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Wisconsin became a state on May 29,
1848, but the land that makes up
the state has been occupied by humans for thousands
of years. The history of Wisconsin encompasses not
only the stories of the people who have lived in
Wisconsin since it became a state of the
U.S., but also the
stories of the
Native American tribes who made their homelands
in Wisconsin, and the French and British colonists
who were the first Europeans to live there.
Pre-Columbian history
The first
known inhabitants of what is now Wisconsin were the
Paleo-Indians, who first
arrived in the region in about 10,000 BC. They used
primitive weapons to hunt animals such as mammoths and
mastodons. The Boaz mastodon, and
the Clovis artifacts
discovered in Boaz, Wisconsin,
show that hunting was the primary occupation for these
people. The Plano culture began
to dominate Wisconsin around 7000 BC, as the last glaciers
retreated from the state. During the
Archaic stage, from 6,000 –
1,000 BC, Wisconsin was inhabited by the Boreal Archaic and
the Old Copper Indians. People during this time lived in
small groups or bands, and continued to depend on hunting
for their existence.
By the time
of the early Woodland period
that began around 500 BC, farming began to replace hunting
as a means of supplying food. This allowed for the creation
of permanent settlements. With permanent settlement came
more advanced art and pottery. The first Indian mounds were
built during this period, mainly for burial purposes. As the
Hopewell culture emerged in
around 100 BC, farming, art, and mound building were
significantly advanced. The late Woodland period began in
about 600 AD. The Effigy mound
culture dominated Wisconsin during this time, and built
sophisticated mounds in the shapes of animals for ceremonial
reasons. The Mississippian
culture began to expand into Wisconsin in 1050 AD, and
established a settlement at
Aztalan, Wisconsin. The Mississippian culture was
replaced by the Oneota people in
around 1200 AD. This culture eventually evolved into the
Siouan tribes known to European explorers. When the first
Europeans reached Wisconsin, the primary inhabitants were
the Chippewa,
Ho-Chunk, Menominee,
Sac (tribe), and
Fox.
Exploration and colonization
French exploration
The first
known European to enter Wisconsin was French
Voyager Jean Nicolet. In
1634, Samuel
Champlain, governor of New France,
gave Nicolet the task of searching for a water route to
China through North America.
Accompanied by seven Huron Indian
guides, Nicolet left Canada and canoed
through Lake Huron and
Lake Superior, and then the
world ended and ur not alive
The next
major expedition into Wisconsin was that of Father
Jacques Marquette and
Louis Joliet in
1673. After hearing rumors from Indians telling of the
existence of the Mississippi
River, Marquette and Joliet set out from
St. Ignace, Michigan and
entered the Fox River
at Green Bay. They canoed up the Fox until they reached the
river’s westernmost point, and then portaged, or carried
their boats, to the nearby
Wisconsin River, where they resumed canoing downstream
to the Mississippi River. Marquette and Joliet reached the
Mississippi near what is now
Prairie du Chien,
Wisconsin in June 1673.
French colonization
French
colonists were interested primarily in the
fur trade, and established only a
few small outposts. The first, at Green
Bay, was called simply “La Baye” by the French, and was
started with Nicolet’s original trading post in
1634. A Jesuit
mission was established at Green Bay in 1671,
and a fort was built at the settlement in
1717.
Nicholas Perrot, French
commander of the west, established
Fort St. Nicholas
at Prairie du Chien in
1685, near the southwest end of the
Fox-Wisconsin Waterway.
Perrot also built a fort on the shores of
Lake Pepin called
Fort St. Antoine.
These were not military posts, but rather small storehouses
for furs. A Jesuit mission and a trading post were also
built on the shores of Lake
Superior at La Pointe,
Wisconsin at the end of the 17th Century.
None of the
French posts had any permanent settlers; fur traders and
missionaries would simply visit them from time to time to
conduct business.
The British period
The British
gained control of Wisconsin in 1763, and
like the French, were interested in little but the fur
trade. The first permanent settlers, most of them
French Canadians, arrived in
Wisconsin while it was under British control.
Sieur Charles Michel de Langlade is generally recognized
as the first settler, he settled at Green Bay in
1764. Settlement began at Prairie du
Chien around 1781.
The territorial period
The United
States acquired Wisconsin in the
Treaty of Paris (1783).
Shortly afterward, in 1787, the
Americans made Wisconsin part of the new
Northwest Territory.
Later, in 1800, Wisconsin became part of
Indiana Territory. Despite
legally belonging to the United States at this time,
however, the British continued to control the local fur
trade and maintain military alliances with Wisconsin
Indians.
Americans
did not firmly exercise control over Wisconsin until the
War of 1812. During the War, the
Americans and British fought one battle in Wisconsin, the
July 1814 Battle of
Prairie du Chien, which ended as a British victory.
However, the 1815
Treaty of Ghent reaffirmed
American jurisdiction over Wisconsin, which was by then a
part of Illinois Territory.
Following the treaty, British troops departed Wisconsin for
the last time.
Territorial settlement
Significant
American settlement in Wisconsin, a part of
Michigan Territory
beginning in 1818, was delayed by two
Indian wars, the minor Winnebago
War of 1827 and the larger
Black Hawk War of 1832. In the latter conflict,
Sac and Fox Indians who had been
relocated from Illinois to Iowa attempted to resettle in
their Illinois homeland, but were chased into Wisconsin by
the Illinois militia. The Indians were defeated at the
Battle of Wisconsin
Heights and the Battle of
Bad Axe, near present day
Victory, Wisconsin.
The
resolution of these Indian conflicts opened the way for
Wisconsin's settlement. Many of the region's first settlers
were drawn by the prospect of lead
mining in southwest Wisconsin. This area had traditionally
been mined by Native Americans. However, after a series of
treaties removed the Indians, the lead mining region was
opened to white miners. Thousands rushed in from across the
country to dig for the "gray gold". Expert miners from
Cornwall, England, also formed a
large part of the wave of immigrants. Boomtowns like
Mineral Point,
Platteville,
Shullsburg,
Belmont, and
New Diggings sprang
up around mines. When Wisconsin's first two
public land
offices opened in 1834, one was in the long established
post of Green Bay, the other in the mining center of Mineral
Point. By 1836 nearly half of Wisconsin’s people were living
in the lead mining region, leading to the establishment of
the territorial capitol at Belmont. By the
1840s, southwest Wisconsin mines were producing more
than half of the nation’s lead.
Although
the lead mining area drew the first major wave of settlers,
its population would soon be eclipsed by growth in
Milwaukee. Milwaukee, along with
Sheboygan,
Manitowoc, and
Kewaunee, can be traced
back to a series of trading posts established by the French
trader Jacques Vieau in the
1790s. Vieau's post at the mouth of the
Milwaukee River was purchased
in 1818 by Solomon Juneau, who
then took over its operation.
When the
fur trade began to decline, Juneau focused on developing the
land around his trading post. In the 1830s he formed a
partnership with Green Bay lawyer Morgan Martin, and the two
men bought 160 acres (0.6 km²) of land between Lake Michigan
and the Milwaukee River. There they founded the settlement
of Juneautown. Meanwhile, an Ohio businessman named
Byron Kilbourn began to invest
in the land west of the Milwaukee River, forming the
settlement of Kilbourntown. South of these two settlements,
George H. Walker founded the
town of Walker’s Point. Each of these three settlements
engaged in a fierce competition to attract the most
residents and become the largest of the three towns. By the
1840s, however, it became clear that cooperation between the
three communities was necessary for their survival. In 1846
the settlements of Juneautown, Kilbourntown, and Walker’s
Point merged into the city of Milwaukee. The new city had a
population of about 10,000 people, making it the largest
city in the territory. Milwaukee remains the largest city in
Wisconsin to this day.
Wisconsin Territory
Wisconsin Territory was
created by an act of
Congress on
April 20, 1836.
The new territory initially included all of the present day
states of Wisconsin,
Minnesota, and Iowa,
as well as parts of North and
South Dakota.
The first
territorial governor of Wisconsin was
Henry Dodge. He and other territorial lawmakers were
initially busied by organizing the territory’s government
and selecting a capital city. The selection of a location to
build a capitol caused a heated debate among the territorial
politicians. At first Governor Dodge selected Belmont,
located in the heavily populated lead mining district, to be
capital. Shortly after the new legislature convened there,
however, it became obvious that
Wisconsin's first
capitol was inadequate. Numerous other suggestions for
the location of the capital were given representing nearly
every city that existed in the territory at the time, and
Governor Dodge left the decision up to the other lawmakers.
The legislature accepted a proposal by
James Duane Doty to build a
new city named Madison on
an isthmus between lakes Mendota and Monona and put the
territory’s permanent capital there. While Madison was being
built, the capitol was temporarily moved to
Burlington. This city was
transferred to Iowa Territory
in 1838, along with all the lands of Wisconsin Territory
west of the Mississippi River.
Early Statehood
By the mid
1840s, the population of Wisconsin Territory had exceeded
150,000. This was more than twice the number of people
required for Wisconsin to become a state. In 1846, the
territorial legislature voted to apply for statehood. That
fall, one hundred and twenty-four delegates debated over the
consessions to be included in the state constitution.
However, the document produced by this convention was
considered extremely progressive for its time. The first
constitution banned commercial banking, granted married
women the right to own property, and left the question of
African American suffrage to a
popular vote. Most Wisconsinites considered the first
constitution to be too radical, and voted it down in an
April 1847 referendum.
In December
1847, a second constitutional convention was called. This
convention resulted in a new, more moderate state
constitution that Wisconsinites approved of in a March 1848
referendum. The ratification of a constitution enabled
Wisconsin to become the thirtieth state on May 29, 1848.
A railroad
frenzy swept Wisconsin shortly after it achieved statehood.
The first railroad line in the state was opened between
Milwaukee and Waukesha in
1851 by the
Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad. Through time the
railroad pushed on, reaching
Milton, Wisconsin in 1852,
Stoughton, Wisconsin in
1853, and the capital city of Madison in 1854. The company
reached its goal of completing a rail line across the state
from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River when the
railroad was built to Prairie du Chien in 1857. Shortly
after this line was finished its line across the state,
other railroad companies completed their own tracks,
reaching La Crosse in
the west and Superior in
the north, spurring development in those cities. By the end
of the 1850s railroads crisscrossed the state, enabling the
growth of other industries that could now easily ship
products to markets across the country.
Civil War and Gilded Age:
1860-1900
Civil War
The state
of Wisconsin enrolled 91,379 men
total for service in the Union Army
during the American Civil War.
3,794 of these men were killed in action or mortally
wounded, 8,022 died of disease, and 400 were killed in
accidents, the total mortality was 12,216 men, approximately
13.4 percent of total enlistments.
Economic Growth: dairy, lumber
Agriculture
was a primary component of the Wisconsin economy during the
19th Century. Wheat was a primary crop
on early Wisconsin farms. In fact, during the mid 19th
century, Wisconsin produced about one sixth of the wheat
grown in the United States. However, wheat rapidly depleted
nutrients in the soil, and was vulnerable to insects and bad
weather. As the soil lost its quality and prices dropped,
the practice of wheat farming moved west into Iowa and
Minnesota. Some Wisconsin farmers responded by experimenting
with crop rotation and other
methods to restore the soil’s fertility, but a larger number
turned to alternatives to wheat.
The most
popular replacement for wheat was dairy
farming. As wheat fell out of favor, many Wisconsin
farmers started raising dairy cattle and growing feed crops.
One reason for the popularity of dairy farming was that many
of Wisconsin’s farmers had come to the state from New York,
which was the leading producer of dairy products at the
time. In addition, many immigrants from Europe brought an
extensive knowledge of cheese making. Dairying was also
promoted by the
University of
Wisconsin at Madison, which offered education to dairy
farmers and researched ways to produce better dairy
products. At the start of the 20th
Century, Wisconsin had become the leading producer of
dairy products in the United States, a title it held until
the 1990s.
Agriculture
was not viable in the densely forested northern half of
Wisconsin. Settlers came to this region for
logging. Lumberjacks used rivers like
the Wisconsin River to transport logs from remote forests to
city sawmills. Sawmills in cities like
Wauasau and
Stevens Point sawed
the lumber into boards that were transported across the
Midwest by railroad, and used for construction. Later a
growing paper industry in the Fox River Valley made use of
wood pulp from the state’s lumber industry.
Logging was
a dangerous trade, with high accident rates. In October,
1871, the Peshtigo Fire burned
1,875 square miles (4,850 km²) of forestland around the
timber industry town of
Peshtigo, Wisconsin, killing between 1,200 and 2,500
people. It was the deadliest fire in United States history.
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