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. |
| A trader relates his family history and personal adventures, 1745-1857. |
| A teenager comes to Green Bay as a new bride in 1824. |
| An early Yankee settler recalls Prairie du Chien's infancy. |
| John Shaw recalls Tomah, Black Hawk, Keokuk, and other Indian leaders. |
| A participant tells how the Oneida, Stockbridge, and Brothertown came to Wisconsin in the 1820s. |
| An officer's daughter recalls her girlhood at Fort Howard, 1824-29. |
| A missionary travels 1,500-miles among the Ojibwe and Sioux in 1838 |
| An 1886 visit to the Menominee community of Keshena |
| Henry Dodge brought his slaves to Wisconsin |
| A woman's memoir of the founding of Sheboygan |
| Recollections of Wisconsin slaves by pioneer settlers. |
| A Green Bay girlhood in the 1820s. |
| A Yankee Childhood in Dodge County |
| Memoirs of a Fox River Homesteader |
| Indian Versions of Some Early Wisconsin Events |
| Governor Philipp reflects on his childhood in Sauk County, 1920 |
| Girlhood and motherhood on the Wisconsin frontier, 1824-1860. |
 | A mid-1800s birchbark maple sugar container |
| The oldest toast in Wisconsin |
 | An 1875 history of the Chippewa Valley |
| Folklore and folktales collected by Charles E. Brown |
| A speech by Brothertown Indian leader Samsom Occom, 1771 |
| A guide to the Mohican language, 1789 |
| The first book printed in Wisconsin, an Ojibwe almanac |
| Descriptions of Wisconsin disasters and catastrophes, 1848-1948 |
| The language of the Brothertown Indians' ancestors, 1722 |
| A Munsee language edition of Methodist hymns, 1874 |
| Stockbridge and Munsee Testimony, 1892 |
| The Stockbridge-Munsee Constitution, 1857 |
| Increase Lapham describes territorial Wisconsin for new settlers. |
| A teenager's diary of coming overland from Ohio in 1846 |
| Fr. Baraga's 1853 Ojibwe Dictionary |
| A clergyman locates the Biblical Garden of Eden in Wisconsin, 1886 |
| A local historian chats about Prairie du Chien (vol. 1) |
| A local historian chats about Prairie du Chien (vol. 2) |
| The history and traditions of the Chippewa Valley |
 | Increase Lapham examining a meteorite, ca. 1868 |
| Prairie du Chien merchant and judge James H. Lockwood, 1856. |
| A photograph of Augustin Grignon near the end of his life. |
| 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 |
 | James Doty explores Lake Superior in 1820 with Lewis Cass |
| Northern settlers try to join Minnesota, 1847 |
| Brief Ho-Chunk Language Vocabularies, 1830-1930 |
| Letters by relatives of Laura Ingalls Wilder, 1861-1919 |
| Climatological observations at Portage, 1828-1842 |
| Ledger books from Fort Winnebago, 1831-1851 |
| Menominee Chief Oshkosh is acquitted of murder, 1830 |
| Sioux warriors ambush their enemies at Prairie du Chien, 1830 |
| Residents of Prairie du Chien petition Congress, 1816 |
| 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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