Neshotah: the story of Two Rivers, Wisconsin

307 Pages·1969·45.368 MB·English

by  Evan Gagnon

Public Library
Manitowoc, Wia •
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NESHOTAH
THE STORY OF
TWO RIVERS, WISCONSIN
WRITTEN AND COMPILED BY
Evan Gagnon
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Printed in the United States of America by
WORZALLA PUBLISHING COMPANY
STEVENS POINT, WISCONSIN
MCMLXIX
,_.
I
FOR THE PEOPLE
OF
Two RIVERS
This Book is Sponsored by
THE TWO RIVERS HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Preface
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This local history account was conceived at the March 1967
meeting of the Two Rivers Historical Society. The society
agreed to have me write the book and a search for fragments
of local history began that was to take a year-and-a-half to
complete.
I have tried to include many phases of Two Rivers history
in the book. I realized that everyone could not be included
in the book or it would rapidly turn into a cumbersome, and
impossible account. I've tried to be impartial in my reporting
and have included a number of illustrations and accounts I
feel are unique in the local history field. This book in its
completed form is a representative history of our community.
Local history books are currently enjoying considerable pop
ularity throughout our state and inasmuch as Two Rivers did
not have an official recent local history in print it was de
cided to develop this book for the citizens of Two Rivers.
Evident in the narrative are threads of national and state
history which help the reader tie local history to the larger
historical picture. Over thirty pictured illustrations as well
as a number of maps and charts are included in the book.
In closing let me say that as you read and I hope enjoy
this book you will be sharing with me much of the reason
why I consented to write and compile it.
Sincerely,
Evan Gagnon
Acknowledgments
The following is a list of people who helped with some
phase of the book and, therefore, deserve a special "thank you":
Ahrens, Jerry Lintereur, Napoleon
Althen, Seymour Lonzo, Lester
Asplund, Lawrence McDermott, Kathy
Becker, Roland F. Morrison, Ruth
Beitzel, Peter Moseler, Mrs. Katherine
Bentley, Lester Mueller, Mrs. Betty M.
Bleser, Helen (Mrs. Don R.) Nelson, Mervin
Bridges, Duke Otto, Mrs. Warren
Bremer, Mrs. Jennie Peeters, Rev. Thomas
Carron, Norman Rath, H. J.
Crane, Meta (Mrs. B. A) C.H. Rippe
Cyril, Brother Saunders, Mrs. Florence
Dahm, Dorothy Schmeikel, Ewald
Dean, Gertrude Lohman Schmidt, The Rev. John
(Mrs. D. C.) Schmitt, Paul
Delmore, Katherine Shedivy, Toe Jr.
(Mrs. A. V.) Smith, Edna M.
Domnie, 0. W. Smith, Katherine
Gagnon, Mrs. Adeline Sogge, Esther
Galecki, Mrs. E. Stangel, Leonard
Garczynski, Kathy Stamborski, Rev. James
Gautheir, Leo Taddy, Luke
Gauthier, Robert W. Timler, The Rev. Ferdinand
Grimm, Alfred
Vincent, Julie
Henschel, Stan
Wachtel, Elizabeth
Herbstreith, Lloyd
Webster, Mrs. W.
Kaminski, Gertrude
Wentorf, Hubert R.
Kazar, Michael
Willert, Henry
Koepke, Herbert
Kromer, Earl Wilson Studio
Kruschke, Mrs. A. A. Zander, Bernice
LeClair, David Zander, Walter L.
LeClair, Peter Zuehl, Bonnie (Mrs. Milton)
Contents
Preface
CHAPTER I- The Indian and the Trader
CHAPTER II-The Early Settlers
A. The Anderson Account
B. The Land and the Early Settlers
CHAPTER III-The Fishery
CHAPTER IV-Two Rivers in 1850
CHAPTER V-The Tannery
CHAPTER VI-Life and the Lake
CHAPTER VII-The Civil War
CHAPTER VIII-The Indians Depart
CHAPTER IX-Early Industrial Progress
CHAPTER X-1869-1969
A. 1869-1890
B. The Gay Nineties
C. The Ice Cream Sundae
D. City and Farm in 1900
E. World War I
F. The Twenties
G. The Community House
H. Centennial Year 1936
I. World War II Period
J.
Point Beach Nuclear Power Plant
CHAPTER XI-Additional Histories
A. U.S. Coast Guard, Two Rivers, Wis.
B. Two Rivers Youth Hostel
C. History of Two Rivers Brewery Industry
D. Recreation and Athletics
E. Two Rivers Fire Department
F. Two Rivers City Officials
CHAPTER XII-Sketching The Lives of Some of Our Citizens
CHAPTER XIII-Our Churches
CHAPTER XIV-Industry
CHAPTER XV-Familiar Businesses
CHAPTER XVI-Organizations
List of Illustrations
Index
Where music of pines blends with roar of the lake,
And foam crested billows on roughened sands break;
Where suns rise in splendor on Michigan's breast
And sink in the glory of bright skies to rest;
Home, home, there's my home
Neshotah, my heart's-love, wherever I roam,
-Rev. john Nelson Davidson
CHAPTER I
The Indian and the Trader
The sun sprinkled down through the green-gray hemlock
trees that lined the river. The clear water of the river wove
its way around the bends, paused momentarily in the slews,
and continued on its way to a junction with another river, its
twin. The two rivers then entered the blue waters of the big
lake together. On the banks of the rivers were camped the
Indian tribesmen. The year was 17 56. The place was a land
the French explorers came to call "Ouisconsin," which means
"Gathering of the waters." The Memominees, Winnebagos,
Ottawas, Potowatomies, and Chippewas had chosen the area
to live in because of the abundance of fish and wild game
animals.
J
The Indians appropriately named the site "Neshotah" mean
ing "twin rivers." Their name for the easternmost of the
rivers was "Mishicott" while the river to the west came to be
called "Neshoto." Some of the savage groups had lost heavily
in the warfare between Indian and Indian and between Indian
and White. They were now content to live as refugees in this
somewhat isolated hunting-ground on the west shore of the
lake.
The closest contact that these tribesmen had with the whites
was at the French settlement at La Baye Verte (Green Bay).
At the time no white man had settled on the shores of the
two rivers, although the missionary Pere Marquette and his
companion Joliet had twice passed down the shoreline of the
blue lake in 1674 and 1675. The lake, called "Michi guma"
by the Indians who lived along its shores, soon became a fa
vorite route of fur traders and explorers.
The French missionaries were thinly spread out over the
huge empire and usually by-passed Neshotah enroute to estab
lished missions in the Illinois country far to the South.
1
2 NESHOTAH
The parade of French traders and m1ss10naries continued
and in 1679 LaSalle passed southward along our shores. Four
teen years were to pass before the venerable Jesuit Claude
Allouez and his company were to paddle down our shoreline
on their way to work among the Indians of Illinois. In 1699,
the Jesuit missionary, St. Cosme, and Henri de Tonty were the
next travelers to pass our shores and they too were southward
bound to Illinois. During this earlier period Neshotah was
first occupied by a tribe of Indians known as the Mascoutins.1
During this period of history, the flag of the Bourbon Kings
of France "flew over Neshotah." The Lily Banner consisted
of three gold Fleur-De-Lis on a blue field.2 Neshotah was a
small, unnoticed area on the map of an enormously large over
seas possession known as New France. Few families came to
New France to settle with the result the "ouisconsin" con
tained only a few scattered French outposts, such as Green
Bay, DePere, LaPointe, and Prairie du Chien.
In 1765, the year our story opens, the famous French and
Indian war broke out and our area was expected to send In
dian braves, as allies of the French, to the New York Colony
area to fight against the English and their Iroquois allies. A
half-breed Menominee named Charles de Langlad.$ became
a forceful recruiter in the northeastern Ouisconsin area.
The first two years of this contest of the morale and means
of men favored the cause of the French and their Indian al
lies. The last two years of the war and the eventual victory
went to the English. With a colonial population ratio of nearly
20 to 1 and greater material resources at her command, English
victory was assured in a "long" war.
Now the English "Union Jack" would fly over Neshotah and
Ouisconsin. The few English military men and the settlers
who were to come to Ouisconsin would fit into the frontier
life at LaBaye, and the French, bled considerably during the
recent war, would readily accept English rule.
With a growing threat of revolution in her American Col
onies, England began to reinforce her garrisons at Detroit and
Mackinac and to increase th!! size of her fleet on the Great
Lakes.
1 Story of a Century, Manitowoc County, p. 5
2 Public Archives of Canada, 67-803/331, p. 1 (Ottawa, Canada,
1967)
3
THE INDIAN AND TH,E TRADER
It was during the fourth year of the American Revolution
that the first historic account of Two Rivers was recorded.
The activities of George Rogers Clark, the American com
mander in the West, had caused the British fleet and garrisons
in the Lake Michigan area to be on the alert. A British ship,
the sloop "Felicity", started out in the fall of 1779 to check
on the loyalties of Indian groups living along the Lake Michi
gan shoreline. Pilot Samuel Robertson of the Felicity kept a
log concerning his findings. Upon landing at Milwaukee,
Robertson had his interpreter Gautier talk to a French trader
named St. Pierre. St. Pierre reported, on November 4, 1779,
of a trader, named Monsuier Fay who had been at a place
called "Deaux Rivers, 18 leagues from Milwaukee to the
North."3 That was the first recorded mention of our town,
Two Rivers.
We have no evidence of the extent of Fay's trading venture
among the Indians of the Two Rivers area. We are reasonably
certain that no substantial building nor any great stay in
time were achieved by Fay while at "Deaux Rivers." It re
mained for another to become the first true settler in our
community.
An important early name in the story of Neshotah was that
of Jacques Vieau. This French voyageur is properly considered
to have been the first white resident of Manitowoc County
for he resided at times in the woodlands just north of Neshotah.
Jacques Vieau was born in Cour de Neige (or Snow Court)
in the Montreal region of Canada on May 5, 1757.
Jacques original family name was de Veau which meant
calf or veal. The village children had annoyed Jacques' an
cestors by "bleating in their presence"4 with the result that
the name was changed to Vieau in self-defense.
As a young man, Jacques traveled West to the outpost of
Machinac and acted as a trading agent at LaPointe on Lake
Superior in the l 780's and 90's. He was sent by the North
west Fur Trading Comany to Green Bay on occasion and here
married Angeline Roy, the daughter of a French trader named
3 Wisconsin Historical Society Collections, Vol. XI, p. 211.
4 "The Narrative of Andrew J. Vieau", Wisconsin Historical
Society Collections, Vol. XI, p. 218.
5 "The British Regime in Wisconsin and the Northwest," Vol.
II, p. 228.
4 NESHOTAH
Joseph Roy. He was sent on a more permanent basis to Green
Bay in the early l 790'J· The couple brought twelve children
into the world and raised them at the various wilderness out
posts that Jacques in time established.
After settling at Green Bay, he was sent by the company
to establish "Jacknife" or branch posts along the west coast
of Lake Michigan, at Two Rivers, Manitowoc, (actually Man
itowoc Rapids) , and Sheboygan. Vieau built a permanent
post on the Milwaukee River, where he wintered for many
years."5
In 1795, Jacques Vieau started out from Green Bay and be
gan to paddle down the west shore of Lake Michigan. The
expedition was an interesting one. First came a larger Macki
naw boat, well over twenty feet long, and containing a twelve
man crew. The Mackinaw was loaded with goods for the
Indian trade. Vieau had stocked scarlet and blue cloth, striped
gartering, vermilion paint, sleigh bells, tobacco, needles, scis
sors, and scalping knives in the Mackinaw. Behind the Macki
naw came a large bark canoe containing the Vieau family
consisting of Jacques and Angeline along with their children,
Madelicne, Paul, and Jacques Jr. The bark canoe contained
the camping equipment and belongings of the Vieau clan.
The Vieau children began their education with clerks like
Mike le Peteel, who accompanied the Vieaus.
The expedition first put ashore at what is today Two Creeks
and proceeded overland in a southwesterly direction for 8 or
9 miles before establishing their first "jacknife" post. The
men began to cut logs and build the fur trading post in what
is today the Township of Gibson, near the village of Mishicot.
The cabin had to be built in a hurry, as three more posts were
to be built before the winter snows set in. Mosquitos and
sweat would be with the men until the post would be com
pleted and a clerk left behind to run it.
The Indians began to gather and do business. The usual
Chippewas, Pottowatomois, Menominees, and Winnebagoes
were now joined by a new refugee tribe called the Ottawas.
They soon corrupted Vieaus' name and came to call him "Jean
Beau' or "Jambo." The pioneers came to call the creek, a
tributary of the Mishicot, "Jean Beau" or "Jambo" Creek. To
day a marker stands on this historic spot.
Two Creeks doubtless remained the supply point for the
Jambo Creek outpost. The Indians of Neshotah carried mem
ories of the old outpost to the first permanent white settlers