Fifty Years In The Northwest
allowed to withdraw with their private property on parole. They were
followed by the Indians as far as Rock Island. Meanwhile, Lieut.
Campbell, with reinforcements on his way from St. Louis, was attacked,
part were captured and the remainder of his troops driven back to St.
Louis. Late in 1814 Maj. Zachary Taylor proceeded with gunboats to
chastize the Indians for their attack on Campbell, but was himself met
and driven back. The following year, on the declaration of peace
between Great Britain and America, the post at Prairie du Chien was
evacuated. The garrison fired the fort as they withdrew from it.
The fort erected by the Americans under Gen. Clarke in 1814 was called
Fort Shelby. The British, on capturing it, changed the name to Fort
McKay. The Americans, on assuming possession and rebuilding it, named
it Fort Crawford. It stood on the bank of the river at the north end
of St. Friole, the old French village occupied in 1876 by the
Dousmans. In 1833 the new Fort Crawford was built on an elevated site
about midway in the prairie. It was a strong military post and was
commanded at this time by Gen. Zachary Taylor. Many officers, who
subsequently won distinction in the Florida Indian, Mexican, and late
Civil War, were stationed here from time to time. Within a time
included in my own recollections of the post, Jefferson Davis spirited
away the daughter of his commanding officer, Gen. Taylor, and married
her, the "rough and ready" general being averse to the match.
Prairie du Chien derived its name from a French family known as du
Chien, in English "The Dog." By this name the Prairie was known long
prior to the establishment of the French stockade and post. By that
name it has been known and recognized ever since. It has been
successively under the French, English and United States governments,
and lying originally in the great Northwestern Territory, in the
subsequent divisions of that immense domain, it has been included
within the bounds of the territories of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
Michigan, and Wisconsin. Gov. Wm. H. Harrison, of Indiana Territory,
recognized Prairie du Chien by issuing commissions to Henry M. Fisher
and ---- Campbell as justices of the peace, the first civil
commissions issued for the American government in the entire district
of country including West Wisconsin and Minnesota east of the
Mississippi. Prior to this time, about 1819, the inhabitants had been
chiefly under military rule. In 1819 the county of Crawford was
organized as a part of Michigan Territory, and blank commissions were
issued to Nicholas Boilvin, Esq., with authority to appoint and
install the officers of the new county government. Gov. Lewis Cass
established by proclamation the county seat at Prairie du Chien, and
John W. Johnson was installed as chief justice of the county court.
The entire corps of officers were qualified. In January, 1823,
Congress passed an act providing for circuit courts in the counties
west and north of Lake Michigan, and James Duane Doty was appointed
judge for the district composed of Brown, Mackinaw and Crawford
counties, and a May term was held in Prairie du Chien the same year.
INDIAN TROUBLES.--There were some Indian troubles, an account of which
is given in the biographical sketch of J. H. Lockwood. There were
other incidents which may be worthy of separate mention. In 1827 an
entire family, named Methode, were murdered, as is supposed, by the
Indians, though the murderers were never identified. The great
incentive to violence and rapine with the Indians was whisky. An
intelligent Winnebago, aged about sixty years, told me that
"paganini," "firewater" (whisky), was killing the great majority of
his people, and making fools and cripples of those that were left;
that before the pale faces came to the big river his people were good
hunters and had plenty to eat; that now they were drunken, lazy and
hungry; that they once wore elk or deer skins, that now they were clad
in blankets or went naked. This Indian I had never seen drunk. The
American Fur Company had huts or open houses where the Indians might
drink and revel.
At an Indian payment a young, smart looking Indian got drunk and in a
quarrel killed his antagonist. The friends of the murdered Indian held
a council and determined that the murderer should have an opportunity
of running for his life. The friends of the murdered Indian formed in
a line, at the head of which was stationed the brother of the dead
man, who was to lead in the pursuit. At a signal the bands of the
prisoner were cut, and with a demoniacal yell he bounded forward, the
entire line in swift and furious pursuit. Should he outrun his
pursuers, he would be free; should they overtake and capture him, they
were to determine the mode of his death. He ran nearly a mile when he
tripped and fell. The brother of the dead Indian, heading the pursuit,
pounced upon him and instantly killed him with a knife.
Considering the fact that the Indians were gathered together under the
guns of a United States fort, and under the protection of a law
expressly forbidding the sale of intoxicating liquors to them, the
people of the United States were certainly justified in expecting
better results, not only in regard to the protection of the frontier
settlers but for that of the Indians themselves. All came to naught
because of the non-enforcement of law. Liquors were shamelessly sold
to the Indians and they were encouraged to drunken revelry and orgies
by the very men who should have protected and restrained them.
The prosperity of Prairie du Chien depended upon the Indian trade, and
upon government contracts which the presence of a military force
rendered necessary. The Indians gathered here in great numbers.
Here the Winnebagoes, part of the Menomonies and some Chippewas
received their annuities, and here centred also an immense trade from
the American Fur Company, the depot being a large stone building on
the banks of the Mississippi, under the charge of Hercules Dousman.
FORT CRAWFORD ROBBED.
Two discharged soldiers (Thompson and Evans) living at Patch Grove,
thirteen miles away, visited the fort often. On a morning after one of
their visits a soldier on guard noticed a heap of fresh earth near the
magazine. An alarm was given, an examination made, and it was found
that the magazine had been burst open with bars and sledge hammers,
entrance having been obtained by digging under the corner picket.
Three kegs of silver, each containing $5,000, were missing. The kegs
had been passed through the excavation underneath the picket. One keg
had burst open near the picket, and the silver was found buried in the
sand. The second keg burst on the bank of the Mississippi, and all the
money was found buried there except about six hundred dollars. The
third keg was found months after by John Brinkman, in the bottom of
the river, two miles below the fort. He was spearing fish by
torchlight, when he chanced to find the keg. The keg he delivered at
the fort and received a small reward. On opening the keg it was found
to contain coin of a different kind from that advertised as stolen.
Brinkman, however, made no claims on account of errors. Thompson,
Evans, and a man named Shields were arrested by the civil authorities
on suspicion; their trial was continued from term to term and they
were at last dismissed. One man, who had seen the silver in the sand
during the day and gone back at night to fill his pockets, was seized
by a soldier on guard, imprisoned for a year, and discharged.
EARLY JUSTICE.
A Frenchman shot and killed a couple of tame geese belonging to a
neighbor, supposing them to be wild. Discovering his mistake, he
brought the geese to the owner, a Dutchman, who flew into a great
rage, but took the geese and used them for his own table, in addition
to which he had the goose-killer arrested and tried before Martin
Savall, a justice of the peace. The defendant admitted the killing of
the geese, the plaintiff admitted receiving them and using them for
food, nevertheless the justice gave judgment in favor of plaintiff by
the novel ruling that these geese, if not killed, would have laid eggs
and hatched about eight goslings. The defendant was therefore fined
three dollars for the geese killed, and eight dollars for the goslings
that might have been hatched if the geese had been permitted to live,
and costs besides. Plaintiff appealed to the district court which
reversed the decision on the ground that plaintiff had eaten his
geese, and the goslings, not being hatched, did not exist. Plaintiff
paid the costs of the suit, forty-nine dollars, remarking that a
Dutchman had no chance in this country; that he would go back to
Germany. The judge remarked that it would be the best thing he could
do.
A SOUTHWARD JOURNEY.
My original plan on leaving Maine was to make a prospecting tour
through the West and South. I had been in Prairie du Chien for a
season, and as soon as my contract to cut hay for the fort and my
harvesting work was done. I started, with two of my comrades, in a
birch bark canoe for New Orleans. This mode of traveling proving slow
and tedious, after two days, on our arrival at Dubuque, we sold our
canoe and took passage on the steamer Smelter for St. Louis, which
place we reached on the seventeenth of October. We remained five days,
stopping at the Union Hotel. St. Louis was by far the finest and
largest city I had yet seen in the West. Its levee was crowded with
drays and other vehicles and lined with steamers and barges. Its
general appearance betokened prosperity. On the twenty-second, I left
on the steamer George Collier for New Orleans, but the yellow fever
being reported in that city, I remained several days at Baton Rouge.
On the second of November I re-embarked for New Orleans, where I found
a lodging at the Conti Street Hotel. New Orleans was even then a large
and beautiful city. Its levee and streets were remarkable for their
cleanness, but seemed almost deserted. Owing to a recent visitation of
the yellow fever and the financial crisis of 1837, business was almost
suspended. These were hard times in New Orleans. Hundreds of men were
seeking employment, and many of them were without money or friends. It
was soon very evident to me that I had come to a poor place to better
my fortunes. After a thorough canvass, I found but one situation
vacant, and that was in a drinking saloon, and was not thought of for
an instant. I remained fifteen days, my money gradually diminishing,
when I concluded to try the interior. I took steamer for Vicksburg,
and thence passed up the Yazoo to Manchester, where I spent two days
in the vain search for employment, offering to do any kind of work. I
was in the South, where the labor was chiefly done by negroes. I was
friendless and without letters of recommendation, and for a man under
such circumstances to be asking for employment was in itself a
suspicious circumstance. I encountered everywhere coldness and
distrust. I returned to Vicksburg, and, fortunately, had still enough
money left to secure a deck passage to the North, but was obliged to
live sparingly, and sleep without bedding. I kept myself somewhat
aloof from the crew and passengers. The captain and clerk commented on
my appearance, and were, as I learned from a conversation that I could
not help but overhear, keeping a close eye upon me for being so quiet
and restrained. It was true that the western rivers were infested with
desperate characters, gamblers and thieves such as the Murrell gang.
Might I not be one of them. I was truly glad when, on the fifth of
December, we landed at St. Louis. It seemed nearer my own country; but
finding no employment there, I embarked on the steamer Motto for