Turning Points
in Wisconsin History
Early U.S. Settlement
After the War of 1812, the U.S. government concluded it had to do more to protect its resources in the Northwest, especially routes used by American fur traders. Garrisons were therefore posted and forts built at Detroit, Mackinac, Chicago, and elsewhere in the West, including at three crucial locations along the Fox-Wisconsin waterway.
Shortly after the British withdrew from Prairie du Chien's Fort McKay in 1815, three permanent military outposts were established in Wisconsin: Fort Crawford at Prairie du Chien (1816), Fort Howard at Green Bay (1816), and Fort Winnebago at the portage between the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers (1828). Besides... more...
Original Documents and Other Primary Sources
 | Memoirs of a Fox River Homesteader |
| A woman's memoir of the founding of Sheboygan |
| Girlhood and motherhood on the Wisconsin frontier, 1824-1860. |
| An early Yankee settler recalls Prairie du Chien's infancy. |
| Indian Versions of Some Early Wisconsin Events |
| A Green Bay girlhood in the 1820s. |
| John Shaw recalls Tomah, Black Hawk, Keokuk, and other Indian leaders. |
| A Yankee Childhood in Dodge County |
| Henry Dodge brought his slaves to Wisconsin |
| An 1886 visit to the Menominee community of Keshena |
| Governor Philipp reflects on his childhood in Sauk County, 1920 |
| A missionary travels 1,500-miles among the Ojibwe and Sioux in 1838 |
| A trader relates his family history and personal adventures, 1745-1857. |
| An officer's daughter recalls her girlhood at Fort Howard, 1824-29. |
| A teenager comes to Green Bay as a new bride in 1824. |
| A participant tells how the Oneida, Stockbridge, and Brothertown came to Wisconsin in the 1820s. |
| Recollections of Wisconsin slaves by pioneer settlers. |
| The surveyor that laid out Madison recalls his days in the field in 1837. |
 | The oldest toast in Wisconsin |
| A mid-1800s birchbark maple sugar container |
 | An 1875 history of the Chippewa Valley |
| Stockbridge and Munsee Testimony, 1892 |
| Fr. Baraga's 1853 Ojibwe Dictionary |
| A teenager's diary of coming overland from Ohio in 1846 |
| The Stockbridge-Munsee Constitution, 1857 |
| A guide to the Mohican language, 1789 |
| A local historian chats about Prairie du Chien (vol. 1) |
| A speech by Brothertown Indian leader Samsom Occom, 1771 |
| The language of the Brothertown Indians' ancestors, 1722 |
| The first book printed in Wisconsin, an Ojibwe almanac |
| A Munsee language edition of Methodist hymns, 1874 |
| The history and traditions of the Chippewa Valley |
| Increase Lapham describes territorial Wisconsin for new settlers. |
| A clergyman locates the Biblical Garden of Eden in Wisconsin, 1886 |
| Descriptions of Wisconsin disasters and catastrophes, 1848-1948 |
| A local historian chats about Prairie du Chien (vol. 2) |
| Folklore and folktales collected by Charles E. Brown |
 | Oneida Chief Daniel Bread in 1856 |
| Stockbridge Chief John W. Quinney in 1849 |
| Wisconsin's first Territorial Governor, Henry Dodge |
| Early Wisconsin settler and Madison Promoter James Duane Doty |
| Madison's first white woman settler |
| Stockbridge Indian leader Austin E. Quinney, 1849 |
| Increase Lapham examining a meteorite, ca. 1868 |
| A photograph of Augustin Grignon near the end of his life. |
| Prairie du Chien merchant and judge James H. Lockwood, 1856. |
 | Northern settlers try to join Minnesota, 1847 |
| A ledger book from an early trading post in the Fox River Valley. |
| Ledger books from Fort Winnebago, 1831-1851 |
| Brief Ho-Chunk Language Vocabularies, 1830-1930 |
| Climatological observations at Portage, 1828-1842 |
| Letters by relatives of Laura Ingalls Wilder, 1861-1919 |
| James Doty explores Lake Superior in 1820 with Lewis Cass |
| Residents of Prairie du Chien petition Congress, 1816 |
| Sioux warriors ambush their enemies at Prairie du Chien, 1830 |
| Menominee Chief Oshkosh is acquitted of murder, 1830 |
 | The imaginary capital city that its chief promoter envisioned, 1836. |
| A member of the party maps the Cass and Doty expedition of 1820. |
| The rectangular survey gets underway in Wisconsin, 1835. |
| States and territories created under the Northwest Ordinance. |
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