Table Of ContentA SHORT HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY, WISCONSIN
BIRTHPLACE
OFc..A
COMMONWEALTH
(c.fl Short History of Brown County; Wisconsin)
by
Jack R__,udolph
A Bicentennial Publication of the Brown County Historical Society
Copyright 19 76 by the Brown County Historical Society
FOREWORD
This is the first attempt to tell the story of Brown County - where
the State of Wisconsin was born - since Miss Deborah Martin's History of
Brown County in 1913. It makes no pretense of matching her classic.
Even without the additional 60 years, its size doesn't permit such a full
and detailed account.
Every effort has been made to touch fairly upon events and person
alities that shaped the area over 350 years. Above all, I've tried to convey
the flavor, excitement and continuity of life as the region was slowly
converted from a forest-girdled wilderness to a 20th Century urban com
munity. Inevitably, much had to be omitted; indeed, selecting and
condensing were unbroken nightmares.
A most significant contribution is the detailed bibliography compiled
by the Rev. Edward C. Stibili, O.Praem., of the St. Norbert College faculty.
Never attempted before, this compilation fills a great need. Jn fact, Father
Stibili 's enthusiasm has been a continued source of inspiration.
Many others contributed, too, not the least being the thousands of
men and women who lived the story. Specifically, I am greatly indebted
to my wife Leora for her painstaking research into the development of
education in the county, to Mary Ann Bartelt and Wallace B. Binder.
Without their dogged perseverance the book would never have been published.
Neither would publication have been possible without significant
financial contributions from Victor McCormick, the Green Bay Clearing
House Association and its following members - Kellogg-Citizens National
Bank, American National Bank of Green Bay, First Wisconsin Bank of Green
Bay, First Wisconsin Bank of West Green Bay, Peoples Marine Bank of Green
Bay, West Bank and Trust, Fox Heights State Bank and East Bank. To them,
on behalf of the Brown County Historical Society and myself. our deepest
gratitude.
I have striven for accuracy, but errors will creep in. For these, as must
every author, I accept full responsibility.
The book is offered with the knowledge and admission of deficiencies.
but also with the hope that it will be as much fun to read as it was to write.
Jack Rudolph
DePere, Wisconsin
March 1976
II
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
CHAPTER ONE
Before The Yankees Came (1634-1816)
CHAPTER TWO
Birth Of A Territory (1817-1836). 7
CHAPTER THREE
The Thirtieth Star (1837-1847) ................ 16
CHAPTER FOUR
Statehood And Civil War (1848-1865) ............. 23
CHAPTER FIVE
The Tall Pines Topple (1866-1900) .............. 35
CHAPTER SIX
The Progressive Era (1901-1920) ............... 50
CHAPTER SEVEN
Between Two Wars (1921-1945) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
CHAPTER EIGHT
Toward The Future (1946-1976) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
APPENDIX
Bibliography Of Brown County . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
PICTURE CREDITS - Assigning picture credits was complicated, since many old photographs appear
in several collections with very sketchy identification. The system was to credit whomever provided the
picture plus the photographer, when known (i.e., Stiller/Neville, means from the Stiller Collection in the
Neville Public Museum). To save space the following abbreviations are used: Neville-Neville Public
Museum; State-State Historical Society of Wisconsin; DePere-DePere Historical Museum; Lefebvre
Lefebvre Studio; P-G- Green Bay Press-Gazette; Straubel- F.L.G. Straube!; Stiller-Stiller Collection;
Wal-Rev. Aaron Walschinski, 0. Praem.; Leininger- Leininger Studio; C.E.L.-C.E. Leininger Collection.
CO VER PHOTO - Sidney Bedore 's bronze statue of Jean Nicolet above Red Banks on Highway
54-5 7, north of Green Bay. (WalJ.
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IV
Birthplace
of a Commonwealth
(A SHORT HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY, WISCONSIN)
CHAPTER ONE
BEFORE THE YANKEES CAME
(1634 - 1816)
A murmur of curiosity arose from the crowd only 14 years after the historic landing on Ply
of Indians on the bay shore beneath the towering mouth Rock.
bluff now known as Red Banks, as the stranger He found a land of majestic wilderness beauty
with the weird, pale skin, wearing a long robe of and amazing richness. All around the sparkling
many colors, stood up in the lead canoe of the waters of the bay and rivers emptying into it tower
approaching flotilla and raised both arms above ed stately pines and hardwoods interspersed with
his head. The murmur dissolved in a shriek of patches of open country dotted with rude Indian
terror as thunder and lightning flashed from his corn and vegetable fields. The fertile soil made it
hands, and most of the reception committee bolted easy for the natives to grow corn and squash, while
for cover. A few minutes later the pale faced abundant wild rice provided an additional staple
stranger, having put away his pistols, stepped for their diet. Woods and waters teemed with
ashore. game, fish and - most important to Nicolet - the
Jean Nicolet had come to Green Bay, the first fur-bearing animals upon which the fur trade
white man to set foot in Wisconsin. The time - a flourished. A man could live here easily and well.
day in late summer (exact date unknown) of 1634, Not being interested in staying, however, the
~""""'
THE LANDING OF JEAN NICOLET - This oil on canvas mural just inside the east entrance to the Brown County Court House is the most familiar
of a number of paintings of the arrival of the first white man in Wisconsin. It was executed in 1910 by Milwaukee artist Franz Rohrbeck, who placed
Nicolet on shore to fire his pistols, exercising artistic license to place the intrepid Frenchman in a scene-dominating position. The painting has been
criticized because the Indians are too fat - the story being that Rohrbeck used well-fed German neighbors as models. (Neville)
young explorer sent by Samuel de Champlain to was closed in 1728. For two decades it was one
find a passage to China, returned to Canada to of the busiest places of its kind in the wilderness.
report the failure of his mission. The Indians Nicholas Perrot, who almost singlehandedly
remained undisturbed for another 35 years. An held the region for France for 20 years, made it
occasional far-ranging party of fur traders turned his headquarters, in recognition of which he
up briefly, but not until Jesuit Father Claude presented the mission with the famed ostensorium,
Allouez arrived in 1669 to open a mission was an today the oldest and most significant relic of the
French regime of the 17th Century. (The mission
was burned by hostile Indians in 1687 and the
ostensorium was so carefully buried it was lost
for 115 years).
Perrot's job wasn't easy. The Fox Indians and
their satellites, the Sauks, had driven out the
Winnebagoes and Potawatomies who had greeted
Nicolet and controlled the mouth of the big river
feeding the bay (hence the river's name today). A
belligerent lot, the Foxes didn't like Frenchmen,
although they respected Perrot personally, and
after his recall in 1689 closed off the interior. For
over 40 years the country was kept in turmoil by
a series of wars before the Indians were crushed
in 1731.
The death of King Louis XIV having ended
France's preoccupation with European dynastic
squabbles, the French transferred attention to their
vast North American empire. One move was to
establish a small fort on the west bank of the Fox
River opposite the mouth of the Devil (East) River
in 1717. Fort St. Francis was only garrisoned
intermittently, but it was the base for a series of
campaigns against the Foxes which eventually
routed them.
By then France and England were locked in
SPIRIT OF THE NORTHWEST· This well known sculpture, the the final struggles of what we now call the French
work of the late Sidney Bedore (who also created the bronze and Indian Wars, and the French were too pre
figure of Jean Nicolet), stands at the northeast corner of the Brown
occupied defending Canada to attempt colonizing
County courthouse square. The priest in the center represents the
the Great Lakes area. Green Bay (called La Baye
Jesuit missionary Father Claude Allouez and the buckskin-clad
figure on the right represents Nicholas Perrot; the Indian is uniden· Verte because of the greenish color of its water at
tified. The group was unveiled in 1931. (Wal) certain times of the year) remained an important
trading post but never attracted permanent settlers.
attempt made to penetrate the region.
The Mission of St. Francis Xavier, established With the departure of the warlike Foxes and
at the De Pere rapids of the Fox River in 1671, Sauks the fertile region was taken over by the
quickly became a center of religious and business Menominees and Potawatomies, who were more
activity. The Indians found the site convenient interested in doing business with the whites than
for fishing and rendezvous with the traders, who in fighting them. Never again would the river
acquired the habit of gathering there. In the early valley hear the blood-curdling screech of the war
summer of 1673 Louis Joliet and Father Jacques whoop or the shot fired in anger.
Marquette passed through on their way to the
England's victory in the long conflict came
discovery of the Mississippi River, and Marquette
in 1763, and the British took prom pt steps to make
spent the following winter there writing his report
their presence felt in Wisconsin. A small garrison
of the expedition.
was sent to La Baye to take over the ruins of Fort
As the jumping off place for expeditions into St. Francis, which was rebuilt as Fort Edward
the fur-rich forests of Wisconsin and the upper Augustus. The newcomers established friendly
Mississippi valley, the mission became a major relations with the Menominees, who occupied a
point in the French fur-trading empire until it large village on the present site of the Northwest
2
BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT -Charles DeLanglade, first permanent settler in Wisconsin, is shown in buckskins and holding a pistol to the left of center
on Edward Deming's painting of the ambush of British General Edward Braddock near Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1755. DeLanglade is credited with having
inspired and planned the trap for the British column in which Gen. Braddock lost his life and George Washington got his first taste of large scale
fighting. (State)
Engineering plant on Green Bay's west side, but joined his former enemies, who appreciated his
didn't stay long. Pontiac's uprising led to the value. Commissioned a captain of militia and
abandonment of the stockade, which was not issued a red uniform coat and sword, De Langlade
re-occupied.
The British didn't need troops, however,
having found a much more effective lever of con
trol. In 1765 Charles de Langlade and his father
brought their families to Green Bay, and the
permanent settlement of Wisconsin began.
Charles de Langlade has been called the
"Father of Wisconsin" and its first white settler.
Actually, this remarkable man was only half white,
his mother being the sister of an Ottawa war chief,
and a renowned Indian warrior himself, but his
presence effectively kept the neighborhood Indians
in check for the next 35 years, thus facilitating
the peaceful penetration of the Fox River Valley.
An Ottawa war leader when he wasn't busy
in the fur trade with his father, De Langlade had
followed the war path since the age of ten, estab
lishing a fearsome reputation as a daring, brilliant
and no-quarter fighter in the brutal clashes along
the frontier. His fame peaked in 1755 when he was
credited with putting steel into the backbone of the
PERROT OSTENSOR!UM -Regarded as the most significant relic
French garrison at Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh, Pa.),
of the French regime of the 17th Century_ This silver vessel (also
helping to plan the ambush of British General known as a monstrance) was given to the Mission of St. Francis
Edward Braddock's column, and fighting bravely Xavier at the DePere rapids by Nicholas Perrot in 1686. When the
mission was burned by the Indians a few years later the ostensorium
in the debacle that introduced George Washington
was buried for safe-keeping and its hiding place lost until discovered
to large scale combat. by accident in 1802. Now the property of the Roman Catholic
Diocese of Green Bay, the intrinsically priceless relic is on perma
The war over, the 35-year-old De Langlade nent display in the Neville Public Museum. (Neville)
3
established himself at La Baye, which he and his Another early arrival was Jacob Franks, a
father had apparently visited periodically for Jewish trader from Canada, who came about
nearly 20 years. 1790. Franks built a profitable trade which he
De Langlade built a house and trading post on sold to his nephew John Lawe. For a long time
the present site of the Green Bay bus garage on the only non-French, non-Catholic (he was an
South Washington Street, parceled out land to his Episcopalian) resident of La Baye, Lawe held his
employes for farms and cabins and settled down. own in the local competition for furs, establishing
He never fought again, although he led war parties a virtual monopoly among the Indians along the
east during the American Revolution. Turned Wolf River. He, too, built a commodious house
down by Gen. John Burgoyne for the campaign in 1836 on the east bank of the Fox at the foot of
that ended in surrender at Saratoga, he came home. Porlier Street which stood until destroyed by fire
Among his employes was a young clerk, in 1901.
Pierre Grignon, who married De Langlade's One of Lawe's daughters married a Grignon,
daughter, eventually inherited his La Baye prop ultimately bringing the property into the Grignon
erty, and sired a pack of lusty sons who spread dynasty. Another daughter, Mary Appolonia, was
over Wisconsin in a loosely organized family trad more enterprising. "Polly" created the first big
ing enterprise. Possessed of some education, neighborhood scandal when, following the myster
Grignon brought in Jacques Porlier to tutor his ious murder of her husband, she ran off with an
offspring, thereby introducing another colorful unfrocked priest. She never returned, dying many
character into the gallery of Brown County years later in South America, but her piano, the
pioneers. first such instrument west of the Great Lakes,
A well educated and cultured member of a remains as a prized but silent relic in Cotton House.
ranking Montreal family, Porlier liked frontier life For half a century, surrounded by their grow
and remained the rest of his days. He also married ing families and French-Canadian "engages," the
locally, eventually became a judge under the small colony of fur traders lived a life of almost
Americans and lived in historic Roi-Porlier-Tank baronial independence, untroubled by distant
Cottage. Built by another early settler, Joseph British and American authorities. Having reserved
Roi, the cottage is today the oldest building in large portions of the best land for themselves, the
Wisconsin, preceding the Declaration of Indepen leaders encouraged their employes to stake farm
dence by several weeks in 1776. claims along the river, and eventually a string of
THE JACK-KN! FE JUDGE -An artist's conception of the justice of the peace
court of Charles Reaume, the "jack-knife judge" who dispensed his own brand
of justice at LaBaye between J792and 1819. (State)
4
Such a commission was technically worthless in
U.S. jurisdiction (although Gov. William Henry
Harrison of Northwest Territory subsequently
made it official), but the ruling clique backed his
play as a means of keeping their employes under
control.
Reaume's use of his famous jack-knife as a
summons to his court (which earned him the name
of the "Jack-knife Judge"), his pompous strutting
and sometimes bizarre but usually fair decisions
gave him a prestige which he was at great pains to
foster. He has come down in regional lore as a
clown but deserves better from Wisconsin history.
He may have been a charlatan but he wasn't a
rogue, and his presence accustomed the otherwise
fiercely independent settlers to the idea of a rule
of law, making the eventual transition to organized
government relatively easy.
The American takeover at Mackinac caused
some inconvenience since it eliminated the island
JOHN LA WE'S HOME -Built in 1836 by the early fur trader John rendezvous. United States regulations required
Lawe, this house on the land spit at the foot of Portier Street in
trading there under American rules, but the bay
Green Bay passed to the Grignon family through the marriage of
Lawe 's daughter Rachel. Long a social center and filled with traders sidestepped them by running past the
antiques, the home was destroyed by fire (ignited by sparks from island stronghold under cover of darkness and
a passing locomotive) in 1901 (Neville).
proceeding on to Canada.
small clearings and cabins sprouted on both banks At the outbreak of the War of 1812 the
from the De Langlade trading post to what is British re-established control by capturing
now the state reformatory. It was a carefree, Mackinac and a small post at Prairie de Chien,
healthy existence, although there was little intel where they remained until almost the end of hos-
lectual activity and winters could sometimes be
pretty grim.
Anchored astride the gateway to Wisconsin,
they easily blocked competitors while reserving a
monopoly on the interior fur trade for themselves.
Competition between them was keen but friendly
and, since there was enough for all, they prospered.
They sent their children to Canada to be educated
and imported home comforts not usually found
deep in the wilderness. Visitors were constantly
amazed at their openhanded hospitality and the
amenities (Polly Lawe's spinnet was a striking
example) with which their homes were furnished.
The American Revolution caused hardly a
ripple on the surface of this easy existence. The
transfer of sovereignty from Britain to the new
United States made little impact, since the former
stalled off evacuation of the region until 1796,
and even then the infant republic had too many
other problems to make its presence felt. La Baye
remained a Canadian outpost.
One subtle but major change occurred about
1792 with the arrival of Charles Reaume. Bald,
short and pot-bellied, Reaume was a cheerful MISSION MONUMENT· Unveiled in 1899, this monument marked
the approximate location of the Mission of St. Francis Xavier on
adventurer who cut a somewhat comic figure, but
1he easl bank of !he De Pere rapids. The mission was founded by
he claimed to have a commission as a justice of Re11. Claude Allouez, S. J., in 1671-72 and was staffed intermit
tenlly until 1728. The monument was dismantled in the 1930s to
the peace from King George III and set himself
make way for the Claude Allouez Bridge but the plaque remains
up as the first and only law west of the Lakes. fixed to the bridge itself (Stale).
5
