Winnebago County, Wisconsin - Chapter with an unread heading (no. 1 of those read), 1880

The Fox River Valley of Central Wisconsin - A Record of Two Centuries, Commencing with the First Explorations of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers - The Links Connecting the Great Water Courses of the United States - The Ancient Thoroughfare of the Frontier and Aboriginal Traffic and Travel of the Great West - Some of the First Pages of American Civilization Found in Central Wisconsin.

fN one of the higher elevations of the State of Wisconsin, being in the north- T§^ ern portion of Lincohi County, and : -' borderingthe northern line of the State, iiiiipj is a tract of country embracing about i^ two thousand square miles, nearly onefourth of which is comprised of lakes, about two hundred in number, beautiful bodies of water of crystal transparency, some separated, others in groups, dotting the entire surface of this large tract like the islands of the Grecian Archipelago that of the Mediterranean Sea.

The rocky ranges and high elevations of this region intercept the rain-clouds of Lake Superior in their southern passage, and gather their falling waters into these innumerable rocky basins. These lakes are the primitive sources of the Wisconsin River which, flowing southerly through nearly the entire length of the State, and receiving the tributary streams of this great central valley, pours its flood into the Mississippi.

Columbia County called "The Portage," and flows from there directly to the southwest. At this point it approaches to within about a mile of another river, the Fox, which runs in the very opposite direction - to the northeast - and empties its waters into Lake Winnebago, en route for Lake Michigan. This narrow strip, dividing the beds of the two rivers, is a very interesting natural feature, although its appearance is very commonplace; for here is almost a union of two streams, of which the waters of the one flow to mingle with the tropical waves of the Gulf of Mexico, and those of the other to mix with that flood of waters which, pouring over Niagara and through the St. Lawrence, washes the icebergs of the North Atlantic.

It was through these great arteries that the civilization of the West was pioneered, and all the commerce and white settlement of the Northwest, for over a hundred years, had its initial point in the Valley of the Fox, which was the main entrance-way to the vast prairieworld of the interior.

Two centuries ago, the first traflic carried on between the French and the Indians instinctively followed that line of trade which flows through the present commercial centers of the Valley of the Fox River and Lake Winnebago. The French bateau and Indian canoe were the primitive flow of that commerce which was destined to pour its mighty volume through this natural outlet of the Northwest.

West is found in tlic history of his explorations and habitations in the Valley of the Fox; and that record, too, comprises some of the very earliest pages of American history.

The Fox and Wisconsin Rivers and Lake Winnebaf,^) formed important links in that line of communication which, with Montreal ami Ouebec for a base, extended through the St. Lawrence, the Great Lakes, the l''ox and Wisconsin, the Mississippi and the Ohio, whose upper waters almt)st completed the circuit to Lake Erie. The way-stations on this lont( line of travel were: Three Rivers, Detroit, Old Michilmackinac, Green Hay, Prairie du Chien, Kaskaskia and Fort du Ouesne. From 1639 t(5 1820 this route was almost the exclusive line of Western trade and traffic, and all the white settlements were confined to the immediate borders of these great water courses. The fur trade developed into large proportions. Organized companies were formed in Montreal and Quebec. These were superseded by the American Fur Company, which frequently sent up the Fox River flotillas which numbered from fifty to one hundred bateaux and canoes. This, too, was the line on which moved the armed expeditions in Western warfare for over a century and a half of the white man's history in the Valley of the Mississippi. Here, also, was the line of travel of thepublic functionaries and representatives of the three governments which respectively ruled the country during that period. It will be seen, therefore, that our beautiful Fox River Valley is the location of the oldest Western settlement - and intimately associated with the earlier pages of Ameiican histor)'.

The advent of civilized man in this region is nearly contemporaneous with the founding of Jamestown and New York; for it was in 1606 that King James gave the charter for the Colonies of Virginia, and in 1609 that Henry Hudson discovered the Bay of New York and the North River. In 1621 the Dutch West India Company purchased Manhattan Island from the Indians for twenty-five dollars; and as late as 1620 the first permanent settlement was made in New ICngland; while in 1639 (and it is now claimed to have been as early as 1634) Nicollet, interpreter at Three Rivers, commissioned by the Government of New France, traversed the I'ox Rivers and Lake of the Winnebagoes, for the purpose of disco\'ery and of making treaties witli the Indians. At the time of his voyage, it was believed that our Great Lakes and the Western water courses afforded a pa.ssage to the East Indies; and as the Winnebagoes were a race distinct from the Algonquins and Dacotahs, and speaking a language so different from the other Indian dialects that no other Indians ever speak it or understand it, the Algonquins regarded them as foreigners, and claimed that they had intercourse with some distant people. Indian imagination so pictured these strangers who, it was alleged, visited the Winnebagoes, that Nicollet thought it probable that the (ireat River afforded a water communication with China.

After ascending the Lower Fox to Lake Winnebago, and just before reaching the chief town of the Winnebagoes, he put on a robe of Chinese damask, richly embroidered with birds and flowers, as if anticipating a meeting with the Celestials; and when he was ushered into the presence of the Indians, dressed in 1 this rich habit, and with a pistol in each hand, which he discharged, they regarded him as a Manitou armed with thunder and lightning His presence was so imposing that the\ lavished on him every expression of Indian I respect and admiration, and made him the | recipient of a most bountiful hospitalitj-, over a I hundred beavers being consumed at one feast.

At the council which was held at the foot of' the lake he made the first treaty ever entered into between the Indians of the West and Europeans, and this at so early a time that the Puritans had only, a few years before, landed at Plymouth Rock, and had not as yi t penetrated the country fifty miles inland.

This was the first preparatory measurr toward that French colonization of the North west which has left its historic land-marks ol the early progress of civilization in the Missis sippi Valley.

When it is remembered that a Mission was established near the mouth of the Lower Fox as early as 1668, and atrading post a few years later, it will be seen how intimately the ^ Fox ' Valley is associated with the great historical ' events of the earliest civilized occupancy of the continent; and that the early history of tlu Northwest is so interwoven with the ver\ beginnings of American civilization thai 1 it cannot be intelligently discussed without! considering the initial points of its progress I The writer will, therefore, endeavor to briefly trace the chief events which led to the present occupancy of this region by the mixed European races which now inhabit it.

The French occupanc)' of the country orig- ' inated in the second voyage of Jaques Cartier; to America in 1535. He ascended the St. Lawrence and came to anchor opposite that grand promontory known as the Gibralter of America - the site of Ouebec. It was known by the Indian name of Stadicone. The mag- nificent St. Lawrence, at this point a mile wide, washed the base of the rugged cliff which rose in towering majesty from the broad stream, and a few Indian wigwams occupied the site of the future city of Quebec. Here reposed, in the solitude of the vast wilderness, oneof the most enduring monuments of American history. The majestic cliff then in its silent grandeur, was destined to become famous as the spot where the heroes. Wolf and Montcalm, laid down their lives in a battle which involved the political destiny of a continent. The field of Abraham, upon which was to be fought the great, decisive battle for American Empire, between the Cross of St. George and the Fleur de lis of France, then slumbered in savage solitude.

Cartier returned to France in the Spring, and in 1541 again ascended the St. Lawrence, as the advance ot a colony under Roberval, commissioned by the King of France. He anchored off Cap- Rouge. Here he landed, built a fort, cleared land and planted it. This was the first attempt at agriculture by civilized man on the continent.

For about a year the colonists lived here in amity with the Indians. This was twentyfour years before the founding of St. Augustine, and sixty-six years before the settlement of Jamestown. In all that vast wilderness, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Polar Seas, there was not another civilized being.

Roberval, who was to follow Cartier with another fleet and a reinforcement of colonists, not arriving long after the expected time, the latter abandoned the place and returned to France. Rober\al arrived at Cap Rouge shortly after Cartier's departure, and landed his colonists, composed of soldiers, mechanics, laborers, women and children. Here they erected a large structure, and, after enduring for a short time the hard vicissitudes of a life subject to the contingencies of such a situation,the remnant of the colony, wasted by disease and privations, returned to France. That country shortly afterwards entered upon an era of fratricidal strife; the civil convulsions of Europe left no opportunity for American colonization; the first act in American civilization came to a close, and the country for half a century was left in the undisturbed possession of its savage occupants.

And now appears on the scene a name deservedly as enduring as American history - the great pioneer in the civilized occupancy of the interior of the continent - Samuel de Cham - plain. This brave explorer and noble Christian gentleman was the discoverer of the Great Lakes. His arduous and dangerous explorations, the diligence and accuracy with which he mapped out the gcographj^ of a large part of the country and its water courses, his noble efforts to advance the ends of civilization and the exemplary habits of his life, have won for him an enviable position in the annals of American history.

In 1603, he sailed up the St. Lawrence, and explored it to Mont Ro\'al. The Indian tribes that Cartier had found there had disappeared, and Algonquins had taken their place. He returned to F"rance, and, in the following year, accompanied De Monts who, with a feudal commission from the King of France, as Lieutcnant-General of Acadia, went to establish a colony in what is now Nova Scotia. After exploring the Bay of Funday, of which the untiring Champlain made a coast survey, and maps and charts, they selected the mouth of the St. Croix as the site of their colony, erected buildings, and enclosed them with a palisade; and now, once more we find the French the only European inhabitants on the continent, except the Spaniards in Florida. The iMiglish had as yet made no settlement. Says Parkman: "It was from France that these barbarous shores first learned to serve the ends of peaceful industry. "

But the colony at St. Croix must be left to its fate while attention is called to the enterprises of Champlain, which pioneered the settlement of the Northwest - the feeble begin- ' nings of that early civilization of the Northwest, which was a cross with barbarism - a romantic mingling of the elements of barbaric and civilized life, over which P'rance reared its standard and marshaled its dusky retainers in" the solitudes of the wilderness, in its efforts to erect a French-Indian Empire whose terri- torial proportions should embrace the interior of the continent. It was a stupendous scheme; and for over a century the standard of France waved triumphantly over the great Valleys of the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi. During all that period, the I'Inglish and other European colonies were confined to the strip of territory skirting the Atlantic, and the Flciir dc lis. of I'"rance was the only flag that waved west of the Alleghanies.

Champlain, having returned t(j France, again embarked for America in 1608, in charge of a colony whose destination was the St. Lawrence River. The stately ship sailed up that broad stream, through the hush of the mighty solitude that brooded over its surrounding forests, and came to anchor opposite the present site of Ouebec, the place selected for a settlement. Here the colonists landed, and the sound of the a.xe is heard reverberating its echoes in the wilderness. So«n a number of comfortable buildings are erected, and surrounded by a wooden wall. Their architectural proportions are a source of wonder to the Indians, who are admiring spectators of the skill of their white brothers. In the background are the rugged cliffs and dense forests. In the front the waters of the majestic St. Lawrence, on which a ship lies gracefully outlined. At a little distance on the bank is a cluster of wigwams, and occasionally a canoe glides along, and mysteriously disappears in the shadow of cliff or forest.

The colonists clear up a piece of ground for a garden, which they cultivate. They hunt, fish and barter with the Indians ; summer passes, and the cold weather of a Canadian winter approaches. Heavy falls of snow cover the ground to such a depth that the)- are obliged to learn from their friends - the Indians - how to use snow shoes. The Indians occasionally bring them wild game, and are sometimes their near neighbors; but the terrible scurvy breaks out, and prevails with such virulence that only eight of the colony are alive in the spring.

The dreary winter passes awa\% the songs of the returning birds and the sounds of insect life are again heard; the buds and blossoms expand, the hill-side ri\ulets ripple in the warm sunshine, and nature assumes the cheerful hues of her summer-day life. Hope once more inspires the survivors, and their hearts are further gladdened by the arrival of a vessel from I'"rance, bringing succor and a reinforcement of colonists.

of his Indian friends; and from the very beginning of their intercourse with the Indians, and through the whole long period of their intimate relations with them, the French seem to have had their good will and unbounded confidence and respect.

Champlain soon acquired some knowledge of the Algonquin language and the customs of that numerous family of Indians; and he learned from them that there was a distinct nation - the Iroquois - a confederacy of five nations, inhabiting the territory now the State of New York - a formidable body that were the terror of the American wilds. Their warparties were continually out making predatory raids, desolating the country of their neighbors, and keeping other tribes in constant fear of ,an attack. The only expedient way for him to explore was to join a war-part)' of Algonquins. The)- would ha\e to fight their way, for in all probability they would meet war parties of the Iroquois, and then they must fight or be captured. Champlain, therefore, joined his fortunes to the Algonquins and Hurons, forming an alliance with them for mutual protection