I should be pleased to ascertain who was the first white man
to pass or voyage past the shores of Sheboygan County,
Jolliet and Marquette or Father Claude Allouez? Allouez is
said to have been the first to explore the west shore of
Lake Michigan, but I have not been able to find out whether
he reached Sheboygan County.
ALFONSE GEREND,
_Cato, Wisconsin_.
We dislike very much to say dogmatically who was the first Frenchman
to skirt the coast of Lake Michigan south of Sturgeon Bay portage. The
more we study the subject the more we are inclined to believe that the
records we possess reveal but a fragment of the activities of the
French explorers, traders, and missionaries around Green Bay during
the seventeenth century. We do not know but that Jean Nicolet may have
coasted south in 1634; on the other hand, we do not know that he did.
No one has yet been wise enough to lay out the course of the
wanderings of Radisson and Groseilliers. For my own part, it seems
probable that one of the first, if not the first, white Frenchman who
visited all the villages between Green Bay and Chicago was Nicolas
Perrot, who between 1665-70 spent five years in the country, much of
the time with the Potawatomi tribesmen. Benjamin Sulte, a very careful
Canadian investigator, asserts categorically that Perrot was the first
white man at Chicago. (Sulte’s articles in French in the Canada Royal
Society _Proceedings_, 1903-13, throw much light on early seventeenth
century conditions. They have never been translated, and are known
only to a few scholars.) So far as I am able to judge, however,
Sulte’s statement is based purely upon inference and is not backed by
a written account. Therefore, it is certainly fair to say that the
first definite written record of white men skirting the coast of the
western shore of Lake Michigan is found in the journal of Father
Jacques Marquette, who in September, 1673 came back to Green Bay via
the Chicago and Sturgeon Bay portages.
With regard to Father Claude Allouez, I think we can speak with more
certainty. He did not go to the Illinois mission until after the death
of Marquette. He set out in the autumn of 1676 and wintered among the
Potawatomi near Sturgeon Bay. You will find a synopsis of his voyage
in _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XVI, 96.
You may be interested in seeing a copy of _Early Narratives of the
Northwest_ just published by Scribner & Co. This volume contains most
of the journals of these early explorers.