Prairie du Chien Wisconsin Archives

Location: Prairie du Chien Wisconsin

Black Hawk’s War – Indian Wars

Posted by Kristin | Jan 4, 2014 | District of Columbia, Illinois, Military, Native American, Wisconsin |

We have now to record the events of a war “which brought one of the noblest of Indians to the notice and admiration of the people of the United States. Black Hawk was an able and patriotic chief. With the intelligence and power to plan a great project, and to execute it, he united the lofty spirit which secures the respect and confidence of a people. He was born about the year 1767, on Rock river, Illinois. At the age of fifteen he took a scalp from the enemy, and was in consequence promoted by his tribe to the...

Treaty of August 1, 1829

Posted by Dennis | May 31, 2013 | Native American |

Articles of a treaty made and concluded at the Village of Prairie du Chien, Michigan Territory, on this first day of August, in the year one thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine, between the United States of America, by their Commissioner, General John M’Neil, Colonel Pierre Menard, and Caleb Atwater, Esq., for and on behalf of said States, of the one part, and the Nation of Winnebaygo Indians of the other part. Article I. The said Winnebaygo nation hereby, forever, cede and relinquish to the said United States, all their right, title, and claim, to the lands and country contained within the following limits and boundaries, to wit: beginning on Rock River, at the mouth of the Pee-kee-tau-no or Pee-kee-tol-a-ka, a branch thereof; thence, up the Pee-kee-tol-a-ka, to the mouth of Sugar Creek; thence, up the said creek, to the source of the Eastern branch thereof; thence, by a line running due North, to the road leading from the Eastern blue mound, by the most Northern of the four lakes, to the portage of the Wisconsin and Fox rivers; thence, along the said road, to the crossing of Duck Creek; thence, by a line running in a direct course to the most Southeasterly bend of Lake Puck-a-way, on Fox River; thence, up said Lake and Fox River, to the Portage of the Wisconsin; thence, across said portage, to the Wisconsin...

Biography of Francis Xavier Paquet

Posted by Dennis | Mar 31, 2013 | Illinois, Oregon, Wisconsin |

FRANCIS X. PAQUET. – Francis Xavier Paquet, son of Joseph Paquet and Marie Madaline Godant, was born in the parish of Saint John, about thirty miles west of Quebec, at the junction of the Jacquarka river with the St. Lawrence. Joseph Paquet was a stonemason by trade, but lived on a farm and took jobs of stonework. He was the father of eighteen children, nine boys and nine girls. F.X. Paquet, the sixteenth child in order, was born on the fifteenth day of January, 1811. He learned the trade of shipbuilding at Quebec, being apprenticed to Peter Labbe when not quite fourteen years of age. When seventeen years of age, he emigrated to the Untied States, engaging himself to the American Fur Company, to go to Mackinaw and construct a schooner for said company. After the schooner was completed he took charge of her and engaged in boating wood from Linwood Island and Round Island, and also made a trip to Chicago to get oak timber for staves and for building small boats called Mackinaw boats. This schooner was named Eliza Stewart, after the wife of Robert Stewart, who was the head man of the American Fur Company at Mackinaw at that time. That was in 1828. Old man Beaubien was then head man at what was afterwards Chicago, and which then consisted of three or four small log...

Illinois Indian Land

Posted by Dennis | Feb 17, 2013 | Illinois, Michigan, Native American, Wisconsin |

With the rapid increase of a white population between the Lakes and the Mississippi, which followed the conclusion of hostilities with England and her Indian allies, new difficulties began to arise between the natives and the settlers. Illinois and Wisconsin were inhabited by various tribes of Indians, upon terms of bitter hostility among themselves, but united in their suspicions and apprehensions at the unprecedented inroads of emigrants from the east. The Winnebago, dwelling in Wisconsin; the Pottawatomie, situated around the southern extremity of Lake Michigan; and the Sac, (afterwards mingled with the Foxes, and usually coupled with that tribe,)...

Menominee Indians

Posted by Dennis | Jun 16, 2012 | Michigan, Native American, Wisconsin |

Menominee Indians were located on and near the Menominee River, Wisconsin, and in Michigan on or about the present location of Mackinac. The Menominee belonged to the Algonquian linguistic family and to the same section as the Cree and Foxes.

Winnebago Mission School and Trading Post

Posted by Dennis | Jul 9, 2011 | Iowa, Native American, Wisconsin |

By the treaty of September 15, 1832, it was stipulated that the government should annually, beginning in September, 1833, and continuing for twenty-seven years, give the Winnebagoes $10,000 in specie, and establish a school among them, at or near Prairie du Chien, with a farm and garden, and provide other facilities, not to exceed in cost $3,000 a year, for the education of their children, and continue the same for twenty-seven successive years. Six agriculturists, twelve yoke of oxen and as many plows, and other farming tools were to be supplied by the government. The buildings were erected in 1833, on the Yellow river, Allamakee county, Iowa, and President Jackson appointed Rev. David Lowry, a Presbyterian minister, to assume charge. The mission school was removed in 1840, from the Yellow river to a point on the Turkey river, in Winneshiek county, about four miles southeast of the fort buildings. The erection of the mission was superintended by Rev. Lowry. There were about twenty buildings at the mission. One was a large school house, another a small church, while the rest were dwellings. Early Catholic pioneers, who settled near the Turkey river (1849), purchased these buildings. The small church was used as a chapel, hence the name Old Mission. In 1853 it was destroyed by fire. There was also a mission one mile east of the fort, on the Turkey...

Biography of Hon. William McEniry

Posted by Dennis | Jul 1, 2011 | Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin |

In considering the prominent legal firms in Rock Island County one’s mind instinctively turns to the firm of McEniry & McEniry, a firm composed of the two brothers, Hon. William McEniry and Matthew J. McEniry, having offices both in Rock Island and Moline. It is the life and character of the former of these two gentlemen that we pro-pose to depict in the sketch that is to follow. The life and character of Matthew J. McEniry will be found elsewhere in this work treated at length. William McEniry was born in Rock Island County, Illinois, May 9, 1860, his parents being William and Elizabeth (Coughlin) McEniry. William McEniry, Sr., who was a farmer, came to Illinois in 1841 and settled in Moline, making his home there until 1852, when he took up his residence on a farm in this county. In 1846 occurred his marriage to Miss Elizabeth Coughlin. To this couple eight children were born, six sons and two daughters. Two of the sons, however, died in infancy. The death of the father occurred February 18, 1874. His widow survived him until May 30, 1907, when she passed away. Both were devout members of the Roman Catholic Church. In a panegyric at the time of Mrs. McEniry’s death one of the Moline daily newspapers spoke of her life as follows: “Mrs. McEniry was identified with the history of...

Biography of Matthew J. McEniry

Posted by Dennis | Jul 1, 2011 | Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin |

It is said that the legal profession is one of the most difficult in which to achieve success. It is doubtless true that to be a truly successful attorney requires ability of a high order. We have spoken elsewhere in this work of; the success achieved by the legal firm of McEniry & McEniry, and one of the fruits of that success is a renown that is not merely local but that has spread throughout the northwest. In the article mentioned the life and character of one of the members of the firm, William McEniry, was taken up and discussed at length. His strength and ability were depicted. The present article is to be devoted to a discussion of the salient points in the life of the other member of the firm, Matthew J. McEniry, a man, who like his brother, is possessed of brilliant talents and real genius. He was born on a farm, in Zuma Township, this county. The lives and characters of the elder McEnirys, the parents of Matthew J. and William, are recorded at length in the sketch previously spoken of, to which the reader is referred. As a lad Matthew J. McEniry received his early education in the country schools in the neighborhood of his father’s farm. When seventeen years of age he went to an academy at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, where he...