Читать книгу Memoirs of Milwaukee County, Volume 1 - Jerome A. Watrous - Страница 7

FIRST VOYAGES ALONG THE LAKE SHORE — NICHOLAS PERROT FATHER — JOHN B. DE ST. COSME — MARQUETTE AND JOLIET — LA SALLE — EARLY JURISDICTION — COMPACT OF 1787 — INDIAN TREATIES COUNTY FORMATIONS — THE PUBLIC DOMAIN — PROVISIONS FOR FREE SCHOOLS.

It was not until many years after the close of the American Revolution that the Anglo-Saxon race undertook the project of colonization in the region now known as Wisconsin, of which Milwaukee county forms so important a division. It should not be inferred, however, that the territory contained within the limits of the county remained unvisited by white men and unknown to them until after the epoch mentioned above. While this portion of North America was under the dominion of the French government, as has been stated in the previous chapter, an extensive trade with the Indians was carried on, and in pursuit of the returns that came from the traffic with the red men the wily and skillful French traders traveled extensively over this portion of their mother-country's possessions. They continued their relations with the natives, notwithstanding that the result of the French and Indian war transferred the right of dominion to the English government, and even for years following the American Revolution they followed their vocation, undisturbed and without competition, save the rivalry existing among themselves. So it is fair to presume that during their many excursions in quest of trade the limits of Milwaukee county were frequently invaded, and as their much traveled route, connecting Green Bay with the trading post on the present site of the city of Chicago, was through this region and along the lake shore, it can easily be inferred that the natives who then inhabited this section were the beneficiaries or victims, as the case might be, of commercial intercourse with the early French traders.

The first authentic account we have of a voyage along the west shore of Lake Michigan (or Illinois lake, as it was then called) was by Nicholas Perrot, who, accompanied by some Pottawattomies, passed from Green Bay to Chicago in 1670. In 1669 Perrot was dispatched to the west as the agent of the Intendant Talon to prepare a congress of the Indian nations at St. Mary's, and by his visit to the Miamis at Chicago became the generally accepted pioneer of European explorers to the southern part of Lake Michigan. By other authorities, however, it is stated that on Oct. 7, 1699, a priest named Father John B. de St. Cosme (also given in manuscript as "Comeze") arrived at Milwaukee in light canoes and remained at that place two days during a heavy storm. He was on his way from Mackinaw to "Chicagu." He called Lake Michigan "the Miesit-gan" and Milwaukee "the Melwarik." Of the place he wrote to the Bishop of Quebec: "This is a river where there is a village which has been considerable. We remained there two days, partly to refresh our people (probably Indians), as duck and teal shooting was very plenty, and partly on account of the high wind." Father de St. Cosme described other places visited, the river and the surrounding country, in such a manner as to leave no doubt in the minds of some authorities that he visited Milwaukee at the time mentioned. In 1671 the cross was borne by Allouez and Dablon through eastern Wisconsin and the north of Illinois, among the Mascoutins and the Kickapoos on the Milwaukee, and the Miamis at the head of Lake Michigan, as well as the Foxes on the river which bear their name, and which, in their language, was the Wau-ke-sha. In 1673, or four years after the establishment at the Bay of Puans, now Green Bay, Marquette, with the Sieur Joliet (the latter having been appointed by the French government to "discover" the Mississippi) explored the Fox and Wisconsin rivers and descended the Mississippi below the entrance of the Arkansas, and then, returning, ascended the Illinois, and making a portage to the Chicago river, descended it to Lake Michigan and returned by that lake to Green Bay. Joliet returned to Quebec and Marquette spent the winter and the following summer at the mission of Green Bay, suffering from illness. In October, 1674, he left Green Bay, intent upon establishing a mission on the Illinois river, and in November he reached the present site of Chicago, again passing down the west shore of Lake Michigan.

It was six years after the discovery of the Mississippi by Joliet that La Salle made his voyage up the lakes in the first vessel (the Griffin) built above the Falls of Niagara. An interesting account of this voyage was published by Louis Hennepin, in Paris, and is preserved in the "Transactions of the American Antiquarian Society." "Mr. La Salle," says Hennepin, "without taking anybody's advice, resolved to send back the ship to Niagara laden with furs and skins, to discharge his debts. Our pilot, and five men with him, were therefore sent back. They sailed on the 18th (of September, 1679) with a westerly wind. It was never known what course they steered, nor how they perished, but it is supposed the ship struck upon the sand and was there buried. This was a great loss to Mr. La Salle and other adventurers, for that ship, with its cargo, cost about 60,000 livres." The adventurers continued their voyage in four canoes along the coast of the lake by Milwaukee, to "the mouth of the river Miamis" (Chicago), where a fort was erected. During this voyage they experienced one of those severe storms which are still so much dreaded on Lake Michigan. "The violence of the wind obliged us to drag our canoes sometimes to the top of the ricks, to prevent their being dashed to pieces. The stormy weather lasted four days, during which we suffered very much, and our provisions failed us. We had no other subsistence but a handful of Indian corn, once in twenty-four hours, which we roasted or else boiled in water, and yet rowed almost every day from morning till night. Being in this dismal stress, we saw upon the coast a great many ravens and eagles, from whence we conjectured there was some prey, and having landed upon that place, we found about the half of a fat wild goat which the wolves had strangled. This provision was very acceptable to us, and the rudest of our men could not but praise the Divine Providence who took such particular care of us."

Other explorations followed, but generally in the tracks of previous ones, and, except at "the bay," there was not, so long as the French had dominion over the northwest, a single post occupied for any length of time by regular soldiers. At the ending of the French and Indian war, in 1763, there was not a single vestige of civilization within what are now the bounds of Wisconsin, in the way of posts or settlements. The vagrant fur-trader represented all that there was of civilization west of Lake Michigan. These commercial adventurers were not pioneers in the true sense of the word, and it is doubtful if they could properly be called advance agents of civilization. Their mission in these parts was neither to civilize the denizens of the forest nor to carve out homes in the western wilderness. "The white man's burden" rested lightly on their shoulders and gave them little or no concern, the only motive that fetched them hither being a desire to possess, at as little cost as possible, the wares which the Indians had for sale. This object being attained, they wended their way homeward, and the localities which had known them knew them no more. So it remained for the forerunners of Anglo-Saxon civilization, as they led the "march of empire" in a westerly direction, to open this section of country for actual settlement, and win from hostile nature — and at times a more hostile foe in human form — homes for themselves and posterity.

Before proceeding with an account of the organization and settlement of Milwaukee county, a brief review of the question of title to the lands will be necessary, the word title as here used having special reference to racial dominion and civil jurisdiction. As is well known, and as heretofore stated, the French were the first civilized people who laid claim to the territory now embraced within the state of Wisconsin, and France exercised nominal lordship over the region until the treaty of Paris, in 1763, which ended the French and Indian war. Prior to this date the French actually occupied isolated places in the vast extent of territory claimed by them, but no such occupancy existed in Wisconsin, unless we except Green Bay, where Augustin Langlade had settled a few years previous and was with his family and a few others, the only persons of European blood permanently located in the present boundaries of the state. And in no place was there the semblance of courts or magistrates for the trial of civil or criminal issues, and hence the chief function of civil government was lacking. Even for some years after the country passed under the control of the officials of the British government, affairs were managed by army officers, commandants of posts on the frontier.

Immediately after the peace of 1763 with the French, the Province of Canada was extended, by act of Parliament, southerly to the Alleghany and Ohio rivers. This, of course, included all of the present state of Wisconsin, notwithstanding the claims of the colony of Virginia that it had the title to all the land northwest of the Ohio river, and also those of New York and Connecticut, who asserted authority over territory stretching away to an unbounded extent westward, but not so far to the south as Virginia. This conflict of authority was at its height during the Revolutionary war, and in 1778, soon after the conquest of the British forts on the Mississippi and the Wabash by Gen. George Rogers Clark, Virginia erected the county of Illinois, with the county seat at Kaskaskia. It practically embraced all the territory in the present States of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. But the British held possession of all the lake region, and in the same year (1778) Lord Dorchester, Governor-General of Canada, divided Upper Canada into four districts for civil purposes, one of which included Detroit and the lake territory. The Northwest remained in a comparative degree of quiet during the progress of the Revolutionary war, except the predatory excursions of the Indians from this region, on the frontiers of the old states. It exhibits few events worthy of attention, in regard to organized government, production or commerce, and a total barrenness in relation to settlement and growth of population.

Great Britain had promised the Indian tribes that the whites should not settle north of the Ohio river, and the government of this almost unlimited region was, during English control, exclusively military, with Detroit as the central post. This was the condition during the Revolutionary war, and even after the treaty of peace, in 1783, the same state of affairs continued until after the second, or Jay treaty, in 1795. Early in 1792 the Upper Canadian parliament authorized Governor Simcoe to lay off nineteen counties to embrace that province, and it is presumed that the county of Essex, on the east bank of the Detroit river, included Michigan and Wisconsin. While this supposition is not conclusive, it is certain that some form of British civil authority existed at their forts and settlements until Detroit and all its dependencies were given up in August, 1796.

The treaty of 1783, which terminated the War of the Revolution, included Wisconsin within the boundaries of the United States, and the seventh article of that treaty stated that the King of Great Britain would, "with all convenient speed, withdraw all his forces, garrisons and fleets from the United States, and from every post, place and harbor within the same." Military posts were garrisoned, however, by British troops, and continued under the dominion of Great Britain for many years after that date. Preparatory to taking possession of it, and in order to avoid collision with the Indian tribes, who owned the soil, treaties were made with them from time to time (of which more is said on other pages'), in which they ceded to the United States their title to their lands. But the territory thus secured by treaties with Great Britain, and with the Indian tribes — and concerning which we had thus established an amicable understanding — was for many years sequestered from our possession. The British government urged as an excuse the failure of Americans to fulfill that part of the treaty protecting the claims of British subjects against citizens of the United States, but, from the "aid and comfort" rendered the Indians in the campaigns of Harmar, St Clair, and Wayne, the apparent prime cause was to defeat the efforts of the United States to extend their power over the country and tribes north of the Ohio, and continue to the British the advantage of the fur trade, which, from their relations with these tribes, they possessed. The ultimate results of this international difficulty were the campaigns of 1790-91-94, ostensibly against the Indians, but substantially against them and their British allies, which bear so intimate a relation to the formal surrender of the country to American control that they perform an essential part of history.

Virginia, however, still adhering to her claim of sovereignty over the northwestern country, on March 1, 1784, ceded the territory to the United States, and immediately Congress entered seriously upon the consideration of the problem of providing a government for the vast domain. Its deliberations resulted in the famous "Compact of 1787." It might not be out of place here to call attention to the fact that this compact, in two provisions which were inspired by Thomas Jefferson, guaranteed to all the right of religious freedom and prohibited slavery in the territory. Hence the citizens of Milwaukee county, in common with the citizens of Wisconsin and those of the sister states that were carved from Virginia's grant, can feel a pardonable pride that never, under any American jurisdiction of this domain, has a witch been burned at the stake or a slave been sold on the auction block. It cannot be said, however, that slavery was not practiced in Wisconsin to some extent, as "involuntary servitude," notwithstanding the 6th article of this ordinance, continued to exist at Green Bay. During the constant wars of the Indians, the Wisconsin tribes made captives of the Pawnees and members of other distant tribes and consigned them to servitude. Augustin Grignon says in his "Recollections," that he personally knew fourteen of these slaves, and that his grandfather, Charles De Langdale, had two Indian slaves. It also appears quite certain that negroes were held as slaves at Green Bay, one of whom, Mr. Grignon says, was a boy purchased by Baptist Brunett from a St. Louis Indian trader, and that the negro boy was taken away from Brunett as late as 1807, by Mr. Campbell, the Indian agent at Prairie du Chien, in consequence of the cruel treatment inflicted upon him.

All the pretensions of sovereignty and conflictions of authority heretofore mentioned were aside from the claims of the real inhabitants of the country. The Iroquois Indians, or Six Nations, laid claim to the entire extent of territory bordering on the Ohio river and northward, basing their contention upon the assumption that they had conquered it and held it by right of conquest. In 1722 a treaty had been made at Albany, New York, between the Iroquois and English, by which the lands west of the Alleghany mountains were acknowledged to belong to the Iroquois by reason of the conquests from the Eries, Conoys, Tongarias, etc., but this claim was extinguished by the terms of the treaty of Fort Stanwix, concluded Oct. 22, 1784. The Indian war in the west, which followed the Revolution, was brought to an end by the victorious arms of Gen. Anthony Wayne, upon the banks of the Maumee river, in what is now the state of Ohio, in the year 1794. The treaty of Greenville was entered into the next year with twelve western tribes of Indians, none of whom resided in Wisconsin. Nevertheless, one of the provisions of the treaty was that, in consideration of the peace then established and the cessations and relinquishments of lands made by the Indian tribes there represented, and to manifest the liberality of the United States, claims to all Indian lands northward of the Ohio, eastward of the Mississippi, and westward and southward of the great lakes and the waters uniting them, were relinquished by the general government to the Indians having a right thereto. This included all the lands within the present boundaries of Wisconsin, and a further stipulation in the treaty was that when the Indians should sell lands it should be to the United States alone, whose protection the Indians acknowledged, and that of no other power whatever.

Under the Ordinance of 1787 Arthur St. Clair was appointed governor of the Northwest Territory. After July 4, 1800, all that portion of the territory of the United States northwest of the Ohio river, lying to the westward of a line beginning upon that stream opposite the mouth of the Kentucky river and running thence to what is now Fort Recovery, in Mercer county, Ohio, thence north until it intersected the territorial line between the United States and Canada, was, for the purpose of temporary government, constituted a separate territory, called Indiana. Within its boundaries were included not only nearly all of what is now the state of Indiana, but the whole of the present state of Illinois, more than half of what is now Michigan, a considerable portion of the present state of Minnesota, and the whole of Wisconsin.

On Nov. 3, 1804, a treaty was held at St. Louis between the Sacs and Foxes and the United States. These tribes then ceded to the general government a large tract of land on both sides of the Mississippi, extending on the east from the mouth of the Illinois to the head of that river, thence to the Wisconsin. This grant embraces, in what is now Wisconsin, the whole of the present counties of Grant and LaFayette, and a large portion of those of Iowa and Green. In consideration of the cession of these lands, the general government agreed to protect the two tribes in the quiet enjoyment of the residue of their possessions against its own citizens and all others who should intrude on them, carrying out the stipulations to that effect embodied in the Greenville treaty of 1795. Thus began the settlement of the Indian title to the eminent domain of Wisconsin by the United States, which was carried forward until the whole territory (except certain reservations to a few tribes) had been fairly purchased of the original proprietors.

On Feb. 3, 1809, an act of Congress, entitled "An act for dividing the Indiana territory into two separate governments," was approved by the President and became a law. It provided that from and after March 1, of that year, all that part of the Indiana territory lying west of the Wabash river and a direct line drawn from that stream and "Post Vincennes" due north to the territorial line between the United States and Canada, should, for the purpose of temporary government, constitute a separate territory and be called Illinois, with the seat of government at Kaskaskia, on the Mississippi river, until it should be otherwise ordered. By this law, all of what is now Wisconsin was transferred from Indiana territory to that of Illinois, except that portion lying east of the meridian line drawn through Vincennes.

Upon the admission of Illinois into the Union, in 1818, all "the territory of the United States, northwest of the River Ohio," lying west of Michigan territory and north of the states of Indiana and Illinois, was attached to and made a part of Michigan territory, by which act the whole of the present state of Wisconsin came under the jurisdiction of the latter. The territory within what are now the limits of Milwaukee county thus became a part of the territory of Michigan. It was incumbent, therefore, upon the governor of Michigan, Lewis Cass, to at once form new counties out of the area thus added to his territory, and to provide for their organization. This he proceeded to do by issuing proclamations, in one of which the county of Brown was formed, as follows: To include the area east of a line drawn due north and south through the middle of the portage between the Fox river of Green bay and the Wisconsin, bounded on the north by the county of Michillimackinac, on the east by Lake Michigan, on the south by the state of Illinois, and on the west by the line above described. The seat of justice of Brown county was established at the village of Green Bay.

In order to understand what extent of country was, by this proclamation, formed into a separate county, to be called the county of Brown, it is necessary to know that the southern limits of the county of Michillimackinac, as established by the governor on the same date, ran across from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi, east and west, near the northern limits of the present county of Barron. It will be seen that the territory now comprised in Milwaukee county was a part of this tract, and it remained a part of Brown county until 1834, when Milwaukee county was created, comprising all that district of country bounded north by the line between townships eleven and twelve north (the line being just north of West Bend), east by Lake Michigan, south by the state of Illinois, and west by the line which now separates Green and Rock counties, extending north until it intercepted the northern boundary between townships eleven and twelve. Milwaukee county remained attached to Brown county for judicial purposes until Aug. 25, 1835, when an act was passed by the territorial legislature giving it an independent organization. The territorial legislature, at the session which convened on Oct. 25, 1836, subdivided all the territory south and east of the Wisconsin and Fox rivers into counties, the boundaries of which were mainly like those of the existing counties, with a few exceptions, among which is that Milwaukee county as then formed was co-extensive with the present boundaries of Milwaukee and Waukesha counties. In 1846 Waukesha county was created by taking from Milwaukee all of the territory west of range 21. This reduced Milwaukee county in size and left it with limits exactly the same as they are today.

The prospective admission of the state of Michigan into the Union, to include all that part of the territory lying east of Lake Michigan, caused the territorial council to adopt a memorial, asking Congress for the formation of a new territory, to include all of Michigan territory not to be admitted as a state. In compliance with this request the territory of Wisconsin was created by act of Congress of April 20, 1836, to take effect from and after July 3, following, and then began the territorial government, with a legislative body, governor, etc.

A special session of the territorial legislature, to take action concerning the admission of Wisconsin into the Union, began Oct. 18, 1847, and a law was passed for the holding of a second convention to frame a constitution. At a previous session a constitutional convention had been ordered, but the product of its deliberations had not met with the approval of the people of the territory and had been defeated at an election. The result of the labors of the second constitutional convention was the formation of a constitution, which, being submitted to the people on the second Monday of March, 1848, was duly ratified, and on May 29, of the same year, by act of Congress, Wisconsin became a state.

The public domain of the new state was classified as "Congress Lands," so called because they are sold to purchasers by the immediate officers of the general government, conformably to such laws as are or may be, from time to time, enacted by Congress. They are all regularly surveyed into townships of six miles square each, under authority and at the expense of the national government. The townships are again subdivided into sections of one mile square, each containing 640 acres, by lines running parallel with the township and range lines. In addition to these divisions, the sections are again subdivided into four equal parts, called the northeast quarter section, southeast quarter section, etc. And again these quarter sections are also divided by a north and south line into two equal parts, called the east half quarter section and west half quarter section, containing eighty acres each. It was not until about the time that Wisconsin was formed into a separate territory that surveys were ordered in this section of the state. For this tract a base line was run, corresponding with the northern boundary line of the state of Illinois, on or near the parallel of 42 degrees and 30 minutes north latitude. The ranges were numbered east and west from the fourth meridian, which now forms the eastern boundary of Grant county, and the townships were numbered north from the base.

With the exception of some private land claims at and near Green Bay and Prairie du Chien, which had been confirmed by the general government, none of the public lands within the limits of Wisconsin had been disposed of previous to 1834. By an act of Congress approved June 26, 1834, it was enacted that "all that tract north of the state of Illinois, west of Lake Michigan, south and southeast of the Wisconsin and Fox rivers, included in the present Territory of Michigan, shall be divided by a north and south line drawn from the northern boundary of Illinois along the range of township line next west of Fort Winnebago, to the Wisconsin river, and be called, the one on the west side the Wisconsin, and that on the east side the Green Bay land districts." Two years later the Green Bay district was "divided by a line commencing on the western boundary of said district, and running thence east, between townships ten and eleven, to the line between ranges seventeen and eighteen east; thence north to the line between townships twelve and thirteen; thence east to Lake Michigan," and the country south of this line was called the Milwaukee land district. Some of the public domain had been surveyed previous to 1834 and the surveys were afterwards rapidly prosecuted, and the permanent ownership of the country speedily passed from the government to individuals, and settlements extended in every direction. It might be added that the land within the limits of Milwaukee county was sold by the Federal government at the statutory price of $1.25 per acre. Fractional townships seven, eight, nine and ten, of range 22, in Milwaukee and Ozaukee counties, embracing almost the entire city of Milwaukee, were offered for sale at Green Bay, Aug. 31, 1835.

Early provisions were made for the support of free schools, and Congress reserved one-thirty-sixth part of all lands lying northwest of the Ohio river for their maintenance. Passing through the varied experiences of speculation, as the territorial era and the early years of statehood passed, the question of school lands was finally systematized, and the lands became the nucleus of the present magnificent school fund of the state.