HISTORY OF THE CHIPPEWA VALLEY - CHAPTER 11


*****

Transcribed and contributed to the USGenWeb Archives by Timm
Severud Ondamitag@aol.com

Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm

*****

Faithful Record of all Important Events, Incidents, and
Circumstances that have Transpired in the Valley of the
Chippewa from its Earliest Settlement by White People,
Indian Treaties, Organization of the Territory and State;
Also of the Counties Embracing the Valley, Senatorial,
Assembly and Congressional Districts, and a Brief
Biographical Sketch of the Most Prominent Persons in the
Settlement of the Valley. BY Thomas E. Randall 1875.  Free
Press Print.  Eau Claire, Wisconsin

CHAPTER 11

The Reverend Dr. Brunson, of Prairie du Chien, whose able
contributions to the State Historical collections, and other
learned treatise mark his efforts as most thorough in
research, reliable in statement, and clear in delineation
writes under the date of June 26, as follows: "In your
history, Chapter 9, you speak of an ancient mound. This
reminds me of one I saw in 1842, between the Falls and Mr.
Warren's, where Chippewa City now stands, and as it has a
bit of history I will give it:"

"The mound, as near as I can recollect, was a mile or so
south of Mr. Warren's. It was round, or nearly so, some
thirty or forty feet in diameter, and four or five feet
high. In the center was a hole resembling a rifle pit. It
was this that attracted my attention, and led to inquiry.
There were a number of smaller ones in the vicinity, but I
only examined this one."

"Michael Cadotte, a brother of Mrs. Warren, told me that he
was born in the neighborhood, his father being a trader, and
his post some five miles below Warren's on the river. He was
then fifty-two years old, which would take his birth back to
1790. His father told him in after years, that during his
residence there, two years, the Sauks and Foxes came there
from below, to make war on the Chippewas, the Sauks from
Sauk Prairie, on the Wisconsin River, and the Foxes from
Prairie du Chien - and had their fight on the site of this
mound, and the neighboring timber and brush. He said the pit
in the large mound, and the pits in the smaller mounds, and
some in the open prairie were dug by the Sauks and Foxes,
from which they fought until being repulsed they retreated,
and never returned to fight the Chippewas again."

These mounds referred to by the Reverend Doctor, I have
frequently examined exteriorly, but am not aware that any
excavations have been made into or about them. It may be
that the traditional statements of Mr. Cadotte have some
foundations in truth, but I was inclined to thing that these
pits and mounds, and all the earthworks, and tumuli found in
the State, belong to a period more remote. And in support of
my views will quote from the same learned author, from the
Wisconsin Historical Collection Volume 4, page 225 "Early
Wisconsin History." "The earliest inhabitants of the
district now included within this State, of whom we have any
knowledge were the ancestors of the present Indians of this
vicinities, and from the best light I have been able to
obtain the subject form Indians traditions, and from the
earliest history of the country, the Dakota, or Sioux, were
occupants and owners of the soil, of what is now our entire
State, together with Minnesota, and the northern part of
Illinois and Iowa."

"This occupancy can be traced back for about two hundred and
fifty years, and if the growth of the trees on the mounds,
indicate at least four hundred years to the time of the
mound builders, be a true index, it is very strange that the
Sioux have no traditions of them, as there would have been
but one hundred and fifty years between them. This makes it
probable that the time of the mound builders is further back
in the world's history that is generally supposed." If the
date referred to by Cadotte were the period in which these
mounds were constructed, we should certainly find in and
about them articles of European manufacture, but in scarcely
any hog them have any such articles been found. Carver
always refers to them as the works of an extinct race, who,
most likely, cultivated the soil and lived in towns and
villages.

Having made frequent mention of this traveler and author, as
premising that many perhaps most of my readers, in this
valley are not familiar with his narrations and the claim
set up by his heirs to the ownership of the soil, on which
we live, I trust I shall be excused for a more extended
notice of him.

The maps of the United States have for nearly half a century
(until within a short time past) had in the delineation of
this quarter of the country always upon them certain lines,
embracing a large district of territory denominated
"Carver's Tract."

WHO HE WAS

Jonathan Carver was a native of Connecticut, born in 1732,
entered the British Army as an ensign, and rose to the rank
of captain, a brave soldier, a man of integrity and high
moral worth, and possessing energy and enterprise.

He left Montreal early in the spring of 1767, attended by a
small retinue of French and half-breed voyageurs and soon
found himself at Green Bay, where was a settlement of French
traders, and a mission, went up the Fox and down the
Wisconsin, spent some time at Prairie du Chien, also a
French Trading post, and wintered at Wabasha, and other
points on Lake Pepin. It is proper to state that a share of
expense of this expedition was borne by himself, and he
published the result of his observation in London on his
return in which he gives an account of the continual wars
going on between the Naudowisses as he calls the Sioux and
the Chippewas. States that he was very successful in
negotiating a peace between the principle chiefs of the
former, paid great deference to him and insisted on his
returning to them to establish a trade with them. But not
one word does he say of the grant of land which his heirs
and legal representatives set up a claim to, as having been
obtained from two of those chiefs, a deed, or rather a copy
of a deed for which over their signature was produced, the
original as was claimed being in Carver's own hand writing
in which it was set forth on account of their good brother
Jonathan's judicious conduct in acting as mediator between
these two nations, and of their friendship and attachment
for him. We the chiefs of the Naudowisses do grant to the
said Jonathan, &etc., the whole certain tract or territory
of land bounded as follows: "Beginning at St. Anthony Falls,
running along the east bank of the Mississippi River, to
where the Chippewa joins the same, thence eastward five days
travel, thence north six days travel and from thence again
to the Falls of St. Anthony, on a direct straight line."

A map of the country as drawn by Captain Carver accompanied
this deed, the signature to which was for one chief a mud
turtle, the other a snake or lizard, and is dated at the
great cave council room, on the first of May 1767. The names
of no witnesses are appended.

Captain Carver died in 1780, and the only special interest
to us which attaches to his narrative or the aforesaid deed
grows out of the claims and pretensions set up by one
Reverend Doctor Peters, and a physician named Lettson his
legal heirs, who in 1806, went before Congress and made
affidavit that this grant he been recognized by King George
III, 1775, that a commission was granted, and means provided
to enable Carver with 150 men to return to America and take
possession of his domain and take possession of his domain,
all of which was suddenly frustrated by the news of the
Battle of Lexington, and praying Congress by virtue of the
British King's approval to renew the grant to them, Carver's
legal heirs.

These claims were backed up by pertinacious arguments, and
positive affidavits, but Congress could not see it, and the
whole pretentious claim fell to the ground. Had their title
been verified, certain Englishmen would have gotten
possession of this whole valley, without advancing money on
bond or mortgage to build a railroad through it, as certain
other Englishmen have done by virtue of a certain other
grant of land, made not by the Chiefs of the Naudowisses,
but by their great father, Uncle Sam.