I am preparing recollections of early days in the Fox River
Valley and will be pleased to supply you with results of my
efforts in this direction. I am somewhat confused on some of
the items, especially the establishment of the first saw and
grist mill on the south or east side (my old home), of the
river and across from Kaukauna. My friend, Mr. John D. Lawe,
son of the late George W. Lawe, writes me that James M. Boyd
and Paul Hudon _dit_ Beaulieu, my grandfather, “built a saw
mill along the rapid,” etc. The date given by Mr. Lawe for
the building of the saw mill is 1832. A few years later my
father, Bazil H. Beaulieu, came in possession of both mills.
I was told when I was a boy that the mills were originally
built by the federal government for the use and purposes of
the Menominee, as also of the Brothertown Indians, the
latter being now scattered on farms on the east shore of
Lake Winnebago, across from Oshkosh. Furthermore, I was told
that the said mills were the second of the kind built in
Wisconsin, then the territory of Michigan. Have you any
facts or data at hand which might serve to verify or throw
more light on the subject?
T. H. BEAULIEU,
_White Earth, Minnesota_.
With regard to the Fox River Valley mills, the earliest, both saw and
grist, were built by Jacob Franks on Devil’s River some time shortly
after 1800. They afterwards came into the possession of John Lawe, and
were operated by him for many years. Pierre A. Grignon built a grist
mill on Reaume or Glaize Creek in 1810. This was used to provide food
for the war parties of Robert Dickson in the War of 1812. The miller
was Grignon’s brother-in-law, Dominique Brunette usually called Masca.
Augustin Grignon built a grist mill at Kaukauna on the north side of
the stream, about 1818. Two years later the United States government
had a sawmill erected at Little Rapids to prepare material for Fort
Howard and its outlying buildings.
In 1821-22 the Menominee, who had a village at South Kaukauna, sold a
large tract to the New York Indians. In the latter year the
Stockbridge began to move to their tract, which began just above the
Menominee village. The government had built for the Stockbridge
Indians a sawmill, which was finished some time before 1830. At that
date a grist mill was proposed by the Stockbridge. Probably that was
when your father took over the mills and repaired them, and perhaps
enlarged them. The Brothertown Indians were settled with the
Stockbridge, and removed with them to the east side of Lake Winnebago.
The Menominee Indians had mills built for them by the government, but
that was after the Treaty of 1846, and they were built much higher up
the river, at or near Menasha.