THE QUESTION BOX
The Wisconsin Historical Library has long maintained a bureau of historical information for the benefit of those who care to avail themselves of the service it offers. In “The Question Box” will be printed from time to time such queries, with the answers made to them, as possess sufficient general interest to render their publication worth while.
DANIEL WEBSTER’S WISCONSIN INVESTMENTS
I have received the Wisconsin History Bulletin[95] for August. It would be interesting to know just how much money Daniel Webster gave for lots in Madison, for lands throughout this state and Iowa, for capital stock in the railway company from LaFontaine and what the evidence of such payment is. Not that I am disposed to charge the godlike Daniel with graft, at least no more than his associates and compeers were chargeable with at that period.
W. A. P. Morris,
Madison, Wisconsin.
So far as we can ascertain, Webster’s investments, or speculations, in Wisconsin property were perfectly legitimate and not influenced by political considerations. In his own account thereof, after saying that he wished to resign, and was not permitted to do so, he says: “So, seei’g, then, that I must do something with a view to future means of liv’g I entered on Western investments, partly in company with Col. Perkins, partly in a company of which Gov. Cass was Chief, and partly on my own account. These investments were made by faithful & careful agents, principally in agricultural lands of excellent quality, in Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, & Wisconsin. Prospects of profit seemed fair, at the time, & I purchased as far as means & credit would go.”
George Wallace Jones, in his Autobiography, tells of walking along a street in Washington soon lafter the erection of Wisconsin Territory, of which he was congressional delegate. Webster overtook
him, invited him to his house, and entered into conversation with him on the subject of investments. Jones became one of Webster’s agents. In cooperation with Webster he made about $20,000 and Webster sold his holdings to the United States bank of Philadelphia for $50,000. Jones states that Webster owed him $15,000 when he died, but as he had made a good thing by him, he never pressed the debt.
With regard to the Madison investment, the amount should be $3,000 and not $5,000 (this was a typographical error). In the biography of Jones is a reference to a letter dated December 24, 1836 from Judge Doty speaking of the association of proprietors for Madison and stating that these were twenty-four in number, each of whom paid in $100. By February, 1837, the dividends on the sales were $170 a share. On the strength of this showing, Jones sold his share to Webster for “about $3,000.”
The only thing that looks like political influence is in connection with the entries of mineral lands in southwestern Wisconsin. Moses M. Strong, whose papers are in the Society’s possession, came to Wisconsin in 1836 as the agent of Hon. Henry Hubbard, United States senator from New Hampshire, and made large investments for him and some of his friends. Part of the entries made by Strong for Hubbard were upon reserved mineral lands, which were not open to general entry, but were leased by the government. Hubbard tried to get some decision, the precise nature of which is not evident, from the United States land commissioner, concerning these mineral lands, and in the course of his correspondence with Strong he mentions Webster’s name, and says he will see the commissioner. There is no evidence that this was in any way an improper proceeding or influence.
As George W. Jones was Webster’s agent in southwestern Wisconsin, Morgan L. Martin seems to have been his agent in the eastern part of the state. In the early part of 1837 Martin went east to be married and incidentally arranged what business he could. In New York he met Webster and interested him in the lands along Fox River and upon Lake Winnebago, describing the projected railroad from La Fontaine, a “paper” city on Fox River, to Winnebago City, another of like importance on the northeastern shore of Lake Winnebago. This railroad, if built, would have been
thirteen miles in length, and was planned to transport freight around the Winnebago Rapids at what is now Neenah. This La Fontaine Railroad Company was the first in the Territory to secure a charter, which was granted by the legislature at Belmont, December 3, 1836. Martin succeeded in firing the imagination of Webster by his description of the importance of the Fox-Wisconsin waterway, and March 24, 1837, Webster wrote him from New York to invest $5,000 in the stock of the railroad (Wisconsin Mss. 5C83). June 28, 1837 Martin replied (Ibid, 110) saying that the capital stock was $50,000 “of which we do not think it necessary to call in over one-half. Doty took 20. I put you down for 10 & took the balance myself. I conceived you would prefer that amount since it would only require to be paid the sum for which you authorize me to draw on you.” Martin goes on to discuss the liberal terms of the charter, which they were planning to have amended by still more liberal provisions at the next legislature. He discusses land grants along the right of way. The engineer they expect has not yet arrived. He closes with a cordial invitation to Webster to visit Green Bay and be his guest.
The negotiation seems to have ended at this point. The panic of 1837 came on and Martin was badly hampered by his connections with the bank of Green Bay and by his large speculative enterprises. No action was ever taken on the railway charter, and in all probability Webster was never called upon for his subscription to the company’s stock.
[95] This contained a short article on “Daniel Webster a Wisconsin Investor.”
NAMES PROPOSED FOR A NEW TOWN
We would appreciate it if you would let us know where we can get some information relative to the early history of Wisconsin, especially that part of the state through which the Chippewa River flows. We would like to get the names of some early explorers and Indian chiefs that make a part of the history of Sawyer County. Or, could you give us a number of names that you think would be typical of the region referred to that would make a good name for a small village?
Wisconsin Colonization Company,
Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
We have looked somewhat into the matter suggested in your letter of May 17 and have the following suggestions to make in connection with it.
First, since Sawyer County is drained by the Chippewa River, and since the first person of the English race who is known to have visited that region was the famous traveler, Jonathan Carver, the name Carver would seem to be an appropriate one for the village you have in mind.
Second, the first resident fur traders of Sawyer County were the Warren brothers and John Baptiste Corbin. Either Warren or Corbin would seem to us to make a good name for the town. Either name would also be easy to spell and sufficiently euphonious.
Third, if an Indian name is desired, the first important Chippewa chief of this region was Sha-da-wish. Among his descendants were Ka-ka-ke, Labudee, Mon-so-ne, and Ke-dug-a-be-shew. The last two names mentioned mean respectively moose tail and spotted lynx.
ORIGIN OF THE WORD “WINNEQUAH”
Can you give me any information concerning the origin and historical significance of the name “Winnequah,” applied to the point projecting into Lake Monona?
Frederick Brandenburg,
Madison, Wisconsin.
The site of Winnequah was originally known as Strawberry Point, Squaw Point, Old Indian Garden, and Wood’s Point. It was the village home for the Lake Monona Winnebago, and when Madison was first built it was occupied by Abraham Wood, who had a Winnebago chief’s daughter for his squaw. She was one of the illustrious family of Decorah, and her father was chief of the band in the vicinity of Portage. In 1835 William B. Long and Abraham Wood entered the fifty-two acres of the point in the Mineral Point land office, and three years later, March 24, 1838, transferred their interest to Col. William B. Slaughter. After this transaction Wood moved to Poynette. Slaughter kept the land as an investment. Thomas B. Sutherland, one of the founders of the State Historical Society, was wont to relate his experiences as surveyor in 1835 when he spent some time at the Indian village at Strawberry Point. The name “Winnequah” was bestowed upon the point some time in the late sixties by Capt. Francis (Frank) Barnes who ran a steamboat line on Lake Monona. Barnes had a fancy for odd names; one of his boats was named the “Scutanaubequon.” He built a dancing hall on the point and fitted
it up for picnic parties and seems to have invented the word “Winnequah.” At least, its meaning is not to be found among the Winnebago vocabularies, nor is it susceptible of any interpretation except that it is made up of Winnebago Squaw Point. Barnes carried on his steamboat line from 1866 to 1873 or 1874, perhaps later. The Madison directory for 1877-78 lists him as “captain of tug.” The owner of Strawberry Point—to revert to its first name—from 1868 or earlier was N. W. Dean. He seems to have rented or leased the land to Barnes for his picnic grounds.
THE DISCOVERY OF LAKE SUPERIOR
In Volume Seven of the American Nation Mr. Thwaites states (page 52) that Lake Superior was discovered in 1616. All other secondary accounts give 1629. Can you tell me whether or not the date 1616 is a misprint? If not where can I get the information about its discovery?
E. G. Doudna,
Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
The dates of the discoveries of the several great lakes are not definitely known, and there is no uniformity of statement concerning their first exploration. Dr. Thwaites’s works reflect this uncertainty. In the American Nation volume to which you refer he was inclined to accept the theory of Etienne Brulé’s exploration of Lake Superior, and thought it might have occurred after his journey to the Susquehanna in 1615, and before his return in 1618 to Quebec. Therefore he gives the date as 1616. In his Wisconsin, published in 1908, he appears to have rejected the theory of Brulé’s explorations, and states that Jean Nicolet in 1634 was probably the discoverer of Lake Superior. In his school History of the United States (Boston, 1912) he shows his doubt by giving “about 1629” as the date of the discovery. Not all secondary accounts give the date as 1629. Our own opinion is that there is no authority for this date, and that it arises from a misinterpretation of Edward J. Neill’s statement in Justin Winsor’s Narrative and Critical History of America, IV, 165. One of the latest histories of the Great Lakes (Channing and Lansing’s The Story of the Great Lakes, New York, 1909) gives no date for the discovery of Lake Superior, but assigns 1610 to the first white man’s voyage on Lake Huron, five years earlier than the traditional one of 1615 for
Champlain’s first voyage. The whole matter turns on the career of Etienne Brulé, one of the youths selected by Champlain to reside among the Indians and learn their language. His adventures were first discussed in detail in C. W. Butterfield’s, Brulé’s Explorations and Discoveries (Cleveland, 1898). A more recent discussion in French, by the eminent Canadian authority Benjamin Sulte, appeared in the Canadian Royal Society Proceedings and Transactions, 3d. series, vol. 1, section 1, 97-125. Butterfield and Sulte substantially agree, and both consider that Etienne Brulé with a companion named Grenolle probably visited Lake Superior and explored it in 1622-23. The evidence is somewhat circumstantial, and the point may never be determined; but Champlain must have had some information, aside from that furnished by the Indians, for upon his map of 1632 appears the outline of Lake Superior entering Lake Huron by the “Sault de Gaston,” as he calls the present Sault Ste. Marie. If one rejects the evidence of Brulé’s voyage, which rests upon inference chiefly, the date 1629 is the last one in which Champlain could have obtained his information for his map published in 1632, since he was deported by English conquerors from his colony in the former year, and did not return until 1633.
Next to Brulé must be placed Jean Nicolet, who visited the Sault in 1634; whether he ascended the strait to the lake itself is conjectural. Then in 1641 came the great gathering of Indians attended by the Jesuit fathers, Jogues and Raymbault. (See L. P. Kellogg’s Early Narratives of the Northwest, New York, 1917, 19-25). The first description of Lake Superior is given by Pierre Esprit Radisson in his Journal. The probable date of his voyage thereon is 1661, but Father René Ménard arrived at Keweenaw Bay in the autumn of 1660.
It appears probable that the date of the discovery of Lake Superior cannot be determined with accuracy, and must remain uncertain unless scholars accept the conclusions of Butterfield and Sulte concerning Brulé. The same is true of the discovery of the upper Mississippi; it has been claimed for Nicolet in 1634, for Radisson in 1659, for La Salle in 1669, all antedating the voyage of Jolliet and Marquette in 1673. The truth is that from the beginning of French settlement on the St. Lawrence there was much roving
to the sources of the great river. Many of these coureurs des bois were brave and courageous explorers, but they kept no records. It is thus dogmatic to say that the visit of the first white man to any given point occurred on such or such a date. We can only say when the first records were made describing such an event. The records for the voyage of Brulé and Grenolle in 1622 have not yet been universally accepted.
THE POTAWATOMI DURING THE REVOLUTION: FATHER ALLOUEZ AMONG THE KICKAPOO
I am sending you some more letters from Quitos. In one of these letters he refers to War Chief Thunder fighting with George Washington against the Canadians. I would like to find out what fight that was. Can you tell me?
I would also like to find out whether Fathers Dablon and Claude Allouez visited the Kickapoo Indians on Milwaukee River in 1670 a few years before Jolliet and Marquette discovered the Mississippi. I have seen something to this effect somewhere.
A. Gerend,
Cato, Wisconsin.
It is an interesting fact that the Potawatomi of the west shore of Lake Michigan, notably those of Milwaukee, and probably those farther north, under the influence of Siggenauk or the Blackbird made a treaty at Cahokia, Illinois, with George Rogers Clark in September, 1778, and were thereafter for a time American allies. There was no actual service under Gen. George Washington, but the chiefs probably received medals or certificates in his name, and thus considered themselves fighting under his care. The Potawatomi returned to the British allegiance later, and opposed the Americans during all of the Indian wars. If our surmise of what Quitos means about Old Thunder is correct, it is a remarkable instance of the persistence of tradition concerning an American alliance, and a corroboration of Col. George Rogers Clark’s testimony about the attitude of the Milwaukee Potawatomi. Clark calls the two chiefs Saguina or “Mr. Black Bird and Nakiowin, two chiefs of the Bands of the sotairs [Chippewa] and Outaway Nation bordering on Lake Michigan and the River St. Joseph.” De Peyster, the British commandant at Mackinac, speaks in his poem or rhymed chronicle of
1779 of “Those runagates at Milwakie” and calls them in a footnote “A horrid set of refractory Indians.” Thus in the Revolution, while most of the Wisconsin Indians were strong British supporters, the mixed band of Chippewa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi west of Lake Michigan were American sympathizers.
With regard to your second question: There is no record in the Jesuit Relations of any visit of Allouez and Dablon to Milwaukee in 1670. Such a statement was made before Dr. Thwaites’s edition of the Jesuit Relations appeared. Upon the publication in English of the exact text of the Relations it was seen that Allouez visited the Kickapoo in 1670 (not accompanied by Dablon) at their village four leagues (about fifteen miles) from the Mascouten village which was near the site of the modern Berlin, on the upper Fox River. Thus it was impossible for the Kickapoo village to have been at Milwaukee. It is quite probable that Perrot and other traders may have been at Milwaukee and along the shore of Lake Michigan before Jolliet and Marquette, but there is no recorded voyage before theirs.
THE INDIAN TRIBES OF IOWA
Please send me the name and history of any or all the Indian tribes that at first occupied the state of Iowa. Also give me the name and history of any Indian tribe that once lived for a time, either long or short, in Iowa.
Daniel McKenna,
Charles City, Iowa.
The Indian tribes who are known to have dwelt in Iowa since historic times are the following:
The Illinois were found there by Marquette and Jolliet in 1673, but returned to the east side of the Mississippi in a few years.
The Iowa (name spelled in a great variety of ways, as Aiouais, Aoyest, Ayoes, Ayouez) were a Siouan or a Dakotan tribe found on the Des Moines River about the close of the seventeenth century.
The Sioux, whose eastern and southern branches extended into northern Iowa, where they were known to the whites in the late seventeenth century. The Kickapoo and Mascouten, allied tribes, driven from Wisconsin into Iowa about 1728. The Kickapoo soon removed; a few of the Mascouten lingered and gave their name to Muscatine.
The Sauk and Foxes, who after their defeat in Wisconsin in 1733 became allied tribes, and made their home thereafter chiefly in Iowa. Their villages in 1805 were along the Mississippi from Des Moines Rapids to Turkey River. By a treaty of 1842 they were to remove from Iowa; many came back and wandered on the Iowa and Des Moines rivers until they purchased lands in Tama County where they still dwell, now called the Musquakie or Meskwaki Indians.
The Winnebago who removed from Wisconsin after the treaty of 1837 to northeastern Iowa where they had a school and agency on Yellow River. In 1848 they were removed to Minnesota. The Omaha or Maha Indians lived in northwestern Iowa when Lewis and Clark ascended the Missouri in 1804. In 1830 they ceded their lands to the United States which in 1833 ceded a portion to the allied Chippewa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi tribes. Most of those who lived on this reservation from about 1835 to 1846 were Potawatomi.
For further history of these tribes apply to the Iowa Department of History at Des Moines, Edgar R. Harlan, curator.