Post by Larry Koschkee on Feb 26, 2006 17:06:14 GMT -5
There are a few historical accounts that cite information about this fort, but this one I found most interesting. J. W. Seaton wrote a small biographical record in C. W. Butterfield's, History of Grant County, 1881, pp 581-4 about a Black Hawk War Veteran, Major John R. Coons.
Major Coons came to the Wisconsin Territory in 1827 to clerk for Henry Gratiot enterprises at Gratiot's Grove. The first point of interest is when the Black Hawk War broke out, Major Coons did not move his family within the safety of Gratiot's Fort, rather fortified his log house at Old Shullsburg.
"His family being removed to safer quarters, the house they occupied at Old Shullsburg - a strongly built log house one and a half stories high - was converted into a place of defense and garrisoned with soldiers. When peace was restored, the family returned, and his eldest son, Henry (the amiable and gentlemanly Town Clerk of Potosi), well remembers playing soldier when a boy and shooting out of the port-holes from the chamber. He was braver then than he is now. Several guns were left by its heroic defenders, and, in handling them afterward, one was accidentally discharged, the contents going through the floor and lodging in the bed beneath, luckily unoccupied, or Henry might have become a "poor motherless boy" for his carelessness.
My second point of interest here is - was this the log structure that Jesse W. Shull, and et al, stockaded during the 1827 Winnebago War?
Larry
Major Coons came to the Wisconsin Territory in 1827 to clerk for Henry Gratiot enterprises at Gratiot's Grove. The first point of interest is when the Black Hawk War broke out, Major Coons did not move his family within the safety of Gratiot's Fort, rather fortified his log house at Old Shullsburg.
"His family being removed to safer quarters, the house they occupied at Old Shullsburg - a strongly built log house one and a half stories high - was converted into a place of defense and garrisoned with soldiers. When peace was restored, the family returned, and his eldest son, Henry (the amiable and gentlemanly Town Clerk of Potosi), well remembers playing soldier when a boy and shooting out of the port-holes from the chamber. He was braver then than he is now. Several guns were left by its heroic defenders, and, in handling them afterward, one was accidentally discharged, the contents going through the floor and lodging in the bed beneath, luckily unoccupied, or Henry might have become a "poor motherless boy" for his carelessness.
My second point of interest here is - was this the log structure that Jesse W. Shull, and et al, stockaded during the 1827 Winnebago War?
Larry
