Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin - Chapter 2, 1880

Chapter 2

Ancient Eahth Works - Indian Occupancy - Early Fkench Traders - United States Land Surveys - United States Land Districts - Fond du Lac Company - Origin of the Name Fond du Lac - An Early Trip to the Head of Winnebago Lake - First Settlement IN Fond du Lao County.

Within the boundaries of Fond du Lac County are found many notable and interesting evidences of prehistoric occupation and existence. The geographical position of the county is such as to intimately associate it with some of the important chains or series of earthworks that are found extending along most of the favorable routes for primitive transportation between the great lakes and the Mississippi River.

The county in this regard seems to confirm the generally accepted theory that primitive man or the Mound-Builders, whoever they were, existed in greatest numbers along the borders of lakes and rivers ; and the more prominent these bodies of water and the position occupied appear, with relation to the great problems of transportation and subsistence, the more important and numerous are these ancient artificial works.

The importance of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers and their navigable tributaries has been recognized by all nations and tribes that have a written or traditional history, and the numerous evidences of a prehistoric character, found along their entire course, would seem to warrant a conclusion that these rivers have furnished a medium for transportation from the days of primitive man's unrecorded existence down to the present time.

In this great thoroughfare of ancient and modern times. Lake Winnebago occupies a central and important position, and to this circumstance the county is, no doubt, chiefly indebted for the numerous and interesting historic and prehistoric evidences within its limits.

The situation of the mounds (many of them) seems to establish a belief that the observation since the settlement of the county by the whites, with relation to the gradual diminution in volume of the lakes and rivers, is not exceptional as to the present, but that this decrease has been continuous from the time the mounds were erected ; and, with relation to the importance of some of the streams associated with the Mound-Builders, their present condition would not justify conclusions that are consistent with former proportions.

Not only is it certain that there has been a notable decrease in the volume of all existing bodies of water, but in ^ome instances appearances would indicate that even quite large lakes have entirely disappeared, and that some of the works of the Mound-Builders now stranded on an inland hillside, at the time of their construction marked the water-line of their primitive proportions.

With these inferences confirmed, we are aided in an explanation as to the peculiar location of a large number of notable inland formations. As an example, we find a chain of mounds extending from Lake Winnebago in the town of Taycheedah to the head-waters of the Sheboygan River in the town of Marshfield, and thence along down the entire course of the river to Lake Michigan.

There would seem to be little doubt that these earthworks marked the most feasible route between the points mentioned, provided the river was a navigable stream. The records of the voyagers and explorers seem to confirm this, as they mention a portage from Lake Winnebago to the Sheboygan River, and thence down the same to Lake Michigan.

Another similar instance is found in the line of mounds extending from Lake Winnebago along the West Branch of the Fond du Lac River to the town of Lamartine, and thence across a portion of the town of Waupun to the head-waters of the Rock River. This route, also, was available at the time of the explorers of two hundred years ago, although, at the present time, the streams mentioned, are quite insignificant in their proportions.

The advantages of these routes are quite apparent when examined with relation to canoe voyaging or other primitive means of transportation.

A detailed reference to the numerous works of the Mound-Builders found in the county would extend this article far beyond its prescribed limit. In general terms, therefore, we must group all found in large areas together, only specifically mentioning one or two notable formations.

As usual in these formations, spherical works, numerically considered, occupy the leading position, while the irregular works rank first in size and importance, and would require special drawings and explanations to render a description valuable or intelligent.

In addition to the prominent series referred to, extending eastward and southward from Lake Winnebago, there are portions of other series found in the northwestern part of the county in the vicinity of Rush Lake that are jquite peculiar and interesting, and include animal and reptile imitations of large proportions.

In the southeastern portion of the county also, near Long Lake, quite extensive works are still traceable, and along the shore and vicinity of Lake Winnebago, in the northeastern part of the county, mounds are found in all directions.

In some of the mounds examined are found, nearJhe surface, relics of Indian origin, such as flint arrowheads, beads, etc., while farther below, and always near the base line, come the stone implements and the remnants of human bones that crumble into dust as soon as brought to the surface.

Stone and flint implements are found in various portions of the county. Relics of a modern character, evidently associated with the earliest days of civilized communications, such as coins, medals, weights, bottles, etc., have been found, and would furnish materials for an interesting chapter in the county records. Much as might be written of the interesting features of the earthworks, the crowning wealth of Fond du Lac County is the harvest of native-copper implements that has already been gathered within its borders, as this county may justly claim pre-eminence in the number and variety of these rare and valuable relics. There have been gathered in the county over forty pieces, and they include all, or nearly all, the varieties j'et discovered. From one mound alone no less than twenty-six copper tools and ornaments have been taken, and these, in addition to a number of other pieces, have been collected in a private way by a citizen of the county who has, with one exception, brought together more of these relics than have been secured by the most enthusiastic collectors or prominent societies. In richness and variety, these specimens are unrivaled, as they include lance, spear and arrow heads, gouges, chisels and axes, fleshers, knives and needles, together with some quite unique personal ornaments that are found in no other collection. Concerning the origin of these native-copper tools much is left to conjecture. They have been found side by side with the stone and flint implements in the shallow grave of the Indian warrior, among skeletons in a good state of preservatioh, and forest trees of centuries' growth have reared their branches over the massive earthworks where the crumbling remains of the mysterious race of builders have been enshrined with nativecopper tools and ornaments through the ages of unrecorded existence.

Indian Occupancy

As early as the year 1615, Samuel Champlain heard of a tribe of Indians living many leagues beyond Lake Huron, called the Five Nations, better known at a later date as the Mascoutins. , Their homes were upon the Fox River at that time, as it is believed, and here they were visited by civilized men a little over half a century after. It is presumed that their villages were located within the present limits of Green Lake County, somewhere on Fox River between Berlin and Lake Puckaway, and that they claimed as their hunting-grounds, among much other territory, that now included within the boundary lines of the county of Fond du Lac. The nearest tribe to the Mascoutins down the river was that of the Winnebagoes, whose homes were at the mouth of that stream. To the south, extending perhaps well up Rock River, was the territory of the Illinois. In the immediate neighborhood of the Mascoutins (but in what direction is uncertain) were the Kickapoos and the Miamis. The former is supposed tohave at one time occupied the region around the head of the lake.

The Illinois, who lived in a country "where there was a quantity of buffaloes," were afterward driven beyond the Mississippi, but subsequently returned to the river which still bears their name. Meanwhile, there comnienced an emigration of the Mascoutins and their kindred, the Kickapoos and Miamis, to the southward, as far at least as the south end of Lake Michigan. Their place was taken by the Foxes and their relatives, the Sacs, and, in time, these also emigrated, but not to the southward ; the course taken by them was to the west and southwest. It is certain the Foxes claimed for a time the country now forming Fond du Lac County, as well as much other circumjacent territory. Then came the Winnebagoes from below, that is, from the head of Green Bay, moving up the Fox River by degrees, having outlying villages within the present limits of Fond du Lac County and in the valley of Rock River. The Menomonees also occupied the Winnebago Lake country. Their territory was on the east side of the lake, but did not extend very far south. The southeast portion of 'the present county of Fond du Lac lay within territory claimed by the Pottawatomies, whose homes were principally upon Lake Michigan. A small part of the county was ceded to the United States by the Menomonees ; a much larger portion, however, was comprised in the lands sold by the Winnebagoes in 1832. The residue was included in the Pottawatomie cession of 1833.

In 1828, the Winnebago nation occupied the country immediately in the vicinity of the present city of Fond du Lac, and along the west shore of Lake Winnebago to what is now the city of Menasha. They then had large villages on each branch of the Fond du Lac River just above the forks. They also had a village at the mouth of the creek on the east side of the lake, above Taycheedah. The Menomonee village of Calumet (" Pipe Village "), even as early as 1817, seemed to be anything but of recent origin. Its location was not identical with the village of the same name in the present town of Calumet. The exact time when these three villages were finally vacated by their Indian occupants is not known with certainty, though in 1834 they were found by the Government surveyors unoccupied.

Early French Traders

Frenchmen from Canada, trading with the Indians, were early visitors to what is now Fond du Lac County. The name Fond du Lac was applied by them as the remotest point in the lake from Green Bay. There was a trading-post established in 1787, at the forks of the Fond du Lac River, by Jacob Franks, of Green Bay. It was occupied by Jacques Peltier, Franks' clerk, for a brief period. Franks, in 1791, sent his nephew, John Lawe, to this point. Augustin Grignon subsequently had a trading-post on the West Branch, just below the first rapid, and very near the spot where are now the shops of the Chicago & North- Western Railway, in the city of Fond du Lac. Peter B. Grignon, now a venerable resident of Green Bay, and a nephew of Augustin Grignon, passed one winter on the West Branch, just below First street, about 1819. The cellar of his shanty, partially overgrown by willows, could be seen when the village was finally settled. It was situated not far from the La Belle Wagon Works blacksmith-shop, between Forest and West Division streets. It seems, also, that at the Winnebago village, near where Taycheedah now is located, white men were at times located for the purpose of trading with the Indians. At this point, the Menomonees, Pottawatomies, and other tribes, came to traffic with the Frenchmen. Laurent Ducharme was one of the earlier traders here. A Spaniard by the name of Ace traded at this place a little later. Ace and his clerk were enticed a short distance from his house, by some Indians of the Rock River band, and murdered. The Indians then endeavored to enter the house, but the wife of Ace, with a gun, kept them at bay until assistance arrived from the friendly Indians of the Taycheedah Village, when she was conveyed to Green Bay with her family and goods. Soon afterward, a Canadian trader by the name of

Ohavodreuil, selected the post for his winter quarters, and engaged a Menomonee hunter to supply him and his men with meat. This Indian, who lived with his wife in a wigwam near by, becoming jealous of the trader, shot and killed him. Michael Brisbois and Joseph Rolette, of Prairie du Chien, were occasionally at this point trading during the early part of the present century. The white traders would sometimes ascend the Fond du Lac River, with canoes laden with goods, and thence make a "portage " of about two miles to Rock River, descending that stream to the Mississippi. This was not the route usually taken, but it brought them to Indian villages they could not otherwise reach.

"John Lawe jj; * * -(^as a native of York, England. His father was a captain in the English army, and his mother an English Jewess, a sister of Jacob Franks, who had come to Green Bay as early as 1795, as a clerk in the trading establishment of Oglevie, Gillaspie & Co., of Mackinaw, who had a store at Green Bay. John Lawe was educated at Quebec^ and Joseph Rolette, so well known as a trader and early settler at Prairie du Chien, was one of his schoolmates. When his uncle, Mr. Franks, had been about three years with Oglevie, Gillaspie & Co., he ceased serving as clerk, and went to Canada and obtained a stock of goods. He returned to the bay and opened a store, bringing his nephew, John Lawe, with him, then a young man of sixteen years. This was in the summer of 1797.

" Lawe engaged in his uncle's employ, and the following winter was sent with a supply of Indian goods, accompanied by Louis Bauprez, to Fond du Lac River, which was then known among the French and traders by that name, and took posse~ssion of the old trading-post, about a mile and a half above the mouth of that stream, on its eastern bank. This had been a winter trading-post for many years. Laurent Ducharme, who one year caught a large number of ducks there by means of a net, salting and preserving them for winter's use, was about the earliest trader at that point; then one Ace, a Spaniard, and, subsequently, one Chavodreuil ; and still later, Michael Brisbois and I wintered there two winters.

"The Indians, whose trade was there sought, were the Winnebagoes, who had a village where Taycheedah now is, three miles east of Fond du Lac City, and had other villages along Rock River. Mr. Lawe afterwards spent several winters at different points among the Indian hunting bands between Green Bay and the Mississippi, and up to the time when his uncle left the country and went back to Canada, which was about the commencement of the war of 1812, leaving Mr. Lawe as his successor as a merchant and trader; and he continued more or less in the Indian trade as long as he lived." - Seventy-two Years Recollections of Wisconsin. By Aiigustin Grignon.

None of the trading-stations at the villages near the head of the lake can be considered as having been settlements. The houses of the white men were only built for temporary purposes - to traffic in with the Indians. Nor was either of the villages continuously occupied by the white traders. Sometimes, indeed, they carried their packs of merchandise upon their backs from Green Bay. Solomon Juneau would occasionally leave his home where the city of Milwaukee now stands, with eighty pounds weight upon his back, going to Sheboygan, and thence to Lake Winnebago, returning by the way of the villages at the head of the lake. This primitive mode of transportation has been improved upon between those points since that day.

United States Land Surveys

Immediately after the close of the Black Hawk war, and after the acquisition by the United States of the Indian title to all the land west of Lake Michigan, a survey was commenced by the General Government. The northern boundary of Illinois, which was fixed April 11, 1818, on the line of 42° .30' north latitude, was made the base line of the surveys. A principal north and south line (known as the Fourth Meridian) was run, extending from the base line to Lake Superior. This line is west of the territory now included in Fond du Lac County ; running on the east boundary of what is now the county of Grant, and on the west boundary of La Fayette and Iowa Counties, and thence onward due north at a distance west of the west boundary of Fond du Lac County of seventy-two miles ; striking Lake Superior near the mouth of Montreal River, on the east boundary line of Wisconsin and at the most westerly point of the State of Michigan.

Parallel lines to the Fourth Meridian were run every six miles on the east and west sides of it. The intervening six miles between these lines are called ranges. Range 1 east is the first six miles east of the Fourth Meridian ; Range 2 east is the second six miles ; and so on to Lake Michigan - Fond du Lac County lying in Ranges 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19 east. Parallel lines north of the base line were run every six miles, which, crossing the ranges at right angles, cut the whole into blocks six miles square called townships. These are numbered by tiers going north from the base line, as Townships 1 north. Townships 2 north, and so on. As the present most southern boundary of Fond du Lac County is at a distance of seventy-two miles north of the base line - or twelve townships - of course the first tier of townships in the county is numbered 13 north, and as there are five tiers they are numbered consecutively, 18, 14, 15, 16 and 17 north. But, these tiers are not all full ; for, in the southern tier (Townships 13 north), there are only two townships - one in Range 18 east, and one in Range 19 east ; and in the northern tier (Townships 17 north), there are only two fractional townships - one in Range 18 east, and one in Range 19 east.

After the completion of the survey of a township, it was subdivided into sections and quarter-sections. The following is a history of the survey of the county, including township lines and the subdivisions of townships :

This would make an average to each of the twenty-one towns in the county of 22,013.77 acres. A full township contains 36 sections of 640 acres each, or 23,040 acres. Ten towns overrun that number and eleven fall below it.

The towns of Ashford, Auburn, Alto, Waupun, Oakfield, Byron, Eden, Osceola, Metomen, Springvale, Lamartine, Fond du Lac, Forest, Ripon, Rosendale, Eldorado and Marshfield are each co-extensive with a township, as surveyed by the General Government. In this list also would be included the town of Friendship, were it not that a small fraction of fifteen and fortyeight hundredths acres, in the southeast corner fon the south side of Lake Winnebago), is excluded and assessed for taxation in the town of Taycheedah. This fraction must, therefore, be subtracted from the 12,190.61 acres, and the remainder - 12,175.13 acres - is the exact number in the town of Friendship.

The town of Fond du Lac (inclu«ling the city of Fond du Lac) is identical with the original surveyed Township 15 north, of Range 17 east. This township is slightly fractional, caused by a small portion being covered by the "water of Lake Winnebago, the shores of which are meandered.

The town of Empire is identical in its territory with Township 15 north, of Range 18 east, except that the. north tier of sections, containing 3,781x\''ij- acres, is excluded and forms a part of Taycheedah. This reduces the actual number of acres from 23,129.92 to 19,348.12.

The town of Taycheedah includes the tier of sections which are lost to Empire ; also the whole of fractional Township 16 north, of Range 18 east, excepting therefrom the north tier of sections, which go to the town of Calumet. By subtracting 2,307.57 acres, forming this tier, from 18,324.15 acres - the whole number in fractional Township 16 north, of Range 18 east - and adding thereto 3,781.80 acres, forming the first-mentioned tier, and we have, as the result, for the tovm of Taycheedah, 19,798.38 acres. To this must be added the small fraction of 15.48 acres in the southeast corner of Township 16 north, of Range 17 east, making a total of 19,813.86 acres.

The town of Calumet is formed of fractional Townships 17 north, of Ranges 18 and 19 east, and the tier of sections on the north side of fractional Township 16 north, of Range 18 east, lost to Taycheedah. In this tier of sections there are 2,307.56 acres ; in fractional Township 17 north, of Range 18 east, 4,742.13 acres ; and in fractional Township 17 north, of Range 19 east, 12,097.22 acres, aggregating in the town of Calumet 19,146.91 acres.

It will be observed that, while there are in Fond du Lac County twenty-two townships (four of which are fractional), there are but twenty-one towns.

Lake Winnebago, having its shores meandered in Townships 15 north, of Range 17 east (town o£ Fond du Lac) ; also in 16 north, of Range 17 east (town of Friendship) ; in 16 north, of Range 18 east (towns of Taycheedah and Calumet) ; and in 17 north, of Range 18 east (town of Calumet). The land in those townships covered by its waters was not surveyed by the United States.

The land covered by the waters of " Crooked Lake," now known as "Fifteen Lake," in Township 13 north, of Range 19 east (town of Auburn) ; that covered by the waters of " Long Lake," in Township 14 north, of Range 19 east (town of Osceola) ; that covered by the waters

" Little Sheboygan Lake," now called Mullet Lake, in Township 15 north, of Range 19 east (town of Forest), and that covered by the waters of "Rush Lake," in Township 16 north, of Range 14 east (town of Ripon), was, also, not surveyed by the Government Surveyors, the shores -of these lakes being meandered, as were those of Lake Winnebago.

United States Land Districts

By the end of 1833, a large amount of the public land in what is now Southern and Eastern Wisconsin had been surveyed, and the fact being duly reported by the Surveyor General, Congress, by an act approved June 26, 1834, created two land districts. They embraced all that tract north of the State of Illinois, west of Lake Michigan, south and southeast of the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers, included in the then Territory of Michigan. It was divided by a north and south line, drawn from the northern boundary of Illinois, between Ranges 8 and 9, to the Wisconsin River. All east of that line was called the Green IJay Land District; all west, the Wisconsin Land District. Within the first-mentioned district was included the whole of the present county of Fond du Lac. A Land Office of this Eastern District was established at Green Bay, which was duly opened by the Government, and a notice given of a public sale of all the then surveyed public lands lying therein. In accordance with this announcement a sale took place at Green Bay in 1835. Lands not disposed of at that sale were thereafter open to private entry at the Land Office in Green Bay. Most of the land in the county was there obtained from the General Government at |1.25 an acre by early settlers and speculators.

Fond Du Lac Company

Prominent citizens of Green Bay were the first to give an impetus to the settlement of what is now the county of Fond du Lac, by forming, in November, 1835, a joint-stock association or company, organized for the purpose of buying and selling real estate at or near the head of Lake Winnebago, in what was then Brown County, Wisconsin Territory. The first action taken was the drawing-up of Articles of Association and the signing of them by the parties interested. The names of these parties with the number of shares taken by each - a share being $100, were : J. D. Doty, 46 shares ; Joshua Hathaway, 12 shares ; John P. Arndt, 40 shares ; George Mc- Williams, 20 shares ; R. E. Clarey, 10 shares ; R. B. Marcy, 4 shares ; F. F. Hamilton, 35 shares; David Ward, 3 shares; Brush, Rees & Co., 6 shares; C. C. Sibley, 12 shares; William Brown, 64 shares ; Henry S. Baird, 3 shares ; M. E. Merrill, 10 shares ; R. S. Satterlee, 20 shares ; Silas Stedman, 10 shares ; Samuel Ryan, 7 shares ; Alexander J. Irwin, 4 shares ; D. Jones, 15 shares ; W. Alexander, 4 shares ; E. Childs, 14 shares, and M. Scott, 3 shares.

By the 1st day of January, 1836, the Company had become the owners of 3,705 acres of land, in what are now the city and town of Fond du Lac, in the present county of Fond du Lac. At that date, the officers - and they were the first ones of the association - were James Duane Doty, President; David Jones, George Mc Williams, F. F. Hamilton and W. H. Bruce, Directors. They had already laid out a village - it was surveyed in November, 1835, by A. G. Ellis - which received the name of " The Town of Fond du Lac." The village plat, after having the east tier of blocks added by Doty in New York City, whither he had gone to have it lithographed, was acknowledged, before a notary, " to be a true plat," August 22, 1836, and recorded, the next day, in the Register's ofiice of Brown County. It included territory bounded on the north by the north line of the southeast quarter of Section 3, in Township 15 north, of Range 17 east, and by Winnebago Lake ; on the east by the present Amory street in the city of Fond du Lac ; on the south by what is now Merrill street, of the city, and on the west by a line drawn north and south about eight hundred feet west of Fond du Lac River,- and by the north and south quarter line of the before-mentioned Section 3 ; that is to say, it embraces nearly the whole of the north three-quarters of Section 10, in the township and range just mentioned, and nearly all of the east half of the said Section 3. The territory lies immediately north of the heart of the city, and is wholly included within its limits.

This plat of what was expected to be, in the near future, a city, after being lithographed, was extensively circulated ; though, when the ground was surveyed into blocks and lots, there was not a house in what is now Fond du Lac County. The outside world was notified, in a brief paragraph on the plat, that " Winnebaygo Lake is thirty miles long and ten miles wide." " The town," it was declared, " is fifty-eight miles south-southwest from Green Bay ; thirty-three miles from the bank of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of Sheboygan River ; fifty-four miles from Fort Winnebaygo, and fourteen miles from Rock River." In the spring of 1836, the Company began the building of a house on Lot 9, Block 9, in their "town," on the east side of Brooke street ; it was finished in the summer. This was the first house erected in Fond du Lac County. It was a double log house, with an open hall through the center and a stairway ; there were also rooms above. It had a back addition, used as a kitchen. Brothertown Indians (civilized) came from Brothertown, some fifteen miles distant, to raise the structure. The object of the Company, in building the house, was to provide a place of entertainment for travelers and to start a settlement. In all these plans for inducing an emigration toward " the head of the lake," Doty was the ruling spirit. * He chose the place for several reasons, one of which was that he thought the Rock and Fond du Lac Rivers might be connected by canal and thus open a continuous waterway by this route from Green Bay to the Mississippi, the greater share of trade then going toward that river. He became possessed of this idea by hearing the stories of Indian traders who had paddled canoes, loaded with goods, up the Fox River, across Lake Win nebago, up the Fond du Lac River, and then across land about two miles, to the Rock River. Both streams were much larger then than now, so that idea had fewer ridiculous features than at present.

After purchasing the site of the "town" and a considerable body of land in the immediate vicinity, amounting, in all, as we have seen, to over three thousand acres, the Company began to dispose of the same to settlers and others. An act, incorporating the Company, was approved February 9, 1842. " Whereas," says the preamble, " in the year 1835, an association of sundry persons was formed at Green Bay, for the purchase of real estate, under the name of the Fond du Lac Company, which association became, and was, and still is, possessed of a quantity of land situated in the county of Fond du Lac and vicinity, in the Territory of Wisconsin ; and, whereas, said association has sold and conveyed, to divers persons, tracts and lots of land in the manner specified in their Articles of Association :

Seotioh 1. That Samuel Ryan, Henry S. Baird, David .Tones, John P. Arndl, and all such'persons as now are or may hereafter be stockholders in the said corporation, shall be and they are hereby declared to be a body corporate and politic, under the name and style of the Fond du Lao Company ; and, as such corporation, are hereby declared capable of suing and being sued, answering and being answered unto, pleading and being impleaded, defending and being defended, in all courts and places, and in all actions, suits, matters and causes whatever ; and said company shall have a continued succession for the term of five years, and have a common seal and change the same at pleasure.

The next section of the act limited the amount of capital stock to 342 shares of f 100 each, and declared that the Company should not purchase any more land, but could improve what they then owned. Section 3 provided for the adoption of by-laws. Section 4 declared that conveyances already made in conformity to existing by-laws should be binding on the incorporated Company. The fifth section provided that nothing in the act should be so construed as impairing any contract previously made.

By-laws were afterward drawn up and adopted for the government of the Company. On the 19th day of February, 1844, a chancery suit was instituted by Mason C. Darling, a stockholder, against the Company, in the District Court of Brown County, Andrew G. Miller, Judge, asking, among other things, for the dissolution of the Company, a settlement of its concerns and distribution of assets among the stockholders. Edward Pier was, on the 9th of March, 1844, by the Court, appointed a Receiver of the estate of the Company. Afterward, in 1846, A. G. ;^llis, a master in chancery, sold all the lands and town lots of the Company that had not been disposed of previous to the commencement of the suit by Darling. These were all situated 'in the town of Fond du Lac. The proceeds of the sale were finally distributed, after paying costs and expenses, to the parties entitled to the same, under order of the Court. Meanwhile, "An act to repeal an act entitled 'An Act to Incorporate the Fond du Lac Company,' approved February 9, 1842," was passed:

Section 1. That the act entitled " An Act to Incorporate the Fond du Lac Company," approved February 9,' 1842, is hereby repealed : Provided, That said company shall be liable for all debts which may have been conti-aoted by said company, in as full and ample a manner as if this act had not been passed.

Origin Of The Name Fond Du Lac

The three words Fond du Lac are from the French language, and signify literally, " the bottom of the lake." The word "fond " means literally "bottom ;" but its figurative meaning is also "that which is farthest" or "most remote." The south end of Lake Winnebago, as well as the western end of Lake Superior, were always alluded to by traders living at Grreen Bay, Mackinaw, Sault Ste. Marie or Detroit, as points in those lakes most distant ; and, consequently, the appellation among them was "the Fond du Lac Superior," the " Fond du Lac Winnebago," etc., meaning the farther end or extreme from their headquarters. It has nothing, to do with the " head of the lake " although this is actually the case in both instances. Had the outlet been at the farther end of these lakes, instead of being near the places just named, the expression, according to the French idea conveyed by the term "fond," would have been equally proper. The name was afterward given to the river which has its mouth at " the Fond du Lac Winnebago" and, very appropriately, to the county having its territory around and adjoining the same. It is probable that the name was given to the locality at an early day, so soon, in fact, as the French traders began at the Indian villages in the vicinity to traffic with the natives. The exact date whe'n this took place is not known with any degree of certainty, though it was certainly in the last century.

It was on the 16th of February, 1836, that Colwert Pier and his younger brother, Edward, started wi:th a horse and sled from Green Bay to go to the head of Winnebago Lake, and take a look at the country in that vicinity. He had previously a talk with the officers of the Fond du Lac Company about locating there. There was no road at that time except what the Brothertown and Stockbridge Indians had made, as far as the Grand Kaukalau in Fox River where these Indians then resided. From the Bay to that place, the travel in winter was mostly upon the ice. When the Grand Kaukalau was reached, the two ascertained that these Indians, who were preparing to move up and improve their lands on the east side of the lake, had a road cut as far where the Stockbridge Mission was afterward established, and that the route mentioned was the best one to go to Fond du Lac. They also learned that there were four or five families living there at that. time. The brothers concluded to take the road indicated. They reached the place the first day, and stopped with a Stockbridge family by the name of Jourdan over night. Jourdan had a small cabin and a shed. In the last-mentioned building, the travelers put their horse. The next morning after they had their breakfast, Mr. Jourdan very kindly piloted them to the lake, and told them that he had heard folks say that Fond du Lac was up that way.

There were six to eight inches of snow upon the ice and a sharp crust upon the snow. There was no track to be seen, consequently it was slow traveling. The two brothers had been told that Fond du Lac River came into the lake on the west side of the prairie in the timber. They therefore made their way toward the woods, and came to the shore about half a mile east of the mouth of the stream. They then bore to the west until the river was reached, when they came up it on the east side as far as what is now Tract 38 in the city of Fond du Lac (the present residence of George Mc Williams), where they made a fire and some hasty preparations for camping during the night, although it was then but little past mid-day. They fed their horse, ate some dinner, and about 3 o'clock P. M., started to look for a farm, leaving their horse tied where they had rested and taken their last meal.

James D. Doty, of the Fond du Lac Company, was, by agreement, to meet them at the point they had now reached, and show them the lands belonging to his association. The two brothers looked over the land on the east side of the river, some distance up the stream.

They came down through the timber and got back to where they had left their horse, at dark. Here they found Doty, Dr. Richard M. Satterlee, Lieut. Merrill and a soldier named Collins. The party had come up the river, found the horse belonging to the two landhunters and encamped for the night. The weather was intensely cold, but they had provided a large stock of wood for fire, which, before the next morning, was mostly consumed.

The two brothers slept some that night, had an early breakfast, got what information they could from Doty, and then took their course toward the west. They crossed the river below the forks and walked up across Sections 9, 8 and 18. There was no snow upon the prairie, but about this time, which was near 12 o'clock M., the snow began to fall, and the two started to return to camp. They came down across Section 10 and struck the West Branch, when they found themselves in an unpleasant situation, and for some time, they could not find the spot they sought. They had not learned that the river had two branches. They, however, became satisfied of the fact after wandering about and reaching the forks. They then came up and, found their camp.

The brothers then gave their horse what oats they had left, ate what provisions they had, and started east. They crossed two creeks and then turned north toward the lake. It continued to snow very fast. Oar travelers homeward soon reached a place where the reeds were higher than a man's head, causing them to fear that they would lose their way ; but they had a small pocket compass which was of much service. Colwert Pier rode on the sled and carried the compass in his hand, while his brother Edward went as far ahead as he could be seen, being directed by Cblwert on his course. ' About 4 o'clock, they came in sight of the la"ke, when it ceased snowing. They went on the lake a little east of where Taycheedah now is, when they soon discovered a team coming out of the timber east of them. This proved to be Doty and his party, who soon joined the two others, and all went on together to where Stockbridge was afterward located. The two brothers (Colwert and Edward Pier) stopped with their friend, Timothy Jourdan again, returning to the bay next day. This ended the journey of the two brothers. It was their first visit to the head of the lake, was in itself not particularly noteworthy only in this - -it led to the return, in a few months, to the head of the lake, of Colwert Pier, the first settler in Fond du Lac County.

After the return of Colwert Pier and his brother, Edward Pier, to Green Bay, from their trip in February, 1836, to " spy out the land" at the head of Winnebago Lake, they met the Directors of the Fond du Lac Company, and made arrangements for each to have a quartersection of their land, they being well satisfied with the country around the head of the lake. In addition to this, if the parents of the two brothers joined them, they were to have a quartersection also, adjoining theirs. It was agreed that the two should move to Fond du Lac, that Colwert should open the "Fond du Lac House," as a tavern, and that both should improve their farms. In short, they were to commence the settlement of the lands of the Fond du Lac Company, which would be the first settlement at the head of the lake.

Now that many of the hardy sons of toil who broke the wilds of Fond du Lac .County and converted them into fruitful fields, who filled its towns and cities with many habitations, lie quietly in mother earth, their enterprising spirits having fled from the busy world around, those who enjoy what were once their possessions are curious to know of the vicissitudes of former days, and to learn the names of those who laid the foundations of those improvements which have been so largely instrumental in bringing this region to its present importance. And particularly are they anxious to hold in remembrance the name of the first white settler in Fond du Lac County. The firit of the pioneers - let it never be forgotten - was Colwert Piee.

Sometime near the close of the month of May, Mr. Pier started on horseback from Green Bay, to go to Fond du Lac, to begin a settlement - the first in the county. His wife, in company with a Mrs. Robean, a lady who had taken up a tract of land on the east side of Winnebago Lake, and was going there to settle, followed her husband in a Durham boat, commanded by Capt. Samuel Irwin, and propelled by Indians and half-breeds. The boat was loaded with merchandise, provisions and household goods, which were to be carried to Grand Kaukalau, Fond du Lac and other points. The custom then was where the water was deep in the Fox River, and sluggish, "to propel with oars, and where there were more current and less depth, to use poles, until the rapids were reached, when the men got into the water, took hold of the boat and pushed it up against the current. In this way it was got up to the Grand Kaukalau.

At this point, all had to be unloaded and carried three-fourths of a mile, above the Rapids. This was usually done by Frenchmen and half-breeds, who resided in the vicinity, and had teams of some kind, while the boatmen forced the boat up the rapids. When this was done, the goods were re-loaded and the boat pushed up to the Grand Chute, near where Appleton now is. Here all the load had again to be taken out, the barrels rolled, and the other loading carried by the men, above the falls. A long cable was then made fast to the bow of the boat, then carried above the chute and put around a tree, while two men were stationed there to take up the slack as the others lifted the boat over and up to where the water was smooth again. The next stretch was to the outlet of Lake Winnebago, where one-half of the load had to be taken out and carried up to the lake, then the cable was made fast to the boat and the men forced it up the rapids.

While the party in the boat was on the way, there was a rumor of an Indian war circulated along the i-oute. To this Capt. Irwin paid no attention until he ran into Fond du Lac River, when he met about seventy Indians upon the bank. Usually they were very talkative, but now for some cause all were silent ; not a word was exchanged between those on the boat and those on the land ; this was the more noticeable as, before, thos^ that were met, whenever within speaking distance, communicated very freely. Capt. Irwin began to feel that really there might be some ground for the war rumor.

On the 6th day of June, 1836 - a day ever to be held in remembrance by the people of Fond du Lac County as the one on which was commenced the first settlement - the boat reached the spot where had been raised the " Fond du Lac House," by the Fond du Lac Company, where Mrs. Pier had the satisfaction of greeting her husband, who had preceded her. The boat arrived about noon, just below where the railroad bridge now is, when the goods belonging to Mr. Pier were speedily put on shore, and Capt. Irwin was soon making his way, in his craft, down the river.

Said Capt. Irwin, subsequently : " I bade good-bye to Mrs. Pier with feelings not unmixed with sorrow. ' She endeared herself to all of us by her uniform kindness. She assisted us in our cooking, and cheered us by her looks and words through all the trying scenes of the nine days we were on the voyage. When we left her on the bank of the Fond du Lac River, a lone region, surrounded by hundreds of Indians, with no one but her husband to protect her, we all felt sad." " I have often thought," says a recent writer, " that if she had lived, her version of those times and those scenes would be of great interest to some of the ladies now living in the county. She once told me that when Capt. Irwin's boat was out of sight, and she and her husband were left alone - feeling that they constituted the only civilized inhabitants of the entire region - she sat down upon the ground and cried a considerable time, then wiping away her tears, she resolutely got up and walked to the house where her home was to be, and took a calm view of the surroundings. She found the log building to consist of three log cabins united ; there was an open hall between the dining-room and sitting-room, and a kitchen in the rear, the floor of which had been laid by her husband after his arrival, but previous to her coming. He had also put in two windows and a door. ' My husband tried to soothe and comfort me, but I felt that he needed,' said she, 'some one to comfort him as well ; so I tookihold, and helped him put up the stove, and I went about putting our house in as good condition as circumstances would permit.' Within half an hour, a squaw came in, and by signs, made Mrs. Pier understand that she wished to exchange some feathers for flour. These she purchased, and, as she afterward discovered, paid liberally for them, for, in half an hour, her room was filled with squaws wishing to ' swap ' feathers for pork. Her stock in trade consisted of one barrel of pork and two of flour. That afternoon she bought of the squaws feathers sufficient to make two good-sized feather beds, and paid for them in pork and flour." .

From June 6, 1836, to March 11, 1837, Colwert Pier and his wife were the only residents in Fond du Lac County. On the day last mentioned, his brother, Edward Pier, arrived at " the Fond du Lac House," bringing a family consisting of his wife and two daughters, the youngest about four weeks old. These two families composed the entire population until June 1, when Norman Pier, from Middlebury, Vt., and Albert Kendall, from Rochester, in the same State, arrived. These young men were unmarried, and were added to the occupants of " the Fond du Lac House." On the 17th, Miss Harriet Pier (afterward Mrs. Alonzo Raymond) arrived at Fond du Lac. There were now three women in the county, but soon after, on the 3d of September, the father (Calvin) and the mother (Esther) came on, bringing with them their son, Oliver W. Pier, a lad of fourteen years. The Piers and young Kendall were all the occupants of Fond du Lac County thenceforward to the beginning 'of March, 1838. On the first day ot that month, Mrs. Fanny Pier, wife of Colwert Pier, died, after a short illness. She was attended by. Dr. David Ward, of Green Bay, he being the nearest resident physician. She, the pioneer woman in Fond du Lac County, was the first to go hence forever ! The funeral was held on the 3d of March, and was attended by the few pioneers, who were all mourners. The sermon was preached by the Rev. Cutting Marsh, missionary to the Stockbridge Indians. , It was a sad and solemn occasion.