What we now know as Wisconsin was part of the vast undefined wilderness
to which the Spaniards, early in the sixteenth century, gave the name
Florida. Spain claimed the country because of the early discoveries of
her navigators and explorers. Her claim was undisputed until there came
to North America the energetic French, who penetrated the continent by
means of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa rivers and the Great Lakes, and
gradually took possession of the inland water systems, as fast as
discovered by their fur traders and missionaries. It should be
understood, however, that there were very few, if any, Spaniards in all
this vast territory, except on or near the Gulf of Mexico.
In 1608 Quebec was founded. It is supposed that twenty-six years later
the first Frenchman reached Wisconsin, which may, from that date (1634)
till 1763, be considered as a part of French territory. When Great
Britain conquered New France, Wisconsin became her property, and so
continued till the treaty of 1783, by which our Northwest was declared
to be American soil.
Owing to the vague and undefined boundaries given by the British
government to its original colonies on the Atlantic slope, several of
the thirteen States claimed that their territory extended out into the
Northwest; but finally all these claims were surrendered to the general
government, in order that there might be formed a national domain, from
which to create new States. By the famous Ordinance of 1787, Congress
created the Northwest Territory, which embraced the wide stretch of
country lying between the Great Lakes and the Ohio and the Mississippi
rivers. The present Wisconsin was a part of this great territory.
In the year 1800 Indiana Territory was set off from the rest of the
Northwest Territory, and took Wisconsin with it. Nine years later
Illinois Territory was formed, Wisconsin being within its bounds. Nine
years after that, when Illinois became a State, all the country lying
west of Lake Michigan was given to Michigan Territory; thus was the
ownership of Wisconsin once more changed, and she became a part of
Michigan.
By this time settlers were coming into the region west of the lake.
There had long been several little French villages; but, in addition to
the French, numerous American farmers and professional men had lately
arrived. The great distance from Detroit, at a time when there were no
railways or telegraphs, was such as to make it almost impossible to
carry on any government here. Hence, after a good deal of complaint from
the frontiersmen living to the west of Lake Michigan, and some angry
words back and forth between these people and those residing east of the
lake, Congress was induced, in 1836, to erect Wisconsin Territory, with
its own government.
Thus far, this region beyond Lake Michigan had borne no particular name.
It was simply an outlying part of the Northwest Territory; or of the
Territories of Indiana, Illinois, or Michigan, as the case might be.
But, now that it was to be a Territory by itself, a name had to be
adopted. The one taken was that of its principal river, although
"Chippewau" was preferred by many people. Wisconsin is an Indian name,
the exact meaning of which is unknown; some writers have said that it
signifies "gathering of the waters," or "meeting of the waters," but
there is no warrant for this. The earliest known French form of the word
is "Misconsing," which gradually became crystallized into "Ouisconsin."
When the English language became dominant, it was necessary to change
the spelling in order to preserve the sound; it thus, at first, became
"Wiskonsan," or "Wiskonsin," but finally, by official action,
"Wisconsin." The "k" was, however, rather strongly insisted on by
Governor Doty and many newspaper editors, in the days of the Territory.
The first session of the legislature of the new Territory of Wisconsin
was held at the recently platted village of Belmont, in the present
county of Lafayette. The place of meeting was a little story-and-a-half
frame house. Lead miners' shafts dimpled the country round about, and
new stumps could be seen upon every hand. There were many things to be
done by the legislature, such as dividing the Territory into counties,
selecting county seats, incorporating banks, and borrowing money with
which to run the new government; but the matter which occasioned the
most excitement was the location of the capital, and the bitterness
which resulted was long felt in the political history of Wisconsin.
A month was spent in this contest. The claimants were Milwaukee, Racine,
Koshkonong, Fond du Lac, Green Bay, Madison, Wisconsinapolis, Peru,
Wisconsin City, Portage, Helena, Belmont, Mineral Point, Platteville,
Cassville, Belleview, and Dubuque (now in Iowa, but then in Wisconsin).
Some of these towns existed only upon maps published by real estate
speculators.
Madison was a beautiful spot, in the heart of the wild woods and lakes
of central southern Wisconsin. It was unknown save to a few trappers,
and to the speculators who had bought the land from the federal
government, and thought they saw a fortune in inducing the legislature
to adopt it as the seat of government. Madison won, upon the argument
that it was halfway between the rival settlements on Lake Michigan and
the Mississippi, and that to build a city there would assist in the
development of the interior of the Territory.
When Madison was chosen, a surveyor hurried thither, and in a blinding
snowstorm laid out the prospective city. The village grew slowly, and it
was November, 1838, before the legislature could meet in its new home.