Book .. I) t X, . .._'fiiiiir-" ■ f ^^S""''^" : ■ -■ ... • ' vi- .^v. 1 It & '^S- _ . ; 1 * *i|Vl' ' ■ : ■, ■ '»?i^fi*VSiv' ' Ala 'mflb^m ^m il I *^R^^^^" ■'^m^i Our Wisconsin A School History of the Badger State By E: G. DOUDNA >< ^^^ Superintendent of Schools Wisconsin Rapids^ Wis. Revised Edition EAU CLAIRE BOOK & STATIONERY CO. EAU CLAIRE, WIS. COPYRIGHTED 1920, 1922 by EAU CLAIRE BOOK & STATIONERY CO. 9t TmnafiBT MA, 18 iyi. PRINTED AND BOUND BY BEOROE BANTA PUBLISHING CO. MANUFACTURING PUBLIBHERB IIKENA8HA, WISC0T4SIN PREFACE This little book has been prepared to meet the needs of schoois for a short history of Wisconsin. It aims to tell the story of the state in its salient features, and to bring out the striking episodes which have lent picturesqueness to the earlier periods of our history and significance to the later developments when the commonwealth was in the making. It is not intended that the chapters dealing with the later development of the state shall serve as more than an introduction to these topics, which have been so fully treated in the special histories that have been pub- lished. The teacher of Wisconsin history should have at hand for reference the latest edition of the Blue Book and one of the more complete histories such as Thwaites' ''Wis- consin," of the American Commonwealth series. The his- tory of the state should always be keot in strict subordina- tion to that of the United States, although we should not undervalue the trials and sacrifices made by th^ pioneers of the Badger Commonwealth. To understand and ap- preciate Avhat thes^ men aind women did for us is an im- portant step in the development in our young people of the ideals of citizenship that obtain in our Wisconsin. The basis of this book is "The Leading Events of Wisconsin History" written in 1898 by Henry E. Legler. The publications of the Wisconsin Historical Society and the many works of the late R. G. Thwaites have also been used constantly in verifying statements of fact. E. G. D. TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. Wisconsin in 1634 7 II. The Indians 13 III. The Coming of the White Men 23 IV. The S trange Adventure of Radisson . . 32 V. Nicholas Perrot, Forest Ranger 36 YJ- The Wan derings of the Black Gowns 40, VII. JoLiET AND Marquette 45^ VIII. La Salle and His Companions 53 IX. La Salle and the Mississippi 58 X. Famous: Visitors 63 XL The War with the Fox Indians 68 XII. Under the Flag of England 78 XIII. Charles Langlade 84 XIV. English Travelers in Wisconsin 89 XV. Wisconsin in the Revolution 94 XVI. The Northwest Territory 101 XVII. Wisconsin in the War of 1812 106 XVIII. Life in the Early Settlements Ill XIX. From Fur Trading to Lead Mining. ... 115 XX. Red Bird and Black Hawk 122 XXI. The Territory of Wisconsin 132 XXII. The Thirteenth Star 140 XXIII. From 1848 to 1860 145 XXIV. In the Civil War 152 XXV. The Melting Pot 161 XXVI. Since the Civil War 168 XXVII. In the World War 172 XXVIII. Wisconsin in Industry 178 XXIX. Wisconsin in Literature 186 XXX. The Growth of the Public School. . . . 193 Our Wisconsin CHAPTER I WISCONSIN IN 1634 The story of Wisconsin begins with the visit of the young French explorer, Jean Nicolet, to Green Bay in 1634. At this time there were but few white people in Xorth America, and most of them lived near the Atlantic coast or on the rivers which were easily navigable to the sea. The English had a few settlements in New England and Virginia; the Spanish in Florida and Mexico; the Dutch in New York ; and the French in Canada. These people all believed they were near India, a country of marvelous riches, and this belief led to the discovery and exploration of "Our Wisconsin." The history of the state is interesting and profitable. Its story is one of adventure and sacrifice. In the heart of the continent it was a prize to be fought for, and three flags have waved in succession over it. We shall en- deavor to follow the men and women who came here when wilderness was king and whose efforts laid the foundations of the Badger state. We shall go with them on their long and weary journeys down unexplored streams, across the tangled portage paths, and through the forests, and shall follow them as they gradually over- come the obstacles offered by the land and the Indian until a srreat state stands as a monument to their heroism. 8 OUR WISCONSIN Location. The situation of Wisconsin at the head- waters of the St. Lawrence and Mississippi rivers had much to do with its early discovery. The distances be- tween the rivers flowing into Lake Michigan and Lake Superior and those tributary to the INIississippi wxre so short that five or six portage paths had been made by the Lidians. At one point the distance from the Wisconsin River to the Fox is not much more than a mile. In times of high water these two rivers often overflow their banks and mingle their waters. A raindrop falling on this narrow divide might be carried down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico; or perchance through the Great Lakes, over Niagara Falls, into the St. Lawrence and thence to the i\tlantic Ocean. Age. It is less than three hundred years since Xicolet came to Wisconsin, and these three centuries are the years with which recorded history deals. The geologist, who studies the rocks and reads in them the story of the ages, tells us that our state is about fifteen million years old. The northern portion is the older; it is perhaps the oldest portion of the world. Great granite mountains were pushed out of the sea. In the course of the ages they have been worn down to a plain. At some later time great sheets of ice or glaciers invaded all but one portion of the state, the western and southwestern. The part which escaped glaciation is known as the driftless area and includes about a dozen counties. The glacier left piles of stone and gravel along its southern and easterh borders, and huge depressions in the ground which filled with Avater and became lakes. These lakes are scattered all over the glaciated area of WISCONSLY IN 1634 9 the state, but are most numerous in the northern part, near the source of the Wisconsin and along the St. Croix. Forests. The rich soil and the temperate climate pro- duced a heavy growth of trees throughout the state. Here and there the great forests were broken by prairie openings where now there are exceedingly rich farms. The northern part was most heavily timbered with pine, spruce, hemlock, birch, and cedar. In the southern part the oak was the principal tree. The elm and the maple were found in every part of the state. Berries of every description grew wild in the open spaces of the forest, and the Avild grape was abundant. It is estimated that one hundred billion feet of pine timber stood in the forests when the white men came. IMost of this is now gone, taken as toll by the forty years in which lumbering was the most important industry of the state. Soil. The soil of Wisconsin is very fertile, although even today less than three-quarters of the state's land area is in farms. The northern part of the state has both sand and clay soils. • In the south is a clay-loam area of lime stone rock. Between these two areas is one of lighter soil which' in the AVisconsin river valley is quite largely sand. It was a long time before the resources of the soil were recognized. The principal agricultural development began in the southern part of the state because its climate was warmer and its growing season longer; the hard wood forests were more easily cleared and the prairies were ready for the plow ; and the trans- portation of crops to market was less difificult. Minerals. Because \Msconsin was the oldest land area it was high and dry above the seas when the coal Paddy the Beaver WISCONSIN IN 1634 11 deposits of the neighboring states were in the making. Therefore we find no coal deposits in this state. There were vast deposits of iron and copper in the north, while in the southwest there were large quantities of lead and zinc. The discovery of the lead regions had much to do w^ith the second period in the industrial development of the state. Fine granite and other building stones were found in many sections. The lime, stone found in most of the southern counties is of great importance now that cement has become so much used in all construction. Furs. Just as the call of Europe for precious stones had much to do with the discovery of America, so the demand for furs is responsible for the early exploration of Wisconsin. The fur trade was the state's first indus- try, and as we shall soon see, it determined the history of the state for two centuries. ''The hardy, adventurous, lawless, facinating fur-trade" was possible because in the northern regions of the Mississippi valley there were more fur-bearing animals than in any other part of the world. The numerous rivers of this section, and their connection with the French settlements on the St.. Lawrence contributed greatly to the development of this section of North America. The most important of the fur-bearing animals was the beaver, and the" beaver abounded here. The marten, the otter, the muskrat, and the black bear were also highly valued for their pelts. Other animals such as the fox, the lynx, and the wolf had a lesser value. The beaver, how- ever, was the most sought for and the most highly prized. Besides the fur-bearing animals many others lived in the woods and caves. Elk, deer, ducks, geese, grouse, 12 OUR WISCONSIN and other game abounded and made it easy for the Indian and explorer to procure animal food in the spring, sum- mer and fall. The trees were full of song birds, and the owl and hawk Avere common. Of course the woods had plenty of dangers from reptiles and wild animals. The rattle snake was all too common and constituted a real menace. On the prairies of the south great herds of buffalo occasion- ally crossed the Mississippi and lived here. The rivers abounded in fish, trout being plentiful in the clear, cold spring water of the smaller streams. Through the forests the red man was free to wander, but save for a few Indian villages all was one vast wilder- ness. The great natural resources of the state were untouched by the savages, and it was two centuries after the discovery of the state before its material and social development began. But after all a state is made by its men and women, and it is the story of these men and women who made Wisconsin that we wish to tell. The rest is the back ground for their history. QUESTIONS 1. Locate the St. Croix, Chippewa, Black, Wisconsin, Rock, and Fox rivers. Indicate portages between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi. 2. What is the present area of Wisconsin? 3. What effect did Wisconsin's location have upon its early history? 4. Why did the southern and eastern parts of the state come to be settled before the north and the west? 5. Why has Wisconsin no coal beds? 6. Make a report upon the natural history of the beaver. 7. Describe the "driftless area" of the state. 8. Locate on the map all of the places named. Always do this when reading history. Fix all facts in time and place. CHAPTER II THE INDIANS Tribes. During the period in which Wisconsin was being explored there were probably ten thousand Indians living within the present boundaries of the state. These Indians belonged to several tribes and families. We usually classify a people on the basis of the language spoken. Those who speak English, German, or Dutch are called Germanic ; those speaking Norwegian, Swedish, or Danish are Scandinavians ; and the French, Spanish, and Italian are Latins. Indian families are classified on the same principle as Algonkins, Iroquois, and Dakotas. The Dakota family Hved chiefly to the west of the Mississippi and the others to the east. The Winnebagoes. The Winnebagoes, a branch of the Dakotas, lived at the head of Green Bay and in the valleys of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers. They were called by the other Indians The Men of the Sea, as it was believed they had come from near the ocean. Their early home had been beyond the Mississippi, and this river was probably thought to be near the sea. They were a savage looking people, with high cheek bones, flat noses, and eyes set far apart. In many respects they were wild and cruel like their cousins, the Sioux. It is now quite generally believed that the Winnebagoes built the strange earth works found in Wisconsin so long attributed to the mound-builders. When Nicolet came to the state they 14 OUR WISCONSIN were warlike and possessed great physical strength, but those of their descendants now living are described as being "the poorest, meanest, and most ill-visaged of Wis- consin Indians." In the northern part of Wisconsin and in upper Michi- gan and Canada were found the Hurons, an Iroquois tribe driven thither by the stronger Indian nations of the East. Here and there were other tribes, the Kickapoos; Mascou- tins, Illinois, Miami, and Ottawas being the principal ones. They influenced the history of the state but little. Location of Tribes. The Algonkins, the most numer- ous Indian family in Wisconsin, were also the most intel- ligent. To this family have belonged many of the cele- brated Indians of history; King Philip, Powhattan, Tammany, Pontiac, Tecumseh, and Black Hawk. The Ojibways, now called the Chippewas, were the least savage of this family. They lived along the shores of Lake Superior and as far south as the Black River. In the northeast lived the quiet and gentle Menomonies, known as Wild Rice Eaters. They were a fine looking people of comparatively light complexion who were not particularly warlike in disposition'. From Green Bay southward along the shore of Lake Michigan lived the Pottawattomies, the most restless of the Algonkin tribes. Much of the material in Longfellow's Hiawatha comes from their traditions, although the background of the poem is the land of the Chippewas on Lake Superior. The Sacs, sometimes known as the Sauks, and the Foxes, often known as the Outagamies, were other important tribes, and the only ones to become unfriendly to the French. The Foxes eventually brought on an Indian war which all but exterminated them, and which greatly weakened the hold of the French on the West. ^•-%- s^>x A Wisconsin Indian 16 OUR WISCONSIN Although the Indians shifted about somewhat as the seasons changed to seek game or to find fields best fitted for growing corn, they could not be called a nomadic people. In places where water and fish were easily pro- cured and where grain and potatoes were easily grown they pitched their wigwams and built their villages. In proportion to population, then and now, these villages had as many people as the cities and villages of today. The love of their home-land was deep and strong, and when driven from it they sought again and again to return. It was unusual for a family of Indians to live alone in the forest. The Indian Home. The Indian house was frequently a hut or tent which could be moved easily. It was made of slender poles tied together at the top and covered with animal skins, mats made of rushes, or sheets made of birch bark. It was usually called a wigwam but often was known as a tepee or lodge. The Hurons built their cabins entirely of bark, and long and high. Around their villages they built a double row of paHsades, thus making a fortress. Sometimes cabins large enough to hold several families were built. These were sometimes a hundred feet long, twenty-five feet wide and twenty feet high. The Sioux built a cone shaped wigwam and the Chippewas a house shaped like half a baseball. Most of the houses were very insanitary. This condition led to many dis- eases, especially lung troubles and rheumatism. Contrary to the general impression the Indian was not unusually healthy. Epidemics of small-pox and other diseases often swept away half the population of a village. Before mid- dle age, both men and Avomen usually looked old and hag- gard. The home life reflected the dirty, improvident habits of the red man. THE INDIANS 17 Clans. The Indians were divided into clans, each hav- ing its clan-sign or totem which represented some beast, bird, or reptile. The clansmen were supposed to be rela- tives, although often not a single drop of blood was com- mon to all of them. Marrying within a clan was forbid- den ; a member of the Wolf clan, for instance, might marry into the Bear clan but not into the Wolf clan even though no blood relationship existed between the mem- bers. Away from home the Indian always found a wel- come among the members of his clan. To identify him- self, he often had his totem tatooed upon his body. The Indian's Squaw and Her Home Life. It was not uncommon for an Indian to have several w^ves. He was apt to tyranize over his squaw, or squaws, but usually he was a jolly, easy-going, shiftless fellow. He smoked tobacco in curiously carved pipes made from the red pipe- stone of Alinnesota. Most of his food was obtained by hunting and fishing. When the Indians raised corn, beans, melons, pumpkins and sunflowers, the ground was prepared by the women who also planted and cultivated the crops. They made maple sugar and frequently dried the grapes and berries that grew in profusion everywhere. The Menomonies made use of the wild rice which grew in their section of the state. In general it may be said that the home life of the Indian was the least admirable part of his scheme of living. The Indian made fire in two ways. Sometimes two flint-like stones were struck together and the sparks which resulted caught on dry, rotten wood called "punk." If flints were not available they rubbed two pieces of dry cedar together with great rapidity until the friction pro- duced sparks which set fire to the "punk." Some tribes 18 VVR WISCONSIN made beautiful cooking utensils but this was an unusual practice. Dishes were made of shells, bark or rude pot- tery. These could not be placed on a fire, therefore a primitive fireless cooker was devised ; that is, stones were heated and then put into dishes which were partly filled Avith water. In this way the water was made to boil and the meal was cooked. There were also rude devices for pounding* corn into coarse meal. These the women operated. Clothing. The clothing of the Indian was made prin- cipally of deer-skin. Needles of stone or bone were used to sew the skins together. Their garments were often handsomely embroidered, particularly the leggings and moccasins. Buffalo robes were common, and among some tribes the long wool of the bufifalo was spun into yarn and woven into cloth. Some of the Indians wore very ela- borate head-dresses of eagle feathers, each feather repre- senting an enemy slain by the brave. They painted their faces and sometimes decorated their bodies with gaudy red and green colors. If other colors were scarce, char- coal was used. Men usually wore their hair short, al- though one long lock, the scalp lock, was left on the top of the head. Government. There were no fixed forms of govern- ment. There were chiefs, but they were simply men who through personal influence were made leaders and ad- visers. They possessed no power to compel obedience. If a chief had much natural ability, he had a strong fol- lowing and almost as much power as a king ; but without ability, hereditary power gave him little control. In order to arouse enthusiasm for wars and for hunting it was frequently necessary for the chief to hold noisy feasts and dances. The Indian liked to debate, and he held councils THE IXDIANS 19 at which every man who had taken an enemy's scalp was permitted to be heard. Most of the talking was done by these privileged men. Age was respected, and an old man was listened to with consideration. This was a primitive kind of democracy although not very efficient. Fear of common enemies and of famine kept the Indian from anarchy. Indian War Tools. The principal instruments of war were the bow and arrow. A typical bow was about three feet long and made of the toughest and most elastic wood to be found. The bow string was made of sinew twisted and braided until it was very strong. The arrow was made of hard wood or cane, had a point of stone and was tipped with feathers. Often the point was poisoned. The tomahawk was quite generally used, and in time it came to be considered a symbol of war. War-clubs, knives, spears, lances and shields were commonly used imple- ments. Warfare was common, usually for defense or for revenge ; but military campaigns as we know them were unknown. Raids, ambuscades, and surprise attacks were the favorite forms of strategy. Prisoners were treated without mercy and cruelly tortured, although sometimes an Indian would rescue a captive and adopt him into the tribe to take the place of a member killed in battle. Scalping was a common practice, and the scalps were treasured and worn upon state occasions. When a war chief was preparing an attack, he usually held a feast of several days' duration. Its purpose was to arouse the enthusiasm of his followers and make them anxious for war. On the return from a successful raid another feast was held, accompanied by the war dance and 20 OUR WISCONSIN Other ceremonies of celebration and thanksgiving. The Indian on such occasions was very particular to observe the correct forms and to preserve the dignity of the tribe. The calumet, or peace-pipe, was smoked with elaborate ceremony. Welcome visitors received the pipe, and those whom the tribe particularly desired to honor were ac- corded a special program of speech-making, singing and dancing when the pipe was presented. The religion of the red man was like the rest of his ideas, primitive. He believed in good and bad spirits called manitous. Until after the coming of the white man, very few Indians believed in a "great spirit." However, they believed that the soul existed after the body was dead, and that it had wants like those the Indian had on earth. All sorts of offerings were made at the burial, and these were placed in the grave with the departed. Manner of Living. After the coming of the white man the Indian quickly changed his manner of living. He adopted fire-arms and "fire-water." He gave up his own methods of making a living and began hunting furs to sell to the fur-trader. He came to be dependent upon the trader and lost some of his original independence. At the best, his social development was not high, and it seemed to be easier for him to adopt the white man's vices than his virtues. The two centuries of struggle for possession of the continent ended with the Indian's living on reserva- tions provided by the government and dependent upon the bounty of Congress, or more rarely, living the life of civilization among his conquerers. Indian Mounds. It would not do to close this chapter without reference to the numerous mounds to be found in Wisconsin. For many years it was supposed that they THE INDIANS 21 were built by a race that inhabited this country before the Indian came, but evidence seems to prove that they were built by the Indians. These mounds were usually found on the banks of streams and lakes or on high elevations near them. Once they must have been very numerous as more than two thousand have been counted in a single county. Many were built to resemble such animals as the lizzard, the turtle, the buffalo, or the squirrel. These are known' as ejfigy mounds. Some of them are at least a thousand years old ; others were built probably after the coming of the white man. They seem to have been built to commemorate the burial places of important men, to designate the clan to which the Indian group belonged, or perhaps as fortifications. It is a curious fact that many of the important cities of the state are located where the presence of numerous mounds shows Indian villages once to have been located. SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY In the school library you may find Fredrick Starr's American Indians. If you are interested in Indians, read this book. Hiawatha, The Last of the Mohicans, and Ramona may also be read with profit. A number of other interesting books on Indian life may be found on the Wisconsin township library list. 1. Find on the map of Wisconsin as many Indian names as you can. 2. How many Indian reservations are there in the state? Lo- cate them. 3. Compare Indian warfare with that of the Great War. 4. The Indian is brown; why is he called red? 5. What vegetables in common use were first obtained from the Indians? 22. OUR WISCONSIN 6. How did the name Indian originate? 7. Some topics for additional study: Personal appearance of the Indian; Indian children; Indian farming; Wampum; Indian myths. 8. Are there any Indians in your vicinity? If there are, report on them to your teacher. 9. Are there any mounds near where you live? If there are, describe them. CHAPTER III THE COMING OF THE WHITE MEN Discovery and Exploration. It was a hundred and forty years after the discovery of America before a white man set foot upon Wisconsin soil. Through the forests roamed the Indians unvexed by the knowledge that some day a great state, governed by a race of men of whom they had never heard, v/ould take the place of their hunt- ing grounds. Suddenly out of the East a Frenchman, Jean Nicolet, skirted the coast of Green Bay, made a spectacular entrance into their villages, explored the? Fox River, and returned to the mysterious country whence he came. For twenty years more the Indian held undisputed possession with no white men coming to molest him. Then began the long procession of ex- plorers, traders, priests, and soldiers who laid the foun- dations of our Badger state. These men were nearly all French ; therefore, it is to France we owe the discovery and exploration of Wisconsin. First Settlement. When the news came from Spain that a new world of untold riches had been discovered, the French, eager to obtain a share of the vast wealth to be had for the taking, fitted out an expedition under Verrazono an Italian in the employ of the King of France. In 1524 he explored the coast of North America from South Carolina to New Hampshire and thus gave France a claim to the continent. A few years later 24 OUR WISCONSIN Jacques Cartier was sent out to explore the lands west of New Foundland. His voyage resulted in the discovery of the St. Lawrence River and his taking possession of it in the name of the King of France. But attempts at set- tlement failed, and it was eighty years before the French made their first permanent settlement at Port Royal in 1604. Four years later Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec which soon became the starting point for French explorations. New France. All the French possessions in America were named New France, and Champlain was made governor. He was the most brilliant and successful of French explorers and colonizers. In 1609 he joined a party of Algonkin Indians and reached the lake which now bears his name. Near there they met a band of fierce and hostile Iroquois. In a short battle the Iroquois were driven away in panic, but thereafter were the enemies of France. For a hundred and fifty years, ally- ing themselves with the English and Dutch colonists the Iroquois controlled Lake Erie and compelled the French to send all of their exploring parties through the region to the west controlled by the friendly Algonkins. This mistake of Champlain was largely responsible for the early discovery and exploration of the upper Mississippi Valley. ^ Like all early explorers Champlain believed America to1)e much smaller than it really is. Nothing was known of the western country, although most men believed it to be but a narrow strip west of the Great Lakes through ^'hjch rivers flowed into the China Sea. Wandering iff^ians brought strange tales to the settlers about the Region to the west and thus kept alive the desire to get THE COMING OF THE WHITE MEN 25 the rich trade of the East. Champlain studied such re- ports carefully and made a map of the region as he sup- posed it to be. Champlain was the moving spirit in all of the early French activities. In 1611 he established a trading post at Montreal. He selected young men to live among the Indians to study their languages and customs and to in- crease French influence. He sent them on long journeys to make treaties with the Indians and to bring back in- formation about the Western frontier. Through this severe training he developed young men who had all of the physical endurance of the savage combined with the intelligence of the white man. The explorations of these men greatly extended the boundaries of New France, but when Champlain died on Christmas day, 1635, their activities were discontinued for a quarter of a century. French Motives. In their explorations the French were impelled by several motives. Four which seemed to give direction to their work were : 1. Desire for territorial expansion. The Frenchman wanted his flag to fly in every part of the world. He wanted to settle every available foot of land not already held by some other power. 2. Religious zeal. The Catholic church, through its missionaries, wanted to gather all of the Indians within its fold. 3. The fur-trade. Fur-trading was a very profitable industry. 4. Love of adventure. Popular imagination was kindled by the reports of adventures to be had in the New World. 5. Hope of finding mineral riches. Copper and lead were known among the Indians, and it was hoped that gold and silver could be found in great quantities. 26 OUR WISCONSIN Jean Nicolet. One of the young men who heard of these adventures was Jean Nicolet, the son of a mail- carrier of Normandy. He came to Quebec in 1618 v^hen he was twenty years of age, a vigorous, ambitious and daring young Frenchman. He was immediately em- ployed by Champlain who sent him on a mission to the Algonkins. There on the Ottawa River, three hundred miles from Quebec and with no companions of his own race he spent two years, undergoing many hardships and perils. An old French chronicle says : ''He often passed seven or eight days with- out food, and once, full seven weeks with no other nourishment than a little bark from the trees." Afterward he was stationed for ten or eleven years among the Nipissings near the lake of that name. He be- came one of them and seemed to enjoy their manner of living. He prepared notes of their life and customs which later fell into the hands of a French missionary. In 1632 he returned to Quebec, which had been re- stored to the French after a short ownership by the En- glish. Here he was employed by the company which had control of the development of New France. Champlain was anxious to have more explorations made to the west and Nicolet was eager to undertake the work. Accus- tomed as he was to the fatigues and privations of the wilderness and with a full knowledge of Indians and Indian life, he was just the man to be sent into the un- known West. "People of the Sea." One of the reasons why Cham- plain was anxious to have Nicolet undertake this journey was a story that had come from Indians trading at Quebec, which told of a nation of Indians dwelling some THE COMING OF THE WHITE MEN 27 distance westward known as the People of the Sea. The Frenchmen believed that these must be Chinese and that at last they were to reach the East by sailing west. These Indians were, however, a branch of the Dakotas, later known as the Winnebagoes but then called the Puants. The term piianfs means bad smelling water and was thought to refer to the salt water of the ocean as contrasted with the fresh water of the inland lakes. The "sea" from which they came was undoubtedly the Mississippi River, and the "bad smelling water" is now believed to have referred to a group of sulphur springs near Lake Winnipeg. The fanciful descriptions of these people had confirmed Champlain in the belief that he had at last found the long-sought route to China. He chose Nicolet as his ambassador to go to these people, make a treaty of peace with them and secure their trade for New France. At Lake Michigan. In July of the year 1634 Nicolet left Quebec in company wath some Jesuit missionaries who w^ere leaving to establish a mission in the Huron country. He went up the Ottaw^a River to his old station among the Algonkins. There he left the priests and went on alone, following the Mattawan River to its source. He carried his canoe and baggage over a portage to Lake Nipissing, crossed the lake and followed the French river down to Georgian Bay and Lake Huron. Champlain had been this far before, probably the farthest point yet reached in the westward exploration. Nicolet was now in a land absolutely unknown to white people. He spent some time there, gaining such information as he could about the People of the Sea and other tribes along the lake shores. He induced seven Huron Indians to ac- 28 OUR WISCONSIN company him to assist him in his voyage. In a long birch-bark canoe they went slowly and cautiously along the northern shores of Lake Huron. His Indians were often weary and anxious to give up the trip and, like the sailors of Columbus, were unnerved by superstitious fears. However, the masterful Nicolet overcame all op- position and finally reached the place where dwelt The People of the Falls, now known as Sault Ste. Marie. Here he and his seven Hurons rested. Some think that he may have ascended the St. Mary's River far enough to get a view of Lake Superior although this is unlikely. Recuperated and encouraged, he retraced his way down the strait and entered Lake Michigan through the Macki- nac passage. For the first time a white man saw the broad surface of this inland sea along whose shores are now four important states. This lake has been called by many names its present one being a corruption of the early Indian Michigonong. Other names used have been Lake of the Illinois, Lake St. Joseph, Lake Dauphin, and Algonkin Lake. Leaving Mackinac, Nicolet's canoe was paddled by his Indians along the northern shore of Lake Michigan. He stopped for a brief parley with the Indians upon the shores of Bay de Noquet, an arm of Green Bay, and finally came to the mouth of the Menominee River. There for the first time a white man set foot on Wiscon- sin soil. The Menominees, who lived there, had much lighter complexions than any other Indians he had known. There Champlain's messenger learned that but a short distance to the south he would find his long sought People of the Sea. In the beginning he probably had some doubt about finding them to be Chinese, and long THE COMING OF THE WHITE MEN 29 before he reached their village he had fairly definite ideas about them. However, he sent one of his Hurons for- ward as a herald to notify the Winnebagoes that a white stranger was coming to oi¥er them peace and good-will. At Green Bay. Before leaving Quebec Nicolet had provided himself with a "grand robe of China damask, all strewn with flowers and birds of many colors." This robe, gorgeous as Joseph's coat, was to be worn when he met the Chinese ruler. He knew the value of appealing to the imagination of the Indian, although this was an extraordinary garment to wear even among savages. The Winnebagoes had sent several men to meet him and conduct him to their village. The strange procession of Winnebago burden-bearers, seven nearly naked Hurons and a white man arrayed in his many colored gown en- tered the excited village. As Nicolet strode forward "the women and children fled at the sight of a man who carried thunder in both hands," for thus they referred to the two pistols that he held. His theatrical entrance to the village, where now stands the city of Green Bay, made a favorable impression and soon a great feast was made for him at which four or five thousand Indians were present. With true French adaptability he made the best of the situation and with much feasting, speech- making and giving of presents, he won them to New France. He obtained their promise to come to Montreal to barter and an agreement not to engage in wars with the friendly Hurons. Neiar the Wisconsin. When he left the Winnebagoes, Nicolet proceeded up the Fox River through the great regions of wild rice marshes to a point near where Berlin, in Green Lake County, is now situated. There he made a 30 OUR WISCONSIN treaty with the Indians. He was but a three days' journey from the Wisconsin River of which he seems to have heard but which he did not seek. Instead, he went south into the Illinois country and thus missed discovering the Mississippi. In the spring of 1635 he returned to Quebec. For nearly a quarter of a century no French voyager dared to follow up his achievements ; yet Nicolet had blazed the trail. Wisconsin was, as has been related, one of the earliest parts of America to be entered by the white man. No- where had an Englishman been more than a hundred miles from the Atlantic coast. There were not more than half a dozen settlements in the entire country. Nicolet had found the gateway through which civilization later entered the Mississippi valley. The French, however, were explorers not farmers, traders not settlers ; and eventually they lost the territory they had penetrated. Had the French induced their colonists to develop the agricultural possibilities of the country instead of en- couraging them to roam the woods for beaver peltaries, perhaps the history of the Mississippi Valley and the world would have been different. SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 1. How many years before Wisconsin was discovered was Jamestown settled? Massachusetts? New York? 2. Compare Champlain's map with the corresponding one in your geography. What places did he locate correctly? What errors did he make? 3. Draw a map to indicate the route taken by Nicolet. 4. Compare the story of Nicolet with that of Columbus. 5. How did Champlain's battle with the Iroquois affect Wis- consin history? THE COMING OF THE WHITE MEN 31 6. Why were early explorers so anxious to reach the East? /. Compare French motives for discovery with those of the Lnglish. 3. Why was Nicolet chosen by Champlain to make this long journey? 9. In your United States history read the chapters on French explorations and discoveries. 10. Compare the Indian population of 1634 with that of today as to numbers, habits, tribes, etc. 11. Account for the name of Door Countv. CHAPTER IV THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF RADISSON By the middle of the seventeenth century Wisconsin had become crowded with Indian villages and had a larger number of red men living within its borders than at any other time in its history. There had grown up a large fur trade with the French and with the Indians to the west who had never seen a white man. So profitable was this trade that the rulers of New France seemed to think it the only industry worth developing. The govern- ment gave a monopoly in the fur trade to a company known as The Hundred Associates. The company was also given many powers ordinarily exercised only by a government. In order to trade with the Indians it was necessary to obtain a license either from the Associates or directly from the government, and to pay well for the privilege. Goods to be traded to the Indians must be bought from the company at very high prices and the furs must be sold to them for whatever the Associates cared to pay. Many restrictions were placed upon the freedom of the trader and many rules were made which were extremely difficult to obey. Because of these restrictions many men began to trade without securing the necessary license. Legally they were outlaws and were usually called coureiirs de hois which means zvood ^ rangers. At times they were more numerous than the \ licensed traders, especially at those periods when the THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF RADISSON Z2> rules were not strictly enforced or when officers encour- aged their violation. A few of the coureurs have left records of their travels, and careful historical study is revealing their names and deeds. Fi rst in W isconsin. Two young Canadian coureurs, Pierre Radisson and his brother-in-law, Medart des Groseilliers, are believed to have been the first white men after Nicolet to come to Wisconsin. Little was known of them unFil a manuscript written by Radisson was found in a hbrary at Oxford and published in London about the middle of the nineteenth century. It is the product of a man of limited knowledge, and its descrip- tions are so vague that it is difficult to ascertain exactly where they traveled. Radisson seems to have had many thrilling experiences, and his accounts of them remind one of the romantic adventures of John Smith in Virginia. Radisson and Groseilliers probably made two trips to the west, the second being the more important. In 1654* they left Quebec "to discover the great lakes that they heard the wild men speak of." They followed the route taken twenty years before by Nicolet and, Hke him, they traveled with Indians who accompanied them to paddle their canoes. They visited "ye nation with ye standing hairs" as the French termed the Ottawas, and spent the winter with the Pottawattomles on the peninsula east of Green Bay. They explored somewhat. Radisson writes, "We weare 4 moneths in our voyage without doeing any- thing but goe from river to river." They do not seem to have made any map of the region through which they went. Their trade with the Indians gave them a good idea of the country. They describe vaguely a trip to "ye * Evidence divided. Perhaps 1654 safer than 1658. Thwaites prefers 1654. 34 OUR WISCONSIN greate river that divides itself in 2," w^hich may mean the junction of the Mississippi and Missouri. If so, they discovered the Mississippi many years before the date commonly assigned to its discovery. Returning to Sault Ste. Marie they explored a long stretch of the southern shore of Lake Superior and even went as far north as Hudson Bay. They returned to Quebec in 1656 with sixty boat-loads of valuable furs, and were received with great rejoicing in spite of the fact that they had been trading without a license. During their absence, wars with the Iroquois had interrupted the trade with the Northwest and the return of two men who had resumed trading with the interior tribes was looked upon as the beginning of a new era. First Habitation in Wisconsin. Three years after their return the two men determined upon a second voyage. Unlicensed traders were now forbidden to go into the Northwest but they left secretly for the upper lakes. Going along the southern shore of Lake Superior until they came to Chequamegon Bay, they continued their explorations. I^ar where the city of Ashland now stands they constructed the first habitation ever built by white men in Wisconsin and around it built a little fort of stakes outside of which was a long cord upon which bells were tied. The next winter was very severe. As a result, they were reduced to eating boiled skins, ground bone and the bark of trees. In Radisson's words, "finally we became the very image of Death. Here are above 500 dead." Regarded As An Outlaw. When spring came the Frenchmen went with the Hurons into that part of Minnesota lying between the St. Croix River and the THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF RADISSON 35 Mississippi. Later they returned to Chequamegon Bay and built another fort. There they traded with the Hurons and after collecting a good cargo of furs returned to Montreal. They were not treated royally at this second home-coming'; they were now classed as outlaws and their furs were taken from them. Radisson w^as extremely angry at this treatment and went to Paris where he hoped to secure recognition be- cause of his services to New France. He was dis- appointed and went to London where he offered himself to the English. While there he wrote his journal. He succeeded in interesting some men in England whQ..or- ganized The Hudson Bay Company which later con- trolled the great fur trade of the Northwest. He died in, London, not highly regarded by the English and con- sidered a traitor by the French. Radisson will be remembered because he opened up the Wisconsin country to the fur trade, explored the region of Lake Superior and the vast territory border- ing Hudson Bay, deeply interested the Jesuit mission- aries Avho had much to do with the opening of the great Northwest to civilization, and told the story of his strange adventures in his journal. SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 1. What was the difference in the attitude of the French and that of the English toward the New World? 2. Of what importance to France was the fur trade? 3. Why did not the fur trade lead to permanent settlements? 4. Compare the motives of Radisson with those of Nicolet. 5. Why was Radisson received so warmly on his first return to Montreal and so differently the second time? 6. Write a short summary of this chapter. CHAPTER V NICHOLAS PERROT, FOREST RANGER We have been told in the story of Radisson how the coureur was regarded by the government. The return of Radisson and Groseilliers to Montreal from the North- west had created great excitement and every young man in New France dreamed of the wealth to be found in the forests of Wisconsin. These men were largely the younger sons of the nobility of France or were returned soldiers. They had no ties binding them to a home, and with utter disregard of the hazards and hardships of forest life they penetrated into the remotest regions of the lake country. They were not careful to obtain a license to trade but relied upon themselves. In seeking furs they opened up the country to the white men. In fact, it is difificult to determine whether the coureurs or the missionaries were of greater importance in the development of Wisconsin. The Forest Ranger. The forest ranger was a pictur- esque character. As the trade in furs was profitable and the roving life, free from restraints, had many charms that appealed to the ardent French temperament, the number of traders constantly increased. Unlike the Eng- lishman the Frenchman did not seek to crowd out the Indian but adopted his habits and customs and lived the life of the red man. He could paint and tattoo himself, dance with the braves or smoke the pipe of peace in the NICHOLAS PERROT, FOREST RANGER Z7 councils of the tribe. In the lodges of the Indian he wooed and won the dusky maidens of the woods. At times the ranger would be seized with a desire to return to the settlements on the St. Lawrence. Laden Avith his furs he would make his way through the wilder- ness until he reached a settlement. Then, having sold his furs, he would seek the company of others like himself for a season of joviality and gayety lasting until his purse was empty. With money gone, he would make his peace with the church and return to the home of the beaver and the lodge of the Indian. The rangers kept the friendship of all the Algonkin tribes but one, the Foxes, and were thus able to hold the trade of the region against the en- croachments of the English. The forest ranger was the advance guard of the civilization that followed the open- ing of the great liighwa3^s of trade in the western country. Nicholas Perrot. One of the most famous of the forest rangers was Nicholas Perrot. Little is known of his early years except that he accompanied missionaries as a hunter to provide necessities for them while they sought for converts among the red men. In 1665, when he was about twenty-one years of age, he came to Wis- consin and made the acquaintance of the Pottawattomies. He always had a strong influence over the Indians and was entrusted by the government to keep peace with various tribes. Four or five years he spent in eastern Wisconsin visiting and trading with the natives, joining in their feasts and smoking with them the pipe of peace. The French were extremely anxious to protect their fur trade from the English who were developing a trade of their own in the Hudson Bay country. For this reason, Perrot was appointed by the authorities of New France 38 OUR WlSCOXSiy to assemble the western Indians in a great peace council at Sault Ste. Marie and to negotiate with them a treaty which would bind the Indians to New France. With this purpose in mind, Perrot spent the winter of 1670 along the shores of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron where he induced fourteen tribes to send delegates to the meeting held June 14, 1671. Father Marquette was there with the Ottawas, and the famous Louis Jol- iet, who knew many dialects, acted as official interpreter. An impressive ceremony took place .with priests and warriors chanting the praises of God and of King Louis XIV. The Indians acknowledged themselves subject to the French king and recognized the authority of the French government over their territory. As a symbol of possession the Frenchmen nailed to a cedar pole a great tablet of lead bearing the arms of France. Hardly had the gorgeous pageant come to an end when the Indians celebrated the event by stealing the tablet. "Commandant Of the West." Perrot went back to the St. Lawrence, was married, became the father of many children, and acquired considerable influence. In the meantime much exploring, to be described in later chapters, was done in the Wisconsin country. But in 1681 Perrot returned to the woods, and was finally made Commandant of the West. In 1689 he repeated on Wis- consin soil the ceremony that had been performed at Sault Ste. Marie and took possession of the land in the name of the King of France. He was no longer a ranger but held a license and had under him a company of twenty soldiers. The Wisconsin and Mississippi Rivers had now been discovered. Consequently he went over the Fox- Wisconsin River route to the Mississippi. He NICHOLAS PERROT, FOREST RANGER 39 then ascended the Father of Waters and established a number of French posts, one near Prairie du Chien, one near Trempeleau, and one at Lake Pepin. He seems also to have gone down the river and to have built a stockade to guard a lead mine he had discovered near Galena, Illinois. He had many adventures, once being condemned to be burned at the stake. He escaped, however, and managed to reach friends at the mouth of the Fox River. In 1699, the Fox Indians having begun war against the French, the King of France ordered all of the western forts abandoned. Perrot's career in Wisconsin thus came to an abrupt end and he returned to the St. Law- rence country a poor man. As long as he ruled in the West he maintained French authority and exercised a wonderful influence over the Indians. He died when he was about seventy-five years old, lonely, broken-spirited and neglected by the government for which he had toiled and borne hardships for so many years. SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 1. Compare Nicolet and Perrot. 2. Why did the French give up their western trading posts? 3. Why did the French use so much ceremony in dealing with the Indians? 4. Describe the life of a forest ranger. 5. How do you account for Perrot's influence over the Indians? CHAPTER VI T HE WANDERINGS OF THE BLACK GOWN S The Jesuits. Although the forest rangers did much of the exploring in New France they seldom wrote their stories, and as a result have received but little credit for their work. But close upon the heels of the soldier of fortune came the soldier of the cross with his crucifix. Not a little of the pioneer work of opening up the Mis- sissippi Valley to civilization was done by the Jesuit mis- sionaries, members of a brotherhood of the Roman Catholic church to whom was assigned entire charge of the missions in the Canadian country. These wandering "black-gowns,'^ as the Indians called them, were required to report in writing at regular intervals to their superiors in Paris. Their reports were collected and published annually from 1632 to 1672 and are now known as The Jesuit Relations. These reports are almost the only sources of reliable information concerning this interesting period of a history of the Northwest. Their Life. The story of the wanderings of these men of the church is one of patient devotion to work in a barren and unprofitable field. They had a vision of a new world to be brought to their church and their king. For this they were willing to endure every physical discom- fort, even undergoing the hideous tortures of the stake while seeking converts among the heathen red men. They built rude bark chapels and even when half starv^ed THE JFANDERIXGS OF THE BLACK GOWNS 41 and suffering from the rigors of a northern climate, con- tinued to chant the simple service of their faith to a few miserable savages. They failed in their principal aim but their work was of great value to the king of France, for they helped to hold the Indians to their alliance with the French and to keep back the English. The names of three Jesuits-^Rene Menard, Claude Allouez and Jacques Marquette — are inseparably associated with the history of Wisconsin. Rene Menard. The first of these white missionaries ' .11. ... . ..li^. ~ — "' to come to Wisconsin was Rene Menard. He Avas a white-haired man of fifty-five, "his form bent with age," Avhen he was summoned to go to Lake Superior and fol- low up the w^ork of Radisson. He accepted his new duty with a feeling that there he should meet his death. Going to Canada when a young man to work for the church, he had baptized over four hundred friendly Indians and had even worked among the hostile Iroquois. He heard the call of duty and could not refuse to heed it. To a young man the journey would have been a hardship; to an old man it was almost unendurable. He set out with some Indian companions who treated him cruelly. He was compelled to paddle constantly and to carry heavy packs over the difficult portages ; but through all of the terrible hardships the old man did not lose heart. The party reached the region of Lake Super- ior when an accident happened to his canoe and Menard with three Indians was left alone on the south shore of the lake. Here they suffered greatly from hunger and were reduced to subsisting upon soup made from ground bone. Ha4 Jt not been for the hospitality of a group of Ottawas at Keweenaw, themselves' almost at the 42 OUR WISCONSIN point of starvation, they would have perished. But even under these circumstances the faithful priest started a mission. In the spring of^l661 a band of Hurons sent him an invitation to visit them near the headwaters of the Black River. In July he set out with a French companion an3 a party of Indians. Before long the Indians deserted, leav- ing the Frenchmen to obtain food as best they could. They were now on the Wisconsin River not far from the present city of Merrill. Either in crossing the portage from the AVisconsin to the Black River or in going around some rapids, the missionary and his companion Avere separated and Menard was never seen again. He may have perished from exposure, or a victim of the tomahawk of a murderous Sioux. His cassock and kettle were later found in the lodge of an Indian, a circumstance pointing to his murder. Thus passed away the great pioneer missionary who five y_ears before Marquette came to America was serving his church in AA'isconsin. Father Allouez. Mejiard was succeeded by Father Claude Allouez who in 1665 established the first jnission on Wisconsin soil at Chequamegon on Lake Superior. In honor of the governor he christened this great body of water Lake Tracy. Not far from the site of Radisson's first trading hut he erected his chapel of bark and began his mission. Allouez was a perfect type of the Jesuit missionary. He carried Christianity into the wilderness and from the wilderness he sent information about the land and people to his native country. He had entered the priesthood in France while still a boy, had received a splendid educa- tion and for a year had preached in a Jesuit church in France. His superior wrote of him, "He is possessed THE U'AXDERIXGS OF THE BLACK GOWKS 4.) of a yigprous constitution, of a fine mind and disposition, of good judgment and great prudence. He is firm in pur- pose, proficient in literature and theology and eminently fitted Jor missionary work." His life confirmed this high estimate. Allouez reached Quebec in 1658 where, as Nicolet had done, he spent some years studying the Hurons and Algonkins to fit himself for his work. He set out for the region of Lake Superior in August, 1665, with a company of four hundred Indians who had come to Quebec to trade with the French. The treatment he received from these savages was similar to that which poor Menard had ex- perienced. He was compelled to paddle and to carry- heavy packs until his strength gave out. "I imagined myself a malefactor condemned to the galleys," he wrote. The Indians, wishing to discourage him froni conducting a mission, devised many ways to compel him to turn back. They stole his clothing and his blankets and gave him almost no food. But in spite of hardshij)s his strong constitution and his indomitable will enabled him to reach Chequamegon Bay where on a peninsula he founded his mission and named it La Poinif. VHe re- /yxSLk mained there four years, undergoing every danger and hardship mcident to life among the savages. First Building in Wisconsin. For twp years he was stationed near the present city of Berlin where Nicolet had once been, but in the winter of 1671-72 he found a more favorable site near the rapids^f_De_Pere and es- tablished a mission there. TlTe following year a fine church, the first permanent building in AVisconsip, named St. Francis Xavier, was built. Allouez remained in Wisconsin until 1676 when he went south into Illinois. Ib^ '^\M^ /^-^^vuu^^ cA, 44 OUR WISCONSIN He died in August, 1689, after having devoted a quarter of acentury'to labors among the savages. The De Pere rnission became, a center for the fur trade and for the mission work of the church. The ten years__fol_lowing_ its construction were the most flourishing in the history of Jesuit missionary work in Wisconsn. SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 1. Read in an encyclopaedia or other reference work an ac- count of the Jesuits. 2. Find out what you can of the historian, Francis Parkman. 3. What did Menard do for Wisconsin? 4. What was Lake Superior formerly called? 5. Locate La Pointe and De Pere on the map. 6. What was the importance of the De Pere mission? 7. Why were the Jesuits called bj' the Indians Black Gozvnsf CHAPTER VII JOLIET AND MARQUETTE In the journals of the early exp lorers are many refer- ences to a great river to_the w est, so that it is possible one of them may have discovered the Mississippi although no account of such a discovery has come down to us. We do know, however, that in 1673 Joliet and Marquette set out to find the Great River and that they succeeded. The lower part of the Mississippi had been discovered by DeSoto more than a,. century before, but this discovery had not been followed by exploration and development. As the French discovery of the upper Mississippi re- suited in exploration, trade, and settlement, the French are justly entitled to the credit for finding it. It is in- teresting to note that the exploration and settlement of this great river valley began near its source and slowly worked toward the sea, whereas almost every other, riyer valley has been developed from the sea toward the head- waters. Louis Joliet. Louis Joliet, who is entitled to more credit for the discovery of the Mississippi than he has had in the past, was the son of a wagon-maker employed by the Hundred Associates at Quebec. Here in the New World the future explorer was born and educated. His schooling was received from the Jesuits, and he early resolved to give his life to the service of the church. At the age of eighteen he became a priest but soon, renounced The Wisconsin Historical Society recommends that the spelling Jolliet be adopted. 46 OUR WISCONSIN his clerical vocation and turned his attention to the fur trade. He learned several Indian languages and made numerous journeys into the wilderness. We have seen him acting as interpreter for Perrot in the great Indian gathering held at Sault Ste. Marie in 1671 v^here he im- pressed both the missionaries and officers as a man well fitted to take up the work of exploration. Jacques Marquette. Joliet is usually associated with a man of entirely different type, the Jesuit missionary, Jacques Marquette, who came of a race of soldiers. At an early age he too resolved to become a Jesuit. In 1666, when he was twenty-nine years of age, he was sent to Quebec as a missionary. AVe have seen him at Sault Ste. Marie and we remember that he succeeded Allouez at La Pointe. From there he was removed to Mackinac where he remained until May, 1673. A man of great en- terprise and a preacher of undoubted power, he was also one of the purest souls in the history of his order. Al- though he was eight years older than Joliet, the two be- came fast friends. New France now had a gOA^ernor, Count Frontenac, who was very anxious to have discovered the river of which he had heard so much. Here was a mysterious waterway of which no white man knew the beginning or the end but which was believed to empty into the Gulf of California and, consequently, to make easy the journey to obtain the riches of the Indies. Frontenac had re- ceived his idea of an expedition to explore the river from Jean Talon ; therefore to the latter we owe indirectly the discovery of the Mississippi. Exploring for Mississippi River. To carry out Talon's project Frontenac appointed Joliet to go in JOLIET AND MARQUETTE A7 search of the Great River. In those days no exploring party was complete without a priest as the conversion of the Indians was deemed as important as the adding of new territory or the development of the fur trade. Jol- iet was instructed to go to Mackinac where Marquette was stationed and there to deliver orders to the mis- sionary to accompany his party. Joliet reached the mis- sion in December, 1672, and decided to spend the winter there. Marquette had long wanted to visit the hospitable Indians of Illinois and gladly embraced the opportunity of joining the exploring party. During the long winter nights by the light of the logs that blazed on the hearth- stone, they made plans and drew maps to guide them on their journey. The Start. On the seventeenth of May in the fol- lowing year Joliet and Marquette with five other French- men began their famous voyage in two birch bark canoes which were stored with a quantity of Indian corn and smoked beef. They went westward through the Strait of Mackinaw and down along the shores of Lake Michi- gan and Green Bay to the village of Menomonies. There they heard tales that would have caused men less deter- mined to give up their plans. They were told of ferocious tribes along the river who put all strangers to death, of demons and monsters of every kind and of heat so in- tense that should they escape the other perils they would certainly be burned to death. Marquette calmed the fears of the Indians, taught them a prayer and pushed on. Near Portage. They travelled over the route that had been taken by Nicolet, Radisson, and Allouez, reach- ing the mission near the present city of Berlin on the seventh day of June. Calling the chiefs and elders of the 48 OUR WISCONSIN region into council, Joliet told them that the governor of Canada had sent him to discover new countries and his companion to teach Christianity to the inhabitants. The explorers w^ere treated with kindness and given two In- dians to act as guides. They followed the Fox River through its tortuous channel until they came to the bend in the river near the present city of Portage. The river had become a labyrinth of lakes and marshes so choked and covered with wild rice as to make it almost impos- sible to follow the channel. They were now but a short distance from the Wisconsin and on the threshold of the great discovery. They carried their canoes across the prairie and launched them upon the Wisconsin to con- tinue their journey. Mississippi Reached. On the seventeenth of June, 1673, the canoes floated out upon the broad expanse of the Mississippi. There at the picturesque delta of the Wis- consin they found the noble stream which they had been sent to discover. It was a great moment but they had not yet accomplished all they had set out to do. They had been instructed to find out w^hether or not the Mississippi emptied into the Gulf of California. Information ob- tained from the Indians led them to believe that it flowed into the Gulf of Mexico. However, they continued their voyage down the river. As they travelled, Marquette made accurate observations of the country and of its vegetable and animal life. The journey down the Mississippi was not without adventure. Although some Indian tribes proved friendly others were disposed to threaten them. They went as far south as the mouth of the Arkansas River. At last they were convinced that the river would not take them JOLIET AND MARQUETTE 49 across the continent to the Pacific. Reluctantly they turned toward Canada with their dream shattered. They had clung to the hope that had led Columbus, Hudson, Nicolet, and Cabot to undertake their great journeys of discovery and exploration, and like each of them had made an important discovery. Their Return. Through the burning heat of July and August they paddled northward against the current, homeward bound. Instead of returning by way of the Wisconsin River they followed the Illinois to the port- age near Chicago and in September, after a journey of nearly twenty-eight hundred miles in a little more than four rnonths, were back at the Jesuit mission at De Fere. As Marquette's health had failed on the return journey he remained at the mission while Joliet went to Quebec to report to his superior officers. While approaching Montreal the canoe in which Joliet was traveling upset and he narrowly escaped death. His journal and notes were swept away and never recovered. He had to make an oral report to Frontenac and retrace his maps from memory. Because of this accident it remained for Mar- quette to relate for future generations the narrative of this expedition. We know little of the later years of Joliet's life. Like many another brave Frenchman who had brought glory to France, he was neglected by his government. He was given, in mockery it seems, an island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence where he built a fort and a dwelling for his family. Within two years his island was taken by an English fleet and he and his family fell into the hands of the English commander. His property was thus lost, but he soon recovered his freedom. Of his last vears we Father Marquette JOLIET AND MARQUETTE 51 know only that he died in poverty some time previous to 1737, others reaping the benefits of his discoveries. Marquette's Last Days. A sad interest attaches to the fate of the gentle ]\Iarquette. After remaining at De Pere until October, 1674, he returned to Illinois and reached the Chicago River early in December. Ex- posure to the cold had brought a return of a disease from which he suffered and he was obliged to spend the winter in a wretched Indian hut near Chicago. There he worked with the Indians and held one large meeting at which he preached Christianity with such power that the Indians begged him to remain with them. But his body had be- come so enfeebled that he felt the end was near and at- tempted to return to his old mission at Mackinac in company with two Frenchmen. He was so weak that most of the time he lay in the bottom of the boat. On the eighteenth of May he passed away without having reached Mackinac. He was a young man just thirty- eight when he died, but he had given his life to his country and his God. It will be remembered that under the rules of the Jesuit "oi^deY each missionary was to send a report an- nually to his superior at Quebec. During the winters of 1673 and 1674 both Marquette and Joliet had prepared reports from their journals. We have learned how the report of Joliet was lost. Marquette sent his report to Quebec together with his journal and a map of the region which had been explored, but for some reason it was not included in the now famous Jesuit Relations. The complete journal was not published until 1852. By tjii£time Joliet was almost forgotten and Marquette has received most of the credit for a discovery which belongs to both. 52 OUR WISCONSIN There has been a great deal of unnecessary argu- ment as to which of the two is more entitled to be honored. Such argument is never profitable. These two men were such close friends and of such fine natures that it seems certain they would disapprove of contro- versy on this point. Joliet represents the French genius for trade; Marquette, the French genius for spirituality. Each appreciated the gifts of the other. The practical, hard-headed business man, Joliet, loved and admired the romantic and spiritual Marquette; and Marquette re- spected and understood the talents of Joliet. The truth seems to be that to Jean Baptiste Talon, intendant oF* Canada, belongs the credit for the idea that led to the discovery of the Mississippi ; to Louis Joliet, the credit for the execution of the plan ; and to Jacques Marquette, the credit for the preservation of the incidents of this^ discovery. To Robert Cavelier de La Salle belongs the glory of achieving that which made the exploration and settlement of the Mississippi Valley possible. His story Vv^e shall now hear. SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 1. How many years elapsed between the discoveries by Nicolet and those by Joliet and Marquette? 2. Trace on a map the journeys of Joliet and Marquette. 3. What debt does Wisconsin owe to the Jesuits? 4. What were the aims of the French explorations? 5. How has Wisconsin perpetuated the name of Marquette? 6. Why has Joliet received so little credit for his work? CHAPTER VIII LA SALLE AND HIS COMPANIONS Following the discovery of the Mississippi River a notable group of adventurers came to the Wisconsin region. By far the greatest of these men was La Salle, one of the most remarkable characters in American his- tory. With two companions, the brave and faithful Italian, Henry de Tonty, and the boastful friar, Louis Hennepin, he made the explorations that gave to France the great empire of the Mississippi Valley. A soldier of fortune, Daniel Graysolon Duluth, a cousin of Tonty, also played an important part in the remarkable career of La Salle. The story of these men and their adventures is as marvelous as the romances of Sir Walter Scott. Life and Characteristics. Robert Cavelier was born at Rouen, France, in 1643, on an estate known as La Salle. He is commonly known by the name of the estate rather than by the name of his family. Like many of the French explorers he had early in life consecrated himself to the priesthood. He was educated in a Jesuit school where for ten years his naturally strong mind developed imder the iron discipline of that society. La Salle was by nature little fitted for a life of seclusion from the world, and giving up his ambition to serve the church he emigrated to Canada where his brother Jean was living. On the St. Lawrence River he built himself a cabin, bar- tered with the Indians for furs and studied the languages 54 OUR WISCONSIN and customs of the red men. His dream, like that of many other explorers, was to find a way to China. He built a trading post which his unsympathetic neighbors nicknamed La Chine. He dwelt among the Indians, half- breeds, traders, voyageurs, forest rangers, and Fran- ciscan monks, ruling with a rod of iron, enforcing respect by his energy and making enemies by the sternness of his discipline. He was a shy, cold, stern man but was liked by the Indians and the few white men who recog- nized his great ability. He ruled by fear rather than by love and was somewhat tactless in his handling of men. He was self-reliant and resolute, incapable of repose, energetic and, if stern to his followers, was pitiless to himself. Parkman says of him, ''He was a tower of ada- mant, against whose impregnable front hardship and danger, the rage of man and of the elements, the southern sun, the northern blasts, fatigue, famine, disease, dela}^, disappointment and deferred hope emptied their quivers in vain. To estimate aright the marvels of his patient fortitude, one must follow his track through the scenes of his interminable journeyings, those thousands of miles of forest, marsh, and river, where, again and again, in the bitterness of bafifled striving, the untiring pilgrim pushed onward toward the goal which he was never to attain. America owes him an undying memory; for, in his masculine figure, she sees the pioneer who guided her to the possession of her richest heritage." Henry de Tonty. La Salle's lieutenant, Henry de Tonty, was an Italian in the service of the French. He was the son of a banker in Italy who had invented a sys- tem of life insurance once very popular but now dis- credited. In seven campaigns on board ship and in the Devils Chair, at Dalles of the St. Croix 56 OUR WISCONSIN galleys Tonty had fought for France. He had lost his right hand by having it shot away by a grenade and had replaced it with an artificial hand made of iron which he used with good effect among the Indians when they be- came disorderly. As he wore a glove over the hand they could not understand how he could deal such blows. He could knock out their teeth or crack their skulls at a single blow, hence they regarded him as a wonderful man. He was a bold, adventurous spirit but, unlike his leader, he was kind and gentle and had a tactful, sunny temperament. His complexion was as dark as that of an Indian, his hair was black and curly and his eyes fear- less but kindly. He could control men when the harsher methods of La Salle failed. Father Hennepin. La Salle had quarreled with the Jesuits but as one priest was considered necessary to every exploring party he chose for his companion Father Louis Hennepin, a member of the order of St. Fraiecis. Hennepin was a man of adventurous spirit and much sTifewdness but he was much given to magnifying his own achievements and belittling those of others. Clad in the coarse gray gown of his order, with a girdle at his waist, sandals on his feet, and a portable altar on his back he was a strange figure even in the wilderness. He was fond of travel in strange countries and among strange people, and he dearly loved adventure. His imagination, however, often seemed to get the better of his memory and many of his tales of adventure are pure fiction. His stories were eagerly read in Europe and Avere translated into almost every language spoken on the continent. But after making due allowance for his inaccuracy, his accounts of the La Salle expedition are Avonderfully Interesting. LA SALLE AND HIS COMPANIONS 57 La_Sa[le had written of him, "It is necessary to know him somewhat, for he will not fail to exaggerate every- thing; it is his character." It is interesting to know, too. that Hennepin was the first white man to describe Niagara Falls, if indeed he was not the first white man to see them. SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 1. What qualities do you admire in each of these four men? 2. Do travelers always tell the exact truth? 3. Which of the following motives led each of these Frenchmen into the new country: a desire for wealth, conquest, ex- ploration, missionary zeal, love of adventure? 4. What does Wisconsin owe to these men? 5. How have the names of these men been perpetuated? CHAPTER IX LA SALLE AND THE MISSISSIPPI The discovery of the Mississippi by Joliet and Mar- quette did not result in any knowledge of the body of water into which this river empties, although Marquette seems to have suspected that it found its way to the Gulf of Mexico. Five years after the discovery La Salle set out from Canada with authority from the French king "to labor at the discovery of the Avestern part of New France" and to follow the river to the sea. He was given the official privilege to build forts and to engage in trade but he was to pay his own expenses. In September, 1678 he sent a party of men to the banks of the Niagara River with anchors, cordage, sails and other supplies with which to build a sailing vessel for the Great Lakes. He had gone heavily in debt to procure this equipment, hoping to pay his creditors with furs. He dreamed not only of wealth for himself but of a great empire to be won for France in the unexplored West. *'The Griffin." Not far from the present city of Buf- falo, which is on Lake Erie, La Salle's men built the first ship that ever floated on the Great Lakes. It was named the Griffin. On the prow of the vessel was a rudely carved representation of the fabulous monster, half eagle and half lion, whose name the ship bore. The vessel was not large, as ships go, but it carried a crew of thirty-one men. After a journey of twenty days the vessel cast LA SALLE AND THE MISSISSIPPI 59 anchor in the Strait of Mackinac from which, six years before, Joliet and Marquette had begun their famous journey. The Indians gathered on the shore were astonished to see the gigantic "canoe" and like the In- dians who first beheld the ships of Henry Hudson, mar- veled at a "house that walked on the water." From Mackinac the Griffin proceeded to Green Bay where La Salle collected a cargo of furs, enough to pay his debts and leave him money for further exploration. He sent the ship back to the trading post at Niagara but the Griffin was never heard from again. Whether it foundered in a storm or whether the cut-throat crew, ripe for mutiny before their departure from Green Bay, scut- tled the ship after stealing the cargo and escaped to the Indians of the North, remains a mystery. The Great Lakes have had many appalling shipwrecks of which this may have been the first. Post Established. From Green Bay La Salle with fourteen followers went in canoes along the western shore of Lake Michigan on a journey of exploration. At one time a violent storm compelled him to land at the mouth of the river where the city of Milwaukee is now situated. At this point was a village of Pottawattomies who, fearing the white men, had abandoned their cabins and supplies. La Salle took such provisions as he needed, leaving in their place a quantity of the goods which were usually traded to the Indians for food and furs. He then went around the southern end of the lake and soon reached the mouth of the St. Joseph River where Mar- quette had died. There he met Tonty, who with a similar party had explored the eastern shore of the lake. A rude stockade was built there and a few men left in charge. La Salle, Tonty and Hennepin pushed on. 60 OUR WISCONSIN Fort Crevecoeur. Leaving Lake Michigan they went down the Illinois River to Peoria Lake where they built a fort and named it Fort Crevecoeur, The Fort of the Broken Heart. He had ample cause for discouragement as the Indians threatened hostility, his men lost heart and grew mutinous, the Jesuits were unfriendly and no word came from the Griffin. Discouraged but not defeated La Salle determined to make a journey on foot to Mon- treal to learn what had become of his boat and its cargo. He left Tonty in charge of the fort and sent Hennepin and two companions down the river with instructions to reach the Mississippi and explore its northern waters. Disasters. It took La Salle sixty-five days to make the journey to Montreal. He traveled more than a thou- sand miles through a country where every form of peril and obstruction beset him. Says the old chronicle, "It was the most arduous journey ever made by a French- man in America." He reached his goal only to find that the Griffin had not arrived at Niagara and was un- doubtedly lost, to discover that his agents had plundered him, to find his creditors trying to seize his property and his enemies, commercial and political, rapidly increasing in number. If ever a man was beset by both man and nature, that man was La Salle. Yet he kept up his courage, found more followers, obtained fresh supplies and returned to Peoria Lake only to learn of fresh disaster. Tonty's Hardships. Tonty, who it will be remem- bered was left in charge of the fort while La Salle and Hennepin journeyed in opposite directions, was soon deserted by all but five of his Frenchmen. He spent the fall making friends with the Illinois Indians. A war be- LA SALLE AND THE MISSISSIPPI 61 tween the Illinois and the Sioux followed, in which Tonty nearly lost his life in trying to protect his friends the Illinois. Thereupon he and his five men sought safety by departing for Green Bay. He missed La Salle, who was hurrying back along the opposite shore of Lake Michigan with reinforcements. In Wisconsin Tonty and his men suffered all of the hardships of the wilderness. They went for days with no food except nuts, roots and wild garlic which they dug from under the snow. Father Gabriel was killed by the Indians while at prayer in a secluded place. Their shoes wore out and they had to make moccasins of beaver skin. It grew bitterly cold and they almost starved but the providential killing of a stag gave them renewed courage and supplied them with food. They came to an Indian village which they hoped would afiford relief but it was deserted. They were now at their last extremity and had given up hope. To^y was attacked by a fever and one of his men was suiTering terribly. When it seemed that nothing could save them, two Indians chanced by their camp and brought relief to the starving men. Among the friendly Pottawattomies in what is now the peninsula of Door County, Tonty passed the winter and recovered from the hardships of his terrible journey. In the spring he crossed to Macki- nac to which place La Salle had also returned after find- ing his fort deserted. Together La Salle and Tonty went back to Fort Frontenac to begin again. Second Expedition. The story of La Salle and Tonty and their subsequent explorations is less intimately as- sociated with the history of Wisconsin. In 1682 they undertook their second expedition down the Mississippi. After many exciting adventures they reached its mouth 62 OUR WISCONSIN and took possession, in the name of Louis XIV, of all the country drained by its streams — an empire reaching from the Alleghanies to the Rockies. The land in this great valley was named Louisiana. La Salle had won an em- pire for his king but the king was unable to hold it. Two years later the enterprising La Salle endeavored to reach the mouth of the Mississippi by way of the Gulf of Mexico but the squadron missed its destination and w^as cast away on the inhospitable coast of what Is now Texas. Some of his men shot him from ambush and his unburied bones were left to bleach under a southern sun. "Starved Rock." His faithful friend Tonty had been left in command at Starved Rock, a fort on the Illinois River, where he ruled his savage vassals. He heard of the landing of his old commander and started down the river to join him. He was forced, however, to return. He remained at Starved Rock until 1700. In 1704 he died of yellow fever. He is remembered as one of the bravest, most loyal, steadfast and lovable of our pioneers. SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 1. What were the motives that led to La Salle's explorations? 2. What kind of man was he? 3. Why did the Griffin surprise the Indians? 4. Trace La Salle's journeys on a map. 5. Why were these men willing- to undergo such hardships? 6. Why is La Salle's work so important? 7. Why was the territory called Louisiana? 8. Would you have liked Tonty? CHAPTER X FAMOUS VISITORS "Lake of Tears." It will be remembered that before La Salle left the Fort of the Broken Heart he had sent Father Hennepin and two companions to explore the upper waters of the IMississippi. They went down the Illinois to the Mississippi and then up the great river until they reached Lake Pepin where some Indians made them prisoners. Hennepin called this lake the Lake of Tears because the Indians who had captured them wept the whole night to induce the other warriors to consent to the death of their captives. Their lives were spared, however, and they were taken to the Minnesota villages of the Sioux where the Frenchmen had many curious ex- periences. They finally reached the Falls of St. Anthony. Although held as prisoners they were taken on hunting expeditions by the Sioux. They w^ere released by Duluth, Tonty's cousin, who with a small band of followers was trading with the Indians in behalf of Count Frontenac. He accompanied Hennepin and his companions over the Wisconsin-Fox River route to Mackinac where the Jesuits entertained them until spring when they returned to Fort Frontenac. Hennepin's Story. Soon after his adventure Hennepin returned to France where he wrote an account of his ex- periences in America, mingling fact with fancy until it is difficult to determine exactly what his real experiences 64 OUR WISCONSIN were. In a second book, he claims to have traversed the Mississippi from its source to its mouth and to have been the first to reach both places. As his stories were not accepted as true, he spent his last years in obscurity and disgrace. But despite his inaccuracy, the accounts are invaluable contributions to American history and to the story of Wisconsin. Hennepin was not the real leader of the expedition but he was the usual and necessary priest who went with all such parties. Because of his education he was the chronicler of the journey, for which reason historians have quite generally given him the credit of being the leader although the official head of the party was Michael Accau. Duluth's Journeys. It was lucky for Hennepin and his companions that Daniel Graysolon Duluth appeared on the scene and rescued them from the Indians. Duluth was a powerful coureur de bois and next to Perrot the most important man in the fur region. He had been spending the winter at Mackinac where he learned that he was accused of being an unlicensed trader. To set himself right he went to France to plead his cause. So successful was he that he convinced the authorities that his trade was legal and returned to trade among the Sioux. Duluth made many journeys over the Fox-Wis- consin River route but most of his adventures have little to do with the history of Wisconsin. It will be remem- bered that he was a cousin of Tonty and that like him he had served as a brave soldier in Europe. For some un- known reason he gave up a career which promised great military glory to become a wanderer among the bar- barians of the New World. He was the first white man to journey in a canoe from Lake Superior to the Mis- FAMOUS VISITORS 65 sissippi River, his route being by way of the St. Croix River. He died in 1709, the victim of diseases brought on by the hardships he had suffered in behalf of New- France. Pierre Charles le Sueur. Another famous visitor to Wisconsin in the days of its discovery and exploration, was Pierre Charles le Sueur. He, too, had come from France when a young man to have a part in the develop- ment of the New World. Within ten years after the journey of Joliet and Marquette he went over the Wis- consin-Fox River route, ascended the Mississippi to the Falls of St. Anthony and engaged in trade with the Sioux of that section. His fur trade became very large and as he had unusual business ability he soon became one of the most prominent of the licensed traders. He was one of the witnesses to Perrot's act of taking possession for France of the upper Mississippi region at Lake Pepin. To protect his trade he built forts at Chequamegon Bay and near the mouth of the St. Croix River. The Wis- consin fort became an important trading center for the western country. Discovery of Mines. In 1697 Le Sueur obtained per- mission to work certain ''mines of lead, copper, and blue and green earth" which had been discovered in the Mis- sissippi and Superior regions. He met with some diffi- culty in carrying out his project and went to France for authority and assistance. He returned in 1699 but in- stead of going north he went to the newly established French colony at Biloxi, in Louisiana. In December of the same year in company with twenty-nine inspectors, he went up the Mississippi and visited some mines near the present sites of Galena, Illinois; Potosi, Wisconsin; 66 OUR WISCONSIN and Dubuque, Iowa. From there he went up the river to the Falls of St. Anthony and engaged again in profitable fur trade with the Sioux. His mining experiments ended in failure. However, the lead deposits which he dis- covered in the southwestern part of Wisconsin continued to be worked by the French, as bullets were very im- portant in the carrying on of the fur trade. In 1703 there was published in England a book known as Voyages to North America. It was written by Baron Lahontin, the son of a famous French engineer whose fortune had been lost in legal strife. This work was a book of travel filled with stirring tales of adventure that may have given Swift a hint for Gulliver's Travels. Lahontin's career was much like that of the other ex- plorers. Unlike the others, however, he was a cordial hater of priests and an ardent social reformer. His book is written in such a satirical style that it is often said to be a tissue of falsehoods. Nevertheless, it is a valuable account of the early Wisconsin and the North American wilderness. The men described in this and preceding chapters must not be thought of as the only Frenchmen who passed through or tarried in Wisconsin during the seven- teenth century. There were doubtless scores of priests, voyageurs, fur-traders and soldiers going over the Wis- consin-Fox River route from Canada to the Northwest. The ones to whom we have given our attention are those of whom records were left. The others died unknown to fame. FAMOUS VISITORS 67 SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 1. Make a table of the French discoveries and explorations in Wisconsin, using the information given in the preceding chapters. Name of discoverer or Place or explorer Date region Results 2. Why did fur trading not lead to fixed settlements? 3. Why did the French usually go over the Fox- Wisconsin River route? 4. What was the importance of the missionaries taken on each expedition? 5. Compare Hennipin and Marquette; Nicolet and La Salle. 6. Find on a map of Wisconsin as many geographical names as you can derived from these explorers. 7. Why did these men cling so persistently to the idea that China was to be reached by traveling west? CHAPTER XI THE WAR WITH THE FOX INDIANS One of the bloodiest struggles in the long history of Indian warfare was that in which the French tried to ex- terminate the Fox Indians of Wisconsin. For more than a quarter of a century there was constant war between the French and the Foxes. At its close these Indians were almost destroyed and ''the entering wedge of ruin for the French domain in America" had been driven into the Mississippi Valley. Wisconsin River Routes. We have seen how im- portant the Fox and Wisconsin River Valleys had be- come to the French fur traders. It was possible to take other routes from the Great Lakes to the interior, but this was the easiest to travel and was therefore the favorite gateway to the fur country. For many years it had been controlled by the stubborn and crafty Indians who inhabited the Fox River Valley. Nicholas Perrot was the first white man to visit them. His description of their village of six hundred cabins is a disagreeable picture. Accounts by Allouez and other missionaries and traders agree with Perrot's poor opinion of this tribe. However, it is only just to the Indians to say that, with the exception of Perrot, they found the French traders unjust, deceitful and vicious. As a result the missionaries made very little headway with them. During the period of discovery when Nicollet, Radisson, Marquette, Joliet, THE WAR WITH THE FOX INDIANS 69 La Salle and other explorers were traveling through their territory, the Foxes did not molest them, but when the fur traders followed, there grew up a deadly enmity be- tween the French and the Indians which threatened to overthrow the work of half a century. The French gov- ernment therefore resolved to exterminate the Fox tribe. The Fox war was the result of this policy. Causes of the War. The long struggle between France and England for the control of the fur trade lay at the bottom of this war. The Algonkin Indians were generally in sympathy with the French, and the Iroquois with the English ; but it is not easy to see why the Foxes alone became the enemies of the French, as other Indians had the same grievances. The French fur-trade had passed into the control of a monopoly which had pur- chased from the government the exclusive right to trade in the territory of New France. Licenses were required of all traders as in the days of government control, and the monopoly fixed the prices of the furs bought from the Indians and of the goods sold to them. In spite of the French monopoly, English traders came and went freely through the Indian country. They paid higher prices than the French for the furs they bought, and sold articles w^anted by the Indians at a lower price. There was keen competition among them and they did a brisk business. Although the Indians had made treaties with the French they sent, secretly, many trading parties to the English at Albany. Here they found that a beaver- skin would buy eight pounds of powder, forty pounds of lead or six gallons of "fire-water," whereas at Montreal it would buy but two pounds of powder, thirteen pounds of lead or one gallon of "fire-water." The Indians, loving 70 OUR WISCONSIN bargains as do the white men, were thus strongly dis- posed to trade with the English. Perrot, however, was so skillful in handling the Indians that for many years he was able to hold the Indian trade in spite of these dis- advantages in prices. But the Foxes were never satis- fied and at one time threatened to move to the Ohio Val- ley and form a league with the Iroquois. This would have been a serious blow to the French fur trade and to the dream of a great French empire in the New World. Instead of moving as they had threatened, they re- mained and asserted absolute control over the Wiscon- sin-Fox River route. They collected toll, or demanded it, on all the fur trade that passed up the Fox River. They grew bolder and began to make raids into the ter- ritory of the Chippewas and other tribes on friendly terms with the French, and even held councils with the Iroquois. Perrot and Duluth were able to control them but when these pioneers passed away the actions of the Foxes became unbearable. French Treachery. In the winter of 1706-1707 the French decided that it was time to begin a war of ex- termination. A party of French soldiers, wood-rangers and half-breeds, made a surprise attack against the Fox village near the present city of Neenah and killed several hundred of the Foxes and their allies, the Sauks. A few years later Captain Marin, who had been the leader in this attack, filled a fleet of canoes with men hidden under oilcloth blankets, to make them appear as harmless loads of goods, and went again to the village. He had the boats drawn up along the shore. When several hundred Indians had congregated on the banks to collect toll the covers were suddenly thrown off and the men began THE WAR WITH THE FOX INDIANS 71 firing at the Indians. A small cannon in one of the boats poured a raking fire into the crowd and two-thirds of the Indians were killed. This was an act of treachery as dastardly as anything that the Indians could have done, and of course served to increase the hostility of the Foxes. But despite the great slaughter of the Indians enough of them were left to give the French a great deal of trouble, and at one time it was feared that the favorite route of the French by way of the Fox River would have to be abandoned. Surrender and Massacre. In the mean time the French, in order to hold their fur trade in Wisconsin, had established a trading post at Detroit. They thus brought their business center nearer the source of supply of furs and at the same time blocked the English from the Lake Erie country. Cadillac, the founder of the post, hoped to induce the Wisconsin Indians to settle there. The Hurons and the Ottawas did move to points near Detroit, and other tribes were represented in large numbers. At first the Foxes refused to go but finally in 1710 a large party of them marched overland and went into camp near the fort. Two years later the new governor, much annoyed by the thousand or more rather troublesome Indians, suggested to them that they return to Wiscon- sin. Not heeding the desire of the commander of the fort they were set upon by the Indians of the other tribes and the French garrison of thirty. The Foxes had en- trenched themselves in a stockade and for nineteen days withstood a siege which abounded in thrilling incidents, bold speeches and efforts to make peace. At last they surrendered, whereupon all but the women and children and about a hundred warriors who escaped were put to 72 OUR WISCONSIN death. They had made an heroic defense after what seemed to them to be betrayal, but they were far from being destroyed. Before, they were enemies of France; now, they were filled with an undying motive for revenge. Return to Wisconsin. The hundred or more men who escaped at the time of the surrender, with the rem- nants of the band went straggling back to their Wiscon- sin woods where the larger part of their people still remained. There they diligently sought to unite the tribes into a vast confederacy which could successfully attack the French and lock the gates of the fur country against them. They were so successful that every Frenchman who ventured into their territory took his life in his hands. They attacked the Indians who were not united with them, reduced the Illinois Indians to a mere handful and almost completely stopped trading in Wisconsin. The French were now greatly alarmed for, if the Foxes continued to control the Fox River route, Canada and Louisiana would be separated and the possibility of a French empire destroyed. They were now in a position where it seemed that they must do one of two things, either establish free trade in New France or exterminate the Foxes. The government unwisely chose the second course and sent a considerable force of soldiers into Wis- consin under an experienced captain named De Louvigny. First Invasion of Wisconsin. The command left Montreal in March, 1716, and proceeding up the lakes gathered recruits from among the whites and red men until it grew to be an army of eight hundred, the first warlike expedition that had ever invaded Wisconsin ter- THE WAR WITH THE FOX INDIANS 73 ritory. No opposition was encountered until the force reached the Fox village on the west side of the Fox River, opposite the present city of Neenah. There the Indians had built a fort surrounded by three rows of stakes, mak- ing a palisade, inside of which w^as a ditch or moat from which the defenders fired upon the enemy. Contrary to all the rules of Indian warfare, the Foxes held their ground and the French were obliged to resort to siege. Trenches were dug and mines were laid but, before they could be exploded, the Indians surrendered. Peace terms which seemed favorable to the Indians were of- fered. They agreed to give up all prisoners, furnish enough furs to pay the costs of the expedition and sur- render one Indian to be a slave for each Frenchman that had been killed. To bind the treaty they sent six of their number to be held as hostages. What had been planned as a war of extermination thus turned out to be little more than a trading expedition. The treaty so easily made, was soon broken. First Permanent Fort. One important result of this enterprise was the establishment in 1717 of Wisconsin's first permanent fort at Green Bay. The French had at last become enthusiastic over great schemes for opening up the Mississippi Valley. Mining was now being car- ried on in Illinois, agriculture was beginning to be developed and the fur trade was still important. In Europe many companies were being formed to develop this region, but, like many such schemes, all were doomed to failure. The most important of all these great plans was that of John Law. It was known as the Mississippi Bubble. But all of them depended upon the French con- trol of the Wisconsin-Fox route and the Illinois route 74 OUR WISCONSIN to the south and west. A series of forts to protect the trade was built to control these roads. But the Foxes kept up an irregular warfare and threatened to destroy all of the plans for French power in the West. Indian Alliance. Indeed, the Fox Indians had never given up their plans for vengeance upon the French who, they believed, had given them just cause for grievance. They led the officers to believe that they had been sub- dued but secretly they were building up alliances with other Indian tribes, particularly the Sauks and Sioux. Among them there must have been some persuasive ora- tor, some Indian Demosthenes or Cicero, who by his gift of speech played upon the desire for revenge and arrayed barbarism against civilization. At the time they were pretending peace, they were in constant warfare with the Illinois who were allies of the French. Thus lightly did they regard the treaty they had made with De Louvigny. Flight of Foxes. In 1728 the governor of New France sent an army of four hundred French and about a thousand Indian allies to humble the haughty Foxes. Before they reached Wisconsin the Foxes and their friends, the Winnebagoes, heard of their coming and suc- ceeded in making their escape. The French found noth- ing but deserted villages and abandoned fields. They contented themselves with burning the wigwams and destroying the crops in the hope that the red men would starve during the ensuing winter. Thus another expedi- tion had com.e to an inglorious end. Offer to Surrender. The Foxes, having fled from their native valley, induced some Sauks and Winne- bagoes to move with them toward the west. Some four thousand in all went to seek the help of their former THE WAR WITH THE FOX INDIANS 75 friends, the Sioux, but they were doomed to disappoint- ment as the Sioux had been won over to the French. The Winnebagoes, treacherous as ever, deserted and went over to the Sioux and the Sauks went back to Green Bay and made peace with the French. The Foxes, w^ho were now without allies, w^ent south into Iowa to pass the w^inter. They sent messengers to Green Bay to offer peace but there w^as to be no peace for them. In the fall of 1729 they attempted to return to their old Wisconsin homie but were attacked by a party of Indians under the direction of the French and suffered a great loss of life. The wretched Indians now took a last desperate step by sending two of their chiefs to Montreal to offer submis- sion. The governor accepted their proposals but ad- mitted that he was only waiting an opportunity to destroy the remainder of the tribe. In the winter of 1731-32 a band of Hurons and Iro- quois left Canada to exterminate the remaining Foxes. The Foxes were unprepared and three hundred fell vic- toms to this assault. Thirty of them escaped and their proud and haughty chief, Kiala, w-ho w^as a man of un- usual ability, went to the governor and offered his life for the lives of the remainder of his tribe. Instead the governor seized him and transported him to the French island of Martinique w^here, in the blazing tropical heat, he soon died. Close of the War. It now seemed that the Fox wars were over but the governor gave orders that the thirty or more remaining warriors be captured and brought to Montreal. This was another mistake as the other In- dians, although they hated the Foxes, saw in their fate a promise of their own. Some of the tribes took pity on 1(, OUR WISCONSIN the few Indians that remained of a once powerful nation and took them into their villages. The Sauks were especially kind to their former allies and treated them with the finest of Indian hospitality. The French com- mander at Green Bay asked them to surrender the Foxes to him, and, upon their refusal, with a small guard went in person to bring away the fugitives. A battle followed in which both sides lost heavily, the commander and his son falling side by side. The Sauks and Foxes, now united as one nation, deserted the valley of the Fox River and made their homes in the lead regions of south- western Wisconsin, in eastern Iowa and along the Rock River. Although there was trouble for twenty years or more with the Indians, the Fox-Wisconsin route was again free to the French. The long and bloody war closed with both sides weakened. The French had used every means to crush their enemy, but they never were able to make their victory complete. Effect upon History. This war had several effects upon history. The closing of the Fox-Wisconsin route and the dangers of the Illinois route caused the develop- ment of passages by way of Lake Superior; the far regions of Canada were explored ; portages from Lakes Erie and Ontario to the Ohio were opened ; and, as a re- sult, the French clashed with the English, a fact which helped to bring about the French and Indian War. The French also received valuable training in savage war- fare which they used with such success against Brad- dock. The principal result, however, was to set in motion the forces that gave the English control of America. The great colonial problem of the eighteenth century was to determine whether the great Mississippi and St. Law- THE WAR WITH THE FOX INDIANS 77 rence Valleys were to be under English or French con- tfot 'The steady resistance of the Foxes weakened the French and caused them to adopt policies which were riimous and which resulted in the downfall of New France. SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 1. Why did the Foxes become enemies of the French? 2. Why were most of the other tribes friendly to them? 3. Why do the characteristics shown by the Foxes indicate that their name was an appropriate one? 4. What names on the Wisconsin map may be traced to the Fox wars? 5. Why was the Wisconsin-Fox route so important? 6. What were the causes of this war? its results? 7. Where and when was the first permanent fort established in Wisconsin? CHAPTER XII UNDER THE FLAG OF ENGLAND French and Indian War. While the French were developing the fur-trade through the upper part of the Mississippi Valley, the English had crossed the Alle- ghenies and were beginning a westward movement toward the upper waters of the Ohio. A group of Vir- ginians had organized the Ohio Company to engage in the fur-trade and to settle in the country already claimed by France. The French, in order to intercept this ad- vance of their rivals, built Fort DuQuesne at the junc- tion of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers. A small force under George Washington was sent to drive them away but was defeated. Thus began the conflict known in America as the French and Indian War and in Europe as the Seven Years War. The firing of a gun in the woods of North America brought on a conflict which drenched Europe in blood. Until 1758, or four years after the war began, the English colonists carried on the war against the French and Indians without much help from the mother country. At last England sent General AVolfe with a large army of regular soldiers to capture all of the French strongholds. In September, 1759, Quebec was taken and in the following year Mon- treal was captured. New France had fallen and the dream of a French colonial empire was at an end. The war was formally closed by the Treaty of Paris in 1763. UNDER THE FLAG OF ENGLAND 79 This treaty gave to England all of the French possessions east of the Mississippi and to Spain all of the lands to the west. Wisconsin thus became a part of the British Empire. Wisconsin becomes English Territory. Wisconsin was too far removed from the scene of conflict to be over- run with soldiers although Wisconsin Indians, fur- traders and forest-rangers went to Canada and took an active part in the struggle to save New France. On the twelfth day of October, 1761, seventeen soldiers of En- gland under the command of Captain James Balfour and Lieutenant James Gorrell marched into the tumbled- down stockade at Green Bay, hoisted the flag of England and took formal possession of the country. The French had called the stockade Fort St. Francis, but Captain Balfour promptly changed its name to Fort Edward Augustus. The Indians accepted the change from French to English control with little show of feeling. They liked the French better but the English paid them better prices for their furs. The English soldiers at the fort looked forward to a lonely winter as most of the Indians had gone west with their winter hunting parties. Two days of the cheerless life was enough for the captain who returned to Mackinac leaving Gorrell in charge. English Occupation. It was not a pleasant outlook for the English lieutenant. In all of the country west of Lake Michigan his was the only British force. But one family of Indians was near him, and it was two hundred and forty miles to the nearest trading post at Mackinac. To reach the French settlements on the Mississippi it was necessary to undertake a canoe voyage of eight hundred miles to the southwest. Everywhere else was 80 OUR WISCONSIN the wilderness broken here and there by some wretched Indian village at the foot of a rapids or near a portage. French trading parties went through the country fre« quently, and they never forgot to poison the minds of the Indians against the little garrison in the old stockade. Now and then small groups of Indians straggled into the fort, spies sent to discover the purpose of the English. They were well treated and went away satisfied that an era of good feeling was to follow the English occupation of the country. In the spring the Indians who made their home in the region of Green Bay returned from their winter hunt. Lieutenant Gorrell busied himself in winning their good- will. He* had six belts made and gave one to each nation visiting the fort. To counteract the French intrigues he dealt liberally with the Indians by giving them ammuni- tion and other supplies. Thus with feasting, present- giving and many long speeches in which the Indians de- lighted the red men were won to the side of the new rulers of the country. They promised to befriend the English traders, to become true and loyal subjects of the English king and to turn a deaf ear to the flattery of the French. An era of peace seemed about to descend upon Wisconsin, when the Pontiac uprising in 1763 threw the entire west into turmoil. Pontiac's Confederacy. Pontiac, the principal chief of the Ottawas, had organized a confederacy among the western tribes and hoped by means of it to drive out the English. This crafty chief was a man of genius worthy to rank with King Philip, Tecumseh and Sitting Bull. His motives were in part patriotic but he was anxious also to avenge himself for fancied wrongs. The Indians, UNDER THE FLAG OF ENGLAND 81 as we have seen, are not easily organized to work in groups but are intensely individual and as individuals lack self-control and steady purpose. All of their con- spiracies had, therefore, failed. Pontiac's plan was to so organize his followers that an attack could be made on a given day and all of the En- glish posts captured at once, but like its predecessors it was not a success. All sorts of schemes and strategems were devised by which the Indians could enter the forts and be ready for the day of capture. At Detroit an Indian woman betrayed the plot and it failed. At Macki- nac the Indians gathered in front of the fort to play their game of la crosse. The garrison gathered outside to watch the game, which soon became exciting. The ball, as if by accident, flew over the pickets with the Indians following it pell-mell into the stockade. Once within the enclosure they flashed their tomahawks, gave their war cry and in a savage onslaught killed all of the English soldiers but left the French unmolested. Gorrell leaves Green Bay. The Indians at Green Bay remained loyal to the English although Gorrell learned of a plot to take Fort Edward Augustus and prepared to leave. It seemed to be necessary for him to get away without the Indians suspecting his intention. With his usual shrewdness he distributed presents among the natives, told them that he was about to go to the aid of his fellow soldiers across the lake and asked them to care for the fort during his absence. The proposed departure attracted much attention among the Indians and groups of them came to the fort to share in the distribution of presents, soon depleting Gorrell's available supply. Meanwhile the agents of Pontiac were everywhere busy. 82 OUR WISCONSIN The Chippewas, who were most active in Pontiac's plans, were unable to prevent Gorrell's departure, as a body of their enemy, the Sioux, appeared and took the side of the Englishmen. On the twenty-first of June the lieutenant and his English traders sailed away from Green Bay. Fort Edward Augustus, thus abandoned, fell into decay and once more the French were left in undisputed quiet. A French and Indian community grew up at the Bay. It was not until 1814 that the English flag again floated over a Wisconsin fort and then it remained but a few months for, on the twenty-fourth of May, 1815, the American flag took its place. After the French were driven out of Canada the Hud- son Bay Company sent out fur-traders all over the North- west. Englishmen who had attempted to trade in the fur country when it was under the flag of France found their way barred by French hostility and the preference of the Indians for Frenchmen. Now they could trade on equal terms with the Frenchmen, and, as we have seen, held possession of Wisconsin long after the War of Independence had brought it under the stars and stripes. They expanded the trade of the region and made it more prosperous than it had been before. Fur Trading, Chief Industry. The prosperity of Wis- consin then seemed to rest upon the bartering of furs. Fur-traders generally chose the, sites of Indian villages for their trading posts. Around these there grew up little settlements of French-Canadians, Indians and half- breeds. They led an easy-going life, free from govern- ment control. It mattered little to them which flag flew at the post. All the control that was needed was exer- cised by the fur-traders who kept the upper hand and UNDER THE FLAG OF ENGLAND 83 who made their word law. The settlements were full of people who loved to meet and tell stories, smoke and enjoy whatever music was offered. Every settlement had some one who could play the little French fiddle, and songs and gay melodies frequently echoed through the woods. Until the fur trade ceased to be the principal industry of the state the old French life remained and French social customs were in almost exclusive use. Al- though the English had claimed the country they had never made it English. Except for a legal claim they never exercised much influence in our state. SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 1. In your United States history you will find a chapter given to the French and Indian War. Get clearly in mind the causes, principal battles and results of this war. 2. If you have access to a copy of Parkman's "Conspiracy of Pontiac," read some portions, at least, of it. 3. How did the capture of Quebec affect the history of Wis- consin? 4. Name some Wisconsin towns and counties which have a French origin. 5. Who were more entitled to the Mississippi Valley, the En- glish or the French? 6. Why did not Pontiac succeed? 7. Do you think the white men were fair to the Indians? 8. Why were the Indians more friendly to the French than to the English? CHAPTER XIII CHARLES LANGLADE Within a year or two after the departure of the En- glish from Fort Edward Augustus there came to Green Bay the Langlade family who were long given credit for being Wisconsin's first permanent white settlers. It was not long until they were the leading land owners and merchants of the Fox River Valley. Their names have become inseparably associated with the history of Wisconsin. Charles Langlade is often called the first citizen of Wisconsin. We do not know with any degree of certainty who the first permanent settlers of Wisconsin were, but Charles Langlade was the first to leave a record behind him. Early Life. Charles Langlade was born at Mackinac in 1729. HTs father, Austin Langlade, was a Frenchman and his mother was a daughter of one of the head chiefs_ of the Ottawa Indians. At the mission the priests tried to interest the young half-breed in book knowledge but he loved out-door life more than books and the scalping knife more than the alphabet. While still a boy he went with an Indian uncle on the warpath. When he grew to manhood he had a remarkable influence over the Ottawas. Years before the Langlades went to Green Bay to make their home they had frequently visited the place. It seems probable that the father and son, who had made CHARLES LANGLADE 85 many trading voyages into the country, started a trad- ing branch there as early as 1746. They had been quick to recognize the advantages of the location of Green Bay and they early planned to make it their home, but the Pontiac uprising induced them to stay at Mackinac until 1764 or 1765. Exploits. One of the first exploits of Charles was to lead an expedition in the Fox wars to avenge the death of the captain who with his son had been shot in one of the early battles of the Fox war. Later he went as leader of a party of Indians to prevent English attempts at colonization in the Ohio country. He defeated a party of Miamis at the post of Pickawillany, killing the chief and eleven of his warriors. This struggle helped to bring on the French and Indian war. Braddock's Defeat. In z\ugust, 1754 Langlade mar- ried Charlotte Bourassa, a French girl of beauty and character. According to the accounts of the time she was greatly in fear of the Indians and her experiences at Green Bay caused her much suffering. The year follow- ing his marriage Langlade was summoned to go on the warpath against the British. The English army com- manded by General Braddock and guided by the young Virginian, George Washington, was marching against Fort DuOuesne. Langlade planned the attack as a re- sult of which the English were so decisively defeated and which is known in history as Braddock's defeat. Brad- dock was himself mortally wounded, and, except for the presence of mind of Washington whose advice the British general had refused to follow, few of the soldiers would have escaped the tomahawk and scalping knife. As it was, more than a thousand soldiers and about ninety 86 OUR WISCONSIN officers lost their lives. The brilliant red uniforms of the dead soldiers were taken from their bodies by Langlade and carried back to the western lodges where they were greatly admired by those Indians who had not gone on the expedition. Transfer of Allegiance. Langlade continued to be called upon by the French to lead Indians against the British. He led a successful attack against Fort William Henry and was rewarded by being made a lieutenant and given a salary of a thousand francs annually. In 1759 with Menominees, Sauks, Foxes and Chippewas from Wisconsin and Ottawas from Canada he was sent to aid in the defense of Quebec. Here Langlade performed a service which but for the stupidity or delay of others would have prevented the capture of that great French stronghold and perhaps have changed the history of North America. He discovered the English crossing the river to carry out Wolfe's plan of assault and at once sent word to the French commander that an immediate attack would prevent its success. While the French officers were leisurely debating what to do, the oppor- tunity was lost. On the plains of Abraham on the fatal day when Montcalm and Wolfe died, Langlade fought fiercely and well for the French cause. But when Quebec was surrendered he returned to his home and took up his work as a trader. With the fall of New France he transferred his allegiance to his new masters, the English. L^anglade had an intimate knowledge of what the In- dians Avere thinking and doing. When Pontlac was at- tempting to organize his plan of exterminating the white men he endeavored to warn the English commander at Mackinac but no attention was paid to him. The CHARLES LANGLADE 87 massacre occurred but he had done as much as he could to prevent it. He now moved to Green Bay and was made head of the Indian department there, managing affairs to the entire satisfaction of the British. With British Army. Always loyal to the flag under which he lived and to his employers, Langlade sided with the British during the American Revolution. He raised a force of Wisconsin Indians to march against the army of George Rogers Clark, but the surrender of the British general at Vincennes occurred before he could go to his relief. He was with Burgoyne, but his fierce warriors were disgusted with what they thought was the weak- ness of the humane policy pursued by the British gen- eral and left for home. Old Age. Lcmglj^[£!^_iiLd-age>^^ peace at Green Bay. He had received valuable grants of land and an annuity of eight hundred dollars from the British government. He was wont to gather his grandchildren about him and tell them the story of his eventful life and the ninety-nine battles and skirmishes in which he had taken part. He died in 1800, eighteen years before the death of his wife. Following a Canadian custom the people of Green Bay raised a flag pole in his memory and elriphasized the ceremony by cheers and volleys of musketry. It was a token of the affectionate reverence in which he was held by the people of the settlement. The Indians gave Langlade a name which expressed their idea of him. .It was A-ke-wau-ge-ke-tan-sOj meaning He- who-is-fierce-for-the-land. 88 OUR WISCONSIN SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 1. What places in Wisconsin are named after Langlade? 2. Why should he be called the first citizen of the state? 3. How did Langlade help to bring on the French and Indian War? 4. Read an account of the battle of Quebec. What were its principal results? 5. Burgoyne was considered too humane by the Indians. Can you tell why? 6. Why was it dangerous for the French officers to debate what ♦ they should do at the battle of Quebec? 7. What does Wisconsin owe to Langlade? CHAPTER XIV ENGLISH TRAVELERS IN WISCONSIN After the fall of New France and the suppression of the Pontiac uprising, Englishmen began to come into the Wisconsin territory to trade with the Indians. Men like Charles Langlade went freely through the country and English traders and travelers came and went with the same freedom that the French had once enjoyed. Like the early French traders they left few records. Conse- quently, our knowledge of their work is not so complete as we should like to have it. As early as 1762 an English- man was at Milwaukee. Three years later Alexander Henry, a native of New Jersey, opened headquarters at Chequamegon Bay and conducted an extensive trade with the Indians. He began operations at Mackinac and was there when Its garrison was massacred in 1763. In 1765 he obtained a monopoly of the Lake Superior fur trade which he shared with Jean Baptlste Cadotte. Alexander Henry. Upon reaching Chequamegon, Henry found the Indians, who occupied fifty lodges there, in desperate poverty. The French and Indian wars and the Pontiac conspiracy had so interrupted their trade that they were on the point of starvation. He gave them goods amounting in value to three thousand beaver skins. To repay him the Indians went on a great hunt for fur- bearing animals. When they returned they brought great quantities of furs and as payment demanded rum. 90 OUR WISCONSIN . Because he refused to give it to them, they threatened to search his cabin. Henry's men fled, but, seizing* a gun, he declared he would shoot the first Indian who made a hostile move. The Indians left, but Henry, deciding to take no more chances, buried all the rum he possessed. The savages caused him no more trouble but sold him their furs and paid their debts. When the Indians went on the warpath against their enemies, the Sioux, he closed up his trading-post and went to Mackinac. Al- though he continued in the fur trade for many years, he never again made Wisconsin his headquarters. He died in Montreal in 1784 at the age of eighty-four. Jonathan Carver. One of the first English travelers to explore the Wisconsin region was Captain Jonathan Carver of Connecticut. He had served in the English army in Canada and had become greatly interested in the western country. He read the works of Hennepin and LaFontain and resolved to make the journey into the upper Mississippi Valley to test the truth of their narratives. He spent three years in traveling in this region and wrote a book which had a remarkable sale in Europe. It was translated into French, Dutch and Ger- man and became the most popular book of travel in the countries where these languages were spoken. The book was a very interesting account of his five thousand mile journe}^ He was the first man to give an intelligent ac- count of this region to the English speaking world, and there is no reason to doubt the truthfulness of his nar- rative. At Green Bay. Believing that he would be safer traveling as a trader, Captain Carver fitted himself out with gifts and articles for barter. On the eighteenth of ENGLISH TRAVELERS IN WISCONSIN 91 September, 1766 he arrived at Green Bay where he found that Fort Edward Augustus had been abandoned the previous year. A few famihes of easy-going French were living at the Bay. He remained just long enough to jot down some notes about the vegetation and the soil. A few days later, ascending the Fox, he reached the great town of the Winnebagoes on a small island at the en- trance of Lake Winnebago. He found it ruled by an Indian queen, the widow of a French trader, Decorah, who bore the poetical name Glory of the Morning. She was not as beautiful as her name but was very hospitable, entertaining Carver ''in a very distinguished manner" for four days. At Prairie du Chien. Almost a month after he left Green Bay Captain Carver arrived at Prairie du Chien where he found an Indian village of considerable im- portance. He described it as a large town containing about three hundred families. ''The houses are well built after the Indian manner and pleasantly situated on a very rich soil, from which they raised every necessary of life in great abundance," he wrote. "I saw many horses here of good size and shape. This town is a great mart where all the adjacent tribes, and even those who inhabit the most remote branches of the Mississippi, annually assemble about the first of May, bringing with them furs to dispose of to the traders. But it is not always that they conclude their sale here ; this is determined by a general council of the chiefs, who consult whether it would be more conducive to sell their goods at this place or carry them on to Louisiana or Michilimackinac.'* From the earliest times this broad plain lying be- tween the steep bluffs of the Mississippi Valley had been 92 OVR WISCONSIN a convenient meeting place for natives and fur-traders. There they traded, had merry parties or camped for con- siderable periods of time. Both La Salle and Perrot had trading stations there, but it is not known when or by whom the first permanent white settlement was made. Like the first white residents of Green Bay these pioneers left no record of their activities. As early as 1773 there was a white community of considerable importance located at Prairie du Chien although Carver does not say that any white people lived in the Indian village. At Lake Pepin. With a French companion and a Mohawk Indian, Carver ascended the Mississippi and reached Lake Pepin on the first day of November. There he had his attention called to some peculiar mounds which he examined carefully. He was the first white man to describe these Indian mounds to Europeans. He spent the winter among the Sioux, traveling considerably in the country west of the Mississippi. In their great council cave the Indians gave to him and his descendants forever a tract of land about 1400 square miles in area, which included the entire northwestern part of Wiscon- sin. This gift has caused an endless number of law- suits. Congress investigated the claims of the heirs of Carver and denied them but the term Carver's Tract ap- peared upon the maps of the United States for many years. Return to Mackinac. After spending some time in the Lake Superior region Carver returned to Mackinac. In his little birch-bark canoe he had made a journey of nearly twelve hundred miles. His voyage into the North- west while wnt-hout material results awakened new in- terest in the country. Schiller, the great German poet, was inspired by his descriptions to write the Death Song ENGLISH TRAVELERS IN WISCONSIN 93 of a Nadowessie Chief, an important poem. That Carver had in him something of the prophet is indicated by the following passage from his Travels : ''As the seat of empire from time immemorial has been gradually progressing tOAvard the west, there is not doubt but that at some future period mighty kingdoms will emerge from these wildernesses, and stately palaces and solemn temples with gilded spires reaching to the skies, supplant the Indian huts whose only decorations are the barbarous trophies of their vanquished enemies." Other travelers followed Carver and many traders took up the Avork of Henry in the Wisconsin region. One of the most interesting was Peter Pond, who traveled over the same route as Carver. He helped form the North West Company w^hich soon dominated the fur trade. Gringnon, Faribault, Rolette, La Ronde and Dousman were other famous names in the fur-trade which John Jacob Astor of New York later controlled. By 1834 there were fifty trading posts in Wisconsin many of which became important cities. SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 1. Locate on the map all places mentioned in the chapter. 2. Why were the Indians so poor after the French and Indian War? 3. How does the story of Henry's escape compare with the rescue of Captain John Smith? 4. For what are we to remember Captain Carver? 5. Which seems to have been settled first, Green Bay or Prairie du Chien? 6. Why cannot the exact dates of these settlements be given? 7. What advantages had Prairie du Chien as a center for fur trading? 8. Imagine yourself at one of the early trading posts and write a letter to a friend describing it. CHAPTER XV WISCONSIN IN THE REVOLUTION Although Wisconsin was a long way from the Atlan- tic coast where the American Revolution began and where its principal battles were fought, the Northwest supplied one of the causes and one of the most important events of that great struggle for independence. It will be remembered that at the close of the French and Indian war all of New France was ceded to the British govern- ment. The colonies on the Atlantic coast had been set- tled by Englishmen but Canada and the Mississippi Val- ley had been developed and settled by Frenchmen. Both France and England then regarded colonies merely as sources of profit for the mother country. Acting upon this theory the British government immediately began to enforce a series of measures, of which the Stamp Act was one, so oppressive that the colonies began the strug- gle for their independence which we know as the Revo- lutionary War. Quebec Act of 1774. Among the laws enacted by the British Parliament that led to war was the Quebec Act of 1774. This brought the entire Northwest, includ- ing the present state of Wisconsin, under the govern- ment of Quebec, abolished the free system of English law, and established the laws which had been in force under the government of France. As the charters of the eastern colonies generally granted them the land west- WISCONSIN IN THE REVOLUTION ward to the Pacific, the Quebec act deprived them of much territory. Parliament even went so far as to make laws prohibiting colonizing- in the Northwest. The British government in its blindness seemed to be trying to carry out the very policies that had led France to lose its American empire. Because it was immediately profit- able to Great Britain, the fur trade was considered to be of more importance than the development of the country. "The Hair-Buyer General." The Revolution had been in progress on the Atlantic coast for two years be- fore the news of it reached the few inhabitants of the scattered villages west of Lake Michigan. It is doubtful if even then they would have known or cared much about it but for the efiforts of General Hamilton, the British commander at Detroit, to stir up the Wisconsin Indians against the Kentuckians who were carrying on America's war in the west. He made an efifective appeal to the savages by offering a reward for every American scalp taken during the conflict and became known as The Hair- Buyer General. He had no great difficulty in inducing the Indians to become the allies of the very men they had been tomahawking twenty years before. The English had been more successful in their treatment of the In- dians than were the Americans, who wanted to settle the land, cut down the forests, make settlements and drive the Indian out. The English, on the other hand, were desirous of keeping the land in Its primitive state to maintain the fur trade. It is easy to see, therefore, why the Indians, half-breeds and French were on the side of the English and opposed to the Americans. In 1777, two years after Lexington and Concord, Hamilton organized war parties in Wisconsin to assist in 96 OUR WISCONSIN the capture of the American town of Vincennes and other settlements in the Ohio Valley. From his headquarters at Detroit he directed the attacks which brought the west to a state of panic. He seems to have been a brave, audacious, persistent man and without any scruples as to methods. The backwoodsmen were ambushed, their posts burned and their towns destroyed. Soon all but five or six hundred had been killed, taken prisoner or been driven across the Alleghanies to their old homes. George Rogers Clark. Chief among the men who entered into the plans of the British were Charles Lang- lade and his nephew, Charles Gautier. Gautier, like his uncle, was a dashing son of the woods who knew no fear and loved adventure for adventure's sake. He spoke the languages of all the northwestern tribes, and with his war belts went from village to village along the Fox and Wisconsin. As a result of the efiforts of these two men a large number of Indians were induced to go on the war- path against the brave Virginian, George Rogers Clark, who was defending the western country. But before they were able to attack they learned that Hamilton had been captured at Fort Vincennes. Without a single scalp, they returned home in disgust. Although none of the incidents of the George Rogers Clark expedition took place on Wisconsin soil, they played a large part in determining the future of the state. Clark was then but twenty-six years of age, tall, com- manding, and like Washington, a backwoods land sur- veyor. He had come from an old Virginia family and had a fair education. He had traveled over most of the western region either as a hunter or to survey the land. WISCONS.IN IN THE REVOLUTION 97 He knew its trails, forts, and its people, both red and white, perfectly. With" him were Daniel Boone, Ben- jamin Logan and other border heroes who had come to Kentucky in 1776 to organize the settlers against their savage foes. After studying the situation, Clark decided that the most effective defense was to carry the war into the enemy's country. He went to Virginia and laid his plans before Patrick Henry, then governor of Virginia. He was given five hundred pounds of powder, made a colonel and empowered to raise a company of men to carry out his plans. With a small force of frontiersmen, one hun- dred and fifty-three in all, he marched into the Illinois country. Through the influence of a priest. Father Gibault, Kaskaskia and Cahokia were persuaded to sur- render without the firing of a shot, Vincennes was also surrendered and within thirty days Clark had w^on the entire Illinois territory without the loss of a single life. Recapture of Vincennes. General Hamilton soon heard of the surrender of the forts and, with a force of eight hundred men, marched from Detroit to recapture Vincennes. Part of his army were Indians from Wis- consin who had been recruited by Langlade and Gautier. Not knowing how numerous — or, rather, how few — the Americans were, Hamilton besieged the fort and de- manded its surrender. Clark had left Captain Helm and one private to hold the fort. The two plucky Americans sent back the defiant answer that they would surrender if permitted to march out with the honors of war ; other- wise, they would defy the British to take the fort. Gen- eral Hamilton accepted the proposal. It is easy to imagine his surprise when from the fort there marched the "army of defense," — one captain and a private. 98 OUR WISCONSIN Clark's Heroic March. When George Rogers Clark heard that the British had recaptured Vincennes, he de- cided to make another bold stroke. He had learned that the greater part of Hamilton's expedition had disbanded for the winter, leaving less than a hundred men to defend the fort, and that in the spring Hamilton intended to launch a larger party against the remaining posts. It was two hundred miles from Kaskaskia, where Clark was, to Vincennes but in spite of almost insuperable obstacles he set out in the dead of winter to surprise Hamilton. The march of his handful of men, without provisions and with little ammunition, over miles of land covered with ice and water, where they had to wade sometimes up to their necks, in weather so cold that their clothes froze as solid as coats of mail, is one of the most heroic in history. Clark had with him less than two hundred men to undertake the capture of a fort defended by artillery and well provisioned. The march across the country was attended with such hardships that it seemed as if human endurance could not meet the test. Clark and his officers were often at their wits' end to know how to keep the men in good humor when they were suffering with cold and hunger. He inspired his men by having them join in singing patriotic songs. Once he mounted his drummer boy on the shoulders of a ser- geant who was six feet, two inches in height and ordered him to advance into an icy flood. With Clark following and the drummer beating the charge, the men followed with enthusiasm. At times they were difficult to manage and he detailed twenty-five picked men to shoot down any who refused to march. Surrender of Hamilton. The story of the final cap- ture of the fort and the unconditional surrender of Gen- WISCONSIN IN THE REVOLUTION 99 eral Hamilton is a stirring chapter of history. Clark marched and countermarched his men about the fort until the British general thought many times two hun- dred soldiers were about to attack him. At night Clark attacked the fort. Under a flag of truce Hamilton asked for terms but after Clark had demanded unconditional surrender or "treatment as is justly due a murderer," he yielded the fort. With twenty-six of his followers he was sent as a prisoner of war to Virginia but eventually he was freed by Washington. Thus ended the old North- west. Without Clark's conquest the English might never have surrendered the territory now comprising the states of Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio, for when the treaty of peace was being negotiated the American commissioners, Franklin, Jay and Adams, forced Great Britain to yield her claim to this region largely because of its military possession by American forces under Clark. American Influence in Wisconsin. Although Clark himself never came to Wisconsin, his agents were active among the Indians trying to overcome the influence of Langlade. Some tribes remained neutral. The Pottawa- tomies at Milwaukee allied themselves with the Ameri- cans, and at Prairie du Chien the leading French trader, Godfroy Linctot, took the American side. Thus there was considerable American influence in Wisconsin al- though the English fur trade continued in full strength. Many vessels were sent to the Great Lakes, and one at least kept up a trade along the Wisconsin shore of Lake Michigan. The Revolutionary War closed with the Treaty of Paris, September 3, 1783, and the new nation was in legal, but not actual, possession of Wisconsin. 100 OUR WISCONSIN SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 1. What was the reason Great Britain desired to keep her colonies? 2. Does she still hold to this theory? 3. What colonies led in opposing George III? 4. Did the Declaration of Independence refer to the Quebec Act? 5. What was the decisive battle of the Revolution? Was it be- fore or after Clark's expedition? 6. Why were the settlers of Wisconsin so late in learning of the Revolution? How long could they be in ignorance of such news now? What inventions have helped in the rapid spread of information? 7. What was George Rogers Clark's great service to this coun- try? 8. Read Maurice Thomson's Alice of Old Vmcennes; Chur- chill's The Crossing, or Eggleston's Long Knives. CHAPTER XVI THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY Importance of Clark's Conquest. At the close of the Revoluiion the American commissioners who were mak- ing the treaty of peace with England had much difficulty in securing the Northwest Territory for the United States. We have seen that the conquest by George Rogers Clark was the basis of their claim to this territory. As soon as the treaty was signed, there came a scram- ble among the original colonies for possession of the new territory. Virginia, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York, because of provisions in their royal charters, claimed all or part of it. In the case of Virginia, the conquest of Clark was used as an argument to justify the claim. The other states contended that as the land had been acquired through the common sacrifice of all, the individual states should surrender their claims. This view prevailed, and the western lands were regarded as territory to be used for national purposes. Their in- terest in this great territorial possession was a tie which tended to bind the states more firmly into a single nation. Jay's Treaty of 1794. The seventh article of the Treaty of Paris promised that all armies, garrisons and fleets of Great Britain should be withdrawn from the United States with all convenient speed. In the spring of 1784 Washington sent a representative to Quebec to make arrangements for the transfer of the western posts. 102 OUR WISCONSIN The English declined to turn them over until the United States government compelled the return of the loyalist property taken by the states during the v^ar. Of course the real reason for the refusal v^as the Bri- tish desire to hold the fur trade which, under the control of two great trading companies, had reached enormous proportions. Through the fur trade the Indians were kept loyal to England. Had the posts been surrendered as had been agreed, the Indians would have traded through American channels, their interests would have been with America and the United States would have been spared many long and exhausting frontier wars. The Indians were taught to believe that England would finally recover the territory and that old conditions would be restored. Finally, by Jay's treaty of 1794, most of the points in dispute were settled but it was not until after the War of 1812 that America obtained complete posses- sion of the territory. Ordinance of 1787. In the meantime Congress was planning methods of governing the new territory. Sev- eral suggestions were made only to be rejected. A law known as The Ordinance of ijSj was at last agreed to and passed by Congress in July of that year. Next to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, this is the most important document in the history of the United States. It contains the germs of much that is the purest and best in our national legislation. The most impor- tant features of this act was found in the constitution of our state. Many of them are new, and they showed that their authors had a vision that few statesmen pos- sess. Speaking of this ordinance much later, Daniel Webster said, *T doubt whether one single law of any Stand Rock, at Dalles of the Wisconsin 104 OUR WISCONSIN law-giver, ancient or modern, has produced effects of more distinct, marked and lasting character than the Ordinance of 1787." Some of the important provisions of this document are these : Public Schools. — "Schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged." To carry out this provi- sion the sixteenth section of every township of land was given to the states for a common school fund. The sup- port of our system of common schools is based upon this grant. In addition each state was to receive not less than seventy-two square miles of land for the support of a university. The State University at Madison is partly a result of this ordinance. Freedom. — ''There shall be neither slavery nor in- voluntary servitude in said territory." Wisconsin was thus destined to be a free state. Union Forever. — ''The said territory and states which may be formed therein shall forever remain a part of this confederacy of the United States of America." It also provided that good faith should be observed toward the Indians, that freedom of religion should be allowed, that contracts should be held inviolable, and that the English common law should prevail. Basis of Government. This is the law which formed the basis of the government of the Northwest Territory, a territory destined to be the very heart of a great nation. It has served as a model for all American territorial government. Eventually the territory was carved into five states with a total area of 266,000 square miles. Of these states Wisconsin is one. THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY 105 SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 1. Why did the conquest of George Rogers Clark give Virginia a special claim to the Northwest Territory? 2. Did England, in 1783, expect to give up the Mississippi Val- ley? 3. Who were the loyalists? 4. What are the principal provisions of the Ordinance of 1787? 5. This ordinance has sometimes been called the Magna Charta of the Northwest. Why? 6. What states were formed from this territory? 7. How did the Northwest Territory prove a bond of union for the states? 8. What is the origin of our common school fund? CHAPTER XVII WISCONSIN IN THE WAR OF 1812 Great Britain was so slow in carrying out the terms of the treaty of peace of 1783 and Jay's treaty of 1795 that when the War of 1812 broke out, Wisconsin, although legally American territory, was still held by the British. Most of the Indians were English sympathizers, but the Menominees, under Chief Tomah, were neutral. The French residents had been made citizens of the United States by law, although they never became active in the service of this country. "They still clung to their Cana- dian connections and customs and, although they were now in the employ of English fur-traders, still kept Wis- consin as completely French as it had been at any time during the two centuries of French control. Tecumseh's Confederacy. In October, 1811, Te- cumseh and his brother, the Prophet, both Shawnees of great ability, formed a confederacy of the western In- dians to drive out the white settlers. It was said that British traders assisted them by supplying arms and am- munition. Just before the uprising, Tecumseh had come to Wisconsin to enlist the Indians of this state. The Menominees were invited to join but Chief Tomah's in- fluence was sufficient to prevent his tribe from becoming a part of the conspiracy. Other tribes from this state — the Chippewas, Pottawattomies, Sauks, Foxes and Win- nebagoes — did assist in the undertaking. At the battle WISCONSIN IN THE WAR OF 1812 107 of Tippecanoe, fought November 7, 1811, in what is now Indiana, the Indians were decisively defeated by a force under General William Henry Harrison. Among the four causes which President Madison later gave as justification for war with England was the encouragement given the Indians by the British to mur- der and rob Americans in the western settlements. Just as the West had been a cause of the Revolution, so was it a cause of the War of 1812. Battle at Prairie du Chien. Wisconsin was so far away from the seat of war that she took but small part in the conflict. Almost all of the inhabitants were hope- ful of a British triumph as they believed that only through the EngHsh could there be a successful fur trade. One battle was fought in Wisconsin, at Prairie du Chien, but not until the last year of the war. The Americans saw that if they were to prevent En- glish raids down the Mississippi it was necessary to hold Prairie du Chien. General William Clark, a brother of George Rogers Clark, was governor of Missouri and military commander of the upper Mississippi Valley. He sent a force of three hundred men under Lieutenant James Perkins to build a fort at the mouth of the Wis- consin River to control the A¥isconsin-Fox route to the west. On a large Indian mound not far from the Mis- sissippi the Americans erected a stockade which was named Fort Shelby. It was placed in good condition for defense and the gunboat which had brought the force up the river was placed in midstream just in front of the fort, the mouths of its half dozen cannon being just visible from the shore. The people of the village were divided in interest, most of them appearing to be ^ro-British in sympathy. 108 OUR WISCONSIN The arrival of the Americans surprised the inhabitants of Dog's Prairie as the British called the place. They had been told by the traders that the Americans would never venture that far up the river. One of them, Robert Dick- son, a red-haired Scot, fled to the English at Mackinac, who immediately prepared for eiifective measures. Dick-r son then went to Green Bay to collect a body of Winne- bagoes for the purpose of aiding in an attack on Fort Shelby. Dickson, who was known by the Indians as Red Head, had great influence with them and soon had col- lected a large force. From Mackinac a force under Major William McKay went by way of Green Bay and Lake Winnebago, and was joined at Portage by Dickson's five or six hundred Indians. On a pleasant Sunday morning at about ten o'clock, July 17, 1814, the red coats of the English regulars, the gaudy caps of the Canadians and the paint-bedaubed savages were seen from the fort. Within were sixty or seventy soldiers protected by the stockade and two block houses on which were mounted six cannons. In the river was the gunboat. Within half an hour Perkins was sum- moned to "surrender unconditionally or defend yourself to the last man." With American promptness he sent back this note : "Sir — I received your polite note and prefer the latter, and am determined to defend to the last man." This defiant answer was the signal for the beginning of the battle. The British gunners fired eighty-six shots in three hours, two-thirds of which hit the gunboat. The boat replied vigorously but the gunners were not so suc- cessful in securing hits and the vessel soon ran in behind an island and escaped down-stream. WISCONSIN IN THE WAR OF 1812 109 McKay now devoted his attention to the fort. His Indians, however, had become unruly and were plunder- ing the village without regard to whether the inhabitants favored the British or the Americans. For two days the English gunner kept firing at the fort without doing much damage. On the evening of the nineteenth when McKay had been reduced to but six rounds for his can- non and was preparing to send the cannon-balls into the fort red-hot to set it on fire, he was surprised to see a white flag run up. The supply of food in the fort had be- come exhausted and Perkins had formed an exaggerated idea of the number of men in the British force. He sent out the following note: "Sir — I am willing to surrender the garrison provided you will save and protect the officers and men and prevent the Indians from ill treating them." McKay was willing to accept these terms of surren- der but he suggested that the Americans remain in their fort until morning. Despite the protests of the Indians, when the Americans marched out the following morning the humane Briton gave back to the Americans their arms and a supply of ammunition and permitted them to depart for St. Louis. In the struggle, five Americans on the gunboat lost their lives and ten were wounded. Within the fort, three soldiers were hit with bullets but none was killed. The British suffered no losses. McKay did not remain long at the fort. He renamed it Fort McKay In honor of himself, and then w^ent back to Mackinac leaving Captain Anderson in charge. Cap- tain Andrew H. Bulger of the regulars soon relieved him. He had a difficult time with the men in the fort, the In- dian allies and the French traders. Indian tribes came to hold councils and so obtained large amounts of British 110 OUR WISCONSIN Stores. Bulger was at last obliged to put all of the coun- try in his jurisdiction under martial law. End of War. On the twenty-fourth of December, 1814, a treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States was signed at Ghent. The news did not reach Prairie du Chien until the twentieth day of May, 1815. Fearing an Indian uprising, Bulger did not wait for an American force to take possession but sent a mes- senger to tell the American commander to help himself to everything in Fort McKay. On May the twenty- fourth, 1815, he took down the British flag, made what excuses he could to his Indian followers and hurried away to Mackinac where he turned over to the Ameri- can commander all the stores remaining in his pos- session. Thus ended the foreign rule of Wisconsin soil. For ninety years the French flag had waved undisputed ; for twenty-two years the English banner had flown legally, and for twenty-two more years had floated over terri- tory belonging to the United States. Thereafter Wis- consin was American both in name and in fact. SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 1. Why did the Indians and French sympathize with England? 2. What were the causes of the War of 1812? 3. What do you think of McKay's treatment of the American garrison? 4. Why did Perkins surrender Fort Shelby? 5. Compare Tecumseh with Pontiac. 6. What industry practically determined the first one hundred and eighty years of Wisconsin history? 7. Why was the news of the treaty so long in reaching Wis- consin? CHAPTER XVIII LIFE IN THE EARLY SETTLEMENTS First Five Settlements. Before 1800 there were not to exceed two hundred white persons in all Wisconsin. Population did not increase very rapidly as long as the fur-trade was the dominant interest, but with the open- ing* of the lead mines, ten or fifteen years after the close of the War of 1812, the growth was more rapid. It is difficult to determine what were the exact dates of the first permanent settlement or who were the first settlers. It is reasonably certain, however, that the first five settle- ments were at Green Bay, Prairie du Chien, Milwaukee, Portage and Kaukauna.'^ Green Bay in 1816. Although the English and Ameri- can flags successively floated over them, these towns were French in origin and for a long time remained French both in control and manner of life. Green Bay was the largest and one of the most picturesque of these early settlements. By 1816, it had grown to be an attractive village of about forty-five families mostly of French origin. They were easy going at the best, not over thrifty nor over industrious. They cared not at all who was their political master, the King of France, the King of *The following are usually assigned as the first settlers: Green Bay — Augustin and Charles Langlade, ''764; Prairie du Chien — Bazil Girard, Augustin Ange and Pierre Antaya, 17S1; Milwaukee — Jacques Vieau, 1795; Laurent Barth, 1793; Kaukauna — Dominick Ducharme, 1790. 112 OUR WISCONSIN England or the people of the United States. They still preserved their primitive community life and their primitive form of government. They apparently believed that the community least governed is best governed. The habitant, as the French settler was called, was a lover of amusement; and as long as he had enough to meet his simple physical wants, did no more work than absolutely necessary. In these respects, he was the opposite of the Anglo-Saxon pioneer who soon took his place. Manner of Living. Because of their desire to be near each other and to protect themselves from the Indians the first settlers built their cabins close together along rivers. When the American came among them and noticed that the houses, in this particular, resembled those of the beaver and muskrat, he called the settlers muskrat Frenchmen. Despite the lack of conveniences these people lived contentedly. The winter was a season of gaiety and merry-making. There were parties and dances, races on the ice and other amusements. The blanketed Indian was ever present. Dancing began early. A party always closed with a feast. Agriculture was carried on in the most primitive manner. Except the share, the old French plow was made of wood. Harness was made of twisted rawhide. In place of the familiar yoke used by the Yankees, a rope was attached to the horns of the oxen. In most of the settlements the land was not divided but there was a com- mon field used by all for the benefit of all. Often the en- closure consisted of several hundred acres with plots assigned to families in proportion to the number of chil- dren. If a plot was neglected it was forfeited. All was done in accordance with rules ; individual responsibility, LIFE IN THE EARLY SETTLEMENTS 113 therefore, was not great. The fur trade still furnished the principal means of livelihood. Government. Until 1821, justice v^as usually ad- ministered under the old French code of law, but when necessary martial law was proclaimed. Court procedure in the two leading" towns, Green Bay and Prairie du Chien, was usually carried on without judge or jury. About 1803, a pompous old gentleman, who had drifted into Green Bay, was appointed justice of the peace. Portly, bald-headed and self-important, this little French- man, Charles Reaume, the only civil officer in Wisconsin, governed the community until well after the War of 1812. His rules were respected as though they were decisions of a supreme court. He drew up all manner of legal documents and commercial papers ; baptized and married the inhabitants and was the general notary and scribe for the entire country west of Lake Michigan. He may have had some little legal education but his decisions were usually based on the right as he saw it without re- gard to technicalities of the law. He seems to have taken good care of himself as the following incident will show. Two Frenchmen, who had had a quarrel about an in- significant matter, came to the judge with their griev- ances. He heard what each had to say and then, with the dignity due the occasion, rendered his decision. "You are both wrong," he said. ''You," pointing his finger at the plaintifif, "you will bring me one load of hay ; and you," he said to the defendant, "you will bring me one load of wood. The case is settled." The judge had a great love of display. He had a judge's robe of scarlet cloth, faced with white and deco- rated with spangled buttons, which he wore upon all 114 OUR WISCONSIN public occasions. When he wanted a person to appear in court he sent a constable bearing the judge's well-known jackknife to bring the man to court. The knife was as effective as a warrant. At Prairie du Chien, John Campbell, an Irishman, exercised his power much as did Reaume at Green Bay. Such administration shows the fundamental good nature of the community and their simple and primitive methods of getting on with each other. SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 1. Name and locate the earliest settlements in Wisconsin. 2. Describe the village of Green Bay as it was in 1816. 3. Why were agricultural methods so primitive? 4. What do you think of common ownership of the land? 5. Describe a court scene, as you imagine it, with Judge Reaume presiding. 6. What advantages had this primitive life over our more highly organized communities? What disadvantages? 7. Read in Evangeline the description of the life of Grand Pre. Does it resemble early Wisconsin life in the villages? CHAPTER XIX FROM FUR TRADING TO LEAD MINING John Jacob Astor. The fur trade continued to be the principal commercial interest of Wisconsin until about 1834. Close upon the heels of the American soldiers who occupied the Wisconsin forts after the War of 1812, came the shrewd Yankee traders. They-found it very difficult to compete with the British agents. Consequently, through the influence of John Jacob Astor, they induced Congress to exclude foreigners from the fur trade. Astor had previously tried to gain a foothold in the fur country but British influences were too strong. Now his Ameri- can Fur Company established headquarters at Mackinaw where furs were received from Green Bay and Prairie du Chien and packed for New York. Undoing of the Indian. With all his ability, Astor found many serious difficulties ahead of him. The Bri- tish traders were unwilling to give up the rich fur coun- try and evaded the law by having licenses taken out by their American clerks. The Indian, too, had come to be dependent upon goods he received in exchange for his furs. He had lost the art of making clothing out of skins and kettles from clay. He had learned that hunting brought him much more than anything else he could do. The credit system was employed and the Indian was per- mitted to buy his summer goods on the prospect of the next winter's hunt. For this reason he was always heavily in debt, a fact which made him loyal to the nation 116 OUR WISCONSIN extending this credit. These conditions and the introduc- tion of intoxicating liquors by the whites were the prin- cipal reasons for the undoing of the Indian. Aster's Monopoly. Coarse cloth, blankets, cheap jewelry, bells, mirrors, combs, hatchets, scalping knives, scissors, kettles, hoes, fire-arms, fire-water, gunpowder, tobacco and almost anything else that the Indian might desire were used for barter."^ As much as $75,000 worth of goods were brought into Wisconsin in one year. Be- cause_Astor's American Fur Company was unable to supply goods as cheaply or of as good quality as could the BritisFTrad'ers, the Indians were apt to hold American products in contempt. Astor finally resorted to methods that have since been used by men who desired to estab- lish monopolies. If some venturesome trader attempted to do business, the company at once established a post near him, sold goods at half their value and finally drove the trader from the field. The Astor company would then raise prices as they possessed a monopoly in the territory in which they operated. In this way the agents of the American Fur Company were able prac- tically to control the trade in furs between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River. The influence of the fur-trade has been well described by Professor Turner as "closing its mission by becoming the pathfinder for agricultural and manufacturing civili- zation." The Indian village became the trading-post and *It may be of interest to know that the price of labor was low and the cost of commodities high. A boatman received $83.33 a year in money and had an equipment of two cotton shirts, one blanket and a pair of shoes. Im- ported commodities were priced in accordance with the price of exchanged products. If flour was $8 per hundred pounds, tea was $8 per pound. If flour fell to $6 a hundred, tea fell to $6 a pound. Onions brought $9 per bushel; eggs, $1 per dozen; soap, $1 per pound; calico, $2 per yard; tobacco, $2 per pound; clay pipes, forty cents apiece. FROM FUR TRADING TO LEAD MINING 117 the traaing post became the city. The trails became our early roads and marked the way for the railway. With the development of lead mining in southwestern Wis- consin, a new industry was developed and the fur trade declined to a relatively unimportant place, although for two centuries after the coming of Nicolet in 1634, it was the chief source of wealth. Discovery of Lead. It was about 1822 that the so- called discovery of the lead mines of southwestern Wis- consin occurred. In that year a Kentuckian, Colonel James Johnson, negotiated a lease of a part of the land where the city of Galena, Illinois, is now located. He began mining operations on a large scale. For several years previous to this, Indians and Frenchmen had done some mining. In 1810, a letter to the Secretary of War stated that the Indians at Prairie du Chien had exchanged for goods during that season about 400,000 pounds of lead. Six years later a number of crude smelting places had been set up both in Illinois and Wisconsin. In 1819 the United States purchased from the Indians their claims to the mining country. American prospectors immedi- ately began work, one of the earliest being James W. Shull, founder of Shullsburg in LaFayette county. Glowing notices of Johnson's success appeared in the St. Louis newspapers in the winter of 1822. Soon a horde of squatters and prospectors from Missouri, Ken- tucky and Tennessee poured into the new Eldorado. As the Indians would not let the white men enter the dis- trict, the government sent troops from the forts at Prairie du Chien and Rock Island to overawe them. Finding that resistance would be useless, the Indians quietly sub- mitted to the invasion of their mineral territorv and sul- 118 OUR V/I SCON SIN lenly waited for a time for revenge. The hillsides of southwestern Wisconsin were soon being overturned by prospectors in search of lead ore. Thus began what at one time was a leading industry of Wisconsin, an indus- try which for several years held the position of import- ance formerly occupied by the fur trade. Despite muttered threats from the Indians the popula- tion rapidly increased. In 1825 it was estimated that there were two hundred persons in the district; three years later there were fully ten thousand. Galena had become the center of the mining region, and promised to become the metropolis of the west. In three years the lead output increased from 439,473 pounds to 12,957,100 pounds. Negro slaves were brought from the south by their masters to work in the mines and quantities of lead were sent down the Mississippi in flat boats. Influx of Prospectors. The boat loads of ore, the stories of ricli ore deposits and the ease with which min- ing was supposed to be done, caused a rush of speculators and prospectors into the territory, much like that which afterward followed the discoveries of gold in California, the Black Hills and Alaska. Old Indian trails were con- verted into highways for coaches and lumber wagons. Men came on foot^ on horseback and by team from all sections of the country. Others came up the Mississippi on boats and even Cornish miners from England began to arrive. Men worth thousands traveled with vaga- bonds ; everybody was welcome and everybody expected soon to be rich. Mushroom towns sprang up everywhere, all hoping to become great commercial centers. Some of the miners gained what in those days were considered vast fortunes. One man at Hazel Green in one day took FROM FUR TRADING TO LEAD MINING 119 seventeen thousand pounds of mineral from his claim. He operated the claim until he had taken out a hundred thousand pounds and then abandoned it. Another pros- pector immediately took possession and mined a hundred and fifty thousand pounds more. As the ore was worth about eighty dollars a ton, one may easily see that wealth was in prospect for everybody. As is usual in newly developed mining sections, however, some of the adven- turers were doomed to disappointment. Methods of Smelting. Most of the miners followed the Indian plan of smelting the ore in a log furnace. This was a crude and inefficient device. In place of using gun- powder for blasting, many followed an old method of the Indians. They got dry wood and built a fire on the rock they desired to break. After getting the rock hot they poured cold water on it, causing it to crack so that it co^d be pried up. Better means were soon devised, how- evW, and mines that had been abandoned were opened and fouMd to be exceptionally rich. Ore Routes. Most of the lead that was smelted went to Galena and from there to St. Louis or New Orleans. Long caravans of ore wagons, some of them drawn by as many as eight yoke of oxen, wore deep ruts in the primitive road that reached, by way of Mineral Point and Belmont, this metropolis of the mining country. An- other road went through Madison to Milwaukee, a dis- tance of about a hundred and fifty miles. Some of the lead was sent to Helena, a little village on the Wisconsin River not far from the present village of Spring Green, where a shot tower had been built on a high cliff. From there, boats carried the shot up the old Wisconsin-Fox route to Green Bay or down the river to Prairie du Chien. 120 OUR WISCONSIN From Mining to Agriculture. The lead industry flourished in Wisconsin until the discovery of gold in CaHfornia, copper in the Lake Superior country and silver in the Rocky Mountains and Black Hills seemed to offer miners greater opportunities. Other causes for the decline of lead mining were the tariff of 1846, which re- sulted in a lower price for the ore; the exhaustion of the surface mines together with the difficulty of working them at a lower level ; and the poor facilities for trans- poiting the ore. By 1847 the region had reached the height of its development and was producing 15,000 tons annually ; by 1857 it had ceased to be an important indus- try. Many of the men who had been mining turned their attention to agriculture as the fertile soil made this a more profitable occupation. From 1850 until about 1900 lead mining was for the most part carried on as a winter occupation of the farmers. At present from 3,000 to 4,500 tons are produced each year. ^ Results of Lead Industry. The development of the lead industry brought into the state many men who were notable in its territorial history. Among them were Henry Dodge, afterwards governor, who brought with him from Missouri a number of negro slaves ; Henry Gratiot; and Colonel AVilliam S. Hamilton, a son of Washington's great Secretary of the Treasury. Many years before farmers would naturally have moved to this section, the opening of the mines brought a large and energetic population and considerable capital. The necessity for better transportation* led to demands for * By way of New Orleans it costs $30 a ton to send ore to New York. To get it to Milwaukee for shipment on the Great Lakes cost $10 a ton. It cost $8 more to get it to New York by way of the Erie Canal. Iron ore can now be sent from Superior or Duluth for less than a dollar a ton. FROM FUR TRADING TO LEAD MINING 121 improvements on the Mississippi River, plans for canals and a project for the construction of a railroad from the Mississippi to Lake Michigan. While the fur trade had been responsible for the dis- covery and exploration of Wisconsin, it had done little for its development. The lead industry was responsible for a rapid growth in population, the organization of a state government, the agitation for state canals and the building of the first east and west railroads through this region. It is held by some writers that these railroads were the means of saving the northern part of the Mis- sissippi Valley to the Union during the period of the Civil War. If this is true, then the lead mines helped make the nation "one and indivisible." SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 1. What caused the decline of the fur trade? 2. How did this decline affect the Indians? 3. What is a monopoly? How did John Jacob Astor establish his? 4. What was the principal influence of the fur trade? 5. Why would the discovery of lead cause a rush to Wis- consin? 6. What are squatters? What is meant by Eldorado? 7. How was the lead transported to New York? 8. What cau;.ed the decHne of the lead industry? 9. What w^ere the effects of the lead industry on the history of Wisconsin? 10. Recall the provisions of the Ordinance of 178/ and explain the use of slaves in the mining days. 11. Your United States history discusses internal improve- ments. Read the accounts of the political agitation grow- ing out of them. Would the lead miners favor them? Why? 12. Explain the last sentence of this chapter. CHAPTER XX RED BIRD AND BLACK HAWK Since the beginning of American rule in Wisconsin there has been but one Indian war of any magnitude and this was fought on Wisconsin soil simply because Black Hawk and his Sauk followers fled here from Illinois when they were pursued by the regulars and militia. Five years before the Black Hawk War, however, an Indian uprising led by Red Bird, a Winnebago, threatened to cause serious trouble. A grand council of the Indians had met at Prairie du Chien in the summer of 1825 to settle some boundary disputes. They concluded their meeting on August 18 with a treaty which bound them to perpetual peace. The American government had two representatives at the council, Lewis Cass, governor of the Michigan territory of which Wisconsin had been made a part, and General Clark of Missouri. Because they did not distribute presents with the liberality of the British and French, they made a bad impression on the Indians who called them "sting>^ old women." The Indians were also dis- satisfied because they were not nermitted to have a feast at the conclusion oi the peace conierence and went home with their natural dislike of the Americans greatly in- tensified. Reasons for Dislike. The following winter passed with none of the Indians paying any attention to the RED BIRD AND BLACK HAWK U3 terms of the treaty. It is doubtful if they even under- stood them. At any rate, the Indians did not feel bound by the pledged word of their chiefs, for, in a large meas- ure, each individual of the tribe was a law unto himself. The Winnebagoes, in particular, seemed to be thinking of causing trouble because two of their braves had been imprisoned at Prairie du Chien for thieving. They had about concluded to go on the warpath when an unfor- tunate order from Washington directed the removal of the troops from Fort Crawford to Fort Snelling at St. Paul. The Winnebagoes supposed the departure of the troops was the result of fear. As a consequence the young braves were in a frenzy to attack the whites. In the spring of 1827 some Winnebagoes massacred the members of the Methode family while they were making maple sugar about twelve miles north of Prairie du Chien, This caused great excitement among both the whites and the Indians. Red Bird, a petty Winnebago chief who had his camp on the Black River near the present village of Trempleau, heard from some wily Sioux that two of his men who had been imprisoned at Fort Crawford had been hanged when the troops reached Fort Snelling. Eager for revenge, he set out to take four white scalps as the Indian code required that two enemy scalps be taken for each one taken from his own people. Vengeance. Red Bird had other motives prompting him to attempt vengeance. The American agent at Prairie du Chien had been unwise, the French and British fur traders were making liberal promises to Red Bird, the Winnebagoes had been brutally driven from the lead mines, the Sioux were encouraging them to revolt, and the white men appeared to be frightened. At last, Red 124 OUR WISCONSIN Bird acted. A particularly treacherous murder of an=- other Prairie du Chien family named Grainger by Red Bird and three companions resulted in his obtaining three of the four scalps he had set owl to take. The murderers escaped and fled northward about forty miles to the Winnebago camp at Bad Axe. There they celebrated the deed with a drunken debauch that lasted several days. During the afternoon of the third day two boats appeared on the Mississippi River in front of the camp. The Indians attacked^ but after a fierce en- gagement the boats escaped. Nearly seven hundred bul- lets had pierced the first boat which had been run on a sandbar. Two of the crew were killed outright and two were mortally wounded. Seven savages were killed and fourteen wounded. When news of these events spread throughout the state, a frontier war was expected. Men from the lead mine country came to Fort Crawford to volunteer for a war against the Indians. A battalion of troops came down from Fort Snelling and a regiment under command of General Henry Atkinson came from St. Louis. A volunteer company proceeded up the Wisconsin-Fox route to Butte des Mortes where a council was held with the Winnebagoes. The whites demanded that Red Bird and his companion, Wekau, be surrendered. It was also made clear that failure to comply with this demand would mean that the entire tribe would be hunted like wild animals. Indian runners were sent out to notify the tribes. Finally, Red Bird agreed to give himself up in order that the tribe might be saved. Red Bird's Surrender. At Portage, a tall, manly, graceful fellow dressed in the picturesque regalia of a RED BIRD AND BLACK HAWK 125 Winnebago chief surrendered in a most dignified way. The Red Bird who thus gave himself up did not seem at all like the murderer who was being sought. He was therefore, relieved of wearing irons but was sent to Fort Crawford to await trial. He had many opportunities to escape but he had given his word to remain and stand trial, and he kept his promise. He died in prison before his sentence could be carried out. Red Bird felt that he had done nothing dishonorable. He should not be judged too harshly for he was true to the Indian code of morals which was different from that of the white man. The next year, 1829, Fort Winnebago was built at Portage, the scene of Red Bird's surrender. This was an important event, for Fort Crawford at Prairie du Chien, Fort Howard at Green Bay and Fort Winnebago gave the United States, for the first time, a firm control over what is now Wisconsin. Red Bird's uprising had no serious results such as might have followed if prompt and effective measures had not been taken to suppress it. Sauk Uprising. In 1832, a Sauk uprising under Black Hawk became a war in every sense of the word. In the interval following the Winnebago outbreak, there had been four years of peace and prosperity. The population of the lead region had been increased by the return of those who had left when they heard of the murders com- mitted by Red Bird, and by the arrival of many immi- grants who came with them. Their occupation of this region which the Sauks and Foxes regarded as their hunting grounds, was the principal cause of the Black Hawk War. But for the cowardice of the volunteers this uprising, too, might have been surpressed without serious con- 126 OUR WISCONSIN sequences. As it was. Black Hawk's band was finally annihilated although at the cost of the lives of three hundred frontiersmen and of many women and children who lived on the exposed fringes of the settlements. Reasons for Uprising. Long before the war began, trouble had been brewing between the Sauks and the white settlers in the Sauk territory. By the terms of a treaty made in November, 1804, the chiefs of the Foxes and Sauks had ceded to the United States fifty million acres of land in Missouri, Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin. In return for this they were to receive each year a thou- sand dollars and were to be permitted to enjoy the privilege of living and hunting on this land until it should be sold to settlers. In accordance with this agreement the Sauks under Black Hawk occupied a fertile tract three miles from the mouth of the Rock River. There they cleared and farmed a tract of eight hundred acres and established one of the largest Indian villages on the continent. There was excellent pasture for horses, fish abounded in the river, the soil was productive and spring water was abundant. It was an ideal location and for almost a century the Sauks had made this spot their home. The graves of their fathers were there, a fact which made the soil doubly sacred to them. Restless frontiersmen, however, without the shadow of right be- gan to fence in the cornfields and take possession of the lodges of the Indians. Upon returning from a hunt Black Hawk found a white man's family comfortably occupying his own wigwam. Many of the Indians moved across the river Into Iowa, but the British Band under Black Hawk — so called because two hundred of them had fought un- der Tecumseh — continued to hold the village site against the onrushing tide of settlement. RED BIRD AND BLACK HAWK . 127 Signing of Treaty. In the spring of 1831 when Black Hawk sought to return to his own village after a gloomy winter of fruitless hunting, he was warned away by the whites of the neighborhood who were more numerous than ever. He refused and notified the settlers that unless they left he should use force to compel them to do so. The settlers appealed to the governor of Illinois, complaining that they were in danger of massacre. A force of sixteen hundred volunteers was sent to protect them. These troops, together with ten companies of regulars, made a demonstration against Black Hawk's village. The Indians withdrew and, a little later, signed a treaty, agreeing never to return to the east side of the Mississippi River without the express permission of the United States government. Second Attempt. Black Hawk was then fifty-four years old. He was restless, ambitious, of a confiding disposition and possessed of considerable ability as a leader. He was honest but readily duped by those who w^ere interested in deceiving him. The young hot-heads among his own and other tribes and a Winnebago medi- cine-man named White Cloud urged him to attack the settlers to recover the lands which, they urged, were rightfully theirs and which held the bones of their fore- fathers. Misled by these influences and by the promises of aid from other tribes, Black Hawk, on April 6, 1832, crossed the river with five hundred warriors and accom- panied by all their women, children and belongings. They planned to raise a crop of corn that summer and, the following winter, to go on the warpath. This action, in view of the treaty, clearly would constitute an invasion and, therefore, an act of war. 128 OUR WISCONSIN Famous Men in War. The Wisconsin and Illinois settlements were soon in the midst of feverish prepara- tions for war. The militia was called out and an army raised and placed under the command of General Atkin- son. In this expedition were many men who afterward became famous. Abraham Lincoln, who was in com- mand of a company of Illinois rangers; Zachary Taylor, a colonel of regulars ; Jefferson Davis, one of his lieu- tenants, and Robert Anderson, hero of Fort Sumter were among the three hundred regulars and eighteen hundred volunteers who made up the army. Black Hawk was sur- prised and, sending a defiant message to General Atkin- son, retreated up the Rock River to Stillman's Creek. There, finding that he was not to be assisted by other tribes, he determined to offer to withdraw peaceably to the west of the Mississippi. He sent messengers with a white flag but as they approached the camp they were brutally slain. The enraged Black Hawk then set upon the militia companies and, with a mere handful of braves, routed them. But for the cowardice and treachery of the militia, the Black Hawk War need never have been as bloody as it was. Black Hawk was much encouraged by his first vic- tory in which he had captured a large amount of spoils. Sending his women and children to the headwaters of the Rock River, he began, a series of attacks along the Illinois and Wisconsin border. Many skirmishes were fought with the settlers. In these attacks at least two hundred whites and an equal number of Indians lost their lives. Within three weeks after the Stillman Creek bat- tle, there were four thousand men in the field against Black Hawk. One group of two hundred mounted rangers from the lead region was led by Henry Dodge. RED BIRD AND BLACK HAWK 129 Attempts at Surrender. As this new army moved toward him, Black Hawk retired to the headwaters of the Rock River. From there, with his women, children and the complete equipment of the village, he retreated to the Wisconsin River near the present village of Prairie du Sac. At this point he sought to surrender but his messenger was misunderstood. A battle ensued without advantage to either side. Black Hawk then sent the women and children down the Wisconsin on rafts. He and his warriors were soon driven to the Mississippi In the early days of August they attempted to cross just below the mouth of the Bad Axe in an effort to reach the west bank of the Mississippi where he hoped his people would be left in peace. At this juncture a government supply steamer, the Warrior, appeared on the scene and for the third time Black Hawk attempted to surrender but his white flag was deliberately fired upon. By this' time the pursuing troops had arrived and the helpless Indians were caught between two fires. Death either by drowning or by bullets seemed to face them all. When the battle was over, there remained of Black Hawk's people less than a hundred and fifty of the thousand In- dians who had crossed the river in April. Black Hawk fled to the regions of the Wisconsin River Dells to seek a" refuge among the Winnebagoes. They proved treach- erous and took Black Hawk as a prisoner to Prairie du Chien. Interview with Jackson. Black Hawk was removed to Jefferson Barracks and, later, was taken on a tour of the east to impress him with the greatness of the coun- !S/"t!^ *^^ uselessness of Indian resistance. In April 1833, he had an interview with President Jackson who 130 OUR WISCONSIN told him with characteristic emphasis that the United States would compel obedience from the red men. On the fourth of June he was set free by the President and sent for safe keeping to his hated rival, the Fox chief, Keokuk. In 1834 he published his autobiography, a most interesting document. He died in 1838; but even then he was not allowed to rest, for his bones were dug up and for two years were exhibited about the country by a patent medicine company. Eventually they were re- turned to the State of Iowa where, in 1853, the capitol building in which reposed the box that held his skeleton was destroyed by fire. The treatment of Black Hawk both before and during this war is not creditable to this country. He was patri- otic, romantic in temperament and, in fact, one of the finest specimens of the Indian race. He justified himself a year before his death in a speech to a group of white people. With the simplicity of the truly great he said, "Rock River was a beautiful country. I liked my town, my cornfields and the home of my people. I fought for them." The principal efifect of the war was to call attention to the natural resources and great opportunities of the Wis- consin country. The troops were not soldiers alone, but explorers, adventurers, and enthusiasts. The newspaper correspondents who went with the army sent back glow- ing accounts of the beautiful valleys, hills, and prairies here in the heart of the west. A strong westward move- ment had already set in, and these accounts served to direct immigration to northern Illinois and Wisconsin. At last the spirit of the Winnebago had been humbled and he never again took the warpath. The decisive fail- RED BIRD AND BLACK HAWK 131 ures of Red Bird and Black Hawk demonstrated the futility of Indian attacks upon the white man's rule. Wisconsin never had another serious Indian scare, al- though in 1862 there was a flurry of excitement over the Sioux troubles in Minnesota. SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 1. Why did the Indians dislike the Americans? 2. What authority had an Indian chief over the members of his tribe? 3. Can you justify Red Bird by Indian morals? Christian morals? 4. What do you admire in Red Bird? 5. What was the result of Red Bird's uprising on the control of Wisconsin? 6. Do you blame the Sauk Indians for wanting to retain pos- session of their village? 7. Were they treated fairly? Why was the flag of truce not respected? 8. What subsequently fam.ous men took part in the Black Hawk war? What do you know about them? 9. What do you think of Black Hawk? 10. What were the results of the Black Hawk War? CHAPTER XXI THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN Soon after the Black Hawk War immigrants began pouring into the Wisconsin region. As was pointed out in the preceding chapter, that struggle had advertised its fertile prairies and valleys in the East. Men looking for new homes eagerly purchased the thousands of guide books and pamphlets printed by enterprising publishers. Many of the soldiers were sons of farmers who, as they crossed the state in pursuit of Black Hawk and his band, noted the agricultural possibilities of its fertile valleys and ridges. Boundaries. By 1836 Wisconsin had been suc- cessively a part of four territories. From 1787 to 1800 it was a part of the Northwest Territory; from 1800 to 1809, of Indiana Territory; from 1809 to 1818, of Illinois Territory; and from 1818 to 1836, of Michigan Territory. The settlers, coming as they did in such numbers after the Black Hawk War, made the need of a separate ter- ritorial government imperative. It was almost six hun- dred miles to Detroit, the capital of Michigan, and the means of communication were so primitive that the set- tlers felt it to be as far away as a foreign capital. As early as 1824 Judge James Doty had made an efifort to have a separate territory organized. He proposed to call the new territory Chippewa, and he included within its boundaries the northern peninsula of Michigan and a THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN 133 larg-e section of the present states of ]\Iinnesota and Illinois. Origin of Name, and Meaning. Despite the earnest appeal of Judge Doty it was twelve years before the en- abling act passed Congress. During this period of agita- tion various names were proposed for the new territory, among them Huron, Chippezva and Wiskonsan. A modi- fication of the French Ouisconsin, an Indian name which has been variously interpreted, was finally decided upon by the legislature of 1845. The official spelling was made JVisconsin. First Governor. It Is quite probable that Wisconsin Territory would not have b'een organized, at that time, but for the fact that Arkansas was admitted as a state in that year and Congress, in order to offset the admission of a slave state, admitted Michigan as a free state. This left all of the territory v/est of Lake Michigan without a territorial government. The act creating the Territory of Wisconsin was passed April 20, 1836, to take effect July 3 of the same year. Andrew Jackson, who was then serving his last year as President, appointed Henry Dodge, a Democrat to be the first governor. Its boun- daries on the north and south were fixed as they are today. On the west, the boundary was extended to in- clude all the lands lying north of the state of Missouri and between the Mississippi on the east and the Missouri and White Earth Rivers on the west. Two years later Iowa was cut off and, eventually, the boundaries were fixed as at present. It may be that the state has been "despoiled" by these changes in its boundaries, but it is still as large as most of the other western states ; and its wealth of natural resources has shown the wisdom and 134 OUR WISCONSIN fairness of the men who determined upon the present limits of the state. Population. The law creating Wisconsin Territory appropriated twenty thousand dollars from the Federal Treasury to aid in erecting public buildings at the first capital and five thousand dollars for a territorial library. The laws of Michigan were to remain in force until the first legislature could meet, at such place as the governor might appoint, when a capital was to be located and laws enacted. The census taken before the election of mem- bers of the legislature showed the population to be 22,218. Location of Capitol. The first session of the legisla- ture convened on October 25, 1836, in a story-and-a-half frame building in a village, in the heart of the lead-mine district, newly laid out and called Belmont. The legisla- ture consisted of a council of thirteen members and a house of representatives of twice that number. There was great interest in this first meeting as many matters of importance were to come before it. From every section came land boomers to offer attractive sites for the future capital. Every village in the territory and many that yet had existence only in the minds of promoters, entered the contest. The places whose claims were most vigor- ously pushed were Madison, Belmont, Fond du Lac and Cassville. The influence of Judge Doty was finally suffi- cient to locate the seat of government at Madison, then a forest between Lakes Mendota and Monona. Madison, which had been named in honor of the fourth President of the United States, was a compromise between the conflicting interests of the Green Bay and the mining counties. The village was laid out in the winter of 1836- THE TERRITORY OF IVISCONSIN 135 37, but it was not until November, 1838, that the legisla- ture met there. In the interval, the sessions of the legislature v^ere held at Burlington, which is now in the state of Iowa. During the twelve years of Wisconsin's existence as a territory, Henry Dodge, James Doty and Nathaniel Tallmadge held the office of governor. Much was done to develop the state. Newspapers were established, banks organized, a railroad chartered and the usual political fights engaged in. By 1847 the population had grown to 210,456, a tremendous increase since the census of 1836. Early Settlement. Churches and schools were or- ganized with the first inrush of settlers. The early min- isters were ill provided for and were often subject to genuine hardships. The first Protestant sermon was preached in 1820 at Green Bay by Rev. Jediah Morse, a Presbyterian minister, who was the father of S. F. B. Morse, the inventor of the telegraph. Congregational- ists, Methodists and Baptists soon followed. A Mormon colony at Burlington in Racine county under the leadership of James Jesse Strang, created much excite- ment in the days just preceding the organization of Wis- consin as a state. Strang claimed to be divinely inspired. In the community of two or three thousand persons which he established and named Vorhee, he was obeyed as a dictator. He pretended to discover brass tablets on which were revelations from God. He began a great temple in which the tablets were to be deposited and which should serve as a center for his religious activities. Ambitious to be king as well as prophet, he later formed a branch colony on an island in Lake Michigan. The 136 OUR WISCONSIN fishermen there made life a burden for the colonists, and a border war with some bloodshed resulted. Finally the colony was organized with Strang as "king, apostle, seer, revelator, and translator." He had a "royal" press from which he issued the Northern Islander to spread his gospel. After a tumultous existence the colony went to pieces. At the height of his power Strang's reign was abruptly terminated by the bullet of an assassin. After his death the Gentiles sacked the printing office, de- stroyed the temple and burned a large portion of the "royal city." The Mormons were exiled and their homes confiscated. Some sought refuge in the northern coun- ties of Wisconsin, some drifted to Utah, others wan- dered elsewhere but the "Kingdom of St. James" was no more. Social Reforms. The territorial days of Wisconsin coincide with the social reforms which were being agi- tated throughout the East. Slavery, temperance, wom- an's rights and socialism were widely discussed with interest and enthusiasm. Emerson, Whittier and Garri- son were the leaders in New England. About 1843 the people of Southport, now Kenosha, became much in- terested in the theories of the French socialist, Frourier. He had planned a social system to bring all mankind under one government and one language. It was planned that people should live in groups called phalanxes, each phalanx in one immense house accommodating four hundred families. The members were to eat together but live in separate compartments. Labor was to be volun- tary and in community owned fields and shops but directed by officers of the phalanx. The details were so interesting and attractive in theory that in 1844 a Wis- THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN 137 consin Phalanx was formed with shares at twenty-five dollars each. A settlement was located at Ceresco near Ripon. On Sunday, May 27, 1844, the advance guard of the phalanx, consisting of nineteen men and one boy, camped upon the site of their new home. The next day work v^as begun and, by the Fourth of July, twenty families were there to celebrate the national holiday. They built a "long house" about four hundred feet in length, consist- ing of two rows of tenements with a hall between, all under one roof. Meals better than most of their neigh- bors enjoyed cost but sixty-three cents a week. A charter was obtained from the legislature and the new enterprise seemed to be on the highway to success. The original members were thrifty and industrious and made the community farm pay so well that a dividend of eight per cent was paid. Social meetings were held almost every night in this pioneer community house. Had the members been contented the experiment might have proved successful. But they were not contented. The strong soon objected to being yoked with the weak and lazy, the individual resisted the control of the group and some of the members rebelled at the rule forbidding an individual from acquiring property for himself. All about them, men were becoming rich through land specu- lation and other enterprises. So much dissatisfaction arose that in 1850 the community received authority from^ the legislature to disband. They sold their land at considerable profit. In fact, when they went out into the worid they had forty thousand dollars to distribute among themselves. Life in the early settlements was of the simplest char- acter. The men and women who were making their 138 OUR WISCONSIN homes in this new territory were used to hard work and simple fare. Log houses were built by the pioneer, his neighbors holding a hee to cut and haul his logs for him. Another hee helped to raise it. Saw mills equipped with upright saws and wooden waterwheels were built. The land was cleared and crops planted. Because the crops sometimes failed for lack of rain and also because mar- kets were a long way off, roads bad and prices low, the settlers often became discontented and moved away. But the more persistent farmers succeeded in spite of discouragements and the discomforts of their isolated life. AA^ages were low. Farm hands were paid from six to ten dollars a month, hired girls "worked out" for a dol- lar a w^eek and school teachers received two dollars a week and "boarded around." Money was hard to get. Interest rates were from twelve to twenty-five per cent. Wheat sold for only fifty to seventy-five cents a bushel but as much as forty bushels to the acre was raised. Threat of Secession. The principal event of the year was the session of the legislature. From every part of Wisconsin prominent men crowded into Madison, when the legislature assembled, to share in the primitive gaiety of a pioneer capital. There was roughness, hard drink- ing, much profanity and numerous fights. In a quarrel over the appointment of a sheriff for Grant County a member of the legislature was shot and killed. At the session of 1843 the territorial council adopted a resolu- tion as defiant as that which the legislature of South Carolina adopted a dozen years later. The Council objected to the boundaries of the territory as they had been fixed by Congress, claiming that Wisconsin had THE TERRITORY OT irJSCOXSJN 139 been denied the territori'd ri"-lU'^ pranted bv the Ordi- nance of 1787. They said, "If Congress will not grant these boundaries Ave will be a state out of the Union and possess, exercise and enjoy all the rights, privileges and powers of the sovereign, independent State of Wiscon- sin." Congress paid no attention to this defiance. The council finally saw the right, and, ot course, Wisconsin did not secede. SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 1. Why was Wisconsin organized as a territory? 2. What were its original boundaries? 3. What has Wisconsin to complain of in the present boun- daries? 4. In thinking about the relations of a state to the nation, should we put the interests of the state or those of the nation first? 5. Explain the origin of the name Wisconsin. Why is it called the Badger State? 6. Explain the location of the capital at Madison. 7. Who were the territorial governors? 8. Read the story of the Mormon troubles as given in your United States history. How was Strang associated with . them? 9. Why did the Ceresco settlement fail? What good points did it have? 10. If you have access to any books or magazines about frontier life you will find it interesting to read them and to com- pare the life then and now. 11. Compare wages and prices then and now. 12. Could you justify Wisconsin's threat of secession? CHAPTER XXII THE THIEXIETH STAR With the admission of Wisconsin to statehood, May 29, 1848, the thirtieth star was added to our nation's flag. Wisconsin became a state, however, only after much contention at home and in Congress. It was the last of the states to be formed from the Northwest Territory. In 1838, just two years after its organization as a territory, an unsuccessful attempt was made in Congress to admit Wisconsin as a state. The agitation for state- hood was kept up year after year. Finally, in August, 1846, President Polk signed the bill "to enable the peo- ple of Wisconsin to form a constitution and state gov-- ernment and for the admission of such state into the Union." Constitutional Convention. The governor had called an election for members of a constitutional convention as soon as the enabling act passed Congress. The con- vention met in the territorial capitol at Madison^ October 5, 1846, and continued in session until December 16. Many of the ablest leaders of public opinion in the terri- tory were members of this body of one hundred and twenty-five delegates. It is interesting to note that hali of its members were natives of the states of New York and Vermont and that but twelve were of foreign birth, seven of these being Irishmen. The occupations of the members shows the relative importance of the various THE THIRTIETH STAR 141 industries and professions in the territory. There were sixty-nine farmers, twenty-six lawyers, seven mechanics, six merchants, five miners, three physicians, two lum- bermen and one miller. The occupations of the other members were not recorded. Nearly all belonged to the Democratic party although a few were Whigs. Rejection of Constitution. After a session of eleven weeks and two days a constitution modeled chiefly upon that of New York was adopted. Much personal and party feeling had developed during the meeting of the committee. One member resigned during the session and a number went away determined to defeat the con- stitution when it was submitted to the people. On April 6, 1847, the voters went to the polls and rejected it by a vote of 14,119 for and 20,231 against. This decision was reached after a spirited campaign in which the stump speakers vigorously argued for and against the provisions of the proposed constitution. Songs were written, liberty poles erected and debates were held by the Friends of the Constitution and their opponents. The three arti- cles most opposed were : the proposal to grant wives the right of separate ownership of property, the limitations placed upon banks, and the boundary article according to which the lower St. Croix Valley was excluded from the state. A separate resolution granting equal suffrage and the right to hold office to all male citizens of African blood who possessed the same qualifications as white citizens, was also rejected by a vote of 7,464 for and 14,615 against. Wisconsin was not yet ready for negro suffrage. Second Attempt. A second constitutional conven- tion met in December, 1847 with but five members of the 142 OVK WISCONSIN preceding convention holding seats. The farmers and lawyers again were in a majority. They produced a document similar in most respects to the one of the year before but with the objectionable clauses somewhat modified. An important addition was an article provid- ing for the control of corporations. This constitution w^s ratified by the voters in March, 1848, by a vote of 16,417 for, and 6,174 against. On May 29, 1848, Presi- dent Polk approved the act of Congress whereby Wis- consin was formally admitted to the sisterhood of states. The balance of slave and free states had been preserved by the admission of Iowa, in 1846, and Wisconsin, both without slavery, and of Florida and Texas In 1845, both with slavery. Including Wisconsin there were, at that time, fifteen free and fifteen slave states. First Presidential Election. In November of the year that she was admitted into the Union the infant state was called upon to cast her first presidential vote, and by an interesting political accident had to choose between two former residents. The Whig party had chosen as its candidate General Zachary Taylor who for many years had been an army officer at Fort Crawford and at Fort Winnebago and who had taken part in the Black Hawk War. The Democratic candidate was Lewis Cass who had served as governor of Michigan when Wisconsin was a part of that territory and who had been identified in many ways with the development of the new state. Taylor was elected although Wisconsin's vote went to the Democratic candidate. First Governor. In May, 1848, Nelson Dewey was elected governor. In his opening message to the legisla- ture he congratulated the people because of "the favor- THE THIRTIETH STAR 143 able auspices under which the State of Wisconsin has taken her position among the families of states. With a population of nearly one quarter of a million and rapidly increasing, free from the incubus ot a state debt and rich in the return yielded as the reward of labor in all the branches of industrial pursuits, our state occupies an enviable position abroad that is highly gratifying to the pride of our people." Population. The population of the new state was less than five persons to the square mile. One might travel for days either along the three hundred and sixteen miles of its greatest length or the two hundred and ninety-five miles of its greatest width and not see a human habitation. The region northwest of the Wiscon- sin River was practically undiscovered country with but here and there a lumber camp beside some stream. Mil- \vaukee with eighteen thousand people, was the largest city. Racine, the second city, claimed four thousand, and Madison had about three thousand. Industries. The principal industries of the state were mining, lumbering and farming. In 1850, forty million pounds of lead ore were smelted and one hundred and fifty million feet of pine lumber were sawed. Four mil- lion bushels of corn were grow^n on the farms. From the forests thousands of pounds of maple sugar were pro- duced. The manufacture of leather, beer, textiles and iron had begun. Wisconsin's resources were just begin- ning to be realized. A great future was in store for the new state. 144 OUR WISCONSIN SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 1. When was Wisconsin admitted into the Union? 2. What is the process by which a territory becomes a state? Trace this process in Wisconsin. 3. Why was the first constitution rejected? 4. What were the conditions favorable to the future develop- ment of this state? 5. Who was the first governor? 6. Why did Congress seek to preserve a balance between the free and the slave states? 7. Would you have voted for Taylor or Cass? Consult your United States history before you answer. CHAPTER XXIII FROM 1848 TO 1860 A Free State. The twelve years between the admis- sion of Wisconsin as a state and the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States was a period of social and political imrest. By the addition of Texas, Oregon and the Mexican cession, more than a million square miles had been added to the United States, and the country was struggling to determine whether these addi- tions should be free or slave territory. Wisconsin was a free state and its people opposed the passage of any law to admit any state from the territory just acquired unless it contained a provision forever prohibiting slavery. When the so called Wilmot Proviso was before the United States Senate, one of our senators, Isaac P. Walker, voted for a bill which would admit such states without any mention of slavery. Henry Dodge, the other senator, voted against the bill. The Wisconsin legisla- ture thereupon passed a resolution asking Walker to resign but commending Dodge. Walker kept his seat but after this incident always voted with the opponents of slavery. Fugitive Slave Law. On September 18, 1850, the President approved the Fugitive Slave Law. This act brought the whole machinery of the government into play, if necessary, to capture runaway slaves and return them to their masters. Others terms of the law made it 146 OUR WISCONSIN seem that every man and woman of the free states was a partner in the slave business and that the North was no longer the land of freedom. Wisconsin political conven- tions adopted resolutions disapproving this law and even declared for its nullification by this state. The law had its origin in the attempts of northern people to assist in the escape of slaves to Canada where they would be free. The usual route of the escaping slaves was across the Ohio River, through Ohio or Indiana to the Great Lakes and thence to Canada. These secret routes were fre- quently called the Underground Railroad. Wisconsin was off the "railroad" but occasionally slaves were sent through the state. It was three years after the passage of the law before Wisconsin had occasion to act upon a case arising under the Fugitive Slave Law. Story of Joshua Glover. In the winter of 1853-54, Joshua Glover, a runaway slave, was employed in a saw mill a few miles north of Racine. Racine was a way station on the Wisconsin underground route to Canada and sentiment for the abolition of slavery had made much headway among its people. The Missouri master of Glover, hearing the slave was near Racine secured a war- rant for his return and in company with two United States deputy marshals surprised the negro in a little cabin near the mill where with three other negroes he was playing cards. He resisted arrest but was clubbed into submission and handcuffed; then bleeding and mangled, he was thrown into an open wagon to be taken to Racine. There was so much sympathy for him in Racine that his captors concluded to take him to Mil- waukee. After a trip requiring most of the night, he was FROM 1848 TO i860 147 thrown at dawn into the county jail where he lay for hours before a physician attended to his wounds. The antislavery leaders of Milwaukee were at once aroused. Sherman M. Booth, then the editor of a small newspaper called The Wisconsin Free Democrat, took a prominent part in the affair that followed. In the morn- ing he rode up and down the streets of Milwaukee on a white horse summoning the people to gather at the court- house at two o'clock. At five o'clock a delegation of citizens from Racine arrived to assist in obtaining jus- tice for the negro. At six o'clock the mob demanded that the sheriff give up the prisoner. When he refused, the doors of the jail were battered down and Glover was taken out and handed over to men who put the fugitive aboard a lake boat bound for Canada where he arrived safely. The deputies and Garland, the owner, were ar- rested for assault but later v/ere released. Booth now became the center of a long and expensive series of lawsuits. His activities were upheld by a ma- jority of the papers of the state although the press generally denounced mob violence. He was arrested under the Fugitive Slave Law but the Supreme Court of Wisconsin held this law unconstitutional and he was discharged. The United States Supreme Court reversed this decision and Booth was again thrown into jail. He escaped but was recaptured and remained in confinement until he was pardoned by President Buchanan a few days before Lincoln was inaugurated. Booth was ruined financially, but his activities had much to do with the development of a strong abolition sentiment in Wis- consin. Kansas-Nebraska Bill. Congressional action which aroused further intense antagonism in Wisconsin was 148 OUR WISCONSIN the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill in 1854. An immediate result of this feeline was a meeting of protest held in Ripon on the last day of February, 1854. At this meeting it was proposed to form a new political organ- ization to be known as the Republican party. The fol- lowing July a state convention was held and an organ- ization perfected. Michigan leaders had held a state convention a week earlier and in consequence have claimed for Michigan the honor of originating this great political party. However, as the first meeting was held in this state and as the name was suggested here, Ripon, Wisconsin, is clearly entitled to be called the birthplace of the party of Lincoln. Railway Charters. Railway charters had been granted very early in the history of the territory. In 1847, four companies were chartered but the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway Company was the only one to become active. By 1857 a railroad had been built from Milwaukee to Prairie du Chien. In the meantime other companies were pushing into the state. The Chi- cago and Northwestern built as far as Fond du Lac in 1858. Congress made two large grants of land to aid in railroad construction in Wisconsin. A mad scramble for this land took place before the legislature, all of the exist- ing companies seeking the rich prizes. The people were suspicious of the honesty of the railroads and the state officers, and an investigating committee was appointed. Political Corruption. A story of wholesale bribery and corruption implicating members of the legislature and even the governor was told in the three hundred pages of the committee's report. It is a curious fact that the legislature which was so easily corrupted should in FROM iS^i8 TO i860 149 the same year investigate the administration of the state land department. Here criminal conditions were found to exist. Political favorites had been permitted to enrich themselves at the expense of the public. The books in the offices of the treasurer and land commissioners were in hopeless confusion. The revelations of the conduct of the state officers shocked the state as had the railroad in- vestigation. It was at this time that the term Forty Thieves was applied to the lobbyists and officials who were shamelessly robbing the state. They met at Monk's Hall in Madison a square away from the Capitol, where they held high revel, calling themselves The Monks of Monk's Hall. However, the people of the state generally regarded the shorter and uglier term as the more ap- propriate one. Civil' Strife. Although events connected with the slavery dispute seriously occupied the attention of the citizens of Wisconsin, they still had time for matters con- cerned with the development of the state. Feeling ran so high that civil war threatened as a result of the election of a governor in 1855. William A. Barstow, a Democrat of AVaukesha county, had held the office for one year but there were occasional sentiments of disloyalty ex- pressed. The new Republican party nominated Coles Bashford, a Winnebago county lawyer. The Republicans bitterly attacked Barstow's administration, charging him with dishonesty in office and accusing him of being a party to the railroad frauds which were then taking place. The Forty Thieves became an issue in the election. The state canvassers of the vote declared Barstow reelected by a majority of one hundred and fifty seven. As these offi- cers were Democrats, the Republicans at once raised the crv of fraud and claimed that the Democrats had falsified 130 OUR WISCONSIN election returns from the counties which were late in sending in returns. Governor Barstow prepared for his inauguration with- out regard to the charges. Early in January seven com- panies of militia arrived in Madison and escorted him to the Capitol where two thousand persons were awaiting his appearance. With much ceremony he went to the senate chamber and took the oath of office. In the mean- time Bashford stepped into the supreme court room and was quietly sworn in by the chief justice. Bashford now went to the governor's office and demanded possession but of course was refused. Tremendous excitement ensued all over the state. Re- publicans and Democrats prepared for what they be- lieved was inevitable, an appeal to physical force. A remarkable lawsuit followed and, after much sparring by the iaAvyers, the court finally decided that fraud had been committed and that Bashford had been legally elected by a majority of more than a thousand votes. In the meantime, Barstow had resigned and the office was being held by the Lieutenant Governor Arthur Mc- Arthur. This increased the difficulties of the situation as McArthur seemed resolved to hold the office. There was great uneasiness in Madison and throughout the state as partisans of both sides had armed themselves and were drilling in anticipation of the coming w^ar. But Mc- Arthur surrendered without a serious struggle and armed conflict was averted. The crisis was so serious that it needed but a breath to fan the flame into a state wide con- flagration. Rapid Progress. Despite official corruption and political irregularities, the state made remarkable prog- FROM 1S48 TO i860 151 ress during its first twelve years of statehood. It was an era of canal building. Much attention was paid to projects to develop water routes by way of the Rock River and along the old Wisconsin-Fox route. Both projects failed after millions of dollars had been spent by the government and by capitalists. In January, 1849, the first telegram to reach the state was received in Milwaukee. In 1850, the University of Wisconsin was formally opened. Immi- grants came to the state in a steady stream. By 1860 the state had a population of over three quarters of a million, an increase of three hundred per cent since its admission as a state. Important laws to supplement the constitution were passed and other laws were revised. By the time that Wisconsin was called upon to take its part in the struggle to preserve the Union, a more healthy tone pre- vailed in its public life than the scandals of the earlier years had promised. The part played by the state during the trying years of the Civil War was one of honesty, honor and devoted loyalty. SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 1. What was Wisconsin's attitude toward slavery? 2. What was the Wilmot Proviso? 3. Do you approve of Booth's conduct? 4. What was the Underground Railroad? 5. What law caused the Republican party to be organized? 6. Do the black spots on the pages of Wisconsin's history in- dicate moral weakness of all her people? 7. Compare the struggle between Barstow and Bashford with that of the presidential election of 1876. 8. Summarize the development of Wisconsin during the first twelve years of statehood. 9. The novel Lamrre deals with an interesting character in Wisconsin history. You may be sufficiently interested to read this book. CHAPTER XXIV IN THE CIVIL WAR For the Union. The history of the Civil War is a record of four years of bravery and perseverance. Wis- consin's part in the great struggle which saved the Union was one of unquestioned loyalty and devotion. The story of the ninety thousand men £rom the Badger State who fought under the Stars and Stripes fills many volumes of state reports. It was a war for the Union and not for the advancement of any state. We must, therefore, think of it as a national war and not make use of its incidents for the selfish glorification of any state or of any man or group of men. We are proud of Wisconsin's part because we are proud of the nation. Loyalty. There were but four states younger than ours when the war began. The population of Wisconsin consisted mainly of people from New York and New England together with large groups of European colonists. The foreign born and men of native birth were equally loyal when the emergency came. Loyalty found expression in the prompt action of every city and hamlet. The hearts of the people were stirred by the impulse of patriotism. The national colors met the eye on every side and the Star Spangled Banner was sung with a fer- vor until then unknown. But there were sentiments of disloyalty then as there have been since. One or two IN THE CIl'IL WAR 153 Copperhead newspapers referred to Abraham Lincoln as a murderer, a German daily in Milwaukee and an En- glish daily in LaCrosse being especially conspicuous in their onslaughts on the government and denunciation of the war. But in the darkest days of defeat on the battle- field and of sedition at home, there was no abatement of loyalty among the great mass of the people. Eager volunteers kept the state's quota filled. Loyal women aided by organizing circles to knit and sew for the men in the field. Draft Riots. Draft riots occurred as they did in other states but without serious results. Wisconsin's quota in the draft was 11904, but volunteers had come forward in such numbers that it was necessary to raise but 4,537 men by conscription. The chief draft troubles came from the recently arrived European immigrants, not yet Americanized. Having escaped from militarism at home they were unwilling to join the Union xA^rmy. Luxemburg residents of Ozaukee and Washington Coun- ties became riotous. At Port Washington and West Bend the situation was serious. Prompt action by the governor and the arrest of the leaders checked the troubles. At Milwauk-ee financial difBculties complicated the situation, and for a week that city was the scene of mob violence. Fifty two rioters were arrested after which there was no further trouble. These few instances of disloyalty but serve to emphasize the fact that the state was fundamentally true to the cause of freedom. Depression. Wisconsin's three war governors did valiant service at home. War expenses were startlingly large for a new state but rigid economy and the honesty 154 OUR WISCQXSIX of the state government helped its people to meet all de- mands promptly. With the fall of Fort Sumter, thirty- eight AVisconsin banks failed and financial depression was everywhere evident. But after the decisive battle of Gettysburg, the volume of business increased remark- ably and industrial paralysis was averted. The state taxes for war purposes amounted to $11,652,503.67. This was later refunded to the state by the federal government. Local governments also raised large amounts that were not refunded and of which no record is available. The men withdrawn by the war from productive enterprises made it still more difficult to carry on the usual affairs of life. The state sent 91,379 men to the front, 1,263 more than the government called for. These volunteers constituted one out of every nine of the total population or one in every five of the male population, and more than half of all the voters of the state. The losses by death alone were 10,752, one out of every eight in the service. When the war ended and the soldier boys came home, there were many widows and orphans who looked in vain for their loved ones. At almost every Wisconsin fireside there was a vacant chair. Many of those who re- turned were the wretched victims of disease or wounds. Bravery. Bravery on the field of battle was as con- spicuous as was patriotism at home. In his memoirs, General W. T. Sherman wrote of our troops: ''We esti- mated a Wisconsin regiment as equal to an ordinary brigade." In nearly every notable engagement of the war, Wisconsin's soldiers had an honorable part. It is impossible in a chapter or even in a volume to relate in detail the achievements of these Wisconsin troops. First Death. A youth of nineteen was the first Wis- consin soldier killed by a Confederate bullet. On the IN THE CIVIL WAR 155 morning of July 2, 1861, as the First Wisconsin regiment was crossing the Potomac to prevent Johnson from join- ing Beauregard at Bull Run, George Drake, a private from Milwaukee, w^as shot and killed. At the first battle of Bull Run the Second Wisconsin Regiment w^on the praises of the commanding officers. This organization lost the largest number of men of any regiment in the Union Army during the war. Almost twenty per cent of its members were killed or died of wounds, and more than half were wounded. Iron Brigade. Three of the five regiments composing the famous Iron Brigade were AVisconsin regiments. They deserved this title which they are said to have re- ceived at the battle of South Mountain in 1862. General ]\IcClellan's headquarters in this battle, w^ere so located that he could see along the road to the gorge in the moun- tain. General Hooker came dashing down the road to headquarters. General McClellan asked, "What troops are those ad- vancing on each side of the pike near the gorge in that murderous fire?" *'That," replied General Hooker, *'is Gibbon's Brigade, men from AVisconsin and Indiana." "They must be made of iron," exclaimed McClellan. ''By the Eternal," responded Hooker, "they are iron; if you had seen them at Second Bull Run, as I did, you would know them to be of iron." "The battle of Antietam was our bloodiest day," sa3^s General E. S. Bragg, who at one time commanded the Iron Brigade. This was probably the bloodiest battle of the Civil War. In it, this famous brigade lost more than two thirds of its men. The brigade was built up again 156 OUR WISCONSIN by enlistments and participated in the bloody battle of Gettysburg where again it lost two thirds of its men. John Burns of Gettysburg. An incident associated with the Seventh Wisconsin's part at Gettysburg has been made famous by Bret Harte's poem John Burns of Gettysburg. During the fighting there, a quaint looking old man approached the boys of Company E and asked them to loan him a gun. He looked like a character from the da3's of the American Revolution ; he had been a soldier in both the War of 1812 and the Mexican War. When the Confederates drove away his cows and looted his barnyard, the old spirit revived in him. General Callis of Lancaster gave him a gun and ammunition. In the thick of the fight the old man loaded and fired as cool as if he were hunting squirrels. Three times wounded, he continued to send his leaden messengers of death among the enemy, and refused to leave the Wisconsin men whom he had chosen as his comrades. In almost every important battle of the war there were Wisconsin troops. At Corinth, Williamsburg, Chancel- lorville, Vicksburg, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Mission Ridge, Spotsylvania and the Wilderness they upheld the honor of the Badger State. We cannot review all of their deeds here, but they made a proud record for our Wisconsin. A few more will sufiice. Daring of Gushing. On the twenty-seventh of Octo- ber, 1864, Lieutenant W. B. Gushing, a native of Wau- kesha County, performed one of the most daring deeds of the war. The Confederate ram, Albemarle, had caused great destruction to L^nion shipping and had been un- successfully attacked by the Federal fleet. At this time it was holding the river front of the town of Plymouth, IN THE CIVIL WAR 1.S7 North Carolina, which the Union forces were attacking^ by land and water. Gushing planned a torpedo boat raid. With a party of fourteen men, he proceeded in the dark to where the Albemarle lay. Although the boat w^as guarded by a boom of logs which surrounded her at a distance of thirty feet and was guarded by a force ten times as large as his little crew, the lieutenant ran his boat through a rain of bullets to the side of the Albe- marle, placed a torpedo under her and blew her up. His men were captured but his own daring spirit enabled him to elude the enemy and escape. Gushing received a vote of thanks from Gongress and the congratulations of the Navy Department. He was also promoted to the rank of lieutenant commander. A student of naval history has written, "It is safe to say that the naval history of the w^orld affords no other example of such marvelous cool- ness and professional skill as that shown by Gushing." In Confederate Prisons. Wisconsin soldiers suffered in the great Confederate prisons, Libbey at Richmond, Virginia, and Andersonville in Georgia. In many cases confinement in these prisons was a living death. On the night of February 9, 1864, more than a hundred prisoners escaped from the Libbey Prison. A secret tunnel was ingenuously excavated under the direction of General Harrison G. Hobart, originally of the Twenty-first Wis- consin. After the men had passed through, he closed the tunnel and followed those w^ho had previously escaped. A series of remarkable adventures enabled more than half of them to evade the pursuing guards and bloodhounds and reach the Union lines in safety. "Old Abe." Perched upon a standard or a gun of the Eighth Wisconsin Regiment in all of the marches and the I "Old Abe'' 7.V THE CiriL IVAR 159 thirty-six battles and skirmishes in which the regiment fought, was a live eagle known as Old Abe. He had been captured by an Indian on the Flambeau River, a branch of the Chippewa, and sold to some soldiers of Company C at Eau Claire for two dollars and a half. With this company Old Abe went through the war, screaming defiance at the enemy. Usually he was carried upon a perch but during battles he was fond of sitting on a can- non or of soaring and screaming above the raging tumult telow. General Price, a Confederate leader, once ordered him to be killed at all hazards but none of the bullets which hit him did the eagle any serious harm. Old Abe became as well known as many of the leaders of the war and, until his death in 1881, was the principal attraction at all the great soldiers' reunions. Atonement. The incidents which have been told in this chapter are but a few of the many that are associated with Wisconsin's soldiers in this war. Nor were deeds of valor confined to a few regiments. Acts of heroism marked the conduct of every regiment and every battery that Wisconsin sent to the front. All of these achieve- ments have brought honor to this state, but that is the smallest part of the contribution of these brave men. We should always think of them as having helped to make this a "nation one and indivisible," and in the words of the immortal Lincoln we should "be dedicated to the task re- maining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the peo- ple, shall not perish from the earth." 160 OUR WISCONSIN SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 1. Were Wisconsin soldiers fighting against slavery or to pre- serve the Union? 2. Try to imagine the situation in the state when the troops were leaving for the front. 3. Read Bret Harte's poem John Brown of Gettysburg. Why are Wisconsin people interested in it? 4. What do you know of the bravery of the Iron Brigade? 5. Compare Cushing's deed with that of Lieutenant Hobson in the Spanish American war. 6. A complete story of Old Abe is given in the Wisconsin Memorial Day pamphlet for 1904. Read it. 7. What did Wisconsin gain by the Civil War? What did it lose? 8. Who were the Copperheads? In war times how do one's personal rights and privileges change? What is loyalty? 9. Did Wisconsin atone in the Civil War for her threats of secession at the time of the boundary dispute, and for her threatened nullification of the Fugitive Slave Law? 10. What Civil War regiment, or regiments, were recruited in your locality? 11. What provision in the state constitution prevented the sell- ing of bonds to finance the war? 12. Wisconsin had three governors during the war. Find their names in the Blue Book. Make a list of all the governors of the state. 13. There were about 9000 Indians in this state at the time of the Civil war. About six hundred volunteered for service on the Union side. How does this compare with the white man's loyalty? CHAPTER XXV THE MELTING POT The census of 1920 showed Wisconsin to have a population of 2,632,670. Of these 459,904 were foreign born. About one-third (150,680) of these came from Germany. Poland comes next with 50,548. Norway, Russia, and Swe3en follow in the order named. There "w^efe about three hundred thousand additional who were born in America of parents born abroad. Almost every ff3ttotta4TtT is represented, even Africa has set sixty-three persons born in the dark continent. If any state in the Union is a melting-pot that state is our own. Origin of Popul^jtion. Before jthe_days of lead mining the population was chiefly French. During the twelve years that Wisconsin was a territory the population was increased principally by Americans from the South and East, but since the early days of state-hood it has gained population principally by immigration from Europe, Ger- mans and Scandinavians being the most numerous. In addition there are many English, Irish, Scotch, Welsh, Poles, Bohemians, Hollanders, Russians and French. In the last few years the gains have been largely from the southern countries of Europe, the Italians predominating. The merging of all these peoples into one who shall have American ideals, American standards and American con- ceptions of democracy has been a serious problem in Wis- consin. For the most part these people from the old world have been glad to learn our language, our form of government, our customs and our understandins: of t^'^ 162 OUR WISCONSIN relation of the individual to the state. The public schools have been an important agency in the transformation. All of the processes which change foreigners into Ameri- can citizens, citizens w^ithout a hyphen, have been not in- aptly called the Melting Pot. Reasons for Migration. The migrations to Wisconsin from the various countries of Europe were due to the same causes that resulted in the settlement of the thir- teen original colonies. These causes may be classed as political, religious and economic. In Germany there had been much discontent with the existing government anc! several uprisings intended to make that country more democratic, had been put down. Thousands of dissatis- fied Germans, therefore, turned to America as a land of liberty and opportunity. The low price of land and the liberal laws of Wisconsin attracted many of them to this territory. Plans were made for a German-American state, and Wisconsin was regarded as the ideal region for carrying out this program. Here would be a state with German life, German schools, German courts and as- semblies and German science and philosophy. German would be the official language and the German spirit would rule. This project resulted in a great deal of advertising of the resources, climate and laws of Wisconsin ; and, al- though no such German state was ever formed, Germans as groups and as individuals came here in large numbers. It also chanced that in the same year that Wisconsin was admitted into the Union, a political, economic and social upheaval in Germany known as the Revolution of 1848 took place. This sent a large number to America, where they turned their attention to the state in which an alien could vote after a residence of one year. THE MELTING POT 163 The influx of German immigrants was fairly steady until the days of the Civil War. Then, after a temporary cessation, it continued until the close of the century. To- day, perhaps a third of Wisconsin's people are eithe German born or are children of German born parents. The eastern and central parts of the state received the largest number of German immigrants. In a little while the Germans were followed by other nationalities. Before 1840, there were but six Norwegian settlements in North America, and three of these were located in Wisconsin. The first Norwegian settlement in Wisconsin was the fourth in America. It was founded at Jefferson Prairie in Rock County by Ole Nattestad. He was soon joined by many others. To-day, the Norwegian element in our population is second only to the German They are scattered all over the state, but are most numerous in Dane County. They also constitute an im- portant element in the northern part where they have had much to do with the development of that portion of the state. Cornishmen from the southwest of England early settled in the lead region. As the lead mines in their native country had declined in importance, they hoped, in the new world, to find new prosperity. The discovery of gold in California caused many of them to move to that state but most of them returned. A large number of the people of the cities and villages of the three lead min- ing counties in the southwestern part of the state are their descendants. There are many Welsh people in this section also. Other Welsh settlements are found in Winnebago, Columbia, Dodge, Sauk and Racine Counties. Most of the Irish who came to the new world about the middle of the century preferred to remain in the cities. 164 OUR WISCONSIN Early in its history the city of Milwaukee had a con- siderable Irish element whose leaders had much influence in politics. The Irish are now widely distributed through the state, seldom being found in colonies. Swiss Colony. In some respects the most interesting story connected with the settlement of Wisconsin is that of the Swiss colony in Green County. These people came from the mountainous canton of Glarus, Switzerland. In 1844 there was much distress there because the popula- tion had increased until the cultivated land of the valleys and the summer pastures on the Alps would no longer support all of them. After much discussion it was re- solved to send some of their number to America. An appropriation was made to pay the expenses of two repre- sentatives who were to locate a tract of land in the new world for those who were willing to leave their mountain homes. The two wandered over a large part of Ohio, In- diana and Illinois, coming finally to a tract thirty miles from Mineral Point, Wisconsin, which they deemed suitable for colonization. The rocky slopes reminded them of their own mountainous Glarus, and they chris- tened the spot New Glarus. Here they built some cabins and awaited the coming of their kinsmen. It was supposed that the others would wait until a report was sent back but, impatient to move, nearly two hundred men, women and children started on the long journey only a month after their representatives had left. Arrangements had been made for but one hundred and forty persons. Consequently, the hardships of the journey were terrible. Packed in the narrow quarters of a boat, they sailed down the Rhine, sleeping on the bare boards of the vessel's deck and dependent upon the country for THE MELTIXG POT 165 provisions. While waiting for the ocean vessel at New Dieppe, they camped on the shore in gypsy fashion. After forty-nine days of ocean travel the half-starved party arrived at Baltimore. Two deaths had occurred during the voyage. They went to St. Louis where they expected to meet the two pioneers who had preceded them. There two houses were rented, in which they lived while two more men went in search of the lost leaders. Perseverance finally won and the party started overland from Galena to their new home in Wisconsin. The more robust of the men went on ahead carrying their belongings on their backs while the remainder of the party followed at their leisure. In August, 1845, they arrived in New Glarus, five thousand miles from their native mountains and valleys. They took up the occupation of dairying which they had followed in their native land and soon made the district we know as Green County famous for its Swiss cheese. It is estimated that there are now in Green County about eight thousand persons of Swiss birth or Swiss descent. The county is one of the leading dairy sections' of the world. Similar tales could be told of the struggles of other groups to make homes in Wisconsin. The loyalty of these settlers was shown in the Civil War when whole regiments were recruited from people of a single national- ity. The Ninth, the Twenty-sixth and the Forty-fifth regim.ents were German ; the Fifteenth, Scandinavian ; the Seventeenth, Irish; the Twelfth, French; and in many others was a sprinkling of foreign-born soldiers and In- dians. One of the great leaders of the time was General Carl Schurz, a German who fled from his native country Carl Schurz THE MELTING POT 167 after the Revolution of 1848, settled in Watertown, Wis- consin, and later became a member of a President's cabi- net. In the Great War, Wisconsin young men of foreign parentage did their part as well as the native born. The product of the melting pot v^as proven to be one hundred per cent American. SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 1. Why may Wisconsin be called a polyglot state? 2. What per cent of the inhabitants are foreign-born? 3. What are some of the differences between the laws of Wis- consin and those of European countries? 4. Are there any foreign settlements near your home? 5. Why should Wisconsin have a strong compulsory education law? 6. Locate on a map all places named in this chapter. CHAPTER XXVI SINCE THE CIVIL WAR After the return of the soldiers from the Civil War the history of Wisconsin was much the same as that of its neighbors. There was one great desire in the hearts of the people, that of restoring the prosperity of the Badger State. Forests were felled, cities were built, ore was mined, manufacturing was established and railroads w^ere constructed. Soon the industries of the state became more diversified than they had ever been, and distributed among the three great sources of wealth, agriculture, mining and manufacturing. The industrial develop- ment will be sketched in another chapter, as will the development of education and literature. We shall here look at some of the political and other events which held" the attention of the people. Johnson's Impeachment. The impeachment of An- drew Johnson by the House of Representatives in the bitter days of reconstruction that followed the Civil War aroused much interest in this state as in others. The trial in the Senate lasted for two months. When the vote was taken thirty-five senators (all Republicans) voted for conviction and nineteen senators (twelve Democrats and seven Republicans) voted for acquittal. Johnson thus failed of conviction although a change of one vote would have made the constitutional two-thirds majority and have resulted in his removal from ofifice. One of the SINCE THE CIVIL WAR 169 senators to vote against his conviction was a Wisconsin senator, James R. Doolittle. The state opposed him at that time and he failed of re-election, but it now honors him for his brave stand. It would have been a dangerous precedent to have removed a President because he dif- fered with Congress and quarreled with it. A Wiscon- sin senator thus helped to save the country from doing what it might afterward have regretted. Railroad Extension. Immediately after the war, rail- road extension was carried on in the state at a remark- able rate. Governor Washburn pointed out the dangers that might arise from the development and control of transportation by corporations. He tried to combat the pass evil but was unsuccessful. His warning, however, came just before the panic of 1873 which demoralized the commercial and manufacturing interests of the state and swept a new party into power. The legislature promptly passed the Potter law, a drastic measure to control the railroads. It organized a railroad commission and gave it very large powers. The railroad managers fought the law in the courts but they were defeated and compelled to obey it. Later the law was materially modified in the interests of the companies, and eventually it became of little importance in the control of railroads. In 1905, after another long struggle, the state created another railroad commission and clothed it with powers as broad as those given under the Potter law. This measure and a bill regulating the taxation of corporations were passed under the leadership of Governor LaFollette after a long and bitter poHtical campaign for the control of the corpora- tions by the state. The railroad problem has not yet been settled satisfactorily although it has been under consid- eration for so long a time. 170 OUR WISCONSIN Later Social Reforms. Alany other significant poli- tical contests have taken place in the state but most of these are so recent that a study of them must be post- poned until historians can look at them dispassionately. We have had struggles over the extension of suffrage to women, over prohibition, over the teaching of foreign languages, over taxation and over the government of cities. Some of these have been settled. Wisconsin was among the thirty-six states to ratify the amendment to the Federal constitution prohibiting the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages, and was the first state to ratify the amendment giving women the right to vote. Spanish American War. Wisconsin did her part in the Spanish American War. In some of the engagements of that short war soldiers of the Badger State repeated the heroic deeds of the Civil War. The losses sustained by Wisconsin in this war were very small, two men being killed in battle and three wounded. About seventy lost their lives from diseases contracted in the camps. Forest Fires. In 1871 the state suffered from ter- rible forest fires. From the eighth day of July until the ninth of October not a drop of rain fell in northern Wis- consin. Wells dried up, swamps disappeared, streams became rills and finally ceased to flow. The forests had been cut and the dry brush left in the place where the trees had once stood. The towns were built of lumber, the fences were made of rails, everything was ready for the spark which touched ofif the conflagration. On the eighth and ninth days of October the flames swept across Oconto, Brown, Door, Shawano, Manitowoc and Ke- waunee Counties, burning everything in their path. Trains, caught in the path of the flames, were run through SINCE THE CIVIL WAR 171 the fires at full speed to prevent their being set on fire. More than a thousand lives were lost, many people were injured and thousands lost all of their possessions. But for prompt measures of relief the horrors of starvation would have been added to those of fire. From all parts of the country came contributions for the relief of the sufferers. It chanced that this destructive fire occurred at the same time as the vast prairie fires of Minnesota and the memorable conflagration which destroyed a large part of Chicago. Wisconsin has since had many disastrous fires but none to equal that of 1871. A severe drought in 1908 threatened a repetition of the horrors of the earlier years. A great deal of damage was done but a timely drop in temperature and a heavy rain averted what might have been an appalling tragedy. Severe floods have been experienced. The breaking of a dam almost destroyed the city of Black River Falls. Several cyclones have caused the destruction of property and the loss of life. In New Richmond on the twelfth of June, 1899, a storm lasting for less than five minutes killed more than fifty people, injured scores of others and destroyed property worth more than a million dollars. SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 1. In your history of the United States read the account of the impeachment of Andrew Johnson. Was Senator Doolittle justified in voting against the President's impeachment? 2. What influences have helped to make Wisconsin a great state? 3. What are commissions? Why is the Railroad Commission so important to us? 4. Why should state officers be forbidden to use railway passes? 5. Describe any great disaster that has occurred in Wisconsin. CHAPTER XXVII IN THE WORLD WAR When the Great War broke out In Europe In 1914 the people of the United States were shocked and surprised. They tried to preserve a neutral attitude, but as the hor- rors of the conflict became clear to them and the aggres- sions of the Central Powers more remorseless their sympathies turned toward the victims of militarism, especially Belgium. When the acts of Germany toward the United States had become so intolerable that a con- flict with her could not be avoided, our people were still trying to avoid war if it were possible honorably to do so. A¥hen war was declared against Germany on April 6, 1917, the country was convinced that the step was abso- lutely necessary. Wisconsin was ready to do her part and she did it w^ell. It is too early to write a satisfactory account of this state's activities in the two and a half years of war. The records are not yet available from which to write a clear narrative of the work of the Badger State in the Great War. Enough is known, however, to make every citizen of the state proud of the achievements of our Wisconsin. It has been pointed out that Wisconsin has a large population of German birth or descent. There were many noisy propagandists at work among them appeal- ing to their racial prejudice and working upon their sympathies for the Fatherland. To many it seemed for a IN THE WORLD WAR 173 time as if they might be successful and that this state would not be found loyal and true ; but when the test came Wisconsin was found steadfast. When it became neces- sary to decide for or against our country, our foreign born proved their loyalty to the Stars and Stripes. The answer to those who doubted Avhere Wisconsin stood was not the speeches of a noisy minority but the proud record of the whole state throughout the war. Councils of Defense. The list of activities in which Wisconsin was first among the states is a long and worthy one. The first State and County Councils of De- fense were organized here. Wisconsin was the first state to make complete reports to Washington of the four draft registrations. In the four Liberty loans and the Victory loan Wisconsin subscribed $471,194,250. The governors of the Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago re- ported that Wisconsin over subscribed her quota by a larger per cent than any other state in the district. They said, "The victory which came to America and her allies in the great war could not have been obtained without the financial support which was secured through the Liberty loan organization by the government. We be- lieve, therefore, that the Wisconsin men and women who achieved so notable a record are well justified in con- sidering this work among the most meritorious accom- plishments of their lives." Legislation. Wisconsin was the first state to pass legislation giving aid to soldiers' dependents ; the first to inaugurate meatless and wheatless days ; the first to give her soldiers away from home the right to vote ; and the first to organize state and county history commissions to preserve the records which would later tell the story of her part in the war. 174 OUR WISCONSIN Surgery. Wisconsin furnished more surgeons for the war, in proportion to her population, than any other state. She had no serious labor troubles to delay pro- duction of the necessary war supplies. She decreased her crime record. She paid her way as she went and did not have to issue bonds as was necessary during the Civil War. Red Cross, etc. In work for the Red Cross, Salva- tion Army, and in all of the relief work she did more than her share. She sent fifteen thousand school boys to farms to assist in keeping up the production of food. She did every thing that was asked of her by the national govern- ment and usually much more than was asked. In 1919 she enacted a law giving liberal bonuses to all who had served in the war. Schools. The schools of the state, from the Univer- sity down to the kindergarten, took an active part in all war work. University records show that more than three thousand of her students and alumni were in the service. About two hundred of her faculty members entered the army, navy or other war activity. Professor Max Mason of the physics department invented the famous s,ubmarine detector, a device by which submarines could be heard and definitely located so as to be kept away from or destroyed with a depth bomb. Other inventions and in- vestigations were the result of the activities of the scien- tific men of the University. The Normal schools sent forty of their teachers and more than two thousand stu- dents. This is a remarkable record as a large percentage of the enrollment of the Normal schools are young women and, therefore, not eligible to enter military service. The public schools under the direction of State Super- intendent C. P. Cary were used as means of distribution IN THE WORLD WAR 175 of information about the war and in the encouragement of all patriotic work. There were thrift societies, junior Red Cross organizations, boys' defense leagues and other or- ganizations at work to utilize the energies of the young people. The schools acquitted themselves with credit. Through them was demonstrated the fine qualities that are in the youth of the nation and the state. Registration. When war was declared it was not known whether the soldiers were to be recruited by draft or by volunteering. Congress decided, in a bill which became a law on May 17, 1918, to raise troops by the draft. The plans for registration of all men within the age limits had been carefully worked out by General Crowder long before the law was enacted. June 5 was set aside as registration day for all persons between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-one inclusive. There were some who felt that the draft would be resisted ; but they, too, were wrong. Wisconsin had the honor, on Satur- day morning, June 6, 1917, to send the following telegram to General Crowder : "Four o'clock A. M. All Wisconsin counties and cities have reported registrations complete. Total 218,700." There were three more registrations. The total for Wisconsin was 584,559. Of this number, about 90,000 were sent to the camps to become active participants m the war. Willard Purdy. The response of the boys to the call of honor was noteworthy, thirty-two thousand enlisting voluntarily. Altogether about one hundred and twelve thousand of the flower of Wisconsin's manhood went into the service. Over eight thousand names were on 176 OUR WISCONSIN the casualty lists and almost two thousand were killed. Stories of the bravery of these soldiers would fill a volume. One story, that of Willard Purdy of Marshfield, is an illustration of the fine courage and unselfish devotion shown by American soldiers. Purdy's narrative is a story of splendid heroism. His brother, Chester A. Purdy, wrote a letter to his mother describing the sacrifice : *'I had been out wath a scouting party and had just come in from No Man's Land. All the boys carried bombs in their shirt fronts. When Willard reached in to get his, the pin that holds the igniter, fell out from one of the three he had in his shirt. He pulled out two but did not get the right one. There were too many men around to pull out his shirt and let the ignited bomb drop in the trench, so he cried to the m.en to run and he hung on to all three bombs, bending over and holding them close to his body. He could probably have saved his own life if he had pulled out his shirt and let the bombs drop, but if he had done that he would surely have killed five or six of his comrades. He chose death rather than let his men get the fragments from the bursting bombs. All three bombs exploded. He did not suf- fer much, which was merciful. It was an heroic . act." 32d Division. Many of the famous divisions in the army that went to France had Wisconsin companies serving in their ranks. The Thirty-second Division, which was made up largely of members of the Wisconsin National Guard, was especially famous. Many of its members received decorations from the French com- manding officers. It was known as Les Terrihles, or the Terrible Ones. This division was sent to France during IX THE WORLD Jl'JR 177 the months of January, February and March, 1918. The only losses en route were those on the steamer Tuscania which was torpedoed near the coast of Ireland on Feb- ruary 5, 1918. The division went into action in July, and when the Armistice was signed in November, it held im- portant lines in the Argonne Forest. Rainbow Division. Another famous division was the Forty-second, generally known as the Rainbow Division. In this division were three \Msconsin companies. It went into action early in 1918. The first reports showed about a hundred casualties in the Fond du Lac company. The city of Fond du Lac had, in this war, the largest number of men killed and the largest number wounded of any city in Wisconsin. When the complete story of the military activities of Wisconsin soldiers in the Great War has been written, the youth of the state will read with a thrill the storv- of these heroic men who helped to "make the world safe for democracy." SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 1. General Crowder said, "I have come to expect the impos- sible from Wisconsin." What did he mean? 2. To what regiments were the boys from your section 3S- signed? 3. Of what school societies were 3-011 a member? 4. Why should we be proud of Wisconsin's war record? 5. Tell to the class some story of heroism in the Great War that 3^ou have heard. 6. Look up \'Our county's record as given in the Blue Book for 1919. 7. Why not write a short history of your community's part in the recent war? CHAPTER XXVIII WISCONSIN IN INDUSTRY The industries of W isconsin have been closely con- nected with its development and have largely deter- mined the history which we have briefly traced. We have seen that the fur trade dominated until about 1830 when lead mining took its place to be followed in turn by farming and manufacturing. The vast forests of the state made the production of lumber on a large scale profitable. Consequently, for many years the product of the sawmill equaled, in value, that of the farm. Then came manufacturing. To-day, in proportion to its popu- lation, Wisconsin leads all the states west of Ohio in the value of its manufactured products. Mining. With the decline of lead mining in the fifties, mining became, for many 3^ears, relatively an un- important industry. Then it was found that zinc was to be had in immense quantities, and ore production was re- sumed in Grant, Iowa and LaFayette Counties. The zinc output now ranks second only to the production of iron. Iron in large quantities was discovered in the eighties in the northern part of the state. F^om four to five million dollars worth of ore is now produced annually. The mineral production of Wisconsin now^ runs as high as $20,000,000 in value in a single year although the state does not rank high as a mineral producer. WISCONSIN IN INDUSTRY 179 Lumber. The lumber industry has been, and still is, an important factor in the commercial development of the state. Originally nearly all of Wisconsin was covered with forests. Some of the finest stands of pine trees in the world were to be found here. However, it was not until the Civil War that lumbering became im- portant. During the war the demand for lumber and the increase in prices caused a rush into the pineries. Great forest fires in October, 1871, swept over the timber coun- try but that winter no less than 1,600,000,000 feet of lum- ber was the output. Logging, however, reached its highest development between 1890 and 1900. For the first five years of the present century, Wisconsin stood first as a lumber producing state. For many years the value of the lumber produced in the United States ex- ceeded in value its gold output. This has declined now since the forests have been so rapidly destroyed. Yet, for many years to come, the forests that remain will pro- duce millions of dollars worth of lumber yearly. It is estimated that forty five per cent of the area of Wis- consin is still woodland of some sort. Agriculture. Wisconsin lies in a region of unusual fertility. This has resulted in the development of agri- culture, particularly in the southern, the eastern and the central parts of the state. At present only about sixty per cent of the land is actually in farms. The census of 1910 showed 21,060,066 acres devoted to farming. The size of the average farm was one hundred nineteen acres of which sixty-seven acres were improved. Dairying has become very important. Its develop- ment is due largely to the invention in Wisconsin of the Babcock Milk Test. In 1912 there were more than three 180 OUR WISCONSIN thousand cheese factories and creameries in the state. Since then a large number of condenseries have been es- tablished, so that Wisconsin is now the leading dairy- state of the Union. The importance of an adequate food supply was demonstrated by the Great War. Agricul- ture, it seems, is destined to become of increasing im- portance. Manufacturing. Some kinds of manufacturing have been carried on in Wisconsin since frontier days but its principal development began in the decade of the Civil War. The woodworking industries were of course of im- portance first. The value of the wood products of Wis- consin is, annually, more than one hundred million dollars. Second in value are the products of the dairy industry, about seventy-five million dollars each year. Iron and steel, leather, flour and feed are other important products. There are nearly ten thousand manufacturing establishments in the state. More than one-third of the manufactured products (in value) are made in Milwaukee. Transportation is closely related to production. Originally the rivers, lakes and canals were the principal arteries of transportation. Then came the railroads. The first railroad in W^isconsin was built in 1851 from Mil- waukee to Waukesha. In 1854 it reached Madison. Three years later it had been extended to Prairie du Chien. The building of railroads has gone on steadily until several important trunk lines cross the state, con- necting Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Minneapolis. The discovery of copper and iron in northern Wisconsin resulted, during the eighties, in the building of railroads in that section of the state. The extension of the rail- ways through the forests was the chief factor in the development of the vast wilderness of the north and west. WISCOXSIX IX IXDUSTRY 181 Inventions. Wisconsin has to her credit several In- ventions which have greatly influenced the industrial development of the state and the world. The first patent taken out by a resident of this state was issued in 1842 to David Irvin for an improvement of saddles. Now from five to six hundred patents are annually awarded to citi- zens of Wisconsin. Of course, very few of them prove of importance. We can claim, however, the harvester, the twine binder, the milk test, the Lee rifle, used by the British army, the thermostat for regulating heat, the Reynolds-Corliss type of steam engine, the typewriter and the roller flour mill. Many attempts had been made to produce a machine that would do writing with the type letters used in print- ing, but none was successful until C. Latham Sholes of Kenosha made the first typewriter in 1867. He organized a company to manufacture these machines and, in 1870, placed twelve on the market at one hundred twenty-five dollars each. These were readily sold. Three years later, when the machine had been greatly improved, the com- pany was moved to Ilion, New York, and the manufacture of typewriters on an extensive scale was begun. Binders. George Esterly, a citizen of W^isconsin, had early perfected a harvester. This invention never would have reached the important place it now occupies in agri- culture had it not been for John F. Appleby who, when a boy, lived near Esterly. He grew up on a farm and was always greatly interested in machinery. In 1858, when he was eighteen years old, he made the first knotter that would really tie a knot. It was almost identical with the ones used today on the binders sold throughout the 182 OUR WISCONSIN world. Nothing was done with it at first. When the Civil War came, Appleby dropped his mechanical in- terests and went to the war. Returning, he worked at plans for a harvesting machine that would bind the grain with a wire band. By 1874 he had such a machine made at Beloit, but it was never successful. He did not despair. Alone in a garret he designed a new machine to use the knotter he had invented years before. The first one was successfully tried in a field near Beloit in the summer of 1877. The next year one hundred and fifteen self binders were built. The first one to be sold was purchased by a farmer in Traverse County, Texas. Appleby sold the right to build the binders to several prominent manu- facturers of harvesting machinery, among them Deering and McCormick of Chicago. This invention has prob- ably saved a billion dollars in the harvests of the world. Roller Mills. After wheat is harvested it must be ground into flour before it is usable. Until John Stevens of Neenah invented the modern roller flour mill all wheat was ground between mill stones. Stevens began his ex- periments in an old mill in 1870. In four years he had perfected a new process, but it was not until 1880 that it was patented. In the meantime, he did his milling under lock and key in order to keep the process secret, producing such a fine grade of flour that it brought two dollars a barrel more than that made by the old methods. For years, flour made in the roller mills operating under the Stevens patent was known as patent flour. Now it is the only kind manufactured in marketable quantities. The results of this invention have been very impor- tant. It is now possible to grind the hardest wheat into the best of flour. This has made the northern states and WISCONSIN IN INDUSTRY 183 Canada great wheat producing regions, which they never could have become without this invention as the kind of wheat grown there could not be ground successfully by the old method. This invention has made Minneapolis the largest milling center in America. It has reduced the cost of milling one-half and thus saves the consumer millions of dollars each year. Wisconsin's contribution of the harvester, the twine binder and the roller mill to the world's industry has had much to do with increasing the world's supply of bread. Dairying. "Australia is indebted to Wisconsin for its vast dairy industry and for its success in dairying," says the head of one of that continent's agricultural schools. The same report comes from every part of the world in which dairying is at all important, for through the use of the Babcock Milk Tester dairying has changed from one of the most haphazardous of industries to an exact and attractive business enterprise. It has increased the value of Wisconsin's dairy product more than a milHon dollars a year. Babcock Test. Stephan Moulton Babcock, like James Appleby, was born in the state of New York. He received a high school education and was graduated from Tufts College. When Cornell University opened in 1871, he went there intending to study engineering but soon became interested in chemistry. He was later made a member of the faculty. Ultimately, he specialized in the study of milk and was chosen agricultural chemist for the New York agricultural experiment station. In 1888 he came to the University of Wisconsin and has been a resi- dent of the state since that time. The cream separator had been invented in Denmark but there was great need of a simple means of determin- 184 OUR WISCONSIN ing the amount of butter fat in milk. The state legisla- ture appropriated a sum of money to carry on experi- ments. Dr. Babcock was assigned to the task and worked steadily for two years, reading all the books, magazines and scientific publications that in any way related to the chemistry of milk and making many experiments. Per- sistently he kept at work until, one day in 1890, he came to Dean Henry, who had assigned the work to him, and said, "Well, I've got it." And so it proved. The test and machine that he first used are practically the same as used now. A bulletin was promptly issued to describe the "new method for the determination of fat in milk, adapted to creameries and milk factories." A statement at the close told of the manufacturers who were to make the apparatus and was accompanied by this remarkable sentence, "The test is not patented." This sentence reflects the character of Dr. Babcock. He has always refused to take out patents on his inven- tions, declaring that the work belongs to the state which he is serving and not to him or any other individual. Had he patented his invention, as he had a right to do, he might have earned millions of dollars. Water Power. Although nature did not give Wis- consin any deposits of coal, its rivers provide an abundant water power. Because of this resource, Wisconsin was an early field for the work of electrical engineers. Great power plants have been located on the rivers of Wiscon- sin. Electrical power promises a great future for manu- facturing. It is of interest to know that the first commercial electric lighting plant in the United States began operation in Appleton on August 20, 1882. WISCONSIN IN INDCSTRY 185 SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 1. This chapter is but a mere summary of some of the facts of industrial Wisconsin. Both teacher and pupil will do well to refer to Merrill's Industrial Geography of Wisconsin; Part One of the Wisconsin Blue Book for 1915; and to Bulletin XXVI, 1913, of the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey. 2. What are the principal industries of your locality? 3. What is meant by ''conservation of the natural resources" of the state? 4. From the State Railroad Map estimate the number of miles of railroad in Wisconsin. Name several of the principal systems that cross the state. 5. Why has lumbering become of less importance than for- merly? 6. Name some Wisconsin inventions? 7. Which invention do you think has been most valuable to Wisconsin? 8. Why did Professor Babcock not patent his milk tester? 9. Do you think he is a great man? Why? 10. What are the five most valuable products of Wisconsin? CHAPTER XXIX WISCONSIN IN LITERATURE Although Wisconsin cannot claim a group of authors comparable with those who made Massachusetts the leader in American literature, she has to her credit a num- ber of writers who have achieved national reputation. It is impossible to estimate correctly the work that writers of the present are doing; time alone can do this. We hope that as the years pass by, men and women living in Wisconsin will be able to present the life of the people and their feelings, their thoughts, and their ideals in that simple and sincere language which characterizes all great literature. Shakespeares and Miltons we may never have, but the past justifies us in hoping for a Robert Burns or a John Greenleaf Whittier who will sing into the hearts of the world the songs of Wisconsin home life. Hamlin Garland. Perhaps the most widely known Wisconsin author is Hamlin Garland, who was born at West Salem, La Crosse County, September 16, 1860. His novels are widely read and he is a popular contributor to our best magazines. Some excellent poetry has come from his pen and we are indebted to him for one of the best biographies of General Grant. In a collection of short stories. Main Travelled Roads, he has given us some interesting stories faithfully and sympathetically pictur- ing early life in western Wisconsin. Another splendid account of farm life is his Boys' Life on the Prairie. Re- WISCONSIN IN LITERATURE 187 cently he has published A Son of the Middle Border which William Dean Howells says is "an autobiography that ranks with the very greatest in literature." A companion volume A Daughter of the Middle Border has been ac- corded the highest honors. Grant Showerman. Grant Showerman in A Country Chronicle has painted an unusually vivid picture of A\^is- consin life in the eastern part of the state as it was lived in the eighties. It supplements the work of Garland and carries us forward ten years in the development of the state. With great skill he lifts the fundamental good- humor, friendliness and honesty of his people above their harsh and rough exteriors. David Grayson. A\>iting under the pen-name of David Grayson, Ray Stannard Baker has raised country life to the level of an idyl. This he has done in Adven- tures in Contentment, Adventures in Friendship, and The Friendly Road. Of the three, Baker is most poetic : Showerman, most sympathetically true to life, and Gar- land, most realistic. John ^luir, a great geologist, in The Story of My Boy- hood and Youth, describes the hardships and joys of pioneer life in central AMsconsin. General Charles King. General Charles King has produced the greatest number of stories yet writtten by any Wisconsin author. He was born in Xew York in 1844 and was graduated from West Point in 1866. \Miile engaged in the Indian wars in the A\>st he was seriously wounded. He has served in the Philippines and has been active in building up the Wisconsin National Guard. He came to Wisconsin in 1882 and has resided here since that time. His novels, which number more than fifty. 188 OUR WISCONSIN are mostly stories of exciting adventure. The Colonel's Daughter is probably the best known. He, too, has written a life of General Grant, using as its title The Real Ulysses S. Grant. Women Authors. Three Wisconsin women. Zona Gale, Honore Willsie and Edna Ferber, have made their mark in current fiction. Each has produced one or more novels of great popularity as well as many short stories of distinction. Miss Gale's Friendship Village does for Wisconsin village life what A Country Chronicle does for rural life. Miss Lulu Bctt has been recognized as one of the leading American novels. It has been made into a most successful drama and moving- picture. Her short stories have been published in many of the best magazines and have been uniformly successful. Mrs. Willsie, like Zona Gale, is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin. She is the editor of a leading women's magazine. Her novels Still Jim and Lydia of the Pines are stories well worth reading. Edna Eerber is one of the most popular of present day writers. She was born in Michigan, but her education was received In the public schools of Appleton, Wisconsin. Aliss Eerber has won- derfully acute powers of observation and she has made good use of the people found in her home town. In Dawn O'Hara she has given an unusually interesting account of the German element of Milwaukee. James G. Percival. One private collection of books In Wisconsin contains more than two hundred volumes of poetry produced by Wisconsin writers. It could hardly be said that all of them are of any considerable merit although many deserve more than passing atten- tion. We shall discuss a few of these poets. Nearly WISCONSIN IN LITERATURE 189 every early collection of American poetry contains The Coral Grove by James Gates Percival. He was born in Connecticut in 1795, a year after the birth of William Cullen Bryant. He was graduated from Yale and be- came a practicing physician and an eminent geologist. He could read thirteen languages. Xoah Webster had his assistance in the production of the first great Ameri- can dictionary. His poems appeared first in 1821. The leading literary magazines of that period rnaked him as one of the nine chief American poets, of whom Bryant was placed first. Lowell gives him extended mention in My Study Window. He came to Wisconsin in 1856 when Governor Barstow appointed him to the position of state geologist. In the village of Hazel Green he lived alone and in poverty. His house was built without a window or door at the front, and he made it difficult for any one to see him. He had a library of about ten thousand volumes upon which he spent most of his scanty income. It is known that one year his entire income from literature was but sixty-five dollars. This seems like a very small amount but Henry Thoreau lived on about the same in- come at Walden. Percival's complete works were pub- lished in 1866. His best known poem is The Graves of the Patriots. His work is too morbid and imitative to give him very high rank among our American writers. A few years ago a subscription was taken up by Yale graduates and at his grave was placed a monument bear- ing the following inscription : Eminent as a Poet, Rarely Accomplished as a Linguist, Learned and Acute in Science A Man without Guile. 190 OUR WISCONSIN Music. Everybody has heard Silver Threads Among the Gold, The Sweet Bye and Bye and The Little Brown Church in the Vale, but not every one knows that they were written in Wisconsin, the first by Eben E. Rexford, the second, in 1868, by Joseph Philbrick Webster and the third by Dr. William S. Pitts . Mr. Rexford has written many other poems as well as many articles about plants but this one song will probably be his principal claim to fame. Another poem which has been recited and, un- fortunately, parodied everywhere is Ella Wheeler Wil- cox's uplifting lyric beginning. "Laugh and the world laughs with you; Weep and you weep alone." Ella Wheeler Wilcox has written a great many poems and is perhaps as widely known as any Wisconsin poet. Nearly every magazine has published her work, most of which is characterized by a helpful optimism but weak- ened by too much sentimentality. History. In the writing of history, Wisconsin has attained a high rank. Dr. Reuben Gold Thwaites, who served for many years as secretary and superintendent of the Wisconsin Historical Society, was one of the great authorities on early American History of the French domain. His works about Wisconsin have done much to enlighten us concerning our own state. Every book about the Badger State must acknowledge its indebted- ness to him. Professor Frederick J. Turner has done much to show the importance of the frontier in the development of our country. His thinking and writing are characterized by clearness and accuracy. Paul S. Reinsch, former ambassador to China, has written much about the Far East. He is an authority on world politics. IV ISC ON SIN IN LITERATURE 191 Professor x\lbert H. Sanford of the La Crosse State Xor- mal School is well known for his text books on American history and government. Recently he has told in an interesting manner the story of our agricultural develop- ment in The Story of Agriculture in the United States. Professor Edward A. Ross has become a leading author- ity in studies of the world's community life. He is per- haps the most readable of all of our contemporary writers of history and sociology. These, of course, do not ex- haust the list of historical writers. Humor. Life is not always serious. We have had several authors who have made men see its humorous side. We twice chose the author of Peck's Bad Boy to be governor of Wisconsin. Mr. Peck was one of a large group of newspaper men who helped make Wisconsin history. The mirth-provoking antics of Peck's Bad Boy were very popular and made the author's newspaper, Peck's Sun, known all over the 'United States. Edgar \Mlson Xye was a Wisconsin humorist who succeeded by the same methods as did Mark Twain. He described common occurrences with seriousness and with a skillful mixing of sense and nonsense. Bill Xye's Comic History of the United States is as good as any of his work. One could name a great many more authors who have lived at some time or other in Wisconsin. In 1893 the State Historical Society listed more than eight thousand titles of books and pamphlets that have been written by Wisconsin men and women. Since that time the number must have doubled. 192 OUR WISCONSIN SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 1. In Rounds' Wisconsin Authors and Their Works may be found selections from many of the books and writers men- tioned in this chapter. Read several of them. 2. Name the principal Wisconsin novelists, poets, historians and humorists. 3. Find out what you can about Thoreau and compare him with Percival. 4. What book mentioned would you care to read? Township Library List? 5. What books by Wisconsin authors are on the Wisconsin CHAPTER XXX THE GROWTH OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL The first schools in Wisconsin were established by the Jesuits for the purpose of converting and civilizing the Indians. The first teacher on Wisconsin soil was James Porlier, who came to Green Bay in 1791 as an in- structor for the grand-children of Charles Langlade. The fijst schoolmaster employed by the public was Thomas S. Johnson who began a school in Green Bay in 1817. This_was^^jvery primitive institution and gave only the most elementary instruction. It was supported by the parents of the pupils. School systems were organized soon after the settle- ment of the lead regions following the Black Hawk War. The first one to be established and maintained by a gen- eral tax was at Kenosha. There, Colonel Michael Frank and a group of progressive men began a system of schools which became an example for other cities and towns of the state and attracted attention in other parts of the country where state systems of education were being planned. Colonel Frank was chairman of a convention held in Madison in 1845 to suggest a scheme for a state public school system. When the state constitution was adopted, it included many of the ideas of this convention. Our general scheme of education, however, was borrowed largely from the Michigan plan of organization which, in turn, had been borrowed from New York. 194 OUR WISCONSIN The first state superintendent of public instruction was Eleazer Root. His first report showed 80,445 chil- dren between the ages of four and twenty, about half of whom were attending school. The average wages for teachers was then $15.22 a month for men and $6.92 for women. There were seven hundred and four school houses, three hundred fifty-nine of which were built of logs. Until 1861 there were no county superintendents. In that year the old town system of school government passed out of existence. The first course of study for use in the schools of the state was issued in 1878. The present state manual outlining the work of the schools is now in its sixteenth edition. It prescribes the work to be covered and suggests methods of teaching. It is generally considered one of the best of its kind in the country. The first kindergarten in the United States was opened in 1855 at Watertown, Wisconsin, by Mrs. Carl Schurz. Mrs. Schurz had been a pupil of Froebel, the founder of the kindergarten system of instruction. The first kindergarten in a public school system in this state was established at Manitowoc under the superintendency of C. F. Viebahn. The Oshkosh Normal in 1880 became the first state normal school to establish a kindergarten. There are now about four hundred kindergartens in the state with an attendance of more than twenty thousand. Our high schools are an outgrowth of the old aca- demies. One of the earliest of these academies was estab- lished at Platteville in 1839. It finally developed into the State Normal at that place. Others were established upon the New England model. The courses of study THE GROWTH OF TJJIi J'CHLIC SCHOOL 195 were very liberal, embracing everything from the three R's to the classics. They did a good work out, because they were privately controlled and were dependent upon tuition fees for their support, they gradually gave away to the free high school. Here again, Kenosha was a pioneer. This city established the first free high school in A\'isconsin, which opened its doors on July 31, 1849. Its founder. Colonel Frank, has often been called the Father of the Free School System of Wisconsin. By 1875 the state had eighteen such schools in operation. There are now^ nearly four hundred. The high school has be- come one of the most important parts of our public school system. It is often called the People's College. The State University was organized in the year in which the state w^as admitted into the Union. It was the sixteenth state university to be organized. Pennsylvania has the honor of having organized a state university in 1/00. The first state normal school Avas opened at Platteville on October 9, 1866. There are nine such schools in the state. The first county training school was opened at Wausau in 1899. About thirty of the^e schools are now in operation. The national government in 1787 gave each state in the Xorthwest Territory section sixteen of each town- ship as a basis for a permanent school fund. Since 1848, section thirty-six has also been given. When Wisconsin was admitted to the Union, the state w^as given as addi- tional five hundred thousand acres of land. In addition, five per cent of the proceeds of all the public land sold in the state w^as to become a part of the school fund. Of all the states having such funds Wisconsin has been most unfortunate. Although .Alinnesota has an annual income 196 OUR WISCOXSIN of almost two millions from this source, Wisconsin has but a little more than two hundred thousand or about ten per cent of her neighbor's receipts. This chapter closes this brief history of Wisconsin. The Badger State has grown, as have other states, but she has been particularly enterprising in matters of popular education and in the science and art of good government. These facts have given our state a promi- nent place in the nation. Xo oracle is needed to prophecy her future, if we may judge her future by her past. The story of her development from the days of the explorer and the forest ranger to the modern era of progressive American statehood is as interesting in character if not as important as the stories told of the Cavaliers of Vir- ginia, the Pilgrims of jMassachusetts and the fortune hunters of California. The Badger State has always been true to her motto of Forivard, and her citizens will continue to sing ON WISCONSIN. SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 1. What contributions has Wisconsin made to education? to good government? 2. What is meant by the district school system? 3. How are our schools supported? 4. Why should people be taxed to support schools? 5. Why are we justified in believing in the future of Wisconsin?