Waupaca County, Wisconsin - Chapter 32, 1890

The history of Waupaca County seems naturally to divide itself into three distinct epochs. The first embraces the period of savage ownership and occupancy, reaching from times far back of the historic age to the conclusion of the treaty of cession from the Menominee tribe to the whites. The second epoch embraces the period from the date of the treaty to the final surrender of the possession by the Menominees. The third epoch embraces the events of the succeeding years, reaching to the present time.

The events of the first epoch are, in the main, a sealed book. Many a wild epic of savage loves and hates, of nomadic conflicts and savage ven- geance, may have been enacted on the soil of Waupaca County, the story of which passed into tradition, then into fable, and finally died out of memory and left no trace to guide the pen of the historian.

It is probable that the earliest Indian tribes, those first seen and named by the Jesuit explorers, had their principal villages on the Fox River and the lower Wolf, and that the district embraced in Waupaca County was a favorite hunting ground, much frequented by roving bands. The rich spoils of the chase were carried home in their light canoes, on the many streams that thread this whole region. Sites of Indian villages of moderate antiquity are common in many parts of the State, especially near the mouth of the Wolf River ; but no evidence remains of any considerable Indian village in the region now embraced within Waupaca County.

On an island in White Lake is an ancient Indian clearing, of about one acre in extent. This was, as I have learned from conversation with some of the Indians since I have been in the County, for a long time the permanent home of a small band of Menominees, who cultivated here a little com to supplement the precarious dependence upon the bow and spear. This band had, since the occupancy of the whites, a chief or patriarch named Wey-au-we-ga, from whom the village of Weyauwega derives its name, and whose skull, thanks to

Evidences everywhere exist of the occupancy of this whole region by the Mound Builders. Nearly every lake and stream in the County exhibits along its banks those conical structures* which so puzzle the archeologist and antequarian. But no^ where in this County do these mounds reach such' size and elaborateness as they do in regions farther south. This fact is supposed to indicate a northern (and peihaps Asiatic) origin of the Mound Builders, and a southward movement of the horde, with constantly increasing numbers, power and civilization. But the territory of Waupaca County seems to have been prized most as a hunting^ ground by the Indian tribes vv^ho followed the Mound Builders, and who paid it periodical visits.

The second epoch may be considered as commencing with negotiations of the treaty of cession with the Menominees, in October, 1848, (although the Indian title to that portion of the County lying east of Wolf River was extinguished several years before), and extending to the final surrender of possession by the Indians, on the first day of

* Within twenty rods of our house are two of these curious mounds, within a few rods of each other ; while a short distance beyond, still upon our farm, are two more, nearly the samedistance apart. The trees which were found standing upon those mounds were of the same size as those farther oflF. All our excavations have failed to furnish any help in guessing the purpose of their construction. J. W.

June, 1852. This period is eminently the period of settlement, and the time intervening between the first of June, IS 52, and today, may be classified 3-S the period of growth and progress.

So far as I have been able to ascertain, but one white settlement was made in the County of Waupaca previous to the year 1848, Alpheus Hicks, father of ''Steve" Hicks, of New London, made an exploring trip up Wolf River from Oshkosh, and landed in the County of Waupaca, somewhere near the present site of Fremont, in 1843.* The next 3^ear he went up the river as far as Shawano Lake.t He returned to Oshkosh, but finally settled at Fremont, where he now resides. There are quite a number of ladies now residing in the County, who claim the honor of being the first white women residents in the territory of Waupaca County ; but, if I have obtained correct information, Mrs. Elizabeth Hicks, step-mother of Stephen Hicks, can justly claim that honor. $

A provision was inserted in the treaty of 1848, granting to Robert Grignon one quarter-section of land on which his mill was established, near the mouth of the Little Wolf River. This provision of the treaty was ratified, and patents w^ere issued to Robert Grignon. Previous to the date of the t Mrs. Elizabeth Hicks does not claim that honor, but thinks that she was the first white woman who traveled the Wolf River, in Waupaca County. J. W.

treaty, he and his associates had built a saw mill. During the winter of 1848-49, Eliphalet Gordon and his son " Dud " Gordon, of Little Wolf, put in a large amount of logs. In the Summer of 1849, they leased the mill, and sawed and rafted down the Wolf River a large amount of lumber, which found a slow market at $4 per thousand feet. During the Winter of 1848-49, Philetus Sawyer worked here as a common laborer.

A girl who worked at the mill boarding house that Winter (I have been unable to ascertain her name) was no doubt the second white woman resident of Waupaca County.*

In the Spring of 1849, several mill enterprises were undertaken within the present limits of Waupaca County, and settlements for agricultural purposes w^ere commenced.

The first furrow turned in the County was in June, 1849, by some person whose name your historian has thus far been unable to obtain. It was on a bit of sandy prairie near the farm of Simon C. Dow, in Lind, but prior to Mr. Dow's settlement there.

Before the close of 1849, settlers' cabins had begun to dot the plains in the southern part of the County. Billington, Tibbetts, Van Ostrand and others had settled near Weyauwega; S. C. Dow, Colonel Chandler, and J. M. Vaughn, between Weyauwega and Waupaca; E. C. Sessions, J. and

W. B. Hibbard, Dana Dewey, Captain Scott, Judge Ware, W. B. Cooper and others, at Waupaca; C. Caldwell and Jason Rice, on the Wallawalla, at Lind Center; Mr. Nordman, at or near New London ; R. Eastman, at Springer's Point ; Mr. Wilcox, near the mouth of the Waupaca River; and Charles Edwards, at Little River. This list, it is believed, embraces nearly all the settlements existing in the County in the year 1849.

It is worthy of remark that all these settlements were made in violation of law. Mr. Bruce, then Indian Agent of the Menominees, amused himself by forbidding these settlements. Ever and anon he made fearful threats of expulsion and punishment. But the tide of emigration had set in, and the pioneer, with his face set towards the ''Indian Lands," was not to be intimidated or checked in his progress by any threats of Government officials. The glowing descriptions of this country that reached Eastern people would fill volumes.

In 1850, Judge Beal, from Indiana, made a claim embracing a quarter-section of land lying east of the Village of Weyauwega, and opened a general variety store in a log house, part of the remains of which may be found standing in Weyauwega now. However, the firm of Brickley & Bergstressor have the honor of establishing the first white trading post in the County. It was at Fremont.*

Your historian at that time was plodding along on his farm in the State of Michigan, and corresponding with Judge Beal, who, by the way, was an old acquaintance. From the glowing descriptions of the country received through that correspondence, he became suddenly enamored with the prospects of a bright future before him, packed his "traps," and in the Summer of 1852 was on his way to the Indian Lands of Waupaca County.

Arriving at Oshkosh, our progress was impeded by the non-arrival of the steamboat then making tri-weekly trips from Oshkosh to Mukwa, then the terminus of Wolf River navigation. After staying at Oshkosh one da3^ and night, we embarked on the famous steamer Peggy, Captain Sherwood, bound for Mukwa.

A break in the machinery occasioned some delay at Winneconne, where I came across an old acquaintance and school chum, William B. Mumbrue, who gave me such a glowing history of his pilgrimage to the ''Indian Lands," that I could hardly wait for the boat to start up the river.

[While waiting at Winneconne, Mr. Mumbrue gave Mr. Waterhouse an account of the preliminary survey he had made westward from Wolf River in 1849, mention of which has been made in another part of this history. He also related some of the experiences of his first trip up the Wolf River, incidents of which are embodied in the following pages:]

In July, 1849, there came to Winneconne a party of explorers, consisting of J. M. Vaughn, Alonzo Vaughn, W. B. Cooper, and John Taylor, from Plymouth, Sheboygan County, and a doctor from Erie County, New York. Some two or three weeks before, another party, consisting of W. B. and Joseph Hibbard, and E. C. Sessions, had started northward from Plymouth. Moving northwest on the east side of Lake Winnebago, by devious wanderings, they crossed the Wolf River at or above Mukwa, and stumbled upon the magnificent water power and beautiful village site of Waupaca.

A portion of the party returned to Plymouth for supplies, and carried news of the rich discovery. General Taylor and party were in search of the ''Vermonters' Camp," as Waupaca was then called. The countrj^ thereabouts was then knowm as the ^'Tomorrow River Country." This latter party Mumbrue joined. They hired two Indians and a birch bark canoe, it being agreed that the Indians should serve both as guides and paddlers. Arranging themselves very trimly and cautiously in the bottom of the frail and treacherous little craft, six men in all, they started up the Wolf River.

The day was consumed in making the distance to the mouth of the Waupaca River, where the little party landed at dark, having seen during the day not a sign of human habitation, save an occasional collection of Indian graves on the bank of the river, to some of which their attention was called by little white flags, floating over the small roofs with which the Indians are accustomed to cover their dead.

From the landing place at Gills Landing, the party followed their dusky guides through the dim, mysterious forest of giant pines which then flanked the Waupaca River, near its junction with the Wolf, out into an orchard-like belt of oak openings - the site of the Village of Weyanw^ega. Here the party came in view of a white tent, the only human habitation then at Weyauwega. This was occupied by Henry Tourtelotte, with his Indian wife, Ke-mink, a woman well known and respected by the early white settlers of this portion of the County. Passing this tent, the party turned down to the river, where dim lights w^ere visible, and crossed on a rude foot bridge to the boarding house of the mill company, who had already commenced getting out timber for their saw mill. The party obtained food and lodging at the boarding house. Serving as cook at this house was a woman who, the same Summer, became the wife of Washington Hogle. She was the first white woman in Weyauwega.

After breakfast, payment for the entertainment being courteously but indignantly declined by their hosts, the party, under guidance of one of the Indians, passed southward over Gallows Hill, and,

Dow and Chandler had been in occupancy of this cabin about ten days, and were the first settlers of the Town of Lind. Here the party met W. B. Hibbard, who had come down from the "Vermonters' Camp" for some flour. Following Mr. Hibbard's lead, partly by an Indian trail, and partly by a line which the Yermonters had blazed, crossing the South Branch on a fallen tree, near its junction with the Waupaca, the party reached the ** Yermonters' Camp," the site of the present County seat of Waupaca County. Here the travelers rested from their journey, sheltered by an awning of bushes supported by four poles, and backed by a granite ledge. This was then the nearest approach to a building at Waupaca.

The Yermonters soon had a fire crackling merrily on the greensward. Flour was kneaded in a trough, hollowed out with an ax. The contents of the trough, without leaven or baking powder, was transfered to chips and placed in the glowing embers, and "dough gods" were the result! As etiquette seemed to require, the strangers were served first, and then another batch placed in the ashes for the hosts themselves. But it was not until the travelers had feasted, that they learned to their infinite mortification that some of the Yermonters' party had not tasted food for two days. The night, although in Jnly, proved chilly, and the whole party, eleven in number, stretched on the ground like a row of pins, shivered beneath the twinkling stars, or, in uneasy slumbers, dreamed of softer beds in more civilized lands.

Morning came at length, and with it the startling news that the larder was empty! The riotous feasting of the night before had exhausted Bill Hibbard's small stock of flour, and breakfast was quite out of the question. The Indian was dispatched to ''Tourtelotte's Camp" (Weyauweaga) for supplies, while the party straggled ofl" in desultory explorations, not without hopes that some fat buck would considerately come within range of their guns. At noon no such circumstance had occurred, nor had the Indian returned, and the party, owing to certain strenuous promptings of the inner man, were compelled to set about their return.

In chronicling events incident to the first settlement of Waupaca County, the historian is relieved from the excitement occasioned by accounts of hair-breadth escapes of the whites from the tomahawk and scalping knife of the ruthless and hostile savage; because here there seems to have been reciprocal feelings of friendship and hospitality between the settlers and the Indians. Many a settler took for his life partner a dusky maiden of the forest, with whom he lived in peace and harmony. There were some exceptions, of course;