History of Northern Wisconsin

Ashland County

Source: History of Northern Wisconsin: Containing an Account of Its Settlement, Growth, Development, and Resources, an Extensive Sketch of Its Counties, Cities, Towns and Villages, Their Improvements, Industries, Manufactories, Biographical Sketches, Portraits of Prominent Men and Early Settlers, Views of County Seats, Etc. Chicago: Western Historical Co., 1881.

pp. 61-63

Ashland County, like Douglas and Bayfield, has been a part of Michilimackinac, Chippewa, Crawford, St. Croix and La Pointe Counties, being set off from the latter March 27, 1860.

Its coast line on Lake Michigan [sic.] extends from Range 5 west, to Range 1 east, including the Apostle Islands, the boundary extending from thence south on the township line between Ranges 1 and 2 east, to the township line between Townships 40 and 41 north, thence west to the range line between Ranges 9 and 10 west; thence north to the range line between Townships 42 and 3; thence east to the range line between Ranges 4 and 5 west; thence north to the head of Ashland Bay in Township 47 west, including forty-eight townships.

The surface of the county is generally level, though it is broken by the iron and copper ranges, which attain an elevation of nearly 1,000 feet above the level of the lake. The timber consists of pine and many other varieties of trees. The soil is varied, marl and sandy loam in the interior, and red clay on the lake shore.

The Montreal, White and Bad, are the principal rivers. There are also many spring brooks and several lovely inland lakes.

The Penoka iron range runs southwesterly through the county a distance of over twenty miles—the copper range is north of it—in which geologists are of the opinion that iron and copper exist in large quantities. The name Penoka was originally Pewabic, Chippewa for iron, but through the poor penmanship of a professor, writing of the range, it was deciphered Penoka.

The Apostle Islands forming a part of Ashland County, have a heavy growth of pine, hemlock and hardwood timber. The group includes Madeline Island, on which is situated La Pointe, the oldest known European settlement in the State of Wisconsin. The early history of Ashland County is the same as that of the Lake Superior region. It was visited in the early days by Jesuits, traders, trappers and hunters.

THE JESUIT FATHERS.

"On the eighth day of August, of the year 1665, I embarked at Three Rivers [Canada], with six Frenchmen, in company with more than 400 savages of divers nations, who were returning to their homes, after having finished their traffic, for which they had come here." Such is the announcement of Claude Alloüez, Jesuit missionary, of his starting for the wilds of the distant West, which resulted in his establishing of the first Catholic mission within what is now the State of Wisconsin—"the Mission of the Holy Ghost."

It is unnecessary to follow Alloüez in his journey from the St. Lawrence up the Ottawa River. He took the usual course of that river to Lake Nipissing; thence down French River to Lake Huron; on Lake Huron to the strait or outlet of Lake Superior. But, from the time he reached Lake Huron until his arrival within the present limits of Wisconsin, we will let him describe his journey; we will say, however, that his voyage up the Ottawa was made with great toil and suffering, aggravated by the brutality of his conductors:

"Toward the beginning of September, after having coasted along the shores of Lake Huron, we arrived at the Sault; it is thus that they call half a league of rapids in a beautiful river that forms the junction of the two great lakes Huron and Superior. It was, therefore, on the 2d of September, after having surmounted the Sault, which is not a water-fall, but only a very violent current obstructed by numerous rocks, that we entered into the upper lake, which will hereafter bear the name of Monsieur Tracy, in acknowledgement of the obligation under which the people of this country are to him. The form of this lake is almost that of a bow, the southern coast being very much curved, and that of the north almost a straight line. The fisheries are abundant, the fish excellent, and the water so clear and transparent that one can see, to the depth of six fathoms, what lies at the bottom. The savages respect this lake as a divinity, and sacrifice to it, either on account of its magnitude, for it is 200 leagues in length, by eighty its greatest width, or because of its bounty in supplying the fish that nourish all these people in the absence of game, which, in this vicinity, is very rare. They often find at the bottom of the water, pieces of pure copper, weighing from ten to twenty pounds. I have often seen them in the hands of the savages, and as they are superstitious, they look upon them as so many divinities, or as presents made to them by the gods, who are at the bottom of the lake, to be the cause of their good fortune; for this reason they preserve these pieces of copper, wrapped up among their most precious movables; there are some who have preserved them for more than fifty years, others have had them in their families from time immemorial, and cherish them as household gods. For some time there was visible a great rock entirely of copper, the top of which projected above the surface of the water. This gave occasion to by-passers to go and cut off pieces from it. Nevertheless, when I passed by that place, nothing could be seen of it. I believe that the storms, which here are very frequent, and similar to those on the sea, have covered this rock with sand; our savages wanted to persuade me that it was a divinity, and had disappeared for some reason which they did not state. As for the rest, this lake is the abode of twelve or fifteen different nations, some coming from the north, some from the south, and others from the west, and all repairing to the shores most appropriate for fishing, or to the islands, which are very numerous in all parts of this lake. The intention of these people in repairing to this place is partly to seek a livelihood by fishing, and partly to carry on their little commerce with each other, when they meet together. But the design of God has been to facilitate the publication of the gospel to a wandering and vagrant people. Having then entered into Lake Tracy, we employed the whole month of September in coasting along the southern shores, where I had the consolation of saying the holy mass, having found myself alone with our Frenchmen, which I had not been able to do since my departure from Three Rivers. After having consecrated these forests by this holy action, to complete my happiness, God conducted me to the borders of the lake, and put me in the way of two children whom they were embarking to go into the interior. I felt strongly inspired to baptize them, and after all necessary precautions, I did so, considering the danger they were in of dying during the Winter. All past fatigues were no longer regarded by me; I was inured to hunger, which always closely followed us, having nothing to eat but that which our fishermen (who were not always successful), supplied us with from day to day. We afterward passed the bay, named by the late Father Menard "St. Theresa." It was here that this generous missionary wintered; here laboring with the same zeal which caused him afterward to yield up his life, searching after souls.

"After having gone 180 leagues along that coast of Lake Tracy which looks toward the south, where it has pleased our Lord to put our patience to the proof, through tempests, famine and fatigues by day and night, finally we arrived, on the first day of October, at Chagouamigong, for which we have for so long a time looked forward. It is a beautiful bay, at the bottom of which is situated the great village of the savages, who there plant their fields of Indian corn, and lead a stationary life. They are there to the number of 800 men bearing arms, but collected from seven different nations, who dwell in peace with each other, thus mingled together. This great collection of people has caused us to prefer this place before all others, at which to fix our ordinary residence, that we might with greater convenience attend to the instruction of these infidels—erect a chapel there—and commence the functions of Christianity. This quarter of the lake where we have stopped, is between two large villages, and as it were, the center of all the nations of these countries, because fish are abundant there, which form the principal subsistence of these people. We have erected there a small chapel of bark, where my sole occupation is to receive the Algonquin and Huron Christians, instruct them, baptize, and catechise the children."

Alloüez found at Ashland Bay (as we now shall call it) the people formerly called the "Hurons of the Tobacco nation," from the region south of the Georgian Bay of Lake Huron. "They have been constrained," says the missionary, "as well as the others [that is, other nations, then at the bay] to quit their country to avoid the Iroquois, and to retire toward the extremity of this great lake [Superior], where the distance and the lack of the chase secures to them an asylum from their enemies. Formerly they formed a part of the flourishing church of the Hurons and had the late Father Garnier for pastor. They have their village quite near our residence [at the bay of Chegoimegon or Ashland Bay] which has afforded me the means of undertaking this mission with more assiduity than the others more distant." The name of the bay is variously spelled: Chagouamigong, Chequamegan and Chegoimegan.

The exact location of the chapel is in obscurity; one tradition claiming Section 27, and another pointing to Section 22, Township 50 north, Range 4 west, as the site. The range was unquestionably somewhere within those sections, on the shore of Pike's Bay. The mission was afterward removed to Madeline Island, near the present hamlet of La Pointe.

Ten or twelve petty Algonquin tribes soon assembled at the bay, to hang on the war kettle and prepare for a general invasion of the land of the Sioux, which lay to the westward, "toward the great river called Messipi," as the missionary declared. These Sioux were first seen by Alloüez at the extremity of Lake Superior—Fond du Lac—whither the father had traveled. He declared "they were almost at the end of the earth, according as their say." The expedition organizing by the Algonquins at Chegoimegon against this tribe was given up at the solicitation of Alloüez. Tranquility being thus insured, the missionary adorned his chapel of the Holy Ghost at the spot henceforth called "La Pointe du Saint Esprit" or, simply, "La Pointe" in the course of time, and began to gather his Indian Church. His chapel was soon an object of wonder, and wandering hunters of many a tribe came to the spot; among whom were Chippewas, Pottawatomies, Sacs and Foxes, Kikapoos, Miamis and Illinois. His mission comprised two towns,—one inhabited by Ottawas the other by Hurons. He visited the Chippewas at the Sault Ste. Marie and the Nipissings at Lake Alempegon. It was thus that in two years he founded the missions of the Ottawas and Chippewas and revived those of the Hurons and Nipissings.

The Relation of 1667, says:

"During the two years that Father Alloüez has remained among the Ontaouacs, he has observed the customs of all the nations that he has seen, and has carefully studies the means that may facilitate their conversion. There is employment for a good number of missionaries, but there is nothing for them to subsist upon; one part of the year they live upon the bark of trees, another part on pulverized fish bones, and the balance of the time on fish, or on Indian corn, which sometimes is very scarce, and sometimes sufficiently abundant. The father has learned by experience, that, the fatigues being great, the labors continual and the nourishment light, a body even of bronze could not withstand it, consequently it is necessary to have at the missions, men of courage and piety, to labor for the subsistence of the missionaries, either by cultivating the earth, by fishing, or in the following the chase; who would construct lodgings and erect some chapels to excite the veneration of these people, who have never seen any thing finer than their birch bark cabins. With these views, the father resolved to come to Quebec himself, and labor to carry these designs into execution. He arrived there on the third day of August, of this year 1667, and after remaining two days only, his diligence was so great that he was prepared to set out from Montreal with a score of canoes of savages, with whom he had come down, and who awaited him at that island with a great deal of impatience. His equipage was composed of seven persons: Father Louis Nicholas, to labor, conjointly with him, for the conversion of these people, and one of our brothers, with four men, to be employed at the stations in securing a subsistence for them. But it has pleased God that the success of this enterprise should not correspond with their good intentions, for when there was question of entering the canoes, the savages became so ill humored that the two fathers only, with one of their men could obtain places in them."

Though forced to leave their French companions at Montreal, the two missionaries reached their mission in safety. Nicholas, however, soon left La Pointe; followed in September, 1669, by Alloüez, who was succeeded by Father James Marquette.

"Divine Providence," says the last named missionary, "having destined me to continue the Mission of the Holy Ghost, which Father Alloüez had commenced, and where he had baptized the principal personages of the Kiskakonk nation [Ottawas], I arrived there the thirteenth day of September [1669], and I went to visit the savages who belonged to the parish, which is, as it were, divided into five villages." A war between the Sioux on the one side and the Ottawas and Hurons on the other, in 1671, induced Marquette to break up his establishment at the Pointe. He went thence to Mackinaw and the Jesuit Fathers were never again seen at La Pointe.