Within a short time we expect to issue a special edition of
our local paper that will cover the development of the
Chippewa Valley. It struck me that possibly you could
furnish me considerable data covering the early history of
this section of the valley.
AL J. HARTLEY,
_Cornell, Wisconsin_.
Probably the first white person to pass the mouth of the Chippewa was
Father Louis Hennepin, who ascended the Mississippi in 1630. He
describes the Chippewa under the name of Rivière des Boeufs (Buffalo).
It is probable that in his time the Beef Slough was part of the
Chippewa channel, and the present Buffalo River an affluent of the
Chippewa proper. In 1682 La Salle wrote a description of the rivers of
Wisconsin in a letter, the translation of which is found in volume
sixteen of the _Collections_ of the Wisconsin Historical Society. He
says “About thirty leagues, ascending always in the same direction
[above Black River], one comes to the Rivière des Boeufs which is as
wide at its mouth as that of the Islinois. It is called by that name
owing to the great number of those animals found there; it is followed
from ten to twelve leagues, the water being smooth and without rapids,
bordered by mountains which widen out from time to time, forming
meadows. There are several islands at its mouth, which is bordered by
woods on both sides.” La Salle’s description was without doubt taken
from the account of Hennepin.
The next visitor to this region was Duluth, who in 1680 rescued Father
Hennepin from his captors, the Sioux Indians, and brought him down the
Mississippi and by the Wisconsin-Fox route to Green Bay. Duluth has
not left any description of the Chippewa.
In 1685 Nicolas Perrot was governor of all of this region. In the
_Proceedings_ of this Society for 1915 you will find an account of
Perrot’s experiences and of the Fort Antoine that he built at the
mouth of the Chippewa. Perrot called the stream River of the Sauteurs,
which was the French name for the Chippewa tribe, whom they first met
at the Sault, hence Saulteurs or Sauters. Perrot seems to have been
the first person to use the name Sauteur or Chippewa for the river. It
so appears on a very remarkable map drawn in 1688, and now in Paris. A
facsimile of this is in the Wisconsin Historical Library, at Madison,
and a photograph appears in L. P. Kellogg’s, _Early Narratives of the
Northwest_ (New York, 1917), 342. At Fort St. Antoine, Perrot in 1689
held a great ceremony, taking possession of all the Sioux country for
the King of France. A translation of this document is found in volume
eleven of the _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, 35-36.
The name of the river indicates that the Chippewa was the home of some
portion of the Chippewa tribe. In the early eighteenth century this
valley became the battle ground of the great feud between the Sioux
and Chippewa Indians, which lasted nearly one hundred and fifty years.
Much interesting material on this subject may be found in _Minnesota
Historical Collections_, volume five, which is a history of the
Chippewa tribe by a half-breed, W. W. Warren.
In the year 1766, three years after the French had ceded all this
territory to the British crown, the noted explorer, Jonathan Carver,
ascended the Mississippi and attempted to bring about a peace between
the warring Sioux and Chippewa. The next year he returned from
Mackinac, and with a stock of goods ascended the Chippewa River, at
whose headwaters he found a Chippewa village of one hundred fine stout
warriors. Their customs, however, were very filthy. This is, so far as
we know, the first recorded voyage through the Chippewa valley. No
doubt, however, many fur traders had preceded Carver, for he speaks of
engaging a pilot to accompany him.
In the last years of the French régime there was reported a copper
mine on this river, which was then called for a time “Bon Secours” or
Good Help River. Carver calls it the Chippewa River. About six years
after Carver’s visit a British trader named Hugh Boyle was killed at
this river. See _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XVIII, 312-13.
According to the court of inquiry ordered by the British officials,
the affair was his own fault.
The British traders continued to trade on this river, notwithstanding
the danger caused by the fierce intertribal wars. In 1805 the United
States government sent Zebulon M. Pike, a young army lieutenant, to
ascend the Mississippi and warn British traders that this was then
American territory. It became so by the treaty of 1783, but the
British kept the forts on the Great Lakes until 1796, and all had
continued to act until Pike’s visit as if the upper Mississippi region
belonged to the British. Pike found that the traders avoided the
Chippewa River because of the danger of falling in with war parties of
contesting Indians. He passed the river’s mouth about dusk.
In 1820 an American expedition headed by Lewis Cass descended the
Mississippi, and from that time on there were numerous boats going up
and down. The first steamboat ascended to the Falls of St. Anthony in
1823. Some very early logging expeditions in 1822 and 1829 are
described in the _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, II, 132-41, and
V, 244-54.
The earliest permanent settlers were the Cadottes. See _Wisconsin
Historical Collections_, XIX, 171, and _Minnesota Historical
Collections_, volume five.