Page 218 - La Société canadienne d'histoire de l'Église catholique - Rapport 1961

214 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS.

erto unknown. At this point I propose to terminate recollec-
tions of Wisconsin's early history-as at that period a new
and brighter prospect dawned upon her existence, and conclude
with a brief notice of the rise and progress of the City of
Green Bay.
In or about the year 1830, the Town of Navarino, now
known as the North Ward of the City of Green Bay, was
laid out by Mr. DANIEL WHITNEY. For three or four years,
it made but littlo progress. It was previously a dense and
dark forest of pine, tamarack and undergrowth, well tenanted
by bull-frogs and musqui'toes. The house and premises now
occupied by Judge ARNDT, were the northern limits of civil-
ization, on the eastern side of Fox River. But one small
log house occupied as a grocery composed the whole of what
is now called Navarino in the year 1824-that building stood
upon or near the spot now occupied by Messrs. DAY & PEAK,
or the corner of Washington and Cherry streets. I well re-
member how indignant the proprietor felt toward me, on one
occasion, for having repeated a statement made to me by an-
other person relative to the nature of the ground on which
the town stood This statement was neither more or less,
than that my informant, being the owner of two horses, had
turned them loose at night to graze, and when he went in
search of them the next morning, he found them both mired,
that is stuck in the mud and unable to extricate themselves,
on the ground between, what are now Cherry and Walnut
streets, and near the present residence of Mr. FISK oh
Adams street. I was not then a property holder in the
bity. In 1835 I removed to Navarino, and, in 1836, built
the house where I now reside. At that time there were 8
few scatterd buildings east of Adams street-Main street
was in the swamp, and it was with great exertion, on part
of both man and beast, that the materials for my building
could be conveyed to the spot, through stumps and roota,
interspersed with many soft spots. All east, north, and
south of this point was in a state of nature, and it was