Part 2 (2/2)

MICHAEL BRISBOIS--We find the nas of the commission held by Col Isaac Lee in 1820, to adjust claims to land in Prairie du Chien and vicinity

Michael Brisbois testified that he had been a resident of the Prairie thirty-nine years, which would date his settle and eventful life He died in 1837, leaving several children Joseph, the oldest, became a man of prominence and held many offices in state and church Charles, the second son, while yet a boy went to McKenzie river, British possessions, in the employ of the Northwestern Fur Company, where he lived thirty years beyond the Arctic circle, and raised a large family In 1842 he returned to Prairie du Chien, but his children, reared in the cold climate of the frozen zone, soon after his return sickened, and e to a climate so much milder Bernard W, a third son, was born at Prairie du Chien, Oct 4, 1808 He ell educated and grew up a leading and influential citizen As a child he had witnessed the taking of Fort Shelby by the British in 1814, and its recapture as Fort McKay by the United States troops in 1815 During the Red Bird Indian war he served as second lieutenant, and for several years was stationed at Fort Crawford He was also a proent or confidential adviser in the fur company which had its headquarters at Prairie du Chien He was sheriff of Crawford county and held the office of county treasurer and other positions of trust In 1872 President Grant appointed hiium, but ill health compelled an early return Mr

Brisboisan interesting family

PIERRE LAPOINT was also before the co lived at the Prairie since 1782 The testimony of these early citizens served to establish the ancient tenure of the lands by French settlers, a tenure so ancient that no one could definitely give a date for its coe family of children, and died about 1845

JOSEPH ROLETTE--Joseph Rolette was at one time chief justice of the county court of Crawford county He was of French descent and was born in Quebec, L C, in 1787 He was educated for the Catholic priesthood In 1804 he came to Prairie du Chien In the early part of his mature life he was an active and successful trader with the Indians on the Upper Mississippi He was a man of keen perceptions and considerable ae of Detroit, and was an officer at the capture of Mackinaw He was in con of the British fro the American stockade His early education and associations inclined hi the war of 1812, which he did with all the ardor and enthusiasiving his children the best education possible One daughter, married to Capt Hoe, of the United States army, was a very superior woive, and ht have risen to distinction, but he early contracted intemperate habits which became in later life tenaciously fixed This son was at one tiislature Joseph Rolette, Sr, died at Prairie du Chien in 1842

HERCULES DOUSMAN--The leading Indian trader of the Upper Mississippi, the prominent adviser at Indian treaties and payent of the American Fur Company, was Hercules Dousman, a keen, shrewd man, and universally influential with the Indians, hoht be said his as law He understood all the intricacies involved in the Indian treaty and the half-breed annuities and payments His extended favors and credits to the Indians, properly proven, of course, would be recognized and paid at the regular payreat wealth, which he retained to his dying day He came to Prairie du Chien, in the employ of Joseph Rolette, in 1828 He afterward married theof Rolette He died in Prairie du Chien in 1878

REV DAVID LOWRY--A noble, big hearted Kentuckian, a minister of the cuovernment as farmer and teacher of the Indians on Yellow river, near Prairie du Chien, in 1833 For years this good man labored with unquestioned zeal for the welfare of the untutored Indian Mr Lowry informed me, while at his post, that he was fearful that all his labor was labor lost, or worse than useless The Indian pupil learned just enough to fit him for the worst vices The introduction of whisky was a corrupting agency, in itself capable of neutralizing every effort for the moral and intellectual advancement of the Indian, hom intoxication produces insanity He felt quite disheartened as to the prospect of accoood He died at St Cloud some time in the '50s

CHIEF JUSTICE CHARLES DUNN--When Wisconsin Territory was organized in 1836, Charles Dunn was appointed chief justice He served as judge until Wisconsin became a state in 1848 He was of Irish descent and was born in Kentucky in 1799 He studied law in Kentucky and Illinois, and was admitted to practice in 1820 at Jonesboro, Illinois He was chief clerk of the Illinois house of representatives five years He was one of the coan canal In 1829 he was one of a party which surveyed and platted the first town of Chicago, and superintended the first sale of town lots there He was captain of a co the Black Hawk War in 1832, and was severely wounded through mistake by a sentinel on duty In 1835 he was a member of the Illinois house of representatives In 1837, as judge, he held his first court in Crawford county In this court, in 1838, indict liquor to whites and Indians contrary to lahen, by evasions, continuances and technicalities, the suits would go by the board In one case the charge given to the jury by this dignified and courteous Judge Dunn was as follows: ”Gentlemen of the Jury: Unless you are satisfied that the defendants in this case did deal out, in clear, unadulterated quantities, intoxicating drinks, it is your ie theed the defendants

Aside fro habits, which interfered arded by his associates as an e till he should beco his life in a drunken spree He juh an upperof Tainter's hotel, and escaped with only a broken leg Judge Dunn was a member of the second Wisconsin constitutional convention He was state senator in 1853-4-5 and 6 He died at Mineral Point, April 7, 1872

REV ALFRED BRUNSON, a distinguished pioneer preacher in the West, was born in Connecticut, 1793, and received there a common school education His father died while he was yet a minor, and with co for hisat the trade of a shoee, when he enlisted as a soldier under Gen Harrison and served under him until the peace of 1815, when he entered the Methodist ministry, in which, by industry and close application, he became quite learned and e period of sixty-seven years He was the first Methodist minister north of the Wisconsin river In 1837 he established a mission at Kaposia and thence reton county, Minnesota In 1840 he was a ent at Lapointe, on Lake Superior Mr Brunson was very pro represented his conference several tieneral conference of that body He is also the author ofthem ”The Western Pioneer,”

in two volu and instructive account of life in the West

Mr Brunson was married to Eunice Burr, a relative of the faence and of excellent qualities of heart as well as mind Her heart overfloith sympathy for the sick and distressed, and she won by her care for them the affectionate title of ”Mother Brunson” She died in 1847

Rev Alfred Brunson, though an itinerant, was so favored in his various fields of labor that he was able to have his permanent home at Prairie du Chien, where he lived from 1835 until the time of his death in 1882

Many incidents in Mr Brunson's career are worthy of per of the pioneers He cae to Prairie du Chien in 1835, the barge laden with household furniture and the , he proceeded immediately to erect

This house, which he and his fa

When he established his reatly in need of an interpreter An officer at Fort Snelling owned a negro slave who had been a Methodist before going into the army in the service of his master Afterward he hadwith the Indians had learned their language This young negro, James Thompson, was a slave, and Mr Brunson could only secure his services by purchasing hi the price of 1,200, the money for which was raised by subscription in Ohio ”Jim” was presented with his ”free papers,” and was soon interpreting the Gospel to the Indians at Kaposia This is the only instance on record of a slave being sold on Minnesota soil It will be remembered, however, that the historical ”DRED SCOTT” was also the property of an officer at the Fort, Surgeon Emerson James Thompson resided in St Paul in the later years of his life, and died there in 1884

IRA BRUNSON--Ira, the eldest son of Rev A Brunson, was born in Ohio in 1815, and caislature during the years 1837-38-39 and 40 He was also postmaster many years He was continuously in office in Crawford county until his death in 1884 In 1840 he was appointed special deputy United Statesthe settlers fro reservation These settlers were mostly frorasshoppers and, fleeing southward, had settled about Fort Snelling to be under the protection of the Fort The government, however, considered them intruders and ordered Mr Brunson to remove thes and farreeable duty he performed as well, perhaps, as it could be perfor satisfied in his own ood, the influences of the Fort and of the associations of theso At any rate the eviction of these western Acadians has never aroused the sympathies of the poet and sentimentalist as did that of the Acadians of the East

JOHN H FOLSOM, brother of W H C Folsoed during his youth in clerking In 1835 he o coast In 1836 he caan, and in 1837 to Prairie du Chien, where he has since continuously resided He wasno children He has a very retentive memory, and is quoted as an authority in the local history of Prairie du Chien The writer is indebted to hi to the early history of that city

EZEKIEL TAINTER--Mr Tainter came to Prairie du Chien in 1833 froed inHe also served as sheriff

He was eccentric and original in hisstories are told of his prowess in arresting criminals On one occasion he was about to arrest a cri sue in a cabin with one door and ts

Stationing his men before the door, he thus addressed theh this door If I fall, as I undoubtedly will, youthe word of coh the door and captured the cri hi, a boarder announced that he had been robbed Uncle Zeke quieted hi It was gray twilight He ordered all to retire but the man who had been robbed The two sat quietly down as they saw athe house from the bluffs To their surprise it was the absentee approaching As he stepped on the piazza, Uncle Zeke dexterously tripped hi him by the throat, shouted to the astonished miscreant: ”Where is the et up” The prostrate culprit, thoroughly frightened, trely answered, ”I hid it in the bluff” They enerously allowed the thief his freedo the country Uncle Zeke lived to a good old age, and died at the residence of his son Andrew, in Menomonie, Wisconsin

WYRAM KNOWLTON--Mr Knowlton was born in Chenango county, New York, in 1816, came to Wisconsin in 1837, and commenced the study of law He was admitted to practice in Platteville, and in 1840 came to Prairie du Chien and opened a law office In 1846 he enlisted and served in the Mexican War, after which he resue of the Sixth Judicial district of Wisconsin, and served six years He held the first court in Pierce county in 1854 He was a man of fine ability He died in the north part of the State in 1873

ROBERT LESTER--A melancholy interest attaches to the ical death He had come to Prairie du Chien in 1840, and in 1842 had been elected sheriff Next year his official duties called him to the Menomonie and Chippewa valleys On his return he had left Lockwood's h Tre the west shore, when an Indian hailed hi As he reached a point of land the Indian ran across the point and, awaiting his approach, shot hih the heart Lester rose as the ball struck him, and fell overboard Mr Jean Bruno, proprietor of the Chippewa mills, was on his way up river in a canoe, and witnessed the whole transaction Mr Bruno described the whole tragic scene Popular exciteh at Prairie du Chien A party of men volunteered to search for Lester's body, which was found at the place of the ht back for interment at Prairie du Chien The Indian, a Sioux, was arrested and kept in jail a long tied to some of his Indian friends that he had killed Lester, he was acquitted It was a cold blooded and atrocious , as he was, by his own confession, the murderer; still he was not punished In this case the prisoner did not languish and die in jail of a broken heart as did Red Bird, the ner and Lipcap As a rule the courts dealt very leniently with Indian criminals