Winnebago County, Wisconsin - Chapter 28, 1880

Karly Settlement of Winnebago County - Its Transformation friim a Wilderness into the Abodes of Civilization - The First Settlers - The Beauty and Rich Resources of the Country - .Several of the Principal <.'ities of the State Cluster Around these Water Courses - (Jshkosh, Neenah and Menasha - Lake Winnebago and its Beautiful Surroundings.

^^LTHOUGH a century and a half had passed since the French established their trading posts in this counf try, it was, up to the year 1 846, but a 1 comparatively unbroken wilderness. The little straggling French settlements on the Lower Fox - the Government agency at Neenah - half a dozen families at the mouth of the Upper Fox, the present site of Oshkosh - the trading post of Augustin Grignon and James Porlier, near the head of Big Lake Butte des Morts, comprised nearly the whole civilized inhabitant?, with the exception of the troops and traders at Fort Winnebago. But this country was soon to witness a wonderful, sudden transformation. The age of railroads and steam machinery was coming on; the beaver, otter, mink and their contemporaries, the French voyageur and the Indian, were to be superseded by that advancing civilization which has spread its conquests far and wide, and whose forces have opened up the broad West to that wave of im.migration which rolls ceaselessly across the continent, peopleing its most remote solitudes with a race which takes permanent possession, and before whom the Indian hopelessly flees, disheartened and overwhelmed by the destiny which closes remorselessly around him, and leaves him an alien and outcast in the lands of his nativity.

That vigorous civilization which sprung up on the Atlantic sea-coast of America had now developed greater social forces than the world had ever before witnessed. The vast physical resources of the continent in the possession of a free people, opened up an unbounded field of enterprise; while the opportunity for gain and personal advancement stimulated ambition and progress.

In 1836, the advance guard of that migration, which has since overspread the country, made its appearance in two families, one of which settled at Fond du Lac - the Piers - the other, the Gallups and Stanleys, on the present site of Oshkosh; these, at that time, were

This was the period of the early migration to the Southern part of the State, and while that was being peopled, immigration to this section was light.

In 1842, the County of Winnebago was organized, and in 1846, there were but 732 persons in the whole County; but this inviting field was now attracting more general attention. The fame of this beautiful lake and river country, with its rich prairies and splendid woodlands, began to spread, and immigration poured in with a rapidity unprecedented in the settlement of a country. It surpassed that even of the more Southern counties of the State. In one year the population of .the County increased from 732 to 2,787.

Thirty-five years ago an unsettled wild, now the Counties of Winnebago, Green Lake and Fond du Lac present one continuous expanse of cultivated farms, with commodious and elegant farm houses and suburban villas, surrounded with all the adornments of wealth and taste, with spacious barns and out-buildings, as the illustrations in this work serve to show, giving evidence of the wealth, thrift and prosperity of the inhabitants.

Cities have sprung up along these water courses; steamboats and sail crafts ply the waters in every direction; railroads checker the whole face of the country; and the scene is one of vigorous industrial activity and business enterprise.

The great business, manufacturing and agricultural resources of the valley of the Fox, is plainly seen in the growth of its cities, and the rapid development of their business industries. Clustering around Lake Winnebago and the Lower Fox, are five of the principal cities of the State. Oshkosh, at the mouth of the Upper Fox, the second city in the State in wealth, business and population.

Twelve miles to the north of Oshkosh, at the outlet of the lake on, one of the greatest water powers of the continent, are the manufacturing cities of Neenah and Menasha, with their long lines of manufactories. These cities are delightfuU)' situated on either sides of the river, and the shore of the lake. Beingon a reliable line of watercomnuinication,affordingthem cheap transportation for the products of their manufactures; with a water power measured at three thousandhorse-power; a fine agricultural district surrounding them, they are destined to maintain their position as two of the chief manufacturing centers of the State.

The Lower Fox is the great manufacturing district of the State. Its water reservoirs are inexhaustable; there are no freshets, the flow of the water being gradual, and its volume so large that no formations of ice ever interrupt the workings of its machinery.

The central commercial point on these great water courses, is the city of Oshkosh, delightfully situated on a handsome plateau, between lakes Winnebago and Buttes des Morts; the surrounding country is surpassingly beautiful. The main business portion of the city, having been destroyed by fire, one mile of its main street is composed wholly of handsome new business blocks. This is one of the finest looking business streets in the state - compactly built with fire proof structures of brick and stone. Its palace stores are models of elegance, and its handsome residence streets are most attractive. The city is compactly built up from the shore of Lake Winnebago to that of Lake Buttes des Morts, a distance of three miles. The residences on its best streets are beautiful structures. One street of two miles is almost wholly composed of what might be called palace residences, embowered in the luxuriant foliage of great oaks and shade trees, with well-kept lawns and tasteful surroundings. There are twenty-five miles of graveled streets, the material of which cements into a smooth, hard surface.

The Fox River, connecting the two lakes, bisects the city, and has an average width of five hundred feet and a depth of thirty. The river shore, for two miles, is lined with manufacturing establishments run by steam power. There are some sixty of these, and among them are foundries and machines shops, which manufacture steam engines, boilers and mill machinery; sash and door factories, with a capacity of one thousand doors, two thousand windows, and four hundred pairs of blinds per day; saw and shingle mills, whose products have, in good seasons, loaded sixteen thousand cars per year; threshing machine works; a match factory, which employs three hundred hands; grist mills; a large trunk factory, and woolen mills. These, with the steamboats and sailing crafts plying the river and lake, the moving railroad trains and the busy streets present a scene of great business life and activity.

This place is the seat of the State Normal School, an institution of a high order of excellence. There are also a Business College, two Academies, and the Oshkosh High School,

A favorite amusement of the place is yachting. The Oshkosh Yacht Club has a fleet of twenty yachts, finely modeled crafts, and the lake is famous as the best yachting waters in the West. Fond du Lac, Neenah and Menasha also have fleets of yachts; these all join in regattas, which make a most attractive sight, and one which never fails to delight the vast crowd of spectators which always assembles to witness it.

Lake Winnebago, bounding the eastern side of Winnebago county, and indenting it with deep bays and capacious harbors, forms with its handsome sloping shores of prairie, openings and woodland, one of the finest natural scenes to be found. It has no overtowering mountains, but this lovely expanse of water, stretching away as far as the eye can reach, and glittering like a gem in its emerald setting of undulating banks and leafy groves until the view fades away in the dim distance, among the hazy points and headlands, is a scene of picturesque beauty that is seldom equaled. This lake and its surroundings, possess great attractions for the summer tourist. The country afi"ords delightful drives over good roads, with fine views of lake and river scenery. The climate is healthful. The air pure and dry. Artesian fountains abound, furnishing the best of water; there is good shooting in the season; the game is principally ^\-ild water fowl, largely teal, mallard and wood-duck. The fishing is excellent, the water abounding in white and black bass and pike. The shores and harbors are accessible at all points, making safe boating for ladies, who largely participate in that amusement. The shores of the lake have most delightful camping-grounds, and steamboat and yachting excursions are frequent; parties sometimes camping out for a week at a time. A favorite place of resort is Island Park, a beautiful wooded island on the west shore.

Another charming place is Clifton, on the eastern shore, in Calumet County; a bold promontory, rising abruptly from the lake to the height of about two hundred feet. Here are caverns and grottoes and precipitous ledges of limestone, affording many interesting natural subjects for the geologist and lover of natural studies. The wooded hills of Clifton oxcrlooking the lake are lovely camping-grounds and a favorite resort of excursionists. The \'iew of the lake from the summit is magnificent. The lox'ely expanse of water, dotted with steamers and white sails; while on eitherhand, in the dim distance, may be seen the smoke arising from the manufacturies of two of the principal cities

What a spectacle is here afforded of the wonderful progress of the age! Twenty-eight years ago this location was one of the frontiers of Western civilization; and the Indian title not then extinguished to the tract lying west of the Fox River, only ten miles distant from Oshkosh, then a frontier village. Now populous cities, marts of trade and commerce, with educational institutions, and all the luxuries, and elegancies of modern social life, cluster around these waters - highly cultivated farms cover the whole face of the country - railroads stretch away in every direction ; and the empire of modern progress holds undisputed sway. The Indian wigwam and the pioneer's log cabin are supplanted by the stately mansion and towering steeple - the bark canoe and the voyageur's bateau have given way to the magnificent steamer and graceful sail craft; and the generous hospitalities of the pioneer - his hearty welcome - his kindly manners and his brave enterprises that opened up the pathway of progress, are among the things of the past.

And now, if the writer, who has endeavored to sketch the country on the line of these great water courses, and the outlines of its e\entful history of two centuries, with its transformations from a wilderness into the populous centers of busy life, has succeeded in drawing the picture, that portion of his task is ended, and the next subject will be the history of Winnebago County, and its several cities and towns.

The Fo.\ River Valley and Central Wisconsin - Indescribably Charming in its Picturesque Beauty of Commingled Prairie, Woodland, Laltes and Rivers - The Lovely Water Scener)' an Especial Feature - The Richest Fertility of Soil, with Good Water and a Healthful Climate - - The Fox Valley a Conjunction of Three Distinct Types of Country, with Great Natural Elements of Productive Wealth, and One of the t^hief Business Thoroughfares of the State.

^fH^S^Y an examination of the map of Wisciinsin, it will be seen that the Wisconsin, and Upper and Lower Fox Rivis^^^^" ers, form a water-line through the ' entire breadth of the State, whosemain of the Wisconsin, on the Mississippi, to that of the Lower Fox, at Green Bay. This line is the dividing point between two districts of very distinct physical features. The territory lying south of this river line, comprises the great rich prairie and opening district of the State, which stretches from Winnebago county to its southern and western limits. This vast tract, with the exception of the strip of timbered land in the counties bordering Lake Michigan, constitutes the northeastern section of that great agricultural empire of fertile prairie and openings, which extends to the south and west for distances that include whole States in their vast limitations, and presenting in almost one continuous body a tract of agricultural country, whose territorial immensity and fertilit)- is unparalleled in the wide world. That portion of it included in the limits of the State of Wisconsin is more diversified with openings and detached bodies of timber, and consequently does not present those great monotonous stretches of level prairie, which largely abound in the more southern portions of the district. The face of this prairie and opening country of Wisconsin is indescribabl}- charming in its picturesquebeauty of commingled prairie, wood land, lakes and rivers; forming vast rural landscapes of the most exquisite loveliness. Here are lakes rivaling the finest in the world, with handsome sloping banks rising in the most graceful undulations.

The rolling prairie, in a succession of smoothly rounded ridges, stretching away as far as eye can reach, dotted with picturesque openings and bordered with the dense foliage of the more heavily wooded slopes, affording views, whose distant vistas fade into a perspective that resembles some enchanting mirage of wooded hills and grassy lawns, with glimpses of water flecking the whole scene in artistic light and shadows. But in all this magnificent countiy, there is no tract that can surpass, and but few that can equal, that embraced in the counties of Winnebago, Green Lake and western Fond du Lac. These now present one expanse of highly cultivated farms, with farm houses that, in many instances are elegant rural villas; spacious barns and good fences, giving every evidence of the wealth and thrift of their occupants.

In Green Lake and Winnebago counties, the beautiful water scenery is an especial feature, which gives additional charms to the contrasting varieties of prairie and woodland. These large bodies of water modify the heat of summer, and purify the air, which is delightfully exhilarating and healthful. These lakes and rivers, too, form a great water-course through the heart of the country, which is navigated by steamers, and upon whose banks have arisen some of the chief cities of the State. Here, then, is a country of the richest fertility of soil, with a healthful climate, in which malarial diseases are almost unknown; with pure air and an abundant supply of the best of water; while every portion of it is in close proximity to business centers, and abounding in great physical resources of agriculture and manufacture. Immediately adjoining this country is the heavily timbered region, of northeastern Wisconsin, traversed by navigable streams, and possessing the greatest water-power on the continent, with a capacity, at a number of points, for miles of mills and factories; at one point on the lower Fox the capacity being one hundred and fifteen thousand horse-power. This "timbered" country of northeastern Wisconsin is also a fine agricultural district, in addition to its great manufacturing resources. The thirty large flouring and paper mills, many of them mammoth establishments, in Neenah and Appleton, and the extensive iron works and manufactories of wooden ware, at various points on the river, already give evidence of the giant proportions of its manufacturing capacity, but which is yet in the very infancy of its development. The country, collectively, constitutes the Fox River Valley; the Upper Fox, prairie and openings of the richest fertility; the Lower, hard-wood timber lands, with a good, strong clay soil, while to the northwest is the belt of sandy district, which terminates in the great forest lying beyond. This country, to the north and west of the Upper Fox, with the exception of a portion of Winnebago county, is one distinctively different in its physical features to that lying to the south and east, as stated in the beginning of this article.

The vast prairie countrv to the southwest has its northeast boundary in the beautiful valley of the Upper Fox, in which the face of the country, the soil and general features, are similar to those of the best part of the southein portions of the State, with the additional feature of numerous bodies of navigable waters. A short distance to the north, after crossing the Fox, the character of the country changes, and the region called Northern Wisconsin here has its beginning. The soil changes from the rich, black loam of the prairie, and clay of the wooded land into a sandy soil, which very generally prevails in Waushara and northern Marquette counties, and the southern half of Portage and Waupaca, with variable degrees of fertility. After crossing the belt of open.

sandy country, the pine and hardwood forests of Northern Wisconsin are reached. The vast region lying beyond the Fox Valley, and and extending north to the shore of Lake Superior, is one of great variety of soil, resources and face of country, embracing small, sandy plains, handsome openings of fair fertility, extensive cranberry marshes, grass lands, cedar and tamarack swamps, pine lands, and rough, rocky districts, and mineral lands. It is well watered by innumerable lakes and rivers.

There are also in Northern Wisconsin large tracts of the very finest sugar-maple land, comprising nearly whole townships in a body, with a rich, warm, black soil - as fine farming land as can be found in the West. There is a wide belt of this maple land mixed with other hardwood timber, and an occasional patch of pine, extending through Oconto, Shawano and Marathon counties. Some townships are already well settled, and large tracts in a good state of cultivation. This whole tract is well supplied with the purest of running water, spring brooks, rivers, and in many locations, beautiful lakes.

The country to the north of this is more broken, rough and rocky, and constitutes a portion of the great mineral tract, which extends to Lake Superior. It will be seen, therefore, that this region has a great variety of natural resources in its timber materials, mineral deposits, agricultural lands, navigable streams and water-power.

The Wolf River and its large tributaries, floiK.<iHg from this region, empties into the Upper Fox,, and is navigable for one hundred and fifty miles or more, thus giving the Fox River Valley eountry ivater communication and easy accessibility to its vast material resources.

It is this conjunction of the respective natural elements of three distinct types of country, which constitutes the great manufacturing and business capacity of the Fox River Valley, where Nature, with the most prodigal hand, has scattered the richest elements of productive wealth; and it is this which makes the beautiful country on the line of these water-courses a populous thoroughfare, on which have sprung up thriving cities - the busy centers of modern enterprise and manufacturing activit}-.