The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1889-11-21
The Southport of Old.

The Southport OF Old.
MADISON, Nov. 8, 1884 cor
respondent asks for the origin and
definition of the name Kenosha
Nothing better can be given than
the opinion of Peter ]. Vieau, Esq,
of Muskego, Waukesha county.
Mr.. Vieau is a son Of the late JAG
ques Vieau, ST., who opened trad
ing post at Milwaukee in 1895, and
a brother in-law of the late Solomon
Juneau. He was himself an Indian
trader in early days, is conversant
with no less than five Algonkin dia-
Iects, and is a man of Intelligence,
fair education and undoubted integ-
rity. Being 'the last of the Mohi-
cans" in the line of the old French
traders Of Wisconsin, his Judge
ment in questions of this sort is
worthy of credit
Mr.. Vieau tells me that the Potta-
wattomies used to call what is now
known as the harbor of Kenosha,
"Kee-no-sha ,kau-ning, . literally,
pickerel place, or locality where
pickerel resort; "Kee-no- sha" (ac-
cent on the penult), being pickerel;
"Kau-ning" (accent on last syllable)
being place.. or locality. The In
dams never spoke of it as simply
"Kee-no-sha," but invariably exec
-kau-ning. Pickerel, it
seems, abounded all along this por-
ton o. the coast, from Racine to
Waukegan-"W a'- kau-e gun" in
the Pottawattomie vernacular--but
were particularly abundant at "Kee-
-kau-ning, the pickerel pace
tar excellence.
NV informant says that his father,
old Jacques, frequently told him
that in the year 1895 there was
considerable village of Indians a
short distance northwest of the pre-
sent city of Kenosha: and that this
village was then called invariably
"Kee no sha-kau-ning:" and had the
Indians told Jacques, been styled
thus as far back as the memory of
the old men went. This village Of
Keno -kau-ning was a general
rendezvous, each spring, for the Pot
tawatomies of the region, who went
there to put up their supply of fish
and make maple sugar. Old JAG
ques Vieau used to meet Indians
there from as far off as Chicago, and
the "pickerel place" was thus an i'm
portant center for the fur trade near
ly century ago.
The early white settlers of Keno
sha did we'll to substitute the Indian
name of the locality, as they under
stood it, for the common place
"Southport. In retaining exec
no-sha," and simply dropping the
'kau-ning," they came nearer to the
original than has been often done in
the supposed adoption of Indian
geographical names. For instance:
The original "Wau-goo-shar
little foxes) has been corrupted into
modern Waukesha; "Mus-kee- kwak"
(sun-fsh) has been twisted into
Muskego, "Mau-nah- u-kee" (place
where many [people] gather, comes
down to US as Milwaukee; Cocoon
nee-mi-wing" "a materially has be-
come Oconomowoc in polite parlance
but simply "Coney" in railroad slang
"Muk-wa on-ah-ko" fiat BEAM is the
original of our Mukwonago; "Wau-
wau-taw-sa," (the lost brave), was
what our Wauwatosa originally was.
but this is not so bad; "Ni-pee-
wau-ki" troubled waters) has been
curtailed into Pewaukee. So much
for few corruptions from the Pot
tawattomie, the authority being Mr..
Vieau. It is no wonder that the old
French and Indians wax indignant
over our English renderings of their
soft and beautiful geographical
names
The white pioneers were bad
enough in their day at slaughtering
the language of the red men; but |
doubt if they excel our modern
brakemen. There is a pretty little
railroad town in the Blue Mounds
country, which was christened
Barneveld, only few years ago, in