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COVER DESIGN BY STEVE EATON, WHOSE END PAPER MAP
SHOWS THE NORTH END OF LAKE MICHIGAN FROM GREEN
BAY CITY TO THE STRAITS OF MACKINAC.
THE
NAMING
A pare of the history of Washington Township
by Conan Bryant Eaton
COPYRIGHT 1966, 1981 BY CONAN BRYANT EATON
WASHINGTON ISLAND. WISCONSIN
All rights reserved
Published 1966
Revised edition 1981
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY
BAYPRINT, INC. . STURGEON BAY, WISCONSIN
FOREWORD
A preface to a minor effort may be pretentious; yet there are things
to say.
Its producers hope that this booklet may be joined in coming months
by others (several are now in progress) treating particular facets of the
history of this group of islands. Among the subjects: The Death's Door
legend, the Rock Island story, the Indian history, the story of commercial
fishing, the Wisconsin-Michigan boundary dispute, our Island's part in the
non-Mormons' conilict with King Strang's Beaver Island colony, the Ice
landic story, Thorstein Veblen's Island summers, La Salle's Griffin, the
history of transportation in these waters (Indian canoes, voyageurs, sailing
vessels, steam), the natural history of the islands. In the meantime,
a one-volume Island history progresses.
We print citations from whatever sources in italics, with quotation
marks when they mingle with our text, without, when they stand alone and
-indented. They are given word-for-word, their spelling, capitalization
and punctuation unchanged and un-"corrected"; the very few explanatory
interjections by this writer or by earlier editors are enclosed in brackets: [ J
Omissions from quotations (we hope without damage to the sense) are in
dicated by dots thus ... _ .
Two sources are cited often; we give them in full here, with their
abbreviations used to save space in the footnotes:
The WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS, 20 volumes
plus index, published by the State Historical Society, Madison; cited
as WHC.
From the action IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED
STATES, October Term, 1925, Original No. 19 - In Equity, State
of Michigan vs. State of Wisconsin: the Brief of Defendant State
of Wisconsin, cited as WisBrief; the map supplement to Wisconsin's
brief cited as WisBrief Maps; the Brief for the State of Michigan,
cited as MichBrief.
It is humbling to review the list of those outside our family to whom
we are indebted. For the loan of valuable books we are grateful to: Ralph
,Jacobsen, Ray Krause, Margaret Schuchardt and Dr. Robert Gordon's per
sonal library, and Angus Swenson. To the following we are grateful not
only for our use of institutional facilities, but especially for generous
personal assistance: Charlotte Meyer, Librarian, the Washington Island
Library; its parent Door County Library; Mac and Cecelia Magnusson
and Jacobsen's Museum; the Kellogg Public Library of Green Bay; the
Library of the State Historical Society at Madison (and to William C. Hay
good, Editor, the Wisconsin Magazine of H'istory); the MHwaukee Public
Library; the archives of the Bishop Baraga Association in Marquette,
Michigan; the staff of the Door County Advocate.
To Dr. Douglas Waples and Dorothy we are grateful for what can
only poorly be described as inspiration, encouragment, and most especially,
example.
Conan Bryant Eaton
Washington Island
July, 1966
PREFA CE TO REVISED EDITION
New pages 32 through 40 offer some corrections and fresh inter
pretations plus new factual material. The index added to this edition
is the work of Helen Hawley Eaton.
C.B.E.
April, 1981
WASSEKIGANESO - his (sweat-covered) breast is
shining - by a bold figure applied to the island, visible
at great distance when its cliffs reflect the sun.I
IN the early years of the nineteenth century this region was "a wilder
ness bu.t not an unknown wilderness."2 Discovered in 1634 by the Frenchman
Jean Nicolet, it had been explored for a century and a quarter by French
soldiers, traders and missionaries, (and exploited by all but the fathers),
1. Given as the Chippewa name for Washington Island by Dwight H.
Kelton, A.M., Captain, U.S. Army, in INDIAN NAMES of places
near the GREAT LAKES (Detroit, 1888) vol. i. The rest of the
citation: "First name found on maps was Pattawattomie Island -
Potewatamiminiss - they having lived there in mid-17th century.
French name was Isle des Poux from the nickname of those Indians.
This led some mappers to call it Louse Island (Pou - a l.o1is.e)."
2. Louise Phelps Kellogg, p. xv of her introduction to the Old Indian
Agency House Association edition of Wau·Bun, by Mrs. John H.
Kinzie (Menasha, 1930).
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who traversed its waterways, made friends with the Indians, and even built
permanent settlements at a few strategic points. "Then came the French
and Indian War and France was compelled to transfer its North American
possessions to the rising power of Great Britain."3
The British developed the fur trade with vigor, and kept their
economic grip on the Upper Lakes long after the successful revolution of
the colonies transfe1Ted political title to the young United States of America,
and even after Jay's treaty forced Britain in 1796 to abandon her western
posts. Thus . . . . .
Wisconsin remained to all intents and purposes a
British possession ..... 1mtil after the second war with
England.4
Finally, in 1814 the treaty at Ghent broke the mon
opoly of the British traders, and their control over Wiscon
sin Indians. It forever laid at rest the plan for a neutral
Indian state, which would have condemned Wisconsin to re
main a wilderness reserved for Indians and fur-bearing
animals exploited by traders for their own profit . .. . .
The British regime was a wilderness regime, per
petuated solely in the interests of the fur trade. Not until
its close could civilization come to Wisconsin and here
build a modern, American community.5
. .. The United States government awoke to the fact
that there was in this Northwest Territory a rich land to
go iip into and possess. In 1816 two American forts were
built, one at each end of the long Fox-Wisconsin waterway
con1tecting the Great Lakes with the Mississippi; foreigners
were forbidden to trade with the Indians. The military
period of American occupation began.6
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.; also Kellogg's The British Regime in Wisconsin and the
Northwest (Madison, 1935), 237.
5. Ibid., 328.
6. Kellogg, xv in Watt-Bun.
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