Stories of the Badger State

The student of nature lives in a broader and more interesting world than does he who has not learned the story of the birds, the streams, the fields, the woods, and the hedgerows. So, too, the student of local history finds his present interest in town, village, city, or State, growing with his knowledge of its past.

In recognition of this fact, these true stories, selected from Wisconsin's history, have been written as a means to the cultivation of civic patriotism among the youth of our commonwealth. It is not the purpose of the book to present a continuous account of the development of the State; for this, the author begs to refer to his larger work, "The Story of Wisconsin" (in the Story of the States Series). Rather is it desired to give selections from the interesting and often stirring incidents with which our history is so richly stored, in the hope that the reader may acquire a taste for delving more deeply into the annals of the Badger State.

Wisconsin had belonged, in turn, to Spain, France, and England, before she became a portion of the United States. Her recorded history begins far back in the time of French ownership, in 1634. The century and a third of the French régime was a picturesque period, upon which the memory delights to dwell; with its many phases, several of the following chapters are concerned. The English régime was brief, but not without interest. In the long stretch of years which followed, before Wisconsin became an American State, many incidents happened which possess for us the flavor of romance. The formative period between 1848 and 1861 was replete with striking events. In the War of Secession, Wisconsin took a gallant and notable part. Since that great struggle, the State has made giant strides in industry, commerce, education, and culture; but the present epoch of growth has not thus far yielded much material for picturesque treatment, perhaps because we are still too near to the events to see them in proper perspective. An attempt has been made to present chapters representative of all these periods, but naturally the earlier times have seemed best adapted to the purpose in hand.

R. G. T.

CONTENTS

The Mound Builders Life and Manners of the Indians The Discovery of Wisconsin Radisson and Groseilliers The Story of Joliet and Marquette The Jesuit Missionaries Some Notable Visitors to Early Wisconsin A Quarter of a Century of Warfare The Commerce of the Forest In the Old French Days The Coming of the English Wisconsin in the Revolutionary War The Rule of Judge Réaume The British capture Prairie du Chien The Story of the Wisconsin Lead Mines The Winnebago War The Black Hawk War The Story of Chequamegon Bay Wisconsin Territory formed Wisconsin becomes a State The Boundaries of Wisconsin Life in Pioneer Days The Development of Roads The Phalanx at Ceresco A Mormon King The Wisconsin Bourbon Slave Catching in Wisconsin The Story of a Famous Chief A Fight for the Governorship Our Foreign-born Citizens Swept by Fire Badgers in War Time INDEX

STORIES OF THE BADGER STATE

THE MOUND BUILDERS

In the basin of the Mississippi, particularly in that portion lying east of the great river, there are numerous mounds which were reared by human beings, apparently in very early times, before American history begins. They are found most frequently upon the banks of lakes and rivers, and often upon the summits of high bluffs overlooking the country. No attempt has ever been made to count them, for they could be numbered by tens of thousands; in the small county of Trempealeau, Wisconsin, for instance, over two thousand have been found by surveyors. Most of the mounds have been worn down, by hundreds of years of exposure to rain and frost, till they are but two or three feet in height; a few, however, still retain so majestic an altitude as eighty or more feet. The conical mounds are called by ethnologists tumuli. Other earthworks are long lines, or squares, or circles, and are probably fortifications; some of the best examples of these are still to be traced at Aztalan, Wisconsin. In many places, especially in Ohio and Wisconsin, they have been so shaped as to resemble buffaloes, serpents, lizards, squirrels, or birds; and some apparently were designed to represent clubs, bows, or spears--all these peculiarly shaped mounds being styled effigies.