page_title: Daniel Whitney (Wisconsin entrepreneur)
section_title: Pioneer Wisconsin merchant
hierarchical_section_title: Daniel Whitney (Wisconsin entrepreneur) / Pioneer Wisconsin merchant
caption_attribution_description: English: Part of plat map, 1835, Grand Kaukauna. The fields to the south of the river belonged to the Stockbridge. Daniel Whitney's store was at Mud Creek on the left.
context_page_description: Daniel Whitney was an early entrepreneur in territorial Wisconsin, whose businesses were responsible for much of the early development of that state in the period between the War of 1812 and statehood. He was the first "Yankee" to settle in Green Bay. He was the first to start many of the type of business ventures that the state became known for, such as the first lead shot tower and the first saw mill on the Wisconsin River. He was the private founder of the town of Navarino, a direct forerunner to the municipality of Green Bay. He died in 1862 in the home he lived in for over 30 years in Green Bay,
context_section_description: Prior to the War of 1812, the United States nominally owned the far reaches of the Northwest Territory — Michigan, Wisconsin and northern Illinois — but was too weak to effectively assert sovereignty in the region.  After that war, federal authorities began a systemic program of exploration, fort building, arrangements of treaties between tribes, purchasing of land from tribes, surveying, and licensing of merchants (primarily fur traders).  In this atmosphere, young merchants from throughout New York and New England departed from western New York and travelled up the Great Lakes to various towns and outposts to engage in trade.  Whitney was one such merchant, settling in Green Bay in 1819.
  Whitney engaged in a series of trade expeditions, sometimes by himself but usually while employing hired hands as voyageurs, freight haulers and clerks.  In these expeditions, Whitney explored the Fox to its source, and the Wisconsin from Point Basse to Prairie du Chien.  He established trading posts on the upper Mississippi to the west and Sault Saint Marie to the north beyond Mackinaw.  In 1821-22 he was the sutler at Fort Snelling (modern day Minneapolis).  In one trading trip, he travelled from Fort Snelling to Detroit by foot with one assistant to help haul the goods and supplies on a toboggan.  Through these early trips, Whitney gained first-hand knowledge of the conditions under which his future enterprises would be founded.
  In the lower Fox Valley, Whitney had several establishments developed, including a large frame building store in the vicinity of Fort Howard.  This store supplied the needs of settlers, traders, farmers and the growing government administrative staff of officials who were responsible for the region, then part of Michigan Territory.  About 20 miles upstream at Grand Kaukauna he maintained a store on the south shore of the Fox (which runs east and west at that point), which served the needs of the Stockbridge Indians who had a settlement there.  The store was often managed by an associate, such as his nephew David Whitney.  The Stockbridge eventually sold and abandoned that site, but in the course of their stay Whitney developed more general business relationships with them, often employing Stockbridge in his other businesses around the state.
  During this same period Whitney was engaged as a contract supplier to the federal facilities at Fort Crawford, Fort Howard and Fort Winnebago.
caption: 1825 plat map of Stockbridge settlement at Grand Kaukauna.  Whitney's store was on the far west side at the mouth of Mud Creek.
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