  and  of  stronger  fibre  than  their 
neighbors. 

Forest  merchants  of  any  race  are  quite  apt  to 
include  men  of  vicious  temperament.  From  a  com- 
bination of  untoward  incidents  the  Foxes  came  bit- 
terly to  detest  Frenchmen  of  this  type,  almost  the 
only  whites  of  their  acquaintance.  Moreover,  these 
tribesmen  were  almost  continually  embroiled  with 
the  Sioux  of  the  West,  who  also  were  born  fight- 
ers. Frenchmen  passing  up  Fox  River,  so  called 
because  the  seat  of  the  Foxes,  were  trafficking  with 
the  Sioux  and  carrying  to  the  latter  firearms  which 
were  being  used  against  Fox  warriors.  It  is  small 
wonder,  as  the  culmination  of  long-continued  fric- 


FOX   WARS   AND   FALL   OF  NEW  FRANCE    91 

tion,  that  the  Foxes  sought  at  first  to  interrupt  the 
trade  of  the  obnoxious  French,  by  levying  toll ; 
next,  to  close  to  the  latter  the  gateway  between  East 
and  West,  of  which  they  held  the  key ;  then  to  harry 
the  Chippewa,  Ottawa,  and  other  tribes  remaining 
in  the  French  interest,  and  in  time  boldly  to  hold 
council  with  the  French-hating  Iroquois. 

Duluth  had  contrived  to  keep  these  fiery  savages 
on  Fox  River  in  some  measure  of  control.  The 
astute  Perrot  attained  a  considerable  mastery  over 
them.  Nevertheless,  the  Jesuit  mission  at  De  Pere 
was  burned  to  the  ground  in  1687,  causing  the 
black-gowns  to  retreat  to  Mackinac,  and  towards 
the  close  of  the  century  the  Fox- Wisconsin  water- 
way became  unsafe  even  for  armed  traders.  It  was 
for  this  reason  that  Le  Sueur  had  been  ordered 
(1693)  to  keep  open  Duluth's  old  route  between 
Lake  Superior  and  the  Mississippi,  via  the  Bois 
Brule  and  the  St.  Croix. 

With  the  death  of  Frontenac  (1698),  who  had 
kept  a  strong  hold  upon  the  outlying  military  posts 
of  New  France,  there  came  a  period  of  govern- 
mental weakness,  during  which  garrisons  on  the 
upper  lakes  were  withdrawn.  Emboldened  by  lax- 
ness,  the  Foxes  carried  matters  with  a  high  hand. 
In  1699,  for  instance,  Father  Saint-Cosme,  a  Sul- 
pician  missionary  bound  for  the  Illinois,  found  the 
Fox- Wisconsin  closed  to  him,  and  reported  much 
plundering  of  such  French  traders  as  had  been 
allowed  to  pass  through.  He  was  compelled  to  pro- 


92  WISCONSIN 

ceed  with  his  little  flotilla  of  canoes  southward  by 
the  Wisconsin  shore  of  Lake  Michigan,  stopping 
among  the  Potawatomi,  probably  at  the  site  of 
the  present  Sheboygan,  and  visiting  a  considerable 
population  of  Mascoutin,  Foxes,  and  Potawatomi 
on  the  shores  of  Milwaukee  Bay.  His  journey  was 
continued  over  the  Chicago  portage. 

In  the  year  of  Saint-Cosme's  adventure,  orders 
were  issued  from  Versailles  to  establish  a  fort  at 
Detroit,  under  Antoine  la  Mothe,  Sieur  de  Cadillac, 
its  purpose  being  the  familiar  one,  to  prevent  the 
Indian  trade  of  the  upper  lakes  from  being  won 
by  Englishmen,  whose  allies  were  the  dreaded  Iro- 
quois.  It  was  just  then  a  feature  of  French  policy 
to  concentrate  the  Western  Indians  in  large  num- 
bers at  Detroit,  where  they  might  be  under  sur- 
veillance and  their  trade  confined  to  the  French. 
At  first  the  Foxes  refused  to  go,  but  finally  a  large 
body  of  them  yielded  to  continued  solicitations 
(1710),  and  after  a  long  march  overland  from 
Wisconsin  planted  themselves  in  a  rather  defiant 
mood  before  the  gates  of  the  little  Michigan  for- 
tress. But  Cadillac  had  by  this  time  gone  to  be  gov- 
ernor of  Louisiana ;  his  successor,  Dubuisson,  repre- 
sented a  different  governmental  policy,  and  was 
much  annoyed  by  the  turbulent  strangers,  whom 
he  invited  to  return  to  Wisconsin  —  a  wish  con- 
verted into  a  command  by  Governor  Vaudreuil. 
In  the  early  months  of  1712  the  unheeding  Foxes, 
now  strongly  fortified,  were  set  upon  by  the  com- 


FOX  WARS  AND  FALL  OF  NEW  FRANCE    93 

biued  Indians  of  several  tribes,  aided  by  the  French, 
and  in  the  course  of  nearly  three  weeks  of  active 
hostilities  the  greater  part  of  the  Wisconsin  visitors 
suffered  slaughter. 

However,  there  were   still  many  of  their  kind 
remaining:  in  the  forests  of  Wisconsin,  and  with 

O  7 

much  skill  these  organized  a  confederacy  of  neigh- 
boring tribes,  which  soon  inaugurated  a  reign  of 
terror  for  the  French  from  Mackinac  to  the  Mis- 
sissippi. In  1715  Marchand  de  Lignery  was  sent 
out  with  an  expedition  designed  to  operate  in  two 
columns  against  La  Baye.  But  the  attempt  was 
mismanaged,  and  a  failure.  It  was  followed  next 
year  by  a  more  formidable  party  under  La  Porte 
de  Louvigny,  starting  from  Montreal  and  gathejr- 
ing  strength  from  whites  and  reds  as  it  proceeded 
up  the  lakes,  overawing  the  Iroquois  on  the  way. 
Composed  at  last  of  eight  hundred  men,  the  column 
worked  its  toilsome  way  up  and  around  the  rapids 
of  the  lower  Fox  River,  and  found  the  Foxes  in- 
trenched near  Petit  Lake  Butte  des  Morts.  Lou- 
vigny's  two  small  cannon  and  a  grenade-mortar 
had  slight  effect  on  the  moated  palisade  of  the 
savages,  who  defended  themselves  with  much  mili- 
tary skill,  and  finally  secured  quite  favorable  terms 
of  surrender  ;  practically  buying  themselves  off 
for  the  time,  with  the  opportunities  for  a  profitable 
trade  in  beaver  skins,  which  they  afforded  the 
French  invaders. 

The  only  lasting  result  for  French  arms  was  the 


94  WISCONSIN 

establishment  at  La  Baye  (in  1717)  of  the  first 
permanent  fort  at  that  early  outpost  of  New  France. 
No  doubt  the  Jesuit  mission  at  De  Pere  was  sur- 
rounded by  the  usual  palisade  for  the  protection 
of  the  little  company  of  whites  against  marauding 
tribesmen.  It  is  fair  to  presume,  however,  that 
the  more  formidable  fortification  now  erected  was 
placed  at  some  point  lower  down  the  Fox ;  probably 
on  or  at  least  near  the  west  side  site,  a  half  league 
above  the  river  mouth,  whereon  we  know  that  in 
later  days  were  built  successive  outposts  of  France, 
Great  Britain,  and  the  United  States. 

No  sooner  had  the  thrifty  Louvigny  withdrawn 
than  the  neighborhood  confederacy  rapidly  grew 
into  a  widespread  aboriginal  intrigue  against 
French  domination,  which  seems  to  have  extended 
as  far  as  the  Chickasaw  on  the  south  and  included 
the  Sioux  and  Omaha  of  the  trans-Mississippi 
plains ;  but  the  Illinois  remained  true  to  their 
French  allegiance.  The  Sioux  alliance  with  the 
crafty  Foxes  was  particularly  distressing  to  the, 
officials  of  New  France,  for  the  trade  of  the  former 
was  of  the  greatest  importance,  and  they  held  the 
Mississippi  and  the  inland  routes  westward.  Nu- 
merous overtures  were  made  to  them  through  the 
post  on  Chequamegon  Bay,  but  for  a  long  time 
without  success. 

The  possibility  of  finding  a  water  route  through 
the  American  continent,  by  which  Europe  might 
be  in  close  touch  with  eastern  Asia,  excited  the 


FOX  WARS  AND  FALL  OF  NEW  FRANCE    95 

ambition  of  every  New  World  explorer  from  Co- 
lumbus until  well  along  in  the  eighteenth  century. 
In  1720  the  Jesuit  historian  and  traveler,  Father 
Pierre  Francois  Xavier  de  Charlevoix,  came  to 
New  France  to  prospect  for  a  suitable  trade  route 
to  the  Pacific.  He  visited  Wisconsin  and  the  Illi- 
nois, and  made  to  the  government  at  Versailles 
two  suggestions :  first,  an  expedition  up  the  Mis- 
souri, thence  to  follow  some  westering  waterway 
to  the  ocean  —  the  scheme  which  Lewis  and  Clark 
realized  eighty-five  years  later ;  second,  to  estab- 
lish a  line  of  fur-trade  and  missionary  posts  among 
the  Sioux,  and  thus  gradually  to  creep  into  and 
across  the  interior. 

In  accordance  with  this  last  proposition  there 
was  constructed  (1727)  Fort  Beauharnois,  on  the 
Minnesota  side  of  Lake  Pepin,  with  Rene  Boucher 
de  la  Perri^re  in  charge,  and  the  Jesuits  Guignas 
and  De  Gonnor  to  look  after  the  missionary  field. 
But  a  fresh  uprising  of  the  Foxes  threatened  to 
cut  these  men  off  from  their  base  on  the  St.  Law- 
rence, and  the  post  was  soon  abandoned  —  so  also 
the  entire  project  for  reaching  western  tidewater 
by  way  of  the  trans-Mississippi  plains. 

Throughout  the  protracted  troubles  with  the 
Foxes,  Western  officials  of  New  France  did  not 
appear  averse  to  Fox  raids  on  the  Illinois,  thus  de- 
stroying the  fur-trade  of  upper  Louisiana,  so  long 
as  their  own  beaver  traffic  at  Detroit,  Mackinac, 
and  La  Baye  was  undisturbed.  Royal  commands 


96  WISCONSIN 

were  issued  in  1724,  sharply  directing  that  such 
raids  be  punished ;  but  without  effect  until  four 
years  later,  when  Lignery,  then  considered  the 
most  competent  of  the  frontier  officers,  appeared 
on  Fox  River  with  a  considerable  convoy,  found 
that  the  Foxes  had  retreated  before  him,  burned 
their  villages  and  cornfields,  and  on  his  return 
destroyed  La  Baye  fort  as  no  longer  tenable  —  a 
singularly  futile  expedition,  in  which  Lignery  has 
been  suspected  of  bad  faith. 

A  new  officer  was  then  (1729)  sent  to  the  coun- 
try of  the  Foxes,  Pierre  Paul  la  Perriere,  Sieur 
Marin,  who  soon  displayed  energetic  ability,  and 
two  years  later  rebuilt  the  stockade  at  La  Baye. 
The  allies  of  the  Foxes  were  now  falling  away,  for 
Indian  conspiracies  have  seldom  been  of  long  dura- 
tion, and  this  last  was  displaying  undoubted  signs  of 
weakness.  Soon  after  Marin's  arrival,  a  large  body 
of  the  unfortunate  tribesmen  appear  to  have  at- 
tempted an  escape  to  the  Iroquois  in  the  east,  by 
way  of  northern  Illinois  and  Michigan.  But  they 
were  overtaken  south  of  Lake  Michigan,  by  hastily 
summoned  French  commands  fr6m  St.  Josephs, 
Miami,  and  the  Illinois,  and  put  to  rout  with  great 
loss  of  life. 

In  the  winter  of  1731-32,  a  band  of  mission 
Indians  from  Canada  were  allowed  to  proceed  to 
Wisconsin  and  slaughter  no  less  than  three  hun- 
dred of  the  miserable  remnant  of  the  Foxes,  who 
by  this  time  seem  to  have  completely  lost  their 


FOX  WARS  AND  FALL  OF  NEW  FRANCE    97 

allies.  Kiala,  head  chief  of  the  distracted  nation, 
and  evidently  a  man  of  unusual  ability  among 
them,  now  appeared  at  La  Baye  and  freely  offered 
his  life  that  the  remainder  of  his  people  might  be 
spared.  He  might  have  saved  himself  the  sacrifice ; 
for  De  Villiers,  now  in  command,  triumphantly 
carried  the  poor  headman  to  Montreal,  whence  he 
was  transported  to  Martinique,  where  this  once 
proud  Demosthenes  of  the  far  northern  forests 
became  one  of  a  chain-gang  and  soon  fell  a  miser- 
able victim  to  unaccustomed  labor  under  a  tropical 
sky. 

It  was  thought  that  at  last  the  Foxes  had  been 
brought  to  their  knees.  Disregarding  the  com- 
pact with  Kiala,  their  complete  extermination  was 
promply  ordered  from  headquarters  in  Montreal. 
But  other  tribes  began  to  pity  the  weary  Foxes 
and  to  see  in  their  fate  a  presage  of  their  own. 
Their  kinsmen  and  neighbors  the  Sauk,  in  par- 
ticular, harbored  some  of  the  fugitives.  Upon  De 
Villiers  going  among  the  former  to  ask  that  these 
be  surrendered  to  the  vengeance  of  the  French,  he 
and  his  youngest  son  were  killed;  the  brother  pur- 
sued the  murderers  and  fought  them  for  an  entire 
day  at  their  village  near  Lake  Petit  Butte  des 
Morts,  with  heavy  losses  on  both  sides.  Thereafter 
Sauk  and  Foxes,  deserting  the  valley  of  the  Fox, 
were  as  one  nation ;  fresh  allies  sympathetically 
came  to  them  from  the  West,  and  the  fugitives 
took  their  stand  in  the  lead-mine  district  of  south- 


98  WISCONSIN 

west  Wisconsin,  along  Rock  River,  and  in  eastern 
Iowa.  Their  prestige,  however,  was  never  fully  re- 
gained. 

Henceforth  Frenchmen  had  free  passage  over 
the  Fox- Wisconsin  route,  although  there  continued 
until  1750  to  be  more  or  less  serious  trouble  with 
the  recalcitrants,  marked  by  the  plunder  and  mur- 
der of  traders  within  their  country,  and  now  and 
then  a  flickering  flame  of  outright  rebellion.  The 
details  we  have  not  here  space  to  follow,  although 
they  are  often  of  much  interest.1 

A  tragedy  of  another  sort  attaches  itself  to  La 
Baye  of  this  period.  During  the  winter  of  1749-50 
the  commandant  of  the  fort,  young  Lieutenant 
Pierre  Mathurin,  the  Sieur  Millon,  who  in  1744 
had  served  as  an  ensign  at  Crown  Point,  was  out 
alone  in  a  canoe  on  Green  Bay  and  lost  his  life  in 
a  squall. 

By  1750,  as  a  result  of  prompter  and  more  effi- 
cient punitive  expeditions  from  Mackinac,  La 
Baye,  and  the  several  forts  on  the  upper  Missis- 
sippi and  in  the  Illinois,  something  like  peace  was 
restored.  Occasionally  thereafter  we  find  Sauk 
and  Foxes  arrayed,  with  other  large  bodies  of  Wis- 
consin Indians,  under  the  French  standard,  in 
expeditions  against  English  borderers  and  their 
Indian  allies.  Under  the  skillful  command  of 
young  Charles  Michel  Langlade  of  Mackinac,  by 

1  See  L.  P.  Kellogg,  "  The  Fox  Indians  during  the  French 
Regime,"  in  Wis.  Hist.  Soc.  Proceedings,  1907. 


FOX  WARS  AND  FALL  OF  NEW  FRANCE    99 

this  time  famous  throughout  the  West  as  both 
fur-trader  and  officer  in  the  French  militia,  Sauk 
and  Foxes  joined  with  their  neighbors  in  many  a 
fierce  foray,  from  Pickawillany  (1752)  to  the  death 
struggles  before  Quebec  and  Montreal  (1759-60). 

To  the  Western  military  officials  of  New  France, 
the  cessation  of  the  prolonged  and  vexatious  Fox 
War  brought  a  sense  of  relief,  and  probably  they 
looked  forward  to  a  long  term  of  security.  With 
the  Fox-Wisconsin  route  open,  the  fur-trade  at  La 
Baye  post  once  more  became  extremely  profitable. 
As  was  the  fashion  in  New  France,  Marin  and  his 
colleagues  promptly  proceeded  to  feather  their  own 
nests  through  the  double  medium  of  private  trade 
and  official  thievery.  No  wonder  Marin  compla- 
cently declared  that  "  peace  is  more  profitable  than 
war."  In  1753,  in  token  of  his  military  efficiency, 
he  was  ordered  to  the  Ohio  to  superintend  the 
building  of  a  chain  of  forts  designed  to  restrain 
the  rising  tide  of  English  exploitation  of  the  West. 
Upon  his  retirement  from  La  Baye,  the  post  was 
leased  to  Francois  de  Rigaud,  a  brother  of  Gov- 
ernor Vaudreuil,  who,  at  an  enormous  advance, 
promptly  re-leased  it  to  a  company  of  traders. 

In  1757,  Captain  Bougainville,  aide-de-camp  to 
General  Montcalm,  made  a  detailed  report  on  the 
military  status  and  resources  of  New  France,  in 
which  he  alluded  to  La  Baye  as  "  an  established 
post.  It  is  farmed  for  nine  thousand  francs,  all  at 
the  cost  of  the  lessee.  The  commandant  (Coutrol, 


100  WISCONSIN 

lieutenant)  is  an  officer  interested  in  the  lease  and 
who  runs  it  for  his  own  profit  and  that  of  his  asso- 
ciates. He  has  two  thousand  francs  of  gratifica- 
tion." The  Indians  who  assemble  at  the  post  to 
trade  are  the  Sauk,  Foxes,  Winnebago,  Mascoutin, 
Kickapoo,  and  the  Sioux  of  the  prairies  and  lakes. 
"There  come  from  there,"  continues  Bougainville, 
"  in  an  ordinary  year,  five  to  six  hundred  pack- 
ages "  of  furs.1  Two  years  later  (1759),  for  the 
family  were  thrifty,  Rigaud  obtained  a  life  grant 
of  the  revenues  of  this  profitable  enterprise,  which 
in  the  same  season  was  advantageously  leased  to 
two  merchant  adventurers  named  Sieur  Jacques 
Giasson  and  Ignace  Hubert,  whose  compensation 
was  to  be  a  third  of  the  profits. 

The  powers  of  New  France  were  tested  to  their 
utmost  in  the  seven  years'  titanic  struggle  for  the 
mastery  of  our  continental  interior,  which  opened 
in  1754.  In  Acadia,  along  the  St.  Lawrence,  and 
upon  the  back  of  the  English  frontier  settlements 
of  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia,  the  French  and  In- 
dian War  waged  hottest.  Wisconsin  fur-traders, 
with  following  of  half-breeds  and  savages  from 
their  several  forest  neighborhoods,  hurried  to  the 
front  and  did  effective  service  in  a  cause  predes- 
tined to  fail. 

But  the  upper  country  itself  again  fell  into  neg- 
lect. The  cherished  cordon  of  forts,  supposedly 
guarding  the  upper  lakes  and  the  Mississippi, 

1  Bougainville's  memoir  in  Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  vol.  xviii. 


FOX  WARS  AND  FALL  OF  NEW  FRANCE    101 

proved  of  small  importance  in  this  great  crisis. 
The  long  and  weary  Fox  insurrection  had  dis- 
rupted the  coveted  connections  of  the  West,  prac- 
tically isolating  Canada  from  Louisiana.  There 
had  been  no  time  in  which  to  recover,  between  the 
tribal  subjugation  culminating  in  1750  and  the  out- 
break of  the  greater  contest  with  the  English. 
France  was  irretrievably  weakened  at  the  arch  of 
her  inter-communication  in  the  Northwest,  a  fact 
contributing  in  no  small  measure  to  her  defeat; 
for  she  had  lost  the  confidence  of  a  large  mass  of 
her  Western  savage  allies,1  and,  with  the  centre  of 
her  line  of  defense  broken,  could  not  long  have 
withheld  British  attack  in  this  quarter.  With  the 
lower  St.  Lawrence  lost,  the  slender  fabric  of 
French  occupation  readily  collapsed. 

1  In  1758,  for  instance,  an  outbreak  of  Menominee  at  La  Baye 
resulted  in  the  killing  of  several  Frenchmen  and  the  pillaging  of 
the  post. 


CHAPTER  V 

UNDER  THE  BRITISH  FLAG 

As  employed  in  the  earliest  contemporary  French 
documents,  the  term  "La  Baye"  was  regional 
rather  than  local.  It  meant,  at  first,  all  of  the  far- 
stretching  shore  of  the  great  western  arm  of  Lake 
Michigan.  Gradually,  however,  the  name  came  to 
refer  specifically  to  the  six  miles  of  Fox  River 
bank,  between  the  mouth  of  that  stream  and  the  De 
Pere  rapids.1  Although  now  two  municipalities, 
this  district  should  in  any  historical  account  of 
Wisconsin  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  cen- 
turies be  considered  as  an  entity;  we  shall  not 
here  attempt  to  distinguish  between  them.  The 
boundaries  of  the  modern  cities  of  De  Pere  and 
Green  Bay  practically  touch,  and  there  is  to-day  a 
continuous  line  of  prosperous  settlement,  urban  and 
suburban,  between  the  rapids  and  the  river  mouth. 

La  Baye  lay  at  the  entrance  of  the  principal 
canoe  route  to  the  Mississippi.  The  presence  of 
the  rapids,  the  first  interruption  to  the  navigation 

1  In  1820,  when  the  boundaries  of  French  claims  on  Fox  River 
•were  being  established,  the  federal  commissioner  reported  that 
those  at  Little  Kaukauna,  twelve  miles  above  the  fort,  were  also 
"  considered  to  have  been  comprehended  within  the  settlement  of 
Green  bay." 


UNDER  THE  BRITISH  FLAG  103 

of  the  Fox,  necessitated  the  portaging  of  canoes 
and  cargoes,  bound  either  up  or  down ;  and  as 
usual  at  such  obstructions,  fish  were  abundant. 
Both  strategically  and  economically  important,  the 
river  banks  hereabout  undoubtedly  were  occupied 
by  aborigines  long  before  the  coming  of  the  French, 
who  found  this  vicinity  one  of  the  most  important 
native  trading  centres  of  the  Northwest.  In  conse- 
quence, white  men  trafficking  for  furs  appear  to 
have  early  established  themselves  in  the  neighbor- 
hood —  intermittently  at  first,  but  soon  with  some 
approach  to  continuity. 

After  FatherAllouez  opened  a  Jesuit  mission  at 
De  Pere  rapids  (1671-72),  particularly  at  the  time 
of  Duluth's  defense  of  the  place  in  1683,  and  the 
coming  of  Perrot  (1685)  as  military  commandant 
of  the  West,  it  is  fair  to  assume  that  there  was  not 
only  a  forest  mission  here,  but  at  least  a  desultory 
French  trading  settlement ;  undoubtedly  feeble  as 
to  numbers,  but  probably  protected  by  a  palisade. 
The  earliest  documents  of  the  French  regime  in  the 
upper  country 1  not  infrequently  contain  casual  re- 
ferences to  the  presence  at  the  mouth  of  the  Fox 
of  adventurous  traders ;  for  instance,  the  lawless 
company  whom  Allouez  found  on  his  arrival  in  the 
winter  of  1669-70,  and  the  advance  agents  of  La 
Salle,  who  collected  at  La  Baye  (1679)  the  Grif- 
fon's rich  cargo  of  Wisconsin  furs.  Certainly  by 
1717,  when  what  appears  to  have  been  the  first  per- 

1 .  Published  at  length  in  Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  vols.  xvi-xviii. 


104  WISCONSIN 

manent  fort  was  erected  near  the  river  mouth,  this 
far  Western  outpost  of  New  France  seems  to  have 
been  fairly  well  planted.1  During  the  protracted 
Fox  War,  life  in  Wisconsin  was  at  times  intolerable 
for  Frenchmen,  and  they  occasionally  deserted  La 
Baye ;  but  it  is  evident,  as  related  in  the  preceding 
chapter,  that  with  each  return  of  military  protection 
white  residence  was  resumed. 

Practically  every  little  waterside  stockade  de- 
signed to  protect  the  interior  fur-trade  of  New 
France  was  girt  about  by  a  tiny  hamlet  of  hdbi- 
tans:  boatmen,  tillers  of  the  soil,  mechanics,  ac- 
cording to  bent  or  necessity.  At  the  head  of  society 
in  this  rude  settlement  was  the  military  command- 
ant; next  in  social  precedence  the  Jesuit  father, 
whose  tiny  chapel  usually  lay  just  within  the  gate. 
Visiting  the  frontier  fort  were  always  wandering 
traders,  each  at  the  head  of  a  band  of  rollicking 
voyageurs,  jauntily  clad  in  fringed  buckskins  and 
showy  caps  and  scarfs,  with  a  semi-savage  display 
of  bracelets,  dangling  earrings,  and  necklaces  of 
beads.  The  coureur  de  bois,  with  his  sprightly  party 
of  devil-may-care  retainers,  was  not  an  infrequent 
caller,  upon  unheralded  expeditions  here  and  there 
through  the  dark  woodlands  and  along  sparkling 
waters.  Freely  mingling  with  this  varied  company 

1  A  manuscript  of  1718,  in  the  Colonial  Archives  at  Paris,  pub- 
lished in  Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  vol.  xvi,  p.  371,  says  of  La  Baye  :  "It 
is  settled  by  the  puants  [Winnebago]  and  folleavoines  [Menomi- 
nee]  ;  there  are  some  French  also." 


UNDER  THE   BRITISH  FLAG  105 

were  bands  of  half-naked,  long-haired  Indians  and 
half-breeds,  glistening  with  oils  and  tricked  out 
with  paint  and  feathers.  Such  a  fortified  trading 
colony  was,  no  doubt,  La  Baye  of  the  first  two- 
thirds  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

The  combined  genius  of  General  Wolfe  and 
Admiral  Saunders  had  compelled  the  surrender  of 
Quebec  (September  17,  1759).  This  practically 
ended  French  dominion  in  North  America ;  but 
New  France  at  large,  now  grown  to  seventy-three 
thousand  souls,  was  not  actually  abandoned  until 
after  the  fall  of  Montreal  (September  8,  1760). 

Among  the  officers  of  the  colony,  assisting  Gov- 
ernor Vaudreuil  in  the  defense  of  Montreal,  was 
Lieutenant  Charles  Langlade,  then  second  in  com- 
mand at  Mackinac.  Five  days  before  the  surren- 
der, Vaudreuil  sent  Langlade  back  to  his  fort, 
together  with  an  Indian  contingent  from  the  up- 
per lakes  and  two  companies  of  deserters  from  the 
British  army,  on  their  way  to  Louisiana  by  way  of 
Mackinac.  He  also  carried  with  him  Vaudreuil's 
instructions  to  the  former's  chief,  Captain  Louis  de 
Beaujeu  de  Villemonde,  to  evacuate  that  post  and 
retire  to  the  Illinois,  leaving  Langlade  in  charge 
until  the  arrival  of  the  British.  Accordingly,  in 
October,  Beaujeu  retired  "  with  4  officers,  2  cadets, 
48  soldiers  and  78  militia."  It  is  probable  that  he 
picked  up  on  the  way  whatever  garrison  may  still 
have  remained  at  La  Baye.  While  on  Rock  River 
the  party  were  caught  in  the  ice,  and  obliged  to 


106  WISCONSIN 

winter  there  among  the  Sauk  and  Foxes,  from 
whom  they  obtained  supplies  at  exorbitant  rates  as 
measured  in  trading  goods  belonging  to  Beaujeu 
and  his  partners,  for  which  the  owners  advanced  a 
claim  against  the  French  government  amounting  to 
65,387  livres.  It  was  six  months  before  they  arrived 
at  their  destination. 

Robert  Rogers,  prominent  throughout  the  French 
and  Indian  War  as  a  daring  and  successful  leader 
of  English  provincial  rangers,  was  sent  up  the 
Great  Lakes  to  enforce  the  capitulation  of  French 
outposts  in  the  West ;  and  during  the  winter  and 
following  year  secured  the  transfer  of  Forts  Miami 
and  Detroit. 

From  Detroit,  Rogers  dispatched  Captain  Henry 
Balfour,  of  the  Eightieth  (Light-Armed  Foot) 
Regiment,  to  make  similar  visits  to  the  posts  on 
Lakes  Huron  and  Michigan — Mackinac,  LaBaye, 
and  St.  Josephs ;  at  each  of  which  he  was  to  leave 
a  small  garrison  of  regulars  from  both  his  own 
regiment  and  the  Sixtieth  (Royal  American  Foot).1 
Lieutenant  William  Leslie,  of  the  Sixtieth,  was  sta- 
tioned at  Mackinac  with  twenty-eight  men,  while 
Balfour,  accompanied  by  Ensign  James  Gorrell,  a 
young  Marylander,  also  of  the  Sixtieth,  continued 
on  to  La  Baye,  where  they  arrived  the  12th  of  Oc- 

1  Raised  in  1757  for  frontier  service,  chiefly  among  the  Eng- 
lish and  German  colonists  in  New  York  and  Pennsylvania. 
While  mostly  officered  from  Great  Britain,  several  of  the  minor 
officers  were  of  American  birth. 


UNDER  THE  BRITISH   FLAG  107 

tober  (1761),  a  year  after  Beaujeu's  retreat,  to  find 
it  almost  deserted.  Together  with  nearly  all  of  their 
Indian  neighbors,  the  French  traders  resident  at  the 
place  had  already  left  upon  winter  hunting  parties 
up  Fox  River  and  as  far  west  as  the  Sioux  coun- 
try. 

At  the  end  of  two  days  Balfour  left  the  ensign 
with  a  force  of  one  sergeant,  a  corporal,  fifteen  pri- 
vates, and  a  French  interpreter,  together  with  two 
British  traders,  one  McKay  of  Albany  and  one  God- 
dard  of  Montreal.  Later,  five  additional  Albany 
traders  arrived  and  operated  among  Wisconsin 
Indians  —  Garrit  Roseboom,  Teunis  Visscher,  Wil- 
liam Bruce,  Cummin  Shields,  and  Abraham  Lans- 
ing ;  the  last  named  being  killed  by  two  of  his 
French  employees. 

It  was  a  dismal  outlook  for  poor  Gorrell.  The 
old  and  neglected  French  fort,  which  Balfour  had 
promptly  rechristened  Edward  Augustus,  was 
"  quite  rotten,  the  stockade  ready  to  fall,  the  houses 
without  cover,  our  fire  wood  far  off,  and  none  to  be 
got  when  the  river  closed."  l  His  was  the  only  Brit- 
ish force  in  the  great  wilderness  west  of  Lake  Michi- 
gan. To  the  northeast,  two  hundred  and  forty  miles 
away,  across  a  gloomy  stretch  of  stormy  waters 
abounding  in  strong  currents,  lay  his  base,  the 
shabby  little  trading  hamlet  of  Mackinac  —  not 
now,  as^in  Marquette's  first  year  and  in  our  own 
time,  on  the  island  of  that  name,  but  clustered 

1  Qprrell's  Journal,  in  Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  vol.  i. 


108  WISCONSIN 

within  a  cedar-wood  stockade  some  two  leagues 
distant,  on  the  south  shore  of  the  strait,  not  far 
west  of  the  Mackinaw  City  of  to-day.1  In  the  coun- 
try of  the  Illinois,  eight  hundred  miles  of  canoe 
journey  to  the  southwest  and  south,  were  a  half 
dozen  small  French  villages  ranged  along  the  Mis- 
sissippi and  the  Wabash,  having  in  all  a  shifting 
population  of  perhaps  twenty-five  hundred.  To  the 
westward  of  the  Mississippi  lay  the  great  province 
of  Louisiana,  which  France  had  conveyed  to  Spain 
by  a  secret  treaty  signed  (November  3,  1762)  just 
previous  to  the  cession  of  New  France  to  Great 
Britain.  Between  La  Baye  and  St.  Josephs,  the 
only  other  civilized  community  accessible  from 
Lake  Michigan,  stretched  a  dangerous  water  route 
of  four  hundred  miles. 

Here  and  there,  on  the  bank  of  a  lake  or  stream, 

1  The  term  Mackinac,  like  La  Baye  and  La  Pointe,  in  the  ear- 
liest period  indicated  a  district  in  the  neighborhood  of  a  particu- 
lar mission,  fort,  or  settlement.  There  have  been,  in  chronological 
succession,  at  least  three  distinct  localities  specifically  styled 
Mackinac.  (1)  Between  1670  and  1672,  Mackinac  Island  was  the 
seat  of  the  Jesuit  mission  to  the  Ottawa.  (2)  From  1672  to  1706, 
the  Mackinac  of  history  was  at  Point  Ignace,  on  the  north  shore 
of  the  strait.  Between  1706  and  1712  there  does  not  appear  to 
have  been  any  French  establishment  hereabout.  (3)  From  1712 
to  1780,  Mackinac  was  on  the  south  shore ;  the  mission  was  in 
1738  removed  from  Point  Ignace  to  L'Arbre  Croche,  but  later  the 
present  Franciscan  mission  was  opened  on  the  old  Jesuit  site  at 
Point  Ignace.  In  1780,  the  British  commenced  the  erection  of  a 
fort  on  Mackinac  Island,  and  in  1781  removed  their  garrison 
thither;  thenceforth,  the  island  has  been  the  seat  of  military 
power  in  the  district. 


UNDER  THE  BRITISH  FLAG  109 

at  the  foot  of  a  rapids,  or  beside  some  portage  path, 
were  clustered  wretched  Indian  villages,  with  both 
long  and  conical  wigwams  of  bark  or  matted  reeds, 
architecture  and  materials  varying  with  the  tribe, 

—  Chippewa,   Menominee,    Potawatomi,   Winne- 
bago,  Sauk,   Foxes,   Kickapoo,   Iowa,   or   Sioux. 
Hard  by  were  their  fields  of  corn  and  pumpkins, 
rudely  cultivated  in  the  summer  by  women  or  boys, 
or  perhaps  by  Pawnee  slaves  obtained  in  barter 
from  the  man-hunting  nations  of  the  South.    Not 
infrequently,  either  in  the  dark  solitudes  of  water- 
side forests  or  boldly  exposed  on  cliffs  and  hill-tops, 
were  to  be  seen  curious  earthworks  left  by  preced- 
ing and  forgotten  tribes :  conical  mounds  in  which 
they  had  ceremoniously  buried  their  dead,  inter- 
spersed with  those  shaped  crudely  to  resemble  the 
birds  and  beasts  that  were  the  armorial  emblems 
or  totems  of  their  several  clans  —  the  Bear,  the 
Buffalo,  the  Eagle,  the  Squirrel,  or  the  Elk.   Gor- 
rell  estimates  in  his  journal  that  in  what  we  now 
know  as  Wisconsin  there  were  then   some  eleven 
hundred  warriors ;  and  to  the  west  of  these,  he 
thinks,  perhaps  eight  thousand  Iowa  and  thirty 
thousand  Sioux,  making  a  total  of  some  thirty-nine 
thousand  savage  men  dependent  on  him  for  sup- 
plies, to  say  nothing  of  their  women  and  children 

—  a  census  doubtless  much  overestimated. 

News  traveled  swiftly  among  the  aborigines,  be- 
ing borne  by  tribal  runners  or  by  ubiquitous  forest 
merchants  and  their  voyageurs.  The  recent  radical 


110  WISCONSIN 

change  in  the  political  mastery  of  the  wilderness 
was  freely  discussed  around  winter  camp-fires  of 
savage  hunters  and  their  friends  the  French  traders. 
The  latter  lost  no  opportunity  of  poisoning  the 
minds  of  the  red  men  toward  the  newcomers,  and 
thus  nullifying  the  friendly  overtures  of  Gorrell, 
whom  Sir  William  Johnson,  British  superintendent 
of  the  northern  Indian  department,  had  scantily 
supplied  with  belts  of  wampum  and  other  appro- 
priate peace-offerings.  Johnson  had  particularly 
instructed  him  to  please  the  natives  at  all  hazards; 
but  with  the  limited  supply  of  presents  furnished 
to  him,  this  was  a  difficult  task  to  perform. 

Now  and  then  small  squads  of  the  tribesmen 
came  straggling  into  La  Baye,  spies  sent  to  feel 
the  British  pulse.  Being  well  treated,  they  seemed 
invariably  to  return  in  high  spirits  to  the  woods, 
to  pave  the  way  for  an  era  of  good  feeling.  The 
same  fair  words  and  judicious  distribution  of  gifts, 
together  with  good  prices  for  furs  and  honorable 
business  dealing,  —  in  this  last  respect,  better 
treatment  than  was  often  accorded  them  by  their 
comrades  the  French  Canadians,  —  appeared  to  out- 
weigh the  well-founded  suspicion  of  the  mercurial 
Indians,  that  the  fastidious  English  were  at  heart 
contemptuous  of  barbarians.  Towards  the  end  of 
June  (1762)  there  appeared  at  the  fort  a  young 
American  officer,  Ensign  Thomas  Hutchins,  in  after 
years  famous  as  a  cartographer  and  long  geogra- 
pher-general of  the  United  States,  who  came  to 


UNDER  THE  BRITISH  FLAG  111 

"  inquire  after  Indian  affairs,"  and  promised  the 
tribesmen  flags,  medals,  and  wax-sealed  military 
commissions  such  as  their  French  father  had  so 
liberally  distributed  among  them.  In  such  manner 
was  won  the  nominal  allegiance  of  the  roving 
bands.  The  time  thenceforth  went  pleasantly  with 
feasting,  present-giving  and  receiving,  and  floods 
of  polite  Indian  eloquence,  in  whose  easy  and  obvi- 
ous symbolism  English  officials  soon  came  to  be 
adept ;  until  the  Pontiac  uprising  in  1763  rudely 
disturbed  these  apparently  friendly  relations  with 
their  wily  neighbors,  and  revealed  to  the  English 
the  volcano  on  which  they  rested. 

The  union  jack  was  now  floating  over  a  few 
widely  isolated  palisades  through  the  Northwest. 
But  before  Englishmen  could  enter  into  full  pos- 
session of  the  country  of  the  Ohio  and  the  upper 
lakes,  from  which  they  had  ousted  French  garri- 
sons, the  Western  savage  allies  of  New  France 
must  be  pacified.  Seemingly  they  had  been,  as  at 
Fort  Edward  Augustus.  But  until  the  news  of  the 
actual  terms  of  the  treaty  of  Paris  (February  10, 
1763)  at  last  reached  the  forest  councils,  the 
aborigines  were  hardly  aware  of  the  meaning  of 
the  victory  and  of  the  humiliating  terms  of  peace 
accepted  by  their  French  friends,  whom  they  now 
taunted  with  cowardice.  To  savage  minds  it  was 
incomprehensible,  the  more  they  thought  of  it, 
that  the  frontier  stockades,  which  they  considered 
stout  strongholds,  should  supinely  be  surrendered, 


112  WISCONSIN 

without  the  firing  of  a  gun  —  simply  because  of  a 
message  to  that  effect  from  the  great  French  chief 
across  the  wide  water,  whom  few  if  any  of  his 
American  officers  had  ever  seen,  and  who,  so  far  as 
any  one  could  find  out,  had  never  exposed  his  own 
precious  body  upon  the  war-path.  As  for  them- 
selves, there  were  those  among  them  who  objected 
bitterly  to  being  handed  over  like  so  many  baskets 
of  corn  to  the  rule  of  the  hated  Big  Knives,  as  they 
termed  the  English.  Leading  these  malcontents 
was  Pontiac,  head-chief  of  the  Ottawa,  a  consider- 
able tribe  whose  home  was  in  Michigan  and  about 
the  northern  shores  of  Lake  Huron.  His  motives 
were  in  part  patriotic,  but  he  was  also  largely  act- 
uated by  a  wish  to  avenge  certain  private  wrongs. 
So  accentuated  was  the  democracy  of  the  North 
American  Indians,  that  their  attempts  at  concen- 
tration were  almost  invariably  weak.  Moreover,  as 
individuals  they  lacked  self-control  and  steadfast- 
ness of  purpose.  Children  of  impulse,  they  soon 
tired  of  protracted  military  operations ;  their 
strength  as  fighters  lay  in  their  capacity  for  per- 
sonal stratagem,  in  their  ability  to  thread  the  tan- 
gled thickets  as  silently  and  easily  as  they  would 
an  open  plain,  in  their  powers  of  secrecy,  and  in 
their  habit  of  making  rapid,  unexpected  sallies  for 
robbery  and  murder,  and  gliding  back  into  the 
dark  and  almost  impenetrable  forest.  Moreover, 
tribal  jealousies  were  so  intense  that  intertribal  re- 
lations were  seldom  possible.  Thus  lacking  cohe- 


UNDER  THE  BRITISH  FLAG  113 

sion,  Indians  generally  yielded  before  the  whites, 
who  better  understood  the  value  of  adherence  in 
the  face  of  a  common  foe.  Here  and  there  in  our 
history  there  have  been  formidable  Indian  con- 
spiracies for  entirely  dispossessing  the  whites,  such 
as  the  Virginia  scheme  (1622),  King  Philip's  up- 
rising (1675),  and  now  the  Pontiac  War.  In  later 
days,  we  find  several  other  such  plots  ;  for  example, 
those  centring  around  the  names  of  Cornstalk, 
Tecumseh,  Red  Jacket,  and  Sitting  Bull.  These 
were,  however,  the  work  of  native  men  of  genius, 
who  had  the  gift  of  organization  highly  developed ; 
but  their  uprisings  were  short-lived,  because  they 
could  not  find  material  equal  to  their  skill. 

The  conspiracy,  breaking  out  in  April,  1763, 
was  active  all  the  way  from  the  Alleghauies  and 
Niagara  on  the  east  to  the  upper  lakes  and  the 
Mississippi  on  the  west.  With  a  persistence  almost 
unique  among  savages,  Pontiac  and  his  numerous 
allies  besieged  the  English  forts  throughout  the 
long  summer.  While  Fort  Pitt  (Pittsburgh)  and 
Detroit  successfully  withstood  protracted  assaults, 
several  of  the  others  succumbed  and  their  garri- 
sons were  massacred  —  notably  Presqu'isle,  Le 
Bosuf ,  Venango,  Mackinac,  Sandusky,  St.  Josephs, 
Miami,  and  Ouiatanon  (near  Lafayette,  Ind.). 
The  Louisiana  posts  of  Vincennes  and  Chartres 
had  not  yet  passed  into  English  possession.  A 
reign  of  terror  existed  along  the  western  borders 
of  the  American  colonies,  hundreds  of  backwoods 


114  WISCONSIN 

families  were  slaughtered,  outlying  plantations  and 
hamlets  were  burned,  forest  traders  were  brow- 
beaten or  killed,  and  for  a  time  the  outlook  for 
English  trans-Alleghany  settlement  was  gloomy 
enough. 

The  story  of  the  massacre  of  the  garrison  of 
Mackinac  (June  2)  is  a  familiar  page  in  Western 
history.  Captain  George  Ethrington,  of  Delaware, 
then  in  command,  together  with  Lieutenant  Leslie 
and  eleven  other  Englishmen,  were  saved  in  the 
melee  by  friendly  Ottawa  and  taken  in  canoes  to 
the  native  village  of  L'Arbre  Croche,  some  fifty 
miles  away  on  the  northeastern  shore  of  Lake 
Michigan,  and  then  the  seat  of  the  Jesuit  mission 
to  the  Ottawa. 

As  early  as  the  18th  of  May,  Gorrell  (who  in 
March,  1762,  acquired  a  lieutenancy)  had  learned 
of  a  conspiracy  to  attack  Fort  Edward  Augustus, 
but  by  adroit  management  he  continued  temporarily 
to  satisfy  the  natives.  He  had,  however,  just  been 
informed  of  a  fresh  plot,  when  on  the  15th  of  June 
there  arrived,  by  the  hand  of  a  delegation  of  French 
and  Ottawa,  a  note  from  Ethrington,  dated  four 
days  previous,  conveying  news  of  the  Mackinac 
tragedy  and  commanding  him  to  evacuate  his  post 
and  with  the  English  traders  join  his  superior  on 
the  east  shore  of  Lake  Michigan. 

Of  all  his  various  neighbors,  —  Menominee, 
Sauk,  Foxes,  and  Winnebago, —  Gorrell  placed 
most  reliance  on  the  Menominee.  But  Ethrington 


UNDER  THE  BRITISH  FLAG  115 

having  wisely  instructed  him  not  to  acknowledge 
that  his  purpose  was  retreat,  he  confided  to  his 
savage  friends  the  information  that  he  desired  only 
to  restore  order  at  Mackinac,  and  on  their  part 
they  promised  to  care  for  La  Baye  fort  and  its  sup- 
plies during  his  absence. 

The  proposed  departure  of  the  garrison  attracted 
general  attention,  and  native  delegations  swarmed 
to  the  post  to  learn  more  about  it,  drawing  heavily 
on  Gorrell's  fast-waning  store  of  Indian  presents. 
Pontiac's  emissaries  were  active,  and  opposition  to 
the  movement  began  to  develop.  Affairs  were  in 
this  critical  stage  when  a  contingent  arrived  from 
the  trans-Mississippi  Sioux,  enemies  of  the  Chip- 
pewa,  who  of  the  Wisconsin  Indians  were  most  at- 
tached to  Pontiac's  plans.  Fortunately,  the  warlike 
visitors  from  the  West  espoused  Gorrell's  cause, 
and  threatened  with  punishment  those  who  opposed 
him.  This  attitude  at  once  changed  the  situation, 
and  thereafter  was  noted  only  a  general  solicitude 
to  further  the  commandant's  wishes ;  while  the 
friendly  Ottawa,  who  had  brought  the  news,  were 
sent  back  to  inform  Ethrington  of  Gorrell's 
approach. 

On  the  21st  of  the  month  the  lieutenant  and  his 
English  traders  —  the  latter  were  leaving  behind 
them,  at  the  mercy  of  the  Indians,  large  quantities 
of  goods  l  —  sailed  from  Fort  Edward  Augustus  in 

1  Evan  Shelby  and  Samuel  Postlethwaito  of  Frederick  County, 
Maryland,  a  large  supply  firm  for  the  Indian  trade,  had  in  1762 


116  WISCONSIN 

their  canoes  and  bateaux,  for  escort  having  ninety 
of  the  neighboring  barbarians,  gaudily  appareled 
as  for  a  gala  day.  It  was  the  30th,  after  a  fair 
passage  across  Lake  Michigan,  before  they  effected 
a  junction  with  Ethrington.  Protracted  Indian 
councils  now  followed,  day  by  day,  the  Chippewa 
opposing  the  proposition  of  the  English  officers 
that  they  be  allowed  to  descend  with  their  men  to 
Montreal;  but  the  La  Baye  Indians,  renewing 
their  old-time  allegiance  with  the  Ottawa,  insisted 
with  the  latter  that  Gorrell  and  his  friends  should 
be  allowed  to  depart  in  peace,  and  eventually  their 
counsel  won.  On  the  18th  of  July,  after  allowing 
three  of  the  traders  (Bruce,  Visscher,  and  Rose- 
boom)  to  return  to  La  Baye  with  their  Indian 
friends,  the  detachment  set  forth  under  Ottawa  and 
Meuominee  guidance,  in  a  fleet "  consisting  of  forty 
canoes  of  soldiers,  traders,  and  Indians."  After  a 
tedious  journey  by  the  old  route  of  the  French  and 
Ottawa  rivers,  the  party  reached  Montreal  in  safety 
on  the  13th  of  August.  The  following  year  Macki- 
nac  was  reoccupied  by  regulars,  but  not  until  the 
brief  invasion  of  1814  was  the  English  flag  again 
seen  waving  over  a  Wisconsin  fort. 

A  few  weeks  after  the  retreating  garrisons  of 
King  George  had   reached   Montreal,  there   was 

outfitted  Edmond  Moran,  a  trader  at  La  Baye.  As  all  unsold 
goods  were,  on  Moran's  departure,  appropriated  by  the  natives, 
the  firm's  loss  was  between  six  and  seven  thousand  dollars,  for 
which  doubtless  they  were  reimbursed  by  the  British  government. 


UNDER  THE  BRITISH  FLAG  117 

issued  from  Whitehall  (October  7)  a  royal  pro- 
clamation relative  to  the  government  of  those  por- 
tions of  North  America  surrendered  by  France 
through  the  treaty  of  Paris,  signed  the  previous 
February.  The  newly  acquired  territory  was  di- 
vided into  "four  distinct  and  separate  govern- 
ments, stiled  and  called  by  the  names  of  Quebec, 
East  Florida,  West  Florida,  and  Grenada."  In 
general  terms,  the  province  of  Quebec  embraced 
Canada  and  that  broad  triangle  lying  between  the 
Great  Lakes  and  the  Mississippi  and  Ohio  rivers, 
which  in  history  is  called  the  Old  Northwest  — 
this  latter  term  having  reference  to  the  subsequent 
American  "Territory  Northwest  of  the  River 
Ohio." 

In  this  proclamation  the  king  solemnly  com- 
manded his  "  loving  subjects  "  not  to  purchase  or 
settle  lands  to  the  west  of  the  mountains  "  without 
our  especial  leave  and  license."  Several  considera- 
tions appear  to  have  prompted  this  reactionary 
policy.  It  seemed  at  London  as  though  Pontiac  and 
his  followers,  who  were  seriously  objecting  to  the 
presence  of  Englishmen,  might  thus  be  appeased ; 
the  fur-trade  with  the  Indians  was  enormously  profit- 
able, it  being  with  the  English,  as  with  the  French, 
practically  the  only  commerce  possible  in  the  interior 
of  the  continent ;  and  were  the  trans- Alleghany  kept 
as  a  preserve  for  fur-bearing  animals,  certain  power- 
ful London  merchants  would  profit  thereby;  pos- 
sibly His  Majesty  thought,  also,  to  check  the 


118  WISCONSIN 

westward  growth  of  his  wayward  American  child- 
ren, lest  they  slip  beyond  his  reach,  commercially 
as  well  as  politically.  But  this  injunction,  like  many 
another  attempt  at  governmental  regulation  in  far- 
off  America,  was  futile ;  the  irresistible  expansion  of 
the  colonies  was  not  for  a  day  checked  by  a  procla- 
mation the  news  of  which  probably  did  not  reach  the 
borderers  themselves  until  after  the  spirit  of  revolt 
had  gained  such  head  among  them  that  any  royal 
command  as  to  their  movements  was  but  idle  speech. 

The  Pontiac  uprising  greatly  disturbed  trans- 
Alleghany  settlement  and  the  fur-trade.  It  did 
more.  The  weakness  displayed  by  Pennsylvania  in 
resisting  Indian  attacks  on  her  western  border  set- 
tlements —  even  Virginia  and  Maryland  were  but 
fairly  active  —  called  forth  from  the  commander-in- 
chief ,  General  Amherst,  angry  protests  against  her 
"  infatuated  and  stupidly  obstinate  conduct,"  and 
served  to  justify  the  maintenance  in  America  of  a 
standing  army  for  the  protection  and  regulation  of 
the  obstreperous  Americans. 

But,  as  was  to  be  expected,  the  savages  in  time 
wearied  of  their  confederacy,  and  were  discouraged 
by  frequent  defeats.  Under  French  influence,  Pon- 
tiac in  1765  sued  for  and  readily  obtained  peace. 
Thenceforth,  until  the  formal  opening  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, eleven  years  later,  the  spread  of  the  English 
colonies  into  the  coveted  West  met  only  with  accus- 
tomed local  opposition  from  tribes  that  guarded  the 
passes  of  the  Appalachians. 


UNDER  THE  BRITISH  FLAG  119 

Prominent  among  French  traders  at  Mackinac 
were  the  Langlades,  who  figure  largely  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  upper  lakes  during  the  last  half  of 
the  eighteenth  century.  Their  operations  extended 
throughout  the  hinterland  of  these  inland  seas,  par- 
ticularly Michigan  and  Superior,  and  like  many  of 
their  calling  they  exercised  a  strong  influence  over 
the  tribesmen  of  this  broad  area,  with  whom  they 
were  connected  by  bonds  of  marriage.  In  his  young 
manhood,  Augustin,  the  senior,  had  served  with 
Lignery  in  the  latter's  punitive  expedition  against 
the  Foxes  in  1728 ;  and  in  1731,  with  his  brother 
Didace  Mouet,  had  been  one  of  a  company  for  ex- 
ploiting the  Sioux  post  on  the  upper  Mississippi. 
His  son,  Charles  Michel,  more  noted  than  he,  was 
born  at  Mackinac  of  an  Ottawa  mother,  in  May,  1729. 
Charles  was  employed  in  the  militia  of  New  France 
throughout  the  French  and  Indian  War,  often  lead- 
ing against  the  British  and  their  Indian  allies  large 
parties  of  tribesmen  and  half -breeds  from  the  North- 
west. The  English-sympathizing  Miami  felt  his 
strong  arm  at  Pickawillany  (1752).  AtBraddock's 
defeat  (1755),  his  hybrid  contingent  took  promi- 
nent part  in  the  fearful  slaughter.  He  defeated 
Kobert  Rogers  on  Lake  Champlain(  January,  1757), 
later  led  the  Western  Indians  against  Fort  William 
Henry  (May),  and  in  the  following  autumn  was 
appointed  second  officer  at  Fort  Mackinac,  where 
he  remained  until  summoned  to  aid  in  the  Quebec 
campaign  (1759).  Appointed  lieutenant  in  1760, 


120  WISCONSIN 

we  have  seen  that  Langlade  participated  in  the  de- 
fense of  Montreal,  returning  to  Mackinac  in  time 
to  help  Beaujeu  escape  with  the  garrison  ;  and  later 
he  surrendered  the  fort  to  Balfour  and  Leslie. 

Peace  being  declared,  the  Langlades,  in  common 
with  other  Mackinac  merchants,  now  made  numer- 
ous trading  voyages  to  the  Western  interior.  It 
seems  probable  that  he  and  his  father  had  for  some 
years,  among  their  several  ventures,  maintained  a 
commercial  branch  at  La  Baye,  possibly  as  early  as 
1746. r  Attracted  by  its  situation,  and  its  import- 
ance as  a  centre  for  inland  traffic  with  the  Indians, 
they  had  arranged  to  remove  thither  with  their 
families  in  the  spring  of  1763,  to  make  this  their 
permanent  home ;  but,  owing  to  the  outbreak  of 
Pontiac's  conspiracy,  remained  in  Mackinac.  It 
would  appear  that  those  Englishmen  who  were 
saved  largely  owed  to  Charles's  powerful  interces- 
sion their  lives  as  well  as  the  permission  to  depart 
to  Montreal.  Captain  Ethrington  left  the  post  in 
charge  of  the  experienced  Langlade,  who  retained 
possession  until  the  arrival  of  regulars  in  Septem- 
ber, 1764.  Either  in  the  same  autumn,  or  during 
the  following  year,  his  family  at  last  carried  out 
their  plan  of  settling  at  La  Baye,  and  at  once  be- 

1  In  a  document  in  Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  vol.  xvii,  pp.  450,  451, 
Governor  Beanharnois  and  Intendant  Hocquart  notify  the  French 
minister  of  the  marine  (September  22,  1746),  that  they  have 
allowed  "  two  private  individuals  to  Fit  themselves  out  at  Michili- 
makinac  for  the  said  Place  of  La  Baye,  on  condition  that  they 
pay  1000  livres  each." 


UNDER  THE  BRITISH  FLAG  121 

came  the  leading  landowners  and  merchants  in  the 
Fox  River  valley.1 

Pontiac  and  his  fellows  having  subsided,  the 
region  beyond  Mackinac  was  again  safe  for  English- 
men and  English  sympathizers  seeking  traffic  with 
the  savages.  Henceforth  we  have  abundant  evi- 
dence that  not  only  the  Langlades  but  many  others, 
both  traders  and  travelers,  roamed  freely  through 
the  wilds  of  Wisconsin.  But  with  English  as  with 
French  explorers  of  the  primitive  West,  few  have 
left  records  by  which  their  wanderings  may  now  be 
traced.  It  is  but  occasionally,  as  the  result  of  me- 
moirs published  by  or  for  them  in  later  life,  or  from 
chance  allusions  in  contemporary  official  documents, 
that  we  catch  glimpses  of  a  few  types  of  those  serv- 
ing as  our  earliest  pioneers.  Conspicuous  among 
these  was  Alexander  Henry,  a  fur-trader  who  spent 
the  winter  of  1765-66  upon  Chequamegon  Bay, 
conducting  an  extensive  traffic  with  the  Chippewa, 
who  maintained  here  their  principal  market. 

Henry  had  been  a  young  soldier  in  the  British 
army  at  the  reduction  of  Montreal,  and  immediately 
thereafter  ventured  into  the  far  West  as  a  trader, 

1  The  Langlades  have  long  been  credited  with  being  the  "  first 
permanent  settlers  in  Wisconsin;"  but  documents  published  in 
Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  vol.  xviii,  conclusively  establish  that  they  did 
not  settle  at  La  Baye  until  some  twenty  years  after  tradition 
places  them  there.  Even  had  1745  been  the  date  of  their  arrival, 
as  stated  in  tradition,  it  has  been  shown  that  the  hamlet  was  a 
fixture  long  previous  thereto.  It  is  quite  impracticable  to  say  who 
was  Wisconsin's  first  "permanent"  settler. 


122  WISCONSIN 

with  an  outfit  from  Albany.  From  his  headquarters 
at  Mackinac,  where  for  a  time  he  was  imprisoned 
by  Indians  engaged  in  the  massacre  of  1763,  he 
and  his  representatives  made  wide  journeys  through 
the  country  of  the  upper  lakes.  In  1765  he  obtained 
from  the  military  authorities  a  monopoly  of  the 
Lake  Superior  trade,  sharing  it  with  Jean  Baptiste 
Cadotte,  who  later  established  himself  permanently 
at  Chequamegon  Bay. 

Ever  since  the  days  of  Radisson  and  Groseilliers, 
who  built  their  rude  trading  shanty  on  the  main- 
land shore  near  the  Washburn  of  our  time,  this 
charming  bay,  a  favorite  fishing  resort  of  tribes  in 
northwest  Wisconsin,  and  convenient  to  the  prin- 
cipal portage  routes  between  Lake  Superior  and 
the  Mississippi  River,  had  at  times  been  resorted 
to  by  adventurous  Frenchmen  bartering  with  the 
savages  for  furs.  While  originally  applied  merely 
to  the  site  of  the  Jesuit  mission,  near  Radisson's 
landfall,  the  term  "  La  Pointe  "  came  in  time  to 
have  regional  significance,  having  reference  to  the 
bay  at  large.  It  is  not  clear  when  Madelaine  Island 
first  became,  in  preference  to  the  mainland,  the 
seat  of  power  at  Chequamegon.  Apparently  it  was 
not  until  the  time  of  Le  Sueur  (1693),  who  was 
safeguarding  the  northern  approaches  to  the 
Mississippi,  that  an  insular  stronghold  came  into 
favor. 

In  1717,  the  year  of  La  Baye's  first  permanent 
fort,  we  hear  of  a  stockaded  trading  station  at 


UNDER  THE   BRITISH  FLAG  123 

La  Pointe.  A  year  later,  Captain  Paul  Legardeur 
Saint-Pierre,  whose  mother  was  a  daughter  of  Jean 
Nicolet  (first  of  known  white  men  to  set  foot  in 
Wisconsin),  was  sent  to  command  this  important 
outpost,  succeeded  by  his  chief  lieutenant,  Ensign 
Linctot.  Documents  of  the  fourth  decade  of  the 
eighteenth  century  contain  numerous  references  to 
one  of  its  commandants,  Louis  Denis,  Sieur  de  la 
Ronde.  In  his  day,  La  Ronde,  with  his  son  and 
partner,  Philippe  Denis  de  la  Ronde,  were  the 
principal  merchants  on  Lake  Superior.  They  built 
for  their  commercial  operations  a  bark  of  forty 
tons,  accredited  with  being  "  the  first  vessel  on  the 
Great  Lake,  with  sails  larger  than  an  Indian 
blanket." 

The  La  Rondes  were  particularly  interested  in 
copper  mining.  As  early  as  1665  Allouez  had  re- 
ported that  this  mineral  was  found  in  masses  on 
the  shores  and  islands  of  Lake  Superior,  being 
rudely  mined  by  the  savages,  and  by  them  fash- 
ioned not  only  into  utensils  and  implements,  but 
into  idols  which  they  greatly  reverenced.  Five 
years  later  Father  Dablon  made  a  still  more  de- 
tailed report  on  this  subject.  We  have  seen  that 
in  1700-02  Le  Sueur  was  discovering  copper  de- 
posits on  the  upper  Mississippi.  The  elder  La 
Ronde  secured  much  detailed  information  concern- 
ing native  mines  on  the  south  shore  of  the  great 
lake,  and  induced  the  government  at  Versailles  to 
send  out  two  German  experts,  who  reported  (1739) 


124  WISCONSIN 

favorably  on  deposits  at  Ontonagon  and  on  the 
Iron  and  Black  rivers,  which  he  was  working  in  a 
small  way.  Whereupon  the  Chequamegon  com- 
mandant proposed  to  the  king  that  he  be  permitted 
to  operate  his  mines  on  a  larger  scale,  and  ship  the 
ore  in  vessels  down  the  lakes.  But  war  breaking 
out  between  the  Sioux  and  Chippewa,  the  entire 
upper  country  was  for  a  time  embroiled,  and  La 
Ronde  died  before  he  could  secure  important  results. 

In  1750,  Sieur  Marin,  then  commandant  of  La 
Baye,  built  a  post  on  the  upper  waters  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi, and  no  doubt,  like  Le  Sueur,  maintained 
communication  with  La  Pointe  by  way  of  the  Bois 
Brule*-St.  Croix  trade  route ;  for  he  was  connected 
with  the  widespread  operations  of  Legardeur  Saint- 
Pierre,  who  in  1749  had  succeeded  the  Ve'rendryes 
in  conducting  the  "  Post  of  the  Western  Sea," 
an  ambitious  cordon  of  fortified  trading  stations 
stretching  westward  from  Lake  Superior  to  the 
upper  Saskatchewan. 

Hertel  de  Beaubassin,  the  last  French  com- 
mandant at  La  Pointe,  was,  about  1758,  summoned 
to  Lower  Canada  with  his  Chippewa  allies,  to  do 
battle  against  the  English.  Thereafter,  until  the 
coming  of  Henry,  who  reopened  the  trading  sta- 
tion, we  hear  little  of  the  place,  save  that  some- 
times there  wintered  on  this  lonely,  pine-clad 
island  nameless  traders  on  their  way  to  and  from 
the  west  end  of  Lake  Superior. 

In  some  respects,"  the  best  known  of  the  explor- 


UNDER  THE  BRITISH  FLAG  125 

ers  of  Wisconsin  during  the  British  regime  was 
Jonathan  Carver  of  Connecticut.  An  ignorant 
shoemaker,  —  not  a  physician,  as  claimed  in  his 
"Travels," — he  enlisted  as  a  private  in  a  Massa- 
chusetts company  of  rangers  serving  in  the  French 
and  Indian  War.  Although  later  dubbing  himself 
captain,  there  is  no  evidence  that  he  ever  held  any 
military  office. 

Under  pretense  of  seeking  the  Northwest  Pas- 
sage by  way  of  the  upper  waters  of  the  Mississippi, 
Carver  appears  to  have  left  Boston  in  June,  1766, 
proceeding  westward  through  Albany  and  Niagara. 
There  is  ground  for  suspicion  that  he  was  in  some 
manner  connected  with  the  shady  operations  of 
Robert  Rogers,  the  famous  ranger,  then  command- 
ant at  Mackinac.  Rogers  was  not  only  somewhat 
mysteriously  engaged  in  the  fur-trade,  for  which 
he  supplied  Carver  with  a  small  stock  of  goods, 
but  was  suspected  of  carrying  on  an  intrigue  for 
the  delivery  of  his  fort  either  to  the  French  or 
the  Spanish.  Imprisoned  on  a  charge  of  treason, 
he  eventually  obtained  acquittal  because  of  a  lack 
of  evidence,  although  this  did  not  quiet  suspicion. 
As  Carver  seems  to  have  joined  Rogers  in  London, 
after  this  episode,  and  was  himself  a  common  ad- 
venturer who  could  hardly  be  interested  in  mere 
geographical  discoveries,  it  has  been  surmised  that 
in  some  unexplained  manner  he  was  acting  as  a 
tool  of  the  Mackinac  intriguer. 

Carver  claims,  in  his  "  Travels,"  to  have  reached 


126  WISCONSIN 

Green  Bay  on  September  18,  to  find  that  Fort  Ed- 
ward Augustus,  which  Gorrell  had  abandoned  three 
years  before,  was  now  in  a  ruinous  condition. 
Within  the  stockade  there  lived  "  a  few  families," 
while,  "opposite  to  it"  (on  the  east  shore),  were 
"  some  French  settlers,  who  cultivate  the  land  and 
appear  to  live  very  comfortably." 

Passing  up  the  Fox,  the  traveler  visited  a  Win- 
nebago  town  of  fifty  houses  on  Doty's  Island, 
ruled  by  a  chieftess  picturesquely  named  "  Glory 
of  the  Morning,"  widow  of  a  French  trader,  De 
Corah,  who  had  fallen  in  the  defense  of  Quebec. 
From  this  man  fully  half  of  the  Winnebago  tribe 
of  to-day,  in  Wisconsin  and  Nebraska,  claim  de- 
scent. Passing  over  the  Wisconsin  portage,  where 
he  found  an  intelligent  French  trader  whom  he 
calls  "  Mons.  Pinnisance,"  Carver  visited  the  log- 
house  village  of  the  Sauk  on  Sauk  Prairie,  "  the 
largest  and  best-built  Indian  town  I  ever  saw ; " 
and  later,  an  almost  deserted  Fox  camp,  probably 
near  the  present  Muscoda. 

Arriving  at  Prairie  du  Chien  on  October  15,  he 
found  an  Indian  community  of  three  hundred  fam- 
ilies, who  owned  "  many  horses  of  a  good  size  and 
shape,"  obtained  in  barter  with  far  Southern 
tribes,  who  had  acquired  them  from  the  Span- 
iards. "  This,"  writes  Carver,  "  is  the  great  mart 
where  all  the  adjacent  tribes,  and  even  those  who 
inhabit  the  remote  branches  of  the  Mississippi, 
annually  assemble  about  the  latter  end  of  May, 


UNDER  THE  BRITISH  FLAG  127 

bringing  with  them  furs  to  dispose  of  to  the 
traders." 

From  the  earliest  historic  times  this  broad,  bluff- 
fringed  plain  at  the  junction  of  the  Wisconsin  and 
Mississippi  rivers  was  widely  known  as  a  conven- 
ient meeting-place  for  natives  and  fur-traders, 
who  tarried  here,  both  spring  and  autumn,  for 
bartering,  merry-making,  or  purposes  of  rendez- 
vous. La  Salle  and  Perrot,  and  probably  an  occa- 
sional successor,  maintained  trading  stations  here 
or  in  the  immediate  vicinity,  but  it  is  not  known 
when  anything  akin  to  a  permanent  white  settle- 
ment was  formed.  It  has  generally  been  assumed 
that  this  event  occurred  in  1781,  when  Basil  Giard, 
Augustin  Ange,  and  Pierre  Antaya  first  staked 
their  Jidbitan  claims  upon  the  prairie.  But  we 
shall  see  that  in  1773  Pond  appears  to  have  found 
here  a  white  community  of  considerable  commer- 
cial importance.  Carver  does  not  specifically  men- 
tion such;  but  despite  the  absence  of  documentary 
evidence,  there  would  seem  no  reason  to  doubt  that 
French  stragglers  began  somewhat  early  in  the  eight- 
eenth century  to  dwell  among  the  natives  at  the 
western  terminus  of  the  Fox-Wisconsin  trade-route, 
and  that  thereafter  such  settlement  was  as  contin- 
uous, or  nearly  so,  as  that  at  La  Baye. 

Ascending  the  Mississippi  to  the  site  of  Minne- 
apolis, Carver  visited  the  surrounding  country  in 
Minnesota,  and  wintered  with  the  Sioux  of  the 
plains,  who  told  him  of  the  Black  Hills,  and  de- 


128  WISCONSIN 

scribed  as  far  distant  in  the  west  a  river  they 
called  Oregon,  which  flowed  into  the  Pacific  — 
the  stream  later  styled  Columbia.  Carver  claimed 
that  with  these  tribesmen  he  visited  a  large  sand- 
stone cave  not  far  north  of  St.  Paul,  used  by  his 
hosts  as  a  council  chamber.  He  pretended  that  at 
such  a  council,  held  the  1st  of  May,  1767,  he  was 
given  by  them  a  formal  deed  to  a  large  tract  of 
land,  including  the  sites  of  the  present  cities  of  St. 
Paul  and  Minneapolis,  a  considerable  outlying  ter- 
ritory in  Minnesota,  and  the  whole  or  a  portion  of 
the  present  Wisconsin  counties  of  Pierce,  Pepin, 
Dunn,  Clark,  Buffalo,  Trempealeau,  Jackson,  Chip- 
pewa,  Eau  Claire,  Polk,  Barren,  Taylor,  Price,  and 
Marathon.  Soon  after  the  receipt  of  this  enormous 
grant,  the  traveler  proceeded  to  Lake  Superior  by 
way  of  the  Chippewa  and  St.  Croix  rivers.  Thence 
he  returned  to  Boston,  which  was  reached  in  Octo- 
ber, 1768. 

Whatever  may  have  been  his  real  business  in 
the  West,  Carver  had  nevertheless,  if  we  may  rely 
on  his  own  statement,  made  a  remarkable  wilder- 
ness journey  of  some  seven  thousand  miles,  the 
description  of  which  was  embraced  in  a  fairly  well- 
written  volume  of  travel,  published  in  London  in 
1781,  a  year  after  his  death.  Of  course  Carver  him- 
self was  incapable  of  writing  such  a  book.  Nothing 
is  known  of  the  facts  concerning  its  publication ; 
but  it  is  quite  evident  that  he  kept  some  rough 
notes,  —  possibly  like  those  of  Peter  Pond,  of  which 


UNDER  THE  BRITISH   FLAG  129 

I 

a  sample  will  be  presented  later,  —  and  that  these 
were  grven  proper  form  by  some  literary  hack  in 
the  employ  of  the  publishers.  There  is  no  reason, 
we  think,  to  doubt  Carver's  veracity  in  the  main,  so 
far  as  concerns  the  tour  itself,  —  the  story  contains 
undoubted  facts  relative  to  the  Wisconsin  of  his 
day, — but  the  often-cited  part  containing  descrip- 
tions of  Indian  life  and  customs  is  a  mere  patch- 
work of  selections  from  the  journals  of  Hennepin, 
Lahontan,  Charlevoix,  and  Adair.1  Like  the  vol- 
umes thus  stolen  from,  this  met  with  an  immediate 
and  enormous  sale  in  Europe;  from  that  day  to 
this  twenty-one  editions  have  been  noted,  includ- 
ing translations  into  German,  French,  and  Dutch, 
and  it  is  one  of  the  most  quoted  of  early  American 
travels.  As  for  his  enormous  land  claim,  Carver's 
children  transferred  their  right  in  the  deed  to  the 
Mississippi  Land  Company  of  New  York  (1822), 
for  ,£50,000  sterling.  Elaborately  investigated  by 
Congress,  the  case  was  finally  decided  against  the 
petitioners  ;  but  notwithstanding,  lands  in  Wiscon- 
sin and  Minnesota  were  long  after  sold  under  the 
Carver  title  by  Eastern  speculators,  and  fraudu- 
lent deeds  of  this  character  are  still  on  record  at 
St.  Paul  and  Prairie  du  Chien.2 

Another  interesting  traveler  of  that  period  was 

1  See  E.  Q.  Bourue,  "  The  Travels  of  Jonathan  Carver,"  in 
American  Historical  Review,  vol.  zi,  pp.  287-302  ;  also,  notes  in 
Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  vol.  xviii. 

2  See  D.  S.  Durrie, "  Captain  Jonathan  Carver,  and  Carver's 
Grant,"  in  Wit.  Hist.  Colls.,  vol.  vi. 


Peter  Pond,  a  native  of  Connecticut  (1740),  who 
served  with  credit  as  a  commissioned  officer  in  the 
French  and  Indian  War.  After  some  experience 
as  a  sailor  to  the  West  Indies,  he  entered  upon  the 
fur  traffic,  his  first  year  in  the  Northwest  being 
about  1765.  As  usual  with  British  traders,  his 
goods  were  shipped  to  him  from  Albany  by  way  of 
Schenectady,  Niagara,  and  Lakes  Erie  and  Huron, 
to  Mackinac. 

In  September,  1773,  Pond  crossed  Lake  Michi- 
gan to  Green  Bay  with  a  small  fleet  of  bateaux, 
having  in  his  company  nine  clerks  (or  agents) 
engaged  to  head  as  many  branch  parties  in  various 
parts  of  the  country  around  the  upper  Mississippi. 
The  journal  of  his  experiences  has  been  preserved 
for  us  1  —  a  valuable  and  picturesque  document, 
not  less  interesting  because  of  its  extraordinary 
orthography  and  capitalization.  Speaking  of  the 
Creole  settlement  at  the  mouth  of  the  Fox,  he  says : 
"  We  went  a  Short  Distans  up  the  River  whare  is 
a  small  french  village  and  thare  Incampt  for  two 
Days.  This  Land  is  Exalent.  The  Inhabitans 
Rase  fine  Corn  and  Sum  Artickels  for  fammaley 
youse  in  thare  Gardens.  They  Have  Sum  trad  with 
ye  Indans  which  Pas  that  way.  .  .  .  I  ort  to  have 
Menshand  that  the  french  at  ye  Villeg  whare  we 
Incampt  Rase  fine  black  Cattel  &  "Horses  with 
Sum  swine." 

Ascending  the  Fox,  visiting  the  Winnebago  at 

1  Published  in  Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  vol.  xviii. 


UNDER  THE  BRITISH  FLAG  131 

Doty's  Island  on  the  way,  the  party  carried  over 
into  the  Wisconsin,  being  assisted  at  the  portage 
by  the  French  trader  mentioned  by  Carver,  but 
whose  name  our  phonetic  diarist  spells  Pinna- 
shon ;  the  man  had  deserted  from  the  army,  Pond 
says,  to  enter  the  fur-trade.  At  Prairie  du  Chien 
they  met  "  a  Larg  Number  of  french  and  Indans 
Makeing  out  thare  arrangements  for  the  In  Sewing 
winter  and  sending  of  thare  cannoes  to  Different 
Parts."  Among  the  traders  assembled  at  the  prai- 
rie were  several  from  New  Orleans,  who  came  in 
boats  rowed  by  thirty-six  oarsmen ;  each  of  these 
craft  being  laden  with  as  many  as  "  Sixtey  Hog- 
seats  of  Wine,  Besides  Ham,  Chese,  &c  —  all  to 
trad  with  the  french  and  Indans."  Pond  alludes 
to  the  fact  that  on  this  "  Very  Handsum  plain  " 
the  French  and  Indians,  who  rendezvoused  there 
every  spring  and  autumn,  played  "the  Grateist 
Games,"  the  former  billiards  and  the  latter  la 
crosse,  an  aboriginal  form  of  tennis. 

After  taking  part  in  these  animated  scenes  for 
ten  days,  in  the  course  of  which  he  dispatched  his 
clerks  to  different  tributaries  of  the  Mississippi, 
our  diarist  set  out  with  two  traders  for  St.  Peter's 
River ;  later  spending  his  winter  on  "  the  Plains 
Betwene  the  Mississippey  &  the  Miseura  among 
the  [Sioux]  on  such  food  as  they  made  youse  of 
themselves  which  was  Verey  darteyaly  Cooked." 
A  few  years  later  (1782-83),  Pond  was  among 
those  who  formed  the  North  West  Company,  whose 


182  WISCONSIN 

widespread  fur-trading  operations  will  subsequently 
be  alluded  to. 

In  1774,  Parliament  passed  the  Quebec  Act  "  for 
making  more  effectual  provision  for  the  government 
of  that  province."  This  confirmed  to  the  French 
in  Canada,  including  of  course  those  living  in  what 
is  now  Wisconsin,  "  the  benefit  and  use  of  their 
own  laws,  usages,  and  customs,"  a  privilege  en- 
joyed by  the  people  of  the  present  province  of 
Quebec  unto  our  own  day.  It  further  contained 
the  important  and  beneficent  but  stoutly  conteste^ 
provision  that  the  British  king's  "new  Roman 
Catholic  subjects  may  profess  the  worship  of  their 
religion  according  to  the  rule  of  the  Romish  church, 
so  far  as  the  laws  of  Great  Britain  permit." 
This  act  had  met  with  keen  opposition  in  Parlia- 
ment, and  for  various  reasons  awakened  a  storm  of 
dissent  in  the  American  colonies  at  a  time  when 
English  authority  was  on  the  verge  of  being  over- 
thrown, and  when  every  untoward  incident  but 
helped  make  matters  worse.  South  of  the  Great 
Lakes,  the  act  was,  broadly  speaking,  a  dead  letter 
from  the  start. 

As  for  the  little  French  Canadian  settlements  to 
the  west  of  Lake  Michigan,  so  remote  were  they 
from  centres  of  population  that  this  formal  attempt 
at  the  establishment  of  civil  government  in  the 
Northwest  had  small  effect  upon  them.  So  far  as 
official  interference  was  concerned,  they  were  self- 
governing.  The  voyageurs  and  habitans  were  peace- 


UNDER  THE  BRITISH  FLAG  133 

fully  inclined,  save  for  small  neighborhood  quarrels, 
and  for  the  natural  tendency  of  these  simple  folk  to 
petty  litigation.  The  fur-traders,  however,  kept  the 
upper  hand,  and  the  word  of  the  imperious  bour- 
geois was  law,  while  not  far  away  was  the  garrison 
at  Mackinac,  exercising  a  repressive  influence  on 
possible  disorder. 

Meanwhile  La  Baye,  the  metropolis  of  the  coun- 
try beyond  Lake  Michigan,  was  growing  slowly.  Au- 
gustin  Langlade  died  about  1771,  leaving  Charles 
the  head  of  the  firm  and  the  principal  man  in 
the  valley  of  the  Fox.  Two  years  later  came  from 
Canada  Pierre  Grignon,  and  these  two  families, 
intermarrying,  founded  a  long  line  of  prosperous 
fur-traders,  whom  to-day  a  goodly  proportion  of  the 
French  Creoles  of  northeastern  Wisconsin  are  proud 
to  claim  as  forbears. 

And  now  came  the  Revolutionary  War.  The 
Wisconsin  French  had  loyally  supported  New 
France.  Under  the  fleur-de-lis,  Charles  Langlade 
and  his  barbaric  followers  struck  heavy  blows 
against  English  settlers  to  the  west  of  the  Alle- 
ghanies.  But  with  the  change  in  political  control, 
especially  after  the  suppression  of  Pontiac's  con- 
spiracy, liberal  treatment  from  politic  English  mili- 
tary officials  won  their  hearts  and,  quite  naturally 
and  properly,  a  majority  of  those  who  had  been  in 
French  military  service  became  firm  friends  of  the 
newcomers.  Dwelling  far  from  the  Atlantic  slope, 
they  knew  little  if  anything  of  the  cause,  nature, 


134  WISCONSIN 

or  extent  of  the  uprising  of  the  colonists  against 
British  power;  moreover  their  sympathies  and 
associations,  social,  personal,  religious,  and  com- 
mercial, were  as  a  matter  of  course  wholly  with 
Canada.  There  was  every  reason  for  taking  service 
under  the  standard  of  their  new  king,  and  many 
did  so. 

We  have  seen  that  Charles  Langlade  rendered 
important  service  to  the  English  in  the  Pontiac  up- 
rising. Now  a  captain  in  the  Indian  department,  he 
was  particularly  efficient  as  recruiting  agent  and 
partisan  leader ;  with  him  being  associated  his 
nephew,  Charles  Gautier  de  Verville.  Their  many 
friends  and  relatives  in  Wisconsin,  red  and  white, 
were  for  the  most  part  readily  enlisted.  Operating 
under  orders  from  Colonel  De  Peyster,  the  com- 
mandant at  Mackinac,  these  two  men  engaged  in 
several  important  forays  against  the  "Bostonnais," 
as  the  Wisconsin  Creoles  ineptly  styled  Clark's  little 
army  of  Virginians  then  operating  in  the  Illinois. 
The  Menominee  were  of  Langlade's  following; 
on  Lake  Superior,  Jean  Baptiste  Cadotte  repre- 
sented English  interests  and  secured  the  fidelity  of 
his  relatives  the  Chippewa ;  while  traders  on  the 
upper  Mississippi  won  like  support  from  the  Sioux, 
whose  principal  chief  was  the  sturdy  Wabashaw. 

Absorbed  in  his  enterprise  (1778)  against  the 
Illinois  and  Wabash  forts,  seeking  to  check  disas- 
trous British-Indian  forays  from  northwest  of  the 
Ohio  Kiver  against  American  settlements  in  Ken- 


UNDER  THE  BRITISH  FLAG  135 

tucky,  George  Rogers  Clark  did  not  himself  pene- 
trate into  Wisconsin.  But  from  his  headquarters 
in  Kaskaskia  active  agents  were  sent  among  the 
Indians  of  this  region,  awakening  within  those  of 
southern  Wisconsin,  farthest  removed  from  Lang- 
lade's  influence,  a  wholesome  feeling  of  doubt  as  to 
the  outcome  of  the  war.  He  secured  from  several 
cautious  Sauk,  Fox,  and  Winnebago  chiefs  a  promise 
of  neutrality  toward  these  family  hostilities  between 
the  Long  Knives  and  their  great  white  father  across 
the  sea;  and  the  Milwaukee  Potawatomi  boldly 
accepted  the  proffered  American  alliance. 

Godefroy  Linctot,  a  French  trader  of  consider- 
able importance  at  Prairie  du  Chien,  also  openly 
espoused  the  American  cause.  At  the  head  of  a 
picturesque  company  of  four  hundred  French  and 
half-breed  horsemen,  he  substantially  assisted 
Clark  in  several  of  the  latter's  subsequent  expedi- 
tions in  the  West.  Clark  rewarded  him  with  a  cap- 
tain's (later  a  major's)  commission,  and  made  him 
Indian  agent  for  the  upper  Mississippi.  As  for 
Spanish  officials  at  St.  Louis,  on  the  Louisiana 
side  of  the  Mississippi,  Clark  obtained  from  them 
friendly  sympathy  and  much  substantial  aid.  Had 
the  American  commander  been  able  to  make  his 
intended  foray  against  Detroit,  there  is  little  doubt 
that  he  could  easily  have  rallied  to  his  support  a 
majority  of  the  French  and  Indians  of  southern 
Wisconsin,  and  many  from  the  trans-Mississippi. 

In  the  late  autumn  of  1779,  Samuel  Robertson, 


136  WISCONSIN 

master  of  ;the  sloop  Felicity,  —  one  of  three  such 
naval  vessels  maintained  by  the  British  on  Lake 
Michigan,  —  made  a  reconnoitring  voyage  around 
the  lake,  visiting  and  supplying  Indians  and  traders 
at  the  mouths  of  several  rivers  on  the  east  shore, 
and  at "  Mill  wakey  "  on  the  west.  At  the  last-named 
port,  which  was  reached  the  3d  of  November,  after 
exceptionally  stormy  weather,  he  found  a  French 
trader  whom  he  calls  "Morong,"  and  heard  of 
another  named  Fay,  at  Two  Rivers,  fifty  miles  to 
the  north,  also  on  the  lake  shore. 

Robertson's  log  was  written  in  somewhat  chaotic 
English,  as  note  his  paragraph  in  allusion  to  Mil- 
waukee : 1  — 

Mr  Gautley  gives  them  [Morong  and  "  a  war  chef 
named Lodegand  "]  a  present  3  bottles  of  Rum  &  half  car- 
rot of  Tobaco,  and  told  them  the  manner  governor  Sinclair 
[of  Mackinac]  could  wish  them  to  Behave,  at  which  they 
seemd  weall  satisf eyed,  he  also  give  instructions  to  Mon- 
sier  S*  Pier  to  deliver  some  strings  of  Wampum  and  a 
little  Keg  of  rum  to  the  following  &  a  carrot  of  Tobaco 
in  governor  Sinclairs  name ;  likewise  the  manour  how  to 
behave;  he  also  gave  another  small  Kegg  with  some 
strings  of  Wampum  with  a  carrot  of  Tobaco  to  Deliver 
the  indeans  at  Millwakey  which  is  a  mixed  Tribe  of 
different  nations. 

During  the  same  year,  Spain  declared  war  against 
Great  Britain,  and  under  the  leadership  of  Galvez, 
governor-general  of  Louisiana,  captured  Natchez, 
1  Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  vol.  xi. 


UNDER  THE  BRITISH  FLAG  137 

Baton  Rouge,  Mobile,  Pensacola,  and  other  Eng- 
lish settlements  in  the  South.  Galvez  was  proceed- 
ing against  the  Bahamas  and  Jamaica  when  the 
news  of  peace  arrived,  thus  putting  a  stop  to  his 
ambitious  undertaking. 

X)ne  of  the  features  of  this  embroglio  with  Spain 
was  an  expedition  against  the  Spaniards  of  St. 
Louis  and  their  American  friends  in  the  Illinois, 
projected  by  the  English  commandant  at  Mackinac. 
He  had  been  informed  by  Governor-General  Hal- 
dimand  of  Canada  that  an  English  fleet  and  army 
were  to  ascend  the  Mississippi  to  attack  New  Or- 
leans and  other  Spanish  settlements,  and  that  a 
cooperating  demonstration  from  the  north  would  be 
helpful.  Moreover,  some  of  the  Mackinac  traders 
operating  on  Western  waters  were  complaining  of 
injuries  received  at  the  hands  of  Spaniards. 

"  Seven  hundred  &  fifty  men  including  Traders, 
servants  and  Indians,"  so  runs  the  official  report,1 
left  Mackinac  the  10th  of  March  (1780)  and  pro- 
ceeded over  the  Fox- Wisconsin  route  to  Prairie  du 
Chien,  where  they  were  joined  by  several  French 
traders  at  the  head  of  bands  of  Chippewa,  Sioux, 
Menominee,  Winnebago,  Sank,  and  Foxes.  A  large 
armed  boat,  with  a  crew  of  thirteen  Americans  and 
a  valuable  cargo  of  trading  goods  and  provisions, 
was  captured  off  Turkey  River,  furnishing  the 
sinews  of  war  for  the  furtherance  of  the  enterprise. 
From  the  neighboring  lead  mines  about  the  present 

1  Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  vol.  xi. 


138  WISCONSIN 

Illinois  town  of  Galena,  the  warriors  brought  in 
"  seventeen  Spanish  &  Rebel  Prisoners,  &  stopp'd 
Fifty  Tonns  of  Lead  ore,"  together  with  additional 
provisions.  Meanwhile,  Langlade  assembled  at  Chi- 
cago a  considerable  party  of  French  and  Indians 
to  make  an  attack  by  way  of  Illinois  River,  "  and 
another  party  [Ottawa]  are  sent  to  watch  the 
Plains  between  the  Wabash  and  the  Mississippi," 
and  thus  cut  off  Vincennes. 

But  despite  these  elaborate  arrangements  and 
early  successes,  the  demonstration  lacked  strength. 
The  savage  allies  of  the  English,  particularly  the 
Sauk  and  Foxes,  were  but  half-hearted ;  three  of 
their  French  leaders  —  Hesse,  Du  Charme,  and 
Calve",  well-known  Wisconsin  fur-traders  —  were 
accused  of  bold-faced  treachery,  no  doubt  allow- 
ing themselves  to  be  tampered  with  by  American 
agents;  and  the  Potawatomi  of  the  Milwaukee 
neighborhood  were  doing  their  best  to  upset  Lang- 
lade's  plans.  In  fact,  the  lead  mines  and  the  Illinois 
generally,  together  with  most  of  southern  Wiscon- 
sin, were  now  found  to  be  filled  with  American 
sympathizers,  both  traders  and  tribesmen,  a  cir- 
cumstance well  calculated  to  give  pause  to  French 
and  Indian  allies  of  England,  for  seemingly  their 
chief  desire  was  to  be  friendly  with  the  victors, 
whoever  they  might  be. 

Spaniards  and  Americans  had  received  advance 
notice  of  every  movement  against  them,  and  were 
so  well  prepared  that  the  assault  was  easily  check- 


UNDER  THE  BRITISH  FLAG  139 

mated.  The  principal  features  were  the  burning  of 
outlying  cabins  at  St.  Louis,  the  raiding  of  traders' 
and  cattle-men's  camps,  and  the  intercepting  of 
American  supply  boats  on  the  Mississippi.  The 
marauders,  returning  by  various  routes  through 
Wisconsin  and  Illinois,  "brought  off  Forty-three 
Scalps,  thirty-four  prisoners,  Blacks  and  "Whites 
&  killed  about  70  Persons.  They  destroyed  several 
hundred  cattle,  but  were  beat  off  on  their  attacks 
both  sides  of  the  River." 

Contemporary  Spanish  reports  of  this  affair  allude 
with  bitterness  to  Hesse's  conduct,  as  "the  ferocity 
of  an  officer  deeply  dyed  with  inhumanity."1 

As  a  result  of  conflict  between  this  expedition 
and  the  American  garrison  at  Cahokia,  on  the  east 
side  of  the  Mississippi,  a  few  miles  only  from  St. 
Louis,  Colonel  Clark  sent  a  small  detachment  to 
punish  the  Indians  on  Illinois  River.  This  vigor- 
ous invasion  of  native  territory,  and  the  usual 
wholesome  fear  of  Clark's  intentions,  so  alarmed 
the  English  traders  that  it  was  thought  desirable 
to  remove  from  harm's  way  their  large  stock  of 
furs  at  Prairie  du  Chien. 

Accordingly  there  was  dispatched  from  Mack- 
inac  in  June  (1780)  a  party  of  twenty  Canadians 
and  thirty-six  Foxes  and  Sioux,  in  nine  large  birch 
canoes.  One  of  the  members  of  this  force  was 
John  Long,  a  trader  who  had  been  operating  on 

1  English  documents  in  Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  vol.  zi ;  Spanish,  in 
vol.  xviii. 


140  WISCONSIN 

the  north  shore  of  Lake  Superior,  but  who  had 
spent  the  winter  of  1779-80  with  the  Chippewa 
near  Fort  Mackinac.  To  Long's  interesting  jour- 
nal 1  we  are  indebted  for  our  knowledge  of  the 
enterprise.  Arriving  at  Prairie  du  Chien, ' '  a  town 
of  considerable  note,  built  after  the  Indian  man- 
ner," they  found Langlade,  "the  king's  interpreter," 
who  with  the  help  of  several  Indians  —  all  of  whom 
"were  rejoiced  to  see  us" — was  guarding  the  bales 
of  peltries  in  a  log  house.  Three  hundred  packs  of 
the  best  skins  were  placed  in  the  canoes,  the  re- 
maining sixty  being  burned  to  prevent  their  falling 
into  the  hands  of  the  enemy ;  whereupon  the  res- 
cuers took  up  their  return  journey  to  Mackinac, 
which  they  reached  after  an  absence  of  eighty 
days.  "  About  five  days  after  our  departure  "  from 
Prairie  du  Chien,  wrote  Long  in  his  journal,  "  we 
were  informed  that  the  Americans  came  to  attack 
us,  but  to  their  extreme  mortification  we  were  out 
of  their  reach." 

The  Spaniards,  on  their  part,  soon  replied  to 
the  attack  on  St.  Louis  by  dispatching  (January, 
1781)  a  force  of  sixty-five  militiamen,  half  of  them 
French,  together  with  the  usual  savage  camp-fol- 
lowers, against  Fort  St.  Josephs,  four  hundred 
miles  distant  to  the  northeast  from  St.  Louis.  The 
men  had  a  weary  midwinter  march  across  Illinois 
and  northern  Indiana,  but  succeeded  in  driving  off 
the  small  English  garrison,  capturing  rich  spoils 
1  Thwaites,  Early  Western  Travels,  vol.  ii. 


UNDER  THE  BRITISH  FLAG  141 

from  the  considerable  group  of  fur-traders  collected 
there,  and  destroying  such  other  stores  of  ammu- 
nition and  goods  as  they  and  their  Indian  allies 
could  not  carry  away.1 

1  See  Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  vol.  xviii,  for  a  discussion  of  this  curious 
affair,  based  on  recently-discovered  documents.  While  nominally 
a  Spanish  expedition,  it  appears  to  have  been  incited  by  Americans 
and  the  habitant  of  Cahokia,  taking  advantage  of  the  defection  of 
the  neighboring  Potawatomi,  who  were  deserting  the  British 
interest 


CHAPTER  VI 

FROM  THE  PEACE  OF  PARIS  TO  JAY'S  TREATY 

EARLY  in  the  peace  negotiations  at  Paris  (1782), 
it  was  evident  that  Spain  wished  to  retain  control 
of  both  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  the  Mississippi 
River.  She  sought  to  restrain  the  United  States 
from  extending  as  far  south  as  the  Gulf,  basing  her 
claims  on  the  coastwise  conquests  of  Galvez  (1779- 
81)  ;  while  on  the  west  she  aimed  at  obtaining  as 
the  result  of  her  expedition  against  St.  Josephs  a 
large  slice  of  the  country  lying  back  of  the  Alle- 
ghanies  and  abutting  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi. In  these  bold  demands  Spain  was  quietly 
backed  by  her  neighbor,  France.  Although  having 
recognized  and  assisted  at  American  independence, 
neither  of  these  European  powers  seemed  desirous 
that  the  new  republic  should  have  much  room  for 
growth  beyond  the  Atlantic  slope. 

Notwithstanding  instructions  from  Congress  to 
act  only  with  the  consent  of  France,  the  astute 
American  commissioners  (Franklin,  Adams,  and 
Jay)  took  alarm  at.  the  attitude  of  our  ally  and 
conducted  their  own  negotiations  with  Great 
Britain.  In  the  matter  of  the  western  boundary, 
they  stoutly  held  for  and  ultimately  gained  the 


PEACE  OF  PARIS  TO  JAY'S  TREATY  143 

Mississippi.  For  the  northern,-  they  offered  two 
alternatives  —  one,  a  line  passing  through  the 
middle  of  the  Great  Lakes,  the  other  the  forty- 
fifth  degree  of  latitude.  This  last-named  boundary 
would  have  allowed  Great  Britain  to  retain  the 
northern  half  of  Maine,  all  of  the  upper  peninsula 
of  Michigan,  that  portion  of  southern  Michigan 
stretching  north  of  Otsego  Lake,  and  so  much  of 
Wisconsin  as  lies  north  of  a  line  drawn  due  west 
from  Peshtigo  Harbor  to  Hudson,  together  with  all 
of  Lake  Superior,  the  outlet  of  Lake  Michigan, 
and  the  northern  waters  of  Lake  Huron ;  whereas 
to  the  United  States  would  have  been  awarded  the 
southern  and  most  fertile  portion  of  Ontario,  with 
the  sites  of  Kingston,  Toronto,  and  London,  as 
well  as  complete  control  of  Lakes  Erie  and  On- 
tario. The  boundary  finally  adopted  by  Great 
Britain  was  a  better  and  more  natural  arrange- 
ment for  both  countries — from  Connecticut  River 
westward  along  the  forty-fifth  parallel  to  the  St. 
Lawrence,  thence  through  the  middle  of  the  Great 
Lakes  and  connecting  waters  to  the  Lake  of  the 
Woods,  whence  the  line  was  to  run  due  west  to 
the  source  of  the  Mississippi.  This  latter  provision 
was  based  upon  a  geographical  error  then  current 
on  American  maps,  placing  the  source  of  that  river 
much  farther  north  than  it  was  afterwards  found 
to  extend,  which  mistake  was  later  the  cause  of 
misunderstanding.  With  this  boundary  arranged, 
the  definitive  treaty  was  finally  signed  on  Septem- 


144  WISCONSIN 

ber  3,  1783,  preliminary  articles  of  peace  having 
been  negotiated  ten  months  before. 

In  the  seventh  article  of  the  definitive  treaty,  it 
was  promised  that  "  His  Britannic  Majesty  shall, 
with  all  convenient  speed,  .  .  .  withdraw  all  his 
armies,  garrisons,  and  fleets  from  the  said  United 
States,  and  from  every  post,  place,  and  harbor 
within  the  same."  In  the  spring  of  1784  Wash- 
ington's representative,  Baron  Steuben,  was  sent 
to  Quebec  to  make  arrangements  with  Governor 
Haldimand  for  the  transfer  of  the  northern  posts, 
—  among  them  Detroit  and  Mackinac,1  —  but  was 
met  by  the  polite  but  firm  statement  that  British 
military  officials  had  as  yet  received  no  orders  to 
turn  them  over  to  the  Americans.  Later,  diplo- 
matic assurances  were  to  the  effect  that  these 
strongholds  were  being  retained  until  the  new  fed- 
eral government  had  secured  from  the  several 
states  restitution  of  confiscated  Loyalist  property. 
The  United  States  were  also  accused  of  placing 
obstacles  in  the  path  of  private  British  claims 
against  American  citizens,  and  of  allowing  the 
continued  persecution  of  those  who  had  sided  with 
England  in  the  late  war. 

Secretary  Jefferson  reminded  the  British  min- 
ister that  all  that  the  United  States  had  promised 

1  The  posts  concerned  were :  on  Lake  Champlain,  Pointe  au 
For  and  Dutchman's  Point ;  in  New  York,  Niagara,  Oswego,  and 
Oswegatchie  ;  on  Lake  Erie,  Fort  Erie ;  on  the  upper  lakes,  De- 
troit aift  Mackinac. 


PEACE  OF  PARIS  TO  JAY'S  TREATY  145 

in  the  treaty  was  to  recommend  the  states  to 
make  such  restitution,  Congress  having  neither 
authority  nor  power  to  coerce  them.  In  the  course 
of  these  negotiations,  Great  Britain  was  charged 
with  not  treating  the  Americans  fairly.  She  had 
declined  to  enter  into  a  treaty  of  commerce  with 
them  ;  she  was  crippling  American  trade  with  the 
West  Indies  ;  and  had  failed  to  make  compensa- 
tion for  the  many  negro  slaves  —  thousands  in 
number,  it  was  claimed  —  that  had  been  taken 
away  by  the  British  at  the  close  of  the  war. 

Jefferson  pointed  out  that,  through  retention  of 
the  posts,  the  English  were  continuing  their  hold 
upon  territory  south  of  the  international  boundary 
agreed  upon ;  exercising  power  over  persons  dwell- 
ing within  the  United  States ;  even  denying  navi- 
gation rights  to  American  citizens  in  American 
territory ;  and  "  intercepting  us  entirely  from  the 
commerce  of  furs  with  Indian  nations  to  the  north- 
ward, a  commerce  which  has  ever  been  of  great 
importance  to  the  United  States,  not  only  for  its 
intrinsic  value,  but  as  it  was  a  means  of  cherishing 
peace  with  those  Indians  and  of  superseding  the 
necessity  of  that  expensive  warfare  we  have  been 
obliged  to  carry  on  with  them  during  the  time 
those  posts  have  been  in  other  hands." 

There  was  much  ground  for  friction  between 
the  new  nation  and  its  parent,  and,  as  usual  in 
such  cases,  both  were  in  a  measure  to  blame.  But 
Great  Britain's  real  reason  for  the  retention  of  the 


146  WISCONSIN 

posts  upon  the  upper  lakes  was  not  difficult  to 
find.  Jefferson  had  hinted  at  it.  The  fur-trade  of 
Canada  had,  for  those  times,  grown  into  enormous 
proportions  during  the  twenty  years  between  the 
downfall  of  New  France  and  the  close  of  the  Bevo- 
lutionary  War.  In  the  far  north  the  great  Hud- 
son's Bay  Company,  whose  offices  were  in  London, 
had  for  a  century  been  reaping  large  profits  for 
its  privileged  coterie  of  stockholders.  Immediately 
after  the  surrender  of  Montreal  (1760),  the  coun- 
try to  the  south  of  the  Hudson  Bay  hinterland, 
all  the  way  from  the  Ohio  to  the  Saskatchewan 
and  Great  Slave  Lake,  —  a  thousand  miles  beyond 
Lake  Superior, —  swarmed  with  independent  Brit- 
ish traders,  such  as  Alexander  Henry,  Peter  Pond, 
and  John  Long,  whose  experiences  in  Wisconsin 
have  already  been  alluded  to.  In  the  employ  of 
these  merchant  adventurers,  Scotchmen  to  a  large 
extent,  whose  daring  enterprise  equaled  if  it  did 
not  surpass  that  of  their  French  predecessors,  were 
many  experienced  French  traders ;  while  French 
and  half-breed  voyageurs  found  under  their  new 
masters  quite  as  lucrative  positions  as  in  the  days 
of  the  French  regime. 

Montreal  was  the  business  headquarters  of  the 
majority  of  the  independents,  from  here  being  for- 
warded in  large  bateaux  the  goods  and  supplies 
imported  from  England  and  Scotland.  Detroit, 
Mackinac,  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  and  Grand  Portage 
(near  the  mouth  of  Pigeon  River,  on  the  north- 


PEACE  OF  PARIS  TO  JAY'S  TREATY     147 

west  shore  of  Lake  Superior)  were  the  secondary 
centres  of  distribution  ;  and  to  these  several  posts 
returned  each  spring  large  fleets  of  bark  canoes, 
laden  with  packs  of  peltries  secured  in  barter  from 
Indians  throughout  the  vast  region  between  Lake 
Huron  and  the  Pacific  Ocean.1 

At  least  twelve  large '  operators,  with  consider- 
able companies  of  retainers,  were  at  work  in  this 
territory  at  the  time  of  the  treaty  negotiations  in 
Paris.  These  rivals  had  long  carried  on  a  bitter 
warfare  among  themselves,  occasionally  marked 
by  wilderness  broils  and  even  murder.  In  the 
winter  of  1783-84,  immediately  following  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  international  boundary,  the  major- 
ity of  the  Canadians  formed  a  stock  corporation 
under  the  name  of  the  North  West  Company, 
which  in  1787  admitted  to  their  union  those  who 
had  failed  to  join  the  first  organization.  Thereafter 
the  Canadian  fur-trade  was  controlled  by  two 
organizations  only,  the  Hudson's  Bay  and  the  North 
West,  the  former  having  its  chief  operating  head- 
quarters at  Prince  of  Wales  Fort,  and  the  latter  on 
Mackinac  Island  and  at  Grand  Portage.  Of  the 
life  led  by  the  "  Nor'  West "  chiefs  at  Grand  Por- 
tage, the  gateway  to  the  Canadian  Northwest,  dur- 
ing these  palmy  days  of  the  fur  traffic,  Washington 
Irving  has  given  us  a  vivid  description  in  his  charm- 
ing "Astoria." 

1  Consult  Frederick  J.  Turner,  "  The  Character  and  Influence  of 
the  Fur  Trade  in  Wisconsin,"  in  Wis.  Hist.  Soc.  Proceedings,  1889. 


148  WISCONSIN 

Taking  into  consideration  the  fact  that  there 
still  were  large  tracts  of  fur-bearing  wilderness  in 
the  spacious  triangle  lying  between  the  Ohio  and 
Mississippi  rivers  and  the  Great  Lakes,  and  that 
the  important  entrepots  of  Detroit,  Mackinac,  and 
Grand  Portage  lay  within  this  region,  it  is  small 
wonder  that  the  British  government,  influenced  by 
powerful  business  interests,  should  be  loth  to  sur- 
render the  posts  upon  the  upper  lakes,  controlling 
as  they  did  both  the  fur-trade  and  the  Indian 
tribes.  Jefferson  was  right  in  maintaining  that 
commerce  was  a  sure  road  to  the  affections  of  the 
tribesmen.  Had  the  posts  been  surrendered  in 
1783,  as  stipulated,  the  Indian  trade  would  at  once 
have  been  prosecuted  through  American  channels, 
and  the  United  States  probably  saved  a  long  and 
exhausting  period  of  frontier  wars. 

Then,  again,  it  must  be  remembered  that  Eng- 
lish statesmen,  kept  informed  by  spies,  were  not 
slow  to  observe  that  seeds  of  disunion  were  being 
sown,  contemporaneously  with  the  establishment 
of  the  American  republic.  The  settlers  of  Ken- 
tucky were  restless,  and  not  infrequently  rebellious, 
over  Spanish  ownership  of  the  fair  country  to  the 
west  of  the  Mississippi,  and  particularly  at  Spain's 
mastery  of  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  the  chief 
highway  for  such  of  their  products  as  sought  the 
markets  of  the  world.  There  was,  as  well,  much 
discontent  at  the  retention  of  the  fur-trade  in 
British  hands.  Indeed,  at  one  time  some  of  the 


PEACE  OF  PARIS  TO  JAY'S  TREATY      149 

Kentuckians  were  proposing  to  organize  an  expedi- 
tion to  proceed  up  the  Mississippi  and  over  the  old 
Fox- Wisconsin  route  to  raid  Fort  Mackinac.  The 
West  was  for  several  years  a  hotbed  of  discontent 
over  apparent  federal  indifference  to  its  peculiar 
needs,  and  for  a  considerable  period  there  was  fear 
among  acute  observers  that  the  trans-Alleghany 
might  detach  itself  from  the  Union  and  possibly 
join  either  France  or  Spain.  England  saw  that 
France  was  desirous  of  again  possessing  the  trans- 
Mississippi,  an  act  accomplished  in  1800,  and  that 
Spain  was  too  weak  to  resist.  In  view  of  the  press- 
ing demands  of  the  Montreal  traders  and  the  un- 
certainty of  the  political  future  of  the  West,  it  is 
not  surprising  that  Great  Britain  welcomed  an 
excuse  for  keeping  firm  hold  upon  the  forts  and 
Indians  of  this  region,  and  planned  to  resist  by 
armed  force  any  American  attempts  to  dispossess 
her  ;  and  that  most  British  officials  in  Canada 
firmly  believed  that  the  Northwest  might  in  whole 
or  in  part  be  regained. 

It  was  freely  asserted  by  Northwest  frontiersmen, 
and  very  likely  the  charge  was  true,  that  the  tribes- 
men of  this  region  were  being  persistently  advised 
by  these  Canadian  officials  that  the  time  was  not  far 
distant  when  their  great  father  in  London  would 
regain  the  land,  in  which  English  and  Indians, 
together  with  their  French  friends,  had  dwelt  to- 
gether in  loving  relationship.  Just  as  the  savages 
of  twenty  years  before  had,  under  Pontiac's  elo- 


150  WISCONSIN 

quence,  waxed  indignant  over  being  handed  over 
by  the  French  to  the  British  as  so  many  chattels ; 
so  now,  having  come  highly  to  regard  the  latter, 
they  stoutly  objected  to  being  transferred,  without 
permission,  to  the  domination  of  the  savage-hating 
Long  Knives  and  Bostonnais,  whom  they  thought 
they  had  every  reason  to  detest  and  fear.  With  a 
view  of  placating  them,  British  officers  continued 
to  receive  the  tribal  delegations  that  swarmed  upon 
them  at  the  northern  posts.  As  of  old,  the  visitors 
were  given  military  commissions,  gay  uniforms, 
medals,  arms  and  ammunition,  and  a  profusion  of 
miscellaneous  presents  —  liberality  in  sad  contrast 
with  the  method  of  the  economical  Americans,  who 
without  doubt  were  somewhat  niggardly  toward 
their  red  wards. 

It  was  and  still  is  believed  by  many  that  the 
British  did  not  stop  at  prophecy  and  hospitable 
present-giving,  but  actively  fomented  among  their 
guests  dissatisfaction  against  the  land-grabbing 
and  miserly  Americans  ;  and,  perhaps  unofficially, 
nevertheless  effectively,  encouraged  and  indeed  ac- 
tually outfitted  murderous  native  raids  against  fron- 
tier settlements  in  the  Ohio  country.  Considering 
the  prevalent  official  opinion  in  Canada,  that  the 
Northwest  was  soon  to  be  regained,  it  is  quite  prob- 
able that  here  and  there  an  unwise  officer  may  have 
overstepped  the  bounds  of  discretion  and  neutrality. 
That,  however,  there  was  any  general  policy  of  this 
character,  or  widespread  assistance  to  the  warring 


PEACE  OF  PARIS  TO  JAY'S  TREATY  151 

savages,  in  their  hideous  forays,  has  yet  to  be 
proved.  No  trace  of  it  is  to  be  found  in  the  public 
documents  of  the  period.  Abundance  of  ground  is 
there  for  complaint  of  the  political  policy  of  the 
Georges  towards  America,  in  her  younger  and 
weaker  days.  But  the  English  people  are  of  the 
same  stock  as  ourselves  ;  the  tendency  to  inhuman 
practices  is  not  in  the  blood. 

Those  Atlantic  states  which,  from  the  terms  of 
their  colonial  charters,  claimed  all  territory  to  the 
west  of  them,  as  far  as  the  Pacific  Ocean,  were  in- 
duced to  surrender  to  the  federal  government  their 
respective  claims  to  lands  between  the  Great  Lakes 
and  the  rivers  Ohio  and  Mississippi,  in  order  that 
this  area  might  constitute  a  national  domain  from 
which  new  states  should  eventually  be  formed. *  As 
early  as  September  7, 1783,  but  four  days  after  the 
signing  of  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  Washington  offered 
tentative  suggestions  2  relative  to  the  formation  of 
a  commonwealth  north  of  Ohio  River,  roughly 
equivalent  to  the  present  State  of  Ohio.  In  the 
following  April,  the  same  day  that  Virginia  made 
cession  of  her  claim,  Jefferson  drafted  a  committee 
report  to  the  Congress  of  the  Confederation,  pro- 
viding for  the  government  of  the  Western  territory 

1  Virginia's  cession  -was  made  in  1784 ;  Connecticut's  in  1786 
and  1800 ;  Massachusetts^  in  1785.  Territory  north  of  43°  43' 
12  "  was  acquired  from  Great  Britain  under  the  treaty  of  1783. 

2  To  James   Duane,  congressman  from  New  York.    Sparks, 
Life  and  Writings  of  Washington,  vol.  viii,  p.  477. 


152  WISCONSIN 

and  its  division  into  seven  states,  to  be  styled  Wash- 
ington, Saratoga,  Illinoia,  Mesopotamia,  Chersone- 
sus,  Assenisipia,  Michigania,  and  Sylvania  —  the 
three  last  named  embracing  territory  now  wholly  or 
in  part  included  in  Wisconsin.1  Congress  practi- 
cally accepted  his  plan  of  division  in  the  Ordinance 
of  April  23,  1784,  but  not  these  fantastic  names, 
each  section  being  wisely  left  to  choose  its  own  title 
on  entering  the  Union. 

July  13, 1787,  Congress  adopted  another  and  far 
better  plan,  the  "  Ordinance  for  the  government  of 
the  territory  of  the  United  States  northwest  of  the 
river  Ohio."  This  second  scheme  of  government  for 
the  Western  country  is  popularly  referred  to  as  the 
"  Ordinance  of  1787 ;  "  the  district  was  thereafter 
known  as  Northwest  Territory  —  the  "  Old  North- 
west" of  present-day  histories,  to  distinguish  it 
from  the  later  Northwest,  on  the  Pacific  Coast. 
The  ordinance,  which  has  served  as  a  model  for  all 
subsequent  American  territorial  government,  pro- 
vided for  freedom  of  religion,  inviolability  of  con- 
tracts, a  humane  treatment  of  the  tribesmen,  the 
permanence  of  "  the  not  less  than  three  nor  more 
than  five"  new  states  into  which  the  Northwest 
Territory  was  eventually  to  be  divided,  the  entire 
freedom  of  all  portages  and  waterways,  the  per- 
petual "  encouragement  of  schools  and  the  means 

1  Randall,  Life  of  Jefferson,  Yol.  i,  p.  397.  Map  in  Wis.  Hist. 
Colls.,  vol.  xi,  p.  452. 


PEACE  OF  PARIS  TO  JAY'S  TREATY     153 

of  education,"  and  the  freedom  of  all  persons  save 
fugitive  slaves  from  the  original  thirteen  states.  It 
was  expressly  declared  that  these  several  liberal 
provisions — of  which  those  laying  the  foundations 
of  our  present  popular  educational  system,  and  pro- 
hibiting slavery  in  the  Northwest,  have  been  the 
most  admired  —  "shall  be  considered  as  articles 
of  compact,  between  the  original  states  and  the 
people  and  states  in  the  said  territory,  and  forever 
remain  unalterable,  unless  by  common  consent." 
In  a  later  chapter,  we  shall  have  occasion  to  refer 
in  some  detail  to  the  plan  of  division  into  states. 

At  the  time  of  the  adoption  of  this  famous  ordi- 
nance, there  already  were  sparse  settlements  of 
Americans  at  what  is  now  Cincinnati,  at  Clarks- 
ville  (Indiana),  and  at  other  points  on  the  banks 
of  the  Ohio.  Small  hamlets  of  French  and  half- 
breeds  were  to  be  found  at  Fort  Wayne,  South 
Bend,  and  Vincennes,  within  the  present  Indiana ; 
at  Peoria,  Kaskaskia,  and  Cahokia,  in  the  Illinois 
country ;  at  Detroit,  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  and  on  the 
island  and  straits  of  Mackinac,  in  Michigan  ;  and 
at  Green  Bay,  Prairie  du  Chien,  and  La  Pointe,  in 
Wisconsin.  A  census  of  these  widely  separated 
communities  —  between  which  lay  a  wilderness  of 
forest  and  prairie,  lakes,  marshes,  and  rivers,  and 
among  which  wandered  tribes  of  semi-nomadic  bar- 
barians—  would  at  that  time  probably  have  re- 
vealed in  all  the  vast  Northwest  Territory  not  more 
than  thirty  thousand  whites.  The  following  spring 


154  WISCONSIN 

a  party  of  Revolutionary  veterans  settled  on  serv- 
ice-bounty lands  at  Marietta,  Ohio,  and  thereafter 
the  growth  of  the  territory  was  constant  and  con- 
siderable. 

Wisconsin  lay  within  the  newly  organized  North- 
west Territory.  But  owing  to  British  retention  of 
Mackinac,  of  which  the  country  between  Lake 
Michigan  and  the  Mississippi  was  both  a  fur-trade 
and  a  military  dependency,  it  was  many  years 
before  the  territorial  government  assumed  control 
of  this,  the  farthest  American  Northwest.  Life  ran 
on,  therefore,  in  much  the  same  fashion  as  of  old. 
British  traders,  operating  from  Mackinac,  were  the 
commercial  lords  of  the  manor.  They  were,  how- 
ever, few  in  number.  Their  agents,  boatmen,  and 
trappers  were  the  French  of  the  old  regime.  At 
the  little  riverside  hamlets,  the  habitan  was  still 
chiefly  in  evidence,  leisurely  working  his  narrow 
field  when  not  absent  upon  far-away  trading  expe- 
ditions. The  transfer  of  political  mastery,  from 
French  to  English,  had  wrought  no  visible  change 
in  this  conservative  folk.  Americans  were  un- 
known here,  save  by  their  unwelcome  reputation  as 
a  nervous,  discontented  people,  heralds  of  a  relent- 
less system  of  conquest,  bent  on  ruining  the  forests, 
browbeating  the  Indians,  driving  sharp  bargains, 
and  in  general  making  the  world  an  uncomfortable 
place  wherein  to  live.  The  annals  of  these  quiet 
Wisconsin  neighborhoods  are  few.  The  nearest 
register  of  marriages,  births,  baptisms,  and  deaths 


PEACE  OF  PARIS  TO  JAY'S  TREATY     155 

was  kept  at  Mackinac.1  What  of  importance  we 
have  to  record,  up  to  the  time  of  the  actual  coming 
of  the  dreaded  Americans  (1815),  is  fragmentary. 
Arcady  furnishes  scant  material  for  historians. 

We  have  seen  that  lead-mining  in  the  Missis- 
sippi River  hinterland,  within  what  are  now  Wis- 
consin, Illinois,  Iowa,  and  Missouri,  —  one  of  the 
richest  lead-bearing  regions  in  the  world,  —  early 
became  an  industry  of  considerable  importance. 
The  French  were  continually  seeking  for  beds  of 
mineral,  particularly  copper  and  lead,  and  closely 
questioned  the  Indians  concerning  them.  While 
in  a  measure  superstitious  with  regard  to  all  ores, 
their  cupidity  soon  induced  them  to  betray  the 
presence  of  both  of  those  so  persistently  sought. 
The  white  man  had  introduced  firearms  among  the 
aborigines,  and  induced  them  to  hunt  fur-bearing 
animals  on  a  large  scale  ;  thus  lead  at  once  assumed 
among  them  a  considerable  economic  value,  both 
for  use  as  bullets  and  as  an  article  of  profitable 
traffic  with  the  traders,  the  latter  coming  from  long 
distances  to  obtain  their  supplies  of  this  essential. 

So  far  as  we  can  now  ascertain,  Nicolet  was  the 
first  to  teach  Northwest  tribesmen  the  use  of  gun- 
powder. Radisson  and  Groseilliers  heard  of  lead 
among  the  Boeuf  Sioux,  apparently  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Dubuque.  The  journals  of  Marquette, 
Hennepin,  and  Lahontan  allude  to  the  mineral 

1  The  marriage  entries  are  published  in  Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  vols. 
xviii  and  ziz. 


156  WISCONSIN 

wealth  of  the  district  —  Hennepin's  map  shows  a 
lead  mine  in  the  vicinity  of  Galena.  Joutel  (1687) 
says  that  "  travelers  who  have  been  at  the  upper 
part  of  the  Mississippi  affirm  that  they  have  found 
mines  of  very  good  lead  there."  Perrot,  by  the  aid 
of  natives  to  whom  he  taught  the  rudiments  of 
mining  and  smelting,  obtained  lead  from  a  mine 
about  opposite  Dubuque.  The  operations  of  Le 
Sueur  have  been  alluded  to  in  a  previous  chapter. 
In  1712  Sieur  Anthony  Crozat  was  granted  a  mo- 
nopoly of  trade  and  mining  privileges  in  Louisiana, 
and  his  men  worked  shafts  in  southeastern  Mis- 
souri ;  so  also  the  representatives  of  Governor  La 
Mothe  Cadillac,  who  three  years  later  penetrated 
to  these  parts.  Various  prospecting  parties  sent  out 
under  military  protection  by  Philippe  Francois 
de  Renault,  "  director-general  of  the  mines  of  the 
Royal  India  Company  in  Illinois,"  were  success- 
fully operating  in  the  district  from  1719  to  1723. 
There  exists  a  report  made  in  1743  of  certain  in- 
dependent lead  miners  hereabout,  who  worked  at 
surface  diggings  and  conducted  wasteful  smelting 
methods,  —  "but  in  spite  of  the  bad  system  .  .  . 
there  has  been  taken  out  of  the  La  Mothe  mine 
2500  of  these  bars  in  1741,  2228  in  1742,  and  these 
men  work  only  four  or  five  months  in  the  year  at 
most." 

The  withdrawal  of  France  from  the  country  east 
of  the  Mississippi  (1763)  brought  several  excellent 
mines  within  British  boundaries  ;  Jonathan  Carver 


PEACE  OF  PARIS  TO  JAY'S  TREATY     157 

noted  at  least  one  such  near  Prairie  du  Sac,  on 
Wisconsin  River.  But  the  bulk  of  the  lead  product 
of  the  upper  valley  of  the  Mississippi  still  came 
from  west  of  the  river,  Spain  now  profiting  from 
the  mines  instead  of  France.  St.  Genevieve  was 
long  the  principal  market,  but  when  St.  Louis  be- 
came the  commercial  centre  of  the  region  the  traffic 
was  transferred  thither.  As  early  as  1766  the  pro- 
duct was  shipped  to  New  Orleans  in  "  large  boats 
of  20  tons,  rowed  with  20  oars."  During  the  last 
quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century  lead  was,  next  to 
peltries,  the  most  important  and  profitable  export 
of  the  country,  and  served  as  currency.  We  are 
told  that  individual  lead  miners,  working  for  them- 
selves, often  took  out  "  thirty  dollars  per  day,  for 
weeks  together." 

One  of  the  most  interesting  characters  attracted 
to  the  lead  district  in  its  early  days  was  Julien 
Dubuque,  a  trader  of  remarkable  energy  and  singu- 
larly popular  among  the  Indians,  whom  he  em- 
ployed in  considerable  numbers  as  prospectors  and 
miners.  Having  made  important  discoveries  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  present  Iowa  city  of  Dubuque, 
he  later  extended  his  field  to  the  east  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi. A  full  council  of  Sauk  and  Fox  Indians 
at  Prairie  du  Chien  granted  him  (1788)  formal 
permission  "to  work  lead  mines  tranquilly  and 
without  prejudice  to  his  labors ; "  and  thereafter, 
for  many  years,  he  and  his  agents  conducted  oper- 
ations in  northwestern  Illinois  and  southwestern 


158  WISCONSIN 

Wisconsin,  in  diggings  wherein  Indians  were  said 
to  have  crudely  delved  for  bullet  lead,  a  full  cen- 
tury before.1  Dubuque  waxed  wealthy  from  his 
lead  and  peltries,  and  in  1805  formally  acknow- 
ledged the  ownership  of  a  mining  tract  west  of  the 
Mississippi,  "  twenty-eight  or  twenty-seven  leagues 
long,  and  from  one  to  three  broad." 

British  retention  of  the  frontier  forts  was  of 
course  not  allowed  to  pass  unnoticed.  Diplomatic 
negotiations  for  the  righting  of  what  the  United 
States  government  considered  a  wrong  and  a  seri- 
ous menace  were  continued  by  John  Adams,  the 
American  agent  in  London  (1785-88),  who  vainly 
sought  recognition  of  his  country's  claims.  But  un- 
der the  Congress  of  the  Confederation,  the  United 
States  were  almost  as  weak  as  any  small  South 
American  republic  of  our  own  day,  and  might 
easily  be  put  off  at  the  behest  of  fur-trade  mag- 
nates in  London  and  Montreal.  Adams  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Gouverneur  Morris,  whose  patience  was 
also  severely  taxed. 

Meanwhile,  various  complications  had  arisen, 
tending  still  further  to  strain  relations  between  the 
two  countries.  Spain  was  intriguing  with  the  West- 
erners, chiefly  through  the  secret  agency  of  General 
James  Wilkinson  of  the  American  army,  with  the 
ostensible  view  of  securing  their  interest  in  return 

1  For  a  general  survey  of  this  subject,  see  Thwaites,  "  Notes  on 
Early  Lead  Mining  in  the  Fever  (or  Galena)  River  Region,"  TFi's. 
Hist.  Colls.,  vol.  xiii. 


PEACE  OF  PARTIS  TO  JAY'S  TREATY     159 

for  navigation  rights  upon  the  Mississippi,  but  ap- 
parently seeking  only  to  alienate  them  from,  and 
thus  to  weaken,  the  Union;  at  the  same  time 
that,  with  characteristic  duplicity,  she  was  secretly 
urging  the  jealous  Southern  tribes  to  destroy  Ameri- 
can settlements  in  Tennessee  and  Kentucky.  On 
her  part,  France  was  forwarding  a  conspiracy 
among  these  same  frontiersmen  to  raise  an  army 
of  filibusters,  under  George  Rogers  Clark,  to  oust 
Spain  from  Louisiana. 

The  Indians  of  Northwest  Territory,  who  had 
complained  bitterly  of  the  cession  of  their  country 
to  the  Americans,  grew  restless  over  the  steady  ir- 
ruption of  settlers  into  lands  north  of  the  Ohio.  By 
a  treaty  at  Fort  Harmar,  in  1789,  some  of  the 
chiefs  ceded  to  the  newcomers  a  considerable  strip 
of  territory ;  other  tribesmen,  however,  denounced 
this  transaction  as  fraudulent.  The  recalcitrants 
precipitated  a  disastrous  border  war  of  five  years' 
duration,  in  the  course  of  which  the  British,  taking 
advantage  of  the  situation,  erected  a  new  fort 
within  American  territory,  at  Maumee  rapids,  the 
site  of  the  present  Perrysburg,  Ohio,  an  embarrass- 
ing menace  to  our  military  department.  Cowed  at 
last,  but  after  great  expenditure  of  American  lives 
and  treasure,  the  Indian  malcontents  consented  to 
a  treaty  of  peace  signed  at  Greenville,  August  4, 
1795.  At  this  council  the  American  commissioners 
were  able  to  announce  to  the  tribesmen  that  a 
treaty  had  been  concluded  in  London  (November 


160  WISCONSIN 

19, 1794),  through  the  diplomacy  of  John  Jay,  by 
which  the  northern  posts  were  to  be  evacuated  by 
the  British  on  the  1st  of  June,  1796. 

Besides  this  agreement,  so  essential  to  the  inter- 
ests of  the  Northwest,  the  Jay  Treaty  made  pro- 
vision for  complete  freedom  of  trade  between  the 
United  States  and  Great  Britain  and  her  colonies, 
for  the  free  navigation  of  the  Mississippi  for  both 
nations,  and  for  a  survey  of  the  sources  of  that 
river  with  a  view  to  establishing  the  international 
boundary  in  our  Northwest. 

The  year  after  the  execution  of  Jay's  Treaty, 
and  a  month  following  that  of  Greenville,  there 
was  signed  at  Madrid  (October  27,  1795)  a  cove- 
nant between  the  United  States  and  Spain,  by 
which  Americans  were  granted  by  the  latter  country 
full  rights  of  navigation  upon  the  great  river,  and 
of  depositing  their  products  at  New  Orleans. 
Thereafter  no  more  was  heard  either  of  Spanish 
intrigues  in  Kentucky  or  of  Western  uneasiness. 

In  October  (1796),  American  troops  first  took 
possession  of  Mackinac,  and  with  it,  of  course,  the 
dependency  of  Wisconsin.  The  English,  however, 
were  still  so  confident  that  they  would  some  day 
win  back  the  country  of  the  upper  lakes,  that  their 
garrison  retired  only  to  St.  Joseph's  Island,  some 
fifty  miles  to  the  northeast,  where  the  year  previ- 
ous had  been  erected  a  new  fort. 


CHAPTER  VII 

BRITISH  INFLUENCE   CONTINUED 

ALTHOUGH  the  American  flag  was  now  displayed 
above  Fort  Mackinac,  it  was  to  be  nineteen  years 
before  this  emblem  of  the  new  sovereignty  fluttered 
to  the  west  of  Lake  Michigan. 

Article  2  of  the  Jay  Treaty  of  1794  had  provided 
that 

All  settlers  and  traders  within  the  precincts  or  juris- 
diction of  the  said  posts  shall  continue  to  enjoy,  unmo- 
lested, all  their  property  of  every  kind,  and  shall  be 
protected  therein.  They  shall  be  at  full  liberty  to  remain 
there,  or  to  remove  with  all  or  any  part  of  their  effects ; 
and  it  shall  also  be  free  to  them  to  sell  their  lands,  houses, 
or  effects,  or  to  retain  the  property  thereof,  at  their  discre- 
tion; such  of  them  as  shall  continue  to  reside  within  the  said 
boundary  lines,  shall  not  be  compelled  to  become  citizens 
of  the  United  States,  or  to  take  any  oath  of  allegiance  to  the 
government  thereof  ;  but  shall  'be  at  full  liberty  so  to  do  if 
they  think  proper  ;  and  they  shall  make  and  declare  their 
election  within  one  year  after  the  evacuation  aforesaid. 
And  all  persons  who  shall  continue  there  after  the  expir- 
ation of  the  said  year,  without  having  declared  their  in- 
tention of  remaining  subjects  of  his  Britannic  majesty, 
shall  be  considered  as  having  elected  to  become  citizens 
of  the  United  States. 


162  WISCONSIN 

Article  9  stipulated  that 

British  subjects  who  now  hold  lands  in  the  territories 
of  the  United  States,  and  American  citizens  who  now 
hold  lands  in  the  dominions  of  his  Majesty,  shall  con- 
tinue to  hold  them  according  to  the  nature  and  tenure 
of  their  respective  estates  and  titles  therein ;  and  may 
grant,  sell  or  devise  the  same  to  whom  they  please. 

Had  the  inhabitants  of  Green  Bay  been  directly 
asked  of  which  country  they  would  prefer  to  be 
citizens,  the  practically  unanimous  reply  would 
undoubtedly  have  been  Great  Britain.  Although 
under  the  treaty  they  became  Americans  within  a 
year,  from  having  taken  no  formal  steps  to  remain 
British  subjects,  they  nevertheless,  in  their  wide 
isolation  from  any  seat  of  government,  knew  little 
of  this  arrangement,  and  continued  to  consider 
themselves  citizens  of  Great  Britain.  British  trad- 
ers, also,  still  freely  operated  west  and  southwest 
of  Mackinac.  In  fact,  for  many  long  years  after 
the  treaty,  affairs  went  on  in  substantially  the  same 
fashion  as  before.  The  personnel  of  such  trading 
stations  as  La  Baye,  and  of  the  far-scattered  trading 
camps,  remained  unchanged.  To  all  intents  and 
purposes,  Frenchmen,  still  clinging  to  Canadian 
connections  and  traditions,  and  in  British  fur-trade 
employ,  occupied  Wisconsin  almost  as  completely 
as  at  any  period  during  the  two  centuries  or  more 
of  the  old  regime. 

La  Baye  being  a  commercial  dependency  of 
Mackinac,  there  was  a  constant  flitting  back  and 


BRITISH  INFLUENCE  CONTINUED         163 

forth,  in  their  long  bateaux,  of  fur-trade  agents 
and  voyageurs  between  the  little  settlement  on  the 
Fox  and  the  North  West  Company's  entrepot  on 
the  island.  La  Baye's  population  in  1785  was  stated 
to  be  fifty-six  souls.  The  Langlades,  the  Grignons, 
the  Porliers,  the  Franks,  and  the  Lawes  were  the 
principal  families,  and  the  others  their  employees  ; 
practically  all  of  them  being  engaged  in  the  one  ab- 
sorbing enterprise  of  collecting  and  selling  peltries. 
In  1803,  nine  years  after  Jay's  Treaty,  came  the 
first  official  American  notice  of  the  existence  of  the 
village,  when  Governor  William  Henry  Harrison 
of  Indiana  Territory  (of  which  Wisconsin  was  now 
a  part)  appointed  Charles  Reaume  as  justice  of  the 
peace.  A  bald-headed,  pompous,  erratic  old  French- 
man, ever  with  an  eye  to  the  main  chance,  Reaume 
drafted  all  manner  of  legal  and  commercial  papers ; 
baptized,  married, and  divorced  his  neighbors ;  acted 
as  a  primitive  civil  judge ;  certified  indifferently  to 
either  British  or  American  documents,  and  was 
general  scribe,  notary,  and  civil  functionary  for 
almost  the  entire  country  west  of  Lake  Michigan. 
Many  amusing  stories  of  his  curious  court  decisions, 
•which  recognized  no  known  statutes  of  the  United 
States,  have  come  down  to  our  own  day.  Wisconsin 
became  attached  to  the  new  Territory  of  Illinois  in 
1809.  Nevertheless  Reaume,  a  picturesque  and  use- 
ful functionary,  evidently  quite  forgotten  by  his 
American  superiors  to  the  south,  long  continued  to 
exercise  unquestioned  a  rude  equity  in  the  Fox 


164  WISCONSIN 

River  valley  through  all  political  changes,  even 
during  British  military  rule  in  1814. 1 

Prairie  du  Chien  (or  "  Prairie  des  Chiens,"  as 
the  name  frequently  appears  in  contemporary  docu- 
ments), being  much  farther  south  than  La  Baye, 
was  in  somewhat  closer  touch  with  the  seat  of 
American  territorial  government.  Its  inhabitants 
for  the  most  part  allowed  themselves,  through  in- 
action in  the  matter,  to  become  enrolled  as  Ameri- 
can citizens  a  year  after  the  signing  of  the  Jay 
Treaty.  At  the  same  time  that  Reaume  received  his 
appointment  for  the  Green  Bay  district,  Henry 
Monroe  Fisher,  a  prominent  American  trader  at  the 
prairie,  received  a  like  commission  from  the  gover- 
nor of  Indiana  Territory  as  justice  of  the  peace, 
with  the  additional  duties  of  captain  of  militia. 
Fisher,  a  tall,  athletic  man  of  much  courage  and 
perseverance,  but  possessed  of  a  violent  temper, 
was  also  sub-Indian  agent  for  the  Prairie  du  Chien 
region,  and  held  firm  control  over  the  Sioux,  Sauk, 
Foxes,  Winnebago,  and  Menominee,  who  resorted 
in  large  numbers  to  his  post.  Upon  the  formation 
of  Illinois  Territory,  Fisher  was  succeeded  both  as 
justice  and  as  sub-Indian  agent  by  John  Campbell, 
an  Irishman,  whose  amusing  methods  of  court  pro- 
cedure much  resembled  those  of  Reaume,  giving 
rise  to  tales  that  still  enliven  the  early  legal  annals 
of  the  state. 

Lieutenant  Gorrell  reported  traders  on  the  site 

1  His  papers  are  preserved  by  the  Wisconsin  Historical  Society. 


BRITISH  INFLUENCE  CONTINUED         165 

of  Milwaukee,  a  considerable  Indian  village  in 
1763,  operating  directly  from  Mackinac  rather 
than  La  Baye.  In  1779  Captain  Robertson  found 
there  a  trader  whom  he  called  "  Morong ; "  and 
doubtless  the  mouth  of  Milwaukee  River  was 
throughout  the  second  half  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury more  or  less  regularly  visited  by  men  of  this 
type,  for  it  was  a  favorite  native  rendezvous.  It 
was  long  claimed  that  one  Mirandeau,  a  French 
blacksmith  and  trader,  erected  a  log  smithy  and 
trading  shanty  here  in  1789 ;  but  probably  this 
date  is  a  decade  too  early.  Certain  it  is  that,  in 
1795,  Jacques  Vieau,  an  agent  of  the  North  West 
Company,  opened  secondary  or  "  jackknif  e  "  trading- 
posts — possibly  so  called  because  easily  opened  or 
closed  at  will  —  on  the  sites  of  Kewaunee,  Sheboy- 
gan,  and  Manitowoc,  and  established  a  permanent 
post  at  Milwaukee.  He  regularly  wintered  there 
until  1818,  in  that  year  introducing  to  the  scene 
his  son-in-law,  Solomon  Juneau,  first  mayor  of  the 
later  city.  To  the  latter  has  generally  been  ac- 
corded the  honor  of  being  Milwaukee's  pioneer; 
but  this  is  because  Juneau  was  owner  of  the  land 
on  which  Milwaukee  was  platted,  in  1833,  and 
none  of  the  newcomers  to  that  settlement  had  ever 
heard  of  Vieau,  who  many  years  before  retired  to 
Green  Bay.1 

1  See  "Narrative  of  Andrew  Vieau,  Sr.,"  in  Wis.  Hist.  Colls., 
vol.  xi ;  and  Edwin  S.  Mack,  "  The  Founding  of  Milwaukee,"  in 
Wis.  Hist.  Soc.  Proceeding*,  1906. 


166  WISCONSIN 

From  the  earliest  historic  times  there  had  been 
a  steady  stream  of  travel  over  the  well-worn  port- 
age plain,  a  mile  and  a  half  in  width,  between  the 
Fox  and  Wisconsin  rivers,  on  the  site  of  the  modern 
city  of  Portage.  No  documentary  evidence  has  yet 
been  discovered,  indicating  that  under  the  French 
regime  any  regular  transportation  agent  was  estab- 
lished here.  But,  as  previously  related,  Jonathan 
Carver  found  such  a  person  in  the  autumn  of  1766, 
—  a  French  fur-trader  called  by  him  "  Pinnisance," 
who  carried  bateaux  and  cargoes  from  one  water- 
way to  the  other.  This  man  is  identical  with  the 
Pennesha  Gegare  of  Grignon's  "  Recollections,"  1 
and  the  Pennensha  commended  in  Gorrell's  journal 
of  three  years  before,  as  having  brought  the  Sioux 
to  the  English  interest  and  helped  save  Fort  Ed- 
ward Augustus,  at  Green  Bay,  in  1763.  Pond  found 
"Old  Pinnashon"  still  at  work  in  1773.  Twenty  years 
later  we  have  account  of  a  successor  in  this  enter- 
prise, Laurent  Barth,  whose  forwarding  equipment 
consisted  of  a  horse  and  a  wheeled  barge.  But  after 
five  years  of  service  his  evident  success  attracted  a 
competitor,  Jean  Ecuyer,  who  gradually  crowded 
poor  Barth  to  the  wall.  In  his  anxiety  for  further 
profits,  Ecuyer,  who  had  married  the  daughter  of 
a  Winnebago '  chief,  opened  a  trading-post,  as  had 
Pennesha,  and  soon  himself  tasted  the  fruits  of 
competition  ;  for  Vieau  came  out  from  Milwaukee 
with  a  stock  of  goods  and  maintained  a  branch 
1  In  Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  vol.  iii. 


BRITISH  INFLUENCE  CONTINUED         167 

here  for  several  summers,  being  followed  (1801) 
by  Augustin  Grignon  and  Jacques  Porlier  of  La 
Baye.  Barth  was  succeeded  as  forwarder  by  Fran- 
cois le  Roy  (1810),  who  did  duty  for  the  British 
through  the  War  of  1812-15,  —  his  fees,  we  learn 
from  an  old  bill  of  lading,  being  ten  dollars  for 
carrying  an  empty  boat  from  one  river  to  the  other, 
and  for  the  cargo  fifty  cents  per  hundred  weight. 
It  is  no  wonder  that  by  the  time  traders'  goods 
reached  the  distant  camps  of  Indian  hunters  they 
were  worth  almost  their  weight  in  gold.  In  due 
course  Joseph  Rolette,  and  lastly  Pierre  Paquette, 
were  carriers  at  the  portage.  In  1829  Fort  Winne- 
bago  was  erected  at  this  strategic  point,  and  a 
hybrid  settlement  sprang  up  without  the  walls,  the 
kernel  of  the  present  agricultural  and  manufactur- 
ing city  of  Portage. 

We  have  seen  that  La  Pointe,  on  Madelaine  Is- 
land, in  Chequamegon  Bay,  attained  some  importance 
under  the  old  regime ;  but  it  again  fell  into  decay 
during  the  closing  years  of  the  French  and  Indian 
War.  Alexander  Henry  revived  its  old-time  fur- 
trade  in  1765,  and  the  station  once  more  became 
the  principal  peltry  market  for  the  Chippewa 
country.  The  island  reached  the  height  of  its  pros- 
perity after  Michel  Cadotte,  son  of  Jean  Baptiste, 
established  his  headquarters  here  (1800).  Taking 
unto  wife  the  daughter  of  the  village  chief  of  the 
Chippewa,  he  wielded  a  strong  influence  over  the 
region,  as  agent  first  of  the  North  West  Company 


168  WISCONSIN 

and  later  of  Astor's  American  Fur  Company.  In 
1818  came  two  shrewd  Massachusetts  brothers, 
Lyman  Marcus  and  Truman  Abraham  Warren. 
Marrying  Michel's  two  half-breed  daughters,  the 
young  Warrens  soon  succeeded  their  father-in-law, 
became  powerful  agents  of  Astor's  interests  in  the 
Northwest,  and  were  the  last  of  the  great  La  Pointe 
fur-traders.  To-day,  the  revenues  of  dreamy  little 
Madelaine  Island  are  chiefly  derived  from  summer 
cottagers  from  Chicago  and  St.  Louis. 

The  continuance  of  the  North  West  Company's 
domination  from  Mackinac  aroused  constant  protest, 
both  from  Americans  who  wished  to  enjoy  the  fruits 
of  the  fur  traffic  in  that  quarter,  and  from  fed- 
eral officials  who  sought  to  wean  the  Indians  from 
foreign  influence.  Between  1795  and  1822  experi- 
ments were  made,  establishing  among  the  tribes- 
men public  trading  houses,  whereat  goods  were  sold 
at  low  prices.  But  official  factors  were  unable  to 
give  credit,  which  the  improvident  savages  desired 
far  more  than  low  prices  —  it  was  the  very  founda- 
tion of  the  Indian  trade.  Moreover,  besides  anger- 
ing private  traders,  it  was  soon  discovered  that  the 
wild  hunters  felt  something  akin  to  contempt  for  a 
government  that  descended  to  keeping  a  shop  and 
haggling  over  the  prices  of  peltries  and  cottons. 
The  fort  traders  were  in  time  driven  from  the  mar- 
ket, and  this  plan  of  courting  native  favor  was 
abandoned. 

In  1802  Congress  ruled  that  trading  licenses 


BRITISH  INFLUENCE  CONTINUED        169 

were  only  to  be  granted  to  citizens  of  the  United 
States,  within  a  territory  which  included  Mackinac 
but  did  not  extend  as  far  west  as  Wisconsin.  Little 
attempt  was  made  to  enforce  this  regulation  until 
1810,  and  then  with  small  success,  save  that  the 
North  West  Company  withdrew  from  the  island. 
In  that  year  a  party  of  independent  British  traders, 
interested  in  Wisconsin  stations,  determined  to  run 
the  blockade  of  Fort  Mackinac  with  Canadian 
goods  consigned  to  La  Baye  merchants.  In  a  large 
bateau,  laden  with  fifty  thousand  dollars'  worth  of 
merchandise,  the  conspirators  succeeded  in  passing 
Mackinac  Island  at  night,  without  arousing  the 
sentry,  and  successfully  landed  their  cargo  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Fox.1 

The  previous  year  John  Jacob  Astor  of  New 
York,  who  had  been  operating  from  Montreal  as 
an  independent  trader,  and  had  opened  a  profitable 
traffic  with  China,  where  prices  for  furs  were  high, 
founded  the  American  Fur  Company,  which,  aided 
by  governmental  favor,  sought  to  secure  a  mono- 
poly of  the  American  fur-trade.  Astor's  field  head- 
quarters were  established  at  Mackinac ;  but  several 
large  traders  there,  still  in  the  British  interest,  re- 
mained such  powerful  rivals  that  in  1811  he  pur- 
chased their  interests  and  established  the  South 
West  Company. 

The  trans-Mississippi  province  of  Louisiana  had 
been  ceded  by  Spain  to  France  in  1800,  and  three 
1  Neville  and  Martin,  Historic  Green  Bay,  pp.  137,  138. 


170  WISCONSIN 

years  later  sold  by  France  to  the  United  States.  It 
will  be  remembered  that  one  of  the  principal  objects 
of  the  Lewis  and  Clark  exploring  expedition  of 
1804-06,  up  the  Missouri  and  down  the  Columbia 
to  the  Pacific,  was  to  open  to  Americans  a  new  fur- 
trade  route.  The  North  West  traders  were  found 
to  be  freely  trafficking  with  the  natives  of  the  up- 
per Mississippi,  of  the  Missouri  from  the  Mandan 
villages  to  the  Omaha,  and  of  the  vast  plains  stretch- 
ing to  the  Saskatchewan  on  the  north.  While 
American  enterprise  soon  practically  dispossessed 
foreigners  from  the  Missouri  itself,  the  "Nor' 
Westers"  for  several  years  thereafter  held  the 
northern  plains. 

This  was  the  situation  when  Astor's  new  company 
entered  the  field.  His  aim  was,  by  a  line  of  posts, 
to  hold  the  Missouri-Columbia  route  and  dominate 
the  trade  to  the  south  thereof,  as  well  as  to  com- 
pete on  the  Pacific  coast  with  the  Nor'  West's  com- 
mercial fleet.  For  this  latter  purpose  he  organized 
the  Pacific  Fur  Company,  in  which  Canadians  freely 
took  stock  and  employment. 

Through  the  agency  of  the  new  company  Astor 
now  dispatched  two  expeditions.  One,  leaving  Mon- 
treal in  September,  1810,  proceeded  by  sea,  around 
Cape  Horn,  to  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia.  The 
other,  under  Wilson  P.  Hunt  and  Ramsay  Crooks, 
two  of  his  most  noted  lieutenants,  departed  from 
Montreal  on  June  10,  1811,  and  journeyed  up  the 
Great  Lakes  to  Mackinac,  thence  over  the  Fox- 


BRITISH  INFLUENCE  CONTINUED        171 

Wisconsin  route  to  the  Mississippi,  then  up  the 
Missouri  and  overland  to  the  Columbia.  The  in- 
numerable hardships  of  the  two  cooperating  par- 
ties, their  final  meeting,  the  building  of  Astoria  at 
the  Columbia's  mouth,  and  the  subsequent  loss  of 
that  outpost  to  British  rivals,  as  a  result  of  the 
War  of  1812-15,  is  a  thrilling  story  made  familiar  in 
American  literature  through  Irving's  "  Astoria."  l 

The  sagacious  Tecumseh's  not  unnatural  revolt, 
in  1811,  against  American  trespassers  on  Indian 
lands  in  Indiana,  involved  many  isolated  bands  of 
Wisconsin  Indians,  chiefly  Chippewa,  Winnebago, 
Potawatomi,  Sauk,  and  Foxes.  Not  a  few  chiefs  of 
some  renown  among  our  forest  warriors  participated 
in  the  fateful  battle  of  Tippecanoe,  on  the  7th  of 
November.  Again  was  it  stoutly  believed  by  North- 
west settlers  that  Canadian  officers  had  egged  the 
natives  on,  and  armed  them,  but  this  charge  has 
never  been  substantiated.  The  fact  that  the  savages 
were  largely  using  English-made  arms  was  doubt- 
less due  to  the  enterprise  of  irresponsible  Canadian 
traders  who  were  freely  circulating  through  the  In- 
dian camps. 

The  American  government  had  adopted  a  weak 
and  vacillating  tone  towards  the  British,  who  un- 
doubtedly were  overbearing  in  many  ways.  A 

1  See  also  Franchere'a  Narrative  of  a  Voyage  to  the  Northwest 
Coast,  and  Ross's  Adventures  of  the  First  Settlers  on  the  Oregon,  in 
Thwaites,  Early  Western  Travels  (Cleveland,  1904-07),  vols.  vi 
and  vii  respectively. 


172  WISCONSIN 

variety  of  complications,  not  necessary  here  to  re- 
hearse, had  aroused  popular  clamor  on  our  side  of 
the  water  to  such  an  extent  that  war  was  inevitable. 
By  the  act  of  June  18,  1812,  hostilities  were  de- 
clared at  Washington.  A  month  later  Mackinac 
was  captured  by  the  enemy. 

In  Wisconsin  the  principal  event  of  the  War  of 
1812-15  was  a  rather  farcical  invasion  by  British 
troops.  General  William  Clark,  the  famous  ex- 
plorer, and  a  younger  brother  of  General  George 
Rogers  Clark,  was  at  that  time  governor  of  Mis- 
souri Territory,  and  as  such  military  commandant 
in  the  upper  valley  of  the  Mississippi.  Late  in  the 
autumn  of  1813  he  dispatched  to  Prairie  du  Chien, 
to  guard  the  western  approach  to  the  Fox- Wiscon- 
sin trade  route,  an  expedition  consisting  of  about 
a  hundred  and  fifty  regulars  and  militiamen,  com- 
manded by  Lieutenant  Joseph  Perkins.  Erecting 
a  stockade  here,  which  he  called  Fort  Shelby,  Per- 
kins divided  his  force  between  the  fort  and  the 
supposedly  bullet-proof  gunboat  that  had  trans- 
ported them  hither  from  St.  Louis.  The  garrison 
ashore  was  protected  by  six  pieces  of  cannon ;  the 
gunboat,  anchored  in  the  middle  of  the  Mississippi, 
opposite  the  stockade,  mounted  fourteen. 

The  village  of  Prairie  du  Chien  itself  was  di- 
vided in  interest.  The  majority  of  the  French 
traders  and  habitans,  while  cautious,  appeared  to 
be  pro-British  in  their  sympathies  —  young  Michel 
Brisbois  and  Joseph  Eolette  openly  so.  But  Nicho- 


BRITISH  INFLUENCE  CONTINUED        173 

las  Boilvin,  who  had  succeeded  Campbell  as  Ameri- 
can Indian  agent,  managed  to  secure  the  support 
of  many  of  his  neighbors,  red  and  white,  and  Was 
substantially  aided  by  Jacrot,  one  of  the  traders. 

Meanwhile,  Robert  Dickson,  a  prominent  Nor' 
West  trader  —  just  now  British  "agent  and  su- 
perintendent of  Western  nations,"  with  Chicago 
and  La  Baye  as  his  rendezvous  —  was  collecting 
throughout  the  winter  at  Garlic  Island,  in  Lake 
Winnebago,  a  considerable  body  of  Indians,  largely 
Winnebago,  with  the  view  of  aiding  a  proposed 
British  attack  on  Fort  Shelby  in  the  spring.  From 
his  camp  spies  were  frequently  dispatched  to 
Prairie  du  Chien,  Milwaukee,  and  the  Illinois 
country,  and  news  of  American  movements  was 
also  received  by  him  from  correspondents  in 
Mackinac  and  La  Baye.  By  the  middle  of  April 
Dickson  proceeded  with  his  followers  to  the  Fox- 
Wisconsin  portage,  and  began  the  task  of  massing 
at  that  rendezvous  still  another  body  of  Indian 
allies. 

At  La  Baye,  a  community  wholly  British  in  its 
sympathies,  as  might  be  expected,  Captain  James 
Pullman,  from  Fort  Mackinac,  was  busy  organiz- 
ing a  small  militia  company  among  the  habitans, 
his  lieutenants  being  the  traders  Louis  Grignon 
and  John  Lawe.  The  thirty  members  of  this  com- 
mand, chiefly  voyageurs  in  Grignon's  employ,  were 
classed  in  the  muster  as  "  almost  all  old  men  unfit 
for  service." 


174  WISCONSIN 

War  parties  depending  upon  Indian  allies  were 
always  laggard  in  their  movements.  It  was  June 
28  before  Colonel  Kobert  McDouall,  the  Mackinac 
commandant,  could  get  his  main  expedition  started 
from  the  island.  Under  the  leadership  of  Major 
William  McKay,  it  consisted  of  a  hundred  and 
thirty -six  Sioux  and  Winnebago ;  some  seventy- 
five  voyageurs  under  their  bourgeois,  Joseph  Ro- 
lette  of  Prairie  du  Chien  and  Thomas  G.  Anderson, 
both  commissioned  as  captains,  and  about  twenty 
of  the  Michigan  Fencibles  (hdbitan  militia),  under 
Pullman. 

In  six  days  the  flotilla  reached  La  Baye,  where 
the  party  were  joined  by  Grignon  and  Lawe's  raw 
recruits  and  a  hundred  savages.  At  the  Fox- 
Wisconsin  portage,  Dickson  and  his  Sioux,  Win- 
nebago, Menominee,  and  Chippewa  bands  joined 
them,  the  allied  forces  now  numbering  six  hundred 
and  fifty,  of  whom  all  but  a  hundred  and  twenty 
were  Indians,  who,  McKay  afterwards  reported, 
"  proved  to  be  perfectly  useless." 

Upon  July  17  McKay's  motley  crew  reached 
the  prairie,  to  find  the  expectant  Americans  appar- 
ently well  fortified.  The  outlook  seemed  dubious 
to  him ;  nevertheless  within  half  an  hour  of  his 
arrival  he  boldly  summoned  Perkins  to  "  surrender 
unconditionally,  otherwise  defend  yourself  to  the 
last  man."  The  American  promptly  replied  that 
he  accepted  the  latter  alternative. 

The  siege  began  at  once.  A  three-pounder  can- 


BRITISH  INFLUENCE  CONTINUED        175 

non,  which  McKay  had  brought  with  him  chiefly 
for  the  purpose  of  awing  his  savage  allies,  was  for 
three  hours  employed  in  firing  eighty-six  shot.  A 
skillful  artilleryman  was  in  charge,  and  two  thirds 
of  these  hit  the  gunboat  in  the  river,  which  replied 
vigorously ;  but,  pressed  too  closely,  the  vessel  finally 
ran  in  behind  an  island  and  then  escaped  down- 
stream. It  was  followed  by  French  and  Indians  in 
canoes,  who  pestered  the  fugitive  craft  as  far  as  the 
rapids  at  Rock  Island,  where  a  fortified  American 
keel-boat  was  met  coming  up-stream,  and  the  British 
allies  were  frightened  off. 

During  this  episode  the  Indian  camp  followers, 
bent  on  loot,  plundered  the  village  houses,  irre- 
spective of  the  sympathies  of  their  owners,  and 
kept  up  a  noisy  but  ineffectual  fire  on  the  fort.  A 
desultory  artillery  and  musketry  duel  was  main- 
tained throughout  the  18th  and  the  19th.  At  six 
in  the  evening  of  the  latter  day  McKay's  ammuni- 
tion was  running  short.  He  had  but  six  rounds 
left  for  his  three -pounder,  and  was  just  preparing 
to  send  these  into  the  fort  red-hot,  with  a  view  to 
setting  it  afire,  when  to  his  surprise  and  very  great 
relief  a  white  flag  was  run  up  on  the  stockade. 

Perkins  now  offered  to  surrender,  provided  the 
Indians  were  prevented  from  ill-treating  the  garri- 
son. McKay  stipulated  to  this  effect;  but  while  he 
was  successful  in  carrying  out  his  promise,  the  sav- 
ages were  so  eager  for  scalps  that  supplication, 
threats,  and  constant  vigilance  on  the  part  of  the 


176  WISCONSIN 

British  alone  saved  the  incident  from  culminating  in 
a  massacre.  The  Americans  had  lost  five  killed  and 
ten  wounded  on  board  the  boat,  and  three  wounded 
in  the  fort ;  the  allies  do  not  appear  to  have  suf- 
fered any  casualties.  A  large  stock  of  ammunition, 
provisions,  and  armaments  fell  into  the  hands  of 
the  captors  ;  but  so  difficult  was  it  to  safeguard  tlje 
prisoners  from  the  bloodthirsty  tribesmen,  that 
Perkins  and  his  men  were  given  back  their  arms 
and  sent  down  the  river  to  St.  Louis.  As  for  the 
stockade,  it  was  repaired,  and  rechristened  Fort 
McKay. 

McKay  had  intended,  after  ousting  the  Ameri- 
cans from  Prairie  du  Chien,  to  drop  down  the 
Mississippi  to  the  mouth  of  the  Illinois,  and  by 
ascending  that  stream  to  attack  the  American  fort 
at  Peoria.  The  Americans  were  so  strong  at  Rock 
Island,  however,  that  he  abandoned  this  project 
as  impracticable.  He  even  considered  his  posi- 
tion at  the  prairie  as  untenable.  An  attack  by  a 
fleet  of  American  gunboats  was  momentarily  ex- 
pected ;  but  it  never  came,  for  on  their  part  the 
authorities  at  Rock  Island  and  St.  Louis  had  re- 
ceived exaggerated  reports  concerning  the  strength 
of  the  invading  expedition,  and  would  not  make 
the  venture. 

On  the  10th  of  August  McKay  left  for  Macki- 
nac,  taking  with  him  some  of  the  Indians,  fur- 
trade  militia,  and  regulars,  and  leaving  Captain 
Anderson  in  command,  the  latter  being  afterwards 


BRITISH  INFLUENCE  CONTINUED        177 

relieved  by  Captain  Andrew  H.  Bulger  of  the 
regulars.  Upon  tihe  closing  day  of  December  Bul- 
ger proclaimed  martial  law  within  his  jurisdiction. 
This  action  was  occasioned  by  the  fickle  character 
of  the  French  along  the  Mississippi,  who  played 
fast  and  loose  with  him  according  to  varying  re- 
ports of  the  progress  of  the  war  ;  while  within  the 
fort  the  poor  commandant  was  worried  by  the  mu- 
tinous conduct  of  the  Fencibles,  who  grew  restive 
over  the  dull  round  of  garrison  duty.  The  resident 
French  traders  also  gave  Bulger  much  annoyance ; 
they  fretted  under  military  rule,  and  Rolette  in 
particular  was  out  of  favor  at  headquarters.  The 
winter  was  further  marked  at  Fort  McKay  by 
many  and  weary  councils  with  delegations  of  visit- 
ing Indians,  who  adopted  this  diplomatic  method 
of  preying  on  the  British  stores. 

Upon  the  24th  of  December  (1814),  at  Ghent, 
Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  signed  a 
treaty  of  peace.  The  news  did  not  reach  Bulger 
until  the  following  20th  of  May.  On  the  22d  he 
formally  announced  to  the  Indians,  amid  much 
ceremony,  the  terms  of  the  treaty,  and  the  follow- 
ing day  notified  Governor  Clark  of  his  acceptance 
of  the  situation.  The  latter  requested  the  captain 
to  await  the  arrival  from  St.  Louis  of  a  detach- 
ment of  troops  to  which  the  post  could  formally  be 
surrendered.  But  Bulger  understood  his  late  sav- 
age allies  well  enough  to  know  that  when  they  saw 
the  British  actually  turning  over  the  establishment 


178  WISCONSIN 

to  the  American  troops,  without  lifting  a  finger  to 
prevent  it,  the  former  would  be  dubbed  old  women 
and  cowards,  and  their  retreat  to  Mackinac  un- 
doubtedly be  marked  by  plunder  and  maltreat- 
ment. He  therefore  pulled  down  his  flag  on  the 
24th,  and  under  shelter  of  a  plausible  excuse  to  the 
Indians  beat  as  hasty  a  retreat  as  dignity  would 
allow.  At  Mackinac  he  turned  over  to  the  Ameri- 
can commandant  whatever  of  captured  arms  and 
stores  remained  in  his  possession  —  "  it  being  im- 
practicable to  send  them  to  Saint  Louis,"  and  has- 
tened on  to  Canada. 

Thus  ignominiously  ended  the  British  regime  in 
Wisconsin,  fifty -four  years  after  the  arrival  of  Gor- 
rell,  and  thirty-two  after  its  nominal  surrender  to 
the  United  States.  Henceforth  the  country  between 
Lake  Michigan  and  the  Mississippi  River  was 
American  territory  in  fact  as  well  as  in  name. 


CHAPTER    VIII 

AMERICAN   DOMINATION    ESTABLISHED 

WHILE  throughout  the  United  States  at  large 
the  result  of  the  War  of  1812-15  was  hailed  with 
rejoicing,  very  different  were  the  sentiments  aroused 
by  this  event  in  Wisconsin,  where  we  have  seen 
that  the  French  regime  was  still  practically  in 
vogue.  Bourgeois,  habitans,  and  half-breeds  had 
freely  been  employed  by  the  British,  who  fostered 
the  all-pervading  fur-trade,  and  had  at  last  learned 
to  be  liberal  and  indulgent  to  their  Indian  allies. 
The  British  departed  from  our  territory  with  re- 
gret, and  both  Creoles  and  aborigines  were  equally 
reluctant  to  witness  the  advent  of  the  "  Boston- 
nais"  into  their  beloved  land.  It  was  recognized 
that  Americans  were  quite  out  of  tune  with  the 
easy-going  methods  of  the  people  who  had  domi- 
nated Wisconsin  for  upwards  of  a  century  and  a 
half;  moreover,  the  newcomers  were  an  agricult- 
ural folk,  bent  on  fast  narrowing  the  limits  of  the 
hunting  grounds.  French  Canadians  felt  that  their 
interests  were  identical  with  those  of  the  savages, 
who  found  that  there  was  no  room  for  them  along- 
side the  Anglo-Saxon  settler ;  hence  we  find  in  the 
familiar  correspondence  of  the  time  a  bitter  tone 


180  WISCONSIN 

toward  the  victors,  who  were  regarded  as  intruders, 
and  covetous  disturbers  of  existing  commercial  and 
social  relations. 

Mackinac  and  its  dependencies  were  not  formally 
transferred  to  the  Americans  until  July  18,  1815.  * 
Soon  after  this  event,  Green  Bay  —  thenceforth 
"  La  Baye  "  was  but  a  reminiscent  term  among  the 
older  French  —  was  visited  by  its  first  American 
official  under  the  new  order  of  public  affairs, 
Colonel  John  Bowyer,  Indian  agent.  This  was  a 
fortunate  appointment.  A  short,  stout,  elderly  man, 
with  French  blood  in  his  veins,  he  had  a  pleasant 
yet  impressive  manner  that  quite  won  the  hearts 
of  his  people,  white  and  red.  At  about  the  same 
time  a  government  trading-post,  or  "  factory,"  — 
in  accordance  with  the  policy  of  Indian  manage- 
ment already  alluded  to,  —  was  opened  under  the 
charge  of  Major  Matthew  Irwin.  The  very  nature 
of  his  office,  however,  aroused  the  opposition  of 
this  old-time  fur-trading  community,  and  from  the 
first  he  was  in  ill  favor  with  the  people. 

A  year  later  (August  7,  1816),  government 
having  determined  to  safeguard  the  American  fur- 
trade  in  this  quarter,  four  vessels  arrived  in  port, 
bearing  Colonel  John  Miller  and  several  companies 
of  the  Third  Infantry.  They  at  once  erected  "  on 

1  When  Colonel  McDouall,  the  British  commandant  at 
Mackinac,  reluctantly  retired  from  that  Malta  of  the  Northwest, 
he  built  a  fort  on  Drummond  Island,  at  the  mouth  of  River  St. 
Mary's,  territory  soon  thereafter  found  to  belong  to  the  United 
States. 


AMERICAN   DOMINATION   ESTABLISHED    181 

the  west  of  Fox  River,  a  mile  from  its  mouth," 
Fort  Howard,  named  for  General  Benjamin  How- 
ard, commandant  of  the  West  during  the  war  just 
concluded,  who  had  died  at  St.  Louis  two  years  pre- 
vious. Blockhouses  of  logs,  bearing  small  cannon, 
guarded  the  angles  of  a  timber  stockade  thirty  feet 
in  height,  inclosing  barracks  and  officers'  quarters, 
while  some  additional  buildings  were  constructed 
just  without  the  walls. 

Green  Bay  was,  at  this  time,  described  as  an  at- 
tractive waterside  settlement,  containing  from  for- 
ty-five to  forty-eight  families,  all  of  them  avowedly 
British  subjects.  The  prosperous  fur-traders  who 
ruled  the  village  appeared  at  first  to  take  so  hos- 
tile an  attitude  toward  the  American  officials  that 
Irwin,  the  principal  object  of  dislike,  recommended 
their  expulsion.  This  drastic  course  was,  however, 
not  adopted,  for  the  traders  had  the  support  of 
their  powerful  employer,  the  American  Fur  Com- 
pany. The  pliant  Creoles  were  finally  allowed, 
doubtless  not  without  some  display  of  humor,  to 
take  oath  to  the  effect  that  their  aid  to  the  British 
during  the  recent  hostilities  had  been  but  a  neces- 
sary yielding  to  "  the  tyranny  and  caprice  of  the 
reigning  power  and  its  savage  allies."  Thus  aver- 
ring, they  were  tardily  converted  into  American 
citizens,  quite  without  reference  to  the  provisions 
of  Jay's  Treaty  of  twelve  years  before,  which  had 
been  annulled  by  war. 

Upon  June  21  of  the  same  year  (1816),  four 


182  WISCONSIN 

companies  of  riflemen,  under  Brigadier-General 
Thomas  A.  Smith,  landed  at  Prairie  du  Chien 
and  began  the  erection  of  a  post  on  the  site  of 
Fort  McKay.  This  stronghold,  also  consisting  of 
squared-log  blockhouses  connected  by  a  stockade, 
and  designed  to  accommodate  five  companies,  was 
called  Fort  Crawford,  in  honor  of  William  Harris 
Crawford,  then  federal  secretary  of  the  treasury. 
The  public  trading  house  in  connection  with  the 
outpost  was  in  charge  of  John  W.  Johnson  of 
Maryland.  During  the  first  three  years  the  mili- 
tary authorities  were  accused  of  undue  harshness 
to  British  sympathizers  in  the  district,  such  as 
Brisbois  and  Rolette,  and  there  was  much  friction. 
But  eventually  a  kindlier  spirit  prevailed,  as  Amer- 
icans and  Creoles  became  better  acquainted  with 
and  more  tolerant  of  each  others'  peculiarities. 
Astor's  agents,  many  of  them  having  large  exper- 
ience with  the  Canadian  French,  soon  obtained  a 
firm  foothold  throughout  Wisconsin  by  adopting 
the  complacent  methods  by  which  Nor'  Westers 
had  won  the  hearts  of  these  mercurial  people. 

In  a  council  at  St.  Louis,  upon  November  3, 
1804,  the  Sank  and  Fox  tribes  ceded  to  the  United 
States,  for  the  paltry  annuity  of  a  thousand  dol- 
lars, fifty  million  acres  of  land,  comprising  in  gen- 
eral terms  the  eastern  third  of  the  present  State  of 
Missouri,  and  the  territory  lying  between  Wiscon- 
sin River  on  the  north,  Fox  River  of  the  Illinois 
on  the  east,  Illinois  River  on  the  southeast,  and 


AMERICAN  DOMINATION  ESTABLISHED    183 

Mississippi  River  on  the  west.  This  enormous 
tract  contained  not  only  the  rich  lead-mining  dis- 
trict to  which  allusion  has  already  been  made,  but 
some  of  the  most  fertile  soil  in  the  Middle  West. 
In  the  succeeding  chapter  we  shall  find  that  a 
clause  in  this  treaty,  allowing  the  savages  to  remain 
upon  the  land  until  it  was  disposed  of  to  individual 
settlers,  gave  excuse  for  the  Sauk  uprising  of  1832, 
known  as  the  Black  Hawk  War. 

Owing  to  the  alliance  of  the  savages  with  Eng- 
land during  the  late  war,  this  cession  of  1804  was, 
upon  May  13,  1816,  formally  "recognized,  estab- 
lished, and  confirmed"  by  the  Sauk  and  Foxes. 
But  the  Ottawa,  Chippewa,  and  Potawatomi,  who 
were  present  at  the  series  of  peace  councils  being 
held  during  that  summer  at  St.  Louis,  stoutly  con- 
tended that  their  own  rights  within  this  huge  grant 
had  been  ignored  by  the  Sauk  and  Foxes.  To  end 
this  contention,  a  treaty  was  concluded  with  the 
objectors  on  August  24,  by  which,  on  consideration 
of  a  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  goods,  they  relin- 
quished their  claims  to  so  much  of  the  tract  as  lay 
"  south  of  a  due  west  line  from  the  southern  ex- 
tremity of  Lake  Michigan  to  the  Mississippi  River," 
—  substantially,  the  Illinois  section  ;  and  to  them 
was  ceded  outright  by  the  United  States  "  all  the 
land  contained  in  the  aforesaid  cession  of  the  Sacs 
and  Foxes  which  lies  north  of  "  said  line,  —  includ- 
ing that  lying  in  the  present  Wisconsin.  There 
was,  however,  exempted  for  the  federal  government 


184  WISCONSIN 

a  lead-mine  reservation  eight  leagues  square,  "  on 
or  near  to  the  Ouisconsin  and  Mississippi  rivers." 
The  Sauk  and  Foxes,  still  a  proud  and  highly  sen- 
sitive people,  quite  naturally  objected  to  this  cava- 
lier treatment,  which  left  them  without  authority 
for  even  a  temporary  abiding-place  east  of  the 
Mississippi,  save  so  far  as  they  might  find  one 
within  this  mining  reservation.  Under  these  sev- 
eral conventions  all  prisoners  were  mutually  given 
up,  the  tribes  being  placed  on  the  same  footing  with 
the  federal  government  that  they  occupied  before 
the  war. 

At  the  Wisconsin  Creole  settlements  of  Green 
Bay  and  Prairie  du  Chien,  the  presence  of  Ameri- 
can troops  brought  added  interest  to  life.  The  for- 
mer, in  particular,  was  a  typical  frontier  garrison 
town,  with  the  especial  distinction  that  in  the  main 
the  military  and  civil  officials  were  in  race  and 
temperament  far  removed  from  the  people  they 
ruled.  Indeed,  although  courtesies  came  soon  to  be 
exchanged  between  townsmen  and  soldiery,  several 
years  were  to  elapse  before  a  spirit  of  true  cama- 
raderie prevailed  between  the  inhabitants  and  the 
little  army  of  occupation. 

During  the  period  of  navigation  there  was,  as  in 
the  French  and  British  regimes,  frequent  business, 
social,  and  official  communication  with  Mackinac, 
the  principal  entrepot  of  the  fur-trade  and  military 
headquarters  for  the  upper  lakes.  Long  bateaux 
propelled  by  soldiers  and  voyageurs  would,  in  fine 


AMERICAN   DOMINATION   ESTABLISHED     185 

weather,  make  the  distance  of  two  hundred  and 
forty  miles  in  five  days ;  but  if  storms  arose,  neces- 
sitating delays  in  camp  to  await  calm  water,  six 
and  even  seven  might  be  occupied  in  the  voyage. 
Such  expeditions  were  usually  occasions  of  much 
jollity,  of  which  interesting  contemporary  descrip- 
tions have  been  preserved  for  us.1  Somewhat  simi- 
lar boat  trips  were  not  infrequent  over  the  Fox- 
Wisconsin  route  between  Prairie  du  Chien  and 
Green  Bay,  consequent  upon  exchanges  of  officers 
or  garrisons,  or  in  the  conduct  of  the  fur-trade. 

But  for  nearly  six  months  in  the  year  Green  Bay 
was  ice-bound  and  almost  isolated  :  wholly  so  from 
Mackinac,  and  only  connected  with  Prairie  du 
Chien,  Chicago,  and  other  southern  outposts  by 
overland  Indian  trails  winding  deviously  through 
dense  forests,  across  wind-swept  prairies,  or  fol- 
lowing closely  the  banks  and  beaches  of  rivers  and 
lakes.  The  pedestrian  mail  carrier,  —  either  alone 
or  with  an  Indian  companion,  —  limited  to  a  bur- 
den of  sixty  pounds,  would  occupy  a  month  in 
making  the  round  trip  between  Green  Bay  and 
Chicago,  and  the  hardships  and  dangers  exper- 
ienced on  the  way  were  such  as  none  but  men  of 
the  toughest  fibre  could  endure.2  The  Eastern  mail 

1  See  Mrs.  H.  S.  Baird,  "  Early  Days  on  Mackinac  Island,"  in 
Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  vol.  xiv. 

2  The  "  Narrative  of  Alexis  Clermont,"  in  Wis'.  Hist.  Colls.,  vol. 
xv,  although  of  a  somewhat  later  period,  presents  a  close  picture 
of  a  wilderness  mail  carrier's  experience  any  time  after  the  estab- 
lishment of  Fort  Howard. 


186  WISCONSIN 

came  from  Detroit  but  twice  a  year,  being  brought 
by  a  soldier,  whose  long  and  weary  overland  route 
was  by  way  of  Chicago,  around  the  southern  bend 
of  Lake  Michigan. 

The  country  lying  between  Lake  Michigan  and 
the  Mississippi  River  had  under  the  French  and 
English  been  fairly  free  from  disorders.  But  with 
the  coming  of  the  Americans,  adventurers  and 
social  outcasts  began  slowly  to  appear  in  the  dis- 
trict, with  the  inevitable  train  of  violence.  Mur- 
ders of  whites  by  Indians  came  now  occasionally  to 
be  reported ;  and  among  the  enlisted  men  were  not 
a  few  desperate  characters,  who  required  the  exer- 
cise by  their  officers  of  severe  measures  of  repres- 
sion and  punishment. 

But  apparently  the  most  serious  task  before  the 
gay  and  often  very  young  garrison  officials  of  Fort 
Howard  was  the  devising  of  ways  and  means  to 
beguile  the  tedium  of  their  lives,  especially  dur- 
ing the  severe  and  protracted  winters.  Breakfasts, 
dinners,  balls,  and  sledging  parties  were  functions 
frequently  mentioned  in  the  social  correspondence 
of  those  days.  Among  the  better  class  of  French 
were  several  young  women,  the  reputation  of  whose 
beauty  and  talent  —  the  fur-traders  of  early  Wis- 
consin not  infrequently  educated  their  children  at 
Montreal l  —  has  come  down  to  us  in  the  annals  of 

1  In  1791  Jacques  Porlier  was  established  as  a  tutor  in  the 
family  of  Pierre  Grignon  ;  but  it  was  not  until  1817  that  a  regu- 
lar school  was  opened  in  Green  Bay  — the  first  by  M.  and  Mme. 


AMERICAN   DOMINATION  ESTABLISHED    187 

the  picturesque  old  town.  The  American  families, 
both  official  and  professional, —  for  representatives 
of  the  bar,  of  medicine,  and  of  the  Church  came 
soon  upon  the  scene,  —  were  not  behind  them  in 
social  graces. 

The  blanketed  Indian  was  ever  present,  either 
lounging  about  the  fur-trade  warehouses  or  acting 
as  domestic  servant.  In  the  veins  of  perhaps  most 
of  the  Creoles  of  that  day,  high  and  low,  coursed 
more  or  less  aboriginal  blood,  which  brought  no 
stigma.  Social  distinctions  were  still  sharply 
drawn,  however,  between  the  well-to-do  bourgeois, 
who  maintained  a  retinue  of  clerks  and  voyageurs, 
and  the  humble  habitan,  placidly  cultivating  his 
narrow  field  abutting  on  the  riverside. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  in  such  a  varied  society, 
at  that  period,  and  under  these  picturesque  condi- 
tions, the  spirit  of  romance  held  high  sway ;  or 
that  when  men  and  women  of  the  early  day  came, 
in  more  prosaic  times,  to  write  their  memoirs  of 
primitive  Green  Bay,  they  invariably  dwelt  most 
fondly  upon  the  decades  immediately  following  the 
advent  of  American  domination. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  in  1800  the  territory 
now  embraced  in  the  State  of  Wisconsin  became  a 
part  of  Indiana  Territory.  Nine  years  later  Indi- 

Carron,  who  served  but  temporarily.  Later  in  the  year  an  English 
school  was  taught  by  Thomas  S.  Johnson  of  New  York,  who  ex- 
perienced much  annoyance  at  the  friction  between  American  and 
Creole  children. 


188  WISCONSIN 

ana  was  reduced  to  the  present  limits  of  that  state, 
all  that  had  been  lopped  from  her  domain  being 
set  off  as  Illinois  Territory.  After  another  nine 
years  (1818),  the  State  of  Illinois  was  created  with 
its  existing  boundaries,  and  all  of  the  old  North- 
west Territory  not  included  in  Illinois,  lying  west- 
ward of  Lake  Michigan,  was  added  to  Michigan 
Territory.  In  this  manner  the  future  Wisconsin 
became  a  part  of  Michigan,  whose  governor  at  the 
time  was  Lewis  Cass,  a  man  of  unusual  mental 
breadth  and  insight. 

By  act  of  the  Michigan  territorial  legislature, 
approved  October  26,  1818,  there  were  estab- 
lished west  of  Lake  Michigan  three  counties,  which 
included  all  or  part  of  the  •  present  Wisconsin : 
Brown,  being  substantially  the  eastern  half  of  the 
present  state,  with  Green  Bay  as  its  county  seat ; 
Crawford,  embracing  the  greater  part  of  the  west- 
ern half,  with  its  seat  at  Prairie  du  Chien ;  and 
Michillimackinac,  which  included  a  part  of  north- 
ern Wisconsin  and  practically  the  present  upper 
peninsula  of  Michigan,  and  stretched  from  Lake 
Huron  to  the  Mississippi,  with  its  seat  "  at  the 
Borough  of  Michillimackinac."  The  following  day 
Governor  Cass  appointed  officials  to  carry  on  a 
civil  government  within  Brown  and  Crawford 
counties.  As  elsewhere  in  Michigan,  each  county 
was  given  a  court  of  quarter  sessions,  consisting  of 
a  chief  justice  and  two  associates,  who  were  judge 
of  probate  and  justice  of  the  peace  respectively. 


AMERICAN  DOMINATION  ESTABLISHED    189 

The  amusing,  nevertheless  popular,  Reaume  was 
for  a  time  one  of  the  associates  in  Brown  County, 
still  serving  in  the  last-mentioned  capacity.  There 
were  also  a  court  commissioner,  a  clerk,  and  a 
sheriff.  Many  years  passed  before  trained  lawyers 
were  appointed  to  judicial  positions,  it  being  con- 
sidered sufficient  that  such  officials  be  men  of 
standing  in  the  community ;  the  wise  policy  of  se- 
lecting for  many  of  the  local  offices  Frenchmen, 
who  understood  the  people,  was  followed  from  the 
beginning. 

During  the  first  two  years  justice  was  adminis- 
tered under  the  old  French  law,  the  coutume  de 
Paris,  which  had  been  guaranteed  to  the  people  of 
the  old  Province  of  Quebec  under  the  Quebec  Act 
of  1774.  Substantially,  this  was  the  system  which 
Reaume  had  sought  to  enforce,  so  far  as  his  limited 
stock  of  legal  learning  enabled  him  ;  when  neces- 
sary this  was  supplemented  by  martial  law,  admin- 
istered by  the  British  and  American  garrisons  suc- 
cessively. In  1821,  however,  Michigan  Territory 
introduced  its  own  code,  a  radical  change  which  at 
first  wrought  considerable  confusion  and  no  little 
amusement,  particularly  at  Green  Bay,  where  the 
then  chief  justice  was  Jacques  Porlier,  who,  while 
able  to  read  English,  could  not  speak  it. 

In  January,  1823,  Congress  established  a  cir- 
cuit court  for  the  three  counties,  a  term  of  which 
was  to  be  held  in  each  county  during  the  year. 
Heretofore,  cases  of  capital  crime  or  civil  cases 


190  WISCONSIN 

involving  over  a  thousand  dollars,  as  well  as  writs 
of  error,  mandamus,  etc.,  had  necessarily  to  be 
tried  before  the  supreme  court  of  the  Territory  at 
Detroit,  which  involved  long  and  costly  journeys. 
The  new  court  had  concurrent  civil  and  criminal 
jurisdiction  with  the  supreme  bench,  but  most 
cases  might  still,  by  writ  of  error,  be  carried  up 
to  Detroit.  The  first  session  of  the  circuit  court 
was  opened  at  Mackinac  in  July,  under  the  ad- 
ministration of  James  Duane  Doty,  a  young  man 
twenty-three  years,  of  age,  who  in  February  pre- 
ceding had  been  appointed  "  additional  j  udge  of 
the  United  States  for  the  Michigan  Territory,"  his 
district  extending  between  the  Straits  of  Mackinac 
and  the  sources  of  the  Mississippi.  In  later  years 
Doty,  who  possessed  talent  and  unusual  dignity, 
became  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  political  leaders 
in  Wisconsin  Territory. 

Green  Bay  was  first  visited  by  the  court  in  Oc- 
tober, 1824.  The  prosecuting  attorney  was  Henry 
S.  Baird  of  that  settlement,  a  young  Irishman  who 
was  the  first  to  practice  law  west  of  Lake  Michi- 
gan, and  soon  rose  to  prominence  in  the  new  coun- 
try. If  not  the  most  important,  certainly  the  most 
interesting  business  coming  before  the  court  at 
this  time  was  the  attempted  regulation  of  mar- 
riages between  French  and  Indians.  Heretofore, 
these  had  usually  been  common-law  unions;  but 
now  no  less  than  thirty-six  offenders  were  form- 
ally indicted  and  notified  that  they  must  be  married 


AMERICAN  DOMINATION  ESTABLISHED    191 

according  to  either  civil  or  church  law,  or  stand 
trial  for  punishment.  This  action  of  the  new  bench, 
in  declaring  mutual-consent  marriages  invalid,  and 
their  offspring  illegitimate,  aroused  fierce  indigna- 
tion among  the  Creoles,  and  gave  rise  to  protracted 
litigation  in  the  courts  of  Wisconsin.  Later  deci- 
sions generally  upheld  the  common-law  agreements 
of  the  old  regime. 

American  occupation  was  disturbing  to  the  Cre- 
oles in  another  particular.  Heretofore,  Indian  title 
having  been  acquired  by  them  through  either  con- 
sent or  purchase  at  an  early  day,  the  settlers  at 
Green  Bay  and  Prairie  du  Chien  occupied  their 
fields  "  much  in  the  manner  of  an  Indian  village, 
the  lands  being  alternately  in  common,  and  im- 
proved in  detached  parts  as  each  should  please, 
and  this  by  the  common  consent  of  the  villagers." 
As  a  rule  the  holdings  were,  as  upon  the  lower 
St.  Lawrence  and  elsewhere  in  New  France,  nar- 
row strips  running  far  back  from  the  river,  which 
was  the  common  highway.  This  system  of  partition 
brought  the  houses  of  the  habitans  close  together 
upon  the  waterside,  for  purposes  of  sociability  as 
well  as  for  common  access  to  the  one  avenue  of 
intercommunication. 

Exact  boundaries  were  of  small  account  in  these 
primitive  French-Canadian  villages,  and  Wisconsin 
Creoles  had  characteristically  failed  to  obtain  de- 
finite title  to  their  plots.  But  now  a  business-like 
people  had  come  into  possession  of  the  country; 


192  WISCONSIN 

settlers  were  arriving,  who  sought  absolute  loca- 
tions, and  the  federal  government  determined  to 
ascertain  and  record  the  limits  of  the  old  French 
claims.  No  other  method  appearing,  it  was  decided 
to  accept  as  proof  of  title  undisputed  evidence  of 
"  individual  and  exclusive  "  occupancy  by  present 
claimants  "between  the  1st  day  of  July,  1796,  and 
the  3d  day  of  March,  1807."  ' 

A  commission  was  therefore  established  in  the 
summer  of  1820,  with  headquarters  at  Detroit,  and 
Isaac  Lee,  a  surveyor,  appointed  agent  for  the 
taking  of  testimony.2  Reaching  Green  Bay  on 
August  24,  Lee  created  considerable  commotion 
by  announcing  his  purpose,  and  bidding  the  people 
prepare  their  testimony  against  his  return  from 
Prairie  du  Chien,  at  which  place  he  arrived  Octo- 
ber 2.  Twenty-two  days  sufficed  for  discovering 
which  of  the  Prairie  du  Chien  claimants  were,  under 
the  rules  of  the  commission,  entitled  to  their  houses 
and  fields.  The  Prairie  had  suffered  much,  he 

1  In  opening  the  first  circuit  court  at  Mackinac,  in  July,  1823, 
Judge  Doty  stated  at  length  the  qualifications  of  grand  jurors,  in 
the  course  of  which  he  defined  freeholders  to  be  all  "  Those  per- 
sons who  were  in  the  possession  of  land  in  the  Michigan  Territory 
in  the  year  1796,  at  the  time  of  the  surrender  of  the  Posts  in  this 
country.  ...  It  is  understood  to  have  been  the  intention  of  the 
Treaty,  to  secure  to  these  people  such  quantities  or  tracts  of  land 
as  they  occupied  and  cultivated  at  that  time,  and  to  give  them  a 
freehold  estate  therein."  —  Doty's  MS.  Docket  Book,  in  Wiscon- 
sin Historical  Library. 

2  See  reports  and  testimony  in  detail,  in  American  State  Papers  : 
Public  Lands,  vol.  iv,  pp.  851-879. 


AMERICAN   DOMINATION   ESTABLISHED    193 

found,  from  the  lawlessness  of  bodies  of  American 
troops  who  from  time  to  time  had  been  stationed 
there,  and  who  had  occasionally  and  somewhat 
capriciously  evicted  many  of  the  inhabitants.  Con- 
cerning these,  Lee  declared  that  "  docility,  habitual 
hospitality,  cheerful  submission  to  the  requisitions 
of  any  Government  which  may  be  set  over  them, 
are  their  universal  characteristics." 

The  agent  thereupon  hurried  back  to  the  same 
task  at  Green  Bay,  where,  however,  he  found  him- 
self ice-bound  for  the  winter.  This  experience  had 
the  advantage  of  bettering  his  acquaintance  with 
the  simple,  kindly  folk  of  that  quarter,  and  enlist- 
ing in  their  behalf  his  most  cordial  sympathy. 
Several  claims  had  necessarily  to  be  set  aside  be- 
cause proof  of  continuous  occupancy  as  far  back 
as  1796  was  lacking;  but  throughout  the  report 
it  is  plainly  to  be  seen  that  both  agent  and  com- 
missioners were  impressed  with  the  possibility  of 
injustice  even  to  those  whom  they  felt  compelled 
to  deny.  Not  a  little  litigation  ensued,  and  it  was 
several  years  before  the  burning  question  of  French 
claims  in  Wisconsin  became  merely  a  matter  of 
history. 

At  this  period,  the  Chippewa  occupied  the  north- 
ern third  of  the  present  Wisconsin,  with  about  six 
hundred  hunters,  whose  trade  was  chiefly  reached 
from  Lake  Superior  by  the  Ontonagon,  Montreal, 
Bad,  and  Bois  Brule*  rivers.  Such  of  the  Sioux  as 
were  visited  by  Wisconsin  traders  from  Prairie  du 


194  WISCONSIN 

Chien  were  located  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi, and  toward  its  source,  but  frequently 
ranged  into  Wisconsin  as  far  as  the  falls  of  the 
Black,  Red  Cedar,  and  St.  Croix.  The  Sauk  and 
Foxes  were  to  be  found  for  the  most  part  in  the 
lead  district.  The  Menominee,  with  four  hundred 
hunters,  were  on  the  Fox  and  generally  through- 
out northeastern  Wisconsin,  Black  River  being 
their  western  boundary,  while  the  country  of  the 
Chippewa  penned  them  in  upon  the  north ;  Green 
Bay  was  their  chief  entrepot.  Milwaukee  was  the 
most  important  rendezvous  of  the  Potawatomi, 
who  extended  along  the  entire  west  shore  of  Lake 
Michigan  and  numbered  two  hundred  hunters. 
The  Winnebago  sought  peltries  around  Lake  Win- 
nebago,  up  the  Fox  River  to  its  source,  on  the 
Wisconsin  up  to  Stevens  Point,  about  the  head- 
waters of  Rock  River,  in  the  region  of  the  Madi- 
son lakes,  and  northwest  to  Black  River,  where 
they  often  overlapped  the  Menominee  grounds; 
there  were  also  a  few  of  them  on  the  Mississippi, 
above  the  mouth  of  the  Wisconsin. 

Until  about  1830  the  fur-traffic  with  these  several 
tribes  continued  to  be  the  dominating  commercial 
interest  in  Wisconsin.  The  American  Fur  Com- 
pany, now  in  full  control  of  this  section,  had  intro- 
duced many  improvements ;  but  although  officered 
by  some  of  the  most  acute  business  men  of  their 
generation,  they  were  to  the  last  obliged  to  accom- 
modate themselves  to  the  easy-going  methods  of 


AMERICAN   DOMINATION   ESTABLISHED    195 

the  Creole  and  mixed-blood  employees,  who  were 
essential  intermediaries  in  dealing  with  the  abo- 
rigines. 

Mackiuac  remained  the  chief  entrepot,  but  im- 
portant warehouse  agencies  were  maintained  at 
Green  Bay,  La  Pointe,  and  Prairie  du  Chien. 
These  were  generally  in  the  hands  of  semi-independ- 
ent traders,  like  Porlier  and  Grignon  at  Green  Bay, 
and  Rolette  at  the  Prairie,  whose  operations  were 
widespread.  Their  ultimate  profits,  however,  were 
slight,  for  Astor's  establishment  contrived  through 
its  fixed  charges  and  percentages  to  absorb  the  lion's 
share.  Subsidiary  trading-posts  —  either  wintering 
places  or  still  smaller  "jackknife"  fur-gathering 
stations  —  were  to  be  found,  about  the  year  1820, 
on  the  Menominee,  Peshtigo,  Oconto,  and  Wolf 
rivers,  on  Lakes  Flambeau,  Chetac,  Court  Oreilles, 
Nemakagon,  and  Tomahawk,  and  at  many  other 
important  native  rendezvous,  such  as  Oshkosh, 
Milwaukee,  Sheboygan,  Manitowoc,  Two  Rivers, 
and  Portage.  Indeed,  very  many  of  the  present-day 
cities  and  villages  of  the  state  owe  their  origin,  first 
to  old  Indian  camps  upon  their  sites,  next  to  the 
fur-traders  (French,  British,  or  American)  who 
assembled  thereat,  and  finally  to  the  agricultural 
settlers  or  to  the  pioneer  ferrymen  or  tavern-keep- 
ers who,  in  the  initial  days  of  Americanization, 
established  themselves  in  the  neighborhood  of  these 
little  commercial  centres. 

In  their  primitive  condition  the  tribesmen  labor- 


196  WISCONSIN 

iously  made  for  themselves  clothing,  ornaments, 
weapons,  implements,  and  utensils.  Their  food  was 
in  large  measure  obtained  by  hunting,  fishing,  and 
rudely  cultivating  the  soil,  although  at  times  they 
were  forced  to  resort  to  the  usually  plentiful  sup- 
ply of  fruits,  nuts,  and  edible  roots.  Indian  corn 
(maize)  was  the  principal  crop ;  but  they  also 
raised  beans,  pumpkins,  watermelons,  and  sun- 
flower seeds  —  and  in  some  states  (but  not  ours), 
tobacco  and  sweet  potatoes.  In  Wisconsin  the 
marshes  furnished  large  crops  of  wild  rice  (or  oats), 
which  when  boiled  or  parched  made  an  excellent 
substitute  for  maize. 

The  introduction  of  the  fur-trade  by  Europeans 
wrought  a  serious  change  in  the  life  and  manners 
of  the  Indians.  They  were  induced  to  abandon 
much  of  their  agriculture  and  most  of  their  useful 
village  arts.  Becoming  hunters,  they  thus  took  a 
backward  step  in  the  long  and  painful  road  toward 
civilization.  Heretofore  they  had  needed  furs  only 
for  raiment,  sleeping  mats,  and  tepee  coverings ; 
now,  peltries  were  eagerly  sought  by  the  stranger, 
who  would  exchange  for  them  weapons,  cloth,  iron 
kettles  and  tools,  ornaments,  and  other  marvelous 
objects  of  European  manufacture,  generally  far 
better  and  more  efficient  than  those  which  they  had 
been  wont  to  fashion  for  themselves. 

Thus  the  Indians  soon  lost  the  arts  of  making 
clothing  out  of  skins,  kettles  from  clay,  weapons 
from  stone  and  copper,  and  beads  (used  for  both 


AMERICAN   DOMINATION   ESTABLISHED     197 

ornament  and  currency)  from  clam-shells.  They 
were  not  slow  to  discover  that  when  they  hunted, 
their  labor  was  far  more  productive  than  of  old. 
Comparatively  slight  effort  on  their  part  now  en- 
abled them  to  purchase  from  the  white  traders 
whatever  they  desired.  Moreover,  the  latter 
brought  intoxicating  liquors,  heretofore  unknown 
to  our  savages,  but  for  which  they  soon  acquired 
an  inordinate  greed,  of  which  advantage  was  taken 
by  charging  prices  therefor  that  brought  enormous 
profits  to  the  dealers.  Aside  from  this  new  vice, 
the  general  result  was  disastrous  to  the  improvi- 
dent aborigines,  for  in  considerable  measure  they 
ceased  to  be  self-supporting.  They  soon  came  to 
depend  on  the  fur-traders  for  most  of  the  essentials 
of  life  ;  and  so  general  was  the  credit  system  among 
them,  the  summer's  supplies  being  bought  on  the 
strength  of  the  following  winter's  hunt,  that  tribes- 
men were  practically  always  heavily  in  debt  to  the 
traders,  which  rendered  it  advisable  for  them  to 
stand  by  their  creditors  whenever  two  rival  nations 
were  contesting  the  field.  In  the  end,  these  con- 
ditions materially  assisted  in  the  undoing  of  the 
Indian. 

The  goods  used  in  the  forest  traffic  of  the  Ameri- 
can Fur  Company  were  of  much  the  same  character 
as  those  brought  into  the  wilderness  by  the  earliest 
French  —  coarse  cloths,  blankets,  and  shawls  of 
brilliant  hues,  cheap  jewelry,  beads  of  many  colors 
and  sizes,  ribbons  and  garterings,  gay  handker- 


198  WISCONSIN 

chiefs,  sleigh  and  hawk's  bells,  jews'-harps,  hand 
mirrors,  combs,  hatchets,  scalping  knives,  scissors, 
kettles,  hoes,  firearms  and  gunpowder,  tobacco, 
pitch  for  mending  bark  canoes,  and  the  ever-present 
intoxicant ;  which  latter  masqueraded  under  many 
euphemisms,  ranging  in  degree  between  "fire- 
water" and  "the  white  father's  milk."  Brought 
to  Mackinac,  at  first  by  canoes  and  bateaux  and 
later  by  sailing  vessels,  —  after  1821,  by  occasional 
steamers,  —  the  cargoes  were  there  divided  and  dis- 
tributed to  the  several  larger  agencies,  whence  the 
bales  ultimately  found  their  way  to  the  farthest 
trading  "  shanties."  It  is  estimated  that  "  in  1820 
between  $60,000  and  $75,000  worth  of  goods  was 
brought  annually  to  Wisconsin  for  the  Indian 
trade." l  This  doubtless  was  the  heyday  of  the 
traffic,  which  thenceforth,  as  American  agricultural 
settlement  slowly  developed,  and  lead-mining  came 
to  be  an  important  industry,  began  gradually  to 
dwindle,  both  actually  and  relatively. 

1  F.  J.  Turner,  "  The  Indian  Trade  in  Wisconsin,"  in  Johns 
Hopkins  University  Studies,  vol.  ix,  p.  606. 


CHAPTER  IX 

LEAD-MINING    AND    INDIAN    WARS 

IT  will  be  remembered  that  in  1804  the  Sauk 
and  Fox  claimants  of  the  large  lead-bearing  region 
in  Illinois,  Wisconsin,  and  Missouri  ceded  that 
tract  to  the  United  States  ;  but  by  a  clause  in  the 
treaty  they  were  permitted  to  occupy  their  old 
camping-places  until  such  time  as  the  land  was  dis- 
posed of  by  the  federal  government  to  actual  set- 
tlers. Although  this  sale  was  in  1816  confirmed  by 
these  two  tribes,  the  Chippewa,  Ottawa,  and  Pota- 
watomi  now  advanced  a  claim  to  joint  ownership 
with  them  in  the  grant.  To  the  three  protestants 
was  thereupon  ceded  by  the  United  States  —  quite 
ignoring  the  Sauk  and  Foxes  —  all  that  portion 
lying  north  of  the  latitude  of  the  southernmost  bend 
of  Lake  Michigan,  with  the  exception  of  a  large 
lead-mine  reservation  abutting  on  the  Wisconsin 
and  Mississippi  rivers. 

We  have  also  seen  that  French,  Spanish,  and 
British  miners,  chiefly  connected  with  the  fur-trade, 
had  in  turn  taken  much  ore  from  the  country. 
Americans,  as  well,  conducted  desultory  operations 
within  the  district  during  the  Revolutionary  War, 
and  thereafter.  Indeed,  access  to  the  lead  mines 


200  WISCONSIN 

was  from  the  earliest  times  of  the  white  conquest 
eagerly  sought,  for  neither  military  nor  fur-hunt- 
ing enterprises  could  exist  without  material  for 
bullets. 

In  1809  the  first  shot  tower  in  the  region  was 
erected  at  Herculaneum,  Missouri.  Two  years  fol- 
lowing, Indian  Agent  Boilvin,  at  Prairie  du  Chien, 
reported  that  thrifty  Sauk  and  Fox  Indians  on  the 
east  side  of  the  Mississippi  Kiver,  below  that  ham- 
let, and  Iowa  tribesmen  on  the  west  side,  had 
"  mostly  abandoned  the  chase,  except  to  furnish 
themselves  with  meat,  and  turned  their  attention 
to  the  manufacture  of  lead."  In  1810  they  had  in 
their  rude  furnaces  smelted  400,000  pounds  of 
metal,  which  they  exchanged  for  goods,  partly  with 
venturesome  Americans,  but  mostly  with  Canadian 
traders,  who  were  continually  inciting  them  to  op- 
position against  the  former.  He  suggests  that  the 
federal  government  would  be  wise  to  introduce 
among  them  a  blacksmith  and  civilized  tools,  and 
thereby  counteract  Canadian  influence.  A  few 
years  later  a  St.  Louis  lead-dealer  bought  at  one 
time  from  Indians  in  the  district  around  the  pre- 
sent Galena,  Illinois,  seventy  tons  of  metal.  As  for 
ousting  the  Canadians,  this  long  proved  impossible. 
Up  to  1819,  several  American  traders  who  had 
sought  to  compete  with  them  among  the  Sauk  and 
Fox  miners,  paid  the  penalty  of  their  lives.  It  was 
believed  by  the  Indians,  and  in  this  opinion  they  were 
amply  justified  by  events,  that  if  American  cupid- 


LEAD-MINING  AND   INDIAN  WARS       201 

ity  were  aroused  by  the  richness  of  the  deposit,  the 
latter  would,  under  the  treaty  of  1804,  promptly 
attempt  to  dispossess  the  natives. 

By  1819,  American  control  over  the  trans-Lake 
Michigan  country  had  become  firmly  established. 
Thenceforth  we  hear  little  of  the  Canadian  traders, 
and  American  miners  were  now  freely  operating 
in  the  lead  district,  independently  or  in  conjunction 
with  Indians.  In  June  and  July  of  that  year,  Major 
Thomas  Forsyth,  Indian  agent  for  the  Sauk  and 
Foxes,  made  a  voyage  from  St.  Louis  to  the  Falls 
of  St.  Anthony,  and  reported  upon  "  the  num- 
ber, situation,  and  quality  of  all  lead  mines  be- 
tween Apple  Creek  and  Prairie  du  Chien."  Con- 
tractors for  army  and  Indian  supplies  were  at  this 
time  frequently  passing  the  mines,  on  their  way  be- 
tween St.  Louis  and  Prairie  du  Chien,  and  Green 
Bay  and  Mississippi  points,  and  both  Indian  and 
white  miners  found  ready  customers  for  their 
lead. 

Leases  of  lead  lands  in  Missouri  had  been  granted 
by  the  federal  government  as  early  as  1807,  but 
until  1822  mining  in  Wisconsin  and  Illinois  was 
intermittent,  individual,  and  without  system.  In 
the  latter  year  a  thrifty  Kentuckian,  Colonel  James 
Johnson,  secured  a  lease  of  a  part  of  the  present 
site  of  Galena,  and  under  strong  military  protec- 
tion, with  competent  implements  and  miners,  aided 
by  negro  slaves,  began  operations  on  a  scale  here- 
tofore unknown  in  the  lead  country. 


202  WISCONSIN 

Johnson's  success  at  once  attracted  a  horde  of 
squatters  and  prospectors  from  Missouri,  Kentucky, 
and  Tennessee,  while  many  came  from  southern 
Illinois.  Few  of  the  newcomers  paid  much  atten- 
tion to  governmental  regulations.  Such  as  secured 
leases  suffered  from  encroachments,  and  the  conse- 
quent disputes  were  disastrous  to  many.  In  1823 
there  were  thirteen  lessees  who  had  established  a 
considerable  mining  colony,  but  unlicensed  plants 
could  be  numbered  by  the  score.  So  unsatisfactory 
was  the  leasing  system,  and  so  slight  the  resultant 
revenue,  that  in  1846  Congress  abolished  it  and 
thereafter  the  lands  were  sold  in  open  market. 

Upon  the  1st  of  July,  1825,  about  a  hundred 
persons  were  reported  to  be  employed  in  mining  in 
the  Galena  district.  By  August  of  the  next  year, 
this  population  had  increased  to  453.  It  was  esti- 
mated that  in  Missouri,  however,  where  the  mines 
were  privately  owned  and  prospectors  sharply  or- 
dered off,  two  thousand  men  were  thus  engaged,  — 
"miners,  teamsters,  and  laborers  of  every  kind 
(including  slaves)."  In  1827  the  name  Galena  was 
applied  to  the  principal  settlement.  Two  years 
later  the  heaviest  immigration  began,  reaching 
well  up  into  the  present  Wisconsin ;  and  from  that 
time  forward  the  lead  region  lying  north  and  south 
of  the  Illinois-Wisconsin  boundary  was  the  centre 
of  a  great  industry,  which  soon  came  quite  to 
overshadow  the  now  declining  fur-traffic  of  earlier 
days. 


LEAD-MINING  AND  INDIAN  WARS       203 

The  rush  of  prospectors  and  speculators  into  the 
lead-mining  country  of  Illinois  and  Wisconsin  was 
accompanied  by  scenes  and  conditions  similar  in 
character  to  those  obtaining  in  the  later  silver  and 
gold-mining  camps  of  California,  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains, the  Black  Hills,  and  Alaska.  Dozens  of  the 
old  Indian  trails  reaching  northward  from  central 
Illinois  were  soon  converted  into  highways  for  Con- 
cord coaches  and  lumber-wagon  expresses.  Men 
poured  into  the  district  on  foot  and  by  Mississippi 
River  boat,  on  horseback  and  by  team,  from  all 
sections  of  the  East  and  West.  New  England, 
New  York,  the  Middle  and  Southern  states,  and 
Europe  were  freely  represented ;  Cornishmen,  om- 
nipresent in  mining  operations,  began  to  arrive 
as  early  as  1827.  In  a  few  months  prospectors  were 
picking  holes  all  over  southwestern  Wisconsin,  and 
soon  isolated  log  shanties  and  stockades  for  pro- 
tection against  possible  assaults  of  resident  Indians 
were  familiar  objects  in  the  landscape.  Men  worth 
their  thousands  bivouacked  along  the  roads  and 
native  foot-trails,  alongside  of  well-armed  vagabonds 
of  every  grade.  A  traveler  of  that  day '  tells  us 
that  "  to  come  upon  a  couple  of  rough  fellows  sit- 
ting on  a  log  or  stone,  playing  old  sledge  for  each 
other's  last  dollar,  was  no  uncommon  experience." 

The  Sauk  and  Foxes  and  occasional  Winnebago, 
who  through  several  generations  had,  in  their 

1  "Narrative  of  Morgan  L.  Martin  "  in  Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  vol. 
ri,  p.  398. 


204  WISCONSIN 

crude  fashion,  done  a  good  share  of  the  mining  and 
smelting  in  the  district,  were  now  rudely  pushed 
aside  by  the  army  of  new  arrivals  whom  they  could 
not  withstand.  Native  shafts  were  boldly  appropri- 
ated by  armed  whites,  who  came  to  stay ;  and  sink- 
holes that  the  former  could  no  longer  operate  with 
their  rude  tools  were  reopened  and  found  to  be 
exceptionally  rich.  Mushroom  towns  sprang  up  all 
over  the  district ;  the  "  diggings  "  were  fitted  out 
with  modern  appliances ;  smelting  furnaces  were 
erected  at  convenient  points  ;  deep-worn  native 
paths  became  ore  roads.  The  aboriginal  miner 
was  quickly  crushed  beneath  the  wheels  of  civil- 
ization. 

The  Indians  of  Wisconsin,  Minnesota,  Iowa, 
and  Illinois — the  Chippewa,  Sauk,  Foxes,  Meno- 
minee,  Iowa,  Sioux,  Winnebago,  and  a  portion 
of  the  Ottawa  and  Potawatomi  —  had  long  en- 
gaged spasmodically  in  intertribal  warfare.  The 
United  States  government  felt  that  if  a  stop  were 
not  put  to  these  disturbances,  they  might  "  extend 
to  the  other  tribes,  and  involve  the  Indians  upon 
the  Missouri,  the  Mississippi,  and  the  Lakes  in 
general  hostilities."  By  a  treaty  concluded  at 
Prairie  du  Chien  on  August  19, 1825,  it  was  agreed 
between  the  respective  chiefs  that  "  There  shall  be 
a  firm  and  perpetual  peace  between  the  Sioux  and 
Chippewas ;  between  the  Sioux  and  the  confeder- 
ated tribes  of  Sacs  and  Foxes ;  and  between  the 
loways  and  the  Sioux ; "  and  definite  boundaries 


LEAD-MINING  AND  INDIAN  WARS       205 

were  established  between  their  hunting  ranges. 
The  participating  chiefs  nevertheless  took  umbrage 
at  the  American  commissioners,  William  Clark 
and  Lewis  Cass,  whom  they  accused  of  cold  for- 
mality and  of  parsimony,  for  failing  liberally  to 
ply  them  with  "milk"  and  presents,  after  the 
fashion  of  their  old-time  British  father ;  moreover, 
they  were  not  allowed  to  ratify  the  new  treaty  by 
a  savage  carousal.  The  result  was  that  the  tribes- 
men returned  home  with  their  natural  dislike  of 
the  unsympathetic  Americans  much  intensified. 

The  succeeding  winter  was  marked  by  various 
disorders.  Predatory  expeditions  were  reported 
between  Chippewa  and  Sioux ;  while  both  Sioux 
and  Wiunebago  were  growing  offensive  in  their 
attitude  toward  American  settlers  and  miners,  and 
some  of  the  few  French  traders  remaining  in  the 
region  were  busy  circulating  among  the  forest  bar- 
barians rumors  that  another  war  was  imminent 
between  England  and  the  United  States.  On  their 
part,  the  Winnebago  were  irritated  because  two  of 
their  warriors  were  imprisoned  at  Fort  Crawford 
for  some  petty  offenses.  During  the  summer  of  1826 
there  was  much  uneasiness  among  the  whites  on 
both  sides  of  the  upper  Mississippi,  and  the  garri- 
son of  Prairie  du  Chien  was  expecting  a  native 
attack. 

In  the  midst  of  these  alarming  rumors  and  actual 
disturbances,  the  federal  war  department  ordered 
that  Fort  Crawford  be  abandoned,  its  garrison  being 


206  WISCONSIN 

dispatched  to  Fort  Snelling,  which  had  been  built 
six  years  previous  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  pre- 
sent St.  Paul,  some  two  hundred  miles  farther  up  the 
Mississippi.  This  withdrawal  was  upon  the  request 
of  the  commandant,  Colonel  Josiah  Snelling,  who 
had  experienced  some  personal  difficulties  with  the 
people  of  Prairie  du  Chien.  Retirement  in  the  face 
of  native  threats  was  quite  naturally  construed  by 
the  neighboring  Winuebago  as  a  confession  of  weak- 
ness. During  the  following  winter,  apparently  con- 
vinced that  another  British- American  conflict  was 
impending,  young  Winnebago  hot-heads  stirred 
themselves  into  a  warlike  spirit,  and  British  sym- 
pathizers were  in  the  ascendant. 

Among  our  North  American  Indians,  while  in 
the  wild  stage,  no  young  man  might  be  accepted 
among  the  tribesmen  as  a  warrior,  and  thus  a  full- 
fledged  member  of  society,  until  he  had  taken  at 
least  one  scalp;  which  accounts  for  the  eagerness 
with  which  Indian  youth  always  welcomed  the  sug- 
gestion of  war.  The  elders,  who  had  long  since  won 
their  eagle  feathers,  —  one  being  worn  for  each  scalp 
taken,  —  and  with  these  acquired  some  degree  of 
wise  caution,  were  apt  to  advise  a  waiting  policy. 
The  young,  scoffing  such  counsel,  were  almost  in- 
evitably the  first  disturbers  of  peace  in  the  long  and 
bloody  story  of  frontier  warfare,  generally  carry- 
ing the  conservatives  with  them  when  the  enemy 
attempted  reprisal. 

Several  young  Winnebago  bucks  were,  in  March, 


LEAD-MINING  AND   INDIAN  WARS       207 

1827,  hunting  upon  Yellow  River,  twelve  miles 
north  of  Prairie  du  Chien,  on  the  Iowa  side  of  the 
Mississippi.  Coming  across  the  log  cabin  of  one 
Methode,  a  civilized  half-breed  from  Prairie  du 
Chien,  who  with  his  family  was  making  maple  su- 
gar, the  hot-bloods  could  not  resist  their  passion  for 
scalps,  and  killed  the  man,  his  wife,  and  five  child- 
ren. 

While  popular  excitement  over  this  event  was  at 
its  height  in  Prairie  du  Chien,  a  Sioux  contingent 
from  west  of  the  Mississippi  arrived  at  the  village 
of  Red  Bird,  a  petty  Winnebago  chief  whose  camp 
was  pitched  on  Black  River,  near  the  present  vil- 
lage of  Trempealeau.  The  visitors  brought  a  story, 
which  quite  likely  they  knew  to  be  false,  that  the 
two  Winnebago  prisoners  carried  from  Fort  Craw- 
ford to  Fort  Snelling  had  been  executed  by  white 
soldiers.  The  effect  of  this  malicious  tale  was  to 
drive  Red  Bird  and  his  little  band  of  warriors  into 
a  vengeful  frenzy.  To  the  quiet  satisfaction  of  the 
American-hating  Sioux,  the  villagers  set  out  to  take 
at  least  four  white  scalps  in  retaliation,  for  the  tribal 
code  of  reprisal  demanded  that  for  each  scalp  taken 
from  their  people  two  must  be  obtained  from  the 
enemy. 

There  were  not  lacking  other  incentives  as  well. 
The  continued  inhospitality  of  the  Indian  agent 
at  Prairie  du  Chien,  who  closely  calculated  his 
expenses,  irritated  them,  and  they  conjured  up 
contrasting  pictures  of  British  generosity.  They  bit- 


208  WISCONSIN 

terly  resented,  too,  being  driven  from  the  lead-mine 
region,  and  the  often  brutal  treatment  awarded 
them  by  American  miners.  These  and  a  hundred 
other  annoyances,  some  petty  and  others  serious, 
combined  to  arouse  native  animosity  and  thus 
kindle  the  flame  of  the  incipient  uprising. 

Just  at  this  time  there  were  being  propelled  up 
the  Mississippi  two  keel-boats  laden  with  provi- 
sions dispatched  from  St.  Louis  to  Fort  Snelling. 
Red  Bird's  followers  boarded  the  craft,  as  was  cus- 
tomary in  those  waters,  and  with  a  semblance  of 
friendliness,  a  subterfuge  of  which  the  Indian  was 
master,  sold  venison  and  native  trinkets  to  the  crew. 
It  was  noticed  by  the  savages  that  the  boatmen 
were  practically  unarmed,  but  the  former  lacked 
the  nerve  to  attack.  All  along  the  west  bank,  as  far 
as  the  fort,  the  Sioux  made  no  attempt  to  hide  their 
disaffection,  but  they  also  failed  to  open  active  hos- 
tilities, and  allowed  the  cargoes  to  reach  their 
destination. 

Red  Bird,  with  Wekau  and  two  others  of  his 
fighting  men,  now  turned  their  canoes  down  river 
to  Prairie  du  Chien,  where  they  hoped  for  better 
fortune:  apparently  forgetting  that  its  peaceful 
Creole  settlers  were  firm  friends  of  the  aborigines 
and  had  given  them  no  cause  of  complaint.  It  was 
the  26th  of  June,  and  many  of  the  men  were 
absent  in  their  fields  or  upon  fishing  excursions. 
The  Winnebago  contented  themselves  with  bullying 
some  of  the  women,  and  then  set  out  for  the  farm 


LEAD-MINING  AND  INDIAN  WARS       209 

of  Registre  Gagnier,  two  miles  south  of  the  village. 
Gagnier  was  an  honest,  hard-working  fellow,  son  of 
a  negro  woman  and  a  French  voyageur,  noted  for 
his  friendliness  to  Indians.  With  him  were  his 
white  wife,  two  children,  and  a  serving-man  named 
Lipcap.  Red  Bird  had  long  been  Gagnier's  friend, 
hence  they  were  met  by  cordial  greetings.  The  four 
agents  of  death  calmly  sat  for  hours  enjoying  the 
mulatto's  hospitality,  and  then,  seizing  a  favorable 
moment,  Red  Bird  and  Wekau  killed  Lipcap  and 
Gagnier,  and  scalped  the  latter's  infant  girl  of 
eighteen  months.  After  a  desperate  struggle,  Ma- 
dame Gagnier  escaped  to  the  village  with  her  ten- 
year-old  boy.  The  hue-and-cry  being  now  raised, 
the  murderers  promptly  escaped.  The  scalped  child 
was  brought  back  to  the  settlement,  where  she  sur- 
vived her  brutal  treatment,  grew  to  womanhood, 
and  was  the  mother  of  a  large  family. 

When  the  fugitives,  skulking  along  the  bush- 
grown  shores  of  the  Mississippi,  arrived  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Bad  Axe,  forty  miles  north  of  Prairie 
du  Chien,  they  there  found  a  hunting  camp  of 
nearly  forty  of  Red  Bird's  warriors.  Although  but 
three  of  the  required  scalps  had  thus  far  been 
obtained,  the  feat  was  celebrated  in  a  protracted 
drunken  debauch.  In  the  afternoon  of  the  third 
day  there  hove  into  sight  upon  the  Mississippi  the 
foremost  of  the  two  plank-armored  keel-boats  al- 
ready mentioned,  now  returning  to  St.  Louis.  The 
boatmen  had  all  the  way  from  Fort  Snelling  been 


210  WISCONSIN 

jeered  and  threatened  by  Sioux  along  the  west  bank, 
but  had  been  unharmed.  When  the  Winnebago  at 
the  Bad  Axe  showed  fight,  the  crew  of  the  forward 
boat  in  a  spirit  of  bravado  ran  their  craft  close  in 
toward  shore.  This  was  the  signal  for  a  heavy  fusil- 
lade from  the  drunken  natives,  some  of  whom 
boarded  the  vessel  and  ran  her  on  a  sandbar.  After 
a  spasmodic  rifle  duel  lasting  for  three  hours,  dusk 
set  in,  and  the  boatmen,  although  obliged  to  remain 
under  cover,  now  adroitly  managed  to  free  their 
craft  from  the  bar,  and  she  was  soon  borne  off  by 
the  swift  current.  Nearly  seven  hundred  bullets 
had  pierced  the  boat  through  and  through,  yet  the 
casualties  were  slight  —  on  board,  two  killed  out- 
right, and  two  mortally  and  two  slightly  wounded ; 
of  the  savages,  seven  were  killed  and  fourteen 
wounded.  The  rear  keel  passed  the  camp  at  mid- 
night, and  was  fired  on,  but  escaped  unhurt. 

The  news  of  this  fierce  engagement  was  promptly 
disseminated  from  Prairie  du  Chien,  and  a  wide- 
spread frontier  war  confidently  expected.  Militia- 
men and  volunteers  came  pouring  into  the  village 
from  the  neighboring  .lead-mine  country,  which  in 
the  general  panic  soon  lost  half  of  its  white  popu- 
lation. The  settlers  strengthened  the  old  fort,  which 
soon  was  reoccupied  by  a  small  battalion  from  Fort 
Snelling.  A  full  regiment  came  from  Jefferson 
Barracks,  near  St.  Louis,  under  General  Henry  At- 
kinson. Early  in  August,  Major  William  Whistler 
of  Fort  Howard  proceeded  up  Fox  River  with  a 


LEAD-MINING  AND  INDIAN  WARS       211 

portion  of  his  command.  Whistler's  progress  was 
delayed  by  his  presence  at  a  council  held  at  Grand 
Butte  des  Morts  with  the  Winnebago,  Chippewa, 
and  Menominee,  regarding  lands  granted  by  them 
to  certain  New  York  Indians,  concerning  which 
transaction  we  shall  hear  later.  At  this  council, 
concluded  August  11,  Whistler  notified  the  Win- 
nebago that  their  security  as  a  tribe  wholly  lay  in 
surrendering  Red  Bird  and  Wekau  as  murderers 
of  the  Gagnier  family.  The  headmen  were  given 
to  understand  that  were  this  done  nothing  further 
would  be  said  concerning  the  keel-boat  fight. 

Whistler  reached  the  Fox- Wisconsin  portage  on 
September  1,  while  Atkinson  was  with  some  diffi- 
culty advancing  up  the  swift-flowing  Wisconsin 
with  the  intention  of  effecting  a  junction  with  him 
at  this,  the  heart  of  the  Winnebago  country.  Imme- 
diately on  his  arrival,  Whistler  was  notified  by  an 
Indian  runner  that  at  three  o'clock  in  the  after- 
noon of  the  following  day  the  two  culprits,  who 
were  voluntarily  surrendering  themselves  to  save 
their  tribe  from  threatened  destruction,  would  ap- 
pear at  military  headquarters.  At  the  hour  agreed 
on,  the  troops  were  on  dress  parade,  and  with  full 
martial  honors  received  the  murderers,  who  ad- 
vanced singing  their  mournful  death-songs.  We- 
kau was  a  rather  miserable  specimen  of  his  tribe ; 
but  the  young  Red  Bird,  a  tall,  manly  fellow,  acted 
with  exquisite  dignity,  and  appeared  clothed  in  the 
picturesque  regalia  of  a  chief. 


212  WISCONSIN 

In  judging  the  motives  and  conduct  of  Red  Bird, 
justice  demands  that  we  do  so  strictly  according  to 
the  view-point  of  his  own  race,  however  mistaken 
we  of  ours  may  consider  it.  Abiding  by  the  stern 
ethics  of  his  people,  he  had  in  the  scalp-taking  acted 
impersonally  as  the  supposed  avenger  of  his  tribe. 
His  methods  undoubtedly  were  cruel  and  treacher- 
ous, but  they  accorded  strictly  with  the  rules  of  war- 
fare in  which  he  and  countless  generations  of  his 
forbears  had  carefully  been  trained,  and  which  they 
deemed  eminently  proper  —  for  in  war  the  end  and 
not  the  means  concerned  them.  In  the  eyes  of  his 
fellows  he  was  now  as  popular  a  hero  as  any 
leader  of  a  forlorn  hope.  He  suffered  no  qualms  of 
conscience.  The  same  lofty  purpose  that  actuated 
him  in  his  vicarious  vengeance  led  him  freely  to 
offer  himself  as  a  tribal  sacrifice  when  this  alone 
seemed  necessary  to  prevent  the  destruction  of  his 
clansmen  by  the  all-conquering  Americans  ;  and  he 
compelled  the  cowardly  and  reluctant  Wekau  to 
join  him.  This  was  the  spirit  in  which  Whistler 
and  his  men,  as  frontier  soldiers  familiar  with  the 
savage  point  of  view,  regarded  the  surrender  —  the 
spirit  that  gives  point  and  meaning  to  perhaps  the 
most  striking  picture  in  Wisconsin  history,  next 
to  the  landfall  of  Nicolet  in  1634. 

Upon  being  imprisoned  at  Prairie  du  Chien,  the 
chief  was  relieved  of  the  necessity  of  wearing  irons, 
and  given  much  freedom.  Opportunities  were 
abundant  for  his  escape,  and  sympathetic  soldiers 


LEAD-MINING  AND   INDIAN   WARS       213 

sometimes  seemed  to  place  these  in  his  way;  yet 
Red  Bird  was  too  proud  to  break  his  promise  to  re- 
main and  stand  for  trial  for  his  life.  A  few  months 
later  he  died  in  prison,  of  an  epidemic  then  raging 
in  the  village. 

The  murderers  of  Methode  were  tried  and  con- 
demned to  death,  but  received  pardon  from  Presi- 
dent Adams,  upon  the  Winnebago  renouncing  their 
claim  to  the  coveted  lead  mines.  The  following 
year  (1828),  Fort  Winnebago  was  erected  at  the 
Portage,  with  especial  reference  to  keeping  that 
tribe  in  order. 

During  and  succeeding  the  .Revolutionary  War, 
the  Stockbridge  and  Brothertown  1  tribes,  by  this 
time  Christianized  and  well-advanced  towards  civ- 
ilization, moved  from  New  England  to  western 
New  York,  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Oneida  and 
Munsee.  But  soon  after  1810  there  arose  among 
the  four  tribes  a  strong  desire  to  seek  homes  in  the 
still  farther  West.  White  persons  interested  in  the 
Stockbridge,  in  particular,  expressed  solicitude  that 
these  converts  be  permanently  removed  from  the 
evil  influences  radiating  from  fast-growing  settle- 
ments ;  and  land  speculators  were  eager  that  the  In- 
dian title  in  that  part  of  New  York  be  extinguished 
as  rapidly  as  possible,  consequently  they  were  not 
slow  to  foster  the  movement. 

Among  the  friends  of  the  Stockbridge  was  Dr. 

1  The  Brothertown  consisted  of  remnants  of  various  New  Eng- 
land tribes,  who  had  settled  near  the  Stockbridge. 


214  WISCONSIN 

Jedediah  Morse,  a  Presbyterian  divine,  and  father 
of  the  inventor  of  the  electric  telegraph.  In  1820, 
Morse  was  sent  into  the  Northwest  by  the  War 
Department  as  a  special  agent  to  select  lands  for 
the  four  tribes.  Among  other  places,  he  visited 
the  Fox  River  valley,  and  on  July  9  delivered  in 
Green  Bay  probably  the  first  Protestant  sermon 
ever  heard  there.  Morse  selected  this  valley  as  the 
most  eligible  site,  the  principal  native  owners  of 
the  chosen  land  being  the  Menominee  and  the 
Winnebago. 

At  that  time  there  was  resident  among  the 
Oneida  an  erratic  quarter-breed  named  Eleazer  Wil- 
liams, who  during  the  War  of  1812-15  had  served 
the  Americans  as  a  spy  among  his  relatives,  the 
Canadian  Indians,  but  who  was  now  an  Episcopal 
missionary.  Possessed  of  considerable  natural  abil- 
ity, and  of  attractive  manners,  an  Iroquois-English 
translator,  and  the  author  of  several  minor  reli- 
gious works,  Williams  had  won  a  rather  wide 
reputation  among  persons  interested  in  Indian 
ethnology,  languages,  history,  and  missions ;  he 
was  frequently  referred  to  as  an  authority  on  these 
subjects.  He  had  also  acquired  an  ascendency  over 
certain  of  his  own  people,  although  by  some  of 
them  instinctively  mistrusted  —  and  rightly  so,  for 
while  in  some  respects  an  interesting  and  unusual 
character,  he  lacked  sincerity,  was  self-seeking  and 
vainglorious,  and  perversely  untruthful.  Always 
a  poseur,  we  now  find  him  assuming  leadership  in 


LEAD-MINING  AND   INDIAN   WARS       215 

this  new  phase  of  native  emigration,  which  he 
eagerly  supported  from  motives  of  personal  ambi- 
tion ;  for  it  appears  that  he  dreamed  of  a  revived 
but  Christianized  Iroquois  confederacy  in  the  West, 
with  himself  as  its  dictator. 

In  1821,  Williams,  then  about  thirty-three  years 
of  age,  led  to  Green  Bay  a  large  and  enthusiastic 
delegation  of  New  York  chiefs  and  headmen  in- 
terested in  the  project,  their  conveyance  being  the 
first  steamer  to  appear  upon  Lake  Michigan.  This 
novel  craft  bore  the  picturesque  name,  borrowed 
from  the  Indians,  of  Walk-in-the- Water. 1  The 
long  tour  of  these  native  pioneers  was  financed  by 
the  missionary  bodies  of  the  Episcopal  and  Pres- 
byterian churches  and  the  New  York  Land  Com- 
pany—  the  last-named  representing  the  speculators 
who  wished  access  to  the  territory  now  occupied  by 
the  several  tribes.  In  August  a  treaty  was  concluded 
with  the  reluctant  Menominee  and  Winnebago,  by 
which  was  ceded  to  these  New  York  Indians,  for  five 
hundred  dollars  in  cash  and  fifteen  hundred  dol- 
lars' worth  of  goods,  a  strip  some  four  miles  in 
width,  crossing  Fox  River  at  right  angles,  with 
Little  Chute  as  the  centre. 

This  grant  satisfied  none  save  Williams.  The  two 
Wisconsin  tribes  quickly  repented  the  bargain,  and 
the  New  Yorkers  deemed  it  a  paltry  exchange  for 
their  present  homes.  As  for  the  missionary,  he  was 

1  Constructed  in  1818,  the  first  steamer  on  Lake  Erie ;  lost  in  a 
storm,  near  Buffalo,  in  November,  1821. 


216  WISCONSIN 

loudly  condemned  by  all.  Another  council  was 
therefore  held  by  him  at  Green  Bay,  in  September 
and  October  of  the  following  year  (1822).  From 
this  conference  the  Winnebago  withdrew  in  disgust ; 
but  the  Menominee,  yielding  to  Williams's  specious 
arguments  and  easy  promises,  finally  agreed  to  ac- 
cept the  New  York  tribesmen  as  joint  owners  with 
themselves  of  all  Menominee  lands  —  then  embrac- 
ing almost  a  half  of  the  present  Wisconsin.  But 
within  a  twelvemonth  the  Menominee  came  bitterly 
to  regret  their  complacency,  and  there  followed 
ten  years  of  confusion  and  wordy 'discussion.  Con- 
gress had  several  times  to  interfere  in  an  attempt 
to  quiet  the  contest. 

Williams  and  the  little  band  of  Oneida  who 
clung  to  his  counsels  immediately  took  up  their 
residence  on  Fox  River,  not  far  above  Green  Bay. 
Gradually  thereafter,  chiefly  in  1832,  a  consider- 
able number  of  the  New  York  tribesmen  moved  to 
Wisconsin,  —  the  Stockbridge  and  Brothertown 
settling  to  the  east  of  Lake  Winnebago,  in  the 
present  Calumet  County,  and  in  due  course  becom- 
ing citizens ;  the  Oneida  and  Munsee  establish- 
ing themselves  upon  Duck  Creek,  near  the  mouth 
of  the  Lower  Fox,  and  upon  the  Oneida  reserva- 
tion near  Green  Bay,  but  not  until  recent  years 
(1890-93)  did  they  take  their  lands  in  severalty 
and  assume  citizenship. 

The  migration  had  throughout  been  managed 
so  badly  and  awakened  such  general  discontent 


LEAD-MINING  AND   INDIAN   WARS       217 

among  both  whites  and  reds,  and  his  own  charac- 
ter had  been  exhibited  in  so  unfavorable  a  light, 
that  Williams's  political  dreams  were  necessarily 
at  an  end ;  probably  they  could  not,  in  any  event, 
have  been  realized.  For  over  twenty  years  he  came 
and  went  among  the  Oneida  as  a  missionary, 
although  most  discriminating  persons  discredited 
him  as  crafty  and  unscrupulous.  Suddenly,  in 
1849,  when  in  his  sixty-first  year,  the  man  posed 
in  public  as  Louis  XVII,  hereditary  sovereign  of 
France ;  he  had,  however,  privately  made  assertions 
to  that  effect  as  early  as  1838. 

There  seems  no  reason  to  doubt  that  after  Louis 
XVI  and  his  queen,  Marie  Antoinette,  were  exe- 
cuted in  Paris  (1793),  their  son  of  eight  years,  the 
dauphin,  died  two  years  later  (June  8,  1795)  of 
ill-treatment  and  neglect  in  his  cell  in  the  tower  of 
the  Temple.  Sufficient  mystery,  however,  attached 
to  the  death  of  young  Louis  XVII  to  warrant  the 
growth  of  myth,  and  during  several  political  up- 
heavals of  France  there  arose  in  various  parts  of 
Europe  more  than  two  dozen  impostors,  who  sev- 
erally claimed  to  be  the  "  lost  dauphin."  The 
theory  advanced  in  each  case  was,  that  Bourbon 
adherents  had  spirited  the  young  prince  from  his 
prison  and  substituted  a  child  of  meaner  clay  — 
the  little  fugitive,  with  mind  weakened  by  confine- 
ment and  bad  usage,  being  thenceforth  reared 
among  peasant  surroundings.  Although  these 
various  pretenders  have  each  in  his  turn  been  dis- 


218  WISCONSIN 

credited  by  competent  publicists  and  historians, 
nevertheless  there  still  exist  many  Frenchmen  who 
appear  seriously  to  believe  that  the  pretensions  of 
descendants  of  at  least  one  of  these  claimants  are 
just,  and  worthy  of  their  earnest  adherence.1 

The  novelty  of  Williams's  assertions  created  far 
more  popular  attention  in  the  United  States  of  his 
day  than  could  similar  royalist  pretensions  in  our 
more  sophisticated  times.  Embellished  with  much 
sensational  detail,  they  were  in  effect  that  as  the 
veritable  dauphin,  then  mentally  weak  but  later 
outgrowing  this  defect,  he  had  been  brought  to 
America  and  given  to  a  somewhat  prominent  and 
very  worthy  Indian  family  of  the  St.  Kegis  tribe  of 
Canada,  to  rear  as  their  own  child.  Further,  that 
when,  in  1841,  the  young  Prince  de  Joinville, 
third  son  of  Louis  Philippe,  King  of  the  French, 
was  traveling  in  Canada  and  the  United  States, 
he  visited  Williams's  home  on  Fox  River,  and  pro- 
posed that  the  latter  "  abdicate  the  crown  of  France 
in  favor  of  Louis  Philippe  "  in  return  for  a  splen- 
did establishment  either  in  France  or  America  — 
a  proposition  promptly  rejected  by  the  Wisconsin 
Bourbon,  who  "though  in  poverty  and  in  exile, 
would  not  sacrifice  his  honor." 

1  Referring  to  Naundorff,  who  died  at  Delft,  Holland,  August 
10,  1845,  claiming  to  be  Charles-Louis  de  Bourbon,  duke  of  Nor- 
mandy. There  is  a  considerable  literature  on  the  subject,  and  the 
claims  of  the  family  are  persistently  maintained,  their  organ 
being  a  monthly  magazine,  Revue  Historique  de  la  Question  Louis 
XVII,  established  at  Paris  in  January,  1905. 


LEAD-MINING  AND  INDIAN  WARS       219 

Despite  his  somewhat  theatrical  fondness  for 
mystery,  the  facts  regarding  Williams's  lineage 
and  career  were  well  known  to  many.  His  indig- 
nant Indian  relatives  repudiated  his  pretensions 
and  showed  their  falsity.  The  color  and  texture  of 
his  skin  indisputably  proved  his  aboriginal  blood. 
He  was  three  years  younger  than  the  real  dauphin 
would  have  been.  His  reputation  for  veracity  had 
long  since  departed.  Nevertheless  his  features  bore 
some  resemblance  to  those  of  the  Bourbons,  and 
this  was  helpful  to  his  deception.  The  American 
pretender  was  seriously  discussed  in  thousands  of 
homes  in  this  country,  and  even  in  Europe  at- 
tracted soine  attention.  He  died  in  1858,  his  last 
years  marked  by  neglect  and  by  only  slight  at- 
tempts at  self -exploitation.  Occasionally,  and  with 
an  air  of  serious  acceptance,  irresponsible  writers 
still  use  the  fantastic  tale,  in  order  to  lend  "color" 
to  Wisconsin  annals.1 

On  Rock  River,  in  Illinois,  near  its  junction 
with  the  Mississippi,  there  was  a  considerable  Sauk 
village,  inhabited  by  a  large  band  of  active  sympa- 
thizers with  the  British,  and  under  the  domination 
of  Black  Sparrow  Hawk  (commonly  called  Black 
Hawk),  an  ambitious,  restless,  and  somewhat  dema- 
gogic headman  of  the  tribe.2  Although  himself 

1  The  standard  authority  on  this  subject  is  William  W.  Wight, 
"  Eleazer  Williams :  his  forerunners,  himself,"  in  Parkman  Club 
Papers,  vol.  i. 

2  He  was  not  a  chief  (an  hereditary  office),  as  is  commonly  as- 
sumed —  simply  a  popular  leader. 


220  WISCONSIN 

"touching  the  quill"  at  both  the  treaty  of  1804 
and  that  with  the  Sauk  and  Foxes  in  May,  1816, 
he  afterwards  denied  the  authority  of  the  tribal 
chiefs  to  sign  away  the  common  lands,  thereby 
ignoring  his  own  earlier  assent. 

When,  in  1816,  the  federal  government  treated 
separately  therefor  with  the  Ottawa,  Chippewa, 
and  Potawatomi,  and  it  was  found  that  the  lower 
Rock  River  was  south  of  the  prescribed  boundary 
line,  the  majority  of  the  Sauk  and  Foxes  on  that 
stream,  under  the  Fox  head-chief  Keokuk,  dis- 
creetly moved  to  the  west  of  the  Mississippi.  But 
Black  Hawk's  "  British  band,"  as  they  were  called, 
—  two  hundred  of  them  had  fought  under  Tecum- 
seh,  —  continued  to  hold  the  old  village  site,  where 
he  himself  was  born  and  where  was  the  great  ceme- 
tery of  the  tribe  ;  quite  ignoring  the  fact  that  their 
tribal  rights  in  the  territory  were  no  longer  recog- 
nized by  the  United  States,  even  for  the  temporary 
abode  provided  in  1804. 

White  squatters,  coveting  land  far  beyond  the 
frontier  of  legal  entries,  still  some  sixty  miles  east- 
ward, began  to  annoy  the  Hawk  as  early  as  1823, 
burning  his  lodges  while  he  was  absent  on  the 
hunt,  destroying  his  crops,  insulting  his  women, 
and  now  and  then  actually  beating  him  and  his 
people.  Persistently  advised  by  the  tribal  chiefs  to 
abandon  his  town  to  the  on-rushing  tide  of  settle- 
ment, he  nevertheless  obstinately  held  his  ground. 
In  the  spring  of  1830,  affairs  had  reached  a  crisis. 


LEAD-MINING  AND  INDIAN  WARS       221 

When  the  British  band  returned  from  their  win- 
ter's hunt  they  found  their  cemetery  plowed  over, 
for  several  squatters  had  now  preempted  the  vil- 
lage site,  the  cemetery,  and  the  extensive  aborig- 
inal planting  grounds ;  yet  a  belt  of  forty  miles  of 
Indian  lands  still  lay  unsurveyed  between  this  and 
the  western  line  of  regular  settlement. 

The  indignant  Hawk  now  took  his  band  over- 
land by  the  great  Sauk  trail,  south  of  Lake  Michi- 
gan, to  consult  with  his  friend  the  British  military 
agent  at  Maiden,  in  Canada,  not  far  from  Detroit. 
He  was  there  advised  that  the  spirit  of  the  treaty 
of  1804  had  clearly  been  violated,  and  that  if  he 
persisted  in  repelling  the  squatters  the  govern- 
ment's sense  of  fair  play  would  surely  support  him ; 
but  the  British  official  evidently  had  not  carefully 
studied  the  trend  of  our  Indian  diplomacy.  Thus 
fortified,  Black  Hawk  returned  to  his  village  in 
the  spring  of  1831,  his  people  in  a  starving  condi- 
tion, only  to  find  white  intruders  more  numerous 
and  offensive  than  ever.  He  thereupon  indiscreetly 
threatened  them  with  force  if  they  did  not  at  once 
depart.  This  was  construed  as  being  a  "  bloody 
menace,"  and  the  Illinois  militia  were  promptly 
called  out  by  Governor  John  Reynolds  in  a  flaming 
proclamation,  to  "  repel  the  invasion  of  the  British 
band."  On  June  25,  the  Hawk  cowered  before  a 
demonstration  made  at  his  village  by  some  seven 
hundred  militiamen  and  regulars,  and  fled  to  the 
west  of  the  Mississippi,  humbly  promising  never 


222  WISCONSIN 

to  return  without  the  express  permission  of  the 
federal  government. 

Black  Hawk,  now  a  man  of  some  fifty-four  years, 
a  somewhat  remarkable  organizer  and  military 
tactician,  and  for  one  of  his  race  broad-minded  and 
humane,  was  nevertheless  too  easily  led  by  the 
advice  of  others.  He  was  now  beset  by  young  Pota- 
watomi  hot-bloods  from  northeastern  Illinois  and 
along  the  western  shore  of  Lake  Michigan,  scalp- 
hunters  from  the  Winnebago  along  the  upper  Rock 
River,  and  emissaries  from  the  Ottawa  and  Chip- 
pewa,  all  of  whom  urged  him  to  return  and  fight 
for  his  rights.  Particularly  was  he  influenced  by 
a  Winnebago  soothsayer  named  White  Cloud,  who 
throughout  was  his  evil  genius.  No  crop  had  been 
raised,  and  the  winter  in  Iowa  was  unusually  harsh, 
so  that  by  early  spring  the  British  band  were  men- 
aced by  famine. 

Driven  to  desperation,  and  relying  on  these  prof- 
fers of  intertribal  assistance,  the  Hawk  crossed  the 
Mississippi  at  Yellow  Banks,  April  6,  1832,  with 
five  hundred  warriors,  mostly  Sauk,  accompanied 
by  all  their  women,  children,  and  domestic  equip- 
ment. Their  intention  was  to  raise  a  crop  at  the 
Winnebago  village  at  Prophet's  Town,  on  Rock 
River,  and  then  if  practicable  the  bucks  would 
take  the  war-path  in  the  autumn. 

But  the  news  of  the  "  invasion "  spread  like 
wildfire  through  the  Illinois  and  Wisconsin  settle- 
ments. Another  fiery  proclamation  from  Spring- 


LEAD-MINING  AND   INDIAN   WARS       223 

field  summoned  the  people  to  arms,  the  United 
States  was  also  called  on  for  troops,  those  settlers 
who  did  not  fly  the  country  threw  up  log  forts, 
and  everywhere  was  aroused  intense  excitement 
and  feverish  preparation  for  bloody  strife. 

In  an  incredibly  short  time,  three  hundred  regu- 
lars and  eighteen  hundred  horse  and  foot  volun- 
teers were  on  the  march.1  The  startled  Hawk  sent 
back  a  defiant  message,  and  retreated  up  Rock 
River,  making  a  brief  stand  at  Stillman's  Creek. 
Here,  finding  that  the  promised  assistance  from 
other  tribes  was  not  forthcoming,  he  attempted  to 
surrender  on  stipulation  that  he  be  allowed  peace- 
fully to  withdraw  to  the  west  of  the  Mississippi. 
But  his  messengers,  on  approaching  with  their 
white  flag  the  camp  of  a  party  of  twenty-five  hun- 
dred half-drunken  Illinois  cavalry  militia,  were 
brutally  slain.  Accompanied  by  a  mere  handful  of 
braves,  the  enraged  Sank  leader  now  ambushed 
and  easily  routed  this  large  and  boisterous  party, 
whose  members  displayed  rank  cowardice ;  in  their 
mad  retreat  they  spread  broadcast  through  the 
settlements  a  report  that  Black  Hawk  was  backed 
by  two  thousand  bloodthirsty  warriors,  bent  on 
a  campaign  of  universal  slaughter.  This  greatly 

1  Abraham  Lincoln  was  the  captain  of  a  militia  company.  Jef- 
ferson Davis  was  a  lieutenant  of  regulars,  nominally  stationed  at 
Prairie  du  Chien,  but  he  appears  to  have  been  absent  on  detached 
duty  throughout  the  greater  part  of  the  war ;  after  its  close,  he 
escorted  the  captured  Black  Hawk  from  Prairie  du  Chien  to  Jef- 
ferson Barracks.  Zachary  Taylor  was  also  an  officer  of  regulars. 


224  WISCONSIN 

increased  popular  consternation  throughout  the 
West.  The  name  of  the  deluded  Black  Hawk 
became  everywhere  coupled  with  stories  of  savage 
cruelty,  and  served  as  a  household  bugaboo. 
Meanwhile,  so  great  was  the  alarm  that  the  Illi- 
nois militia,  originally  hot  to  take  the  field,  now, 
on  flimsy  excuses,  promptly  disbanded. 

Black  Hawk  himself  was  much  encouraged  by 
his  easy  victory  at  Stillman's  Creek,  and,  laden  with 
spoils  from  the  militia  camp,  removed  his  women 
and  children  about  seventy  miles  northeastward,  to 
the  neighborhood  of  Lake  Koshkonong,  near  the 
headwaters  of  Rock  River,  a  Wisconsin  district 
girt  about  by  great  marshes  and  not  then  easily 
accessible  to  white  troops.  Thence  descending  with 
his  braves  to  northern  Illinois,  where  he  had  spas- 
modic help  from  small  bands  of  young  Winnebago 
and  Potawatomi,  the  Hawk  and  his  friends  en- 
gaged in  irregular  hostilities  along  the  Illinois-Wis- 
consin border,  and  made  life  miserable  for  the  set- 
tlers and  miners.  In  these  various  forays,  with 
which,  however,  the  Sauk  headman  was  not  always 
connected,  fully  two  hundred  whites  and  nearly  as 
many  Indians  lost  their  lives.  At  the  besieged 
blockhouse  forts  (particularly  Plum  River,  in 
northern  Illinois)  there  were  numerous  instances 
of  romantic  heroism  on  the  part  of  the  settlers,  men 
and  women  alike ;  and  several  of  the  open  fights, 
like  one  on  the  Peckatonica  River,  are  still  famous 
in  local  annals. 


LEAD-MINING  AND  INDIAN  WARS       225 

Three  weeks  after  the  Stillman's  Creek  affair,  a 
reorganized  army  of  3200  Illinois  militia  was  mo- 
bilized, being  reinforced  by  regulars  under  General 
Atkinson  and  a  battalion  of  two  hundred  mounted 
rangers  from  the  lead  region,  enlisted  by  Major 
Henry  Dodge,  then  commandant  of  Michigan 
militia  west  of  Lake  Michigan,  and  in  later  years 
governor  of  Wisconsin  Territory.  The  entire  army 
now  in  the  field  numbered  about  4000  effective 
men.  Dodge's  rangers,  gathered  from  the  mines 
and  fields,  were  a  free-and-easy  set  of  fellows,  des- 
titute of  uniforms,  but  imbued  with  the  spirit  of 
adventure  and  the  customary  frontiersmen's  intense 
hatred  of  the  Indians  whom  they  had  ruthlessly 
displaced.  While  disciplined  to  the  extent  of  obey- 
ing orders  whenever  sent  into  the  teeth  of  danger, 
these  Rough  Riders  of  1832  swung  through  the 
country  with  small  regard  for  the  rules  of  the  man- 
ual, and  presented  a  striking  contrast  to  the  habits 
and  appearance  of  the  regulars. 

As  the  new  army  slowly  but  steadily  moved  up 
Rock  River,  Black  Hawk  retired  toward  his  Lake 
Koshkonong  base.  The  pursuit  becoming  too  warm, 
however,  he  retreated  hastily  across  country,  with 
women  and  children  and  all  the  paraphernalia  of 
the  British  band,  to  the  Wisconsin  River  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Prairie  du  Sac ;  on  his  way  cross- 
ing the  site  of  the  present  Madison,  where  he  was 
caught  up  with  by  his  pursuers,  now  more  swift 
in  their  movements.  On  reaching  the  rugged  bluffs 


226  WISCONSIN 

overlooking  the  Wisconsin,  he  sought  again  to  sur- 
render ;  but  there  chanced  to  be  no  interpreter  among 
the  whites,  and  the  unfortunate  suppliant  was  mis- 
understood. The  battle  of  Wisconsin  Heights  fol- 
lowed (July  21),  without  appreciable  loss  on  either 
side.  Here  the  Sauk  leader  displayed  much  skill  in 
covering  the  flight  of  his  people  across  the  broad, 
island-strewn  river. 

A  portion  of  the  fugitives,  chiefly  women  and 
children,  escaped  on  a  raft  down  the  Wisconsin, 
but  near  Prairie  du  Chien  were  mercilessly  fired 
upon  by  a  detachment  from  the  garrison  of  Fort 
Crawford,  and  fifteen  killed.1  The  remainder,  led  by 
Black  Hawk  and  some  Winnebago  guides,  pushed 
across  through  a  rough,  forbidding  country,  to  the 
junction  of  the  Bad  Axe  with  the  Mississippi,  losing 
many  along  the  way,  who  died  of  wounds  and  starva- 
tion. The  now  sadly  depleted  and  almost  famished 
crew  reached  the  Mississippi  on  the  first  of  August, 
and  attempted  to  cross  the  river  to  the  habitat  of 
the  Sioux,  fondly  hoping  that  their  troubles  would 
then  be  over.  But  only  two  or  three  canoes  were 
obtainable,  and  the  work  was  not  only  slow  but,  ow- 
ing to  the  swift  current,  accompanied  by  some  loss 
of  life. 

In  the  afternoon    the  movement  was  detected 

1  A  French  and  Menominee  Indian  militia  contingent  from 
Green  Bay  now  appeared  on  the  scene,  but  its  sole  service  was 
to  slaughter  most  of  the  non-combatants  who  escaped  from  the 
raft. 


LEAD-MINING  AND  INDIAN  WARS       227 

by  the  crew  of  the  Warrior,  a  government  supply 
steamer  carrying  a  detachment  of  soldiers  from  Fort 
Crawford.  A  third  time  the  Hawk  sought  to  sur- 
render, but  his  white  signal  was  fired  at,  under 
pretense  that  it  was  a  savage  ruse,  and  round  after 
round  of  canister  swept  the  wretched  camp.  The 
next  day  (August  2)  the  troops,  who  had  been  de- 
layed for  three  days  in  crossing  Wisconsin  River, 
were  close  upon  their  heels,  and  arrived  on  the 
heights  overlooking  the  beach.  The  Warrior  there- 
upon renewed  its  attack,  and  caught  between  two 
galling  fires  the  poor  savages  soon  succumbed. 
Black  Hawk  fled  inland  to  seek  an  asylum  at  the 
Dells  of  the  Wisconsin  with  his  false  friends,  the 
Winnebago,  who  had  guided  the  white  army  along 
his  path ;  fifty  of  his  people  remained  on  the  east 
bank  and  were  taken  prisoners  by  the  troops ;  some 
three  hundred  miserable  starvelings,  largely  non- 
combatants,  reached  the  west  shore  through  the  hail 
of  metal,  only  to  be  waylaid  by  Sioux,  dispatched  by 
army  officials  to  intercept  them,  and  half  of  their 
number  were  slain.  Of  the  band  of  a  thousand  Sauk 
who  had  entered  Illinois  in  April,  not  much  over  a 
hundred  and  fifty  lived  to  tell  of  the  Black  Hawk 
War,  one  of  the  most  discreditable  punitive  expedi- 
tions in  the  long  and  checkered  history  of  American 
relations  with  the  aborigines. 

As  for  the  indiscreet  but  honest  Black  Hawk,  in 
many  ways  one  of  the  most  interesting  of  North  Am- 
erican Indians,  he  was  promptly  surrendered  (Au- 


228  WISCONSIN 

gust  27)  by  the  Winnebago  to  the  Indian  agency 
at  Prairie  du  Chien.  Imprisoned  first  at  Jefferson 
Barracks  and  then  at  Fortress  Monroe,  exhibited 
to  throngs  of  curiosity-seeking  people  in  the  East- 
ern States,  and  obliged  to  sign  articles  of  perpetual 
peace,  he  was  finally  turned  over  for  safe-keeping  to 
his  hated  and  hating  rival,  the  Fox  chief  Keokuk. 
In  1834  his  autobiography  was  published  — a  book 
probably  authentic  for  the  most  part,  but  the  stilted 
style  is  no  doubt  that  of  his  white  editor. 

Dying  in  1838  (October  3)  upon  a  small  reserva- 
tion in  Iowa,  Black  Hawk's  grave  was  rifled  by  a 
traveling  physician,  who  utilized  the  bones  for  ex- 
hibition purposes.  Two  years  later  the  skeleton  was, 
on  the  demand  of  indignant  sympathizers,  surren- 
dered to  the  State  of  Iowa ;  but  in  1853  the  box 
containing  it  was  destroyed  by  a  fire  at  Iowa  City, 
then  the  capital  of  that  commonwealth. 

With  all  his  faults,  and  these  were  chiefly  racial, 
Black  Hawk  was  preeminently  a  patriot.  A  year 
before  his  death,  he  made  a  speech  to  a  party  of 
whites  who  were  making  of  him  a  holiday  hero, 
and  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. 


CHAPTER  X 

ESTABLISHMENT  OF  WISCONSIN  TEBEITORY 

MUCH  space  was  given  to  the  Black  Hawk  War 
in  the  periodical  press  of  the  day.  It  had  been 
many  years  since  an  Indian  uprising  had  startled 
the  country,  and  its  novelty  and  picturesqueness 
attracted  general  attention.  Not  only  many  of  the 
Western  papers,  but  several  of  the  Eastern,  had 
soldier  correspondents,  who,  when  nothing  of  mo- 
ment was  occurring  in  camp  or  on  the  march,  sent 
to  their  respective  journals  descriptions  of  the  fer- 
tile and  interesting  region  through  which  the  army 
was  passing.  The  alternating  groves,  prairies,  hills, 
lakes,  and  streams  appealed  strongly  to  the  imagi- 
nation of  the  writers,  and  their  enthusiasm  often 
expressed  itself  in  amusingly  florid  terms.  Not 
only  during  the  war,  but  closely  following  it,  there 
were  also  published  several  books  and  pamphlets 
giving  accounts  of  this  newly-discovered  paradise. 
The  westward  movement  being  then  popular  in  the 
Eastern  and  Middle  States,  these  publications  were 
eagerly  read,  with  the  immediate  consequence  that 
a  strong  migratory  tide  was  set  flowing  toward 
southern  and  eastern  Wisconsin  and  northern 
Illinois. 


230  WISCONSIN 

The  quelling  of  the  discontented  aborigines  had 
at  last  made  settlement  therein  safe,  and  large 
cessions  of  land  were  for  meagre  sums  promptly 
secured  from  the  now  pliant  tribes.  On  July  29, 
1829,  the  united  Chippewa,  Ottawa,  and  Potawa- 
tomi  agreed  at  Prairie  du  Ghien  to  cede  their  pos- 
sessions, given  to  them  by  the  treaty  of  1816,  lying 
between  Rock  and  Wisconsin  rivers ;  also  a  tract 
from  Grosse  Pointe,  near  Chicago,  westward  to 
Rock  River,  but  with  hunting  rights  reserved  until 
these  lands  should  be  sold  to  settlers.  The  Meno- 
minee,  in  a  treaty  held  September  3,  1832,  at 
Cedar  Point,  on  Fox  River,  ceded  four  million 
acres  on  Wolf  River  and  184,320  acres  along  the 
Wisconsin.  Twelve  days  later,  at  Rock  Island,  the 
Winnebago  agreed  to  vacate  their  extensive  plant- 
ing, hunting,  and  fishing  grounds  south  and  east 
of  the  Wisconsin  and  of  the  Fox  River  of  Greei> 
Bay.  Six  days  after  that,  the  Sauk  formally  relin^ 
quished  all  claims  they  might  have  to  holding? 
east  of  the  Mississippi.  At  a  further  treaty  with 
the  Chippewa,  Ottawa,  and  Potawatomi,  concluded 
at  Chicago  on  September  26,  1833,  these  tribes 
ceded  "all  their  land  along  the  western  shore  of 
Lake  Michigan,  and  between  this  lake  and  the  land 
ceded  to  the  United  States  by  the  Winnebago  na- 
tion," just  referred  to,  "  bounded  on  the  north  by 
the  country  ceded  by  the  Menominees,  and  on  the 
south  by  the  country  ceded  at  the  treaty  of  Prairie 
du  Chien,  made  on  the  29th  July,  1829,  supposed 


ESTABLISHMENT  OF  TERRITORY         231 

to  contain  five  million  acres."  The  effect  of  these 
several  conventions  was  to  quiet  aboriginal  title  to 
all  remaining  lands  in  Illinois,  and  to  all  of  that 
portion  of  the  future  Wisconsin  lying  south  and  east 
of  both  the  Wisconsin  and  the  Fox. 

North  and  west  of  these  streams  was  still  for 
the  most  part  Indian  country,  but  was  ceded  to 
the  United  States  in  a  series  of  treaties,  chiefly 
with  the  Chippewa  and  Menominee,  between  Octo- 
ber 4,  1842,  and  February  11,  1856.  By  the  last- 
named  convention,  all  Indian  title  to  Wisconsin 
lands  was  finally  quieted,  save  for  a  few  small 
reservations  to  certain  tribes.1 

With  peace  restored,  and  millions  of  fertile 
acres  thus  newly  opened  to  the  use  of  white  men, 
federal  land  offices  were  in  1834  opened  at  Min- 
eral Point  and  Green  Bay,  another  being  estab- 
lished at  Milwaukee  two  years  later.  The  lead-mine 
district  again  attracted  miners  and  speculators, 
Fox  River  valley  suddenly  entered  on  a  larger  and 
busier  life,  and  small  agricultural  communities 
sprang  up  at  many  sites  in  southern  and  eastern 

1  In  the  report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs  for  1904 
their  population  is  given  as  follows :  — 

Green  Bay  school 1804 

La  Points  agency 5275 

Oneida  agency 2058 

Wittenberg  school 1386 

Total  in  Wisconsin 10,523 

This  count  does  not  include  the  civilized   Brothertown  and 
Stockbridge,  chiefly  resident  in  Calumet  County. 


232  WISCONSIN 

Wisconsin,  that  in  our  day  are  occupied  by  cities 
and  villages.  By  the  year  1836  nearly  eleven  thou- 
sand whites  were  living  within  the  borders  of  the 
nascent  commonwealth.  Up  to  December  1  of  that 
year  it  was  reported  that  878,014  acres  had  been 
sold  therein  to  settlers  and  speculators  —  two  thirds 
to  the  latter  class,  who  were  now  overrunning  the 
Western  country.  This  was  a  remarkable  record, 
when  it  is  considered  that  previous  to  1834  no 
public  lands  had  been  disposed  of  within  the  limits 
of  Wisconsin,  save  that  Congress  had  confirmed 
the  private  French  claims  at  Green  Bay  and  Prairie 
du  Chien. 

The  country  lying  between  Lake  Michigan  and 
the  Mississippi  Kiver,  north  of  the  Illinois  line, 
remained  until  1836  a  portion  of  Michigan  Terri- 
tory. But  so  far  removed  were  these  fast-growing 
settlements  from  the  seat  of  government  at  De- 
troit, that  much  inconvenience  was  experienced  in 
the  administration  of  civil  government.  As  early 
as  1824,  James  Duane  Doty,  federal  circuit  judge 
at  Green  Bay,  and  political  leader  in  the  Fox 
River  valley,  —  a  man  of  good  education  and  fine 
manners,  —  began  an  agitation  for  a  new  territory, 
for  which  he  proposed  the  name  "  Chippewau." 
Congress  failed  to  act  upon  this  proposition,  but 
three  years  later  he  was  again  at  work  in  behalf  of 
his  project.  This  time  he  suggested,  in  recognition 
of  its  principal  river,  the  name  "  Wiskonsin,"  such 
being  Doty's  phonetic  rendering,  always  persisted 


ESTABLISHMENT  OF  TERRITORY         233 

in  by  him,  of  the  French  spelling,  "Ouisconsin,"1 
itself  an  attempt  to  phoneticize  the  aboriginal 
name.  In  1829,  Henry  Dodge,  one  of  the  leading 
spirits  in  the  lead-mine  region,  and  later  Doty's 
political  rival,  forcefully  presented  to  Michigan's 
territorial  delegate  in  Congress  the  "claims  the 
people  have  on  the  National  Legislature  for  a  divi- 
sion of  the  Territory." 

Meanwhile  Doty  continued  active  in  the  mat- 
ter, and  succeeded  in  inducing  the  Committee  on 
Territories,  in  the  federal  House  of  Representa- 
tives, to  introduce  (January  6,  1830)  a  "Bill  es- 
tablishing the  Territory  of  Huron,"  which  was  to 
be  bounded  on  the  south  by  the  states  of  Illinois 
and  Missouri,  westwardly  by  the  Missouri  and 
White  Earth  rivers,  northwardly  by  the  interna- 
tional boundary,  and  eastwardly  by  a  line  running 
practically  through  the  middle  of  Lake  Michigan, 

1  In  the  oldest  French  documents  it  is  spelled  "  Misconsing," 
"  Ouisconching,"  "  Ouiskensing1,"  etc.,  but  in  time  this  crystallized 
into  "  Ouisconsin."  The  meaning  of  the  aboriginal  word,  thus  va- 
riously rendered,  is  now  unknown.  Popular  writers  declare  that  it 
signifies  "  gathering  of  the  waters,"  or  "meeting  of  the  waters," 
having  reference,  possibly,  to  the  occasional  mingling  of  the  diver- 
gent streams  over  the  low-lying  watershed  at  Fox-Wisconsin 
portage ;  but  there  is  no  warrant  for  this.  In  order  to  preserve  the 
sound  in  English  it  became  necessary,  on  the  arrival  of  Ameri- 
cans, to  modify  the  French  spelling.  At  first  it  was  locally 
rendered  "  Wiskonsan  "  (which  is  closely  phonetic),  then  "  Wis- 
konsin  ;  "  but  Congress  seemed  to  prefer  the  hard  c,  and  this  was 
retained  in  place  of  k,  despite  the  protest  of  Governor  Doty  and 
many  Territorial  newspaper  editors.  Thus  the  official  spelling 
became  "Wisconsin." 


234  WISCONSIN 

the  Straits  of  Mackinac  (south  of  Mackinac  and 
Bois  Blanc  islands),  and  River  St.  Mary's.  This 
would  have  given  to  the  proposed  new  territory  all 
of  the  present  upper  peninsula  of  Michigan  and  a 
wide  tract  to  the  west  of  the  Mississippi. 

It  is  possible  that  the  scheme  for  the  Territory 
of  Huron  might  have  been  adopted,  had  not  there 
now  developed  a  somewhat  bitter  and  wordy  rivalry 
between  the  two  centres  of  population  in  the  coun- 
try west  of  Lake  Michigan,  —  the  rapidly-develop- 
ing and  somewhat  radical  industrial  region  of  the 
lead  mines,  and  the  conservative  agricultural  and 
commercial  valley  of  the  Fox.  Should  the  territorial 
capital  be  established  at  the  old  and  staid  fur- 
trading  and  garrison  town  of  Green  Bay,  the  seat 
of  Brown  County?  or  at  the  new  log-cabined  vil- 
lage of  Mineral  Point  (first  settled  in  1827-28), 
metropolis  of  the  lead  mines  and  seat  of  Iowa 
County,  which  in  1829  had  been  formed  out  of 
that  portion  of  Crawford  situated  to  the  south  of 
Wisconsin  River  ?  This  contest  appears  to  have 
dulled  the  interest  of  Congress ;  moreover,  Michi- 
gan vigorously  protested  that  the  proposed  division 
"  would  have  the  effect  to  impair  her  future  im- 
portance as  a  state." 

Another  bill  to  create  a  new  territory  out  of 
western  Michigan  passed  the  House  in  1831,  but, 
largely  because  of  the  local  quarrel,  failed  in  the 
Senate.  The  following  year,  still  another  was  re- 
ported in  the  House,  this  measure  reviving  the 


ESTABLISHMENT  OF  TERRITORY         235 

name  "  Wisconsin,"  but  the  project  was  laid  over 
among  the  unfinished  business  of  the  session.  In 
February,  1834,  a  similar  proposition  was  reported 
in  the  Senate ;  the  attempt,  however,  once  more 
proved  futile.  In  June  following,  all  of  the  trans- 
Mississippi  country  that  had  been  mentioned  in  the 
Huron  bill  was,  "  for  administrative  purposes,"  at- 
tached to  Michigan  Territory,  which  still  further 
emphasized  the  importance  of  dividing  the  latter. 
The  agitation  for  division  now  received  assistance 
from  the  movement  of  the  people  of  Michigan  to 
form  a  state  government ;  it  came  to  be  admitted 
upon  the  peninsula  that  the  bounds  of  the  territory 
were  far  too  extensive  for  the  proposed  common- 
wealth. 

There  still  remained  the  difficulty  of  establishing 
a  boundary  between  the  would-be  Territory  of 
Wisconsin  and  the  projected  State  of  Michigan. 
This  being  finally  arranged,  the  former  was  erected 
by  Congress  under  a  bill  approved  April  20, 1836, 
to  take  effect  "from  and  after  the  third  day  of 
July  next."  Wisconsin  Territory  was  given  the 
same  boundaries  as  the  present  state,  so  far  as 
Michigan  and  Illinois  were  concerned ;  but  to  the 
south  and  west  its  limits  ran  far  beyond  the  state's 
present  bounds  —  including  as  it  did  all  the  lands 
lying  north  of  the  State  of  Missouri  and  between 
the  Mississippi  River  on  the  east  and  the  Missouri 
and  White  Earth  on  the  west.  This  trans-Missis- 
sippi region  was  the  same  as  had,  "  for  adminis- 


236  WISCONSIN 

trative  purposes,"  been  annexed  in  1834  to  the 
Territory  of  Michigan. 

It  was  provided  in  the  act  that  the  laws  of  Michi- 
gan Territory  should  prevail  until  Wisconsin  could 
form  her  own  code,  that  the  first  legislative  assem- 
bly (consisting  of  a  council  and  a  house  of  repre- 
sentatives) was  to  hold  its  opening  session  at  such 
time  and  place  as  the  governor  might  appoint,  and 
that  the  governor  and  assembly  should  locate  and 
establish  the  seat  of  government.  Twenty  thousand 
dollars  were  appropriated  by  the  United  States  for 
aiding  in  the  erection  of  public  buildings  at  the 
selected  capital,  and  five  thousand  were  given  toward 
a  territorial  library ;  the  governor  was  directed  to 
hold  a  general  election  for  the  assembly,  and  a 
census  was  ordered  to  be  taken  previous  to  this 
election.  The  governor,  to  be  appointed  by  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  was  also  made  super- 
intendent of  Indian  affairs  and  commander-in-chief 
of  the  militia,  his  annual  salary  being  fixed  at 
$2500.  There  was  also  provided  by  the  enabling 
act  a  supreme  court  consisting  of  a  chief  justice  and 
two  associates,  and  the  customary  district  and  pro- 
bate courts  and  justices  of  the  peace.  The  scale  of 
living  expenses  upon  the  then  national  frontier 
may  be  appreciated  when  one  reads  in  the  act 
of  establishment  that  the  supreme  court  judges 
were  to  receive  $1800  per  year.  Three  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars  were  allowed  by  Congress  for  the 
expenses  of  the  first  legislative  session,  including 


ESTABLISHMENT  OF  TERRITORY         237 

printing  and  other  incidentals  ;  but  the  cost  actually 
incurred  aggregated  over  twenty-five  thousand  dol- 
lars, then  thought  to  be  an  exorbitant  expendi- 
ture. 

Meanwhile,  the  political  affairs  of  Michigan  were 
much  confused.  Presuming  that  statehood  would 
readily  be  granted  by  Congress,  a  state  constitution 
had  been  adopted  and  ratified  during  1835,  and  in 
October  of  that  year  an  election  for  state  officers 
was  held.  Although  as  yet  unauthorized  by  the 
federal  power,  the  machinery  of  state  government 
was  now  in  full  operation,  save  for  the  judicial 
branch,  which  was  not  organized  until  the  Fourth  of 
July,  1836.  Provision  had  been  made  for  the  penin- 
sula; but  the  country  west  of  Lake  Michigan,  then 
containing  the  counties  of  Brown,  Milwaukee,  Iowa, 
Crawford,  Dubuque,  and  Des  Moines,  was  "no 
man's  land  "  so  far  as  the  new  state  government 
was  concerned.  The  inhabitants  thereof,  together 
with  a  small  minority  in  Michigan  proper,  were 
nevertheless  persisting  in  their  rights  as  citizens 
of  Michigan  Territory. 

John  Scott  Homer  had,  in  September,  1835, 
a  month  before  the  state  election,  been  appointed 
by  President  Jackson  as  secretary  and  acting 
governor  of  Michigan  Territory.  The  coming  to 
Detroit  of  this  young  and  apparently  tactless 
Virginian,  quite  unfamiliar  with  Western  men  and 
affairs,  was  regarded  as  an  intrusion  and  aroused  a 
spirit  of  opposition ;  so  that  the  unfortunate  official 


238  WISCONSIN 

was  subjected  to  neglect,  and  more  than  once  to 
actual  insult. 

It  had  been  arranged  by  Horner's  predecessor 
that  the  territorial  legislative  council  should  hold 
a  session  at  Green  Bay,  commencing  the  1st  of 
January,  1836,  chiefly  for  the  benefit  of  the  west- 
ern part  of  the  territory.  But  in  November  Horner 
issued  a  proclamation  announcing  that  "  for  divers 
good  causes  and  considerations  "  the  date  would  be 
shifted  to  the  first  of  the  previous  December.  This 
occasioned  much  annoyance,  for  so  slow  were  the 
mails  that  few  if  any  of  the  western  members-elect 
received  notice  of  the  change  in  time  to  attend  the 
December  meeting,  which  therefore  was  not  held  ; 
neither  did  Horner  himself  report  for  duty.  A 
quorum  assembled  on  New  Year's  day,  but  still 
without  the  executive,  whose  presence  was  essential 
to  the  transaction  of  business,  and  the  session  ended 
on  the  15th.  Little  had  been  done  beyond  voting  a 
caustic  arraignment  of  the  absentee,  renewed  bick- 
ering over  the  location  of  the  proposed  territorial 
capital  of  Wisconsin,  and  the  adoption  of  a  report 
declaring  that  the  people  of  Michigan  Territory 
west  of  Lake  Michigan  had  been  ruled  "  rather  as 
a  distant  colony  than  as  an  integral  portion  of  the 
same  government." 

In  the  preceding  October  Stevens  T.  Mason  had 
been  elected  governor  of  the  State  of  Michigan,  and 
with  him  was  chosen  a  full  state  ticket.  Horner  was 
thus  left  in  an  anomalous  position.  President  Jack- 


ESTABLISHMENT  OF  TERRITORY         239 

son  eased  the  situation  for  his  appointee  by  pro- 
mising him  the  secretaryship  of  Wisconsin  Terri- 
tory, for  which  it  was  by  this  time  seen  that  Congress 
would  soon  make  provision.  In  the  spring  of  1836 
the  Winnebago  were  making  considerable  disturb- 
ance around  Fort  Winnebago,  because  their  annui- 
ties were  not  being  paid,  and  they  were  in  a  fam- 
ished condition.  Horner,  who  had  now  removed  to 
the  west  of  the  lake,  was  directed  to  proceed  to  the 
scene  of  trouble  and  pacify  them,  which  he  did  by 
distributing  to  the  malcontents  a  large  part  of  the 
food  stores  in  the  fort. 

Dodge,  now  well  known  because  of  his  part  in  the 
Black  Hawk  War,  had  on  May  6  been  appointed 
by  President  Jackson  as  first  governor  of  the  new 
territory.  Of  fine  physique  but  somewhat  pompous 
manner,  at  times  amazingly  obstinate  in  disposi- 
tion, and  obviously  deficient  in  early  education,  he 
nevertheless  was  a  creditable  official  and  a  man  of 
action ;  as  an  Indian  fighter  he  had  exhibited  a 
dash  and  bravery  that  appealed  strongly  to  the 
populace,  who  overestimated  his  other  qualities. 
Dodge  and  Secretary  Horner,  who  had  been  ap- 
pointed the  same  day,  took  the  oath  of  office  at 
Mineral  Point,  by  this  time  the  largest  town  in 
Wisconsin,  upon  the  Fourth  of  July.  The  ceremony 
was  the  principal  feature  of  a  noisy  celebration  of 
the  national  holiday  by  the  miners  of  the  district, 
many  of  whom  had  served  under  Dodge  and  idol- 
ized him.  Later  in  the  summer,  the  President  ap- 


240  WISCONSIN 

pointed  Charles  Dunn  as  chief  justice,  and  William 
C.  Frazer  and  David  Irvin  as  associate  justices  of 
the  supreme  court,  and  William  W.  Chapman  as 
federal  district  attorney.  Henry  S.  Baird,  the  pio- 
neer lawyer  of  Wisconsin,  was  appointed  by  the" 
governor  as  attorney-general. 

As  for  Michigan,  vexatious  delays  attended  her 
statehood  bill,  chiefly  owing  to  boundary  disputes 
with  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  the  incipient  Wisconsin, 
all  of  them  growing  out  of  conditions  imposed  by 
the  Ordinance  of  1787,  which  we  shall  presently 
discuss.  But  the  commonwealth  was  finally  ad- 
mitted to  the  Union  by  virtue  of  a  bill  approved 
January  26,  1837,  being  given  the  territorial  lim- 
its which  she  possesses  to-day. 

The  first  legislative  assembly  of  Wisconsin  Ter- 
ritory was  convened  on  October  25,  1836,  in  a 
story-and-a-half  frame  building  built  for  the  pur- 
pose, at  Belmont,  a  freshly-platted  town  in  the  pre- 
sent county  of  Lafayette,1  and  then  in  the  heart  of 
the  lead-mine  district.  There  were  thirty -nine  mem- 
bers, thirteen  in  the  council  and  twenty-six  in  the 
house  of  representatives.  That  part  of  the  territory 
in  which  the  original  title  had  thus  far  been  ac- 

1  Now  a  decayed  hamlet  of  meagre  proportions,  called  Leslie. 
The  name  Belmont  was  in  1867  removed  to  a  new  town,  three 
miles  to  the  southeast.  The  building  in  which  the  legislative  ses- 
sion was  held,  together  with  the  neighboring  dwelling  built  for 
Chief  Justice  Dunn,  and  the  office  of  the  Belmont  Express,  were 
still  in  existence  in  1908.  See  Wisconsin  Historical  Society  Pro- 
ceedings for  1906,  pp.  48-53. 


ESTABLISHMENT  OF  TERRITORY         241 

quired  by  purchase  —  south  and  east  of  Wisconsin 
and  Fox  rivers  —  was  subdivided  into  convenient 
counties ;  three  banks  were  established,  —  at  Du- 
buque,  Mineral  Point,  and  Milwaukee,  —  all  of 
which,  together  with  a  Green  Bay  bank  incorpo- 
rated by  Michigan  the  year  before,  ultimately 
failed  and  wrought  widespread  financial  disaster 
among  depositors.  But  the  discussion  awakening 
the  deepest  interest  in  the  legislature  was,  as  usual 
in  new  territories  and  states,  the  location  of  the 
capital. 

Among  the  older  towns,  Green  Bay  and  Mine- 
ral Point  were  still  the  chief  contestants  for  this 
honor,  it  being  supposed  that  prosperity  would 
quickly  follow  in  the  wake  of  such  prominence. 
But  the  young  village  of  Milwaukee,  then  three 
years  old  and  ambitiously  representing  commerce 
on  the  Great  Lakes,  had  appeared  in  the  lists. 
Other  claimants  were  Racine,  Koshkonong,  Fond 
du  Lac,  Madison,  City  of  the  Second  Lake,  City 
of  the  Four  Lakes,  Peru,  Wisconsin  City,  Portage, 
Helena,  Belmont,  Mineral  Point,  Platteville,  Cass- 
ville,  and  Belleview ;  while  Dubuque  also  had  ad- 
herents, for  it  will  be  remembered  that  what  is 
now  Iowa  was  then  a  part  of  Wisconsin.  Many  of 
these  were  town  sites  existing  only  on  paper  and 
in  the  brains  of  real  estate  speculators ;  among 
whom  Governor  Mason  of  Michigan  and  Judge 
Doty,  themselves  proprietors  of  several  rival  sites 
(including  Madison),  were  particularly  prominent. 


242  WISCONSIN 

Thus  distributing  their  interests,  this  pair  had 
from  the  first  a  decided  advantage  over  the  field, 
for,  losing  on  one  contest,  they  could  contentedly 
shift  their  votes  to  another,  and  thereby  prolong 
the  fight.  Doty,  who  astutely  managed  the  specu- 
lation, was  as  well  the  best-informed  man  of  his 
day  relative  to  the  topography  and  resources  of 
Wisconsin.  He  had  known  the  country  intimately 
since  1820,  when  with  Governor  Cass  and  Indian 
Agent  Henry  R.  Schoolcraft  he  made  an  expedi- 
tion to  Lake  Superior  and  the  sources  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi; and  since  his  appointment  as  federal  judge, 
his  long  and  somewhat  circuitous  horseback  tours 
between  the  court  towns  of  Green  Bay  and  Prairie 
du  Chien  had  given  him  a  rare  opportunity  to  be- 
come intimate  with  the  interior.  The  legislative 
discussion,  which  at  times  closely  approached  a 
wrangle,  continued  throughout  the  first  month  of  the 
session,  and  long  hung  on  the  question  as  to  which 
of  the  three  extreme  centres  of  population  should 
be  preferred.  Green  Bay,  situated  in  the  northeast 
corner  of  the  territory,  was  closely  connected  with 
the  stream  of  immigration  coming  westward  by  the 
Great  Lakes,  had  an  interesting  history  associated 
with  the  fur-trade  and  the  French  regime,  and  was 
already  taking  on  a  somewhat  aristocratic  social 
tone.  Mineral  Point,  in  the  southwest,  was  the 
larger  settlement,  and  the  seat  of  important  indus- 
trial interests.  Milwaukee,  young  and  hopeful, 
was  on  the  eastern  edge  of  the  territory,  and  by  no 


ESTABLISHMENT   OF   TERRITORY         243 

means  certain  of  ultimately  outgrowing  Kenosha 
and  other  lakeshore  rivals. 

Of  his  several  "  paper  towns,"  Doty's  favorite 
•was  Madison,  then  a  virgin  forest  situated  along  a 
narrow,  mile-wide  isthmus  between  Third  and 
Fourth  lakes,1  and  as  yet  not  even  surveyed.  On 
November  24,  Madison  (named  from  James  Madi- 
son, fourth  president  of  the  United  States)  was 
victorious.  The  story  was  long  current  that  city 
lots  therein  were  freely  distributed  by  the  tena- 
cious Doty  among  members  and  their  friends.  But 
aside  from  such  possible  considerations,  the  argu- 
ment for  Madison  was  deemed  conclusive,  because 
it  was  in  the  nature  of  a  compromise  between  the 
conflicting  interests  of  Green  Bay  and  the  mining 
country ;  and  being  situated  midway  between  set- 
tlements on  Lake  Michigan  and  the  Mississippi,  it 
was  hoped  that  the  proposed  new  town  would  as- 
sist in  developing  the  still  wild  interior.  Moreover, 
Doty  convinced  members  that  the  site  was  excep- 
tionally beautiful  and  healthful.  It  was  stipulated 
in  the  act  of  establishment  that  until  a  public 
building  could  be  erected  at  the  new  capital,  the 
legislature  was  to  meet  at  Burlington  (now  in  Iowa). 

In  February  following  (1837),  the  ground  still 

1  The  present  Indian  names  of  the  Four  Lakes  at  Madison  were 
first  applied  to  them  by  legislative  action  in  1855.  The  Winne- 
bago  name  for  the  series  was  Taychoperah  (Four  Lakes),  and 
white  pioneers  called  them  by  their  numbers,  from  south  to  north  : 
First  (now  Kegonsa),  Second  (Waubesa),  Third  (Monona),  and 
Fourth  (Mendota). 


244  WISCONSIN 

thickly  mantled  with  snow,  the  town  site  of  Madi- 
son was  roughly  platted  by  a  pioneer  surveyor  — 
the  capitol  park  in  the  centre,  with  streets  radiat- 
ing therefrom  after  the  manner  of  Washington,' 
and  these  patriotically  named  from  the  signers  of 
the  federal  Constitution.  In  March,  Eben  Peck, 
keeper  of  a  boarding-house  at  Blue  Mound  mine, 
some  thirty  miles  westward,  sent  out  two  French- 
men to  put  up  for  him  a  log  house  within  the  pro- 
jected city,  under  whose  roof  he  proposed  to  open  a 
tavern  for  the  accommodation  of  workmen  who  were 
to  be  sent  out  to  erect  the  capitol.  Upon  April  15, 
Roseline,  his  wife,  arrived  with  their  two-year-old 
boy,  to  take  possession  of  the  premises  in  advance 
of  her  husband's  coming.  Thus  a  woman  and  her 
infant  boy  were  the  first  permanent  white  settlers 
of  Madison,  and  its  first  building  was  a  boarding- 
house. 

It  was  the  10th  of  June  before  Building-Com- 
missioiier  Augustus  A.  Bird  arrived  from  Milwau- 
kee with  thirty-six  mechanics  and  laborers,  after  a 
dreary  and  toilsome  overland  journey  of  ten  days, 
through  rain  and  mud.  There  were  then  no  roads 
in  the  territory,  save  in  the  lead  region  for  the 
transportation  of  ore  by  ox-teams,  and  these  had 
been  developed  from  the  old  and  well-defined  In- 
dian trails  which  interlaced  the  country,  traces  of 
which  can  still  be  seen  in  some  portions  of  the 
state.  Bird  brought  with  him  sawmill  machinery 
and  other  heavy  materials  from  the  East,  unloaded 


ESTABLISHMENT  OF  TERRITORY         245 

for  his  use  upon  the  steamboat  dock  in  Milwaukee. 
His  were  the  first  wagons  wheeled  across  the  prai- 
ries and  through  the  oak  groves  (or  "  oak  open- 
ings," as  they  were  then  called)  of  southeastern 
Wisconsin.  Following  a  native  trail  from  Lake 
Michigan  to  the  Four  Lakes,  which  in  many  places 
was  by  his  little  caravan  worked  into  quagmires, 
the  rivers  were  swum  by  his  horses,  and  wagons 
and  freight  were  taken  over  in  Indian  canoes. 

The  capitol  was  but  slowly  built,  for  logs  must 
needs  be  cut  upon  the  neighboring  lake  shores  and 
worked  into  timber  at  the  official  sawmill,  and 
quarries  had  also  to  be  opened,  the  stone  being 
brought  across  Fourth  Lake  upon  rafts.  In  April, 
1838,  the  building  commissioner,  encompassed  by 
disappointments,  turned  the  work  over  to  a  con- 
tractor. Their  sadly-tangled  construction  accounts 
afterwards  became  a  fruitful  source  of  litigation 
and  legislative  claims,  extending  throughout  the 
territorial  period. 

In  November  the  legislative  assembly  first  met 
at  Madison.  But  as  only  fifty  boarders  could  be  ac- 
commodated in  the  place,  a  recess  was  taken  until 
January  26,  1839,  when  the  situation  was  some- 
what improved.  But  the  statehouse  was  still  far 
from  complete,  and  for  several  sessions  Madison, 
which  for  various  reasons  grew  but  slowly  in  those 
early  days,  proved  an  inconvenient  and  ill-provided 
meeting-place  for  the  legislature  of  the  young  ter- 
ritory. 


CHAPTER  XI 

TERRITORIAL    PIONEERS    AND    PIONEERING 

THE  financial  depression  of  1837  somewhat 
checked  Western  immigration,  and  Wisconsin  busi- 
ness men,  with  here  and  there  a  comparatively 
wealthy  farmer,  were  seriously  affected.  But  as  a 
rule  the  capital  chiefly  needed  by  pioneers  of  that 
period  was  muscle,  pluck,  and  brain,  and  it  was 
not  long  before  the  movement  toward  the  new  ter- 
ritory was  resumed  with  gathered  strength. 

The  earliest  American  settlers  of  the  Old  North- 
west had,  if  from  New  England,  New  York,  or 
Pennsylvania,  floated  down  the  Ohio  River  in  flat- 
boats,  keels,  and  barges ;  or  if  from  Virginia  and 
the  Carolinas,  they  trudged  on  foot  or  came  on 
horseback,  over  Boone's  famous  Wilderness  Road, 
through  Cumberland  Gap.  But  Wisconsin's  agri- 
cultural pioneers  for  the  most  part  came  by  more 
northern  paths.  These  varied  according  to  individ- 
uals and  circumstances.  For  example,  Whitehall, 
New  York,  was  for  some  time  the  port  for  Vermont 
families.  Reaching  that  town  by  stage  or  farm 
wagon,  burdened  with  household  goods,  farming  im- 
plements, and  seeds,  and  not  infrequently  live  stock, 
the  emigrants  took  boat  on  the  Northern  Canal  to 


TERRITORIAL   PIONEERS  247 

Troy,  where  they  met  others  from  northern  New 
England  and  various  parts  of  New  York.  The  Erie 
Canal  was  followed  to  Buffalo,  whence  a  steamboat 
took  the  pilgrims  to  Detroit,  then  the  chief  dis- 
tributing centre  for  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  Wiscon- 
sin. 

From  Detroit,  sailing  craft  and  steamers  carried 
the  settlers  to  Green  Bay,  Milwaukee,  Chicago, 
or  St.  Josephs.  But  frequently  all  space  on  board 
was  taken,  even  to  mattresses  spread  on  deck  and 
dining-saloon  floor.  In  such  case,  a  canvas-topped 
lumber  wagon,  or  a  rakish,  roomy  vehicle  popularly 
styled  "  prairie  schooner,"  was  thereafter  the  con- 
veyance into  the  still  farther  West,  sometimes  car- 
rying the  party  all  the  long  way  from  Detroit  to 
Wisconsin.  Occasionally,  after  crossing  Michigan 
peninsula  for  a  hundred  and  eighty  miles,  another 
vessel  might  be  found  at  St.  Josephs,  and  if  not 
overcrowded  this  could  be  taken  to  Chicago,  Mil- 
waukee, or  other  lake  ports.  Thousands  came,  of 
course,  from  the  Middle  States ;  others  moved  on 
from  the  older  communities  of  the  Northwest  (in 
Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois),  dissatisfied  with  pre- 
sent locations  and  hoping  for  better  openings  in  the 
still  newer  land ;  and  not  a  few,  even  thus  early, 
hailed  from  the  Old  World.  But  whatever  their 
origin  or  their  earlier  paths,  ultimately  they  must 
reach  the  distributing  points  of  Detroit,  Chicago, 
Milwaukee,  or  Green  Bay,  where  they  formed 
caravans  proceeding  into  the  interior,  —  all  save 


248  WISCONSIN 

such  settlers  and  prospectors  as  came  to  the  lead 
region  from  Missouri  and  the  border  states,  by  way 
of  the  Mississippi  and  Ohio,  or  by  overland  stage 
from  southern  Illinois. 

The  majority  of  these  pioneers,  who  obtained 
lands  on  easy  conditions  from  the  federal  govern- 
ment, under  the  homestead  laws  of  the  period,  were 
accustomed  to  toiling  with  their  hands  and  to  the 
simplicity  of  extremely  frugal  homes ;  well-to-do 
folk  seldom  cared  to  "  rough  it "  on  the  frontier. 
However,  the  many  privations  and  hardships  of 
Western  pioneering,  concerning  which  so  much  has 
truthfully  been  written,  meant  far  less  to  the  aver- 
age frontiersmen  than  it  might  to  us,  from  our  pre- 
sent point  of  view.  In  practice  they  took  to  them 
kindly,  as  being  not  unlike  their  previous  experi- 
ences in  the  outlying  sections  of  the  East,  in  the 
days  before  railways.  Perhaps  to  most  of  them  it 
meant  little  more  than  the  necessity  for  still  further 
simplicity ;  for  in  the  new  West,  so  recently  a  wil- 
derness, each  household,  despite  the  camaraderie 
of  backwoods  settlements,  was  in  large  measure 
absolutely  dependent  on  itself  for  material  things  — 
tools,  implements,  clothing,  and  food.  There  was, 
also,  to  those  who  loved  nature,  —  and  most  health- 
ful people  have  something  of  the  gypsy  within 
them,  —  much  of  quiet  joy  in  the  untrammeled  life 
of  virgin  lands.  Taking  life  seriously,  as  a  rule,  the 
intellects  of  most  frontiersmen  were  quickened  by 
the  new  conditions  and  requirements,  and  to  their 


TERRITORIAL   PIONEERS  249 

children  they  left  a  heritage  of  brawn  and  sober 
purpose. 

From  prehistoric  times,  rivers  have  been  the 
chief  highways  of  the  continental  interior.  For  this 
reason,  French  Canadians  almost  invariably  settled 
upon  their  banks.  But  in  developing  the  North- 
western wilderness,  the  American  backwoodsman 
was  seeking  good  farm  lands ;  ease  of  intercom- 
munication being  with  him  a  secondary  considera- 
tion. The  majority  of  them  had  perforce,  therefore, 
to  live  inland.  Not  seldom  the  Wisconsin  settler, 
when  at  last  he  had  "  broken  "  the  prairie  with  his 
heavy  oxplow,  or  had  chopped  and  burned  out  a 
"  clearing  "  in  the  dense  forest,  and  begun  to  study 
his  environment,  found  himself  a  hundred  miles  or 
more  from  even  a  primitive  gristmill,  possibly  up- 
wards of  thirty  from  a  post-office  or  "  store,"  these 
two  conveniences  usually  being  combined.  An  In- 
dian trail,  or  a  blazed  bridle-path,  was  perhaps  the 
only  connection  with  his  base  of  supplies  and  his 
market.  Happy  the  man  whose  log  hut  lay  along 
such  a  trail ;  then  he  might  occasionally  be  called 
on  "  to  put  up  "  some  gossipy  mail  carrier  for  the 
night,  *  to  entertain  a  circuit  preacher,  or  be  visited 
by  a  government  official  plodding  on  his  lonely 
tour. 

If  coming  in  the  summer,  the  traveler  made  his 
way  by  boat,  or  on  foot,  or  on  horseback  ;  his  win- 

1  Four  mail  routes  were  established  in  Wisconsin  by  the  fed- 
eral government  in  1832,  sixteen  in  1836,  and  fifteen  iu  1838. 


250  WISCONSIN 

ter  conveyance,  however,  was  apt  to  be  a  "  French 
train"  (a  long  narrow  box-sled,  drawn  by  two  horses 
tandem).  If  located  where  the  trail  crossed  a  river 
or  a  small  lake,  the  settler  might  turn  ferryman, 
perhaps  also  "  keep  tavern,"  for  the  accommodation 
of  these  chance  travelers,  who  would  almost  always 
leave  for  such  service  a  few  shillings  of  ready 
money.  Frequently,  however,  the  backwoodsman 
was  closely  hemmed  in  by  gloomy  woodlands,  or 
amidst  broad  prairies  stretching  to  the  horizon, 
quite  far  removed  from  any  track  leading  to  civili- 
zation, save  the  path  he  had  himself  broken  on  his 
arrival.  Then  would  he  see  his  neighbors  only  when 
log  houses  were  "  raised  "  by  the  combined  effort  of 
the  far-scattered  settlement,  or  at  "  bees  "  for  quilt- 
ing, harvesting,  corn-husking,  cider-making,  wood- 
chopping,  and  the  like. 

With  the  growth  of  settlement,  the  numerous 
Indian  trails  were  gradually  broadened  and  straight- 
ened into  wagon  roads,  and  other  highways  were 
added  as  necessity  required.  Apparently,  the  first 
real  road  to  be  opened  in  Wisconsin  was  laid  out 
in  1824  along  the  east  side  of  the  Fox,  from  Green 
Bay  to  Kaukauna,  doubtless  being  paid  for  by  pri- 
vate subscription.  In  1834  we  find  Michigan  Ter- 
ritory establishing  a  public  road  from  Milwaukee 
to  the  Mississippi,  by  way  of  Platte  Mounds.  The 
following  year,  provision  was  made  for  another 
from  Blue  Mounds  to  the  northern  boundary  of 
Illinois,  in  the  direction  of  Chicago ;  also  one  from 


TERRITORIAL   PIONEERS  261 

Milwaukee  to  Lake  Winnebago,  at  Calumet  vil- 
lage. By  1840,  Green  Bay,  the  Lake  Michigan 
towns,  and  the  interior  settlements  of  Janesville, 
Beloit,  and  Madison,  were  connected  with  each 
other  and  with  the  lead  mines  of  the  southwest. 
The  system  had  extended  by  1848  to  about  a  dozen 
principal  highways,  although  doubtless  most  of 
them  were  in  wretched  condition  during  wet  wea- 
ther. Previous  to  1843  there  were  no  roads  north 
and  west  of  the  Fox- Wisconsin  rivers  ;  in  that 
year,  however,  one  was  commenced  from  Prairie 
du  Chien  to  Chequamegon  Bay,  by  way  of  the 
Black  and  Chippewa  rivers. 

During  the  territorial  period,  Congress  appro- 
priated $67,000  for  military  roads  within  our  bor- 
ders. The  principal  one  extended  from  Green  Bay, 
via  the  east  shore  of  Lake  Winnebago,  to  Forts 
Winnebago  and  Crawford.  Others  were  from  Fort 
Howard  by  way  of  Milwaukee  and  Racine  to  the 
Illinois  boundary,  reaching  out  toward  Chicago ; 
from  Milwaukee  westward,  via  Madison,  to  a  point 
on  the  Mississippi  River  opposite  Dubuque  ;  from 
Racine,  via  Janesville,  to  Sinapee,  on  the  Missis- 
sippi; from  Sauk  Harbor  on  Lake  Michigan  to 
Wisconsin  River ;  from  Fond  du  Lac,  via  Fox 
Lake,  to  the  Wisconsin  ;  from  Sheboygan,  by  way 
of  Fond  du  Lac,  to  Fox  River  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Green  Lake  ;  and  from  Southport  (now  Keno- 
sha),  by  way  of  Geneva,  to  Beloit.  Many  of  these, 
however,  had  little  work  done  upon  them.  The 


252  WISCONSIN 

first  plank  road  of  record  was  built  in  1846  be- 
tween Lisbon  and  Milwaukee ;  but  the  following 
year  sixteen  companies  were  chartered  for  the  con- 
struction of  highways  thus  surfaced,  and  others 
followed  rapidly. 

Most  settlers  brought  with  them  from  their  East- 
ern homes  a  small  stock  of  the  frontier  staples,  salt 
pork  and  flour,  supposedly  sufficient  to  tide  them 
over  until  the  first  crop  could  be  garnered.  In  due 
course  this  supply  became  exhausted,  and  then  diffi- 
culty was  encountered  in  the  effort  to  replenish 
it,  for  usually  more  time  than  anticipated  was 
required  before  the  family  became  self-sustaining. 
But  although  there  were  instances  of  some  suffer- 
ing from  this  cause,  the  rivers,  lakes,  and  woods 
commonly  abounded  with  fish  and  game  of  many 
kinds,  and  the  average  frontiersman  was  of  neces- 
sity half  hunter,  half  farmer. 

We  have  seen  that  among  the  French  Creoles 
of  Wisconsin  several  were  educated  in  Montreal. 
It  is  of  record  that  as  early  as  1791  a  tutor  was 
employed  in  a  Green  Bay  family,  although  the 
"  first  regular  school "  was  not  opened  there  until 
1817.  Garrison  schools  were  inaugurated  at  Forts 
Crawford  (1817),  Howard  (1824),  and  Winnebago 
(1835)  for  children  of  both  officers  and  settlers. 
There  were,  also,  church  schools  for  white  and  In- 
dian youth  alike,  chief  among  them  the  Episcopal 
mission  at  Green  Bay  (commencing  1825).  At 
the  time  of  the  organization  of  the  territory  in 


TERRITORIAL  PIONEERS  253 

1836,  there  were  within  the  limits  of  the  present 
state  a  population,  as  already  noted,  of  some  eleven 
thousand  whites,  supporting  "eight  small  private 
schools,  and  two  hundred  and  seventy-five  pupils 
attending  them."  These  were  located  at  Green 
Bay,  Portage,  Prairie  du  Chien,  Mineral  Point 
(1830),  Platteville  (1833),  Milwaukee  (autumn 
of  1835),  Kenosha  (December,  1835),  and  She- 
boygan  (winter  of  1836-37).  The  school  at  Madi- 
son was  not  opened  until  March  1, 1838.  Not  until 
the  following  year  were  school  taxes  levied  in  Wis- 
consin. Up  to  that  time  popular  education  was  on 
a  subscription  basis  ;  indeed,  in  many  communities 
public  funds  had,  even  after  this  date,  to  be  sup- 
plemented by  private  aid. 

At  the  first  session  of  the  legislature,  in  Bel- 
mont  (1836),  an  act  was  passed  for  the  establish- 
ment at  that  village  of  "  Wisconsin  University." 
The  following  year,  the  "  Wisconsin  University  of 
Green  Bay  "  was  likewise  provided  for,  on  paper ; 
and  a  few  months  later  (January  5,  1838),  an  act 
organizing  the  "University  of  the  Territory  of 
Wisconsin "  was  approved  by  the  governor,  but 
nothing  further  was  done  about  it  until  ten  years 
afterward,  when  Wisconsin  had  become  a  state. 
Normal  instruction,  apart  from  that  given  depart- 
mentally  in  the  state  university,  was  deferred  to 
a  much  later  date  (1865). 

A  newspaper  appeared  in  Green  Bay  before  the 
organization  of  the  territory.  The  first  number  of 


254  WISCONSIN 

the  "Intelligencer"  (semi-monthly),  the  "first 
newspaper  published  between  Lake  Michigan  and 
the  Pacific  Ocean,"  was  dated  December  11, 1833. 
Of  world  or  national  news  there  was  little,  and  that 
obtainable  chiefly  from  "  A  gentleman  just  arrived 
from  the  East,  "  but  occasionally  the  small  doings 
of  the  village  and  of  Fox  River  valley  were  re- 
corded, and  the  "  poet's  column "  seldom  lacked 
contributors.  Neither  was  the  "  Intelligencer " 
lacking  in  the  usual  self-assertion  of  enterprise,  for 
it  headed  its  meagre  news  columns  with  this  refrain, 
having  reference  to  the  pedestrian  mail  carrier 
from  Chicago :  — 

"  Three  times  a  week,  without  any  fail, 
At  four  o'clock  we  look  for  the  mail, 
Brought  with  dispatch  on  an  Indian  trail." 

Milwaukee's  first  public  journal  was  the  "  Ad- 
vertiser," established  in  July,  1836.  The  Belmont 
"  Gazette  "  followed  in  October  of  the  same  year ; 
but  when  Belmont  ceased  to  be  the  capital,  the 
types  and  press  were  removed  to  Mineral  Point, 
to  print  the  "  Miners'  Free  Press,"  which  appeared 
the  next  June  (1837).  The  "  Wisconsin  Enquirer" 
began  service  in  Madison  in  November,  1838. 

From  the  fall  of  New  France  in  1763,  the  Catho- 
lic Church  appears  to  have  practically  abandoned 
what  is  now  Wisconsin ;  indeed,  services  at  Green 
Bay  must  have  been  quite  irregular  after  the  open- 
ing of  the  Fox  Wars  and  the  burning  of  St.  Francis 
Xavier  mission  in  1688.  We  know  that  the  Jesuit 


TERRITORIAL   PIONEERS  255 

Father  Jean  Baptiste  Chardon  was  at  La  Baye  in 
1721,  and  it  is  probable  that  occasional  missionary 
tours  were  undertaken  hither  by  Mackinac  priests, 
who  kept  the  nearest  registry  of  baptisms,  mar- 
riages, and  deaths.  In  1823  the  Church  renewed 
its  work  at  Green  Bay;  La  Pointe  Indian  mission 
reopened  in  1835,  and  Milwaukee  diocese  was 
erected  in  1844. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  first  Protestant 
sermon  in  Wisconsin,  of  record,  was  preached  in 
1820  by  Rev.  Jedediah  Morse,  a  Presbyterian 
divine ;  but  it  was  sixteen  years  later  before  his 
denomination  formally  entered  the  territory.  The 
Episcopalians  opened  a  church  at  Green  Bay  in 
1825,  contemporaneous  with  their  Indian  mission 
school.  The  Congregationalists,  then  doing  mission 
work  in  conjunction  with  the  Presbyterians,  built 
a  church  and  school  in  1827  or  1828,  for  the  Stock- 
bridge  mission  at  Statesburg,  near  South  Kau- 
kauna ;  and  another  for  the  La  Pointe  Indians  in 
1833.  A  Methodist  preacher  appeared  in  the  lead 
mines  as  early  as  1828,  and  four  years  subsequently 
similar  work  was  established  by  that  denomination 
at  Kaukauna.  The  Baptists  appear  to  have  begun 
their  labors  in  Wisconsin  in  1839. 

With  all  these  evangelizing  agencies  actively  at 
work  among  them,  the  early  settlers  of  the  terri- 
tory seldom  lacked  the  comforts  of  religion ;  but 
so  sparse  was  the  settlement  and  so  slender  the 
financial  resources  of  the  parishioners,  that  the 


256  WISCONSIN 

early  ministry,  largely  itinerant,  was  ill  provided 
for  and  often  subject  to  genuine  hardships.  Its 
members  deserve  to  rank  among  the  most  useful 
and  daring  of  the  pioneer  class.  Churches  as  well 
as  schools  were  among  the  earliest  institutions  in 
each  community;  a  study  of  town  and  county 
annals  reveals  the  fact  that  everywhere  they  fol- 
lowed speedily  in  the  wake  of  the  first  arrivals. 
Thus  Wisconsin  soon  took  a  firm  stand  in  the 
cause  of  secular  and  religious  education. 

We  have  spoken  of  the  industrial  "  bees,"  whereat 
would  gather  men,  women,  and  children,  often  liv- 
ing many  miles  apart,  intent  on  assisting  each  other 
with  work  that  if  carried  on  unaided  might  to  many 
families  seem  a  dreary  and  in  some  instances  im- 
possible burden.  These  gatherings,  eagerly  antici- 
pated by  the  countryside,  were  occasions  of  much 
boisterous  jollity,  and  through  the  familiar  meeting 
of  young  folk  the  source  also  of  much  frontier  ro- 
mance. The  humors  of  the  day  were  often  uncouth. 
There  was  a  deal  of  horseplay,  hard  drinking,  and 
profanity,  and  occasionally  a  personal  encounter 
during  the  heat  of  discussion ;  but  an  undercurrent 
of  good-nature  was  generally  observable.  Dances, 
singing  classes,  and  spelling  contests  were  favorite 
amusements,  in  both  village  and  rural  life.  The 
spasmodic  visits  of  the  circuit  preacher,  and  oc- 
casional summer  camp-meetings  and  "  protracted 
meetings,"  were  also  welcome  breaks  in  the  te- 
dium of  farm  labor. 


TERRITORIAL  PIONEERS  257 

The  majority  of  the  territorial  pioneers  of  Wis- 
consin were  of  course  farmers,  next  in  number  being 
mechanics  and  village  storekeepers.  But  there  were 
also  many  professional  men,  and  men  of  affairs, 
generally  young  and  ambitious,  who  had  flocked  to 
the  new  territory  from  the  East,  seeking  fame  or 
wealth  or  both  —  just  as  enterprising  young  col- 
lege men  of  the  present  generation  find  openings  in 
the  Dakotas,  Oklahoma,  Oregon,  and  Washington. 
This  type  was  chiefly  to  be  found  at  Green  Bay, 
Milwaukee,  Madison,  Prairie  du  Chien,  and  in 
the  lead  region.  Green  Bay,  in  particular,  was  the 
home  of  an  exceptionally  brilliant  coterie,  who  from 
the  first  assisted  in  shaping  public  opinion  and  in 
organizing  meritoi'ious  enterprises  James  Duane 
Doty,  his  cousin  Morgan  L.  Martin,  Henry  S. 
Baird,  Ebenezer  Childs,  and  William  Dickinson 
are  examples  of  this  class;  the  first  three  conspic- 
uous in  law  and  politics,  the  other  two  in  trade  and 
manufactures. 

Of  prominent  Milwaukeeans  we  have  space  to 
mention  but  a  few  types,  —  Alexander  Mitchell, 
the  first  and  greatest  Wisconsin  banker;  Byron 
Kilbourn  and  George  H.  Walker,  who  aided  in 
developing  business  interests  in  the  metropolis  ; 
Increase  A.  Lapham,  famous  in  several  sciences, 
and  originator  of  the  federal  Weather  Bureau ; 
and  Rufus  King,  Philo  White,  and  John  S.  Fill- 
more,  journalists  of  repute. 

Men  of  prominence  throughout  the  territory  came 


258  WISCONSIN 

to  be  familiar  figures  on  the  streets  of  the  capital, 
not  only  from  their  presence  during  legislative  ses- 
sions, but  because  in  summer-time  it  was  a  favorite 
tarrying-place  for  overland  travelers  between  the 
lead  mines  and  Milwaukee  and  Green  Bay.  In 
time  the  village  itself  soon  attracted  skillful  law- 
yers to  her  bar,  and  the  Madison  newspapers  were 
edited  with  unusual  ability.  Among  territorial  edi- 
tors at  the  seat  of  government,  whose  names  are 
deserving  of  permanent  record,  were  W.  W.  Wy- 
man,  S.  D.  Carpenter,  H.  A.  Tenney,  Benjamin 
Holt,  Beriah  Brown,  George  Hyer,  Josiah  A. 
Noonan,  and  Julius  T.  Clark.  As  already  noted, 
the  university,  which  in  our  day  employs  many 
teachers  and  writers  of  national  reputation,  did 
not  exist  in  territorial  times. 

The  lead  region  was  particularly  favored  with 
men  who  achieved  success  in  several  fields  of  ac- 
tion. The  vigorous  and  ambitious  Dodge  —  miner, 
soldier,  and  politician  —  was  perhaps  most  widely 
known.  Thomas  P.  Burnett,  Charles  Dunn,  Mor- 
timer M.  Jackson,  and  Moses  M.  Strong  were 
lawyers  who  acquired  a  considerable  reputation. 
Among  the  miners,  John  H.  Rountree  and  Wil- 
liam Stephen  Hamilton  (son  of  the  famous  Alex- 
ander Hamilton)  were  men  of  education,  mental 
breadth,  and  enterprise,  who  strongly  influenced 
the  early  life  and  career  of  the  district. 

Prairie  du  Chien,  relatively  a  far  less  important 
community  at  present  than  formerly,  was  the  home 


TERRITORIAL  PIONEERS  259 

of  several  such  men  as  Hercules  S.  Dousman  and 
Alfred  Brunson,  types  of  pioneers  highly  efficient 
in  their  respective  spheres  of  business  and  the 
pulpit. 

As  the  political  and  educational  centre  of  the 
state,  Madison  may  still  be  considered  as  in  some 
respects  its  most  cosmopolitan  city.  But  in  terri- 
torial times  it  was  notable  each  winter,  during  the 
legislative  session,  as  the  gathering-place  of  promi- 
nent men  and  women  from  all  parts  of  Wisconsin, 
who  came  as  legislators,  lobbyists,  or  spectators,  and 
were  often  accompanied  by  their  families.  Trans- 
portation arrangements  being  necessarily  primitive, 
visitors  often  tarried  throughout  the  season,  filling 
the  crude  hotels  to  overflowing,  but  amid  the  gen- 
eral social  gayety,  heeding  little  the  many  discom- 
forts. A  reminiscent  pioneer  has  left  to  us  this 
genial  picture  of  early  Madison  under  such  condi- 
tions :  — 

With  the  session  came  crowds  of  people.  The  public 
houses  were  literally  crammed  —  shake-downs  were 
looked  upon  as  a  luxury,  and  lucky  was  the  guest  con- 
sidered whose  good  fortune  it  was  to  rest  his  weary 
limbs  on  a  straw  or  hay  mattress. 

We  had  then  no  theatres  or  any  places  of  amusement, 
and  the  long  winter  evenings  were  spent  in  playing  vari- 
ous games  of  cards,  checkers,  and  backgammon.  Dancing 
was  also  much  in  vogue.  Colonel  James  Maxwell,  mem- 
ber of  council  from  Rock  and  Walworth,  was  very  gay, 
and  discoursed  sweet  music  on  the  flute,  and  Ben.  C. 


260  WISCONSIN 

Eastman,  one  of  the  clerks,  was  an  expert  violinist.  They 
two  furnished  the  music  for  many  a  French  four,  cotillon, 
Virginia  reel,  and  jig,  that  took  place  on  the  puncheon 
floors  of  the  old  log  cabins  forming  the  Madison  House 
[the  tavern  erected  hy  EhenPeck].  .  .  .  Want  of  cere- 
mony, fine  dress,  classic  music,  and  other  evidences  of 
present  society  life,  never  deterred  us  from  enjoying  our- 
selves those  long  winter  evenings. 

"  Personal  journalism  "  of  the  most  acrimonious 
type  was  then  much  in  vogue,  and  party  spirit  ran 
high.  Quarrels  between  the  territorial  governor 
and  the  legislature  were  not  infrequent.  The  po- 
litical pessimist  might  have  found  in  the  Madison 
newspapers  of  the  day  much  to  confirm  his  fore- 
bodings. Nevertheless,  the  legislation  was  on  the 
whole  commendable.  The  country  was  rapidly  fill- 
ing up  with  a  robust  population  from  the  Eastern 
states  and  an  increasing  contingent  of  foreign-born, 
and  this  necessitated  new  apportionments  after  each 
census.  These  usually  gave  rise  to  displays  of  parti- 
san sharp  practice.  New  counties  had  to  be  carved 
out,  either  from  freshly-ceded  Indian  lands  in  the 
northern  and  central  portions,  or  by  subdivisions  of 
organized  counties.  The  statutory  laws,  originally 
borrowed  from  Michigan,  required  remolding  to 
accord  with  local  conditions.  Ever  present,  much 
affecting  all  political  action,  was  the  ambition  for 
statehood  at  as  early  a  date  as  Congress  could  be 
induced  to  admit  Wisconsin  to  the  Union. 

An  event  occurred  during  the  session  of  1841-42 


TERRITORIAL  PIONEERS  261 

that  gained  for  the  territory  an  unfortunate  noto- 
riety. Dodge  had  early  in  October  been  removed 
from  the  governorship  by  President  Tyler,  who  in 
his  place  appointed  Doty.  Less  tactful  than  his  old 
rival,  Doty  promptly  drew  on  himself  the  dislike  of 
the  legislature  by  asserting  in  his  opening  message 
that  no  territorial  law  was  effective  until  expressly 
approved  by  Congress.  Despite  his  undoubted  legal 
acumen,  the  executive  was  worsted  in  the  wordy 
dispute  that  followed,  and  strained  relations  were 
the  result. 

The  governor  had  nominated  one  Baker  as  sheriff 
of  Grant  County,  but  there  was  a  strong  disposi- 
tion in  the  council  to  table  the  nomination.  Doty's 
action  was  upheld  by  his  neighbor,  Charles  C.  P. 
Arndt  of  Brown  County,  and  opposed,  among  others, 
by  James  R.  Vineyard  of  Grant.  On  February  11, 
a  personal  altercation  arose  between  the  two,  result- 
ing in  the  former  striking  the  latter,  who  thereupon 
shot  and  killed  his  assailant.  Vineyard  was  at  once 
expelled  from  the  council ;  but  upon  being  tried  for 
manslaughter  was  acquitted.  Charles  Dickens,  the 
English  novelist,  was  then  making  his  first  tour  of 
the  United  States,  and  with  customary  exaggeration 
cited  this  tragedy  in  "  American  Notes  "  as  typical 
of  public  life  in  the  West.  The  affair  remains  to 
this  day  the  most  painful  incident  in  the  legislative 
records  of  Wisconsin. 

It  was  not  usual  for  Western  pioneers,  nerved 
by  personal  ambition  and  aglow  with  expectations, 


262  WISCONSIN 

seriously  to  concern  themselves  with  the  reforma- 
tion of  society.  Among  the  hordes  of  immigrants 
who  annually  poured  into  the  promised  lands  of 
the  Mississippi  valley  were,  however,  a  few  well- 
meaning  people  much  concerned  with  questions  of 
social  betterment.  In  the  year  1843,  the  people  of 
Southport  became  interested  in  the  theories  of  the 
French  socialist  Charles  Fourier,  then  being  advo- 
cated by  Horace  Greeley  in  the  New  York  "  Tri- 
bune." An  association  was  formed,  called  "  The 
Wisconsin  Phalanx,"  and  in  May  and  June,  1844, 
a  settlement  made  in  the  valley  of  Ceresco,  now 
included  in  the  city  of  Ripon.  About  a  hundred 
and  fifty  persons,  a  few  of  them  men  and  women  of 
some  ability,  and  nearly  all  industrious  folk,  event- 
ually joined  the  community,  which  soon  erected  sub- 
stantial buildings.  The  members  ate  in  common,  but 
each  family  lived  in  its  own  compartment.  Labor 
was  voluntary,  in  common  fields  and  shops,  but  di- 
rected by  officials  of  the  phalanx,  and  each  person 
received  dividends  in  proportion  to  his  value  as  a 
worker.  Business  and  social  meetings  were  held  in 
the  evenings :  on  Tuesday  evening  a  literary  and 
debating  club  met ;  on  Wednesday  a  singing  school ; 
and  on  Thursday  there  was  dancing.  Religious  be- 
lief was  free,  and  there  were  other  personal  privi- 
leges, such  as  the  liberty  to  maintain  a  horse  and 
carriage  "  by  paying  to  the  association  the  actual 
cost  of  keeping."  All  children  must  attend  school, 
and  "  devote  a  portion  of  time  each  day  to  some 


TERRITORIAL  PIONEERS  263 

branch  of  industry ;  "  but  parents  might  make  other 
provisions  for  this  than  the  phalanx  school. 

Had  members  been  content  with  ordinary  re- 
wards for  labor,  the  phalanx  might  have  lasted. 
Their  farming  profits  were  rather  above  the  aver- 
age ;  at  less  expense  they  were  better  fed  and 
clothed  than  their  neighbors  ;  and  they  had  many 
social  enjoyments  denied  to  others.  But  the  strong 
and  willing  were  yoked  to  the  weak  and  slothful ; 
individual  abilities  were  not  given  full  play ;  men 
around  them  were  acquiring  fortunes  in  land  specu- 
lation and  other  enterprises,  from  which  they  were 
debarred.  Dissatisfaction  arose,  and  grew  to  such 
an  extent  that  after  seven  years  the  phalanx  began 
to  melt  away.  The  land  was  eventually  sold  at 
greatly  increased  value,  with  a  considerable  profit 
to  each,  and  the  Fourier ites  went  out  into  the  world 
again,  each  man  to  battle  for  himself.1 

Two  other  cooperative  industrial  communities 
were  established  in  territorial  Wisconsin.  A  party 
of  thirty  Englishmen,  mostly  married,  were  led 
hither  in  1843  by  Thomas  Hunt,  a  follower  of  Rob- 
ert Owen.  Buying  a  farm  in  Spring  Lake,  at  North 
Prairie,  in  Waukesha  County,  they  sought  to  put 
in  practice  Owenite  principles.  After  three  dismal 
years  the  projectors,  none  of  them  accustomed  to 
farm  labor,  abandoned  the  plan  and  melted  into  the 
population  about  them.  In  the  same  year,  several 

1  See  S.  M.  Pedrick, "  The  Wisconsin  Phalanx  at  Ceresco,"  in 
Wis.  Hist.  Soc.  Proceedings,  1902. 


264  WISCONSIN 

London  mechanics  organized  the  Utilitarian  Asso- 
ciation of  United  Interests,  and  in  1845  sixteen  of 
them  left  for  America,  settling  upon  two  hundred 
acres  near  Mukwonago.  Much  of  this  land  was 
undrained,  and  malaria  claimed  several  victims. 
Crops  were  poor,  for  the  men  were  not  versed  in 
agricultural  methods  ;  prices  were  low ;  the  cooper- 
ative plan  did  not  satisfy  them  in  practice ;  and 
at  the  end  of  three  years  they  also  were  "  starved 
out."  Selling  their  farm  at  a  fair  price,  the  mem- 
bers settled  in  Milwaukee,  where,  following  their 
respective  trades,  they  again  prospered. 

Another  communistic  enterprise  in  Wisconsin 
Territory  was  of  a  far  different  type  from  these. 
In  1843  there  dwelt  in  Racine  County,  at  the  pretty 
little  village  of  Burlington,  a  lawyer  from  New 
York  State,  named  James  Jesse  Strang.  Erratic, 
half-educated,  and  possessed  of  an  almost  insane 
passion  for  notoriety,  he  nevertheless  was  keen- 
witted and  a  fluent  public  speaker.  One  of  his  fol- 
lowers described  him  in  later  years  as  "  small  and 
spare,  with  a  thin  hatchet  face,  and  reddish  hair, 
but  one  of  the  most  fascinating  orators  imagin- 
able." At  first  we  hear  of  him  as  an  active  political 
worker,  a  temperance  agitator,  and  the  editor  of  a 
country  newspaper. 

In  January,  1844,  Strang  visited  the  large  Mor- 
mon colony  at  Nauvoo,  Illinois,  was  baptized  by 
Joseph  Smith,  became  an  elder  in  the  church,  and 
was  regarded  as  so  valuable  an  acquisition  to  the 


TERRITORIAL   PIONEERS  265 

Latter  Day  Saints  that  the  Wisconsin  missionary 
field  was  assigned  to  his  charge.  In  June  follow- 
ing, the  Smiths  were  slain  by  a  mob  at  Nauvoo, 
and,  although  but  a  fresh  convert,  Strang  claimed 
the  right  to  succeed  Joseph.  His  pretensions  were 
backed  by  documents  alleged  to  have  been  written 
by  the  "  martyr,"  but  these  the  "  twelve  apostles  " 
at  Nauvoo  denounced  as  vulgar  forgeries. 

Driven  from  Illinois  by  his  fellow  religionists, 
Strang  established  a  communistic  Mormon  colony 
on  White  River,  near  Burlington,  and  called  it 
Voree.  In  a  vigorous  proclamation,  abounding  in 
caustic  references  to  his  enemies,  he  declared  that 
the  Angel  of  the  Lord  had  revealed  to  him  this 
location  as  the  City  of  Promise,  and  had  "cut  off" 
the  "  Brighamites "  at  Nauvoo.  By  April,  1845, 
adherents  began  to  arrive ;  for  no  matter  how 
strange  may  be  a  religious  cult,  followers  will  soon 
be  attracted  to  it.  President  Strang's  "  visions  " 
were  regularly  reported  in  his  monthly  newspaper 
organ,  the  Voree  "Herald,"  and  missionaries  were 
dispatched  by  him  to  form  "  primitive  Mormon  " 
groups  in  Ohio,  New  York,  and  other  Eastern  and 
Central  states,  where  they  often  had  sharp  encoun- 
ters with  Brigham  Young's  representatives.  It 
was  claimed  in  the  autumn  of  1846  that "  from  one 
to  two  thousand  people  "  were  settled  at  Voree  "  in 
plain  houses,  in  board  shanties,  in  tents,  and  some- 
times many  of  them  in  the  open  air." 

Strang,  claiming  to  be  divinely  inspired,  was  in 


266  WISCONSIN 

this  so-called  community  a  dictator  in  all  things, 
temporal  as  well  as  spiritual.  From  time  to  time 
he  pretended  to  unearth  sets  of  brazen  tablets, 
bearing  rudely-etched  hieroglyphics  supposed  to 
be  the  Holy  Law,  which  "  under  angelic  guidance  " 
he  translated  into  a  jargon  fashioned  in  Biblical 
phrase.  In  this  and  other  more  or  less  hackneyed 
devices  he  displayed  much  ingenuity  in  duping  his 
growing  company  of  fanatics. 

In  May,  1847,  a  branch  of  Voree  was  founded 
on  Big  Beaver  Island,  in  a  lonely  archipelago 
near  the  outlet  of  Lake  Michigan.  Despite  the  op- 
position of  neighboring  fishermen,  who  had  squatted 
on  the  islands  and  did  not  relish  this  invasion  of 
their  realm  by  Strang's  "  saints,"  the  colony  grew 
rapidly,  and  soon  became  headquarters  for  the 
sect ;  Voree  being  thenceforth  allowed  to  stagnate. 
Within  two  or  three  years  two  thousand  devotees 
had  gathered  in  the  new  colony,  having  built  neat 
houses,  roads,  a  dock,  a  large  tabernacle  of  logs, 
and  a  steam  sawmill. 

The  island  is  in  the  midst  of  a  region  still  fa- 
mous for  its  fish,  the  forests  of  the  archipelago 
gave  promise  of  great  value,  the  soil  was  fertile, 
and  access  from  the  mainland  difficult.  Strang 
thought  this  isolated  place  an  ideal  location  for  his 
little  commonwealth,  whose  city  he  called  after 
himself,  "St.  James."  Doubtless  it  would  have 
been,  had  not  the  Gentile  fishermen  made  his  life 
a  burden.  These  rude  folk,  heavily  armed  and 


TERRITORIAL  PIONEERS  267 

often  under  the  influence  of  liquor,  invaded  and 
broke  up  the  meetings  of  the  elect,  debauched 
their  women,  fiercely  warned  new  arrivals  to  leave 
before  they  could  land  at  the  dock,  and  spread  re- 
ports that  the  sectarians  were  but  freebooters  who 
robbed  the  mails  and  sheltered  counterfeiters. 

In  1850  the  colony  was,  as  a  result  of  "  revela- 
tions," reorganized  as  a  "kingdom."  There  was  a 
"  royal  press,"  from  which  issued  the  "  Northern 
Islander,"  for  Strang  understood  fully  the  power 
of  printer's  ink ;  foreign  ambassadors  were  ap- 
pointed ;  and  the  leader  was  formally  crowned 
(July  8)  "  king,  apostle,  seer,  revelator,  and  trans- 
lator." The  community  system  was  abandoned, 
tithes  were  now  collected,  and  polygamy  estab- 
lished —  Strang's  allowance  being  five  wives  ;  tea, 
coffee,  and  tobacco  were  prohibited,  and  schools 
and  debating  clubs  opened.  Creature  comforts 
there  were,  in  abundance ;  the  colonists  exhibited 
a  certain  thrift,  and  some  of  the  elements  of  civili- 
zation prevailed ;  but  they  were  a  rough,  illiterate, 
sensual  people,  easily  influenced  by  a  suave,  intel- 
lectual fellow  like  Strang. 

The  enemies  of  the  "  king  "  were  not  confined  to 
the  warring  Gentile  fishermen.  With  the  growth 
of  power,  he  had  become  harsh  and  absolute  in  his 
tone,  thus  arousing  opposition  in  his  own  ranks. 
The  malcontents  did  not  hesitate  to  carry  malicious 
tales  of  misdeeds  to  the  mainland  authorities,  and 
soon  newspapers  in  such  lakeshore  cities  as  Buffalo, 


268  •  WISCONSIN 

Cleveland,  and  Detroit  contained  long  and  sensa- 
tional reports  of  doings  in  the  Kingdom  of  St. 
James.  In  May,  1851,  Strang  and  a  few  of  the 
chief  apostles  were  arrested  and  taken  on  board  a 
government  steamer  to  Detroit,  where  they  were 
tried  for  a  long  list  of  misdemeanors  —  among 
others,  squatting  on  government  land.  Strang  con- 
ducted the  defense  with  remarkable  ability  and 
eloquence,  and  secured  a  release  in  the  face  of  vio- 
lent popular  prejudice  against  him. 

Two  years  later,  now  returning  for  a  time  into 
political  life,  and  of  course  controlling  a  large  vote, 
he  was  elected  to  the  legislature,  where  his  seat  was 
unsuccessfully  contested  on  the  ground  that  he  was 
an  enemy  to  public  welfare ;  again  he  skillfully 
downed  his  opponents  and  proved  a  useful  and 
tactful  member.  In  1855,  however,  like  many  an- 
other crowned  head,  he  was  assassinated  by  some 
of  his  own  subjects.  Not  being  immediately  killed 
by  the  two  bullets  fired  at  him,  he  was  taken  on  a 
stretcher  to  Voree  by  a  small  party  of  his  followers. 
There,  until  death,  he  was  carefully  attended  by  his 
first  and  lawful  wife,  who  had  declined  to  follow 
him  during  his  polygamous  career  on  Beaver  Island. 
Dying  on  July  9,  Strang  was  buried  at  Voree  (now 
Spring  Prairie),  which  soon  thereafter  was  aban- 
doned by  the  Mormons.  As  for  St.  James,  the 
riotous  fishermen  promptly  demolished  the  city 
with  axe  and  torch,  and  its  deluded  inhabitants 
were  driven  forth  to  seek  homes  elsewhere.  A 


TERRITORIAL  PIONEERS  269 

few  of  them  still  dwell  upon  the  islands  off  Green 
Bay  and  along  the  rugged  shores  of  Door  Pen- 
insula.1 

1  See  H.  E.  Legler,  "  A  Moses  of  the  Mormons,"  in  Parkman 
Club  Papers,  vol.  ii. 


CHAPTER  XII 

TERRITORIAL   AFFAIRS 

IT  will  be  remembered  that  the  old  Northwest 
Territory  embraced  all  the  lands  between  the  Ohio 
and  Mississippi  rivers  and  the  Great  Lakes.  The 
Ordinance  of  1787  provided  for  the  ultimate  divi- 
sion of  the  territory  into  five  states :  three  south  of 
"  an  east  and  west  line  drawn  through  the  southerly 
bend  or  extreme  of  Lake  Michigan,"  and  two  north 
of  it.  Had  this  east  and  west  line  been  strictly 
adhered  to,  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois  would  have 
had  no  footing  whatever  upon  the  Great  Lakes. 
Upon  one  pretext  or  another,  each  of  them,  fortu- 
nately, was  able  to  induce  Congress  to  violate  this 
provision  and  grant  lake  harbors  to  the  southern  tier 
of  states. 

When  Michigan,  the  fourth  state  of  the  Old 
Northwest,  was  being  formed,  much  dissatisfaction 
was  expressed  in  the  peninsula  that  Ohio  had  been 
given  Maumee  Bay  and  the  site  of  Toledo,  and  a 
clamor  arose  for  Michigan's  "  ancient  rights  "  to  the 
east  and  west  line  of  the  ordinance  as  a  southern 
boundary.  It  had  always  tacitly  been  understood 
that  the  fifth  state,  when  formed,  should  have  all 
of  the  land  west  of  Lake  Michigan  and  the  River 


TERRITORIAL  AFFAIRS  271 

St.  Mary's.  But  before  Wisconsin  Territory  was 
organized,  Congress  awarded  to  Michigan  the  upper 
peninsula  as  recompense  for  having  lost  Mau- 
mee  Bay  to  Ohio,  and  a  narrow  strip  abutting  on 
Lake  Michigan  to  Indiana.  This  arrangement  was 
at  the  time  unpopular  in  Michigan,  whose  people 
bitterly  lamented  the  exchange ;  but  ultimately 
it  proved  a  boon  to  that  state,  for  the  copper  and 
iron  mines  of  the  upper  peninsula  came  to  be  among 
her  richest  possessions.  While  benefiting  Michi- 
gan, however,  the  transaction  materially  lessened 
Wisconsin's  potential  share  of  the  Northwest 
Territory. 

The  strip  that  Illinois  had  been  granted  (1818) 
along  Lake  Michigan,  north  of  the  east  and  west 
line,  was  sixty-one  miles  wide.  Upon  this  splendid 
tract  of  8500  square  miles  of  agricultural  and  lead- 
mining  lauds  are  to-day  planted  the  cities  of  Chi- 
cago, Evanston,  Waukegan,  Freeport,  Rockford, 
Dixon,  Elgin,  and  Galena,  and  between  them  is 
a  populous  and  progressive  rural  district.  All  of 
this  prosperous  territory  would  now  be  within  the 
limits  of  Wisconsin,  had  the  letter  of  the  ordinance 
been  observed. 

Trouble  over  the  Wisconsin-Michigan  boundary 
began  in  March,  1836,  when  the  bill  for  Wisconsin 
Territory  was  reported  to  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives. An  attempt  was  then  made  to  regain  for 
Wisconsin  the  greater  part  of  Michigan's  upper 
peninsula,  but  it  was  defeated,  and  what  is  sub- 


272  WISCONSIN 

stantially  the  present  boundary  was  provided  for  ; 
but  the  description  read  that  the  line  was  to  pro- 
ceed up  Montreal  River,  from  Lake  Superior  to 
Lake  Vieux  Desert ;  thence  down  certain  head- 
streams  of  the  Menominee  to  the  main  channel  of 
that  river,  and  thence  to  Green  Bay.  A  map  of  the 
region,  used  in  the  congressional  committees,  showed 
such  a  natural  boundary  extending  from  Lake  Su- 
perior to  Green  Bay.  But  later,  federal  surveyors, 
in  seeking  to  run  the  interstate  line,  established 
that  there  was  no  continuous  waterway  as  depicted 
upon  the  old  map,  and  that  Lake  Vieux  Desert 
was  far  from  being,  as  erroneously  supposed  by 
the  cartographer,  the  common  source  of  the  Mon- 
treal and  Menominee.  It  is,  in  fact,  the  head- 
waters of  Wisconsin  River,  and  isolated  from  the 
two  other  streams.  There  was  much  haggling  over 
this  discovery,  and  subsequently  over  the  compro- 
mises reached  by  the  boundary  surveyors.  In  Feb- 
ruary, 1842,  Governor  Doty  declared  it  an  "  im- 
practicable line,"  and  urged  the  legislature  to  take 
advantage  of  the  situation  to  claim  the  upper  pen- 
insula, which  "belongs  to  the  fifth  state  to  be  formed 
in  Northwest  Territory." 

Governor  Dodge  was  responsible  for  inaugurat- 
ing the  contention  over  the  loss  of  territory  to  Il- 
linois. In  December,  1838,  he  secured  the  adoption 
by  the  legislature  of  a  vigorous  memorial  to  Con- 
gress on  the  subject  —  a  paper  promptly  pigeon- 
holed at  Washington  by  the  Senate  judiciary  com- 


TERRITORIAL  AFFAIRS  273 

mittee.  Thirteen  months  after  this,  resolutions  were 
again  adopted  by  the  Wisconsin  legislature,  calling 
the  attention  of  Congress  to  the  fact  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." 

These  resolutions  created  an  uproar  on  both  sides 
of  the  line.  In  Illinois,  curiously  enough,  popular 
sentiment  in  the  fourteen  northern  counties  inter- 
ested seemed  strongly  in  favor  of  Wisconsin's 
claim;  but  in  Wisconsin  itself  public  sentiment 
was  generally  against  them.  A  public  meeting  at 
Green  Bay  "  viewed  the  resolutions  of  the  legislature 
with  concern  and  regret,"  and  that  body  was  asked 
to  rescind  them.  The  reason  for  this  opposition  in 
Wisconsin  will  be  evident,  when  it  is  explained  that 
the  fervor  aroused  by  the  two  governors  and  other 
politicians  at  Madison  over  these  boundary  conten- 
tions was  known  to  be  in  large  measure  induced  by 
a  desire  to  hurry  Wisconsin  into  statehood;  the 
large  population  south  of  the  line  being  deemed 
necessary  to  pad  the  census,  as  an  inducement  to 
Congress  to  favor  this  project.  Most  people  in  the 
territory,  however,  were  as  yet  unprepared  to  ac- 
cept statehood,  with  its  attendant  increase  of  taxes 
and  responsibility. 

On  taking  office  in  1841,  Doty  renewed  the  attack 
both  on  Michigan  and  Illinois  with  even  greater 
bitterness,  were  that  possible.  He  ordered  out  of 
the  disputed  tract  to  the  south  certain  Illinois  land 


274  WISCONSIN 

commissioners.  Popular  referendum^  were  at  his 
request  held  in  the  northern  counties  of  that  state, 
to  pass  upon  the  question  of  jurisdiction,  in  which 
elections  Wisconsin  carried  the  day.  In  June,  1842, 
he  officially  informed  the  governor  of  Illinois  that 
the  latter' s  commonwealth  was  "exercising  an  ac- 
cidental and  temporary  jurisdiction  "  over  a  body 
of  people  who  should  be  citizens  of  Wisconsin. 

In  December,  1843,  Doty  again  called  the  atten-. 
tion  of  the  legislature  to  both  the  Illinois  and  the 
Michigan  boundary  questions,  once  more  standing 
stoutly  for  "the  birthright  of  the  State,"  the  "an- 
cient limits  of  Wisconsin."  Under  his  inspiration 
a  strongly-worded  report  was  prepared  by  a  select 
Senate  committee,  who  suggested  that  while  there 
was  little  hope  of  getting  other  states  to  "  surrender 
any  rights  of  territory,"  once  acquired,  Congress 
should  be  requested  to  give  Wisconsin,  for  the  loss 
of  territory,  some  recompense,  such  as  Michigan 
had  obtained  for  cessions  on  her  southern  border. 
This  compensation,  the  committee  thought,  should 
come  in  the  form  of  congressional  appropriations  for 
the  construction  of  certain  internal  improvements 
within  the  territory,  such  as  a  railroad  between 
Lake  Michigan  and  the  Mississippi,  the  improve- 
ment of  the  old  Fox- Wisconsin  waterway  for  the 
passage  of  large  vessels  between  the  Great  Lakes 
and  the  Great  River,  a  canal  between  the  Fox  and 
Rock  rivers,  and  harbors  at  various  ports  on  Lake 
Michigan.  Should  Congress  not  grant  these  reason- 


TERRITORIAL  AFFAIRS  275 

able  suggestions,  the  committee  urge  that  Wiscon- 
sin take  the  attitude  of  "  a  state  out  of  the  Union, 
and  possess,  exercise,  and  enjoy  all  the  rights,  priv- 
ileges, and  powers  of  the  sovereign,  independent 
State  of  Wisconsin,  and  if  difficulties  must  ensue, 
we  could  appeal  with  confidence  to  the  Great  Um- 
pire of  nations  to  adjust  them."  There  was  an  ac- 
companying appeal  to  Congress  "  to  do  justice  while 
yet  it  is  not  too  late,"  for  the  people  of  Wisconsin 
"will  show  to  the  world  that  they  lack  neither  the 
disposition  nor  the  ability  to  protect  themselves." 
This  belligerent  state  paper,  to  which  small  at- 
tention appears  to  have  been  paid  by  the  territorial 
press,  aroused  in  the  legislature  an  acrimonious  de- 
bate, in  which  favorable  speeches  were  mingled 
with  others  making  scoffing  allusion  to  the  com- 
mittee Report  as  a  "  declaration  of  war  against  Great 
Britain,  Illinois,  Michigan,  and  the  United  States.'* 
Finally  adopted  by  a  close  vote,  the  memorial 
reached  Congress  in  March,  1844.  It  is  perhaps 
needless  to  add  that  that  body  paid  no  attention  to 
the  interesting  communication  ;  and  Wisconsin,  for 
all  the  war  talk  of  her  state-rights  politicans,  re- 
gained none  of  the  territory  that  had  been  taken 
from  her.  Indeed,  in  1848,  when  Wisconsin  be- 
came a  state,  Congress  took  from  her,  to  give  to 
Minnesota,  the  country  between  St.  Croix  Kiver 
and  the  upper  Mississippi,  a  vast  and  wealthy 
tract  in  which  are  now  situated  Duluth  and  much 
of  the  cities  of  Minneapolis  and  St.  Paul. 


276  WISCONSIN 

From  the  first  the  people  of  the  territory,  in  com- 
mon with  their  fellow  citizens  of  several  neighbor- 
ing states  and  territories,  were  much  concerned  in 
seeking  federal  aid  for  internal  improvements. 
This  quest  was  pursued  by  Wisconsin  with  a  some- 
what feverish  persistence  that  gives  point  to  the 
futile  "  demands  "  made  upon  Congress  in  connec- 
tion with  the  boundary  dispute.  But  the  Demo- 
cratic party,  dominant  at  the  time  of  Wisconsin's 
entrance  upon  the  scene  as  a  territory,  was  opposed 
to  appropriations  for  this  purpose;  and  even  the 
Whigs,  who  gained  power  in  1840,  were  in  this 
respect  illiberal  towards  Wisconsin,  the  result  being 
that  during  the  entire  territorial  period  there  was 
obtained  but  a  small  fraction  of  the  improvements 
sought. 

As  early  as  1836  there  was  a  popular  agitation 
in  favor  of  a  federal  canal  to  connect  Milwaukee 
and  Rock  rivers,  with  the  design  of  thus  furnish- 
ing continuous  navigation  between  Lake  Michigan 
and  the  Mississippi.  Despairing,  however,  of  ob- 
taining a  congressional  appropriation  therefor,  a 
number  of  prominent  citizens  secured  from  the 
legislature  (1838)  a  charter  for  the  Milwaukee  and 
Rock  River  Canal  Company.  The  territory  was 
promptly  solicited  for  the  loan  of  its  credit  to  float 
the  enterprise.  This  request  was  ultimately  refused, 
after  a  protracted  fight,  partly  because  of  jealousy 
manifested  by  the  promoters  of  the  Fox- Wisconsin 
enterprise,  but  chiefly  because  the  people  at  large 


TERRITORIAL  AFFAIRS  277 

had  an  almost  morbid  fear  of  incurring  any  man- 
ner of  territorial  debt. 

Congress,  however,  voted  a  land  grant  in  assist- 
ance of  the  project  (1838),  with  the  stipulation 
that  the  territory  was  to  conduct  sales  therefrom 
and  use  the  income  in  completing  the  canal.  In  ac- 
cepting this  gift,  the  territory  unwittingly  became 
in  effect  a  partner  in  the  undertaking,  a  condition 
of  affairs  leading  to  much  popular  discontent  and 
legislative  bickering,  and  ultimate  disaster  to  the 
canal  (1844),  upon  which  some  fifty-seven  thou- 
sand dollars  had  been  expended,  chiefly  in  improve- 
ments to  Milwaukee  River.  The  territory  fell  heir 
to  some  of  the  canal  bonds,  which  it  repudiated, 
although  later  the  state  itself  paid  them.  When 
Wisconsin  entered  the  Union,  the  federal  govern- 
ment claimed  that  she  still  was  owing  upwards  of 
a  hundred  thousand  dollars  to  the  canal  fund,  and 
withheld  this  sum  from  the  net  proceeds  due  the 
state  from  the  sale  of  public  lands  within  her 
bounds.1  As  to  whether  or  not  this  canal,  had  it  been 
completed  as  designed,  would  have  proved  a  valu- 
able asset  of  the  commonwealth,  is  still  an  open 
question  in  Wisconsin  history. 

Suggestions  for  the  improvement  of  the  Fox  and 
Wisconsin  rivers,  especially  for  a  canal  connecting 

1  See  W.  R.  Smith,  History  of  Wisconsin,  vol.  iii ;  M.  B.  Ham- 
mond, "  Financial  History  of  Wisconsin  Territory,"  in  Wis.  Hist. 
Soc.  Proceedings,  1893;  andR.  V.  Phelan,  "  Financial  History  of 
Wisconsin,"  in  Univ.  of  Wis.  Bulletins,  No.  193. 


278  WISCONSIN 

them  at  Portage,  had  frequently  been  made  during 
the  French  regime,  as  well  as  in  the  English  and 
the  early  American.  A  definite  project  therefor 
began  in  1839  to  be  actively  pushed  in  the  territo- 
rial legislature.  Seven  years  later,  Congress  made 
a  grant  of  land  in  its  aid.  In  1848  the  improve- 
ment was  placed  by  the  legislature  in  the  hands  of 
a  board  of  public  works,  and  by  1851  the  long- 
desired  canal  at  Portage  united  the  two  divergent 
waterways.  The  latter  year,  a  contract  for  better- 
ing the  navigation  of  the  Fox  was  awarded  to 
Morgan  L.  Martin,  who  later  organized  the  Fox 
and  Wisconsin  Improvement  Company.  This  cor- 
poration, although  the  victim  of  political  wrangling, 
for  party  tactics  and  sectional  jealousies  then  en- 
tered into  almost  every  walk  of  life,  was  aided  by 
increased  land  grants  from  Congress. 

In  time,  however,  since  the  work  assumed  larger 
porportions  than  anticipated,  Eastern  capital  was 
invited  to  assist  in  the  growing  enterprise.  This 
alliance  led,  along  a  stormy  path  which  we  need 
not  here  follow,  to  financial  complications,  bank- 
ruptcy, and  foreclosure ;  and  in  1872  the  federal 
government  purchased  the  works. 

First  and  last,  millions  of  dollars  were  spent  by 
individual  capitalists  and  the  nation  upon  this  time- 
honored  project.  Indeed,  until  about  1875  a  dispo- 
sition to  battle  for  appropriations  for  this  purpose 
was  a  cardinal  qualification  required  of  candidates 
for  Congress  in  northern  and  central  Wisconsin. 


TERRITORIAL  AFFAIRS  279 

Nothing  now  remains  to  show  for  the  lavish  ex- 
penditure save  an  admirable  water-power  system 
on  the  lower  Fox,  a  still  shallow  and  weedy  chan- 
nel on  the  upper  Fox  above  Berlin,  and  on  the 
Wisconsin  below  Portage  a  few  shabby  remnants 
of  wing  dams  vainly  designed  to  control  its  shifting 
sands.  Except  at  unusually  high  stages  of  water, 
navigation  over  this  once  great  fur-trade  route 
between  Green  Bay  and  Prairie  du  Chien  is  now 
possible  only  to  row  boats  and  light-draught  pleas- 
ure launches,  and  sometimes  even  these  meet  with 
difficulties  on  the  Wisconsin.  In  short,  the  route 
was  practicable  only'  so  long  as  its  use  was  con- 
fined to  canoes,  bateaux,  barges,  and  timber  rafts 
—  both  rivers  were  of  immense  importance  in  the 
heyday  of  Wisconsin  lumbering,  —  but  no  engin- 
eering skill  has  been  able  to  adapt  it,  throughout, 
to  deep-draught  vessels  of  the  present  time. 

Although  the  inhabitants  west  of  Lake  Michi- 
gan came  under  American  domination  in  1816,  we 
have  seen  that,  although  they  were  citizens  of 
Michigan,  because  of  their  great  distance  from 
Detroit  the  machinery  of  local  government  was 
tardily  established  among  them.  Taxes  were  not 
collected  anywhere  within  the  district  before  1820- 
21,  and  then  only  in  Crawford  County,  which  seems 
to  have  been  a  more  pliant  member  of  Michigan 
Territory  than  was  Brown  County ;  in  the  Fox 
River  valley,  Michigan  statutes  were  frequently 
ignored,  and  relations  with  the  Detroit  government 


280  WISCONSIN 

were  more  or  less  strained.  Local  assessments  ap- 
pear to  have  been  made  from  time  to  time  in  Green 
Bay,  but  apparently  no  regular  tax  was  levied  until 
after  1833.  It  was,  indeed,  not  until  the  organiza- 
tion of  Wisconsin  Territory  that  all  of  the  region 
included  within  its  bounds  came  under  the  opera- 
tions of  a  well-regulated  system  of  administration. 
The  tax-gatherer  is  nowhere  a  welcome  visitor. 
In  a  sparsely-settled  community  like  this,  that  had 
long  existed  with  but  few  forms  of  government, 
and  where  little  convertible  wealth  had  as  yet  ac- 
cumulated, schemes  for  obtaining  public  revenue 
were  necessarily  unpopular.'  Plans  for  taxation 
were  keenly  criticised  by  our  pioneers,  and  every 
public  expenditure  found  its  opponents.  Even  the 
school  taxes  of  1838-40  created  much  dissatisfac- 
tion, and  for  a  time  they  necessarily  were  made 
optional  with  the  community.  The  expenses  of  the 
annual  legislative  session  aroused  special  antag- 
onism. It  was  pointed  out  in  1844  that  whereas 
the  whole  assessment  of  the  territory  was  but  eight 
million  dollars,  the  meeting  of  the  legislature  alone 
cost  eighty  thousand,  or  one  per  cent  of  the  valua- 
tion. The  Grant  County  "  Herald"  indignantly  ex- 
postulated (September  14,  1844)  that  this  meant, 
"  We  shall  be  compelled  to  pay  nearly  two  per  cent 
of  a  tax  on  all  our  property  assessed ! "  Despite 
the  fact  that  at  one  time  (1842)  Congress  liquid- 
ated the  territorial  debt  of  forty-five  thousand 
dollars,  it  still  had  upon  entering  the  Union  a  new 


TERRITORIAL  AFFAIRS  281 

debt  of  nearly  thirteen  thousand,  the  greater  part 
of  it,  however,  being  the  unpaid  bonds  of  the  un- 
fortunate Milwaukee  and  Rock  River  Canal. 

Even  before  the  coming  of  American  troops  to 
Green  Bay,  the  great  pine,  hard  wood,  and  mixed 
forests  of  the  northern  two-thirds  of  Wisconsin  be- 
gan to  play  some  part  in  the  economic  development 
of  the  region ;  in  time  lumbering  (chiefly  of  white 
pine)  came  to  be  Wisconsin's  foremost  industry, 
and  so  remained  until  quite  recent  years.  No  less 
than  seven  large  rivers,  with  their  many  tributa- 
ries, drained  the  enormous  "pineries,"  enabling 
logs  to  be  floated  to  far-distant  markets,  and  occa- 
sionally furnishing  power  for  sawmills.  Six  clearly- 
defined  lumbering  districts  were  thereby  estab- 
lished,—  the  shore  of  Green  Bay,  Wolf  River, 
Wisconsin  River,  Black  River,  Chippewa  and  Red 
Cedar,  and  the  Wisconsin  branch  of  the  St.  Croix. 

So  far  as  is  now  known,  the  first  sawmill  in  the 
state  was  built  in  1809,  near  De  Pere.  No  other 
appears  to  have  been  established  in  the  Green  Bay 
district  until  twenty  years  later,  on  Pensaukee 
River,  but  important  lumbering  operations  are  not 
recorded  before  1834.  The  Wolf  River  district  was 
not  operated  in  until  1835.  It  would  seem  that 
soldiers  were  cutting  logs  on  the  Wisconsin,  for 
the  building  of  Fort  Winnebago  (Portage),  in 
1826  ;  and  on  the  same  river  three  years  later,  for 
Fort  Crawford  (Prairie  du  Chien).  Black  River 
was  very  early  entered  upon  by  loggers,  a  mill 


282  WISCONSIN 

being  built  at  Black  River  Falls  in  1819 ;  but  be- 
cause of  Indian  opposition  the  industry  was  aban- 
doned until  1839.  Logging  operations  were  com- 
menced on  various  branches  of  the  Chippewa  as 
early  as  1822,  but  disastrous  freshets  and  aboriginal 
hostility  compelled  a  retreat  of  the  lumbermen ; 
a  successful  mill  was  finally  erected  in  1828  on  the 
site  of  the  present  Menomonie.  In  the  height  of 
the  Wisconsin  lumber  industry  (about  1876)  a 
billion  and  a  half  feet  of  pine  was  annually  mar- 
keted, some  eighteen  thousand  men  being  employed 
in  the  various  stages  of  production,  —  cutting,  raft- 
ing, river-driving,  and  manufacturing  timber  and 
shingles.  To-day  by  far  the  greater  part  of  our 
original  forests  has  been  cut  over.  The  principal 
Wisconsin  operators,  who  have  amassed  large  for- 
tunes in  this  once  enormous  industry,  are  now 
similarly  exploiting  the  woods  of  Southern  and 
far  Northwestern  states;  while  the  commonwealth, 
now  that  its  supply  of  pine,  once  supposedly  ex- 
haustless,  has  been  seriously  depleted,  is  for  the 
benefit  of  future  generations  energetically  plan- 
ning to  reforest  some  of  the  great  areas  of  gaunt 
and  neglected  "  cut-over  "  lands. 

During  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, "  wildcat "  financial  methods  were  in  vogue 
throughout  the  Middle  West.  Together  with  her 
sister  commonwealths,  Wisconsin  had  much  un- 
fortunate experience  with  banks  and  bankers  of 
this  disreputable  sort.  The  Bank  of  Wisconsin,  at 


TERRITORIAL  AFFAIRS  283 

Green  Bay,  opened  in  1834,  was  the  first  institu- 
tion of  its  kind  west  of  Lake  Michigan ;  it  was  fol- 
lowed two  years  later  by  banks  at  Mineral  Point 
and  Milwaukee,  and  the  year  after  that  by  another 
at  Prairie  du  Chien.  The  financial  panic  of  1837, 
combined  with  reckless  management  by  their  of- 
ficers, brought  these  banks  into  serious  trouble. 
The  Prairie  du  Chien  institution  was  of  short  dura- 
tion; the  Green  Bay  and  Milwaukee  banks  had 
their  charters  annulled  by  the  legislature  (1839) 
because  of  irregularity,  and  that  at  Mineral  Point 
failed  (1841)  with  heavy  loss,  its  charter  being 
thereafter  promptly  repealed. 

Nominally  there  were  now  no  banks  in  the  terri- 
tory. But,  patterning  by  the  example  of  Illinois, 
there  had  been  organized  two  insurance  corporations, 
one  at  Green  Bay  (1838)  and  the  other  at  Mil- 
waukee (1839),  which,  although  not  styled  banks, 
performed  all  their  functions.  Their  charters  con- 
tained stipulations  to  the  effect  that  "nothing  herein 
contained  shall  give  banking  privileges ;  "  never- 
theless the  recitation  of  powers,  adroitly  phrased, 
included  all  that  any  legitimate  bank  could  wish  to 
do.  This  plain  violation  of  the  intent  of  the  legis- 
lature led  that  body  to  proceed  to  extraordinary 
length  in  seeking  to  prevent  further  corporations 
of  any  sort  from  like  transgressions.  No  plank-road, 
mining  and  smelting,  navigation  and  transporta- 
tion, or  even  church  society  could  be  incorporated 
until  a  clause  had  been  inserted  in  its  charter  to 


284  WISCONSIN 

the  effect  that  "  nothing  herein  contained  shall  be 
construed  as  in  any  way  giving  to  the  said  company 
any  banking  privileges  whatever  or  any  right  to 
issue  any  certificate  of  deposit,  or  other  evidence 
of  debt  to  circulate  as  money." 

Despite  its  irregularity  in  doing  a  business  not 
intended  by  the  legislature,  the  Wisconsin  Marine 
and  Fire  Insurance  Company  of  Milwaukee  soon 
came  to  be  an  important  factor  in  the  betterment 
of  banking  methods  in  the  West.  The  corporation 
was,  almost  from  the  first,  largely  managed  by  its 
secretary,  Alexander  Mitchell,  a  young  but  emi- 
nently skillful  Scotch  banker  from  Aberdeen.  In  the 
general  scarcity  of  reputable  currency,  its  certifi- 
cates of  deposit,  invariably  paid  on  presentation, 
came  into  wide  circulation,  and  "  Mitchell's  bank," 
as  it  was  popularly  called,  did  a  thriving  business 
in  assisting  colonists  to  take  up  government  land. 
Its  manager's  reputation  became  as  wide  as  the 
nation,  and  although  at  one  time  he  had  in  circu- 
lation a  million  and  a  half  dollars'  worth  of  paper, 
the  integrity  of  which  rested  simply  on  his  promise 
to  pay,  the  Milwaukee  company  was  the  only 
financial  concern  in  the  Northwest  that  stood  the 
pressure  of  the  times  and  maintained  itself  without 
a  flaw. 

The  legislature,  beset  by  Mitchell's  rivals,  fre- 
quently sought  to  check  him  in  his  prosperous 
although  technically  illegal  career.  In  1845  his 
charter  was  annulled  ;  but  as  that  document  gave 


TERRITORIAL  AFFAIRS  285 

the  company  existence  until  1868,  the  latter  per- 
sisted in  transacting  business,  and  when  enjoined 
in  Milwaukee  made  arrangements  to  pay  notes  in 
Chicago,  St.  Louis,  Detroit,  and  elsewhere.  For 
years,  amidst  this  persecution,  Mitchell  was  neces- 
sarily legislative  lobbyist  as  well  as  banker,  and 
successful  in  both  pursuits.  In  1852  a  general 
banking  act  was  passed ;  whereupon,  simply  add- 
ing the  word  "  Bank  "  to  its  former  title,  the  com- 
pany opened  the  first  regular  bank  in  Milwaukee, 
under  the  new  law.  Years  of  wildcat  experiences 
were  still  before  the  people  of  the  West,  but 
throughout  this  protracted  financial  storm  Mitch- 
ell's institution,  Scotch-like  in  integrity  and  per- 
sistence, stood  like  a  rock. 

President  Tyler  removed  Governor  Doty  in  the 
autumn  of  1844,  and  appointed  in  his  place  (Sep- 
tember 16)  Nathaniel  P.  Tallmadge,  who  served 
but  for  eight  months,  being  succeeded  by  Dodge, 
who,  as  the  nominee  of  Polk,  occupied  the  executive 
office  until  Wisconsin  entered  the  Union.  The 
agitation  for  statehood  was  at  once  renewed  on 
Dodge's  resumption  of  office.  The  census  of  the 
territory  now  revealed  a  population  of  a  hundred 
and  fifty-five  thousand,  and  popular  opinion,  for 
several  years  averse  to  taking  on  the  costs  and 
responsibilities  of  state  government,  seemed  at  last 
inclined  to  view  the  project  with  favor.  By  order 
of  the  .legislature  a  vote  on  this  question  was  taken 
on  the  first  Tuesday  of  April,  1846,  — the  franchise 


286  WISCONSIN 

being  restricted  to  "  every  white  male  inhabitant 
above  the  age  of  twenty-one  years,  who  shall  have 
resided  in  the  territory  for  six  months."  The  result 
was  about  six  to  one  in  the  affirmative  (ayes  12,334, 
nays  2487).  Meanwhile,  a  bill  enabling  Wisconsin 
to  become  a  state  was  introduced  in  Congress,  Janu- 
ary 9,  by  Morgan  L.  Martin,  the  territorial  delegate. 
Passing  Congress,  it  was  approved  by  the  President 
on  August  10. 

Governor  Dodge  issued  on  the  first  of  August  a 
proclamation  calling  a  constitutional  convention, 
which  held  its  session  at  Madison  between  October 
5  and  December  16.  In  this  body  some  pugnacious 
members  desired  to  place  in  the  constitution  a  pro- 
viso that  Wisconsin  would  accept  statehood  only  on 
the  condition  that  she  be  "  restored  to  her  ancient 
boundaries."  But  this  bit  of  bluster  failed  of  pas- 
sage, as  did  another  proposition  to  establish  a  new 
state  along  the  south  shore  of  Lake  Superior,  to  be 
named  after  that  body  of  water ;  the  settlers  who 
were  now  creeping  into  the  extreme  northern  lit- 
toral had  the  same  objection  to  being  connected 
with  far-distant  Madison,  separated  from  them  by 
a  wide  and  almost  untrodden  wilderness,  that  the 
earlier  Wisconsin  people  had  against  being  gov- 
erned from  Detroit.  The  constitution,  for  the  most 
part  an  exceptionally  able  document,  was  rejected 
by  the  people  (April  5,  1847),  upon  a  vote  of  ayes 
14,119,  nays  20,231.  The  Democrats  opposed  the 
articles  on  the  rights  of  married  women  and  ex- 


TERRITORIAL  AFFAIRS  287 

emptions  from  forced  sale  ;  while  the  Whigs  dis- 
liked the  restrictions  that,  with  a  caution  born  of 
intense  popular  distrust,  had  been  placed  upon 
banking  and  bank  circulation.1 

The  second  constitutional  convention  assembled 
in  Madison  on  December  15.  The  territory  now 
boasted  of  a  population  of  210,456,  and  the  de- 
sire for  statehood  had  become  all  but  universal. 
The  new  constitution,  carefully  avoiding  the  rocks 
upon  which  its  predecessor  had  been  wrecked,  was 
adopted  by  the  people  on  March  13,  1848  (ayes 
16,799,  nays  6384).  On  the  eighth  of  May  a  state 
election  was  held,  Nelson  Dewey,  the  Democratic 
candidate,  being  elected  by  a  majority  of  5089  in 
a  total  vote  of  33,987.  Three  weeks  later  (May 
29),  President  Polk  approved  a  new  act  of  Con- 
gress, based  upon  the  accepted  constitution,  whereby 
Wisconsin  was  at  last  admitted  to  the  sisterhood 
of  states. 

1  Banks  of  issue  were  prohibited,  also  the  circulation  of  any 
bank-note  of  a  less  denomination  than  twenty  dollars. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

ECONOMIC   EXPERIENCES 

IN  his  opening  message  to  the  legislature  (June 
8,  1848),  Governor  Dewey  offered  congratulations 
upon  the  "  favorable  auspices  under  which  the 
State  of  Wisconsin  has  taken  her  position  among 
the  families  of  states.  With  a  population  number- 
ing nearly  one  quarter  of  a  million,  and  rapidly 
increasing,  free  from  the  incubus  of  a  state  debt, 
and  rich  in  the  return  yielded  as  the  reward  of 
labor  in  all  the  branches  of  industrial  pursuits,  our 
state  occupies  an  enviable  position  abroad,  that  is 
highly  gratifying  to  the  pride  of  our  people." 

A  commonwealth  just  entering  the  Union  nearly 
always  receives  a  large  accession  of  new  settlers,  as 
the  result  of  prominence  given  to  the  new  state  in 
the  contemporary  public  press.  Accordingly,  Wis- 
consin at  once  attracted  the  customary  rush  of  am- 
bitious young  Americans  seeking  an  opening  in  the 
West.  But  the  most  marked  feature  of  her  growth 
during  the  first  decade  of  statehood  was  a  con- 
siderable influx  of  German  immigrants.  For  two 
hundred  years  after  the  coming  of  Nicolet,  Wis- 
consin had  been  French  to  the  core.  There  followed 
twelve  territorial  years  (1836-48)  during  which 


ECONOMIC   EXPERIENCES  289 

the  American  element,  having  pushed  aside  the 
mild-mannered  and  unprogressive  habitans  and 
voyageurs,  was  aggressively  dominant ;  but  now 
Wisconsin  was  to  become  better  known  for  her 
Germans  than  for  her  native-born. 

Several  causes  contributed  to  this  strong  Teutonic 
migration  toward  Wisconsin.  The  political  upris- 
ing of  1830  in  Germany  had  been  followed  by 
reaction,  causing  thousands  to  turn  their  eyes  to 
America  as  a  land  of  liberty  and  opportunity.  As 
early  as  1832  there  was  on  foot  in  Rhenish  Ba- 
varia a  project  to  purchase  a  large  tract  of  land  in 
the  United  States  "  to  be  settled  by  Germans  and 
to  be  called  a  new  Germany."  Three  years  later 
there  were  organized  for  this  purpose  several  socie- 
ties, largely  composed  of  political  suspects  and 
refugees,  chiefly  men  trained  for  the  learned  pro- 
fessions. Numerous  books  and  pamphlets  were 
published  in  Germany,  in  advocacy  of  this  scheme, 
several  of  whose  authors  named  Wisconsin  as  the 
most  desirable  region  attainable.  Eventually  the 
plan  was  abandoned  by  the  majority  as  impracti- 
cable, although  it  was  spasmodically  broached 
thereafter,  even  as  late  as  1878. 

Throughout  this  agitation,  the  attention  of  many 
thousands  of  discontented  Germans  had  become 
centred  on  Wisconsin  as  a  land  of  promise.  So 
much  was  written  and  printed  on  the  subject  that 
the  characteristics  of  the  territory  were  familiar  to 
them  in  a  general  way.  The  larger  movement  for  a 


290  WISCONSIN 

German- American  state  had  failed  ;  but  individual 
agitators  began  to  arrive  here  by  1846,  and  almost 
to  a  man  sent  highly  favorable  reports  to  their 
compatriots  at  home,  many  of  which  accounts,  the 
product  of  men  accustomed  to  literary  expression, 
were  printed  and  very  freely  distributed  among  a 
people  eager  to  receive  them.  Knowledge  of  these 
publications  no  doubt  prompted  Governor  Dewey's 
reference  to  the  fact  that  Wisconsin  "  occupies  an 
enviable  position  abroad." 

The  German-American  pioneers  who  thus  her- 
alded this  new  American  commonwealth  found  here 
physical  features  appealing  strongly  to  them  be- 
cause similar  in  many  respects  to  those  sturdy 
surroundings  amid  which  they  had  themselves 
been  reared ;  and  the  political  possibilities  of  Wis- 
consin also  kindled  the  imaginations  of  men  who 
were  fleeing  their  own  land  in  order  to  secure 
personal  liberty.  In  their  books,  pamphlets,  and 
newspaper  letters  they  laid  emphasis  on  the  ex- 
cellent climate — with  extremes  of  temperature 
modified  by  proximity  to  the  Great  Lakes,  less 
enervating  than  that  of  Michigan,  and  "  compara- 
tively free  from  the  fevers  that  infest  the  South." 
The  unbroken  hard  wood  and  evergreen  forests 
in  the  northern  half  of  the  state,  and  the  tract  of 
heavy  timber  along  the  eastern  border,  inspired 
them  with  admiration.  Unlike  Illinois,  Michigan, 
and  Indiana,  that  had  encumbered  themselves 
with  liabilities  for  internal  improvements,  Wiscon- 


ECONOMIC   EXPERIENCES  291 

sin  was  practically  out  of  debt.  Potential  water- 
power  was  everywhere  evident  upon  the  maps,  and 
promised  to  be  an  important  asset  to  the  people  of 
the  state.  The  mineral  regions  on  Lake  Superior 
and  along  the  Mississippi  appealed  strongly  to 
many  classes  of  German  laborers.  Well-wooded 
public  lands  were  sold  to  emigrants  at  low  prices ; 
tree-loving  Germans,  in  settling  Wisconsin,  always 
sought  forests  near  the  main  routes  of  travel,  — 
first  in  the  eastern  counties,  and  then  spreading 
into  the  denser  woods  of  the  north,  which  they 
soon  converted  into  a  productive  and  prosperous 
region.  But  perhaps  the  most  influential  factor  in 
inducing  foreign  immigration  was  the  clause  in  the 
new  state's  constitution,  allowing  an  alien  to  vote 
after  a  year's  residence,  thus  giving  him  an  early 
chance  of  winning  political  power. 

The  year  of  Wisconsin's  entrance  upon  the  dig- 
nity of  statehood  was  that  of  the  great  political, 
economic,  and  social  upheaval  in  Germany  known 
as  the  Revolution  of  1848.  This  gave  rise  at  once 
to  a  strong  tide  of  migration  hither.  It  was  par- 
ticularly gratifying  to  the  emigrants  of  those  days 
to  find  their  predilections  regarding  Wisconsin 
confirmed  at  the  landing.  "  In  New  York,"  writes 
a  German  settler  of  1848,  "  every  hotel-keeper  and 
railroad  agent,  every  one  who  was  approached  for 
advice,  directed  men  to  Wisconsin."  Later  dis- 
turbances in  the  fatherland,  in  which  religious  in- 
terference and  the  steady  growth  of  militarism  had 


292  WISCONSIN 

become  additional  incentives  to  popular  discontent, 
materially  aided  this  movement  to  our  state.  Al- 
though reaching  its  maximum  in  numbers  by  1854, 
it  continued  with  noticeable  strength  until  near  the 
close  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  brought  to 
the  state  immigrants  from  nearly  every  important 
district  in  Germany.  To-day,  perhaps  a  third  of 
the  two  millions  of  Wisconsin  people  are  either 
German-born  or  the  children  of  such. 

In  due  time  the  Germans  were  followed  in  large 
numbers  by  other  European  nationalities,  particu- 
larly Scandinavians  (chiefly  Norwegians),  Irish, 
natives  of  Great  Britain,  Canadians,  Bohemians, 
Poles,  Dutch,  Belgians,  and  Swiss.  By  1890  Wis- 
consin was  surpassed  only  by  Pennsylvania  in  the 
variety  and  solidarity  of  its  groups  of  foreign-born 
folk.  There  are  still  many  portions  of  the  state 
where  some  single  nationality  occupies  blocks  of 
contiguous  townships,  controlling  within  the  dis- 
trict all  political,  educational,  and  religious  affairs; 
and  in  such  neighborhoods  the  English  language  is 
but  occasionally  spoken.  But,  ordinarily,  our  citi- 
zens of  European  birth  are  quick  to  adopt  English 
speech  and  American  customs,  and  freely  enter 
upon  the  privileges  and  duties  of  citizenship.  It  is 
a  matter  for  congratulation  that  the  immigrant 
often  brings  from  the  Old  World  fruits  of  civili- 
zation that  are  of  value  to  the  New ;  in  casting  off 
the  old  political  relations,  he  does  not  thereby  free 
himself  from  the  experiences,  culture,  and  patriotic 


ECONOMIC   EXPERIENCES  293 

sentiments  binding  him  to  his  forbears.  Wisconsin 
will  always  be  deeply  indebted  to  this  strong  infu- 
sion of  foreign  blood  for  much  that  is  creditable 
in  its  career  as  a  state. 

The  first  Norwegian  settler  to  appear  in  Wiscon- 
sin seems  to  have  been  Ole  Nattestad,  who  reared 
a  home  near  Beloit  in  1838.  He  was  soon  joined 
by  others,  until  now  this  element  of  Wisconsin's 
population  is  second  only  to  the  German.  Strong- 
est in  Dane  County,  Norwegians  are  nevertheless 
to  be  found  in  large  groups  in  every  western  and 
northern  county,  and  in  several  of  the  eastern. 
There  are  large  neighborhoods  of  Swedes  in  the 
northwestern  part  of  the  state,  but  they  number 
far  less  than  those  who  come  from  the  sister  land. 
Danes  are  found  in  considerable  bodies  in  Adams, 
Milwaukee,  Racine,  and  Waushara  counties.  Fin- 
landers  are  numerous  in  Douglas  County.  On 
Washington  Island,  in  the  waters  of  Green  Bay, 
is  a  large  colony  of  Icelandic  fishermen. 

Poles  are  widespread,  although  chiefly  massed  in 
Milwaukee,  Manitowoc,  and  Portage  counties.  In 
Kewaunee  County,  Bohemians  form  three  sevenths 
of  the  population,  and  are  also  to  be  found  grouped 
in  other  districts.  Belgians  are  strongest  in  Brown 
and  Door  counties.  The  Dutch  are  also  particu- 
larly numerous  in  the  northeast.  German  Swiss 
have  prosperous  colonies  in  Green,  Fond  du  Lac, 
Winnebago,  Buffalo,  and  Pierce  counties.  Italians 
are  a  later  accession  than  most  of  the  other  nation- 


294  WISCONSIN 

alities ;  they  have  considerable  communities  in 
Vernon  and  Florence  counties,  but  recent  arrivals 
are  much  scattered.  Russians  of  the  several  types 
are  chiefly  found  in  Milwaukee,  but  neighbor- 
hoods of  Russian  Jews  are  beginning  to  appear  in 
most  of  our  cities.  In  addition  to  French  Creoles 
in  the  old  fur-trading  centres  of  the  Fox  and  Wis- 
consin valleys,  direct  descendants  of  the  population 
of  the  old  regime,  there  are  modern  French  Cana- 
dian settlements  in  several  northern  counties  — 
attracted  thither,  no  doubt,  by  service  for  the  lum- 
ber companies. 

Cornishmen  early  settled  in  the  lead  region, 
which  also  contains  several  important  English 
groups.  The  Welsh  are  planted  on  Wisconsin  soil 
in  several  large  neighborhoods,  chiefly  in  Winne- 
bago,  Columbia,  Dodge,  Sauk,  and  Racine  counties. 
The  Irish,  formerly  strong  in  southeast  Wisconsin, 
have  in  most  places  given  way  before  the  German 
wave,  and  are  now  widely  distributed,  although 
often  living  in  small  colonies.  Scotch  are  found  in 
large  numbers,  particularly  in  the  eastern  and  north- 
ern counties. 

The  importance  of  early  lead-mining  operations, 
in  opening  to  civilization  the  southwestern  corner 
of  Wisconsin,  has  been  pointed  out.  We  shall  see 
that  this  industry  did  much  to  hasten  the  develop- 
ment of  the  entire  southern  tier  of  counties,  as  well 
as  that  of  the  state  at  large.  From  the  first,  the 
people  of  the  mining  district  had  been  closely  con- 


ECONOMIC  EXPERIENCES  295 

nected,  socially  and  commercially,  with  the  South. 
Men  from  neighboring  slave  states  had  been  the 
chief  operators,  and  were  frequently  accompanied 
by  their  black  servants ;  their  principal  transpor- 
tation route  was  the  Mississippi,  and  their  chief 
markets  St.  Louis  and  New  Orleans,  steamers  bring- 
ing back  to  them  Southern  products  in  return  for 
ore.  Cincinnati,  Pittsburg,  and  other  Ohio  River 
ports  furnished  markets  for  a  fair  share  of  the  out- 
put. Small  shipments  of  lead  ore  had  also  been 
made  to  the  East  by  way  of  the  Fox-Wisconsin 
route  as  early  as  1822,  and  continued  at  intervals 
for  at  least  twenty  years,  forming  one  of  the  strong- 
est arguments  for  the  federal  improvement  of  those 
rivers.  Most  observers  supposed,  however,  that  the 
Mississippi  must  forever  continue  to  be  the  main 
artery  of  trade  for  the  lead  region. 

But  a  great  change  was  coming.  After  the  com- 
pletion of  the  Erie  Canal  (1826),  Eastern  mer- 
chants slowly  became  convinced  of  the  superiority 
of  that  waterway  and  the  Great  Lakes  as  a  West- 
ern trade  route,  over  the  Mississippi  River  and  the 
long  gulf  and  sea  voyage  to  New  York.  In  1836  a 
company  was  formed  for  a  combined  wagon  and 
steamboat  transport  between  Chicago  and  Galena, 
the  principal  entrepot  of  the  mines.  By  this  means 
cargoes  of  lead  ore  were  shipped  to  Eastern  mar- 
kets ;  and  from  Chicago,  on  the  return  trips,  were 
transported  lumber,  shingles,  and  Eastern  goods 
destined  to  the  mines. 


296  WISCONSIN 

How  early  Wisconsin  miners  sought  connection 
with  the  lakes  by  overland  wagon  routes  is  not 
known,  but  lead  shipments  "  from  the  rapids  of 
Rock  River"  were  recorded  in  Racine  in  1836; 
and  in  1838  the  "  Milwaukee  Sentinel "  declares 
it  "  a  common  thing  to  see  oxen  laden  with  lead 
from  Grant  and  L^  Fayette  counties  appear  at  the 
wharves  after  a  journey  of  eight  or  ten  days,"  the 
distance  traveled,  by  road,  being  from  a  hundred 
and  twenty-five  to  two  hundred  miles. 

In  1839-40  a  phenomenally  low  stage  of  water 
prevailed  in  the  Mississippi,  creating  a  stagnant 
condition  in  the  lead  trade,  and  leading  to  loud 
demands,  not  only  for  the  improvement  of  the 
great  river,  but  for  better  and  shorter  routes  to 
the  East.  Specifically,  it  was  pointed  out  that  there 
were  needed  both  railways  and  canals  between  the 
Mississippi  and  Lake  Michigan.  The  Milwaukee 
and  Rock  River  Canal,  previously  alluded  to,  was 
one  of  the  desired  connecting  links ;  another  was 
the  important  waterway  opened  in  1851  between 
Lake  Michigan  and  Illinois  River,  the  route  fol- 
lowed by  the  wagon  express  of  1836.  Meanwhile 
the  wagon  routes  between  the  mines  and  Lake 
Michigan  ports  —  one  ran  out  from  Milwaukee  by 
way  of  Madison,  and  along  the  watershed  separat- 
ing Wisconsin  River  drainage  from  that  of  south- 
flowing  streams,  while  another  stretched  westward 
from  Racine,  via  Janesville — were  becoming  well 
worn  in  the  service  of  the  now  desperate  operators. 


ECONOMIC   EXPERIENCES  297 

In  1847  a  Milwaukee  paper  says,  "  The  lead  schoon- 
ers are  constantly  arriving  here  from  the  mineral 
region.  These  singular  teams  drawn  by  six,  eight, 
or  more  yoke  of  oxen,  excite  some  curiosity  in 
those  who  are  not  used  to  such  sights  at  the  East. 
They  sleep  under  the  canopy  of  heaven,  with  the 
camp  fires  and  the  primitive  meals  of  a  military 
encampment,  pitching  tents  with  the  first  dusk  of 
evening  and  rising  with  the  early  dawn."  The 
roads  followed  by  these  pioneer  ore  carriers  fur- 
nished to  agricultural  settlers  tempting  paths  from 
the  lake  shore  into  the  interior,  and  were  an  im- 
portant element  in  the  development  of  the  southern 
counties. 

By  this  time  Wisconsin  was  growing  larger  crops 
than  her  population  could  consume,  and  farmers 
had  joined  the  miners  in  clamoring  for  an  improved 
outlet  to  Eastern  markets.  Flour  and  pork,  together 
with  lead,  were  regularly  shipped  from  Milwaukee 
to  Buffalo,  these  three  Wisconsin  products  appear- 
ing thenceforth  in  market  quotations  from  that 
distributing  centre. l  The  Great  Lakes  and  the  Erie 
Canal  furnished  a  through  water  route  from  Lake 
Michigan  to  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  that  could 
transport  freight  at  less  than  half  the  expense  of 
the  Mississippi  River  and  Gulf  route,  and  enabled 
shippers  to  "get  the  proceeds  of  their  sales  at 
least  three  months  sooner  than  by  the  way  of  New 

1  See  O.  G.  Libby,  "  Significance  of  the  Lead  and  Shot  Trade 
in  Early  Wisconsin  History,"  in  Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  vol.  xiii. 


298  WISCONSIN 

Orleans."  But  while  this  benefited  the  lead  miners, 
and  correspondingly  depressed  lower  Mississippi 
River  traffic,1  the  cost  of  overland  hauling  was 
so  great  —  thirty-one  cents  per  hundred  pounds  of 
lead,  between  the  Mississippi  and  Milwaukee  — 
that  only  farmers  in  eastern  Wisconsin  could  afford 
to  send  their  crops  to  the  Milwaukee  and  Racine 
docks.  In  the  interior,  agriculture  was  declining 
for  want  of  a  cheap  and  adequate  road  to  market. 
The  "  Grant  County  Herald  "  (April  8,  1843)  de- 
clared that  "the  positive  result  of  this  state  of 
things,  if  continued,  will  be  the  gradual  depopu- 
lation of  the  western  part  of  the  territory."  For 
reasons  soon  to  be  explained,  even  the  mines  in 
that  district  were  now  losing  workmen,  who  mi- 
grated in  considerable  numbers  to  the  Lake  Super- 
ior copper  fields  or  joined  the  restless  throng  then 
pressing  westward  on  the  long  trail  to  Oregon. 

1  In  De  Bow's  Review,  vol.  xii  (1852),  p.  38,  a  Southern  writer, 
bewailing1  the  diversions  of  the  channels  of  Western  trade  from 
southward  to  eastward,  says :  "  All  the  lead  from  the  upper  Mis- 
sissippi now  goes  east  by  the  way  of  Milwaukee.  But  the  most 
recent  and  astonishing-  change  in  the  course  of  the  northwestern 
trade  is  to  behold,  as  a  friend  tells  us,  the  number  of  steamers 
that  now  descend  the  upper  Mississippi,  loaded  to  the  guards  with 
produce,  as  far  as  the  mouth  of  the  Illinois  River,  and  then  turn 
up  that  stream  with  their  cargoes,  to  be  shipped  to  New  York  via 
Chicago.  The  Illinois  canal  has  not  only  swept  the  whole  produce 
along  the  line  of  the  Illinois  River  to  the  East,  but  it  is  drawing 
the  products  from  the  upper  Mississippi  through  the  same  chan- 
nel, thus  depriving  not  only  New  Orleans,  but  St.  Louis,  of  a  rich 
portion  of  their  former  trade." 


ECONOMIC   EXPERIENCES  299 

It  had  early  been  evident  to  at  least  a  few  clear- 
sighted Wisconsin  men,  that  while  canals  might 
serve  for  certain  classes  of  freight,  a  railroad  would 
be  a  quicker  and  more  efficient  route  between  the 
Mississippi  and  Lake  Michigan.  A  project  for  such 
construction  was  first  broached  in  a  memorial  to 
Congress  adopted  by  the  Michigan  territorial  legis- 
lature at  its  Green  Bay  session  in  January,  1836, 
in  which  was  emphasized  "  the  immense  saving  that 
might  [thereby]  be  made  in  transporting  lead  "  to 
New  York. 

In  early  railway  agitation  in  Wisconsin,  pro- 
spective benefit  to  the  lead  trade  furnished  the 
principal  argument  for  such  enterprises.  But  after 
1845,  the  fast-developing  agricultural  interests 
received  chief  consideration  ;  it  being  estimated  in 
1846  that  the  farm  products  (chiefly  wheat)  to  be 
moved  by  the  proposed  road  between  the  great  river 
and  the  great  lake,  would  probably  yield  a  traffic 
revenue  five  times  that  obtainable  from  shipments 
of  lead,  which  could  contribute  only  twelve  per 
cent  of  the  total. 

Not  only  was  there  a  relative  falling  off  in  the 
Mississippi  River  lead  trade,  but  after  1847  came 
a  steady  decline  in  the  actual  output.  New  Orleans 
had  practically  lost  this  trade  by  1857,  and  in  St. 
Louis  the  shipments  of  that  year  were  less  than 
half  those  of  the  previous  decade.  Many  reasons 
contributed  to  this  rapid  decadence  of  lead-mining 
in  Wisconsin  and  Illinois :  the  tariff  of  1846  had 


300  WISCONSIN 

reduced  the  value  of  the  ore ;  the  old  shallow  dig- 
gings had  been  worked  out,  and  now  there  were 
required  expensive  mining  methods  and  large  cap- 
ital, together  with  a  more  intimate  knowledge  of 
the  geology  of  the  region  than  was  then  obtain- 
able ;  California  gold  mines  and  Lake  Superior  cop- 
per deposits  were  attracting  the  miners  ;  we  have 
seen  that  transportation  difficulties  were  coming  to 
be  a  large  factor  in  the  problem ;  and  the  discovery 
in  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  Black  Hills  of  silver, 
with  accompanying  lead,  tended  to  accentuate  the 
virtual  neglect  of  the  Wisconsin-Illinois  field.  Dur- 
ing the  past  few  years,  however,  the  district  has 
been  successfully  reopened  for  the  extensive  min- 
ing of  zinc. 

The  project  of  Asa  Whitney,  a  New  York  mer- 
chant, to  construct  a  government  railway  from 
Wisconsin  to  the  mouth  of  Columbia  River,  and 
thereby  reach  out  for  the  trade  of  the  Pacific,  was 
in  1845  much  talked  of  throughout  the  country. 
His  prospecting  journey  through  Wisconsin  in  that 
year  attracted  much  attention,  because  a  proposed 
road  between  Milwaukee  and  Prairie  du  Chien  was 
considered  to  be  the  initial  step  in  his  ambitious 
scheme.  Whitney's  plans  failed ;  the  country  was 
not  yet  ready  for  them,  but  they  did  much  to 
stimulate  public  imagination,  and  in  Wisconsin 
were  of  direct  assistance  in  calling  marked  atten- 
tion to  the  local  project. 

Railway  charters  had  been  granted  by  the  legis- 


ECONOMIC  EXPERIENCES  301 

lature  quite  early  in  the  history  of  the  territory : 
in  December,  1836,  to  the  La  Fontaine  and  Du- 
buque  and  Belmont  companies ;  in  1838  to  the 
Root  River ;  in  1839  to  the  Pekatonica  and  Mis- 
sissippi ;  and  in  1840  to  the  Michigan  and  Rock 
River  —  none  of  these  corporations  progressed 
beyond  the  paper  stage.  In  1847,  four  companies 
were  chartered ;  but  only  one  of  these,  the  Mil- 
waukee and  Waukesha,  became  active.1  A  year 
later  its  name  was  changed  to  the  Milwaukee  and 
Mississippi,  the  progenitor  of  the  present  far- 
stretching  Chicago,  Milwaukee,  and  St.  Paul  sys- 
tem. In  1851,  that  company  laid  the  first  rails  in 
Wisconsin,  and  amid  great  popular  rejoicing  ran  a 
train  from  Milwaukee  to  Waukesha,  a  distance  of 
twenty  miles.  Three  years  later  this  pioneer  rail- 
way reached  Madison,  and  in  1857  touched  the 
Mississippi  at  Prairie  du  Chien,  just  twenty-one 
years  after  the  first  suggestion  of  the  project  for 
rail  connection  between  that  river  and  Lake 
Michigan. 

Meanwhile,  other  companies  were  pushing  into 
the  state.  The  Chicago  and  Northwestern,  now  one 
of  the  largest  systems  in  the  United  States,  reached 
Janesville  from  the  southeast  in  1855  and  Fond 
du  Lac  in  1858.  Other  and  shorter  lines  were  now 
constructed  in  various  parts  of  Wisconsin,  these 

1  See  B.  H.  Meyer,  "  History  of  Early  Railroad  Legislation  in 
Wisconsin,"  in  Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  vol.  xiv. 


302  WISCONSIN 

being  for  the  most  part  absorbed,  extended,  and 
ramified  by  the  two  larger  companies. 

In  June,  1856,  Congress  made  two  large  land 
grants  for  the  construction  of  railways  in  Wiscon- 
sin: one  in  aid  of  a  line  to  extend  from  either 
Madison  or  Columbus,  via  Portage  and  St.  Croix 
River,  to  the  Lake  Superior  town  of  Bayfield ;  the 
other  to  endow  a  line  from  Fond  du  Lac  to  some 
point  on  the  Michigan- Wisconsin  boundary.  The 
prospective  companies  were  to  be  given  "  every  al- 
ternate section  of  land  designated  by  odd  numbers 
for  six  sections  in  width,  on  each  side  of  said  roads 
respectively." 

At  the  succeeding  session  of  the  legislature,  the 
existing  railroad  companies  engaged  in  a  mad 
scramble  for  these  rich  prizes.  But  with  a  show 
of  impartiality,  the  lawmakers  declined  to  allow 
them  the  lands,  and  chartered  two  new  companies 
pledged  to  construct  the  lines :  the  Lake  Superior 
grant  being  given  to  the  so-called  La  Crosse  and 
Milwaukee  (charged  with  being  merely  a  tool  of  the 
Chicago,  Milwaukee,  and  St.  Paul),  and  the  Fond 
du  Lac  grant  to  the  Wisconsin  and  Superior  (sup- 
posed to  be  dominated  by  the  Chicago  and  North- 
western). Indeed,  it  was  not  long  before  these 
popular  suspicions  received  apparent  confirmation 
by  the  "  absorption  "  of  the  grantee  corporations  by 
the  two  companies  respectively  named.  Later,  legal 
complications  arose,  calling  into  question  the  right- 
ful ownership  of  the  grants. 


ECONOMIC   EXPERIENCES  303 

Among  the  people  at  large,  grave  suspicions  were 
entertained  that  these  legislative  railway  "  deals," 
particularly  that  of  the  La  Crosse  and  Milwaukee, 
had  been  accompanied  by  wholesale  corruption.  In 
1858,  a  special  joint  legislative  committee  reported 
that  "the  managers  of  the  La  Crosse  and  Mil- 
waukee Railroad  Company  have  been  guilty  of 
numerous  and  unparalleled  acts  of  mismanagement, 
gross  violations  of  duty,  fraud,  and  plunder ;  "  that 
a  majority  of  the  legislature  of  1856  had  been 
bribed ;  that  of  the  seventeen  senators  voting  for 
the  grant,  thirteen  had  each  received  from  $10,000 
to  $20,000  in  either  stock  or  bonds,  at  par ;  that 
fifty-eight  of  the  sixty-two  complacent  assembly- 
men had  each  been  recipients  of  from  $5000  to 
$10,000  in  the  same  paper ;  that  Governor  Bashford 
had,  for  his  signature  approving  the  act,  been 
"  propitiated  "  by  $50,000  in  bonds  ;  that  each  of 
three  other  state  officers  had  accepted  $10,000  in 
similar  securities  ;  and  that  even  the  private  secre- 
tary of  the  governor  had  contrived  to  secure  from 
the  conspirators  a  like  $5000. 

The  popular  excitement  engendered  by  this  docu- 
ment at  once  reached  fever  heat,  and  the  state  re- 
ceived a  great  deal  of  undesirable  advertising  in 
the  newspapers  of  the  country.  Several  of  the  al- 
leged beneficiaries  promptly  denied  that  they  had 
taken  bribes.  Governor  Bashford,  now  out  of  of- 
fice, quietly  removed  into  the  Far  West,  and  was 
commonly  credited  with  having  disposed  of  the 


304  WISCONSIN 

greater  part  of  his  bonds  for  cash,  —  more  fortu- 
nate in  this  than  those  who  retained  their  paper, 
for  the  La  Crosse  and  Milwaukee  company  soon 
went  into  liquidation,  and  its  bonds  and  stock  were 
worthless. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

"POLITICS"    AND   NATIONAL   RELATIONS 

THE  dozen  years  just  previous  to  the  War  of 
Secession  were,  particularly  in  the  Western  states, 
a  period  of  great  political,  financial,  and  social 
unrest.  The  trans- Alleghany  was  in  a  formative 
stage,  not  yet  having  "found  itself."  Speculation 
ran  high ;  the  gambling  spirit  begat  gambling 
morals ;  political  passions  beat  fiercely ;  never  in 
our  history  as  a  people  have  the  "  tricks  of  the 
politicians  "  been  more  questionable  than  they  then 
were ;  personal  vituperation  served  as  argument ; 
newspaper  offices  were  the  seats  of  partisan  cabals, 
which  seldom  paused  to  consider  the  means  of 
accomplishing  desired  ends  ;  it  was  commonly  ac- 
cepted as  "good  politics"  that  the  "ins"  might 
properly  "  feather  their  nests  "  at  the  expense  of 
the  public.  Both  the  civic  and  the  business  atmo- 
sphere sadly  needed  clearing. 

In  the  year  1856  there  arose  in  Wisconsin  a 
cause  celebre,  an  outgrowth  of  the  bitter  political 
dissensions  of  the  time,  and  involving  principles  of 
the  highest  importance  to  the  welfare  of  popular 
government.  During  the  second  term  of  Governor 
Dewey  (1850-51),  the  secretary  of  state  was  Wil- 


306  WISCONSIN 

liam  A.  Barstow,  a  prominent  Democrat  from 
Waukesha  County.  Energetic,  almost  fiercely  ag- 
gressive, of  fine  physique,  possessed  of  some  of  the 
qualities  of  leadership,  and  cultivating  the  arts  of 
popularity,  Barstow  had  a  large  and  enthusiastic 
factional  following.  His  party  being  divided  on 
issues  arising  in  connection  with  the  fight  over  the 
first  constitution,  those  not  of  the  Barstow  wing 
were  intense  haters  of  those  who  were.  Charges  of 
corruption  were  freely  laid  at  his  door,  and  he  was 
called  hard  names  in  the  anti-Barstow  newspapers, 
for  this  was  the  heyday  of  "  personal  journalism  " 
in  Wisconsin. 

Out  of  this  condition  of  affairs  there  was  coined 
an  expressive  phrase  that  long  held  in  the  political 
slang  of  the  commonwealth.  State  printing  con- 
tracts, supposed  to  be  awarded  to  the  lowest  bidder, 
were  always  eagerly  sought  by  rival  Madison  news- 
paper offices.  More  or  less  popular  suspicion  ex- 
isted, that  "  deals  "  were  associated  with  the  bien- 
nial letting,  which  was  in  the  hands  of  the  secretary 
of  state,  the  state  treasurer,  and  the  attorney-gen- 
eral, acting  as  commissioners  of  public  printing. 
During  Barstow' s  secretaryship,  such  a  contest  was 
on.  Before  the  opening  of  bids,  a  confidential  letter 
was  made  public,1  in  which  one  of  the  Madison 
publishers,  an  intimate  friend  of  the  administration, 
writing  to  his  absent  partner,  declared  that  he  had 
made  arrangements  for  inside  knowledge  of  the 

1  Witconsin  Democrat  (Madison),  October  5,  1850. 


POLITICS  AND  NATIONAL  RELATIONS   307 

bidding ;  adding,  "  We  must  get  a  good  bid  .  .  . 
even  if  we  have  to  buy  up  Barstow  and  the  bal- 
ance," by  "  balance  "  obviously  meaning  the  other 
printing  commissioners.  Whether  or  not  Barstow 
was  misjudged  by  his  indiscreet  friend  is  now  im- 
material ;  but  thereafter  his  following  were  by  the 
jeering  opposition  derisively  known  as  "  Barstow 
and  the  balance."  On  retiring  from  the  secretary- 
ship, Barstow  still  remained  the  powerful  leader 
of  his  faction,  and  the  storm  centre  of  the  politi- 
cal weather  map  in  Wisconsin. 

We  have  seen  that  by  this  time  railway  compa- 
nies were  yearly  importuning  the  legislature  for 
charters.  Previous  to  1853  there  had  been  no  indi- 
cation of  corruption  on  the  part  of  railway  lobby- 
ists ;  but  the  methods  of  a  group  of  speculators  in- 
terested in  the  proposed  Rock  River  Valley  Union 
enterprise  were  such  as  quite  generally  to  scandal- 
ize the  state.  The  lobbyists  rented  a  club-house, 
called  by  them  "Monks'  Hall,"  situated  but  a 
square  distant  from  the  capitol,  and  here  legisla- 
tors were  entertained  upon  what  was  in  those  simple 
times  thought  to  be  a  scale  of  splendor.  This  band 
of  conspirators  were  fond  of  facetiously  alluding  to 
themselves  as  "  The  monks  of  Monks'  Hall,"  but 
their  popular  designation  was  "  The  Forty  Thieves," 
another  political  term  long  outliving  in  Wisconsin 
the  cause  of  its  original  bestowal ;  and  in  this  un- 
holy company  many  considered  that  "Barstow  and 
the  balance  "  were  duly  enrolled.  At  this  distance, 


308  WISCONSIN 

and  taking  into  account  the  virulent  character  of 
the  partisanship  of  the  period,  it  is  practically  im- 
possible to  pass  safe  judgment  upon  the  foundation 
for  these  widely-spread  accusations. 

In  November  (1853)  Barstow  was  elected  gov- 
ernor, having  polled  a  plurality  of  8519  votes,  his 
opponents  being  Edward  D.  Holton,  Republican, 
and  Henry  S.  Baird,  Whig.  He  was  bitterly  as- 
sailed throughout  his  term,  being  charged  with 
allowing  his  official  staff  to  mismanage  the  school 
funds  of  the  state  and  make  ill-secured  loans  there- 
from to  personal  friends.  Certainly,  he  lost  ground, 
and  when  running  for  reelection  in  1855  failed  to 
draw  his  full  party  strength ;  moreover,  the  new 
Republican  party,  born  in  Wisconsin  the  previous 
year,1  and  represented  in  this  election  by  Coles 
Bashford  of  Winnebago  County,  was  making  great 
gains  in  popular  favor.  The  vote  was  so  close  that 
from  the  middle  of  November  to  the  middle  of 
December  the  result  was  unknown,  because  of  a 
needed  recount,  and  there  was  much  suppressed 
excitement. 

On  December  15  the  state  board  of  canvassers 

1  It  would  appear  to  be  established  that  the  first  formal  meet- 
ing to  organize  the  party  was  held  at  Ripon,  February  28,  1854. 
At  a  subsequent  meeting  in  that  village,  Alvan  E.  Bovay,  a  resi- 
dent Whig,  suggested  the  name  "  Republican."  Michigan  was  the 
first,  however,  to  perfect  a  state  organization,  doing  so  at  a  meet- 
ing in  Jackson,  July  6.  Wisconsin,  which  had  conceived  and  named 
the  party,  held  its  state  convention  at  Madison  a  week  later  (July 
13).  See  F.  A.  Flower,  History  of  the  Republican  Party. 


POLITICS  AND  NATIONAL  RELATIONS   309 

—  the  same  officials  who  composed  the  printing 
commission,  and  all  of  them  Barstow's  colleagues 

—  announced  that  Barstow  had  received  36,355 
votes  and  Bashford  36,198,  a  majority  for  the  former 
of  157.  Bashford's  supporters  at  once  claimed  for- 
geries of  supplemental  county  returns  and  general 
unfairness,  and  a  contest  was  at  once  prepared  for. 

Barstow  took  the  oath  for  his  second  term,  on 
January  7, 1856,  amid  the  usual  civic  and  military 
display,  and  remained  in  possession  of  the  executive 
chamber.  Meanwhile,  Bashford  was  quietly  sworn 
in  by  Chief  Justice  Whiton,  at  the  chamber  of  the 
state  supreme  court,  and  promptly  brought  into  that 
court  an  information  in  the  nature  of  quo  warranto 
to  oust  the  incumbent  governor  and  establish  his 
own  claim  to  the  election.  This  being  the  first  time 
in  the  history  of  the  United  States  that  a  state 
court  had  been  called  upon  to  decide  as  to  whether 
a  governor  had  been  properly  elected,  the  case  at 
once  attracted  general  attention. 

The  court  consisted  of  Chief  Justice  Whiton  and 
Associate  Justices  Smith  and  Orsamus  Cole.  The 
lawyers  engaged  upon  both  sides  were  men  of  con- 
siderable distinction  at  the  Wisconsin  bar:  Bash- 
ford's  counsel  being  Timothy  O.  Howe,  Edward  G. 
Ryan,  James  H.  Knowlton,  and  Alexander  W. 
Randall,  while  for  Barstow  appeared  Jonathan  E. 
Arnold,  Harlow  S.  Orton,  and  Matthew  H.  Car- 
penter. Barstow's  counsel  questioned  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  court,  claiming  that  to  allow  one  of  the 


310  WISCONSIN 

three  coordinate  branches  of  government  to  decide 
upon  the  eligibility  of  another  would  be  to  elevate 
the  judiciary  above  the  people,  thus  enabling  only 
the  creatures  of  the  court  to  hold  office.  After  a 
fierce  contest,  lasting  several  weeks,  the  court  held 
that  its  jurisdiction  was  undoubted.  Throughout, 
Bashford's  cause  was  handled  with  great  skill,  his 
counsel  winning  on  nearly  every  motion ;  until,  on 
March  8,  Barstow  and  his  representatives  indig- 
nantly withdrew  from  the  case,  declaring  that  the 
court  was  actuated  by  political  prejudices. 

Nevertheless,  the  court  proceeded  with  its  in- 
quiry into  the  facts,  the  result  of  the  investigation 
being  to  establish  gross  irregularities  in  the  work 
of  the  board  of  canvassers.  A  reexamination  of  the 
returns  developed  that  Bashford  had  been  elected 
by  1009  plurality,  and  on  March  24  he  was  declared 
to  be  the  rightful  governor. 

Foreseeing  the  result,  Barstow,  who  all  along 
had  declared  that  he  would  not  "  give  up  his 
office  alive,"  had  three  days  before  this  sent  in 
his  resignation  to  the  legislature,  and  the  lieu- 
tenant-governor, Arthur  McArthur,  whose  election 
was  unquestioned,  assumed  office  as  the  suppos- 
edly legal  successor  under  the  constitution.  McAr- 
thur took  a  stubborn  attitude,  asserting  that  he 
would,  in  the  face  of  all  hazards,  hold  his  chair 
throughout  the  remainder  of  the  term.  The  court 
ruled,  however,  that  as  Barstow's  title  was  worth- 
less, McArthur  could  not  succeed  to  it,  —  a  view 


POLITICS  AND  NATIONAL  RELATIONS    311 

of  the  case  that  apparently  the  Barstow  faction 
had  not  anticipated,  for  the  announcement  threw 
them  into  much  confusion. 

The  decision  had  been  rendered  on  March  24 
(Monday).  Bashford  announced  that  on  the  fol- 
lowing morning  he  would  take  possession  of  the 
governor's  office.  Particularly  in  and  around  Mad- 
ison, popular  interest  in  the  trial  had  developed 
to  the  stage  of  intense  excitement  that  promised 
trouble.  Bodies  of  armed  men,  siding  with  either 
the  relator  or  the  respondent,  were  drilling  in 
anticipation  of  a  desperate  conflict.  Wordy  quar- 
rels were  frequent  upon  the  streets,  but  the  parti- 
san managers,  who  would  have  been  held  respons- 
ible for  an  outbreak,  were  doing  their  best  to  quiet 
the  more  boisterous  of  their  followers. 

News  of  Bashford's  intent  quickly  spread.  Early 
in  the  day  not  only  residents,  but  country  peo- 
ple from  as  far  as  ten  miles  out  of  town,  for  the 
most  part  Bashford's  adherents,  crowded  into  the 
statehouse,  fully  expecting  a  sanguinary  fight.  At 
eleven,  Bashford  and  a  small  bodyguard  of  friends 
proceeded  to  the  rooms  of  the  supreme  court  and 
obtained  the  waiting  writ,  which  the  Dane  County 
sheriff  was  charged  with  serving.  Sheriff  and  gov- 
ernor made  their  way  through  the  throng,  which 
encouraged  them  by  friendly  cheers,  and  rapped 
for  admittance  at  the  door  to  the  executive  cham- 
ber, wherein  were  McArthur,  his  private  secre- 
tary, and  a  few  friends. 


312  WISCONSIN 

Bashford  was  a  portly,  dignified,  pleasant-man- 
nered man  of  the  "  old  school."  When  bidden  to 
enter,  he  leisurely  took  off  his  top-coat,  hung  it 
and  his  hat  in  the  official  wardrobe,  and  blandly 
informed  the  irate  McArthur  that  he  had  come  to 
take  charge  of  the  office.  The  latter  demanded 
to  know  whether  force  would  be  used,  whereat 
Bashford  quietly  asserted  that  "he  presumed  no 
force  would  be  essential ;  but  in  case  any  were 
needed,  there  would  be  no  hesitation  whatever, 
with  the  sheriff's  help,  in  applying  it."  McArthur 
said  that  he  "considered  this  threat  as  constructive 
force,"  and  thereupon  promptly  left  the  office  with 
his  secretary  and  adherents,  passing  between  rows 
of  Bashford's  supporters,  who  now  were  guarding 
the  building  throughout.  There  was  a  shout  of  tri- 
umph, and  in  a  few  minutes  Governor  Bashford 
was  being  congratulated  by  the  crowd.1 

The  Eepublican  senate  received  Bashford's  open- 
ing message  with  enthusiasm,  and  passed  a  con- 
gratulatory vote  ;  but  the  Democratic  assembly  at 
first  refused  (thirty-eight  to  forty-four)  to  hold 
communication  with  the  new  executive.  Finally, 
thirty  Democratic  members  withdrew  after  filing  a 
protest,  and  the  assembly  then  voted  (thirty-seven 
to  nine)  to  recognize  the  governor.  The  incident 

1  This  description  of  the  scenes  accompanying  the  accession  of 
Bashford  is  the  substance  of  what  was,  several  years  ago,  related 
to  the  present  writer  by  the  late  General  David  Atwood,  editor 
of  the  Wisconsin  State  Journal,  himself  a  prominent  friend  of 
Bashford,  and  an  eye-witness  of  every  phase  of  the  affair. 


POLITICS  AND  NATIONAL  RELATIONS    313 

was  of  much  importance  in  the  history  of  the  state, 
for  there  is  no  doubt  that  for  a  time  the  factionists 
were  close  to  the  verge  of  civil  war,  and  grave  dan- 
ger threatened  the  system  of  government  by  the 
people. 

Another  unfortunate  state  event  created  wide- 
spread interest.  In  January,  1853,  Levi  Hubbell, 
judge  of  the  second  judicial  circuit,  and  one  of  the 
most  prominent  men  in  Wisconsin,  was  charged 
before  the  assembly,  by  a  private  citizen,  with 
"  high  crimes,  misdemeanors,  and  malfeasances  in 
office."  A  committee  of  the  assembly  reported  on 
the  matter  a  month  later,  preferring  about  fifty 
charges,  with  accompanying  specifications,  and  re- 
commending the  judge's  removal  from  office.  The 
accusations  included  bribery,  adjudicating  cases  in 
which  he  was  interested,  inflicting  slighter  punish- 
ments than  required  by  law,  undue  partiality, 
arbitrariness,  misapplication  of  funds,  immoral 
conduct,  allowing  himself  to  be  approached  and  in- 
fluenced out  of  court  on  suits  pending  before  him, 
borrowing  money  from  contestants  before  his  court, 
and  interfering  with  suits  in  other  courts. 

The  senate  sat  as  a  court  of  impeachment,  from 
June  6  to  July  11,  the  sharply-contested  trial  at- 
tracting large  audiences  and  arousing  much  fac- 
tional bitterness.  The  newspapers  of  the  state, 
freely  taking  sides,  and  discussing  the  affair  with 
characteristic  acrimony,  appear  to  have  been  about 
equally  divided  in  their  sympathies.  The  contend- 


314  WISCONSIN 

ing  lawyers  included  some  of  the  most  distinguished 
members  of  the  Wisconsin  bar;  but  especially 
prominent  was  Edward  G.  Ryan,  of  Milwaukee, 
who  headed  the  assembly's  counsel.  His  closing 
argument  for  the  prosecution  was  in  some  respects 
the  most  acute  and  brilliant  of  its  kind  ever  heard 
within  the  state,  and  is  still  studied  in  some  law 
schools  as  a  remarkable  example  of  legal  invective. 
The  verdict  of  the  senate  was  "not  guilty,"  a  judg- 
ment commented  on  by  press  and  people  according 
to  individual  predilections.  While  Hubbell  was 
certainly  placed  in  an  unpleasant  light,  and  ap- 
pears to  have  been  lacking  in  judicial  manner, 
much  of  the  evidence  was  of  a  flimsy  character, 
and  personal  animus  seems  to  have  played  some 
part  in  the  proceedings.  The  trial  is  "  an  isolated 
episode  in  Wisconsin  history."  1 

Allusion  was  made  in  a  previous  chapter  to  the 
legislative  act  of  January  5,  1838,  organizing  "  at 
or  near  Madison,  the  seat  of  government,"  the 
"  University  of  the  Territory  of  Wisconsin."  It 
had  been  the  custom  for  Congress  to  bestow  upon 
each  new  territory  seventy-two  sections  (46,080 
acres)  of  public  lands  as  a  university  endowment, 
and  Wisconsin  received  the  usual  grant.  These 
lands  were  officially  selected,  but  throughout  the 
territorial  period  remained  untouched,  for  no  steps 
were  then  taken  to  organize  the  proposed  institution. 

1  See  J.  B.  Sanborn,  "  The  Impeachment  of  Levi  Hubbell,"  in 
Wis.  Hist.  Soc.  Proceedings,  1905. 


POLITICS   AND   NATIONAL   RELATIONS    315 

In  fact,  but  few  citizens  of  the  territory  were  much 
interested  in  the  cause  of  higher  education.  To  the 
great  majority  of  frontiersmen,  engaged  in  wrest- 
ing a  somewhat  meagre  livelihood  from  soil,  forest, 
lakes,  and  mines,  the  proposed  university  seemed 
an  enterprise  far  removed  from  the  necessities  of 
Western  life. 

The  state  constitution  provided  for  "a  state 
university,  at  or  near  the  seat  of  state  govern- 
ment." In  July,  1848,  it  was  duly  incorporated, 
and  appraisers  of  school  and  university  lands  were 
appointed.  But  at  once  the  question  arose,  What 
should  be  the  policy  of  the  state,  in  this  endow- 
ment of  higher  education  by  the  federal  govern- 
ment? Immigrants  were  fast  pouring  in,  and  lands 
must  inevitably  rise  in  value.  Should  the  trust  sec- 
tions be  kept  until  higher  prices  prevailed,  and  the 
university  of  the  future  thus  be  assured  a  worthy 
income  ?  or,  should  they  be  sold  at  once,  on  terms 
so  low  that  immigration  would  be  encouraged,  and 
the  university  itself  be  left  to  the  care  of  the  next 
generation,  which  doubtless  would  be  quite  able  to 
support  such  a  school  by  taxation  ? 

Each  state  carved  out  of  the  Old  Northwest  had 
faced  the  same  problem.  Of  the  five,  Michigan 
alone  kept  faith  with  the  national  government. 
Maintaining  possession  of  her  lands  until  1837,  she 
received  prices  averaging  $22.50  per  acre,  and 
to-day  the  fund  accruing  from  their  sale  brings  to 
the  university  a  considerable  income.  Wisconsin 


316  WISCONSIN 

chose  to  use  the  federal  gift  as  a  bait  for  immi- 
grants, selling  most  of  the  university's  acres  at 
prices  much  below  ruling  market  rates,  and  thus 
seriously  crippling  the  college  during  the  first 
twenty  years  of  its  existence. 

In  1848  a  second  land  grant  of  seventy-two  sec- 
tions was  made  by  Congress,  but  this  was  not 
available  until  1854,  the  year  in  which  the  univer- 
sity graduated  its  first  class  of  two  young  men.  The 
first  grant  having  been  wasted,  it  might  have  been 
supposed  that  the  second  would  be  treated  with  re- 
spect. But  in  neighborhoods  where  $10  to  820  an 
acre  was  the  customary  price,  the  new  university 
lands,  despite  the  indignant  protests  of  the  board 
of  regents,  were  offered  for  three  dollars,  the  sev- 
enty-two sections  thus  bringing  but  $138,240. 

To  make  a  bad  matter  worse,  the  fund  produced 
by  the  sale  of  both  land  grants  was  recklessly  in- 
vested. Upon  the  plea  of  assisting  settlers,  the 
state  land  commissioners  —  again  the  secretary  of 
state,  the  state  treasurer,  and  the  attorney-general 
—  made  loans  from  all  of  the  educational  funds  to 
thousands  of  individuals,  largely  political  friends 
of  those  officers,  and  many  of  these  quite  irrespons- 
ible, and  it  is  still  unknown  how  great  was  the 
loss.  In  1861  there  was  an  investigation  of  the 
wretched  business  by  the  land  commissioners  then 
in  office,  and  an  exposure  was  made  in  their  annual 
report :  "  Truth  compels  the  confession  that  this 
trust  has  been,  and  is  now,  of  necessity,  most  un- 


POLITICS  AND  NATIONAL  RELATIONS    317 

faithfully  administered.  The  best  of  the  school 
lands  have  been  disposed  of  with  eager  haste  and 
in  disregard  of  the  interest  of  the  funds  for  which 
they  were  dedicated." 

Thus  the  state  university  started  upon  its  career 
in  a  condition  of  extreme  weakness.  Sadly  ham- 
pered for  funds  and  obliged  to  erect  buildings  from 
the  wasted  endowment  given  by  Congress  solely 
for  support  and  maintenance,  its  early  manage- 
ment was  not  popular  and  was  beset  by  numer- 
ous enemies  in  the  legislature.  A  drastic  reorgan- 
ization occurred  in  1858,  and  under  improved 
business  management  public  confidence  was  gradu- 
ally restored.  Not  until  1872,  however,  was  a 
state  tax  levied  for  the  benefit  of  the  university  — 
and  then  in  distinct  official  recognition  of  the  fact 
that  the  institution  had  suffered  "  serious  loss  and 
impairment  by  such  sales  of  its  lands,  so  that  its 
income  is  not  at  present  sufficient  to  supply  its 
wants."  *  Since  then,  the  University  of  Wisconsin 
has  received  generous  aid  from  each  recurring  leg- 
islature, which  has  in  this  manner  paid  the  debt 
imposed  upon  the  state  by  the  errors  of  its  prede- 
cessors of  a  half  century  ago.2 

In  February,  1849,  the  Wisconsin  legislature 
requested  the  state's  representatives  in  Congress 
"  to  oppose  the  passage  of  any  act  for  the  govern- 
ment of  New  Mexico  and  California,  or  any  other 

1  Preamble  to  chapter  100,  Laws  of  Wisconsin  for  1872. 
J  See  Thwaites,  History  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin. 


318  WISCONSIN 

Territory  now  belonging  to  the  United  States,  or 
which  may  be  hereafter  acquired,  unless  it  shall 
contain  a  provision  forever  prohibiting  the  intro- 
duction of  slavery  or  involuntary  servitude  into 
said  territories,  except  as  a  punishment  for  crime." 
Later,  a  bill  to  organize  the  territories  of  New 
Mexico  and  California,  with  this  so-called  "  Wil- 
mot  proviso,"  was  passed  by  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, but  defeated  by  the  Senate ;  upon  the 
last  night  of  the  session,  however,  the  latter  attached 
to  the  general  appropriation  bill  a  "  rider  "  erecting 
these  territories  without  the  anti-slavery  clause. 
Isaac  P.  Walker,  one  of  the  Wisconsin  senators, 
took  part  in  this  questionable  proceeding,  which 
was,  however,  opposed  by  his  colleague,  Henry 
Dodge.  The  state  legislature  thereupon  passed  re- 
solutions approving  Dodge's  course,  but  calling  on 
Walker  to  resign  his  seat,  he  having  "  outraged  the 
feelings  and  misrepresented  those  who  elected  him 
to  that  station,  and  openly  violated  the  instructions  " 
of  the  legislature.  Walker  made  no  answer,  and 
kept  his  seat,  but  thereafter  cautiously  voted  upon 
the  anti-slavery  side. 

On  September  18,  1850,  the  President  approved 
the  federal  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  which  provided  for 
using  the  machinery  of  the  United  States  courts  in 
apprehending  runaway  slaves  and  returning  them 
to  their  masters.  This  act — which  denied  to  the 
bondrnan  a  trial  by  jury,  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus, 
the  right  of  appeal,  and  the  summoning  of  wit- 


POLITICS  AND  NATIONAL  RELATIONS    319 

nesses  in  his  own  behalf  —  met  with  general  con- 
demnation in  the  free  states.  Various  political 
conventions  in  Wisconsin  denounced  it  as  "  odious 
and  offensive,"  and  adopted  resolutions  refusing 
aid  in  carrying  out  its  provisions.  But  this  state 
was  not  on  the  usual  route  between  the  South  and 
Canada,  so  that  few  slaves  were  transported  across 
its  borders  by  the  "  underground  railroad,"  al- 
though that  widely-ramified  institution  did  not 
lack  agents  in  Wisconsin,  who  courted  a  larger 
traffic  of  this  character.  There  was,  therefore,  in- 
frequent opportunity  here  for  a  clash  over  the 
matter  between  federal  and  state  authorities ;  but 
when  a  fugitive  slave  case  did  arise,  the  conflict 
attracted  national  attention,  and  again  aroused  the 
strong  state-rights  sentiment  which  appears  to  have 
existed  in  Wisconsin  in  ante  bellum  days. 

Joshua  Glover,  a  runaway  negro  slave,  was  in 
the  winter  of  1853-54  employed  in  a  sawmill  some 
four  miles  north  of  Racine,  on  the  high  road  to 
Milwaukee.  Just  before  dusk  on  the  night  of  March 
10  he  was  in  his  house,  playing  cards  with  two 
other  negroes.  Their  game  was  suddenly  inter- 
rupted by  the  entrance  of  seven  heavily-armed 
white  men,  who  had  driven  thither  from  Racine. 
Two  of  the  intruders  were  federal  deputy  marshals, 
who  had  with  them  four  assistants,  the  seventh 
trespasser  being  Benammi  W.  Garland  of  St.  Louis, 
who  claimed  to  be  Glover's  master.  In  the  attempt 
to  arrest  Glover  a  desperate  fight  ensued,  in  the 


320  WISCONSIN 

course  of  which  his  negro  friends  escaped;  but 
single-handed  he  displayed  great  strength,  and  was 
only  overcome  by  being  knocked  on  the  head  and 
manacled  while  insensible. 

The  kidnappers  had  intended  returning  to  Ra- 
cine; but  realizing  that  news  of  the  encounter 
would  soon  reach  that  hotbed  of  abolitionism,  they 
feared  a  rough  reception,  so  determined  to  drive 
across  country  to  Milwaukee,  twenty  miles  north- 
ward. The  night  was  bitterly  cold,  but  the  bleeding 
fugitive  was  thrown  into  an  open  wagon,  without 
covering,  and  throughout  the  night-long  ride  was 
frequently  kicked  and  clubbed,  and  threatened  by 
the  brutal  Garland  with  still  worse  punishment 
when  he  reached  "  home."  At  daylight,  the  poor 
black  was  cast  into  the  Milwaukee  jail,  where  his 
wounds  were  bandaged  by  a  physician. 

The  anti-slavery  leaders  of  Milwaukee  were  at 
once  aroused.  One  of  the  most  prominent  among 
them  was  Sherman  M.  Booth,  editor  of  a  small 
paper  called  "  Wisconsin  Free  Democrat."  Learn- 
ing of  the  Glover  affair,  Booth,  during  the  morning 
of  the  eleventh,  rode  on  horseback  up  and  down 
the  streets  of  the  city,  and  like  a  town  crier  shouted  : 
"  Freemen,  to  the  rescue !  Slave-catchers  are  in  our 
midst !  Be  at  the  courthouse  at  two  o'clock !  "  At 
the  appointed  time,  five  thousand  citizens  gathered 
in  the  courthouse  square,  where  men  of  local  prom- 
inence made  impassioned  speeches  against  the  fugi- 
tive slave  law  and  negro-kidnapping. 


POLITICS  AND  NATIONAL  RELATIONS    321 

The  Milwaukee  county  judge  issued  a  writ  of 
habeas  corpus  in  favor  of  Glover ;  but  the  sheriff, 
advised  by  Federal  Judge  A.  G.  Miller,  who  had 
issued  the  warrant  for  the  slave's  arrest,  refused  to 
serve  the  paper.  Excitement  grew  hourly.  At  five 
o'clock  a  contingent  of  a  hundred  persons  arrived 
by  steamboat  from  Racine,  where  a  large  mass 
meeting  had  been  held  that  morning,  at  which  it 
was  resolved  that  "  We,  as  citizens  of  Wisconsin, 
are  justified  in  declaring  and  do  hereby  declare  the 
slave-catching  law  of  1850  disgraceful  and  also  re- 
pealed." The  delegation  of  a  hundred  were  sent 
to  Milwaukee  to  insist  on  fair  play  for  the  negro. 
In  the  course  of  the  afternoon  the  Milwaukee  local 
militia  were  ordered  out  to  preserve  the  peace,  but 
failed  to  obey  the  summons. 

At  six  o'clock,  following  a  glowing  appeal  by 
Booth,  the  mob  demanded  that  the  sheriff  give  up 
his  prisoner.  Refusal  following,  the  jail  door  was 
battered  in  with  a  ram  of  timber.  Glover  was  then 
taken  out  and  handed  over  to  the  "underground 
railroad"  agency,  which  put  him  aboard  a  schooner 
clearing  for  Canada,  where  he  arrived  safely.  As 
for  Garland  and  the  deputies,  they  were  arrested 
for  assault,  but  Judge  Miller  released  them. 

Soon  after  this  event,  a  number  of  anti-slavery 
meetings  were  held  in  various  free  states,  to  take 
action  against  the  Nebraska  bill.  At  gatherings  of 
this  character  it  became  customary  to  adopt  a  reso- 
lution clearly  indorsing  the  affair  at  Milwaukee  ; 


322  WISCONSIN 

in  Wisconsin,  a  resolution  was  generally  added,  ex- 
pressing the  opinion  that  the  obnoxious  federal  law 
was  unconstitutional.  As  for  the  Wisconsin  press, 
it  generally  sympathized  with  the  movement,  al- 
though there  was  in  most  editorials  a  cautious  note 
of  deprecation  against  the  use  of  mob  violence,  save 
under  great  provocation. 

Public  interest  now  centred  in  Booth,  who  be- 
came the  victim  of  a  long  and  expensive  series  of 
legal  actions  as  the  principal  inciter  of  violence 
against  the  federal  authority.  Four  days  after 
Glover's  jail  delivery,  Booth  was  arrested  on  a  war- 
rant from  the  United  States  commissioner,  charging 
him  with  "aiding  and  abetting"  in  the  former's  es- 
cape ;  but  the  state  supreme  court  discharged  him 
(July  19)  on  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus.  In  his  opin- 
ion on  the  case,  Associate  Justice  A.  D.  Smith  held 
that  Congress  had  no  power,  under  the  federal 
constitution,  to  legislate  on  the  subject  of  persons 
held  to  labor  or  service,  that  being  a  state  function ; 
he  also  denied  that  the  federal  judiciary  was  "  the 
sole  and  exclusive  judge  of  its  own  powers,"  and 
advised  the  general  government  to  "  abstain  from 
interference  "  with  state  affairs.  The  full  bench,  in 
supporting  this  opinion,  held  further  that  the  fugi- 
tive slave  law  was  "  unconstitutional  and  void." 

Booth  was  promptly  reindicted  by  the  federal 
authorities,  and  haled  before  the  United  States 
District  Court,  which  in  January  (1855)  condemned 
him  to  a  month's  imprisonment  and  a  fine  of  a 


POLITICS  AND  NATIONAL  RELATIONS    323 

thousand  dollars.  Public  meetings  were  now  held 
throughout  the  state,  at  which  money  was  raised 
for  continuing  the  defense  of  the  popular  agitator, 
who  was  himself  a  man  of  indomitable  courage 
and  perseverance.  Some  of  the  fervid  resolutions 
adopted  at  these  gatherings  remind  one  of  Wis- 
consin Territory's  nullification  address  to  Congress, 
ten  years  previous. 

As  soon  as  practicable,  the  case  of  Booth  was, 
amidst  great  popular  excitement,  again  presented 
to  the  state  court,  which  once  more  issued  the 
habeas  corpus  writ,  this  time  accompanied  by  a  de- 
cision from  Chief  Justice  Edward  V.  Whiton,  dis- 
tinctly declaring  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  "  uncon- 
stitutional and  void."  Mr.  Justice  Smith  filed  a 
still  stronger  individual  opinion,  reiterating  his  for- 
mer contentions.  These  decisions  were  cheered  to 
the  echo  throughout  Wisconsin  and  other  Northern 
states.  Charles  Sumner,  of  Massachusetts,  writing 
to  a  Wisconsin  correspondent  under  date  of  Wash- 
ington, June  18, 1856,  says  :  "  I  have  read  Judge 
Smith's  opinions.  He  has  placed  the  lovers  of  con- 
stitutional freedom  under  renewed  obligations.  .  .  . 
Judge  Smith's  opinion  showed  the  true  metal." 

The  United  States  Supreme  Court,  as  might  be 
expected,  in  1859  reversed  the  action  of  the  state 
court,  which  was  ordered  to  return  Booth  into 
federal  custody.  This,  however,  the  state  refused 
to  do,  and  Booth  was  rearrested  on  federal  war- 
rant, March  1,  1860.  Again  was  the  aid  of  the 


324  WISCONSIN 

state  supreme  court  invoked,  but  meanwhile  there 
had  been  changes  in  the  composition  of  that  body, 
and  the  application  for  a  new  writ  failed.1  The 
prisoner  escaped  from  confinement,  on  the  first  of 
August,  and  fled  to  the  northern  part  of  the  state : 
but  being  rearrested  at  Berlin,  October  8,  he  re- 
mained in  confinement  until  pardoned  by  President 
Buchanan  just  previous  to  Lincoln's  inauguration. 
In  1857,  as  the  result  of  this  protracted  disturb- 
ance, the  legislature  passed  an  act  "  to  prevent  kid- 
napping." District  attorneys  in  each  county  were 
instructed  "  to  use  all  lawful  means  to  protect,  de- 
fend, and  procure  to  be  discharged  .  .  .  every  per- 
son arrested  or  claimed  as  a  fugitive  slave,"  and 
to  throw  around  the  bondsman  every  possible  safe- 
guard. Two  years  later  the  spring  election  of  1859 
for  justice  of  the  state  supreme  court  turned  on 
this  issue.  Byron  Paine,  Booth's  principal  counsel, 
ran  upon  an  anti-slavery  platform,  which  also  in- 
volved state-rights,  for  in  his  argument  in  behalf 
of  Booth,  Paine  had  quoted  the  Virginia  and  Ken- 
tucky nullification  resolutions,  and  boldly  declared : 
"The  states  should  have  the  right  to  judge,  in  the 
last  resort,  when  their  sovereignties  are  encroached 
upon,  and  to  take  measures  for  their  protection." 
After  an  exciting  campaign,  in  which  "  state- 

1  Chief  Justice  Dixon  held  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  constitu- 
tional and  valid;  Associate  Justices  Orsamus  Cole  and  Byron 
Paine  were  of  the  contrary  opinion,  —  but  as  Paine  had  been  of 
Booth's  counsel,  be  declined  to  act,  which  left  the  vote  a  tie. 


POLITICS  AND  NATIONAL  RELATIONS    325 

rights"  was  the  slogan  of  Paine's  managers,  he 
won  by  about  two  thousand  majority  in  a  total 
vote  of  seventy-nine  thousand.  Writing  from  Rome 
in  May,  Sumner  fervidly  congratulated  Paine,  in 
his  ecstasy  crying,  "  God  bless  the  people  of  Wis- 
consin who  know  their  rights  and  knowing  dare 
maintain ! "  * 

Thus  the  growing  insolence  of  the  slave  power 
at  last  introduced  a  distinctly  moral  issue  into 
public  discussion,  and  swiftly  brought  about  the 
desirable  readjustment  of  parties  upon  great  na- 
tional issues.  Thereafter  was  noticeable  in  this,  as 
in  other  Western  states,  a  marked  improvement  in 
the  quality  of  public  service,  and  in  every  walk 
of  life  a  loftier  standard  has  since  been  adhered 
to.  The  scandals  of  fifty  years  ago  have  never 
been  repeated  in  the  history  of  Wisconsin,  whose 
public  affairs  are  in  our  day  conducted  on  a  plane 
immeasurably  higher  than  in  the  period  treated  in 
this  chapter. 

1  Vroman  Mason,  "  The  Fugitive  Slave  Law  in  Wisconsin,  with 
reference  to  Nullification  Sentiment,"  in  Wis.  Hist.  Soc.  Proceed- 
ings, 1895. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE   WAR   CLOUD 

IN  1860  Wisconsin  contained  a  population  of 
somewhat  over  three  quarters  of  a  million,  a  gain 
of  three  hundred  fold  in  twelve  years.  In  his  mes- 
sage to  the  legislature,  delivered  January  12,  Gov- 
ernor Alexander  W.  Randall,  then  entering  upon 
his  second  term,  called  attention  to  the  fact  that 
the  finances  of  the  fast-growing  young  common- 
wealth were  never  in  so  excellent  a  condition : 
"  The  difficulties  and  embarrassments  under  which 
the  state  has  labored  for  some  years  have  been  out- 
grown. .  .  .  Wisconsin  has  paid  for  her  public  im- 
provements, such  as  the  erection  of  prisons  and 
charitable  institutions,  without  creating  a  perma- 
nent state  debt  for  such  purposes."  There  was  not 
even  a  floating  debt,  and  a  satisfactory  balance 
remained  in  the  treasury.  The  business  of  the  state 
was  being  conducted,  he  declared,  at  less  expense 
and  with  lower  taxes  than  that  of  "any  other 
Northern  state  out  of  New  England,  with  a  single 
exception."  Among  the  evidences  of  a  healthful 
condition  was  the  existence  of  4331  school  dis- 
tricts, and  schoolhouse  property  valued  at  $1,185,- 
181. 


THE   WAR   CLOUD  327 

But  there  was  a  cloud  in  this  otherwise  promis- 
ing sky.  The  insurrectionary  aims  of  the  slave- 
holders were  becoming  more  and  more  evident,  and 
the  governor  discussed  them  with  a  due  sense  of 
the  gravity  of  the  situation.  Quite  ignoring  the 
nullification  sentiments  but  recently  applauded 
within  his  own  state,  on  the  occasion  of  the  bound- 
ary and  the  Glover  affairs,  his  message  clearly 
placed  Wisconsin  on  record  as  now  a  stanch  and 
unquestioned  supporter  of  the  federal  authority. 
"  The  disunion  sentiments  avowed  in  portions  of 
the  country,  and  sometimes  in  our  halls  of  na- 
tional legislation,  are,"  the  chief  executive  de- 
clared, "  unpatriotic,  undignified,  and  disgraceful. 
Every  threat  of  disunion  should  be  held  up  to 
public  reprobation  in  all  sections  of  the  Union,  and 
every  attempt  at  disunion  rewarded  with  a  halter. 
...  If  any  state  forgets  its  allegiance,  it  must  be 
brought  back." 

Language  such  as  this  might  not  have  been 
favorably  received,  anywhere  between  1854  and 
1859,  at  public  meetings  in  Wisconsin  called  to 
support  Booth.  But  here,  as  elsewhere  in  the  North, 
stress  of  events  had  caused  a  sudden  revulsion  of 
popular  sentiment  in  regard  to  federal  loyalty. 
Now  that  a  crisis  was  imminent,  but  few  citizens 
of  Wisconsin  found  themselves  opposed  to  the 
attitude  of  the  entire  state  administration  —  not 
only  were  all  of  the  governor's  colleagues  (the 
department  chiefs)  of  his  own  party  and  way  of 


328  WISCONSIN 

thinking,  but  the  legislative  majority  was  also  of 
the  same  opinion. 

In  Congress,  Senator  James  R.  Doolittle  of  Wis- 
consin made  (December  27)  a  learned  and  con- 
vincing speech  against  secession,  which  attracted 
the  attention  of  the  country.  He  pointed  out  to  his 
Southern  colleagues  that :  "  Your  right  of  seces- 
sion involves  the  right  of  expulsion  ;  "  and  plainly 
told  them  that,  instead  of  injustice,  "you  have  had 
your  full  share,  and  more  than  your  full  share,  of 
the  territories  we  have  acquired  from  the  begin- 
ning up  to  this  hour.  .  .  .  We  deny  you  no  right 
which  we  do  not  deny  ourselves."  Senators  Doo- 
little and  Timothy  O.  Howe,  serving  Wisconsin  as 
such  throughout  the  war,  were  men  of  commanding 
importance  in  those  stirring  days.  Howe's  maiden 
speech  in  the  Senate  (March  22,  1861),  attacking 
the  secessionists,  was  eagerly  read  at  the  time,  par- 
ticularly for  its  skillful  passage-at-arms  with  Ste- 
phen A.  Douglas  and  others  of  his  opponents. 

Of  the  Wisconsin  members  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  throughout  the  war  period,  the 
most  conspicuous  were  Amasa  Cobb,  Charles  A. 
Eldridge,  Charles  H.  Larrabee,  John  F.  Potter, 
A.  Scott  Sloan,  Ithamar  C.  Sloan,  and  Cadwalla- 
der  C.  Washburn.  Potter,  a  bluff,  outspoken  man 
of  considerable  ability,  was,  during  the  early  days 
of  secession  talk  (1860),  challenged  to  fight  a  duel 
with  Congressman  Roger  A.  Pryor,  a  Virginian 
somewhat  inclined  to  "fire-eating."  Under  the 


THE   WAR  CLOUD  329 

"  code  of  honor,"  Potter  as  the  challenged  party 
had  the  privilege  of  choosing  weapons  for  the  con- 
test, and  in  a  spirit  of  grim  humor  selected  a  pair 
of  particularly  vicious-looking  bowie-knives ;  where- 
upon Pryor  indignantly  withdrew,  declaring  that 
he  was  not  a  butcher.  In  the  superheated  political 
atmosphere  of  the  time,  this  otherwise  amusing  in- 
cident became  at  once  a  national  event.  "  Bowie- 
Knife  Potter  "  was  the  hero  of  the  hour  among  the 
most  violent  of  the  anti-Southern  element ;  and  to 
his  dismay,  poor  Pryor,  on  whose  shoulders  were 
placed  all  the  supposed  iniquities  of  the  South, 
found  himself  posted  above  Mason  and  Dixon's 
line  as  "a  typical  Dixie  coward."1 

The  result  of  the  presidential  election  in  Novem- 
ber following  was  practically  an  announcement  to 
the  South,  on  the  part  of  the  North,  that  the  slave 
power  was  doomed.  Wisconsin  made  a  distinct 
contribution  to  this  verdict,  for  out  of  152,180  votes 
cast  in  this  state,  the  Republican  presidential  elec- 
tors received  a  plurality  of  21,089  over  the  Dem- 
ocratic candidates. 

The  threatened  Southern  revolt  was  not  long 
delayed.  December  20,  the  South  Carolina  conven- 
tion unanimously  passed  an  ordinance  dissolving 
the  union  between  its  own  and  the  other  states ;  in 
this  being  followed  by  Mississippi  (January  9, 

1  Potter's  bowie-knives,  together  with  several  others  presented 
to  him  by  admiring  Northern  friends,  are  now  in  the  museum  of 
the  Wisconsin  Historical  Society,  at  Madison. 


330  WISCONSIN 

1861),  Florida  (January  10),  Alabama  (January 
11),  Georgia  (January  18),  Louisiana  (January 
26),  and  Texas  (February  1).  Upon  the  day  of 
Florida's  secession,  Governor  Randall  again  ad- 
dressed the  Wisconsin  legislature  at  length  upon 
the  national  situation.  "  The  right  of  a  state  to  se- 
cede from  the  Union,"  he  declared,  "  can  never  be 
admitted.  ...  A  state  cannot  come  into  the  Union 
as  it  pleases,  and  go  out  when  it  pleases.  Once  in, 
it  must  stay  until  the  Union  is  destroyed.  .  .  . 
Secession  is  revolution  ;  revolution  is  war ;  war 
against  the  government  of  the  United  States  is  trea- 
son." His  closing  paragraph  was  stilted,  but  typi- 
cal of  much  of  the  political  oratory  of  that  day : 
"  Wisconsin  is  true,  and  her  people  steadfast.  She 
will  not  destroy  the  Union,  nor  consent  that  it  shall 
be  done.  Devised  by  great,  and  wise,  and  good 
men,  in  days  of  sore  trial,  it  must  stand.  Like  some 
bold  mountain,  at  whose  base  the  great  seas  break 
their  angry  floods,  and  around  whose  summit  a 
thousand  hurricanes  have  rattled,  strong,  unmoved, 
immovable — so  may  our  Union  be,  while  treason 
surges  at  its  base,  and  passions  rage  around  it, 
unmoved,  immovable  —  here  let  it  stand  forever." 
The  state  legislature  was  overwhelmingly  Re- 
publican, but  party  lines  were  no  longer  drawn  ; 
all  united  in  support  of  the  Union.  Affairs  moved 
swiftly  in  the  South.  February  18,  General  David 
E.  Twiggs,  commandant  of  the  Military  Depart- 
ment of  Texas,  then  including  the  largest  body  of 


THE  WAR  CLOUD  331 

federal  regulars,  surrendered  to  the  agents  of  the 
Confederacy  a  million  and  a  quarter  dollars'  worth 
of  government  property  in  his  care  at  San  Antonio  ; 
together  with  nineteen  posts,  navy  yards,  arsenals, 
and  a  vast  quantity  of  military  stores  in  various 
parts  of  the  state ;  while  the  2700  men  in  his  charge 
were  ordered  to  depart  from  the  commonwealth,  be- 
ing for  the  purpose  given  transportation  and  food 
to  the  coast.  For  this  service  the  Texas  convention 
voted,  "  That  the  thanks  of  the  people  of  Texas  are 
due  and  are  hereby  tendered  to  Maj.-Gen.  David 
E.  Twiggs  for  his  patriotism,  moral  courage,  and 
loyalty  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
embracing  the  rights  and  liberty  of  his  native 
South." 

Wisconsin  pioneers  were  particularly  interested 
in  this  incident,  because,  as  major  of  the  Fifth 
United  States  Infantry,  Twiggs  had  served  for 
several  years  as  commandant  of  Forts  Howard 
and  Winnebago,  respectively,  and  had  been  a 
prominent  character  in  our  pre-territorial  history. 
One  of  his  lieutenants  at  the  latter  post  was  Jeffer- 
son Davis,  then  a  young  graduate  from  West  Point, 
and  now  provisional  President  of  the  Confederate 
States. 

The  retirement  of  President  Buchanan,  who  had 
allowed  the  revolt  to  gather  head,  and  the  inaugu- 
ration of  Lincoln,  pledged  to  preserve  the  Union, 
meant  henceforth  a  vigorous  policy  both  at  Wash- 
ington and  at  the  several  state  capitals.  On  the 


332  WISCONSIN 

13th  of  April,  anticipating  a  call  from  President 
Lincoln  for  volunteers,  the  Wisconsin  legislature 
passed  an  act  giving  to  Randall  practically  carte 
blanche  in  the  adoption  of  such  measures  "  To  pro- 
vide for  the  defense  of  the  state,  and  to  aid  in  en- 
forcing the  laws  and  maintaining  the  authority  of 
the  federal  government,"  as  to  him  should  seem 
appropriate.  For  this  purpose,  a  hundred  thousand 
dollars  were  voted.  But  on  the  14th  (Sunday) 
came  news  of  the  surrender  of  Fort  Sumter  in 
Charleston  harbor.  On  Monday  the  President  called 
for  seventy-five  thousand  three-months'  volunteers 
to  aid  in  executing  federal  laws  in  the  seceding 
states.  The  next  day  the  Wisconsin  governor  is- 
sued a  proclamation  urging  prompt  response  on  the 
part  of  the  people  of  the  state,  especially  by  uni- 
formed militia  companies,  and  at  a  later  hour  the 
same  day  the  legislature  doubled  the  sum  pre- 
viously appropriated  for  use  in  the  great  emergency. 

On  Wednesday  noon,  according  to  a  previously 
adopted  resolution,  the  legislature  adjourned  sine 
die,  but  the  members  at  once  resolved  themselves 
into  a  public  meeting,  held  in  the  chamber  of  the 
assembly.  This  gathering  was  addressed  by  mem- 
bers, lobbyists,  and  citizens  generally,  Democrats 
as  well  as  Republicans,  the  proceedings  being 
marked  by  intense  enthusiasm  and  unstinted  ex- 
pressions pf  loyalty. 

The  heroes  of  the  occasion  were  the  men  of  the 
Madison  Guard,  a  local  militia  company  that  had 


THE  WAR  CLOUD  333 

unanimously  tendered  its  services  to  Randall  as 
early  as  January  9,  the  day  of  Mississippi's  seces- 
sion. Immediately  upon  signing  his  proclamation  of 
April  16,  the  governor  sent  for  the  captain  of  this 
company  and  accepted  the  tender.  Thus  this  organ- 
ization was  the  first  in  Wisconsin  to  enlist.  While 
its  members  were  being  cheered  at  the  meeting 
in  the  assembly  chamber,  the  telegraph  brought 
similar  offers  from  Milwaukee  and  other  cities 
throughout  the  state,  as  well  as  news  that  Virginia 
had  that  day  taken  steps  to  withdraw  from  the 
Union. 

Within  a  week  Governor  Randall  had  on  his 
hands  an  embarrassment  of  riches  ;  for  while  Wis- 
consin's assigned  quota  was  but  one  regiment, 
thirty-six  companies  had  volunteered.  "  In  six  days 
from  the  issue  of  my  proclamation  of  the  16th,"  the 
governor  officially  announced,  "  the  first  regiment 
called  for  by  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
for  the  defence  of  the  Union,  is  enrolled  and  ready. 
...  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  Wisconsin  is  not 
permitted  to  increase  largely  her  quota,  but  her 
loyal  citizens  must  exercise  patience  till  called  for." 
Of  the  ten  companies  accepted,  four  were  from 
Milwaukee,  two  from  Madison,  and  one  each  from 
Beloit,  Fond  du  Lac,  Horicon,  and  Kenosha. 

On  the  18th  and  19th  of  April,  Northern  troops 
passing  through  Baltimore  on  their  way  to  Wash- 
ington were  attacked  by  mobs,  which  on  the  latter 
day  drew  the  first  blood  that  was  shed  in  behalf 


334  WISCONSIN 

of  the  Union.  The  First  Wisconsin  infantry  regi- 
ment, recruited  up  to  standard  and  thoroughly  or- 
ganized, was  tendered  to  the  War  Department  on 
the  twenty-second.  Going  into  camp  at  Milwaukee 
five  days  later,  the  men  were  on  the  17th  of  May 
mustered  into  the  United  States  service  for  three 
months.  On  June  7,  the  regiment  received  march- 
ing orders,  and  two  days  later  left  for  the  capital 
of  Pennsylvania.  Its  progress  eastward  elicited 
warm  greetings.  Contemporary  newspaper  reports 
spoke  of  their  "comparatively  perfect  equipment," 
and  their  "  splendid  appearance."  A  New  York 
"  Tribune  "  correspondent  prophesied  that  "  The 
clarion  voice  of  their  martial-looking  Colonel  [John 
C.]  Starkweather,  will  ring  the  knell  of  the  traitors 
who  get  within  rifle  distance." 

Despite  the  amiable  compliments  of  ill-informed 
newspaper  correspondents  on  the  martial  appear- 
ance of  the  First  Wisconsin,  it  must  be  confessed 
that,  in  common  with  other  Northern  militia  regi- 
ments now  hurrying  to  the  front,  our  representa- 
tives were  soon  to  discover  that  they  were  but  ill 
provided  for  the  stern  necessities  of  camp  and  field. 
The  War  of  Secession  found  the  people  of  the 
North  quite  unprepared.  Few  of  its  military  organ- 
izations were  worthy  of  the  name.  Wisconsin's 
militia  system,  probably  as  good  as  that  of  its 
neighbors,  was  weak  and  ineffective  ;  the  most  im- 
portant public  service  rendered  by  the  fancifully 
uniformed  and  sometimes  artistically  drilled  com- 


THE   WAR  CLOUD  335 

panies  had  heretofore  been  to  parade  on  public 
holidays  and  at  gubernatorial  inaugurations.  The 
officers  knew  nothing  of  the  conditions  of  actual 
service.  There  was  abundant  patriotism,  and  at 
first  no  lack  of  either  men  or  money,  but  in  Wis- 
consin as  elsewhere  confusion  reigned ;  people  in 
authority  worked  at  cross  purposes ;  only  inade- 
quate supplies  of  military  stores  could  be  obtained, 
and  generally  these  were  ill  adapted  to  the  purpose 
designed,  and  managed  by  an  untrained  commis- 
sariat. 

Governor  Randall  developed  a  quite  unusual 
capacity  for  hard  and  efficient  work.  He  sent 
agents  to  Washington  to  collect  expert  informa- 
tion as  to  the  handling,  outfitting,  and  general  care 
of  troops,  so  far  as  military  men  then  understood 
that  branch  of  their  work ;  but  in  these  matters 
none  were  then  really  proficient,  as  judged  by  the 
standards  of  our  own  time.  In  the  first  week  of 
May  he  was  a  prominent  member  of  a  conference 
of  governors  of  Western  and  Border  states  held  at 
Cleveland,  and  was  selected  to  lay  the  results  of 
this  convention  before  the  President ;  he  organized 
the  women  of  the  state  in  their  important  task  of 
cooperation  with  the  army,  a  helpfulness  which 
soon  assumed  large  proportions  ;  conducted  a  wide 
correspondence  with  the  national  authorities  and 
his  fellow  state  executives ;  addressed  patriotic 
meetings ;  and  in  general  supervised  in  person  even 
the  minutest  details  of  management.  But  do  what 


336  WISCONSIN 

he  might,  —  and  under  like  circumstances  no  man 
could  have  effected  larger  results,  —  Wisconsin 
troops  had  their  full  share  of  such  trials  as  in 
those  early  months  arose  from  insufficient  and  im- 
proper food,  clothing,  and  equipment,  and  wretch- 
edly unwholesome  camps. 

The  governor  complained  to  the  War  Department 
because  Illinois,  with  not  quite  double  the  popula- 
tion of  Wisconsin,  had  been  called  on  for  six  regi- 
ments while  his  own  state  was  restricted  to  one. 
Secretary  of  War  Cameron,  reflecting  the  opinion 
of  the  federal  cabinet,  that  had  not  yet  risen  to  an 
appreciation  of  the  magnitude  of  the  task  before  it, 
replied  that  one  regiment  was  all  that  could  be 
used,  and  suggested  canceling  all  enlistments  be- 
yond the  required  number.  Randall,  however, 
thought  that  he  knew  better,  and  began  forming 
regiments  of  reserves,  which,  he  declared,  would 
soon  be  needed.  In  this  manner  the  Second,  Third, 
and  Fourth  Infantry  were  organized  and  made  ready 
for  camp  before  the  authorities  at  Washington  had 
expressed  any  desire  for  them. 

While  the  Cleveland  conference  was  in  session, 
President  Lincoln  issued  his  second  call  for  troops 
— this  time  asking  for  forty-two  thousand  for  three 
years.  Wisconsin's  quota  under  this  levy  was  two 
additional  regiments.  Randall  dispatched  the  Sec- 
ond and  Third,  and  again  begged  the  privilege 
of  adding  others,  only  to  have  his  offer  once  more 
declined. 


THE   WAR  CLOUD  337 

However,  he  had  not  long  to  wait.  On  the  4th  of 
July  the  President  was  authorized  to  call  for  five 
hundred  thousand  men.  By  November,  sixteen 
Wisconsin  infantry  regiments  had  been  organized, 
and  were  being  drilled  at  central  camps  in  Madi- 
son,1 Milwaukee,  Fond  du  Lac,  and  Racine  ;  and 
the  early  three-months'  commands,  now  veterans  of 
several  engagements,  had  reenlisted  for  long  peri- 
ods. Besides  these,  the  state  had  put  into  the  field 
two  cavalry  regiments,  seven  batteries  of  artillery, 
and  a  company  of  sharpshooters.  The  quota  of 
Wisconsin  had  thus  far  been  placed  at  twenty 
thousand,  but  she  had  exceeded  this  by  three  thou- 
sand. 

The  legislature,  meeting  in  special  session  from 
May  15  to  27  (1861),  took  vigorous  measures  for 
promoting  Wisconsin's  part  in  the  war.  The  ex- 
pense entailed  was  startlingly  large  for  so  small 
and  new  a  state ;  but  rigid  economy  was  forced 
upon  every  department  of  the  public  service,  in 
order  that  the  one  great  end  might  be  served. 
Thenceforward  Wisconsin  promptly  and  efficiently 
met  every  demand  made  upon  her  during  the  gigan- 
tic struggle ;  her  quota  of  troops  was  always  more 

1  Camp  Randall,  at  Madison,  then  the  fair  grounds  of  the  Wis- 
consin State  Agricultural  Society,  was  the  principal  training  field. 
Of  the  91,379  troops  contributed  by  Wisconsin  to  the  war,  70,000 
were  at  various  times  quartered  in  or  drilled  at  this  camp.  In  1893 
the  ground  was  purchased  by  the  state  as  an  athletic  field  for  the 
University  of  Wisconsin,  with  a  view  to  securing  its  proper  main- 
tenance as  an  historical  site. 


338  WISCONSIN 

than  full ;  and  although  at  times  the  fiscal  situation 
seemed  desperate,  no  question  arose  as  to  the  wis- 
dom of  making  liberal  provision  for  the  military 
chest. 

Never  was  the  financial  outlook  in  our  state  more 
foreboding  than  at  the  outset  of  the  struggle.  We 
have  seen  that  during  the  fifties  "  wildcat "  banks 
were  prevalent  in  the  West.  Many  of  these  insti- 
tutions had  fallen  in  the  crisis  of  1857,  and  there 
was  still  a  shortage  of  commercial  capital  in  Wis- 
consin. The  one  hundred  and  nine  state  banks 
within  the  limits  of  the  common  wealth,  in  the  spring 
of  1861,  had  a  circulation  of  four  and  a  half  million 
dollars,  two  thirds  of  which  was  secured  by  the 
bonds  of  Southern  and  Border  states,  now  sadly  de- 
preciated. Consequently,  business  paralysis  seemed 
imminent. 

Within  a  fortnight  after  the  fall  of  Fort  Sumter, 
thirty-eight  weak  banks  suspended  payment  on  their 
bills  (aggregating  somewhat  over  two  millions  of 
dollars),  leaving  only  seventy-one  on  the  list.  On 
Friday,  June  21,  the  Milwaukee  bankers,  seeking 
to  save  something  from  the  wreck,  threw  out  ten 
other  tottering  concerns.  This  action  was,  however, 
not  published  until  after  banking  hours  on  Satur- 
day, the  general  pay-day  for  workmen.  When  the 
latter  discovered  that  many  of  the  bills  handed  to 
them  as  wages  on  Saturday  were  now  discredited, 
they  considered  this  action  of  the  financiers  as  fraud- 
ulent, and  on  Monday  stormed  banks  and  brokers' 


THE  WAR  CLOUD  339 

offices  with  bricks  and  paving  stones,  causing  a 
total  loss  in  furniture  and  windows  of  about  forty 
thousand  dollars.  During  an  entire  week  business 
was  suspended  at  the  metropolis,  and  for  a  month 
much  disorganized.  Before  the  close  of  the  year  the 
state  made  an  arrangement  with  the  bankers  by 
which  the  Southern  bonds  were  sold  at  a  sacrifice 
and  replaced  by  state  securities ;  all  bank  paper 
not  already  retired  was  again  received  at  par ;  and 
the  holders  of  the  bills  of  discredited  banks  were 
compensated  for  whatever  loss  they  had  sustained. 

Nevertheless,  public  confidence  was  not  wholly 
restored  until  after  the  great  Union  victories  in 
1863,  that  practically  decided  the  result  of  the  war. 
Until  then,  the  volume  of  business  in  the  state,  and 
correspondingly  its  general  wealth,  had  noticeably 
declined  from  the  standards  of  I860.1 

It  has  been  shown  that  immigration  from  Europe 
was  the  chief  cause  of  Wisconsin's  rapid  growth 
during  the  twelve  or  thirteen  years  just  previous  to 
the  war.  Had  it  not  been  for  this  tragic  event,  the 
population  of  the  state  would  doubtless  have  been 
still  more  markedly  German  in  its  origin.  Condi- 
tions in  Germany  were  such,  in  the  early  years  of 
our  contest,  as  greatly  to  increase  the  tendency  to- 
wards emigration.  But  the  war  and  the  correspond- 
ing financial  depression  in  the  United  States  at 
once  largely  diverted  the  general  tide  of  Europeans 

1  Carl  Russell  Fish,  ' '  Phases  of  Economic  History  of  Wiscon- 
sin, 1860-70,"  in  Wis.  Hist.  Soc.  Proceedings,  1907. 


340  WISCONSIN 

towards  South  America,  and  in  consequence  the 
German  migration  to  Wisconsin  particularly  suf- 
fered. On  the  other  hand,  Norwegian  immigration 
hither  increased  materially  during  this  period  of 
stress,  and  in  several  counties  large  groups  of  Nor- 
wegians now  supplanted  Germans  in  the  ownership 
of  the  soil.  There  was  throughout  the  war  a  con- 
siderable movement  toward  this  and  other  Middle 
Western  states  of  farmers  from  New  York  and 
New  England  ;  but  meanwhile  many  restless  Wis- 
consin people  were  moving  to  still  newer  states  in 
the  farther  West.  The  net  result  was,  that  from 
1860  to  1865  the  total  growth  of  population  of  the 
commonwealth  was  but  twelve  per  cent ;  whereas 
the  census  of  1870  revealed  that  during  the  suc- 
ceeding five  years  of  peace,  with  European  immi- 
gration revived  upon  a  large  scale,  there  was  an 
increase  of  twenty-one  per  cent. 

The  fact  that  Wisconsin  contained  large  and 
varied  groups  of  settlers  of  European  birth  gave  a 
certain  picturesqueness  to  her  troops  at  the  front. 
The  Ninth,  Twenty-sixth,  and  Forty-fifth  infantry 
regiments  were  almost  wholly  German  ;  the  Can- 
adian French  were  largely  represented  in  the 
Twelfth;  the  Fifteenth  was  distinctly  Scandi- 
navian (chiefly  Norwegian) ;  the  Irish  were  strongly 
centred  in  the  Seventeenth ;  while  our  Indian 
wards,  now  eager  to  serve  the  once-hated  "  Bos- 
tonnais,"  were  enrolled  in  considerable  numbers  in 
the  Third,  Seventh,  and  Thirty-seventh.  It  was 


THE  WAR  CLOUD  341 

noticeable  that  European  immigrants,  inheriting  a 
martial  spirit,  made  unusually  effective  soldiers, 
and  won  laurels  on  many  hard-fought  fields. 

Indeed,  most  Wisconsin  volunteer  commands 
were  fortunate  in  earning  and  maintaining  excel- 
lent reputations  during  the  great  war.  One  cause 
for  this  was  the  recruiting  policy  of  the  state,  which 
differed  materially  from  that  of  many  other  com- 
monwealths. Says  General  Sherman  in  his  "  Me- 
moirs:" "I  remember  that  Wisconsin  kept  her 
regiments  filled  with  recruits,  whereas  other  States 
generally  filled  up  their  quota  by  new  regiments ; 
and  the  result  was  that  we  estimated  a  Wisconsin 
regiment  equal  to  an  ordinary  brigade."  They  were, 
also,  participants  in  most  of  the  great  operations 
in  all  parts  of  the  theatre  of  war.  This  resulted 
from  the  wise  practice  of  the  federal  authorities  in 
making  up  brigades  and  divisions  from  regiments 
representing  widely-separated  states,  thus  breaking 
down  the  sectional  spirit  which  up  to  that  period 
had  been  a  serious  hindrance  to  the  growth  of  na- 
tionalism. Wisconsin  regiments  served  in  each  of 
the  great  armies,  and  fought  in  every  Southern 
state  save  Florida ;  many  patrolled  the  Rio  Grande 
during  the  threatened  invasion  from  Mexico ;  and 
others  were  engaged  in  quelling  Indian  uprisings 
in  the  trans-Mississippi. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

NEWS   FROM   THE   FRONT 

NEWS  from  the  front  soon  came  to  have  grave 
significance  for  the  people  of  Wisconsin.  On  July 
2,  1861,  her  First  Regiment  of  infantry,  a  part  of 
Abercrombie's  brigade  and  employed  in  a  vain  at- 
tempt to  prevent  Johnston  from  reinforcing  Beau- 
regard  at  Bull  Run,  was  engaged  in  a  skirmish 
at  Falling  Waters.  In  this  engagement  George 
Drake,  a  Milwaukee  private,  was  killed,  he  being 
not  only  Wisconsin's  first  sacrifice  to  the  Union, 
but  the  first  soldier  to  fall  in  the  Shenandoah  Val- 
ley, which  so  soon  was  to  be  drenched  with  American 
blood. 

At  the  first  battle  of  Bull  Run  (July  21),  the 
Second  Wisconsin  was  conspicuous  in  the  contest 
for  Henry  Hill,  and  therein  lost  over  a  seventh 
of  its  numbers  in  killed  and  wounded.  Sherman 
praised  the  command  for  steadiness  and  nerve, 
qualities  afterwards  winning  for  it  a  wide  reputa- 
tion. This  organization  stands  first  in  the  list  of 
regimental  losses  in  the  Union  army ;  of  its  total 
enrollment  of  1203,  no  less  than  238,  or  19.7  per 
cent,  were  killed  or  died  of  wounds  throughout  the 
long  contest,  "  which  indicates  the  extreme  limit 


NEWS  FROM   THE   FRONT  343 

of  danger  to  which  human  life  is  exposed  in  a  war 
similar  in  duration  and  activity." *  Nearly  900 
members  of  this  regiment,  in  all,  were  either  killed 
or  wounded,  leaving  but  few  of  the  actual  fighting 
strength  unharmed  —  for  it  must  be  remembered 
that  the  term  "total  enrollment"  includes  many 
non-combatants,  such  as  musicians,  teamsters,  hospi- 
tal staff,  quartermaster's  men,  detailed  men,  sick, 
and  absentees  of  various  sorts,  besides  cooks  and 
servants. 

The  Seventh  Wisconsin  stands  third  in  the 
maximum  tables  of  losses  in  killed  and  mortally 
wounded,  and  together  with  the  Twenty-sixth  is 
fifth  in  the  percentage  table,  their  death  losses 
being  alike  17.2  per  cent  of  their  total.  The 
Thirty-sixth  lost  15.4  per  cent,  and  has  the  six- 
teenth place  in  the  percentage  roll  of  honor.  In 
the  maximum  table  the  Sixth  Wisconsin  has  tenth 
place,  and  the  ill-fated  Second  the  thirteenth. 

The  Third  Regiment  was  at  Frederick,  Mary- 
land, in  September  (1861),  being  sent  thither  to 
capture  the  so-called  "  bogus  "  legislature  assem- 
bled for  the  purpose  of  voting  that  state  out  of  the 
Union.  This  task  the  Wisconsin  men  accomplished, 
keeping  the  Maryland  legislators  under  guard 
until  the  latter  consented  to  abandon  their  intent. 

By  the  close  of  his  term,  Governor  Randall  had 
made  a  brilliant  record.  Admirably  organizing  the 
fighting  machinery  of  the  commonwealth,  he  had 
1  W.  F.  Fox,  Regimental  Losses  in  the  American  Civil  War,  p.  9. 


344  WISCONSIN 

placed  Wisconsin  troops  upon  as  good  a  footing  as 
those  of  any  of  the  older  and  wealthier  states.  His 
constituents  would  have  been  glad  to  elect  him  for 
a  third  term,  but  he  preferred  to  follow  the  Ameri- 
can custom  in  this  regard,  and  declined  to  be  a 
candidate. 

Louis  P.  Harvey,  his  successor,  who  took  office 
January  6,  1862,  was  a  man  of  ability  and  power ; 
yet  his  task  lay  in  continuing  the  work  along  lines 
laid  down  by  Randall,  for  he  was  destined  to  re- 
main at  the  helrn  but  a  brief  period.  At  the  battle 
of  Pittsburg  Landing,  Tennessee  (April  4),  some 
of  the  Wisconsin  regiments  had  received  severe 
handling  by  the  enemy,  and  there  was  much  suffer- 
ing among  the  wounded.  The  Sanitary  Commis- 
sion —  formed  in  1861  for  nationalizing  the  sani- 
tary interests  of  the  several  Union  armies,  and  dis- 
tributing clothing,  medicines,  sanitary  supplies,  and 
delicacies  among  camps  and  hospitals  —  was  not 
as  yet  properly  organized,  and  it  became  necessary 
for  Wisconsin  to  look  after  her  own  men.  The 
governor,  heading  a  relief  party,  set  out  immedi- 
ately for  Mound  City,  Paducah,  and  Savannah, 
and  was  returning  home  when  the  steamboat  bear- 
ing him  collided  with  another  in  the  Tennessee 
River  (April  19),  and  he  lost  his  life  by  drowning. 

His  widow,  a  woman  of  noble  impulses  and  un- 
usual ability,  entered  the  ranks  of  the  Sanitary 
Commission  as  visitor  and  hospital  nurse.  She 
soon  won  deserved  prominence  in  that  highly  effi- 


NEWS  FROM   THE   FRONT  345 

cient  organization,  through  which  the  energetic 
women  of  the  North  proved  a  valuable  adjunct  to 
the  Union  armies.  Her  advice  and  encouragement, 
the  fruit  of  long  and  arduous  hospital  service  at 
the  front,  were  among  the  strongest  assets  of  the 
Commission's  auxiliary  in  this  state,  the  Wiscon- 
sin Soldiers'  Aid  Society,  with  its  two  hundred 
and  twenty-nine  branches.1  As  a  ministering  angel, 
particularly  among  the  "  boys  "  of  her  own  state, 
Mrs.  Harvey's  career  is  still  cherished  by  them  as 
a  sacred  memory.  It  was  owing  chiefly  to  her  un- 
tiring intercession  with  President  Lincoln  that  the 
federal  authorities  somewhat  reluctantly  consented 
to  establish  soldiers'  hospitals  in  the  more  health- 
ful North.2  Three  such  were  opened  in  Wisconsin 

1  There  was  also  a  Central  Freedmen's  Aid  Society  in  Wiscon- 
sin, with  many  branches.    This  sought  to  aid  the  refugee  blacks 
•who  had  settled  in  the  state,  and  to  encourage  them  to  enlist  in 
the  army. 

The  United  States  Christian  Commission  was  another  powerful 
organization,  formed  in  November,  1861.  During  the  early  years 
of  the  war,  Wisconsin's  contributions  thereto  were  made  through 
the  Northwestern  Branch,  at  Chicago.  A  Wisconsin  branch  was 
organized  October  8,  1864.  Its  forty-five  representatives  were 
often  in  the  field,  more  than  half  of  them  being  with  our  troops 
during  the  campaign  ending  in  the  surrender  of  Lee.  During  the 
nine  months  of  its  existence  the  Wisconsin  branch  expended  about 
$75,000. 

2  Objection  lay  in  the  fear  that  the  armies  might  suffer  by  the 
long  absence  of  invalids  at  points  far  distant  from  fields  of  action ; 
also,  that  desertion  might  thereby  be  encouraged.    In  practice, 
however,  it  was  found  that  these  fears  were  ill  grounded. 

Many  ailing  Confederate  prisoners  were  sent  to  hospitals  in  con- 
nection with  Northern  military  camps.  During  a  wild  storm  in 


346  WISCONSIN 

—  at  Madison  in  the  autumn  of  1863,  and  at  Prai- 
rie du  Chien  and  Milwaukee  the  following  year. 
That  at  Madison  was,  in  her  honor,  called  Harvey 
Hospital,  being  immediately  after  the  war  con- 
verted into  a  soldiers'  orphans'  home.  There  were, 
in  1866,  eight  thousand  such  orphans  in  Wiscon- 
sin alone. 

Lieutenant-Governor  Edward  Salomon,  a  Prus- 
sian by  birth,  who  succeeded  Harvey  in  the  execu- 
tive office  (1862-63),  had  had  but  slight  experi- 
ence in  the  public  service,  but  soon  displayed 
unexpected  energy  in  the  management  of  military 
affairs.  Under  his  effective  leadership  new  regi- 
ments were  quickly  raised  and  equipped,  and  sev- 
eral relief  expeditions  were  sent  to  the  sick  and 
wounded  in  the  field.  In  recognizing  the  services 
of  Wisconsin's  several  war  governors,  —  and  the 
commonwealth  was  eminently  fortunate  in  its  chief 
executives  during  this  trying  period, —  it  is  but 
just  to  state  that  they  had  upon  their  practically- 
unchanged  military  staff  two  men  of  unusual 
strength:  Adjutant-General  Augustus  Gaylord 

the  night  of  April  6,  1862,  the  Confederates  lost  to  the  Union 
forces  Island  Number  Ten,  in  the  Mississippi  River,  near  New 
Madrid,  Missouri.  Several  hundred  of  the  retreating  forces, 
chiefly  of  the  First  Alabama  Regiment,  were  captured  and  sent  to 
Camp  Randall,  at  Madison.  Being  in  wretched  condition,  they 
•were  for  the  most  part  placed  in  hospital ;  one  hundred  and  thir- 
ty-nine died  there,  being  buried  in  Forest  Hill  cemetery.  The 
Confederate  Veterans'  Association  has  recently  erected  a  suitable 
monument  over  their  carefully  marked  graves. 


NEWS  FROM  THE  FRONT  347 

and  Surgeon-General  E.  B.  Wolcott.  Gaylord's 
annual  reports  are  monuments  to  his  industry  and 
capacity  for  details.  As  for  Wolcott,  he  was 
throughout  the  war  nearly  always  promptly  on  the 
battlefield  with  assistants  and  supplies,  whenever 
Wisconsin  troops  had  suffered  heavily,  for  the 
state  continued  thus  to  supplement  the  work  of 
the  Sanitary  Commission ;  he  kept  closely  in  touch 
with  our  regimental  surgeons,  and  frequently  vis- 
ited military  hospitals  in  the  South,  ministering  to 
the  wounded  and  dying  from  his  own  state. 

At  Shiloh,  Tennessee  (April  6-7),  the  Four- 
teenth, Sixteenth,  and  Eighteenth  Wisconsin  won 
unusual  recognition.  This  was  the  first  engage- 
ment for  the  last  named  two  commands,  but  they 
held  their  ground  with  admirable  nerve,  and  the 
war  correspondents  commended  them  highly.  The 
Fourteenth  had  not  arrived  until  the  second  day's 
battle,  but  at  once  was  in  the  thick  of  the  fight. 
Their  daring  charge  of  a  Confederate  battery,  after 
a  Kentucky  regiment,  preceding  them,  had  been 
repulsed  with  heavy  loss,  elicited  Grant's  especial 
admiration.  Three  times  driven  back,  the  Wiscon- 
sin men,  under  Major  John  Hancock,  gallantly 
carried  the  work  and  inaugurated  a  rout  that  re- 
sulted in  a  complete  Union  victory. 

In  the  Peninsula  campaign  of  1862,  Wisconsin 
was  represented  by  the  Fifth  and  by  Company 
G  of  Berdan's  famous  sharpshooters.  At  Wil- 
liamsburg,  the  Fifth,  in  Hancock's  brigade,  splen- 


348  WISCONSIN 

didly  charged  the  enemy,  and  at  the  bayonet  point 
turned  the  wavering  fortunes  of  the  day  in  favor 
of  the  Union.  "Through  you,"  said  General  McClel- 
lan,  in  addressing  the  regiment,  "  we  won  the  day, 
and  Williamsburg  shall  be  inscribed  upon  your 
banner.  Your  country  owes  you  its  grateful  thanks." 
To  the  War  Department  he  telegraphed  that  the 
"  charge  was  brilliant  in  the  extreme." 

The  Third  was  prominent  in  the  Shenandoah 
Valley  campaign  of  the  same  year.  Speaking  of 
the  work  at  Gainesville,  Virginia  (August  28),  of 
the  celebrated  Iron  Brigade,  —  the  Second,  Sixth, 
and  Seventh  Wisconsin  regiments  constituted  the 
greater  part  of  its  membership,1  —  Pope  said  that 
they  were  "  among  the  best  troops  in  the  service." 
In  this,  one  of  the  sharpest  and  most  disastrous  of  the 
minor  battles  of  the  war,  the  Second  Wisconsin, 
leading  the  brigade,  suffered  casualties  amounting 
to  sixty  per  cent  of  its  rank  and  file  ;  the  loss  sus- 
tained by  the  entire  brigade  was  nine  hundred 
men. 

In  the  second  battle  of  Bull  Run  (August  30), 
the  Iron  Brigade  again  won  distinction,  successfully 
covering  the  retreat  of  Pope's  army.  Two  weeks 
later,  at  South  Mountain,  Maryland  (September 
13-14),  these  war-worn  veterans  drove  the  enemy 

1  Besides  these  regiments,  the  brigade  contained  the  Nine- 
teenth Indiana  until  October,  1862,  when  the  Twenty-fourth 
Michigan  was  added.  This  command  sustained  in  the  war  the 
heaviest  aggregate  loss  by  brigade. 


NEWS  FROM  THE  FRONT  349 

from  the  national  road  at  Turner's  Gap,  and  in 
chasing  them  through  Boonesboro  led  the  entire 
Army  of  the  Potomac,  while  receiving  the  enemy's 
retreating  fire. 

At  the  battle  of  Antietam,  Maryland  (Septem- 
ber 16-17),  characterized  by  Greeley  as  "  the  blood- 
iest day  America  ever  knew,"  the  Third  Wisconsin 
—  which  five  weeks  before  had  opened  the  battle 
of  Cedar  Mountain,  Virginia  (August  9)  —  stood 
in  an  exposed  position,  firing  steadily,  "  until  the 
fallen  cartridge  papers,  for  months  afterwards, 
showed  by  a  strange  windrow  its  perfect  line  of 
battle,"  and  losing  nearly  two  thirds  of  the  men  it 
took  into  the  fight.  One  of  the  features  of  the  day 
was  the  galling  fire  of  the  Sixth  Wisconsin,  of  the 
Iron  Brigade,  from  behind  a  rail  fence.  The  Fifth 
stubbornly  supported  a  battery  during  the  heaviest 
fighting;  and  Battery  B  of  the  United  States 
Heavy  Artillery  (largely  Wisconsin  men)  suffered 
on  this  field  the  heaviest  loss  met  by  any  battery 
on  either  side  in  any  single  battle  of  the  war. 

In  the  operations  at  Corinth,  Mississippi  (Octo- 
ber 3-4),  the  Fourteenth,  heroes  of  Shiloh,  was,  the 
brigade  commander  reported,  "the  regiment  to  rely 
upon  in  every  emergency  ;  always  cool,  steady,  and 
vigorous."  The  Seventeenth  distinguished  itself  in 
what  was  declared  by  the  brigadier  to  be  "  the  most 
glorious  charge  of  the  campaign."  The  Eighteenth 
received  praise  for  "  most  effective  service,"  and 
the  Eighth  and  Sixteenth  were  also  honorably 


350  WISCONSIN 

mentioned  in  the  reports.  The  Fifth,  Sixth,  Eighth, 
and  Twelfth  batteries  all  "  did  noble  work." 

At  Chaplin  Hills,  Kentucky  (October  8),  Gen- 
eral Rousseau  reported  of  the  First  Wisconsin, 
which  had  captured  a  stand  of  Confederate  colors 
and  were  heroes  of  the  day  :  "  They  drove  the 
enemy  several  times  with  great  loss,  and  until  their 
ammunition  gave  out  bravely  maintained  their  po- 
sition." Of  the  Tenth,  Rousseau  declared,  "Re- 
peatedly assailed  by  overwhelming  numbers,  after 
exhausting  its  ammunition  it  still  held  its  position. 
These  brave  men  are  entitled  to  the  gratitude  of 
the  country."  Sergeant  William  Nelson  of  Com- 
pany I  of  the  Tenth,  with  a  detail  of  twenty-two 
men,  for  two  hours  held  Paint  Rock  railroad  bridge, 
near  Huntsville,  against  a  force  of  nearly  three 
hundred  Confederate  cavalry,  "  repulsing  them  in 
the  most  signal  manner."  The  Fifteenth  captured 
heavy  stores  of  ammunition  and  many  prisoners. 
The  Twenty-first,  also,  was  an  important  factor  in 
the  fight ;  and  the  Fifth  Battery  was  thanked  on  the 
field  by  General  McCook,  for  having  thrice  turned 
back  a  Confederate  charge,  thus  "  saving  the 
division  from  a  disgraceful  defeat." 

On  the  seventh  of  December,  at  Prairie  Grove, 
Arkansas,  Wisconsin  troops  were  conspicuous. 
The  Twentieth  made  a  charge  on  a  Confederate 
battery,  in  common  with  the  Nineteenth  Iowa, 
which  Herron  declared  was  "a  glorious  sight. 
Better  men  never  went  upon  the  field."  The  loss 


NEWS  FROM  THE  FRONT  351 

of  the  Twentieth  was  eighty-six  in  killed  or  mor- 
tally wounded,  the  largest  death  loss  sustained  by 
any  Union  regiment  in  any  one  battle  in  the  war. 
Of  the  Second  and  Third  Wisconsin  Cavalry,  who 
sharply  attacked  the  Confederate  left  wing,  Her- 
ron  reported  that  they  had  proved  themselves 
"  worthy  of  the  name  of  American  soldiers." 

From  December  11  to  15,  in  the  battle  of  Fred- 
ericksburg,  Virginia,  the  Iron  Brigade,  on  the 
extreme  left  of  the  Union  line,  was  constantly 
under  severe  artillery  fire. 

Wisconsin  was  represented  at  Stone's  River, 
Tennessee,  during  the  final  week  of  the  year 
(1862),  by  the  First,  Tenth,  Fifteenth,  Twenty- 
first,  and  Twenty-fourth  Infantry,  and  the  Third, 
Fifth,  and  Eighth  batteries.  In  his  report,  Gen- 
eral Scribner  said  that  "the  Tenth  Wisconsin 
would  have  suffered  extermination  rather  than 
yield  its  ground  without  orders."  Rousseau  de- 
clared that  when  his  supply  trains  were  attacked 
by  the  enemy's  cavalry,  "  the  burden  of  the  fight 
fell  on  the  Twenty-first  Wisconsin,  who  behaved 
like  veterans."  Sheridan  alluded  to  the  "  splendid 
conduct,  bravery,  and  efficiency  of  the  Twenty- 
fourth  Wisconsin."  The  Fifth  and  Eighth  bat- 
teries were  also  highly  complimented  for  "  deter- 
mined bravery  and  chivalrous  heroism." 

While  Wisconsin  troops  were  thus  creditably 
serving  the  nation  at  the  front,  and  thereby  win- 
ning honors  for  the  commonwealth,  the  year  1862 


352  WISCONSIN 

was  far  from  a  cheerful  one  at  home.  Thousands 
of  the  state's  most  useful  and  vigorous  citizens,  the 
sort  of  men  who  in  time  of  peace  would  have  fur- 
nished the  elements  of  commercial  and  industrial 
success,  had  either  yielded  up  their  lives,  or  been 
permanently  disabled  upon  battlefields  or  by  dis- 
ease contracted  in  unsanitary  camps.  It  is  esti- 
mated that  an  aggregate  of  seventy-five  thousand 
Wisconsin  men,  half  of  the  voters  of  the  state, 
were  for  a  period  of  over  three  years  taken  into 
the  army  directly  from  the  ranks  of  productive 
industry.  Their  loss  was  in  large  measure  com- 
pensated by  the  increased  employment  of  women 
and  children  in  the  field  and  at  the  bench ;  and 
crops  were  now  being  garnered  by  newly  intro- 
duced labor-saving  machinery,  notably  the  reaper.1 
Nevertheless,  the  cost  of  the  war,  which  had  as- 
sumed quite  unlooked-for  proportions,  was,  in  the 
form  of  direct  taxes,  or  in  increased  prices  and  low 
wages,  or  by  reason  of  rapid  depreciation  of  the 

1  The  report  of  the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Agricult- 
ure for  1862  asserts  that  owing1  to  the  absence  of  so  many  farm 
laborers  at  the  front,  it  would  have  been  quite  impossible  to  har- 
vest the  wheat  crop  for  that  year,  had  it  not  been  for  the  increased 
use  of  mechanical  reapers,  each  of  which  effected  a  saving  of  the 
labor  of  five  men. 

In  his  message  to  the  Wisconsin  legislature,  dated  January  15, 
1863,  Governor  Salomon  said :  "  It  is  an  occasion  for  congratula- 
tion that,  notwithstanding  the  withdrawal  from  peaceful  pursuits 
of  so  large  a  number  of  our  citizens,  who  have  volunteered  in  the 
country's  behalf,  the  area  of  our  cultivated  crops  has  been  in- 
creased rather  than  diminished  during  the  past  year." 


NEWS  FROM  THE  FRONT  353 

national  currency,  weighing  heavily  upon  the  peo- 
ple ;  and  as  usual  the  burden  was  most  severely 
felt  by  the  poor.  Anxiety  was  graven  on  every 
face. 

A  minority  of  the  Democratic  party  was  much 
dissatisfied  with  the  necessarily  arbitrary  war  meas- 
ures of  the  federal  government.  The  state  conven- 
tion of  that  party,  held  at  Milwaukee,  September 
3,  1862,  adopted  as  its  platform  (ayes  112,  nays 
12«)  a  long,  argumentative  appeal  to  the  people 
(commonly  called  the  "  Ryan  address,"  because 
prepared  by  Edward  G.  Ryan,  the  eminent  jurist), 
in  which  various  acts  of  the  administration  were 
severely  criticised,  notably  the  suspension  within 
loyal  states  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  and  of  the 
freedom  of  the  press.  There  was,  in  the  convention 
itself,  a  storm  of  dissent  from  this  address;  and 
"  War  Democrats  "  throughout  the  state  promptly 
held  indignation  meetings  at  which  they  branded 
the  document  as  disloyal,  while  many  of  them 
openly  joined  the  ranks  of  the  Republicans.  In 
fact,  a  large  majority  of  our  people,  quite  regard- 
less of  party  predilections,  adhered  to  the  war  policy 
of  Lincoln,  and  determined  that  the  struggle  should 
be  maintained  to  the  bitter  end. 

While  at  first  Wisconsin  had  more  than  met  her 
quota  by  volunteers,  eager  to  join  the  new  regi- 
ments as  they  were  formed,  the  drain  became  at 
last  so  great  that  only  by  conscription  could  enough 
men  be  secured.  But  among  some  of  the  newly 


354  WISCONSIN 

arrived  European  immigrants,  not  as  yet  suffi- 
ciently Americanized,  there  were  many  who,  having 
escaped  from  militarism  at  home,  objected  to  being 
forced  to  join  the  American  army,  and  risk  their 
lives  in  a  quarrel  concerning  whose  merits  they 
were  uninformed.  In  August,  1862,  the  President 
had  called  for  three  hundred  thousand  new  troops, 
of  which  Wisconsin's  share  was  twelve  thousand. 
The  draft  began  in  November.  Some  of  the  Bel- 
gians of  Ozaukee  and  Washington  counties  became 
riotous.  Scenes  of  violence  were  enacted  by  them 
at  Port  Washington  and  West  Bend,  respectively; 
but  a  bold  front  and  arrests  of  leaders  saved  the 
day.  At  Milwaukee  threatening  mobs  were  easily 
overawed  by  troops  who  patrolled  the  streets  of  the 
city.  No  further  armed  opposition  to  this  stern 
necessity  of  war  was  experienced  within  the  state; 
but,  as  elsewhere  in  the  North,  hundreds  of  able- 
bodied  citizens  who  were  subject  to  conscription 
secretly  fled  to  Canada  or  to  Europe,  to  "  avoid  the 
draft." 

In  neighboring  Minnesota,  Little  Crow's  band 
of  rebellious  Sioux  for  a  time  aroused  grave  alarm 
among  the  settlers  (September,  1862),  and  it  was 
feared  that  this  Indian  uprising  might  become 
general  throughout  the  Northwest.  Minnesota  lost 
heavily  in  slaughtered  families  and  ruined  farms  ; 
but  Governor  Salomon's  prompt  shipments  of  arms 
and  ammunition  to  threatened  counties  in  north- 
western Wisconsin  convinced  the  restive  Chip- 


NEWS  FROM  THE  FRONT  355 

pewa  of  that  quarter  that  it  would  be  unwise  to 
repeat  such  outrages  in  the  country  east  of  the  St. 
Croix. 

The  Army  of  the  Potomac's  "  mud  campaign," 
in  the  early  months  of  1863,  was  participated  in  by 
many  of  the  Wisconsin  regiments.  At  Fitzhugh's 
Crossing,  Virginia  (April  29),  the  Iron  Brigade 
did  brilliant  service  in  protecting  the  pontoon- 
layers,  and  in  one  of  its  bayonet  charges  carried 
Confederate  rifle-pits  and  captured  hundreds  of 
prisoners. 

At  ill-fated  Chancellorsville,  a  few  days  later, 
the  Third  Wisconsin  was  the  last  to  withdraw 
before  the  crushing  advance  of  Stonewall  Jackson ; 
while  near  by,  on  Marye's  Hill,  at  Fredericksburg, 
the  Fifth  Wisconsin,  together  with  the  Sixth  Maine, 
was  leading  the  forlorn  hope  detailed  to  capture 
that  famous  height  whereon  six  thousand  Union 
soldiers  had  in  the  preceding  December  been 
slaughtered  by  the  intrenched  enemy.  It  was  a 
wild  and  bloody  scramble  up  the  slippery,  bowlder- 
strewn  hill.  The  men  from  Wisconsin  and  Maine, 
although  supported  by  New  York  and  other  regi- 
ments, were  alone  upon  the  first  firing  line,  and 
captured  redoubt  after  redoubt  amid  a  terrible 
storm  of  grape  and  canister.  Finally  reaching  the 
summit,  although  sadly  depleted  in  numbers,  they 
were  rewarded  by  the  generous  cheering  of  the 
victorious  army.  When  the  Confederate  com- 
mander handed  his  sword  and  spurs  to  Colonel 


356  WISCONSIN 

Allen  of  the  Fifth,  he  declared  it  the  most  daring 
assault  he  had  ever  seen,  and  said  that  he  had  sup- 
posed there  were  not  men  enough  in  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac  to  carry  the  works.  Horace  Greeley 
wrote :  "  Braver  men  never  smiled  on  death,  than 
those  who  climbed  Marye's  Hill  on  that  fatal  day." 
And  the  correspondent  of  the  Southern-sympa- 
thizing London  "  Times,"  writing  from  Lee's  head- 
quarters, said  that  "never  at  Fontenoy,  Albuera, 
nor  at  Waterloo  was  more  undaunted  courage 
shown." 

In  the  campaign  leading  to  the  fall  of  Vicksburg 
(1863), — probably  the  most  decisive  of  all  the 
Union  victories,  —  Wisconsin  was  represented  by 
thirteen  infantry  regiments,  three  batteries,  and 
the  Second  Regiment  of  cavalry.  Of  the  infantry, 
however,  only  the  Eleventh,  Fourteenth,  Seven- 
teenth, Eighteenth,  Twenty-third,  and  Twenty- 
ninth  "shared  the  entire  preceding  campaign  and 
were  in  the  line  of  investment  from  the  beginning 
to  the  surrender;  "  1  but  all  of  the  batteries  served 
conspicuously  throughout,  and  Wisconsin  men  won 
high  praise  in  the  official  reports.  The  Twenty- 
third,  skirmishing  in  advance  of  the  Union  army, 
was  the  first  regiment  to  enter  Port  Gibson  (May  2), 
and  in  recognition  of  this  served  as  provost  guard 

1  William  F.  Vilas,  "A  View  of  the  Vicksburg1  Campaign," 
Publications  of  Wisconsin  History  Commission,  1908.  This  state 
commission  is  charged  with  the  publication  of  data  concerning 
Wisconsin's  part  in  the  War  of  Secession. 


NEWS  FROM  THE  FRONT  357 

of  that  town  for  the  day.  An  officer  of  the  same 
command  received  (July  4),  at  the  base  of  the 
works,  General  Pemberton's  offer  to  surrender. 
To  the  Fourteenth  —  "every  man  of  whom  is  a 
hero,"  reported  General  Rousseau  —  was  given  the 
post  of  honor  when  that  general's  division  entered 
Vicksburg  after  the  surrender ;  this  regiment  had 
in  the  great  struggle  suffered  a  loss  of  nearly  half 
its  men. 

The  battle  of  Helena,  Arkansas,  culminated  on 
the  day  when  Vicksburg  surrendered.  General 
Frederick  Salomon,  a  Wisconsin  man  (formerly 
colonel  of  the  Ninth),  planned  the  defenses  that 
assured  victory,  and  the  Twenty-eighth  Wisconsin 
was  awarded  special  honors.  Salomon  reported  that 
"the  bravery  and  valor  displayed  by  the  officers 
and  men  of  my  gallant  little  command  stand  un- 
paralleled." When,  five  days  later,  Port  Hudson, 
Louisiana,  surrendered  its  garrison  of  six  thousand, 
a  charge  into  a  ditch  by  the  Fourth  Wisconsin 
caused  Greeley  to  declare  that  "  never  was  fighting 
more  heroic." 

While  these  deeds  were  being  accomplished  in 
the  Mississippi  valley,  other  events  of  great  im- 
portance were  occurring  in  the  East.  The  bloodiest 
engagement  of  the  war  was  fought  at  Gettysburg, 
Pennsylvania,  during  the  first  three  days  of  July. 
Although  wasted  by  a  tedious  march  of  a  hundred 
and  sixty  miles,  from  which  it  had  been  given  no 
time  to  recuperate,  the  Iron  Brigade  plunged  into 


358  WISCONSIN 

the  thickest  of  the  fight.  The  Second  Wisconsin, 
of  that  command,  led  its  corps  on  the  1st  of  July, 
and  began  the  infantry  part  of  the  battle,  receiving 
an  opening  volley  that  mowed  down  over  thirty  per 
cent  of  its  rank  and  file.  Eventually,  this  famous 
regiment  lost  in  this  titanic  combat  sixty  per  cent 
of  the  men  it  brought  upon  the  field.  The  remainder 
of  the  Iron  Brigade — save  the  Sixth  Wisconsin, 
busy  elsewhere,  capturing  a  Mississippi  regiment 
—  was,  on  this  opening  day,  close  upon  the  heels 
of  the  Second,  and  took  eight  hundred  prisoners. 
The  entire  loss  of  the  brigade,  which  throughout 
the  three-days'  battle  remained  in  an  extremely 
exposed  position,  was  64.3  per  cent  of  those  it  took 
into  action.  The  Third  Wisconsin  was  decimated 
under  a  heavy  cross-fire,  but  drove  Ewell  from 
Gulp's  Hill.  Of  the  officers  of  the  Twenty-sixth, 
only  four  remained  unhurt.  The  Wisconsin  com- 
pany of  sharpshooters  were  an  important  element 
in  opposing  the  final  charge  of  the  enemy.  Com- 
pany F  of  the  Seventh  was  the  command  to  which 
Bret  Harte's  hero,  the  picturesque  "  John  Burns 
of  Gettysburg,"  since  known  to  declamatory  youth 
the  country  over,  attached  himself.  "  In  swallow- 
tailed  coat  with  smooth  brass  buttons,"  and  with 
pockets  filled  with  cartridges,  this  village  character 
of  a  famous  day  nonchalantly  "  sniped  the  rebels 
who  had  driven  away  and  milked  his  cows."  1 

1  A  picturesque  account  of  the  battle  of  Gettysburg  was  written 
a  few  days  after  the  event,  by  Lieutenant  (later  Colonel)  Frank 


NEWS  FROM  THE  FRONT  359 

On  the  Georgian  field  of  Chickamauga  (Septem- 
ber 19,  20),  the  First,  Tenth,  Fifteenth,  Twenty- 
first,  and  Twenty-fourth  Wisconsin  Infantry,  and 
three  of  our  batteries,  suffered  heavily ;  some  of 
these  commands  participated  in  the  operations  that 
won  for  General  Thomas  the  sobriquet,  "  The 
rock  of  Chickamauga."  Later,  the  same  troops 
were  besieged  at  Chattanooga  and  encountered 
much  hardship,  being  in  November  relieved  by 
Sherman  with  the  famous  Fifteenth  Corps,  to 
which  the  Eighteenth  Wisconsin  was  attached.  At 
the  subsequent  battle  of  Mission  Ridge  these  Wis- 
consin troops  proudly  shared  in  the  fearful  charge 
to  the  summit,  with  them  being  now  joined  the 
Twenty-sixth  Infantry. 

Among  other  notable  military  events  in  the  clos- 
ing months  of  1863  was  the  affair  at  Warrentou, 
Virginia  (November  7).  Here  the  Fifth  Wisconsin 
and  the  Sixth  Maine,  heroes  of  Marye's  Hill,  led 
the  Fifth  and  Sixth  corps  in  a  gallant  charge  which 

Aretas  Haskell  of  the  Sixth  Wisconsin,  then  aide-de-camp  to  Gen- 
eral John  Gibbon,  commander  of  the  Iron  Brigade.  First  pub- 
lished as  a  pamphlet,  it  was  reprinted  in  October,  1908,  by  the 
Wisconsin  History  Commission.  Haskell  distinguished  himself  on 
the  third  day  by  a  feat  of  great  valor,  thus  described  by  General 
Winfield  S.  Hancock  in  his  official  report :  "  At  a  critical  period 
of  the  battle,  when  the  contending  forces  were  but  50  or  60  yards 
apart,  believing  that  an  example  was  necessary,  and  ready  to  sacri- 
fice his  life,  he  rode  between  the  contending  lines  with  a  view  of 
giving  encouragement  to  ours  and  leading  it  forward,  he  being  at 
the  moment  the  only  mounted  officer  in  a  similar  position.  He 
was  slightly  wounded,  and  his  horse  was  shot  in  several  places.'' 


360  WISCONSIN 

resulted  in  the  capture  of  sixteen  hundred  prison- 
ers and  a  large  quantity  of  munitions  of  war.  At 
Carrion  Crow  Bayou,  Louisiana,  in  the  same  month, 
the  bravery  of  the  Twenty-sixth  Wisconsin  alone 
saved  the  Union  forces  from  complete  destruction 
in  a  forest  ambush  ;  although  in  this  brief  but  ter- 
rible conflict  the  fighting  strength  of  the  regiment 
was  reduced  from  two  hundred  and  twenty-six  men 
to  ninety-eight. 

On  the  night  of  February  9,  1864,  a  hundred 
and  nine  Union  officers  escaped  from  dreaded  Libby 
Prison,  at  Richmond,  Virginia,  by  means  of  a  tun- 
nel dug  by  a  contingent  of  prisoners  under  Colonel 
Thomas  E.  Rose  of  Pennsylvania,  who  throughout 
this  daring  enterprise  acted  in  conjunction  with 
Colonel  H.  C.  Hobart  of  the  Twenty-first  Wiscon- 
sin. Among  the  twenty-eight  who  were  run  down 
and  recaptured  by  the  Confederates  was  Lieutenant 
Charles  H.  Morgan,  also  of  the  Twenty-first.  Some- 
times Wisconsin  soldiers  were  massed  by  hundreds 
in  this  as  well  as  other  Southern  military  prisons, 
and  for  months  together  suffered  untold  horrors 
in  such  dens  of  despair  as  Belle  Isle,  Danville, 
Cahawba,  Florence,  Macon,  Salisbury,  Camp  Law- 
ton,  Camp  Sorghum,  and  Anderson ville.1 

1  A  typical  story  of  life  at  and  escape  from  a  Confederate  prison, 
with  consequent  hazardous  experiences  of  the  fugitives,  is  told  by 
General  John  Azor  Kellogg,  of  the  Sixth  Wisconsin  (later  com- 
mander of  the  Iron  Brigade),  in  his  remarkably  vivid  narrative, 
Capture  and  Escape,  published  by  the  Wisconsin  History  Commis- 
sion, 1908. 


NEWS   FROM  THE  FRONT  361 

When,  in  March  following,  Banks  set  out  boldly 
to  penetrate  as  far  up  Red  River  as  Shreveport,  Lou- 
isiana, the  head  of  steam  navigation,  he  had  among 
his  troops  the  Eighth,  Fourteenth,  Twenty-third, 
Twenty-ninth,  and  Thirty-third  Wisconsin  Infantry, 
and  its  Fourth  Cavalry.  During  this  unfortunate 
campaign  Wisconsin  men  were  prominent,  and  upon 
the  retreat  from  Sabine  Cross  Roads  (April  8)  were 
the  last  to  leave  the  field.  The  Eighth  was  also  one 
of  the  favorite  regiments  in  this  as  upon  several 
other  campaigns.  Its  sobriquet,  "  The  Eagle  Regi- 
ment," arose  from  the  fact  that  the  men  of  Com- 
pany C,  recruited  in  the  Eau  Claire  neighborhood, 
carried  as  a  pet  "  Old  Abe,"  a  bald-headed  eagle 
—  the  nation's  emblem.  This  spirited  and  appar- 
ently sagacious  bird  was  usually  borne  upon  a 
perch,  but  in  battle  was  fond  of  posing  on  a  can- 
non and  occasionally  soaring  and  screaming  far 
above  the  field  of  conflict.  "  Old  Abe  "  won  a  repu- 
tation in  the  Union  army  quite  equal,  in  a  way,  to 
that  of  any  of  its  generals ;  and  for  many  years  after 
the  war  was  a  popular  attraction  at  national  and 
state  army  reunions  and  other  patriotic  celebra- 
tions. 

The  special  honors  of  the  Red  River  expedition 
were,  however,  won  by  Lieutenant-Colonel  Joseph 
Bailey  of  the  Fourth  Wisconsin.  While  the  fleet 
was  above  the  rapids  at  Alexandria,  the  stage  of 
water  fell,  making  it  impossible  for  the  vessels  to 
descend,  a  perilous  situation  which  encouraged  the 


362  WISCONSIN 

enemy  to  swarm  upon  'the  banks  and  seriously  to 
threaten  the  little  navy  with  destruction.  Bailey 
was  serving  on  Franklin's  staff  as  chief  engineer, 
and  proposed  the  construction  of  a  huge  dam,  by 
which  the  water  in  the  river  should  be  raised  to  a 
sufficient  height ;  then,  the  obstruction  being  sud- 
denly broken  in  the  centre,  the  entrapped  vessels 
might  escape  upon  the  outrushing  flood.  The  scheme 
was  familiar  enough  to  Wisconsin  lumbermen,  who 
in  this  manner  still  artificially  "  lift "  stranded  rafts 
of  logs  ;  but  his  army  colleagues  laughed  at  Bailey, 
although  he  was  given  three  thousand  men  for  the 
purpose,  and  told  to  amuse  himself  with  this  vision- 
ary experiment.  His  first  requisition  was  for  the 
"  lumber  boys  "  of  the  Twenty-third  and  Twenty- 
ninth  Wisconsin,  who  appreciated  what  was  needed 
in  this  backwoods  engineering  scheme,  and  soon 
trained  their  fellows  to  the  task.  Bailey's  sappers 
worked  unwearyingly  through  the  first  eight  days 
of  May,  and  on  the  morning  of  the  twelfth  the  great 
gun-boats  plunged  through  the  boiling  chute,  thus 
triumphantly  escaping  the  clutches  of  the  discom- 
fited Confederates,  who  had  thought  the  expedition 
an  easy  prey.  Admiral  Porter  frankly  acknowledged 
that  the  fleet  owed  its  safety  entirely  to  the  Wis- 
consin engineer's  "  indomitable  perseverance  and 
skill ; "  he  was  further  presented  by  the  naval  offi- 
cers with  a  valuable  sword  and  cup,1  was  thanked 

1  Now  in  the  museum  of  the  Wisconsin  Historical  Society,  at 
Madison. 


NEWS  FROM  THE  FRONT  363 

by  the  Navy  Department,  and  soon  was  brevetted 
brigadier-general. 

In  Grant's  campaign  against  Richmond,  the  Iron 
Brigade  served  with  the  Fifth  (Warren's)  corps, 
and  lost  heavily  in  the  Wilderness  ;  in  the  support 
of  Hancock,  at  the  "  death  angle  "  of  Spottsylvania 
(May  12),  the  brigade  repulsed  five  successive  Con- 
federate assaults ;  at  Hatcher's  Run,  the  Seventh 
Wisconsin  made  a  large  haul  of  prisoners,  while  at 
Jericho  Bridge  (May  25),  at  Bethesda  Church  (June 
1-3),  and  in  the  assaults  on  Petersburg  (June  18 
and  July  30),  the  brigade  was  a  leading  factor. 
The  newly-organized  Thirty-seventh  Wisconsin  had 
the  misfortune  to  lead  the  charging  party  into  the 
Petersburg  crater  (July  30),  losing  a  hundred  and 
forty-five  men  out  of  the  two  hundred  and  fifty-one 
sent  out.  At  Hatcher's  Run,  the  Thirty-sixth,  also 
freshly  recruited,  cut  through  a  line  of  the  enemy 
and  captured  three  times  their  number  in  prison- 
ers ;  but  at  Bethesda  Church  lost  sixty-nine  per 
cent  of  the  men  they  took  into  the  fight.  At  Fair 
Oaks  (October  27)  the  Nineteenth  lost  over  half 
their  number  in  a  splendid  charge  that  brought 
them  deserved  fame. 

Sherman's  Atlanta  campaign,  opened  in  the 
spring  of  1864,  brought  Wisconsin  again  to  the 
fore,  that  general  having  selected  for  his  model 
army  fifteen  regiments  and  three  batteries  from 
this  state.  From  Chattanooga  to  Atlanta  they  were 
constantly  under  fire,  and  daily  were  represented 


364  WISCONSIN 

on  the  skirmish  lines  thrown  out  in  advance  of  the 
army.  The  Twelfth  and  Sixteenth  were  members 
of  McPherson's  "  whip-lash  corps,"  famed  for 
quick  flank  movements  that  astonished  and  almost 
always  overwhelmed  the  enemy.  When,  in  Septem- 
ber, after  a  long  series  of  fierce  battles — such  as 
Dalton,  Resaca,  Kenesaw  Mountain,  Peachtree 
Creek,  Allatoona  Pass,  and  Leggitt's  Hill  —  the 
Union  forces  marched  victorious  into  Atlanta^ 
Company  A  of  the  Twenty-second  Wisconsin  led 
the  advance. 

In  November  and  December,  Wisconsin  infantry 
were  figuring  valorously,  but  with  frightful  loss  of 
life,  in  operations  around  Nashville,  Tennessee. 
Under  Schofield,  the  Twenty-fourth  had  a  fierce 
brush  with  Hood  (November  29)  ;  but  on  Decem- 
ber 16,  while  a  part  of  Thomas's  army,  the  Eighth, 
Twenty-fourth,  and  Thirty-third  assisted  in  crush- 
ing Hood's  left  flank  and  creating  wild  havoc  in 
the  Confederate  ranks. 

When,  in  November,  Sherman  set  forth  from 
Atlanta  on  his  picturesque  "march  to  the  sea," 
there  were  in  his  train  eleven  infantry  regiments 
and  three  batteries  from  Wisconsin,  all  of  which 
were  conspicuous  participants  in  this  resistless 
charge  through  the  heart  of  the  South.  The  gen- 
eral always  relied  on  them  for  the  hardest  work, 
and  wherever  discretion  was  most  needed,  and  was 
not  slow  to  sound  their  praise.  In  the  subsequent 
siege  of  Savannah,  and  the  difficult  advance  north- 


NEWS  FROM  THE  FRONT  365 

ward  through  the  Caroliuas,  in  the  early  months 
of  1865,  the  loss  to  Wisconsin  commands  was  con- 
siderable, but  they  never  suffered  defeat. 

It  was  quite  evident  early  in  April  (1865),  that 
the  war  was  nearing  its  end.  Sherman's  victorious 
army  was  eager  to  join  Grant  and  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac,  and  assist  in  making  an  end  of  Lee's 
forces  and  of  his  stronghold,  Richmond.  The  news 
reached  them  at  Goldsboro',  North  Carolina,  on 
April  6,  that  Richmond  had  fallen  three  days  be- 
fore, and  that  Lee  was  hurrying  to  join  Johnston. 
Sherman  at  once  turned  aside  from  the  road  to 
Richmond,  and  thought  to  intercept  Lee  at  either 
Raleigh  or  Smithfield.  However,  a  few  days  later  a 
horseman  rode  along  the  lines,  shouting  the  bulle- 
tin from  Appomattox  Court  House  (April  9),  that 
"  Grant  has  captured  Lee's  army !  "  The  news  of 
Lincoln's  assassination  (April  14)  soon  followed ; 
but  this  tragedy  could  not  stem  the  tide,  and 
on  the  twenty-sixth  Johnston  surrendered  near 
Raleigh,  his  submission  being  followed  in  quick 
succession  by  that  of  the  other  Confederate  com- 
manders. 

We  have  of  necessity  followed  more  closely  the 
experiences  of  our  infantry  than  those  of  other 
arms  of  the  service.  But  Wisconsin  cavalry  regi- 
ments were  frequently  heard  from  throughout  the 
war,  and  were  no  less  famous  than  the  infantry 
commands.  The  First  had  at  the  outset  been  en- 
gaged in  Missouri  on  scouting  service.  In  Tennes- 


366  WISCONSIN 

see  it  led  many  gallant  forays.  It  made  its  mark, 
also,  at  Chickamauga ;  was  with  Sherman  on  the 
Atlanta  campaign  ;  and  with  Wilson  in  his  bold 
raid  through  Alabama  and  Georgia.  At  Fort  Tyler 
it  fought  dismounted ;  and  a  detachment  under 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Henry  Harnden  cooperated 
with  the  Fourth  Michigan  Cavalry  in  the  capture 
of  President  Davis  (May  10,  1865).  The  Second 
marched  and  skirmished  all  over  Louisiana,  Texas, 
and  Arkansas.  The  Third,  while  chasing  guerrillas 
in  Arkansas,  engaged  in  many  a  brush  with  Quan- 
trell's  band,  and  made  a  particularly  brilliant  re- 
cord at  Prairie  Grove.  The  Fourth  was  for  two 
years  a  popular  infantry  regiment,  but  after  Sep- 
tember, 1863,  had  a  dashing  career  as  cavalry  in 
Louisiana  and  Texas.  It  has  been  claimed  that 
this  command  served  the  longest  term  of  any  vol- 
unteer regiment  in  the  service.  The  Wisconsin 
batteries,  also,  won  high  honors  on  many  fields  of 
action,  some  of  their  deeds  having  already  been 
mentioned.  The  state's  representatives  in  the  navy 
included  several  who  achieved  renown  for  indi- 
vidual valor.1  Wisconsin  was  also  represented  in 

1  On  the  night  of  October  27,  1864,  W.  B.  Cashing,  a  native  of 
Delafield,  Waukesha  County,  headed  a  party  of  fourteen  men  on 
an  improvised  torpedo  boat,  and  in  the  face  of  apparently  insuper- 
able obstacles  blew  up  the  much-dreaded  Confederate  ram,  Albe- 
marle,  in  Albemarle  Sound,  North  Carolina.  His  companions 
•were  captured,  but  Gushing  made  a  daring  escape.  The  naval  his- 
torian J.  R.  Soley  wrote  :  "  It  is  safe  to  say  that  the  naval  history  of 
the  world  affords  no  other  example  of  such  marvelous  coolness 


NEWS  FROM  THE  FRONT  367 

various  companies  of  scouts,  whose  thrilling  ad- 
ventures alone  would  make  an  interesting  volume. 

James  T.  Lewis  had  succeeded  Governor  Salo- 
mon in  January,  1864.  To  him  fell  the  pleasure, 
on  April  10,  1865,  of  formally  announcing  to  the 
people  of  the  state  what  was  practically  the  close 
of  the  war.  The  legislature  had  previously  selected 
that  day  as  the  time  for  final  adjournment  of  its 
annual  session ;  but  just  before  the  hour  agreed 
upon,  the  following  executive  message  was  received 
with  cheers  :  "  Four  years  ago  on  the  day  fixed  for 
adjournment,  the  sad  news  of  the  fall  of  Fort 
Sumter  was  transmitted  to  the  legislature.  To-day, 
thank  God,  and  next  to  Him  the  brave  officers  and 
soldiers  of  our  army  and  navy,  I  am  permitted  to 
transmit  to  you  the  official  intelligence,  just  re- 
ceived, of  the  surrender  of  General  Lee  and  his 
army  —  the  last  prop  of  rebellion.  Let  us  rejoice 
and  thank  the  Ruler  of  the  Universe  for  victory 
and  the  prospect  of  an  honorable  peace." 

Three  days  later,  recruiting  was  discontinued 
in  this  state.  During  the  summer  the  Wisconsin 
offices  of  the  provost  marshals  were  closed ;  and 
in  the  following  autumn  and  winter,  at  intervals, 
our  regiments  were  disbanded,  a  task  not  at  once 
possible  to  complete,  for  on  the  fall  of  the  Confeder- 
acy some  of  the  Wisconsin  troops  were  sent  into 

and  professional  skill  as  that  shown  by  dishing1."  The  hero  was 
thanked  by  Congress,  congratulated  by  the  Nary  Department, 
and  made  a  lieutenant-commander. 


368  WISCONSIN 

the  Southwest  to  keep  Mexican  raiders  from  cross- 
ing the  Rio  Grande,  and  into  the  Northwest  to  pro- 
tect the  Indian  frontier.  By  the  close  of  the  year, 
however,  the  greater  part  of  our  bronzed  and 
war-scarred  veterans  had,  after  being  joyously  wel- 
comed home  by  their  grateful  fellow  citizens,  quietly 
settled  down  again  into  civil  life — on  the  farms, 
in  the  workshops  and  offices,  at  the  counter  and 
desk ;  or,  through  the  acquiring  of  government  lands 
in  central  and  northern  Wisconsin,  extended  the 
agricultural  frontier. 

On  every  hand  was  now  heard  but  one  desire, 
that  of  restoring  prosperity  to  the  "  Badger  State," 
after  these  four  long  and  painful  years  of  strife 
that  seemed  to  have  taxed  to  the  utmost  its  re- 
sources of  men  and  treasure.  As  Governor  Lucius 
Fairchild  forcefully  said  in  his  inaugural  address 
(  January  1,  1866  )  :  "  A  million  of  men  have  re- 
turned from  the  war,  been  disbanded  in  our  midst, 
and  resumed  their  former  occupations.  .  .  .  The 
transition  from  the  citizen  to  the  soldier  was  not 
half  so  rapid,  nor  half  so  wonderful,  as  has  been 
the  transition  from  the  soldier  to  the  citizen.  The 
citizen  soldier  has  become  the  plain  citizen,"  alive 
to  the  gravity  of  new  political,  financial,  and  social 
problems  facing  the  nation  and  state,  and  eager 
to  assist  in  their  solution. 

First  and  last  throughout  the  war,  the  state  had 
furnished,  as  reported  by  the  governor  to  the  legis- 
lature, a  few  days  later,  "  fifty-two  regiments  of 


NEWS  FROM  THE  FRONT  369 

infantry,  four  regiments  and  one  company  of  cav- 
alry, one  regiment  of  twelve  batteries  of  heavy 
artillery,  thirteen  batteries  of  light  artillery,  one 
company  of  sharpshooters,  and  three  brigade  bands, 
besides  recruits  for  the  navy  and  United  States 
organizations,1  numbering  in  all  91,379,  of  which 
number  79,934  were  volunteers,  11,445  drafted 
men  and  substitutes.  The  total  quota  of  the  state 
under  all  calls  is  90,116.  .  .  .  The  state  stands 
credited  with  1263  men,  as  an  excess  over  all  calls, 
a  gratifying  evidence  of  the  devoted  patriotism  of 
the  people  of  Wisconsin.  The  total  military  serv- 
ice from  the  state  has  been  about  equal  to  one  in 
every  nine  of  the  entire  population,  or  one  in  every 
five  of  the  entire  male  population,  and  more  than 
one  from  every  two  voters  of  the  state.  The  losses 
by  death  alone,  omitting  all  other  casualties,  are 
10,752,  or  about  one  in  every  eight  in  the  service." 
When  it  is  considered  that  practically  each  death 
meant  an  empty  chair  in  some  Wisconsin  home,  to 
say  nothing  of  many  thousands  of  lives  wrecked  by 
disease  or  maiming  (the  gallant  governor  had  him- 
self lost  an  arm  at  Gettysburg),  the  chief  execu- 
tive's careful  statistics  become  eloquent. 

Governor  Fairchild  further  reported  that  during 
the  contest  there  had  been  paid  out  of  the  state 
treasury  for  war  purposes  —  extra  pay  for  soldiers 
supporting  families,  and  the  expenses  of  recruiting 

1  Wisconsin  contributed  133  men  to  the  navy  and  165  to  the  col- 
ored troops,  and  was  represented  in  various  companies  of  scouts. 


370  WISCONSIN 

and  of  state  military  offices,  being  the  largest 
items  —  the  enormous  sum  of  approximately  $3,- 
900,000 ;  counties,  cities,  and  towns  had  raised  by 
public  tax  a  further  $7,752,505.67,  making  an  offi- 
cial total  for  Wisconsin  of  some  $11,652,505.67. 
To  this  should  be  added  large  sums  "  paid  by  lo- 
calities, by  tax  levied  last  year,  of  which  the  state 
has  no  account."  In  due  time  the  general  govern- 
ment gradually  refunded  to  the  state  the  amount 
it  had  itself  expended  on  behalf  of  the  war ;  but 
the  still  greater  local  burden  was  never  lightened. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

INCIDENTS   OF   ECONOMIC   DEVELOPMENT 

WE  have  seen  that  the  ante  bellum  history  of 
Wisconsin  was  profoundly  affected  by  its  remark- 
able geographical  position.  Lying  between  the 
Great  Lakes  and  the  Mississippi  River,  and  abut- 
ting upon  their  respective  headsprings,  its  territory 
is  traversed  by  streams  debouching  into  both  drain- 
age systems,  and  from  time  immemorial  these  fur- 
nished the  aborigines  with  convenient  portage 
routes  between  one  and  the  other.  This  interesting 
fact  induced  the  voyage  hither  of  Nicolet,  at  a 
time  when  the  remainder  of  what  is  now  called  the 
Middle  West  —  the  Northwest  of  early  days  —  was 
quite  unknown  to  white  men. 

Both  French  Canada  and  early  Louisiana  sought 
the  trade  of  this  land  wherein  was  the  keystone  of 
the  arch  of  French  occupation  in  North  America. 
By  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  Ottawa  came  Mon- 
treal and  Quebec  fur-traders,  and  Wisconsin  pel- 
tries and  lead  reached  the  market  of  New  Orleans 
upon  the  swift  current  of  the  Mississippi ;  while  by 
means  of  the  Mohawk  and  the  lower  lakes  adven- 
turous English  traders  from  Albany  occasionally 
poached  upon  this  French  preserve.  Under  the 


372  WISCONSIN  - 

English  regime,  and  later  while  the  American  fur- 
trade  was  dominant  in  the  Northwest,  Green  Bay 
was  a  dependency  of  Mackinac  and  Montreal,  while 
Prairie  du  Chien  was  much  influenced  by  overtures 
from  St.  Louis  and  the  South. 

In  a  previous  chapter  it  has  been  shown  that 
the  earliest  American  miners  in  the  Galena  dis- 
trict, which  includes  southwestern  Wisconsin,  came 
by  way  of  the  Mississippi.  Even  after  the  irrup- 
tion of  operators  from  New  York  and  New  Eng- 
land, Southern  goods  and  ideals  were  prevalent  in 
this  region,  the  product  of  which  long  sought  East- 
ern markets  by  the  roundabout  route  of  New  Or- 
leans and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  Its  strong  Southern 
connection  noticeably  differentiated  the  lead  mine 
country  from  eastern  Wisconsin,  whose  outlet  to 
the  world  in  the  days  before  railroads  was  Lake 
Michigan.  The  personnel  of  the  two  districts  was, 
in  territorial  days,  quite  as  distinct  as  their  trade 
relations,  early  giving  rise  to  that  political  and 
social  rivalry  so  strikingly  typified  in  the  careers 
of  Doty  and  of  Dodge,  each  the  idol  of  his  region, 
but  by  the  other  mistrusted  and  often  maligned. 

The  opening  of  the  Erie  Canal  made  Eastern 
markets  much  more  accessible  to  dwellers  upon  the 
Gre"at  Lakes,  a  factor  materially  assisting  in  the 
development  of  eastern  and  southern  Wisconsin. 
A  decreasing  stage  of  water  in  the  Mississippi,  in- 
cident upon  the  demolition  of  forests  on  its  head- 
waters, with  consequent  interruption  to  southward 


ECONOMIC   DEVELOPMENT  373 

navigation,  caused  the  lead  miners  of  the  Galena 
region  to  look  enviously  upon  the  Great  Lakes  and 
the  canal  as  a  transportation  route.  It  will  be 
remembered  that  attempts  to  deepen  the  old-time 
Fox- Wisconsin  waterway,  with  a  view  to  relieving 
the  lead  trade,  early  proved  abortive  ;  as  was  also, 
for  other  reasons,  the  scheme  of  a  canal  connecting 
the  Milwaukee  and  Rock  rivers.  An  Illinois  canal 
between  Lake  Michigan  and  Illinois  River  afforded 
some  temporary  assistance.  The  picturesque  but 
costly  overland  wagon  caravans  between  the  mines 
and  Lake  Michigan  ports  have  been  described. 

Just  before  the  war  railroads  were  pushed 
through  from  the  great  lake  to  the  great  river,  be- 
tween Milwaukee  and  Prairie  du  Chien  (1858)  and 
La  Crosse  (1859),  so  that  at  last  the  lead  miners 
had  their  long-sought  outlet  to  the  East,  and  set- 
tlers on  the  upper  reaches  of  the  Mississippi  were 
no  longer  entirely  dependent  on  transportation 
through  the  South.  By  the  time,  however,  that  this 
result  had  been  accomplished,  the  Wisconsin  lead 
industry  had,  from  causes  already  explained,  suf- 
fered a  serious  decline ;  but  the  railroads,  lacking 
expected  patronage  from  the  mines,  at  once  took 
prominent  part  in  developing  the  far  more  import- 
ant agricultural  interests  of  the  state. 

From  a  political  and  military  point  of  view,  these 
new  highways  of  commerce  came  soon  to  be 
of  still  greater  significance.  The  secession  of 
the  Southern  states  resulted  in  the  closing  of  the 


374  WISCONSIN 

Mississippi  to  Northern  trade.  The  immediate  ef- 
fect of  this  action  upon  Western  interests  will  best 
be  appreciated,  when  it  is  reflected  that  before  the 
war  the  Southern  states  themselves  annually  pur- 
chased many  millions  of  dollars'  worth  of  West- 
ern cattle,  grain,  and  manufactures,  and  that  New 
Orleans  was  the  most  important  entrepot  for  the 
millions  of  bushels  of  Western  wheat  and  other 
exports  seeking  world  markets.1 

In  any  earlier  decade  this  closing  of  the  great  river 
might  well  have  given  pause  to  all  Northern  states 
bordering  thereon.  It  might  possibly  have  induced 
some  of  them,  following  their  exports,  to  cast  lot 
with  the  South ;  as  some  Western  communities  had 
indeed  been  inclined  to  do  when,  seventy  years  be- 
fore, the  Spanish  embargo  was  in  force  at  New 
Orleans.  But  with  the  new  railroad  connection 
between  river  and  lakes,  in  Wisconsin  and  Illinois, 
with  a  succession  of  bad  crops  in  England  creating 

1  The  New  York  Tribune  for  June  13,  1861  (p.  4)  strongly 
portrays  the  situation.  Sixteen  million  dollars'  worth  of  steam- 
boats, it  reports,  are  engaged  in  the  Mississippi  River  trade  — 1600 
in  number,  giving  "  employment  to  thousands  of  men,  and  life  and 
animation  to  entire  cities.  .  .  .  No  other  river  on  earth  has 
ever  possessed  a  fleet  so  capacious,  nor  a  traffic  that  could  sustain 
it."  This  business  had  "  a  future  of  indefinite  magnitude,  when 
the  blight  of  rebellion  smote  it  with  destructive  palsy."  Of  Cin- 
cinnati's exports  alone,  annually  aggregating  $107,000,000  in  fur- 
niture, clothing,  whiskey,  and  foodstuffs,  the  South  bought  two 
thirds.  "  A  thousand  loyal  communities  ' '  are  similarly  affected, 
and  "  the  few  boats  which  descend  the  river  come  crowded  with 
fugitives  from  a  common  ruin." 


ECONOMIC   DEVELOPMENT  375 

a  ready  market  abroad,  through  Eastern  ports,  for 
American  foodstuffs,  and  with  great  Northern 
armies  to  supply  at  home,  there  was  now  no  such 
thought.  The  effect  in  Wisconsin  was  to  divert 
trade  from  the  river  to  the  lakes  —  a  hastening, 
however,  of  what  must,  with  the  advent  of  rail- 
roads, soon  have  happened  under  normal  condi- 
tions.1 

Nevertheless,  the  reopening  of  the  Mississippi  to 
commerce  was  regarded  by  contemporary  statesmen 
as  an  economic  necessity  of  the  utmost  importance. 
Stephen  A.  Douglas  had  declared  (April  20, 1861) 
that  "  the  very  existence  of  the  people  in  this  great 
valley  depends  on  maintaining  inviolate  and  for- 
ever the  great  right  secured  by  the  Constitution,  of 
freedom  of  trade,  transit,  and  of  commerce,  from 
the  centre  of  the  continent  to  the  ocean  that  sur- 
rounds it."  Governor  Randall  of  Wisconsin,  in  a 
message  to  the  legislature  (May  15,  1861),  said 
that  "the  vast  lumber  and  mineral  interests  of 
Wisconsin,  independent  of  her  commanding  pro- 
duce and  stock  trade,  bind  her  fast  to  the  North, 
Border,  and  Northwestern  states,  and  demand,  like 

1  "  The  through  freight  from  Prairie  du  Chien  in  the  year  be- 
fore the  war  amounted  to  9960  tons ;  in  1861  it  was  115,123  ;  in 
1865,  161,317  tons.  That  from  La  Crosse  in  1860  was  28, 627  tons  ; 
in  1861, 89,940  ;  in  1862,  89,882,  clearly  indicating  the  influence 
of  the  war  in  altering  the  channels  of  commerce."  —  C.  R.  FISH, 
Phases  of  the  Economic  History  of  Wisconsin,  1860-70,  a  thought- 
ful and  helpful  monograph,  giving  facts  which  we  have  freely 
used  in  this  connection. 


376  WISCONSIN 

them,  the  free  navigation  of  the  Mississippi  and  all 
its  tributaries."  And  when,  in  1863,  supreme 
efforts  were  being  directed  to  force  the  river  open, 
by  means  of  the  Vicksburg  campaign,  Governor 
Salomon  assured  the  legislature  (January  15)  that 
"  the  opening  of  the  Mississippi,  in  which,  with 
other  states,  we  have  a  direct  interest  even  beyond 
that  which  the  nation  in  general  feels  in  the  free 
passage  of  that  great  natural  thoroughfare,  would 
give  new  and  additional  life  to  our  commerce." 

The  regaining  of  the  Mississippi  was  of  immense 
military  importance  to  the  Union  arms,  but  not  so 
vital,  commercially,  as  had  been  expected.  By  the 
close  of  the  war,  the  habit  of  using  the  railways 
had  become  so  fixed  among  manufacturers,  farm- 
ers, and  travelers,  that  thereafter  began  a  steady 
decline  in  steamboat  traffic ;  as  evidenced  by  the 
fact  that  Mississippi  River  tonnage  amounting  in 
1860  to  468,000  tons  had  by  1870  fallen  to  398,- 
000  —  an  advance  in  the  latter  year  of  only  twelve 
per  cent  over  1863,  when  it  had  reached  its  lowest 
point.  On  the  other  hand,  the  tonnage  on  the  Great 
Lakes  increased  thirty-five  per  cent  between  1860 
and  1863. 

The  effect  of  this  sudden  and  remarkable  devel- 
opment of  Wisconsin's  new  east-going  avenues  of 
trade  was  greatly  to  enhance  the  growth  and  rela- 
tive importance  of  Milwaukee.  By  the  opening  of 
the  war  this  state  had  become  one  of  the  principal 
producers  of  wheat,  and  Milwaukee  its  chief  port 


ECONOMIC   DEVELOPMENT  377 

for  the  shipment  of  surplus  products.  In  1862  the 
tonnage  of  vessels  using  Milwaukee  harbor  was 
25,844 ;  but  a  twelvemonth  following  this  figure 
had  leaped  to  140,771.  The  population  of  the  city 
rose  from  45,000  in  1860  to  nearly  55,000  in  1865, 
an  increase  of  twenty-three  per  cent,  which  was 
almost  double  that  of  the  commonwealth  itself 
during  the  same  period.  The  impetus  thus  given 
to  Milwaukee  was  such  as  to  assure  her  future  as  a 
great  lake  port.  In  due  time  she  became  a  promi- 
nent centre  for  the  influx  and  distribution  of  immi- 
grants both  from  the  Eastern  states  and  from 
Europe,  her  manufacturing  interests  grew  to  large 
proportions,  and  her  commerce  and  population 
kept  full  pace  with  the  growth  of  the  sturdy  state 
of  which  she  had  early  become  the  metropolis. 

We  have  alluded  to  the  slow  but  steady  advance 
in  the  state's  population  during  the  war  period, 
also  to  the  considerable  extension  of  the  agricult- 
ural frontier  in  western  and  northern  Wisconsin 
by  disbanded  Union  veterans.  Even  during  the 
years  1860-65  no  less  than  338,000  acres  of  wild 
lands  were  sold  in  Wisconsin  by  the  federal  and 
state  governments,  and  by  such  railroad  and  canal 
companies  as  had  received  aid  through  land  grants; 
whereas  in  the  following  five  years  the  acreage  sold 
was  896,000.  In  the  decade  ending  with  1870  the 
total  farm  acreage  had  advanced  from  nearly 
8,000,000  to  about  12,000,000,  or  some  forty-six 
per  cent ;  while  the  acreage  of  actual  cultivation 


378  WISCONSIN 

had  increased  by  fifty-seven  per  cent.  The  political 
defection  of  Virginia,  with  the  closing  of  its  to- 
bacco fields  to  general  commerce,  greatly  stimulated 
the  growth  of  this  crop  in  the  North.  Wisconsin 
was  found  to  excel  in  soil  and  climate  for  the 
variety  used  for  cigar  wrappers ;  the  result  being 
that  the  87,000  pounds  raised  in  this  state  in  1860 
had  become  314,000  in  1865.  As  Southern  cotton 
advanced  in  price,  woolen  goods  had  grown  in  favor, 
so  that  by  the  close  of  the  war  Wisconsin  farmers 
were  not  only  supplying  the  increased  number  of 
local  mills,  but  were  exporting  wool  in  large  quan- 
tities. 

During  the  decade  1860-70  manufacturing  es- 
tablishments within  the  state  had  doubled  in  num- 
ber, the  capital  engaged  had  increased  two  and  a 
half  times,  and  the  number  of  factory  employees 
was  nearly  30,000  greater  in  1870  than  in  1860. 
These  facts,  in  conjunction  with  the  large  increase 
in  farming  operations,  explain  the  readiness  with 
which  the  returning  soldiers  were  absorbed  into 
the  industries  of  the  commonwealth.  On  the  whole, 
Wisconsin  had  made  considerable  economic  and 
social  advance  during  the  harassing  period  of  the 
war,  although  of  course  far  less  marked  progress 
than  would  have  been  noted  had  there  been  con- 
tinuous peace. 

Despite  this  growth  of  our  industrial  boundaries, 
there  was  but  slight  extension  of  railway  mileage 
in  Wisconsin  within  the  decade  which  included 


ECONOMIC   DEVELOPMENT  379 

the  war.  Scarcity  of  circulating  medium  was  one 
potent  reason ;  but  another  was,  that  Iowa,  Min- 
nesota, and  other  trans-Mississippi  regions  were 
insistently  demanding  transportation  to  the  lake 
ports  of  Chicago  and  Milwaukee,  and  seemed  to 
offer  a  more  attractive  field  for  speculative  enter- 
prise. Liberal  land  grants  were  being  offered  by 
the  federal  government  as  an  inducement  to  com- 
panies developing  these  newer  districts,  and  im- 
mediately after  the  war  both  American  settlers 
and  European  immigrants  rushed  thither  to  break 
the  virgin  soil.  By  1870  it  was  recognized  that  in 
the  matter  of  railroad  building  Wisconsin  was  not 
as  enterprising  as  her  neighbors  to  the  west  of  the 
river;  but  it  should  be  taken  into  consideration 
that  the  principal  industry  of  the  state,  lumbering, 
was  almost  exclusively  using  the  abundant  lakes 
and  rivers  for  the  transportation  of  logs  and  rafts 
both  from  forest  to  mill  and  from  mill  to  the  great 
markets  of  Chicago  and  St.  Louis. 

We  have  already  alluded  to  some  of  the  legis- 
lative scandals  associated  with  the  granting  of  Wis- 
consin railway  charters  previous  to  the  war.  Not 
only  was  the  state  government  of  that  time  impli- 
cated in  questionable  practices  in  this  regard,  but 
the  feverish  zeal  of  communities  and  individuals 
to  foster  railway  extension  also  gave  rise  here  and 
there  to  financial  operations  that  left  a  sting.  Farm- 
ers living  along  prospective  "  rights  of  way " 
were  induced  by  glib-tongued  agents  to  mortgage 


380  WISCONSIN 

their  farms  in  aid  of  these  enterprises,  being  as- 
sured that  enormous  dividends  would  ensue  and  the 
value  of  their  land  be  greatly  enhanced.  It  is  esti- 
mated that  in  the  aggregate  there  were  issued  for 
this  purpose  nearly  four  thousand  farm  mortgage 
notes  alone,  the  face  value  of  which  amounted  to 
somewhat  over  four  million  dollars.  Some  of  the 
village  and  city  governments  were  similarly  hood- 
winked, and  freely  bonded  themselves  to  "  help  the 
road."  Sold  to  innocent  purchasers,  usually  through 
Eastern  brokers,  these  individual  notes  and  muni- 
cipal bonds,  despite  the  fact  that  many  of  the  com- 
panies failed  to  construct  the  projected  lines,  came 
soon  to  prove  nightmares  to  their  signers,  and  fore- 
closure suits  followed  quickly  upon  non-payment 
of  interest.  Long  and  expensive  litigation  failed  to 
bring  relief,  for  the  contracts  were  astutely  drawn, 
and  ruin  was  widely  wrought.1 

1  In  1853,  the  city  of  Watertown  bonded  itself  to  the  amount 
of  $80,000,  at  eight  per  cent,  payable  in  ten  years,  to  aid  the 
Milwaukee  and  Watertown  Railroad  Company,  the  latter  guaran- 
teeing payment  of  principal  and  interest,  a  promise  supposed  to 
be  secured  by  the  deposit  of  collateral  stock  with  the  city.  Again, 
in  1856,  the  city  issued  $200,000  worth  of  bonds  to  the  Watertown 
and  Madison,  and  a  like  amount  to  the  Chicago,  St.  Paul,  and 
Fond  du  Lac.  The  bonds  of  the  last-named  company  were  paid, 
but  the  other  two  lines  were  not  constructed.  The  paper  was, 
however,  sold  in  the  open  market  at  from  five  to  ten  per  cent  of 
its  face  value.  Watertown  sought  to  evade  payment.  From  1872 
to  1892  a  curious  method  of  evasion  was  practiced,  by  which  each 
newly  elected  city  council  would  meet  secretly  and  vote  the  taxes 
for  the  year ;  then  the  mayor  and  junior  aldermen  would  resign, 
leaving  the  senior  aldermen  to  form  themselves  into  a  board  of 


ECONOMIC   DEVELOPMENT  381 

It  is  small  wonder  that  these  early  experiences 
led  many  of  the  people  of  Wisconsin  to  look 
askance  upon  railway  corporations,  despite  the  un- 
doubted fact  that  roads  of  steel  largely  contributed 
to  the  making  of  the  state.  Addressing  the  legis- 
lature on  January  10,  1867,  Governor  Fairchild 
said :  — 

The  strife  which  for  years  past  has  existed  between  a 
portion  of  our  people  and  various  corporations  of  the 
state  has,  I  regret  to  say,  in  nowise  abated.  Complaints 
of  injustice  and  oppression  on  the  part  of  railroad  com- 
panies are  still  heard.  A  portion  of  our  people  are  still 
complaining  that  unjust  discriminations  are  made  by 
these  corporations,  and  demanding  the  aid  of  legislative 
enactment  to  reduce  the  tariffs  of  freight  to  a  more  equi- 
table standard.  The  companies,  on  the  other  hand,  still 
earnestly  assert  that  their  charges  are  just  and  equitable. 
If  the  railroad  companies  are  in  the  wrong,  either  in 
whole  or  in  part,  the  fact  should  be  ascertained,  and  the 
wrong  corrected  by  proper  legislation.  I  know  of  no 
better  plan  for  procuring  the  data  necessary  to  intelli- 
gent action,  than  by  the  appointment  of  a  committee 
from  your  body,  or  by  the  appointment  of  a  commission, 
to  investigate  thoroughly  and  carefully  the  whole  ques- 
tion, and  to  submit  the  result  of  such  investigation  to 
this  or  a  succeeding  legislature.  It  is  especially  due  to 
the  people,  and  it  is  your  peculiar  province,  as  their 
chosen  guardians,  to  stand  between  them  and  injustice 

street  commissioners,  devoid  of  tax-levying  power.  The  matter 
was  finally  adjusted  by  the  city  paying  $15,000  as  settlement  for 
outstanding  judgments  aggregating  $600,000. 


382  WISCONSIN 

and  oppression,  from  whatever  source  they  may  come, 
and  I  am  confident  you  will  discharge  this  duty  without 
fear  or  favor. 

Nothing,  however,  then  came  of  this  suggestion 
of  a  commission.  In  1869  there  was  a  vigorous 
attempt  to  pass  a  bill  to  establish  railway  rates, 
but  it  was  defeated.  A  like  measure  came  before 
the  legislature  the  following  year,  with  further  pro- 
visions regulating  running  connections,  induced  by 
the  then  common  failure  of  rival  roads  to  provide 
proper  connections  at  junctions.  The  contest  de- 
veloped much  bitterness ;  but  the  only  railway 
legislation  enacted  was  a  bill  authorizing  cities  and 
towns  to  lend  their  credit  in  the  aid  of  new  roads, 
to  an  extent  not  exceeding  $5000  per  mile,  the 
municipalities  to  accept  bonds  as  securities  for  the 
loan. 

In  January,  1873,  Governor  Cadwallader  C. 
Washburn  pointed  out  to  the  legislature  that  "  vast 
and  overshadowing  corporations  in  the  United 
States  are  justly  a  source  of  alarm,  and  the  legis- 
lature cannot  scan  too  closely  every  measure  that 
comes  before  them  which  proposes  to  give  addi- 
tional rights  and  privileges  to  the  railways  of  the 
state." 

This  warning  came  just  previous  to  a  financial 
panic  that  profoundly  affected  the  commercial  and 
manufacturing  interests  of  Wisconsin,  in  common 
with  those  of  other  states.  One  result  of  the  finan- 
cial storm  of  1873  was  the  customary  defeat  of  the 


ECONOMIC  DEVELOPMENT  383 

dominant  party.  The  Democratic-Liberal  Reform- 
ers came  into  power  in  January,  1874,  with  Wil- 
liam R.  Taylor  as  governor,  supported  by  an 
assembly  of  his  political  faith ;  but  the  senate, 
owing  to  half  of  the  body  being  hold-over  members, 
remained  Republican.  The  most  conspicuous  legis- 
lation was  an  act  called  the  "Potter  Law,"  or 
"  Granger  Law,"  l  which  asserted  the  right  of  the 
state  to  regulate  railroad  freight  and  passenger 
rates  within  the  commonwealth  through  a  board 
of  three  commissioners  clothed  with  almost  auto- 
cratic powers. 

The  legislature  adjourned  on  March  13.  A  fort- 
night later  the  presidents  of  the  St.  Paul  and  the 
Northwestern  systems  —  then,  as  now,  the  principal 
companies  operating  in  the  state  —  officially  in- 
formed the  governor  that  their  respective  corpora- 
tions would  "  disregard  so  much  of  the  law  as 
attempts  to  fix  an  arbitrary  rate  of  compensation 
for  freight  and  passengers."  Their  contention  was, 
that  the  rates  fixed  by  law  would  "  amount  to  con- 
fiscation, as  the  working  expenses  could  scarcely 
be  paid  under  it."  Governor  Taylor  issued  a  pro- 
clamation to  the  effect  that,  unless  the  companies 

1  Members  of  a  widespread  farmers'  secret  organization,  the 
Patrons  of  Husbandry,  expressing  themselves  through  local  lodges 
(or  "granges  "),  had  been  particularly  active  in  electing  Taylor. 
They  were  commonly  called  "  Grangers,"  and  the  term  "  Granger 
legislation  "  became  attached  to  laws  restricting  the  railroads. 
Senator  R.  L.  D.  Potter,  of  Waushara  County,  introduced  the 
bill. 


384  WISCONSIN 

submitted,  he  would  use  to  the  utmost  all  the  great 
powers  of  his  office  to  compel  them  to  do  so. 
Action  was  thereupon  brought  in  the  state  supreme 
court,  in  the  nature  of  a  quo  warranto,  for  the 
annulment  of  the  charters  of  the  transgressing 
roads. 

Application  was  also  made  to  the  supreme  court 
by  the  attorney -general,  for  an  injunction  restrain- 
ing the  companies  from  further  disobedience  of  the 
law.  A  long  legal  fight  followed,  that  attracted 
national  attention,  with  the  result  that  the  court 
granted  the  injunction,  the  decision  in  the  case 
being  written  by  Chief  Justice  Edward  G.  Ryan. 
Judge  Ryan  held  that  "  in  our  day  the  common 
law  has  encountered  in  England,  as  in  this  coun- 
try, a  new  power,  unknown  to  its  founders,  prac- 
tically too  strong  for  its  ordinary  private  remedies. 
...  It  comports  with  the  dignity  and  safety  of 
the  state  that  the  franchises  of  corporations  should 
be  subject  to  the  power  that  grants  them,  that  cor- 
porations should  exist  as  the  subordinates  of  the 
state  which  is  their  creator."  The  attorney-general 
was,  on  his  part,  instructed  not  to  prosecute  the 
companies  for  forfeiture  of  charters  until  the  latter 
were  given  a  reasonable  time  to  arrange  their 
tariffs  under  the  new  law. 

In  the  United  States  District  Court  at  Madison, 
a  suit  of  stockholders  of  the  Northwestern  Railway, 
praying  for  an  injunction  against  the  state,  on  the 
ground  that  the  value  of  their  securities  was  being 


ECONOMIC   DEVELOPMENT  385 

depreciated  by  the  Potter  Law,  was  decided  against 
the  petitioners,  so  far  as  the  validity  of  the  law 
was  concerned.  The  question  as  to  the  state's  right 
to  interfere  with  interstate  commerce,  however, 
was  left  undecided,  as  the  court  desired  to  hear 
further  argument. 

Thus  the  companies  were  defeated  at  every 
point,  so  far  as  traffic  within  the  state  was  con- 
cerned, and  open  opposition  ceased.  But  more 
effective  measures  were  now  resorted  to  by  them, 
to  influence  public  opinion  against  the  law.  Eu- 
ropean capitalists,  who  at  that  time  were  chiefly 
relied  upon  for  assistance  in  American  railroad 
development,  declined  further  investments  in  the 
stock  of  such  roads  as  ran  through  the  "  Granger 
states  "  —  some  of  the  neighboring  commonwealths 
having  followed  Wisconsin's  example.  Work  on 
roads  in  course  of  building  was  suspended,  pro- 
jected lines  were  abandoned,  some  of  the  smaller 
towns  were,  on  the  plea  of  enforced  economy,  badly 
treated  in  the  matter  of  service,  and  everywhere 
railroad  employees  were  spreading  reports  that 
Grangerism  was  spelling  ruin  to  the  companies  on 
whom  Wisconsin  so  largely  depended  for  prosper- 
ity. In  1876  the  Reform  party  was  buried  beneath 
a  mountain  of  opposition  ballots,  the  sting  in  the 
railroad  law  was  promptly  removed  by  the  new  legis- 
lature, and  the  Granger  movement  became  a  closed 
chapter. 

Throughout  the  eighties  Wisconsin  experienced 


386  WISCONSIN 

a  remarkable  revival  of  railway  building.  New  iron 
and  copper  mines  were  discovered  in  northern  Wis- 
consin and  on  the  Upper  Peninsula  of  Michigan. 
During  this  period  large  numbers  of  prosperous 
Wisconsin  farmers  sought  the  Dakotas  and  other 
trans-Mississippi  states,  and  sprinkled  the  names 
of  Wisconsin  towns  over  the  map  of  that  new 
region  ;  but  the  influx  from  Central  and  Eastern 
states  and  from  Europe  far  outstripped  the  exodus, 
and  central,  northern,  and  northwestern  Wiscon- 
sin, heretofore  much  neglected,  now  settled  rapidly. 
Much  of  the  railroad  building  was  speculative ;  for, 
as  usual  in  the  West,  lines  were  often  projected 
far  in  advance  of  actual  settlement.  Some  of  the 
companies  met  serious  reverses  as  the  only  reward 
of  enterprise  born  of  the  splendid  imagination  of 
their  founders ;  but  in  the  end  the  prophets  were 
justified.  Great  uninhabited  stretches  of  cut-over 
forests  were  opened  into  farms,  waterpowers  were 
developed,  quarries  and  mines  were  opened,  mis- 
cellaneous industries  were  gradually  introduced  to 
replace  the  slowly-receding  lumber  mills,  frontier 
shanty  hamlets  grew  into  small  cities,  and  they  into 
communities  having  more  and  more  a  metropolitan 
appearance. 

In  1905,  after  some  years  of  renewed  agitation, 
recalling  not  a  few  aspects  of  the  Grangerism  of 
three  decades  previous,  the  state  created  a  new 
railroad-rate-regulating  commission,  composed  of 
three  members  with  large  powers.  Two  years  later 


ECONOMIC  DEVELOPMENT  387 

there  were  placed  under  the  jurisdiction  of  this 
body  the  various  other  public  utility  corporations 
of  the  state,  —  those  operating  street  and  inter- 
urban  railroads,  sleeping  cars,  gas  plants,  electric 
power  and  lighting  plants,  waterworks,  and  the  like. 
The  constitutionality  of  laws  creating  this  public 
utilities  commission  having  been  called  in  question, 
the  state  supreme  court  rendered  a  decision  on 
June  5, 1908,  confirming  the  validity  of  the  com- 
mission and  declining  to  hamper  its  operations  so 
long  as  stockholders  were  allowed  a  "  reasonable 
compensation  "  for  their  investment.  Corporations 
of  this  character  are  now  taxed  by  the  state  upon 
an  ad  valorem  basis,  the  valuation  of  their  tangible 
property  being  established  by  the  State  Tax  Com- 
mission (created  in  1899),  which  employs  for  this 
purpose  a  competent  staff  of  engineers,  appraisers, 
and  accountants. 

The  extension  of  railways  throughout  the  dense 
forests  of  northern  Wisconsin  was  the  chief  factor 
in  conquering  that  vast  wilderness.  But  the  build- 
ing of  towns  in  the  heart  of  the  "  pinery,"  and  the 
construction  of  sawmills  both  in  such  communities 
and  at  tiny  milling  hamlets  scattered  along  the 
wooded  shores  of  rivers  and  lakes,  gave  rise  to 
grave  dangers  from  fire.  Frequently  a  town  was 
hemmed  in  upon  every  side  by  dense,  highly 
inflammable  woods  that  for  hundreds  of  miles 
extended  in  every  direction  ;  the  only  openings 
being  occasional  watercourses  and  the  narrow  path 


388  WISCONSIN 

of  the  railway  that  connected  the  settlement  with 
both  neighbors  and  market. 

Towns  and  hamlets  were  themselves  loosely, 
often  shabbily,  constructed  of  timber ;  the  principal 
streets  were  apt  either  to  be  paved  with  pine  planks 
or  covered  by  a  soft  mat  of  sawdust ;  swampy 
places,  as  at  Oshkosh  and  Fond  du  Lac,  were  filled 
with  sawmill  offal ;  in  the  cut-over  portions,  great 
piles  of  cast-off  boughs  ("  slashings,"  in  the  ver- 
nacular), dry  as  tinder,  encumbered  the  ground  ; 
and  even  where  farms  had  been  opened,  there  were 
haystacks,  heavy  fences  of  split  rails,  and  piles  of 
such  forest  products  as  hemlock  bark,  fence  posts, 
and  cord  wood,  all  well  calculated  to  assist  in  hold- 
ing and  spreading  fire.  The  resinous  forests  and 
the  wooden  towns,  blistering  in  the  heat  after  a 
long  midsummer  drought,  required  but  a  spark 
from  some  passing  railway  locomotive,  from  some 
sawmill  fueled  with  its  own  airy  offal,  or  from  a 
careless  hunter's  camp,  to  start  a  blaze  that  could 
not  be  extinguished  until  it  had  swept  the  country- 
side like  a  besom.  Forests  and  towns  went  down 
before  it  like  chaff,  human  beings  were  burned  to  a 
crisp  in  the  leaping  flames,  and  the  financial  loss 
was  enormous. 

On  the  8th  and  9th  of  October,  1871,  following 
a  drought  of  three  months'  duration,  Wisconsin 
experienced  one  of  the  most  appalling  forest 
conflagrations  in  recorded  history,  the  region 
affected  being  portions  of  Oconto,  Brown,  Door, 


ECONOMIC   DEVELOPMENT  389 

Shawano,  Manitowoc,  and  Kewaunee  counties. 
Over  a  thousand  lives  were  lost,  nearly  as  many 
persons  were  miserably  crippled,  and  three  thou- 
sand were  beggared.  The  disaster,  centred  at  the 
town  of  Peshtigo,  on  the  shores  of  lower  Green 
Bay,  hence  is  historically  referred  to  as  "  the  Pesh- 
tigo fire."  Nearly  $200,000  was  raised  for  the 
immediate  care  of  unfortunate  survivors,  and  ex- 
pended under  state  control.  The  United  States 
government  liberally  distributed  army  stores  among 
them ;  even  Europe  sent  contributions ;  nearly 
every  manufacturing  or  commercial  interest  in  the 
country  contributed  liberally  ;  railway,  express,  and 
telegraph  companies  made  no  charges  in  the  for- 
warding of  relief  and  of  messages,  and  probably 
few  persons  in  Wisconsin  failed  in  some  manner 
to  contribute  their  quota  of  assistance. 

Other  notable  and  typical  forest  or  sawmill  fires 
in  Wisconsin  have  been  those  at  Oshkosh,  April 
28,  1875,  whereby  about  half  of  this  prosperous 
manufacturing  city  was  destroyed  ;  at  Marshfield, 
June  27,  1887,  that  city  of  three  thousand  inhab- 
itants being  almost  obliterated,  fifteen  hundred 
people  being  rendered  homeless,  and  a  loss  entailed 
of  from  two  to  three  millions  of  dollars ;  at  Iron 
River,  forty  miles  southeast  of  Superior,  July  25, 
1892,  where  there  was  a  loss  of  §200,000,  and  fifteen 
hundred  persons  were  without  food  or  shelter ;  and 
at  Fifield  and  Medford,  July  27,  1893,  the  loss  at 
the  former  place  being  $200,000,  while  the  latter 


390  WISCONSIN 

(a  town  of  eighteen  hundred)  was  practically  de- 
stroyed. A  year  later,  July  26-30,  1894,  the  then 
heavily  forested  counties  of  Douglas,  Bayfield,  Ash- 
land, Chippewa,  Price,  Taylor,  Marathon,  and  Wood 
were  the  scene  of  an  extremely  disastrous  fire  in- 
volving great  loss  and  suffering.  Phillips,  the  county 
seat  of  Price,  a  town  of  two  thousand,  was  all  but 
swept  from  earth  (July  27),  almost  its  entire  pop- 
ulation being  rendered  homeless,  and  thirteen  per- 
sons killed.  Medford,  in  Taylor  County,  was  again 
threatened,  and  only  saved  by  great  exertions ;  so 
also  Centralia,  in  Wood  County.  Mason,  a  railroad 
hamlet  in  Bayfield  County,  was  destroyed,  July 
29 ;  and  in  that  vicinity  seventeen  persons  were 
killed  while  seeking  to  escape  by  crossing  a  lake. 
Help  was  extended  from  many  quarters,  the  state 
government  lending  its  aid  in  organizing  the  relief. 
A  widespread  fire  occurred  September  29,  1898, 
in  the  western  half  of  Barren  and  the  eastern  part 
of  Polk  counties,  wherein  a  half  million  dollars  in 
property  was  destroyed  and  large  numbers  of  set- 
tlers made  homeless.  There  were  many  thrilling 
escapes  on  the  part  of  men  and  women  caught  in 
the  blazing  woods,  and  even  townsfolk  in  the  centre 
of  the  fire  belt  found  great  difficulty  in  reach- 
ing refuge.  The  military  department  of  the  state 
government  efficiently  administered  the  work  of 
relief. 

There  was  a  disastrous  drought  throughout  Wis- 
consin in  the  latter  half  of  the  summer  of  1908. 


ECONOMIC  DEVELOPMENT  391 

culminating  in  a  phenomenally  hot  September. 
In  every  portion  of  the  state  much  damage  was 
wrought  to  pastures  and  root  crops.  In  the  dry  and 
inflammable  northern  forests  and  on  the  cut-over 
lands  a  condition  of  extreme  hazard  prevailed. 
In  the  neighboring  upper  peninsula  of  Michigan, 
and  in  northeastern  Minnesota,  there  was  much 
damage  from  fire,  the  smoke  from  which  befogged 
all  of  Wisconsin,  Minnesota,  Michigan,  and  much 
of  Illinois,  and  endangered  navigation  on  Lakes 
Superior  and  Michigan.  While  in  Wisconsin  the 
loss  was  less  severe  than  in  the  more  northern  dis- 
tricts, nevertheless  about  $200,000  worth  of  timber 
was  destroyed  within  our  bounds,  both  on  and  off 
the  state  reserves  ;  for  several  weeks  many  villages 
in  Douglas,  Bayfield,  Sawyer,  Lincoln,  Oneida, 
and  Oconto  counties  were  in  imminent  danger  of 
destruction ;  and  some  three  thousand  men  were 
engaged  under  state  control  in  fighting  fire. *  Relief 
was  brought  upon  September  27,  when  the  ther- 
mometer dropped  fifty  degrees  in  a  few  hours,  ac- 
companied by  a  heavy  fall  of  rain,  which  latter,  with 
accompanying  sleet  and  snow,  effectually  placed 
the  region  out  of  danger. 

Although  apparently  less  liable  to  devastating 
hurricanes  than  are  some  of  the  states  to  the  west 
of  the  Mississippi,  Wisconsin  has  been  visited  by  a 

1  An  engine  and  small  fire  brigade  were  sent  on  September  20 
by  the  city  of  Milwaukee  to  Rhinelander,  the  courthouse  town  of 
Oneida,  to  assist  in  saving  the  place. 


392  WISCONSIN 

few  so-called  "  cyclones  "  that  have  wrought  enor- 
mous damage.  Evidences  of  early  wind  storms  of 
great  severity  were  not  infrequently  encountered 
in  the  northern  woods  by  lumbermen.  Occasionally 
were  to  be  seen  half -mile- wide  paths  wherein  trees 
had  been  uprooted  and  the  forest  blasted  for  a  dis- 
tance of  fifty  or  sixty  miles  ;  but  as  there  had  been 
no  settlement  of  importance  upon  such  devastated 
strips,  small  account  was  taken  of  them. 

Since  record  began  to  be  kept  of  these  terrifying 
and  destructive  phenomena,  there  have  been  several 
of  sufficient  importance  to  rank  as  historical  events 
of  state-wide  importance.  On  June  28,  1865,  a 
storm  of  this  character  wrecked  the  little  city  of 
Viroqua,  in  Vernon  County,  killing  fourteen  per- 
sons and  injuring  a  hundred.  A  similar  storm  began 
to  gather  on  July  4, 1873,  some  sixty  miles  west  of 
Princeton,  and,  passing  eastward  through  Green 
Lake,  Fond  du  Lac,  and  Sheboygan  counties, 
exhausted  itself  upon  Lake  Michigan.  Besides  the 
uprooting  of  trees  and  the  destruction  of  farm  crops 
and  other  property,  a  large  number  of  buildings  were 
shattered,  especially  in  the  cities  of  Fond  du  Lac 
and  Waupun,  and  ten  lives  were  lost  upon  Green 
Lake.  The  fury  of  the  gale  was  felt  as  far  south  as 
Milwaukee.  Hazel  Green,  a  Grant  County  village, 
was  wrecked  on  March  10,  1876,  the  list  of  dead 
being  nine,  of  maimed  fifteen,  and  the  property 
loss  136,000.  The  entire  west  shore  of  Green  Bay 
was  visited  by  a  hurricane  early  in  the  evening  of 


ECONOMIC  DEVELOPMENT  393 

July  7,  1877  ;  six  lives  were  lost  and  many  persons 
injured,  while  the  damage  to  property  amounted  to 
$200,000.  The  village  of  Pensaukee,  five  miles 
south  of  Oconto,  was  almost  a  total  wreck.  Another 
visitation  of  this  sort,  on  May  23, 1878,  devastated 
the  country  between  Mineral  Point  and  Oregon, 
a  distance  of  nearly  forty  miles.  The  width  of  the 
path  averaged  ahalf  mile,  and  the  damage  amounted 
to  several  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  ;  a  few 
lives  were  lost,  and  several  persons  sustained  serious 
injuries.  At  the  same  time,  furious  storms  visited 
northern  Wisconsin  (particularly  along  Flambeau 
River)  and  northern  Illinois.  The  northern  and 
western  outskirts  of  the  city  of  Racine  were  razed  on 
May  19, 1882,  by  a  cyclone  whose  path  was  not  over 
twenty  rods  in  width  ;  five  persons  were  killed  and 
eighty-five  injured.  The  cyclone  centring  at  New 
Richmond,  on  June  12,  1899,  was,  however,  the 
severest  of  all.  The  storm  lasted  less  than  five 
minutes ;  but  when  it  had  spent  its  fury  the  little 
city  lay  a  mass  of  debris,  property  valued  at  well 
nigh  a  million  dollars  had  been  blotted  out  of  exist- 
ence, over  fifty  people  were  killed,  and  many  scores 
were  maimed.  Fire  broke  out  among  the  ruins,  add- 
ing a  new  horror  and  greatly  extending  the  finan- 
cial disaster.  In  the  neighboring  country,  also,  par- 
ticularly to  the  north,  much  damage  was  wrought ; 
Clayton,  in  Polk  County,  one  of  the  centres  of 
the  great  forest  fire  of  the  previous  year,  suffered 
severely.  Again  the  state  government  skillfully 


394  WISCONSIN 

organized  the  work  of  relief,  and  contributions  in 
money  and  goods  poured  in  from  all  over  the 
commonwealth,  as  well  as  from  the  neighboring 
Minnesota  cities  of  Minneapolis,  St.  Paul,  and 
Stillwater.  On  the  evening  of  Sunday,  August 
16,  1908,  a  severe  wind  storm  wrecked  buildings 
and  crippled  telegraph  service  at  Pewaukee  Lake, 
Waukesha  Beach,  Port  Washington,  and  through  a 
belt  of  country  lying  north  of  Milwaukee  city  limits. 
Disaster  of  another  sort  was  met  by  those  who, 
in  1885-87,  invested  their  accumulated  savings  in 
iron  mines  that  were  being  "boomed  "  on  the  Goge- 
bic  iron  range,  crossing  the  boundary  line  between 
Northern  Wisconsin  and  the  Upper  Peninsula  of 
Michigan.  Large  deposits  of  high-grade  ore  had  in 
the  spring  of  1885  been  discovered  between  Peno- 
kee  Lake  and  Gogebic  Gap.  There  was  at  once  a 
degree  of  excitement  only  rivaled  by  the  experi- 
ences of  early  gold-mining  camps  in  the  Rocky 
Mountains.  A  hundred  or  more  companies  were 
soon  selling  stock  at  fanciful  figures ;  railways  were 
hastily  projected  into  the  region ;  the  towns  of  Hur- 
ley, Bessemer,  and  Ironwood,  centres  of  the  dis- 
trict, grew  with  mushroom  speed,  for  15,000  people 
were  soon  upon  the  range ;  the  entire  country  round- 
about was  pitted  with  prospectors'  shafts ;  fortunes 
were  made  overnight  by  some  of  the  first  on  the 
ground,  and  several  of  these  speculators  became 
millionaires.  There  seemed  no  limit  to  the  possibil- 
ities, for  one  of  the  mines,  the  Norrie,  shipped  a 


ECONOMIC   DEVELOPMENT  395 

million  tons  of  ore  in  one  season,  showing  that 
metal  undoubtedly  existed  in  large  quantities.  But, 
as  usual,  far  more  money  was  sunk  in  the  majority 
of  the  pits  than  ever  came  out  of  them,  and  in  the 
summer  and  autumn  of  1887  there  was  a  general 
crash;  the  speculative  millionaires  who  had  retained 
their  holdings  were  again  impecunious,  and  it  was 
many  years  before  the  name  of  Gogebic  ceased  to 
be  a  bugaboo  in  thousands  of  deluded  households. 
In  due  time,  legitimate  miners  succeeded  specula- 
tors, and  the  Gogebic  still  makes  a  goodly  yield, 
although  at  present  the  Mesaba  range,  in  northeast 
Minnesota,  is  a  far  greater  producer  of  marketable 
ore. 

With  the  all-too-rapid  subjugation  of  her  forests, 
and  the  opening  of  her  farthest  wilderness  to  set- 
tlement, it  might  be  supposed  that  Wisconsin 
would  by  this  time  have  small  concern  with  the 
aborigines.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact,  few  states  in 
the  Union  now  contain  as  many  Indians.  In  1904 
there  were  10,520,  not  taking  into  consideration 
the  civilized  Brothertown  and  Stockbridge  who 
own  and  work  their  own  farms  in  Calumet  County, 
and  have  been  admitted  to  citizenship. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  by  various  treaties 
the  Winnebago  surrendered  all  of  their  rights  to 
soil  within  the  present  limits  of  Wisconsin,  being  as- 
signed to  reservations  lying  west  of  the  Mississippi. 
Nevertheless,  a  majority  of  these  people  remained 
in  their  old  haunts  along  the  water-courses  leading 


396  WISCONSIN 

into  the  Wisconsin  and  the  Mississippi  south  of 
Black  River  and  Wausau,  which  is  still  their  hab- 
itat, although  to-day  they  chiefly  dwell  in  Adams, 
Jackson,  and  Waushara  counties.  A  considerable 
Presbyterian  mission  school,  for  the  education  of 
their  youth,  was  in  1835  established  at  Yellow 
River,  Iowa,  subject  to  frequent  inspection  by  the 
commandant  at  Fort  Crawford. 

Owing  to  the  timidity  of  white  settlers,  these 
gypsy  Indians  were,  in  the  summer  and  autumn  of 
1848,  induced,  under  pressure  of  thinly-veiled 
threats,  to  migrate  to  the  reservation  on  Long 
Prairie  in  Minnesota.  The  federal  government 
provided  them  with  steamboat  transportation  from 
La  Crosse  to  St.  Paul,  whence  they  were  dispatched 
in "  wagon  caravans  to  Long  Prairie,  a  leisurely 
journey  of  four  or  five  days.  But  the  Winnebago 
did  not  like  Minnesota,  neither  did  they  relish  be- 
ing placed  in  the  neighborhood  of  their  old  and 
overbearing  enemies,  the  Chippewa ;  the  majority 
therefore  trailed  back  to  Wisconsin  during  the  fol- 
lowing winter,  and  resumed  their  former  life. 

In  the  spring  of  1851  the  Winnebago  were  again 
a  source  of  alarm  to  white  pioneers  north  of  Wis- 
consin River,  who  pleaded  for  armed  removal  of 
these  tribesmen.  Governor  Dewey,  who  did  not 
share  the  popular  fear  of  aborigines,  sent  an  agent 
among  the  bands,  who  persuaded  many  peacefully 
to  depart  the  state. 

In  1870  there  was  another  "  scare."  The  Wis- 


ECONOMIC  DEVELOPMENT  397 

consin  legislature  represented  to  Congress  (March 
15)  that  "  the  interests  of  the  residents  of  the 
northern  and  northwestern  parts  of  this  state,  as 
well  as  the  interests  of  the  stray  bands  of  Indians 
therein,  imperatively  demand  that  the  said  stray 
bands  of  Indians  be  removed  and  located  upon  a 
reservation  at  or  near  the  headquarters  of  the  Eau 
Plaine  River,  in  the  northern  portion  of  the  said 
state."  Congress  responded  (June  15)  by  appro- 
priating fifteen  dollars  per  head  for  "  the  removal 
of  stray  bands  of  Pottawotomies  and  Winnebagoes 
in  Wisconsin  to  the  tribes  to  which  they  respect- 
ively belong."  During  the  following  autumn  and 
winter,  persons  under  contract  to  effect  this  order 
succeeded,  with  military  assistance,  in  removing  to 
the  trans-Mississippi  several  hundred  Winnebago, 
but  in  most  cases  with  quite  unnecessary  harshness 
and  even  cruelty.  But  by  far  the  greater  numbe'r 
of  the  inoffensive  barbarians  evaded  pursuit  and 
capture. 

So  insistent  was  the  popular  demand,  however, 
that  in  May,  1872,  Congress  appropriated  thirty- 
two  thousand  dollars  for  the  further  removal  of  the 
Winnebago,  and  a  more  wholesale  deportation  took 
place  in  the  winter  of  1873-74.  Disgusted  with 
reservation  life,  and  pining  for  their  old  woods  and 
streams,  fully  a  half  of  them  again  returned  to 
Wisconsin,  where,  to  the  number  of  some  fifteen 
hundred,  they  have  since  been  allowed  to  remain, 
receiving  a  small  annuity  per  head  from  the  federal 


398  WISCONSIN 

government,  and  being  assigned  to  inalienable 
homesteads  of  forty  acres  for  each  male  adult,  on 
which  possessions,  however,  but  few  of  them  as  yet 
abide.  The  remainder  of  the  tribe,  a  somewhat 
larger  number,  are  upon  the  reservation  in  Dakota 
County,  Nebraska. 

The  latest  Indian  alarm  in  Wisconsin  occurred 
in  June,  1878.  The  Chippewa  had  been  taught  a 
new  religious  dance  by  a  squaw  visiting  them  from 
some  reservation  beyond  the  Mississippi,1  and  in 
order  to  practice  this  large  bands  gathered  in  Bur- 
nett County.  With  painted  faces  and  bedecked 
with  ornaments,  the  tribesmen  spent  whole  days 
and  nights  in  noisy  and  somewhat  feverish  cere- 
monial. The  whites  of  this  then  sparsely  settled 
district  were  chiefly  Norwegians  and  Swedes  but 
lately  arrived  from  Europe,  and  such  unwonted 
disturbances  on  the  part  of  these  fiercely  attired 
savages  naturally  gave  them  great  uneasiness.  A 
rumor  spread  that  the  Wisconsin  Chippewa  were 
about  to  join  Indians  west  of  the  great  river  in  a 
general  war  on  the  settlers.  At  once  a  wave  of 
terror  swept  over  the  county,  culminating  on  the 
eighteenth  of  the  month.  The  poor  frontiersmen 
fled  precipitately,  often  without  food  or  proper 
clothing,  and  took  shelter  in  neighboring  towns, 
both  in  Wisconsin  and  across  the  line  in  Minne- 
sota, chiefly  at  Taylors  Falls  and  Rush  City.  The 

1  Possibly  the  "  ghost  dance  "  described  by  James  Mooney  in 
Bureau  of  Ethnology  Report,  1892-93. 


ECONOMIC   DEVELOPMENT  399 

adjutant-general  of  the  state,  in  company  with  an 
officer  of  the  federal  army,  at  once  proceeded  to 
the  scene  of  disturbance;  but,  discovering  that 
alarm  was  groundless,  they  gently  chided  the  as- 
tonished dancers,  and  restored  quiet  among  the 
pioneers.  The  officers  officially  recommended,  how- 
ever, that  hereafter  the  Indians  be  more  closely 
restricted  to  their  reservations,  and  forbidden  to 
wander  into  white  neighborhoods,  where  such  pro- 
tracted dances  could  but  arouse  fear. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

SOME   NOTABLE   CONTESTS 

AT  various  times  within  the  history  of  the  state 
there  have  been  more  or  less  serious  proposals  to 
remove  the  capital  from  Madison ;  for  the  most 
part  these  have  emanated  from  Milwaukee.  In  the 
legislative  session  of  1858,  a  bill  to  provide  for 
transplanting  the  seat  of  government  to  that  city 
had,  in  its  preliminary  stages,  developed  in  the  as- 
sembly a  favorable  majority  of  six  ;  but  when  the 
measure  came  upon  the  order  of  passage  (May  15), 
it  was  lost  on  a  tie,  every  member  voting.  In  1868 
the  assembly,  while  in  the  horse-play  attitude  some- 
times assumed  during  the  last  days  of  the  session, 
actually  passed  a  bill  giving  the  capital  to  Milwau- 
kee ;  but  on  the  following  day  (March  5)  the  meas- 
ure was  recalled  from  the  senate  and  indefinitely 
postponed.  Two  years  later  a  similar  project  was 
killed  in  the  assembly,  after  a  spirited  debate,  by 
a  vote  of  fifty-six  to  thirty.  Similar  attempts  were 
made  at  intervals  thereafter,  particularly  following 
the  destruction  of  a  large  part  of  the  statehouse  by 
fire  (February  27, 1904),  the  most  persistent  claim- 
ant at  that  time  being  Oshkosh.  But  the  legislat- 
ure of  1907  placed  what  doubtless  will  prove  a 


SOME  NOTABLE  CONTESTS  401 

quietus  on  further  efforts  of  this  character,  by 
making  provision  for  a  new  statehouseat  Madison, 
to  cost  six  millions  of  dollars.  Further,  a  constitu- 
tional provision  places  the  state  university  "  at 
or  near"  the  capital,  and  the  investment  in  the 
present  plant  for  that  institution  is  now  so  large 
that  suggestions  for  its  removal  are  also  quite  im- 
probable. 

The  first  serious  labor  disturbance  in  Wisconsin, 
necessitating  the  interference  of  state  troops,  oc- 
curred at  Eau  Claire,  in  September,  1881.  Work- 
men in  the  then  large  and  numerous  sawmills  at 
that  place  had  been  employed  for  twelve  hours 
daily  during  the  cutting  season,  but  struck  for  a 
ten  hours'  day  at  the  old  wage.  This  concession 
being  refused  by  the  mill-owners,  a  strike  ensued, 
with  some  rioting  and  destruction  of  property. 
Eight  companies  of  militia  were  called  out  to  keep 
the  peace,  and  the  "  sawdust  war,"  as  it  was  deris- 
ively called,  quickly  ended  in  a  victory  for  the 
employers. 

In  the  first  week  of  May,  1886,  contemporan- 
eously with  the  Haymarket  massacre  in  Chicago,  a 
labor  riot  of  considerable  magnitude  broke  out  in 
Milwaukee.  Some  time  previous,  the  national  Fed- 
eration of  Trades  had  adopted  resolutions  advising 
organizations  of  wage -earners  "  to  so  direct  their 
laws  that  eight  hours  should  constitute  a  legal 
day's  work  on  and  after  May  1,  1886."  The 
Knights  of  Labor  were  particularly  prominent  in 


402  WISCONSIN 

ft 
this   movement.  Their   attractive  slogan,  "EigL1- 

hours'  work  for  ten  hours'  pay,"  enabled  them  to 
gather  in  their  ranks  large  numbers  of  both  men 
and  women,  especially  unskilled  laborers.  In  Mil- 
waukee, the  knights  had  enrolled  ten  thousand 
members,  pledged  to  carry  out  this  eight-hour  pro- 
gramme, and  in  the  large  lumber-manufacturing 
towns  of  the  state  the  order  was  proportionately 
successful.  In  the  face  of  what  seemed  to  be  a  tidal 
wave,  several  Milwaukee  manufacturers  yielded, 
and  the  aldermen,  influenced  by  great  mass  meet- 
ings, decreed  that  eight  hours  should  thereafter 
constitute  a  legal  day  for  all  laborers  employed  by 
the  city.  But  many  large  concerns,  particularly 
machine  shops  and  rolling-mills,  flatly  refused  to 
grant  the  demand;  strikes  followed,  and  by  the 
night  of  Monday,  May  3,  fourteen  thousand  men 
had  ceased  work. 

Upon  the  afternoon  of  that  day  rioting  began  at 
establishments  where  laborers  had  declined  to  go 
out.  The  aggressors  were  largely  Poles,  whose  pas- 
sions had  been  played  upon  by  Socialist  leaders 
lately  arrived  from  Europe,  who  advocated  what 
looked  suspiciously  like  anarchy.  The  wildest  dis- 
order prevailed,  and  red  flags  were  appearing  in 
the  impromptu  parades  incident  to  such  a  situation. 
The  police  being  powerless  to  protect  property  or 
persons,  several  regiments  of  state  troops  were  or- 
dered to  Bay  View,  the  centre  of  disturbance.  On 
the  following  day  (Tuesday),  the  militia  responded 


SOME  NOTABLE  CONTESTS  403 

to  ugly  assaults  of  a  mob  of  fifteen  hundred  strik- 
ers by  firing  into  their  midst,  eight  persons  being 
killed.  The  riot  promptly  subsided,  strikers  quietly 
resuming  work  under  the  old  conditions.  But  al- 
though many  of  the  agitators  were  arrested  and  a 
few  sentenced  to  hard  labor  in  the  house  of  correc- 
tion, a  boycott  was  maintained  for  several  months 
against  both  militiamen  and  hostile  employers,  and 
it  was  years  before  the  effect  of  the  uprising  was 
wholly  obliterated  in  business  and  social  life. 

Three  years  later  (1889)  a  dispute  arose  between 
workmen  and  their  employers  during  the  construc- 
tion of  the  Superior  Air  Line  Railway.  The  labor- 
ers struck  because  they  failed  to  receive  their  pay 
at  the  time  stipulated  ;  this  tardiness  was  the  cause 
of  much  hardship,  and  considerable  violence  was 
manifested  at  West  Superior.  Militia  were  sent  to 
the  scene  of  disturbance  and  promptly  restored  or- 
der ;  but  popular  sympathy  was  this  time  with  the 
wage-earners,  and  Governor  Rusk  gave  picturesque 
expression  to  the  general  sentiment  when  he  de- 
clared, "  These  men  need  bread,  not  bullets !  "  His 
influence  was  successful  in  compelling  the  company 
at  once  to  pay  their  discontented  employees. 

Oshkosh  was  the  scene  of  a  labor  war  during  the 
summer  of  1898.  Differences  relative  to  hours  and 
wages  arose  between  thousands  of  wood-workers  in 
that  city  and  their  bosses.  In  the  course  of  the 
ensuing  sti-ike,  there  was  the  customary  violence, 
with  some  bloodshed.  Again  were  state  troops 


404  WISCONSIN 

summoned,  being  encamped  in  the  city  June 
24-30,  preventing  further  outrages ;  but  much  bad 
blood  was  displayed  during  the  fourteen  weeks 
through  which  hostilities  continued.  Towards  the 
close  of  August,  a  compromise  was  effected ;  but 
the  manufacturers  had  lost  a  season's  trade,  and 
the  workmen  suffered  much  from  prolonged  loss 
of  pay. 

Even  in  territorial  days  the  liquor  question  was 
prominent  in  Wisconsin  politics,  and  since  the  or- 
ganization of  the  state  it  has  not  infrequently  come 
to  the  front.  It  is  impracticable  here  to  mention 
more  than  a  few  of  the  many  and  diverse  features 
of  the  anti-liquor  movement.  In  1850  the  legislat- 
ure adopted  what  is  known  as  the  Bond  Law, 
which  provided  that  every  retail  dealer  in  intoxi- 
cants should  execute  to  his  city,  town,  or  village  a 
bond  in  the  sum  of  a  thousand  dollars,  conditioned 
to  pay  all  damages  that  might  be  sustained  by  the 
community  or  individuals  "  by  reason  of  his  or  her 
vending  intoxicating  liquors."  Three  years  subse- 
quent, the  people  of  the  state  voted,  on  referen- 
dum, in  favor  of  a  prohibitory  law  —  ayes  25,579, 
noes  24,109 ;  but  the  succeeding  legislature  de- 
clined to  adopt  a  measure  designed  to  carry  these 
instructions  into  effect.  The  legislature  of  1855 
passed  such  a  law,  but  it  was  vetoed  by  Governor 
Barstow. 

The  next  important  enactment  was  that  known 
as  the  Graham  Law,  adopted  amid  much  excite- 


SOME  NOTABLE  CONTESTS  405 

ment  at  the  session  of  1872.  This  act  declared 
drunkenness  unlawful ;  dealers  in  intoxicants  were 
made  responsible  for  the  care  of  intoxicated  per- 
sons ;  and  any  one,  whether  a  relative  or  not,  might 
in  his  own  name  sue  the  dealer  for  damages  to  per- 
son or  property,  or  because  of  loss  of  support,  occa- 
sioned by  the  intoxication  of  any  third  person.  On 
his  part,  the  dealer  must  execute  to  the  community 
a  bond  for  two  thousand  dollars,  conditioned  for 
the  payment  of  all  possible  damage  suits.  The 
Graham  Law  awakened  much  bitterness  during  the 
brief  period  of  its  existence,  being  among  the  many 
causes  contributory  to  the  political  upheaval  of 
1873,  that  resulted  in  the  triumph  of  Grangerism. 

The  prohibition  leaders  were  persistent,  how- 
ever, and  in  1878  presented  to  the  legislature  a 
petition  signed  by  fifteen  thousand  persons,  asking 
that  the  people  be  allowed  to  vote  on  a  prohibition 
law ;  but  this  was  denied,  as  were  also  similar  peti- 
tions sent  up  in  1879  (40,000  names),  1880,  1881, 
and  1882.  The  result  of  this  long-continued  effort 
was,  that  the  minimum  of  the  liquor  license  fee 
was  quadrupled,  and  cities  were  allowed  thereafter 
to  vote  once  in  three  years  on  the  question  of  rais- 
ing this  fee  in  their  own  communities.  At  present 
there  are  various  forms  of  local  option,  including 
one  applicable  to  small  city  neighborhoods. 

At  its  session  of  1889  the  Republican  legis- 
lature passed  a  bill  introduced  by  Assemblyman 
Michael  J.  Bennett  of  Iowa  County,  and  com- 


<so6  WISCONSIN 

monly  known  as  the  Bennett  Law,  that  gave  rise 
to  a  remarkable  political  disturbance.  The  state 
educational  authorities  had  called  attention  to 
the  fact  that  fifty  thousand  Wisconsin  children 
between  the  ages  of  seven  and  fourteen  were  not 
attending  schools  of  any  sort,  and  there  was  a 
general  feeling  that  the  laws  of  the  state  pro- 
viding for  compulsory  education  should  be  made 
more  effective.  Bennett's  bill  was  designed  to  ac- 
complish this  result. 

At  the  time  of  its  passage  no  -one  appears  to 
have  discovered  anything  revolutionary  in  the 
measure ;  but  early  in  1890  a  writer  in  a  Ger- 
man Catholic  paper  in  Milwaukee  called  public 
attention  to  certain  of  its  provisions  that  were 
most  unfortunately  phrased.  A  fierce  discussion 
at  once  arose  in  the  press,  and  in  several  public 
meetings  held  for  the  purpose.  Both  Roman  Cath- 
olics (chiefly  Irish  and  Germans)  and  Lutherans 
(Germans  and  Scandinavians),  having  many  and 
strong  congregations  in  Wisconsin  and  conducting 
numerous  parochial  schools,  academies,  and  col- 
leges, united  in  vigorous  objections  to  two  clauses 
that  to  them  seemed  designedly  aimed  against  their 
excellent  and  far-reaching  educational  systems. 

The  first  of  these  provisions  stipulated  that 
"every  parent  or  other  person  having  under  his 
control  a  child  between  the  ages  of  7  and  14 
years,  shall  annually  cause  such  child  to  attend 
some  public  or  private  day  school  in  the  city, 


SOME  NOTABLE   CONTESTS  407 

town,  or  district  in  which  he  resides."  Coupled 
with  this  were  certain  further  regulations,  fixing 
the  minimum  school  year  at  twelve  weeks,  and 
placing  upon  public  school  boards,  clothed  for  this 
purpose  with  large  authority,  the  responsibility  for 
the  education  of  each  child  in  the  commonwealth. 
The  objectors  urged  that  under  their  systems,  in 
which  boarding  schools  played  a  large  part,  it  was 
quite  impracticable  for  all  their  children  to  be 
educated  in  the  city,  town,  or  district  of  each 
child's  home ;  that  the  enforcement  of  such  a  pro- 
vision would  result  in  closing  two  thirds  of  the 
parochial  schools  in  the  country  districts.  While 
considering  public  schools  necessary,  they  declared 
that  parents  had  "  the  right  to  send  their  children 
to  a  better  or  more  suitable  school  outside  the  dis- 
trict." Moreover,  they  said  that  the  law  "  compels 
parochial  and  other  private  schools  to  observe  the 
time  or  times  of  attendance,  fixed  by  school  boards, 
without  regard  to  the  rights  or  customs  of  churches 
or  their  schools.  .  .  .  The  State  and  its  officers 
have  no  right  to  interfere  with  the  management  of 
parochial  or  other  private  schools."  l 

The  second  objectionable  clause  read :  "  No  school 
shall  be  regarded  as  a  school  under  this  act  unless 
there  shall  be  taught  therein,  as  part  of  the  ele- 
mentary education  of  children,  reading,  writing, 
arithmetic,  and  United  States  history  in  the  Eng- 

1  Quoting  from  resolutions  adopted  by  the  "Anti-Benuett  State 
Convention, "  held  at  Milwaukee,  June  4, 1890. 


408  WISCONSIN 

lish  language."  This  came  to  be  regarded  by  both 
German  and  Scandinavian  opponents  as  a  thinly 
veiled  attack  on  their  native  languages,  which 
largely  prevailed  in  their  denominational  acad- 
emies and  parochial  schools.  The  Democratic  plat- 
form of  1890  declared :  "  To  mask  this  tyrannical 
invasion  of  individual  and  constitutional  rights, 
the  shallow  plea  of  defense  of  the  English  lan- 
guage is  advanced.  The  history  of  this  state,  largely 
peopled  by  foreign-born  citizens,  demonstrates  the 
fact  that  natural  causes  and  the  necessities  of  the 
situation  are  advancing  the  growth  of  the  English 
language  to  the  greatest  possible  extent."  At  a 
state  convention  held  at  Milwaukee  (June  4, 1890), 
for  the  purpose  of  organizing  all  shades  of  oppo- 
sition to  the  law,  it  was  resolved  that  while  the 
delegates  had  "  no  enmity  to  the  English  lan- 
guage," they  nevertheless  were  "  opposed  to  all 
measures  tending  to  oppress  the  immigrated  cit- 
izens, or  to  suppress  their  native  tongue,"  and 
asked  "those  who  cherish  liberty,  regardless  of 
party  or  nationality,  to  join  us  in  the  effort  to 
have  this  unnecessary,  unjust,  and  discord-breeding 
measure  repealed." 

The  Democratic  party  thus  promptly  espoused  the 
cause  of  "  anti-Bennettism,"  and  skillfully  rallied 
the  forces  bent  on  repeal.  In  their  state  platform 
the  Republicans  branded  the  published  objections 
to  the  act  as  "  gross  misrepresentation,"  declaring 
that  they  had  no  "  purpose  whatever  to  interfere 


SOME  NOTABLE  CONTESTS  409 

in  any  manner  with  private  and  parochial  schools 
supported  without  aid  from  public  funds,  either 
as  to  their  terms,  government,  or  branches  to  be 
taught  therein : "  but  on  the  other  hand  believed 

O  * 

that  "  adequate  provision  should  be  made  for  the 
care  of  children  incorrigibly  truant."  A  general 
state  election  occurred  in  November,  after  a  some- 
what violent  campaign,  and  Governor  William  D. 
Hoard,  who  had  signed  the  Bennett  Law,  was,  to- 
gether with  the  entire  Republican  ticket,  defeated. 
George  W.  Peck,  heading  the  Democratic  ticket, 
received  30,000  plurality.  The  Bennett  Law  was 
repealed  by  the  next  legislature,  and  not  until 
1894  were  the  Republicans  again  placed  in  control 
of  the  government. 

While  agitation  over  the  Bennett  Law  was  in  its 
early  stages,  the  state  supreme  court  was  engaged 
in  hearing  a  protracted  and  learned  discussion  of 
the  constitutionality  of  Bible-reading  in  the  public 
schools  of  the  commonwealth.  In  school  district 
number  eight  of  the  city  of  Edgerton,  six  tax- 
payers formally  objected  to  the  fact  that  teachers 
read  each  day  to  the  children  certain  portions, 
selected  by  themselves,  of  the  King  James  (Pro- 
testant) version  of  the  Bible ;  whereas  the  parents 
of  many  of  the  children  were  Catholics,  who  did 
not  believe  that  the  Scriptures  should  be  indis- 
criminately read  to  youth  by  persons  not  author- 
ized by  the  Church  to  expound  them.  They  further 
contended  that  to  select  the  King  James  to  the 


410  WISCONSIN 

exclusion  of  the  Douay  (Catholic)  version  was 
essentially  sectarian  instruction ;  that  the  reading 
of  the  Protestant  Bible  transformed  the  public- 
supported  school  into  a  place  of  sectarian  wor- 
ship, with  no  liberty  of  conscience  to  those  of  other 
denominations ;  and  "  that  the  practice  complained 
of  disturbs  domestic  tranquillity,  and  therefore  does 
not  promote  the  general  welfare  of  our  people." 

The  school  board  having  declined  to  interfere 
with  the  teachers  in  this  matter,  the  circuit  court 
for  Rock  County  (Judge  John  R.  Bennett)  was 
requested  by  the  plaintiffs  to  issue  a  mandamus 
commanding  the  board  to  cause  the  teachers  to 
refrain.  The  court  held  that  the  practice  was  not 
unconstitutional ;  whereupon  the  plaintiffs  appealed 
to  the  supreme  court,  before  which  argument  com- 
menced on  February  1,  1890.  In  one  aspect  or 
another  this  question  had  arisen  in  many  of  the 
states  of  the  Union;  hence  the  Wisconsin  test 
case  attracted  national  attention.  Several  attorneys 
of  much  ability  appeared  before  the  court,  pro 
and  con,  and  the  public  press  bristled  with  articles 
on  the  subject. 

On  March  18  the  court  handed  down  a  unani- 
mous decision,  written  by  Justice  William  P.  Lyon, 
declaring  that  the  reading  of  the  Bible  in  public 
schools  was  undoubtedly  sectarian  instruction  and 
an  act  of  worship,  thus  a  practice  uniting  the  func- 
tions of  Church  and  State,  and  therefore  contrary 
to  the  inhibition  of  the  state  constitution  on  that 


SOME  NOTABLE  CONTESTS  411 

point.  Justices  Cassoday  and  Orton  rendered  sepa- 
rate, but  confirmatory,  opinions.  The  action  of  the 
court  elicited  strong  protests  from  several  Pro- 
testant ministerial  conventions ;  but  in  the  face 
of  this  definitive  interpretation  of  the  constitution, 
the  state  department  of  public  instruction  promptly 
gave  notice  to  boards  and  teachers  that  Bible-read- 
ing must  at  once  cease  in  all  public  schools  within 
the  commonwealth. 

The  constitution  of  the  state  provides  that  after 
each  federal  or  state  census  there  shall  be  a  fresh 
apportionment  of  the  senate  and  assembly  districts  ; 
"  such  districts  to  be  bounded  by  county,  precinct, 
town,  or  ward  lines,  to  consist  of  contiguous  terri- 
tory, and  be  in  as  compact  form  as  practicable." 

In  the  session  of  1891  the  new  Democratic  legis- 
lature, elected  as  a  result  of  the  Bennett  Law 
agitation,  adopted  a  reapportionment  of  the  state 
based  on  the  federal  census  of  the  preceding  year. 
The  Republican  leaders  charged  that  this  measure 
was  a  particularly  pernicious  "  gerrymander,"  and 
if  allowed  to  prevail  would  ensure  the  continuous 
election  of  Democratic  legislatures.  For  instance, 
it  was  shown  that  in  the  senatorial  apportionment, 
especially,  the  matter  of  proportionate  population 
cut  little  figure,  some  Democratic  senate  districts 
having  far  below  the  unit  of  representation,  and 
certain  Republican  strongholds  having  far  above 
this  number.  The  Republican  county  of  La  Crosse, 
to  cite  but  one  of  several  like  examples,'  was  given 


412  WISCONSIN 

but  one  assemblyman,  while  Manitowoc  County,  a 
Democratic  seat,  having  practically  the  same  popu- 
lation, was  awarded  three.  It  was  further  shown, 
by  means  of  maps,  that  many  of  the  new  districts 
did  not  "  consist  of  contiguous  territory  "  in  "  com- 
pact form,"  but  were  curiously  shaped,  and  obliged 
voters  to  make  long  and  unnecessary  trips  to  reach 
their  nominating  conventions  and  polling  centres. 
Action  against  this  law  was  begun  (February  9, 
1892)  in  the  state  supreme  court  by  the  Repub- 
licans, nominally  acting  through  the  Democratic 
attorney-general.  On  March  22,  the  court  (com- 
posed of  three  Democrats  and  two  Republicans) 
unanimously  decided  that  the  apportionment  act  was 
unconstitutional,  therefore  null  and  void.  County 
lines,  the  justices  held,  could  not  be  divided  in 
forming  assembly  districts,  senate  districts  must 
be  composed  of  convenient  contiguous  assembly 
districts,  and  there  must  be  substantial  equality 
of  representation.  Governor  Peck  called  a  special 
session  of  the  legislature  on  June  1  to  adopt  a  new 
apportionment  that  should  meet  the  requirements 
of  the  court  as  to  uniformity  of  population  and 
contiguity  of  territory.  The  second  act,  approved 
July  1,  was,  however,  almost  equally  distasteful  to 
the  Republicans,  and  they  again  asked  the  attor- 
ney-general to  bring  suit  to  vacate  it.  But  that 
officer  now  declined  to  act,  being  convinced,  he 
said,  that  the  new  apportionment  was  quite  in  ac- 
cord with  the  rules  laid  down  by  the  court.  After 


SOME  NOTABLE  CONTESTS  413 

much  legal  sparring,  the  court  granted  permission 
to  a  private  person,  acting  in  the  name  of  the 
attorney-general,  to  bring  such  suit.  Like  its  pre- 
decessor, the  new  appointment  was  declared  im- 
proper by  a  majority  of  the  court  (September 
27).  The  legislature  was  again  convened  in  special 
session  (October  27),  and  this  time  adopted  an 
apportionment  that  was  not  contested;  under  its 
provisions  the  succeeding  legislature  was  elected. 

From  the  earliest  years,  state  treasurers  in  Wis- 
consin had  personally  collected  interest  on  state 
funds  deposited  in  the  banks,  and  had  regarded 
this  as  a  proper  perquisite  of  their  office.  During 
the  decade  1880-90,  the  treasurers  thus  obtained 
from  twenty-five  to  thirty  thousand  dollars  a  year 
in  addition  to  their  legal  salaries.  Attacks  on  the 
practice  began  in  1882  and  were  repeated  from 
time  to  time ;  but  as  the  censured  officials  were 
expected  to  subscribe  liberally  to  campaign  funds, 
and  the  office  was  regarded  as  a  special  reward  for 
high  political  service,  politicians  at  first  paid  small 
attention  to  criticisms  of  so  time-honored  a  custom. 
The  treasurers  themselves  justified  their  conduct  by 
declaring  that,  having  given  heavy  bonds  for  the 
safe-keeping  of  such  of  the  state's  money  as  came 
into  their  hands,  it  was  sufficient  if  the  actual  sums 
paid  to  them  were  properly  accounted  for. 

When,  however,  the  Democrats  came  into  power 
in  the  first  week  of  January,  1891,  it  was  decided 
by  the  party  leaders  that  such  of  the  treasurers  as 


414  WISCONSIN 

were  not  exempt  under  the  statute  of  limitations 
should  be  prosecuted  and  the  interest  collected  by 
them  returned  to  the  state  treasury.  Two  test  cases 
were  brought  before  the  circuit  court  for  Dane 
County,  which  decided,  after  a  suit  attracting  wide 
attention,  that  interest  earned  on  the  funds  of  the 
state  belonged  to  the  state,  and  should  have  been 
accounted  for  by  the  treasurers  at  the  expiration 
of  their  several  terms  of  office.  Appeal  was  taken 
to  the  state  supreme  court,  which  handed  down  an 
elaborate  opinion  (January  10,  1893)  practically 
confirming  the  decision  of  the  lower  court.  The 
treasurers  were  acquitted  by  the  court  of  criminal 
intent,  deposits  not  having  been  made  by  them  as 
investments ;  but  failure  to  pay  over  the  interest 
was  declared  to  be  non-performance  of  all  the  duties 
of  the  office  as  guaranteed  by  bondsmen.  Judg- 
ments amounting  to  $725,000  (including  interest 
on  the  sums  retained)  were  secured  against  the 
treasurers  and  their  sureties  ;  but  subsequent  legis- 
lation released  some  of  the  persons  proceeded 
against,  so  that  the  net  sum  returned  to  the  state 
treasury  was  $373,385.95. 

From  the  time  of  the  introduction  of  such  public 
utilities,  railway,  telegraph,  and  express  companies 
operating  within  the  state  fairly  showered  free 
passes  and  franks  upon  public  officials  of  every 
grade,  particularly  members  of  the  legislature. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  this  practice  was  long  an 
effectual  barrier  to  attempts  to  regulate  public  util- 


SOME  NOTABLE  CONTESTS  415 

ity  corporations,  and  not  until  after  it  was  made 
illegal  did  the  regulation  policy  become  effective. 

Public  protests  against  railway  passes  were  heard 
as  early  as  1871,  when  an  unsuccessful  attempt  was 
made  to  pass  a  bill  making  it  a  felony  for  a  com- 
missioner or  a  juror  in  a  railway  damage  case  to 
accept  such  favors.  Three  years  later  the  Potter 
Law  contained  a  clause  forbidding  state  officers, 
judges,  and  members  of  the  legislature,  or  persons 
elected  to  such  offices,  to  accept  either  passes  or 
reduced  rates ;  but  it  will  be  remembered  that  the 
entire  law  was  repealed  in  1876. 

The  agitation  was  renewed  in  1892,  and  consid- 
erable effort  was  at  that  time  made  to  arouse  the 
somewhat  indifferent  public  to  an  appreciation  of 
what  was  considered  by  many  as  a  serious  political 
evil.  Five  years  later  the  agitation  was  vigorously 
renewed  ;  but  it  was  not  until  1899,  and  in  the  face 
of  persistent  opposition,  taking  frequently  the  form 
of  ridicule,  that  there  was  adopted  an  anti-pass  law, 
with  stringent  provisions.  This  was  supplemented  at 
the  general  election  of  November  4, 1902,  by  a  con- 
stitutional amendment,  adopted  by  a  large  popular 
vote,  providing  that :  "  No  person,  association,  co- 
partnership, or  corporation,  shall  promise,  offer,  or 
give,  for  any  purpose,  to  any  political  committee, 
or  any  member  or  employee  thereof,  to  any  candi- 
date for,  or  incumbent  of  any  office  or  position 
under  the  constitution  or  laws,  or  any  ordinance  of 
any  town  or  municipality  of  this  State,  or  to  any 


416  WISCONSIN 

person  at  the  request  or  for  the  advantage  of  all,  or 
any  of  them,  any  free  pass  or  frank,  or  any  privi- 
lege withheld  from  any  person,  for  the  traveling  ac- 
commodation or  transportation  of  any  person  or 
property,  or  the  transmission  of  any  message  or 
communication."  The  legal  authorities  of  the  state 
have  from  the  outset  construed  this  mandate  as  in- 
cluding every  manner  of  public  official,  state  or  lo- 
cal, whatever  his  grade,  even  janitors,  school  teach- 
ers, and  the  trustees  of  public  libraries  and  schools. 
This  drastic  legislation  had  been  preceded  by  a 
corrupt  practices  act  (1897),  one  of  the  most 
stringent  in  the  Union,  compelling  political  com- 
mittees and  candidates,  under  severe  penalty,  to 
file  statements  of  campaign  receipts  and  disburse- 
ments. An  act  was  passed  in  1905,  placing  the 
regulation  of  appointment  to  the  civil  service  of 
the  state  in  the  hands  of  a  commission  of  three 
members.  After  one  of  the  most  protracted  and 
bitter  political  controversies  in  the  history  of  any 
Western  commonwealth,  the  Wisconsin  legislature 
adopted  in  1905  a  sweeping  primary  election  law, 
which  was,  on  referendum  vote,  confirmed  by  the 
people  at  the  succeeding  general  election.  Under 
its  provisions  nominating  conventions  have  been 
abolished,  and  by  this  means  the  legislature  is 
informed  which  candidate  for  the  United  States 
Senate  is  approved  by  his  party. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

WISCONSIN  TO-DAT 

ON  May  29,  1848,  President  Polk  approved 
the  act  of  Congress  admitting  Wisconsin  to  the 
Union.  The  first  general  officers  of  the  new  state 
took  the  oath  of  office  at  Madison  on  June  7.  The 
semi-centennial  anniversary  of  these  two  events, 
occurring  in  1898,  was  made  the  occasion  for  fit- 
ting celebrations  by  the  people  of  the  common- 
wealth. 

As  May  29  in  that  year  fell  on  Sunday,  and  the 
30th  was  Memorial  Day,  the  observance  of  the 
signing  of  the  act  of  admission  was  fixed  for  Satur- 
day, May  28.  Acting  on  the  suggestion  of  the  Wis- 
consin Historical  Society,  numerous  local  cere- 
monials were  held  on  that  day  at  county  seats  and 
other  centres  of  population,  these  largely  partaking 
of  the  character  of  pioneer  reunions,  at  which  were 
delivered  reminiscent  speeches  and  papers.  Several 
local  historical  societies  were  the  outgrowth  of  such 
meetings. 

On  June  7-9  there  was  a  three  days'  celebra- 
tion at  Madison,  the  programme  consisting  chiefly 
of  assemblies  of  pioneers  of  the  territory,  signers 
of  the  state  constitution,  students  of  Wisconsin 


418  WISCONSIN 

history,  and  the  like ;  at  large  evening  meetings, 
addresses  were  made  by  distinguished  citizens  and 
visitors.  Concerts,  parades,  boat  races,  and  fire- 
works were  among  the  popular  attractions.  During 
the  week  ending  July  2,  Milwaukee  conducted  a 
separate  celebration,  in  which  a  carnival  and  his- 
torical pageants  were  the  principal  features,  illus- 
trating the  commercial  and  industrial  advancement 
of  the  state  since  territorial  days. 

While  these  events  were  in  progress,  Wisconsin 
was  participating  with  her  sister  states  in  the 
Spanish-American  War.  On  April  28,  the  day 
following  the  receipt  of  final  orders  from  Wash- 
ington, three  twelve-company  regiments  of  Wis- 
consin infantry,  chiefly  recruited  from  her  national 
guard,  were  mobilizing  at  Camp  Harvey — the 
state  fair  grounds,  on  the  outskirts  of  Milwaukee. 
On  May  14  the  Third  Regiment  (1353  strong, 
Colonel  M.  T.  Moore)  was  forwarded  to  Camp 
George  H.  Thomas  near  Chattanooga,  Tennessee ; 
being  followed  next  day  by  the  Second  (1349  men, 
Colonel  C.  A.  Born),  destined  for  the  same  camp; 
while  on  the  twentieth  the  First  (1357  men, 
Colonel  S.  P.  Shadel)  was  sent  to  Camp  Cuba 
Libre,  near  Jacksonville,  Florida.  The  Fourth 
(1301  men,  Colonel  H.  M.  Seaman)  and  a  bat- 
tery of  109  members  (Captain  B.  H.  Dalley)  were 
later  added  to  the  quota  of  the  state,  thus  making 
a  total  Wisconsin  enlistment  of  5469  men. 

Although  the  First  was  the  best  equipped  and  best 


WISCONSIN  TO-DAY  419 

drilled  of  these  several  commands,  its  colonel  was 
outranked  in  seniority  by  those  of  the  Second  and 
Third,  with  the  result  that  it  remained  inactive 
throughout  the  war,  in  camp  at  Jacksonville,  and 
subsequently  at  Pablo  Beach.  Although  asked  for 
by  General  Lee,  to  serve  with  the  proposed  army 
of  occupation  in  the  West  Indies,  the  First  was 
ordered  home  early  in  September  because  of  the 
length  of  its  sick  roll,  induced  by  shamefully  un- 
sanitary conditions  at  the  Jacksonville  camp.  The 
Fourth  and  the  battery  were  quartered  at  the  state's 
permanent  military  reservation  —  Camp  Douglas, 
in  Juneau  County  —  until  the  close  of  the  war, 
when  the  former  was  ordered  to  Anniston,  Ala- 
bama, to  prepare  to  join  the  army  of  occupation ; 
the  battery,  however,  never  left  the  state. 

On  July  21  the  Second  and  Third  sailed  from 
Charleston,  South  Carolina,  under  General  Miles, 
for  Porto  Rico.  Arriving  at  Ponce  on  the  27th  and 
28th  respectively,  they  took  part  in  the  peaceful 
capture  of  that  place.  They  were  thereafter  in 
almost  daily  engagement  with  the  enemy,  having 
been  with  the  Pennsylvania  Sixteenth,  with  whom 
they  were  brigaded,  selected  as  the  advance  guard 
of  the  army.  Detachments  from  these  Wisconsin 
regiments  played  a  conspicuous  part  in  General 
Roy  Stone's  dashing  raids  northward  toward  San 
Juan. 

Upon  several  occasions  Wisconsin  men  distin- 
guished themselves:  particularly  at  the  capture 


420  WISCONSIN 

and  holding  of  the  little  inland  town  of  Yauco,  a 
perilous  enterprise  conducted  by  Lieutenant  Coch- 
rane  of  Company  E  of  the  Third,  and  seventeen 
of  his  men,  all  from  Eau  Claire;  at  the  mountain 
fortress  of  Lares,  where  Lieutenant  Bodemer  of 
Sheboygan  and  a  small  detachment  had  a  sharp 
brush  with  the  enemy  while  carrying  a  flag  of 
truce ;  at  Coamo,  where  a  battalion  of  the  Third 
was  engaged ;  and  at  the  mountain  pass  of  Aso- 
manta, — the  final  engagement  between  Spanish 
and  Americans  on  the  island,  —  where  the  Second 
was  the  last  regiment  in  conflict,  losing  two  men 
killed  and  two  wounded,  the  only  field  casualties 
sustained  by  Wisconsin  during  the  war.  The  total 
loss  from  death  sustained  by  our  regiments,  almost 
wholly  from  camp  diseases,  was  131. 1  The  state's 
military  expenses  aggregated  $139,364. 49,  but  these 
were  later  refunded  by  the  federal  government. 

With  the  exception  of  the  Fourth,  Wisconsin 
volunteers  returned  to  the  state  in  September,  be- 
ing first  welcomed  as  regiments  at  Milwaukee,  and 
later  as  companies  in  their  respective  towns.  In 
due  course  they  were  formally  mustered  out  of 
federal  service,  the  majority  of  them  rejoining  the 
several  militia  organizations  from  which  they  had 
been  recruited.2 

1  The  First  lost  from  disease  45 ;   Second,  disease,  38 ;  Third, 
disease,  29,  killed  and  died  from  wounds,  2 ;  Fourth,  disease,  17. 

2  The  First  was  mustered  out  Octoher  19,  1898;   Second,  No- 
vember 11-21,  1898;  Third,  January  4-17,  1899;  Fourth  (at  An- 
niston),  February  28,  1899;  Battery  A,  October  8,  1898. 


WISCONSIN  TO-DAY  421 

The  reader  of  this  brief  historical  review  of  the 
region  now  comprising  the  State  of  Wisconsin  has 
discovered  that  up  to  about  1830  the  fur-trade  was 
its  leading  industry.  After  that,  the  lead-trade 
played  a  considerable  part  in  the  development  of 
the  country;  then  farming  —  at  first  wheat-rais- 
ing, but  later  mixed  crops,  live  stock,  and  dairying 
—  assumed  large  proportions.  But  with  the  growth 
of  settlement  in  the  West,  Wisconsin's  forests 
came  to  be  exploited  by  lumbermen  on  a  large 
scale,  and  for  several  decades  the  annual  output  of 
her  pineries  nearly  equaled  in  value  that  of  her 
agricultural  products.  So  rapid  of  late  has  been 
the  work  of  the  lumbermen,  however,  that  Wis- 
consin's timber  industry  is  fast  dropping  in  the 
scale,  the  principal  operators  having  already  with- 
drawn to  the  South  and  far  Northwest ;  but  we  still 
lead  all  other  states  in  lumber  and  planing-mill 
products. 

The  area  of  the  state  comprises  some  fifty-six 
thousand  square  miles,  of  which  but  thirty-four  per 
cent  is  as  yet  improved,  and  the  present  popula- 
tion is  approximately  two  and  a  quarter  millions, 
a  half  of  whom  are  dwellers  in  cities.  It  is  com- 
puted that  even  with  the  present  system  of  "exten- 
sive "  agriculture,  six  and  a  half  millions  of  people 
could  easily  be  accommodated  here,  and  the  wealth 
of  the  state  might  readily  be  increased  threefold. 
"  Intensive  "  agriculture,  in  the  European  manner, 
would  add  vastly  to  this  capacity.  Conscious  of  the 


422  WISCONSIN 

ability  of  the  state  to  sustain  a  far  larger  popula- 
tion than  is  found  at  present  within  our  borders, 
the  authorities  have  put  forth  strong  efforts  to 
"  attract  public  attention  to  the  many  sources  of 
wealth  of  the  state  which  are  not  utilized  or  are 
practically  unknown."  It  is  thus  hoped  to  acceler- 
ate immigration. 

The  amount  of  capital  now  invested  in  Wiscon- 
sin's miscellaneous  manufacturing  establishments  is 
upwards  of  four  hundred  million  dollars.  Ranked 
in  importance  according  to  the  following  order  are 
lumber  and  timber  products,  and  the  products  of 
flour  and  grist  mills,  foundries  and  machine  shops, 
cheese  factories,  creameries,  condensed  milk  facto- 
ries, leather  works,  breweries,  iron  and  steel  works, 
paper  and  wood-pulp  factories,  furniture  facto- 
ries, and  sash,  door,  and  planing-mills.  Manufact- 
uring is  not  concentrated  in  a  few  localities,  as  in 
many  states,  but  is  well  distributed,  and  for 
materials  is  largely  dependent  upon  local  pro- 
ducts. Lead,  copper,  iron,  and  zinc  occur  abund- 
antly and  are  profitably  mined,  while  the  shipments 
of  building  stores  and  mineral  waters  are  consid- 
erable. 

As  there  are  within  our  bounds  some  two  thousand 
small  lakes,  most  of  them  of  great  purity  and  beauty, 
and  as  all  portions  of  the  state  exhibit  much  pleas- 
ing scenery,  with  a  climate  rendered  equable  through 
proximity  to  the  Great  Lakes,  the  summer-resort 
business  is  assuming  large  proportions.  The  state 


WISCONSIN   TO-DAY  423 

is  to  its  great  profit  much  frequented  by  sportsmen 
during  the  fishing  and  hunting  seasons.  Fishing  as 
an  industry  is  also  lucrative,  the  state's  annual  pro- 
ducts on  the  Great  Lakes  alone  being  valued  at 
nearly  $300,000,  while  there  are  also  extensive  in- 
land fisheries  that  advance  the  total  to  considerably 
over  half  a  million  dollars.  A  State  Fish  Commis- 
sion effectively  controls  these  interests,  and  annu- 
ally restocks  the  lakes  and  rivers. 

Wisconsin's  geographical  position,  already  shown 
to  have  played  a  large  part  in  her  history,  is  still  of 
great  importance  in  the  marketing  of  her  exports. 
The  products  of  her  forests,  f arms,  factories,  mills, 
mines,  and  quarries  are  readily  shipped  to  the  East 
from  ports  on  lakes  Michigan  and  Superior.  On 
the  west,  the  Mississippi  has,  since  the  war,  carried 
but  a  relatively  small  freightage,  because  of  railway 
competition  ;  but  its  possibilities  are  still  great,  and 
potent  forces  are  at  work  that  must  inevitably 
cause  the  great  river  and  its  leading  tributaries  in 
time  to  regain  some  measure  of  their  former  eco- 
nomic importance.  The  railways  of  the  state  now 
show  a  trackage  of  somewhat  over  seven  thousand 
miles,  fairly  meeting  the  needs  of  nearly  every  sec- 
tion ;  and  interurban  electric  systems  are  fast  push- 
ing into  the  most  populous  districts  in  the  eastern 
and  southern  counties.  There  is  also  a  promising 
field  for  the  greater  utilization  of  the  state's  water- 
powers,  for  manufacturing,  transportation,  and  light- 
ing purposes. 


424  WISCONSIN 

The  commonwealth  makes  ample  provision  for 
the  education  of  its  youth.  During  the  year  1906 
the  aggregate  disbursements  for  common  schools 
amounted  to  $8,982,992,  for  normal  schools  $372,- 
572,  for  the  state  university  $1,022,548,  and  for 
other  forms  of  popular  instruction  (teachers'  insti- 
tutes, day  schools  for  the  deaf,  manual  training 
departments,  agricultural  schools,  and  county  train- 
ing schools  for  teachers)  $175,559 —  a  magnificent 
total  of  $10,553,571.  In  the  same  year  there  were 
371,929  children  between  seven  and  fourteen  years 
of  age  (limits  of  compulsory  attendance),  of  whom 
62.2  per  cent  were  enrolled  in  the  public  schools  of 
the  state  and  16.2  per  cent  in  private  schools,  while 
21.6  per  cent  did  not  attend  any  school.  There 
were  7731  schoolhouses  in  the  state,  with  a  seating 
capacity  of  569,169.  Seven  state  normal  schools 
(at  Platteville,  established  in  1866 ;  Whitewater, 
1868  ;  Oshkosh,  1870 ;  River  Falls,  1875  ;  Milwau- 
kee, 1885 ;  Stevens  Point,  1894  ;  and  Superior, 
1896)  give  instruction  to  four  thousand  pupils.  In 
1908  there  were  two  hundred  and  sixty-five  free 
and  fourteen  independent  high  schools,  with  a  total 
enrollment  of  21,453. 

The  system  of  popular  education  in  district,  ward, 
high,  and  normal  schools  is  fittingly  crowned  by 
the  University  of  Wisconsin  at  Madison,  founded, 
we  have  seen,  in  pioneer  days.  This  institution, 
which  at  present  has  over  four  thousand  students, 
of  both  sexes,  is  supported  by  the  income  from 


WISCONSIN  TO-DAY  425 

five  distinct  federal  land  grants,1  by  state  taxation, 
and  in  part  by  private  gift.  At  present  the  uni- 
versity receives  the  product  of  an  annual  tax  of  two 
sevenths  of  a  mill  on  each  dollar  of  the  assessed 
valuation  of  the  state,  besides  specific  legislative 
appropriations.  Gifts  have  chiefly  come  in  the  form 
of  foundations  for  certain  chairs,  fellowships,  and 
scholarships.2 

The  university  consists  of  colleges  of  letters  and 
science,  engineering,  law,  agriculture,  and  medi- 
cine, besides  a  largely-patronized  graduate  school, 
and  fast- developing  departments  of  university  ex- 
tension and  correspondence  study.  The  university 
extension  division  offers  lecture  courses  in  all  parts 
of  the  state,  to  women's  clubs,  study  clubs,  home 
study  groups,  and  teachers'  conventions  and  insti- 
tutes ;  it  also  aims  to  assist  debating  societies  and 
all  manner  of  local  educational  activities.  The 
correspondence  study  department,  now  on  a  well- 
established  basis,  offering  a  large  variety  of  courses, 
endeavors  "  to  give  every  man  a  chance  to  get  the 

1  The   basic   two-township  grant,   1848 ;  supplementary  two- 
township  grant,  1854 ;  Morrill  grant  for  the  support  of  studies 
pertaining  to  agriculture  and  mechanic  arts,  1862 ;  Hatch  grant 
for  support  of  agricultural  experiment  stations,  1887 ;  and  sup- 
plementary Morrill  grant,  1890. 

2  The  most  important  of  these  benefactions  are  thus  far  the 
bequests  of  Charles  Kendall  Adams  and  William  Freeman  Vilas ; 
the  former  is  already  operative  in  part,  but  the  latter  (which  it  is 
hoped  may  eventually  reach  thirty  millions  of  dollars)  is  not  yet 
available. 


426  WISCONSIN 

highest  education  possible  at  the  smallest  practical 
cost,  to  bring  the  university  and  the  home  in  close 
touch."  In  short,  the  university,  as  at  present  or- 
ganized, seeks  to  be  "  the  centre  of  every  movement 
that  concerns  the  interest  of  the  state."  The  widely- 
extended  system  of  farmers'  institutes,  held  simul- 
taneously at  many  points  in  the  state,  and  of  short 
agricultural  courses  given  at  Madison  to  both  youth 
and  adults,  is  an  exceptionally  popular  branch  of 
university  instruction,  and  has  already  immensely 
benefited  Wisconsin  agriculture ;  indeed,  the  col- 
lege of  agriculture  and  the  state  experiment  station 
in  connection  therewith,  have  won  national  reputa- 
tion for  breadth  of  view  and  administrative  skill. 
The  effect  of  some  of  the  station's  practical  experi- 
ments has  been  to  revolutionize  the  dairy  business 
of  the  entire  world. 

The  principal  Protestant  denominational  col- 
leges in  Wisconsin  are  at  Milton  (Seventh  Day 
Baptist,  established  1844),  Waukesha  (Carroll 
College,  Presbyterian,  1846),  Beloit  (Congrega- 
tional, 1846),  Appleton  (Lawrence  University, 
Methodist,  1847),  Kipon  (Congregational,  1853), 
Watertown  (Northwestern  University,  Lutheran, 
1865),  and  Milwaukee  (Concordia  College,  Lu- 
theran, 1881).  Milwaukee-Downer,  an  unsecta- 
rian  college  for  women,  at  Milwaukee,  is  on  the 
joint  foundations  of  Milwaukee  College  (founded 
1848)  and  Downer  College  (Congregational  and 
Presbyterian,  1853).  The  Roman  Catholics  sup- 


WISCONSIN  TO-DAY  427 

port  Ste.  Clara's  Academy  (Dominican,  1847)  at 
Sinsinawa  Mound,  St.  Francis  Seminary  (1853) 
at  St.  Francis,  St.  Lawrence  College  (Capuchin, 
1861)  at  Mount  Calvary,  Marquette  University 
(Jesuit,  1864)  at  Milwaukee,  and  Pio  Nono  Col- 
lege (normal,  1871),  besides  several  efficient  insti- 
tutions of  lesser  rank. 

Since  the  Wisconsin  Library  Commission  was 
organized  in  1896,  the  public  library  movement  in 
the  state  has  had  a  remarkable  development.  Free 
municipal  libraries,  supported  by  local  taxation, 
are  now  established  in  a  hundred  and  fifty  com- 
munities—  over  half  of  them  owning  their  own 
buildings  or  being  comfortably  established  in  city 
halls ;  there  are,  in  addition,  several  owing  their 
support  to  individuals,  associations,  and  school 
boards.  The  commission  circulates  nearly  seven 
hundred  well-selected  traveling  libraries  in  those 
sections  as  yet  too  sparsely  settled  to  purchase 
their  own  book  collections.  It  also  conducts  an 
advisory  service,  for  giving  assistance  and  advice 
of  every  sort  to  such  public  libraries  as  are  in  need 
thereof ;  an  instructional  service,  which  includes  a 
school  for  library  training,  the  conduct  of  library 
institutes  in  various  parts  of  the  state,  and  prac- 
tical instruction  on  the  spot  in  the  organization  and 
conduct  of  small  libraries ;  a  legislative  reference 
library  (in  conjunction  with  the  State  Historical 
Library)  for  gathering  and  classifying  material 
bearing  on  current  questions  of  public  moment  and 


428  WISCONSIN 

subjects  of  pending  legislation,  for  the  use  of  mem- 
bers of  the  legislature,  state  officers,  citizens,  and 
students  of  public  affairs ;  and  a  document  and 
magazine  clearing  house  for  the  benefit  of  local 
libraries. 

In  this  connection  should  be  mentioned  the  well- 
known  library  of  the  State  Historical  Society,  at 
Madison.  This  institution,  founded  by  members  of 
the  first  state  legislature  (January  30,  1849),  has 
long  been  the  most  industrious  and  successful  agency 
west  of  the  Appalachians,  for  gathering  and  publish- 
ing material  bearing  upon  American  history,  more 
especially  that  of  the  West  and  South.  Its  well- 
selected  reference  library,  comprising  more  than 
300,000  books  and  pamphlets,  and  occupying  one 
of  the  most  beautiful  and  best-equipped  of  Ameri- 
can library  buildings,  is  a  favorite  workshop  for 
scholars,  while  its  publications  rank  with  those  of 
similar  societies  in  Massachusetts  and  Pennsylva- 
nia. Within  the  society's  building  are  also  housed 
the  fast-growing  libraries  of  the  state  university 
and  the  Wisconsin  Academy  of  Sciences,  Arts,  and 
Letters.  The  excellent  law  library  of  the  state  is 
maintained  at  the  capitol. 

The  penal  and  charitable  institutions  of  Wis- 
consin are  managed  by  the  State  Board  of  Con- 
trol. There  are  state  insane  hospitals  at  Mendota 
(near  Madison)  and  Winnebago  (near  Oshkosh) ; 
a  School  for  the  Blind  at  Janesville ;  a  Workshop 
for  the  Blind  at  Milwaukee ;  a  School  for  the 


WISCONSIN  TO-DAY  429 

Deaf  at  Delavan ;  an  Industrial  School  for  Boys 
(reformatory)  at  Waukesha ;  a  Home  for  the 
Feeble-Minded  at  Chippewa  Falls;  a  School  for 
Dependent  Children  at  Sparta ;  a  State  Prison  at 
Waupun  ;  a  State  Reformatory  at  Green  Bay ; 
and  a  Tuberculosis  Sanatorium  at  Wales  —  these 
several  institutions  costing  the  state,  for  current 
expenses  alone,  about  half  a  million  dollars  annu- 
ally. The  incurable  insane  are  cared  for  in  county 
asylums  supported  by  both  the  state  and  the  county. 
The  Wisconsin  Veterans'  Home,  at  Waupaca,  while 
managed  by  the  Wisconsin  department  of  the 
Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  is  liberally  aided  by 
the  state.  The  National  Soldiers'  Home  at  Mil- 
waukee is  of  course  supported  and  managed  by 
the  federal  government.  The  Industrial  School 
for  Girls  (reformatory)  at  Milwaukee  is  partly 
under  state  control.  There  are  also  in  Wisconsin 
many  orphan  asylums,  hospitals,  homes  for  the 
aged,  and  other  private  benevolent  institutions,  for 
the  most  part  under  ecclesiastical  management ; 
when  specially  incorporated,  they  are  regularly  in- 
spected and  reported  on  by  the  Board  of  Control — 
but  the  number  thus  incorporated  is  but  a  small 
proportion  of  those  in  existence. 

Despite  the  wholesale  and  often  wasteful  lum- 
bering operations  of  the  past  decades,  there  still 
remain  in  Wisconsin  some  large  tracts  of  forest, 
chiefly  hardwoods.  A  State  Board  of  Forestry  was 
authorized  in  1905,  and  a  technically  trained  state 


430  WISCONSIN 

forester,  who  is  also  state  fire  warden,  is  now  em- 
ployed in  a  systematic  attempt  to  prevent  forest  fires 
and  acquire  forest  reserves.  Over  three  hundred 
local  fire  wardens  have  been  appointed  in  the  north- 
ern counties.  As  sixty  per  cent  of  forest  fires  are 
caused  by  carelessness  of  settlers  in  clearing  land 
and  burning  for  pasture,  it  is  hoped  gradually  to 
eliminate  this  factor.  Thus  far,  the  several  reserves 
include  234,000  acres  in  northern  Wisconsin ;  but 
in  the  immediate  future  it  is  hoped  very  largely 
to  increase  this  area,  from  gifts  of  cut-over  pin- 
ery lands,  the  sale  of  certain  state  lands,  and  re- 
ceipts from  the  sale  of  forest  products  emanating 
from  the  reserves.  The  board  expects  incident- 
ally to  assist  in  diminishing  disastrous  floods 
along  the  Mississippi  and  to  conserve  valuable 
water- powers. 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  work  of 
the  State  Railway  (public  utilities)  Commission, 
the  Tax  Commission,  the  Board  of  Assessment,  the 
Board  of  Control,  the  Library  Commission,  the 
Commissioners  of  Fisheries,  the  Civil  Service  Com- 
mission, the  Board  of  Forestry,  and  the  State 
Historical  Society,  which  last  is  practically  a  com- 
mission. The  Bureau  of  Labor  and  Industrial 
Statistics,  State  Banking  Department  (essentially 
a  commission),  Diary  and  Food  Commission,  Board 
of  Agriculture,  Geological  and  Natural  History 
Survey,  Board  of  Examiners  for  Admission  to  the 
Bar,  Boards  of  Dental,  Medical,  and  Veterinary 


WISCONSIN  TO-DAY  431 

Examiners,  Board  of  Health  and  Vital  Statistics, 
Live  Stock,  Sanitary  Board,  Board  of  Pharmacy, 
Tuberculosis  Commission,  Grain  and  Warehouse 
Commission,  Board  of  Arbitration  and  Concilia- 
tion, and  Board  of  Immigration  —  to  make  merely 
a  selection  from  the  list  —  are  all  of  them  useful 
agencies  of  state  administration,  and  suggest  the 
great  breadth  and  complexity  of  the  practical  prob- 
lems affecting  a  modern  American  commonwealth. 
Two  recently  created  commissions  are  of  peculiar 
interest :  The  Wisconsin  History  Commission, 
which  seeks  to  collect  and  disseminate  information 
concerning  Wisconsin's  part  in  the  War  of  Secession ; 
and  the  State  Park  Board,  whose  object  is  to  select 
and  report  on  park  sites  that,  from  considerations 
either  of  beauty  or  of  historic  association,  should 
become  the  property  of  the  state. 

Sixty  years  ago,  when  Wisconsin  entered  the 
Union,  it  was  relatively  a  crude  community.  It  has 
slowly  but  surely  advanced  to  the  front  rank  of 
trans- Appalachian  states.  Fertile,  healthful,  and 
beautiful,  with  vast  natural  resources  as  yet  but 
slightly  drawn  upon,  it  has  come  to  be  recognized 
as  among  the  most  energetic,  enterprising,  and  pros- 
perous of  American  commonwealths  —  perhaps 
most  markedly  enterprising  in  the  matters  of  popu- 
lar education  and  the  science  of  government.  Much 
of  its  material  success  is  owing  to  favorable  geo- 
graphical position,  and  to  abundant  products  of 


432  WISCONSIN 

earth  and  water ;  but  quite  as  great  is  the  intellect- 
ual debt  Wisconsin  owes  to  her  cosmopolitan  pop- 
ulation that  has  brought  to  her  service  the  best  of 
many  lands.  Both  intellectually  and  materially,  she 
faces  none  but  pleasing  prospects. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


ABERCROMBIE,  Gen.  John  J.,  bri- 
gade, 342. 

Acadia,  Recollects  in,  19 ;  Lahon- 
tan,  83. 

Accau,  Michel,  explores  Missis- 
sippi, 68,  69;  met  by  Duluth,  74. 

Adair,  James,  traveler,  129. 

Adams,  Charles  K.,  benefaction, 
425. 

Adams,  John,  peace  commissioner, 
142;  diplomatic  agent,  158. 

Adams,  Pres.  John  Q.,  pardons 
Indians,  213. 

Adams  County,  foreign  popula- 
tion, 293 ;  Indians,  396. 

Agriculture,  in  Wisconsin,  421; 
developed  by  lead  roads,  297; 
affected  by  transportation  rates, 
298,  299;  Southern  shipments, 
371-376;  Eastern  shipments,  297, 
375,  377,  378;  advance  of  tillage, 
377,  378;  commission,  430. 

Alabama,  in  War  of  Secession, 
330,366. 

Albanel,  Charles,  Jesuit  mission- 
ary, 49. 

Albany  (N.  Y.),  fur-trade,  75,  88, 
107,  122,  130,  371 ;  Carver  at,  125. 

Albemarle,  Confederate  ram,  366. 

Albemarle  Sound,  action  in,  366. 

Alexandria  (La.),  fleet  at,  361. 

Algonkin  Indians,  discover  cop- 
per, 11,  12,  15;  attack  Iroquois, 
9;  Nicolet  with,  13-15,  23;  de- 
scribe Winnebago,  16, 17. 

Algonquian  Indians,  habitat,  17, 
18;  Foxes  a  branch,  90;  curiosity 
about  Winnebago,  29. 

Allen,  Col.  Thomas  S.,  commands 
Fifth  Wisconsin,  356. 

Allouez, Claude,  Jesuit  missionary, 
46-49,51, 103;  with  Saint-Lusson, 
62;  meets  Foxes,  90;  reports  cop- 
per deposits,  123. 


American  Fur  Company,  in  Wis- 
consin, 181;  agent,  168;  methods, 
194-198. 

American  Historical  Review,  129. 

American  State  Papers,  192. 

Americans,  first  in  Wisconsin,  v, 
Vi,  155,  163,  164,  168,  170-173,  179- 
198;  atlMackinac,  160,  161,  169, 
178. 

Amherst,  Gen.  Jeffrey,  British 
commander-in-chief,  118. 

Anderson,  Thomas  G.,  in  War  of 
1812-15,  174,  176. 

Andersonville  (Ga.),  Confederate 
prison,  360. 

Andre,  Louis,  Jesuit  missionary, 
48,49. 

Ange,  Augustin,  pioneer,  127. 

Annapolis  Royal  (N.  S.).  See  Port 
Royal. 

Anniston  (Ala.),  in  Spanish-Amer- 
ican War,  419. 

Antaya,  Pierre,  pioneer,  127. 

Appleton,  Lawrence  University, 
426. 

Appomattox  Court  House  (Va.), 
Lee's  surrender  at,  365. 

Argenson,  Pierre  de  Voyer,  vi- 
comte  d',  governor  of  New 
France,  41. 

Arkansas,  in  War  of  Secession,  366. 

Arkansas  Indians,  Jolliet  and 
Marquette  with,  56;  La  Salle,  71. 

Army  of  Potomac,  at  South  Moun- 
tain, 349;  campaign  of  1863,  355, 
366. 

Arndt,  Charles  C.  P.,  killed,  261. 

Arnold,  Jonathan  E.,  counsel  for 
Barstow,  309. 

Ashland  County,  swept  by  fire, 
390. 

AsomantaPass(P.  R.),  Wisconsin 
men  at,  420. 

Assenisipia,  proposed  state,  152. 


436 


INDEX 


Assiniboin  Indians,  Duluth  with, 

74. 
Astor,  John  Jacob,  in  fur-trade, 

168-171,  182,  195. 
Astoria  (Ore.),  built,  171. 
Atkinson,  Gen.  Henry,  in  Winne- 

bago   War,  210,  211;    in    Black 

Hawk  War,  225. 
Atlanta  (Ga.),  campaign,  363,  364, 

366. 
Atwood,  Gen.  David,  journalist, 

312. 
Augel,  Antoine,  with   Accau,  68, 

69,75. 

BAILEY,  Lieut.-Col.  Joseph,  en- 
gineering feat,  361-363. 

Baird,  Henry  S.,  at  Green  Bay,  190, 
257;  attorney-general,  240;  can- 
didate for  governor,  308. 

Baird,  Mrs.  Henry  S.,  Early  Days 
on  Macklnac  Island,  185. 

Baker, ,  sheriff,  261. 

Balf  our,  Capt.  Henry,  takes  upper 
posts,  106, 107, 120. 

Baltimore  (Md.),  riot  at,  333. 

Banks,  Gen.  Nathaniel  P.,  Red 
River  expedition,  361-363. 

Banks,  in  territorial  Wisconsin, 
282-285,  287;  wildcat,  338,  339; 
circulation,  338 ;  number  in  1861, 
338;  suspension,  338;  .Southern 
bonds  discredited,  338,  339;  state 
department,  430. 

Baptists,  in  Wisconsin,  255,  426. 

Barren  County,  in  Carver's  claim, 
128;  swept  by  fire,  390. 

Barstow,  Gov.  William  A.,  polit- 
ical career,  306-312;  Bashford 
controversy,  308-312;  "and  the 
balance,"  307;  veto,  404. 

Earth,  Laurent,  at  Portage,  166, 
167. 

Bashford,  Gov.  Coles,  Barstow 
controversy,  308-312 ;  accused  of 
bribe-taking,  303. 

Basques,  in  Newfoundland,  1. 

Baton  Rouge  (La.),  captured  by 
Spanish,  137. 

Battery  A,  in  Spanish-American 
War,  418-420. 

Battles:  Altoona  Pass,  364;  Antie- 


tam,  349;  Asomanta  Pass,  420; 
Bad  Axe,  226;  Bethesda  Church, 
363;  Bull  Run,  342,  348;  Carrion 
Crow  Bayou,  360 ;  Cedar  Mount- 
ain, 349;  Chancellorsville,  355; 
Chaplin  Hills,  350;  Chattanooga, 
359;  Chickamauga,  359,  366 ;  Co- 
amo,  420;  Corinth,  349,  350;  Dai- 
ton,  364;  Fair  Oaks,  363;  Falling 
Waters,  342;  Fitzhugh's  Cross- 
ing, 355;  Fredericksburg,  351, 
355 ;  Gainesville,348 ;  Gettysburg, 
357,  358, 369;  Hatcher's  Run,  363; 
Helena  (Ark.),  357;  Henry  Hill, 
342 ;  Jericho  Bridge,  363 ;  Kene- 
saw  Mountain,  364;  Leggitt's 
Hill,  364;  Marye's  Hill,  355,  356, 
359;  Mission  Ridge,  359;  Paint 
Rock,  350;  Peachtree  Creek,  364; 
Peckatonica,  224 ;  Petersburg, 
363;  Pittsburg  Landing,  344; 
Prairie  Grove  (Ark.),  350,  366; 
Resaca,  364 ;  Sabine  Cross  Roads, 
361;  Shiloh,  347;  South  Mount- 
ain, 348;  Spottsylvania,  363; 
Stillman's  Creek,  223-225; 
Stone's  River,  351 ;  Tippecanoe, 
171;  Turner's  Gap,  349;  Vicks- 
burg,  356;  Warren  ton,  359;  Wil- 
liamsburg,  347,  348;  Wisconsin 
Heights,  225,  226. 
Bayfield,  railroads,  302. 
Bayfleld  County,  swept  by  fire,  390, 

391. 
Bay  View  (Milwaukee),  riots  at- 

402,403. 
Bays: 

Chequamegon,  as  a  district,  108, 
road  to,  251;  in  Fox  Wars,  94; 
Jesuit  mission,  46,  47;  Radis- 
son  on,  42,  43;  Le  Sueur,  77; 
Beaubassin,  124;  English  trad- 
ers, 121,  122;  settled,  122-124, 
153,  167,  168;  early  history,  167, 
168.  See  also  La  Pointe. 
Georgian,  Champlain  on,  9; 
trade  route,  15;  Nicolet  on,  14, 
15,23,  24,  26;  Jesuits,  20,  45. 
Green,  described,  27;  islands, 
269,  293;  Winnebagoon,  17; 
Nicolet,  26-33;  Allouez,  47,  48; 
Marquette  and  Jolliet,  54,  56; 


INDEX 


437 


La  Salle,  67;  Labontan.81,  82; 
Mathurin's  death,  98;  fur- 
trade,  31,  67;  lumbering,  281; 
great  fire,  389 ;  wind  storm,  392, 
393;  boundary,  272.  See  also 
Green  Bay  (town). 

Hudson,  Radisson  on,   41,   44; 
fur-trade,  88,  146,  147. 

Matagorda,  La  Salle  on,  72-74. 

Maumee,  acquired  by  Ohio,  271. 

Passamaquoddy,  Champlain  on, 
2. 

Sturgeon,  Marquette  on,  56, 58. 

White  Fish,  Nicolet  on,  25. 
Bear,  clan  totem,  109. 
Beaubassin,    Hertel    de,  at  Che- 

quamegon,  124. 
Beauuarnois,      Charles     de      la 

Boische,  marquis  de,  governor 

of  Canada,  120. 
Beaujeu.  See  Villemonde. 
Beauregard,  Gen.  G.  T.,  at   Bull 

Run,  342. 
Beaver,  in  fur-trade,  79,  93,  95;  as 

food,  30. 
Belgians,    in  Wisconsin,  292,  293, 

354. 

Belle  Isle,  Confederate  prison,  360. 
Belleview,  desires  capital,  241. 
Belmont,  first  capital,  240, 241, 253; 

Express,  240;  Gazette,  254. 
Beloit,  early  settlers,  293;  road  to, 

251 ;  military  companies,  333. 
Beloit  College,  founded,  426. 
Bennett,  John  R.,  circuit  judge, 

410. 
Bennett,  Michael  J.,    introduces 

bill,  405. 
Bennett  Law,  political  effect  of, 

405-409. 
Berdan  sharpshooters,  Wisconsin 

men  in,  347. 

Bering,  Vitus,  discoveries,  3. 
Berlin,  Indian  village  site,  31,  47, 

51,  55;  river  channel,  279;  Booth 

in,  324. 
Bessemer   (Mich.),    In    Gogebic 

"  boom,"  394. 
Bible  reading,  in  public  schools, 

409-411. 
Big    Knives,    Indian    term    for 

Americans,  112. 


Bill  Cross  rapids,  Menard  at,  46. 

Biloxi  (Miss.),  founded,  79;  Le 
Sueur  at,  80. 

Bird,  Augustus  A.,  builds  capitol, 
244,  245. 

Black  Hawk,  Sauk  leader,  219, 220; 
characterized,  222,  228 ;  declares 
war,  221,  222;  attempts  surren- 
der, 223, 226, 227 ;  wins  battle,  223, 
224;  pursued, 225, 226;  captured, 
223,  227,  228. 

Black  River  Falls,  sawmill,  282. 

Blue  Mounds,  road  via,  250;  Peck 
at,  244. 

Bodemer,  Lieut. ,  in  Porto 

Rico,  420. 

Bohemians,  in  Wisconsin,  292,  293. 

Boilvin,  Nicholas,  Indian  agent, 
172,  173,  200. 

Bond  Law,  for  liquor  licenses,  404. 

Boone,  Daniel,  Wilderness  Road, 
246. 

Boonesborough  (Md.),  army  at, 
349. 

Booth,  Sherman  M.,  in  Glover 
case,  320-325,  327. 

Born,  Col.  C.  A.,  in  Spanish-Amer- 
ican War,  418. 

Bostonnais,  French  -  Canadian 
term  for  Americans,  134, 150, 340. 

Bougainville,  Louis-Antoine  de, 
on  Green  Bay,  99, 100. 

Bourne,  E.  G.,  Travels  of  Jona- 
than  Carver,  129. 

Bovay,  Alvin  E.,  names  Republi- 
can party,  308. 

Bowyer,  Col.  John,  Indian  agent, 
180. 

Braddock,  Gen.  Edward,  defeated, 
119. 

Brebeuf ,  Jean  de,  Jesuit  mission- 
ary, 21-23. 

Bretons,  in  Newfoundland,  1.  See 
also  French. 

Brisbois,  Michel,  in  War  of  1812-15, 
172,  182. 

British,  claims,  85,  86,  88;  popula- 
tion of  colonies,  12,  13;  Indian 
allies,  149-151,  183;  fur-trade,  10, 
75-77,  88,  92,  130,  371,  372;  served 
by  Radisson,  38,  44;  declare  war, 
171,  172;  attack  French,  2, 12, 15, 


438 


INDEX 


19,  78,  83;  trans- Alleghany  ex- 
ploration, 88;  government  de- 
lays, 88,  89;  at  St.  Josephs,  70; 
Mackinac,  105;  in  French  and 
Indian  War,  98,  101;  withdraw 
from  St.  Lawrence,  82;  possess 
Wisconsin,  v,  vii,  177-179;  dis- 
sension, 86;  forts,  207;  retain 
posts,  144,  145,  154,  158;  sur- 
render posts,  160;  miners,  199. 

Brothertown  Indians,  migrate  to 
Wisconsin,  213,  216,  231 ;  as  farm- 
ers, 395. 

Brown,  Beriah,  journalist,  258. 

Brown  County,  established,  188- 
190;  seat,  234;  ungoverned,  237; 
represented  by  Arndt,  261 ;  taxes, 
279;  foreign  groups,  293;  swept 
by  fire,  388,  389. 

Bruce,  William,  fur-trader,  107, 
116. 

Branson,  Alfred,  pioneer,  259. 

Buchanan,  Pres.  James,  pardons 
Booth,  324;  retirement,  331. 

Buffalo,  clan  totem,  109;  skins  in 
fur-trade,  63,  66,  71. 

Buffalo  (N.  Y.),  emigration  port, 
247;  lake  port,  267, 297. 

Buffalo  County,  in  Carver's  claim, 
128;  foreign  groups,  293. 

Bulger,  Capt.  Andrew  EL,  at 
Prairie  du  Chien,  177, 178. 

Burlington,  settlement,  264,  265. 

Burlington  (Iowa),  Wisconsin 
legislature  at,  243. 

Burnett,  Thomas  P.,  lawyer,  258. 

Burns,  John,  at  Gettysburg,  358. 

Butterfield,  Consul  Willshire, 
Discovery  of  Northwest,  21, 
32 

CADILLAC,  Antoine  la  Mothe, 
sieur  de,  commandant  at  De- 
troit, 92;  governor  of  Louisiana, 
156. 

Cadotte,  Jean  Baptiste,  fur-trader, 
122,  134,  167. 

Cadotte,  Michel,  atChequamegon, 
167,  168. 

Cahawba,  Confederate  prison,  360. 

Cahokia  (111.),  French  settlement, 
153;  in  Revolution,  139, 141. 


California,  goldmines,  300;  pro- 
hibition of  slavery,  317,  318. 

Calumet,  road  to,  251. 

Calumet  County,  New  York  Indi- 
ans in,  216,  231,  395. 

Calv6,  Joseph,  partisan  leader, 
138. 

Cameron,  Simon,  secretary  of 
war,  336. 

Camp  Cuba  Libre,  in  Spanish- 
American  War,  418,  419. 

Camp  Douglas,  military  reserva- 
tion, 419. 

Camp  Harvey,  in  Spanish-Ameri- 
can War,  418. 

Camp  Lawton,  Confederate 
prison,  360. 

Camp  Randall,  Wisconsin  troops 
at,  337;  Confederate  prisoners, 
346. 

Camp  Sorghum,  Confederate 
prison,  360. 

Camp  Thomas,  Wisconsin  troops 
at,  418. 

Campbell,  John,  justice  and 
Indian  agent,  164, 173. 

Canada,  ceded  to  Great  Britain, 
108;  on  "  underground  railway," 
319,  321;  Canadians  in  Wiscon- 
sin, 292,  294,  340.  See  also  British 
and  New  France. 

Canals:  land  grants  in  Wiscon- 
sin, 377. 

Erie,  as  a  Wisconsin  trade  out- 
let, 247,  295,  297,  372,  373. 
Fox- Wisconsin,  projected,  277- 
279.  See  also  Rivers :  Fox  and 
Wisconsin. 
Illinois,  298,  373. 
Milwaukee  and  Rock  River,  276- 

279,  296,  373. 
Northern,  246. 

Canoes,  dug-outs,  16, 18. 

Capuchins,  in  Wisconsin,  427. 

Carolinas,  migration  from,  246; 
Sherman  in,  365. 

Carpenter,  Matthew  H.,  counsel 
for  Barstow,  309. 

Carpenter,  S.  D.,  journalist,  258. 

Carroll  College,  established,  426. 

Carron, ,  Green  Bay  teacher, 

187. 


INDEX 


439 


Cartier,  Jacques,  at  Montreal,  2. 

Carver,  Jonathan,  in  Wisconsin, 
125-129,  166;  notes  mines,  156, 
157 ;  land  claim,  128, 129 ;  Travels, 
128,  129. 

Cass,  Lewis,  governor  of  Michi- 
gan, 188;  treaty  commissioner, 
205;  visits  Wisconsin,  242. 

Cassoday,  John  B.,  supreme  court 
justice,  411. 

Cassville,  desires  capital,  241. 

Catholics,  found  New  France,  2; 
missionary  exploration,  8;  in 
Wisconsin,  254,  255,  426,  427;  op- 
pose Bennett  Law,  406;  oppose 
Bible  reading  in  schools,409-411 ; 
educational  institutions,  426. 
427.  See  also  French  and  Jesu- 
its. 

Cattle,  raised  in  Wisconsin,  374. 

Cedar  Point,  treaty  at,  230. 

Census,  in  Wisconsin,  411. 

Central  Freedmen's  Aid  Society, 
345. 

Centralia,  destroyed  by  fire,  390. 

Ceresco,  settlement,  262, 263. 

Champlain,  Samuel  de,  governor 
of  New  France,  1-3 ;  founds  Que- 
bec, 1-3, 5 ;  explorations,  8-10, 12, 
13,  23,  34,  35,  51 ;  introduces  mis- 
sionaries, 18, 19 ;  hears  of  copper 
mines,  11,  12;  manages  trade 
monopoly,  15 ;  interested  in  Win- 
nebago,  16, 17;  dispatches  Nico- 
let,  85;  death,  34;  Voyages,  11. 

Chapman,  William  W.,  district 
attorney,  240. 

Cbardon,  Jean  Baptiste,  Jesuit 
missionary,  49, 254,  255. 

Charles  II  (England),  patronizes 
Radisson,  38. 

Charleston  (S.  C.),  harbor,  332, 419. 

Charlevoix,  Pierre  Fran9ois  Xav- 
ier  de,  in  Wisconsin,  95;  Journal 
Hlstorlq-ue,  78,  129. 

Chattanooga  (Tenn.),  advance 
from,  363;  camp  near,  418. 

Chersonesus,  proposed  state,  152. 

Chicago,  location,  271;  portage,  7, 
56,  58,  59,  92;  routes  to.  185,186, 
250, 251;  as  Indian  boundary,  230; 
treaty  at,  230;  in  Revolution, 


138;  in  War  of  1812-15, 173;  mail 
routes,  254;  Milwaukee  bank 
notes  paid  at,  285;  trade  devel- 
opment, 247,  295,  298,  379;  labor 
troubles,  401. 

Chicago  and  Northwestern  Rail- 
road Co.,  early  building,  301, 302; 
opposes  Potter  Law,  383-385. 

Chicago,  Milwaukee  and  St.  Paul 
Railroad  Co.,  early  building, 
301,  302;  opposes  Potter  Law, 
383-385. 

Chicago,  St.  Paul  and  Fond  du 
Lac  Railroad  Co.,  aided  by 
Watertown,  380, 381. 

Chickasaw  Indians,  leagued  with 
Foxes,  94. 

Childs,  Ebenezer,  pioneer,  257. 

Chippewa  County,  in  Carver's 
claim,  128;  swept  by  fire,  390. 

Chippewa  Falls,  home  for  feeble- 
minded, 429. 

Chippewa  Indians,  109,  124;  hab- 
itat, 140,  167,  193,  194;  Nicolet 
with,  24,  25;  Radisson,  41,  42;  in- 
tertribal wars,  91,  124,  204,  205, 
396;  desire  war,  222;  allies  of 
Pontiac,  115;  with  Tecumseh, 
171;  in  Revolution,  134,  137;  in 
War  of  1812-15, 174;  rendezvous, 
121;  council,  211;  restive,  354, 
355;  frighten  settlers,  398,  399; 
treaties  with,  183,  184,  199,  220, 
230.231. 

Chippewa  Territory,  proposed, 
232,  233. 

Cincinnati,  early  settlement,  153; 
trade,  295,  374. 

City  of  Four  Lakes,  aspirant  for 
capital,  241. 

City  of  Second  Lake,  aspirant  for 
capital,  241. 

Civil  service,  in  Wisconsin,  416, 
430. 

Clark,  George  Rogers,  in  Revolu- 
tion, 134,  135,  139,  159,  172. 

Clark,  Julius  T.,  journalist,  258. 

Clark,  William,  exploration,  95; 
governor  of  Missouri,  172,  177, 
205. 

Clark  County,  in  Carver's  claim, 
128. 


440 


INDEX 


Clarksville  (Ind.),  settlement,  153. 

Clayton,  wind  storm,  393,  394. 

Clermont,  Alexis,  Narrative,  185. 

Cleveland,  lake  port,  268;  Western 
governors  at,  335,  336. 

Coamo  (P.  R.),  Wisconsin  meri  at, 
420. 

Cobb,  Amasa,  member  of  Con- 
gress, 328. 

Cochrane,  Lieut. ,  in  Spanish- 
American  War,  420. 

Cole,  Orsamus,  supreme  court 
justice,  309,  324. 

Columbia  County,  foreign  groups, 
294. 

Columbus,  railroads,  302. 

Communism,  in  Wisconsin,  261- 
269. 

Company  of  the  Hundred  Associ- 
ates, trade  monopoly,  35;  founds 
Three  Rivers,  21 ;  employs  Nico- 
let,  15. 

Concordia  College,  founded,  426. 

Confederacy,  Davis  president,  331; 
military  prisons,  346.  See  also 
Wars :  Secession. 

Congregationalists,  in  Wisconsin, 
255 ;  colleges,  426. 

Congress,  memorial  to,  299;  land 
grants  to  railroads,  302;  land 
grants  to  university,  314-317, 
424,  425;  nullification  address  to, 
323;  Wisconsin  members,  328. 

Connecticut,  cedes  Northwest, 
151. 

Copper,  early  reports  of,  11, 12;  on 
Lake  Superior,  11,  12,  52,  78,  86, 
123,  124,  298,  300  ;  in  Wisconsin, 
386. 

Cornish,  in  Wisconsin,  203,  294. 

Cornstalk,  Shawnee  chief,  113. 

Coureurs  de  bois,  denned,  35,  36; 
life,  104;  explorations,  35-37,  41- 
44,48. 

Courts,  established  in  Wisconsin, 
188-191 ;  Bashf ord-Barstow  case, 
309-311;  fugitive  slave  law,  322- 
325 ;  railway  regulation,  384,  385, 
387;  Bible  reading  in  school,  409- 
411;  apportionment,  412,  413; 
interest  on  treasury  funds,  413, 
414;  federal,  321-324. 


Coutrol,  Hubert,  commandant  at 

Green  Bay,  99, 100. 
Coutume  de  Paris,  at  Green  Bay, 

189. 
Crawford,  William  H.,  secretary 

of  treasury,  182. 
Crawford  County,  organized,  188- 

190,  237;  taxes,  279;  divided,  234. 
Creek   Indians,  trade  with  Eng- 
lish, 88. 
Creeks:    Apple,  201;  Duck,   216; 

French,  6;  Stillman's,  223-225. 
Crooks,  Ramsay,  trader,  170, 171. 
Crown  Point  (N.Y.),  Mathurin  at, 

98. 

Crozat,  Anthony,  monopoly,  156. 
Gulp's  Hill,  Union  charge,  358. 
Cumberland  Gap,  pioneer  route, 

246. 
Cushing,   W.  B.,  naval    exploit, 

366,  367. 
Cyclones.  See  Hurricanes. 

DABLON,  Claude,  Jesuit  mission- 
ary, 50, 51,  57, 58;  with  Saint-Lus- 
son,  63;  reports  copper,  123. 

Dakota,  sought  by  Wisconsin 
farmers,  386. 

Dakota  Indians,  linguistic  stock, 
17;  cast  out  Winnebago,  17,  18, 
29. 

Dane  County,  circuit  court,  414; 
sheriff,  311 ;  foreigners,  293. 

Danes,  in  Wisconsin,  293. 

Daniel,  Antoine,  Jesuit  mission- 
ary, 21-23. 

Danville,  Confederate  prison,  360. 

Davis,  Jefferson,  in  Black  Hawk 
War,  222;  in  Wisconsin,  331; 
captured,  366. 

Davost,  Ambroise,  Jesuit  mission- 
ary, 21-23. 

Death's  Door,  origin  of  term,  26, 
54;Nicoletat,  27,  28. 

De  Baugis,  Chevalier,  succeeds  La 
Salle,  71,  72. 

De  Bow's  Review,  298. 

De  Brouillon,  Jacques  Francois 
de,  governor  of  Plaisance,  83. 

De  Corah, ,  French  soldier,  126. 

De  Gonnor,  Nicolas,  Jesuit  mis- 
sionary, 95. 


INDEX 


441 


Delafleld,  Gushing  from,  366. 

De  Lassay,  Marquis  de,  French 
soldier,  75. 

Delavan,  school  for  deaf,  428. 

Democratic  party,  opposed  to  first 
constitution,  276;  opposes  ap- 
propriations, 286 ;  state  conven- 
tion, 353;  supports  Union,  332; 
gerrymander  case,  411-413;  op- 
poses Bennett  Law,  408,  409 ;  at- 
tacks state  treasurers,  413,  414 ; 
defeated,  329. 

Democratic-Liberal  Reform  party, 
railway  regulation  by,  383-385. 

Denis.  See  La  Ronde. 

Denonville,  Jacques  Ren6  de  Bri- 
say,  marquis  de,  reports  English 
claims,  88. 

De  Pere,  origin  of  name,  47;  Je- 
suit mission  47-49,  54,  56,  59,  64, 
70,  76,  91,  94;  early  settlement, 
102, 103;  sawmill,  281. 

De  Peyster,  Col.  Arent  Schuyler, 
at  Mackinac,  134. 

Des  Moines  County  (Iowa),  unor- 
ganized, 237. 

De  Soto,  Fernando,  discovers 
Mississippi,  59,  60. 

Detroit,  established,  92, 153;  Du- 
luth  near,  76;  Fox  wars,  95;  Pon- 
tiac's  conspiracy,  113;  threat- 
ened, 135;  surrendered  to  Brit- 
ish, 106;  transferred  to  United 
States,  144;  capital  of  Michigan, 
232,  279,  286;  land  claims  com- 
mission at,  192;  lake  port,  146, 
148,247,268;  mail,  186;  courts, 
190;  banking,  285. 

Dewey,  Nelson,  first  state  gover- 
nor, 287,  288,  290,  305;  removes 
Winnebago,  396. 

Dickens,  Charles,  American 
Notes,  261. 

Dickinson,  William,  pioneer,  257. 

Dickson,  Robert,  in  War  of  1812-15, 
173,  174. 

Dixon  (111.),  location,  271. 

Dixon,  Luther  S.,  supreme  court 
justice,  324. 

Dodge,  Maj.  Henry,  in  Black 
Hawk  War,  225;  territorial  gov- 
ernor, 239,  261,  272,  285,  286;  de- 


sires new  territory,  283 ;  slavery 
attitude,  318;  prominence,  258, 
372. 

Dodge  County,  foreign  groups, 
294. 

Dominicans,  in  Wisconsin,  426. 

Doolittle,  James  R.,  member  of 
Congress,  328. 

Door  County,  foreign  groups,  269, 
293;  swept  by  fire,  388,  389. 

Doty,  James  Duane,  comes  to  Wis- 
consin, 190,  192;  owns  Madison, 
241,  242;  territorial  governor, 
261,  272-275,  285;  desires  new  ter- 
ritory, 232,  233 ;  prominence,  257, 
372;  Docket-Book,  192. 

Douglas,  Stephen  A.,  on  import- 
ance of  Mississippi,  375;  debate 
with  Howe,  328. 

Douglas  County,  foreign  groups, 
293;  swept  by  fire,  390,  391. 

Dousman,  Hercules  L.,  pioneer, 
259. 

Drake,  George,  soldier,  342. 

Duane,  James,  member  of  Con- 
gress, 151. 

Dubuque,  Julien,  miner,  157, 158. 

Dubuque  (Iowa),  early  lead  mines, 
156,  157;  desires  Wisconsin  cap- 
ital, 241;  road  to,  251;  bank,  241. 

Dubuque  and  Belmont  Railroad 
Co.,  chartered,  301. 

Dubuque  County  (Iowa),  unorgan- 
ized, 237. 

Du  Charme,  Jean  Marie,  partisan 
leader,  138. 

Duluth,  Daniel  Greysolon,  explo- 
rations, 69,  74-77,  86;  trade 
routes,  78,  91;  forts,  81,  85;  at  De 
Pere,  103;  eulogized  by  Vau- 
dreuil,  77. 

Duluth  (Minn.),  location,  27*5. 

Dunn,  Charles,  lawyer,  258 ;  terri- 
torial judge,  240. 

Dunn  County,  in  Carver's  claim, 
128. 

Durrie,  Daniel  S.,  Jonathan  Car- 
ver, 129. 

Dutch,  trade  with  Iroquois,  10;  in 
Wisconsin,  292,  293. 

Dutchman's  Point  (on  Lake  Cham- 
plain),  fort,  144. 


442 


INDEX 


EAGLE,  clan  totem,  109. 

Eagle  Regiment.  See  Eighth  Wis- 
consin. 

East  Florida,  province  organized, 
117. 

Eastman,  Ben.  C.,  pioneer,  259, 260. 

Eau  Claire,  strike  at,  401 ;  soldiers 
from,  361,  420. 

Eau  Claire  County,  in  Carver's 
grant,  128. 

Ecuyer,  Jean,  at  Portage,  166. 

Edgerton,  Bible  reading  case,  409. 

Education,  early  grants  for,  314- 
317;  in  Northwest,  153;  first  in 
Wisconsin,  186,  187;  funds  mis- 
managed, 308;  Bennett  Law  agi- 
tation, 406-409;  Bible-reading 
case,  409-411;  statistics,  326,  423, 
424.  See  also  the  several  locali- 
ties. 

Eighteenth  Wisconsin  Infantry, 
at  Shiloh,  347;  Corinth,  349; 
Chattanooga,  359. 

Eighth  Wisconsin  Infantry,  at  Co- 
rinth, 349,  350;  on  Red  River  ex- 
pedition, 361;  at  Nashville,  364; 
Stone's  River,  351. 

Eldridge,  Charles  A.,  member  of 
Congress,  328. 

Eleventh  Wisconsin  infantry,  at 
Vicksburg,  356. 

Elgin  (111.),  location,  271. 

Elk,  clan  totem,  109. 

English.  See  British. 

Enjalran,  Jean,  Jesuit  mission- 
ary, 49. 

Eokoros  Indians,  mentioned  by 
Lahontan,  82. 

Episcopalians,  in  Wisconsin,  255; 
missions,  214,  215,  252. 

Erie  (Pa.),  portage,  6. 

Esanapes  Indians,  mentioned  by 
Lahontan,  82. 

Ethrington,  Capt.  George,  in  Pon- 
tiac's  conspiracy,  114-116,  120. 

Evanston  (111.),  location,  271. 

Ewell,  Gen.  R.  S. ,  at  Gettysburg, 
358. 

FAIRCHILD,  Lucius,  governor,  368, 
369;  on  railway  regulation,  381, 
382. 


Falls  of  St.  Anthony,  visited, 
201;  Accau  at,  69;  Le  Sueur,  77, 
79. 

Fay, ,  Wisconsin  trader,  136. 

Federation  of  trades,  at  Milwau- 
kee, 401,  402. 

Felicity,  early  lake  vessel,  136. 

Fifield,  injured  by  fire,  389. 

Fifteenth  Wisconsin  infantry,  at 
Paint  Rock,  350;  Stone's  River, 
351;  Chickamauga,  359;  Scandi- 
navians in,  340. 

Fifth  Wisconsin  Battery,  at  Cor- 
inth, 350;  Stone's  River,  351. 

Fifth  Wisconsin  Infantry,  in  Pe- 
ninsula Campaign,  347,  348;  at 
Antietam,  349;  Marye's  Hill,  355, 
356,  359;  Warrenton,  359. 

Fillmore,  John  S.,  journalist,  257. 

Finances,  during  war  period,  337- 
340. 

Finlanders,  in  Wisconsin,  293. 

First  Alabama  regiment,  prison- 
ers, 346. 

First  Wisconsin  Cavalry,  serv- 
ices, 365,  366. 

First  Wisconsin  Infantry,  in  war, 
334;  ill-equipped,  334;  at  Falling 
Waters,  342;  Chaplin  Hills,  350; 
Stone's  River,  351;  Chicka- 
mauga, 359;  in  Spanish- Ameri- 
can War,  418. 

Fish,  Carl  Russell,  Economic 
History  of  Wisconsin,  339, 375. 

Fisher,  Henry  Monroe,  magis- 
trate, 164. 

Fisheries,  in  Wisconsin,  422,  423; 
commission,  423,  430. 

Florence,  Confederate  prison,  360. 

Florence  County,  foreign  groups, 
294. 

Florida,  claimed  by  French,  15; 
secession  ordinance,  330. 

Flower,  Frank  A.,  History  of  Re- 
publican Party,  308. 

Fond  du  Lac,  desires  capital,  241 ; 
early  road,  251;  railroad,  301, 
302;  in  war,  333,  337;  injured  by 
fire,  388;  wind  storm,  392. 

Fond  du  Lac  County,  foreign 
groups,  293;  wind  storm,  392. 

Forest  fires,  387-39J,  429,  430. 


INDEX 


443 


Forest  Hill  Cemetery  (Madison), 

Confederates  in,  346. 
Forsyth,   Maj.    Thomas,    Indian 

agent,  201. 
Forts :  early  at  Green  Bay,  94. 

Beaubarnois,  constructed,  95. 

Chartres,  French  post,  113. 

Crawford,  built,  182,  281;  road 
to,  251;  schools,  252;  in  Win- 
nebago  War,  205-207;  in  Black 
Hawk  War,  226,  227;  Winne- 
bago  mission  near,  396. 

Crevecceur,  built,  68. 

Edward  Augustus,  at  Green 
Bay,  107,  111,  114,  115,  126, 166. 

Erie,  transferred,  144. 

Frontenac,  established,  66 ;  sup- 
plies, 68;  Duluth  at,  69;  re- 
stored to  La  Salle,  72. 

Howard,  built,  180, 181 ;  road  to, 
251 ;  schools,  252 ;  amusements, 
185,  186;  commandants,  210, 
331. 

Kaministiquia,  location,  76. 

Le  Boeuf,  captured,  113. 

Mackinac.  See  Mackinac. 

McKay,  occupied  by  British, 
176,  177,  182.  See  also  Fort 
Shelby  and  Prairie  du  Chien. 

Miami,  location,  70;  French  at, 
96;  captured,  106,  113. 

Niagara,  British  post,  113. 

Nicolas,  location,  64. 

Ouiatanon,  captured,  113. 

Perrot,  location,  64. 

Pitt,  in  Pontiac's  conspiracy, 
113. 

Presqu'isle,  captured,  113. 

Prince  of  Wales,  fur-trade  post, 
147. 

St.  Joseph  (near  Detroit),  La- 
hontan  at,  81. 

St.  Josephs  (Ind.),  French  at, 
72,  96;  captured  by  Indians, 
113;  attacked  by  Spanish,  140- 
142. 

St.  Louis  (Matagorda  Bay), 
founded  by  La  Salle,  73 ;  Span- 
ish at,  74. 

St.  Louis  (Starved  Rock),  Tonty 
at,  70;  restored  to  La  Salle,  72. 

Sandusky,  captured,  113. 


Shelby,  built,  172;  besieged,  173- 

178. 
Snelling,    in    Winnebago  War, 

206,    210. 

Sumter,  surrender,  332, 338, 367. 
Tyler,  battle  near,  366. 
Venango,  captured,  113. 
Wayne,  settlement,  153. 
Willian  Henry,  siege,  119. 
Winnebago,  built,  167,  213,  281; 
road      to,    251;    schools,   252; 
Twiggs  at,  331 ;  Indian  disturb- 
ance, 239. 

Fortress  Monroe,  Black  Hawk  at, 
228. 

Forty-fifth  Wisconsin  Infantry, 
Germans  in,  340. 

Fourier,  Charles,  social  theorist, 
262. 

Fourteenth  Wisconsin  Infantry, 
at  Shiloh,  347;  Corinth,  349; 
Vicksburg,  356,  357;  on  Red 
River  expedition,  361;  losses, 
357. 

Fourth  Michigan  Cavalry,  cap- 
tures Davis,  366. 

Fourth  Wisconsin  Cavalry,  serv- 
ices, 361,  366. 

Fourth  Wisconsin  Infantry,  or- 
ganized, 336;  at  Port  Hudson, 
357;  Bailey's  exploit,  361. 

Fox,  W.  F.,  Regimental  Losses  in 
American  Civil  War,  343. 

Fox  Indians,  character,  90 ;  habi- 
tat, 90,  194;  control  Fox  River, 
90;  village,  126;  wigwams,  109; 
intertribal  wars,  90, 204;  Allouez 
with,  48;  Beaujeu,  106;  mine 
lead,  157,  158,  199-201,  203,  204; 
war  with  French,  49,  64,  78,  85- 
101,  104, 119;  in  Pontiac's  upris- 
ing, 114;  Revolution,  135-139; 
Tecumseh's  uprising,  171 ;  treat- 
ies, 182-184;  agent,  164. 

Fox  Lake,  road,  251. 

Fox- Wisconsin  route,  149, 166, 170- 
172,  185,  295;  improvement,  274, 
277-279. 

Franchere,  Gabriel,  Narrative, 
171. 

Franciscan  mission,  108.  See  also 
Recollects. 


444 


INDEX 


Frank  family,  at  Green  Bay,  163. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  peace  com- 
missioner, 142. 

Franklin,  Gen.  William  B.,  engi- 
neer, 362. 

Frazer,  William  C.,  territorial 
judge,  240. 

Frederick  (Md.),  secession  legis- 
lature at,  343. 

Frederick  County  (Md.),  fur- 
trade,  115. 

Freeport  (111.),  location,  271. 

French,  occupy  New  France,  1-3, 
5,  10,  371;  characterized,  193; 
frontiers,  8,  62,  63,  80, 102;  explo- 
rations, 9, 10,  34-37,  62;  mission- 
aries, 18,  19  (see  also  Catholics, 
Jesuits,  and  Recollects);  popu- 
lation, 12,  13,  86;  exploration  of 
West,  62-84 ;  hated  by  Iroquois, 
9,  81 ;  weakness,  86 ;  Hennepin's 
account,  68,  69,  72;  war  with 
England,  12,78;  education,  252; 
marriage,  190,  191;  fur-trade,  7, 
75,  80,  86-88,  90,  146, 162,  200;  Fox 
Wars,  49,  64,  78,  85-101,  104,  119; 
posts,  64,  70,  76  (see  also  Forts) ; 
intrigues,  125,  159;  seek  mines, 
80,  155,  156,  199;  settlers  in  Wis- 
consin, 130-133,  172,  177,  181,  249, 
294;  regime  in  Wisconsin,  v-vii, 
8,  87,  94,  102-104,  127,  179;  down- 
fall of  New  France,  85,  108,  150, 
156 ;  connections  with  Louisiana, 
86,  87,  89 ;  cedes  Louisiana,  108, 
169, 170;  elsewhere  in  North  west, 
108, 153 ;  treaty  with  Winnebago, 
31,  32;  with  United  States,  142, 
143.  See  also  Fur-trade 

Frontenac,  Louis  de  Baude,  comte 
de,  governor  of  New  France, 
63,  77,  78,  82;  fur-trade  agents, 
69;  relations  with  La  Salle,  65, 
66,71;  superseded  by  La  Barre, 
71;  death.  91. 

Fur-trade,  Indian  adaptability  to, 
12;  on  St.  Lawrence,  10,  16,  36, 
37,  41,  43,  45,  58;  trade  routes,  5- 
8,26,78,279;  French  operations 
generally,  vi,  2, 14,  21,  22,  35,  65, 
79,  86-88,  91-95;  English  and 
Dutch,  10,  75-77,  88,  130,  132,  145- 


149, 154, 199;  Americans,  168-171, 
179,  180,  282,  194, 195, 198;  import- 
ance of  lead,  80;  prices,  75; 
articles  of  traffic,  64  ;  measures 
to  secure  trade,  117, 118 ;  compe- 
tition, 145-147,  168;  stations,  64, 
66,  67,  70,  76;  fair  dealing,  110; 
beaver,  79;  buffalo,  63,  66,  71;  on 
Illinois  River,  71;  Fox  River, 
103,  104,  107;  Lake  Superior,  121, 
122;  in  Wisconsin,  62-64,  109,  110, 
371,  372,  421 ;  elsewhere  in  North- 
west, 77-80;  companies,  131,  132, 
146,  147;  free  traders,  87,  88; 
character  of  traders,  87,  88.  See 
also  Coureurs  des  bois,  and  the 
several  traders  and  companies. 

GAGNIEK,  Registre,  murdered,  209, 
211. 

Galena  (111.),  location,  138,  271; 
lead-trade,  64,  79,  156,  158,  200, 
202,  295,  372,  373. 

Galvez,  Don  Bernardo,  governor 
of  Louisiana,  136,  137, 142. 

Garland,  Benammi  W.,  Glover's 
master,  319. 

Gautier,  Charles,  de  Verville,  par- 
tisan leader,  134,  136. 

Gaylord,  Gen.  Augustus,  services, 
346,  347. 

Geneva,  road,  251. 

Georgia,  in  War  of  Secession,  330, 
359,366. 

Germans,  migration  to  Wiscon- 
sin, vi,  288-292,  339,  340;  in  Wis- 
consin regiment,  340;  oppose 
Bennett  Law,  406,  408;  journal- 
ist, 406. 

Gerrymander,  of  legislative  dis- 
tricts, 411^13. 

Giard,  Basil,  pioneer,  127. 

Giasson,  Jacques,  fur-trader,  100. 

Gibbon,  Gen.  John,  commands 
Iron  Brigade,  359. 

Glory  of  Morning,  Winnebago 
chieftess,  126. 

Glover,  Joshua,  fugitive  slave, 
319-325, 327. 

Gnacsitares  Indians,  mentioned 
by  Lahontan,  82. 

Goddard, ,  fur-trader,  106. 


INDEX 


445 


Gogebic  Gap,  iron  deposits,  394. 

Gogebic  iron  range,  speculation 
on,  394,  395. 

Goldsboro(N.  C.),  Sherman  at,  365. 

Gorrell,  Lieut.  James,  at  Green 
Bay,  106-116,  178;  departure, 
115,  116,  126;  Journal,  107,  109, 
164, 166. 

Gosselin,  Abb6  Auguste,  Jean 
Nicolet,  21. 

Graham  Law,  against  liquor  sell- 
ing, 404,  405. 

Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  in 
Wisconsin,  429. 

Grand  Butte  des  Morts,  council 
at,  211. 

Grand  Portage  (Lake  Superior), 
in  fur-trade,  146-148. 

Grangers,  railway  regulation  by, 
383-386,  405. 

Grant,  Gen.  U.  S.,  praises  Wiscon- 
sin troops,  347 ;  Richmond  cam- 
paign, 363,  365. 

Grant  County,  Vineyard  from, 
261 ;  lead,  296;  Herald,  280,  298. 

Greeley,  Horace,  editor,  262; 
praises  Wisconsin  troops,  349, 
356,  357. 

Green  Bay  (town),  location,  108 ; 
native  mart,  12;  early  French 
name,  18;  on  trade  route,  7;  de- 
scribed, 181,  185-187;  a  district, 
108;  fur-trade,  162,168,279,372; 
Duluth  at,  76  ;  in  Fox  wars,  85- 
101;  in  Pontiac's  conspiracy, 
114,  115;  visited  by  Indians,  110; 
English  r6gime,106, 107, 116;  Car- 
ver at,  126:  Pond,  130;  early  set- 
tlement, 102,  103,  120,  121,  127, 
163,  167,  173,  257;  arrival  of 
Americans,  v,  vi,  162,  180, 181 ; 
in  War  of  1812-15, 173, 174;  forts, 
122, 164,  166,  180,  184,  281 ;  com- 
mandants, 124,  180;  population, 
163;  growth,  133;  schools,  186, 
187,  231,  252,  253;  land  claims, 
191-193,  232;  council  at,  216; 
county  seat,  188,  190,  234,  242; 
land  office,  231;  churches,  254, 
255;  bank,  241,  243;  Protestant 
mission,  214;  coming  of  New 
York  Indians,  215;  militia,  226; 


entrepdt,  194,  195,  201,  247,  250, 
251,258;  territorial  legislature 
at,  238,  299;  desires  capital,  241- 
243;  opposes  extension  of  terri- 
tory, 273;  taxes,  280;  early  news- 
papers, 253,  254;  state  reform- 
atory, 429. 

Green  County,  foreign  groups, 
293. 

Green  Lake,  road,  251. 

Green  Lake  County,  Nicolet  in, 
31 ;  wind  storm,  392. 

Greensand,  Le  Sueur's  cargo,  80. 

Griffon,  La  Salle's  vessel,  67,  103. 

Grignon,  Augustin,  at  Portage, 
167;  Recollections,  166. 

Grignon,  Louis,  in  War  of  1812-15, 
173. 

Grignon,  Pierre,  fur-trader,  133, 
186,  195. 

Grignon  family,  pioneers,  163. 

Groseilliers,  Me"dard  Chouart, 
sieur  des,  explorations  in  Wis- 
consin, 37-45,  47,  51,  54,  62,  63, 
122,  155. 

Grosse  Pointe,  boundary,  230. 

Guignas,  Michel,  Jesuit  mission* 
ary,  95. 

Gulfs: 

Mexico,  drainage  system,  7;  as 
a  boundary,  72;  Spain  on,  142; 
mentioned  by  Marquette,  50, 
55;  Wisconsin  trade  outlet, 
298,  372. 

St.  Lawrence,  drainage  system, 
7. 

HABITANS,  characteristics,  v,  104, 
132-134,  154,  179-181,  184,  186,  187, 
190,  191. 

Haldimand,  Gen.  Frederick,  gov- 
ernor of  Canada,  137,  144. 

Hamilton,  William  S.,  pioneer, 
258. 

Hammond,  M.  B.,  Financial  His- 
tory of  Wisconsin  Territory, 
277. 

Hancock,  Maj.  John,  at  Shilob, 
347. 

Hancock,  Gen.  Winfleld  S.,  brig- 
ade, 347;  at  Spottsylvania,  363; 
praises  Wisconsin  officer,  359. 


446 


INDEX 


Harnden,  Lieut.-Col.  Henry,  cap- 
tures Davis,  366. 

Harrison,  William  Henry,  gover- 
nor of  Northwest  Territory,  163. 

Harte,  Bret,  Gettysburg  poem,  358. 

Harvey,  Gov.  Louis  P.,  services, 
344,346. 

Harvey,  Mrs.  L.  P.,  services,  344, 
345. 

Harvey  Hospital,  at  Madison,  346. 

Haskell,  Frank  A.,  describes  Get- 
tysburg battle,  358,  359. 

Hatch  land  grant,  to  state  uni- 
versity, 425. 

Hebberd,  S.  S.,  Wisconsin  under 
the  Dominion  of  France,  21. 

Helena  (Ark.),  battle,  357. 

Helena  (Wis.),  desires  capital,  241. 

Hennepin,  Louis,  Franciscan  mis- 
sionary, explorations,  68,  69,  72, 
75,77,86;  map,  156;  Travels,  72, 
129. 

Henry,  Alexander,  fur-trader,  121, 
122,  124,  146,  167. 

Henry  IV  (France),  founds  New 
France,  2. 

Herculaneum  (Mo.),  shot-tower, 
200. 

Herron,  Gen.  Francis  J.,  praises 
"Wisconsin  troops,  351. 

Hesse,  Capt.  Emanuel,  partisan 
leader,  138, 139. 

Hoard,  Gov.  William  D., defeated, 
409. 

Hobart,  Col.  H.  C.,  escapes  from 
prison,  360. 

Hocquart,  Gilles,  intendant  of 
Canada,  120. 

Holt,  Benjamin,  journalist,  258. 

Holton,  Edward  D.,  defeated  by 
Barstow,  308. 

Hood,  Gen.  John  B.,  at  Nashville, 
364. 

Horicon,  military  company  from, 
333. 

Horner,  John  Scott,  acting  gov- 
ernor, 237-239. 

Howard,  Gen.  Benjamin,  name- 
giver  for  Fort  Howard,  181. 

Howe,  Timothy  O  ,  counsel  for 
Bashford,  309 ;  member  of  Con- 
gress, 328. 


Hubbell,  Levi,  impeachment  of, 
313,  314. 

Hubert,  Ignace,  fur-trader,  100. 

Hudson,  boundary,  143. 

Hudson,  Hendrik,  discoveries,  4. 

Hudson's  Bay  Company,  organ- 
ized, 44;  trade  operations,  76, 
146,  147. 

Hunt,  Thomas,  founds  commun- 
ity, 263. 

Hunt,  Wilson  P.,  fur-trader,  170, 
171. 

Huntsville  (Ala.),  battle  near,  350. 

Hurley,  in  Gogebic  "boom,"  394. 

Huron  Indians,  Nicolet  with,  21- 
25,  30,  33,  34;  Radisson,  41-43, 
45;  Jesuits,  20,  46;  raided  by 
Iroquois,  20;  driven  from  La 
Pointe,  50;  trade  with  English, 
88. 

Huron  Territory,  proposed,  233- 
235. 

Hurricanes,  in  Wisconsin,  391-394. 

Hutchins,  Ensign  Thomas,  at 
Green  Bay,  110,  111. 

Hyer,  George,  journalist,  258. 

IBERVILLE,  Pierre  le  Moyne, 
sieur  d',  founds  Louisiana,  79, 
86. 

Icelanders,  in  Wisconsin,  27,  293. 

Illinoia,  proposed  state,  152. 

Illinois,  French  in,  56,  58,  59,  72, 
87,  91,  92,  95,96,  98, 108;  lead-min- 
ing, 79,80,  155-158,  199-204,  299; 
migration  to,  229,  247 ;  migration 
from,  202,  247,  248;  Indian  ces- 
sion, 183;  in  Revolution,  105, 134, 
137-139;  territory  organized,  163, 
164,  188;  state  created,  188; 
boundaries,  233,  235,  250,  251, 
270-275;  Indian  title  quenched, 
231;  quota  in  war,  336;  militia, 
221,  223-225;  Mormons,  264,265; 
debts,  290;  forest  fire  smoke, 
391;  wind  storm,  393. 

Illinois  Indians,  204,  219.  222,  227; 
habitat,  68;  French  allies,  94; 
Marquette  with,  68;  trade  with 
Winnebago,  18. 

Immigration,  to  Wisconsin,  288- 
294, 339,  340;  land  grants  as  bait 


INDEX 


447 


315, 316 ;  checked  by  war,  339, 340; 
immigrants  as  soldiers,  341;  in 
1870,  340;  through  Milwaukee, 
377;  in  trans-Mississippi,  379, 
386;  board,  431.  See  also  the  sev- 
eral nationalities. 

Indiana,  portages,  6,  7;  bounda- 
ries, 240,  270,  271;  Indian  trou- 
bles, 171;  French  settlements, 
153;  Spanish  invasion,  140;  terri- 
tory, 163,  164,  187,  188;  emigra- 
tion to,  247;  debts,  290. 

Indians,  characterized,  112;  clans, 
109;  language,  26,  65,  81;  primi- 
tive industries,  196;  democracy, 
112;  customs,  109;  slavery,  109; 
war  methods,  206,  207,  212;  geo- 
graphical knowledge,  10,  11; 
trails,  203;  dissemination  of 
news,  30;  ghost  dance,  398,  399; 
intertribal  relations,  150,  154; 
French  seek,  5 ;  in  fur-trade,  2, 
62-64,  87-89,  196-198 ;  receive  fire- 
arms, 155;  unreliable  allies,  87; 
Perrot  with,  63,  64;  Duluth,  74; 
Lahontan,  82;  Jesuits,  86;  at 
French  settlements,  105;  revolt, 
341;  land  cessions,  182-184; 
among  Wisconsin  troops,  340; 
frighten  settlers,  395-398;  popu- 
lation, 109,  395.  See  also  the  sev- 
eral tribes. 

Iowa,  climate, 222;  Indians,  98, 204, 
207,  224;  lead-mining,  155-158, 
200;  railroad  development,  379. 

Iowa  City  (Iowa),  fire,  228 

Iowa  County,  seat,  234;  unorgan- 
ized, 237;  representative,  405. 

Irish,  in  Wisconsin,  292,  294; 
troops  in  war,  340;  oppose  Ben- 
nett Law,  406. 

Iron  Brigade,  in  Shenandoah  Val- 
ley, 348,349;  at  Fredericksburg, 
351;  in  Virginia,  355;  at  Gettys- 
burg, 357,  358;  in  Wilderness, 
363;  losses,  358 ;  commander,  359, 
360. 

Iron,  in  Wisconsin,  386;  Gogebic 
"  boom,"  394,  395. 

Iron  River,  injured  by  fire,  389. 

Ironwood  (Mich.),  in  Gogebic 
"boom,"  394. 


Iroquois  Indians,   language,  214; 

confederacy,  215;  visited  by  Ni- 

colet,  14;  war  with  French,  9,  10, 

70,  76,  81-83 ;  attack  native  ene- 
mies, 10,  20,  22,  41,  42,  47,  90;  be- 
friend Foxes,  96. 
Irvin,    David,    territorial   judge, 

240. 
Irving,  Washington,  Astoria,  147, 

171. 
Irwin,    Maj.    Matthew,  at   Green 

Bay,  180, 181. 
Islands : 

Allumette,  Nicolet  on,  13, 14, 23. 

Apostle,  in  Chequamegon  Bay, 
42. 

Bahamas,  threatened,  137. 

Big  Beaver,  Mormon  colony, 
266-269. 

Bois  Blanc,  234. 

Cockburn,  Nicolet  at,  24. 

Doty's,  Indian  village,  126,  131. 

Drummond,  Nicolet  at,  24 ;  fort 
on,  180. 

Garlic,  Indian  rendezvous,  173. 

Grand  Manitoulin,  Nicolet  at, 
24. 

Jamaica,  threatened,  137. 

La  Cloche,  Nicolet  at,  24. 

Mackinac,  234;  military  occupa- 
tion, 107, 108;  post,  163;  settled, 
153.  See  also  Mackinac. 

Madelaine,  venerated  by  In- 
dians, 42;  fur-trade,  177,  122; 
settled,  168. 

Manitoulin,  Ottawa  on,  50. 

Mount  Desert,  Jesuits  at,  20. 

Number  Ten,  captured,  346. 

Poverty,  Nicolet  at,  27. 

Rock  (Green  Bay),  Nicolet  at,  27. 

St.  Croix,  Cbamplain  at,  2. 

St.  Joseph's,  Nicolet  at,  24;  fort, 
160. 

St.  Martin,  Nicolet  at,  27. 

Summer,  Nicolet  at,  27. 

Washington,  Nicolet  at,  27;  for- 
eign group,  293. 

West  Indies,  trade,  145. 
Italians,  in  Wisconsin,  293,  294. 

JACKSON,  Pres.  Andrew,  appoint- 
ments, 237-239. 


448 


INDEX 


Jackson,  Mortimer  M.,  lawyer 
258. 

Jackson  (Mich.),  Republican 
party  organized  at,  308. 

Jackson,  Gen.  Thomas  J.  (Stone- 
wall), at  Chancellorsville,  355. 

Jackson  County,  in  Carver's 
claim,  128;  Indians  in,  396. 

Jacksonville  (Fla.),  camp  near, 
418,  419. 

Jacrot,  ,  Wisconsin  trader, 

173. 

Jamestown  (Va.),  miners  at,  80. 

Janesville,  road  to,  251,  296;  rail- 
road, 301 ;  school  for  blind,  428. 

Jay,  John,  peace  commissioner, 
142 ;  secures  treaty,  160. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  secretary  of 
state,  144-146, 148;  drafts  ordin- 
ance, 151,  152. 

Jefferson  Barracks,  223,228;  sol- 
diers from,  210. 

Jesuits,  as  explorers,  37,  53,  66; 
at  Quebec,  49,  50,  52;  found 
Three  Rivers,  21;  at  Sault  Ste. 
Marie,  10,  24.  25 ;  in  Wisconsin, 
427;  on  Fox  River,  95;  at  Green 
Bay,  104;  Nicolet  with,  21-23; 
interested  in  Radisson,  44,  45; 
missionaries,  62,  65;  inception 
of  work,  18-20;  missions,  46-49, 
86,  108,  114,  254;  Chequamegon, 
47,  49,  50,  122, 1255;  De  Pere,  56- 
59,  64,  70,  91,  94;  Lake  Superior, 
45,  46;  Mackinac,  50-54;  St. 
Francis  Xavier,  47,  54,  56-58;  St. 
Ignace,  50,  54,  59 ;  Relations,  14, 
15, 20, 22,  26-28,  30-33, 37-41, 50, 51, 
54,  57,  58,  62.  See  also  the  sev- 
eral missionaries  and  missions. 

Johns  Hopkins  University  Stud- 
ies, 198. 

Johnson,  Col.  James,  lead-miner, 
201,202. 

Johnson,  John  W.,  at  Prairie  du 
Chien,  182. 

Johnson,  Thomas  S.,  Green  Bay 
teacher,  187. 

Johnson,  Sir  William,  superin- 
tendent of  Indians,  110. 

Johnston,  Gen.  Albert  Sidney,  at 
Bull  Run,  342. 


Johnston,  Gen.  Joseph  E.,  sur- 
renders, 365. 

Joinville,  Prince  de,  in  Wiscon- 
sin, 218. 

Jolliet,  Louis,  discovers  Missis- 
sippi, 40,  52-57;  loses  diary,  57, 
58;  value  of  discovery,  59-61, 
66;  explorations,  62,  77,86;  limit 
of,  71. 

Joutel,  Henri,  journal,  156. 

Juneau,  Solomon,  pioneer,  165. 

Juneau  County,  military  reserva- 
tion, 419. 

KASKASKIA,     settlement,      153; 

Clark  at,  135. 

Kaukauna,  road,  250;  church,  255. 
Keith,  Sir  William,  governor  of 

Pennsylvania,  88. 
Kellogg,  Gen.  John  Azor,  Capture 

and  Escape,  360. 

Kellogg,  Louise  Phelps,  aid  ac- 
knowledged, viii ;  Fox  Indiana 

during  French  Regime,  98. 
Kenosha  (Southport),  Fourierism 

at,  262;  road,  251;  schools,  253; 

rivals  Milwaukee,    243;    troops 

in  war,  333. 
Kentucky   settlements,    134,  135, 

159;    restlessness  in,    148,    14»; 

migration  from,  201,  202. 
Keokuk,  Fox  chief,  220,  228. 
Kewaunee,  trading-post,  165. 
Kewaunee  County,  foreign  groups, 

293;  swept  by  fire,  389. 
Keweenaw  Point,  Radisson  at,  42; 

Menard,  45,  46. 
Kiala,  Fox  chief,  97. 
Kickapoo  Indians,    habitat,  109; 

on  Fox  River,  100. 
Kilbourn,  Byron,  pioneer,  257. 
King,  Rufus,  journalist,  257. 
King  Philip,  uprising,  113. 
Kingston  (Ont.),  location,  66, 143. 
Knights  of  Labor,  at  Milwaukee, 

401,  402. 
Knowlton,  James  H.,  counsel  for 

Bashford,  309. 
Koshkonong,  desires  capital,  241. 

LA  BARRE,  Le  FSvre  de,  governor 
of  New  France,  71,  72. 


INDEX 


449 


La  Baye.    See  Green  Bay  (town). 

Labor  troubles,  401-404. 

L'  Arbre  Croche ,  Indian  mission, 

108;  English  prisoners,  114. 
La  Chine  Rapids,  57. 
La  Crosse,    Winnebago   in,    3%; 
railroad  to,  373;    freight  ton- 
nage, 375. 

La  Crosse  and  Milwaukee  Rail- 
road Co.,  history,  302-304. 
La  Crosse  County,  in  gerryman- 
der, 411. 

Lafayette  (Ind.),  location,  113. 
Lafayette  County,  territorial  leg- 
islature in,  240;  lead,  296. 
La  Fontaine  Railroad  Co.,  chart- 
ered, 301. 

Lahontan,  Louis-Armand  de  Lorn 
d'Arce,  baron  de,  explorations, 
80-84;  account    inaccurate,  82- 
84 ;   Voyages  to  North  America, 
83,  84,  129,  156. 
Lakes: 
Champlain,  Champlain  on,  9; 

post,  144. 

Chautauqua,  portage,  6. 
Chetak,  post  on,  195. 
Court  Oreilles,  post  on,  195. 
Erie,  discovered,  9, 10;  portage 
system,  6 ;  route,  130 ;  post  on, 
81, 144;  boundary,  143. 
Flambeau,  post  on,  195. 
Four,  named,  243;  road,  245. 
Great,  territory  of,  117;  Indians 
on,  204;  French  exploitation, 
34 ;  portage  system,  5-8 ;  trade 
route,  85,  88,  89 ;  necessary  to 
French,  89,  90;    cheap  trans- 
portation,    297;    Wisconsin's 
relation  to,  371-377.    See  also 
the  several  lakes. 
Great  Slave,  146. 
Green,  wind  storm,  392. 
Huron,  boundary,  143,  147;  In- 
dians on,  76, 112 ;  Iroquois,  42 ; 
Ottawa,  50;  discovered,  9,  10, 
12 ;  mistaken  for  Michigan,  32 ; 
Jesuits  on,  20;  Nicolet,  23-25; 
Radisson,  38,  39;   Champlain, 
51;    British,  106;    route,   130; 
fort  on,  81. 
Kegonsa  (First),  named,  243. 


Koshkonong,  Indians  on,  224, 
225. 

Mendota  (Fourth),  named,  243, 
245. 

Michigan,  32,  48,  49, 107, 143,  154; 
islands,  266;  Green  Bay,  a  part 
of,  102;  portages,  6,  7,  56; 
boundary,  161,  163,  178,  183, 
186,  188,  190,  199,  201,  221,  222, 
225,  232,  233,  237,  238,  243,  254, 
270,  271;  Indians  on,  67,  114, 
194,  222,  230;  as  a  route,  108, 
116,  130,  298;  Nicolet  on,  10, 
25,  26;  Radisson,  38,  39;  Mar- 
i incite  and  Jolliet,  54,  58,  59; 
Tonty,  70;  LaSalle,  67,  68,  70- 
72;  Lahontan,  82;  St.  Cosme, 
91,  92;  fur-trade,  179;  in  Fox 
wars,  96;  British  on,  106,  107; 
settlements,  132,  133;  naviga- 
tion, 136,  185;  steamer,  215; 
ports,  274;  canals,  90,  276,  373; 
outlet  for  Wisconsin  trade, 
372-377,  423;  roads  from,  245, 
251,  274,  296,  301;  fogged  with 
smoke,  391 ;  wind  storm,  392. 

Mille  Lacs,  portages,  8. 

Monona  (Third),  named,  243. 

Nemakagon,  post  on,  195. 

Nepigon,  Duluth's  fort  on,  76. 

Nipissing,  Champlain  on,  9; 
Nicolet,  14,  23;  Recollects,  19; 
trade  route,  15. 

Ontario,  discovered,  10;  Fort 
Frontenac  on,  66;  boundary, 
143. 

Otsego,  boundary,  143. 

Penokee,  iron  deposits,  394. 

Peoria,  Illinois  Indians  on,  68 ; 
La  Salle  and  Tonty,  68. 

Pepin,  French  on,  64,  77,  95. 

Petit  Butte  des  Morts,  Foxes  at, 
93,  97. 

Pewaukee,  wind  storm,  394. 

St.  John,  explored,  9. 

Superior,  29;  boundary,  143,  272; 
Indians  on,  50,  74,  90, 134,  193; 
portage  system,  7,  8,  90,  91; 
Nicolet  on,  10,  24,  25;  Radis- 
son, 41-44,  85;  Menard,  45,  46; 
Allouez,  46-48;  Marquette,  47, 
49,50;  Jolliet,  52;  Duluth,  74; 


450 


INDEX 


fur-trade,  119,   122,  124,    140, 
146,  147;  posts,  76,  124;  trade 
route,  78,  123,  128,  423;  copper 
deposits,  11. 12,  52,  78,  86,  123, 
124,291,298,300;  Schoolcraft's 
expedition,      242;      proposed 
state,  286;    railroad   to,    302; 
fogged  with  smoke,  391. 
Tomahawk,  post  on,  195. 
Upper  St.  Croix,  Duluth  on,  74. 
Vieux  Desert,  portage,46 ;  bound- 
ary, 272. 

Waubesa  (Second),  named,  243. 
Winnebago,  island,  173 ;  Indians 

on,  194,  216;  road,  251. 
"Winnipeg,  Winnebago  from,  17; 
post  on,  76;  portage  system,  8. 
Of  the  Woods,  boundary,  143. 
Land,  systems  at  Green  Bay,  191 ; 
grants  to  canals,  377;    to  rail- 
roads, 302, 377,  379 ;  to  university, 
314-317;  settled  by  soldiers,  377, 
378. 
Langlade,  Augustin,   career,  119, 

120;  death,  133. 

Langlade,     Charles    Michel,     in 
French  and  Indian  War,  98,  99, 
105;  in  Revolution,  133-140;  bio- 
graphy, 119-121. 
Langlade  family,  at  Green  Bay, 

163. 
Lansing,    Abraham,    fur-trader, 

107. 
La  Perriere,    Pierre    Paul.    See 

Mar  in. 
La  Perriere,  Rene"    Boucher  de, 

French  commandant,  95. 
Lapham,  Increase   A.,  scientist, 

257. 

La   Pointe,    origin   of   term,  47; 
Jesuit   mission,    47,  49,  50,  52, 
255;  fur-trade,  195;  modern  vil- 
lage, 42;  agency,  231.   See  also 
Bays:  Chequamegon. 
Lares  (P.  R.),  captured  by  Wis- 
consin troops,  420. 
La  Ronde,  Louis  Denis,  sieur  de, 

on  Lake  Superior,  123, 124. 
La  Ronde,  Philippe  Denis  de,  on 

Lake  Superior,  123. 
Larrabee,  Charles  H.,  member  of 
Congress,  328. 


La  Salle,  Robert  Cavelier,  sieur 
de,  on  Kankakee  portage,  7;  on 
Mississippi,  60,  65-74,  86;  estab- 
lishes posts,  66-68,  72,  73.  127; 
fur-trade,  65;  agents  at  Green 
Bay,  103 ;  unsuccessful,  79. 

Lauson,  Jean  de,  governor  of  New 
France,  37. 

Lawe,  John,  in  War  of  1812-15, 
173, 174. 

Lawe  family,  at  Green  Bay,  163. 

Lawrence  University,  founded, 
426. 

Lead,  location  of  mines,  64,  78-80; 
in  West,  155-158;  in  Northwest, 
199-204,  208;  in  Wisconsin,  137, 
138,  183,  184,  199,  294,  297;  on 
Mississippi,  78-80;  at  Galena, 
64;  worked  by  French,  86; 
Foxes  in,  97,  98 ;  mining,  de- 
velops country,  421;  extent 
of,  422;  Wisconsin  trade  in, 
299,371-373;  Eastern  shipments, 
297;  cost  of  transportation,  298; 
railroads  important  to,  299, 
300. 

League,  French,  defined,  16. 

Lee,  Gen.  Fitzhugh,  in  Spanish- 
American  War,  419. 

Lee,  Isaac,  adjudicates  land- 
claims,  192,  193. 

Lee,  Gen.  Robert  E.,  surrenders, 
345,  365,  367. 

Legardeur.  See  St.  Pierre. 

Legler,  Henry  E.,  Moses  of  the 
Mormons,  269. 

Le  Jeune,  Paul,  Jesuit  missionary, 
22,  31,  32. 

Le  Roy,  Francis,  at  Portage,  167. 

Leslie,  Lieut.  William,  in  Pontiac 
uprising,  114 ;  at  Mackiuac,  106, 
120. 

Leslie  (Old  Belmont),  site  of  first 
capital,  240. 

Le  Sueur,  Pierre  Charles,  fur-trad- 
er, 122-124  ;  explorations,  77-80, 
86  ;  lead  mines,  78-80, 156  ;  forti- 
fies trade  route,  91. 

Lewis,  Gov.  James  T.,  announces 
close  of  war,  367. 

Lewis,  Meriwether,  exploration, 
95. 


INDEX 


451 


Lewis  and  Clark,  exploring  ex- 
pedition, 170. 

Libby,  O.  G.,  Significance  of  lead 
and  shot  trade,  297. 

Libby  Prison,  escape  from,  360. 

Libraries,  in  Wisconsin,  427,  428. 

Lignery,  Marchand  de,  expedition 
against  Foxes,  93,  96, 119. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  in  Black  Hawk 
War,  223 ;  president,  324;  inau- 
guration, 331 ;  calls  for  volun- 
teers, 322,  336,  337 ;  war  policy, 
353,354. 

Lincoln  County,  swept  by  fire,  391. 

lanctot,  Ensign  Godefroy  de,  at 
Cbequamegon,  123 ;  aids  Clark, 
135. 

Lipcap, ,  murdered,  209. 

Lisbon,  road,  252. 

Little  Chute,  New  York  Indians 
at,  215. 

Little  Crow,  Sioux  chief,  354. 

Little  Kaukauna,  early  settle- 
ment, 102. 

Lodegand,  Milwaukee  chief,  136. 

London  (Eng.),  lords  of  trade  pe- 
titioned, 88 ;  Times,  356. 

London  (Ont.),  location,  143. 

Long,  John,  fur-trader,  139,  140, 
146. 

Long  (Big)  Knives,  Indian  term 
for  Americans,  150. 

Long  Prairie  (Minn.),  Winnebago 
removed  to,  396. 

Louis  XIV  (France),  claims  West- 
ern country,  62,  86. 

Louis  XVI  (France),  death,  217. 

Louis  XVII  (France).  See  Wil- 
liams, Eleazer. 

Louis  Philippe  (France),  visits 
Eleazer  Williams,  218. 

Louisiana,  boundary,  87;  French 
control,  72,  79,  86,  87,  89,  101, 371; 
Wisconsin  a  part  of,  80;  fur- 
trade,  95;  lead-mining,  156; 
French  governors,  92;  Spanish 
control,  108,135,  136,159;  retro- 
cessions, 169, 170;  in  War  of  Se- 
cession, 330,  366. 

Louisville  (Ky.),  La  Salle  at,  65. 

Louvigny,  La  Porte  de,  expedition 
against  Foxes,  93,  94. 


Loyalists,  in  Revolution,  144. 

Ludington  (Mich.),  Marquette's 
death  at,  59. 

Lumbering,  in  Wisconsin,  281-283, 
421;  use  of  waterways,  379;  for- 
est fires,  387-391. 

Lutherans,  oppose  Bennett  Law, 
406,  407;  colleges,  426. 

Lyon,  William  P.,  supreme  court 
justice,  410. 

MCARTHUR,  Arthur,  acting  gov- 
ernor, 310-312. 

McClellan,  Gen.  George  B., 
praises  Wisconsin  troops,  348. 

McCook,  Gen.  Daniel,  praises 
Wisconsin  troops,  350. 

McDouall,  Col.  Robert,  command- 
ant at  Mackinac,  174,  180. 

Mack,  Edwin  S.,  Founding  of 
Milwaukee,  165. 

McKay, ,  fur-trader,  107. 

McKay,  Maj.  William,  in  War  of 
1812-15,  174-177. 

Mackinac,  meaning  of  term,  108; 
described,  185;  native  rendez- 
vous, 31,  50,  140;  Nicolet  at,  25, 
29;  Radisson,  39;  Jesuits,  50-54, 
59,  69,  91;  Duluth,  67,  69,  75;  La- 
hontan,  81;  La  Salle,  70,  71,  73, 
75;  expeditions  from,  62,  137, 
139, 140, 149;  garrison,  133;  com- 
mandants, 119, 125, 134,  136,  137; 
in  Fox  wars,  93,  95, 98;  fort  site, 
107,  108;  fur-trade,  130,  137, 146- 
148,  154,  372;  entrepot,  105,  184, 
195,  198;  evacuated  by  French, 
106, 120,  144;  English  at,  88,  107, 
116,  119,  121,  122,  154,  162,  168-170, 
172;  in  Pontiac uprising,  113-116, 
122;  Langlade  at,  105;  in  War  of 
1812-15,173-177;  American  occu- 
pation, 160,  161,  180;  as  coun- 
ty seat,  188, 192 ;  court,  190;  reg- 
ister of  vital  statistics,  154,  155, 
255.  See  also  Islands :  Mackinac. 

Mackinaw  City  (Mich.),  fort  near, 
108. 

Macon  (Ga.),  Confederate  prison, 
360. 

McPherson,  Gen.  James  B.,  in  At- 
lanta campaign,  364. 


452 


INDEX 


Madison,  Indians  at,  194,  225;  be- 
comes capital,  241-243;  roads  to, 
251,  296;  capitol,  244, 245, 400,  401; 
early  legislatures,  245,  259-261, 
273;  schools,  253;  constitutional 
conventions,  286,287;  early  edi- 
tors, 257,  258 ;  newspapers,  254, 
306 ;  railroads,  302;  political  ex- 
citement, 311 ;  Republican  state 
convention,  308;  in  war  time, 
337,  346;  state  university,  424, 
426  (see  also  University  of  Wis- 
consin) ;  State  Historical  So- 
ciety, 64,  329,  362 ;  semi-centen- 
nial, 417,  418. 

Madison,  James,  town  named  for, 
243. 

Madison  Guards,  tender  services, 
332,  333. 

Maine,  Champlain  in,  2;  bound- 
ary, 143. 

Maiden  (Ont.),  British  agent  at, 
221. 

Mandan  Indians,  trade,  170. 

Manitowoc,  trading-post,  165, 195. 

Manitowoc  County,  foreign 
groups,  293;  Democratic  seat, 
412;  swept  by  fire,  389. 

Manufacturing,  in  Wisconsin, 
373,  376-378,  422. 

Marathon  County,  in  Carver's 
claim,  128  ;  swept  by  fire,  390. 

Marietta  (Ohio),  settled,  154. 

Marin,  Sieur  (Pierre  Paul  la  Per- 
riere),  commandant  at  Green 
Bay,  96,  99;  builds  Sioux  post, 
124. 

Marquette,  Jacques,  at  Chequa- 
inegon  Bay,  47,  49,  50,  62;  at 
Mackinac,  52-54, 107;  Mississippi 
River  expedition,  40,  52-57,  62, 
66,  68,  71,  77,  86;  second  jour- 
ney and  death,  58,  59 ;  narrative, 
57, 58, 155 ;  value  of  discovery,  59- 
61. 

Marquette  University,  founded, 
427;  Marquette's  relics,  59. 

Marshfleld,  injured  by  fire,  389. 

Martin,  Deborah  Beaumont,  aid 
acknowledged,  viii;  Historic 
Green  Bay,  viii,  169. 

Martin,    Morgan    L.,    territorial 


delegate,  286;  contractor,  278; 
prominence,  257;  Narrative,  203. 

Martin,  Sarah  Greene,  Historic 
Green  Bay,  viii,  169. 

Maryland,  border  settlements, 
118 ;  secession  legislature,  343. 

Mascoutin  Indians,  at  Milwaukee, 
92;  on  Fox  River,  100. 

Mason,  Stevens  T.,  governor  of 
Michigan,  238,  241. 

Mason,  Vroman,  Fugitive  slave 
law,  325. 

Mason,  destroyed  by  fire,  390. 

Mason  and  Dixon's  line,  329. 

Massachusetts,  cedes  Northwest, 
151. 

Mathurin,  Pierre,  Sieur  Millon, 
French  officer,  98. 

Maxwell,  Col  James,  pioneer,  259. 

Medford,  injured  by  fire,  389, 390. 

Menard,  Rene,  Jesuit  missionary, 
45,46. 

Mendota,  state  insane  hospital, 
428. 

Menominee  Indians,  109 ;  habitat, 
104,  194,  214;  intertribal  wars, 
204 ;  Nicolet  with,  27,  28 ;  trust- 
worthy, 114-116;  pillage  Green 
Bay,  101;  in  Revolution,  134, 
137;  War  of  1812-15,  174;  treaty, 
230,  231;  council,  211;  oppose 
Sauk,  226;  cede  lands,  215,  216; 
agent,  164. 

Menomonie,  sawmill,  282. 

Merrill,  Menard  near,  46. 

Mesaba,  iron  range,  395. 

Methode, ,  murdered  by  Win- 

nebago,  207,  213. 

Methodists,  in  Wisconsin,  255, 
426. 

Metropotamia,  proposed  state, 
152. 

Mexico,  raids  from,  341,  368. 

Meyer,  B.  H.,  History  of  Early 
railway  legislation,  301. 

Miami  Indians,  in  English  inter- 
est, 119. 

Michigan,  Foxes  in,  90,  92,  93,  96; 
French  settlements,  153;  terri- 
tory embraces  Wisconsin,  188, 
232-235,  250, 279;  becomes  a  state, 
235,  237,  240;  secretary,  237; 


INDEX 


463 


boundaries,  27, 143,  270-274;  rail- 
road projects,  299;  land  grants, 
315;  land  claims,  192;  code,  169; 
judge,  140;  militia,  225;  debts, 
290;  Republican  party  organized, 
308;  iron,  394;  forest  flres,  391. 

Michigan  and  Rock  River  Rail- 
road Co.,  301. 

Micbigania,   proposed  state,  152. 

Micbillimackinac  County  (Mich.), 
organized,  188. 

Miles,  Gen.  N.  A.,  in  Spanish- 
American  War,  419. 

Miller,  A.  G.,  federal  judge,  321. 

Miller,  Col.  John,  builds  Fort 
Howard,  180, 181. 

Milton  College,  established,  426. 

Milwaukee,  Indian  rendezvous, 
194;  Saint-Cosme  at,  92;  trading 
post,  195;  early  history,  165;  in 
Revolution,  135, 136, 138;  War  of 
1812-15, 173;  desires  capital,  241, 
242,400;  roads,  250-252,  296,  319, 
320;  settlers,  257,  264;  land 
office,  231;  schools,  253;  canals, 
276;  churches,  255;  banking,  241, 
283-285,  338;  first  railroad,  300, 
301;  early  trade  development, 
373-377,  379;  entrepot,  245,  247, 
258,  297,  298;  anti-slavery  senti- 
ment, 320,  321 ;  newspapers,  254, 
296,  297;  foreigners,  294;  in  War 
of  Secession,  333,  334,  338,  339, 
342,  346,  354, 418,  420;  Democratic 
convention,  353;  anti'-Hennett 
agitation,  406-408;  labor  trou- 
bles, 401-403;  wind  storm,  394; 
aid  for  Rhinelander,  391 ;  schools 
and  colleges,  59, 424,  426,  427;  in- 
stitutions, 428,  429 ;  semi-centen- 
nial, 418 ;  Advertiser,  254  ;  Senti- 
nel,  296. 

Milwaukee  and  Mississippi  Rail- 
road Co.,  301. 

Milwaukee  and  Rock  River  Canal 
Co.,  276,  277,  281. 

Milwaukee  and  Watertown  Rail- 
road Co.,  bond  issue,  380, 381. 
Milwaukee  and  Waukesha  Rail- 
road Co.,  chartered,  301. 
Milwaukee  County,  unorganized, 
237;  foreigners,  293. 


Mineral  Point,  settled,  234; 
schools,  253;  desires  capital, 
241:  bank,  241,  283;  land  office, 
231 ;  newspaper,  254;  wind  storm, 
293;  importance,  239,  242. 

Miners'  Free  Press,  254. 

Minneapolis  (Minn.),  location,  69, 
127,  128,  275;  aids  cyclone  vic- 
tims, 394. 

Minnesota,  Indians,  204,  354,  3%, 
398 ;  French  in,  64, 69,  95 ;  Carver, 
127,  128;  boundaiies,  275;  iron 
mines,  395;  railroad  develop- 
ment, 379 ;  forest  fires,  391 ;  aids 
cyclone  victims,  394. 

Mirandeau,  Jean,  fur-trader,  165. 

Missions.  See  Catholics,  Jesuits, 
and  the  several  localities. 

Mississippi,  in  War  of  Secession, 
329,  333,  358. 

Mississippi  Land  Co.,  buys  Carv- 
er's claim,  129. 

Missouri,  lead  mines,  155-158, 199- 
202,  Indian  cessions,  182  ;  bound- 
ary, 233,  235;  migration  from, 
202,  248;  governor,  172;  in  War 
of  Secession,  365. 

Mitchell,  Alexander,  banker,  257, 
284,285. 

Mobile  (Ala.),  captured  by  Span- 
ish, 137. 

Monks'  Hall,  described,  307. 

Montmagny,  Charles  Hualt  de, 
governor  of  New  France,  34. 

Montreal,  discovered,  2;  rapids, 
57;  Lahoutan  at,  82;  Marquette's 
map,  54;  in  Fox  wars,  93,  97; 
fur-trade,  43,  46,  67,  107,  146, 
169,170,  371,372;  military  base, 
89,  116;  fall  of,  99,  105,  120,  121, 
146. 

Mooney,  James,  cited,  398. 

Moore,  Col.  M.  T.,  in  Spanish- 
American  War,  418. 

Moran,  Edmond,  fur-trader,  116. 

Morgan,  Lieut.  Charles  H.,  recap- 
tured, 360. 

Mormons,  in  Wisconsin.  264-266. 

Morong, ,  fur-trader,  136, 165. 

Morrill  grant,  to  education,  425. 

Morris,  Gouverneur,  in  London, 
158. 


454 


INDEX 


Morse,  Dr.  Jedidiab,  in  Wiscon- 
sin, 214,  255. 

Mouet,  Didace,  fur-trader,  119. 
Mound  City  (Ark.),  Harvey  at,  344. 
Mount  Calvary,  college,  427. 
Mountains : 

Appalachian,  305;  passes,  117;  as 
a  boundary,  86,  88,  89,  113,  133, 
142;  English  explorations,  4, 
60. 

Black  Hills,  127;  silver  in,  300. 
Canadian  Rockies,  drainage  sys- 
tem, 8. 
Rocky,  precious  metals  in,  300, 

394. 

Mukwonago,  community  at,  264. 
Munsee  Indians,  migrate  to  Wis- 
consin, 213,  216. 
Muscoda,  Indian  town,  126. 

NASHVILLE  (Tenn.),  navy  opera- 
tions, 364. 

Natchez  (Miss.),  captured  by 
Spanish,  136. 

Nattestad,  Ole,  Norwegian  pio- 
neer, 293. 

Naundorff,  ,  royal  claimant, 

218. 

Nauvoo  (111.),  Mormons  at,  264, 
265. 

Nebraska,  Winnebago  in,  398; 
slavery  bill,  321. 

Nelson,  Serg.  William,  bravery, 
350. 

Neville,  Ella  Hoes,  Historic  Green 
Bay,  viii,  169. 

New  Brunswick,  Champlain  in,  2 ; 
Recollects,  19. 

New  England,  pioneers,  1;  Iro- 
quois  in,  10;  population,  86;  mi- 
gration from,  v,203,  246,  247, 340, 
372. 

New  England  Indians.  See  Stock- 
bridge  and  Brothertown. 

New  France.  See  French. 

New  London,  Jesuit  mission  near, 
48. 

New  Madrid  (Mo.),  battle  near, 
346 

New  Mexico,  slavery  to  be  pro- 
hibited, 317,  318. 

New  Orleans,  route  to  Quebec,  87, 


89;  trade  centre,  131, 157,295, 297- 
299;  in  Revolution,  137  ;  com- 
mercial relations  with  Wiscon- 
sin, 371-374. 

New  Richmond,  wind  storm,  393. 

New  York,  Iroquois  in,  9 ;  Nicolet, 
14;  boundary  claims,  88;  popu- 
lation, 86;  posts,  144;  market  for 
West,  298;  migration  from,  v, 
203,  246,  247,  340;  represented  in 
lead  mines,  372;  Tribune,  262, 
334,  374. 

New  York  Indians.  See  Stock- 
bridge,  Brothertown,  Munsee, 
and  Oneida. 

New  York  Land  Co.,  acquires  In- 
dian title,  215. 

Newfoundland,  settled,  1 ;  French 
claim,  15 ;  Lahontan  in,  83. 

Newspapers,  early,  253, 254. 

Niagara,  La  Salle  and  Tonty  at,  67 ; 
Duluth,  69;  Carver,  125;  route, 
130;  fur-trade  transfer,  144. 

Nicolet,  Jean,  training,  13-15,19; 
at  Three  Rivers,  21,  22;  en  route 
to  Wisconsin,  22-28, 34,  35,  39, 40, 
51,  54  ;  in  Wisconsin,  27-32,  47, 
62,  85,  155,  212,  288,  371  ;  returns 
home,  32,  33;  daughter,  123. 

Nineteenth  Indiana,  in  Iron  Bri- 
gade, 348. 

Nineteenth  Wisconsin  Infantry,  at 
Fair  Oaks,  363. 

Ninth  Wisconsin  Infantry,  Ger- 
mans in,  340  ;  colonel,  357. 

Nipissing  Indians,  Nicolet  with, 
15,  24. 

Noonan,  Josiah  A.,  journalist,  258. 

Normandy,  Charles-Louis  de  Bour- 
bon, duke  of,  218. 

Normandy,  Nicolet  from,  13. 

Normans,  in  Newfoundland,  1. 
See  also  French. 

Norrie  iron  mine,  394,  395. 

North  Prairie,  settlement,  263. 

North  West  Co.,  131;  organized, 
147;  posts,  163, 165,  169 ;  methods, 
182;  agents,  167,  173;  extent  of 
operations,  170;  rivalry,  168, 170. 

Northern  Islander,  267. 

Northwest  (Far),  Wisconsin 
troops  in,  368. 


INDEX 


455 


Northwest  Passage,  sought  by 
navigators,  4,  17,  94,  95, 125. 

Northwest  Territory  (Old  North- 
west), Indians  of,  63,  G4;  Nicolet 
in,  24;  fur-trade,  77-80,  130,  146, 
147;  boundaries,  270-275;  British 
control,  76,  111,  117;  Eastern 
claims  surrendered,  151 ;  organ- 
ized, 152-155;  population,  vi, 
153;  Indian  troubles,  159,  160; 
division  into  states,  187,  188, 
315. 

Northwestern  University,  found- 
ed, 426. 

Norwegians,  in  Wisconsin,  vi,  292, 
293,  340;  in  Wisconsin  troops, 
340;  frightened  by  Indians,  393. 

Nouvel,  Henri,  Jesuit  missionary, 
49. 

Nova  Scotia,  settled  by  French,  2; 
Recollects  in,  19. 

Nullification  sentiment,  in  Wis- 
consin, 274-276,  322-325,  327. 

OCEANS  : 

Arctic,  trade  route  to,  8. 

Pacific,  affluents,  128;  boundary, 
147, 151,  152,  254;  early  sought, 
4,    10;  trade   route  to,  8,  76; 
reached  by  Americans,  170. 
Oconto,  wind  storm,  393. 
Oconto  County,  swept  by  fire,  388, 

389,  391. 
Ohio,  boundaries,  240,  270,  271 ;  as 

a  territory,  151 ;  migration  from, 

247. 

Old  Abe,  war  eagle,  361. 
Old   Northwest.    See   Northwest 

Territory. 
Omaha    Indians,     leagued    with 

Foxes,  94;  fur-trade,  170. 
Oneida  County,  swept  by  tire,  391. 
Oneida  Indians,  habitat,  213,216; 

migrate  to  Wisconsin,  216;  mis- 
sionary, 214,  217;  agency,  231; 

cede  land,  215. 
Ontario,  boundary,  143. 
Ordinance,  of  1784,  156;  of  1787, 

151-153,  240,  270. 

Oregon,  movement  towards,  298. 
Oregon  (Wis.),  wind  storm,  393. 
Orton,  Harlow  S.,  counsel  for  Bar- 


stow,  309;  supreme  court  just- 
ice, 411. 

Oshkosh,  trading-post,  195;  In- 
jured by  fire,  388,  389;  labor 
troubles,  403,  404;  desires  capi- 
tal, 400;  normal  school,  424;  in- 
sane hospital,  428. 

Oswegatchie  (N.  Y.),  fort  retained 
by  British,  144. 

Oswego  (N.  Y.),  fort  retained  by 
British,  144. 

Ottawa  (Outawa)  Indians,  habitat, 
112;  warlike,  222;  intertribal 
wars,  204;  Radisson  with,  41-43; 
Menard,  45,  46;  Lahontan,  82; 
mission  to,  108 ;  trade  with  Mon- 
treal, 67;  driven  from  La  Pointe, 
60;  at  Mackinac,  119;  attacked 
by  Foxes,  91 ;  friendly  to  British, 
88,  114-116;  in  Revolution,  138; 
treaty  with,  183,  184,  199,  220, 
230. 

Ouisconsin,  French  name  for  Wis- 
consin, 233. 

Owen,  Robert,  social  reformer, 
263,264. 

Ozaukee  County,  draft  riots,  354. 

PABLO  BEACH  (Fla.),  camp  at, 
419. 

Paducah  (Ky.),  Harvey  at,  344. 

Paine,  Byron,  counsel  for  Booth, 
324;  supreme  court  justice,  324, 
325. 

Paquette,  Pierre,  at  Portage,  167. 

Parkraan,  Francis,  Jesuits  in 
Iforth  America,  21. 

Parkman  Club,  Papers,  219,  269. 

Patrons  of  Husbandry.  See 
Grangers. 

Pawnee  Indians,  slaves,  109. 

Pearson,  Philippe,  Jesuit  mission- 
ary, 54,  56. 

Peck,  Eben,  first  settler  of  Madi- 
son, 244,  260. 

Peck,  George  W.,  elected  gov- 
ernor, 409;  calls  extra  session, 
412. 

Peck,  Roseline,  Madison  pioneer, 
244. 

Peckatouica  and  Mississippi  Rail- 
road Co.,  chartered,  301. 


456 


INDEX 


Pedrick,  S.  M.,  Wisconsin  Pha- 
lanx, 263. 

Pemberton,  Gen.  John  C.,  surren- 
ders, 357. 

Peninsula  campaign,  347,  348. 

Pennesha(Pinnashon,Pinnisance), 
,  at  Portage,  126,  131, 166. 

Pennsylvania,  Iroquois  in,  9 ;  por- 
tages, 6;  migration  from,  246; 
border  settlements,  118 ;  troops 
sent  to,  334. 

Pensacola  (Fla.),  captured  by 
Spanish,  137. 

Pensaukee,  wind  storm,  393. 

Peoria(Ill.),  Indians  near,  59 ;  fort, 
176;  settlement,  153. 

Pepin  County,  in  Carver's  claim, 
128. 

Perkins,  Lieut.  Joseph,  builds 
fort,  172;  besieged,  174-177. 

Perrot,  Nicolas,  characterized,  64 ; 
interpreter,  63 ;  commandant  of 
West,  63;  fur-trader,  63-66;  forts, 
64, 127;  explores  Mississippi,  86; 
proces  verbal,  77;  at  De  Pere, 
103;  in  Fox  wars,  91;  finds  lead, 
156;  ostensorium,  64. 

Perrysburg  (Ohio),  site,  159. 

Peru,  desires  capital,  241. 

Peshtigo,  harbor,  143;  fire  at,  389. 

Phelan,  Raymond  V.,  Financial 
History  of  Wisconsin,  277. 

Pickawillany,  in  French  and  In- 
dian War,  99:  defeat  at,  119. 

Pierce  County,  in  Carver's  claim, 
128 ;  foreign  groups,  293. 

Pinnisance  (Pinnashon).  See  Pen- 
nesha. 

Pio  Nono  College,  founded,  427. 

Pittsburgh  (Pa.),  port,  295. 

Plaisance  (N.  F.),  British  attack, 
83. 

Platte  Mounds,  road  via,  250. 

Platteville,  desires  capital,  241; 
schools,  253 ;  normal  school,  424. 

Point  Detour  (Mich.),  bluffs,  54; 
Nicolet  at,  26,  27. 

Point  Ignace  (Mich.),  Jesuit  mis- 
sion at,  53;  fort,  108. 

Pointe  au  Fer  (N.  Y.),  fort,  144. 

Poles,  in  Wisconsin,  vi.  292,  293; 
in  labor  troubles,  402, 403. 


Polk,  Pres.  James  K.,  appoint- 
ments, 285 ;  admits  Wisconsin, 
286,  287,  417. 

Polk  County,  in  Carver's  claim, 
128;  swept  by  fire,  390;  wind 
storm,  393,  394. 

Ponce  (P.  R.),  captured,  419. 

Pond,  Peter,  trader,  146;  at  Prai- 
rie du  Chien,  127;  in  Wisconsin, 
129-132, 166;  Journal,  128. 

Pontiac,  Ottawa  chief,  112,  115, 
117,  121,  149;  extent  of  con- 
spiracy, 113;  at  Mackinac,  114- 
116,  120;  in  Wisconsin,  111-116; 
influence  on  fur-trade,  118 ;  im- 
portance, 133,  134. 

Pope,  Gen.  John,  praises  Wis- 
consin troops,  348. 

Population,  of  English  colonies, 
12,  13;  New  France,  12,  13; 
Northwest  Territory,  vi,  153; 
Wisconsin  in  1860,  326;  in  1870, 
340;  rapid  growth,  339. 

Pork,  Eastern  shipments,  297. 

Porlier,  Jacques,  tutor,  186;  jus- 
tice, 189;  fur-trader,  195;  at 
Portage,  167. 

Porlier  family,  at  Green  Bay,  163. 

Port  Gibson  (Miss.),  Wisconsin 
troops  at,  356. 

Port  Hudson  (La.),  surrenders, 
357. 

Port  Royal  (N.  S.),  settled,  2 ;  Jesu- 
its at,  18. 

Port  Washington,  draft  riots,  354; 
wind  storm,  394. 

Portage,  location,  279;  portage,  7; 
canal,  278;  trading  post,  195; 
fort,  213,  281 ;  early  history,  166, 
167;  desires  capital,  241;  schools, 
253;  railroads,  302.  See  also  Ca- 
nals :  Fox- Wisconsin,  Portages  • 
Fox- Wisconsin,  and  Rivers  : 
Fox  and  Wisconsin. 

Portage  County,  foreign  groups, 
293. 

Portages  •  Historical  importance, 
4,  5;  in  Northwest,  50, 152. 
Bois  Brule-St.  Croix,  74,  78,  124. 
Chicago,  56,  58,  59,  82,  92. 
Fox-Wisconsin,  31,  32,  56,  62,  69, 
75,  77,  81,  85,  89,  91,  126,  127, 


INDEX 


457 


131,  166,  167,  172-174,  211,  233, 
278. 

Keweenaw-Wisconsin,  46. 
Lake   Superior-Mississippi,  90, 

122. 

Lake  Michigan-Mississippi,  26. 
Lake  Michigan-Illinois,  56,  90. 
Lower  Lakes-Ohio,  90. 
Niagara,  67. 

St.  Lawrence-Mississippi,  4-8. 
Sturgeon   Bay-Lake  Michigan, 
56. 

Porter,  Admiral  David  D.,  praises 
Wisconsin  officer,  362. 

Porto  Rico,  Wisconsin  troops  in, 
419,  420. 

Portuguese,  in  Newfoundland,  1. 

Post  of  the  Western  Sea,  estab- 
lished by  French,  76, 124. 

Postlethwaite,  Samuel,  in  fur- 
trade,  115. 

Potawatomi  Indians,  habitat,  194; 
wigwams,  109;  intertribal  wars, 
204;  desire  war,  222,  224;  Nicolet 
with,  27,28;  Radisson,  39;  Saint- 
Cosme,  92 ;  in  Revolution,  135- 
141 ;  in  Tecumseh's  uprising,  171 ; 
treaty  with,  183, 184, 199,  220,  230 ; 
removal,  397. 

Potter,  John  F.  (Bowie  Knife), 
member  of  Congress,  328;  con- 
troversy with  Pryor,  329,  330. 

Potter,  R.  L.  D.,  introduces  Potter 
Law,  383. 

Potter  Law,  forrailway  regulation, 
383-385,  415. 

Prairie  du  Chien,  location,  55,  56; 
mines  near,  157,  201 ;  routes,  185, 
257 ;  early  native  mart,  12 ;  in  fur- 
trade,  195,  279,  372;  traders,  193, 
194 ;  forts,  64,182, 205, 281 ;  Carver 
at,  126, 127;  Pond  describes,  131; 
early  settlers,  135,  152;  arriv- 
al of  Americans,  v,  164;  Ameri- 
can garrison,  184,223;  treaties, 
157,  204,205,  230;  Indian  agency, 
200,  207;  in  Revolution,  137-140; 
War  of  1812-15,  172-178;  Winne- 
bago  wars,  205-213;  Black  Hawk 
War,  226-228;  land  claims,  191- 
194,  232;  county  seat,  188;  bank, 
283;  courts,  242;  railroads,  300, 


301,  373;  schools,  253;  freight 
tonnage,  375;  prominent  men, 
257-259;  soldiers' hospital,  346. 

Prairie  du  Sac,  mine  near,  157 ;  bat- 
tle near,  225. 

Presbyterians,  Winnebago  mis- 
sion, 215, 396;  in  Wisconsin,  255 ; 
colleges,  426. 

Price  County,  in  Carver's  claim, 
128;  swept  by  fire,  389,  390. 

Primary  election,  416. 

Prince  Society,  Champiain's 
Voyages,  11;  Radisson' s  Jour- 
nal, 39. 

Princeton,  wind  storm,  392. 

Proclamation  of  1763,  117,  118. 

Prohibition,  agitation  for,  404, 405. 

Prophet's  Town,  Indian  village, 
222. 

Pryor,  Roger  A.,  controversy 
with  Potter,  328,  329. 

Puant  Indians  (Winnebago),  ori- 
gin of  term,  18. 

Public  improvements,  in  1860,326. 

Public  utilities,  state  regulation 
of,  387. 

Pullman,  Capt.  James,  in  War  of 
1812-15,  173, 174. 

QUANTRELL,  William  C.,  guerrilla 
warfare,  366. 

Quebec,  founded,  1-3,  5, 10;  seat 
of  French  government,  63,  65; 
interest  in  exploration,  34; 
founds  Three  Rivers,  20-22; 
routes  to,  87,  89 ;  Champlain  at, 
11;  Nicolet,  29,  34;  Radisson, 
37,  39,  41;  La  Salle,  72,  73; 
Jesuits,  49,  50,  52 ;  fur-trade,  16, 
68,  371;  siege,  119,  126;  fall,  99, 
105 ;  surrendered  to  English,  12, 
15, 19 ;  province  organized,  117. 

Quebec  Act,  132, 189. 

RACINE,  roads,  25,  296;  lake  port, 
296,  298;  desires  capital,  241; 
Glover  case,  319-321;  military 
camp,  337 ;  wind  storm,  393. 

Racine  County,  settled,  264;  for- 
eigners, 293,294. 

Radisson,  Pierre  Esprit,  sieur  de, 
explorations  in  Wisconsin,  37- 


458 


INDEX 


45,  47,  51,  54,  59,  60,  62,  63,  77,  85, 
155;  journals,  38-40. 

Railroads,  in  early  Wisconsin, 
299-304,  372-376,  378,  379;  chart- 
ers granted,  300-304;  compete 
•with  waterways,  430 ;  farm  mort- 
gages, 379-381 ;  land  grants,  302, 
377;  revival  of  construction,  386; 
anti-pass  agitation,  414-416; 
state  regulation,  381-386. 

Raleigh  (N.  C.),  surrendered,  365. 

Randall,  Alexander  W.,  counsel 
for  Bashford,  309;  war  gov- 
ernor, 326,  330-337;  on  import- 
ance of  Mississippi,  375,  376; 
ability,  335,  343,  344. 

Randall,  Henry  S.,  Life  of  Jeffer- 
son, 152. 

Reaume,  Charles,  magistrate,  163, 
164,  189. 

Recollects,  Franciscan  mission- 
aries, 18,  19,  68. 

Red  Banks,  Nicolet  at,  28-31. 

Red  Bird,  Winnebago  chief,  207- 
213. 

Red  Jacket,  Seneca  chief,  113. 

Referendum,  in  Wisconsin,  404. 

Renault,  Philippe  Fra^ois  de, 
miner,  156. 

Republicans,  birth  of  party,  308 ; 
support  Bashford,  312;  elect 
Lincoln,  329 ;  in  war  time,  330, 
332 ;  in  Taylor's  administration, 
383;  Bennett  Law  agitation,  408, 
409;  oppose  gerrymander,  411- 
413. 

Kemie  Historique  de  la  Question 
Louis  X  VII,  218. 

Reynolds,  Gov.  John,  in  Black 
Hawk  War,  221. 

Rhinelander,  threatened  by  fire, 
391. 

Rice  (wild),  Indian  food,  196. 

Richelieu,  Cardinal,  controls 
France,  15, 19. 

Richmond  (Va.),  prison,  360;  cam- 
paign, 363,  365. 

Rigaud,  Fran9oisde,  leases  Green 
Bay,  99,  100. 

Ripon,early  settlement,  262 ;  birth- 
place of  Republican  party,  308. 

Ripon  College,  founded,  426. 


River  Falls,  normal  school,  424. 
Rivers : 

Allegheny,  portages,  6. 

Arkansas,  Marquette  and  Jolliet 
at,  55, 56. 

Assiniboin,  portage,  8. 

Bad,  trade  route,  193. 

Bad  Axe,  in  Winnebago  War, 
209,  210;  Black  Hawk  at,  226. 

Beaver,  portage,  6. 

Black,  falls,  194;  as  boundary, 
194;  Indians  on,  42,  45,46,207, 
396;  copper,  124;  road,  251; 
lumbering,  281. 

Blue,  Le  Sueur  on,  79. 

Bois  Brule,  trade  route,  8,  74, 
78,  91,  124, 193;  Duluth  on,  74. 

Calumet,  portage,  56. 

Chicago,  portage,  26,  66,  58,  59, 
82,  92. 

Chippewa,  Indians  on,  42,  43; 
Carver,  128;  road,  251;  lum- 
bering, 281,  282. 

Columbia,  named,  128;  trade 
route,  170;  post,  170,  171;  rail- 
road from  Wisconsin,  300. 

Connecticut,  boundary,  143. 

Cuyahoga,  portage,  6. 

Des  Plaines,  portage,  7. 

Eau  Plaine,  Winnebago  on,  397. 

Fever,  mining  on,  158. 

Flambeau,  wind  storm,  393. 

Fox  (111.),  boundary,  182. 

Fox(Wis-),  mouth,  169;  rapids, 
47,  102,  103;  portages,  62,  75, 
77  (see  also  Portages:  Fox- 
Wisconsin)  ;  tributary,  48 ; 
boundary,  231, 241,  251;  named, 
90;  Indians  on,  17,  31,  32,  90-93, 
96,98,99,194,  214-216;  Nicolet 
on,  27,  31-35;  Radisson,  40,  41; 
Jesuits,  47,  48,  51 ;  Marquette 
and  Jolliet,  54-56;  Duluth,  69; 
Lahontan.  81,  82;  Carver,  126; 
trade  route,  7,  26,  62,  89,  127, 
137,  294;  French  on,  85,  94  (see 
also  French);  British,  107-116 
(see  also  British) ;  Fort  How- 
ard, 181;  in  Winnebago  War, 
217;  road  near,  250;  in  lead 
trade,  373;  canal,  274,  278;  ini- 
provement,278, 279,373;  treaty, 


INDEX 


459 


230;  early  settlers,  102,  103, 
120,  130,  163,  164,  218. 

French,  Champlain  on,  9;  Nico- 
let,  23,  24;  trade  route,  15, 
116. 

Hudson,  discovered,  4. 

Illinois,  mouth,  69;  portages,  6, 
7,  68,  70,  71,  90;  Indians,  71; 
boundary,  182 ;  Marquette  on, 
56,58,59;  trade  route.  71,  138, 
140,  296,  298;  war  on,  176;  Fort 
St.  Louis,  70. 

Iron,  copper  on,  124. 

James,  headsprings  of,  4. 

Kankakee,  portage,  6,  7,  68,  70, 
71. 

Long,  Lahontan's  alleged  voy- 
age, 82,  84. 

Mattawan,  discovered,  9;  Nico- 
let  on,  23;  trade  route,  15. 

Maumee,  portage,  6;  fort,  159. 

Menominee,  boundary,  272;  In- 
dians on,  27,  28;  post,  195. 

Milwaukee,  trader  on,  165,  ca- 
nalized, 277,  373. 

Minnesota,  tributaries,  79. 

Mississippi,  48 ;  source,  143,  242 ; 
islands,  78,  346;  portage  sys- 
tem, 5-9,  26,  91,  102,  172,  371; 
affluent,  82;  floods,  430;  lower 
reaches  unhealthy,  71 ;  import- 
ance to  Wisconsin  geography, 
371;  boundary,  138,  143,  148, 
151,  154-158,  178,  183,  184,  186, 
190,  207,  227,  230,  232,  235,  243, 
250,  270,  275;  Indians  on,  9,  31, 
43,  77, 93,  194,  204,  207,  219,  220, 
396;  early  knowledge  of,  10, 18, 
49-52;  De  So  to  on,  59,  60;  pos- 
sibly seen  by  Radisson,  40,  59, 
60;  Marquette  and  Jolliet  on, 
62-57,  59-61;  other  French 
explorers,  60,  63-€6,  68,  71,  72, 
78,  79,  82,  85.  86,  89;  import- 
ance to  French, 89-91 ;  French 
settlements,108, 119 ;  fur-trade, 
78-80, 130, 131, 170;  trade  route, 
89, 125,  149, 171,  201,  248;  trans- 
portation, 297-299,  423;  navi- 
gation, 159,  160,  184,  200,  203, 
208,  291,  295,  296;  in  Revolu- 
tion, 135,  137-139;  Spanish 


claims,  142;  war  on,  172,  176, 
177,209,  210,  226;  military  im- 
portance, 373-376;  canals  to, 
275;  railroad,  299,  301;  influ- 
ence on  Wisconsin  trade,  371- 
376. 

Missouri,  Indians  on,  131,  204; 
early  explorations,  95;  Lewis 
and  Clark,  170;  boundary,  235. 

Mohawk,  fur-trade  on,  371. 

Montreal,  trade  route,  193; 
boundary,  272. 

Muskingum,  portage,  6. 

Oconto,  post  on,  195. 

Ohio,  portages,  6;  Iroquois  on, 
10;  La  Sal le  on,  65;  Marin,  99; 
trade  route,  6, 75;  English  on, 
88,  111 ;  boundary,  117,  134, 146, 
148,  150,  151,  159,  270;  settle- 
ments, 153;  migration  route, 
246,248;  posts,  295. 

Ontonagon,  trade  route,  193; 
copper  on,  134. 

Oregon.  See  Columbia. 

Ottawa,  difficulties  of  naviga- 
tion, 34,  35;  Indians  on,  13, 14; 
French  explorers,  9, 22,  23,  39, 
45,  57,  82,  85;  trade  route,  15, 
116,  371. 

Peckatonica,  battle,  224. 

Pensaukee,  sawmill,  281. 

Peshtigo,  post  on,  195. 

Pigeon,  portage,  8;  posts,  76, 146. 

Plum,  fort  on,  224. 

Potomac,  headsprings  of,  4. 

Red,  naval  expedition,  361-363. 

Red  Cedar,  falls,  194;  lumber- 
ing, 281. 

Rio  Grande,  boundary,  368;  pa- 
trolled, 341. 

Roanoke,  headsprings  of,  4. 

Rock,  Indians  on,  98,  194,  219, 
222-225,  228;  French,  105,  106; 
boundary,  220,  230;  proposed 
canals,  274,  276,  373 ;  transpor- 
tation, 296. 

Root,  railroad  to,  301. 

St.  Croix,  Mississippi  tributary, 
78;  source,  74;  falls,  194;  Bois 
Brule  portage,  74,  78,  124;  In- 
dians on,  42;  Carver,  128; 
trade  route,  8,  91,  124;  rail- 


460 


INDEX 


roads,  302;  lumbering,  281; 
boundary,  275,  355. 

St.  Josephs,  portage,  6,  7;  trade 
route,  26;  French  occupation, 
68,  70. 

St.  Lawrence,  drainage  system, 
5-8 ;  portages,  4-8 ;  Indians  on, 
13,  90,  95, 101 ;  French  on,  2, 20, 
21,  78;  fur- trade,  10,  36,  37,  41, 
43,  45,  58, 66,  75 ;  English  with- 
drawal, 82 ;  lands,  191 ;  bound- 
ary, 143. 

St.  Louis,  trade  route,  8. 

St.  Mary's,  boundary,  234,  270, 
271;  Nicoleton,24,25;  fort,  180. 

St.  Maurice,  French  outpost  on, 
20. 

St.  Peter's,  Pond  on,  131. 

Saguenay,  explored,  9;  Recol- 
lects on,  19. 

Saskatchewan,  portage,  8 ; 
French  posts  on,  76,  124;  fur- 
trade,  146,  170. 

Scioto,  portage,  6. 

Tennessee,  Harvey  drowned  in, 
344. 

Trinity,  La  Salle  on,  73. 

Turkey,  capture  of  keel-boat, 
137. 

Wabash,  portage,  6;  French 
settlements,  108;  forts,  134; 
boundary,  138. 

White,  colony,  265. 

White  Earth,  boundary,  233,  235. 

Wisconsin,  source,  272;  mouth, 
79,  127;  portages,  62,  75,  77,  81, 
85,89;  dalles,  227;  watershed, 
296;  Indians  on,  17,  91,  98,  99, 
194,  211,  396;  Marquette  and 
Jolliet,55,56;  M^nard,  46;  Du- 
luth,  69,  75,  76;  Lahontan.  81; 
trade  route,  7,  26,  62,  75,  76, 
294;  mining,  157,184,373;  lum- 
bering, 281;  road,  251;  battle 
on, 225-227;  improvement,  278, 
279,  373;  boundary,  87, 182,  230, 
231,  234,  241, 251. 

Wolf,  Jesuit  mission  on,  48 ; 
post,  195;  land  cession,  230; 
lumbering,  281. 

Yellow,  hunting  on,  207;  Winne- 
bago  mission,  396. 


Roads,  in  Wisconsin,  250-252, 297; 

Wilderness,  246. 
Robertson,    Samuel,   voyage    on 

Lake  Michigan,  135,  136,  165. 
Rock  County,  legislative  member, 

259 ;  circuit  court,  410. 
Rock  Island  (111.),  rapids  at,  175; 

fort,  176;  treaty,  230. 
Rock  River  Valley  Union  Railroad 

Co.,  corrupt  legislature,  307. 
Rockford  (111.),  location,  271. 
Rogers,    Maj.    Robert,    chief    of 

rangers,  106,  119,  125. 
Rolette,  Joseph,  fur-trader,  195; 

at  Portage,  167;  in  War  of  1812- 

15,  172,  174,  177,  182. 
Root   River    Railroad    Co.,   pro- 
posed, 301. 
Rose,   Col.   Thomas  E.,   escapes 

from  prison,  360. 
Roseboom,  Garrit,  fur-trader,  107, 

116. 

Ross,  Alexander,  Oregon,  171. 
Rountree,  John  H.,  pioneer,  258. 
Rousseau,   Gen.    L.    H.,    praises 

Wisconsin  troops,  350,  351,  357. 
Royal  American  Foot,  how  raised, 

106. 
Royal  India  Company,  in  Illinois, 

156. 
Rupert's  Land,  English  name  for 

Northwest,  76. 
Rush    City    (Minn.),    in    Indian 

scare,  398. 

Rusk,  Jeremiah,  governor,  403. 
Russians,  in  Wisconsin,  294. 
Ryan,    Edward   G.,   counsel    for 

Bashford,  309  ;  prosecutes  Hub- 
bell,  314;  political  address,  353; 

railway  decision,  384. 

STE.  CLARA'S  Academy,  founded, 

426. 
Saint-Cosme,  Jean  Fran9ois,  Sul- 

pician  missionary,  91. 
St.  Francis   Seminary,  founded, 

426,  427. 
St.  Francis  Xavier,  Marquette  at, 

54,  56-58;  mission,  254. 
St.  Genevieve  (Mo.),  market,  157. 
St.  Ignace  mission,  Marquette  at, 

63,  54,  59. 


INDEX 


461 


St.  James,  Jesuit  mission,  48. 

St.  James,  Mormon  colony,  266- 
268. 

St.  John's  (N.  F.),  supply  port  for 
explorers,  1. 

St.  Josephs  (Ind.),  French  settle- 
ment, 108 ;  surrendered  to  Brit- 
ish, 106;  lake  port,  247. 

St.  Lawrence  College,  founded, 
427. 

St.  Louis  (Mo.),  entrepot,  208-210, 
295;  Indian  council,  182,  183;  in 
Revolution,  135, 137-140;  Ameri- 
can headquarters,  172,  176-178, 
181 ;  lead  market,  157;  trade  with 
Wisconsin,  372;  trade  develop- 
ment, 379 ;  loss  of  trade,  298, 299 ; 
bank-notes,  285 ;  merchants,  200; 
Forsyth  at,  201 ;  Garland,  319. 

Saint  -  Lusson,  Simon  Fran?ois 
Daumont,  explores  Mississippi, 
86;  proces  verbal,  62,  63. 

St.  Mark,  Jesuit  mission,  48. 

St.  Mary's  College,  Marquette's 
map  at,  54. 

St.  Paul  (Minn.),  location,  128, 
275;  Carver's  claim,  129;  Win- 
nebago  in,  391;  fort  near,  206; 
aids  cyclone  sufferers,  394. 

St.  Pierre  (St.  Pier), ,  Wiscon- 
sin trader,  136. 

St.  Pierre,  Jean  Baptiste  Legar- 
deur  de,  in  West,  125. 

St.  Pierre,  Paul  Legardeur  de,  in 
Wisconsin,  123. 

St.  Regis  Indians,  Williams 
among,  218. 

Salisbury,  Confederate  prison,  360. 

Salomon,  Lieut.-Gov.  Edward, 
succeeds  Harvey,  346,  352,  354, 
367;  on  importance  of  Missis- 
sippi, 376. 

Salomon,  Col.  Frederick,  at 
Helena,  357. 

San  Antonio  (Tex.),  military  stores 
at,  331. 

San  Juan  (P.  R.),  raided,  417. 

Sanborn,  John  B.,  Impeachment 
of  Levi  Hubbell,  314. 

Sanitary  Commission,  344,  345, 347. 

Saratoga,  proposed  state,  152. 

Sauk  County,  foreign  groups,  294. 


Sauk  Harbor,  road,  251. 

Sauk  Indians,  habitat,  109,  114, 
194;  village,  126,219;  trail,  221; 
intertribal  wars,  204;  allies  of 
Foxes,  97-100,  106;  grant  lead 
mines,  167,  158,  199-201;  work 
lead  mines,  200,  203,  204 ;  in  Re- 
volution, 135,  137,  138;  Tecum- 
seh's  uprising,  113,171;  Black 
Hawk  War,  219-229;  treaties, 
182-184,  230;  agent,  164. 

Sauk  Prairie,  Indian  town,  126. 

Sault  Ste.  Marie,  Nicolet  at,  24, 25, 
29;  Jesuits,  10,  24,  25,  45,  51; 
Radisson,  41;  Lahontan,  81; 
Saint-Lusson,  62, 63;  settlement, 
153;  fur-trade,  146. 

Saunders,  Admiral  Sir  Charles,  at 
Quebec,  105. 

Savannah  (Ga.),  Harvey  at,  344; 
siege,  364. 

Sawyer  County,  swept  by  fire,  391. 

Scandinavians,  oppose  Bennett 
Law,  406,  408 ;  in  Wisconsin  re- 
giment, 340. 

Schenectady  (N.  Y.),  trade  route, 
130. 

Schofteld,  Gen.  John  M.,  near 
Nashville,  364. 

Schoolcraf t,  Henry  R.,  visits  Wis- 
consin, 242. 

Schools.    See  Education. 

Scotch,  in  Wisconsin,  294 ;  in  fur- 
trade,  146. 

Scribner,  Gen.  Benjamin  F., 
praises  Wisconsin  troops,  351. 

Scull,  Gideon  D.,  edits  Radisson's 
Journal,  39. 

Seaman,  Col.  H.  M.,  in  Spanish- 
American  War,  418. 

Second  Wisconsin  Cavalry,  serv- 
ices, 351,  356,  366. 

Second  Wisconsin  Infantry, 
formed,  336;  in  Iron  Brigade, 
348,  358;  at  Bull  Run,  342;  at 
Gettysburg,  358;  losses,  343, 348, 
358;  in  Spanish- American  War, 
418. 

Seventh  Day  Baptists,  college, 
426. 

Seventh  Wisconsin  Infantry, 
formed,  340;  in  Iron  Brigade, 


462 


INDEX 


348;  at  Gettysburg,  358;  at 
Hatcher's  Run,  363 ;  losses,  343. 

Seventeenth  Wisconsin  infantry, 
Irish  in,  340;  at  Corinth,  349  ; 
at  Vicksburg,  356. 

Shadel,  Col.  S.  P.,  in  Spanish- 
American  War,  418. 

Sharpshooters  (Berdan's),  in  War 
of  Secession,  340;  at  Gettysburg, 
358. 

Shawano  County,  swept  by  fire, 
389. 

Shea,  John  Gilmary,  Discovery  of 
the  Mississippi,  21. 

Sheboygan,  Saint-Cosine  at,  92; 
post,  165, 195 ;  roads,  251;  schools, 
253;  men  in  Porto  Rico,  420. 

Sheboygan  County,  wind  storm, 
392. 

Shelby,  Evan,  fur-trader,  115. 

Shenandoah  Valley,  campaign,  342, 
348. 

Sheridan,  Gen.  Philip,  praises 
Wisconsin  troops,  351. 

Sherman,  Gen.  William  T.,  Wis- 
consin troops  with,  359;  in  At- 
lanta campaign,  363,  364,  366  ; 
march  to  the  sea,  364, 365 ;  praises 
Wisconsin  troops,  342 ;  Memoir, 
341. 

Shields,  Cummin,  fur-trader,  107. 

Shreveport  (La.),  operations,  361. 

Silvy,  Antoine,  Jesuit  mission- 
ary, 49. 

Sinapee,  road,  251. 

Sinclair,  Col.  Patrick,  at  Mack- 
inac,  136,  137. 

Sinsinawa  Mound  Academy,  426. 

Sioux  Indians,  habitat,  100,  193, 
194, 226 ;  poverty,  69 ;  population, 
109;  hostile,  207,  208,210;  inter- 
tribal relations,  18,  47,  50,  90,  94, 
124,  204,  205,  227;  relations  with 
French,  43,  64,  69,  74,  75,  77,  79, 
90, 115, 124;  find  lead,  153;  Carver 
•with,  127,  128;  Pond,  131;  fur- 
trade,  18,  95,  107,  119;  in  Revo- 
lution, 134,  137,  139;  War  of 
1812-15, 174;  outbreak  of  1862, 354. 

Sitting  Bull,  Sioux  chief,  113. 

Sixteenth  Pennsylvania  Infantry, 
in  Spanish-American  War,  419. 


Sixteenth  Wisconsin  Infantry,  at 
Shiloh,  347;  Corinth,  349;  At- 
lanta campaign,  364. 

Sixth  Maine  Infantry,  at  Marye's 
Hill,  355,  356;  Warrenton,  359, 
360. 

Sixth  Wisconsin  Battery,  at  Cor- 
inth, 350. 

Sixth  Wisconsin  Infantry,  in  Iron 
Brigade,  348;  at  Antietam,  349; 
at  Gettysburg,  358,  359;  officer, 
360;  losses,  343. 

Slavery,  attitude  of  state  towards, 
317-325,  327;  fugitive  slave  law, 
318,  323,  324. 

Sloan,  A.  Scott,  member  of  Con- 
gress, 328. 

Sloan,  Ithamar  C.,  member  of 
Congress,  328. 

Smith,  A.  D.,  supreme  court  jus- 
tice, 309,  322,  323. 

Smith,  Joseph,  Mormon  elder,  264, 
265. 

Smith,  Gen.  Thomas  A.,  builds 
Fort  Crawford,  182. 

Smith,  W.  R.,  History  of  Wiscon- 
sin, 277. 

Smithfield  (N.  C.),  army  near,  365. 

Snelling,  Col.  Josiah,  at  Prairie 
du  Chien,  206. 

Socialists,  in  Milwaukee,  402.  See 
also  Communism. 

Soley,  J.  R.,  naval  historian,  366, 
367. 

South  Bend  (Ind.),  portage,  6,  7; 
settlement,  153. 

South  Carolina,  secession  ordi- 
nance, 329. 

South  Kaukauna,  mission  near, 
255. 

South  Sea,  term  explained,  50; 
boundary,  63,  88. 

South  West  Company,  organized, 
169,  170. 

Southerners,  early  trade  with  Wis- 
consin, 371-376. 

Southport.    See  Kenosha. 

Spanish,  explorations  by,  3,  4;  on 
lower  Mississippi,  55,  72,  74;  se- 
cure Louisiana,  108;  in  Upper 
Louisiana,  135-140;  territorial 
claims,  142;  intrigues,  125,  148 


INDEX 


463 


149, 158, 159;  treaty,  160;  embargo 
at  New  Orleans,  374;  miners, 
157,  199. 

Spanish-American  War,  Wiscon- 
sin's part  in,  418-420. 

Sparks,  .Tared,  Life  of  Washing- 
ton, 151. 

Sparta,  school  for  dependent 
children,  429. 

Spring  Lake,  settlement,  263. 

Spring  Prairie.   See  Voree. 

Springfield  (111.),  proclamation, 
222,223. 

Squirrel,  clan  totem,  109. 

Starkweather,  Col.  John  C.,  Wis- 
consin officer,  334. 

Starved  Rock  (111.),  Fort  St.  Louis 
at,  70;  La  Salle's  party,  73. 

Statesburg,  mission,  255. 

Steamboats,  decline  of  Missis- 
sippi traffic,  374,  376;  on  Great 
Lakes,  377. 

Steuben,  Baron  Frederick  von, 
commissioner,  144. 

Stevens  Point,  Winnebago  at, 
194;  normal  school,  424. 

Stillwater  (Minn.),  aids  cyclone 
sufferers,  394. 

Stockbridge  Indians,  emigrate  to 
Wisconsin,  211, 213-217,  231;  mis- 
sion, 255 ;  as  farmers,  395. 

Stone,  Gen.  Roy,  in  Porto  Rico, 
419. 

Straits,  Hudson,  discovered,  4; 
Mackinac,  153,  190,  234. 

Strang,  James  Jesse,  Mormon 
leader,  264-269. 

Strong,  Moses  M.,  lawyer,  258. 

Suite,  Benjamin,  Melanges  d'his- 
toire  et  de  literature,  21. 

Sumner,  Charles,  on  Glover  case, 
323;  congratulates  Paine,  325. 

Superior,  normal  school,  424. 

Superior  Air  Line  Railroad  Co., 
strike,  403. 

Swedes,  in  Wisconsin,  293;  fright- 
ened by  Indians,  398. 

Swiss,  in  Wisconsin,  vi,  292,  293. 

Sylvania,  proposed  state,  152. 

TALLMADOE,  Nathaniel  P.,  terri- 
torial governor,  285. 


Taxation,  in  Wisconsin  territory, 
279-281;  in  War  of  Secession, 
369,370;  Wisconsin  commission, 
387,430. 

Taychoperah.  See  Four  Lakes. 

Taylor,  Gov.  William  R.,  railway 
regulation  under,  383. 

Taylor,  Zachary,  in  Black  Hawk 
War,  223. 

Taylor  County,  in  Carver's  claim, 
128 ;  swept  by  fire,  390,  391. 

Taylors  Falls  (Minn.),  in  Indian 
scare,  398. 

Tecumseh,  Shawnee  chief,  113, 171, 
220. 

Tennessee,  settlement,  159;  migra- 
tion from,  202 ;  in  War  of  Seces- 
sion, 366. 

Tenney,  H.  A.,  journalist,  258. 

Tenth  Wisconsin  Infantry,  at 
Chaplin  Hills,  350;  at  Stone's 
River,  351 ;  at  Chickamauga,  359. 

Texas,  in  War  of  Secession,  330, 
331,  366. 

Third  Wisconsin  Battery,  at 
Stone's  River,  351. 

Third  Wisconsin  Cavalry,  at  Prai- 
rie Grove,  351;  services,  366. 

Third  Wisconsin  Infantry,  organ- 
ized, 336;  Indians  in,  340;  in 
Maryland,[343;  Shenandoah  Val- 
ley, 348 ;  at  Antietam,  349 ;  Chan- 
cellorsville,  355 ;  Gettysburg, 
358;  in  Spanish-American  War, 
418-420. 

Thirty-seventh  Wisconsin  Infan- 
try, Indians  in,  340;  at  Peters- 
burg, 363. 

Thirty-sixth  Wisconsin  Infantry, 
in  Richmond  campaign,  363; 
losses,  343. 

Thirty-third  Wisconsin  Infantry, 
on  Red  River  expedition,  361; 
at  Nashville,  364. 

Thomas,  Gen.  George  H.,  sobri- 
quet, 359;  at  Nashville,  364. 

Three  Rivers  (Que.),  founded,  20- 
22;  Nicolet  at,  21-23. 

Thwaites,  Reuben  G.,  Jesuit  Rela- 
tions, 14,  15,  20,  22,  26-28,  30-33, 
37-41,  50,  51,  54,  57,  58,  62;  Early 
Western  Travels,  171;  Early 


464 


INDEX 


Lead  Mining,  158;  University 
of  Wisconsin,  317. 

Tobacco,  raised  in  "Wisconsin,  378. 

Tonty,  Henri  de,  character,  66,  67; 
Lahontan  with,  81;  with  La 
Salle,  66-74. 

Toronto  (Ont.),  location,  143. 

Transportation,  methods,  203, 245, 
249-252;  routes,  246-248,  294-297, 
423.  See  also  Fur-trade. 

Treasurers,  refund  interest,  413, 
414. 

Treaties :  Nicolet  with  Winnebago 
(1634),  31,  32;  San  Ildefonso 
(1762),  108  ;  Paris  (1763),  111,117; 
Paris  (1782-83),  142-145,  151;  Fort 
Harmar  (1789),  159;  Jay's  (1794), 
159-164,  181;  Greenville  (1795), 
159, 160  ;  Madrid  (1795),  160 ;  Sank 
and  Fox  (1804),  199,  201,  220; 
Ghent  (1814),  177;  Sauk  and  Fox 
(1816),  199,  220,  230;  Menominee 
(1821),  215;  Winnebago  (1821), 
215;  Prairie  du  Chien  (1825)204, 
205;  Prairie  du  Chien  (1829),  230; 
Menominee  (1832),  230;  Winne- 
bago (1832),  230;  Chicago  (1833), 
230;  Menominee  (1856),  231. 

Trempealeau,  Indian  site,  207; 
Perrot's  fort,  63. 

Trempealeau  County,  in  Carver's 
claim,  128. 

Troy  (N".  Y.),  emigration  point, 
247. 

Turner,  Frederick  J.,  Fur-Trade 
in  Wisconsin,  147;  Indian 
Trade  in  Wisconsin,  198. 

Twelfth  Wisconsin  Battery,  at 
Corinth,  350. 

Twelfth  Wisconsin  Infantry, 
French  in,  340;  in  Atlanta  cam- 
paign, 364. 

Twentieth  Wisconsin  Infantry,  at 
Prairie  Grove,  350;  losses,  351. 

Twenty-eighth  Wisconsin  Infan- 
try, at  Helena,  357. 

Twenty-first  Wisconsin  Infantry 
at  Paint  Rock,  350;  at  Stone's 
River,  351 ;  at  Chickamauga,  359 ; 
officers.  360. 

Twenty-fourth  Michigan  Infan- 
try, in  Iron  Brigade,  348. 


Twenty-fourth  Wisconsin  Infan- 
try, at  Stone's  River,  351;  at 
Chickamauga,  359;  at  Nashville, 
364. 

Twenty-ninth  Wisconsin  Infantry, 
at  Vicksburg,  356;  on  Red  River 
expedition,  361,  362. 

Twenty-second  Wisconsin  Infan- 
try, at  Atlanta,  364. 

Twenty-sixth  Wisconsin  Infantry, 
Germans  in,  340;  at  Gettysburg, 
358;  Mission  Ridge,  359;  in  Lou- 
isiana, 360;  losses,  343 

Twenty-third  Wisconsin  Infantry, 
at  Vicksburg,  356,  357;  on  Red 
River  expedition,  361,  362. 

Twiggs,  Maj.-Gen.  David  E.,  in 
Wisconsin,  331 ;  surrenders 
stores  to  Confederacy,  330,  331. 

Two  Rivers,  trading-post,  136, 195. 

Tyler,  Pres.  John,  appointments, 
261,285. 

U>ITED  STATES,  Old  Congress,  151, 
152, 158;  Louisiana  purchase,  169, 
170 ;  in  War  of  Secession,  334, 345, 
349.  See  also  Treaties. 

University  of  Wisconsin,  location, 
401;  early  history,  253,  314-317, 
424-426;  land  grants,  314-317; 
first  graduates,  316;  athletic 
field,  337;  reputation,  258;  Bul- 
letin, 277. 

VAUDREUIL,  Philippe  de  Rigault, 
marquis  de.  governor  of  New 
France,  77,  92,  99, 105. 

Verendrye  family,  explorers,  124. 

Vernon  County,  foreign  groups, 
294;  wind  storm,  392. 

Verville.    See  Gautier. 

Vicksburg  (Miss.),  campaign  of, 
357,  376. 

Vieau,  Andrew,  Narrative,  165. 

Vieau,  Jacques,  Milwaukee  trad- 
er, 165,  166. 

Vilas,  William  F.,  legacy,  425; 
View  of  Vicksburg  Campaign, 
356. 

Villemonde,  Louis  de  Beaujeu  de, 
commands  Mackinac,  105-107, 
120;  quarrel  with  La  Salle,  72,  73. 


INDEX 


465 


Villiers,  Nicolas  Coulon,  sieur  de, 
commands  Green  Bay,  97. 

Vincennes  (Ind.),  settlement,  153; 
French  post,  113;  in  Revolution, 
138. 

Vineyard,  James  R.,  kills  Arndt. 
261. 

Virginia,  settlement,  1;  Indian 
uprising,  113;  reaching  west- 
ward, 4,  118,  246;  fortifies 
passes,  88 ;  cedes  Northwest,  151 ; 
Virginia  and  Kentucky  resolu- 
tions, 324. 

Viroqua,  wrecked  by  wind,  392. 

Visscher,  Teunis,  fur-trader,  107, 
116. 

Voree,  Mormon  colony,  265,  266, 
268;  Herald,  265. 

Voyageurs,  characteristics,  v; 
wide  travelers,  104,  109.  See 
also  French,  Fur-trade,  and 
Habitans. 

WABASHAW,  Sioux  chief,  134. 

Wales,  tuberculosis  sanitorium, 
429. 

Walk-in-the- Water,  steamboat, 
215. 

Walker,  George  H.,  pioneer,  257. 

Walker,  Isaac  P.,  slavery  attitude, 
318. 

Walworth  County,  member  from, 
259. 

Warren,  Gen.  G.  K.,  in  Richmond 
campaign,  363. 

Warren,  Lyman  M.,  fur-trader, 
168. 

Warren,  Truman  A.,  fur-trader. 
168. 

Warrior,  steamboat,  227. 

Wars:  Fox,  84-101;  King  Wil- 
liam's (1689-97),  78,  86;  French 
and  Indian  (1754-63),  125,  130, 
167;  Revolution  (1775-82),  133- 
141;  1812-15,  171-179,  214;  Black 
Hawk's  (1832),  183,  219-229;  Se- 
cession (1861-65),  326-370;  Span- 
ish-American (1898),  418^420. 

Washburn,  Cadwallader  C.,  mem- 
her  of  Congress,  328 ;  governor, 
382. 

Washburn,  post  near,  122. 


Washington,  George,  peace  ar- 
rangements, 144. 

Washington,  proposed  state,  152. 

Washington  (D.  C.).  in  War  of  Se- 
cession, 333,  335,  336. 

Washington  County,  draft  riots, 
354. 

Watertown,  experience  with  rail- 
road bonds,  380,  381;  college, 
426. 

Watertown  and  Madison  Railroad 
Co.,  aided  by  Watertown,  380, 
381. 

Waukegan  (111.),  location,  271. 

Waukesha,  college  at,  426;  indus- 
trial school,  428. 

Waukesha  Beach,  wind  storm, 
394. 

Waukesha  County,  community, 
263;  naval  hero,  366. 

Waupaca,  veterans'  home,  429. 

Waupun,  state  prison,  429;  wind 
storm,  392. 

Wausau,  Indians  near,  396. 

Waushara  County,  foreign 
groups,  293;  Indians,  396. 

Wekau,  Winnebago  brave,  208-213. 

Welsh,  in  Wisconsin,  294. 

West  Bend,  draft  riots,  354. 

West  Florida,  province  organized, 
117. 

West  Superior,  labor  troubles,403. 

Western  Sea,  term  explained,  50. 

Wheat,  transportation  of,  299. 

Whigs,  in  Wisconsin,  308. 

Whistler,  Maj.  William,  in  Win- 
nebago  War,  210-212. 

White,  Philo,  journalist,  257. 

White  Cloud,  Winnebago  pro- 
phet, 222. 

Whitehall  (N.  Y.),  emigration 
point,  246. 

Whitewater,  normal  school,  424. 

Whitney,  Asa,  railroad  project, 
300. 

Whiton,  Edward  V.,  supreme 
court  justice,  309,  323. 

Wight,  William  Ward,  aid  ac- 
knowledged, viii;  Eleazcr  ]\'il- 
I icons,  219. 

Wilderness  Road,  migration 
route,  246. 


466 


INDEX 


Wilkinson,  Gen.  James,  intrigues, 
158, 159. 

Williams,  Eleazer,  claims  to  be 
French  dauphin,  viii,  214-217. 

Wilrnot  proviso,  318. 

Wilson,  Gen.  James  H.,  raid,  366. 

Winnebago,  insane  hospital,  428. 

Winnebago  County,  foreign 
groups,  293,  294 ;  Bashford  from, 
308. 

Winnebago  Indians,  origin,  16-18, 
29;  habitat,  100,  104,  126,  130,  131, 
194,214;  wigwams,  109;  miners, 
203,  204,  213;  intertribal  wars, 
204;  visited  by  early  French,  22, 
24-34,  38;  Gorrell  with,  114;  in 
Revolution,  135,  137;  Tecumseh's 
uprising,  171;  War  of  1812-15, 
173,  174;  Winnebago  War,  205- 
213;  Black  Hawk  War,  222,  224, 
226-228;  disturbance  of  1836,  239; 
cede  lands,  215;  council,  211,  216; 
treaty,  230;  chief,  166;  agent,  164; 
attempted  removal,  394-398. 

Wisconsin,  discovered,  4,  16-33; 
origin  of  name,  232,  233;  French 
regime,  34-101;  British  regime, 
102-178 ;  Americans  take  posses- 
sion, 179-198;  in  Indiana  Terri- 
tory, 163, 187;  Illinois  Territory, 
188 ;  Michigan  Territory,  188-190 ; 
first  counties,  188;  territory  es- 
tablished, 229-245,  271,  280;  capi- 
tal selected,  24f-243 ;  boundaries, 
143, 152,  270-275;  Indian  cessions, 
182-184,  230,  231,241;  Indian  pop- 
ulation, 109,  231,  233;  state  ad- 
mitted, 275,  285-287,  291,  417; 
area,  421;  climate,  290;  popula- 
tion, 253,  285,  288;  improve- 
ments, 276-279;  taxes,  279-281; 
as  a  summer  resort,  422,  423; 
commissions,  428-431.  See  also 
Fur-trade,  Immigration,  Indi- 
ans, Lead,  Lumbering,  Wars, 
and  individual  topics. 


|  Wisconsin  Academy  of  Sciences 
|     Arts,  and  Letters,  428. 
I  Wisconsin  and  Superior  Railroad 
I     Co.,  land  grant  scandal,  302. 
Wisconsin  City,  desires  capital, 

241. 

Wisconsin  Democrat,  306. 
Wisconsin  Enquirer,  254. 
Wisconsin  Free  Democrat,  320. 
Wisconsin     Historical     Society, 
work,  417,  430;  library,  164,  427; 
museum,  64,  329,  362;  publica- 
tions, vii ;  Collections,  43,  63, 100, 
103,  104,  107,  129,  130,  137,  139, 141. 
152,  155,  158,  165,  166,  185,  203,  297, 
301 ;  Proceedings,  98, 147, 165,  240, 
263,  277,  314,  325,  339. 
Wisconsin   History  Commission, 

431;  publications,  356,  359,  360. 
Wisconsin    Library  Commission, 

427,428. 

j  Wisconsin  Marine  and  Fire  Insur- 
i      ance  Co.,  284,  285. 
|  Wisconsin  Phalanx,  history,  262, 
j     263. 
j  Wisconsin  Soldiers'  Aid  Society, 

345. 
j  Wisconsin      State     Agricultural 

Society,  337. 

Wisconsin  State  Journal,  312. 
Wittenberg,  Indian  school,  231. 
Wolcott,  Gen.  E.  B.,  services,  347. 
Wolfe,  Gen.  James,  at   Quebec, 

105. 

Wood,  Abraham,  explorations,  60. 
Wood  County,  swept  by  fire,  389, 

390. 

Wool,  raised  in  Wisconsin,  378. 
Wyman,  W.  W.,  journalist,  258. 

YAUCO  (P.  R.),  captured,  420. 
Yellow  Banks,  Black  Hawk  at,  222. 
Young,  Brigham,  Mormon  leader, 
265. 

ZINC,  in  Wisconsin,  300. 


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COMMONWEALTHS 

Volumes  devoted  to  such  States  of  the  Union  as  have  a  striking 
political,  social,  or  economic  history.  Each  volume,  with  Map 
and  Index,  i6mo,  gilt  top,  $1.25,  net ;  postage  12  cents.  The  set, 
19  vols.,  $23.75 ;  half  polished  morocco,  $52.25. 

The  books  which  form  this  series  are  scholarly  and  readable  individually ; 
collectively,  the  series,  when  completed,  will  present  a  history  of  the  nation,  setting 
forth  in  lucid  and  vigorous  style  the  varieties  of  government  and  of  social  life  to 
iV  found  in  the  various  commonwealths  included  in  the  federal  union. 

CALIFORNIA.    By  JOSIAH  ROYCE. 

CONNECTICUT.    By  ALEXANDER  JOHNSTON.  (Revised  Ed.) 

INDIANA.     By  J.  P.  DUNN,  JR.     (Revised  Edition.) 

KANSAS.     By  LEVERETT  W.  SPRING.     (Revised  Edition.) 

KENTUCKY.    By  NATHANIEL  SOUTHGATE  SHALER. 

LOUISIANA.    By  ALBERT  PHELPS. 

MARYLAND.    By  WILLIAM  HAND  BROWNE.    (Revised  Ed.) 

MICHIGAN.     By  THOMAS  M.  COOLEY.    (Revised  Edition.) 

MINNESOTA.    By  WM.  W.  FOLWELL. 

MISSOURI.    By  LUCIEN  CARR. 

NEW  HAMPSHIRE.    By  FRANK  B.  SANBORN. 

NEW  YORK.    By  ELLIS  H.  ROBERTS.    2  vols.    (Revised  Ed.) 

OHIO.     By  RUFUS  KING.     (Revised  Edition.) 

RHODE  ISLAND.    By  IRVING  B.  RICHMAN. 

TEXAS.    By  GEORGE  P.  GARRISON. 

VERMONT.    By  ROWLAND  E.  ROBINSON. 

VIRGINIA.     By  JOHN  ESTEN  COOKE.     (Revised  Edition.) 

WISCONSIN.    By  REUBEN  GOLD  THWAITES. 

In  preparation 

GEORGIA.     By  ULRICH  B.  PHILLIPS. 
ILLINOIS.    By  JOHN  H.  FINLEY. 
IOWA.     By  ALBERT  SHAW. 
MASSACHUSETTS.    By  EDWARD  CHANNING. 
NEW  JERSEY.    By  AUSTIN  SCOTT. 
OREGON.    By  F.  H.  HODDER. 
PENNSYLVANIA.     By  TALCOTT  WILLIAMS. 

HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 


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