87 (page page 273).—By the treaty of November 3, 1804, the Sacs and Foxes, for the paltry sum of $1,000, ceded to the United States Government 50,000,000 acres of land in what are now Missouri, Illinois, and Wisconsin; this tract included the lead region. Unfortunately, the Indians were given permission to remain in the ceded territory until the lands were sold to settlers. This privilege was the seed of the Black Hawk War. Most of the Sac and Fox villages moved to the west of the Mississippi River during the first quarter of the century. Black Hawk’s band, living at the mouth of Rock River, alone remained. Settlement gradually encroached on them, and squatters sought to oust the Indians from the alluvial river-bottom. Black Hawk did not consider the squatters as legitimate settlers, and when they persisted for several seasons in destroying his cornfields, stealing his crops, and physically maltreating his people, he threatened vengeance. This led, in 1831, to Governor John Reynolds, of Illinois, calling out the militia, and in June making a demonstration before Black Hawk’s village. The Sacs thereupon withdrew to the west of the Mississippi, and promised to remain there. But discouraged by lack of food, and encouraged by promise of help from the Winnebagoes and Pottawattomies of Illinois, Black Hawk recrossed the river at Yellow Banks, below Rock Island, on April 6, 1832. Governor Reynolds again called out the militia, and secured the aid of United States troops from Fort Armstrong. The Black Hawk War ensued, ending disastrously for the Sac leader and his people.
88 (page page 274).—French-Canadian patois, so called, is but the seventeenth-century speech of Normandy and Brittany, with some local color derived from the Indians and the new conditions of the frontier. It is a mistake to term this survival a rude dialect, as is so often done by those English-speaking people who have learned only the modern and somewhat artificial French of Paris and the Academy.
89 (page page 275).—See Note 20.
90 (page page 281).—Mrs. Kinzie here corrects a popular misconception regarding the division of labor in an aboriginal household. In a primitive stage, the Indian male of proper age and normal strength devoted himself to the chase, to war, and the council, leaving to the females the care of the household, which included the cultivation of crops and the carrying of burdens. Aiding the females were those males who were too young, or otherwise incapacitated for the arduous duties of the warrior; also, slaves taken or bought from other tribes. Before whites or strangers of their own race, the Indian warrior disdained to be seen at menial occupations; but in the privacy of his own people he not infrequently assisted his women.
91 (page page 285).—See Note 27.
92 (page page 303).—Daniel Whitney arrived at Green Bay in 1816, and was the founder of Navarino (1830), on the site of the modern city of Green Bay. He conducted an extensive fur trade in Wisconsin and Minnesota, built numerous sawmills on Wisconsin waters, developed the shot-making industry at Helena, Wis., and in many fields was one of the most enterprising pioneers of Wisconsin.
Miss Henshaw was a sister of Mrs. Whitney.
Miss Brush was visiting her relative, Charles Brush, a resident of Green Bay.
93 (page page 305).—Colonel Samuel C. Stambaugh was Indian agent at Green Bay in 1831-32. He had been a country newspaper publisher in Pennsylvania, and received the office as a reward for political services. The Senate refused confirmation of his appointment, and he was withdrawn from the agency. He however served the department for four or five years more as a special agent, when he retired from public employment.
94 (page page 306).—The name De Pere comes from rapides des pères, referring to the early Jesuit mission (1671-87), at this the first obstruction in ascending the Fox River. The modern manufacturing city of De Pere lies on both sides of the rapids, about four miles above the city of Green Bay. A memorial tablet of bronze was dedicated by the Wisconsin Historical Society on the site of Father Allouez’s mission at De Pere, in September, 1899.
95 (page page 307).—See Note 30.
96 (page page 307).—Grand Butte des Morts, above Lake Winnebago, is meant; the party had gone overland from Green Bay, and struck across country to the south-west of Doty’s Island.
James Knaggs was a Pottawattomie half-breed, who in 1835 became ferryman, tavern-keeper, and fur-trader in a small way at Coon’s Point, Algoma, now in the city limits of Oshkosh. This was the year before the arrival of Webster Stanley, the first white settler of Oshkosh.
97 (page page 312).—Bellefontaine was the name of a farm and wayside tavern owned by Pierre Paquette, the Portage half-breed fur-trader. At this farm the specialty was live-stock, as Paquette had the government contract for supplying most of the beef and horses to the Winnebago tribe.
98 (page page 314).—Doctor William Beaumont was an army surgeon. While stationed at Mackinac, in 1822, he was called to treat a young man named Alexis St. Martin, who had received a gunshot wound in his left side. The wound healed, but there remained a fistulous opening into the stomach, two and a half inches in diameter, through which Beaumont could watch the process of digestion. His experiments regarding the digestibility of different kinds of food, and the properties of the gastric juice, were continued through several years—indeed, until Beaumont’s death (1853); but the first publication of results was made in 1833, and at once gave Beaumont an international reputation among scientists. Through several years, Beaumont (who resigned from the army in 1839) was stationed at Fort Crawford, where many of his experiments were conducted.
99 (page page 318).—Joseph Crélie was the father-in-law of Pierre Paquette. He had been a voyageur and small fur-trader at Prairie du Chien as early as 1791, and in the early coming of the whites (about 1836) obtained much notoriety from claiming to be of phenomenal age. He died at Caledonia, Wis., in 1865, at a time when he asserted himself to be one hundred and thirty years old; but a careful inquiry has resulted in establishing his years at one hundred.
100 (page page 318).—General Henry Atkinson, in charge of the regular troops in the pursuit of Black Hawk (1832), had followed the Sac leader to Lake Koshkonong. On the night of July 1 he commenced throwing up breastworks at the junction of the Bark with the Rock River. These were surmounted by a stockade. The rude fort was soon abandoned in the chase of Black Hawk to the west; but the site was chosen in 1836 for the home of the first settler of the modern city of Fort Atkinson, Wis.
101 (page page 321).—Now called Baraboo River.
102 (page page 322).—David Hunter, a native of the District of Columbia, was then first lieutenant in the Fifth Infantry. He became captain of the First Dragoons in 1833, and was made major and paymaster in 1842. On the outbreak of the War of Secession he was at first appointed colonel of the Sixth Cavalry; but later, in 1861, was commissioned as major-general of volunteers. Because of gallant and meritorious service in the battle of Piedmont, and during the campaign in the Valley of Virginia, he was brevetted major-general. He retired from the service in July, 1866.
103 (page page 323).—Charles Gratiot, the father of Henry, was born in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1753, the child of refugee Huguenots from La Rochelle, France. Trained to mercantile life in London, he came to America when not yet of age, and opened a trading-post at Mackinac, visiting Green Bay and Prairie du Chien as early as 1770. He was a wide traveler by canoe through the heart of the continent. In 1774 he opened establishments at Cahokia and Kaskaskia, and very materially aided General George Rogers Clark with influence and fortune, in the latter’s celebrated expeditions for the capture of the Northwest. One of his four sons was Henry, to whom our author refers. Henry became a leader in the development of the Wisconsin-Illinois lead mines, and was for many years Indian agent in that district, doing good service as such in the Red Bird (1827) and Black Hawk (1832) uprisings. He died in Baltimore, Md., April 27, 1836.
104 (page page 328).—The term “pipe” was of more general application than this, among voyageurs. It referred to the occasional stoppage of work, in rowing, when pipes would be refilled, and perhaps other refreshment taken. A canoe voyage along the lakes and rivers of the West was measured by “pipes,” which of course were more numerous going against the current than with it. In the same manner a portage trail was measured by the number of “pauses” necessary for resting; a rough path having more such than a smooth, level trail.
105 (page page 330).—Such huge flights of wild doves were still occasionally to be seen in Wisconsin until about 1878. The present writer has seen them, especially about 1868, in flocks of such size as to darken the sun, as at a total eclipse; large fields in which they would settle would seem to be solid masses of birds; and at night they would roost upon trees in such numbers as to break the branches. Farmers and pot-hunters easily killed great numbers with long sticks, either as they rested upon the trees, or rose from the ground in clouds, when disturbed.
106 (page page 333).—See Note 31.
107 (page page 337).—See Note 15.
108 (page page 339).—This was during the Black Hawk War (1832). The fleeing Sacs were retreating up Rock River, to the north-east, and made a stand on Lake Koshkonong. The people at Green Bay were without definite information regarding the fugitives, and their number and capacity to do harm were greatly exaggerated. It was supposed that they would continue going to the north-east, and seek an outlet to Lake Michigan at Green Bay. This threw the people of the lower valley of the Fox River into a panic, which was no less real because ludicrous in character. See the diary during this flurry, of Cutting Marsh, missionary to the Stockbridge Indians, in Wisconsin Historical Collections, vol. xv.
109 (page page 340).—General Winfield Scott had been ordered to the seat of the Black Hawk War by way of the Great Lakes, with reinforcements for Atkinson. Cholera among his troops had detained him first at Detroit, then at Chicago, and lastly at Rock Island. Nearly one-fourth of his force of a thousand regulars died with the pestilence.
110 (page page 342).—Nathan Clark entered the army in 1813, as a second lieutenant, and became a captain in the Fifth Infantry in 1824—the rank he held at the time alluded to by Mrs. Kinzie. He was brevetted major in 1834, for ten years' faithful service in one grade, and died February 18, 1836. His daughter, now Mrs. Charlotte Ouisconsin Van Cleve, is the author of a book of reminiscences, which covers much of the ground traversed by Mrs. Kinzie, Three Score Years and Ten (Minneapolis, 1888).
111 (page page 343).—See Note 73.
112 (page page 343).—Major Henry Dodge, afterward first territorial governor of Wisconsin, was, during the Black Hawk War, in charge of the Michigan militia west of Lake Michigan. Generals James D. Henry and M. K. Alexander were in charge of brigades of Illinois volunteers. The combined army of regulars and volunteers had followed Black Hawk to Lake Koshkonong. While encamped there, Henry, Alexander, and Dodge had been despatched (July 10) to Fort Winnebago for much needed provisions, it being the nearest supply point. While they were absent, the fugitive Sacs fled westward to the Wisconsin River. The troops followed on a hot trail, and July 21 there ensued the battle of Wisconsin Heights, near Prairie du Sac. Black Hawk, with sadly diminished forces, continued his flight to the Mississippi; where, near the mouth of the Bad Ax, occurred (August 1 and 2) the final battle of the war.
113 (page page 345).—Site of the modern city of Appleton, Wis.
114 (page page 349).—During the battle of Wisconsin Heights, a large party of non-combatants in Black Hawk’s party, composed mainly of women, children, and old men, were sent down the Wisconsin River on a large raft and in canoes borrowed from the Winnebagoes. A detachment of regulars, sent out from Fort Crawford, fired into this party and killed and captured many. The few who could escape to the woods were afterward massacred by the band of Menomonee Indians of whom Mrs. Kinzie speaks; the contingent had been organized in the neighborhood of Green Bay, by Colonel Samuel C. Stambaugh, former Indian agent. This was the only exploit in which Stambaugh’s expedition participated, for the war was practically ended before it arrived on the scene of action.
115 (page page 353).—This refers to the so-called “battle of the Bad Ax” (see last clause of Note 112). Black Hawk endeavored to surrender, but the party of regulars on the steamer “Warrior” disregarded his white flag, and he was caught between the land forces under Atkinson and the fire of the steamer. The Indians were shot down like rats in a trap; and those who finally managed to swim across the Mississippi, under cover of the islands, were set upon by the Sioux, who had been inspired to this slaughter by the authorities at Fort Crawford. The Black Hawk War, from beginning to end, is a serious blot on the history of our Indian relations.
116 (page page 353).—General Hugh Brady, then colonel of the Second Infantry. He had been brevetted brigadier-general in 1822, for ten years' faithful service in one grade; and was brevetted major-general in 1848 for meritorious conduct. Brady led the 450 regulars, upon the trail of Black Hawk, from Wisconsin Heights to the Bad Ax.
117 (page page 354).—May 14, 1832, Black Hawk and fifty or sixty of his head men were encamped near the mouth of Sycamore Creek, a tributary of the Rock River. Toward sunset of that day, there appeared, three miles down the Rock, two battalions of Illinois volunteer troops, a total of 341 men, under Majors Isaiah Stillman and David Bailey. The whites had unlimbered for a night in camp, when three Indians appeared with a white flag, messengers from Black Hawk, who tells us in his autobiography that he wished at the time to offer to meet General Atkinson in council, with a view to peaceful withdrawal to the west of the Mississippi. The troopers, many of whom were in liquor, slew two of the messengers, the third running back to warn Black Hawk. That astute warrior drew up twenty-five securely mounted braves behind a fringe of bushes, and when the whites appeared in disorderly array fired one volley at them, and rushed forward with the war-whoop. The troopers turned and fled in consternation, galloping madly toward their homes, carrying the news that Black Hawk and two thousand blood-thirsty warriors were raiding northern Illinois. Sycamore Creek was thereafter known as Stillman’s Run.
118 (page page 354).—August 27, 1832, two Winnebago braves, Chætar and One-Eyed Decorah, delivered up Black Hawk and his Prophet to the Indian agent at Prairie du Chien, Joseph M. Street (see Note 49). The fugitives had been found at the dalles of the Wisconsin River, above Kilbourn City.
119 (page page 355).—Edgar M. Lacey, a native of New York, was at this time second lieutenant in the Second Infantry; he was commissioned first lieutenant in 1835, and captain in 1838. From 1831-38 he served at Forts Winnebago (Portage) and Crawford (Prairie du Chien). He died at the latter post, April 2, 1839, aged thirty-two years.
120 (page page 357).—Red Bird, a Winnebago village chief, was the leader of what in Wisconsin history is indifferently called “The Winnebago War,” or “Red Bird’s uprising,” in 1827. The United States troops, having quelled the disturbance, proposed to wreak summary vengeance on the entire tribe unless it gave up the two principal offenders. Red Bird and a brave named Wekau, who had escaped to the wilderness. The two men voluntarily surrendered themselves to Major William Whistler, at the Fox-Wisconsin portage, in July of that year. Red Bird’s conduct on this occasion was particularly brave and picturesque, and he won the admiration of the troops. He was confined at Prairie du Chien, and given ample opportunity to escape, for the military authorities did not know what to do with him; but he proudly refused to break his parole. After a few months he died from an epidemic then prevalent in the village, and thus greatly relieved his unwilling jailers.
121 (page page 358).—General George B. Porter, of Pennsylvania, was appointed governor of Michigan Territory in 1831, to succeed Lewis Cass. He died in office, in July, 1834.
122 (page page 359).—See Note 17.
123 (page page 360).—Joseph C. Plymton was a native of Massachusetts, and at this time a captain in the Second Infantry, but held the brevet of major for ten years' faithful service in one grade. His commission as major came in 1840; he was made lieutenant-colonel in 1846, and colonel in 1853; he died on Staten Island, June 5, 1860. Plymton won notice for gallantry at Cerro Gordo and Contreras.
124 (page page 366).—Apparently Camillus C. Daviess, of Kentucky, a second lieutenant of the Fifth Infantry. He became a first lieutenant in 1836, and resigned in 1838.
125 (page page 366).—Enos Cutler, born at Brookfield, Mass., November 1, 1781, graduated at Brown University at the age of nineteen, was tutor there a year, and then studied law in Cincinnati. He entered the army in 1808 as lieutenant, was promoted to a captaincy in 1810, serving through the War of 1812 as assistant adjutant-general and assistant inspector-general; major in 1814; served under General Jackson in the Creek War and on the Seminole campaign; made lieutenant-colonel in 1826; colonel in 1836; resigning in 1839, and dying at Salem, Mass., July 14, 1860.
126 (page page 379).—Horatio Phillips Van Cleve, of New Jersey, was at this time a brevet second lieutenant of the Second Infantry; he was regularly commissioned as such in 1834. In 1836 he resigned from the army to become a civil engineer in Michigan. During the War of Secession he went out as colonel of the Second Minnesota, was severely wounded at Stone River, but recovered and served with distinction until the close of the war, retiring with the rank of major-general. In 1836 he married Charlotte Ouisconsin Clark, daughter of Major Nathan Clark (see Note 110). Mrs. Van Cleve, who is still living (1901), was born at Fort Crawford in 1819, and is said to have been the first woman of pure white blood born within the present limits of Wisconsin.
127 (page page 384).—See Note 55.
128 (page page 387).—Major Thomas Forsyth, who had been a fur-trader on Saginaw Bay, at Chicago, on an island in the Mississippi near Quincy, and at Peoria, was appointed government Indian agent for the Illinois district at the outbreak of the War of 1812-15. His headquarters were at Peoria. At the close of the war he was appointed agent for the Sacs and Foxes, resigning just previous to the Black Hawk War (1832). Forsyth rendered valuable service to the government while Indian agent, and has left behind many valuable MS. reports, of great interest to historical students; a large share of these are in the archives of the Wisconsin Historical Society.