Wabasha County, Minnesota - Chapter 8: The Early Traders, 1920

The fur trading days constitute a picturesque feature of early life in what is now Wabasha County. Situated as the county is in a region which was teeming with fur-bearing animals and ideal for Indian occupancy, it naturally attracted the attention of the adventurous whites. It was accessible to the upper Mississippi and Minnesota River region, ranged by the Dakota, and to the Chippewa Valley ranged by the Chippewa. Nearby, at Winona, was that important Dakota band ruled by Wabasha, who in addition to being chief of his own band was also over-chief of all the river Dakota.

There are nuihberless traditions in regard to the location and dates of some of the early trading posts in this vicinity, as Read's Landing and Wabasha were both favorite sites of the traders. One such tradition, which cannot now be substantiated, locates a post at the present site of Read's Landing, built about 1800, and ascribes its ownership to one of the Rocques.

In 1816 Augustine Rocque had a trading post somewhere below the foot of Lake Pepin. He pointed it out to Stephen H. Long in 1817. It was near the mouth of the Beef (Buffalo) River, but whether on the Wisconsin or Minne¬ sota side is not known.

L. H. Bunnell in 1844 discovered the ruins of a chimney in Buffalo County, Wisconsin, near the mouth of Buffalo River, which may have belonged to Rocque's cabin, though Dr. Bunnell found growing out of it a tree which he believed to be seventy years old. The suggestion as to this having been the remains of Perrot's fort is discussed earlier in this work. Rocque had various posts in the upper Mississippi region. It was in 1826 that he established a post at Wabasha, where he spent the remainder of his life.

Of this post Governor Henry H. Sibley says: "Some idea can be formed of the great changes which have occurred since 1834, when I state that when I performed the journey from Prairie du Chien to St. Peters, now Mendota, in the autumn of that year, a distance of nearly 300 miles, there was but one house between these points, and that was a log cabin occupied by a trader named Rocque, situated below Lake Pepin, near the present town of Wabasha."

Augustin Rocque was the son of Joseph Rocque. Both were fur traders, and both were interpreters in the service of the British. At the conclusion of the war, Augustin took up his home with Wabasha's band of Indians, and established a number of posts on the upper Mississippi, extending his opera¬ tions from the foot of Lake Pepin up the Chippewa River as far as the Falls, and down the Mississippi and into Turkey River and Cedar River countries in Iowa. In 1817 and in 1823 he accompanied Long up the Mississippi, and in 1826, as noted, came to Wabasha. Featherstonhaugh found him here in 1835, and gives his Indian name as Wahjustahchay, or the Strawberry. When Gen. Dodge, at the conclusion of the Fort Snelling treaty with the Chippewas, July 29, 1837, requested the Indian agent to select a delegation of Sioux and proceed to Washington, Augustin Rocque accompanied the chiefs and, in consort with Alexis Bailly, Joseph Laframboise, Francois Labathe, and others, represented the fur-traders' interests. During this visit the portraits of these representa¬ tives of the far west were taken, and that of Augustin Rocque now adorns the walls of the Indian gallery at the national capitol. When he came here he brought his family of four sons and four daughters. Two of the sons, Joseph and Baptiste are extensively quoted as to early Indian traditions. Rocque died in 1856. His body was buried at his own request on the bluff overlooking the

The remains of an early trading post were long visible at Wabasha. Cap¬ tain F. W. Seeley examined a portion of the earthworks a year or so before the Civil War, and later, after ten years' experience in the United States Army, confirmed his previous observations. His first discovery was in a dense growth of young oak, where he found an artificial earthwork ridge some eighteen inches in height, running in a straight line, and parallel to the crest of the slope over¬ looking the river. Further investigation showed him that the work com¬ menced on the crest of the slope, ten rods south of what was then the Van Dyke residence, bent westward for about eight rods, then made an obtuse angle and extended parallel to the crest and directly through the location of the house, for a distance of ten rods or more. t

Oliver Cratte settled within the present city limits of Wabasha in the fall of 1838. On being appointed as blacksmith to the Wabasha band, he came here and built a shack of logs on the levee, clinking it with mud and sand, and occupying it for the winter as a shop and dwelling. Unlike the majority of the white men in this region, who were French Canadians, Mr. Cratte was an Englishman. In the spring he erected a lean-to, as an addition to his former building, and brought his family here from Fort -Snelling.

Oliver Cratte was born in Liverpool, England, in 1801. He was early left an orphan, and when he was still a young boy came with his sister to Canada. He learned the blacksmith trade at Montreal, and finally found his way to Mackinaw. From there he went with some traders to Prairie du Chien where he found government employment. In 1828 he was sent to Fort Snelling, and from there in 1838 he came to present site of Wabasha.

Francois La Bathe built a log cabin on the levee sometime after the Black Hawk war, and occupied it for some years as one of his trading posts. He sold to Alexis Bailly. LaBathe was of mingled French and Dakota blood, being a nephew of Wabasha III, and a grandson of Wabasha II. Entering the fur trade as a youth he soon established a large business, and was confidential agent of various prominent representatives of the American Fur Company. His rela¬ tionship with the Wabasha band gave him a commanding position with Indians and whites alike. At various times he maintained different posts and wood yards in this vicinity. The early settlers of 1852, found the ruins of a large cabin some four miles below the mouth of the Whitewater. This may have belonged to La Bathe, Grignon, or Rolette. La Bathe was killed in the Indian massacre of 1862.

Alexis Bailly was one of the younger generation of fur traders. He was born at Mackinac in 1798, a son of Joseph Bailly. Alexis entered the fur trade as an employee of Joseph Rolette. Later he was established as agent of Rolette and the American Fur Co., at Mendota, Minn. There he married Lucy, daugh¬ ter of Alexander Faribault. In consequence of some dispute with the Indian agent, Bailly was in 1835 superseded at Mendota by H. H. Sibley, and later removed down the river to Wabasha, where he had a store and warehouse and also conducted some Indian trade. He was a member of the first Minnesota territorial legislature, and died at his home in Wabasha, June 3, 1861.

In the winter of 1821-22, Augustin Grignon and Joseph Rolette, Sr., rival fur traders, had trading posts not far from the mouth of the Zumbro River, the exact location being unknown. Rolette was not here in person but was represented by an agent. At the instigation of Rolette, the cabin of Grignon was destroyed by Wabasha's Indians and his goods scattered. Thereupon Grignon established himself twenty-five miles below his original post.

Nelson's Landing, in Wisconsin, near the mouth of the Chippewa, was established as a trading-post in 1841 or earlier, by the man for whom it was named.

It was in 1840 that an Englishman, Edward Hudson, who had been a soldier at Ft. Snelling, came to the present site of Read's Landing, and located here. His wife, a daughter of Duncan Campbell, was one of the mixed bloods for whom the "Half-Breed Tract" had been set apart, and although no procedure for the division of the land among the half-breeds had at that time been inaugu¬ rated, it was ostensibly in pursuance of her rights, that Hudson occupied land here. Hudson found himself without the means to build any considerable-sized house, and as the lumbering operations on the Chippewa were growing into importance, and it was desirable to establish some base of supplies, on the Mississippi at the mouth of the Chippewa, a proposition was made to Hudson, by H. S. Allen, the lumberman. In accordance with this proposition Hudson proceeded to the lumber regions, after a short stay at Read's, and the follow¬ ing season returned with lumber for his warehouse, no doubt a moderate one, in which he conducted business until his death in 1843, in which year John Campbell arrived here. Hudson's widow married Louis Rocque, son of Augustin the younger.

Charles R. Read had come up the river from St. Louis in 1844, and took service with Messrs. Churchill and Nelson at Nelson's Landing, near the mouth of the Chippewa on the Wisconsin side. For the first year he was cook, after¬ ward in charge of their business at Nelson's Landing, buying furs and trading with the Indians. In 1847 Mr. Read having secured permission from the United States authorities, crossed the river into Minnesota, rented the old Hudson warehouse from Louis Rocque, and opened trade. From that date the place has been known as Read's Landing. In 1849, Mr. Read built a new and larger warehouse. Thus after an interval of a quarter of a century the old trading-post began to be transmuted into a modern trading-post for whites and half-breeds, as well as natives. This change soon became more manifest and became distinctively a trade with the whites, but not without some oppo¬ sition and at times the danger of sanguinary strife. The coming of Mr. Read to Minnesota soil, and his establishment of a trading-post for Indian traffic, was strongly opposed by Alexis Bailly, of Wabasha, who had been Indian trader at that point for some years, and was, by virtue of his early marriage relations with the Sioux chiefs, in condition to make his opposition felt.

When Mr. Read went to Fort Snelling to secure his license from the Indian agent at that point, he took steamer up the river. Wabasha had secured a numerously signed remonstrance against Read's securing government license, and this remonstrance was forwarded by United States mail on the same steamer with Read. This boat only went to Stillwater, and Read carried the mail (a small one, which he put in his pocket) on foot to Fort Snelling, a distance of twenty-six miles. Read handed his mail to the Indian agent, Col. Bruce, and at the same time his request for license as an Indian trader. The colonel opened the letter of remonstrance in Read's presence, told him the nature of its contents, and how difficult it would be for him, as agent of Indian affairs there, to overlook the remonstrance. Fortunately for Read, he had a friend at court in the person of post sutler Franklin Steele, and through his representations and influence the license was granted, and Read returned to the landing. He was allowed to pursue his business one year only in peace, when the opposition to his trading took definite form, and the Indians, insti¬ gated thereto, began to give him trouble. One day in June, 1848, Read was sitting on a log which he had been sawing for shingles, when a strapping Indian came up and, seating himself on the log, told Read he (Read) would have to leave there at once, that the tract he was on belonged to the half-breeds, and that he had no business there, and if he did not go they would make him. For reply Read raised his hand and, giving the Indian a hard back-handed blow, knocked him off the log; at which the Indian took himself off. One even¬ ing in the following October, after supper, Read was sitting in his shanty, when he was surrounded by Little Crow, a chief of the Kaposia band of Sioux, and twelve of his braves. These Indians had been on a visit to Chief Wabasha, and it is supposed were instigated by him to get Read out of the way. These, with one exception, were all on horseback, and members of Little Crow's band; the Indian on foot was a member of Wabasha's band, and entering the cabin informed Read they had come to kill him, and clean him out. Read had learned that promptness in dealing with an Indian is the only strategy, and seizing a chair he felled the Indian to the floor, and set one of the legs through his upper lip, tearing it out, and four teeth with it. The savage sprang to his feet with a yell, and darted through the door, the blood spurting from his mouth. Read's blood was up, and he dared another one of them to enter his cabin at peril of his life. In the meantime, William Campbell, an educated half-breed Sioux, and warm friend of Read's, came up, and being informed of the trouble, armed himself with an axe, and taking sides with Read stood in the doorway, and told Little Crow he could only get at Read over his dead body. The pros¬ pect was not inviting, and Little Crow drew off his band, leaving Read in peace, and no further attempt to drive him away by force was resorted to. Upon the organization of the territory, the following year, 1849, Gov. Alexander Ramsay was requested to remove Read, on the ground of his being the cause of all the Indian disturbances in that region, and also because, as was alleged, he was selling liquor to the Indians. The investigation was ordered, and after a care¬ ful examination the charges were dismissed. All that could be substantiated was that Read had sold an empty barrel, formerly containing whiskey, to an Indian, who claimed that there was some wThisky in the barrel at the time he purchased it. This was the last attempt to interfere with Read's trade at the landing; the following year other persons came, and the life of a solitary trader ended for him.

Charles R. Read from whom Read's Landing afterward derived it name, was an adventurous young Englishman, who at the early age of ten years crossed the seas with his brother's family and settled near the forks of the Chippewa River and the eld Niagara peninsula. After some years spent in Canada, young Read left his brother's household and came over the lines into the United States. He was at Cleveland, Ohio, when the Canadian rebellion broke out in 1837, and the following year, though only seventeen years of age, enlisted in the American army of invasion for the liberation and annexation of Canada. This army crossed the frontier near Windsor, opposite Detroit, and after routing the Canadian militia and capturing the barracks at Amherstburg, were in turn routed by the British regulars under Gen. Erie, and Read, with many others, made prisoner. His devil-may-care appearance and youth won upon his captors, he was decently treated, and though tried and sentenced to be hung, was pardoned by the queen's clemency and returned to the United States in June, 1839. After five years' service in the American army in the Indian Territory and Texas, where he formed an acquaintance with the Indian character and habits that after stood him in good stead, young Read found himself at St. Louis in the summer of 1844, and from there was induced to come to this region.

Charles R. Read is often confused with the Reeds who were also active in this region in the fur trading days. James Reed was the father of Trempealeau, which for a while was known as Reed's Landing. One of his associates there was Antoine Reed. John Reed had a cabin and wood yard in Winona County below Dakota. Charles R. Read is the one who gave his name to Read's Land¬ ing in Wabasha County.

In 1850 Fordyce S. Richards, a native of Genesee County, New York, who had been at Prairie du Chien for some years, came to Read's Landing and opened trade with the Indians, also supplying the lumber camps up the Chip¬ pewa Valley.