Trempealeau County, Wisconsin - Chapter 7: Early Settlement, 1917

Trempealeau County, touching, as it does, on its southwestern border the Mississippi River, was easily accessible for the early explorers, travelers, traders, and later for the pioneer settlers.

The boundary rivers and some of the streams of the interior of the county afforded waterways for the canoe, and many of our valleys, such as the Beaver Creek and Elk Creek, were explored by hunters who canoed up the principal streams flowing out of these respective regions.

Trempealeau Bay, lying about half a mile above the site of Perrot's post, afforded an excellent stopping place for traders and travelers during the fur trading regime on account of the abundance of wood and water in that locality and also for the protection from rough weather which the rugged bluffs furnished. During the sharp rivalry between the different fur companies the trader kept an anxious eye on the bay for the return of the bands of trappers from up the Trempealeau River.

The first trapper to whom tradition ascribes a fur trading camp in Trempealeau County, after the early French explorers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, was Joseph Roque,' a prominent interpreter and officer of the Indian department in the days when the British ruled over Mackinac and its western dependencies. Roque was much trusted by the British officers, and accompanied (1780) Wabasha on his raid against St. Louis and the forces of George Rogers Clark in Ilhnois. He ranked as lieutenant in the Indian service, and at the close of the Revolution remained in the pay of the British government, being likewise prominent in the fur trade. During the War of 1812-15 he was employed by the English authorities and accompanied Colonel William McKay as lieutenant and interpreter on his Prairie du Chien expedition in 1814. According to Winnebago tradition, he had a wintering ground on a branch of Beaver Creek, not far from Galesville, and the occupancy of this region by him and a companion gave to this branch its name of French Creek.

Joseph's half-breed son, Augustin, was likewise an interpreter in the service of the British. With his father he accompanied McKay's Prairie du Chien expedition of 1814 with the rank of lieutenant. At the conclusion of the war Augustin took up his home with Wabasha's Indians and established several trading posts on the upper Mississippi. The same Winnebago tradition that ascribes a camp in Trempealeau County to the father, Joseph, also ascribes a post on Beaver Creek to the son, Augustin. The Indian name of Beaver Creek, Seen-tah-ro-cah, is from St. Roque, the original French family name of this hunter. The valley was rich in beaver and elk, and and trapping in this region were productive of rich results.

seems to have had a trading post at the mouth of the Buffalo River. In 1826 he moved to the present site of Wabasha. Featherstonhaugh mentions this trading house on Lake Pepin in 1835 and gives his Indian name as Wahjustahchay, or Strawberry.^

The occupancy of this region by the trappers is also attested by documentary evidence. As early as 1820 Louis Grignon had a fur trading camp at Trempealeau Mountain,^ and the following year Augustin Grignon had a camp near the mouth of Black River, to which point he moved from a camp four miles below the Zumbro, which had been burned by the Wabasha Indians at the instigation of Joseph Rolette, who worked for a British firm.-* In 1824 Trempealeau Mountain was recommended to the superintendent of Indian affairs as a suitable place for the location of an Indian agent. It was described as being desirable because there was plenty of firewood and because it was convenient to Wabasha's band of Dakota, as well as the place where all the Winnebago and Menominee stopped in ascending and descending the Mississippi.'^

The story of the settlement of Trempealeau County dates from 1836, when an attempt was made to establish a mission station at this point. A Protestant missionary society of Basle, Switzerland, desirous of sending the gospel to the North American Indians, commissioned two young Swiss for the work. They decided upon the field among the Dakota as the most promising, and proceeded to Prairie du Chien, where they spent a short time studying the language and learning the location of the tribes. Rev. Daniel Gavin concluded to settle near Wabasha's band, while his comrade, Samuel Denton, went on to Red Wing.

At Prairie du Chien Gavin secured the services as interpreter and man of all work of a Swiss emigrant, Louis Stram. Together they proceeded to Trempealeau and built a loghouse east of Mountain Lake, at the site of a clear spring." Stram opened a farm and endeavored to teach the Indians agriculture, but Wabasha, their chief, did not take kindly either to the mission or the farming, and after the treaty of 1837, by which all the Sioux claim east of the Mississippi was ceded to the United States, Gavin abandoned the mission and joined his confrere in Red Wing.' Although the enterprise was temporary, it was the first attempt made in the county in the nature of a permanent settlement and was the first farming therein under the dii-ection of a white man."

The permanent settlement of Trempealeau County finally came about under the auspices of the fur trade. Francois la Bathe, a shrewd half-breed and a near relative of Wabasha, was confidential agent of Hercules L. Dousman, representative of the American Fur Company at Prairie du Chien. Even before the cession of 1837, La Bathe had tried to secure a steamboat landing site at the modern La Crosse, and as soon as the treaty was concluded he made similar arrangements for Trempealeau by inducing John Doville and Antoine Reed to proceed thither and cut cordwood for steamboats, while holding a stretch of river front as a landing. His object in this was to prevent any trade drifting away from Wabasha's village, at the present City of Winona." A wood yard was established at the head of the island opposite Trempealeau, and La Bathe vouched for the sale of all wood the men might cut. Doville remained at Trempealeau and became its first permanent settler. He cultivated the land that the Swiss missionaries had cleared and broke some of his own in the upper part of the present village. He raised stock upon a small scale and devoted his time to farming and cutting cordwood for steamboats.

James A. Reed, in his journeys up and down the Mississippi in the interest of the fur trade, had noticed the Trempealeau Bluffs and resolved to stop and look the country over with a view of settling later if the place came up to his expectation. He climbed Liberty Peak and looked down on the new land and was charmed with its wild grandeur, its lavish wealth still undeveloped, its inviting valleys and wooded slopes. It was a delectable land, steeped in an alluring solitude - untouched as yet by the white settler. Reed decided to locate in the new country. Circumstances delayed him and gave to his son-in-law, Doville, the credit of being the first settler. In 1840, however, his plans were perfected and, bringing his family by boat from Prairie du Chien, he built a log cabin on the banks of the Mississippi River on the site of modern Trempealeau. Not long afterward his wife died, and he later married the widow of Amable Grignon, of Prairie du Chien, who was a sister of Francois La Bathe and a relative of Wabasha.

The locality soon became known as Reed's Town. Outside of the time that he devoted to his duties as government farmer to Wabasha's band of Indians at Winona (from 1842 to 1848) Reed occupied his energies in tending his stock and in hunting and trapping. The Trempealeau bluffs and adjoining prairie offered an excellent stock range for Reed's horses, swine and cattle, which he brought from Prairie du Chien; and the swine proved to be good rattlesnake hunters, killing and eating many of the Winnebagoes' sacred serpents. Reed used his large log home, for a while, as a tavern, and many a weary traveler and homeseeker found a hospitable welcome at his fireside. For a while it was known as Reed's Place ; afterward he sold out and it became the Washington Hotel.

The next settlers after the family and relatives of Reed arrived at Trempealeau in June, 1842. The party consisted of Willard B. Bunnell and wife, and his brother, Lafayette H. Bunnell. They were from Detroit, and, seeking a location upon the upper Mississippi, had been induced at Prairie du Chien to settle at Trempealeau. To the younger of these two pioneers much of the early history of the region is due. Gifted with a good memory and a taste for historical studies, he has preserved many incidents of pioneer life that would otherwise be lost. Upon the arrival of this party at Trempealeau Reed went back from the village a few rods and shortly came in with a red deer to supply the family with provisions. Buffalo had disappeared soon after the Black Hawk War, but elk abounded upon Trempealeau River, and beaver were plenty enough to give their name to one of the inland streams."

A number of French families, mostly from Prairie du Chien, came up the river and joined Reed, but they were mostly connected with the fur trade and made little progress toward developing the country from an agri- cultural standpoint. Some of them lived at Reed's home and some built houses near by. Peter Rosseau, who helped Reed build his house, remained for a while. Charles H. Perkins, Joseph Borette, Michael Goulet and Paul and Antoine Grignon were among the early members of the household.

The Bunnells lived at Trempealeau for several years, but spent the first two winters at what is now Fountain City. L. H. Bunnell left Trempealeau in 1847 and enlisted in the Mexican War. W. B. Bunnell and his wife left in 1849 and settled at Homer, in Minnesota. Soon after the arrival of the Bunnells, Alexander Chenevert joined the Reed settlement. In 1844 a Frenchman named Assalin came. He was a carpenter by trade and made the woodwork for the first wagon in the county. He also made sleds and French trains. Antoine La Terreur came the same year. He was a cabinet maker and made much of the early furniture used in the pioneer homes of Trempealeau. Michael Bebault arrived in 1845 and hired out as a woodchopper on the island. In 1848 Leander Bebault and John La Vigne arrived with their families, and about the same time Edward Winkleman settled here.

It was after 1850 that the settlement of the interior of the county took place, and for a period of fifteen years settlers poured into the valleys of Trempealeau County, principally from southern and eastern Wisconsin. Many were from New York State originally, with a goodly number from the New England States. They came in all manner of ways, but steamboat, by stage, afoot, on horseback, with ox teams and covered wagons, with wagons drawn by horses, and often driving behind their caravan a herd of cattle, while tied to the rear of the wagon in a well-constructed box was the vociferous porker, proclaiming his presence at every stop.

The routes they selected depended on the section from whence they hailed. Many came by way of La Crosse and thence over the rough road to Gordon's or McGilvray's Ferry and crossed these ferries into the county. Others arrived by steamboat and outfitted in La Crosse for their journey into the new country. Some came to Trempealeau by steamboat and then went by stage into the interior. Still others went to Fountain City and took the trail across the bluffs, over the Glencoe Ridge, and through the Glencoe Valley to the Trempealeau River. Some came down the Trempealeau valley from Jackson County. The northern part of the county was settled largely by people who drifted into the county from Black River Falls and vicinity. A few of the pioneers poled up Black River in flat boats to the falls and then took the overland trail back to Trempealeau County. Other settlers came across the Mississippi River from Minnesota, where they had settled in Pickwick or some other of the valleys that reach back from the river. The later settlers came into the Trempealeau County by the railroad, but it was not until 1870 that a railroad was built into the county.

Aside from those who followed the main routes of travel, there were many settlers who sifted into the county from adjoining territory following whatever route was most convenient and striking out across the prairies or up the ravines to find, removed from the settled haunts of man, a plot of land where they might establish themselves and build their future homes.

The best sources of authority regarding the early settlement of Trempealeau County previous to 1850 are Antoine Grignon and L. H. Bunnell, both of whom arrived here in the forties. E. D. Pierce, from stories heard from pioneers, as a boy, from interviews with Antoine Grignon, and conversations with descendants of early settlers, gathered the information for three articles on the subject, all published in the Proceedings of the Wis. Hist. Society as follows: Early Days of Trempealeau, 1906, 246-255; Recollections of Antoine Grignon, 1913, 110-136; James Allen Eeed, 1914, 107-117. Dr. Bunnell's vivid recollections are found in: Bunnell, Winona and Its Environs (Winona, 1877), 183 et seq.

1 - Eoque (variously spelled) is mentioned as interpreter for the Sioux, Wis. Sist. Colls., Ill, 229; VII, 167; XI, 134-135, 142, 156; XII, 61, 63, 81; and XII, 94, apparently fixes this interpreter as Joseph Eoque. Whether Joseph or Augustin is meant in XII, 125, and XIII, 67, is uncertain. Id., IX, 264, presents a confusing problem. Among the lieutenants at Ft. McKay (Prairie du Chien) are given Joseph Eock, Sr., and Augustin Eock, Jr. Whether this is the Joseph of the earlier days is not apparent. The use of ' ' Jr. ' ' and ' ' Sr. ' ' would indicate that these two men were not father and son, that Augustin indeed was not the son of Joseph but of an Augustin, Sr. It is possible, however, that the use of the "Sr. " and "Jr." was a clerical error arising from the fact that one may have been called Eoque, Sr., and the other Eoque, Jr., without regard to their first names. Augustin is mentioned as an interpreter. Id., IX, 254, 256, and an employe of the American Fur Co., Id., XII, 162. For a mention of the early activities of the Eoques in the region, see: L. H. Bunnell, Winoria and Its Envirmis (Winona, 1897), 69, 147, 371. "Joe" Eoque, known to the early settlers, was the son of Augustin and grandson of Joseph.

6 - Nearly three miles northwest of the village of Trempealeau on the Trowbridge farm. The cellar and stones from the chimney could be seen in 1888. The excavation can stUl be seen, 1917. - E. D. P.

7 - Lyman C. Draper, Early French Forts in Western Wisconsin, Wis. Hist. CoUs., X, 367; also note to same article, 506-507. See also: Minn. Hist. Colls., VI, 134. An official report in 1838 (U. S. Executive Vocwments, 1, 494) says: "Mr. D. Gavin removes this year from the 'Mountain in the Waters, East,' to the west with Wabasha's band of Sioux."

8 - The land broken by Stram was afterward used by pioneer settlers, who burned the log house in 1842 to deprive the troublesome Indians of a shelter for themselves and stolen horses, Bunnell, Winona and Its Environs, 71.

9 - Ibid., 209. Bunnell and others give the name as James Douville. His descendants say it was John Doville. His divorce proceedings (First Minute Book, District Court of Trempealeau County, 21) give his name as John Do Ville.