The chronicles of Milwaukee

Front matter

CK

O N

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Chapter I

In whicli the intelligent reader makes progression by going backward nearly a centnry, and discovers the original owners in fee of Miliokie ; together with other interesting but unimportant matter 13

Chapter II

Some Accounts of the Early Traders at Mahn-a-wau-kie, and their DifBoulties — Telling how Peshano, the Poet, came to Lose his Scalp, and how a Trans-River War came of it, and what became of Mash-e-took IS

Chapter III

Visitors ft-om Green Bay — Jacques Tieau — First Trading Post — Solomon Juneau, in a Hunting Shirt, Views the Location of the Future City — Feels no Ambitious Inspiration — Commences his Labors — Where that First Cabin was Located 22

Chapter IV

Domestic Troubles in the Family of Pe-sha-no, and how an Innocent Doctor suffered thereby — Progress of the Dawn 27

Chapter V

Bursting of the Seed — What Green Bay thought of the Plant — Some Affectionate and Antique Nonsense in regard to that Village — The First Citizens — The Death of 0-nau-ge-sa 31

CHAPTER VL

Interesting Letters Written from Milwaukee in 1836— The Slidell Family and their Troubles— The Murder of Ellsworth Burnett 3"

Contents

CHAPTER Vn.

Disposition of the Slidells — Arrival in the Settlement of "a Character" — Adventure of Mrs. Purcell with the Indian 4S

CHAPTER Till.

Introduction

Perhaps there are those who suppose that the collecting of enough data and facts to form the basis of a work, even as unpretending as this, is mere pastime ; that the compiler has merely to open his plan, as the keeper of a dove-cote would open his window, and the necessary facts will fly in and do their own cooing. Such persons are egregiously in error. If there it? anything savory or pleasant in .this local pie, the birds were all hunted separately up and down musty and yellow files, and no two of them were killed with one stone. The ingredients were dug from hidden corners, trapped in the public domain and caught in private grounds. The amount of labor undergone in preparing these unsatisfactory sketches was Herculean. Many of the necessary facts were drawn from unwilling mouths as dentists draw teeth — with much reluctance on the part of the patient and great trouble on the part of the operator. So bitterly opposed were some to even opening their mouths, that the Author at first was fain to believe that the early history of the City had formerly been the witness of a monstrous iniquity in which all the first inhabitants were implicated. They evad-

X INTRODUCTION.

ed liim; were always "out" when he called, and did'nt know anything when they were in. No solicitor, with a pocket full of bills, could have swayed the masses as did our Compiler when he started on his mission. But after a few days he found that this reluctance proceeded from modesty and not from iniquity. The worthy Old Settlers, however agreeable to the handing down and however liberally inclined towards posterity, were not froward enough to have a finger in the pie. They were not going to hand themselves down otherwise than by their deeds. When this was fairly understood, a greater part of the prospective difficulty vanished. It was so much easier to overcome modesty than suspicion. There was an alphabet of "first inhabitants" to see, all of whom had rare and racy statements rolled up in their memories. As this alphabet was not as consecutively located as are the educational A B C's — A residing at Chicago, and B at La Crosse, and as every individual of them endeavored to dispose of the Author by what the Common Council calls, a reference, that is, A referring him to B and so on — the reader may easily conceive that the road to prosperity and fame was, to all intents and purposes, a hard and long road to travel; and before the Author had got to the first mile-stone an evil genius whispered to him to shake the » dust of the Chronicles from his feet, and go to Pike's Peak. Happily for posterity, Minerva — or the Corresponding Secretary — hung a chaplet out of the Historical Society's windows, and thus encouraged, he pushed on. But he wishes it understood here that the highest niche in Wisconsin's Temple of

INTRODUCTION. XI

Fame coukl not induce liim to "do" another Chronicle unless the benign Goddess herself consented to pay his mileage.

To such men as Col. Walker, Byron Kilbourn, EHsha Starr, H. Kirk White, Jonathan E. Arnold, Joshua Hathaway, William Brown and a host of others, the Author is indebted for all that is of any material value in these pages. Their liberality in furnishing documents and references is second only to their generosity in trusting the work to so inexperienced a workman. These men need no literary monuments. Milwaukee .itself is the cenotaph which will bear witness to their exertions when these pages shall have been forgotten; but the Author feels it to be due that the obligations should be thus publicly expressed, if for no other reason than that of mere justice.

It may seem a worthless undertaking to pen the history of a city but fourteen years old, and yet it must be evident to all that the record is worth preserving. Unexampled as has been the rise of Milwaukee, her history, in a measure, is that of the western country, and there is reason to fear that this very rapidity of growth is fast obliterating the early foot-prints of those men who were first in the field, and who bore "the burden and heat of the day." The Pioneers of Milwaukee are worthy of a richer pedestal than the present alFords, but let us hope that the material gathered here, may, at some future time, be remodelled by a master hand into a fitting memorial, and the rough sketches which are only outlined may yet be filled-in with the glowing tints of a true artist. It is enough for the

Xll INTRODUCTION.

Author of the "Chronicles" to know that he has gleaned a few truths for preservation which will become valuable as the living witnesses pass away from among us — mellowed under the hand of Time into mementoes, when Death shall have spirited away the present generation. Everything that relates to our early history is worth preserving, and it has been the object of the Author to present what facts have come to his knowledge in as readable a shape as possible. In pursuance of this idea one personage only, that is fictitious, is introduced, and that for the purpose of connecting the events and giving character to what would otherwise be a mere collection of statistics and dates. It is not necessary to point out that character, the intelligent reader will see at a glance who it is. The rest of the book is matter of fact.

In presenting this book to a Milwaukee public, the Author asks no indulgence; his object, he must be permitted to say is a sood one, and those who do not admire the execution have the same privilege to grumble that he had to write

THE

CHRONICLES OF MILWAUKEE.

Chapter I

In which the intelligent reader makes progression by going backward nearly a century, and discovers the original owners in fee of Miliokio ; together with other interesting but unimportant matter.

We ask the reader of these pages to walk with us down East Water Street, on a pleasant afternoon, when throngs of richly dressed ladies and bustling merchants render the promenade anything but undevious.

Stores, which are not inaptly called palatial, line the thoroughfare, and their plate glass windows are gorgeous with the hues of costly merchandise, and all the ornamental luxuries of a high state of civilization. The music of the bells on the street cars, the voices of newsboys, the tramp of many feet and the rumbling of coaches and omnibusses, will remind you that you are in a metropolis. There are over sixty thousand souls around you, and if you saunter up to the top of the Newhall you may cast your eye on three sides and see naught but the white houses and intersecting streets, growing dim in the misty background ; with the smoke of an hundred factories curling up lazily, and the flags of countless vessels undulating in the lake breeze; white marble residences, towering spires, massive warehouses, gorgeous hotels; the din and bustle of the city will come up to you with realizing power while you look down upon the picture, and as you linger to watch the sunlight on the sails of some inward bound vessel from Buffalo, or CoUingwood, or Chicago, or to mark the approach of the fuming steamship, whose dark sides rise proudly over the foam as she heads for the harbor, or perhaps to follow the tugs which move up and down the river like so many shuttles — we ask you to take a glance at the same surroundings in 1785.

Presto! Handsome brick blocks and stately edifices resolve into dark forests. Brilliant avenues into swamps and muddy trails. Where but just now the whistle of a propeller sent forth a column of steam, the curling smoke of a wigwam alone marks the bank of the river. You are to recollect that Washington is president now of the young States; that peace has but recently spread her wings over the continent, and that you are not only in the backwoods but thousands of miles from civilization, with trackless forests intervening between you and the cities on the Atlantic coast, and these forests are swarming with savages. If you wish to visit the society of your fellow men you must sail for a couple of hundred miles in a canoe, to Green Bay, where there are a few traders and missionaries, or journey on to Mackinac. You are so far removed from society that you can very readily conceive it to be impossible ever to return. To the east stretches the dark waters of the sailless lake, bounded on the other side by the wilderness of Michigan. To the west of you lie the sombre masses of forest, enclosing the tribes of red men, and pregnant with the sanguinary stories of centuries past.

It is true that many years before, the venturesome Jolyet, with two Miami's, had, under Count de Frontignac's direction, pushed his investigations up the Fox and down the Wisconsin Rivers. Marquette may have been here before you, and at odd intervals, fur traders and reckless Frenchmen may have pushed their bateaux ashore for brief examination, but none of them remained. The Indians were undisturbed up to this time by settlers.

You will observe that where you have been accustomed to look for the most populous portion of the town, the lake washes in for half a mile, and the long swell bends the wild rice in picturesque furrows. The third ward is under water. The route that Michigan Street will yet take, lies at the foot of steep bluffs which run east and west, and on the top of which are spread the oak openings of the primeval seventh ward. There is a winding trail running through the timber by the riyer's side, which is the incipient East Water Street. It crosses the high hill to the north of you, and disappears in the forest beyond; the hill is yet to be Market Square, and the spring that now trickles and sparkles down its side will eventually be covered with a corporation pump.

Across the clear blue Mahn-a-wau-kie, embowered in low foliage and flowers, lies a waste of stagnant waters, with protruding clusters of alders, and stretching out into a morass of tamarack, towards what are now the hills of Kilbourntown.

Such is the appearance of the original town of Mahn-a-waukie. The Indians who have settled and made it their home for some period in the dim past, are known at Mishamakinak and the other French posts, as a most treacherous and cruel tribe; or as Col. D. Peyster, in 1779, styled them, "those runegates of Milwakie, a horrid set of refractory Indians." At the mouth of the river, half a mile below what is now the harbor, was then the Indian town. The lodges are scattered about on the sand, and conspicuous among them, stands the half bark and half log tenement of Alexander Laframboise, from Mackinac, ■who sells a bad quality of rum, together with hatchets and trinkets to his neighbors for furs and such marketable commodities as the forests afford. The present lord of the domain is 0-nau-ge-sa, who is a Menomonee, with respectable red and white connections at Grreen Bay, and who delights in a breechclout and Chinese vermilion. According to our best authorities, however, this aboriginal settlement was founded by the Sacs and Foxes, and 0-nau-ge-sa was a renegade whose superior craft and eloquence won upon the strange tribe, and they, in accordance with Indian customs, allowed him to usurp the position of chief. What fragments of history bear his red reflection, are highly laudatory of his kind disposition and worthy character, and as he never killed any but his enemies, and was particularly abstemious in regard to white men's blood, provided the white men were traders and brought each a cask of rum, why we shall not asperse the historical gentleman's escutcheon.

As to the original name of the place, we have a word to say: As no two savages or historians have yet precisely agreed upon one proper title, we can hardly be expected to settle the matter definitely however.

The earliest mention made of the place is in Lieut. James Gorrett's journal, September 1st, 1761;^ in which he states that "a party of Indians came from Mihcacky." Col. D. Peyster, whom we have already quoted, writes it '^llilwakie." In Dr. Morse's report of his Indian tour in 1820, he states that " Mil-wali-kie was settled by the Sacs and Foxes, and the name is derived from Man-na-wa-kie — good land." Grignon has been told by an old Indian, that the name was derived from a valuable aromatic root, called Man-wa%i, which was found here, and hence

Man-a-icaiir-kee, or the place of the Man-wau. But as there is no valuable aromatic root found in this county that does not grow elsewhere in the State, and as Mr. Grignon, immediately afterwards, states that he had also heard that the title meant simply " good land," we are compelled to discard the vegetable derivation, Louis M. Moran, one of the interpreters of the Chippewas, has caused to be printed in the collections of the Historical Society, the fact that Milwaukee is pronounced Me-nemi-kee, and its signification is "rich or beautiful land." Joshua Hathaway assures us that Milouaqui is the name given by the early French traders, who probably derived it from the Indian name of the river, 3Iahn-a-2cau-kie. He also asserts that the word is of Pottawattamie origin. Another writer claims that the river was originally called Millcoki, and the Indian town derived its title from the river.

It is not to be wondered at that the English, (who eventually got possession of the place,) after many futile attempts to determine which of these names was authentic, concluded to adopt one of their own, which should partake somewhat of the Bound of all, and called the place Milwaukie.

Chapter II

Some Acconnt3 of tlie Early Traders at Mahn-a-wau-kio, and their DiEflcultios — Telling how Pe-sha-no, the Poet, came to Lose his Scalp, and how a Trans-Kiver War came of it, and what became of Mash-c-took.

The intelligent reader lias caught a glimpse of the " Howling Wilderness" where our labors commence. Fifty yeara will have to roll away with our canvas before the few seeds, which adventurers may drop on the sterile shore, will germimate and spring up into civilized life. The sombre shades of barbarism will hang over the vicinity for years, finally fading into a mellow background of promise — wreathed with prophetic fancies that will startle even the wondering savages, who sink away from the sight.

Laframboise continues to sell rum and hatchets, and having amassed quite a number of furs, he goes back to Mackinac. Through his representations his brother came west and built a new trading-house further up the river. The latter Laframboise was highly pleased with the country. He became the best of friends to 0-nau-ge-sa, and carried on a prosperous business for several years. There was an Indian named Pe-sha-no, a rival of 0-nau-ge-sa, who returned to the village about this time. He had been led to follow De Langlade, in 1779, and after a long campaign had deserted and come back to his native tribe. There is reason to believe that Pe-sha-no had become thoroughly disgusted with war. For tradition says, upon his return, he "set up" for an oracle, or poet, and there is extant a couple of stanza of his, which, if translated would not be unlike the following, by Byron :

When a man has no freedom to fight for at home,

Let him combat for that of his neighbor's : Let him think of the glories of Greece and of Rome,

And get knocked on his head for his labors.

To do good to mankind is the chivalrous plan.

And 19 always as nobly requited.

Then battle for freedom, wherever yon can !

And, if not shot or hanged, you'll be knighted.

Pe-sha-no, we have said, was an ancient rival of the great 0-nau-ge-sa. Shortly after his return, he succeeded in rupturing the friendship which existed between the trader and the chief — whether by means of a satirical epic, written on bark, or by a threat to roast the white man alive, if he "got the chance," we cannot say; but the confidence of the Menomonee being withdrawn, the pale-face became involved in difficulties with his neighbors, and he finally retired from business, with what little stock had not been stolen; managing, by the most consummate dexterity, to depart in peace, with his scalp in the original position nature had placed it.

Not long after, Pe-sha-no, in an indiscreet hour, disclosed to some of 0-nau-ge-sa's followers, that he had been the cause of the trader's troubles. Perhaps he boasted of it. A feud was the consequence.

Pe-sha-no finally removed to Me-quan-i-go-ish, with a few admirers, where he built a very superior lodge and took to himself a wife. About a week after he had completed his arrangements for domestic felicity, in due accordance with the ideas of a sentimental savage, he was found by the side of his rustic paradise with a deep wound in his side and without any scalp. Thence sprang one of those family quarrels for which our red predecessors were famous. The doctrine of "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" was adhered to with rigor enough to have furnished an additional proof of the Isrealitish origin of the race. The animosity of the two sections, one at the mouth of the river and the other at Me-quan-i-go-ish, ripened into a war, which seems to have been a continual source of gratification to the Mahn-a-wau-kies and of great annoyance to the Me-quan-i-gos. It was the origin of a sectional fight which was afterwards continued with greater bombast but less loss of life by their white successors on either side of the quiet river.

The first opportunity that presented itself for revenge to the outraged followers of Pe-sha-uo was when Laurent Fily arrived, in 1805, with a new and copious supply of Green Bay dry goods and provisions. It was then that one Mash-e-tcok, an ardent admirer of the crest-fallen Pe-sha-no, conceived the plan of inducing this trader to come out to Me-quan-i-go-ish for furs, under a promise of very large and profitable trades. He did succeed in bringing him half way, when, from some reason or other, Fily became suspicious and turned back. Mash-e-took then boldly threw off all restraint, and with the aid of a couple of similarly disposed rogues, he succeeded in carrying the captive to the lodge of the crestless Pe-sha-no, and there extracted a promise from him that he would return and cause to be transported to the poetic shades of Me-quan-i-go-ish certain stipulated barrels of rum, together with incredible quantities of trinkets and fire-locks, on condition that his life was spared.

There were numerous dark intimations accompanying this agreement, that any failure to comply with all the requirements would but too surely be followed by the vengeance of his captors. After promising faithfully to transfer all his goods to JMe-quani-go-ish, M. Fily returned, and set about the fulfillment of his pledge. The Mahn-a-wau-kies looked on with astonishment.

The audacity of tlie proceeding confounded them for awhile, but when Mash-e-took, one of the Me-quan-i-gos, was discovered helping Fily pack up his goods, the war broke forth, and Mash-e-took, seizing a powder-horn, threw it into a pile of embers and scattered the coals of fire in every direction, setting fire to the goods and house. Not content with this, he rushed upon Fily, aud seized him by the throat with the intention of taking his life; but Match-c-se-be, a brother of 0-nau-ge-sa, completely frustrated his designs by shooting him through the arm. Wounded and exasp/Orated, he fled from the place, and carried the news to the expectant Me-quan-i-goes. From this time there was a continual feud between the two Indian tribes. The Mahn-a-wau-kies, however, had the advantage, being surroimded by the blessings of rum and provisions which were debarred their inland enemies. Some time after, a roving company of Pot-ta-wat-ta-mies joined Pe-sha-no and his company, and, if tradition is to be rehed upon, they led a highly erratic life, not at all in keeping with the character and teachings of their leader, the poet. Their pastimes only being interrupted by the Mahn-a-wau-kies, who dropped down upon them at intervals and selected a scalp or two out of their number.

Chapter III

Visitors from Green Bay — J.acques Vieau — First Trading Post — Solomon Juneau, in Hunting Shirt, Views the Location of the Future City — Feels no Ambitious Inspiration — Commences his Labors — AVhere that First Cabin was Located.

0-NAU-GE-SA, who, as we have before intimated, was a generous and kind-hearted savage, depended for some years after this on the annual visit of Jacques Vieau for luxuries appertaining to his exalted position. His urbanity and generosity to the poor outsiders about Me-quan-i-go-ish were always heightened by the appearance of a new trader, whose supplies, these rebels might hunger and thirst after but could not touch.

It can readily be seen that the venturous fellows who came to Mahn-a-wau-kie in these early times, were possessed of considerable courage as well as hardihood. The untamed 0-nau-gesa, represented might — in savage ethics, might is generally synonymous with right. The nearest trading post was a miserable settlement called Eschikagou, at the mouth of Skunk River, some ninety miles across dense forests, to the south. For supplies it was necessary to go all the way to Mackinac, which was then the head quarters of the American Fur Company. Here, at Mackinac, the traders generally rendezvoused in June or July, after a winter's campaign, and obtained fresh goods in August. Many are the tales of strange adventure and hair breadth 'scapes which have been recounted about the old Fort at this place, which, if gathered up and shaped into a book, would put to shame even this startling and veracious narrative.

Jacques Vieau was a man of some nerve, therefore, for he built a trading post up the Menomonee, two miles, just where the Green Bay trail crossed the river, and on which is now the property of Mr. Larkin. The sand heaps at the mouth of the Mahn-a-wau-kie, with the one or two bark wigwams and the scarcely better tenements that had been erected under the supervision of French wanderers, offered no attraction to him; and so we find the first trading post, which wa.s destined to be a permanent one, located away off to the w est. Here Mr. Vieau, (who coming from Green Bay, a place already somewhat advanced in civilization and Christianity, had more refined ideas, perhaps, than his neighbors,) built a log house, a magazine and a repository for furs. All three of these structures were standing in 1836, and if the popularity of this work warrants it, the second or third edition will be illustrated with spirited engravings, one of which will be a true representation of that trading post.

Mr. Vieau, it will readily be seen, meant business, and when it is stated that he took measures to pre-empt and claim the whole quarter section on which he had located, it will be further seen, that the stable character of his edifice, was not such a bad idea after all, though perhaps entirely at variance with the habits of pre-emptors in general. Unfortunately, however, for the honest intentions of this worthy gentleman, his claim was afterwards set aside by the general land office, the department deciding that all those lands south of the river were not subject to pre-emption.

Mr. Vieau made regular trips to Green Bay in the summer, and continued to return to his post on the Menomonee regularly.

From this time up to 1818, there was very little of historic interest transpired. The Indians flitted about the bluffs, and when a companion died they lit their funeral fires on the burial-ground at the foot of Michigan Street, and danced their wild orgies between the lurid flamea and the dark midnight on the lake.

Could the reader have seen Milwaukee then he would have beheld the still expanse of forest and opening, rendered picturesque by these beings — mayhap in an encampment, or it may be gathering the "wild-oats" in their canoes, where now Commerce has piled up monuments of brick, and mechanism thunders night and day.

A few years later, however, and there might be seen leaning against the door of Jacques Vieau's log house, a young man attired in a calico hunting shirt and corduroy pantaloons. His countenance is rather pleasing, not from any beauty in its outline, but on account of an open, frank expression, which is at once indicative of a generous nature and a steady will. This is Solomon Juneau, clerk for Jacques Vieau, his father-in-law. He stands in the door-way of the cabin and looks listlessly across the great marsh to the east, and up to the oak-covered bluffs beyond ; nor does it once occur to him, that in the short space of a few years, the bayou beneath his eyes will be swarming with vessels, and that a populous city will be crowning the' eminences, with wealth and magnificence. Young Juneau does not for a moment allow his youthful enthusiasm to soar into even improbabilities; and therefore he does not, as many would have done at his age, imagine himself mayor of the prospective city, with wealth spread out on either hand and thousands of people honoring and respecting him. Not being a visionary young man, his fancy sees no Utopia on the green banks of the Mahn-a-wau-kie. There is no mirage to deceive him. The outlines of a few duties to be carefully performed are enough for his comtemplation at present.

OF MILWAUKEE. 3D

This is in 1818. Mr. Hypolite Grignon, is already bere, and James Kinzie is expected, with a large stock of goods from the American Fur Company. There are three other white persons in the settlement, and this constitutes the entire white population. Chicago, or " Eschikagou," contains two white inhabitants outside the fort. Detroit is composed of French and half-breeds, and has one brick house, which was built by Gov. Hull. There is one miserable little steamboat on the Upper Lakes, called the Walk-in-the- Water, which makes the round trip, from Buffalo to Detroit, once in two weeks, but never ventures into the unknown waters past Mackinac. The unexplored wilderness of Wisconsin lay about them. If the treacherous natives, in a moment of vindictiveness, came out of their lurking' places and shot down the trader, they had but to fall back into the recesses of their own forests^ and pursuit or punishment was impossible. The Indians at Mahn-a-wau-kie, too, were very difficult to manage. xVt one time 0-nau-ge-sa would seem to wink at the overbearing disposition of certain bullies of his tribe, and the violence must needs be overlooked by the sufferers from it. Treachery lurked under the guise of friendship, and the scalping-knife was worn nearest the heart. Discretion was the higher law, and it required all the shrewdness of the white men to preserve their own standing in the community as traders. 0-nau-ge-sa levied an exorbitant tax on the whiskey, amounting to several gallons a week, for himself and his courtiers; and to refuse the regular supplv, or to demand money therefor, was equivalent to a casus belli, at which the scalping-knife leapt from its lurking-place, and the lords of the forest put on their most fiendish paint. Whiskey swayed the red masses. A copious libation pacified them, but brought with it the demand for more — and more made demons of them. When under its influence, all the dark villiany of their nature came uppermost — and to refuse to satisfy their drunken thirst, but precipitated matters. Therefore was cunning greatly exercised by these early traders, in order to save their own lives as well as to preserve their goods and chattels. These Mahn-a-wau-kies were incurable thieves : they would at all times rather steal than trade, and it is but justice to say that the fear of the white men's guns alone saved the early trader's stock from rapid depletion without equivalent returns. But in 1818, the first grey streaks of the dawn of Milwaukie were visible. So faint were they that 0-nau-gesa, with all his natural watchfulness, did not then notice them. They were to gradually brighten into the rosy tints of civilization, as the night of barbarism would sink away in the west. Solomon Juneau prospects up and down the river, and finally finds a green spot at the foot of a long wood-covered hill, that rises to the east, and here he builds his own cabin,* with the river between him and the opposite swamp.