Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1907-06-26


1t is one Of the oldest spots in the world.
1t was part of the original Laurentian
highlands, and once possessed mountains
that rivaled 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 b0is found
when they left Quebec and pushed their
way through forest and over inland seas
to the west in quest of furs and game.
1t was this country that Jean Nicolet
found in 1854. when Gov. Champlain
sent him to explore the unknown lands
and open a way for western trade, a 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
Guided in his outfit gorgeous robe OF
gold brocade. in which to be presented
to the powers and potentates of Cathay,
but only band of naked savages with
peace pipes welcomed him. He was sore
with disappointment for many days. and
even at the end of long years still be-
licved 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. eThe martyrs Bre-
beuf and Jogues were two of these, and
some day when America has saints
calendar Of her own, it is expected that
they will be canonized. D'Esprit and
Chouart passed through this region in
1853 on their way to explore Minnesota.
D'EsDrit 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 Alouez established the first
house of worship in what is now Wiscon-
sin. building a 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 zealot, and going near the
mouth of Fox river. in the Green bay
country. established q 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, POTta-
watomies, Miamis. KickapOos, Sioux and
Illinois.
On June IA, 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 \ Wisconsin Frenchman with a
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.
JOIiets Long Trip.
In 1913 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 notes 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 a rude fort on the
banks Of the Mississippi in southwest
Wisconsin.
In 1850 Louis Hennepin, a Franciscan
friar. going up the Mississippi and David
Graysolon Du Luth, gentleman of the
Kings Guard coming down the river,
met on Wisconsin soil. 1t was an event
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 hand
full within thousands of miles.