Chetek
Area Calhoun Museum
Barron
County Historical Society's Pioneer Village Museum
Barron Co. Historical Recommended Reading List
A recommended reading list for those interest in local and near regional history
Recommend
that you "save to" as most of these are bigger files and are full books.
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History of Brule's Discoveries and Explorations (1622) (published in 1892) pages 167 - 174 PDF File (.15 Mbytes)
ABOUT THE BOOK: This part of the book is about Etienne (Stephen) Brule's time in Wisconsin... The book is in both French and English. A short and early read about Ettione' Brule the man credited with the European discovery of Lake Superior. Brule an interpreter for Champlain, journeyed into the far West with Huron guides in 1622 or 1623. He is believed to have communicated this adventure to his employer and to author Gabriel Sagard-Théodat. The only evidence of his trip to Lake Superior consists of two documents. The first is a handful of scattered references in a book written by Sagard a few years after Brule's death, given here in their entirety in French and English. The other is a reasonably accurate depiction of Lake Superior on a map published in 1632 by Champlain, who had himself never set foot near the lake; many scholars assume its information came from Champlain's protege Brule. Unfortunately Sagard's mentions of what Brule saw are tantalizingly few and very vague, and the distances he stated are wildly impossible, so scholars have been reluctant to say Brule reached Wisconsin before Nicolet. After returning east, Brule was later killed by his angry Huron hosts. To add to Brule's claim the Ojibwe of Madeline Island recorded his coming in an oral story. about the first white man to arrive there. Thinking he was a spirit they fled the island and all Brule found was a recently abandoned village. This occurred a couple generations before Radisson's arrival according to the oral history.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ABOUT THE BOOK: (pages 173-247) This portion of the collection covers the winter Pierre Esprit Radisson spent coming into our area and the winter they nearly starved near Hayward (Lac Courte Oreilles) and their departure. A very difficult read, the print is of an old style, and the names of places and peoples are not any we know today. Radisson himself, never menitons anyone else by name and he even calls himself 'A Caesar in the Woods' - most consider him a very arrogant man. This is the first record of the area and that in itself makes it worth trying to suffer through. Radisson went over to the English and was the nexus for the founding of the Hudson Bay Company. An interesting man with an interesting life. There is a modern Minnesota Historical Society publication of this book that has footnoting and a preface that really helps in reading this.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ABOUT THE BOOK: This book again is in a old script but is easier to read. It describes how the fur trade worked, relations with the Indians and is a great description of the moral discussion related to both. A good book to understand the early fur trade.
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ABOUT THE BOOK: This book is an enjoyable read, it is a priest at Michilimackinac complaining about the sexual practices, drinking habits and general morals of the fur traders, soldiers, Indians and other inhabitants of that remote outpost. An enjoyable read. For more information on Reverend Father E'tienne de Carheil and Governer Louis Hector de Callieres click on links
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Travels through the Interior Parts of North America by Jonathan Carver (1768) PDF file (10.8 Mbytes)
THIS DOWNLOAD TAKE LONGER THAN MOST OTHERS GIVE IT TIME.
ABOUT THE BOOK: Jonathan Carver's year or two here represents the period right after the French and Indain War. He was at St. Anthony Falls (Minneapolis) and there says the Indians gave him most of northern Wisconsin and the UP of Michigan. Barron County is squarely in the Carver Grant. Carver was a loyalist who fled to England as a result of the Revolutionary war. His descendants tried to put forward his claim and the Supreme Court itself rejected the claim.
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A Report of a Geological Reconnaissance of the Chippewa Land District (1848) (by Dr. David Dale Owens, US Geologist for Wisconsin - limited to the portion of the report from Prairie du Chien to La Pointe in the Apostle Islands - with Dr. Owen's drawings.) PDF File (3.0 Mbytes)
ABOUT THE BOOK: A book about the geology of the landed ceded to the US by the Ojibwa in treaties at St. Peters, Wisconsin Territory and La Pointe, Wisconsin Territory. It has a lot of descriptions of geology, ie heavy on the science, but it has descriptions of the flood that took out the first saw mill at Chippewa City (Chippewa Falls - portion of the city now under Lake Wissota). This book contains drawings of the Falls of the Chippewa (Chippewa Falls - looking from the top of th huge cascade up river. It also contains a drawing of Brunett Falls (Cornell WI) and lastly a drawing of a portage at Long Lake - todays Lake Owen near Cable, WI. I found it an interesting read just because it is of an early journey up the river.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Small Pox Epidemic among the Chippewa of 1790's - Dr. Houghton's Report (1855) (Henry Rowe Schoolcraft's Report on the 1832 Jorney to the source of the Mississippi, pages 574-581) PDF File (0.2 Mbytes)
ABOUT THE BOOK: This is the portion of the Federal Report about the Expedition to the Source of the Mississippi lead by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, they reached the lake they named Lake Itasca. Among the Expedition was a Dr. Douglass Houghton who was the first to innoculate the Chippewa for small pox on the trip. He gathered information about the Great Epidemic of 1790 in Wisconsin and Minnesota.
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Letter to James W. Denver - Commissioner of Indian Affairs (1859, Feb 12) (Matthias Martin Special Agent of the Indian Agency Report on the December 1858 Complaint by Knapp Stout & Company about problems with Indians at the logging camp at Chetek Lake) PDF File (0.74 Mbytes)
ABOUT THE BOOK: This is a letter reporting on the problems that Knapp Stout & Company are having with Indians 'begging' at thier logging camp at Chetek. An examination of the cause and effect of a changing time. A great story explaining the initial relationship between the local Chippewa Bands and the loggers.
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Ancient
Mining on the Shores of Lake Superior (1862) (Charles
Whittlesey's study of pre-European copper mining and copper artifacts
related to it) PDF File (4.8 Mbytes)
ABOUT THE BOOK: It is a review of ancient copper mining and the products produced. A good basic Copper Culture read.
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Report on the Disasterous Effects of Destruction of Forest Tree now going on so Rapidly in the State of Wisconsin (1867) (A Scientific Report by Increase A. Lapham) PDF File (6.2 Mbytes)
ABOUT THE BOOK: This book calls for sustainable lumbering of Wisconsin's Great Pine Forest and explains the diversity and possibilities for sustained practices. It is a plea that blows the idea that 'They' did not realize they could cut it all down. Increase A. Lapham is considered Wisconsins First Scientist - he is well known for the cataloging of effigy mounds in the State; he is also called the Father of the U.S. Weather Service. In my opinion he needs to be honored for a warning that was not heeded. I often wonder what Northern Wisconsin would look like if we had listened to him. He taught at the UW Madison while John Muir was a student, odds are he was one of Mr. Muir's teachers..
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Facts for the Immigrant concerning Barron County Wisconsin (1871) (by Orville Brayton, County Clerk ) PDF File (3.3 Mbytes)
ABOUT THE BOOK: This book was published on the orders of the Barron Board of County Supervisors in 1871 and it is meant to be positive propoganda for the immigration of new settlers for the area. It explains, the land, rivers, climate and land costs. Intersting read.
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The History of the Chippewa Valley Wisconsin by Thomas E. Randall (1875) PDF file (20.8 Mbytes)
THIS DOWNLOAD TAKE LONGER THAN MOST OTHERS GIVE IT TIME.
ABOUT THE BOOK: This 1875 Eau Claire published book is one of the more facinating reads of the European settlement of this area. This is a good reference for the Civil War history of units from this area. I enjoyed this book because of the tidbit nature of it's telling, from the story of 2Lt. Jefferson Davis on the Chippewa River and causing the loss of a raft of timber that was to be used to rebuild Fort Crawford in the early1830s to Rev Brunson's description of his son traveling with William Warren and and an Ojibwe guide they came across land from Big Bend toward the Red Cedar Lake. Rev. Brunson's son is considered the first person to be shown the Great Rice Lake Pipestone Quarry Complex. This book gathers the stories of the people that lived them - a marvelous resource - First Person History at it's best.
See Chapter 41 For Barron County History
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The History of the Ojibway Nation (1885) by William Whipple Warren written in 1852 publish by the Minnesota Historical Society in ther Historical Collection Volume 5 548 pages PDF file (59.4 Mbytes)
THIS DOWNLOAD TAKE LONGER THAN MOST OTHERS GIVE IT TIME.
ABOUT THE BOOK: William Whipple Warren's book is one of the best for the history of the Ojibwe Bands of this area. Warren himself was a clerk at a Trading Post at Lake Chetek in 1840/41. The stories here are often about the Barron County area. The book has a lot on the Clan system and about the history from the La Pointe point of view... there is much to be gleened here. This is the book I wish I had been able to read when I was in the Chetek High School. This was what I was looking for.
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Wild Rice Gatherers of the Upper Lakes - A Study of Primitive Economics (1890) (by Albert Ernest Jenks - from the 19th Annual Report of the American Ethnology Society to the Secretary of the Smithsonian) PDF File (4,0 Mbytes)
ABOUT THE BOOK: This book is an academic study of the Gathering of Wild Rice, done on the LCO reservation in about 1887. The people and their pictures are the people that originated from the Prairie Rice Lake or Lac la Folle Band (Chetek). It is a great book to read to understand why the peoples of this area were the Wild Rice People. Anyone that thinks Indians were lazy will quickly come to see all the labor required to put up the amount of wild rice a family had to, inorder to survive. This book taught me about 'Caning' or binding the rice and how in reality Wild Rice was cultivated form of harvest, but one that lived with nature not inspite of it. I also learned about and learned to try smoke curing rice rather than scortching it. The best way to have wild rice.
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Historical and Biographical Album of the Chippewa Valley Wisconsin by George Forrester (1891) 952 pagesPDF file (26 Mbytes)
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ABOUT THE BOOK: This 1891 subscription publication about the history and personality of the Chippewa Valley... GREAT RESOURCE and tons of rare information. I recommend reading and keeping it close at hand. Barron County History is found in Chapter XV and a number of interesting people have short biographies, like one of the earliest settlers in Chetek, Daniel Beagle (page 901), the founder and first settler of Barron (originally known as Quarderer's Camp) John Quarderer (page 402), one of the founders of Rice Lake James Bracklin (page 451) and the founder of New Aburn, David Warren Cartright (page 457). And it goes on and on.
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Early Life Among the Indians by Benjamin G. Armstrong (1892) PDF File (4.72 Mbytes)
ABOUT THE BOOK: Great Northern Wisconsin Historical autobiography by a man who was born in Alabama ran away from home to become a preteen jockey, contracted TB and sought the northland as a means of recovery, recovers, becomes a trader, marries one of Chief Buffalo's granddaughters, became a tribal interpreter and lived to see the land go from the late fur trade to nearly the end of the logging era. This is a book that was told by one man and written down by another and as Mr. Armstrong was a very old man at the time (he died in 1900 at 80 years of age) and there are some mistakes. Like the treaty he thought he saw at Fort Crawford in 1835, he confused it with what he had heard about the Prairie du Chien Treaty of 1825, but things like that are minor. The telling of the stories are disjointed with the acception of the Death March, Trip with Chief Buffalo to Washington DC in 1852 and the La Pointe Treaty of 1854. There are tidbits worth the time... I know a lot of people that consider this an enjoyable read.
I highly recommend reading the Biographic Sketch at the end of the book FIRST and then reading the rest... I believe it reads better if one knows how Mr. Armstrong ended up in the Apostle Islands.
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Conditions of Indian Affairs in Wisconsin by Senate Investigating Committee under Senate Resolution 263 (1910) 1194 pages PDF file (30.4 Mbytes)
THIS DOWNLOAD TAKE LONGER THAN MOST OTHERS GIVE IT TIME.
ABOUT THE BOOK: This Report is of the 1910 Living Conditions on the Reservations in Wisconsin by the Committee on Indian Affairs of the US Senate, with Wisconsin Senator Robert LaFollette being one of the members of the Committee. There are discussion of many aspects of the Timbering Industries robbery of Tribal Timber and problems between the Reservations, the State and the County. Very long read but interesting stories about the effects of Commercial Racism.
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The Wisconsin Archeologist October 1917 Edition - Chetek and Rice Lake by Charles E. Brown and Robert H. Becker (1917) 40 pages PDF File (2.5 Mbytes)
ABOUT THE BOOK: A Study of the Mounds and Native American artifacts left in the Rice Lake and Chetek Area.
I consider this a beginning introduction as to what was in the Rice Lake and Chetek area, by 1917 over 95% of the mounds in the area were already leveled and most dug up.
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History Tradition and Adventure in the Chippewa Valley by William W. Bartlett (1929) 248 pages PDF file (9.3 Mbytes)
THIS DOWNLOAD TAKE LONGER THAN MOST OTHERS GIVE IT TIME.
ABOUT THE BOOK: This book by the founder of the Chippewa Valley Museum is one that gathered information from all over. It is a good general read with many many stories in it. Includine Julia Warrens trip through Chetek in 1852 at the age of 18 with her brom Warren of the Chippewa Death March to Sandy Lake. There are also the rememberances of Cartwright the founder of Cartright's Mill and in Barron County until the post of was moved and the community became New Auburn in Chippewa County. Great read.
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Asshawaygeeshegoqua (Daylight Beyond Woman) 1829-1896 by Timm Severud (2004) 10 pages PDF file (.3 Mbytes)
ABOUT THE ITEM: I wrote this about a person in history that slowly over time began to facinate me... She was called an Indian Princess (not something I would have called her) she was a female warrior, was common-in-law married to two of the founders of Barron County and Rice Lake Samuel Barker and James Bracklin. She is the person Lake Montanis is named after.
Last Update Monday, 07-May-2018 17:36:00 CDT

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