CHAPTERS
I. Descriptive
1
II. The Indians
8
III. Early Settlement
16
IV. Growth and Foreign Immigration
32
V. Means of Communication
42
VI. Marine
55
VII. Railroads
85
VIII. Military
112
IX. Politics
133
X. Village and City Government
167
XI. Churches
183
XII. Societies and Organizations
227
XIII. Education
243
XIV. The Press
255
XV. The Professions
278
XVI. Banks and Banking
281
XVII Business and Industry
288
Errata and additions
316
Appendixes
293(A), 294(B), 300(C), 313(D)
Index
P 8 - CHAPTER II - THE INDIANS.
How far back the American Indian dates in history is altogether a matter of
speculation. And yet Manitowoc like most other American communities is interested
in such a discussion, for the very name of the river and county suggest the race
which gave them an appellation. Various significations have been given to the word
by Indian philologists, but the best seems to be that it is an abbreviation of the
form Munedoowk, which in Ojibway and Chippewa means "habitation of the good spirit".
It was originally applied to the river and as early as 1844 Lapham in his
"Wisconsin" speaks of it as signifying "the river of spirits" and the territorial
legislature very wisely applied this aboriginal name to the civil division which it
formed in 1836. Whether good or evil spirits were intended was long a subject of
controversy but in a letter to the Prairie du Chien Verdict in June 1847, A. Benson,
an authority on Indian languages, seems to have settled on the former interpretation
and it has since been followed. He also stated that in his opinion the change from
the original Ojibway word was due to the misunderstanding of it by the Menomonees
and those tribes who later inhabited the region. What legend or story may have been
connected with the name is wrapped in mystery but, knowing Indian nature, as modern
students do, it seems certain that there must have been one. Other names in the
county also afford a field for philological study. Mishicott has been translated as
meaning "hairy leg", Meeme as signifying "pigeon" and Neshoto as an Indian name for
"twins", a name suggested by the rivers of which it was one.
P 9
Whether or not the mound builders existed in the county also gives rise to
interesting speculation. Certain mounds and implements have been found at various
places in the southern part and in Sheboygan County. These have borne a resemblance
to simple breastworks, being about four feet in height and twelve feet in width at
the base. Little investigation, however, has been made concerning these primeval
inhabitants in this portion of the state. Whatever may be true concerning them, of
a tribe of Indians, more ancient than those with whom the first white settlers came
in contact, traces have been found. Particularly is this true on the shores of the
lake northeast of Two Rivers, where at various times numerous remains have been
discovered. In June 1893 mounds were opened which contained six skeletons and many
copper implements, all of which were sent to the Smithsonian Institute for
preservation. H. C. Hamilton of Two Rivers has been an indefatigable collector of
these relics of an earlier race and the size of his gatherings betokens the
existence of many an ancient community within the confines of the present county.
It has also been said that the Indians, who in the early forties resided near Two
Rivers traced their lineage to this more ancient and, it seems, more aristocratic
tribe of aborigines. The former, although extremely poverty-stricken, despised the
reservation Indians and lived wholly by fishing along the Mishicott and Neshoto
Rivers.
Who, if any, of the early French explorers ever touched upon what is now Manitowoc
County also lies in the realms of mystery. Many of them coasted the shores of the
lake and it may not be impossible that they landed at the mouth of the little river,
where so natural a harbor was afforded. Marquette and Joliet, the very first among
these adventurers, are said to have skirted the lake from the Illinois line to Green
Bay in 1673 and it is not improbable that their voyage was frequently punctuated by
landings on Wisconsin soil. However that may be, a century passed before the first
specific reference was made to the region. During this time, however, a remarkable
shifting of the Indian population of Wisconsin was taking place. The inhabitants of
the eastern part
P 10
in the seventeenth century had been Foxes, Sacs and Mascoutins, but in a report to
the secretary of war made by Jedediah Morse in 1822 it is said: "Major Swan informed
me on the authority of Co. Bwyer and an old Ottawa chief, living at Mainitouwauk,
the river of the bad spirits, that more than a century ago (before 1717) the Fox and
Sac Indians, who were then inhabitants of the country on Green Bay and Fox River
were conquered and driven away by the Menomonees, aided by the Ottawas and Chippewas,
that the Menomonees held the country by conquest and that their title is admitted to
be good by the Sacs, Foxes, Chippewas and Ottowas." This authority, nevertheless,
did not seem to extend as fully towards the lake as it did westward, for within the
present limits of the county there was a conglomeration of tribes, consisting of
Ottawas, Menomonees, Winnebagoes, and Pottawatamies. All of them with the single
exception of the Winnebagoes, were of the Algonquin stock and before 1830 this tribe
had disappeared from the county and the other tribes had coalesced to a great
extent. The presence of these aborigines in large numbers along the shores had
attracted the attention of the hardy French "couriers du bois" and it is by one of
these that the first printed reference to any point in Manitowoc County is to be
found. One Samuel Robertson in 1779 undertook a voyage on Lake Michigan on the
British vessel Felicity and embodied his experiences in a book called "A Voyage On
Lake Michigan." On Thursday November 4th of that year, while off the present site
of Milwaukee he wrote: "The Indians also told us that they had sent for Monsieur
Fay, who is at a place called Twin Rivers, eighteen leagues north of Milwaukee; he
had two canoes of goods from the committee, but he said it was against his orders
to go among them, and they supposed so as no trader had ever entered at that place."
This somewhat obscure reference seems to indicate that there was an understanding
between Fay and the British, who were then in authority, as indeed had most of the
French traders in both the war of the Revolution and that of 1812. This Monsieur Fay
is said to have been located at Twin Rivers at intervals until 1780.
P 11
The next heard of Manitowoc was in 1795, when the Northwestern Fur Company sent one
Jacques Vieau, sometimes known as Jean Vieau, from Mackinac to establish trading
posts at various points on Lake Michigan. Accompanied by his family and a clerk,
named Michel de Pelleau, this hardy Frenchman proceeded as far as a point where Two
Creeks now stands and there, making a landing and strapping their packs on their
backs, the party marched overland in a southwesterly direction to a point, where a
little stream, christened Mauvais (Bad) Creek, a tributary of the East Twin, enters
that river. On Section 27, of what is now the town of Gibson, a trading post was
erected and an agent left in charge, after which Vieau detoured to the lake, skirted
the shores until the Manitowoc River was reached and, ascending it to a point near
the Rapids, another post was established. Then resuming his journey southward he
visited the present sites of both Sheboygan and Milwaukee. The next spring Vieau and
his family returned to Mackinac gathering furs and skins enroute. These annual trips
were made for many years and Solomon Juneau, the founder of Milwaukee, was one of
Vieau's clerks in 1818. The settlement was of an intermittent character, however,
and the only important results seem to have been the familiarization of the Indian,
by contact, with his white brother. The Indians were numerous in the region and must
have afforded a lucrative field for exploitations. Says Colonel Abram Edwards in
"Western Reminiscence", in which he described a journey on the lake: "At Twin Rivers
and Manitowoc the shore of the lake was lined with Indians--, near Manitowoc many
were out in canoes spearing whitefish".
At about this time travel began to utilize old Indian trails in finding a way from
Green Bay to the east and in that way many army officers passed through the county.
In 1821 the first tragedy enacted in the county took place, in which an American
army surgeon was murdered by a savage. Dr. Madison, stationed at Green Bay early in
that year received leave of absence to visit his family in Kentucky and taking two
soldiers with him started for the south. The story
P 12
is told by Col. Ebenezer Childs in Volume V of the Wisconsin historical Collections
as follows: "When near Manitowoc and the soldiers a short distance in front on foot,
the doctor was shot from his horse, the whole charge lodging in the back of his
neck.
The soldiers instantly returned and found him badly wounded, whereupon one of them
mounted the doctor's horse and returned to Green Bay for help. A number of officers
and soldiers started for Manitowoc, but when they arrived the doctor was dead. There
were no Indians to be seen and they carried the body to Green Bay for interment. It
was some time before the murderer was taken; he was sent to Detroit for trial
together with another Indian, who had killed a Frenchman about the same time. I had
to go as a witness; both Indians were found guilty and executed at Detroit." The
murderer of Dr. Madison was named Ketaukah; he was Chippewa and no motive was ever
ascribed for the crime.
The next known reference to the region was made in 1825, when Colonel W. G.
Hamilton traversed the trail and in a description given of his journey he remarks
that there was no settlement between Milwaukee and Manitowoc and one at Two
Rivers of different tribes, mixed peoples, Chippewas, Ottawas, Menomonees and
Pottawatamies. These villages were again mentioned by Morgan L. Martin two years
later in descriptions of a journey through the region. These Indians seem to have
been well disposed, and traded with the travelers. From 1826 for seven succeeding
years two wanderers, Moses Sein and Isaac Haertel made annual visits to the mouth
of the Manitowoc to secure furs and peltries in return for the trinkets and bawbles,
so fascinating to the Indian eye. Colonel Childs of Green Bay passed through the
county in 1827 with a drove of cattle designed for use at that post. Five years
later Joshua L. Boyd was licensed by the Indian agent at Green Bay to trade with
two tribes residing on the lake and took out an outfit worth $117.89. He was,
however, murdered for refusing to give credit to a Chippewa.
Thus matters stood when in 1833 the Pottawatamies and
P 13
Menomonees by the Treaty of Chicago deeded away all the lands at the mouths of the
various rivers emptying into Lake Michigan. The Manitowoc Indians were represented
by Waumegesako, the chief of the mixed tribes at the mouth of the river, of whose
connection with the early settlers more will be said. The Indians, notwithstanding
the cession of their land to the settlers remained in considerable numbers about
Manitowoc County, fishing in the summer and hunting in the winter. In the early
thirties also a few, mainly Chippewas, began the cultivation of the land near Cato
Falls, the women raising meager crops of maize. It was over these Indians that
chief Waumegesako or Mexico ruled, a man of great intelligence and a sincere friend
of the whites. The first permanent settlers saw little of the aborigines but a few
years later the latter returned to their hunts and by 1840 were more numerous than
the whites. The first Indian scare occurred in 1842, when it was reported by a
drunken squaw that the Cato Falls Indians were planning a massacre to take place
in two weeks. Immediately preparations were made for defense, the mill hands armed
and bullets molded. A Frenchman by the name of Pat Thebieau and E. L. Abbott
volunteered to act as scouts but found nothing suspicious. Finally Chief Mexico
came into the village of Rapids and reassured the settlers. At this time the
Indians had not become the physical degenerates that whiskey later made them, many
of the Pottawatamies being of noble proportions. Mexico was greatly respected by the
settlers and received a medal from the government for settling numerous disputes.
This medal, which was worth about fifteen dollars, was often pawned by the redskin
for necessities but was always scrupulously redeemed. The chief was a signer in the
treaties of Butte des Morts in 1827, and Green Bay, entered into the following year.
His picture was painted by an Irish artist, George P. Healy, and a copy was
presented in 1857 to the Wisconsin Historical Art Gallery. It shows an aged man,
clad in the usual garb of a chief, with considerable strength of character evidenced
in his tawny face. The old leader died in 1844 and was buried by the settlers with
due honors in the town of Rapids, at a point overlooking the river.
P 14
The gathering of wild rice was the favorite occupation of the Indians during the
forties and early fifties and camps along the rivers were numerous. Then, too, the
band of fishers near Two Rivers eked out their precarious existence, under the lead
of their chief, Old Katoose. These latter aborigines were often quite lawless,
particularly when under the influence of liquor and many were the scares they gave
the settlers. In the southwestern part of the county also there was a band of
Menomonees, under the leadership of a chief named Soloman, which maintained a
planting ground in Schleswig as late as 1859. Another such cemetery was situated
in the present town of Gibson on what was later the Smith farm, while others were
found near Cato and Two Rivers. Across the line in Calumet County the Indians were
very numerous, particularly along the upper course of the Manitowoc. The nearness
of the early settlers to these redskins must have added strange color to the pioneer
life of the county. The deadly enemies of the Indians, which led to his gradual
extermination in Manitowoc County, were three in number, whiskey, cholera and
smallpox. The cholera attacked the various tribes in 1850 and drove many of them out
of the county, while the indulgence in "fire water," led to a fatal end in many
cases. All of the eastern Wisconsin tribes left or were exterminated in the course
of time, except the Menomonees, who still have been retained within the borders of
the state on a reservation near Shawano. It must be here remembered that Calumet
County Indians were not natives but importations from New York, which was also true
of the Oneidas in Brown County.
As late as 1862 Manitowoc in common with other Wisconsin communities suffered from
an Indian scare, so long had the redskin been the "bete noir" of pioneer life. It
was in the darkest days of the Civil War, when gloomy forebodings were natural and
the scare came on the heels of the news of the Indian massacres in Minnesota. It
was on the morning of September 2nd, that rumors flew through the county that the
Indians were coming. The report seemed to come from the westward and gained credence
as it passed from
P 15
mouth to mouth. At the village of Branch where the fright seems to have progressed
so far as to assume the size of a panic it was said that a few miles to the west
the redskins were mercilessly robbing, pillaging and murdering. Families gathered
together their valuables and made haste towards the county seat. The terror
manifested was something most curious and many were seized by it despite their
incredulity and their knowledge that there were none but a few peacable Indians in
the vicinity. A few men, scoffing at all fears, remained in the little settlements,
but all the women and children, even the sick, were transported hurriedly to town.
Here, too, panic reigned for the influx of the terror-stricken seemed to have driven
the inhabitants into a frenzy. The first to bring the news of the uprising were
settlers from the Branch. Although the reports were somewhat discredited, doubt
soon turned to belief when a boy rushed to town, reporting that a comrade had been
captured a mile from the village. Preparations were then made for defense; some
gathered at the Court House, while the women prepared boiling water, with which to
overwhelm the invaders; others spoke of boarding vessels and sailing out into the
lake, while still others formed companies to spy upon the enemy. It was one of these
parties that had frightened the boy, who spread the later alarm, into believing that
a comrade had been captured. This party returned, reporting having seen Indians but
it was later revealed that the supposed foes were but another band of skulking
villagers, searching for the elusive redskins. Reports came from Kellnersville of
a terrible massacre at that place. Several hundred men marched from Manitowoc to
the scene of carnage but on arriving found it to be a hoax. By this time it was
ascertained that the entire scare had been without cause and the settlements soon
took up their routine existence, albeit somewhat shamefaced over the affair. This
may well form an end to a chapter on Indian life in Manitowoc County, for in a few
years there were none of the race left within its confines.