Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1907-06-27

uILS-uIue years oIu- StolOSlSlS t-4l US IAdL
it is one of the oldest spots in the world.
1t was part Of the original Laurentian
highlands, and once possessed mountains
that rivaIed those of Thibet, standing
for cons as a portion of a great solitary
island built directly from primeval chaos.
Wind and wave did their patient work
and disintegrated the mountains, until
they were hardly half their former height,
then the great glaciers came down from
the north and secured the face of the
earth until the mountains were only little
hills. When the eternity of ice was
passed the melted glaciers lay as limpid
lakes at the foot of the hills, and a gar
den spot was ready for the prehistoric
men who came to build great mounds
down the valleys.
1t was such a garden spot that the
voyageurs and couriers de bois found
when they left Quebec and pushed their
way through forest and over inland seas
to the west in quest of furs and game.
It was this country that Jean Nicolet
found in 1854, when Gov. Champlain
sent him to explore the unknown lands
| and open 9 way for western trade, way
| that John Jacob Astor was to follow two
centuries later.
Nicollet believed that "the strange
waters of which the Indians told were
none other than those of the China sea.
| He expected to be welcomed by man
| darins at the end of his journey and in
| cluded in his outfit a gorgeous robe of
| gold brocade, in which to be presented
to the powers and potentates Of Cathay,
| but only band of naked sayages with
peace pipes welcomed him. He was sore
with disappointment for many days, and
even at the end of long years still be-
lieved that the sea of California on Span
| ish maps must be very near him, and only
a branch of the Sea of Chine"
Early Explorers.
The Jesuits were almost the first white
people in Wisconsin. The martyrs Bre-
beuf and Jogues were two of these, and
some day when America has a saints
calendar of her own, it is expected that
they will be canonized. D'Esprit and
| Chouart passed through this region in
| 1868 on their way to explore Minnesota.
| D'Esprit wrote an account of the trip
| for Charles II. of England, Indifferent to
the sources of revenue just so he was
paid. The old Jesuit priest. Pere Rene
| Menard, passed on to his death in the
wilderness over the Fox river prairies,
and if tradition be accepted. he one time
| reached the source of the Mississippi riv-
er, before Joliet journeyed there. in
| 1868 Claude Allouez established the first
| house of worship in what is now Wiscon-
| sin, building mission at Point Saint
| Esprit, on Chequamegon bay, near the
| present site of Ashland. Four years
later he was relieved by James Marquette,
a youthful aealot, and going near the
mouth OF Fox river, in the Green bay
country, established a mission where the
city OF Depere now stands. In 1911 an
assistant was sent to Pere Allouez and he
left the mission to become the first timer
| ant minister in that State, preaching to
villages of Ittawas. Chippewas, Petta-
watomies, Miamis, KickapOos, Sioux and
| Illinois.
On June II. 1911, Saint Lusson, envoy
| from Quebec, took possession of the
northwest in the name of Louis XIV. of
France, and it remained French for many
years 4 Wisconsin Frenchman with
| following of Indians and half-breeds went
out in the next century against Brad
| dock Langlade, of Green Bay settlement,
| led the Indians on the Plains of Abra-
ham. and Rene de Boucher drew his fight
ers from the Indians of Wisconsin when
he went to sack Haverhill, Mass.
JoIiet's Long Trip.
In 1873 Frontenac, then Governor of
| Quebec, sent Louis Joliet to explore the
| Fox and Wisconsin rivers, the natural
waterway that connects with slight port
age, the Great Lakes with the Missis
sippi. Joliet was Joined by Pere Mar
quette, his former teacher, and these two,
with their party. made one of the most
| famous expeditions in history. They
went down the Mississippi as far as the
mouth of the Arkansas. 1t was in sight
of Montreal on their return trip that
Joliet lost his box Of maps and notes in
the rapids, and so Marquette must needs
write the story of the long journey from
his own Noes and get most credit for the
exploration.
Robert Cavellier, known to history as
La Sale, came to the Wisconsin lands
in 1915, and in 1879 his trading boat, the
Chiffon, was the first sailboat on the
lakes. In 1855 Perrot, the trader. soldier
of fortune, diplomat among the Indians,
was appointed 'commandant of the west"
and given @ force of twenty men with
which to hold all the great unknown will
derness. He built rude fort on the
banks Of the Mississippi in southwest
Wisconsin. '--'s sEz g.. n lsssfS1sss
In 1850 Louis Hennepif, a franciscan
friar, going up the Mississippi, and David
Kings Guard coming down the river,
I T.
that proves how small the world is after
all, for when they had last met it was
as companions on the field of Seneffe in
Hainault the day of the French victory
over William of Orange, when Friar
| Hennepin was an almoner in the kings
army, and Du Luth was squire to the
marquis de Lassay. They had each gone
to an extreme end of the New World
and had met by accident almost in its
center, the only white men save a hand
full within thousands of miles
Long Held by English
After the French and Indian war Wis
consin became English. and remained so
until after the war of 1928. longer.
possibly, than any other State now in
the Union. French halfbreeds and In
dams donned the British uniform and
fought zealously for King George in the
revolution. They set the British flag over
the forts of Green Bay and Prairie du
Chen, and long after Zebulon NJ. Pike
had passed through this new territory on
his journey of exploring the new Louis
lana purchase, the cross of st. George
foated over the trading posts of Wiscon-
sim An admirable line of defense was
| h. h,,+ no p-i+icl oil ho Eov
and Wisconsin rivers, diasonally across
the State, and that section was held by
them until the summer of 1915.
After the revolution Wisconsin was
part of the famous Northwest Territory,
having been saved for the United States
by the work of the frontiersmen of Penn
| sylvania. Virginia and Kentucky. In
lisa Jefferson presented plan to Con-
gresS by which ten States were to be
carved from this region. What is now
1 l.. IL