Timeline of Wisconsin history, 1700-1749 | Wisconsin Historical Society

Historical Essay

Timeline of Wisconsin history, 1700-1749

Timeline of Wisconsin history, 1700-1749 | Wisconsin Historical Society
Dictionary of Wisconsin History.

 

Adapted and expanded from Schafer, Joseph. "Outline History of Wisconsin." 1925 Wisconsin Blue book (Madison, 1925) . More information about most people and places listed here, including links to original sources, can be found by searching them in this Dictionary.

1700. Having secured permission from France, Le Sueur brought with him 30 experienced miners imported from the motherland, and voyaged up the Mississippi from its mouth to some mines that he claimed to have discovered in the Sioux country. En route he examined lead deposits at or near the sites of Dubuque and Galena, and at "Snake Diggings", near Potosi, Wisconsin.

1701. Peace was made at Montreal between the Iroquois and all Northwestern tribes, Wisconsin Indians being present at the council in large numbers. A post at Detroit having been built by Antoine la Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, Wisconsin Indians were invited to this new settlement to trade and dwell in the vicinity, and most of the Potawatomi thereupon removed to St. Joseph River.

1702. Juchereau de St. Denis paid a thousand crowns' worth of goods to Fox Indians to allow his fleet of trading canoes to pass the Mississippi over the Fox¿Wisconsin route. Le Sueur's fort in Minnesota was plundered and destroyed by Fox and their allies.

1710. A large party of Fox warriors, with their allies, yielded to French solicitations and moved to the neighborhood of Detroit.

1712-16. The Fox, with their allies the Sauk and Mascoutin, were attacked and defeated at Detroit by a body of French-allied Indians. The remnant of the tribe at Green Bay immediately took up arms and harassed the French traders and their allies. This made the most important trade routes between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi unsafe.

1716. Louis de la Porte, sieur de Louvigny, was chosen to conduct a campaign against the hostile Fox and their allies. With a detachment of 800 soldiers he went to Green Bay and up the Fox River to a large Fox village near Little Lake Butte des Morts. There, peace was granted by the French, the Indians having bought off the invading army and given hostages who were carried in triumph to Montreal.

1717. A fort was built at Green Bay (probably on the site of the modern Fort Howard), whose first commandant was Etienne RoeberL, sieur de la Morandiere.

1718. A post was founded at Chequamegon by Paul le Gardeur, sieur de St. Pierre, with Godefroy de Linctot second in command. A settlement of French traders was this year reported as existing at Green Bay.

1719. Three Fox chiefs, with Kickapoo and a Mascoutin allies, visited Montreal to excuse themselves for continuing the war against the Illinois, claiming to have acted in self-defense.

1721. Father Pierre Francois Xavier de Charlevoix, Jesuit historian, visited Wisconsin, accompanied by Jacques Testard, sieur de Montigny, who superseded the Sieur de la Morandiere in command of the post of La Baye. Charlevoix reported the continued enmity of the Fox, and that Father Chardon, a Jesuit, maintained the mission at De Pere.

1722-23. The Fox continued their war upon the Illinois, defeating the latter on Illinois River, at the site known as "Le Rocher."

1724-26. Several attempts were made by Marchand de Lignery, commandant at Mackinac, and Francois d'Amariton, commandant at Green Bay, in concert with Jesuit missionaries, to make peace among the warring tribes. In 1726 a truce was secured, permitting the building of a post among the Sioux.

1727. In order to detach the Sioux from the Fox alliance, also to furnish a basis for westward exploration, Fort Beauharnois was built on Lake Pepin, with Rene Boucher, sieur de la Perriere, in command.

1728. Lignery, with an expedition composed of 450 French and 1,200 Indian allies, left Mackinac early in August, and advanced up the Fox River only to find that the Fox had fled from their villages. These he destroyed, as well as their large crops of maize. On his return he demolished the French fort at La Baye and sent messengers to warn the garrison at Fort Beauharnois. October 3 the garrison evacuated the latter, and on their descent of the Mississippi were captured and retained as hostages by roving Mascoutin and Kickapoo.

1729. The captive French detached the Mascoutin and Kickapoo from the Fox alliance and made peace between them and the Illinois. Reports of copper mines on Lake Superior were made to the French government by the commandant at Chequamegon.

1730. Pierre Paul Marin, in charge of Menominee Indians, aided the Ho-Chunk in an attack upon a Fox fort on Little Lake Butte des Morts. The Fox, discouraged by reverses, attempted to seek asylum with the Iroquois. Somewhere in the prairies of Indiana, not far from the southern end of Lake Michigan, the migrating tribes encountered and were badly defeated by French forces hastily gathered from Forts St. Joseph, Chartres, and Ouiatanon, under command of Sieur de Villiers. Nearly a thousand of Fox warriors were killed or captured.

1731. The remnant of the Fox, hiding in western Wisconsin, were attacked by a band of mission Indians from Canada. Cowed by this series of misfortunes, Kiala, the principal Fox chief, gave himself up as a hostage to the commandant at Green Bay and was transported to the island of Martinique. The destruction or dispersion of the remainder of the tribe was decreed by the Canadian authorities but was never wholly effected.

1732. The post of Green Bay was rebuilt under command of Nicolas Antoine Coulon de Villiers. Rene Godefroy, sieur de Linctot, with a company of fur traders, rebuilt the Lake Pepin post.

1733. A remnant of Fox Indians took refuge at Green Bay among the Sauk, who defended them. Commandant De Villiers and his son were killed at the Sauk village. Thereupon a severe battle ensued at the gates, being renewed the next day farther up the river. The result was the amalgamation of the Sauk and Fox tribes, and their retreat to the lead mine region along the Wisconsin River.

1737. Trade and travel being still insecure in the West, St. Pierre was forced to abandon his fort on Lake Pepin.

1738. Louis Denis, sieur de la Ronde, in command at Chequamegon, secured a permit to work the Lake Superior copper mines, and expert miners were sent from Germany to examine them. Marin, being chosen commandant for the Sauk and Foxes, built a fort on the Mississippi near Rock River, and induced a Fox chief to visit Montreal and secure grace for his tribe.

1739-43. Marin pacified all the Wisconsin Indians and ended the Fox wars. The Ho-Chunk returned to their old home in the Fox River Valley; the Sauk and Foxes built villages on the Wisconsin; Milwaukee became the resort of vagrant tribesmen and unlicensed traders. Lead mining was undertaken in southwestern Wisconsin.

1743. The fur-trade license system was revoked, and the post at Green Bay auctioned to the highest bidder. The conduct of the lessees caused much dissatisfaction both among the Indians and the officers of the post.

1749. The Indians at Green Bay conspired against their commandant, but the plot was detected and foiled. The license system was re-stored, Marin being transferred to command at Green Bay. His son Joseph commanded at Chequamegon. Pierre Mathurin, sieur Millon, a young French officer, was drowned while hunting on the waters of Green Bay.

Schafer, Joseph. "Outline History of Wisconsin." 1925 Wisconsin Blue book (Madison, 1925).

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