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
 | The surveyor that laid out Madison recalls his days in the field in 1837. |
| Girlhood and motherhood on the Wisconsin frontier, 1824-1860. |
| Indian Versions of Some Early Wisconsin Events |
| Memoirs of a Fox River Homesteader |
| A Yankee Childhood in Dodge County |
| A Green Bay girlhood in the 1820s. |
| Recollections of Wisconsin slaves by pioneer settlers. |
| A woman's memoir of the founding of Sheboygan |
| Governor Philipp reflects on his childhood in Sauk County, 1920 |
| Henry Dodge brought his slaves to Wisconsin |
| An 1886 visit to the Menominee community of Keshena |
| A missionary travels 1,500-miles among the Ojibwe and Sioux in 1838 |
| An officer's daughter recalls her girlhood at Fort Howard, 1824-29. |
| A participant tells how the Oneida, Stockbridge, and Brothertown came to Wisconsin in the 1820s. |
| John Shaw recalls Tomah, Black Hawk, Keokuk, and other Indian leaders. |
| An early Yankee settler recalls Prairie du Chien's infancy. |
| A teenager comes to Green Bay as a new bride in 1824. |
| A trader relates his family history and personal adventures, 1745-1857. |
 | The oldest toast in Wisconsin |
| A mid-1800s birchbark maple sugar container |
 | A local historian chats about Prairie du Chien (vol. 2) |
| Folklore and folktales collected by Charles E. Brown |
| The Stockbridge-Munsee Constitution, 1857 |
| The history and traditions of the Chippewa Valley |
| A guide to the Mohican language, 1789 |
| A clergyman locates the Biblical Garden of Eden in Wisconsin, 1886 |
| An 1875 history of the Chippewa Valley |
| The first book printed in Wisconsin, an Ojibwe almanac |
| Increase Lapham describes territorial Wisconsin for new settlers. |
| Descriptions of Wisconsin disasters and catastrophes, 1848-1948 |
| A teenager's diary of coming overland from Ohio in 1846 |
| The language of the Brothertown Indians' ancestors, 1722 |
| A Munsee language edition of Methodist hymns, 1874 |
| Stockbridge and Munsee Testimony, 1892 |
| A local historian chats about Prairie du Chien (vol. 1) |
| A speech by Brothertown Indian leader Samsom Occom, 1771 |
| Fr. Baraga's 1853 Ojibwe Dictionary |
 | 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. |
| Madison's first white woman settler |
| Stockbridge Indian leader Austin E. Quinney, 1849 |
| 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 |
 | Menominee Chief Oshkosh is acquitted of murder, 1830 |
| Climatological observations at Portage, 1828-1842 |
| Letters by relatives of Laura Ingalls Wilder, 1861-1919 |
| Northern settlers try to join Minnesota, 1847 |
| Residents of Prairie du Chien petition Congress, 1816 |
| Sioux warriors ambush their enemies at Prairie du Chien, 1830 |
| Brief Ho-Chunk Language Vocabularies, 1830-1930 |
| Ledger books from Fort Winnebago, 1831-1851 |
| James Doty explores Lake Superior in 1820 with Lewis Cass |
| A ledger book from an early trading post in the Fox River Valley. |
 | The rectangular survey gets underway in Wisconsin, 1835. |
| The imaginary capital city that its chief promoter envisioned, 1836. |
| A member of the party maps the Cass and Doty expedition of 1820. |
| States and territories created under the Northwest Ordinance. |
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