Prairie du Chien Wisconsin Genealogy

Winnebago Mission School and Trading Post

By the treaty of September 15, 1832, it was stipulated that the government should annually, beginning in September, 1833, and continuing for twenty-seven years, give the Winnebagoes $10,000 in specie, and establish a school among them, at or near Prairie du Chien, with a farm and garden, and provide other facilities, not to exceed in cost $3,000 a year, for the education of their children, and continue the same for twenty-seven successive years. Six agriculturists, twelve yoke of oxen and as many plows, and other farming tools were to be supplied by the government. The buildings were erected in 1833, … Read more

Biography of Hon. William McEniry

In considering the prominent legal firms in Rock Island County one’s mind instinctively turns to the firm of McEniry & McEniry, a firm composed of the two brothers, Hon. William McEniry and Matthew J. McEniry, having offices both in Rock Island and Moline. It is the life and character of the former of these two gentlemen that we pro-pose to depict in the sketch that is to follow. The life and character of Matthew J. McEniry will be found elsewhere in this work treated at length. William McEniry was born in Rock Island County, Illinois, May 9, 1860, his parents … Read more

Menominee Indians

Menominee Indians were located on and near the Menominee River, Wisconsin, and in Michigan on or about the present location of Mackinac. The Menominee belonged to the Algonquian linguistic family and to the same section as the Cree and Foxes.

Illinois Indian Land

With the rapid increase of a white population between the Lakes and the Mississippi, which followed the conclusion of hostilities with England and her Indian allies, new difficulties began to arise between the natives and the settlers. Illinois and Wisconsin were inhabited by various tribes of Indians, upon terms of bitter hostility among themselves, but united in their suspicions and apprehensions at the unprecedented inroads of emigrants from the east. The Winnebago, dwelling in Wisconsin; the Pottawatomie, situated around the southern extremity of Lake Michigan; and the Sac, (afterwards mingled with the Foxes, and usually coupled with that tribe,) of … Read more

Black Hawk’s War – Indian Wars

We have now to record the events of a war “which brought one of the noblest of Indians to the notice and admiration of the people of the United States. Black Hawk was an able and patriotic chief. With the intelligence and power to plan a great project, and to execute it, he united the lofty spirit which secures the respect and confidence of a people. He was born about the year 1767, on Rock river, Illinois. At the age of fifteen he took a scalp from the enemy, and was in consequence promoted by his tribe to the rank of a brave.

Biography of Matthew J. McEniry

It is said that the legal profession is one of the most difficult in which to achieve success. It is doubtless true that to be a truly successful attorney requires ability of a high order. We have spoken elsewhere in this work of; the success achieved by the legal firm of McEniry & McEniry, and one of the fruits of that success is a renown that is not merely local but that has spread throughout the northwest. In the article mentioned the life and character of one of the members of the firm, William McEniry, was taken up and discussed … Read more

Biography of Francis Xavier Paquet

FRANCIS X. PAQUET. – Francis Xavier Paquet, son of Joseph Paquet and Marie Madaline Godant, was born in the parish of Saint John, about thirty miles west of Quebec, at the junction of the Jacquarka river with the St. Lawrence. Joseph Paquet was a stonemason by trade, but lived on a farm and took jobs of stonework. He was the father of eighteen children, nine boys and nine girls. F.X. Paquet, the sixteenth child in order, was born on the fifteenth day of January, 1811. He learned the trade of shipbuilding at Quebec, being apprenticed to Peter Labbe when not … Read more

Treaty of August 1, 1829

Articles of a treaty made and concluded at the Village of Prairie du Chien, Michigan Territory, on this first day of August, in the year one thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine, between the United States of America, by their Commissioner, General John M’Neil, Colonel Pierre Menard, and Caleb Atwater, Esq., for and on behalf of said States, of the one part, and the Nation of Winnebaygo Indians of the other part. Article I. The said Winnebaygo nation hereby, forever, cede and relinquish to the said United States, all their right, title, and claim, to the lands and country contained within … Read more