Green County, Wisconsin - Chapter 6: Uni Ted States Land Surveys, 1884

Chapter 6: Uni Ted States Land Surveys

The policy pursued by the general government after obtaining possession of the northwest from Great IJritain, in dealing with the various Indian tribes, has been to purchase of the savages their right to particular parts of the country, before presuming to enter upon a survey of it.

And Circumjacknt Territory

The United States began to make treaties with the Wisconsin Winnebagoes, in 1816. On tlie 3d day of June of that year, they held a treaty with them at St. Louis. This one (held soon after the war witli Great Britain, in which the Winnebagoes engaged on the side of the British) was for peace only, - no cession of land on part of the Indians being made to the United States.

In 1820, t)ie Winnebagoes had five villages on Winnebago lake and fourteen on Rock river. In 1825 the claim of this tribe was extensive, so far as territory was concerned. Its southeast boundary stretched away from the sources of Rock river to within forty miles of its mouth, in Illinois, where they had a village. On the west, it extended to the heads of the small streams flowing westward and southward into the Mississippi. To the northward, it reached as far as Bhick river and the Upper Wisconsin; in other word-!, to the Chippewa territory; but did not extcTid across Fox river of Green bay, although the tribe contended for the whole of Winnebago hike. Within their territory then, in 182.T, was the whole of what is now Green county.

Early in 1829, a provisional boundary was established between the Winnebago lands, strictly such, and those belonging to, or expected soon to be purchased by, the United States. By this line, white people could settle on all of the present area of Green county west of Sugar river. East of this still remained Winnebago territory. By a treaty held with that tribe at Prairie du Chien Aug. 1, 1829, all their land (and much moie) lying in what is now Green county west of Sugar river was relinquished to the United States. Three years later, at a treaty held at Fort Armstrong (Rock Island), the residue of the present territory of Green county (with a large anioutit besides) was ceded to the United States. This treaty was proclaimed Feb. 13, 1833; and, on that day, all the title of the Winnebagoes to this county passed to the United Statest

The first surveys by the general government of lands in Wisconsin were made south of the Wisconsin river and the Fox river of Green bay. The northern boundary line of the State of Illinois fixed April 11, 1818, on the parallel 42 degrees 38 minutes north latitude, became, properly enough, the base line of these surveys (as indeed of all the surveys afterwards made by the United States in this State). A principal north and south line, known as the fourth meridian, was run at right angles, of course with the base line, and extending from it to Lake Superior. This meridian line is west of all the territory in Green county. It extends nortli from the Illinois State line, along the east side of Grant countv, and then divides

Richland, cutting it into two equal parts. It then runs north through the eastern parts of Vernon, Monroe, Jackson, Clark and other counties; until it strikes Lake Superior a short distance to the westward of the mouth of Montreal river.

Parallel lines to the fourth meridian were run ever}^ six miles on the east and west sides of it. The intervening six miles between lines are called ranges. Range 1 east, is the first six miles of territory east of the fourth meridian; range 2 east, is the second six miles, and so on, to Lake Michigan. However, on the west side of the fourth meridian, the ranges are numbered consecutively westward. Range 1 west, is the first six miles of territory west of that line; range 2 west, is the second six miles, and so on, to the Mississippi river.

Parallel lines north of the base line (the north boundary line of the State of Illinois) were run every six miles, which crossing the ranges at 'right angles, cut the whole into blocks six miles square, called townships. These townships are numbered by tiers going north, from the base line; the first tier being known as township 1 north, the second tier, as township 2 north, and so on until the extreme north boundary of the State (not covered by water) is reached, which is, of course, the extreme north side of the most northern of the Apostle islands, in Bayfield county. Now, if we begin, at the base line and count the tiers of townships so as to include tl)e whole of Green county, we discover that we have numbered four of them.

Green county, then, lies in townships numbered 1, 2, 3 and 4 north. If we begin on the west side of the county, and count the ranges, we find that the county also lies in ranges 6, 7, 8 and 9 east; so we have in all sixteen equal blocks of territory, or sixteen townships of land, and these are numbered as follows:

Township 1 north, of range 6 east; township 2 north, of range 6 east; township 3 north, of range 6 east; township 4 north, of range C east; township 1 north, of range 7 east; township 2 north, of range 7 east; township 3 north, of range 7 east; township 4 north, of range 7 east; township 1 north, of range 8 east; township 2 north, of range 8 east; township 3 north, of range 8 east; township 4 north, of range 8 east; township 1 north, of range 9 east; township 2 north, of range 9 east; township 3 north, of range 9 east; township 4 north, of range 9 east.

Base Line (Illinois State Line). After the several township lines were run, then each township was sub-divided into sections ^nd quarter sections, called, in surveying language, "sectionized." As a section is a mile square, there is, of course, in every whole township, thirty-six sections of land. For convenience, these are always numbered as follows:

In eacli wliole section, there are 640 acres; and, when a section is divitled into fonr parts, each quarter section contains 1 60 acres. It is usually in quarter sections tliat tlie land of the United States is disposed < f; although, if desired, it will be divided into eighty acre tracts, or even forty acres.

What Is To Be Seen On The Government Plats

"Trail from Galena to Wallace's," from the southwest corner of the township nearly in a straight line to the northeast corner of section 3. "Pait's house"f is marked on the southwest corner of the northwest quarter of section 16.

"Skinner's Hnuse and Furnace" are located just north of the south line of the northeast quarter of section 10, about eighty rods west of the southeast corner of the quarter just named. The road to Demunn's Trading House on Sugar river runs tiirougli sections 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12. A branch road runs from Skinner's House nearly north to "Skinner's Diggings," situated near the northeast corner of the northwest quarter of section 3. "Diggings" are marked at the southeast corner of the northeast quarter of section 3, and at tl e northeast corner and southeast corner of tlie northeast quarter of section 10. T. 2 R., R. 8 E. (1832).

*Expr.ANATiON. - The dates given are those of the survey of each townshiv). into sections and quarter sections. These dates arc important, in this (ioimoction. Thus we see that, in !«;«, the Fctuitonica \va,s called "Peekatolake, " and that, I the same year, there is ii house in the present town of Clarno, ! noted by the surveyor as "I'ait's House" (ineaninjr, however, i ' 'PaynQ's House," undoubtedly); and so on. \

Road to Demunn's Trading House, on Sugar creek, runs through sections 7, 18, 17,20,21, 22 and 23, into section 14. Demunn's Trading House is located on the west side of Sugar river, on the south half of the \yest half of the southwest quarter ofsection 14. A road runs from here up Sugar river on the west side. One runs east, crossing the river on the north half of the northeast quarter of section 23, where an Indian village* is located on the east side of the river. There is also an Indian village at Demunn's Trading House. Ti)e two villages are about three-fourths of a mile apart Sugar river is called "Sugar creek."

Road running easterly across section 19, branches just at the east side of the section; - one road i-unning southeast to Skinner's Diggins - the other continuing on easterly to Dougherty's.

The road to Dougherty's House and Furnace, runs northeasterly through sections 19, 18, 7, 8, 5 and 4, into section 3. Dougherty's is located near the south side of the northwest quarter of the northwest quarter of section 3. A road runs nearly south from Dougherty's througli the township.

At the northeast corner, of tlie northwest quarte:- of the northwest quarter of section 2, the surveyor sa3^s his needle was attracted 3 degrees east.

At the northwest corner of the iiortiieast quarter of the northwest quarter of section 1, is marked "Old Indian village."* The huts extend across the sectioii line nortli, into what is

"Old Diggings" are marked on the south line of the southeast quarter of section 27, and "Diggings" on the east line of the northeast quarter of section 34.

By the end of 1833, a large amount of the public lands in Wisconsin, south and east of the Wisconsin and Fox rivers, had been surveyed. This fact being reported by the surveyor-general of the Umted States, two land districts were erected by an act of Congress, approved June 26, 1834. These districts embraced all the land 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. The area was then divided by a north-and-south line, drawn from the base line to the Wisconsin river, between ranges 8 and 9 east. This line divided the territory of what is now Green county, throwing all of the surveyed townships of range 9 east, on one side; and those of ranges 6, T and 8 ea«t on the other. All east of the line, in Wisconsin, was called the "Green l^ay Land District;" all west, the "Wisconsin Land District."

From what has been said, it will be seen that the area now constituting the towns of Brooklyn, Albany, Decatur and Spring Grove, and the incorporated villages of Albany and Brodhead, fell into the Green Bay district; while the residue of the territory now constituting the west three-fourths of tlie county was included in the Wisconsin district. Aland office for the eastern (Green 15ay) district was established at Green Bay; for the western (Wisconsin) district, at Mineral Point.

By an act of Congress of June 15, 1836, the "Milwaukee Land District" was erected out of the southern portion of the Green Bay district, including all the land lying between range 8 east and Lake Michigan, bounded on the south by the Illinois State line, and extending north ten tiers of townships (sixty miles). Of course, in this new district fell the townships in the present county of Green, lying in range 9 east, now the territory constituting the towns of Brooklyn, Albany, Decatur and Spring Grove, and the incorporated villages of Albany and Brodhead; - the same that, before that time, was in the Green Hay district

The land office for the Milwaukee district was located at Milwaukee, where the first public sale of lands which had been surveyed after the other lands had been offered at Green Bay and Mineral Point, was held. But, as all the lands in the east one-fourth of what is now Green county had previously been offered at public sale at Green Bay, of course they were not again put up; but parties desirous of entering land in that part of the county had thereafter to go to Milwaukee instead of Green Bay !<> make their purchases from the general government.

The Wisconsin Land District In 1837

The Wisconsin Land District is bounded westward by the Mississipi)i, east" by the Four Lakes and Sugar river, north by the Wisconsin river, and south by the Illinois State line, comprising an extent of country about ninety miles from east to west, and about fifty miles from north to south, generally covered by the counties of Iowa, Grant, Dane and Green. 'J he country east of this section is called the Milwaukee Land District, and embraces all the re" niaining counties of the Territory, except those on the western side of the Mississippi river.

First impressions with regard to a new country, where everything appears different from what one has been accustomed to see, are alwa3^s apt to please, whether tlie country be wiki, rugged, rocky and mountainous, or composed of level plains, denuded sand-hills, and wide expanses of inland waters; such is the character of many parts of the great west; and even here, the first view pleases not only from its novelty of scenerj^, but abstracted from the idea of its utility to the various wants and occupations of man; no country in a state of nature can be unpleasing to the reflecting mind; no object on which the e3^e may not for a moment dwell satisfied, not even the coral rocks in the midst of the ocean. If sucli scenes may please, what then may you conceive first impressions to be with regard to Wisconsin, when I tell you that faiicy must fail in imagining a more lovely country? The agriculturist in vain might seek for a richer or more productive soil; the mineralogist fruitlessly explore the bowels of the earth to discover veins of lead, copper, (and from ma)iy specimens, I believe also of iron,) richer than in Wisconsin! This unqualified picture of wealth in the new country, you may think is too strongly drawn; I cannot help it - such were my first impressions of the Territory; they have been the more realized, the more I have traveled in it, and the more information I have obtained. I appeal fearlessly to every person who has been three days in any quarter of the Wisconsin land district for the truth of my assertions. I believe from all that I have seen that there is not to be found ten acres in an}- 100 that is not fit for cultivation or for farmer's use. No one can say wliere mineral is not to he found; wherever it has been properly sought for, it has V)een obtained; and even around Mineral Point, where are the richest lead diggings, and as poor a soil as any that I have seen in the Territory, the land will produce equal to any land in Pennsylvania with proper and equal cultivation. Mineral is alsb found iu the richest agricultural districts, and under the finest soil in the Territory. The disadvantages attending the farmer in such a rich agricultural countr^^ must of course be very few, and I shall point them out, I trust, with candor.

In the first place there is a want of timber; in many sections of this country there is an abundance of timber for building, fencing, firewood, coaling and all other purposes, yet, generally speaking, in the rich prairies, the groves of timber are small and scattered, not affording sufficient wood for more than one or two large farms, for many miles in extent. Yet this want of timber can easily be remedied by planting the yellow, the white, or the black locust, and the chestnut; these trees are not indigenous; the general forest trees are white oak, burr oak, hickory, black and white walnut, sugar maple, cherry and ash. I am told that locust and chestnut flourish well by planting the seed, and if the farmer on the prairies will turn his attention to throwing up of embankments and thereon planting thorn hedges, which in many places 1 have seen commenced, the want of fencing timber can scarcely be felt; as for tire wood, a sufficiency may always be readily obtained within a short distance of any farm, and if the annual fires on the praii'ies are prevented or subdued by the care and exertions of the settlers, the limber of the country is of the most rapid growth. Thus, tiie objection of the scarcity of timber has more force in name than in reality, when the rapid growths of plantations, the easy cultivation of hedges, and the spontaneous production of indigenous forest trees, where fire is excluded in the prairies, are properly reflected upon.

But the objection presents itself with more force in regard to lumber for building purposes. As for oak, walnut, cherry and ash, and on the river the cotton wood, and in some parts the sugar maple, there is abundance for the heavy parts of buildings; but pine lumber is scarce, and of course dear; even the ordinary lumber of the country commands now ^2 per huu- dred feet at the saw-mills; this is owing to the sarciiy of saw-mills, and the consequent increased demand for the article. There is no pine timber in the country, except very higli up the Wisconsin ri^-er, above Fort Winnebago, and up the St. Croix river, and the other tributaries of the Upper Mississippi. Pine lumber is worth |6 per hundred feet at Prairie du Chien, Cassville, and Galena in Illinois; these towns may be called the chief shipping ports of this part of Wisconsin Territory. Pine lumber is brought down the Ohio river from the tributaries of the Allegheny above Pittsburg, as far up as the New York State line, and taken up the Mississippi by way of St. Louis; and instances have occurred of houses having been built altogether at Pittsburg, and at Cincinnati, and sliipped in 2Kirts a,ronnd. to the Territory, and placed on the ground cheaper than they could have been built by procuring lumber from the Wisconsin river or the Upper Mississippi. The late treaty made with the Chippewas, by which the pine region has been purchased by the United States, will liereafter insure a constant supply of building material, and greatly reduce its price in Wisconsin, and along the Mississippi to St. Louis, and even as far as New Orleans. Saw-mills are already being established within t'^e purchase.

Another objection, and the main one to be considered is the climate; as I have not passed a spring or winter month here, I give such information as I have obtained. The winter is long and severe, and yet the general temperature of the atmosphere is not colder than it is amongst the mountains in western Pennslyvania. The utmost duration of winter may be considered as of five months; this will iticlude two months of wet and cold season in the spring and fall not properly called winter. From the beginning of May, until the end of October, the climate of this region to a Pennsylvanian is delightful. I can say- for myself that I never experienced hotter weather than in some days in August in Wist^onsin; this is g'Gn>- erally the case in high northern latitudes. During the greater portion of the summer months, however warm may be some days, yet the general character is that of a temperature of 75 degrees to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Frost commences in the middle of Septeml)er generally; vicissitudes of climate which bring frosts destructive to grain early in September, are not uncommon in Pennsylvania in the same month; nay, as early as the 25th of August, in the northwestern part of that State, I have seen whole crops of corn and buckwheat destroyed. But the frosts of September seldom injure the corn crops iji Wisconsin. Corn is undoubtedly considered as more uncertain than any other crop here, and yet if attention were paid to the quality of the seed corn as regards nativity ^\n\ first ripening^ I have no doubt that this highly favored country may in time be as fine a corn growing region as any in our land. Understand me; as to nathnty, I mean tliat the seed corn should be brouglit from our middle and nort.herT) States, and not from Kentucky, Missouri, and the south part of Illinois and Indiana; and as to first ripening, the farmers chief care should be to select the earliest enrs for seed. By this mode of planting and selecting, and in its continuance, I make no question that corn may be acclimated, improved, and rendered a certain crop. In some parts of the eastern district of Wisconsin, I have been informed that the corn crop has been matured in ten weeks from its being planted.

Continuing my remarks on the winters, I understand, that when the cold weather has fairly set in, the snows fall, although by no means deep; snows continue to fall at intervals, until the winter is about to break up; there is no rain of any amount known to fall from October, until March or April. The cold is severe and tlie weather dry; no melting of the snow, no rains injurious to cattle, no wet sloppy time occurs in the winter, to occasion wet feet and drenched clothes, to the farmer and traveler, with all hosts of cb'lds, cdughs, rheumatism aiid consequent ills that attend on a variable winter. Winter is here, to be sure in earyiest, and yet not colder than in the same latitudes eastward ; and when his icy hand is lifted from the locked up land, you leap as with a bound at once into delightful summer.

Spring wheat is here generally raised, and the reason given why the fall sowing does fiot equally prosper with the spring sowing, is the length and severity of the winter, and the want of protection for the grain on the prairies, over which the winds have almost unbounded sweep, and consequently drive the snow from its genial covering on the tender plant. Now, although this may be all true, yet remedies are to be found. Let us say to the farmer, sow your wheat early in September, and the plant will have gained sufficient strength to resist the evils complained of ; the custom of October sowing, as prevailing in Pennsylvania, will not do in Wisconsin. If it were necessary to produce facts to prove a self-evident theory, I havi been informed of two or three simihir instancewhich substantiate it. Winter wheat was stub bled in after a corn crop had been taken off ; the stalks of corn, some standing and some fallen, afforded such a protection as to retain the snow on the wheat during the winter; a fine crop was tiie result. But this may be called slovenly farming; early sowing is the remedy, or rather preventative, of the effect of severe winters.

These appear to me as the prominent objections to the agricultural interests in Wisconsin; want of timber, coldness of climate, and length of winter. I have merely suggested some hints of the manner in which these objections may be obviated. Personal feeling in the coldness of the counti'y is scarcely worthy of consideration; a family can be as easily kept most comfortably warm, in winter, in Wisconsin, as in New York or Pennsylvania, and the absence of winter coughs and colds destructive to the human system will amply compensate for a thousand icy inconveniences.

One further remark on the winter climate. The situation of this Territory being west of the great lakes of the northwest, the freezing and biting winds which prevail in parts of New York and Pennsylvania during the winter, deriving their character chiefly in passing over the immense waste of frozen lakes, have no effect in Wisconsin; and when the prairies become settled by farmers who will turn their attention to the planting and preserving of fruit and forest trees, I have no doubt that the climate will still more be ameliorated in every succeeding year, with the settlement of the country.

The advantages of the agriculturist, now, at least, greatly overbalance all his inconveniences. His land is purchased at the government price of $1.25 per acre; land of the richest soil in the world. His prairie ground awaits immediate cultivation. His crops will yield him from thirty-five to fifty bushels of fall wheat per acre, and from twenty to thirty bushels of spring wlieat is calculated on as a sure crop; barley will yield from forty to sixty bushels, and oats from fifty to seventy-five bushels to the' acre; corn will produce from forty to sixty bushels, and potatoes, turnips, rutabagas and all garden vegetables yield most abundantly. Potatoes, of a quality and size superior to any I have ever tasted, yield from 800 to 500 bushels to the acre; and with regard to this vegetable, I venture to predict that the time will arrive when the Wisconsin potato, 7J)ar excellence, will become an article of trade in the best demand in the southern markets. I am satisfied that this country is peculiarly adapted to the cultivation of the sugar beet; and add to all these advantages the certainty of a ready and high-priced market, and there is every inducement for agricultural pursuits. The only evil to be feared is that the farmer may strike his plow into a lead vein, and then adieu to the plough and the harrow, and loelcome the pick-ax and the crowbar, the windlass and the new smelting furnace; the prospect of a mineral fortune is opened to the

The mining and agricultural interests of this country must always depend greatly on each other; they must flourish together, their mutual interests require their mutual |)rotection. 'J"he mining interest always finds the farmer a ready market. Tlie miner attends to his own business exclusively; he does not meddle with the soil except to see what lies beneath it; he very seldom even cultivates a garden; this fact, and the constant tide of emigration creating a demand far exceeding, the supply every year, causes the price of produce to be astonishingly high, $1 per bushel for oats, and the same for potatoes, corn, onions, turnips and beets was paid when 1 at Mineral Point; I am informed that the prices are seldom twenty-five cents below this average. The high price of wheat all over llie Union for a year past is no general criterion, and yet flour is always high here, which is partly owing to the present scarcity of gristmills.

'I'he necessaries and the luxuries of life, the various articles of household furniture and every description of farming implements can be readily procured in the Territory, as the steamboats are daily arriving and departing, at the several points of shipment on the Mississippi, and the price of carriage is regulated according to the stage of the water and the number of the boats plying on the river.

Enough, I hear you say, of this talk, desultory and conjectural concerning the farming of Wisconsin; let us hear more of the country; its general appearance, its waters, its hills, its woods and its valleys; its aboriginal remains, its towns and their population; its lead and its copper; and write to me like a traveler who journeys and wishes to impart what he has seen in a country so recently rescued by the enterprise and valor of our hardy pioneers, from the wandering Indian, whose only occupation was to hunt deer and spear fish, although dwelling in a western Eden,

Be it so: I will endeavor to comply with all you ask, but before I commence, an observation rises in my mind, to which I feel that I must give utterance. It is not inconsistent with the wise and bountiful orders and dispensations of our Creator to believe, whilst viewing this beautiful country, that its fertility of soil, and its facility of being cultivated, may have been adapted to the capabilities of its primitive inhabitants. Such a soil as we here find, would yield abundance to a people who might be ignorant of the mechanical arts, and although I have no morbid sensibility on the subject of taking possession of a land which was in worthless hands, and under the dominion of roving savages; and as I am of the opinion that the earth was given to man for his inheritance, and consequently that the general good will justify the means by which that inheritance is claimed, yet I cannot help seeing that if there is any country on the face of the globe where a Nation might exist without the knowledge of the art of civilized life, a country capable of affording the greatest sustenance with the least labor, such a country is to be found in the valley of the Mississippi, and such a country is now before me in Wisconsin!

There is neither mountain nor forest,(properly so called,) in western Wisconsin, that is in the section which I have limited in my outset, in these remarks. The prairies may be passed over in any direction in a wheel carriage with ease and safety; the groves surrounding, and interlacing, and sprinkling, and dotting the vast ocean of open field can be treaded as easily with a carriage, as if you were driving through a plantation of fruit or forest trees, set or growing irregularly. The undergrowth is generally of small bushes readily passed over; the black currant, the furred and smooth gooseberry, the red and white raspberry, the blackberry, the cranberry of the vine, and of the bush; the haw, the wild ])lum, and the crabapple; all these indigenous fruits are found throughout the Territory; the strawberry literally covers the prai- ries and groves; and touching ih size of tiiis delicious fruit, I send you a paragraph from a Mineral Point newspaper; the frait was measured by IMajor John P. Sheldon, and is not by any means of uncommon size; the hazle, with its nut-laden branches is the most common bush in the country; acorns, black and white walnuts, and hickory-nuts, are as plenty as hosts of swine may for ages desire. Indeed it is not jjossible to find a district of country better calculated for the raising of this description of stock than here.

If I can by any means, bring your imagination to bear on the appearance of the country generally, I will endeavor to do so. Suppose for a moment that you were placed in the midst of the most fertile and best cultivated parts of Lancaster or Chester counties, in Pennsylvania; the houses were all removed; the fences and hedges all leveled with the general surface; the grain fields all set in luxuriant grass, the strij) of woodland interspersed amongst the farms, remaining as tliey are; suppose further, that tin most beautiful flowers variegated in colors, aiu1 of countless descriptions, were waving their plumed heads, with every here and there the tall comjyriss plant or prairie sunflower, overtopping all; suppose such a scene in an area of tit'teon, twenty or thirty miles; such is Wisconsin, and such have I generally found it in various rides and rambles, and excursions on foot, on horseback, and in JSfev; York fashionable built carriages through a country into which the adventurous white pioneer first made his entry nine years ago, and which has only been free from the tread of savage feet, and the depredations of the Black Hawk War, within five years.

The fiowers of the prairie are various and beautiful. I am not sufliciently a florist or botanist to class them, and generally speaking, they are not known in the eastern States as field flowers. Tlie blue, red, white and purple chrysanthemum are very common; a yellow flower waving and drooping like an ostrich feather, is also generally found; some varieties resembling the prince's feather are common; delicate snow-drops and violets, diamond sparks that "love the ground" form the carpet whence springs the plumed stem of many colors, intermingled with the masonic or mineral plant, and the compass or resin plant, or prairie sunflower. The mineral plant bears a bluish-purple flower, and is remarkable for the qualities attributed to its growth by the miners. It is said to indicate the presence of m,ineral. It sometimes spreads in spots over a large surface of ground, obscuring all but the grass beneath it; here the miner will dig with almost a certainty of striking on a lead mine. Sometimes the range of the flowers growth is in a straight, a curved, or an irregular line, indicating the range of the crevice mineral in the strata beneath; these indications are believed in and relied on by many of the miners. If they be true, and the plant actually points out the location of the mineral (galena), then, as I have before observed, no one can say where mineral is not to be found, for this flowering plant is the most common in the country, and yet, as its growth on the different parts of the prairies is so irregular in quantity and in direction, there may be something in the peculiarities of soil covering mineral which produces the plant; it is called by the miners masonic, perhaps in derision, as it discloses the secret mine.

The resin or turpentine weed, or compass plant, deserves some notice. I have called it the prairie sunflower, from its near resemblance to the flower so called with us, except that the flowers and the seeds are much smaller; the largest one I saw was about four inches in diameter, exclusive of the surrounding yellow leaves. The stem of this plant rises to the height of five or six feet, and when broken in any part it exudes a white resinous fluid, which, on being exposed to the atmosphere, acquires a gummy consistence of the taste and smell of resin. But the strange peculiarity of the plant is, that its leaves invariably point north and south, In the wvitinge> of Dr. Atwater, who has visited some parts of tliis country, I remember that he has noticed this flower, remarked its peculiarities, and lias given its botanical name as belongitig to the Helianthus tribe; I have not the book to refer to. The leaves are very large, firm and stiff; those nearest the root are largest, some of them about eighteen inches long and about one foot wide, palmated and deeply indented; from the root the leaves start out from the stem on two sides only, at irregular distances, yet generally opposite each other, and these leaves invariably have a north and south direction. It is called the compass plant, because the Indians, in the absence of trees on the vast prairies, could at all times find a guide ill the leaves of the prairie sunflower; and its resinous qualities might render it a good sub- Hlitute for pine knots in giving light, and thus greatly enhance its properties to the benighted traveler. Horses and cattle eat this plant with avidity, bite at it in traveling over the prairies, and seek it out from amidst the hay in the stable. It is remarked that the wild indigo always accompanies 'his plant.

A remarkable and beautiful feature in the decorations of the prairies is, that the summer flowers, after having for a season displayed their gorgeous variety, and turned up their faces to receive the glowing beams of the sun, as soon as autumn puts on her sober brown, and the airs of heaven breaihe more mildly, they droop, die, and instantly give place to a new galaxy of fine and beautiful flowers, particularly all the varieties of the chrysanthemum, and a splendid drooping bush of flowei-s that looks as if it were covered with snowflakes; the autumn flowers are more delicate and less flaring than those of summer.

I have said that there is no mountain in this district; extensive ranges of hills are found on the Wisconsin river, and in the northeast parts of the Territory, but the only hills in this quarter of the country are the Siiisinewa mounds, the seat of Gen. George Wallace Jones, delegaite to Congress, (these are nfear the Illinois

State line) the Platte mounds and the Blue mounds. These mounds serve as landmarks to the traveler over the prairies. The Platte mounds and the Blue mounds are about fortyfive miles apart ; the former comprising three, and the latter two hills. These hills, with the exception of the centre one of the Platte mounds, are from 200 to 300 feet high, well covered with timber and generally capable of being cultivated to the summit. They are seen from almost every part of the Wisconsin land district, and indepetident of their being of so much service to the traveler in the absence of roads and of other landmarks, they are objects of g^eat natural beauty ; for although the prairies are by no means a dead level, but on the contrary are most generally rolling and undulating, and in many instances may be termed hilly, yet these mounds very agreeably break, and diversify the otherwise monotonous view of prairie and grove, however luxuriant it may be in soil and vegetation.

I am disposed to believ.e that the general base of this country is of limestone. I judge from the fact that limestone is abundant and found in all parts of the Territory wherel have been. It is discovered in small bodies of flat white stone lying on the surface of prairies, and at the points of the rolling hills, where the prairie dips into and unites with the natural meadow. Perhaps there is not to be found any region in the United States better watered than Wisconsin. The springs rise generally in the prairies, and their locality is always indicated by the gi'owth of the dwarf wilJow near and around the fountain head. The water is pure, cold and deliciously refreshing ; the springs after running over the prairies and through small ravines, unite in some natural meadow from a quarter of a mile to a mile or more in width, and meander through the meadow in a stream, some three or four yards broad and two feet deep, until in the accumulation of several streams, a fine large and navigable river is formed. These natural meadows present the most superb views of any part of the country. Interspersed with small groves, irregular in their course and shape, owing to the jutting points or hills of the prairie dipping into the meadow; the streams flowing in various directions over and through the low ground until they combine in some broad and deep channel ; the high waving grass mingled with the field and meadow flowers, all afford a picture more varied and therefore more beautiful than the high prairie grounds. It is worthy of remark that the character of the streams is different from what might be expected in the deep rich soil of the meadows. The waters generally flow nearly full with the banks, and the firm sandy and gravelly bottom always allows a safe fording place. Fine trout, perch, bass, cat-fish, eels, buffalo, muskallonge and other excellent fish are found in all the waters. I have seen the buffalo, muskallonge and catfish of enormous size brought by wagon loads to Mineral Point; they had been caught in the Pecatonica, and many weighed from twenty to thirty pounds and upwards. The white fish of the lake country is a delicacy which might well be desired by the gourmands of the east; its flavor needs no sauce, and its richness and fatness render butter or lard useless in dressing.

Game throughout the whole country is abundant. The deer are often seen sporting over the prairies, and in the groves and oak openings; they are frequently aroused out of the high grass, and as the rifle of the hunter has not yet sufficiently alarmed them in their secret lairs, they are in a measure less wild than in parts more densely settled; I have often seen them in my rambles, quietly gazing at the traveler, until he passed by. Elks are still found, I am informed, on the wooded shores of the Wisconsin. The prairie hen, grouse or moor fowl, is an excellent bird; they are very numerous and are found in families or broods; they are about the size of the common barn-door fowl, and I believe are the same bird as the Long Island grouse. Their flesh is delicious, juicy and fat; they fly heavily on the prairies and alight generally at a short distance, consequently they are easily bagged by the sportsman. Pheasants also are in great numbers, but the partridge or quail ic not often met with, I saw three or four near some farms, and as this bird always follows and attends cultivation, the flocks will certainly increase with the opening of farms, and the raising of. grain. Wild turkeys, I am told, are also numerous in many parts of the Territory; I did not see any whilst there.

Two species of wolf are found in the western part of the Territory; the gray wolf, which is common in the eastern States, and the prairie wolf; the latter is neither so large, nor so ferocious as thegray wolf, but still very destructive on game and on the stock of the farmer. Yet in so open a country as this, these animals must be extirpated or driven into the distant forests as fast as the settlements increase. I met at different times, in my little excursions, several of these prairie wolves; they appeared more alarmed than myself, and soon scampered off. Rabbits are also very numerous; indeed the abundance of fruit and of mast in this country affords ample subsistance to all kinds of game .known in the eastern States.

Two kinds of rattle-snakes are found here; the brown and yellow rattle-snake, crotahis Jtorridus, is sometimes of great size. I came across one on the banks of the Pecatonica, lying in my path; it measured between four and five feet in length, and at least nine inches in circumference; fortunately it was dead, killed by a traveler an hour or so before. I saw it; I confess to an alarm at the time, as my feet were nearly' upon it before I discovered it. I saw several others in various parts of the country, but they are not more numerous here than in the western parts of Pennsylvania. It is well known that these snakes always re<?ede from cultivation, therefore there is no more danger to be apprehended from them here than in any other new section of country. The small black rattlesnake of the i)rairie is also at this time common; these are said to be more dangerous than tlieir larger yellow brethren, as they are not so magnanimous as to give tlie preparatory warning before they strike; tlie same remarks, as to disappearance, before the improvements of the settler, applies to the black rattle-snake.

Can the belief be sustained by argument founded on the general appearance of the country, the burial mounds, so numerous and so extensive in size, found in all parts of the Territory, and the vestiges of art, rude as they are, found in them and in many other places, that this highly favored region was once inhabited by a powerful Nation, and even partially cultivated? It is not my inclination, neither is it in my powei', in the brief space of these remarks, to enter into any discussion on the subject; the question is merely made, and it is well worthy the most enlightened mind to make deep researches in respect ^o this interesting subject. One matter I state as worthy of observation: In a ride which I made exploring the country on one of the head waters of the Sugar river, in company with my son, Dr. William A. Smith, and our friend, John Messersmith, we found two long parallel mounds, which measured about 250 paces in length. Mr. Messersmith, who resides about thirty miles from the place in question, and who had often been over the ground, informed me that a short distance from these mounds there was a piece of ground which had every appearance of having once been cultivated. We drove in his carriage to this place, and as we passed over the soil through high grass which reached above the carriage wheels, the motion of the vehicle was similar to that of passing over the ridges of a corn field which had been for years out of cultivation, and on which sod had grown. We got out of the carriage and examined the ground; the ridges were parallel, as if they had been ploughed, or in some manner cultivated; they were very numerous, and constituted evidently an extensive range, in length and breadth; we rode several hundred yards over them, and the impression was irresistible that we were driving through an abandoned corn field; and this field, if such it was, a very large one. The land was bottom prairie, and a ledge of high land nearly encompassed it. Can these ridges have been caused by the action of water? Or where will the conjecture rest when such evidence of cultivation is apparent? I have related the fact, and I leave the matter for future investigation, which I hope one day shortly to make.

That the denuded state of the country has been caused by fire, originally, and the growth of timber kept down by the annual conflagration of the prairies, may be the truth; and yet it is also true, that in no part of the country, on the prairies, as far as I can learn, has any, even the slightest, appearance of charred wood been found. Surely, if this country had at any former period been well wooded, and the action of the fire had destroyed whole forests, where at this time are to be found immense districts of fertile prairie and meadow, why is it that no vestige or remains of a material so indestructible as charred wood have been discovered? Not in the the very numerous diggings throughout the mineral region: not in the various cultivations of the farmer, can any evidence be found of the roots of trees; not even the fibre of a root throughout the vast prairies! How is this? The fact deserves not only to be borne in mind by all writers, in investigating the early history of Wisconsin, but it appears to me a conclusive proof that the prairies were never covered with forest. It is true that the annual conflagrations of the high and dry grass, sweeping over whole districts of prairie and natural meadow, will, of course, prevent the spontaneous growth of young timber; it is also equally true from present experience, that wherever the fire is kept out of the prairies, a young growth of hazel and ash commences immediately, and oak and cherry soon make their appearance. But this circumstance only establishes the fact that the burning of the prairies keeps down the growth of timber; it does not prove that the prairies were once covered witli wood. I repeat, that the total absence in the prairies of roots of trees, and of any pieces of cliarred wood, must lead to the conclusion which I have thus drawn.

A remarkable feature in this district is that no swamp, or accumulation of stagnant water in low places, is to be found, of an}' extent; indeed, I know of none which can be called sioanvp. The prairie is always undulating, not level; the springs rise on the high grounds, as well as at the points of hills, and in the meadows; the character of the country for throwing the water off is not only of the first importance with regard to health, but also of the highest recommendation to tbe agriculturist. In sucli a country iniasma must be almost unknown, and in consequence, a host of disorders to which the inhabitants of the less favored eastern and southern States are subject, are here only known by name. Dr. Smith in his inquiries does not find that the professional services of a physician are often required in this part of the Territory. This fact, of itself, even if it were not coupled with the generally acknowledged truth that the inliabitants of cold and dry northern regions are of longer life than other people, would speak volumes of recommendations for the settlement of Wisconsin; health is of the greatest value to the settler in a new country, and here, indeed, health is to be found.

This country is well deserving of an immediate influx of emigrants, and it is fast filling up. Nine years since, the foot of the white man had scarcely penetrated beyond the State line of Illinois; five years since, the Indian depredations aroused the brave and hardy pioneers of the Lead Region of Wisconsin, and a band of volunteers, under the command of Col. Henry Dodge, took tbe field in defense of their new homes, their families and their hearths!

The Black Hawk War was prosecuted, and finished after the victory of Bad Ax. No body of men in any country ever behaved with more bravery than did the mounted volunteers of

Wisconsin, the miners, as they may with truth be called. They were commanded by a brave spirit, by o e whose experience in Indian warfare and in Indian character deservedly gave him claim to the distinguished station of their leader. His conduct gained him the applause of his country, and his services in the regular array for some years afterwards, during which time he executed some arduous and im|)ortant expeditions amongst the Indian bands at the foot of the Rocky mountains, were highly benific al to the interests of the general government. It would have been contrary to the feelings of brave and generous citizens if they did not give their full approbation to the act of President Jackson which made Henry Dodge governor of Wisconsin Territory; his civil life has justified the appointment.

I have said all this happened within nine years, and now towns are springing up everywhere; cultivation is advancing with a sure progressive step: the mineral wealth of the country is being brought effectually into operation; railroads and canals are in projection, and comj)anies to form them have been incorporated; banks have been established, but these may do more harm than good, in encouraging a speculation; colleges and schools are in their infancy as yet, but the citizens of such a country as this cannot be long without the best instruction for their children. A university lias been by law established at Belmont, and the public spirit of the citizens of the Territory in all their acts is highly praise-worthy. To close my remarks on the rap'd progress of settlement of this, so late, Indian country, I saw in the month of September, 1837, at Mineral Point, to my utter surprise, one morning, huge bills posted on the tavern houses, announcing the arrival of a troop of circus riders and a traveling menagerie! The caravans arrived, and during a three days' carnival the eyes of the good citizens of the neighboring country were feasted with the goodly exhibitions of the enterprising eastern travelers, and I asked myself in astonishment, "Am T in Wisconsin?"