Page 201 - La Société canadienne d'histoire de l'Église catholique - Rapport 1961

RECOLLECTIONS
OF THE
EARLY HISTORY OF NORTHERN WISCONSIN.*

BY IION. HENRY S. BAIRD, OF GREEN BAY.
-
To take a retrospect of the past, to record the events con-
nected with the early history of the country, to note the char-
acteristics of its early inhabitants, to delineate the privations
and hardships experienced by its pioneers, in its early settle-
ment, and compare them with the present condition of things,
is a useful and laudable undertaking. It will serve to keep
entire the chain that connects the past with the present gene-
ration, and it will soon be the only record left of a class of
people fast fading from the view of those who now occupy the
stage of public life.
Influenced by such considerations, and at the request of the
committee who honored me with an invitation to address you, I
have undertaken what, I fear, I shall but imperfectly perform,
that is, to give some "Recollections of the Early History of
Northern Wisconsin." In confining my remarks to Northern
Wisconsin, it does not follow that they may not, to a certain
extent, apply to the entire State; for at the period where I
commence, there was but one settlement in any other part of
State-that one at Prairie du Chien, on the Mississippi.T I
propuse to speak of events and transactions with which I am
familiar, that transpired in the portion of the State known
thirty-five ycars ago as "Brown county," when it comprised
about one half of the present State.

* This was originally delivered as a Lecture before the Green Bay Lyceum,
Jan. 19th, 1859, and published, by resolution of the Society, in the Green
Bay Advocate, Feb. 24th, 1859. L.C.D.
+At LaPointe was a small settlement, but its businesa nnd commercial
relations were entirely with Mackinaw and Detroit. L.C.D.