. ••-•" <* J?' %***fo* m jf %. *• *• /% • o > » 40, -^BjRar. # 5P* & * .<* yj «.> «* v >' o. rf >*..i^.% O. *•#'! V •!••* Q, B «„ & «Ysi*r. ^ ** /av^ >. <#* - %^ : 14 ^.n* o, **oTT 9# ,** ^ *'.,n»* ^0 ■*.i^.% «. ••«•• <*' °* *• q,. **Tv«* .A <> »» 0* .«• o, V?7r»\A J. " 7 * ^cy W" •- * "* v* -Mil * )* .•i-. *< /^Py v^*> V^>° V /% : .;> v <,*w.6* v v-^^V *+'tt\# y-^ -}. ' ,<- % v ^ *^ 5*/ ** ^ V 4> %-. ^0^ V..-..V St. Marie Church. Old Fort Howard. STUDIES IN THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE FOX RIVER VALLEY BY GEORGE GARY ^ TIMES PUBLISHING COMPANY OSHKOSH, WISCONSIN PUBLISHERS THE U8RAKY OF CONGRESS, Two Cortee Receiver JAN. 6 1902 OOI»VHIQHT ENTRY No. COPY B. \ * Introductory Note. Much of the matter of this work was prepared several years ago. it was rewritten, and additions made to it, two years ago for publication as a serial in The Oshkosh Times. The text of those papers has been revised to some extent and notes added for pub- lication in the present form. The history of the first thirty years of American occupation of the Fox River Valley would be interesting and even romantic in some respects, but the plan of this work was to bring the history down only to the time of American occupation. The author has been tempted a little beyond that limit, principally by the scheme mentioned in the last chapter to establish in Wisconsin and the northern peninsula of Michigan, an Indian territory from which white settlers should be excluded, mainly to show how little idea the men of eighty years ago had of the marvelous results which were to follow within three-quarters of a century. CHAPTER I. THE ORIGN OK SOME HISTORICAL ERRORS. When the general historian, intent upon the more important, or more dramatic, events of his narrative, attempts in one or two brief sentences, to summarize the less prominent local events which, though a part, are not deemed of the important part of his history, he is quite liable to fall into error. Especially is this the case, when a knowledge of the geography of the locality, where the events thus described, occurred, is necessary to a correct under- standing of the authorities, from which the history of such events is drawn. Few historical events of equal importance, have suffered more from this cause, than the earliest labors of the Jesuit missionaries, in north- eastern Wisconsin. More than half a century ago Bancroft, in the third volume of his history of the United States, after describ- ing the removal of Marquette and his flock of Hurons 2 Early History oj the Fox River Valley. from Lake Superior to a point near Mackinaw in 1671 under the marginal date of 1672, wrote as follows : "The countries south of the village founded by Mar- quette were explored by Allouez and Dablon, who bore the cross through eastern Wisconsin and the north of Illinois, visiting the Mascoutms and Kickapoos on the Milwaukee and Miamis at the head of Lake Michigan. The young men of the latter tribe were intent on an excursion against the Sioux, and prayed to the mis- sionaries to give them the victory. After finishing the circuit, Allouez, fearless of danger, extended his rambles to the cabins of the Foxes, on the river which bears their name." Bancroft gave the Jesuit Relations as his authority. These flowing sentences of Bancroft seemed to be a trap for local historians. Prof. I. A. Lapham, in his little work on "Wisconsin," published in Milwaukee (second edition) in 1846. after mentioning the supposed canoe voyage of Nicholas Perrot, from Green Bav to Chicago, in 1670, says: "Two years afterward the same voyage was undertaken by Allouez and Dablon. They stopped at the mouth of the Milwaukee river, then occu- oied by Mascoutin and Kickapoo Indians.'' He prob- \bly had access to no other authority but Bancroft, on the subject. Gen. W. R. Smith, the official historian of Wisconsin, the first and third volumes of whose "Docu- mentary History of Wisconsin'' were published by the Early History of the Fox River Valley. 3 state in 1854. in his preliminary or first chapter, changes the language of Bancroft sufficiently to add one error, saying, after mentioning the location of Marquette and the Hurons at Point St. Ignace; "The countries south of this were explored by Allouez and Dablon, who bore the cross through eastern Wisconsin and the north of Illi- nois, visiting the Mascputins and Kickapoos on the Milwaukee and the Miamis at the head of Lake Michi- gan, and extending their journev to the. Foxes, on the river of that name, fearless of danger and indefatigable in religious zeal." Hon. Moses M. Strong, in the preliminary chapter of his "History of Wisconsin Territory," adds a little to the statement. He says: "The cross was borne by Allouez and Dablon, through eastern Wisconsin and the north of Illinois, among the Mascoutins and Kicka- poos on the Milwaukee and the Miamis at the head of Lake Michigan, as well as the Foxes on the river which bears their name, audi which, in their language was the \\ an-ke-sha." The Fox river of Waukesha is a small stream which rises northwest of Milwaukee, running south through the counties of Waukesha, Racine and Kenosha, in Wisconsin, passes into Illinois, where it forms a branch of the Illinois river. Every statement of fact, in the sentences quoted is an error. Allouez and Dablon did not bear the cross through 4 Early History oj ike Fox River Valley. eastern Wisconsin, nor the north of Illinois; they did not visit Milwaukee; the Mascoutins and Kickapoos were not there, but on the upper Fox river of Green Bay; the Foxes were not on the river which bears their name, but on the Wolf river; the Miamis visited by them were some bands of that tribe, who, driven from their homes by the Sioux, had taken refuge with the Mascoutins on the Fox, where they prayed to the missionaries to give them the victory over their enemies; Allouez visited the Foxes alone, and before he visited the Mascoutins; and all this occurred in 1670, instead of 1672. These state- ments will be verified hereafter. The curious thing about the matter is. that all these historians immediately after the statements quoted, when describing the voyage of Marquette and Joliet, to the Mississippi, were aware that the Mascoutins, Kicka- poos and some Miamis were located on the upper Fox river; that Bancroft, in connection with his account, published a copy of a map attached to the Jesuit Rela- tions of 1670-71, which showed their location on the Fox and that of the Foxes (Outagamis) on the Wolf river, and that Smith himself translated the Relations of both Allouez and Dablon, in the extracts from the Jesuit Regions, published in the third volume of his "Docu- mentary History of Wisconsin." A11 illustration of the danger of error on the part of the general historian, who attempts to summarize local Early History of the Fox River Valley. 5 details, is found in the most recent work, which treats of the early explorations of the Jesuits, on the Fox river. Speaking of the first trip of Allouez, up that river, the author of "Cartier to Frontenac" writes (p 200): "In April (1670), he ascended the Fox, and found Indians on Lake Winnebago mourning the losses they had expe- rienced in a recent attack by the Senecas. On the Wolf river, an affluent of the Fox, he founded another mis- sion, that of St. Mark, and for a while administered at both missions. In some of his further explorations he reached the head of the Wisconsin, and records that it led to the great river "Messisipi," six days off." Nothing is clearer, from the narrative of Allouez, than that he saw no Indians on Lake Winnebago; that the tribe whom he found mourning the loss of several families killed, or carried off by the Senecas, were the Outagamis (Foxes), among whom he founded the mis- sion of St. Mark, on the Wolf river; that the other mis- sion founded by him at that time, was among the Mas- coutins on the Fox river, among whom and their "Miami guests, it was at that time, that he heard of the great river "Messisipi" six days off. In his valuable work, "Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley," published in 1852, Dr. John Gilmary Shea concluded that it was certain that Nicolet reached the Wisconsin river (Introductory chapter p. xxi). Shea was doubtless misled by his want of accurate 6 Eariy History of the Fox River Vahey. knowledge of the geography of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers. In relation to the visit of Allouez to the Mas- coutins, he says (p xxv) : "To reach them, he traversed the lake or marsh at the head of the Wisconsin, for they lay on the river." "It was," says he, "a beautiful river, running southwest without any rapid." "It leads," he says further on, "to the great river Messisipi, which is only six days sail from here. Thus had Allouez at last reached the waters of the Mississippi, as Nicollet had done thirty years before. There was now no difficulty in reaching it; an easier way lay open than that from Chagoimagon." Father Dablon wished himself to visit the spot, and in company with Allouez he returned to Green Bay, and as early as September of the same year, both were at the Mascoutins. It is now generally agreed by the later his- torians, that the point reached by Nicollet, from which he turned south from the river, was the same place that Allouez and Dablon visited in 1670. (See "Carder to FrontenacA p 152). The words of Allouez "running southwest," (trans- lated by Smith "It flows to the southwest,") probably tended to mislead Shea, not considering the distance to the Wisconsin and the impossibility of reaching it, in the time that Allouez voyaged on the beautiful river he describes, after he left the river on which he found the Oufragamis. or from want of knowledge of the country, Early History of the Fox River Valley. y not knowing what river that was, concluded that the river "running southwest" must be the Wisconsin. When he translated Marquette's narrative, which is in the same volume, nothing but ignorance of the geog- raphy of the rivers could have prevented him from at once seeing that the village of the Mascoutins, described by Allouez and Marquette, was on the Fox river, and not on the Wisconsin. Some writers since, misled by the authority of Shea, have represented Allouez as hav- ing visited the Wisconsin. Another fruitful source of error and confusion, as to the location of the Mascoutins. is found in the narrative of Marquette, as published. When about to leave the Mascoutins. to proceed into the unknown regions which lay beyond, the narrative says: "We knew that there was. three leagues from the Mascoutins, a river empty- ing into the Mississippi." The whole passage goes far to show that the "three leagues" is a mistake, for he con- tinues : "We know that the point of the compass we were to hold to reach it, was the west-southwest; but the way is so cut up by marshes and little lakes, that it is easy to go astray, especially as the river leading to it is so covered with wild oats that you hardly discover the channel. Hence we had good need of our two guides, who led us safely to a portage of 2,700 paces, and helped us to transport our canoes to enter this river, after which they returned, leaving us alone in an unknown country, c? Early History of the Fox River Valley. in the hands of Providence." Three leagues would be between seven and eight miles from the portage, in which there may have been marshes, but no lakes. Whether the mistake was a slip of the pen of the writer, or the mistake of some transcriber, or printer and proof reader, may never be known, but to those who have studied the subject, in the light of some familiarity with the Fox river, it is clear that, if Marquette wrote "three clays," or "thirty leagues," it would be much nearer the real distance. This will be made clear hereafter in the proper place. That Allouez had not reached the Wisconsin is proved, and that Nicolet had done so is rendered very improbable by the language of Marquette, who says of the village of the Mascoutins, "This is the limit of the discoveries made by the French, for they have not yet passed beyond it." That the mistake of Dr. Shea arose from want of accurate knowledge of the geography of the Fox River valley, is rendered more probable, by an article from his pen, on "The Indian Tribes of Wisconsin," in Volume TTT., of the collections of the Wisconsin State Historical society (1856), in which he says that in the Relations of 1669-70, Allouez mentions the Kickapoos "as lying on the Wisconsin river four leagues from the town of the Mascoutins," (p 129), and says of the Mascoutins that "the Jesuits, on visiting Wisconsin, found them on Wolf Early J '/is lory of the Fox River Valley. g river, a stream emptying into Lake Winnebago." (p 132). This would separate them by more than thirty leagues. So it has come to pass that writers, who do not con- sult original sources of information, or, who do consult original sources, without any adequate knowledge of the local geography, have continued to speak of the Mas- coutins, as on the Wisconsin, or, misled by the "three leagues" in Marquette's narrative, have placed them near to that river. Strong in his history of Wisconsin territory, conjectures that they were near the head of Buffalo lake, within a few miles of the portage. Bancroft, assuming naturally, that three leagues was the correct distance, draws a dramatic pen picture of Joliet and Marquette, with their companions, crossing the portage from the Pox to the Wisconsin with their canoes on their backs, on June 10, 1673, which was the day that they left the village of the Mascoutins, and was at least three and probably four days earlier than the date of their crossing the portage. CHAPTER II. EXPLORERS WHO PRECEDED THE JESUIT MISSIONARIES. The first white man who, so far as known, ever set his foot upon the soil of the territory afterwards known in our political history as the "Territory Northwest of the Ohio river," was a young Frenchman from Nor- mandy, whose name was Jean Nicolet. In what may be termed the romance of history, there is no chapter more romantic than that which recounts his wanderings and discoveries in the northwest. Yet, strange as it may appear, they were unknown to historians until the pub- lication of Dr. Shea's "Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi River." in 1852, and it was not until [876 that the years in which he made his remarkable voyage were settled. Tt seems a very strange tact that, though he was sent on his expedition by Champlain, the governor of "New France." and returned to the settlements of the French several months before the death of Champlain, the only Early History of the Fox River Valley. i 1 account of his journey and discoveries which has been discovered is in the Relations of the Jesuit missionaries, who derived their information from him. These appear in the Relations of 1640 and 1643. Prof. C. W. Butterfield, of Madison, in a little work, entitled "History of the Discovery of the Northwest, by John Nicolet," published in 1881, has given an exhaus- tive account of Nicolet' s explorations, with full refer- ences to and extracts from the original authorities. His work and an article on Nicolet in "Wisconsin Historical Collections," vol. XL, p. 4, are the authorities princi- pally followed here. Nicolet is described as a young man of good charac- ter, endowed with a profound religious feeling and excel- lent memory. He arrived in this country in 1618, and was soon sent by Champlain, as he sent several other young men. to reside among the friendly Algonquin tribes, who inhabited the country east of Georgian bay. where they were to be trained in the language, manners, customs and habits of the Indians, that they might be competent afterward to act as advisers and interpreters in establishing friendly relations with other tribes, Nico- let lived among these savages, in his own cabin, follow- ing their way of living and becoming, in all except birth and color, one of them, nine or ten years. Doubtless he became expert in all woodcraft, and as well qualified as a white man could become to establish friendly relations 12 Early History'oJ the Fox River Valley. and conduct negotiations with the distant tribes, among whom it Mas desired to establish the French influence. Champlain had himself penetrated to the shores of Georgian bay and to the Hurons, south of that bay. Reports had reached Champlain and the Jesuit fathers, who were now in the entire control of the work of Christianizing- the Indians in New France, of a tribe far to the west, of a different lineage from the tribes known to the French, who were reported to have come from the shores of a salt sea. somewhere far to the south- west. They were called "men of the sea" by the Algon- quins. It was also reported that the men of the sea were visited by another people without hair or beards, who made their journeys to the sea tribe in large canoes "on a great water." The French officials and missionaries thought this "great water" must be the sea between this continent and Asia. Some of the Indians who traded with the French, occasionally visited the sea tribe for ] nirposes of trade, and, apparently, had seen some of the hairless traders who came by the "great water." From these reports, the French imagination conceived the idea that by reaching the great water a short route might be discovered to China and Japan. The hairless and beardless traders who visited the "men of the sea" were the Sioux from the Mississippi river. The "men of the sea" were the tribe known in his- Early History of the Fox River Valley. rj torv as the W innebagos. (i) Some trouble had arisen and there was danger oi an outbreak of hostilities be- tween them and the Hurons. Champlain resolved to send an envoy to this distant tribe to establish peace between them and his friends, the Hurons, and to open relations of trade and amity between them and the French. NFicolet was selected for this mission. Another purpose doubtless, was to learn more of the "great water" of which so much had been heard, and what other tribes were in that remote region. To extend the influence and fur trade of the French, was an object in all the plans of Champlain. A great Indian empire in the new world, under the sovereignty of the king of France, was one of the dreams of the future, which he indulged. The mission of Nicolet would require great tact and courage and he was selected, probably, because he pos- sessed those qualities as well as full knowledge of the Indian character and skill in the Indian customs and languages. Tn 1634, some time in the summer, accompanied by seven Hurons, he pushed out into the waters of Fake Huron. At the "Sault St. Marie" he visited the "People of the Falls" (2) and stood — the first white man — upon the soil of the present state of Michigan. He visited many other tribes on his route, including the Menomo- nees, who still reside in Wisconsin, whose village was 14 Early History of the Fox River Valley. then at the mouth of the Menomonee river, at the boun- dary between Wisconsin and Michigan. He dispatched one of the Hurons as a messenger to announce his approach to the Winnebagos. The messenger was well received by them and some of their young men went out to meet him and escort him to their village at the mouth of the Fox river. Here, a curious scene was enacted. Nicolet clothed himself in a Mowing robe of Chinese damask, curiously embellished with flowers and birds of various hues, and with a pistol in each hand, fired into the ground as he went toward the great concourse of Indians, squaws and children assembled to see the strange visitor. The women and children, frightened at the man who "carried thunder in his hands,' 1 fled screaming from the place. The only conjecture, as to the reason of this strange attire and action, is that, possibly, Nicolet may have had some expectation that he had arrived at a place where he might meet mandarins from China, or some great men from the Orient. Four or five thousand people, of various tribes, assembled to see the stranger who had come so far to visit them. There was banqueting and feasting and Nicolet was treated with the ceremonious hospitality which was fitting toward the representative, for the time, of the power and majesty of the King of France. There were councils and much talk and the Winnebagos E&xiy History of the Foa River Valley. /J promised to keep the peace toward all the tribes east of them, a promise which they proceeded to break, almost as sooi'i as he was out of their sight, on his return. Having fulfilled the mission, with which he was charged by Cham plain, to the Winnebagos and their immediate neighbors, Nicolet ascended the Fox river, and, passing through Lake Winnebago, reached the vil- lage of the Mascoutins. We have no details from which can be determined how long he remained with this then powerful tribe. He seems to have received from them the impression that he was there, only three days distant from the "great water" which had been fondly imagined to be the sea that led to China and Japan; at least, that was what the Relation of Father Vimont in 1640 stated as the fact. Whether Vimont misunderstood Nicolet, or Nicolet misunderstood the Mascoutins, does not seem to be certain, but it is reasonably certain that he was about three days from the Wisconsin river. It has been considered singular that Nicolet, when so near the 'great water," did not continue his journey in that direc- tion. But his mission was not one of discovery, but to establish friendly relations with the tribes at the west, to extend the influence of the French among them and open the way for the extension of the trade, in which the "Hundred Associates," who then controlled New France, were more interested than in very remote dis- coveries. It would be very strange, also, if Nicolet had 6 Early History of the Fox River Valley. not by that time heard enough from the natives to con- vince him, or, at least, to create a strong suspicion in his mind, that the "great water" was not a sea. It is probable that Nicolet was illiterate and could only ver- bally describe the discoveries which he made. Other- wise, it seems strange that there is no written report of his journey, made by himself. Whatever the reason may have been, he followed the river no further, but turned south to seek the numerous tribes of the Illinois Indians, whose habitations probably extended into Wisconsin at that time. He had probably learned enough about the Sioux to conclude that they were not mandarins from China, and that he would have no further use for his damask silk robe. He returned to the Winnebagos, and visited the Pottawatomies, their neighbors, who occu- pied the shore of the bay east of the Winnebagos and the islands at the entrance to Green Bay. Somewhere among these tribes he spent the winter, and returned to Canada in the spring of 103^. The first account of this trip of Nicolet being found in the Relations of 1040, led Shea to the conclusion that it was made in [639, and subsequent historians gave that as the date, until Benjamin Suite, the Canadian his- torian, by a careful study of the career of Nicolet, ascer- tained and suggested the proper date. Thus, it came to pass, that just one hundred years after the discovery of the mouth of the St. Lawrence Early History of Ihr. P~ox River Valley . f? river, by Cartier, and only fourteen years after the land- ing of the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth Rock, this intel- ligent and energetic young "voyageur" and interpreter became the first white man to look and tread upon the land now included in the states of Michigan and Wis- consin, and the first white man to look, and paddle his canoe, upon the waters of Lake Michigan, Green Bay and the Fox river. Had he written and published an account of his voyage at the time, his name would have come down to subsequent generations, with those of Marquette and Joliet, whose discoveries commenced where his ended. As the first white man who. alone, with only dusky savages for companions, penetrated the vast, unexplored wilderness, negotiated with the wild tribes at the Baye des Puants and feasted in amity with the chiefs of the Mascoutins, on the south bank of the Fox river, his name would have been honored and, probably, preserved in the names of counties, towns or cities, and taught, like those of Marquette and Joliet. to the children in our schools. Pierre d'Espril Sieur Radisson and his brother-in- law, Medard Chouart Sieur des Grosilliers. two adven- turous Frenchmen, were the next white visitors to the Fox River valley. In the Wisconsin Historical Collec- tions, vol. XL. ])]). 64-96, will be found extracts from the narrative of Radisson, who was the historian of their adventures, covering all that relates to their adventures /S Early History of the Fox River Valley. in Wisconsin, with a note which gives a general account of the nun. They were adventures of a higher class than the "Coureurs de bois," who soon afterward began to scour the wilderness, with a view to traffic in furs and escape from the restraints of civilization and law. How these two men transferred their allegiance from the French to the British flag and. afterward, back- again; how from their movements and suggestions while under the British flag, the foundations were laid of the great "Hudson Bay company," and many other things in their career are interesting topics, but not germane to the purpose of this work. In 1058. they formed a sort of wandering partner- ship, for the purpose "to travell and see countreys." Radisson's narrative, written in English, by a French man, not of the learned class, is so confused, with it: French idioms, omissions and orthographical oddities, that, to the ordinary reader, it is scarcely more intel- iigibie than the poetry of Chaucer. It appears that in the year 1658, they pushed west- ward from Georgian bay and visited the natives on the islands between that bay and Michigan. While with the Ottavvas on the Great Manitoulin, "embassadors" from the Pottawatomies, from the islands at the mouth of Green bay. urged them to visit that people, which they did. They remained with the Pottawatomies during the winter (1658-59), but give no account of their mode ot Early History of the Fox River Valley. ig life. There they met some visitors from the Mascoutins, "a faire proper nation; they are tall and bigg & very strong." hi the spring of 1659 they visited the Mas- coutins. Radisson says: "When we arrived there weare extraordinary banquets. There they never have seen men with beards, because they pull their haires as soon as it comes out; but much more astonished when they saw our arm,s especially our guns which they wor- shipped by blowing smoake of tobacco instead of sacri- fice. I will not insist much upon their way of living; for their ceremonys heere you will see a pattern." The Mascoutins told them of the Sioux, a strong nation with whom they are "in warres." The most im- portant part of the narrative is here quoted. "We were 4 moenths in our voyage without doing anything but goe from river to river. We mett several sorts of peop 1 e. We conversed with them, being a long time in allience with them. By the persuasion of some of them we went into ye great river that divides itself in 2, where the hurrons with some Ottanake & the wild men that had warres with them had retired. There is not great difference in their language as we are told." This is followed by other statements which tend to siiow that these two adventurers visited the Mississippi river, fourteen years before the famous voyage of Jolie't and Marquette. Thev returned to Green Bav and to Sault St. Marie. 20 Early History of the Fox River Valley. The only motive of these men. apparently was "to be knowne with the remotest people." Further examina- tion and study of their journeyings would be very interesting, but does not belong to the subject of tins vv< >rk. NOTES TO CHAPTER II. ( i ). The name by which the Algonquins called this tribe, which the Jesuit spelled "Ouinipigou," or "Ouini- bigoutz," was translated by the French. "Puants," which Smith roughly translates "Stinkards" and Shea trans- lates "The Foetid." In the Jesuit Relation of 1640, Father Vimont wrote, "Some Frenchmen call them the Nation of Stinkards, because the Algonquin word Ouini- peg signifies "stinking water." Now thev thus call the water of the sea: therefore these people call themselves "< hiinipigou." because they come from the shores of a sea, of which we have no knowledge; and consequently we must not call them the Nation of Stinkards, but the Nation of the Sea." III. Smith, Doc. Hist., Wis. ii. But the name "Puants" stuck to the Winnebagos, dur- ing the French occupation. Marquette, apparently, gives a similar explanation, Shea, Dis. & Ex. of the Mis- sissippi, io. But apparently, he knew nothing of the legend that they came from a salt sea and, being unable to find any salt springs, concluded that the name was given - '«>n account of the quantity of slime and mud Early History of the Fox River Valley. 21 there, constantly exhaling noisome vapors which cause the longest and loudest peals of thunder that I ever heard." (Ibid, n)." Augustin Grignon says that the name was given them, as expressive of their filthy habits; "Win-ne-pa-go," meaning "filthy," in the Menomonee tongue. (III. Wis., Hist. Coll., 286). Charlevoix understood that the name was expressive of their filthy habits. ( [bid. 285 note). (2). These were called by the French, "Sauteurs" or "Leapers." They were the Ojibways or Chippewas. CHAPTER III. FATHER CLAUDE ALLOUEZ, THE PIONEER MISSIONARY AND THE JESUIT MISSIONS. Jean Nicolet set out from Three Rivers, for the country of the Hurons, from which he was to commence his explorations in the west, in the summer of 1634, in company with two Jesuit fathers, who were going to the Hurons to establish missions among them. These peo- ple, congeneric to the powerful [roquois of the Five Nations, south of the St. Lawrence river and Lake < )ntario, seem to have been, much of the time, at war with those cousins of theirs. They were of a higher type than their Algonquin neighbors and Sagard, one of the Recollects, who preceded the Jesuits, as missionaries. in Canada, classed the Hurons as the Nobility of the \i 1 >ods. The missionaries, whom Nicolet accompanied, were successful in establishing permanent missions among the Hurons, where their work was more prosperous than Early History of the Fox River Valley, 23 among the tribes of a lower type. The high hopes which followed the success of this work, were suddenly blasted, by an unexpected attack by a powerful war party of the Iroquois in the winter of [649. The invaders marched through the Huron count rw destroying the villages and driving the unprepared I furons before them and forcing them to flee, for safety, in various directions. Some went eastward, for the protection of their French friends and some fled to the wilderness. Bands of them were found, later, in the wilds of Wisconsin. As a nation the Hurons were broken up. As we have before seen, Radisson and his companion met some of them, in Wisconsin, ten years later. Idie principal authorities which will be followed, in relation to the movements and work of Father Allouez and the other Jesuit Fathers are Smith's translations from the Jesuit Relations, in the "Documentary History of Wisconsin," Vol. Ill, and Shea's "Discovery and Fxploration of the Mississippi Valley," which will be cited, when necessarv, as "Smith" and Shea" giving pages. Nol only the Hurons, but many of the Algonquins, from the country cast of Lake Huron, fled before the fury of the Iroquois, to regions farther west and north- west. Father Boucher, in the Relation of 1669-70, says of Lake Superior: "Its shores are fringed all around with Algonquin nations, where the fear of the Iroquois 24 Early History of the Pox River Valley. has caused them to seek an asylum." In 1660 Father Boucher, the Provincial, met at Quebec, two French- men, who had passed the winter in the country far up Lake Superior (probably Radisson and Grosilliers), who had come down "from those upper countries with three hundred Algonquins, in sixty canoes, laden with furs, who had located '"at a beautiful river, large, wide, deep, resembling, they saw our great river St. Lawrence." Willi the canoes with which these men came down, returned Father Rene Menard. He was old and not strong. The last letter that he wrote, before his depar- ture, (given in full. Smith, p. 23), is a pathetic prediction that he would never return. With him eight Frenchmen went also, to the new country of those Algonquins. Among these people Menard labored nine months, with poor success, suffering great hardships from their bad treatment and scanty provisions. (1). Somewdiere, in the wilds of Wisconsin there was a band of Hurons, among whom were some Christians and Neophytes, who had been instructed in the faith, before their dispersion by the Iroquois, and Menard determined to seek them in the wilderness. Some of them had visited the place where he was 1 Keweenaw Bay) and the general direction to them was known. With some of these Hurons who had come up to traffic with the Algonquins, and one French companion, Menard started, June [3th, [661. The Hurons soon abandoned him, telling him that they Earlv History of the Fox River Vallev. 25 would send young men out to meet him. Me and his French companion struggled on until about the iotli of August, when his companion, after crossing a long por- tage discovered that Father Menard was not following him. He turned back in search of the father, in wain. Whether lie was murdered by savages, or wandered from the way and perished of exposure and hunger is un- known. Hie account of Menard's end. in the Relations (Smith, pp. 24-32), shows how the disciples of Loyola were still imbued with the spirit which actuated Francis Xavier and the earlier Jesuit missionaries. Father Claude Allouez, the first missionary to reach and labor among the Indians, within the limits of Wis- consin, who had "waited at Montreal, a long time for some savages from these more distant upper nations, that he might go up with them to their own country" and make of it a Christian land, "embarked on the 8th of August, 1665, at Three Rivers, with six Frenchmen, in company with more than four hundred savages of divers nations" bound for Lake Superior. After a canoe voyage along the whole south coast of Lake Superior, Allouez says: "Finally, Ave arrived on the first day of October at Chagouamigong, for which Ave have for so lour;- a time looked forward." Here was a great Indian village at or near, where now is the city of Ashland. There was a population of "eight hundred men bearing arms," who planted corn and led a stationary life. Thev sb Early History of the Fox River Valley, were "collected from seven different nations who dwell in peace with each other, thus mingled together." It was selected for that reason, as the location for the new mission. The location chosen was between this and another large village, probably of the Ojibways (Chip- pewas). This was a great resort for Indians of all tribes, where the missionaries met savages from the Baye des Puants and from the distant tribes of the Illinois. This long digression from the topic of the Fox River Valley, will explain in some degree, the causes which led to the establishment of the missions of the Jesuit fathers in Wisconsin. Near to the point selected by Father Allouez was a village of Huron s who had formerly "formed a part of the flourishing Church of the Hurons." While at "the Mission of the Holy Ghost," as he named it. Father \11ouez met Pottawatomies from Lake Michigan, Sauks and Foxes (Ousakiouck and Outagamiouck), Indians from the Illinois tribes, Sioux (Nadouesiouck), who spoke a language unknown to him, and other tribes. (Smith, pp. 42-46). In the summer of 1667, Allouez returned to Quebec, to secure assistance in this great mission field. He remained but two days at Quebec and returned with Father Louis Nicholas and one lay brother. The next year, he again returned to Quebec with some Iroquois captives whom he had redeemed Early History of the Fox River Valley. 2j from their captors, and returned with Father Claude Dablon who was sent to act as superior of the upper mis- sions. (Smith, p. 50). In 1669, Father James Marquette was sent from the principal mission, which was now established at Sault Ste. Marie, to take up the work of Allouez on Lake Superior, and Allouez was sent to establish another mis- sion at Green Bay. These three points seem to have been great market places, where many tribes assemb'ed. after the hunting- season, for traffic, perhaps also, for the fishing. (See Smith, p. 41). The journal of Father Allouez, translated entire by Smith (p. 57-75), gives very full details of his movements and work in the Fox River valley, until the following- summer. He set out from the Sault. with two companions, probably lay-brothers, who joined and worked with, and for, the missionaries, without compensation except such scanty subsistence as the fathers themselves had, and looked, as they did, for a more ample reward in a future life. It has been frequently stated and accepted as a fact, that Allouez started in company with two canoes of Pottawatomies. His language rather indicates that his interview with them, in which they solicited him to visit their country, was at some time prior to his embarkation for Green Bay. There is no indication of such compan- ionship during the voyage. The start was on the 3rd 28 Early History of the Fox River Volley. day of November, 1669, very late in the season to under- take the hazardous journey. As might have been expected, they encountered stormy weather. The first night they passed under the lee of the islands, at the entrance to Lake Huron, where, he says, "the length of the voyage and the difficulties of the route in conse- quence of the lateness of the season, hastened us to have recourse to St. Francis Xavier, the patron of our mis- sion, by obliging me to celebrate the Holy Mass and my two companions to commune, on the day of the festival in his honor, and further to invoke his aid twice every day. by reciting his prayers." The second morning they awoke, covered with snow and found ice forming at the shore. They were obliged to keep their canoe off from the shore and wade in the water with their bare feet, to load it. They were de- tained six days at one time by adverse gales and, after much suffering from the cold and storms, almost reached their destination on the 29th and found their further passage blocked by the ice. That night a high wind broke up the ice and they reached "the place where the Frenchmen were" December 2nd, and their painful voyage was over. At some point on their passage they had found two Frenchmen with some savages. The next morning, December 3rd, 1669, Father Allouez celebrated the first mass which was ever heard at Green Bay, "at which the Frenchmen to the number of eight performed their devotions." Early History of the Fox River Valley. 2n the upper Fox river and together, as will be shown hereafter. All the tribes had fields of corn. gourds, beans and tobacco, hut he had much trouble for the maintenance of himself and his companions, during the winter. lie says: "Scarcely have we found shelter, all our nourishment has been only Indian corn and acorns: the little of fish, which is only rarely seen, is very had." lie found the tribes there "more than commonly barbarous," with no skill in making the most necessary utensils. NOTES TO CHAPTER III. ( 1 ). A recent writer states that the first mass ever said in Wisconsin, was said by Father Menard at this place. This is a mistake. The place was on Keweenaw bay (called by the Jesuits the hay of St. Theresa), which is in Michigan and was never within the territorial limits <>f Wisconsin. The first mass said in Wisconsin, was said bv Father Allouez. at Chesfoimasron, m r 66s. CHAPTER IV. EXPLOKAT ON OF THE FOX AND WOLF R1VFRS, BY A.LLOUEZ, A D , lt>70. The first written narrative of any explorations in the Fox River valley is in the journal of Allouez, referred to in the preceding chapter. His first care was to seek for the principal village of the Outagamis (Foxes), some of whom had been instructed by him at the mission of The Holy Ghost. The ice in the river at ( ireen Bay broke up on the [2th of April, and he embarked on the i6th, to seek them in their home in the wilderness. The narra- tive seems to indicate that he went no further than the rapids at 1 )e I 'ere on that day. He saw clouds of swans, bustards and ducks, which the Indians were in the habit of catching in nets. On the [7th, he went up the river, to which, as well as to the Bay and Lake Winnebago, he attempted to give the name of St. Francis Xavier. About four leagues (about ten miles) up the river, he found a village of the Saki (Sauks), who had a peculiar ?J Earlv History oj the Per River Valley. method of fishing. 'They made a barricade, planting great stakes, two fathoms from the water in such a man- ner that there is, as it were, a bridge above for the fishers, who by the aid of a little bow-net easily take sturgeons and all other kinds of fish, which this pier stops. although the water does not cease to How between the stakes.'' On the 18th, he made the portage "which they call Kakaling.*' While the "sailors" drew the canoe through the rapids, he walked on the bank of the river, where he found apple trees and vine stocks in abundance. Tn the early days of American settlement, this place was universally known along the Fox river, as "the Cock-ado " accenting the first and speaking the second syllable very short. This corruption of the French pro nunciation of the name given by Allouez. though not so euphonious, is probably nearer to the original name than the modern "Kaukauna." On the 19th, the "sailors'' ascended the rapids by using poles, while the missionary walked to the portage called "( )ukocitiming," that is to say, "the highway." Probably this was the rapids at the "Grand Chute." at the present site of the city of Appleton. During the day they observed an eclipse o\ the sun, which lasted from mid-day till 2 o'clock, and covered nearly one-third of the bpdy of that luminary. Tn the evening they arrived "at the entrance of the Lake of the Puants." Of this lake Allouez savs : "It is about twelve leag'ues lone and Early History of the Fox River Valley. jj four wide," which, reducing the French leagues of two and four-tenths miles to miles, is surprisingly near to the actual dimensions. Probably it had been visited before and explored, to some extent, by some of the Frenchmen whom he found at the Bay. as it is clear that he must have had information from some other source than his own observations. Of the lake he says: "It is situated from north-north-east to south-south-west; it abounds in fish, but uninhabited on account of the Nadouecis. who are here dreaded." Why these Sioux were so dreaded at this lake we can only guess, (i). Allouez reached Lake Winnebago on the evening of April 19th having been three days from the rapids at De Pere — a distance of about thirty-two miles. On the 20th, which was Sunday, after paddling "five or six leagues, in the lake," he landed and said mass. Six leagues would have carried him beyond the mouth of the Fox river, up which he intended to go. This first mass and first Christian religious service ever heard around the shores of Lake Winnebago, was probably said at some point on the shore of the lake, between the mouth of the river and the present North park, in the city of Oshkosh, or possibly, in what is now North pane, and the congregation were three or four Frenchmen, who were with him. It was before the hour of noon, or commenced before that hour, as the saying of mass is never commenced between 12 o'clock, noon, and 12 o'clock, midnight j 6 Early History of the. Fox River Valley. They entered the river, probably, early in the after noon of the 20th, and passing through a lake of "wild oats," by which name the wild rice of the marshes was known among the French, at the "foot" of which they found the junction of the Fox and Wolf rivers. This description of the head of Lake Butte des Morts as the "foot'' of the lake, is one of the inaccuracies of Allouez, of which a more mischievous example will be noticed hereafter. The Outagamis, whom he had set out to rind first, were somewhere on the east bank of the Wolf and they proceeded up that river which, he says, "comes from a lake where we saw two wild turkeys perched on a tree, male and female, exactly like those of France; the same size, same color, same cry." Wild fowl were in great abundance, on the river and lakes, attracted then: by the wild rice. Allouez says: "The twenty-fourth, after many turn- ings and windings in the different lakes and rivers, we arrived at the village of the Outagamis." The people flocked in crowds, to see the "Manitou," who had come to their country. They assigned and con- ducted Allouez and his companions to a cabin and treated them with respect. This tribe had been driven from their home some- where in the southeast, by the Iroquois. (2). They differed from the Algonquin tribes whom Allouez knew, Early History of the Fox River Valley, 37 in some respects, but they could understand him. They were numerous, having- over four hundred warriors. Their women and children were very numerous, as the sin of polygamy, which was an obstacle to Ins work nearly everywhere, prevailed among them very exten- sively. They seem to have been rather more provident than most of the Algonquins, but were in bad repute, as "penurious avaricious, thieving, choleric and quarrel- some," They were at war with the Sioux, but did not make war on the Iroquois, though often killed by them, for the reason that the Outagamis had no canoes. It was these Indians, and not Indians on Lake Winnebago, as erroneously stated in '"Carrier to Fronteuac," who were mourning the defeat in the month of March, of six lodges of their tribe, who were at the head of Lake Michigan, but two days' journey from Green Bay. by eighteen Iroquois of the Seneca tribe. ( )nly six warriors were at their camp, the others being away on the hunt. The six were killed and thirty women carried away cap- tives. The Senecas were conducted to their camp by two Iroquois slaves of the Pottawatomies. Here also, Allouez found that two of the wandering French traders had been before him and the natives had received a bad impression of the French, on account of the bad conduct of these men among them. On the 26th. the old men visited the camp of the father to pro- pose that he dwell near them to protect them. They jS Eariv History of the Fox Rnjer Valley. thought that he could restore their captive women. The whole colloquy is interesting and pathetic. That even- ing four Miamis arrived to offer consolation in their affliction, and for their comfort brought three scalps and a half dried arm of the Iroquois, to the relations of those who had been killed bv the Senecas. » These people had a strong palisaded fort, around which their bark cabins were erected. It would be interesting, though not of great historical importance, if the exact location of their village, at that time, could be determined. Not very many years later they were down on the Fox river and figured conspicuously in the subse- quent history of the Fox River valley. There are no special features of their location, given by Allouez, except that the soil was black and produc- tive, a search for which might assist in determining the location. It can, probably, be only approximately de- termined, from the data we have. In the Relations of 1670-71 Father Dablon says: " \t the beginning of the Relation of the Outaouacs will be found a map, which represents the lakes, the rivers and the lands, over which are established the missions of this country. It has been drawn by two fathers, suffi- ciently intelligent, very curious, very exact, who have been unwilling to put anything on it which they have not seen with their own eyes. v Allouez was one of the two, because things and places are represented on it, <-arw ntsiorv or the Fox River Valie) . j

l" [680, he says: "We passed four lakes, two pretty large, on the banks of which the Miamis formerly resided." The two "pretty large" lakes were, doubtless, Lakes Winne- bago and Butte des Morts. Allouez, as we shall soon see. found the Miamis with the Aiascoutins farther up the river, to whom they had tied for refuge from the fury 1 >f the Sioux. My inference is. that they had been driven from the region of Lake Winnebago, by the Sioux; that their former habitation had been there; and that for that reason the Sioux were so much feared there that it was uninhabited in 1670. (2). When the Foxes invaded Detroit, in 1712, they are said to have asserted that all that country belonged to them. There seems to have been a tradition that they had formerly lived in the vicinity of Niagara Falls. 4 2 Ear iv History of the Fox River Valley; (3). In a communication to The Oshkosh Times, of November 30th, 1898. Mr. P. F. Meyers, of Weyau- wega, Wis., gives an interesting description of an ancient Indian camp, or village, of which the relics were found by him, on the west side of the Wolf river, in the town of Mukwa and directly opposite across the river from the pond where I conjectured the Outagami vil- lage to have been. His view is that Allouez, in the twistings and windings of the river might have been mistaken as to which side he landed on and that the place described by him mav have been the Outagami vil- lage. But when Allouez visited the village in February, 167 1, after a six days tramp through the snow he could not have crossed the river without knowing it. Besides, the village described by Mr. Meyers was located on a high barren sand plain, now grown up to Norway and Jack pine, while Allouez describes the soil at the Outa- gami village as a black soil and very productive. All the Jesuit maps locate the village on the east side of the river. Among the relics described by Mr. Meyers are quantities of broken pottery. The low-down Algon- quin tribes in Wisconsin had not much pottery and would be very careful of what they had. I am inclined to think that where much broken pottery is found in the relics of an Indian village, it indicates a violent destruc- tion of the village by an invading foe. The discovery of Early History of the Pox River Vahey. 43 Mr. Meyers is interesting, but I think it could not have been the site of the Outagami village visited by Father Allouez. CHAPTER V. ALLOUEZ AND DABLON VISIT THE MASCOUTINS, KICK \ POOS AND MIAMIS, A. D, 1670. Father Allouez left the village of the Outagamis at the end of his visit to them, described in the preceding chapter on the 27th of April. 1670. He gives no details of the descent of the Wolf. He says: "The 29th. we entered the river which leads to the Machekoutench called Asista Ectacronnons, Fire Nation, by the Hurons. This river is very beautiful, without rapids or portages; it flows to the southwest." This unfortunate "to," instead of "from," as the real fact was. is another instance of the carelessness and inac- curacy of some of Allouez's expressions, of which calling the head of Lake Butte des Morts the "foot," was an illustration before noticed. It misled Shea, who prob- ably was not familiar with the geography of the region, to the conclusion that Allouez was speaking of the Wis- con sin, which does now to the southwest. Early History of the Fox River Valley. 4 5 The narrative continues: "The 30th, having dis- embarked opposite the village and left our canoe at the water's edge, after a walk of a league, over beautiful prairies, we perceived the fort." Though no mention is made of it. it is probable that the location was well known and not improbable that some, or one of the men who accompanied Allouez, had visited the place before. The Indian^ received them with great hospitality. First they brought refreshments and greased the legs of the Frenchmen who were with him. This probably, was not a ceremony, but was to relax the muscles, cramped by the position in which they plied their paddles in the canoe. Afterward they prepared a feast, at which they with much ceremony and presentation of tobacco to the father, addressed him as a Manitou, praying him to take pity on them against their enemies, the Sioux and [ro- quois, who, they said, "eat us up." expressing their wishes for good crops and corn, good fishing and abate- ment of sickness and. famine among them. "At each wish, the old men. who were present, answered by a great "Ooh !" Allouez horrified b\ this ceremony hastened to explain to them that their prayers should he addressed to God and not to him, explaining however, "that nevertheless, wise men honored and willingly listened to the Blackrobe, who is hearkened to by the great God. and who is his interpreter, his officer and his servant/' {6 Earlv History et the Fox Rwer Valley . The Jesuits were called Black-robe or Black-gown, by the Indians, because their usual habit was a long black cassock. The same evening Allouez assembled the natives and made them presents of knives and hatchets, as he had done to the Outagamis, according to the usual custom of the missionaries, and made a long address to them. While among them, he explained to them "the articles of our Holy faith and the Commandments of God." Before leaving them, he had the consolation of seeing that they comprehended the principal of what he terms "our mysteries." Allouez found but few of the Miamis, who were domiciled there, the greater part of them being absent, on their spring hunt. He describes them as mild, affable, grave and slow of speech. Four leagues (about ten miles) from the Mascoutins, were the "Kickibou and Kitchigamick," who spoke the same dialect as the Mascoutins. On the ist of May, he visited and instructed them. He says of them : "These poor mountaineers are good beyond all that one could believe; they do not fail in having superstitions, and the polygamy ordinarily among savages." Allouez' description of the location of the Mascou- tin village, will be considered in the future discussion of its location. On the 6th of May, he left these people and Ear tv History of the Fox River Valley. 47 returned to Green Bay, being three days on the passage. From the 6th to the 20th of May, Allouez labored among the tribes on the shores of the Bay and then returned to Sault St. Marie, where duty called him. Father Claude Dablon, the superintendent of the western missions, returned with him to Green Bay, where they arrived on the 6th day of September, 1670. They found trouble there, because of the conduct of the "natives" toward the traders, "ill treating them in deeds and words, pillaging and carrying away their merchan- dise in spite of them and conducting themselves toward them with insupportable insolence and indignities." It appears that the cause of the trouble was that some of the natives who had been to Montreal, with their furs, had been badly treated, as they thought, especially by some of the French soldiers. They had therefore organ- ized about forty of their young men into a company of soldiers, in imitation of the French, and had placed guards at the quarters of the Frenchmen among them, after the manner of the French soldiers, who had been stationed, as guards at their quarters at Montreal, or Three Rivers. The fathers appeased the factions as well as they could and called a council of the tribes there represented. When it was time to assemble two of these "soldiers" came to summon the fathers, with muskets on their shoulders and tomahawks stuck in their girdles in- stead of swords. The fathers had difficulty in restrain- 48 Early History of the tax River Valtey. ing their mirth at the uncouth appearance of the sen- tries, who paraded in front of the cabin where the coun- cil was held. Mere, as everywhere, where Allouez had been before, the Indians expressed great satisfaction at seeing them and hearing the matters of the faith, which had been explained to them, and the old men promised to abate the "soldier" nuisance and charged it and the disorders attending it on the hot headed "young men," but denied that they had treated anybody as badly as the French soldiers had treated them. The principal purpose of the visit of Father Dablon, seems to have been to visit the tribes: Mascoutins, Miamis and Kickapoos, on the upper Fox. Probably the description which Allouez had given of those people and their country, and their comparatively settled sta- tionary life, had impressed him with the idea that it was a more than usually promising field for missionary work. Dablon was a polished scholarly writer and the beauties of natural scenery had a charm for him, which was lost on the rugged nature of Allouez. We have in the Rela- tion of Dablon (Smith pp. 86-96), the first full written description of the Fox River valley or of that portion of it which he visited, from which we can gather a fair idea of its condition and appearance, two and a quarter cen- turies ago. To him it had "something of the beauty of a terrestrial paradise." In the ascent of the rapids between Green Bay and Lake Winnebago, he experi- Early History of ih< fox River Valley. $g enced what many have experienced since, "thai the Hints, over which we must walk with naked feet to drag the canoes, are so sharp and so cutting, that one has all the trouble in the world to hold one's self steady againsi the great rushing of the waters." At the fall of these rapids, they found a stone standing, which at a little dis- tance, resembled the bust and face of a man, to which, as to an idol, the savages were accustomed to offer sacri- fices of tobacco, arrows, paintings, or other things, in gratitude for their safe ascent, or to propitiate the idol. to assure their safe descent, of the perilous rapids. Some writers, on topics of local history, have thought that this idol was at the rapids at Kaukauna. But the statement is that scarcely a day's journey from the head of Green Bar they found "three or fom leagues" of these rapids. Thankfulness of the natives, was for the safe ascent, and their prayers for a safe descent. Clearly by "fall of these rapids," Dablon meant the beginning of the three or four leagues of rapids. This would carry them above the rapid known as "the Grand Chute," at the present city of Appleton, and that is, probably, the place where the idol was found. In their iconoclastic zeal the missionaries caused the idol to be toppled over into the river. It is not impossible that some enthusiastic antiquary might yel find it there. Dablon was filled with enthusiasm over the beauty and advantages of the country through which he passed 5° Early History of the Fox River Valley. 'Tnore than twenty leagues,*' before reaching the Mas- coutins. It was then "all a prairie country, as far as the eye could reach."' in all directions, with only "small eminences" planted with groves. There were seen only elms, oaks and trees of a like nature, no timber from the bark of which cabins and canoes could be made. For this reason "these people knew not what it is to go on the water." and their cabins were made of rushes woven into mats. Great droves of wild cattle roamed the prairies, so that for the hunting they did not have to seperate in families, "as the savages of other countries do." Herds of buffalo also found here their pasturage. Along the lakes and rivers, great fields of "wild oats" (rice) attracted wild fowl in large numbers. Wild plums, apples and grapes were abundant. Domiciled with the Mascoutins, thev found, as Mlouez had in the spring, the Miamis, who had fled from the fury of the Sioux, all together numbering three thousand sou's, and each able to furnish four hundred warriors, for defence against the Iroquois, "who came even into these distant countries to seek them." The fathers arrived at the Mascoutin and Miami vil- lage on the [3th of September. 1670, and proceeded, the next morning, to commence their labors as Christian missionaries. To enforce their teachings, Allouez Early History of the Fox River Valley. si exhibited to the astonished natives, a picture of the gen era! judgment and explained to them the happiness of saints and the torments of the damned. It is not sur- prising that the natives "regarded with astonishment this picture, never having seen anything like it." The preaching and teaching were not interrupted, but were varied by a succession of feasts, to which the fathers were invited, but as Dablon informs us. "not so much to eat there, as to obtain, through our means, either health for their maladies, or good success in the chase and in their wars." At one of these feasts the Miami master of the feast addressed them as follows: "You have heard speak of the people whom they call Nadouessi; (the Sioux), they have eaten me to the bones and have not left a single one of my family in life; I must taste of their Mesh, as they have tasted of that of my relations. I am ready to set off going against them in war. but I despair of success, if you. who are the masters of life and death, are not favorable to me in this enterprise. To obtain the victory then, through your means, \ have made this feast." (i). So the Indians feasted them and the old men performed dances for their entertainment, "to the cadence of some very melodious airs, which thev Ming in good accord." While the fathers were delighted with the seeming avidity with which the natives listened to them and the great respect shown to them, it is manifest that it was j 2 Early History of the For River Vallev. all in expectation of some supernatural, or occult assist ance which they hoped for, in their wars, or in the chase. Although these incidents are related, without much distinguishing between the two nations who inhabited the village, it is evident that the Miami's, who are described by Father Da 1 n as the Lllinois. impressed him much more favorably than the Mascoutins, and he gives one whole chapter to a description of their peculi- arities. He found this people more civil in their man ners than any others and concluded that none were titter to receive the impressions of Christianity. Their chief was treated with more ceremony than those of the Algonquin tribes, with almost the formality of the court of some civilized prince surrounding him. Dablon's description of their superiority to the other savages is somewhat enthusiastic. They gave him a description of the great river of the vest, "the Mississippi," which he judged, discharged itself into "either the Vermillion sea, or that of Florida." The Vermillion sea. alluded to, was the gulf of California. He saw some warriors (probably of the Miamis), who had descended the river so far that they had seen men "shaped like the French. who cleaved the trees with large knives, some of whom had their houses on the water." Thev had been far enough down the Mississippi to come in contact with the Spanish settlers in the south. \11 the instruction which the missionaries could Early Historv of the Fox River Valley, jj give these people was apparently insufficient to eradicate from their minds the idea that the "black-robes" were endowed with some supernatural power. The prayer of the Miami to them for success in war with the Sioux, before related, was followed bv disclaimer of any such power and an explanation of the character and purposes of the missionaries, but with such claims of being inter- mediaries between men and the Deity and special mes- sengers of God, to bring them to a knowledge of His commandments and ways, that the idea still remained with them that these strange beings, whether Manitou, or Genii, could protect them and give them success, in their undertakings. Twelve or fifteen, who had come up from the real country of the Illinois to visit their kind- red, who were with the Mascoutins, on their departure lor their homes came and prayed the fathers in the pres- ence of a large concourse of the people, to conduct them happily to their country and preserve them from all bad adventures. Dablon says: "This was a tine opening which they gave us to make them know 1 lim. who is the great master of our lives, of whom we are only the ser- vants and the deputies, and to whom we would willingly address ourselves for the happy success of then- jour- ney." From this kind of discourse the ignorant savages had no reason to doubt that the requests oi the "servants and deputies," in their behalf would be surely efficacious arid effectual. They departed with a promise that they j 4 Ear fa History of the Fox River Valley. would publish the wonderful things that they had seen, not only through their own country, but among much more distant people: "and thus they parted with us, all proud to have spoken to Genii, as they said, and to have learned intelligence of the other world." There is an old adage,- that "familiarity breeds con- tempt." When one of the "black-robes" appeared among a tribe where none of them had been before, he was received as a Manitou. When he repudiated all claim to supernatural power, it was always with the claim that he was the ambassador of the God of whom he spoke, who ruled and controlled all things, and who listened to their prayers; that great and wise men approached Him through them, as his representatives among men. It is not surprising, therefore, that they continued to believe that, in some occult way, the black- robe could secure for them victory over their enemies, success in their hunting, good crops of corn and exemp- tion from pestilence and famine. There are indications, scattered through the Jesuit Relations, that the respect For, and confidence in the power of the missionaries had waned, among some of the tribes who had become more familiar with them. Witness the neglect, and almost, or quite, cruelty, with which the venerable Father Menard w as treated, by the savages with whom he went to Kewenaw bay and the cruel desertion of him, by the Hurons with whom he started through the wilderness, Early History oj the /■<>< kiver Valley. $3 for their village. When the ferocious Iroquois laid waste their former homes and drove them to the south shore of Luke Superior for refuge against utter annihilation, it is not improbable that those tribes lost confidence in the p( »wer, or influence i >f the missionaries with their < rod. to secure protection for their friends. NOTES T( > CH VPTER V 1 1 ). This is doubtless, the speech referred to b Bancroft, mentioned in the first chapter of this worl which lie assume* 1 , was made at the head of Lake Mich !.;;tii because he supposed that the Miamis were located there. CHAPTER VI. NICHOLAS PERROT— A CONGRESS OF NATIONS — ALLOUEZ AS A POLITICIAN. Among the eight Frenchmen, who performed their devotions at the first mass at Green Bay, on December 3rd, r66c), probably Nicholas Perrot was included. He was for many years the most conspicuous figure among the "Voyageurs,' 1 who played so large a part in the his tory of the French occupation of the northwest. In addition to a clear head and an energetic character, lie had an accomplishment which most of the bushrangers, who preceded the missionaries nearly everywhere, did not possess, lie could read and write, and lie left, in manuscript, a memoir of his life and what he saw. This work was edited and published in 1804 by Father Tail- ban, a Jesuit priest. The fair authors of the unique and interesting little hook, entitled "'Historic Green Bay," with that work before them have given a pretty full and graphic account of Perrot's connection with the fur Early History of the Fox River Vallev. 57 trade at that place, to which, and Parkman's "Discovery of the Great West," I am indebted for what is here said of him. In his youth he was an "engage" of tin 1 Jesuits. When about twenty-one years old he became one of the independent bushrangers, engaged in traffic with the savages in the western wilds. He spoke the Algonquin dialects fluently and had great influence among the Indians. About the time that Allouez left Green Bay on his first trip up the Fox, Perrot left there in charge of a fleet of thirty fur-laden canoes, bound for Montreal. In 1670. Talon, the Intendent of New France, ordered Daumonl de St. Lussen to search for copper mines on Lake Superior, and take possession of the whole count rv in the name oi the King of France. Perrot went with St. Lussen as his interpreter. St. Lussen wintered at the Manatoulin islands. Perrot sent to the northern tribes messages inviting them to meet St. Lussen at Sault Ste. Marie in the following spring, and then returned to Green Bay to induce the tribes in that vicinity to attend the proposed gathering of the nations. It is said that when he visited the Miamis they entertained him with a sham battle and an Indian ball game. Perrot must have visited them at the Mascoutin village where Allouez and Dablon found them. His discription of the regal state which surrounded the chief of the Miamis corroborates jS Early History of the For River Valley, that of Father Dablon. Charlevoix, knowing that the Miami's were a tribe of the Illinois, seems to have fallen into the same error in relation to Perrot that Bancroft did, in relation to Allouez and Dablon. and places this interview at Chicago, which has led many subsequent writers to state that Perrot made a canoe voyage from Green Bay to Chicago, in 1670. (See Parkman. Disc, etc.. p. 40, note). The project seems to have been that the chiefs of the various tribes should surrender the claim of sovereignty over their lands, to the King of France, in return for French protection and the advantages of trade. It does not appear that the chiefs of the Mascoutins, or Kicka- poos, attended the great council. The stately potentate who ruled over the Miamis, who perhaps, may have been recognized by this time by the Mascoutins as the head of their combined forces, was persuaded by the Potta- watomies that the trip would be too tedious for him. and a 11 owed them to represent him, at the council. In the spring, Perrot sailed from Green Bay, with an imposing fleet of canoes, for Sault St. Marie, where they arrived on the 5th of May, 167 1 . The wiley and irascible Foxes, who had conceived a hatred of the French (excepting Perrot and the missionaries), whether from a sober second thought or from the promptings of their usual treacherous nature, after going down to the Bay, turned back to their homes. Early History of the Box River Valley. $q St. Lussen was at the Sauit, with fifteen men, among whom was Louis Joliet, who will appear more conspic- uously hereafter. The representatives of the northern tribes toward Lake Superior were gathering in large numbers. On the 14th of June, 1 671, St. Lussen led his men, all armed and equipped, to a small hill near the village of the Sauteurs (the "people of the falls" of the earlier Relations and Ojibways and Chippewas of later history), and assembled with them were lour of the ''black- robes," all of the missionaries then in the western field, except Marquette, who was still at the upper mission of The Holy Ghost, at Chegoimagon. A large cross was erected, on which Father Dablon solemnly pronounced a blessing. A cedar post was erected near it, with a small plate thereon, engraved with the royal arms. The "Vexilla Regis" was sung at the erection of the cross and St. Lussen's followers sang the "Exaudiat." After a prayer for the King, by one of the fathers, St. Lussen advanced with a sword in one hand and elevating a clod of turf in the other, pompously took possession of the whole country, bounded by the seas on the north, west and south, 'Tn the name of the Most High, Mighty and Redoubted Monarch, Louis, Fourteenth of that name, Most Christian King of France and of Navarre." The Frenchmen fired their guns, shouting "Vive le Roi," and the assembled savages joined in the din with their savage yelps and exclamations. Oo Early History oj the Fox River Valley. Then the meek, self-sacrificing, zealous and earnest missionary who had lived with and like the Indians for years in the endeavor to plant the seeds of Christianity in their untutored minds, who ignored danger and suf- fering and was at all times ready to face death itself, in the cause and service of his Master; who deemed no hardship too great, if through it he might reach the side of some dying Indian man, woman or child, and dispatch a soul to Paradise, by the application, surreptitiously or otherwise, of a few drops of water in the name of the Holy Trinity, was to exhibit another side of his, and of the Jesuit character. Allouez was, probably, better versed in the language of the natives than any other Frenchman present, except Perrot, and he made the oration of the occasion to them. The speech is too long for these pages. The curious may rind a close transla- tion of Father Dablon's report of it in Parkman's "Dis- covery of the Great West" (pages 42-45). In a strain of bombastic eloquence, which would have been absurd, addressed to intelligent auditors, and which one would think, must have brought merriment to the mind, if not to the lips of Perrot and other Frenchmen who could understand, him, he set forth to his dusky audience the glory, power and magnificence of the King. He told them that when the King went to war, "He is seen in the midst of his warriors, covered with the blood of his enemies, whom he has slain, in such numbers that he Earty History of ///,' I' ox River Valley. b i does not reckon them by the scalps, but by the streams of blood which he causes to How." "But now, nobody dares to make war on him. All the nations beyond the sea have submitted to him and begged humbly for peace." "All that is done in the world, is decided by him alone." Quotations from this curious address might be multiplied, in similar exaggerated terms, as to the riches, possessions and even houses of the King of France. Allouez knew the people he was speaking to, and, apparently framed his speech accordingly. He was a member of the "Society of Jesus," established by Loyola; a body oi men, carefully selected, educated in all the learning of their age as well as in theology, trained politicians and statesmen as well as priests, hav- ing no will or purpose except the will and purpose of their order, constituting a kingdom scattered through all kingdoms, controlled and directed in all things by an absolute authority, to which their vows exacted unques tionirig and implicit obedience, they were one of the most potent factors and constituted the most marvelous fact of the history of the last half of the sixteenth, and of the seventeenth centuries. They were often accused of holding the maxim, that "the end sanctities the means " Exempted by their papal charter from many of the rigid rules and observances which bound the monastic orders, little of their time was spent in pious meditations and reciting offices. They lived in no monastic seclusion, 6s Early History of the Fox River Valley. but were in and of the world, subtle and active, with the one great object, to extend the power and influence of the Church, and of their order. Therefore, this exhibi Hon of the humble devoted missionary in the role of the politician. CHAPTER VII. THE MISSIONS, 1 67 1-7 2-73 .— VOYAGE OF MARQUETTE AND JOETET TO THE MISSISSIPPI Before going to the grand council at the Sault. Allouez made a winter visit to the village of the Outa- garni s. Some of these people had been to the "French habitations" the previous summer and had received such treatment that they had formed a project to kill some of the French in revenge. Therefore, the traders at the Bay were afraid to go among them. They were numer- ous, being more than two hundred cabins, each contain- ing five or six, and some of them as many as ten families in a cabin. Father Dablon says of them: "Many other nations swell this one, or rather make of it a Babylon, by the licentiousness which there reigns as in its empire." Allouez started on the 20th day of February, 1671, and made his way twenty-four leagues, over snow and ice. to their village. He was six clays on this journey. He immediately began visiting from cabin to cabin, (~>4 Early History of the Fox River Vailcx "encouraging some by the hope of Paradise and intmii dating others by the fear of hell." The rebuffs and derision with which some received his instructions, and the horror he felt at entering the cabins of some of the chiefs who had eight or ten wives, did not dis- courage him. This rugged missionary must have had a wonderful facility of influencing the sav- age mind, for most of them soon began to listen to him and treat him with respect and even kindness. When he left them the old men promised that upon his coming again he would find a chapel, which they promised to erect. Father Allouez and Father Louis Andre, who had been appointed with him to the missions at and in the vicinity of the Bay of the Puants, deter- mined to establish the mission of St. Francis Xavier two leagues up the river, at the rapids afterward called the "Rapides des Peres." now the city of De Pere. There they erected a bark chapel and a cabin for themselves. They then divided the labor of their various missions. Father Andre working among the tribes around the bay shore, and Father Allouez going among the more remote tribes. The selection of the place for the chapel ai ! )e Pere was at a point where many tribes gathered for the fishing and hunting. Wild fowl and fish were sometimes taken in the same nets at the same time. At this place, as then described, a broad strip of prairie on each side of the river was backed bv woods of tall tim Early Hisidry of the Fox River Valley. 6 J ber, not very thick, in which bears, wild-cats and deer were found. The fishing device formerly described, of a barricade of stakes across the river, was used there. Father Andre did not shrink from perilous winter journeys either, [n December. 1671, he started on the ice to visit the nations on the west side of the Bay, and encountered perils and hardships, which none but a rugged man full of zeal would undertake. He spent most of the winter there and, finding the natives obdur- ate, he adopted a novel method of dealing with them. The}' were very fond of their children and he composed and taught the children to sing little canticles attacking the superstitions and practices of their fathers, selecting lively French airs for the music. Father Allouez continued his labors among the Outagamis and the tribes whom he found on the Fox river. Among the former he had succeeded in estab- lishing such a veneration for the sign of the cross that he erected a large cross in their village and the sign became in common use among them. A war party was made up to go against the Sioux and he told them the story of Constantine and the sign in the heavens. The warriors marked the cross on their shields and when they met their enemies made the sign of the cross and rushed into the combat with such vigor that the} were victorious. ( )n their return they published to those whom they saw 66 Early History of the Fox River Valley. the efficacy of the sign, which had given them the vic- tory. In 1671, the mission of the Holy Ghost on Chegoi- magon Bay. Lake Superior, was abandoned and one hundred and sixty-four years passed before the solemn celebration of the mass was again heard at La Pointe. The government of Canada had made a treaty with the savage Iroquois, under which the Algonquin and Huron friends of the French were to be left unmolested by that warlike nation. Father Allouez explained to the Foxes, whom he found mourning the death of six of their war- riors and the capture of thirty of their women by the Iroquois of the Seneca tribe, that they had not been included in the protection of that treaty for the reason that the French at the time of the treaty knew nothing about them. The bands of the Algonquin tribes had mostly dis- persed from Chegoimagon to the milder region farther south, leaving Father Marquette at La Pointe, with only a few of those and the Huron village near there, for his field of labor. They were there near to another power- ful confederacy, as powerful and as warlike as their old enemies. They had succeeded in keeping the peace with the Sioux for several years, but now trouble arose between them. There had been murders and the tor- ture of captives on both sides. The Sioux returned to Father Marquette the presents they had received from Early History of the Fox River Valley. Oj the missionaries, preparatory to going on the war-path. It was time for the Hurons to make their escape from the impending storm. They removed in a body to Point St. Ignace, on the north shore of the straits of Mackinaw and Father Marquette accompanied them and remained there with them. Frontenac, the governor of Canada, determined to send an expedition to find and explore the great river Mississippi. For the purpose he selected Louis Joliet, a young merchant and fur trader, who was born at Que- bec and educated by the Jesuits. He was but twenty- eight years old. Father Marquette had met some of the Illinois Indians at La Pointe and, being favorably im- pressed with them, as Dablon had been with the Miamis on the Fox river, he had desired to go among them to establish missions. At La Pointe he had employed one of their young men to teach him their language. He was selected to accompany Joliet on his expedition. Joliet came to St. Ignace and on May 17th, 1673, with two canoes and five men and a supply of smoked meat and corn, they set out from that place, on their voyage. On their route they visited the Menomonee Indians, then located at the mouth of the Menomonee river, on the west shore of Green Bay. The Menomo- nees endeavored to dissuade them from the perilous voyage, with tales of the savage tribes and frightful demons, who were said to infest the great river. They 68 Eariy History of the fox River Valley. passed Green Bay and paddled up the Fox river, where they found the country as beautiful and inviting as Dab- Ion had three years before. Marquette's narrative of the voyage is published in full in French and an English translation in Shea's "Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley." Tt is extremely interesting, but out- business now is only with the part which relates to the Fox River valley. No dates are given, nor much details until their arrival at the village of the Mascoutins and Miamis, which is so prominent a point in the history of the early explorations, heretofore described in these pages. They arrived there on June 7th, and found the Kickapoos there also. They remained until the morn- ing of June loth, when, with two Miami guides to con- duct them through the marshes and wild rice beds of Lakes Puckaway and Buffalo and the upper river, they launched out upon waters where they supposed white men had never before paddled a canoe. Probably Radis- son and Grosilliers had preceded them there fifteen years before, but the fact, if it was a fact, was unknown to them and had been useless in adding anything to the knowledge of the great river which had been derived from the natives. No further date is given, till their arrival at the mouth of the Wisconsin, on June 17th. Marquette was delighted to find a large white cross erected in the Alascoutin village, adorned with thank offerings of furs and skins, for their success in hunting. Early History of the Fox River Valley. 6p Allouez had planted it there. Marquette's description of the village and the maps of Marquette and Joliet oi their explorations will necessarily be considered in the next chapter, which will attempt to determine the exact location of this much mentioned and much visited vil- lage. CHAPTER VIII. LOCATION OF THE VILLAGE OF THE MASCOUTINS. "Eureka!" Which being freely translated, means in this instance, that 1 am so confident that I have found it, that I propose to state the exact spot where, as 1 have no doubt, the village of the Mascoutins was located, and to give in pretty full detail, the reasons for my conclusion. The sources of information from which it is to be deter- mined, and which I rely upon to establish the location are three: First, the accounts of Allouez, Dablon and Marquette, of their visits to the place, including their descriptions of the location and surroundings. Second, the maps of the Jesuits attached to the Relations of [670-71 and 1671-72, the map of Marquette attached to his report and published with it by Shea, in "The Dis- covery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley," and the map presented or dedicated to Frontenac, by Joliet, to which may be added the map attached to Thevenot's tLanv riiswry or the Fox River T'atie\ . y r edition of Marquette. Third, the topography of the country along the south side of the Fox river. By the upsetting of his canoe, just above Montreal. Joliet lost all his manuscripts, books and papers, on his return from his voyage with Marquette. But for this unfortunate accident, it is not improbable that we should have some details of the voyage, which we do not have. It is now conceded by those who have examined the narrative of Allouez's visit to the Mascoutins. that the "three leagues," which Marquette gives, as the distance of the Mascoutins from the Wisconsin, is a mistake; that he wrote, or intended to write thirty leagues, or three days. Butterfield in the "Discovery of the Northwest. by John Nicollet," is of the opinion that the Mascoutin village was in Green Lake county, Wis. Secretary Thwaites, of the Wisconsin State Historical Society, in his charming little work, entitled "Historic Waterways." says, speaking of the Fox river between Berlin and Omro. "It was somewhere about here, nearer Berlin than Omro." but exactly where, no man now knoweth, that the ancient Indian 'nation' of the Mascoutins was located, over two centuries ago." The distance from the junction of the Fox and Wolf rivers to the Wisconsin portage, by the river, is ninety- eight miles, according to the surveys of the engineers of the Fox and Wisconsin improvement. Allouez entered the Fox at the junction of the rivers, on the 29th of J 2 Earn' History of the Fox River Vanev. April, 1670, and reached the Mascoutins some time on the 30th. if he had been on the river the whole of both days, he could not have reached within three leagues of the Wisconsin, nor much more than half that distance. But he did not spend so much time on that river. After reaching- the Mascoutin landing place he walked a league (Dablon calls it a small league), to the "fort." After greasing the legs of his boatmen, the natives brought them refreshments. After that they prepared a feast, at which there was much speech making and cere- mony by the chiefs, and a long response by the Father. After that Allouez assembled the natives in the evening and explained his mission and the mysteries of the faith to them. All this consumed much time and it is pretty certain that his arrival there was not later than the middle of the day. At what hour he entered the river on the 29th. there is no means of determining. At the most he was not more than a day and a half, ascending the river, and it might have been not much, if any. more than a half a day. At that season of the year the river would be high and the current strong. Twenty miles with a canoe would be a large day's work. My conclu- sion is, that the location of the village must be sought within thirty miles or thereabouts, of the junction of the two rivers. Allouez, always intent upon his work for the salva- tion of souls, does not give much time or space to Early History 0/ the Pox Rive) Vam \\ 73 description of what he saw. His description of the vil- .age is very brief, lie says: "These people are estab- lished in a very tine place, where we see beautiful plains and level country as tar as the eve can reach." They informed him that there was navigation of only six davs. to reach the great river, the "Messisipi." The Kickapoos had a village four leagues from the Mascou-' tins, which he visited. They were probably located in a hilly or rolling region, as he speaks of them as "poor mountaineers." Father Dablon was a more enthusiastic admirer of the beauties of natural scenery. After passing the rapids o\ the lower Fox, he says: "We enter into the most beautiful country that can ever be seen, prairies on all sides, as far as the eve can reach, divided by a river which gently winds through them and on which to float, bv rowing, is to rest one's self. When we have arrived at this place, we have passed the forests and mountains: there are only small eminences planted with groves here and there." Fie describes the situation of the village as follows: "It is necessary to travel more than twenty leagues in this beautiful country, before we reach the 'Fire Nation,' which is situated on a little rising ground, whence nothing but vast prairies are seen, on every side, with some groves in various parts and which nature seems to have produced, only for the delight of the eyes or for the necessities of man, who cannot do without 77 Ear iv History of the Fox River Valley. wood." Dablon saw the country in September, when it was the most beautiful. The notables and part of the people, to do them honor, accompanied Dablon and Allouez to their canoes, "a small league," as he says, from their village. The ordinary French league was two and four-tenths miles. The short, or small league was about one and three-fourths miles. Marquette and Joliet reached the village of the Mas- coutins on the 7th of June, 1673. ^ s they approached it, Marquette "had the curiosity to drink the mineral waters of the river, which is not far from this town." His description of the place is as follows: "I felt no little pleasure in beholding the position of this town; the view is beautiful and very picturesque, for from the eminence on which it is perched, the eye discovers, on every side, prairies spreading away beyond its reach, interspersed with thickets or groves of lofty trees." The soil is repre- sented by all the Fathers as very productive. The Jesuit map of 167 1, of which a copy is given in the third volume of the earlier editions of Bancroft and also in "Historic Green Bay," represents the Fox river as coming to the junction with the Wolf from the south west, and represents the location of the Mascoutins at a distance up the Fox, which, according to the general scale of the map, might be something like twenty miles, more or less, from the junction of the two rivers. The Jesuit map of 1672, a copy of which may be found in Early History of the Pox River Vaiiey. 75 "Cartier to Frontenac/ 5 pages 208-9. represents the location substantially the same. These are the earliesl maps which attempt to give any representation of the country around and contiguous to Lake Winnebago. Of course they were drawn only from the memory of Allouez and another of the Fathers, and they had no guide except the memory and possibly notes of Allouez and Dablon as to the Fox. as they were the only ones who had seen it. My comparison for distance is with, the represented length of Lake Winnebago, of which Allouez had a pretty accurate idea, as shown by his Rela- tion of his first trip, in April, 1670. The map of Marquette, published by Shea in the "Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley/' locates the Mascoutins about the same relative distance above the junction of the rivers. \t gives the course oi the Fox much less accurately than the maps before men- tioned, representing it ns coming to the junction from west-north-west for a considerable distance above the Mascoutins. The map published in France, as Marquette's, if not made by him, was evidently made after his famous voyage, bv some one who knew what he had seen as it represents the two small lakes. Puckaway and Buffalo. 011 the upper Fo v , much more distinctly than the one published by Shea. There are very marked differences in the two, in the course laid down for the Fox. fn the 7 6 Eariv History of the Fox River Valley. location of the Mascoutins, it agrees substantially with the maps of the Jesuit Relations. A copy is found in "Carrier to Frontenac," page 248. The map presentee 1 , to Frontenac, by Joliet. does not give the location of any missions or villages, but will be referred to later, for another purpose. The copy which I have, on a scale large enough to show small details, is in a work entitled "History of Northern Wisconsin." published at Chi- cago, in 1881. I have good reason to believe that it is an accurate copy. All of these maps and especially the maps of the Jesuit Relations, represent the chain of lakes above Lake Winnebago — Butte des Morts. Winneconne and Poy- gan — as an arm or dee]) bay of Lake Winnebago. 1 attribute this to the fact that Allouez, the only one of the Fathers who had been through them, went there in April, when the rivers were high and the marshes along the short stretches of river between them were very full. giving the appearance of an almost continuous lake. There is further evidence in the narratives of the Fathers, that the location of the Mascoutins was not very far up the Fox. Allouez was informed by the Mas- coutins, or Miamis, that it was but six days' canoeing to the Mississippi river. Marquette and Joliet left the vil- lage on the morning of the 10th of June. They reached the Mississippi on the 17th. at what hour we do not know. Thev were therefore seven days and some frac Early History of the Fox River Valley. yj lion of the eighth in the voyage. They took two Miami guides to guide them through the marshes and wild rice beds of the upper Fox, where a stranger, without a pilot would then, as now, be in danger of often rinding himself in a "cul de sac." at the end of some bayou, which he had mistaken for the channel. On the Wisconsin they found, as main have since, seme difficulty in the navigation, on account of the sand bars. But from three to four days was probably ample time for the descent of that river. It has been made in two days. Secretary Thwaites with a companion made it, in a small skiff in less than four days, making short days, as he narrates in "Historic Waterways." ( i ). It seems pretty certain that Marquette, was at least three days in reaching the Wisconsin river. Dablon after passing the flinty rapids, at the fall of which they toppled the Lndian Idol into the river, enters upon the beautiful country through which he says, it is necessary to travel more than twenty leagues to reach the Mascoutins. Twenty leagues from that point would carry them above the village of Omro, in Winnebago county. From all this evidence, it is reasonably clear that if the location of the village of the Mascoutins is found, it must be looked for, not more and probably much less, than thirty miles from the junction of the Fox and Wolf rivers. The place was reached by walking two miles, more or less, from the landing place of the canoe; it was fi Eafiv Historv of the Fox River V alley. on elevated ground, from which the eye could see the surrounding country for a long distance in every direc- tion; it had a soil of great fertility, and should have near it, on the route to it, a mineral spring or springs. If a place is found which answers to all these particulars, it is probably the place. If but one place can be found, which corresponds essentially with these particulars, it is cer- tainly the place. In "Historic Waterways," Mr. Thwaites standing on the bank of the Fox at Sacramento, three or four miles below Berlin, speculates on the possibility that that place might have been the landing, from which Allouez walked a league over beautiful prairies to the "fort" of the Mascoutins. If he had walked south over the prairie a mile or more, he would have found himself on a ridge of land, sloping both to the north and south and rising higher toward the west. If he had followed that ridge toward the west, something more than a mile, perhaps half a mile more he would have found himself on a hill, which, for elevation and outlook would fully comply with the descriptions of the Jesuit Fathers, but he would also find himself standing on a broad pleateau of solid granite, which is now being worked into paving blocks for city streets. Toward the north he would find a sheer granite cliff, toward the vest a steep descent into the city of Berlin down a sandy hill and toward the south a more gradual descent. It is not such a spot as an Indian vil- Eany History of the Fox River Valley. 7 9 lage was ever established upon. On that solid rock no palisade could be erected. Water which is essential to an Indian village would be too remote. If the Fathers had found a village on such a spot, they would not have been profuse in praise of the fertility of the soil and omitted any mention of the most prominent feature, the rocks. If a traveler on the Fox river should land at the vil- lage of Eureka and follow the highway from that village south, he would find that just south of the village the road crosses a narrow marsh by a deep fill or embank- ment several feet deep, without which the marsh would be impassable. Ascending the hill beyond the marsh, (a pretty steep ascent), about one mile from his landing place, if he turned to the right, by a highway turning west, at a right angle to the one by which he ascended, he would make the turn on the crest of a ridge, from which the first highway mentioned descends a long slope to the south to a low marshy ground about half a mile in width, from winch it ascends again to the beautiful prairie known, in the days of the early settlement, as Democrat prairie. Following the other highway to the west, nearly half a mile, he would find himself on an elevated plateau of very fertile land. Stepping a few feet to the south from the highway, he would stand on the highest point of this plateau. Looking back toward the east, down the rise of the ridge mentioned and turning- So Early History of the Pox River Vatcey. slowly around to the left, his eye would see a long reach of the Fox river below Eureka and then sweep across the low lands and marshes on the north side of the river, backed in the distance, by the level timber land which stretches away to the Wolf river and Lake Povgan. As he continued to turn toward the west, he would see the Fox river to the great bend just below Berlin, the marsh above Eureka, the prairie of Sacramento and. still turn- ing, the broad expanse of Democrat prairie, rolling and beautiful. When his eye reached south, south-east, if the day was clear, he might see the spires of the city of Ripon over ten miles away, in Fond du Lac count}'. Turning still farther toward the east, if the "little groves of timber" did not impede his vision, he would see the water and marsh of Rush lake, three miles away, "As far as the eve can reach," he would see, in every direction the panorama described by Allouez, Dablon and Mar- quette, excepting the changes made by the improve- ments of civilized man, which increase the utility but mar the beauty of the landscape. Before civilization had done its work in the vicinity, a canoe voyager who desired to reach that hill, would find where Eureka now is, the best canoe landing between the present site of Omro and Sacramento. Leaving his canoe there, one of the first objects which would attract his attention would have been springs strongly impregnated with mineral substances gushing from the bank, discoloring the grass Early History 0/ the Box River Valley. 81 and nauseous to the smell and taste. If he had read Marquette's report, lie would he reminded of the curiosity of the good Father, "to drink of the mineral waters which are near this town." After ascending the rather steep hank, he would have to make a detour to the left, to avoid the narrow marsh directly south of the landing". Doing this, he would ascend gradually to the crest of the ridge before mentioned, and following it up to the highest point, the view from which has been described, he would have walked about two miles from his landing; the league of Allouez and the small league of Dablon. Inspecting the surroundings of the sightly spot, a short distance to the north, he would have found a gradual slope, breaking off suddenly to a very steep descent of seventy-five feet, more or less, to the marsh below . To the west he would have found the same con- dition, with the descent not quite as steep as to the north. At this point the road to the west before spoken of, necessarily makes an an^ie of about forty-five degrees to the south-west to get down the steep declivity and avoid landing in a too wet marsh. From the summit, as from the whole length of the ridge the land descends to the south by a more gentle descent and is cultivated, down to the low 7 marshy land before mentioned, beyond which the land rises to the fine rolling Democrat prairie. A few rods Iron, the summit toward the south-west a large spring pours out a copious supply of pure water. 82 Early History of the Fox River Vauey. It would be difficult to imagine a spot more exactly fitting in with the descriptions of the Fathers in every particular, even to the mineral waters of which Mar- quette drank. But the evidence is not yet closed. Marquette was a missionary intent on the missionary work and on the scheme which he had entertained for two years, of carry- ing the gospel to the tribes of the Illinois. Naturally he would spend the two days of their stay at this village in getting from the Miamis all the information that he could about those tribes and their country and would mark the location of the Mascoutin mission on his map. Joliet who could not talk with the Indians without an interpreter would naturally be more interested in the topography of the country and would investigate the surroundings, more than Marquette would. On his map. presented to Frontenac, Joliet does not attempt to give the location of the village, but does give the location of the region of country occupied by the Mascoutins. On his map is represented a small lake, with the outlet run- ning nearly north a short distance to the Fox river. There is but one such lake, with such an outlet, on the south side of that river. That is Rush lake, situated in Winnebago county. Contiguous to this lake, Joliet locates the country of the Mascoutins. It is three miles in a south-easterly direction from the summit of the eminence before described. The trapping grounds of Earty History of the Fox River Valley. 83 the Mascoutins were around this lake and the Fox river. They hunted wild cattle and buffalo on Democrat prairie. Their fortified village and place of refuge, if pressed by their enemies, was at the place I have described, situated on the east half of Section 32, in Township 18 north, of Range 14. east, in the town of Rushford, Winnebago county, Wisconsin. The high- way described as going west is on the quarter line, between the north-east and south-east quarter sections, and the angle to descend the declivity to the south-west, is at the centre of the section. This is the only place south of the Fox river, which fulfills the descriptions of the Fathers, and the added evidence of Joliet's map makes the argument conclusive. The only objection made by any person to whom 1 have suggested this location, is that when the white settlers began to occupy Democrat prairie there was a growth of burr oak timber on this ridge, from which they split rails for their first fences. Tt is not probable, however, that man) trees, if any, could have been found among that timber, which had a growth, of a century. It was not a dense forest, but might be better described as rather thick openings. All along the ridge described and around Rush lake, have been found numerous Indian relics of arrow heads, stone hatchets and the like. There was one large mound in the village of Eureka, full 84 Earlv History oj the Fox River Vahev. of bones of dead Indians and another on the ridge soutli of that village. (2). NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII. ( [). Capt. Thomas G. Anderson, on his first trip to the Mississippi, as a traders clerk, in the year 1800, claims to have made the run from the portage to Prairie Du Chien, with a rather heavily laden canoe, in eighteen hours. ("Personal Narrative," IX Wis., Hist. Coll. 147)- (2). Mt. Tom. in the town of St. Marie twelve miles or thereabouts south-west of the city of Berlin, in Green Pake county, has been suggested as the site of the Mas coutin village. It is a hill or small mountain, somewhat steep and rocky, rising up out of a sandy plain and the top of it could hardly have been the site of any Indian village. It would correspond with the descriptions of the Fathers, only in its distance from the river, about two miies, and in no other particular. Hon. A. J. Tur- ner, of Portage, has called my attention to a place on the river near and a short distance below the city of Prince- ton, called St. Marie, where there is a spring, which a Catholic tradition claims was blessed by Father Mar- quette. A rustic chapel is erected there and devout Catholics make pilgrimages to it. I do not know the origin of the tradition, or that it is claimed that this is Early History of the Fox River Valley. 85 the spring, near the Mascoutin village alluded to in Mar- quette's narrative. It is certainly much farther up the river than Allouez could have reached, on his first visit to the Mascoutins. It is about the right distance for a camping place at the tnd of the first clay of the voyage of Marquette and his companions after leaving the vil- lage of the Mascoutins. It is quite possible that they camped there for the night. Marquette's only allusion to a spring anywhere is the statement that he had the curiosity to drink of the mineral waters of the river, which was near the town. Mineral springs are so numerous at points along the river, that this alone would he slight evidence. I am indebted to \V. C. Cowling, of Princeton. Wis., who made some investigation at my request, for further information here given. The spring known as Marquette's well, is one of a considerable number of springs in a marshy spot. The story that it was blessed by Father Marquette is of comparatively recent origin. but the little brick chapel directly across the river from the spring is much older. The exact date of its erection could not be ascertained, but Mr. Cowling concludes that it was about the year [855. The altar and the chan- cel decorations are beautiful, including a hue picture of the Madonna and child, and are well cared for. ( )utside the chancel the chapel is neglected within and without and dilapidated. A cut of the chapel from a kodak taken bv Mrs. Cowling" i.s given in this book. 86 Early History of the Fox River Vailev. I have been surprised to find that there is a legend, believed by many Catholics that Marquette once had a mission at this place and that this chapel was erected by him. If Marquette stopped there it could have been no more than for one night. CHAPTER IX. THE RESULTS OF MISSIONARY WORK. DEPARTURE OF ALLOUEZ. in the year that Allouez commenced the mission of St. Francis Xavier at Green Bay. the celebrated Indian Bible of John Elliott was published as a means for Chris- tianizing the natives, then within a few miles of Massa- chusetts Bay. Nothing remains on the earth that can, in the remotest degree, be traced to the labors of that apostolic man. No man now living can read that Bible. The tribes for whose edification Elliott had constructed a grammar of an unwritten language and translated this Bible have long" since disappeared. The Bibliolatry of the Puritan minister and the cold, unadorned service as conducted in the Puritan meeting house of that day, would hardly find any trait or quality of the Indian character to which they could appeal. The Puritan minister of that time has no counterpart now, and the meeting 1 house, with its high pulpit, sounding board and SS Early History of the Fox River Valley. utter disregard for the comfort of those who were com- pelled to attend the preaching there lias disappeared. There are still spires pointing heavenward in Wisconsin, beneath which some of the dusky descendants of some of those to whom Allouez tried to explain the mysteries of the faith, from the Jesuit standpoint, assemble each Sunday morning to perform their devotions and witness the solemn ceremonial, and listen to the same solemn words used by Allouez at Green Bay on the 3rd of December, 1669, and on the shore of Lake Winnebago, near the mouth of the Fox River, on the joth day of April, 1670. The immediate and visible results of the labors of Allouez and Andre were scarcely greater than those of Elliott and Mayhew. But the Jesuits had a con- solation in their lonely wanderings which the Puritans could not have. When Marquette reached Green Bav. three and one-half years after the arrival of Allouez, he records as evidence of the success of the labors of \llouez and Andre that they had baptized more than two thousand, since they had been there. One who should infer from this that they had any considerable fraction of that number living and professing to be Christians, would be m error. With their universal polygamy, the births among the natives were numerous. But. under the conditions ^'\ existence among them, the law of the survival of the fittest worked relentlessly. One of the pressing duties of the Jesuit missionary, which was never absent from Marly Htstvrv of the Fox River Valhx. 8q his mind, was to seek out the mat upon which a dying child was about to leave the world, and by some means, surreptitiously, under false pretense of administering medicine or otherwise, to snatch a soul from the very gate of hell and. dispatch it to paradise by baptism. A soul so saved was as valuable as one saved after the trials, temptations and dangers of a long life, and their first business was the salvation of souls. Accordingly, all through the Relations we rind exulting statistics of the number of souls dispatched to paradise in this way. Nor was this method confined to children. Dying men and women were baptized whenever found. The Relation of 1671-72 tells how Vilouex lost his way in the forest toward the Outagamis 1>\ going out of his way to seek a dying woman, and was compelled to stay alone in the woods through the night, ff their success among the living was not great, they could comfort themselves with their success among the dying. They were cautious and conservative about baptizing even those who professed a desire to become Christians, keeping them under in- struction as neophytes a long time and steadfaslty refus- ing baptism to those who would not renounce polygamy. A person who has read one n\ the Relations has read all as to their mode of procedure. When they could. the\ assembled the men of a village and explained the mvsteries of the faith to them. Day after day they passed from cabin to cabin, talking to and instructing men. women and children. Bui the hope of Christian!/.- go Earty History of the fox -River Vaney. ing whole tribes vanished when the Hurons were driven from their homes by the Iroquois and were scattered in fragmentary bands; for among the Hurons. their work had been most successful. The missionaries there had given their lives, under cruel tortures, with a fortitude which might excite the admiration of a stoic. No mis- sionary annals in the world, except those of the Jesuit missions in Japan, could exhibit so long a roll of mar- tyrs, in proportion to their numbers, as the little band of Jesuits in New France. They were but fifteen, in all. when Frontenac came there. From the first they had struggled against the sale of brandy to the Indians, with- out success. The profits of the trade in which governors and officials were often, usually silent, but scarcely con- cealed partners, were great and probably no other com- modity of the same value would purchase as many beaver skins or peltries, as brandy, (i). Father Allouez had erected crosses in the villages of the Outagimis and the Mascoutins, in 1672. In December, 1672, the bark cabin and chapel of the father at De Pere, was burned. A church had been erected at Sault Ste. Marie in 1671, and the natives at the Bay showed some jealousy, be- cause no church had been built at the mission among them, and the next year, after the burning of their chapel, the erection of a church was commenced. This was completed in 1673. It was inclosed by a stockade. in which were storehouses, workshops and dwellings, the traders having their station there. Early History of (he frox River Valley. gi It is apparent that after the Indians became satisfied that the missionaries had no occult or thaumaturgic power, and that the sign of the cross would not give them victory against enemies stronger than themselves, they began to regard the Fathers with less respect than at first. Doubtless, the medicine men and dreamers of dreams among them were not inactive in opposition to the black robes, whose success would end their occupa- tion and influence. After all their labors and trials, the fathers had little to console them except the remem- brance of the thousands of souls whom they had snatched from the clutches of the evil one by baptism, in their last earthly hours. Father Marquette returned from his exploration of the Mississippi with greatly impaired health. After de- scending that river to the mouth of the Arkansas River, they had returned, and. turning into the Illinois River, had paddled up a branch of that river (the Wau-ke-sha nr Little Fox), portaged across to the Chicago River and returned by Lake Michigan. After a voyage of over 2,700 miles, worn out and sick with dysentery, he turned the prow of his canoe into Green Bay and sought much needed rest at the mission of St. Francis Xavier. deeming all his fatigue repaid by an opportunity which he improved to baptize one dying Indian child. (Shea, p. 52). He arrived there in September, 1673, and was compelled to remain until November of the following year, when his malady having been relieved, he set out 9 >y gy ered from Shea's note on Father Allouez, in connection with the father's narrative of his first voyage to Illinois. It is certain that Allouez did not wish, to meet La Salle. This is not the place to enter into the cause, or the charge that Allouez incited the Indians of Illinois against La Salle. The subject will be mentioned in another connection. XOTES TO CHAPTER IX. (i). Father Membre informs us that on La Salle'* second trip to the country of the Illinois, he was detained three weeks at Michilimacinac, trying to purchase a supply of corn. Fie could get none in exchange for either goods, or money. At last he was compelled to offer liquor for corn and obtained sixty sacks in one day. (Shea. Dis. and Ex. 162). CHAPTER X. ADIEU TO THE JESUITS— THE EARLY FUR TRADERS. One noticeable characteristic of the Jesuit Relations is their careful avoidance of all mention of the doings, and even of the names, of anybody but themselves and the Indians among whom they labored. Occasionally, where information is received from some person, which may be useful in their p 1 ans, as in the case of Nicollet, they mention a name. When it is necessary to a full explanation of their own acts they mention others, as in the case of the trouble which Allouez and Dablon found between the bush-rangers and the Indians, at Green Bay, in the fall of 1670. When an allusion is made to the other white men among the natives, they are spoken of as some, or so many, ''Frenchmen." Even in Mar- quette's narrative of the voyage to the Mississippi River, he mentions- only incidentally that the day on which "M. Jollyet arrived with orders of the Comte de Frontenac, our Governor, and M. Talon, our Intendent, to make this discovery with me," was identical with the' Early History of the Fox River Valley. gg day of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Vir- gin. "M. Jollyet" is named but five times in the narra- tive which follows, and only when the narrative would be incomplete without it. But for this reticence as to others, we might have had many interesting facts relat- ing to the eariy history of the Northwest, of which there is no account. What the Jesuit Fathers might have accomplished if peace had reigned through all the land, we can only conjecture. The wars of the French with the English and the powerful Iroquois, and the wars among the savage tribes, interfered with their work. It is not improbable that the type of savage life and charac- ter, which they found among most of the tribes then in Wisconsin, would have been an insuperab.e obstacle to any great success under any circumstances. How much the example and influence of the other French "Chris- tians." with whom the savages had dealings, contributed to their want of success, we can only conjecture, but it is pretty certain that they were more apt pupils in the vices of the white men than in their religion. There were certain 1 ) 7- six and perhaps more French- men at Green Bay before Allouez arrived. Two had been among the Foxes and by their conduct, aroused a prejudice against the French. Doubtless some of them had been among the other tribes in the vicinity. Among the Pottawatomies they had so conducted that members of that tribe had urged Allouez to visit them, before he came, for the purpose of restraining the excesses of the LofC. too Early History of ike Fox River Valley. traders. The "Coureurs de Bois" were then mostly young men, hardy, enterprising*, energetic, but, away from all the restraints of a civilized social state, reckless in their disregard of the laws of God and man. Their numbers were increasing for the wild free life of a bush- ranger had a fascination for the youths of Canada as well as for many who came across the sea, and the traffic in furs was the only field for independent enterprise. The meagerly paid officials of the government, from the Governor and Intendent down, were supposed to be connected with the traffic in some way. Men of energy and ability, of decayed fortune, like Frontenac, sought and obtained appointments in the distant colony. It seems to have been expected that, in some way, they would mend their fortunes. (i). Men of noble blood, scions of aristocracy, as well as those of more humble origin, sought fortune in the new country, where the only avenue to fortune was through this trade. It was in vain, under such conditions, that orders from the King forbade any trade with the Indians, outside of the settlements. Officials who would gladly have enforced the law against those who were in the interest of their rivals, were themselves profiting by the same illicit traffic, and the bushrangers, sometimes remaining years away from the settlements, managed to find a market and profit in the forbidden trade. Some of the most enterprising followed the Indians on their annual hunts. Thev, as well as the missionaries, could live with and like Barlv Historv of the Fox River Vallev. roi the Indians. Many of them, in romantic phrase, wooed and won the dusky maidens of the forest for their brides; in the plain vernacular married squaws. These unions were not always, probably not often, blessed by the Church and their permanency was not an assured cer- tainty. The conspicuous "footprints on the sands of time" which they left behind them, were a large popula- tion of mixed blood, which did not diminish so long- as only the fur trade attracted white men to these remote regions. (2). Among the bushrangers were some of a higher type, like Nicholas Perrot, shrewd, intelligent and capable; even men like Daniel Greysolon du Lhut, scion of the lesser nobility of France and cousin to La Salle's able, brave, indomitable lieutenant, the man with the iron hand, Henri de Tonty. Habitual law breakers as they were, Perrot and du Phut rendered great service to the government whose laws they disregarded. The headquarters of Perrot seem to have been at Green Ba\ for several years. No other Frenchman had acquired such influence among the savages around and along the waters of the upper lakes and their tributary streams. Upon his first arrival at Green Bay, he had induced the Menomonees and Pottawatomies to settle a quarrel, about which they were inclined to go hunting for each others scalps, and all through his career in the west, no other white man seemed able to control the restless savages to the same or a similar extent. 102 Early History of the Fox River Valley. When La Salle fitted out his expedition for the Illi- nois country, he had built a small vessel of about sixty tons, which was the first sailing- craft ever on the waters of the upper lakes. She is sometimes spoken of as the first to reach Green Bay. But it is not probable that her white canvas was ever seen at the mouth of the Fox River, La Salle had sent out men in advance, to collect peltries. It seems they had succeeded in purchasing a considerable quantity which were ready for the arrival of the ''Griffin," as Parkman spells the name, or ''Griffon,'' as it is spelled by Winsor. Here La Salle found (which he did not often find, in his expeditions) a friend in a Pottawatomie chief, whom Frontenac had, in some way, attached to himself and who was, therefore, a friend of Frontenac's friends. La Salle's commission for- bade him to trade with the Ottawas, the "Outaouacs" • )t the Jesuit Relations, under which general name they included all the tribes west of Lake Huron who visited Montreal to market their peltries. But, as the Governor was a partner, or interested in the profits of his enter- prises, La Salle could disregard such limitations of his authority. He was bound then, on his first disastrous expedition to Illinois, but, according to Hennapin's account, he determined to send the Griffon back with the furs already secured, without consulting any of* his followers and, probably, added thereby to the discon- tent, which had already caused many desertions among the rather motley company with which he had set out. Early History of the Fox River Valley. fo? The Griffon sailed September 18th. 1679. and was not heard of again, except in rumors which could not be verified. The loss was serious to both La Salle and his creditors, who were pressing* him. La Salle's Louisiana patent, which authorized him to build forts and take pos- session of an empire, all at his own expense, gave him a monopoly therein of the trade in buffalo skins, which promised to become, important. A great expedition against the Iroquois was planned by La Barre. and Du Lhut had been sent among the western tribes to induce them to join in the proposed attack upon the common enemy. He had been unsuc- cessful and meeting Perrot at Mackinaw induced him to try what his influence among the savages could do. Perrot with presents for the Indians and carrying among them the tomahawk, the emblem of war, visited the tribes in the vicinity of Green Bay. Five hundred war- riors, including some of the treacherous and uncertain Outagamis, gathered at Mackinaw for the expedition. It required all of Perrot's address and skill to keep the Foxes from turning back on the route. When Duran- taye, Du Lhut and Perrot arrived at Niagara with a force of one hundred and fifty bushrangers and five hundred Indians, they were informed that La Barre had established a truce with the enemy which gave no pro- tection to the western allies of the French, and they re- turned home, indignant. 204 Early History of the Fox River Valley. The Fox and Wisconsin route to the Mississippi had before 1684 seen many canoes of travelers, adventurers and traders pass up and down the placid waters of the upper Fox and the turbulent rapids of the river below Lake Winnebago. Father Louis Hennapin. who had ascended the Mis- sissippi from La Salle's fort Crevecoeur, on the Illinois River early in 1680 and had been captured and detained, with two companions, by the Sioux, is regarded with suspicion as an authority, when recounting his own deeds. In the summer of that year, I)n Lhut, who had penetrated from Lake Superior to the upper Mississippi and had been over two years, in the woods, found Hen- napin and his companions detained by the Sioux. They were released after Du Lhut joined them and returned to Canada by the Wisconsin and Fox River route. They slept a night at the portage, as Hennapin says, "to leave marks and crosses on the trees." (3). Tn describing the descent of the F^ox he says it winds wonderfully "for after six hours sailing we found ourselves opposite the place where we started." Tt is not improbable that they wandered among bayous instead of keeping the channel. They had no guides, as Marquette had seven years be- fore, through the marshes and wild rice beds. From Flennapin's account it appears that the Miamis, whom Allouez. Dablon and Marquette had found with the Mas- coutins, had left. He says : "We passed four lakes, two pretty large, on the banks of which the Miamis had for- Early History of the Fox River Valley. /oj merly resided. We found Mascoutens, Kickapous and Outagamy there, who sow Indian corn for their subsist- ance." They made a portage at a rapid called Kakalin and arrived at .the "Bay of the Fetid." Here Hennapin savs: "We found Frenchmen trading", contrary to orders, with the Indians." Th.ev remained there two days, "to rest, sing t lie Te Deum high mass and to preach." He had not celebrated mass for over nine months, because he had no wine. He found a Frenchman who had a little wine and he relates how, providentially, he had Father Membre's vestments with him so that he was enabled to celebrate the mass. Hennapin's habits of exaggeration and invention of facts even, to enhance his own import- ance, was equalled by his suppression of facts when it suited his purpose. It is probable that he was a guest at the mission of St. Francis Xavier during his stay there, but. from his narrative, no idea would be suggested that there was ever a priest there, or a mass said there, before that time, or that there was, or ever had been, a Jesuit mission there. The French of the party confessed and communed. One of them traded a gun for a larger canoe and they went on to Mackinaw. 1 lennapin and Du Unit missed, by a few days only, meeting Tonty and Father Membre at Green Bay. In the summer of 1680, after the establishment of La Salle among the Illinois was looted by his own men, who deserted, and the Illinois had vanished before the inva- sion of the Iroquois, Tonty, with three other men and job Early History of the Fox River Valley. Fathers Gabriel Ribourde and Membre, started with a broken leaky canoe to try to make their way to the Pot- tawatomies. While they were trying to mend the canoe one day. Father Gabriel Ribourde strayed into a grove to say his breviary, met three Kickapoos of a small war party against the Illinois, who killed and scalped him and threw his body into a hole. As he did not return and they could find no trace of him they went on the next morning, hoping to find that he had walked ahead along the river bank. Finally, being compelled to aban- don the leaky canoe (probably one of the wooden canoes of the Illinois), they traveled on foot up the west side of Lake Michigan and after great suffering, and nearly famished, they reached a Pottawatomie village, not far from Green Haw After resting and recruiting their ex- hausted energies thev went to the mission of St. Francis Xavier, which they reached about October 22nd. only a few days after Hennapin and Du Phut, with their men, had started from there for Mackinaw. Polity's party had no canoe and it was getting late in the season for a canoe to go to Mackinaw and return. which, probably, was the reason that they remained at Green Bay (or rather at De Pere), until the thaw of the following spring. In strong contrast to the reticence of Hennapin 011 the subject, Membre warmly acknowledges the hos- pitality of the Jesuit Fathers there. In the spring Early History oj the Pox River Valley. 107 Father Enjalran, who was then at this mission, himself took them in a canoe to Mackinaw. Before passing entirely from the Jesuit missions and missionaries to other topics, this seems a proper place to allude to the relations between the Jesuits, and especially Father Allouez, and La Salic. This unfortunate adven- turer attributed his disasters largely to Jesuit machina- tions against him. All the priests who accompanied his expeditions were the gray-gowned Recollects of the Franciscans, who had formerly relinquished the mis- sionary work in Canada to the Jesuits. He had, or thought he had, reason to believe that Allouez had plot- ted against the success of his first great enterprise, the establishment of Fort Frontenac. It seems certain that Allouez retired from the Illinois mission of Marquette when he heard of the approach of La Salle, with his first expedition to that region, and returned to Wisconsin. When La Salle was received hospitably and, apparently with great pleasure by the Illinois Indians, their chiefs seem to have changed their minds suddenly, in one night, and discouraged his plans. In the night, a Mas- coutin chief, named Monso, had appeared with live or six MiamiSj and held a secret council with the Illinois chiefs against 1 .a Salle, representing him to be in the interest of their enemies, the hated Iroquois. La Salle attributed this intrigue to Allouez. (See Parkman, Dis. etc., ]). 161 and note). The Jesuits had entertained a design, it is said, of 108 Early History of the Fox River Valler. establishing a "New Paraguay'' in Canada and. when that became hopeless, then in the Mississippi valley. (Parkman, Disc etc.. pp. 97-99). There was no love between the Jesuits and the wandering fur traders. whose influence among the savages, was very demoral- izing. But La Salle was a fur trader on an enlarged scale, whose plans contemplated the occupation, per- manently, of the advantageous points, with great forti- fied trading posts and colonization to some extent. The "Coureurs de Bois," who had become a numerous body, without organization but allied in feeling and by the character of their occupation, out of sympathy or har- mony with such schemes as La Salle's, did not look favorably upon them. In fact every interest in New France, excepting that of the governor. Frontenac, who was interested in them personally, was antagonized by his schemes. The merchants saw a prospect of the trade being diverted from Quebec and Montreal, to posts far out in the wilderness; there was scarcely a family of any standing which was not represented in some way in the fur trade. The Jesuits saw destruction to their plans and hopes and the centres of missionary enterprise likely to be occupied by the poverty-bound Franciscans, who read their breviaries faithfully and ignored all worldly interests, except as they might open a way for Chris- tianity. In the view of the Jesuits, opposition to them and opposition to religion were synonymous. [11 addition to all these antagonistic forces, there was Early History of the Fox River Valley. log an insurmountable obstacle to the success of La Salle, in his own character. Almost invariably, he secured the hatred, or indifference of those who followed him. The brave and chivalrous Tonty and the gentle and honest Father Membre were almost alone, in their unselfish devotion to him. His character as portrayed by Park- man ("Discovery of the Great West," pp. 364-366), would account for his disastrous failures and his death, finally at the hand of one of his own men. He could con- ceive great enterprises, but could not execute them, be- cause he lacked some of the essential qualities of a great leader. NOTES TO CHAPTER X. (1). The Memoir of the King, petition of the Inha- bitants of Detroit to the Intendent, on the reply of M. Gatineau and remonstrance of M. de Tonty, then com- mandant, in the "Cass Mss." (III. Wis. Hist. Coll., 167- 177), throw light on the manner of providing for the expenses of the French posts and the compensation of the commandants. They had the control of the fur- trade and paid the expenses out of their profits. The grants to La Salle, illustrated the system, on a large scale. (2). The Indians regarded the French as a superior order of beings. It seems that those who had daughters were not averse to the addition of half-breed grand-ehib i io Early History of the Fox River Valley. dren to their families. ("Cass Ms." III., W. H. Coll., 147). Indeed, chastity seems not to have been con- sidered a virtue, except in married women, whose dere- lictions were severely punished. (Ibid. 141 -142). (3). It is not easy to conjecture the purpose of this, unless it was to mark the boundaries of La Salle's grant of trading privileges. This included the tributaries of the Mississippi, of which the Wisconsin was one. CHAPTER XI. LA SALLE MAKES TROUBLE IN THE FOX RIVER VALLEY. PERROT PROMOTED. THE FOXES. La Salle's first patent of Louisiana authorized him to erect forts and trade on all the rivers which flowed into the Mississippi. After the way had been opened, by way of the Fox-Wisconsin route to the Mississippi, it cannot be doubted that the enterprising bushrangers who had become a numerous body around the region of the straits of Mackinaw and Green Bay, availed them- selves of the opportunities for adventure and trade thereby opened to them. Probably, while Du Lhut was carrying on his illicit traffic, between Lake Superior and the upper waters of the Mississippi, canoes loaded with goods for traffic with the natives lower down the river, were passing up the Fox and down the Wisconsin, tres- passing on the trading domain covered by the grant to La Salle. The bushrangers were trading everywhere, as those found by Hennapin at Green Bay, in the fall of lis Ectrlv History of the Fox River Valley. 1680 were, "contrary to orders." Whether La Salle claimed that La Baye was within his grant, as stated in "Historic Green Bay," (p. 72), or not, the Wisconsin clearly was within it. It is said that he ordered that no trader should pass that way without a commission from him and gave the Indians permission to plunder and even murder those who should attempt it. The unruly Foxes and other tribes, who were willing to plunder any- body if they had any semblance of authority for it, doubtless considered this sufficient authority and it is said that some fierce and bloody encounters followed. Frontenac, the friend and partner of La Salle, had been recalled and La Barre had succeeded him as gover- nor. To quiet the disturbance on the Fox River, in the spring of 1685 Perrot was commissioned by the new governor. He was not only to command at Green Bay, but also, in the "most distant countries of the west" and in all that he might discover. It is probable that the personal influence of Perrot among the savages and the knowledge that he, if any man, could combine the bush- rangers to act in harmony, had a large influence in quiet- ing them for a time. The force which followed this new commandant, with which he was to uphold the authority of his most Christian Majesty, Louis XIV, in this rather wide and undefined domain, was twenty men. La Barre did not favor La Salle, or his plans. He sent an officer to relieve Tonty and supersede him in the command of Fort St. Louis, which was cleanly a violation of the Early Historv of the Fox River Valley. i rj rights of La Salle under his grant from the King. But the King was a long way off and much might be done, perhaps, before an order to restore the command to Tonty could be procured. It was charged (probably with truth) that La Barre had some schemes of his own for managing the fur trade in the west. The appoint- ment of Perrot may have had some connection with those schemes. Perrot was empowered to build forts and stockades, probably at his own expense, as La Salle did, to be paid for out of the profits of the trade which would thus be secured. The English traders were inter- fering with the tribes even as far as the Fox River val- ley. Their emissaries had tampered with the treacher- ous Foxes and renegade Frenchmen were piloting them. At the north the English traders from Hudson's bay were extending their trade south. Measures were taken to counteract this tendency of the trade of the French to slip away from them. One of those measures was the appointment of Perrot. lie, probably, did not remain a very long time at the Bay. It was not long before he fol- lowed the track of Marquette and Toliet to the great river, with a small part)' of men and was planting the flag of France on forts and stockades, lie established one near the mouth of the Wisconsin, and another at Lake Pepin. The Fox River tribes did not remain quiet long, if Perrot quieted them at all. It is said that they were 114 Early History of the Fox River Valley. anxious for his favor and brought him presents of bear and other skins and smoked the calumet with him. The Jesuit missions among the tribes up the Fox and Wolf had, evidently been abandoned, as Perrot found Father John Elranjan at St. Francis Xavier mission, the only priest left west of Lake Michigan. In 1687, the mission church at De Pere, with the store houses and other buildings enclosed in the stockade surrounding it, was looted and burned by the "Pagan" Indians. It is said that this raid was the result of a conspiracy of the Foxes, whom Allouez had taught to go on the war path with crosses painted on their shields; the Mascoutins, among whom he had erected a large cross in 1672, the sight of which "much consoled" Father Marquette the following year; and the Kickapoos, whom he had found to be good, beyond description, on the first of May, 1670. The purpose of the raid is said to have been to procure the guns and ammunition stored there. The Ottawa route to Montreal had been so dangerous be- cause of the hostility of the Iroquois, that the canoes had not gone down for two years, and Perrot himself was the heaviest loser, having lost furs which he had stored there, valued at 40,000 livres, a comfortable fortune for those days. Perrot was a man of strong religious tem- perament and a friend of the Jesuits with whom he com- menced his wanderings in the wilderness in youth. Friends of the Jesuits were considered enemies of Fron- tenac. He had little chance of any public employment. Early History of the Fox River Valley . 115 of any value to him, until Frontenac was recalled. One of his earliest acts, after his appointment at Green Bay, was to show his religious sentiments and his friendship for the Jesuits by procuring and presenting to the mis- sion of St. Francis Xavier a fine silver soleil, or osten- sorium made to contain the sacred wafers. It is sup- posed that it was buried to secrete it when the chur.h was burned. The church was never rebuilt; the mission was a traveling or roving one for several years and then ceased to exist. Why it was not found and recovered by those who concealed it is not known. It was discovered one hundred and fifteen years later by a plough coming in contact with it on the site of the ancient mission house. The Fox Indians, apparent 1 y. had not remained very long on the Wolf River. In 1688, the gay teller, of mar- vellous tales, Baron La Hontan, visited Green Bay and the Fox River and beyond. He published a map which is given in "Cartier to Frontenac" (pp. 352-353), on which he locates a village of the Outagamis on the north side of the Fox River not very far below the portage. This was probably a favorable point for plundering the canoes of traders. The Foxes and Mascoutins seem to have been in alliance in those days. They had formed a conspiracy to plunder Perrot's post at Lake Pepin, be- fore the burning of the church and stockade at De Pere. but they had been frustrated by the coolness and skill of Perrot who had warning of their design. Perrot had led i io Ea> i) History of the Fox River Vallev. some of the Indians in the region of Green Bay, to join Denonville's expedition against the Senecas in the sum- mer oi 1687. In 1688 he was ordered to return to the upper Mississippi and, with a force of forty men. reached Green Bay in the fall. He was met here by a deputation of the Foxes and afterward visited their vil- lage. They gave his men raw meat, but set before him broiled venison, which he declined to eat. lie told them that "meat did not give him any spirit, but lie would take some when they were more reasonable." He chided them for not having joined the expedition against the Senecas and urging them to go on the bea- ver hunt and to light only against the Iroquois, he left a few men to trade among them and went on to his fort at Lake Pepin. His way to the portage became impeded by ice. but, with the aid of some Pottawatomies. they broke the ice and made the portage to the Wisconsin, which was not frozen. While he had been absent it was reported that the Sioux were not much inclined to trade because the Foxes and other tribes "boasted that the_\ had cut off the passage thereto." Evidently there was then going on that interference with the traffic on this route, by the treacherous Foxes, which hnallv led to the long war with them which ended only with their ex- pulsion from the Fox River valley, after they had been nearly exterminated. Among the Sioux, soon after his arrival, Perrot wrought a miracle, to convince them that they must not steal his goods. A box having been Early History of the Fox River Valley, i iy stolen by some of the Sioux, he ordered a cup of water brought, into which he poured some brandy. Then, addressing them, lie told them that he would dry up all their marshes if the stolen goods were not returned, at the same time setting fire to t he brandy in the cup. Convinced that he possessed supernatural power, they detected the thief, and his goods were returned. In the struggle between the French and English for the fur trade of the west, the English, through their allies, the Iroquois (assisted by some renegade French- men, probably), were seducing the tribes in Wisconsin and around Mackinaw from their allegiance to the French. The fact appears to have been that the English traders gave the Indians better prices for their peltries than the French, and paid in a better quality of goods. The easy-fitting allegiance of the Indians and the in- fluence of Perrot and others among them were not a match for the better bargains offered by the English. By the end of [689, the Fox-Wisconsin route was rend- ered practically useless 1>v the hostility of the Foxes, and the trade with the Mississippi was forced to follow the route by Lake Superior and the St. Croix River and that route soon began to 'he threatened be hostile raids ( Cartier to FTontenac, p. 348). It has been rather the fashion of late, for writers on local history to devote their most eloquent periods to the cruelty and ferocity with which the French pursued the Il8 Early History oj the Fox River Valley. Fox Indians, until they were nearly exterminated and driven from the Fox River valley. The elementary proposition of the subject may be thus stated : The French were compelled to drive away, or exter- minate the Foxes, or abandon the Fox- Wisconsin route to the Mississippi. They could not drive the Foxes away, so long as they had any considerable number of warriors left in that tribe. Therefore they were compelled to exterminate them, or give up the great highway to their western posses- sions, which they had discovered and utilized before the Foxes were located upon its banks. The whole history of the Foxes and of the long war which finally nearly exterminated the tribe, fully sus- tains this proposition. The Foxes were new comers in this region, when the French traders began to visit Green Bay. It is gen- erally conceded that they were not there in 1634, when Nicolet visited the Fox River, as the agent of the gov- ernment of Canada, to negotiate with the tribes then resident there. Where they came from is not very cer- tain. The late Bon. Charles D. Robinson, of Green Ray, learned from a very aged Menomonee woman, who resided near there, a tradition, which she claimed she had received from her grandfather, when she was a little Early History of the Fox River- Valley. i ig girl. It was to the effect that at a remote period the Sanks and Outagamis lived in a fort on the high bluff known as "The Red Banks," on the eastern shore of Green Ray. Their supply of water was procured from the Bay, by a passage of steps cut in the clay. The Menomonees who resided across the Bay, (where they were when the French came), sent an imitation to other tribes to come and help them drive out the Sauks and Outagamis. The Chippewas, Pottawatomies, Ottawas and others came in great force and they besieged the fort. They cut off the water supply and the besieged were famishing for lack of water, when one of their young men dreamed that a young man in white appeared to him and told him that at midnight, he would cause a deep sleep to fall upon the besiegers and that they could escape by stealing out quietly at that time. Most of them did so and escaped. The few who did not put confidence in the dream, remained and were slaugh- tered. This tradition may or may not represent some facts of a history anterior to the appearance of white men on the waters of Green Bay. If it does, it may account for the certain fact that the Outagamis called themselves "Musquakies," men of the red earth. (Shea in Wis. His. Coll., Vol. Ill, p. 127). (1). The other tribes called them Outagamis. (Foxes), because of their chaarcter. The Jesuit Relations show abundantly, that they had a bad reputation among the tribes around Green Bav, when Allouez arrived there and that thev /,?,) Early History of the Fox River Valley. deserved it, even among those tribes, who were "more than commonly barbarous." They did not move down to the banks of the Fox River until it had become a route for traffic, and it is not an unreasonable infer- ence from their known character, that they moved down because they saw an opportunity to plunder somebody. The French never had serious trouble with any other tribes in the Green Bay region. The Mascoutins seem to have been allured to join them in some of their work; notably in the attack on Detroit in 17 12, and it is possi- ble that the bloody work there in which the Foxes were partly destroyed, may account, parti}' at least, for the sudden disappearance of the Mascoutins from history and the merging of a small remnant in the Kickapoos. .VOTES T( ) CHAPTER XI. ( t ). Grignon, in his recollections, throws much doubt around this tradition and relates an Ottawa tra- dition that the Winnebagos formerly occupied the Red Banks. (Til.. W. H. Coll.. 203-4). The Winnebagos are said to have a tradition also that their ancestors were driven from that place by the Illinois. CHAPTER XII. FIREBRANDS OF THE WEST. When Father Allouez commenced his labors among the Indians up the river of the Pnants, his first visit was to the Outagamis, or Foxes, who seem to have been recent comers in that vicinity and were located on the Wolf River at some distance from the Fox River. He had met some of them at the Mission of the Holy Ghost, at Cheg'oimagon, and he had found some of them with the Winnebagos at the month of the Fox. Even then, they were the Ishmalites of the tribes in that vicinity. They were considered powerful and apparently their neighbors did not care to offend them. But the reputa- tion which they had among- the others was that they were "penurious, avaricious, thievish, choleric and quarrelsome." In the Relation of the following year they are spoken of as "proud and arrogant," and, as hav- ing formed a design to kill some of the French, in re- venge for some insults that some of them had received T22 Early History oj the £ox River Valley. at Montreal, so that the French traders did not care to go among- them that season. Of all the tribes, among whom Allouez found polygamy so great an obstacle, they were the most polygamous and the Relation of 1671-72 spoke of their licentiousness as making a "Babylon" of their village. When Perrot led the Fox River Indians to the gathering of Sault St. Marie, in 167 J, their chiefs went to the mouth of the river at Green Bay and then turned back. They could not be bound by any treaty, as we shall see further on, for they kept faith with nobody. It was the Foxes, doubtless, who were the leaders of the foray on the establishment, when the stockade and church at the mission of St. Francis Xavier were burned. We have noticed before that by 1690 the Fox-Wisconsin route to the A J ississippi had become practically closed to the French and that before that time the Foxes had established themselves on the upper I^ox. In the long struggle between the English to secure and the French to retain the trade of the Indians of the northwest, be- fore the breaking out of King William's war, emissaries of the English, or of the Five Nations, who acted as middle men in the trade which went to the English and Dutch traders of New York, had been busy among the western tribes and especially among the Foxes. In 1690, after the breaking out of the war, when there was not a French post between Three Rivers and Mackinaw, Gov. Golden, of New York, admits that only the exer- Early History of the I>ox River Valley. j-^j tions of Nicholas Perrot prevented a massacre of the French at that point and Green Bay. ("Historic Green Bay," p. yy). The fiercest struggle for the control of the fur trade of the west, was carried on while Dongan was governor of New York and Denonville was gover- nor of Canada. The two nations were not then at war, but Dongan, an able and energetic man, made claims based on concessions from the Iroquois, which, if allowed, would have ended the occupation of the Mis- sissippi valley by the French. English trading parties attempted to reach the tribes of the upper lakes. One such party was captured within two days' canoeing of Mackinaw. Another was stopped on Lake Erie, by Du Lhut, who had persuaded Denonville to permit the erec- tion of a post at Detroit. During this strife the friend- ship of the Foxes, or their enmity to the French, must have been servicable to the. English. Judge Campbell in the "Political History of Michigan," expresses the opinion that, but for the "Coureurs de Bois," the Michi- gan region would have fallen into the hands of the Eng- lish, before the close of the Seventeenth Century. About the time of the breaking out of King Will- iam's war, in 1689, both Dongan and Denonville were recalled and the claims which Dongan had asserted for the English, fell into abeyance for the time. The Iro- quois, however, who were keen traders and found much profit in the position of middle-men between the Eng- lish traders and the tribes of the upper lakes, continued > 3/ Early history of the Fox River Valley. to be so active that Frontenac, who had returned to Canada as governor, by a quick invasion, taught them to be more war)-. During- all the strife and even the wars that raged in the eastern colonies and between the two countries, the French occupation of the valley of the Mississippi con- tinued. Fort St. Louis, established by La Salle at "Starved Rock" on that river was never abandoned. Joutel in 1687 and La Hontan in 1689, found some gar- rison there. Tonty descended the river in 1700, in com- pany with twenty Canadians, residing on the Illinois, (Hinsdale, "Old North West," p. 43). Indeed it seems that there was a gradual increase of the French occu- pants, even during the wars of the first half of the Fighteenth century. The policy of the French was to preserve peace and amity among the tribes of the west; the prosperity of their trade required this. The policy of the Five Nations, encouraged by the English traders, was to sow discord and promote hostilities among them. No archives preserve any records of the "underground" negotiations carried on, or of the belts of wampum which passed. The turbulant Outagamis. grown more powerful and more arrogant since the days of Allouez, were the fittest subjects for the influence of such intri- gues. In 1699 Perrot, the only Frenchman who seemed to have any influence with the Foxes, was recalled from his post at Green Bay. Early History of the Fox River Valley. / 2$ The history of the Fox River Valley for the first de- cade of the Eighteenth Century and more, is only the history of the doings of its Fox Indians, outside of its borders. The peace of Ryswick, which ended the war in 1697, was in effect but a truce for a few years, but the time was improved by the French. La Mothe-Cadillac, who had been commandant at Mackinaw, the center of the fur trade of the upper lake region, after a vigorous oppo- sition from the local interests at Quebec, Montreal and Mackinaw, and from the Jesuits and the intendant, who was their friend, had succeeded in getting permission to erect a fort at Detroit. The post established there by Du Llmt had been discontinued, after a short existence. With twenty-five canoes, loaded with the necessary pro- visions, munitions and tools and one hundred men, Cadillac repaired to Detroit (the strait) by the route of the Ottawa and Lake Huron, and erected his fort. The best beaver hunting in the west was in the southern peninsula of Michigan. One of the results of the erec- tion of this fort was, that the Christian Hurons and Ottawas, whose village was near the post at Mackinaw, deserted their village, their Jesuit pastors and church and removed to a point near Detroit. It is stated that the Fathers at Mackinaw, being without a following, burned their own church, in 1705, to prevent it from being desecrated after they should leave. Voyageurs and bushrangers, with their squaw wives began to settle 1 2b Early History 0/ the Pox River Valley. around the fort and laid the foundations of the city which now bears the name Detroit. Some of the Potto- watomies also, seem to have moved to the vicinity of the Hnrons and Ottawas. La Hontan's map shows the Kickapoos on the Fox River when he passed through it, but shows no Mascou- tins, and about the beginning of the Eighteenth Cen- tury the Kickapoos and Mascoutins appear to have been at the month of the Rock River, in Illinois. But their friendship with the Foxes appears to have continued, while the evidence of subsequent events, points strongly to an intense hatred of the Foxes on the part of the Hurons, Ottawas, Pottawatomies and the Menomonees, who still remained at, or near their old home on the west side of Green Bay. Cadillac had been appointed governor of Louisiana. In the early spring of 1712, Sieur Dubuisson was in command at Fort Detroit. There were no soldiers at the fort at that time and the whole French force con- sisted of about thirty traders, voyageurs and bush- rangers. The Ottawas, Hurons and Pottawatomies, had not yet returned from the winter hunt. Without any warning, Dubuisson and his companions were startled one day, by the appearance near the fort, of two bands of Foxes and Mascoutins numbering more than a thousand, of whom about three hundred were war- riors and the rest women and children. If they came Early History of the Fox River Valley. lay with hostile purpose they must have been informed of the small force there and expected to finish their work before the friendly Indians returned from the hunt. Otherwise they would not have come with women and children. It appeared very soon, that they harbored no friendly feeling for the Frenchmen. They surrounded their wigwams with a rough palisade, in spite of Dubuis- sons' efforts to prevent it. They became rude and inso- lent, declared that that country was theirs and killed the fowls and pigeons of the French. One day a party of them came into the fort determined to kill some of the French against whom they had taken some offence. They were driven out of the fort and Dubuisson became satisfied that they were only watching their chance to burn the fort and massacre the garrison. It may seem strange that they did not proceed at once to do so, if that was their purpose. But even three hundred of the savages would be cautious about confronting thirty muskets and some swivel guns protected by a strong stockade with block houses at each corner. They could only take it with the loss of many warriors. They were excited enough, but their excitement was increased by a report that a band of Mascoutins had been cut off by the Ottawas and Pottawatomies, on the St. Joseph River. A friendly Outagami told Dubuisson that they intended to bum the fort. Yet they lay there week after week, knowing that the friends of the French would probably arrive soon. May 13th, the Sieur Vincennes arrived tz8 Early History of the Fox River Valley with seven or eight Frenchmen from the Miami coun- try. Tins increased their excitement and a crisis seemed at hand. One day a Huron came with the news that the Hurons and Ottawas were near and that a Pottawa- tomie chief was coming with six hundred warriors to annihilate the enemy, After an interval of suspense and tear, lest the Foxes should hear of the approaching foe. the expected succor came. Pottawatomies. Menomonees, Illinois, Missoufis and other remote tribes; even some of the Sacs, came out of the woods behind the fort, each with a banner of its own. and soon entered the fort. They had heard dur- ing the winter hunt, of the contemplated raid of the Foxes and Mascoutins on Detroit, and, had combined, to strike the common enemy, a strong evidence of the general hatred of the Foxes which existed among all the other tribes. They had marched first to the village of the Hurons, where the Huron chief had urged an immediate attack and the Hurons, who also hated the Foxes, and the Ottawas joined in the march to the fort. The Foxes hung out twelve English blankets, red and emblematic of their intention to fight to the death. The harangue which the Pottawatomie war chief made to them from the top of a block house, shows that the assailants under- stood that the Foxes and Mascoutins were acting under English influence. The details of the prolonged contest that followed are interesting, but too long to be repeated here. It was Early History of the Fox River Valley. / 2Q not the custom of the Indians, though vastly superior in numbers, to attack fortified positions by assault, which would be certain to result in great loss of life among the attacking party. The Indian warrior while anxious to secure as many scalps of his enemies as possible, was careful of his own. He was wary until conquered and cut off from escape. Then he was a stoic of the most exalted order. The beleaguered party dug holes in the ground to protect their women and children from the bullets of the assailants, who gave them little rest. When nearly famished they stole out, one dark, rainy night and escaped to a point on the river, where they hastily forti- fied their position as well as they could. Here the assail- ants followed them and finally compelled them to sur- render. There had been some parleying and negotia- tions attempted by the Foxes before they fled from their first position and the address which a chief of the Illinois made to them shows also, that it was well understood that they were acting in the interest of the English. After they surrendered, their captors divided the women and children and adopted, or made slaves of them. The victors gave no quarter to the captured war- riors and amused themselves by shooting five or six daily. But one night the great war chief of the Foxes, Pamoussa with about one hundred of the captured war- riors, contrived to escape. j jo Early History of the Fox River Valley. The interests of the French in the fur trade of the west and even the safety of the posts and the traders re- quired peace in the land. The power of the Foxes was not destroyed by the mishap at Detroit, as, only a part of the tribe were there. Those that remained were more furious than ever against their enemies, while the hatred of them, general among the other tribes, rendered peace impossible, as long as they retained any power. Two years after the affair at Detroit, the Outagamis made a furious attack on the Illinois and killed or carried off seventy-seven of them. White men, who passed to or from the Mississippi by the Fox-Wisconsin route, did so at the peril of their lives. Vaudreuil, the governor of Canada, felt that the Illinois and other friendly tribes must be protected, or the trade, which was already going far too much to Albany, would be lost. He seems to have become satis- fied that nothing short of the extermination of the Foxes would relieve the embarrassing situation. Then fol- lowed the long war of the French against the Foxes and the chain of events which made the Fox River Valley the "dark and bloody ground" of Wisconsin and finally resulted almost in the annihilation of that tribe and the departure of the small remnant from that valley forever. CHAPTER XII. WARS AND RUMORS OF WARS. I have wandered so far from the Fox River Valley in the last chapter, for the purpose of showing the posi- tion of the Fox Indians, their constant state of war with the tribes who were friendly to the French, and the ex- tremely strained relations between them and the French. They had effectually driven the commerce with the Mis- sissippi valley to the routes by Lake Michigan and the Chicago portage and by Lake Superior and the St. Louis and St. Croix Rivers to portages more difficult than that of the Fox and Wisconsin route. It was thus exposed to the perils of canoe navigation the whole length of Lake Michigan or Superior. In 1699 Father St. Cosme, on his way as a missionary to the lower Mis- sissippi, was informed at Green Bay that the Foxes would not let any person pass by the Wisconsin portage W fear that they would go to places at war with the Foxes, and furnish fire-arms to their enemies. rja Early History of the Fox River Valley. Before closing the route, lest fire-arms should reach their enemies and probably very soon after they began t<) establish their villages on the Fox, they had de- veloped a genius for political economy and established a tariff on the goods carried through their country. It was a tariff "for revenue only." The custom house was the river bank and the custom house officials were the whole able bodied male population of the village. The schedules were so elastic, that in each case the duty was regulated according to the whim of the natives at the time and the strength, or weakness of the party seeking to pass through. Many encounters and some bloodshed followed and the appointment of Perrot as "command- ant of the west" was influenced by these troubles. Had Englishmen been in the situation of the French, the Foxes would have been driven far away, or exterminated before the governor of Canada made actual war upon them. Not long after the affair at Detroit the French au- thorities began to prepare for an invasion of the Foxes with a force sufficient to subdue or exterminate them. An expedition consisting of 425 French and several hundred Indians, of various tribes who joined them at Mackinaw, invaded the Fox River Valley in the sum- mer of 1 7 16. M. De Louvigny, who had formerly been commander at Mackinaw, commanded the expedition. He found the Foxes, to the number as he states, of 500 Enrlv History of the Fox River Valle\>. /v.; warriors, with 3,000 women and children, strongly for- tified, within a palisade formed of three rows of heavy oak posts planted deep in the ground and with a ditch in the rear of the fort. (Y). Louvigny had two small cannons and a mortar, hut he soon found that his artil- lery was too light to make any serious impression on the stronghold of the enemy. The place was too strong to attempt to carry it by assault. Louvigny therefore hav- ing mining tools with him, determined to conduct the attack by regular approaches, after the manner of other besiegers of fortified posts. Under cover of the fire of three pieces of artillery and several hundred muskets he opened trenches within seventy yards of the palisade in the night and pushed his excavation sixty feet nearer before morning. The third night he had burrowed to within about seventy feet of the fort, intending to ex- plode a mine under the curious oak wall. The besieged Foxes were expecting a reinforcement of three hundred warriors, but these did not arrive. Knowing what Lou- vigny was doing and being unable to resist the under- ground attack and fearing the explosion which they knew would come, they asked for a parley. They had as they always did, defended themselves furiously, even the women taking part in the defence. Louvigny had now the larger part of the tribe in his power, but the terms which he imposed w r ere singularly lenient in view of all that had preceded. The terms to which they agreed were that they should make peace with all the tribes i$4 Early History of the Fox River Valley. friendly to the French; give up all prisoners held by them; make war upon distant tribes, like the Pawnees and take captives to replace those who had been killed among the allies of the French: hunt furs for the French to pay the expenses of the war and give six chiefs, or sons of chiefs, as hostages for the performance of these conditions. To save expense, the French from Canada, who joined this expedition had been permitted to take goods with them to trade with the Indians. Among the wares so taken were forty barrels of brandy, and when the French and Indians of the expedition were en- camped together, it was a natural consequence, that, as we are informed, "hell was thrown open." ( Parkman, "Half Century of Conflict." p. 322). In October Lou- vigny reached Quebec with his six hostages. The loss of life in this campaign, probably was not very great and in the result of it there does not appear any evidence of the cruel and barbarous treatment of the Foxes, by the French, of which we have been informed so much, by local writers on the history of the war w r ith the Foxes. Of course the Foxes paid little regard to the terms of the treaty. It is at least probable, from their well known character, that it was not expected that they would, beyond keeping the peace with all the allies of the French and ceasing their depradations on the com- merce of the Fox River. They had been given a whole- Early History of the Fox River Valley. /jj some lessson, as to the power of the French and fear of the further exertion of that power might be expected to restrain them. For a time it seemed to have the desired effect. In [618 a deputation of their chiefs visited Mon- treal and renewed their submission to the French. Though the conditions on which Louvigny released them had not been fulfilled, the Governor Vaudreuil accepted their submissions. Events and circumstances were too strong to be con- trolled by treaties. The Illinois, who were friends of the French, were never brave, as their history from the time of La Salle's first visit to them shows. The Mascoutins and Kickapoos continued to annoy them, though the Foxes did not; whether with the connivance of the Foxes does not appear. Those tribes certainly seem to have been their only allies, among all the tribes of the west. The old enemies of the Foxes had too many old scores to pay them, to resist a favorable opportunity to repay some of them. The Illinois in some way captured a nephew of Oushala, the principal war-chief of the Foxes and burned him at the stake. ( )f course this could not be permitted to go unavenged. The Foxes attacked the Illinois with great fury and drove them to the site of La Salle's post on "Starved Rock" where they might have perished from hunger. But they escaped and it is said that the Foxes permitted the escape from fear of the French. They took great credit to them- selves for permitting the escape. Parkman seems to jj6 Early History of the Fox River Val think that the provocation justified their attack on the Illinois, notwithstanding their treaty obligations, not to make war on the allies of the French. It is not improb- able that the nephew of the Fox chief was making war on the Illinois, when he was captured by them. It was not unusual for individual Indians to join a war-party of some other tribe and the Mascoutins, the allies of the Foxes, were making raids on the Illinois. Whatever the case was, the French government considered the action of the Foxes as justification for an effort to crush them. The French colonial minister wrote that "his majesty will reward the officer who will reduce or rather destroy them." Longueil, who was then temporary governor, however, still tried peaceful measures. The Sieur de Lignery, then commandant at Mackinaw, called a council of the Foxes and the Sacs and Winne- bagos at Green Bay. The Foxes promised to obey the King and make no more war on the Illinois. Oushala, the war chief, wanted a French officer sent to their vil- lage to assist him in keeping the young braves from the war-path. Desliettes. commandant in the Illinois coun- try, did not approve this policy and proposed the ex- termination of the Foxes. Beauharnois who came out as governor in 1726, was averse to any such attempt. If it should fail it would put in jeopardy the life of every Frenchman in the west as he thought Lignery thought that if they broke the promises made to him at Green Bay, the forces of Canada and Louisiana should unite to Early History rfifc FOX Kivei Valley. 1 37 ot-ush them. Father Chardon, then at the mission of St. Francis Xavier, advised that they should be cut off from all supplies of arms, ammunitions and merchandise, and that all the well-disposed western tribes should be set upon them. He thought this would bring them to rea- son. There was great hesitation on the part of the French, to again attack the Foxes, because of the disastrous con- sequences which might follow a failure to entirely sub- due or exterminate them. For that reason, in 1627, the king directed the governor not to fight the Outagamis if he could help it. But the governor, being informed soon after, that the English had sent messages to the lake tribes urging them to kill all the French in their country, and that the Foxes had promised to do so, he wrote that this "compels us to make war in earnest. Tt will cost 60,000 livres." (2). Then followed one of the numerous illustrations of the working of the curious double-headed government, established in Canada. Dupuy, then [ntendent, joined Beauharnois in this letter and soon after informed the authorities at Versailles that the war against the Outa- gamis was only a pretext of the governor to spend the King's money and to enrich himself, by buying up all the furs of the countries through which the expedition would pass. Whatever the motive and whether the Foxes had in fact promised to kill all the French, or not, an expedi- IJ?# Early History of i/it ZW River Valley. tion under the Sieur de Lignery left Montreal in lun^ 1728. The historian of this expedition was Father Eman- uel Crespel, whose narrative is published in the "Wis- consin Historical Collections," Vol. X., pp. 47-53, and less complete in Smith's "History of Wisconsin,'" Vol. I.* PP- 339-342. Four hundred French who were to be joined by eight hundred or nine hundred Indians, constituted the force which was "dispatched with orders to destroy a nation of Indians, called by the French the Fox In- dians.'' It appears that the Indian contingent which was to join them consisted largely of "Christian" Iro- quois, many of whom were settled in villages in Canada, Hnrons and Nipissings. Crespel was the chaplain of the French. There were two other chaplains of the In- dians. There seems to have been some incompetency in the leadership of this expedition. It was expected to move with great celerity, in order to surprise the Foxes. They embarked on Lake Huron, July 27th, and made the run to Mackinaw, in less than six days, which would bring them to that place on the 1st of August. It seems that they were joined there by five hundred Illinois and twenty Frenchmen who came from the Illinois country, by way of Chicago. Notwithstanding the necessity of rapid movement to the success of the campaign, they did not leave Mackinaw till August 10th. For two days Earty History of the Fox River Vahey. ijq they were detained by adverse winds. When they passed Cape Detour, Crespel's narrative indicates that they crossed to the islands at the head of the peninsula, and lost some of their canoes, by being driven on the rocks. Then follows the most unaccountable occur- rance narrated. They crossed to the mouth of the Menomonee River and landed, on the 15th of August, among the Menomonees, who had always been among the allies of the French. Father Crespel says that they did this, "with a view to provoke them to oppose our descent; they fell into the snare and were entirely de- feated." There does not seem to be any reasonable explanation of this wanton and very impolitic attack upon the Menomonees. It is hardly possible that Lig- nery did not know who were friends of the French. We have seen that he had held a council at Green Bay, with the Winnebagos, Sauks and Foxes, but a short time be- fore this campaign and he could not have been ignorant of the relations between the French and other tribes in that vicinity- This, with the delays, which caused the failure of the expedition are sufficient evidence of his incompetency for the task entrusted to him. As if to make it certain that the Foxes would receive warning of their approach, the next day. they encamped at the mouth of a river, that their Indians might hunt for fresh meat. After all these delays, it is almost comical to read that on the 17th, they halted from noon till evening, so as to surprise the Foxes by night. They understood 140 Early History of the Fox River Valley, that the latter, or some of them were at the Sauk vil- lage which was on the east side of the river, not far from St. Francis fort. Crespel speaks of the Sauks as "our allies." They arrived at the fort at midnight and were informed that the Foxes were still there. Detachments were sent to surround the village and when they approached it they found only four persons there, Park- man says these were one Outagami and three Winne- bagos. Father Crespel was a witness of the torture and death of the four at the hands of the allies of the French. Going up the river, the first village to which they came was that of the \\ umebagos, which they found deserted. Though the expedition was against the Foxes only, they destroyed the Winnebago village and the growing corn crop. Father Crespel says that they "afterwards crossed the little lake of the Foxes and encamped at the end." The next day, being St. Lawrence, they had mass. My belief is that this mass was said at, or near the spot where Allouez said the first mass in Winnebago County, more than half a century before. What Crespel calls the little lake of the Foxes "must have been Lake Winnebago.". Crespel says : "We had mass and entered a small river, which led us to a marsh}; ground, on the borders of which was situated the chief settlement of those Indians, of whom we were in search." This description could not be applied to a village on little Lake Butte Des Morts, where some have inferred that it was. It was probably at, or near the site of the present village of Butte Des Early History of the Fox River Valley, 141 Morts ten miles above the city of Oshkosh. It is most probable, also, that the palisaded fortress captured by Louvigny twelve years before, was at the same place. The expedition found here, only one old man, whom the savages burned at a slow fire, and some women whom they took for slaves. The invaders destroyed the village and all the growing crops of the Foxes. The Sauks had warned them of the approach of enemies and the tribe had fled. Crespel, horrified at the treatment of the old man taken (as he had been at the Sauk viUage), through an interpreter preached quite a sermon to the Iroquois allies, on the laws of war and the ob 1 igation of humanity, but did not succeed in making much impres- sion. They proceeded up the Fox River and destroyed another village of the enemy and laid waste the country as much as they could. The force then returned to Mackinaw, where every man was given permission to go where he pleased. They destroyed the fort at Green Bay, which had been erected in 1721, and occupied by a garrison since that time. The reason given was that the garrison would probably be too weak to defend it against the Foxes, who would naturally be irritated by the devastation of their villages and crops. Lignery found some difficulty in explaining this to the satisfac- tion of the governor, and the governor found much difficulty in explaining the failure of the expedition \Q the King. (3). 14* Earlv History of the Fox River Valley. Louvigny's plan had been, if he failed to find the enemy, to destroy their villages and crops and camp for the winter and send out parties to attack the hunting parties of the Foxes. In that case, however, they prob- ably would have gone entirely away out of the country, as they did on this occasion. It is said that they crossed to the Iowas. They soon returned, and being reason- ably safe from another expedition from Canada, for a good while they enforced their tariff upon the commerce of the Fox River more arrogantly than ever before. NOTES TO CHAPTER XIII. (i). Father Crespel's narrative of de Lignery's expedition, twelve years later, indicates that the prin- cipal village of the Foxes at that time, was at, or near the site of the present village of Buttes Des Morts and I think that this fort was at the same place. Ever since the white settlement of the country commenced there has been a tradition current, of a great battle, between the French and their allies and the Foxes, at Buttes Des Morts, and in a vague indefinite way some allusion is made to it by most writers on Wisconsin history. Augustin Grignon, who lived and had a trading post there, from about 1830, knew nothing of such a tradi- tion, or of any great mound supposed to contain the bones of the warriors slain at such a battle. (Ill, W. H. Early Hstiory 0/ the Fox River Valley. 143 Coll., 293). It seems to me very probable that the tra- dition arose from de Louvigny's capture of the fort of the Foxes, which does not seem to have been attended by much slaughter on either side. Grignon's informa- tion from de Langlade did not go back to that time. It was of events which occurred in the life-time of de Lang- lade. (2). The details of the council held by de Lignery, with the Foxes and Winnebagos, at Green Bay and of the perplexities of the French authorities, arising from the intractable and treacherous nature and conduct of the Foxes, may be found in the "Cass Mss.," Ill, W. H. Coll., 148-164. (3). In the account of de Lignery's expedition in Thwaites' "Story of the State," (p. 85), it is inadvert- antly said, "This time the agent chosen was De Lignery, among whose lieutenants was Charles De Langlade, a fierce partisan whom we shall meet hereafter in the capacity of first permanent white settler in Wisconsin." If de Langlade was born in 1724, as his grandson Grig- non says, he was but four years old at the time of this expedition. CHAPTER XIV. THE EXPULSION OF THE FOXES. The fur traders had erected stockades at Green Bay. When Tonty spent the winter there, in i68o ; it is said that he built a fort which was afterwards commanded by Du Lhut, which was probably only a stockaded trading post. (Historic Green Bay, p. 80). In 1721, Montigny was sent there with a garrison. Charlevoix came there, on his way to the Illinois country, with this force. It is said that they found a stockaded fort there with quarters for officers and men, but when and by whom it was built was not known. (Idem., p. 81). From 1721, a garrison had been there until it was withdrawn by Lignery in 1728. Father Chardon, the last of the Jesuit mission- aries at the mission of St. Francis Xavier, deeming it unsafe to remain without some military protection, left with De Lignery's forces. The later attacks on the hated Outagamis on the pox River, were not by expeditions from Montreal nor Early History of ' tk* Fox Rivw Valley. r 45 directed from Quebec. Beauharnois, the governor, re- ports under date of May 6th, 1730, that a party of them returning from a buffalo hunt were attacked by two hundred Ottawas, Ojibways, Menomonees and Winne- bagos, who killed eighty warriors and three hundred women and children. He also reported on the 2nd of November, of the same year that Coulon de Villiers had brought the news that his father, the Sieur de Villiers who commanded at St. Joseph, with a force of French, gathered from a number of French posts, and 1,200 or 1.300 Indian allies, gathered from many tribes, had struck the Foxes a heavy blow and killed two hundred warriors and six hundred women and children. The absurd expectation of some of the French that a large part of the Foxes would perish of starvation after the devastation wrought by Lignery was not realized, but the special activity of the French and their allies in the west, probably stimulated by some special activity on the part of the Foxes after Lignery's fiasco, was doing effectual work in reducing the power of the common enemy. Parkman's Half Century of Conflict (Vol. 1, pp. 330. 331). relates an Indian tradition of an attack on the Foxes by forty Huron and thirty Iroquois "Chris- tians," which may have some foundation, but is alto- gether too mendacious on its face for the credulity of any believer in Indian traditions. There is, however, a story of the final expulsion of the Foxes from the Fox River which, while it rests jjfd Early History of the Fox River Valley. upon tradition, is not credited by Parkman, apparently. 'Die only document relating to another attack upon the Foxes which he was able to discover is a letter from Beauharnois, written in June, 1730, which states that Dubuisson was to attack them with fifty French and five hundred and fifty Indians, and that Marin, the commander at Green Bay, w T as to join him. This proves two things: first, that another attack on the Foxes was then contemplated, and, second, that Marin was in command at Green Bay at that time. It is proba- ble that if Buisson conducted any such expedition suc- cessfully, Parkman would have found some report of it. The various traditions about it are noticed in a note to the first volume of "Half Century of Conflict," page 232. Smith's "History of Wisconsin," Vol. I, page 118, gives a tradition related to Carver in 1766, by an old Indian. This would fix the lime of Marin's expedition about 1706, which is much to early. I am disposed to agree with Parkman that Indian tradition is of little value as evidence and I accept and follow here, the story told in the recollections of Augus- tin Grignon in the third volume of the Wisconsin His- torical Collections, because it is not, in any proper sense, an "Indian tradition." It is the recollection of a robust intelligent old man, of some education and retentive memory, of stirring events, related to him in his youth, by his grandfather, who died when Grignon w^as about twenty years old. The grandfather who told him the Early History oj the Fox River Valley. 147 story, was an intelligent and able man, of some educa- tion and, if not an actor in those events, certainly cog- nizant of all of them at the time they occurred. It is the story of Charles de Langlade, himself, of events which occurred in his lifetime, as told to a boy or young man, upon whose memory such a tale could not fail to make a strong impression, re-told by him in his old age, when the memory is proverbially more retentive of the events of youth than of those of a later date, and so retold while the narrator was in full possession of his mental faculties and amusing himself by reading Charlevoix and French newspapers. If any tradition was ever entitled to cre- dence as historical, surely this must be. I give it more weight, perhaps for the reason that I knew Augustin Grignon and knew what manner of man he was. Doubtless there are inaccuracies in it. In names there are some which, apparently occur from the attempt of Mr. Draper to write in English, Mr. Grig- non's French pronunciation of those names. Thus De Villiers, who commanded at Green Bay in 1746, be- comes De Viele and Marin becomes Morancl in Grig- non's narrative. The narrative also gives the details of the expulsion of the Sauks, as occuring before the final defeat of the Foxes, or relates the two events in that order, though it seems more probable that the order was the other way. We have seen that Captain Marin was at Green Bay in 1730. The leader of the last expedition ag'ainst the 1 4$ Early History of the Fox River Vallev. Foxes had, according to Grignon, a post west of Macki- naw and another on the Mississippi. Rev. Edward D. Neil! in Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. X, p. 304, mentions that the great Indian fighter. Pierre Paul Marin was sent to take command of the fort on Lake Pepin, in 1750, and his son to Lake Superior and that the son succeeded the father at Lake Pepin two years later. Probably the father was the man who led the foray against the Foxes. The Foxes must have been greatly reduced in num- bers by the successive disasters which had befallen them and had probably, abandoned the warpath, for the more lucrative business of levying tribute on the commerce of the river. It was reported in 1736 that there were then sixty or eighty warriors of the Foxes still living. It seems probable that at the time they were finally driven from Wisconsin, before they were s'aughtered, their warriors were much more numerous than the estimate of 1736. (1). At the outlet of Lake Winnebago, between the main land and the large island known as Doty's island, is the channel known in the early days, as the Winnebago Rapids, through which the water passes into the little lake Butte des Morts. The current through this chan- nel for half a mile or more, was too strong for the use of paddles, and canoes had to be poled, or hauled up the channel. At some point west of the mouth of this chan- Early History of the Fox River Valley. r 4.Q nel, probably near to it, on the bank of the little Butte des Morts, the Foxes then had their principal village. Here, when they saw canoes approaching, on their way with merchandise for the trade on the Mississippi, they put out a signal (a lighted torch), for the canoes to land and pay the accustomed tribute. The exaction, not being governed by any rule, probably., depended largely on the humor of the Indians and the strength of the party with the canoes. One tradition is that one of Marin's men had been recently murdered there, for re- sisting their exactions. These exactions became so vexatious that Marin resolved to put an tnd to them. Me raised a volunteer force at Mackinaw and Green Bay, sufficient for the purpose and advanced up the Fox River. This force, doubtless, consisted of traders, voyageurs and friendly Indians. One tradition is that a large number of Menomonees accompanied him. It is also said that he sent one boat in advance with a large supply of brandy on board, with orders to suffer the Foxes to plunder it without resistance. If this is true, it is probable that the Foxes were drunk when the attack was made. Below the outlet of the little Fake Butte des Morts, the force was divided, a part going around to Hank the Fox village by land. Concealed in the canoes by tarpaulins used to protect the cargoes from storms. with their fire-arms ready for use were the armed men. while two voyageurs paddled each. up the little lake. The Foxes put out a torch, the usual signal to land and rjo Early History oj the Fox River Valley. pay the tribute. The Indians were squatted along the shore in expectation of a rich harvest of spoils, from so large a fleet. Suddenly, as the canoes approached the shore, the tarpaulins were thrown off, the armed men rose up and emptied the contents of their guns among the astonished Foxes. A swivel gun also sent a charge of grape and canister among them from one of the canoes. Then the flanking party closed in and poured in a volley. Both divisions of the assailants repeated the fire as rapidly as they could load their muskets. The Foxes were brave warriors and it is sometimes said that they fought bravely on this occasion. But it is not probable that they stopped to do much fighting. The slaughter among them must have been great, and the survivors fled, probably as rapidly as was possible, up the river. The affair was a surprise and a great slaugh- ter of the Foxes, but could hardly be properly called a battle. Any statement of the numbers killed is only guess-work. The survivors of the slaughter went up the Fox River to a place on the south side, about three miles above the Great Butte des Morts, where the elevated land is flanked toward the east by the marsh, which ex- tends down to the lake. At this place, where Captain Robert Grignon resided in the days of the early settlers, which is yet known as "the Grignon place." the fugitives made their camp. Marin was not satisfied to leave them anywhere on the highway of his traffic to the Mississippi Early History of the Fox River Valley. j jj and at some time in the same season he attacked them there and a battle was fought, in which there was prob- ably more fighting, but less slaughter, than at the for- mer affair. (2). The Foxes were again compelled to fly, after considerable loss. They fled to the northern bank of the Wisconsin River where the survivors located about twenty-one miles above the mouth of that river. Grignon saw some remains of their village there, in 1795. Marin deeming that the safety of his traffic re- quired that they should not remain on the route of it, when he learned of their new location, organized a win- ter expedition and after marching about two hundred miles, carrying snow shoes for use if they should be needed, he came upon them. So unexpected was this attack that he found the few warriors there engaged in an amusement known as the game of straw. He sur- rounded and fell upon them suddenly. Some were killed and the others surrendered. There remained of them only twenty warriors and a large number of women and children. (3). Grignon refers to the tradition men- tioned by Carver, but his opinion, based on what seems to be sufficient reasons, was that most of the captured Foxes were released where they were captured, prob- ably upon condition that they should go, and remain, beyond the Mississippi. Mr. Grignon does not attempt to fix the date, or year of these events. As he knew of the expulsion of the Foxes and that of the Sauks, only from what his grand- / t;e Early History of the Fox River Valh v. father." Charles de Langlade, and others who lived at the time and took part in the events told him, it would not be strange if, in his mind, the two events should be coupled together, as of about the same date although there may have been quite an interval of time between them. From the various traditions and from the account of Mr. Grignon itself, I think that a consider- able time elapsed, after the final expulsion of the Foxes. The battle with the Sauks (to be narrated hereafter) is conceded to have been in or about the year 1746. Charles de Langlade, who had then recently removed from Mackinaw to Green Bay. participated in the battle with the Sauks as he told his grandson. He did not tell his grandson that he took any part in Marin's attacks upon the Foxes. Grignon infers from his familiarity with the details of those expeditions and his martial character thai he did so. If they were as late as 1740, when de Langlade was about twenty-two years old, it would be strange if he did not. It it ocurred several years earlier, when de Langlade was a boy, his absence would be accounted for. His familiarity with the details would not be strange fur probably there was not a boy in Mackinaw or Green Bay, who was not familiar with all the details and heard and talked over those details a hundred times and for man}- years, with survivors of Marin's forces, both French and Indian. We have seen that the power of the Foxes was much diminished by the affair at Detroit in 1712. that two years after de Lig- Earlv History of the Fox River Valley 53 nerv's expedition, (in 1730), Villiers had destroyed two hundred warriors and six hundred women and children, of the Foxes in Illinois, and that about the same time a part) of Foxes returning from a buffalo hunt, were way- laid by two hundred Ottawas, Chippewas, Menomonees and \\ nmebagos who killed eighty warriors and three hundred women and children. They must by this time have been greatly reduced in numbers. We have seen also that in 1730 Beauharnois wrote to France that Dubuisson, commanding at Macki- naw was to lead a force against the Foxes, and Marin, commanding at Green Bay. was to join him, Hon. Moses M. Strong (Wis. Hist. Coll. Vol VIII, p. 246), accepts the tradition which hxes the date about 1730. I think it must have been later, for in that year a large force of the Foxes was in the Illinois country, which could not have been after the attack by Marin at Little Butte des Morts, unless the account of the loss of the Foxes there is greatly exaggerated. It does not seem that they were fighting Marin on the Fox and Villiers in Illinois in the same year. I think the tradition that Dubuisson led the attack on the Foxes, which resulted in a great battle at Great Butte des Morts, is extremely doubtful. De Langlade certainly would have known of it and included it in the traditions related to Grignon. It may have originated from the proved fact that such an expedition was contemp 1 ated and traditional report of Marin's expedition. Therefore I think Mann's attack 1 34 Early History oj the Fox River Valley. must have been at some time after the severe handling of the Foxes by Villiers in Illinois, in 1730,, and after they had abandoned the war path, because of their great losses, and settled down to the business of collecting revenue on the Fox. Yet it is improbable and hardly to be considered possible that their exactions there were submitted to for sixteen years after 1730. Probably Marin's attack upon them was not long after 1730. Believing Grignon's account to be far the most reliable tradition, as to the main facts, I have followed it. (4). NOTES TO CHAPTER XIV. (1). Grignon does not recollect that his grandfather, De Langlade, told him that he was personally connected with this event, though, from his martial character, Grignon did not doubt that he was. If the affair had been about the time of the expulsion of the Sauks, in which De Langlade was engaged, this would seem prob- able. Rut it was probably some years earlier and while De Langlade was a boy too young to take a part in it. Doubtless he was contemporary and familiar with many who were in it for many years, and his knowledge of the details was derived from them. It seems improbable that the Foxes were permitted to continue their depra- dations on the commerce of the Fox River many years after the fiasco of De Lignery. I think it most probable Early History of the Fox River Valley. /jj that it was the expedition contemplated by Dubuisson (who was commandant at Mackinaw), but was for some reason conducted by Marin, and that it was in, or not long after, 1730 and before the estimate of the number of the Foxes in 1736. (2). This battle was fought on that part of the West half of section 35, in township 19, of range 15, in the town of Winneconne, Winnebago County, which lies south of the Fox River and adjoining the Town of Omro. (3). It is not probable that the tribe were so nearly exterminated as is sometimes represented. They were not usually all at one village at the same time. In the winter there were usually some hunting parties out. (4). History based on tradition affords great scope for the imagination, if the historian will permit imagina- tion to supply the lack of details. The subject of this chapter is an illustration. In one account I have seen a glowing description of the sun-light flashing upon the paddles of the voyagers. Whether the day was cloudy, or bright I do not know. Neither did he. Nearly all the recent descriptions by local writers describe a large force of soldiers in the expedition. Probably there were not regular soldiers enough west of Lake Erie to supply the descriptions. The men in the canoes were probably traders, bushrangers and employees of the traders. They are usually described as ascending the river in bat- /j6 Early History of the Fox River Valley. teaux. The commerce of the French was carried on with canoes. These canoes are described by Captain Anderson, as he saw them in the year 1800. (IX., W. H. Coll., 139). They were about forty feet long, over five feet wide and three feet deep. They were made of bark of the white birch, cut into proper strips and sewed to- gether and to a strong frame of split cedar. They were pitched at the seams, so that they were water tight. A batteau was a large heavy boat propelled with long- oars. I can rind no evidence that batteaux were ever seen at Green Bay before the arrival of Lieut. Gorrell's English garrison in 1761. Most of the later descrip- tions, however, describe the boats used by Marin, as flat- bottomed double enders, or sharp at both ends. This describes boats of a class much in use on the Fox River at a later time, called ''Durham boats," some of which were in use as late as 1852. They had running boards along their sides and were propelled by men with long- poles and steered by a man at the stern with a long oar. The descriptions of such boats, loaded with soldiers being propelled by two gaily dressed 'A' r oyageurs" or soldiers disguised as such, as some accounts describe them, with paddles, are ludicrous /to one who has ever seen such boats. The French used only bark canoes, on the river. De Lignery's expedition came from Montreal in such canoes and Marin's expedition had no other boats. CHAPTER XV. EXPULSION OF THE SAUKS. — INDIANS AND INDIAN WARS AND WAYS. During the stirring events, from the time that the French traders first came to the Bay of the Puants, the Sanks seem to have been a comparatively insignificant tribe. Though they were related or closely allied with the Foxes, yet, in the wars between the Foxes and the French, they seem to have occupied, externally, at least, a neutral position. A party of the Sauks is mentioned as taking part in the attack of the friendly Indians on the Foxes and Mascoutins at Detroit. These were, probably, Sauks who had been converted by the Jesuits and were what are called (by courtesy) "Christan In- dians," who had separated from their tribe. Between their tribe and the Foxes there certainly was no feud. Allouez found their village a few miles above Green Bay. The Winnebagos, apparently, had moved up the river to Lake Winnebago and, in 1746, the village of the jjS Early History of the Pox River Valky. Sauks was on the sandy flat where the business part of Green Bay is now. The fort, then occupied by a small garrison, was on the west side of the river, nearly oppo- site to the Sauk village. De Villiers was at that time commanding at Green Bay, but another officer had arrived to relieve him at that post, with orders that the Sauks should deliver up some Foxes, who had been harbored among them. The Sauks, with whom the French had not had any trouble, readily gave up all the Foxes among them, except one boy, who had been adopted by a Sauk woman who re- fused to give him up. The out-going and in-coming commandments were dining together and, when the wine was in and wits were out, had some sharp words about the delay in giving up the boy. Thereupon, de Villiers took his gun and a negro servant and crossed the river to the Sauk village. The Sauks were holding a council, apparently for the purpose of inducing the woman to consent that the boy be given up. De Vil- liers met their chief and demanded the immediate sur- render of the boy. The chief told him that they had just been in council on the matter; that the woman was loth to part with the boy, but that they hoped to prevail on her peaceably to do so. Three times the chief went in to persuade the woman, and three times returned without the boy. He told de Villiers that, if he would have a little patience, she would consent, as he thought she showed signs of relenting. De Villiers, inflamed with Early History of the Fox River Valley. i^g wine, was not in condition to exercise patience, and he levelled his gnn and shot the chief dead. The young men would have rushed upon him and avenged the death of their chief at once, but they were restrained by the old men, who said that it was the delay, and not their French father, that had killed the chief. When de Vil- liers' gun was reloaded, he shot another chief, and then a third one. Then a Sauk boy, twelve years old (who afterwards, was the chief, Blackbird), seized a gun and shot de Villiers dead. The act of the boy seems to have been perfectly jus- tifiable, but the French deemed it necessary to avenge the death of de Villiers. The garrison was too weak to attack the Sauks un- aided. The traders and bushrangers rallied, (among them Charles de Langlade), assistance came from Mackinaw and joined in the attack on the palisaded vil- lage of the Sauks. The battle was a fierce one, with con- siderable loss of life on both sides. Two grand uncles of Augustin Grignon were among the killed on the side of the French. The Sauks, being compelled to give way, fled to the Wisconsin River and settled on Sauk prairie. Sauk County perpetuates their name in Wisconsin, as Outa- gamie County does that of the Foxes. Thus, the drunken impatience of a French officer led to the loss of his own life and of many other lives, and r6o Early History of the Fox River Valley the driving away of a tribe who had always been peaceful and friend 1 }' with the French. It is not improbable that the traders and few settlers at Green Bay were willing to find a pretext for driving the Sanks away. Their close proximity to the abodes of the settlers was doubtless dangerous to hen roosts and other appurtenances of settled, domestic life, and in many ways antagonistic to the comfort of the few settlers then there. Of the Foxes, little was heard as a separate tribe after Marin's attacks upon them. The few survivors went beyond the Mississippi, and when the Sauks re- moved there the two tribes became one and, as the "Sacs and Foxes'* of subsequent history, harried the people of southern Wisconsin and Illinois in the famous Black Hawk war. There can be no doubt that many battles had been fought in the valley of the Fox before white men came there, and, probably, some afterward, of which we have no tradition. When Allouez came to Green Bay, he was told of former wars between the Winnebagos and the Illinois Indians. About thirty years before, the Illinois had invaded the Winnebagos, and had captured the en- tire tribe, excepting one man, who escaped with an arrow in his body. But, for some reason, the captors had released their captives. In the days of Radisson. the Mascoutins "had warres" with the Sioux. The war party of the Outagamis. to whom Allouez told the story of Constantine, who painted crosses on their shields and Early History of the Fox River Valley. 16 1 rushed into the combat with the foe, making the sign of the cross, were going against the Sioux. It is probable that the warlike "Iroquois of the West," as the Sioux were sometimes called, returned the compliment some- times, and invaded the valley of the Fox. At the vil- lage of Eureka, near the river bank, there was a mound of earth, which the settlers there supposed was a natural conformation of the ground. Many years aeo it be- came necessary to excavate through a portion of this elevation for the purpose of a street. When the work- men were digging into the mound, suddenly they were surprised by a ciuantity of human bones which came tumbling out of the side of the excavation. These bones were probably the only memorial of some fierce battle at. or near, that snot. In the vicinitv and east of the old Mascontin stockade, called the "fort" by AHouez. there was another burial mound, and there were others in the vahey of the Fox and W r olf Rivers. Lake Winnebago was uninhabited in T670, at the time of Al 1 ouez' first visit, because the Sioux were much feared there. Doubt- less, the proves and the prairies of tin's region had often echoed with the war whoop of contending savap'es. The war parties of the Indians were usually a party of hunters for scalps and slaves. The prowess of a warrior was measured by the number of sca 1 ns he had t^k^n. The young men of a tribe were anxious to establish their reputations as warriors, and sometimes the o 1 der heads could not restrain them when they would. There is t6s Early History of the Fox River Valley. little doubt that some of the raids of the warlike Outa- gamis against the friends of the French, were in conse- quence of the ambition of hot-headed young men whom their elders would, but could not, restrain. The chiefs had no real authority. They were advisers and speak- ers of their tribes, or bands. But there was no real gov- ernment among them. The Foxes wanted Louvigny to leave an officer among them, to assist in restraining the young men. When Perrot was recalled from Green Bay, in 1699, they, with other tribes, petitioned for his return, the Foxes alleging that they had no sense when he was gone. The spirit of revenge was strong in the savage breast. The instinct of cruelty to captured enemies, cultivated by the practice of generation after generation, the desire to witness and gloat over the agonies of a victim at the stake, or tortured by all the horrible cruelties that sav- age ingenuity could invent, was difficult or impossible to eradicate. The Christian converts of the Jesuits were still savages. It was no part of the Jesuit plan to civil- ize them, unless it could be clone on the Paraguayan plan — by establishing among them a Theocracy, in which the civil and ecclesiastical administration should be altogether in the hands of the representatives of heaven, the Jesuits themselves. When Father Crespel (who was not a Jesuit), attempted to reason with the Christian Indians who burned the old man captured at Butte des Morts, by a slow fire, they only shrugged their Early History oj the Fox River Valley. /t>j shoulders and informed him that they would suffer in the same manner if captured by their enemies. Prob- ably these "Christians" had never heard of the golden rule. The fact seems to have been that the conversion of the Christian Indians amounted to littie, if anything, more than the exchange of one set of superstitions for another, (r). It is not probable that most of them com- prehended the import of the solemn rites of the church any more, or as much, as they did the grotesque incan- tations of their medicine men. It was more spectacular and, for that reason more attractive, perhaps. Ihe in- humanity of the pagan Outagamis, (among whom the seven years of labor of Allouez had made no lasting im- pression), in leaving an old man exposed to almost cer- tain torture, was no greater than that of the Christian Indians who iniiicted it. French brandy, English rum and American whiskey made their savage nature more savage, and they took to it by nature, but the civilization of the white men was repugnant to the Indian nature, and the higher the type of civilization, the more repug- nant it was. No higher examples of sublime devotion to a cause and an ideal than that of the Jesuit missionaries among the Indians, can be found. But the results demonstrated that the attempt to Christianize a people, without first civilizing them, to some extent, is futile. / 64 Early History oj the Fox River Valley. NOTE TO CHAPTER XV. (1). An aged Ottawa woman of fair education and, herself, a devout and intelligent Catholic, stated to me a tradition among her people that before the missionaries came among them they were honest and firm believers in the traditions and superstitions of their ancestors, and tried to live uprightly, according to the standards of those traditions. She said that when the missionaries had shaken their faith in those traditions and prevailed on them to abandon their old beliefs, that, having lost Jheir old faith and not being well grounded in the new one, they drifted away from their former ideas of honesty and upright living and became worse, rather than better then they were before. CHAPTER XVI. JUST BEFORE THE GREAT WAR, It is necessary to a correct understanding of the events hereafter to be related, that a brief notice of tran- sactions far outside of the valley of the Fox should be given. All the wars between France and England, prior to the final struggle, which practically ended with the battle on the plains of Abraham, and the death of Mont- calm and Wolfe, had left the disputed question of the boundaries between the possessions of the two nations in America, unsettled. The French claimed the whole country west of the Alleghany mountains. The grants of the English colonies from the King, extended in- definitely westward, but the English government had been averse to permitting settlements west of the moun- tains, from fear that the colonies would grow too strong to be controlled. Their governors, sent from England, were already engaged much of the time in quarrels with the elective assemblies, and the growing spirit of repub- licanism was adverse to the claims of the kingly prero- i6b Early History otathe Fox River Valley. gative. which the governors were much disposed to assert. The French were endeavoring to establish a chain of fortified posts between Canada and the Gulf of Mexico, to confine the English colonies to the seaboard. Traders from Pennsylvania and Virginia had penetrated the valley of the Ohio and even reached the Mississippi, and the governor of Canada had sent a small force to warn them off from the French territory in 1753 and erected a fort where the city of Erie now stands; and cutting a road to French creek, a tributary of the Alle- ghany River, established a fort there. There Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, sent George Washington, adju- tant general of the Virginia militia, with a letter sum- moning the invaders to withdraw from the territories of the King of England. At the mouth of French creek, Washington found a detachment of the French occupy- ing an English trading post, which they had seized and converted into an outpost, but he went on to Fort La- Eoeuf and delivered the governor's letter. Washington was treated with great courtesy by the French. Din- widdie had written to the home government, warning them of the danger, that the French would occupy the Ohio valley, and received authority from the King to build forts, at the expense of the colony and, if after warning, the intruders did not leave he was commanded to drive them away. Dinwiddie could not build forts and garrison them without money. The Burgesses would not appropriate money except with conditions Eariy History of (he fox River Valley. 167 which Dinwiddie would not accept. He prorogued the house and, without waiting for an appropriation, ordered a draft of two hundred men from the militia and sent them in command of Washington, to erect a fort at the forks of the Ohio River. Washington's orders were, if any persons attempted to obstruct the work, to re- strain them and if they resisted to make prisoners of them,, or kill and destroy them. Virtually, this order of the governor of Virginia was a declaration of war, for he had every reason to believe that the plan would be re- sisted by the French. The Burgesses met again and voted ten thousand pounds for the defense of the colony. The territory invaded by the French was in dispute be- tween Virginia and Pennsylvania, but Pennsylvania would do nothing. In February, 1754, Capt. Trent had crossed the mountains with a force of back woodsmen and commenced a fort at the forks of the Ohio, where the city of Pittsburg is now. He left forty men to com- plete it, under Ensign Ward. One day (April 7th), about five hundred French came down the Alleghany, planted cannon against the unfinished stockade and summoned Ward to surrender, on pain of what might ensue. He surrendered and was allowed to depart with his men. The invaders, having thus commenced the, as yet, bloodless war, proceeded to build the famous Fort Duquesne. Dinwiddie and Washington proceeded, ap- parently, on the theory that the capture of Ward's for- tification was the commencement of hostilities and that j 68 Early History of the Fox River Valley. Canada and Virginia were at war. though the mother countries were not. Washington crossed the main range of the Alleghanies and encamped at a place called the great meadows. He had been informed that a force of the French had marched from their fort. Soon he was informed that they were seen at a point only eighteen miles away and sent a force of seventy-five men to look for them, but the}' were secreted so that thev could not be found. Then he was informed that tracks of two men were seen leading to a dark rocky glen in the forest. His informant was a friendly Indian chief, who expressed the belief that the French detachment were concealed there. Fearing some stratagem to surprise his camp, Washington made a night march through the forest with forty men to the camp of his Indian friend, leaving seven of his men who lost the way. in the dark- ness. The chief (known as the Half-King) joined him with a few men and then making their way to the glen, the French party were found there. They snatched their guns as the Virginians approached, whereupon Wash- ington gave the orckr to fire. A short fight ensued. The officer in commntid of the French detachment and nine of his men were killed. Twenty-two were captured and one Canadian escaped. I condense the facts of the affair as briefly as possible, from Chapter V, of Park- man's ''Montcalm and Wolfe," without touching upon the controversy as to the right or wrong, of the act of the young Virginian, who was destined to become the Early History of the Fox Kivcr Valky. i6g foremost Moure in the history of the Eighteenth century, That little band led by Washington, in the backwoods of Virginia fired the first volley of the long war, which set all Europe in a ferment and resulted, on this continent, in wresting Canada from the dominion of Erance and. through a succession of events, led to the .building up of a great Nation in the \ T ew World. Washington returned to the great meadows, sent messengers over the mountains for reinforcements and fortified his position as well as he could. Three com- panies arrived from Virginia and an independent com- pany from South Carolina. At this inadequate fortifica- tion called Port Necessity, Washington, with about three hundred and fifty men able to bear arms, was attacked by Coition de Villiers, son of the commandant at Green Bay, who was shot by the Sauk boy, with a force of seven hundred French and a large number of their [ndian allies and after nine hours fighting, de Vil- liers ofi L "ered terms of capitulation which were accepted. The next morning, July _ith, Washington and his forces marched out with the honors of war, with drums beat- ing, to make their way over the mountains, and the dis- puted territory was left in the hands of the French. In the meantime the two governments of France and England were exchanging diplomatic lies, by which neither was at all deceived, and both preparing- vigor- ously for war. France was preparing a fleet to dispatch with troops, to Canada. An English fleet sailed for the ifo Early History of the Fox River Valley. gulf of St. Lawrence, lo intercept it, and Gen. Braddock was sent to Virginia, with tw r o regiments of regulars. While the rather hot-headed young Virginian, George Washington, at the age of twenty-two, under the orders of the hard-headed Scotchman, who was the acting governor of Virginia, was lighting the fires of war in the wilderness behind the Alleghany mountains, which were soon to set all Europe, as well as the colo- nies in America arlame, another young man who was to take an active part in the war that followed, was at Green Bay : quietly bartering goods for furs and peltries with the Indians in that vicinity. He became known among the western tribes by the name of AU-KE-WIN- GE-KE-TAW-SO. (i). His name was Charles Michael de Langlade. His biography may be found in the recollections of Augustin Grignon (who was his grandson), in Volume III, of the Wisconsin Historical Collections: also in the "Memoirs of Charles de Lang- lade/' by Joseph, Tasse, of Ottawa, the Canadian his- torian. Augustin de Langlade, the father of Charles, was a licensed trader among the Indians and a resident, for many years at Mackinaw. There he married Domitilde, the widow of Daniel Villeneuve. She was a sister of Nis- sowaquet, the head chief of the Ottawas and had sev- eral children by her former marriage. This connection probably added to the influence of the Langlades among the Indians, which seems to have been great. Eariy History of the Fox River VaUey. iy i Of thi.. marriage Charles de Langlade was born, probably, as Grignon states, in \J2.\. Tasse found the record of his baptism at Mackinaw, which was dated in Mav, 17 jo. and therefore assumes that his birth was in that year. If so lie would have been not more than seventeen years old when he is said to have led the volunteer forces in the attack- on the Sauk village al Green Bay. Vfter the departure of the Jesuit Fathers from Mackinaw in 1705, when they burned their church to prevent its desecration, their 'locks having followed Cadillac to the new post at Detroit, there was no resi- dent priest at Mackinaw for a long time and the visits of a priest were only occasional. Pretty long intervals sometimes elapsed between such visits. ft probably happened frequently that the baptism of children was some years later than their birth. (2). Grignon men- tions sonu- incidents of the life of Charles de Langlade at Mackinaw, before the removal of the family to Green Bay, which indicate that he was then older than Tasse's date would make him. I think - it most probable that Grignon is correel and that the true date is 1724. When the lad was about ten vears old, he accompanied his uncle King Nissowaquet on the war-math. There was a tribe somewhere to the south, who were friends of the English, whom the ( )ttawas had twice attacked at their village which was ruled over bv a female chief. The French commandant was probably, anxious to be rid of such neighbors. Through some dream or omen. Nis- 172 Early History of the Fox River Valley. sowaquet was willing to make a third attempt, if his young nephew could accompany him. His father con- sented and charged the boy not to show any cowardice. With some other lads lie was placed in the rear out of danger, but in view of the right which followed. The battle impressed the boy as like a ball play. The suc- cess of this expedition led to his being taken on other expeditions and he became expert in all the ways of In- dian warfare and at an early age acquired great reputa- tion among both Indians and French. While he was a mere lad his father purchased for him, a commission in the French marine. This made him an officer and prob- ably liable at any time to be ordered into service. He certainly never acted in the naval service, but with his character, it may have been the cause of his early em- ployment in the service of the government as agent among the Indians and commander of the militia when in service. Washington's affair before mentioned was the first collision of troops acting under orders which preceded the Great War. But it was not the only, nor the first collision of armed men. In the long struggle of the French and English, for the control of the western fur trade, the English traders had penetrated to and down the ( >hio and the Indians of the Ohio valley were trad- ing with them. The expedition, before mentioned, sent bv the governor of Canada to warn the Enp-lish off. had warned them and buried numerous lead or tin plates Early History of the Fox River Valley. //j with the arms of France stamped thereon. The force was not strong enough to do more and returned. Eng- lish goods, better than those of the French, and Eng- lish rum which,, though not quite so palatable, would make an Indian drunk as readily as French brandy, were purchasing- the whole output of the valley of the Ohio and working their way rapidly up the tributaries of that river. The Miamis, who had gone over to the English alliance, had a town called Pickawillany on the Miami River. Their chief was called "old Britain" by the Eng- lish and "the Demoiselle" by the French and his town seemed to be a centre of disaffection towards the French. English traders resorted there in large num- bers. There were fears of a general outbreak of the western Indians, against the French. The commandant at Vincennes wrote that the French were leaving there because they did not want their throats cut. The Eng- lish traders were supposed to be inciting the Indians to violence. (3). The colonial minister wrote to the gov- ernor, to drive them away. The governor wrote Celeron de Bienville, who had warned off English traders and planted tin arms of France along down the Ohio val- ley, as before related, and was now in command at De- troit, to drive them away. Celeron de Bienville had no sufficient force without a large Indian contingent and the Indians near Detroit were uncertain and not to be relied upon. This was the condition in the spring of 1752. The peril seemed imminent and the anxiety was jy 4 Earlv History of the Fox River Valley, great. It was relieved one day in June, when Charles de Langlade came paddling down from Mackinaw to De- troit, with a fleet of canoes manned by two hundred and fifty warriors, (Tarkman says Ottawas and Ojibways, but there were probably others also), and after stopping a while at Detroit, proceeded through the wilderness to Pickawillany. They reached it June 21st, and ap- proached it about nine o'clock in the morning. The Demoiselle was there with only a small band of warriors, most of them being absent on the summer hunt. Eight English traders were there. Five were captured, two escaped and one was killed. Fourteen Miami warriors were shot down, including the chief. Parkman says of de Langlade's followers: "Seventy years of mission- aries had not weaned them from cannibalism and they boiled and eat the Demoiselle." ("Montcalm and Wolfe," Vol. I, 85). Grignon speaks of many events related to him by his grandfather which had passed from his memory. Only such as occurred among the, to him, familiar scenes of Green Bay and Mackinaw, seem to have remained in his memory. Neither he nor Tasse make any mention of this expedition. Let no one con- clude from the military career of de Langlade that he was merely an educated savage. He was a leader of savages in war, and a trader, not a missionary, among them. Savages were used, on both sides in the wars in the colonies. They had to be used with all their savage customs, instincts and passions,' or they could not be Early Hstiory oj the Fox River Valley. ij 5 used at all. Skilled as he was by his training and expe- rience in the management of the savages, to whom he was related, he was, himself, a civilized man, honest, as we shall see, loyal to every successive government under which he lived and trusted, successively, by the French and English, with important functions. What orders de Langlade was acting under at this time, does not appear. When he took his English pris- oners to Duquesne, the then new governor, he was highly praised, but the governor's recommendation, as to the reward to be given him, shows that Duquesne did not know the man. NOTES TO CHAPTER XVI. (1). Grignon gives, "He who is fierce for the land," as the literal translation of this name. He interprets it to mean a conqueror. Mr. Porlier gives its meaning as, "A defender of his country," and also gives, k4 The bravest of the brave," as a title of Charles de Langlade, which was current in Indian tradition. (VIII, W. H. Coll., 230). (2). The family of Pierre Grignon were taken to Mackinaw in a canoe, after Augustin Grignon was old enough to remember the event, to have the children baptized by Father Payet, who was there on one of the ijb Early History of the. Fox River Valley. unfrequent visits of the missionaries to that place. (Ill, W. H. Coll.. 261). (3). In a letter to Rev. George Whitfield, in 1756, Franklin described the English traders as "the most vicious and abandoned wretches of onr nation. (Hins- dales Old North West, 127). CHAPTER XVII. DURING THE SEVEN YEARS WAR. The war which had been openly active in America for a year before, and covertly active in the struggle for the control of the fur trade, for several years, was not declared by England until May, and by France until June, t 756. The celebrated battle known as "Brad- dock's Defeat" was fought in July of the preceding year. When it was known that Braddock was about to ad- vance on Fort Duquesne with an army of 2.000 men, preparations were made for its defense. Charles de Langlade, who had been made a cadet in the military service (Tasse's Memoir, p. 30, note), was directed to re- port at Fort Duquesne with a force of the friendly tribes from the northwest. Probably he had. himself, carried the tomahawk, the emblem of war, among the tribes, and he led a large body of Ottawas, Chippewas, Meno- monees, Pottawatomies and others, to the assistance of their French Father. There were with him, also, some t?8 Early History of the Fox River Valley. of the Couriers cle Bois, who were a numerous body along the upper lakes. Probably his uncle, Nissowa- quet, and the famous Pontiac were there. De Lang- lade's brother-in-law, Souligney, his nephew, Charles Gautier de Yerville, and several others named by Grig- non were among his followers. They arrived at the fort early in July. Grignon's impression was that his grand- father told him that there were but few other Indians there, and that the whole force of the French and Indians was about 1,500. The French garrison consisted of a few companies of soldiers and a considerable number of Canadian militia. When it was reported that the Eng- lish army was approaching, it was resolved to meet them outside of the fort, and an ambuscade was planned. Beaujeau, the second in command at the fort, who had formerly been a commandant at Green Bay. de Lig- nery's lieutenant in his expedition, against the Foxes, was to lead it. The advance column of Braddock was about 1.200 men, besides officers and drivers, and some artillery. The force which went out to meet them, under Beaujeau, acording to Parkman, was 637 of their Indian allies, 36 officers and cadets, 72 regular soldiers and 146 ( Canadians. On the 7th of July, the English force reached Turtle creek, about eight miles from the fort. The direct way was through a broken tract and a defile, very favorable for an ambuscade. To avoid this danger, they forded the Monongahela River twice. They crossed the river Early History oj the Fox River Valley. iyg the second time without opposition. Parkman says that the intention of Beaujeau, in the morning, was to am- buscade them at the crossing. He was a mile away when they crossed. There are some discrepancies in the account given by Langlade to his grandson and the accounts given by historians. They agree that the Eng- lish stopped at or near the river to take a luncheon. Here the acounts diverge. According to Parkman, they had finished their din- ner and were moving on through the forest with flankers out on both sides, and did not fall into an ambuscade; that some guides and light horsemen heard a musket shot ahead of the vanguard, stopped and fell back; that an engineer saw a man dressed like an Indian, but wear- ing the gorget of an officer, bounding along the path toward them; that when he saw the English, he turned and waved his hat and then the warwhoop was raised behind him, and the French and Indians spread to the right and left and opened a sharp fire from behind the trees. He explains the delay of Beaujeau, and his fail- ure to attack at the river crossing, by the statement that the Indians proved refractory and that three hundred of them went off in another direction and did not return until the English were across the river. De Langlade told his grandson that he went to Beaujeau and urged him to attack while the English were at dinner, and that Beaujeau made no reply; that he then called the chiefs together and urged them to demand that the attack be r8o Early History of the Fox River Valley. made, and that he made them no reply; that he then went again, himself, and urged the necessity of making the attack, if he intended to fight at all. According to Grignon, the remonstrance of Langlade was sharp and bitter. Beaujeau seemed disheartened when he saw the strength of the enemy and seemed in doubt what to do, but at length gave orders to attack. De Langlade told Grignon that some of the English officers who were killed had their napkins still pinned to their coats. Grig- non must have been mistaken, or remembered wrongly in one respect, for his statement seems to be that the English halt for dinner was before crossing the river, while the French and Indians were on the other side. Clearly, this could not have been so. It is not improba- ble that the attack on the advance was made before all had finished their dinner. The advance was in three bodies, with some interval between them. Possibly. Beaujeau meant to attack at the defile, which Braddock crossed the river to avoid, and found his plans frustrated by that movement. Beaujeau's Canadians tied at the first volley from the English, three hundred of whom wheeled into line and tired several volleys. Beaujeau's small force of regulars and officers could have offered but little obstacle to the English advance. He was killed at the third volley. The English, however, could not long maintain a steady line. From every little elavation of the ground, on either side, bullets were flying among them from an un- Earlv History of the Fox River Valley. 18 1 seen enemy. A puff of smoke would rise • from the thicket and when the report readied the ear of a soldier who saw it, the bullet came with it. It was useless to fire at a puff of smoke. The warrior who raised it would be instantly safe behind a tree, reloading. The red coats of the regulars furnished a good mark for the hidden foe. When Braddock reached the front, his troops were beginning to be huddled together in the narrow way. dazed, confused luu] demoralized by this unusual kind of warfare. Idle blue-coated Virginians of his army were doing their best, seeking shelter and firing from behind trees, as the enemy did. It is almost incredible that Braddock, shocked by such unmilitary conduct, ordered them out to form in line. . The English had two cannons which were unlimbered and began firing into the woods. Parkman says that the Indians then imitated the Cana- dians, but returned to the fight. What they did was to change their positions for others aside from the line of fire of the battery. De Langlade said that more of his force were injured by falling branches cut from the trees by the cannon balls, than by the bullets of the English. It was in vain that Braddock rode up and down, swear- ing like the Armv in Flanders, and ordering his men to fight. They were willing to fight, if he would show them anybody to fight with. Washington, riding up and down, and probably not using language fit for a Sunday school, had two horses shot under him. Braddock had l8 2 Eariv History of the Fox River \'aliey % four and, as he was giving the signal to retreat, fell from his horse, mortally wounded. The victors did not follow them across the river. The army of Braddock was ruined. Dunbar, on whom the command devolved, marched the shattered remnant over the mountains to Fort Cumberland, and then to Philadelphia. Braddock's army was routed, not by the French, of whom not much more than a hundred did any fighting, but by their allies. Parkman cites the traveler. Anbury, and Gen. John Burgoyne, both writing years afterward — but while de Langlade was still alive — of Charles de Langlade as the author of Braddock's defeat. ("Mont- calm and Wolfe," Vol. II. p. 426). Extracts from both, on which ParkmarTs statement is founded, are given in Tasse's Memoir of de Langlade, page 133, and show that, in the opinion of English officers, in after years, de Langlade was entitled to the credit of defeating Brad- dock. But this is not the place to write the biography of the military hero of the Fox River Vallev, nor the history of the battles of that great war. De Langlade continued hi the service, with his faithful band, until the final struggle on the plains of Abraham and the fall of Que- bec. 1 1 ). In August, of the next year, he was again at Fori Dnquesne. Dumas, who had command of the French, after Beaujeau fell at the battle with Braddock. to whom the French accounts gave the glory for that victory, was then in command at the fort. His orders Early History ,1/ the Fo* River Valley. 183 directing "Sieur de Langlade. Ensign of Infantry/' upon scouting duty, and his subsequent services, are detailed by Tasse. In 1757. he went down from Macki- naw with several hundred Indians and French, to join Montcalm, lie was active in the campaign that sum- mer. On the 8th of September, Vaudreuil appointed "Sieur Langlade, Ensign of troops detached from the marine^." second in command at "Michillimacinac." Tasse show- thai Grignon was mistaken as to de Langlade's presence at the battle of Ticonderoga, as he was serving as sponsor for an infant, born at "Fond du Lac," and baptized at Mackinaw, July 2nd, only seven days before that battle. In 1759, de Langlade again joined the forces of .Montcalm. De la Verendie and de Langlade brought to Montcalm 1,200 "Kristinaux, Sioux. Sacs, Menomonees, Chippewas and Foxes." In the memoir of de Langlade, the fact seems to be abund- antly established by authority, that he at one time had, with nine hundred Indians (and probably, bushrangers), ambushed about 2,000 of Wolfe's army who had pushed a reconnoissance into the woods dangerously near to the French left wing, and went twice to M. de Lexis, the commander of that wing, to urge him to send a French force to commence an attack. Fear of the possibility of bringing on a general engagement without the sane tion of his superior officers, deterred Levis from com- plying quickly enough, and the Indians, becoming im- patient after lying in ambush for five hours, fired one /£j Early History of the Fox River Valley. volley, killing a large number of the English, and then retreated, as they did not consider their number suffi- cient to fight a battle alone. Had Levis ordered the ad- vance, it is not improbable that the disaster at the Monongahela might have been repeated. Possibly, it might have saved Quebec and Canada, for the time. Not for long, however, for while the English were con- stantly augmenting their forces in America, the famous Pompadour, the concubine of the King, who dictated the policy of France, had caused Canada to be left mainly to her own population for her defense, while the power of the King was engaged in the coalition against the great Erederick of Prussia. Louis XV, who while he lacked the wisdom of Solomon, could vie with that monarch in his luxuries, extravagance, and the heavy hand laid upon his people, was too busy sowing the wind from which his unfortunate successor was to reap the whirlwind, to give overmuch care to his loyal subjects, white and red, in America. In the meantime, his officers of all grades, from Governor and Intendent down, were robbing him and his red ''children" without conscience. Indians never took up the hatchet for their French "father" until they had received ample presents. Large purchases of goods would be made by the officers, at fabulous prices, and charged to the King, for presents to the Indians. A third of them would be given to the savages and the rest sold to them for furs. They were all fur traders. The rottenness of the whole administra- Earlv History of the Fox River Valley. r8 5 tion of affairs in Canada is depicted in ('hap. XVII, of Parkman's "Montcalm and Wolfe." At Green Bay the gallant Marin, one of the best partisan officers in the ser- vice, and a brother of the governor, who was his partner, made a profit of 312,000 francs in a short time. It is in refreshing contrast to this wholesale specula- tion and corruption that we learn that Charles de Lang- lade had an account, which he rendered four times, always in the same terms, and had it returned to him three times for correction; the third time with the infor- mation that if it were three or four times as much, the King was able to pay it, and that he again returned the same account with the statement that it was correct. (2). The old maxim of "like master, like man," found abundant illustration in the administration. The luxury, extravagance and debauchery of Versailles were imi- tated at Quebec and Montreal. If the charges cited by Parkman were true, some of the highest officials of Canada imitated the conduct of King David toward Uriah the Hittite. The wonderful thing in all that history is, that the officers who would rob the King one daw without scruple, would tight for him the next with a zeal and vigor unexcelled. De Langlade was with the army of Montcalm on the fatal 17th of September, 1759, on the plains of Abraham. One of his companions, De Gere, related that at one t86 Early History oj the Fox River Valley. time during the hottest of the battle, de Langlade's gun became so heated that he had to stop to let it cool. He drew his pipe and tobacco from his pocket, filled his pipe and lighted it with a flint and steel as calmly as though no battle were raging around him. Two half brothers of de Langlade were killed there. After the surrender of Quebec, he went back to Mackinaw, and on his return to Canada, in the spring, received a commission issued by the King, dated February ist, 1760, appointing him a lieutenant. In September of that year, Vaudreuil, having no further hope of successful resistance to the English, issued an order to "Sieur de Langlade, half-pay lieutenant of the troops of the colony, whom we have charged with the superintendence of the Indian nations of the Upper Country," to take charge of the Indians on their return to their villages, and of two companies of English deserters, who were making their way to Louisiana. This order was dated September 3rd. He was followed to Mackinaw by a communication from the governor, dated six days later, announcing the final surrender of New France to the English, with an ex- planation of the reasons which compelled it and the terms. The Fox River Valley was too remote from the seat of hostilities in the ''French and Indian War," as it is called, to be the scene of any important historical events. About the only one recorded, is that Marin, command- ing at Fort St. Francis, at Green Bay, and the brother Early History of the Fox River Valley. iSy of the governor, made 312,000 francs in a very short time, stealing from the King whom they served. But that must have been early in the war. There was no garrison at that point for a long time before the war was over. All the soldiers were more needed elsewhere. We can imagine Charles de Langlade going among the In- dians, with the tomahawk in one hand and the one-third, or so, of the gifts intended for them which had not been stolen by the officials before they reached his hands, en- listing them to join the forces with which he was to de- feat Braddock's army. In the history of the scandalous frauds and corrup- tion which pervaded the administration of Canada in the reign of Louis XV, there was one little scheme, which, if it had succeeded, would have been important to Green Bay and the valley of the Fox River. In 1759, when the King of France would furnish no troops to meet the in- creasing strength of the English, and had so exhausted his resources and credit that he could not well furnish any more funds for his servants in the province to prey upon, Vaudreuil, in October, made a grant to M. Rigaud and Mme. de Vaudreuil of the fort at "La Baye des Puants," with an extensive territory in which the grantees were to have the exclusive right of trade, with liberty to erect houses and make improvements thereon. As this would cost the King nothing, and the French power was then tottering to its fall, the King confirmed the grant in January following. This grant was sold by . rly History of the Fox River Valley. the grantees to one William Grant. When the claims under French grants were being adjusted, it was so palpably a mere gratuity that it was rejected without very much ceremony. (See "Smith's Documentary History of Wisconsin." Vol. 1. pp. 128, 350). ( rreat changes had occurred in the location of the Indian tribes, since the early days of the bushrangers ami Jesuit missionaries. The Mascoutins and Kickapoos had removed to the month of the Rock River, about the clo>e of the Seventeenth century. The Foxes and Sauks had been expelled from the valley of the Fox, as before related. The Winnebagos had moved up the river before the expedition of de Lignery, in 1728. Some or the Menomonees had moved down from the Menomonee River and were in the vicinity of Fort St. Francis, they and the Winnebagos being the only tribes remaining on the Fox River. Parkman's map, in the first volume oi "The Conspiracy of Pontiac." locates these two tribes as indicated, the Winnebagos in the vicinity of Lake Winnebago and south. The same map locates the Sauks (the Sacs) on the Wisconsin and the Outagamis east oi the Mississippi and north of the Wis- consin. The Pottawatomies, who formerly occupied the inlands at the entrance to Green Bay and the penin- sula of Door County, are located in the vicinity of St. Joseph, east of the south end of Lake Michigan, with the Ottawa- north of them, in the Michigan peninsula. Early History r>t the Fox River Valley. i8g The Kickapoos are located on the tributaries of the Illi- nois River, west of Chicago. The Mascoutins, among whom John Nicolet found a hospitable reception: with whom Radisson and Grosil- liers spent a considerable time and found them "tall and bigge and very strong:" whom AUouez found so ready to receive the gospel of the Jesuits; among whom Mar- quette and Joliet spent two days acquiring information before pushing on into unknown regions: who hunted wild cattle and buffaloes on the prairies of Winnebago. Green Lake and Fond du Lac Counties; the afterward allies of the Outagamis in their raid on Detroit; had dis- appeared from maps and from history. The remnant had probably united with the Kickapoos. NOTES TO CHAPTER XVII. (i). A recent writer on Wisconsin History says: "At the bloody massacre at Fort William Henry, the braves of Langlade were at the front." (Legler's "Leading events in Wisconsin History," p. 114V This is probably a mistake. Parkman says that the massacre at that fort in 1758, was by the Abenaki (Kennebec) Indians, who were Christians. I "Montcalm and Wolfe," L 514 notes). Indeed, it seems, from Tasse's memoir, cited in what follows that Langlade and his warriors were not with Motcalm in the campaign of that year, *9° Early History of the Pox River Valley. (2). While he was in the service of the English, in 1777, Major De Peyster expressed the opinion that he was ''strictly honest and quite disinterested, but that he was rather too liberal to the Indians. (VII, W. H. Coll., 406). CHAPTER XVIII. ENGLISH OCCUPATION. — PONTIAC— MASSACRE AT MICHILLIMACINAC DE LANGLADE. For ninety years the semi-military and fully com- mercial expeditions of the French had been traversing the lakes, rivers, forests and prairies of the west and northwest, accompanied everywhere by the Jesuit, or the Franciscan priest, ever and anon erecting a cross and, beside it, a post, to which a tin or lead plate with the arms of France embossed thereon was nailed; or, when the times were too perilous to admit of much cere- mony, as in the case of Celeron de Bienville, burying the lead plates in the ground at intervals. From time to time, with great ceremony, at Sault Ste. Marie, at Lake Pepin, near the mouth of the Mississippi, and even be- yond the great river, taking formal possession of all within the range of vision, or known or suspected to exist anywhere beyond that range, save the strip along the seaboard occupied by the English and the countries fQ3 Early History of the Fox River Val 1 ^ south, occupied by the Spaniards. Process-verbal after process-verbal, solemnly attested by notaries taken along- for the purpose, had been filed in the archives of France. The demoralizing effect of relying upon the fur trade alone as a resource; of the double-headed srov- ernment of the colony, and the poison of the universal corruption which, pervaded the administration in the colonies and a1 home, paved the way for the genius of the great commoner. William Pitt, to bring it all to naught. The surrender of Vaudreuil to Amherst included a few small cities and villages along the St. Lawrence, and a goodly number of scattered and isolated posts in the wilderness. Unfortunately, Vaudreuil could not transfer to the English the French adaptability and genius for dealing with the savage tribes, who occupied the territory trans- ferred, nor the good will of the savages themselves. Small English garrisons were sent to occupy all the military posts. In 1761. Captain George Etherington, with a small garrison, took possession of Michillimaci- nac, and on the 12th of October of that year, came Cap- tain Balfour, of the Eightieth, and Lieutenant James Gorrell, of the Sixtieth Royal Americans, and invaded the valley of the Fox, by taking possession of the dilapi- dated Fort St. Francis, at the mouth of that river. Cap- tain Balfour remained long enough to run up the British colors over the old fort and re-christen it with the sonor- Early History of the Fox River Valley. iqj ous title of Fort Edward Augustus. He soon took his departure, leaving Lieutenant Gorrell, with a garrison of one sergeant, one corporal and fifteen soldiers, to guard and protect the interests of his majesty, George III, in all the region from the entrance of Green Bay to the Mississippi River. Lieutenant Gorrell seems to have been one of the few examples of the right man in the right place, which the English occupation showed at that time. It is apparent that the great mass of the Indians still believed that their great father, the King of France, had been sleeping and let the English steal a march upon him; that he would arouse and yet drive the hated English from the lands of his children. It is not unlikely that the traders and bushrangers fostered this belief, for they had reason to fear the competition of the English traders, who, by the better bargains which they offered, had for many years made serious inroads upon the trade of the French. But that trade had been carried on la-rgely through the Iroquois, or a class as reckless and more reckless and abandoned, than the gay and fraternizing bushrangers of the French. When the English trader of another class began to come among them, the difference between their manners and those of such men as the Langlades and other French traders of the period, was too marked to escape the notice of the Indians. Too many of the officers sent among them by the English were disposed to treat them with a cool superciliousness 1Q4 Early History of the Fox River Valley. or haughty contempt. Lieutenant Gorrell bent all his energies, apparently, to the conciliation of the savages and to securing their friendship. Green Bay was the point of supply for the Menomo- nees, who now resided in the immediate vicinity, the Winnebagos then around Lake Winnebago, the Sacs (as the Sauks are known in later history), who were on the Wisconsin, the remnant of the Outagamis, who were near or with the Sacs, and the hordes of the Dacotahs, or Sioux. Gorrell estimated that 39,000 warriors be- sides their women and children, depended on that place for their supplies. This represented an enormous traffic, and two English traders came with the garrison, with large outfits of goods for that trade and took up their quarters in the fort. The de Langlades, when they established themselves at Green Bay, in T744 or 1745, probably did not abandon their post at Mackinaw, where the registers continued to show them residents for many years. Charles de Langlade, who was second in com- mand there when the post was transferred to the Eng- lish, was there in 1763, as will appear hereafter. It is °*^id that when the Erench traders heard of the small English force that was coming to Green Bay, they tried to induce the Indians to attack and massacre them when they arrived, and that their young men were willing, but that under the advice of a wise o 1 d Sac chief, they re- frained and went on the winter hunt instead. Gorrell assembled the chiefs in council, made them Eariy History oj the Fox River Valley. /qj speeches and (which was probably more to the purpose) made them considerate presents, a coarse which had been advised by Sir William Johnson. By his address and presents, Gorrell seems to have secured the good will of the Menomonees at least. During this period of Lieutenant Gorrell's com- mand, there was reasonable harmony between the Eng- lish and the natives. Gorrell's journal of the time is the principal source of information on the subject. It is published in the first volume of the Wisconsin Histori- cal Collections. The French traders at the various posts were re- quired to take an oath of allegiance to the new authority as a condition of continuing their business of trade with the Indians. The terms of the capitulation guaranteed to the inhabitants all their civil and religious rights un- der the law as it existed at the time. At Green Bay the only perceptible change was the presence of the small English garrison and English, as well as French traders. Of course, the few French settlers and the voyageurs and bushrangers everywhere were not pleased with the change, and, until the final treaty was ratified and promulgated among them it is probab 1 e that most of them really indulged the belief that the King of France would yet arouse and drive away the interlopers. They seem to have fostered this idea among the Indians. There is preserved an order of Captain Etherington, dated April 13th, 1763, giving permission to the Lang- rer Vahev. 2og After crossing the portage, Carver found the Sauks (at Sauk prairie on the Wisconsin), settled in the largest and best built Indian village he had ever seen. Their business was largely hunting Pawnees and Illinois for slaves. Pawnee slaves were numerous among the vari- ous tribes and the Sauks appear to have been engaged in supplying the demand for them. After the departure of Gorrell and his small force from Green Bay, the valley of the Fox was left to its own peaceful, uneventful solitude until the breaking out of the Revolution. The few traders at Green Bay, and their clerks and employes and slaves, were its only popu- lation, excepting the Monomonees and Winnebagos. Peace and harmony seemed to reign in the valley. Mackinaw was the great trading point of the upper lake region. Doubtless, many canoes passed up and down between the lakes and the Mississippi, and the song of the light-hearted "voyageur" often waked the echoes along the river. At Detroit, Macinaw, and especially in the French settlements in the Illinois country, the French population diminished. Many crossed the Mississippi where they could still be resi- dents of a French colony, soon after the garrisoning of the posts by the English, but Louisiana was soon ceded to Spain and the}- had no further opportunity to live under French rule on the American continent. When the great war-chief, l'ontiac was murdered in the country of the Illinois, by one or more of that nation, 2j« Earlv History of the Fox River Valley. and they protected and took the part of the assassin, there was great excitement and indignation against that tribe. The attacks on the Illinois were so numerous and so furious that their tribes were nearly destroyed. It does not appear that the Sacs and Foxes, as tribes, took any part in the great conspiracy of Pontiac, but they are represented as being among the most active in reveng- ing his death. It is possible that they used this pretext to renew the old hostility against the Illinois, which had formed a large part of the cause of the war by the French against the Foxes, nearly half a century earlier. While the few Frenchmen and the half breed Indians of the Fox were going on with their accustomed avoca- tions and trade as though no change had taken place in the government of New France, and caring little for the change which in no way affected them, events were moving rapidly which, within the life of some of them, were to produce marvelous changes, and within a cen- tury were to put the Fox River V alley, with all the west- ern wilderness of New France and Louisiana into the line of march of the advancing civilization of the Nine- teenth century. English statesmen had watched the rapid growing strength and power of her American colonies with jeal- ousy and suspicion. England had discouraged the plantings of any new colony away from the seaboard, in truth, strongly republican ideas, which pervaded the colonies already in existence, boded evil to George III. Early History oj the Fox River Valley, si j While he was striving to extend the prerogatives of the crown as ardently as ever did one of the Stuarts, the troublesome elective legislatures of the colonies were asserting, in no uncertain terms, the prerogatives of the people. Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, lost the opportunity to fortify at the forks of the Ohio before the French did, in 1754, because the house of Burgesses would not appropriate the necessary funds (which he could get in no other way), until he would relinquish the charge, which they had never authorized, of one pistole fee for every grant of land in the colony. English colonial policy had not yet learned to tolerate a republi- can colonial empire like the Dominion of Canada, in her colonies. The culminating controversy over the right of parliament to levy taxes in the colonies, led finally to open war, to the declaration of independence and to the floating of the Stars and Stripes as the emblem of the sovereignty of a great and free peop 1 e, whose will makes the law which governs them. Some of the results are seen in the mills, factories and thousand active indus- tries; the thriving cities and villages and the immense agricultural development, which now place t he Fox River Valley well to the front as a scat of wealth, culture and refinement. The war-whoop is replaced by the steam whistle of the locomotive, the steamboat and the factory; the savage war-song by the patriotic songs of a free people; and the medicine-song by the hymns and anthems of a Christian people. CHAPTER XX DURING THE REVOLUTION. Immediately after the treaty with France in 1763, the King of England issued a proclamation adopted by the King in council, by which the territory acquired by the treaty was organized into the provinces of East and West Florida and the province of Quebec. The procla- mation, among other things forbade the governors of these provinces to grant any warrant for survey, or pass any patents for lands beyond the limits of their respec- tive governments, as prescribed by the proclamation. It also forbade the governors of the other colonies granting any warrants for survey, or passing any patent for any lands beyond the head waters of the rivers which fall into the Atlantic, or the grant of any warrants for survey or passing any patent for any lands whatever. which had not been purchased by, or ceded to the King. This tenderness for the Indian land titles had not marked the earlier stages of the colonial life of the colo- nies. It established a policy which has been followed by Early History of the Fox River Valley, 2/3 the United States, of extinguishing Indian titles before surveying or granting any lands. Jealousy of the grow- ing strength of the colonies, which had been demons- trated in the seven years war, and fear that they would get beyond control probably had some influence in determining this policy. The troubles between the colonies and the mother country, principally over the question of the right of parliament, in which they were not represented, to tax the people of the colonies, were getting perilously neat to the point of open rupture, when, in 1774, parliament enacted the celebrated "Quebec Act." This act, among other things, abolished representa- tive government in that province and practically re- stored the old French policy, vesting the power, includ- ing that of taxation, in the governor and council. The point for which I mention it particularly is, that it ex- tended the boundaries of that province, so as to include in it all the territory northwest of the Ohio River, which was covered, thirteen years later, by the ordinance of 1787. Macinaw was regarrisoned by the English in 1764 and de Langlade returned to his former position as su- perintendent of the Indians in the Green Bay district. When the revolution broke out, at the request of Major De Peyster, then commander at Macinaw, he once more rallied a force of Indians among the Ottawas, Menom- 214 Early History 0/ the Fox River Valley. onees and other tribes, and led them to Montreal to join the army of Burgoyne. The English officers knew what his services had been to the French in the former war and, as they could not appropriate any part of the glory of his achieve- ments, did not hesitate to speak of them as they were. In 1777, Thomas Anbury, then an officer in Bur- goyne's army, wrote that they were expecting a force of Ottawas "led by M. de St. Luc and M. de Langlade, both great partizans of the French cause in the last war; the latter is the person who, at the head of the tribe which he now commands, planned and executed the de- feat of General Braddock." Burgoyne himself wrote, July 17th, 1777: "I am informed that the Ottawas and other Indian tribes, who are two days march from us, are brave and faithful, and that they practice war and not pillage. They are under the orders of M. St. Luc .... and a M. de Langlade, the very man who with these tribes projected and executed Braddock's defeat." t Tasse's Memoir, p. 133). Most of the Indians and Canadians soon left Bur- goyne. The unfortunate general did not understand the character of these allies, and they were illy fitted for civilized warfare in an inhabited country. The con- troversy between him and St. Luc is detailed in Tasse's "Memoir of de Langlade" (VII Wis. Historical Collec- tions, pp. 168-172). It would be out of place here. Virginia, under the various charters which she held Early History of the Fox River Valley. 2 / i from the crown, claimed the rightful jurisdiction over all the territory northwest of the Ohio River, which the Quebec Act had attached to that province. The elo qnent revolutionist, Patrick Henry, then governor of Virginia, and his council concluded to carry on a little side war of their own, to oust the small British garri- sons who occupied the old French posts in the Illinois country, as that whole region was called. Colonel George Rogers Clark was commissioned to raise a force of three hundred men for that purpose. With much difficulty Clark succeeded in raising about half that number, mostly frontiersmen, and started to wrest that country from the dominion of the King of England. The little army were not arrayed in gorgeous uniforms, but they had pluck and energy, and were marksmen with the rifle, which were more ' important than uni- forms . Clark reached Kaskaskia on the evening of July 4th. 1778, and crossing the river in the night, found the gates of the fort open and unguarded. Tn the morning he was in possession of both fort and town. The whole story of the capture of Kaskaskia, Cahokia and finally of Vincennes without bloodshed is interesting, but too long to relate here. The French inhabitants, when in- formed of the state of affairs, and the alliance between France and the United States, took an oath of allegiance to Virginia, and Clark proceeded to set up a form of government and establish courts. The legislature of 2 rb Early History of the Fox River Valley . Virginia soon established the county of Illinois and ap- pointed a commandant for that region. The Indians in the vicinity of the captured posts, surprised, and per- haps somewhat alarmed at the easy triumph of the "big knives," as the Americans were called, soon entered into treaties with Clark, and the dominion of Virginia was established there. Lieutenant Governor Hamilton, the British com- mander at Detroit, (known as the "hair buyer," because, as it was said, he offered the Indians rewards for Ameri- can scalps and none for prisoners), when he heard of Clark's doings raised a force of regulars, militia and In- dians to retake the Ilinois posts and capture Colonel Clark. Hamilton reached Vincennes in December and summoned the garrison to surrender. Captain Helm, who was left in command there, put on a bold front and asked for terms. Hamilton was in a hurry and gave the usual terms of honorable capitulation. He was some- what surprised to see the captain march out with the honors of war, with one private soldier. Of course, the people of Vincennes had to change their allegiance at once. At Vincennes, Hamilton took up his winter quarters with a garrison of seventy-nine men. Clark was at Kaskaskia and did nor approve of Hamilton's course. He therefore made a winter march in Feb- ruary, with one hundred and seventy men all told, in- cluding pack-horsemen and other employes. He arrived near Vincennes on the 21st. He took posses- Early History of the Fox River Valley. 217 sion of the town and summoned Hamilton to surrender the fort. His rifles kept up an incessant fire, and if one of Hamilton's men appeared in sight, he immediately became the target for a rifle ball. Hamilton was forced to surrender on the 2.4th of February, T779, and was sent prisoner to Virginia. it was in the fall of 177& that the Indians of Wiscon- sin were called upon to organize to reinforce Hamilton. They were not very zealous partisans of the English cause. They had lost some lives at the battle of Ben- nington and had left Burgoyne because they would not serve longer under the restrictions which he imposed. They were to assemble at L' Arbor Croche for the expe- dition. The conglomerate band at Milwaukee could not be induced to take any part until de Langlade went there and held a dog-feast in the Indian fashion. Under Captain de Langlade the Indian force collected, went in canoes to .St. Joseph, where they learned that they were too late, as Hamilton was already the pris- oner of Clark, and the Indians returned home disgusted and without a scalp. (1). This was the last military service of Charles de Langlade, though he lived till the year t8oo. In 1780, there was a large and valuable lot of peltries stored in the old fort at Prairie du Chien, belonging to traders at Green Bay or Macinaw. De Langlade was there with a small force protecting them. It was feared that the "big knives," under Colonel Clark, would raid 2/8 Early History oj the Fox River Valley. the place, and de Langlade had not sufficient force to protect them. John Long, an English trader from Macinaw, joined de Langlade with a few Canadians and a larger force of Indians. They loaded the furs into their canoes to the number of three hundred packs. burning sixty packs which their canoes had not capa- city for. and took them to Macinaw. Clark's forces arrived there five days later, but the booty was gone. Gautier de Verville had before this time led a raid of Wisconsin Indians into Illinois to destroy a trading post where Peoria now stands, which the English feared the Americans might occupy and fortify. Augustin de Langlade, the father of Charles, who is regarded as the head of the first family of permanent settlers in Wisconsin, died, according to Grignon, about 177 1, and was buried at Green Bay. It is presumed that his widow returned to her kindred at Macinaw. The Langlades had taken possession and improved con- siderable land at Green Bay, and in J 782, written per- mission was given to Madame Langlade to go to Green Bay and take possession of her houses, gardens, farms and property, by Lieutenant Governor Patrick Sin- clair. British commander at Macinaw. Bearing in mind the history of the war of 1898 with Spain, and the treaty which followed it, it may well cause reflection, if not a smile, to remember that in 1783, while the treaty was being negotiated which estab- lished the independence of the United States, the sov- Early History of the Fox River Valley. a 19 ereignty of Spain, over all the country west of the Mis- sissippi River was acknowledged, under the name of Louisiana. Spain was at war with England and, by con- quest, or diplomacy, hoped to acquire that part of the old French province of Louisiana which was east of that river. France had, by treaty, guaranteed the independ- ence of the United States and, under the treaty, neither was to conclude a peace with England until the other did the same. During the negotiations for peace, French diplomacy endeavored to aid Spain in limiting the boundaries of the United States on the west to the head waters of the rivers flowing into the Atlantic ocean, or to a line far east of the Mississippi. Had Spain succeeded in her designs the Fox River Valley, with all the northwest, might have become Spanish ter- ritory. But for the meddling of France and Spain it was not impossible that the northern boundary of the United States might have been on Hudson bay and the Arctic sea. The common sense of the British ministry of the time and the disregard of their instructions by the American commissioners, settled the northern boun- dary through the middle of the lakes and connecting rivers. Thus this valley, with the territory north-west of the Ohio, became territory of the United States. (See Hinsdale's "Old Northwest," Chap. X). England, under some pretext of failure by the United States to fulfill some conditions of the treaty (probably true enough), held the posts in the northwest, 2So Early History of the Fox River Valley- which she occupied at the close of the war, until after Jay's treaty in 1794. Macinaw was not occupied by an American garrison till 1796. NOTES TO CHAPTER XX. (t). Charles Gautier de Verville, a son of a half-sis- ter of de Langlade, had served under the latter at Brad- dock's defeat and through the subsequent war and be- came noted for his bravery. He also followed de Lang- lade in the English service, in the revolutionary war and was made a captain in the Indian department. In XII., W. H. Coll.. 100-111, is a very curious journal sent by him to Gov. Carlton, of Canada. It gives his experi- ences in endeavoring to raise an Indian force for this service. It shows that the Indians were uncertain and lukewarm in the English cause and that some, — especi- ally the Sauks, were dallying with the "Bostonians." The letters of Major De Peyster, in VII., W. H. Coll., 405-408, show that the Spaniards from west of the Mississippi, were taking a hand in the efforts to con- ciliate and gain the good will of the Indians and that they sent an agent with a wampum belt to the motley band at Milwaukee. De Peyster thought that their pur- pose was trade, only. But Spanish ambition probably looked farther. A Spanish force at one time crossed from St. Louis and took possession of St. Joseph, on Lake Michigan. CHAPTER XXI. BETWEEN THE TWO WARS WITH GREAT BRITAIN. The definitive treaty of peace between the United States and Great Britain was not signed till September 3rd, 1783. The preliminary treaty had been agreed upon, however, and in July of that year Washington sent Baron Steuben to General Haldiman, the British commander in Canada, with authority to receive pos- session of Detroit and the other western posts for the United States. It was agreed that they were to be de- livered up, but Haldiman said he had no orders to de- liver them, and declined to discuss the matter with Steuben. Afterward, the delivery was delayed, as be- fore stated, because ,as was claimed, the United States had failed to perform some stipulations of the treaty. So it happened that the English troops remained at Macinaw and the other posts in their possession at the time of the treaty, until after Jay's treaty, and no Ameri- can garrison occupied Macinaw till 1796. This is not the place to discuss the reasons for this holding on to 222 Early History of the Fox River Valley. these posts, and the serious consequences in the north- west. The fierce war waged by the Indians encouraged, if not instigated, by the English, to restrict the Ameri- can occupation to the line of the Ohio River, cost many lives. Green Bay was not garrisoned by either English or Americans, and the quiet valley of the Fox was not dis- turbed by the fierce struggle, in which Harmer and St. Clair were defeated and "Mad Anthony" Wayne brought the savages to terms and closed a treaty with them the year following Jay's treaty. The only attempt on the part of the Americans to exercise any jurisdiction in the Fox River Valley, be- fore the close of the war of 1812-1815 that appears, was the issuing of a commission by Governor Harrison, of Indiana, four or five years before that was commenced, appointing the celebrated Charles Raume a justice of the peace. Under that appointment Raume continued to dispense (or dispense with) justice at the Green Bay settlement in a very eccentric fashion for several years. For many years before this, marriages there were en- tered into by contract in the presence of witnesses, there being neither clergyman nor magistrate to perform the ceremony. Disputes were settled by arbitration and the little community had no need for courts, officers of the law, nor lawyers. They even lived to a fair old age, in many instances, without the aid of doctors. As we have seen, seven families, with tb f eir retainers, amounting to Earlv History of the Fox River Va'lev. 223 about fifty-six souls, constituted the embryo city in 17S5. From 1791, there began some gradual accessions to the little colony of Green Bay — mostly French Cana- dians, attracted, as their predecessors had been, by the fur trade. In that year came James Porlier, an educat- ed, refined gentleman in the true sense oi the word, who afterward filled various judicial positions in the days of the American occupation with credit and honor, and was until his death one of the most respected and honored citizens of that place. The next year came the eccentric Raume. Others came until the beginning of the war of 1812-1815, at which time Grignon estimates that the population there was not less than two hundred and fifty. (1). They took up land claims along the Fox River, in the Canadian fashion ,with a narrow frontage on the river and extendi no- back from the river a dis- tance sufficient to include as much land as they wanted. So the banks of the river, to the rapids at De Pere, were occupied by these narrow holdings, each with its neatly whitewashed cottage, or cabin, located near the river and in such proximity to each other that the social ad- vantages of village life were enjoyed by all. The French settler had no disposition to seek out the best land and commence a lonely clearing and improvement, isolated from all neighbors. His social life was as essential to his comfort and happiness as food and raiment. One who will glance at the town of Allouez, on a 324 Early History of the Fox Rtver Valley. modern map of Brown County, will get an idea of their manner of settlements; and one who reads the fascinat- ing chapter in "Historic Green Bay," entitled "In Good Old Colony Days," will get an idea of their social life and be convinced that there were compensations for their separation from the rush of the great currents of humanity. It is certain that much of the worry and the selfishness of life under conditions of existence in popu- lous and energetic communities were eliminated from the life of this little community in the wilderness. Kind- ness, hospitality and courtesy pervaded their intercourse among themselves, and with strangers who happened, among them. Their social amusements were ilie source of pleasure and enjoyment which were not excelled in the gayest capitals of the world. The custom of the traders was to take a stock of goods and, with their "engages," to follow the Indians to their winter hunting grounds. Grignon's recollec- tions show that he passed winters in many different places. The agriculture of this little colony was carried on to the extent necessarv to supply the home demand. The implements were few and of the crude clumsy pat- terns in use in Canada. Canadian ponies, small, but strong and hardy, and often rleet of foot, were the horses in use. Canadian carts were used for toting purposes. There were no carriages, but carioles and other vehicles for business or pleasure when the snow and ice of win- Early History of the Fox River Valley. 225 ter closed the canoe navigation. This commerce sup- plied all their needs which they could not supply from their home resources. The people of the little colony were happy, because they were contented. The sharp struggle for existence, the keen strife for gain, the so- cial ambitions, the perpetual longing for something which one has not while others have, which makes the unrest of a dense population and highly enlightened communities, were practically unknown among the gay, easy-going Canadians and mixed bloods of that early settlement. The Winnebago Indians were spreading themselves out. There were villages of them at Doty's Island and Garlic Island; at Black Wolf, six or seven miles south of the site of Oshkosh; at Taycheedah, on the east shore of Take Winnebago, about three miles from the present Fond du Lac; and a band with an exceedingly bad repu- tation had established themselves farther south on the head waters of the Rock River. They also had villages at Green Lake and at Lake Puckaway, on the upper Fox. They therefore claimed jurisdiction over the whole valley, above the outlet of Lake Winnebago and greatly increased in numbers. About 1790, a band of them established a village on the Wisconsin, two or three miles above the portage, which grew to be a considerable village. Here the D@ Kaury family, descendants of a French trader who mar- 226 Early History of the Fox River Valley* ried a sister of the head chief of the Winnebagos, were the principal chiefs. Now let us (in imagination) for a few minutes go back something more than a«century, to the spring of 1793, and stand on the narrow strip of land known since the days of Marquette as "the Portage." Looking to the north-west, you see the Wisconsin, then swollen to its spring proportions, come rushing and swirling down, like an ardent lover to meet his expected sweetheart, while up from the south slowly and timidly the waters of the modest little Fox creep along to meet the rush- ing Wisconsin. Both seem to be aiming for a union which shall mingle their currents forever. But they meet an impediment, an obstacle which they fail to overleap, in the narrow strip of land a mile and a quar- ter in width ,more or less. The restless Wisconsin strikes it and is deflected to the south-west and goes brawling and complaining in eccentric course among the' shifting sand-bars, to mingle with the eddies and muddy currents of the Great River of the west. The little Fox, deflected to the north by the other side of the narrow barrier, goes slowly and sadly to hide herself in the reeds, marshes and wild rice beds that seek to choke her way until, finally, emerging from her obscurity, she frtoves on in a north-easterly direction until she meets and unites with the Wolf, a stream as large as the Wis- consin and of much better behavior; a stream so yielding in its gentle nature as even to yield its name and go on Early History of the Fox River Vauey. 927 under that of its little partner, to mingle with the waters of the great lakes and finally reach the sea through the current of the mighty St. Lawrence. That narrow strip of land where the Fox and Wisconsin come so near meeting, up in the heart of the state of Wisconsin, is the western extremity of the Fox River Valley. The wa- ters, which so nearly meet there, never meet, until, through the gulfs of Mexico and St. Lawrence, they are absorbed in the eternity of the boundless ocean. Imagination tires with the contemplation of the in- numerable weary trips across the portage, that were made by men laden with goods, peltries and canoes on their backs or shoulders, or improvised hand-barrows, during the one hundred and twenty years since Mar- quette and his companions toted their canoes and outfit across there. In the spring of 1793, down to the Portage came Laurent Barth, from the St. Croix River, where he had followed the Indians to their hunting grounds, and win- tered with, or near, James Porlier and Charles Raume, of Green Bay, both of whom afterward became conspic- uous (though in a different way) in the judicial annals of that ancient borough. Grignon says that Barth was a Macinaw trader. At the portage he bethought him of an enterprise which might be to his advantage. He procured from the Winnebago chiefs a franchise to establish a transportation line across the portage. He erected a house and engaged in business under his fran- 228 Early History of the Fox River Valley. chise, as a common carrier, with an outfit of one Cana- dian pony and cart. Grignon says that he purchased the franchise — a precedent which is supposed to have been often followed since. So Barth became the founder and first settler of the thriving city of Portage. Here he drove his pony and cart forth and back across the portage for the accommodation of traders and travelers — and fifty cents a hundred pounds. Thus, civilization began its footprints on the sands of the portage. Barth was soon to learn that civilized avocations are liable to vicissitudes. In 1798, his comfortable monopoly came ,0 an end. Whether it was agreed that his franchise should be exclusive, or not, does not appear. In the year last mentioned came one John Lecuyer. He was a brother-in-law to the elder De-Kaury, who was a great man among the Winnebagos. Therefore, he had a 'pull," and he procured a franchise from them, similar in terms to Earth's. There was no court of chancery among the Indians, to which Barth could apply for an injunction, and Lecuyer came on with several horses and carts and a wagon with a long reach, on which large canoes could be hauled. It appears that competition brought down the rate to forty cents per hundred pounds. The new century, probably, found Barth some- what discouraged. About 1803, he sold out to a Mr. Campbell, afterward American Indian agent at Prairie .In Chien. Shortly afterward Campbell sold his fixtures uO Lecuver. who expected thereby to have a monopoly. Early History of the Fox River Valley. 229 But Campbell's franchise was not included in the deal. Soon there came Campbell's son, John, with teams and wagons, and a long, heavy wagon or truck, on which barges could be transported. For many years, the trans- portation across the portage was the principal business there. It was the nucleus of the permanent settlement. Lecuyer and his successors also kept a stock of mer- chandise. It was a winter trading point for the Indian traders also, for several years. Augustin Grignon spent two winters there, and Judge Porlier did the same, it is said. In view of the rapid settlement of new territory which has been seen in our day, it seems strange, to re- flect that a century ago, one generation had been born and grown old, and a second generation had been born and grown up, and the third were being born and grow- ing up at one extremity of the valley of the Fox, before the nucleus of a settlement was planted at the other ex- tremity. Though the Canadians and their families, who con- stituted the advance guard of civilization in this valley, and the whole northwest, for about a century and a half, had few of the luxuries of life, and had but very crude implements and appliances for providing themselves with its comforts, they were happy and contented. They raised the wheat to make their flour from the time of the first permanent settlement, and they ground it in hand mills worked with two cranks, with which two per- 230 Early History of the Fox River Valley. sons could grind about half a bushel in an hour, until the year 1809. Then Jacob Franks erected the first saw mill and the first grist mill in the Fox River Valley, on Devil River, two or three miles east of De Pere. The mill-wright who erected them was an American, named Bradley. When Pierre Grignon erected a new house in 1790, better than any house at Green Bay, though the house was of hewn logs, he had to import a carpenter and a mason from Montreal. Their fields were plowed with a wooden plow, having only a point of iron, with a long plow-beam supported on small wheels and drawn by oxen, with a straight yoke lashed across their horns and attached to the plow by thongs of hide. Yet, they were happy and did not furrow their brows prematurely with the care of heaping up riches, which they could not tell who should gather after they were gone. The shades of color among them were various, from white to dark brown, and their descendants, proud of their ancestrv, are still found in Wisconsin. NOTES TO CHAPTER XXI. (1). When Captain Anderson visited Green Bay the first time, in the year 1800. he found about a dozen settlers, IX., W. H. Coll., 145- CHAPTER XXII. IN THE WAR OF 1812-1815. Spain had ceded Louisiana back to France and Napoleon had sold it to the United States in 1803. So at the beginning- of the war, New Orleans was an Ameri- can post. After the posts on the upper lakes had been turned over to the Americans under Jay's treaty, Ameri- can fur traders appeared at Macinaw. An Act of Con- gress., approved March 30th, 1802, had prohibited any residence at Indian villages or hunting grounds, for trade with the Indians without a license from the United States. The Northwest Company, under the British occupancy, had built up a great trade with the Indians of the upper lakes and upper Mississippi. Robert Dic*c- son, a Scotchman, who had been engaged in the trade for many years as an agent of the Northwest Company, had married a sister of a Sioux chief and had acquired an influence among the northwestern tribes similar to that of Nicholas Perrot, more than a century earlier. He was called the "red head" by the Sioux, because of the color 232 Early History of the Fox River Valley. of his hair. The Americans had not garrisoned any post at Green Bay, nor on the upper Mississippi, and the Northwest Company continued largely to control the trade. When it was proposed to enforce the act of 1802, on the Fox River, about 18 10, a com- bination of seven traders, with Dickson at their head, proposed to run the blockade at Macinaw. In it were John Lawe and Jacob Franks, English traders, who had settled at Green Bay in the last decade of the pre- vious century. Tt is said they ran over $50,000 worth of goods, for the Indian trade, past Macinaw in the night, in batteaux, and got them safely to the Bay. Prairie du Chien was occupied by the English traders and a small force of men. It was important for the Northwest Com- pany that Macinaw should be in British hands. So it happened, as in former wars, that the interests of the fur trade had much to do with the military operations in the upper lake region. War was declared by Congress on the 18th of June, 1812, and the proclamation by the President was issued the next day. There was gross negligence, or some- thing worse, so that the declaration was known at all the British posts on the frontier, before the commanders at the American posts received any notice of it. There was a British post at the island of St. Joseph, near the north shore of Lake Huron, commanded by Captain Roberts. The British post had been warned to expect the declaration, and Captain Roberts was informed of it Marly History of the Fox River Valley, 233 as speedily as possible. He was ready to act at once. Requisition was made on the Northwest Company, and a large force of traders and employes joined him. Dick- son had rallied a force of Indians, including a large num- ber of Menomonees and Winnebagos. Lieutenant Hanks held the post at Macinaw with an American force of fifty-seven effective men, five sick men and a drummer boy. The first information which he had of the war was on the 17th day of July. He arose that morning to find that Captain Roberts with a force of ] ,000 white, mixed and red men, had landed on the opposite side of the island and had cannon planted on high ground, which commanded the fort. With notice that war Avas declared came a summons to surrender the fort. As it was manifest that he could not defend it and there were several hundred Indians there anxious for the scalps of the little garrison and the few Americans there, he surrendered and Michilimacinac was a British post during the war, greatly to the advantage of Robert Dickson and the Northwest Company. Hanks' report to General Hull was dated at Detroit, August 12th. On the 1 6th of August occurred the disgraceful surrender of Detroit and the territory of Michigan, by General Hull. Hanks did not live to see it, however. He had been cut in two by a cannon ball from a British battery. Many of the Menomonees, under the Chief Tomah (Thomas Carron), and many also of the Winnebagos and other tribes, whom Dickson had induced to take the 2J4 Early History of the Fox River Valley. field joined Proctor's army. Proctor found, as Bur- goyne had before, that an Indian force was of but little assistance in civilized warfare, except to eat up his sup- plies. Oshkosh, then very young, was with Tomah. After Harrison re-occupied Detroit and defeated Proc- tor at the Thames, where Tecumseh was killed, most of the Indian allies went home. This was in 1813. Am- herstburg had been the point from which Macinaw was furnished with supplies and after the British fell back, Macinaw was left, in the fall of that year, short of sup- plies and Dickson was belated, in starting for Prairie du Chicn, with the goods which were essential to keep the Indians to their alliance with the British. Dickson was at the head of the Northwestern Indian department with the title of colonel. Louis Grignon, the oldest of the brothers then constituting the most prominent family at Green Bay, and John Lawe were lieutenants in the same department. The following is gleaned principally from the "Lawe and Grignon papers." in Vol. X., the "Cap- ture of Fort McCay" and illustrative documents and the "Dickson and Grignon papers" in Vol. XL, the "papers from the Canadian Archives" and "Robert Dickson, the trader," in Vol. XII. and the "Bulger papers" and docu- ments, in Vol. XIII. and the "Recollections of Augus- ta Grignon," in Vol. III. of the Wisconsin Historical Collections. October 23rd, Dickson was ready to start from Maci- naw, with an assortment of Indian goods which he Early History oj the Fox River Valley. 233 deemed adequate for the support of the Indians, for whom they were intended, through the winter. He ex- pected to spend the winter on the Mississippi. On the date above mentioned, Captain Bullock, commander at Macinaw, wrote that he had detached one subaltern, one sergeant and twenty-six men, in six boats, with Dickson, to establish a post at La Baye. The intention was, prob- ably, that they should accompany Dickson to Prairie clu Chien and return to Green Bay to establish the post. They did not stop there for the purpose. November 13th, Dickson was at Lake Winnebago, as shown by his letters. Then the small lakes were fro- zen and he was compelled to remain at, or near, the vil- lage of the Winnebagos. on Doty's island at the outlet of the lake, until April. On the 25th. he was at Green Bay, issuing instructions to Lieutenants Lawe and Grignon and on December 5th, he wrote to Lawe from Garlic Island, an island of eight or ten acres about midway be- tween Oshkosh and Neenah, now known by the more attractive name of Island Park, and occupied by private summer cottages. There is a popular tradition that Dickson spent the winter at this island, where a band of the Winnebagos had a village. But his letter of Decem- ber 5th is the only one during that winter dated from that island. The others are from "Winnebago Lake," and there are numerous indications in the letters that he was at the point where he reached the lake. Dickson kept his lieutenants at the Bay pretty busy -?j6 Early History of the Fox River Valley. hunting for supplies for the garrison at Macinaw and provisions to meet the necessities of his own situation. The winter was a hard one and he was constantly beset by half starved Indians who came and ate up his sup- plies. The Pottawatomies, who had shown their zeal in the British cause at the outset, by the treacherous mas- sacre at Chicago, were suspected of a design to go over to the Americans. Seven of them who came to him at one time, he believed were spies. Later he was in lively expectation of an attack by them. The Sauks whose chief, Black Hawk, he had made commander in chief of the Indians sent to Proctor the previous year, also be- came objects of suspicion. The Americans had been tampering with these former allies of the British, who were politic, if not politicians, and liked to be friends with the side on which the presents were the greatest and the most readily forthcoming. Tomah, the Meno- monee chief, (whom he calls Thomas), directed his war- riors to be in readiness if called upon to go to Dickson's assistance. In fact, he seemed to have implicit faith in none of the tribes except the Menomonees. The happy- go-lucky population of the settlement at La Baye, were not accustomed to supplying any foreign demand for agricultural products. Ordinarilv they had an abund- ance, but the demands for Macinaw, and for Dickson and the roving half starved visitors whom he could not turn away hungry, was too much for their store. The supply of flour was out and they had to send wheat and Early History of the Fox River Valley. 2jy a hand mill to Dickson. They were in danger of being left without seed for the spring sowing and planting. Some were disposed to hold for exhorbitant prices Dickson ordered his lieutenants, if any would not sell. who had supplies, to seize them in the name of the King. They were paid with a kind of paper currency issued from the commissary department, which was redeemable at Quebec. The expected attack was not made and the winter wore away. In April Dickson was able to get his goods to Prairie du Chien. After a short stay, he returned to muster his Indian allies to assist in repelling an expected attack at Macinaw and led two hundred warriors there. Lieutenant Colonel McDouall arrived soon after with reinforcements from Canada, and assuming the com- mand, commenced actively strengthening the defenses of Macinaw. Bad news from the Mississippi soon came. Governor Clark had ascended the river from St. Louis, with an American force and taken possession of Prairie du Chien. Captain Dease, who held the place for Dick- son with a few men, retired on the approach of the Americans, who left a garrison there. To leave them there would be ruinous to the British fur trade in that quarter. An expedition to recapture Prairie du Chien was planned at once. The Americans had erected a fort, named Fort Shelby, and were protecting it with a considerable garrison and a gun boat anchored in the river. Lieutenant Colonel McKay, of the Indian depart- jjS Early History of the Fox River Vcrney. ment, commanded the expedition. It consisted of a small party of regulars, about eighteen men, two com- panies of militia of about fifty each, recruited at Maci- naw, one company of about thirty, some of them old men unfit for service, recruited at Green Bay, about two hundred Sioux and a hundred Winnebagos, under their chiefs. Dickson's Menomonee friends, under Tomah, with whom was the young Oshkosh, were retained for the defense of Macinaw. The regulars of the force were commanded by Captain Puhlman, the Macinaw com- panies by Captains Rolette and Anderson and the Green Bay Company was commanded by Captain Pierre Grig- non, Augustin Grignon was one of the lieutenants. Some Menomonees joined the expedition at Green Bay. James J. Porlier. a brother of Louis B. Porlier, of Butte des Morts, and son of Judge James Porlier was com- missioned as lieutenant in the regulars and joined Cap- tain Puhhnan's command. He remained in the service at Prairie du Chien till the close of the war, when he re- signed. The force of McKay arrived at Prairie du Chien on a Sunday morning and, if they had been an hour, or two later every officer of the garrison of about sixty men would have been out riding in the country, as they had prepared to go. McKay had a battery of one six-pounder, which was served by the regulars. With this they managed, at very long range, to so damage the gun-boat of the Americans Early History of the Fox River Valley. gjg that she was compelled to abandon the garrison and go down the river. The powder magazine was on the boat. The details of the operations of McKay's force around the fort for four days as given by Grignon, in his "Recol- lections" are interesting and sometimes amusing, but too long for repetition here. Captain Pierre Grignon and his Green Bay militia, with some Menomonees, played an efficient part in assisting to drive the gunboat away. When she moved over toward the other shore to get farther away from McKay's six-pounder, Captain Grignon with his men and the Menomonees crossed over to a wooded island beyond her, where, under cover of the forest, they could use their muskets at short range upon her. In the afternoon of the fourth day, while preparations were being made to assault the fort, a flag of truce was sent out and Lieutenant Perkins, the American commander, surrendered the fort. At Mc- Kay's request the Americans remained in the fort till the next morning, when they marched out with the honors of war. There was fear that the Indians, thus disap- pointed of any opportunity to secure scalps, would be disposed to disregard the terms of the capitulation, and great caution was exercised to prevent any outrage by them. One of the Winnebagos, who struck one of the soldiers, was immediately knocked down by his chief. McKay furnished a guard for the Americans when they commenced their march down the river. It was report- ed that he returned their arms, so that they might be 24° Early History of the Fox River Valley. able to protect themselves if attacked. The Indians did not follow them. The Winnebagos were disposed to plunder the citizens and McKay had to threaten to turn his troops upon them, before they would desist and go home. Captain Puhlman with his regulars and the two Macinaw companies remained to garrison the fort, which was re-named, Fort McKay, and it was retained by the British till the close of the war. On the 1 2th of July, 1814, for the first (and last) time, an American armed squadron entered Lake Huron. It consisted of the Niagara and Lawrence, twenty gun ships and several schooners. Macinaw was their objective point, but instead of sailing direct to that place, the fleet pursued minor game for two weeks, thus giving Colonel McDouall ample time to prepare for their reception. Batteries were placed to cover all points of landing and preparations completed to give the American forces, commanded by Colonel Croghan, a warm reception. The fleet arrived off Macinaw, July 26th. Concluding that place could not be carried by assault. Colonel Croghan proposed to effect a landing, entrench himself and try to starve out the British garri- son. On the 4th of August a landing was made, under cover of the guns of the fleet, at the same place that Cap- tain Roberts had landed two years before. The landing was in an open field with thick woods beyond. A bat- tery soon opened on Croghan's men, with shot and shell and the fire of musketry from the woods was very gal- Early History of the Fox River Val^'. 24 r ling. Major Holmes, with the regulars, attempting to flank the enemy, was met by Tomah and his Menomo- nees under the direction of Dickson, with such a fierce fire from the thickets, that the attempt failed. Holmes was killed. Two of the Menomonees, whose names are given by Grignon, fired at him simultaneously and both of them claimed the honor of killing him. Croghan was obliged to retire to the fleet and Macinaw remained in the hands of the British till the war was over. On account of the attack upon and blockade of Maci- naw, Dickson was again belated in receiving his supply of Indian goods for the Mississippi and in November, 1814, was frozen in with his boats, at Garlic Island. One tradition was that he spent that winter at the village of the Winnebago chief, Black Wolf, on Black Wolf point south of the present city of Oshkosh. It is probable that he visited that village, during the winter. There was a January thaw, that winter, and on the 15th of January, 1 8 1 5 , Dickson wrote to Lawe from Prairie du Chien, where he was then distributing Indian goods. He says: "There were four hundred pounds of gunpowder en- tirely lost in Pullmans' boats. We had much difficulty in getting here." No letters are found, between Octo- ber 22nd, when he wrote from. Macinaw, and the letter quoted from. (1). March 4th. 1815, Colonel McDouall directed Lieu- tenants Lawe and Grignon to come to Macinaw, as soon as possible, with ninety, or a hundred Menomonees and 24a Early History of the Fox River Valley . Yvinnebagos. they did not go because by letter from John Askin, secretary of the Macinaw Indian agency, dated April 25th, they were informed that peace had been established. On the 24th of December, 1814, the treaty of Ghent was signed, but the news did not reach the United States until the middle of February, 1815. Thus ended a war, which was declared for specified causes, which were ignored in the treaty of peace; which, during its progress was saved from being disgraceful to the United States, only by the brilliant achievements of our little navy, none of which had any effect on the final result, excepting the victories of Perry, on Lake Erie and McDonough on Lake Champlain, and a few gallant exploits of the little armies under Scott and Harrison on the northern frontier; and which ended in a' blaze of glory, by the splendid victory of Jackson and his south- ern riflemen at New Orleans, after the treaty of peace was signed and before it was known in America. But it probably accomplished much in strengthening the yet rather fragile bonds of union between the states and in developing a feeling and spirit of nationality, which was the best, if not the only hope for the perpetuity of the young republic. Through it the national motto. "E Pluribus Unum" became more truthful. Early History oj the Fox River Valley . 243 NOTES TO CHAPTER XXTI. (1). The mid-winter thaw was such, that winter, that the York mail to Macinaw was much delayed and a messenger, who arrived at Macinaw in December, could not be sent back until February. (Letter of Askin to Louis Grignon, X., W. IT. Coll., 126). The thaw which prevented communication between .York and Macinaw, enabled Dickson to get through from Garlic Island to Prairie Du Chien. CHAPTER XXIII. UNDER THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER The "Habitans" of Green Bay had been loyal sub- jects to the British crown. They had been reduced nearly to a state of famine by the drain on their re- sources, which the requisitions upon them for the sup- port of the garrison at Macinaw, of Dickson's expedi- tions and the feeding and depredations of the Indian allies of the British, who had rendezvoused at that place more than once, under Dickson's leadership or direc- tion, had caused, (i). It is not to be supposed that they were made happy by the sudden transfer to the jurisdiction of the Americans, whom they had been fighting. The traders had doubtless heard something of the factory system, or system of government trading posts which the United States had attempted to estab- lish for the trade with the Indians. It was likely to be tried on the ground which they had occupied, many of them during their lives. Of all the northwestern tribes of Indians the Menomonees had been the most faithful, Early History of the Fox River Valley. 24$ consistent and useful allies of the British. The Winne- bagos, though Dickson had, at times, suspicion as to their good faith, had remained faithful, nominally, though sometimes troublesome. They and all the other western tribes had learned that the English were some- times very liberal in their presents to their allies. Alto- gether, probably, there was much doubt and suspicion among all classes, as to what was to follow. In the summer of 1815, Colonel John Bowyer ap- peared as the first American Indian agent at the Green Bay agency, who succeeded in no very long time in making himself socially popular with the traders and merchants and unpopular with the Indians. Next came Major Matthew Irwin, in charge of a government trad- ing- post, or "factory," who also became justly popular. but failed as the government posts everywhere failed, to establish any trade with the Indians. The United States, as a fur trader, was an ignominious failure. But, the Great American Fur Company, headed by John Jacob Astor and represented by Ramsey Crooks, was soon on the ground and, (knowing its business well), soon had in its service nearly all the old Canadian and English traders, so that the Indians saw but little. indication of the change, at their hunting grounds. In July, 18 1 6, came more conspicuous evidence of the change than anything which had preceded. One day, looking far down the bay the people could discern some of the white winged harbingers of a commerce too 246 Eany History of the Fox River Valiey. great for canoes, or batteaux. It was a sight never seen in those waters before, as three schooners entered the mouth of the Fox River and dropped their anchors. From their mast heads and signal halliards floated ban- ners which were new to the citizens who had not served against it. The Menomonees, many of whom were familiar with it on battle fields, where they had fought against it, were not pleased at the sight. The ''Star Spangled Banner' had come however to stay and they were to become as loyal to it as they had been in the old time, to the French, and later to the English flag. Those schooners were the Washington, of one hundred tons, one of the largest of her time, piloted from Macinaw by Augustin Grignon, for which service they freighted his goods and towed his two boats from Macinaw, where he had been with furs and for goods. The two smaller ves- sels of the fleet were piloted by Stanislaus Chappue and John B. Laborde. These vessels brought the first American garrison for Fort Howard, under Colonel John Miller, Third United States Infantry. For thirty- six years there continued to be a garrison maintained at Fort Howard, on the west side of the river. The succes- sor of Colonel Miller in command there, was Major Zachary Taylor, who made fame in the Mexican war and became president of the United States. To that part of the population who depended on the cultivation of the soil, the advent of the garrison was gratifying, because it promised a market for their sur- Early History of the Fox River Valley. 24J plus products. The American Fur Company had the sagacity to employ the men with whom the Indians had been familiar, as their traders and employes. So the traders who had been dealing with the Northwest Com- pany still continued and flourished in their old avoca- tions and continued to follow the Indians to their winter hunting, as of yore. Green Bay, at the time of the American occupation, was still only a Canadian settlement along both sides of the Fox River, about five miles, to De Pere. Their farms were narrow strips of land, with a frontage on the river of from fifteen to sixty rods each, extending back to include so much land as each desired to occupy. There are two enumerations of the inhabitants, in the I .awe and Grignon papers before cited (of men and heads of families), one in 1818 and the other without date. The first is by J. B. S. Jacobs, Sr. A note by him says: "On both sides of the river, forty-seven inhabi- tants and farmers besides a good many who have taken up lands not yet cultivated." A note by Hon. Morgan L. Martin indicates that there had been but little in- crease to 1827, when he arrived there. The Indians were much dissatisfied with the change. Colonel Miller, on his arrival with a garrison, was care- ful to treat them with respect and endeavored to secure their confidence and friendship. On the afternoon of the day of his arrival, with several of his principal offi- cers, he visited the Menomonee village of the "Old •24S Early History of the Fox River Valley. King," situated a short distance above the old fort. He made a formal request for permission to erect a fort. Tomah was the speaker for the Indians. They received the colonel with dignity and smoked the pipe of peace with him, but hesitated some time, before answering his request. Consent to the erection of a fort was finally given. In a short speech, which indicated that they knew their inability to prevent it, and with a dignity of demeanor and language which much impressed his audi- tors, Tomah expressed their consent, asking at the same time that their French brothers should not be disturbed, or molested. The action of the Winnebagos was awaited with some anxiety. A delegation of these tur- bulent enemies of the "big knives" came down from their principal village on Lake Winnebago, where Car- ver had kissed their queen fifty years before. Their chief was disposed to remonstrate against what they deemed, or chose to assume, to be an unwarranted invasion of their territory. When informed that the object of the Americans was peace, though they were prepared for war, the chief is reported to have intimated that if the purpose was peace they had brought too many men and if it was war, they had too few. The argument was con- cluded, by taking him down to the river bank and show- ing; him ten or a dozen cannons as a reserve force which he had not seen. So, Fort Howard was erected, with- out any active opposition from the Indians. But the hatred of the Winnebagos for the "big knives" was not Earlv History of the Fox River Valley. 249 eradicated. That hatred found expression in the speech of their chief Sau-Sa-Mau-Nee at a council held with them at Macinaw, by Colonel McDouall, on the 3rd of June, 181 5, found in the papers of Captain T. G. Ander- son. (X., Wis. Hist. Coll., pp. 143-4-5). There are evidences that the agents of the North- west Company, especially the "red head," Robert Dick- son, had some "underground" communication with some of the Indians, which tended to keep up their ani- mosity toward the Americans. So late as July 12th, and July 30th, 1 82 1, Colonel McKay, then British Indian superintendent, held councils with some of the Sauk chiefs at Drummond island. The proceedings of these councils are found in the Anderson papers above cited. The speech of the chief at the last council shows that they had very recently received a message from Dick- son, tendency of which was to keep alive among them a hope that they might yet have the assistance of the "red coats" to drive out the Americans. In February, 1820, Rev. Jedediah Morse, D. D., author of the "Morse's Geography" of our grandfathers and father of the inventor of the electric telegraph was commissioned by the secretary of war (Calhoun), by direction of the president (Monroe), to visit the scat- tered tribes of Indians and report upon their number and condition. His report was presented to Congress, but no action was taken upon it and, at his request, he was permitted to withdraw it. It was published in 1822 and 250 Early History of the Fox River Valley. contains much information in relation to the condition of the Indians and the trade with them, at the time of his visit to Green Ray. (2). The factory system, or government trading- posts, had proved a failure, prin- cipally because the government traders would neither trust the Indians for goods, as the traders did, nor fur- nish them whiskey, as the traders also did, smuggling the whiskey into their boats at some point, after they had cleared regularly from the custom house at Maci- naw. The kinds and quality of goods furnished at the factories, were better adapted to giving somebody pro- fitable contracts to furnish goods than to the needs of the Indians. The statement of Ramsey Crooks, (cited in Historic Green Bay, 157, notes), indicates that in the selection of goods, little attention was paid to the habits and mode of living of the Indians. The system of gov- ernment trading posts, which had been established, ten- tatively in 181 1, and continued in force from time to time by subsequent acts of Congress, was finally abol- ished by an act approved May 6th, 1822. It had proved an expensive and dismal failure. The custom of the French and British, of making presents of large quantities of goods, every year, to their Indian allies, was not followed by the United States. Nothing was given them until treaty relations were established. Annuities in goods and money were usually part of the consideration for their cessions of lands. The British continued their presents to their allies. It ap- Early History of the Fox River Valley. 251 pears that delegations of the Wisconsin tribes visited Drummond Island, in the strait below the falls of St. Marie, where there was a British garrison, for the pur- pose of receivnig these presents. (Major Irwin's state- ment; Morse's report, p. 45). Morse, in the tables ap- pended to his report, (App. p. 362), gives the statistics of the Fox River tribes as follows : Menomonees — Number of souls, 3,900, residing in a number of villages on Winnebago Lake, Fox River, Green Bay and Menomonee River. Winnebagos — Number, 5,800 souls, residing in the river country on Winnebago Lake and south-west of it to the Mississippi River. This estimate of the number of souls is probably high. Major O' Fallon estimated the Winnebagos at 4,000. So, the Americans found the Fox River Valley occu- pied by these two tribes. At the entrance to it, from the east, a Canadian settlement, largely of mixed bloods and all with Indian or half-breed wives; without schools for their children; without priest, or parson, or church; all (as well as the Indians) suspicious of the intentions and practically inimical to the government, within whose treaty boundaries they had been living more than thirty years, performing the duties of subjects toward another government. Judge Raume had moved up to the littie Kakalin and opened a farm. Augustin Grignon had moved to the grand Kakalin, where he had a trading $$2 Early History of the Fox River Valley. post and farm, and also carried on the transportation business at the portage around the rapids. At the other extremity of the valley, were a trading post and store, and a few employed in the transportation of goods and boats across the portage in the summer, and such em- ployment as they could get from the traders in the win- ter. These were apparent results of the semi-civilization which invaded the valley a century and a half earlier. Among the Indians, bows and arrows had given place to guns, stone hatchets were replaced by iron and steel and in their cabins were many things of utility and comfort which their ancestors knew nothing of. It w r as not a matter of great importance to the Indians what kind of ''fire water" they obtained. The quantity interested them much more than the quality. They were just as anxious "to draw near the breast" of the American hav- ing whiskey as they had been, when the English rum, or the French brandy was the "milk" they sought. (3). Both French and English, in turn, had so plied the savages with presents and with liquors, that the Ameri- can policy of furnishing neither, as presents, and liquor not at all, doubtless, retarded the work of securing their confidence. The inevitable and necessary policy which followed the American occupation everywhere, which Tecumseh had warned them of, of procuring cessions of their lands and substituting annuities instead of pres- ents, of constantly reducing their territorial limits and increasing their annuities, which compelled them to Early History of the fox River Valley. 2JJ abandon their old modes and habits of life, while most of them were incapable of any independent activity in any more civilized, settled mode, soon rendered obsolete the most noble traits, while retaining all the more ignoble traits of the Indian character. American emigration to Green Bay was, at first very slow and there was none to any other points in the valley of the Fox, for twenty years. When Morse was at Green Bay, in 1820, he does not seem to have found any Americans except the garrison, Colonel Bowyer, the Indian agent and Major Irwin, the factor of the government trading post. Hon. A. G. Ellis, who arrived there in 1822, speaks of "some half a dozen Americans," then among the resi- dents, (VII., Wis. Hist. Coll., p. 218), and he mentions others who came soon after. Mrs. H. S. Baird, who arrived there in September, 1824, found at "Shanty Town" on the east side of the river a small society of eastern English speaking people, some of whom she names, but whose numbers she does not give. (IX., Wis. Hist. Coll., p. 322). Her brief description of the social conditions there is delightful, and her description of the customs of the Indians commencing on p. 303, is extremely interesting and valuable. Mrs. Bristol, daughter of Major Brevoort, who was Indian agent at Green Bay, arrived there the 1st of June in the same year (1824). In her "Reminiscences of the Northwest, (VIII., Wis. Hist. Coll., p. 302-30S), she gives a charm- 2$4 Early History of the Fox River Valley. ing description of the social life of the time and place, and an interesting account of some of the customs of the Indians. During the episode sometimes spoken of as the "Winnebago war" in 1827, Major Whistler ascended the Fox River to the portage, with a force from Fort Howard. The Winnebago chiefs had been notified that they would be held responsible for the murders com- mitted by Red Bird, if he was not delivered up to the Americans. It ended in a very dramatic way, by Red Bird and his partner in the murders at Prairie du Chien, coming to the Portage and giving themselves up to Major Whistler with appropriate Indian ceremonies. The American policy was to keep the Indians quiet, not by lavish presents, as the French and English had, but by establishing military posts at central points and applying the law to criminals, red as well as white. The Winnebagos had advanced so far in the science of political economy that they had been, for some time, imitating the old practice of the Foxes and levying a tariff on the goods which passed the portage. The American Fur Company, in their ignorance, supposed that a tariff was a tax. They protested and, at the earnest solicitation of John Jacob Astor, as it is said, a fort was erected near the portage, called Fort Winne- bago, and a garrison stationed there. (4). It is stated that Lieutenant Jefferson Davis, with a detail of men got out the timber for the fort, above the portage, and thus became the first lumberman on the Wisconsin River. Early History of the Fox River Valley 255 The garrison at Fort Howard, commanded by Major (afterward General) Twiggs was relieved by another garrison commanded bv Colonel William Lawrence, and in the fall of 1828, moved up to the portage and, until the turbulent Winnebagos removed across the Missis- sippi, a garrison was maintained at each end of the val- ley of the Fox River. NOTES TO CHAPTER XXIII. (t). A letter of Askin to Lawe (X.. VY. H. Coll.. [25), indicates that the. killing of the cattle of the set- tlers, by the Indian allies collected at Green Bay, was a usual occurrence. In XII., W. H. Coll., 126-131, is the report of a court of inquiry held at Green Bay, in No- vember. 18 14, which shows that these depradations were pretty extensive, the losses allowed by the court amounting to nearly thirty thousand pounds in cur- rency. There were thirty-eight claimants and the list contains many names which were familiar to the early white settlers in the Fox River Valley. It includes Augustin and several other members of the Grignon family, J. B. La Borde, Charles Raume, Joseph Ducharme, Jacques Porlier, Joseph Jourdain, and others which were familiar names half a century ago. (2). Morse was so thoroughly in earnest and so free from guile, that he was liable to become the victim of braggarts and wags. On the authority of Judge Raume, 33^ Early History of the Fox River Vallev. apparently, he gravely informs the secretary of war that a little colony of French Jesuits settled at Green Bay about the year 1700, "from whom," he says, "descended the greater part of the present inhabitants." (Report; App. p. 58). His statements of facts not founded on his own observation, should be considered in connection with his sources of information, or they may be very misleading, as he seems to have given credence to some rather extraordinary statements. (3). These were terms by which they expressed their desire for "fire-water." (4). In the employment of the American Fur Com- pany at the portage was Pierre Paquette, one of the most remarkable historical characters of his time, in Wisconsin. He was the son of a French trader and a Winnebago mother. He is represented as a large, finely proportioned, handsome man, whose character entitled him to, and gained the respect of all who knew him. But his fame rested principally upon his great strength. This was so great that all other men seemed alike to him in that particular and were but as little children in his hands. Hon. Satterlee dark rebates that he saw Paquette lift and swing for a minute, apparently without 2*reat exertion, a pi 1 e driver weighing 2,650 pounds. He died in 1836, being shot by a drunken Indian whom he had offended. His character and the circumstances of his death are detailed in Dark's "Early times at Fort Winnebago." VIII., W. H. Coll., 316-319, and drapers notes thereto. CHAPTER XXIV. PREPARATIONS FOR THE ERA OF CIVILIZATION. While Indiana and Illinois were receiving rapid accessions to their white population, a wave of immigra- tion reached and settled in the valley of the Fox. But it was a unique instance in the settlement of the northwest that the first immigration into this valley was more In- dians. And thereby hangs a tale. With whom the scheme originated does not seem to be certain, but there was a grand scheme to transfer the remnants of the Six Nations and other remnants of tribes in New York and e'sewhere, to the soil which is now Wisconsin. When Rev. Jedediah Morse was com- missioned to visit all the scattered tribes in the states in i8jo, the language of his commission (Morse's report, p. 11), indicates that the proposition that he should make a tour of inspection and observation among those Indians, came from himself. The President approved of the proposed arrangement. The scope of his commis- sion was to inquire into the physical and moral condi- 2jS Early History of the Pox River ValUy. tion, the numbers of, and territory occupied by, the In- dians, etc. There was no hint in the document of any scheme of colonizing the Indians, upon the same, or contiguous territory, but one can hardly read Morse's report without being satisfied that some such scheme had been discussed. Morse clearly (and ably) formu- lates and advocates such a scheme. (Report pp. 82-90). His plan was to reserve the whole territory between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi, north of the north- ern boundary of Illinois and extending north to Lake Superior, in which to colonize Indians; to exclude white settlers and form an Indian territory and, if possible, eventually a state, peopled only by Indians. (Appendix p. 314). It is obvious that President Monroe and Secre- tary of War Calhoun favored this scheme. Morse who was an agent for two societies for spread- ing the gospel, was an earnest sincere enthusiast, who believed that the Indians might be civilized and Chris- tianized, and saved from the extinction which threat- ened them. He was greatly encouraged by the operations of Rev. Eleazer Williams, who, whether he was a Bourbon or not, had ambition enough to justify the claim. Will- iams was a missionary of the Protestant Episcopal church among the Oneidas in New York. He claimed to be the author of the scheme for colonizing the In- dians in the west. The Oneidas were divided. A part had been persuaded to embrace Christianity and were Early History of the Fox River Valley 2 ^q known as the "first Christian party." Williams, who w~as very eloquent in the Mohawk tongue and could preach to them without an interpreter, had converted the rest, about three-fifths of the tribe, known as the "Pagan party," and they became the "second Christian party." The first Christian party and the Stockbridges, then in New York also, were induced to look favorably upon the project of going west and in 1821, a delegation headed by Williams, with the consent or approval of the government, visited Green Bay. Hon. A. G. Ellis, then a young man, residing with Williams, accompanied them and what they did is stated in his "Recollections of Rev. Eleazer Williams;" in VIII. , Wis. Hist. Coll., 322- 352. Colonel Bowver had died and there was no Indian agent at the Bay when they arrived. The Menomonees and Winnebagos, who claimed the country by some joint right, or title, had no notice of their coming and were, at first, adverse to entering into any negotiations for the sale of any part of their lands. Williams secured the favor of the French speaking population at Green Bav, by holding out the inducement that it would lead to the establishment of schools, in which their children could be taught, for which they were anxious, and they joined in inducing the Indians to consent to the scheme. The result was an agreement to sell to the proposed emigrants a strip of their lands for $1,500.00, to be paid^ in goods. The next year a larger delegation came out to pay for the purchase and to negotiate for an addition j6o Earty History of the /-ox Rtver bailey, to the former concessions. This the Winnebagos flatly refused, but after they left the council the Menomonees agreed that the emigrants might occupy all their lands jointly with themselves. In 1823 and 1824 about one hundred and fifty ( hieidas and about the same number of Stockbridges emigrated to the Fox River Valley. The remnant of the Brothertowns came also, but neither the second Christian party of the ( hieidas nor any other of the former Iroquois confederacy could be induced to consent to remove. Another band of Oneidas came how- ever in 1829. So the scheme to colonize Wisconsin with Indians failed and resulted only in the addition of a few hundreds to the Indian population of the valley of the Fox. The promoters of the scheme were actuated prob- ably by a variety of motives. Thomas L. Ogden, of New York, was at the head of a land company which had secured a pre-emption on some of the valuable land of the Indians in that state, if they should remove from them, and was so earnest in the plan that he furnished Williams with some money for his expenses. It has been intimated that Secretary Calhoun and perhaps, President Monroe, saw in the plan a possibility of re- ducing, by one, the number of free states which might be formed out of the territory north-west of the Ohio River. (1). Williams partially unfolded to Mr. Ellis a plan for an Indian empire, in which it seemed that he was to be the chief man. This would not necessarily be inconsistant with a desire to promote the interests of the Early History oj the fox River Va/lev. 26 r Indians themselves. Morse was inspired by an earnest desire to elevate the Indian race. Trouble and disputes afterward arose between the emigrants from Mew York and the Menomonees and Winnebagos, as to the rights of the former; and by the treaty of Butte des Morts, August i ith, 1827, the latter agreed to refer the matter to the President of the United States and that his decision should be final. Under this, commissioners were appointed and the result was that the ( hieidas were assigned their present reservation and the Stockbridges and Brothertowns were assigned the lands on the east side of Lake Winnebago, which they have since occupied. September 15th, 1832, by the treaty of Rock Island, the Winnebagos ceded to the United States all their title and claim to lands in Wis- consin. The Menomonees had entered into a treaty of peace and amity with the United States, in 1817, but they had ceded none of their lands, and received no annuities be- fore 1831. By an agreement made at Washington, February 8th. of that year, they ceded to the United States all the lands claimed by them east of Green Bay, Fox River and Lake Winnebago, bounded on the south by a line drawn south-easterly from the south end of Lake Winnebago to the Milwaukee River and down that river to its month, and ceding also a tract estimated at about 500,000 acres, on the west side of the river and Green Bay, such part thereof as the President might 262 Early History of the Fox River Valley. direct to "be set apart as a home to the several tribes of the New York Indians, who may remove to and settle upon the same, within three years from the date of this agreement." The present Oneida reservation is a por- tion of this cession. It seems that the project of remov- ing- the other New York Indians to Wisconsin was not yet abandoned. The Senate ratified this agreement and an amendment made by a further agreement on the 17th of February, with a proviso for the reservation of three townships on the east side of Take Winnebago two for the Stockbridge and Mimsee tribes and one for the Brothertowns. These were included in the cession first mentioned, however. Under this agreement farmers, blacksmiths and school teachers were to be located among the Menomonees and a saw mill and grist mill erected for their use on the Fox River, which was after- ward done. This treaty was not ratified by the Senate until June 25th, 1832. By the treaty of Green Bay, October 27th, 1832. a further cession of 200,000 acres was added to the cession for the benefit of the New York Indians. It is unnecessary to follow the details of the various cessions by the Menomonees. In 1852 they finally removed from the valley of the Fox to their pres- ent reservation at Keshena on the upper Wolf River and this valley was left clear of all the original occupants, to the white men and Indians imported from New York. The Menomonees are the only tribe, whom the first explorers found in Wisconsin who still remain. Part of Early History of the Fox River Valley. 263 the Chippewas are still in the state. The Menomonees alone, always performed their treaty obligations and were never guilty of treachery toward their white friends. Many years ago the Brothertowns abandoned their tribal organization, had their lands divided in severalty and became citizens of the United States. A portion of the Stockbridges did the same. Those of them who re- tained their tribal organization, occupy a small reserva- tion adjoining that of the Menomonees. Nearly three centuries ago. Samuel de Champlain had shadowy visions of a great Indian empire in the New World, owning allegiance to, and under the rule of, the King of France. Half a century later, the early Jesuit missionaries in New France, indulged in visions, still more shadow}-, of a great Theocracy among the wild tribes of the forests, in which the natives should be ruled by the Church and the Church should be ruled by the Jesuits. The less ambitious dream of Jedediah Morse, of a territory, (perhaps a state), inhabited by civilized and Christianized Indians, industrious thriving and happy, protected by the law from the demoralizing in- trusion of white settlers, was but little less shadowy and about equally impossible of fulfillment, while the am- bitious plan of Eleazer Williams was, manifestly, but "the baseless fabric of a vision." (2). With the excep- tion of some individuals and, in some instances, small bands or remnants of tribes, exceptions sufficient to fur- 2b4 Early History of the Fox A'tver Valley. nish some evidence of a rule, the success which has at- tended the efforts hitherto made, to civilize the natives does not seem to justify the expectation that the process of decrease among the aborigines will cease. It does not seem probable that, as a race, they can ever be in- duced to "take up the white man's burden" with the energy, thrift and industry, without which it is a hard burden to bear. Their state is a sad one and philan- thropists bemoan it and often criticise the policy of the government toward them. But their condition was always sad. In the "hunter" state, before the civilized hordes following the star of empire on its westward way. wanted their hunting grounds, their pride and glory were in hunting each other. They burned at the stake, slaughtered, scalped, occasionally even cooked and ate, each other. Powerful tribes like the Mascoutins, dwindled away and disappeared, in half a century. They may have been happier. It is difficult to believe that they were in a more enviable condition than they are now. (3). NOTES TO CHAPTER XXIV. (1). According to Hon. C. C. Trowbridge, the de- sire of the government was, to see the remnants of the eastern tribes "comfortably settled in some fertile spot, so far awav from the haunts of the white man that they Early History of the Fox Rtver Valley . j6j would never be disturbed." Green Bay, or the country of the Menomonees in its vicinity, it seems was thought to be the place where the requisite isolation could be found. VII.. W. II. Coll., i [3. (2). The ''lost Dauphin" controversy is not within the scope of this work. But I have an item to add to the Fleazer Williams literature, i heard often about him in my boyhood. When my father was a very young man. he and Eleazer Wiliams who was about the same age, were inmates, during one winter, of the family of one Colonel Williams, who lived in Charlotte, Yt., who was supposed to be a re'ation, in some degree, of the latter. From mv earliest recollection. I often heard my father speak of their association that winter. lie described Eleazer Williams as a good looking young man rather florid and looking, in his. opinion much more like a Canadian Frenchman than like an Indian, lie was en- gaged then in translating the Xew Testament into the Oneida, or Mohawk language. My father used to re- late with great glee, a visit which the three made to Ver- gennes. that winter. There it became rumored among the boys that there was an Indian at the tavern where thev stopped. Several boys gathered around peering into the windows, to see the unusual sight. Finally they invaded the hall and opened the door slightly to "peek" in. They could hear the boys inquiring in loud whis- pers, "Which is the Indian? Which is the Indian?" It seemed that they finally concluded that the Colonel, who was of a dark complexion, was the Indian. 266 Early History of the Fox River Valley. When the ( )neidas were preparing to remove to Wisconsin, Eleazer Williams wrote to my father, who was a skilled carpenter and joiner, asking- him to accom- pany them, setting- forth the advantages which the new country offered, in such glowing terms that my father was strongly inclined to go. My mother however ob- jected so strenuously that he abandoned the idea. This was two years before my birth. Sit 1 missed the hone* of being a native of Wisconsin. (\). The political changes of this valley have been the same as those of the state, which have been often written, in the state histories. In an article in the "Wis- consin State Register" of December 10th. [898. lion A. J. Turner, of Portage, describes the vicissitudes of citizenship to which an "old settler" of antediluvian longevity might have been subject, at that place. From the landing of Juan Ponce de Leon in Florida, in [512, till (.artier entered the St. Lawrence River, in i 534. Spain claimed undisputed jurisdiction of the North American continent. But, from the latter date, the King of France claimed jurisdiction of everything west of Carrier's discoveries. From [671, when St. Lussen took formal possession of Ihe great West at Sault St. Marie, he wou'd have been an undoubted citizen of New France. When La Sale took formal possession, in the name of the King of France of all the country watered by the Mississippi and its tributaries, in [682, he gave it the name of Louisiana. If the "old settler lived on the / Early History of the Fox River Valley. j6f bank of the Wisconsin River, he would have been in the territory in which La Salle claimed jurisdiction, or, at least, to be the only licensed trader. Perhaps if he lived east of the line of "marks and crosses" on the trees, which Hennapin made, he would not have been in- eluded. But no established government of Louisiana ever claimed jurisdiction of him. In 1703 his allegiance was transferred to the crown of England. Although he would have been within the treat}- limits of the United States from 1782. he would have continued to be an actual subject of Great Britain until 1815, since which time he would have recognized the "Star Spangled Ban- ner" as the ikm of his country. INDEX. Algonquin Tribes — Many driven west and north of Lake Huron, by Iroquois. 23. Alloeuz. Father Claude — First missionary in Wisconsin, 25. Arrives at Chagouamigong, Oct. 1, 1665, 25. Found large village com- posed of seven different nations. 26. Established Mission of the Holy Ghost, 26. At the Mission of the Holy Ghost, 26-27. Sent to Green Bay, 27. His voyage to Green Bay, 27-28. Perils of the voyage. 28. Reached Green Bay, Dec. 2, 1669. 28. Cele- brated first mass there Dee. 3, 1669, 28. Had difficulty in obtaining maintenance for winter, 32. Found a village includ- ing members of several tribes, "more than commonly bar- barous," 31-32. Exploration of Fox and Wolf River. 33 et. seq. Winter visit to Foxes in 1671, 40. First visit to Mascoutins in 1670, M et. seq. Reception by Mascoutins and Miamis, 45. Visited Kickapoos May, 1, 1670. 46. Return to Sault Ste. Marie, 17. Returns to Green Bay with Dablon, 47. Found trouble be- tween traders and Indians, 47. Held council with Indians, 47-48. Second visit to Mascoutins and Miamis. with Dablon, 48 et. seq. Throw Indian idol into river. 49. Displays picture of last judgment, to Mascoutins, 50, 51. And Dablon, prayer of Miami Chief to. 51. Receives information of Mississippi River, 52. Remarkable speech of, to Indians at Sault Ste. Marie, 60-61. Winter visit to the Outagamis, 63. Sent to Illinois, 94. Peri- lous voyage. 94-96. Returned to Wisconsin. 96. Relations with La Salle. 97-107. Andre, Father Louis — Perilous winter trip of. 65. Curious manner of attacking Indian superstition. 65. Barth. Laurent —First settler at the Portage, 227-228. Brandy -Sale of, to Indians. 90, 97 note. Campbell. John— at the Portage, 229. Canoes (bark) — Outagamis had none, 37. Mascoutins had none, 50. Used exclusively by French in their commerce. 156. Descrip- tion of. 156. Carver, Jonathan— Arrived at Green Bay, 207. The Carver Grant, 207. Visits vVinnebagos at Doty's Island. 207. Head Chief or Index . H Queen there, 20S. Was the DeKaury, 208. Carver kissed the Queen, 20V. Origin and dialect of the Winnebagos. 208. His description of Sauk village. 209. Found the Sauks slave tra- ders. 209. "Coureurs do bois*' — At Green Bay in 1.669, 2^-29. Their character, 29. 30, 31, 100. Their conduct among Indians, 99. Married squaws 101. Dablon, Father Claude -Visits Green Bay with Allouez, 47. Descrip- tion of Fox River Valley, 50. PeLignery — Held council with Foxes, Sauks and Winnebagos at Green Bay, 136. Led expedition against Foxes. 138. Failure of his expedition, 141. His plan and expectations, 142. Dickson. Robert -His influence, 231. Belated in fall of 1813, 234. La we and Grignon his lieutenants, 234. Frozen in at Bake Win- nebago, 285. His winter experience there, 235 et. seq. Belated in fall of 1814, 211. Frozen in at Garlic Island on Lake Winne- abgo, 241. Released by January thaw. 241-243. note. Continued intercourse with Indians. 249 Du Lhut — Fur trader, 101. English Colonies— English policy towards, 210. Conditions in, 211. Errors, Historical— Causes of, 1. 7. Instances of. 2-9. Fox Indians- (See Outagamis) — Tampered with by English agents, 113. Perrot's trouble with them, 110. Boasted that they had closed the Fox-Wis< onsin route, 116. Appear at Detroit in force, in 1712. 120 et. seq. Their conduct there, 127. Attacked and captured with Mascoutin allies by friendly Indians, 128-129. Escape of about one hundred, 129. Attacked the Illinois 1714, 130. Constant wars with other tribes, 131. Levied tribute on commerce, of the Fox River. 132. De Louvigny's expedition against, 132-133. Their surrender, 133. Lenient terms of peace, 134. Their disregard of terms of surrender. 134-135. Expedi- tion against the Illinois. 135. Council with De Lignery at Green Bay. 136. Their promises, 136. Hesitation of the French to attack, 136-137. Expedition of De Lignery. 137 et. seq. Loca- tion of village destroyed by De Lignery, 140-141. Expulsion from Fox River Valley, 145 et. seq. Indian traditions concern- ing, 145. Most reliable source of information, 146-147. Uncer- tainty as to time, 147-148. Marin's expedition against, 143 et. seq. Slaughter of, at Little Butte Des Morts, 150. Battle with at "Grignon place." 150-151. Winter expedition against, 151. in Index. Probable time of expulsion. 152-155. Location of battle at "Grig- non place," 255, note 2. Not exterminated, 155, note 3. Marin's expedition used canoes, 155, note 4 . Fox and Wisconsin route — Early commerce on, 104. Rendered use- less by hostility of the Foxe's in 1689, 117. Reasons for French war against them, 118. Their original location, 118-119. Their character as a tribe 119-120. Perils of travel, 130-131. Tradition of battle with, at Butte des Morts, 1 12. Fur Trade— Principal business of the French ,100. At military posts. 109, n. 1. Struggle between French and English for, 117, 123. Policy of the French, 124, et. seq. American factory sys- tem at. Green Pay, 245. American Fur Company at Green Bay. 245. Failure of factory system, 250. Gautier de Verville — Nephew of Charles de Langlarle, 220. note 1. His Curious journal, 220, note 1. Green Bav — Frenchman there before Allouez. ^9. French garrisons at, 1 H. No batteau there until English occupation, 156. Great profits of Marin at early, in the war. 187. Grant to M. Rigaud and Alrae. de Vaudreuil of the fort at, with an extensive territory. 187-188, English garrison and fort, 192-193. Lieu- tenant Gorrell in command, 193. His character, 193. Point of supply for many tribes, 194. Gorrell's treatment of Indians, 194-195. Gorrell ordered to L'Arbor Croche, 204. Dakotahs notified Fox River tribes not to molest the English, 204-5. Gor- rell escorted by ninety Menominee warriors, 205. No English garrison after Gorrell left, 206. Not garrisoned by either Eng- lish or Americans, 222. Only assertion of American jurisdic- tion, appointment of Chas. Raume, as justice of the peace, 222. No clergyman or magistrate to perform marriage ceremony, 222. No need for courts, lawyers or officers of the law, 222. Xo doctors. 222. Population in 1785, 222-223. Some accessions from 1791. 223. Population at beginning of war of 1812, 223. Character of population, 223-224. How trade with Indians con- ducted, 224. Character of early population, 225, 230. Popula- tion of, 230 note. Demand on for supplies for British, 236-237. Effect of, 244. Arrival of American garrison, 245-246. At the time of American occupation, 247. Population in 1818, 247. Americans at, in 1820, 253. In 1822, 253. In 1824, 253. Griffon— First sailing vessel on upper lakes, 102. Lost with cargo of furs. 103. Hennapin, Father Louis— His adventures on the Mississippi, 104. Returned by Fox and Wisconsin route, 104. His unreliability, 105. Index. iv Hurons —Driven west by Ironquois, 23. Bands of them in Wiscon- sin, 23. Allouez found village of, on Lake Superior, 26. kid i a ns— Method of Fishing, 34. Their morals. L09-110, note, 2. Unrecorded battles in Fox River Valley, 160-161. Ambition for scalps, 161. Chiefs had no real authority, 162. Savage nature of. 162. Christian converts of the Jesuits, 162. Jesuit plan of a Theocracy, 162. Failure of labors of Jesuits, 163. Changes in location of tribes, 3 88-189. Expectation, that French would re- turn and drive out the English, 193. Population of Fox River Valley in 1820. 251. Condition of, 252. Their love of fire water, 252. American policy toward, 252, 254. Depredations of Dixon's allies at Green Bay, 225 note. Schemes in relation to, 263. Desire of government as to, 265. Jesuits — Establish mission among Hurons, 22. Nicolet accom- panies, 22. Hurons driven out by Iroquois and mission de- stroyed, 23. Causes which led to missions in Wisconsin, 22-26. Supposed by Indians to have supernatural power, 51-53. Changed conduct of Indians toward, and cause, 54. Their his- tory and peculiarities, 61-62. Missions of, 1671, 1672, 1673, 63. Manner of work among Indians, 64, 89. Results of their labors, 88. Number of baptisms by. 88-89. Mostly of dying persons, 89. Their work among Indians. 90. Erect church at De Pere, 90. Their plans, 107-108. Their missions on Fox' and Wolf Rivers abandoned. 114. Reasons of failure to convert Indians, 91. Reticence as to other people, 98-99. Burn their own church at Mackinaw, 125. Their plan, 162-163. Ottawa tradition of effects, 164, note 1. Joliet, Louis — Selected to explore Mississippi River, 67. Lost his manuscripts, books and papers, 71. Kickapoos — Location of in 1670, 46. Their character, 46. Langlade, Charles Michael de— Trading at Green Bay, 170. His parentage and birth, 170-171. His training, 171-172. Commis- sioned as ensign in French marines, 172. Interpretation of his Indian name, 175, note 1. Goes to trie assistance of Fort Duquesne with large force of Indians and bushrangers, 177-178. Planned and executed the defeat of Braddock, 178 et. seq. Eng- lish retreat over the mountains, 182. Continued in French ser- vice until fall of Quebec, 182-183. Ambushed detachment of Wolf's army, 183. Failed because French would not attack, 183-' 184. At the final battle on the plains of Abraham, 185. Instance of his coolness, 185-186. Commissioned as lieutenant in 1760, 186. Superintendent of the Indian nations of the upper coun- try, 186. His honesty, 190, note 2. English superintendent of "V Index. Indians in the Green Bay district, 206. Joined Burgoyne's army with a large force of Indians, 213-214. Testimony of Anbury and Burgoyne that he planned and executed the defeat of Brad- dock. 214. Soon Left Burgoyne's army, 214-215. Raised Indian force to join English at Vincennes, 217. Learned at St. Joseph of Clark's success and returned home, 217. Occupied Prairie du Chien with small force in 1780, 217. Removed furs and guard to Mackinaw five days before Clark's forces reached there, 218, Death of his father in 1771, 218. La Salle — His unlawful trade with Indians. 102. His plans, 108. His character, 109. Makes trouble in Fox River Valley. 111-112. Leeuyer. John — Settled at the Portage, 228. Mackinaw— He Langlade at, 198. Warned Captain Etherington of danger, 198. Etherington's infatuation, 198. Attack and Massa- cre of garrison by Chippewas, 199-200. Etherington and Lieu- tenant Leslie made prisoners, 200. Conduct of De Langlade, 200. Chippewas prepare to burn Etherington and Leslie at stake. 200. Rescued by De Langlade, 200. Escape of Alexander Henry, 201. Chippewas became very uneasy and refused to join Pontiac at Detroit, 203. Menominee tradition, 204. Ethering- ,- ton turned over command of the fort to Charles de Langlade. 205. Re -garrisoned by English, 213. Occupied by an American garrison in 1790. 220, 221. British attack on, 233-234. American expedition against, 240. Maps — Showing location of Mascoutins, 70. Of Jesuit Fathers, 70, 74. of Marquette. 70, 75. Of Joliet, 70, 76. Joliet locates coun- try of the Mascoutins around Rush Lake, 82. Marquette. Father James — Succeeded Allouez at the Mission of the Holy Ghost in 1069. 27. Abandoned mission on Lake Superior in 1671, 66. Removed with Hurons to Point St. Ignace, 67. Anxious to establish missions among the Illinois, 67. Appointed to accompany Joliet to explore the Mississippi, 67. Their voyage, 67 et. seq. Reached village of Mascoutins June 7, 1763, 68. Remained there until June 10, 68. Reached the mouth of Wisconsin River June 17, 68. Returns from voyage with im- paired health, 91. Prepares his report, 92. Returns to Illinois, 92. His sickness and death, 92-93. At mission of St. Francis Xavier. 91-92. Bones removed to St. Ignace, 93. Mascoutins— Visited by Nicollet in 1634, 15, 17. Location of their village, 70 et. seq. Sources of information, 70, 71. Maps show- ing location of, 70. Allovez description of. 73. Dablon's descrip- tion of. 73. Marquette's description, 74. Where situated. 83. vi Index. Mt. Tom not location, 84, note 2. Join Foxes in expedition to Detroit in 1712, 126 Only allies of the Foxes, 135. Disappear from history, 189. Mass — First said in Wisconsin by Allouez at Chegoimagon in 1665, 32, note 1. First ma~s at Oshkosh, 35. Membre, Father — At Green Bay, 105. Menard, Father Rene — Visits Algonquins on Lake Superior, 24. His experience among them, 24. Attempts to reach a band of Hurons in Wisconsin, in 1661, 24, 25. Lost and his fate un- known. 25. Did not say mass in Wisconsin, 32, notes 1. Was at Kewenaw Bay in Michigan, 32, note 1. Menominees — Wanton attack upon by De Lignery's forces, 139. Their character, 197-198. Friendly to both French and English, 197. Did not join in Pontiac's conspiracy, 203. With British army, 234. Faithful to British allies. 244-245. Cession of lands by, 261-262. Agreement of the United States with. 262. Re- moved from Fox River Valley, 262. Their fidelity, 263. Meyers, P. F. — Ruins of Indian village discovered by, 42, note 3. Miamis — Hennapin's statement of their former location, 41, notes 1. Regal state of chief, 52. Former residence of on Lakes Winne- bago and Butte des Morts, 104-105. Mills — First saw and grist mill, 230. Morse, Rev. Jedediah — Commissioned to visit scattered tribes of Indians, 249. At Green Bay. 249 et. seq. His report, 249-250. His character and report, 256 note. His commission, 257-258. His scheme, 258. Nicolet, Jean — First white man to visit Fox River Falley, 10. Account oL 10-17. Oneidas — Delegation visits Wisconsin, 259. Purchase lands near Green Bay, 260. Immigration of, 260. Outagamis — (See Fox Indians) — Allouez' first visit to, 36 et. seq. Character of, 37. Lodges captured by Senecas, 37. Location of in 1670, 38 et. seq. Claimed country around Detroit in 1712, 41, notes 2. Traders afraid to visit them, 63. Description of their village, 63-64. Change of location to Fox River, 115. Their character, 121 et. seq. Paquette, Pierre — His character and strength, 256, notes 4. Index. i:i Perrot, Nicholas — At Green Bay when Allouez arrived, 56. Brief account of, E7. His influence among the Indians, 101. Raised Indian force for La Barre's expedition, 103. Appointed to com- mand at Green Bay and in the west. 112. His authority, 113. His loss when church at De Pere was burned, 114. His present to Mission of St. Francis Xavier, 115. Led Indians on expedi tion against the Senecas 16S7, 116. Wrought a miracle among Sioux, 117. Pontiac — His character, 196. His conspiracy, 196. Plan to destroy the post and garrison at Green Bay, 197. Prevented by Carron Chief of the Menomonees, 197. Besieged Detroit, 198. Mur- dered by Illinois Indians, 209-210. Resentment and revenge of other tribes, 210. Portage — Description of, 226-227. Winnebago tariff on commerce 254. Erection of Fort Winnebago, 254. Prairie du Chien — Occupied by Americans, 237. British expeditior against, 238. Capture of by British, 239. American attack re pulsed, 240-241. Raddisson and Grosilliers — Visit the Fox River Valley in 1658, 17-18 Their adventures, 17-20. Probably reached the Mississippi, 19 Ribourde, Father Gabriel — Murdered by Kickapoos, 106. Sauk Indians — Their relation to the Foxes and French, 157. Theii location in 1670. 157. At Green Bay in 1746, 157-158. Cause o: French attack upon them, 158-159. Attack upon and expulsion, 159 Removal to Sauk prairie, 159. Subsequent union with Foxes 160. Suit Ste. Marie — Council with Indians at 1671, 58 et. seq. St. Francis Xavier,— (Mission) — Moved from Green Bay to De Pere 64. Church burned by Indians in 1687, by tribes among whon Allouez had labored. 114. Father Chardon. last missionar: there departed with De Lignery's forces, 1728, 144. St. Lussen — At Sault Ste. Marie, 59. Takes possession of the coim try in name of King of France, 59. St. Marie— "Marquette's Well," 84-85. Chapel at, 84-85 note. Legem that Marquette had Mission there, 86. Tontv, Henri de— La Salle's lieutenant, 101. At Green Bay, 105-10e yiii Index. Wars — Between English and French, 165. Disputed boundaries, 165 et. seq. English policy of limiting settlements, 165. French policy, 165. Mission of George Washington to Fort La Boeuf, 166. Attempt of Washington to erect a fort at Pittsburg, 167. His orders. 167. Fort captured by French, 167. Washington's expedition, 168. Capture of Ft. Necessity by French, 169. Brad- dock sent to Virginia with two regiments, 170. Reasons for attack on Pickawillany, 173. Attack and capture by De Lang- lade and Indians in 1752, 174. War not declared until 1756, 177. "Braddock's Defeat" was in July, 1755, 177. Causes of the French loss of Canada. 184-185. Massacre at Fort William Henry not by De Langlade's Indians, 189, note 1. By Chris- tian Abenaki, 189, note 1. Manner of French occupation of territory, 191-192. Surrender of Canada to English, 192. W r ars between England and the United States — Prelude to revolu- tion, 212-213. Royal proclamation, 212. Quebec Act, 213. Cap- ture of Illinois posts by Col. Clark, 215-216. Recapture of Vin- cennes by English, 216. Recapture by Clark, 216-217. Intrigue and hopes of Spain, 219, 220, note 1. Close to the revolution, 219. Boundary of the United States, 219. England retained possession of the northwestern posts until after Jay's treaty, 219-221. Indian wars to restrict American occupation to the line of the Ohio River, encouraged by the English, 222. Williams, Rev. Eleazer — His plans. 258-260. Anecdote of, 266 note. Winnebagoes — Origin of their name, 20, note 1 . Increase and spreading out of, 225-226. With British army, 234. Their hatred of the Americans, 248-249. Ceded their lands to the United States, 261. Winnebago Lake — Uninhabited in 1670, 34. Dimensions of, 35. 8 1902 1 COPY DEI- T JAM. 8 1902 H 18 89slll r oV *",. tf^ - ,o> V^V V % .»i^Lf* V » « * °* .♦♦ v*W/ \W/ VWv : % >: (*<3* ".I °o. *. !*3&S£f.*^