Their Legendary History-Their Language-Settlement at Stockbridge, Mas- sachusetts-John Sergeant-A Total Abstinence Movement - David Brainerd Specimens of the Mohegan Language-- British Gifts to the Stockbridge Mission - Wars with the French Jonathan Edwards Dr. Stephen West-John Sergeant, the Younger - Muh-he-ka-ne-ew Service in the Revolution - Removal to New York-Council in Indiana -- Tate- CHAPTER X.- STATESBURG AND STOCK RIDGE. Removal from Indiana and New York to Fox river-The first Congregational Church in Wisconsin - Rev. Jesse Miner - First Protestant Church-Build- ing in Wisconsin - First School-Mistress here - Rev. Cutting Marsh Commissioner McCall-The "Orchard party" of Oneidas- -A Booklet and a Psalm in the Mohegan Language -- Letter to Jefferson Davis — Mission Work Begun among the Sioux - An Indian Temperance Conven- tion-Letter by Chauncey Hall - Mission Trip beyond the Mississippi — Stockbridge (Wisconsin) Built - Capital Punishment by Indian Tribal Authority - The Muh-he-ka-ne-ok are made Citizens. - Divisive Religious Trading-Station at La Pointe-Alexander Henry - The Cadottes and the Warrens- Alvin Coe and J. D. Stevens • Manner of Traveling on the Upper Waters of the Great Lakes" - Mission begun at La Pointe Jeremiah Porter and W. T. Boutwell Naming of Lake Itasca - First Book written here — First Organization of a Congregational Church in Wisconsin - Meeting-Houses at La Pointe, Congregational and Roman Catholic · Missions in Minnesota - Fight at Pokeguma - Mur- der of Benjamin Terry and Mrs. Spencer-Ojibway New Testament- Rev. L. H. Wheeler Odanah founded - Mission Work by the Metho- Brunson Attempt to remove the Ojibways- Ef- Louisiana - - - Religious Intolerance - Prairie du Chien- Fort Crawford — Mr. An "Island in a Sea of Drift”—Discovery of Lead - The Winnebago War Surrender of Red Bird - Dr. Newhall's Letter -Father Kent comes to Galena - Black Hawk and his "British Band War- Henry Dodge Permanent Settlement at Green Bay - British leave the place - Fort Howard --A. G. Ellis and other Early Teachers- First Methodist Services in the Green Bay Region - Rev. R. F. Cadle - Episcopal Mission-Organiza- CHAPTER XVI.- BY THE LAKE AND ON THE PRAIRIE. A Sloop of War at "Millwakey Threat by Robert Dickson-Joliet and Marquette -- The Brothers La Framboise --Jacques Vieau—Juneau Samuel Brown-Reports from the "Home Missionary"-- Protestant Epis- copal Service at Milwaukee-J. F. Ostrander-Organization of the First Presbyterian Church- First Protestant House of Worship for Whites in Wisconsin Rev. Gilbert Crawford-Settlement of Racine Scarcity of Food-Jesse Walker and Cyrus Nichols --Settlements formed at Kenosha and Beloit ---- Madison-Rev. S. A. Dwinnell-His Account of Chicago Arrival at La Pointe-Work there-Guests-Covenant-Visit to Fond du Lac Education of Children- - Mr. Wheeler Founds Odanah Mrs. Wheeler as Teacher -Anniversary Days - Winter at the Lowell Home - - Small-pox at La Pointe and Odanah-Medical Service-Odanah Train- ing School Reservations Saved for the Indians- Removal to Beloit - In- vention of Wind-Mill - Death of Mr. Wheeler and a Daughter — Mrs. Memories of Home-Tribute of Mrs. Kennedy - Letter and Poem of Rev. H. - - - 262 274 Biographical Sketches of Rev. Frederic Ayer and Rev. Cutting Marsh-- 275 280 CHAPTER I. DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION. Not Ohio alone but the entire Northwest Territory received Christian civilization when, 1788, April 7th,1 the historic company of the second Mayflower landed at the mouth of the Muskingum. Marietta is a second Plymouth as, in some respects, Ohio is a second Massachusetts. For the possession of the great empire, part of which was thus entered upon, a series of wars lasting almost a century had been fought. We may call this the second War of a Hundred Years. Its beginning properly dates from the time when a great-grandson of William the Silent, representing the principles of his murdered ancestor, was crowned king in Westminster in 1689. The first Hundred Years' War, notwithstanding the brilliant victories of Edward the Black Prince, saw the Briton driven from the mainland of Europe; in the second, the armies of the French were driven from North America. The descendants of the men who conquered at Crecy and Poitiers were themselves victorious at Louisburg and Quebec. Then the struggle took a new aspect, and it was settled that those living in America should rule it. Britons and Protestants had founded a new nation of which Wisconsin is a part. Hence it comes to pass that we who dwell in Wisconsin are American, not Canadian; Saxon, not French; a fact that seems to be lost sight of in some academic discussions on the early history of our state. But the first whites who saw the western shores of Lake Michigan and the southern shores of Lake Superior, the first to row up the Fox and to float down the Wisconsin, were Frenchmen from Canada, then New France. To their settlements on the St. Lawrence rumors came of the "Men of the Sea." For the purpose of making a treaty with these people, whom imagination pictured as Orientals rather than Indians, Jean Nicolet, "interpreter and clerk of the gentlemen of the company of New France," left Quebec 1634, July 1st,2 and came to the Green Bay region, having made, it is said, a voyage of one thousand one hundred miles in a birch-bark canoe. To meet with suitable ceremony the people whom he had come so far to see on such important business, he clothed himself "in a large garment of China damask strewn with flowers and birds of various colors," and went forward carrying a pistol in each hand. 1 The day of the week was Monday as was that of the landing at Plymouth. Of course both parties were led by men who honored the Sabbath. 2 A date more easily remembered is the 4th of July, the time when he left Three Rivers, then almost the outward post of civilization. Nicolet probably went up the Ottawa. The "Men of the Sea" were the Ouinipigou, or, as they are commonly called, the Winnebagoes. The sight of these naked savages must have been a rude shock to Nicolet's fancies. However, he made a treaty with them, and went farther up the Fox to a village of the Mascoutins probably in what is now Green Lake county. Here he heard of the "Great Water," by which he understood the sea, but which is probably the Mississippi. There is reason to think that from the Mascoutin country he went southward to the region inhabited by the Illinois. In the autumn of 1635 he returned to Quebec. In December of that same year, occurred the death of the governor of New France, the illustrious Samuel de Champlain, the founder, in 1608, of the French colony that has since grown into the Dominion of Canada. His death seems to have put an end for the time to further explorations. Nicolet, still in the company's service, was stationed at Three Rivers. Seven years after his return from the West, while at Quebec, he was sent for to come to his home to save, if possible, the life of a New England Indian whom captors that lived near Three Rivers were threatening with death by torture. Nicolet started promptly, but on his way up the St. Lawrence was accidentally drowned, 1642, November 1st. The Indian was afterward sent home in safety. Nicolet's discovery, which he does not seem to have regarded as of any special importance, seems to have been soon forgotten. Only the patient labor of historians of our own time has rescued from oblivion the name of the first civilized man who saw any part of what is now Wisconsin. We honor him as a man who came hither on an errand of peace and died on one of mercy. He was deeply religious. For many years the French were kept from further exploration. Champlain, dying, left to the colony the heritage of war with the Iroquois, often called the Five Nations, to whom the Dutch and, later, the English supplied fire-arms while the French furnished their allies with "kettles and missionaries.” Among those hostile to the Iroquois was a kindred tribe, the Hurons, 1 whɔ were utterly defeated and driven from their former homes. These were within the present limits of New York. Leaving their domain to enlarge the possessions of their conquerors, the Hurons fled into the interior of the continent. After the fiercest of the struggle was over, an expedition of thirty-one Frenchmen, accompanied by a number of Hurons, started about the middle of June, 1658, to go up the Ottawa river, and thence to Lake Huron and beyond. An attack by Iroquois turned back all the whites except two, Pierre d'Esprit and his brother-in-law, Medart Chouart, better known by their titles as Sieur Radisson and Sieur des Groseilliers (pronounced Gro-zay-yay). These two had made a compact "to travel and see countreys." Radisson, the first named, though the younger, seems to have been the leader. At any rate he has the advantage of telling the story, which he did, in perplexing English and very bad 1 "Quelles hures!" [word used of a boar etc.: "What heads of-hair!"] said the French when they first saw them; hence the word "Hurons."-CHARLEVOIX. They called themselves Wyandots (Y-en-dats). |