Green Bay, Wisconsin

“ It was at its greatest height in 1820, at which time Green Bay was the chief settlement in Wisconsin. By 1835 new interests had arisen, with the development of the lead mines in the southwest, and with the advent of agricultural [86] settlers from the East, upon the close of the Black Hawk War (1832) .
The fur trade led the way to the agricultural and manufacturing life of to-day. The traders naturally chose Indian villages as the sites for most of their posts, and such villages were generally at places well selected for the purpose. ”

“ IN 1836, that portion of Michigan Territory which lay west of Lake Michigan, was erected into the Territory of Wisconsin. Within the borders of the nascent commonwealth there lived at that time about twelve thousand whites and nine thousand Indians. Many of the sites of future cities of Wisconsin were already occupied by agricultural settlers, isolated or in tiny groups.
Green Bay, a straggling French-Canadian settlement, had come down from the seventeenth century, maintaining a sickly existence upon the fur trade and the coasting traffic of the upper Great Lakes ”

“ I consider the Wisconsin territory as the finest portion of North America, not only from its soil, but its climate. The air is pure, and the winters, although severe, are dry and bracing; very different from, and more healthy than, those of the Eastern States. At Prairie du Chien every one dwelt upon the beauty of the winter, indeed they appeared to prefer it to the other seasons. The country is, as I have described it in my route from Green Bay, alternate prairie, oak openings, and forest ”

“ They purchased a suitable territory from the Monomonees of Wisconsin, a wandering and non-industrious race, seated about Green Bay, and expended a part of their annuities in the payment. This turned out a wise measure. They soon began to remove, and have at this time a very flourishing settlement on Duck river, in that territory. At that location they have established schools, temperance societies and a church. They bear a good reputation for morals and industry, and are advancing in civilization and the arts. ”

“ Green Bay, Wis., June 13, 1887.
My Dear W——: We had a quiet Sunday at Little Kaukauna. Being a delightful day, we went with our entertainers to the country church, a mile or two back across the fields, and whiled away the rest of the time in strolling through the woods and gossiping with the farmers about the crops and the government improvement,—fertile themes. It appears that this diminutive hamlet of four or five houses anticipates a "boom," and there is some feverish anxiety as to how much village lots ought to bring as a "starter" when the rush actually opens. ”

“ These are certainly the two leading traits of the Wisconsin, which rushes with a great average velocity over an inclined plane, without falls, for a great distance. It originates in a remarkable summit of sandy plains, which send out to the west the Chippewa River of Lake Pepin, to the north the Montreal and Ontonagon of Lake Superior, and to the east the Menomonee of Green Bay, while the Wisconsin becomes its southern off-drain, till it finally turns west at the Portage, and flows into the Mississippi. ”

“ Those on the eastern slope, flowing into Lake Michigan, are larger, and include the Menominee, which forms part of the northeastern boundary and flows into Green Bay, the Fox, which drains Lake Winnebago and also enters Green Bay, and the Milwaukee River, which flows directly into Lake Michigan. The western and southern slopes of the State, including the greater part of its area, are drained by tributaries of the Mississippi, of which the principal are the Saint Croix, forming part of the northwestern boundary, the Chippewa, and the Wisconsin, the last being the largest river within the State. ”

“ Nicolet first set foot upon what is now the State of Wisconsin late in 1634 or early in 1635. He landed first at Green Bay, where he found a large Indian settlement, thence ascended the Fox River to a point beyond its passage through Lake Winnebago, and then turned southward. He probably proceeded as far south as the site of Chicago, and returned east by way of Lake Michigan. The next white explorers in the Wisconsin region of whom we have any record were Radisson and Groseilliers, two fur traders, who reached the country in 1658-59. ”

“ At the time when white men first came to Wisconsin, there were found here several widely differing tribes of Indians, and these were often at war with one another. The Winnebagoes, an offshoot of the Sioux, occupied the valleys of the Wisconsin and the Fox, and the shores of Green Bay as far down as Sturgeon Bay. If the theory of the ethnologists be correct, that most of the Wisconsin mounds were built by the Winnebagoes, then at times they must have dwelt in nearly every corner of the State. ”

“ Although New France fell in 1760, and the British came into control, they never succeeded in Anglicizing Wisconsin. English fur companies succeeded the French, and British soldiers occupied the Wisconsin forts; but the fur trade itself had still to be conducted through French residents, who alone had the confidence of the Indians. Great Britain was supposed to surrender all this country to the United States in 1796; but it was really 1816 before the American flag floated over Green Bay, and the American Fur Company came into power. ”

“ However, the Indians around Green Bay were by no means restricted to one agricultural product, although contact with the white men tended to make them more and more dependent, since they found it easier to barter furs for food than to raise grain.
From the above citations, it appears that the cultivated fields of the Indians occupied a diagonal line across the state, following the courses of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers and Green Bay; and that the Sauk, Foxes, and Winnebago were the most inclined, in the struggle for existence, to make use of their agricultural knowledge and opportunities. ”

“ Wisconsin then comprised two counties, Brown (east) and Crawford (west) , with county seats at Green Bay and Prairie du Chien. Until 1830 the fur-trade, controlled largely by John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company, continued to be the predominating interest in the Wisconsin region, but then the growing lead mining industry began to overshadow the fur-trade, and in the mining region towns and smelting furnaces were rapidly built. Indian miners were soon driven out of business and were nearly crowded out of their homes. ”

“ Marie, in which has been absorbed the old Wisconsin Central, crosses the state and extends into the Canadian North-West, sharing in the heavy grain traffic of that section, and, like the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic, which runs along the Lake Superior shore, is a link in the transcontinental system of the Canadian Pacific, which controls both these roads. The Northern Pacific enters Wisconsin in its north western corner and extends to the Lake Superior country. The Green Bay & Western railway between Winona and Kewaunee has ferry connexion across Lake Michigan. ”

“ These dimensions include the Apostle Islands, in Lake Superior, and the islands at the entrance to Green Bay, in Lake Michigan. Wisconsin has an area of 56,040 square miles, including 1590 square miles of water, and it ranks twenty-first in size among the States.
Topography. The surface of Wisconsin is a nearly level plain or undulating plateau with three faces or slopes, divided by a T-shaped ridge or line of highest elevation. The longitudinal arm of this ridge runs southward through the centre of the State. ”

“ The civilized [234] world stood aghast at the broad extent of the field of needed relief; nevertheless, the frenzied appeals for aid, issued in behalf of the Wisconsin fire sufferers, met with as generous a response as if they alone, in that fateful month of October, were the recipients of the nation's bounty. Train loads of clothing and provisions, from nearly every State in the Union, soon poured into Green Bay, which was the center of distribution; the United States government made large gifts of clothing and rations ”

“ Movements of sailing vessels, then used, were not limited to any channel and, except to avoid islands, shoals and reefs, they went directly to their destinations. Ships came and went between Lake Michigan and Green Bay to and from the mouth of the Menominee, and the southerly end of the bay, the site of the city of Green Bay. They passed east and west of Chambers Island and through the Strawberry passage. Neither State has ever exercised jurisdiction over the triangular area at the mouth of the Menominee or over any other waters of the bay that are now in controversy. ”

“ In the four years, 1832 to 1836, the entire region from the Illinois line north to the Wisconsin, the Fox, and Green Bay, and from the Mississippi to Lake Michigan, was checked off into townships and sections. Hardy, resourceful government surveyors, with their crews (usually two chainmen and one axman) traversed every square mile, whether prairie, forest, valley, or bluff. In 1834 a land office was opened at Mineral Point for the sale of lands in the western portion of Michigan Territory (as it was then) . ”

“ La Salle (q.v.) thoroughly explored the Wisconsin region before he attempted his remarkable trip down the Mississippi which ended in his tragic death. Although the region became dotted with trading posts and missions, there was no permanent settlement in Wisconsin until toward the middle of the eighteenth century, when the De Langlade family established themselves at Green Bay. In the French and Indian War Charles de Langlade led a body of coureurs des bois and Wisconsin Indians to the aid of the French, and commanded them in the battle which resulted in Braddock's defeat. ”

“ Looking at the map of the Upper Peninsula, the eye sees instantly that the pine-forests remain only in a comparatively small district bordering on the northern portion of Wisconsin and not easily accessible, while from that part of the State lying along the Menominee River and Green Bay, as well as along the upper shore of Lake Michigan and the southern shore of Lake Superior—in short, wherever they could be reached with facility—both the pine and hard-wood have been cleared away. ”

“ Before the next census was taken the revolutionary movement of 1848 in Germany led to the emigration of thousands from that country to Wisconsin, and there was an increase of 886.9% in the population from 1840 to 1850. Norwegians and other Scandinavians, Irish, Poles, Dutch, Belgians and Swiss followed. Germans and Irish are now scattered throughout the state; but the German element predominates markedly in Milwaukee. Norwegians, Danes and Swedes are more numerous in the western and northern counties. There are Finns in Douglas county and Icelanders on Washington Island, in Green Bay. ”

“ They were specially identified with the histories of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Illinois for more than a hundred years. Carver speaks of their villages on the Wisconsin r. in 1766, after they had been expelled from the Green Bay and Fox River region. They appear to have been driven from the St. Croix by the decisive battle at the Falls, in which they were defeated by the Chippewas under Waboji (d. 1793) . Writing of 1832, Schoolcraft speaks of their recent residences on Rock r., and their confinement west of the Mississippi by the then latest tragic act in their history. ”

“ State Public School for Dependent and Neglected Children (1886) at Sparta, with a farm of 234 acres; Wisconsin Home for Feeble Minded (1896) at Chippewa Falls; Wisconsin State Reformatory (1898) , near Green Bay; and Wisconsin State Tuberculosis Sanatorium (1907) at Wales, Waukesha county. In addition the board has partial control over the Wisconsin Workshop for the Blind (1903) at Milwaukee, where there is a willow ware factory, and the Wisconsin Industrial School for Girls (1875) also at Milwaukee. ”

“ They were located about Green bay. Their later location at the entrance of Lake Winnebago was unoccupied, at least in the time of Allouez, because of the hostility of the Sioux. Early authorities represented them as numbering about one hundred warriors. [67] The Pottawattomies we find in 1641 at Sault Ste. Marie, [68] whither they had just fled from their enemies. Their proper home was probably about the southeastern shore and islands of Green bay, where as early as 1670 they were again located. Of their numbers in Wisconsin at this time we can say but little. ”

“ The whole is whitewashed, and presents a neat military appearance. The gardens of the military denote the most fruitful soil and genial climate. Data observed by the surgeon, indicate the site to be unexcelled for its salubrity, such a disease as fever, of any kind, never having visited it, in either an endemic or epidemic form.
The name of Green Bay is associated with our earliest ideas of French history in America. When La Salle visited the country in the 17th century, it had been many years known to the French, and was esteemed one of the prime posts for trading with the Indians. ”

“ The beautiful bluffs bordering the Mississippi; the charm and grace of the sweeping lines of Lake Pepin; the tumbling, rushing waters of the Wisconsin, with their thickly-wooded hills and their green slopes of prairie and their October sunsets, seen through crimson oak and maple leaves; or the numerous falls of the upper Fox,—all have stirred the hearts of the fortunate people privileged to live within their influence. Hence, at Stevens Point, La Crosse, Appleton, and a few other cities in the state with similar surroundings, we have a literature with charming local flavor. ”

“ When it is considered what a small population of civilized beings inhabit that part of the world, it is not to be wondered at that so little knowledge about it exists. I went from Green Bay, with the Express, where but few people ever travel, which was attended with fatigue and danger; but the journey produced this conviction on my mind, that the Michigan Territory has in it a great extent of fine country.
I regard Green Bay, at the mouth of Fox River, and Chicago, as two very important positions, particularly the latter. ”