Fifty Years In The Northwest
left for New York by the Wisconsin River route, Mrs. Lockwood
remaining at home. The Winnebagoes were a little troublesome at this
time, the more so as the soldiers were removed from the post, but no
serious disturbance was anticipated. The first night after leaving
Prairie du Chien Mr. L. met some Winnebagoes, and all camped together
for the night; but the Indians, under their chief, Red Bird, left the
camp stealthily before morning, and, proceeding to Prairie du Chien,
entered the house of Mr. Lockwood with loaded rifles. Mrs. L., greatly
frightened, fled to the store, then in charge of Duncan Graham, an old
English trader. The Indians followed Mrs. L. into the store. Graham
counseled with them and they left. As they were acting suspiciously a
messenger was sent after Mr. Lockwood in haste. He returned on the
twenty-seventh and found the inhabitants assembled, but without
ammunition or means of defense. The Indians told the people not to go
into the fort, as they would destroy it. As the day passed pickets and
embankments were built around an old tavern. About sundown a keelboat
came down the river and landed, bearing three dead bodies and several
wounded. The sides of the boat had been riddled by bullets. This
ghastly arrival increased the panic. Mr. Lockwood urged organization
for defense. He was selected as captain but declined, and Thomas
McNair was chosen, who ordered an immediate removal to the fort.
Repairs were made and preparations for successful defense. On the day
the fighting commenced Red Bird and his companions shot and killed
Gagner and Lipcap. Mrs. Gagner, with rifle in hand, held Red Bird at
bay till she escaped with one child into the rushes, whence she was
rescued by a soldier on patrol duty. The soldier went to the house,
where he found Gagner and Lipcap lying dead upon the floor, and an
infant child, scalped and with its throat cut, lying under the bed.
Gov. Cass, of Michigan, arrived on the fourth of July, greatly to the
relief of the besieged garrison, which he mustered into the service of
the United States, appointing Mr. Lockwood quartermaster. Another
company, under Capt. Abner Field, was sent from Galena to their
relief. Mr. Lockwood sent a messenger to Col. Snelling at Fort
Snelling, who promptly sent down a company in a keelboat. The force
thus concentrated at the fort was sufficient to overcome the Indians,
who were in no plight to engage in a war with the United States. As
the result of a council held by the Winnebagoes in the presence of the
officers of the garrison, the Indians agreed to surrender Red Bird and
Kee-Waw to Maj. Whistler, the Indians asking that the prisoners should
not be ironed or harshly treated. Maj. Whistler promised that they
should be treated with consideration, and Red Bird, rising from the
ground, said, "I am ready," and was marched off with his accomplice,
Kee-Waw, to a tent in the rear and placed under guard. The prisoners
were handed over to Gen. Atkinson, and given into the hands of the
civil authorities. They were chained and imprisoned, which so chafed
the proud spirit of Red Bird that he drooped and soon died of a broken
heart. Kee-Waw was afterward pardoned by the president of the United
States. For this and other outrages perpetrated upon the settlers, not
a single Indian suffered the penalty of death, excepting Red Bird,
whose pride may be said to have been his executioner.
Mr. Lockwood continued in mercantile business at Prairie du Chien many
years. He held many positions of honor and trust, acquitting himself
with credit. He built the first saw mill north of the Wisconsin river,
on the Menomonie river. The famous Menomonie mills now occupy the same
site. A small mill had been commenced prior to this on Black river,
but the Indians had burned this mill before it was completed. Mr.
Lockwood died at his home, Aug. 24, 1867.
JOHN S. LOCKWOOD.--John S., the brother of James H. Lockwood, was
born in 1796 in New York; came to Prairie du Chien in 1838, and
thereafter engaged in merchandising. He was a man of exemplary habits
and a member of the Presbyterian church most of his life. He raised an
interesting family. He died at his home at Prairie du Chien in 1858.
SAMUEL GILBERT settled at Prairie du Chien in 1830. He was of Kentucky
birth, a blacksmith by trade, and a model man in habits. Mr. Gilbert,
in 1842, became one of the proprietors of the Chippewa Falls mill. He
afterward lived at Albany. He followed Mississippi river piloting,
removed to Burlington, Iowa, and died in 1878. Mr. Gilbert left four
sons, Oliver, lumberman in Dunn county, Wisconsin, John and I. Dallam,
lumber merchants at Burlington, Iowa, and Samuel.
MICHAEL BRISBOIS.--We find the names of Brisbois and some others
mentioned in the proceedings of the commission held by Col. Isaac Lee
in 1820, to adjust claims to land in Prairie du Chien and vicinity.
Michael Brisbois testified that he had been a resident of the Prairie
thirty-nine years, which would date his settlement as far back as
1781. Mr. Brisbois lived a stirring and eventful life. He died in
1837, leaving several children. Joseph, the oldest, became a man of
prominence and held many offices in state and church. Charles, the
second son, while yet a boy went to McKenzie river, British
possessions, in the employ of the Northwestern Fur Company, where he
lived thirty years beyond the Arctic circle, and raised a large
family. In 1842 he returned to Prairie du Chien, but his children,
reared in the cold climate of the frozen zone, soon after his return
sickened, and most of them died, unable to endure the change to a
climate so much milder. Bernard W., a third son, was born at Prairie
du Chien, Oct. 4, 1808. He was well educated and grew up a leading and
influential citizen. As a child he had witnessed the taking of Fort
Shelby by the British in 1814, and its recapture as Fort McKay by the
United States troops in 1815. During the Red Bird Indian war he served
as second lieutenant, and for several years was stationed at Fort
Crawford. He was also a prominent agent or confidential adviser in the
fur company which had its headquarters at Prairie du Chien. He was
sheriff of Crawford county and held the office of county treasurer and
other positions of trust. In 1872 President Grant appointed him consul
to Vernier, Belgium, but ill health compelled an early return. Mr.
Brisbois married into the La Chapelle family. He died in 1885, leaving
an interesting family.
PIERRE LAPOINT was also before the commission of Col. Lee as an early
resident, having lived at the Prairie since 1782. The testimony of
these early citizens served to establish the ancient tenure of the
lands by French settlers, a tenure so ancient that no one could
definitely give a date for its commencement. Mr. Lapoint was a farmer.
He reared a large family of children, and died about 1845.
JOSEPH ROLETTE.--Joseph Rolette was at one time chief justice of the
county court of Crawford county. He was of French descent and was born
in Quebec, L. C., in 1787. He was educated for the Catholic
priesthood. In 1804 he came to Prairie du Chien. In the early part of
his mature life he was an active and successful trader with the
Indians on the Upper Mississippi. He was a man of keen perceptions and
considerable ambition. He joined the British at the siege of Detroit,
and was an officer at the capture of Mackinaw. He was in command of a
company in the campaign of the British from Mackinaw to Prairie du
Chien, and aided in taking the American stockade. His early education
and associations inclined him to espouse the British cause during the
war of 1812, which he did with all the ardor and enthusiasm of his
nature. To his family he was kind and indulgent, giving his children
the best education possible. One daughter, married to Capt. Hoe, of
the United States army, was a very superior woman. One son, Joseph,
received all the aid that money could give, and might have risen to
distinction, but he early contracted intemperate habits which became
in later life tenaciously fixed. This son was at one time a member of
the Minnesota legislature. Joseph Rolette, Sr., died at Prairie du
Chien in 1842.
HERCULES DOUSMAN.--The leading Indian trader of the Upper Mississippi,
the prominent adviser at Indian treaties and payments and the trusted
agent of the American Fur Company, was Hercules Dousman, a keen,
shrewd man, and universally influential with the Indians, with whom it
might be said his word was law. He understood all the intricacies
involved in the Indian treaty and the half-breed annuities and
payments. His extended favors and credits to the Indians, properly
proven, of course, would be recognized and paid at the regular
payments. He accumulated through these agencies great wealth, which
he retained to his dying day. He came to Prairie du Chien, in the
employ of Joseph Rolette, in 1828. He afterward married the widow of
Rolette. He died in Prairie du Chien in 1878.
REV. DAVID LOWRY.--A noble, big hearted Kentuckian, a minister of the
Cumberland Presbyterian church, he was located by the government as
farmer and teacher of the Indians on Yellow river, near Prairie du
Chien, in 1833. For years this good man labored with unquestioned zeal
for the welfare of the untutored Indian. Mr. Lowry informed me, while
at his post, that he was fearful that all his labor was labor lost, or
worse than useless. The Indian pupil learned just enough to fit him
for the worst vices. The introduction of whisky was a corrupting
agency, in itself capable of neutralizing every effort for the moral
and intellectual advancement of the Indian, with whom intoxication
produces insanity. He felt quite disheartened as to the prospect of
accomplishing any good. He died at St. Cloud some time in the '50s.
CHIEF JUSTICE CHARLES DUNN.--When Wisconsin Territory was organized in
1836, Charles Dunn was appointed chief justice. He served as judge
until Wisconsin became a state in 1848. He was of Irish descent and
was born in Kentucky in 1799. He studied law in Kentucky and Illinois,
and was admitted to practice in 1820 at Jonesboro, Illinois. He was
chief clerk of the Illinois house of representatives five years. He
was one of the commissioners of the Illinois and Michigan canal. In
1829 he was one of a party which surveyed and platted the first town
of Chicago, and superintended the first sale of town lots there. He
was captain of a company during the Black Hawk War in 1832, and was
severely wounded through mistake by a sentinel on duty. In 1835 he was
a member of the Illinois house of representatives. In 1837, as judge,
he held his first court in Crawford county. In this court, in 1838,
indictments were found against certain individuals for selling liquor
to whites and Indians contrary to law, when, by evasions, continuances
and technicalities, the suits would go by the board. In one case the
charge given to the jury by this dignified and courteous Judge Dunn
was as follows: "Gentlemen of the Jury: Unless you are satisfied that
the defendants in this case did deal out, in clear, unadulterated
quantities, intoxicating drinks, it is your imperative duty to
discharge them." The jury, of course, discharged the defendants.
Aside from his drinking habits, which interfered much with his
usefulness, he was a genial gentleman and regarded by his associates
as an eminent jurist. He sometimes kept the court waiting till he
should become sober, and on one occasion came near losing his life in
a drunken spree. He jumped through an upper window of Tainter's hotel,
and escaped with only a broken leg. Judge Dunn was a member of the
second Wisconsin constitutional convention. He was state senator in
1853-4-5 and 6. He died at Mineral Point, April 7, 1872.