Fifty Years In The Northwest
Hennepin, Illinois, where I found occasional employment cutting
timber. There was much talk here of the Murrell gang, then terrorizing
the country; and I have good reason to believe that some of them at
that time were in Hennepin. After remaining about two months, I left,
on foot, valise in hand or strapped upon my back, with J. Simpson, for
Galena, which place we reached in four days. Finding here Mr. Putnam,
with a team, I went up with him on the ice to Prairie du Chien, where,
after an absence of five months of anxiety, suspense and positive
hardships, I was glad to find myself once more among friends.
During the summer of 1838 I cultivated a farm. I had also a hay
contract for the fort. My partner was James C. Bunker. I had worked
hard and succeeded in raising a good crop, but found myself in the
fall the victim of bilious fever and ague. I continued farming in 1839
and furnishing hay to the fort, but continued to suffer with chills
and fever. Myself and partner were both affected, and at times could
scarcely take care of ourselves. Help could not be obtained, but ague
comes so regularly to torture its victims that, knowing the exact hour
of its approach, we could prepare in advance for it, and have our
water, gruel, boneset and quinine ready and within reach. We knew when
we would shake, but not the degree of fever which would follow. The
delirium of the fever would fill our minds with strange fancies. On
one occasion I came home with the ague fit upon me, hitched my horses
with wagon attached to a post and went into the house. Banker had
passed the shaking stage, and was delirious. I threw myself on the
bed, and the fever soon following, I knew nothing till morning, when I
found the team still hitched to the post, and, in their hunger, eating
it.
In November of this year I made a somewhat perilous trip with team to
Fort Winnebago, at the portage of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers. The
weather was cold and the military road, much of the distance, covered
with snow. There was scarcely a trail over the rolling prairie to
guide me. Exposure brought on the chills as I was returning. Fatigued,
sick and suffering, I coiled myself on the top of the load. The second
day, as the sun was setting, I came in sight of Parish's Grove, but
the horses were unwilling to obey my guidance. Coming to a fork in the
road they insisted on going to the right. I pulled them to the left.
Had I been guided by their "horse sense" they would have brought me in
a few moments to the door of Parish's hotel. As it was, I drove on
until far in the night, when we came to a steep hill, two steep for
descent in the wagon. I unhitched the team, loaded them with the
portable things in the wagon to keep them from the wolves that were
howling around, mounted one of the horses and descended the hill and
found myself at Parish's door, the very place I had been trying to
find for a day and a night. Lieut. Caldwell, quartermaster at Fort
Crawford, received the load, and learning something of the perils of
the journey, gave me eighty dollars instead of the forty he had
promised.
RETURN TO MAINE.
During the spring and summer of 1840, I fulfilled heavy hay and wood
contracts for the fort, and in the autumn of that year concluded to
revisit my early home in Maine. I set out September 23d, and reached
Chicago in seven days, traveling with a team. I traveled thence by
steamer to Buffalo, by canal boat to Rochester, by railroad and stage
to Albany and Boston, by railroad to Lowell, and by stage to Tamworth,
New Hampshire. After spending four years amidst the prairies of the
West it was indeed a pleasure to look again upon the grand ranges of
mountains in this part of New England. When eleven years of age I had
lived where I could look upon these mountains, and now to their
grandeur was added the charm of old association. I looked with
pleasure once more upon "Old Ossipee," Coroway Peak, and White Face.
Time had written no changes upon these rugged mountains. There were
cottages and farms on the mountain side. Sparkling rivulets gleamed in
the sunlight, as they found their way, leaping from rock to rock, to
the valleys beneath. Tamworth is situated on beautiful ridges amongst
these mountain ranges. Near this place is the old family burying
ground containing the graves of my grand parents and other near
relatives. These mountain peaks seemed to stand as sentinels over
their last resting place. I remained at Tamworth a short time, visited
the graves of my kindred, and on October 20th pursued my journey to
Bloomfield, Maine, my old home. I found great changes. Some kind
friends remained, but others were gone. The old home was changed and I
felt that I could not make my future home here. The great West seemed
more than ever attractive. There would I build my home, and seek my
fortune. I found here one who was willing to share that home and
whatever fortune awaited me in the West. On January 1st I was married
to Mary J. Wyman, by Rev. Arthur Drinkwater, who gave us good counsel
on the eve of our departure to a new and still wilderness country. On
February 16th we bade adieu to our friends in Maine, visited awhile at
Tamworth, and March 20th reached Prairie du Chien, having traveled by
private conveyance, stage and steamer, passing through New Haven, New
York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Frederick City, Maryland, over the
National road to Wheeling, Virginia, by steamer down the Ohio and up
the Mississippi to our destination. Here we made our home until the
autumn of 1845, I continuing in the business in which I had been
previously engaged. At this time a failure in my wife's health
rendered a change of climate necessary.
PRAIRIE DU CHIEN IN 1836-37.
Our history of Fifty Years in the Northwest commences properly at
Prairie du Chien in the years 1836-37. The entire country west and
north was at that time but little better than a wilderness. Prairie du
Chien was an outpost of civilization. A few adventurous traders and
missionaries had penetrated the country above, planting a few stations
here and there, and some little effort had been made at settlement,
but the country, for the most part, was the home of roving tribes of
Indians, and he who adventured among them at any distance from posts
or settlements did so at considerable peril. Prairie du Chien, as we
have shown, had been for an indefinite period under various
governments, at first a French, and later an American settlement,
generally under the protection of a military force. It was a primitive
looking village. The houses were built for the most part of upright
timber posts and puncheons, and were surrounded by pickets. There was
no effort at display. Every thing was arranged for comfort and
protection.
AMERICAN RESIDENTS.
There were living at Prairie du Chien in 1837 the following Americans
with their families: Alfred Brunson, Thomas P. Burnett, Joseph M. and
Thomas P. Street, Ezekiel Tainter, John Thomas, Milo Richards, John H.
Fonday, Samuel Gilbert, and William Wilson. The following were
unmarried: James B. Dallam, Ira B. Brunson, William S. Lockwood, and
Hercules Dousman. In addition to these were perhaps near a hundred
French families, old residents. Among the more noted were the
Brisbois, La Chapelle, Rolette and Bruno families.
We include in the following biographical sketches some names of
non-residents, prominent in the early territorial history, and others
who came to Prairie du Chien later than 1837.
BIOGRAPHIES.
JAMES DUANE DOTY.--The life of this eminent citizen is so interwoven
with the history of Wisconsin that it might well claim more space than
is here allotted to it. The plan of this work forbids more than a
brief mention, and we therefore give only the principal events in his
life. Mr. Doty was born in Salem, Washington county, New York, where
he spent his early days. After receiving a thorough literary education
he studied law, and in 1818 located at Detroit, Michigan. In 1820, in
company with Gov. Cass, he made a canoe voyage of exploration through
Lakes Huron and Michigan. On this voyage they negotiated treaties with
the Indians, and returning made a report on the comparatively
unexplored region which they had traversed. Under his appointment as
judge for the counties of Michigan west of the lake, which appointment
he held for nine years, he first made his home at Prairie du Chien,
where he resided one year, thence removing to Green Bay for the
remainder of his term of office, at which place he continued to
reside for a period of twenty years. In 1830 he was appointed one of
the commissioners to locate military routes from Green Bay to Chicago
and Prairie du Chien. In 1834 he represented the counties west of the
lake in the Michigan legislative council at Detroit, at which council
the first legislative action was taken affecting these counties. At
that session he introduced a bill to create the state of Michigan,
which was adopted. The result of this action was the creation of the
territory of Wisconsin in 1836. In 1838 Mr. Doty was chosen
territorial delegate to Congress from Wisconsin, in which capacity he
served four years, when he was appointed governor. He served as
governor three years. He acted as commissioner in negotiating Indian
treaties. In 1846 he was a member of the first constitutional
convention. In 1848 he was elected member of Congress, and was
re-elected in 1851.
Somewhere in the '50s he built a log house on an island in Fox river,
just above Butte des Mortes, and lived there with his family many
years. There he gathered ancient curiosities, consisting of Indian
implements, and relics of the mound builders. This log house still
stands and is kept intact with the curiosities gathered there by the
present owner, John Roberts, to whom they were presented by Mrs.
Fitzgerald, a daughter of Gov. Doty, in 1877. The cabin overlooks the
cities of Menasha and Neenah, and the old council ground at the outlet
of Lake Winnebago, where the Fox and Sioux Indians held annual
councils, also the old battle ground where the Fox Indians routed the
Sioux in one of the hardest fought battles on record.
In 1861 Judge Doty was appointed superintendent of Indian affairs, and
subsequently was appointed governor of Utah Territory, which place he
held until his death in 1865. Wisconsin had no truer friend nor more
faithful and efficient servant. His aims were exalted, and he
deservedly held a high place in the affections of his fellow citizens.
JAMES H. LOCKWOOD.--Mr. Lockwood was the only practicing lawyer at the
organization of Judge Doty's court. He was the pioneer lawyer in
Prairie du Chien, and the first lawyer admitted to the bar in what is
now Wisconsin. He practiced in Crawford, Brown and Mackinaw counties.
He was born in Peru, Clinton county, New York, Dec. 7, 1793. He
married Julia Warren in 1822. She died at Prairie du Chien in 1827.
He married his second wife, Sarah A. Wright, in St. Louis, Missouri,
in 1834. She died at Prairie du Chien in 1877, much esteemed as one of
the pioneer women of the Upper Mississippi, and respected as a devout
Christian, whose faith was proven by her works. The early years of Mr.
Lockwood were spent on a farm. He had not the privileges of a
classical education, and he may be said to be self educated. In 1810
he commenced the study of law. In 1814 he was sutler in the United
States army, and in 1815 at the post at Mackinaw. From 1816 to 1819 he
was an Indian trader, his home being at Prairie du Chien. In 1826
orders came to abandon the fort at Prairie du Chien. The soldiers were
transferred to Fort Snelling, but arms and ammunition were left in
charge of John Marsh, sub-Indian agent. Mr. Lockwood's family was the
only American family at the post. On June 25th of the ensuing year he