Winnebago County, Wisconsin - Chapter 15, 1880

The Fox River and Lake Winnebago Country - Traders and Voyageurs - Heautiful Scenery - The Busy Channel of Aboriginal and Frontier Life, Trade and Travel - Game and Fur-bearing Animals - Here Occurred the First Intercourse Between the Indians of the West and the Whites - Captain Jonathan Carver at Doty Island, in 1766 - Location of the Several Indian Nations - The Hostile Sau1<s and Foxes - Siege of Big Buttes des Morts, by De Louvigny, in 1716 - Official Account of the Expedition from the Archives of France - De Lignery's Expedition to the Fox River, and Lake of the Winnebagoes - Official Documents from the French Archives, Relative lo Affairs in the Fox Valley.

sHE Fo.x River country had now become the initial point in the traffic and travel of the Northwest. The traders and voyageurs were generally mere birds of passage, leading like the natives a nomadic life, which was but a slight modification of the aboriginal. The whole country bordering these great water-courses, from Green Bay to the far-off land of the Dacotahs, on the one hand, and the Spanish possessions on the other, was their home. They set out in their canoes from Green Bay to make voyages to distant lands, like vessels sailing for foreign countries, and that place became the great point of Western travel, and the first permanent habitation of civilized man in the Northwest.

These pioneers, after traveling from Michilimackinac, along the dreary coast e.xtending from the straits to Green Bay, were enamored, after entering the Lower Fo.x, with the beautiful scenery of that broad river, which, from its mouth to Lake Winnebago, is a succession of lovely views; its high sloping banks, in some places quite open, in others covered with a dense forest; the river for distances sweeping along in placid flow, and at some points foaming and tearing along in rapids and falls, which in one place are over half a mile in width. The head of the river is divided by a large island at the outlet of the lake; the present beautiful site of the manufacturing cities of Neenah and Menasha. Here the broad waters of Lake Winnebago break on the view, stretching away as far as the eye can reach.

A few miles travel along its shores, and the great prairie and opening country of the West is reached. Here is the beginning of the beautiful tract now known as Winnebago County. Its broad rivers and lovely lakes, the picturesque surface, with its distant views of rolling prairie, like vast, smooth, grassy lawns, interspersed with groves and stretches of dense forest; the rank, lu.xuriant vegetation of its fertile soil; and the vastness of that great agricultural territory which stretches from here away to the South and West, for an almost illimitable distance, in all the wild loveliness of a state of nature, formed a scene well calculated to inspire the grandest emotions and the most glowing visions of the future civilized development of this favored region.

Here was the great, busy channel of frontier and aboriginal life, trade and travel. The abundance of game, fish and fur-bearing animals, the wild rice which grew luxuriantly in the shallow portion of its waters, the rich, warm soil of its planting-grounds, its facilities for canoe-travel, and the easy portages between the great water-courses, made it the center of Indian population, and one of the chief seats of Indian diplomacy and power. Here dwelt some of the most powerful tribes of the Sacs, Foxes or Outagamies, Winnebagoes and Menominees, and their noted chieftains, famous in Indian song and legend. On these lakes and river-banks were the picturesque sites of their villages and planting-grounds, their council fires and war-dances; and here occurred great tribal wars and some of the most sanguinary conflicts of Indian warfare, in their strugwith a race which was destined to supplant them.

Here the first intercourse took place between the two races in the west; and here the Frenchmen met the diplomats of the Indian tribes to form treaties of alliance to facilitate that nomadic traffic which pioneered the earlier civilization of the country; and here, for a century and a half, the two races mingled alternateh^ in friendly intercourse or deadly conflict.

Captain Jonathan Carver, of the English army, ascended the Fo.x River in 1766. Arriving at the Island, now the site of Neenah and Menasha, he found a great Indian town - Winnebagos. The tribe was ruled by a queen, who received him with great civility and entertained him sumptuously during the four days he lemained there. "The town contained fifty houses. The land," he says, "was very fertile; grapes, plums, and other fruits grew abundantly. The Indians raised large quantities of Indian corn, beans, pumpkins, squashes, watermelons and some tobacco." On the Wisconsin River he foi)nd the largest and best built Indian town he ever saw. "It contained about ninety houses, each large enough for several families, built of hewn planks, neatly jointed, and covered so completely with bark as to keep out the most penetrating rains. * * The streets were both regular and spacious, appearing more like a civilized town than the abode of savages. The land was rich, and corn, beans and melons were raised in large quantities. " of the lakes were lovely spots, and in the cornhusking time, or in the wild-rice harvest, when multitudes of canoes were engaged in gathering the grain, presented a cheerful scene.

The voyageur's camping-ground was frequently adjoining; and many a festive summer night has echoed with the song and mirth of the backwoods frolic, in which both races have enjoyably participated.

An Indian summer scene on these lakes, when nature was garlanded in all the gorgeous colors of her autumnal beauty, was an enchanting sight. The weird-like hush, the softened outlines and shadows, the distant vistas fading in the hazy air, the reflections in the placid waters of the flitting figures in the silently gliding canoe, and the picturesque groups of wigwams on the banks, all mingled harmoniously in the exquisite picture.

The wild-rice, which grew spontaneously in the shallow waters, in tracts of a thousand acres, or more, in a place, furnished great quantities of nutritious food. When this grain was ripe, the squaws paddled their canoes into it, and, bending the stalks in bunches over the canoe, threshed off the grain by beating it with small sticks, the kernels, of course, falling in the bottom of the canoe, which, when loaded, was paddled to the place of deposit on the shore, and the process repeated until the harvest was gathered. The grain grew so abundantly that it was a staple article of food with the Indians inhabiting this section ; hence the name Menominees ( wild rice men).

Myriads of wild water-fowl frequent these rice marshes; deer and other wild animals congregate around these lakes and rivers, and the waters abound in fish, among which is the sturgeon, generally weighing from fifty to a hundred pounds - a valuable fish for food, its flesh being very thick and rich - great q-uantities of which are captured in the season of running up the streams. White and black bass and pike are also plentiful.

The soil ofthe planting-grounds was very fertile, and corn, beans and squash were raised with comparatively little labor; and the maple forests yielded them a supply of sugar. It was, therefore, a land of plenty for the Indian - an aboriginal paradise. But their improvidence and wretched habits of indolence often j induced great suffering and want, which was frequently aggravated by tribal wars.

When the French first came to this country, the Indians of this vicinity were the Mascoutins, on the Upper Fox; their village occupying the site of Buttes des Morts (Hills ofthe Dead); the Winnebagoes, inhabiting the tract south ofthe Upper Fox, and also what is now Doty's Island and the site of Menasha and its vicinity. The Ou-ta-ga-mies, or Foxes, at the foot of Lake Winnebago, and on the Lower Fox, their principal village on the western shore of Little Buttes dcs Morts, near the site of Neenah; the Sauks at the mouth of the Lower Fox, and the Menominees (wild rice eaters) occupying the tract from the mouth of the Lower Fox to the Menominee, and the land adjacent to the latter river.*

These tribes were all, except the Winnebagoes, originally from Canada. Black Hawk, the great Sauk chief, said that his people were originally from the country near Quebec.

The original occupants of Wisconsin were the Sioux, who were dispossessed of this territory by the Chippewas and other Algonquin tribes, and driven across the Mississippi.

The Sauks and Foxes were united by so close an alliance, as to be practically one nation. In the early days ofthe French traders, they were the strong tribes of this valley, warlike and hostile to the whites, resisting all the allurements of civilization and continually making predatory incursions on the Menominees and other tribes. Their warlike and marauding habits kept the country in constant disturbance; they were the dominant power, and seemed determined to compel all others to yield to their snpremacy. One of their principal villages was at Petite Buttes des Morts, on the handsome rise of ground, on the expansion of the Fox, below Doty's Island. Some time after Allouez's visit to the Mascoutins, in the village at Big Buttes des Morts, they seem to have come into possession of that place; for in 17 16, the}' were fortified at that point in resistance to the P'rench and were in possession ofthe Upper Fox. The rivers were named after the Foxes, they being the occupants of the country. They were the only Algonquin tribes against which the French ever made war. The French expelled them from this valley and their country came into the possession ofthe Menominees.

In 1712, the Sauks and Foxes attempted the destruction of Detroit, the garrison at that place numbering only thirty men. The garrison being reinforced by a number of friendly Indians, who opportunely came to its rescue, then attacked the Foxes, who had entrenched themselves in earthworks. After nineteen days desperate fighting the Sauks and Foxes adroitly escaped in the darkness of the night, but being pursued and overtaken at Presque Isle, they were attacked, and . suffered great loss. This was the beginning of a series of battles between these tribes and the French which resulted in the expulsion of the former from the valley of the Fox. The most noted of these are the battles of the Big and Little Buttes des Morts, the sites of two of their chief \illages.

Charlevui.x, tlie historian of New F"rance, in his relations of De Louvigny's expedition against the Sauks and Foxes in 17 16, says: "The Outagamies (F"oxes) notwithstanding the blow which they had received at Detroit in 1 712, were more exasperated than ever against the French. They collected their scattered bands on the Fox River of Green Bay, their natural country, and infested all the communications between the colony and its most distant posts, robbing and murdering travelers, and in this they succeeded so well that they brought over the Sioux to join them openly, while many of the Iroquois favored them clandestinely. In short, there was some danger of a general confederacy amongst all the savages against the French."

"This hostile conduct on the part of the Foxes induced the Marquis De Vaudreuil, who was then governor-general, to propose a union of the friendly tribes with the P"rench, in an expedition against the common enemy; the other tribes readily gave their consent; a party of French was raised and the command of the expedition was confided to M. De Louvigny, the King's Lieutenant at Quebec. A number of savages joined him on the route, and he soon found himself at the head of eight hundred men, all resolved not to lay down their arms while an Outagamie remained in Canada. Every one believed that the Fox nation was about to be entirely destroyed, and so the Outagamies themselves judged, when they saw the storm gathering against them, and therefore determined to sell their lives as dearly as possible. "

De Louvigny proceeded with his forces to Big Buttes des Morts, where the Foxes with five hundred warriors and two thousand women and children had surrounded themselves with three ranges of oak palisades, with a deep ditch in the rear.

The following is the official account of the battle, a copy of which was procured by General Lewis Cass, while oflFiciating as American minister in that countrj': the Lieutenancy of the King, which it has pleased them to grant me, and I will endeavor to fulfill my duty in such a way that they will be satisfied with my services. I will also have the honor to render to them an account of the expedition I have made against the Foxes, from whence I returned the 12th of this month, having started from here the I4'h of March :

" After three days of open trenches sustained by a continuous fire of fusileers, with two pieces of cannon, and a grenade mortar, they were reduced lo ask for peace, notwithstanding they had five hundred warriors in the fort, who fired briskly, and more than three thousand women; they also expected shortly a reinforcement of three hundred men. But the promptitude with which the officers who were in this action pushed forward the trenches that I had opened at only seventy yards from their fort, made the enemy fear, the third night, that they would be taken. As I was only twenty-four yards from their fort, my design was to reach their triple oak stakes by a ditch of a foot and a half in the rear. Perceiving that my balls had not the eft'ect I anticipated, I decided to take the place at the first onset, and to explode two mines under their curtains. The boxes being properly placed for the purpose, I did not listen to the enemy's first proposition ; but they having made a second one, I submitted it to my allies, who consented to it on the following conditions :

That the Foxes and their allies would make peace with all the Indians who are submissive to the King, and with whom the French are engaged in trade and commerce ; and that they would return to me all the French prisoners that they have, and those captured during the war from all our allies. This was complied with immediately. That they would take slaves from distant nations, and deliver them to our allies to replace their dead; that they would hunt to pay the expenses of this war; and, as a surety of the keeping of their word, they should deliver me six chiefs, or children of chiefs, to take with me to M. La Marquis De Vaudreuil as hostages, until the entire execution of our treaty; which they did, and I took them with me to Quebec. Besides I have reunited the other nations at variance among themselves, and have left that country enjoying universal peace. "

" I very humbly beseech the Council to consider, that this expedition has been very long and very laborious; that the victorious armies of the King have been led by me more than five hundred leagues from our town=, all of which has not been executed without much fatigue and expense ; to which I ask the Council lo please give their attention, in order that they may allow me the gratification they may think proper, as I have not carried on any kind of commerce. On the contrary, I gave to all the nations which were with me, the few beaver skins that the Foxes had presented me with, to convince them that in the war the French were prosecuting, they were not guided by motives of interest. All those who served in the campaign with me can testify to what I take the liberty to tell the Council. Louvigny.

" By my memorial of the sixteenth of this month, I informed the Council of the manner in which the Sieur De Louvigny put an end to the war with the Foxes. "

" I now feel it my duty to call the attention of the Council to the merits of that officer. He has always served his country with much distinction; but in his expedition against the Foxes, he signalized himself still more by his valor, his capacity, and his conduct, in which he displayed a great deal of prudence. He urged the canoes that ascended with him to make all possible speed, and he obliged those in Detroit to accompany him. He showed the Hurons and other Indians of that place, that he was going to the war in earnest ; that he was not a trader, and he could dispense with their services. This brought them back to their duty. But it was especially at Michilimackinac, where he was anxiously expected, that his presence inspired in all the Frenchmen and Indians a confidence which was a presage of victory. Again ; he made the war short, but the peace which resulted from it will not be of short duration."

" I shall be obliged to dispatch him in the very commence ment of next spring to return to Michilimackinac to confirm this peace, embracing in it all the nations of the Upper Country, and to keep the promise he made to the chiefs of the Foxes who are to come down to Montreal, that they would find him at Michilimackinac. All these movements are not made without great labor and many expenses, and I cannot omit saying that this officer deserves that the Council should grant him some favor."

Notwithstanding the assurance of peace on the part of the Foxes,, and the hopes entertained by the French that quiet would prevail between them and the neighboring tribes, still they had committed so many depredations when on the war-path in times past, that they were regarded with the greatest hostility by other tribes, who only waited an opportunity for revenge; and while a party of Foxes were on a summer hunt, they were attacked by a party of Illinois, a tribe that they had long aggrieved, who surrounded them, killing and capturing the entire band. Hostilities now broke out afresh and the various tribes were in commotion.

j the Upper Country, and the Foxes once more took the war-path against the French and their allies. An expedition was, therefore, sent against them under the command of M. De Lignery, in 1728, composed of 1,000 Indians and 450 French. The expedition proceeded up the Fox River; but the Foxes i and Winnebagoes, who were then in alliance, having been apprised of the formidable force moving against them, fled, deserting their villages and planting grounds in the greatest possible haste. The French destroyed the four principal Indian villages on the Lower and upper Fox; and also the growing crops on their planting grounds, and their stores of

" The tenth of August we left Michilimackinac, and entered Lake Michigan. As we had been detained there two days by the wind, our savages had had time to take a hunt, in which they killed several moose and elk, and they were polite enough to offer to share with us. We made some objections at first, but they compelled us to accept their present, saying that since we had shared with then? the fatigues of the journey, it was right that they should share with us the comforts which they had found, and that they should not consider themselves as men if they acted in a different manner toward others. This discourse, which one of our men rendered in French for me, affected me very much. What humanity in savages ! And how many men might be found in Europe to whom the title of barbarian might much better be applied than to these inhabitants of America. "

" The generosity of our savages merited the most lively gratitude on our pait; already for some time not having been able to find suitable hunting grounds, we had been compelled to eat nothing but bacon ; the moose and elk which they gave us, removed the disgust we began to have for our ordinary fare. ''

" The fourteenth of the same month we continued our journey as far as the Detour de Chicagou, and as we were doubling Cap a la Mort, which is about five leagues across, we encountered a gust of wind, which drove ashore several canoes that were unable to double a point in order to obtain a shelter ; they were broken by the shock ; and we were obliged to distribute among the other canoes the men who, by the greatest good foitune in the world, had all escaped from the danger. The next day we crossed over to the Folles Avoines, in order to entice the inhabitants to come and oppose our landing ; they fell into the trap, and were entirely defeated. The following day we camped at the mouth of a river called La Gasparde. Our savages went into the woods, but soon returned, bringing with them several roebucks. This specie of game is very common at this place, and we were enabled to lay in several days provisions of it. "

" About mid-day, on the seventeenth, we were ordered to halt until evening, in order that we might reach the post at the Bay during the night, as we wished to surprise the enemy whom we knew were staying with their allies, the Sacquis, whose village lies near Fort St. Francis. At twilight we commenced our march, and about midnight we arrived at the mouth of Fox River, at which point our fort is built. As soon as we had arrived there, M. De Lignery sent some Frenchmen to the commandant to ascertain if the enemy were really at the village of the Sacquis ; and having learned that we ought still to find them there, he caused all the savages and a detachment of French troops to cross over the river, in order to surround the habitation, and then ordered the rest of our troops to enter the village. Notwithstanding precautions that had been taken to conceal our arrival, the savages had received information of it, and all had escaped with the exception of four ; these were presented to our savages, who, after having diverted themselves with them, shot them to death with their arrows."

persons suffer, causing them to undergo the horrors of thirty ileaths before depriving them of life. I could not make this accord with the manner in which they had appeared to think some days before. I would willingly have asked them if they did not preceive, as i did, this opposition of sentiment, and have pointed out to them what I saw condemnable in their proceedings; but those of our party who might have served me as interpreters were on the other side of the river, and I was obliged to postpone until another time the satisfaction of my curiosity."

" After this little ioupdemain we went up Fox River, which is full of rapids, and is about tffirty-five or forty leagues in length. The twenty-fourth of August we arrived at the village of the Puants (Winnebagoes) much disposed to destroy any inhabitants that might be found there; but their flight had preceded our arrival, and we had nothing to do but to burn their wigwams, and ravage their fields of Indian corn, which is their principal article of food. "

" We afterwards crossed over the little Fox Lake, at the end of which we camped, and the next day (day of St. Louis,) after mass, we entered a small river which conducted us into a kind of swamp, on the borders of which is situated the grand habitation of those of whom we were in search. Their allies, the Sacquis, doubtless, had informed them of our approach, and they did not deem it advisable to wait our arrival, for we found in their village only a few women, whom our savages made their slaves, and one old man, whom they burnt to death at a slow fire, without appearing to entertain the least repugnance towards committing so barbarous an act. "

"This appeared to me a more striking act of cruelty than that which had been exercised towards the four savages found in the village of the Sacquis. I siezed upon this occasion and circumstance to satisfy my curiosity, about that concerning which I have just been speaking. There was in our company a Frenchman who could speak the Iroquois language. I entreated him to tell the savages that I was surprised to see them take so much pleasure in torturing this unfortunate old man - that the rights of war did not extend so far, and that so barbarous an action appeared to me to be in direct opposition to the principles which they had professed to entertain towards all men. I was answered by an Iroquois, who in order to justify his companions, said, that when they fell into the hands of the Foxes and Sacquis, they were treated with still greater cruelty, and that it was their custom to treat their enemies in the same manner that they would bo treated by them if they were vanquished. " * * *

" I was about to give him some further reasons, when orders were given to advance upon the last stronghold of the enemy. This post is situated upon the borders of a small river which empties into another called the Ouisconsin, which latter discharges itself into the Mississippi, about thirty leagues from there. We found no person there, and as we had no orders to go any farlher,we employed ourselves several days in destroying the fields, in order to deprive the enemy of the means of subsisting there. The country here is beautiful; the soil is fertile, the game plenty and of very fine flavor; the nights are very cold, and the days extremely warm. In my next letter I will speak to you about my return to Montreal, and of all that has happened to me up to the time of my embarking for France. " * * *

" It having been signified 10 them that his Majesty wished that they had awaited his orders before commencing this undertaking, they answer, that the information which they received from every quarter, of the secret wampums which the English had sent among the nations of the Upper Country, to cut the throats of the French in all the posts, and the war parties which the Foxes were raising every day, did not allow them to defer this expedition for a year, without endangering the loss of all the posts in the Upper Country. "

They learned with great regret that the Foxes had fled before the army had arrived in their country. They will do all they can to prevent any results from this, and will attentively observe all the movements which any of those nations who could enter into the interests of the Foxes might make, so as to prevent any surprise. "

" The Marquis De Beauharnois, by a private letter ol the same day, sends the instructions which he had given to M. De Lignery for this expedition, and the letter which this ofiicer entreated to enclose in his dispatches, and by which he attempts to justify himself. This letter slates, that he made use of all his skill to succeed in the expedition ; but it was impossible for him to surprise the enemy, not being able to conceal from iheni, any further than the Bay, the knowledge of his march.

" He took at this post, before day break, three Puants of the Foxes, and one Fox, who were discovered by some Sakis whom he had brought from Mackinac. These four savages were bound and sent to tribes, who put them to death the next day. He afterwards continued his march, composed of 1,000 savages and 450 French, as far as the village of the Puants, and afterwards to the Foxes. They all fled as sooit as they heard that we were at the Bay, of which they were informed by some of their own people, who escaped by swimming. They captured, however, in the four Fox villages, two women, a girl and an old man, who were killed and burnt. He learned from them that the tribe had fled four days before; that it had a collection of canoes, in which the old men, the women and children had embarked, and that the warriors had gone by land He urged the other tribes to follow in pursuit of them, but there was only a portion of them who would consent, the others saying the enemy had got too far for them to be able to catch up with them. The French had nothing but Indian corn to eat, and this, added to the advanced season, and a march of 400 leagues on their return, by which the safety of half the army was endangered, decided them upon burning the four Fox vdlages, their forts and their huts, to destroy all that they could find in their fields - Indian corn, peas, beans and gourds, of which they had great abundance. They did the same execution among the Puants. It is certain that half of these nations, who number 4,000 souls, will die with hunger, and that they will come in and ask mercy. Major De Cavagnal, who has been in the whole expeditiim, and has perfectly performed his duty, is able to certify to all this." *

This expedition had the effect of Iceeping the Sauks and Foxes in check for a number of years; but the Foxes, who had their chief village and stronghold on the banks of Little Buttes des Morts, again became troublesome to the traders by stopping their boats, and compelling them to pay tribute for the privilege of passage, and this and other grievances committed by them, caused the French authorities to determine upon their expulsion.

The Sauks, whose principal village was opposite the French fort at the Bay, had for some time been conducting themseves better than their allies - the Foxes; and they were ordered to deliver up the Foxes living among them. A difficulty occurred about this demand, in which De Vielie, the commandant of the fort, killed two chiefs, when a young Sauk, only twelve years old, named the Black Bird, shot the officer dead.

A severe battle followed this encounter, in which many French and Indians were killed. It ended disastrously to the Sauks, who fled from the country, and located at Sauk Prairie, on the Lower Wisconsin River.