Open Discussion Forum

[Mike Thorson]

You can talk about ANYTHING in this forum - Black Hawk War related or not.

[levi]

my name is Levi Greene, several years ago my family went to the Dairy aire region of wiss. to research some family history in the black hawk war. We were surprised to find that one of our family members name was on a historical sign for his actions in the war. However, he was not barried in the cemetary along with his comrads. After more research we discovered that he was barried beneath a four lane highway that was reportedily going to be dug up. While we were there we also came along an old farm house that was where we were told the origial fort was, we almost left the property but then we found large tracks going into the tall hill sides. That was where professors from the University Of Wiss. were uncovering evidence of the settelers fort. The problem is I cant find anymore information as to what work has been done or any information in regaurds to my relative who was in the war(Emerson Greene)My question I guess is if anyone knows where I should be looking for this information.

[Robert Braun]

levi said:

my name is Levi Greene, several years ago my family went to the Dairy aire region of wiss. to research some family history in the black hawk war. We were surprised to find that one of our family members name was on a historical sign for his actions in the war. However, he was not barried in the cemetary along with his comrads. After more research we discovered that he was barried beneath a four lane highway that was reportedily going to be dug up. While we were there we also came along an old farm house that was where we were told the origial fort was, we almost left the property but then we found large tracks going into the tall hill sides. That was where professors from the University Of Wiss. were uncovering evidence of the settelers fort. The problem is I cant find anymore information as to what work has been done or any information in regaurds to my relative who was in the war(Emerson Greene)My question I guess is if anyone knows where I should be looking for this information.

Hello... and welcome to the Black Hawk War discussion board!

Research indicates that Emerson Green[e] was mustered as a private in Captain John Sherman's militia company on May 20, 1832. Sherman's company was stationed at Mound Fort (today often referred to as "Fort Blue Mounds") located on Brigham's Diggings near the Blue Mounds.

WIth respect to your spelling of the surname, I have only found the name spelled "Green" in my readings. For example, John Wakefield (p. 118) wrote:

There was a small fort and citizens plenty, who did not think it the least hardship to wait on those who had been shedding their blood to revenge the wrongs those people had suffered. For the Indians had killed three valuable men within one mile of this place; and one within view of the citizens who were in it, -- a gentleman by the name of Green, of high standing in society, and who had recently emigrated from the east. I have forgotten the names of the other gentlemen, but can say that the citizens spoke in high terms of their worth, and seemed to lament their loss.

Indeed, the record recounts that on June 20 Lieutenant Force and Private Green were approximately a mile from Mound Fort when they were ambushed by presumably a party of hostile Winnbago. Reportedly, both were shot dead from the saddle. Edward Beouchard, newly appointed Indian Agent for the murdered St. Vrain, offered to recover the body of Green, but not that of Force.

Beouchard recalled: “I went and got Green’s remains, and brought them to the fort, they [presumably men of Sherman’s Company] asked me if I would hold spite against a dead man? I replied that I would do what I said, whether a man was dead or alive; and Lieutenant Force’s body laid where it fell for four days.”

A more detailed account of the incident, apparently drawn from mostly Beouchard's narrative, may be found in the following article by Robert Birmingham, then State Archaeologist for Wisconsin. www.wisconsinhistory.org/wmh/pdf/summer03_birmingham.pdf

Charles Wittlesey travelled through present-day Wisconsin in 1832 after the Black Hawk War. On page 80 in his Recollections... published in 1855 he wrote--

On the second day we passed the foot of the Blue Mound. It is a high hill of regular ascent, overlooking the country, and serves as a beacon to the traveller thirty miles distant. At night we slept in a Block-House in the mining district [most probably a blockhouse at Mound Fort]. Within sight of the station, a newly made grave lay at the road-side in the midst of a solitary prairie. The person over whom it was raised had ventured too far from the house, and approached a thicket of bushes. Suddenly a band of concealed Indians sprang upon him, with the fatal whoop on their tongues; his scalp, heart, and most of his flesh, were soon stripped from the body, and a savage dance performed about the remains.

There is little doubt in my mind that this description of both the attack and the gravesite was that of Emerson Green.

Regards,

Bob Braun
Moderator.

[richw]

Does anyone know where Bellefontaine, Pauqette's farm, is located?

I know it is near Dalton, in Green Lake County, but that is all I know. The old descriptions say it was 11 miles NE of Ft. Winnebago.

[spencer]

Hi my name is Tom Fey and I just recently became aware of your board. Last night a friend and I drove up to Willow Springs Township where her sister owns an old rock house in sec. 33. We were looking over the abstract and noticed that from 1835 to 1841 the redoubtable Charles Bracken owned it. Could it be that he built the stone house at that time?

[Larry Koschkee]

Tom Fey, it is feasible that Charles Bracken did build the stone house. Bracken was not poor by any means, therefore could possibly afford the construction. The miners were building houses with limestone as early as 1835. Henry Gratiot started building his "shot-gun" house that year. In addition, there is evidence that George Wallace Jones built a stone structure on Sinsinawa Mound shortly after the Black Hawk War.

I would check David Dale Owens map of the Lead District dated 1839 to see if he recorded a house on the section of land that Bracken owned. In the time frame of land ownership 1835 - 1841 I doubt there are any taxing district records to show an improvement on the land.

Larry Koschkee