Wisconsin

Atchaterakangouen Tribe

Atchaterakangouen Indians. An Algonquian tribe or band living in the interior of Wisconsin in 1672, near the Mascouten and Kickapoo.

Biographical Sketch of R. B. F. Watrons

R. B. F. Watrons. – No man in Redlands is more worthy of mention in a work of this kind than is B. F. Watrons, M. D. He came to Redlands with $350, with which he bought a team and went to work. He had previously contracted for ten acres of land for $1,000, and had paid $250 down. He began improving it the second year and put up a $400 house. He afterward bought ten acres more for $1,500 and borrowed money for the first payment. In five years he had bought and paid for thirty-one acres in Redlands … Read more

Biographical Sketch of A. Ball

A. Ball, of Redlands, is a native of Vermont, born April 5, 1832. His father, Orange Ball, moved to Ashtabula County, Ohio, in 1840, where he farmed until his death, which occurred in December, 1873. The subject of this sketch was reared in the “Buckeye” State, and in 1854 left his native State to be gone only three months. He went to Jefferson County, Wisconsin, where he engaged in farming. Then he took five months to drive with wagons to Silver City, Nevada, where he mined and teamed until 1864, when he went to Sonoma County, California, and engaged in … Read more

Biography of Charles J. Perkins

Charles J. Perkins, attorney-at-law and an active member of the Southern California bar, came to the State in 1883, and the following year located in practice in San Bernardino. He was born in the Empire State in 1856, but his father, F. J. Perkins, moved with his family from New York to Illinois in the fall of that year, and purchased a farm, on which they settled. In 1877 young Perkins started out in railroad business as an employee in the operating department of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. At that time train robberies on the western frontier were … Read more

Biography of Fred L. Stephenson

Fred L. Stephenson is president of the Commercial State Bank of Yates Center. He had many other interests that connect him with that community, and for many years had been one of the live and energetic citizens, ever ready to co-operate in any plan for the advancement of local welfare. Mr. Stephenson had spent most of his life in Kansas and he owes to his individual energies and the opportunities of the state his prosperity and his position in affairs. His ancestors were English people who came to New York in Colonial days. His grandfather was Thomas Stephenson, a native … Read more

Biography of Robert A. Maxwell

ROBERT A. MAXWELL THE HON. Robert A. Maxwell, superintendent of the insurance department, was born in Washington county, N. Y. , in 1838. He is a son of Alexander Maxwell, of Jackson, a prominent citizen of the town, and an intelligent and wealthy farmer. Robert was given the advantages of a liberal education by his father. After receiving a thorough instruction at the common schools in his neighborhood, he was sent to the normal school at Albany, where he finished his education at the age of eighteen. His rare qualities as an educator were unfolded while attending this excellent institution, … Read more

Indian Villages, Towns and Settlements of Wisconsin

These pages will provide an alphabetical listing for all the villages, towns, and settlements in what was the state of Wisconsin at the time the Handbook of American Indian of North America was written. Calumet. A former Menominee village on the east shore of Lake Winnebago, Wisconsin, with 150 inhabitants in 1817. Starrow in Wis. Hist, Soc. Coll., vi, 171, 1872; Royce in 18th Rep. B. A. E., pi. clxxi, 1899. Chetac Lake. A Chippewa village, named from the lake on which it is situated, in Sawyer County , northwest Wisconsin. Gatagetegauning (probably for Kǎ‛tǎgĭtganĭng the ancient field (W, J.) … Read more

Biography of John W. Roche

Little would the visitor of today suspect that much of the western part of the City of Rock Island, now built up with modern homes, business houses and factories, was once an uninhabitable swamp; worse than that, it was covered with water to a great extent, and when the Mississippi was high a rapidly flowing stream ran through half the present length of the city, and skiffs, rafts and even steamboats passed over the very place where hundreds now live and work on dry, firm mother earth the year around. The work of reclaiming this tract of land has been … Read more

Tionontati Tribe

Tionontati Indians – Tionontati First Nation (‘there the mountain stands.’ – Hewitt). A tribe formerly living in the mountains south of Nottawasaga bay, in Grey and Simcoe Counties, Ontario.

Winnebago Tribe

Winnebago Indians, Winnebago Nation (winǐpig, ‘filthy water’ [Chippewa]; winǐpyägohagi, ‘people of the filthy water’ [Sauk and Fox]. W. J.) A tribe of the Siouan linguistic family. Winnebago Tribe History The Winnebago have been known to the whites since 1634, when the Frenchman Nicollet found them in Wisconsin, on Green bay, at which time they probably extended to Lake Winnebago. At this period they were found wedged in by Central Algonquian tribes, particularly by the Sauk and Foxes and the Menominee. To the west they were in intimate contact with a kindred tribe, the Iowa, who in turn were neighbors of the … Read more

Stockbridge Tribe

Stockbridge Indians. A tribe of the Mahican confederacy, first known under the name Housatonic. They occupied part of the valley of Housatonic river, in south Berkshire county, Mass. Their principal village, Westenhuck, was for a long time the capital of the Mahican after the removal of the council fire from Schodac. They had another village at Skatehook. In 1734 Sergeant began missionary work among them, and two years later the several bands were collected on a tract reserved for their use by the Colonial government. After the village of Stockbridge was established they were known as Stockbridge Indians. The French … Read more

Sioux Indians

Siouan Family, Siouan Tribe, Sioux Tribe. The most populous linguistic family North of Mexico, next to the Algonquian. The name is taken from a ‘term applied to the largest and best known tribal group or confederacy belonging to the family, the Sioux or Dakota, which, in turn, is an abbreviation of Nadowessioux, a French corruption of Nadowe-is-iw, the appellation given them by the Chippewa. It signifies ‘snake,’ ‘adder,’ and, by metaphor, ‘enemy.’ Before changes of domicile took place among them, resulting from contact with whites, the principal body extended from the west bank of the Mississippi northward from the Arkansas … Read more

Dakota Tribe

Dakota Indians (‘allies’). The largest division of the Siouan family, known commonly as Sioux, according to Hewitt a French Canadian abbreviation of the Chippewa Nadowe-is-iw, a diminutive of nadowe, ‘an adder,’ hence ‘an enemy.’ Nadoweisiw-eg is the diminutive plural. The diminutive singular and plural were applied by the Chippewa to the Dakota, and to the Huron to distinguish them from the Iroquois proper, the true ‘adders’ or ‘enemies.’ According to Chippewa tradition the name was first applied to a body of Indians living on an island somewhere east of Detroit. Dakota, Nakota, Lakota are the names used by themselves, in … Read more

Sauk Tribe

Sauk Indians, Sac Indians, Sac Tribe ( Osā’kiwŭg, ‘people of the outlet,’ or, possibly, ‘people of the yellow earth,’ in contradistinction from the Muskwakiwuk, ‘Red Earth People’, a name of the Foxes). One of a number of Algonquian tribes whose earliest known habitat was embraced within the eastern peninsula of Michigan, the other tribes being the Potawatomi, the “Nation of the Fork,” and probably the famous Mascoutens and the Foxes. The present name of Saginaw Bay (Sāginā’we’, signifying ‘the country or place of the Sauk’) is apparently derived from the ethnic appellative Sauk. There is presumptive evidence that the Sauk, … Read more

Wisconsin Indian Reservations

A list of Wisconsin Indian reservations showing the Indian tribes the land was set aside for, the amount of acres if known, and the acts, treaties, and executive orders used to establish the reservation.

Potawatomi Tribe

Potawatomi Indians, Nation of Fire. An Algonquian tribe, first encountered on the islands of Green Bay, Wis., and at its head. According to the traditions of all three tribes, the Potawatomi, Chippewa, and Ottawa were originally one people, and seem to have reached the region about the upper end of Lake Huron together.

Potawatomi Indian Research

Pottawatomie Indians   J. B. Bottineau, speaking Chippewa and Cree fluently, gives Potawatanubñk or Potawaganiñk, i. e. ‘People of the place of the fire,’ as the primary form of the name. This derivation is strongly confirmed by the Huron name Asistagueroüon (Champlain, 1616), for Otsistă’ge`roñnoñ’, likewise signifying ‘People of the place of fire,’ which was applied by them to their enemies who dwelt in 1616 on the west shores of Lake Huron. Read More about the Potawatomie History Potawatomi Indian Biography Pottawatomie Chiefs and Leaders Chief Kack-kack (hosted at Pottawatomie Web) Bureau of Indian Affairs Bureau of Indian Affairs Tracing … Read more

Mascouten Tribe

Mascouten Indians (‘little prairie people,’ from muskuta (Fox) or mashcodé, (Chippewa), prairie’; ens, diminutive ending. By the Hurons they were called Assistaeronon, ‘Fire people,’ and by the French ‘Nation do Fen.’ These last names seem to have arisen from a mistranslation of the Algonquian term. In the Chippewa dialect ‘fire’ is ishkote, and might easily be substituted for mashkodé, ‘prairie’ ). A term used by some early writers in a collective and indefinite sense to designate the Algonquian tribes living on the prairies of Wisconsin and Illinois; LaSalle even includes some bands of Sioux under the name. The name (Mashkótens) … Read more

Ottawa Indian Chiefs and Leaders

The following were chiefs or leaders of the Ottawa Indians. Pontiac An Ottawa chief, born about 1720, probably on Maumee river, Ohio, about the mouth of the Auglaize. Though his paternity is not positively established, it is most likely that his father was an Ottawa chief and his mother a Chippewa woman. J. Wimer says that as early as 1746 he commanded the Indians, mostly Ottawa, who defended Detroit against the attack of the northern tribes. It is supposed he led the Ottawa and Chippewa warriors at Braddock’s defeat. He first appears prominently in history at his meeting with Maj. Robert Rogers, in … Read more