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Indians
Mound Street
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The area of Elizabeth and Mound streets are a former Native American burial ground. Early settlers built on it anyway.
There were several sites in town in the very early days, but they were plowed under.
May have been a burial spot for Pottawatomies or their neighbors, the Ho-Chunk.
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Whenever one of them died, a straggling band would be likely to accompany the corpse, wrapped in cloth and strapped to a pony, to some burying ground in the vicinity. There was such an Indian cemetery above Elizabeth Street north of the river. Indians did not bury deep into the ground but heaped earth over the corpse. The short Mound Street, which branches off from Elizabeth, memorializes the now obliterated burial mounds. If the deceased died during the winter, his carefully wrapped body might be suspended from a higher branch on a tree until frost disappeared and the body could be buried. Indians regarded their funeral rituals and burial grounds with the greatest reverence. But some settlers thought the funeral processions were only a ruse to obtain whiskey or engage in thievery.
In 1841 a troop of U.S. dragoons passed through the county, rounded up a number of Indians and removed them to the west, but most of them returned. The Watertown Democrat of July 31, 1873, estimated their number in the county at between seven and eight hundred. At that time an intensive effort was made by the Indian agency and Indian relatives in the West to persuade them to leave Wisconsin and take up permanent residence on a Nebraska reservation. Around Watertown some of them made their home on Indian Hill, the first of the hills east of Watertown on Highway 109. Miss Margaret Ott remembers her grandfather, William Bittner, telling that when he crossed this hill on his way back to town with a wagonload of pigs or cattle for his butcher shop, Indians would help him hold back the wagon on the downhill slope so that it would not run into the shanks of the horses. For this favor they expected him to supply them with free sausages. Other Indians were encamped around Mud Lake, south of Reeseville and in the area between the Crawfish and the Rock north of Milford.
They hunted and trapped and occasionally came to town with their squaws, papooses, dogs and a pony hitched to the travois on which they had piled their muskrat skins, which they sold for ten cents apiece. Indian boys would offer to shoot pennies off hitching posts with bow and arrow. They sometimes got into fights with the white boys. Watertown Remembered, Elmer C. Kiessling, pgs 45-46
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1832 BLACK HAWK’S CROSSING OF THE ROCK
On July 18th, during the Black Hawk War of 1832, Little Thunder – a Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) Indian guide to the U.S. Militia – discovered Black Hawk’s Band crossed the Rock River in this vicinity. After receiving the news, Gen. James D. Henry and Col. Henry Dodge and the militia also crossed the river and followed the band’s trail west. Online article
1837 INDIAN, WINNEBAGO
Early recollection of, James Rogan, in Watertown
1862
AN ACT to suppress the sale of intoxicating liquors to Indians
1864
08 15 Hostile marauding Indians infest the whole line from Fort Kearny to South Pass, a distance of 500 miles, and daily commit new outrages, making forays on stock and burning trains. A great number of travelers are now stopping at Fort Kearny for protection and waiting for arms. The Indians, in bands from 10 to 100, move with celerity and, possessing a thorough knowledge of the country, elude pursuit. The telegraph line is still in good order, notwithstanding these troubles. WD
08 25 LETTER FROM THE PLAINS: Peter Rogan has had his share of difficulty and peril
The following letter, written by an individual who formerly resided here, will give some idea of the dangers and losses experienced by emigrants in crossing our vast western plains, now swarming with roving and plundering bands of hostile Indians. It will be seen that Mr. Peter Rogan, one of the pioneers of this city, has had his share of difficulty and peril while on his toilsome journey with his family to his new Rocky Mountain home, which, it is to be hoped, he will finally reach in safety.
North
Platte Bridge, Idaho Territory, August 2nd, 1864.
Dear Friend – You, no doubt, would be glad to hear from me again. I am glad to say we are well and thus far have journeyed along without any serious misfortune or difficulty, while others have lost both their property and lives. The Indians, just in this vicinity, are very hostile and many of the emigrants have suffered much. Thirty five miles below here our little train of six wagons with some seven or eight men, were surprised by a band of some forty Indians on horseback, while camped at noon, and stampeded four of our horses – all belonging to Mr. Peter Rogan of Watertown, whom we happened to meet on the way.
The circumstances are these: A train twelve miles above us lost twenty five horses by the Indians and eleven of the party came back on horseback to look for them and stopped at our camp, while we were eating our dinner, and related the incident and put along. In about fifteen minutes we saw down the road some thirty or forty Indians in hot pursuit of these men, whom they had come in contact with. They were firing guns and shooting arrows as fast as possible. One of the men road into our camp with seven arrows sticking in his body and limbs, and the blood running out of his shoes. Two men were killed and one or two Indians in the fight. The Indians then rode up where our stock was grazing, took Mr. Rogan’s horses, all the team he had. His family is with us. We are prepared for a battle with them. They shot four of our cattle with arrows – one died – but as luck would have it, all of mine, out of twenty one, escaped. But they took the horses and left, and we were thankful to get off with our lives. We then hitched our wagons and overtook another train. Our train is now so large that we feel comparatively safe, but we expect to have difficulty yet, as the Indians have declared war on the emigrants of this route. We intend to fight them right up to the handle. It is life or death now. But I do not fear, so borrow no trouble, for I think we will get through safe. I will write you again the first opportunity. Please direct your letters to me at Banneck City, Idaho.
Yours, etc.,
Mark Boughton WD
09 01 FORT KEARNEY DISPATCH
A Fort Kearney dispatch of the 23rd says: Maj. Gen. Curtiss has arrived here to straighten up Indian affairs. The Overland Stage Company has removed all their agents, stock, and coaches to this post for protection. There is not a white inhabitant between here and Denver. All have fled to the posts for protection. The country around Denver is reported as swarming with hostile Indians. The road between here and Denver is almost deserted by whites, except for two fortified posts, Columbus and Fort Curtis. Gen Curtis had a conference with the chiefs of the Pawnee tribe, who agreed to assist him in fighting the hostile Indians. WD
1865
11 30 INDIAN EXHIBITION
On Wednesday
evening, November 29th, an exhibition of a party of Decotah Indians of different
Sioux bands will take place at Cole’s Hall in this city for the purpose of
showing the manners, habits and customs of this singular race.
“Messrs.
Fairbault & Co. are perfectly reliable men and there are no deceptions in
their representations of Indian character.
There is nothing in their representations but what is actually correct,
a literal representation of the manners and customs of his people. Their war dances, incantations, mode of
worship, death songs, teepee scenes, mode of life and habits, are simply a
representation of what every frontier settler has witnessed many times in the
camps of these people before the massacre of 1862.” WD
05 11 INDIANS STROLLING ABOUT THE CITY
For the past week or more a straggling band of Indians, the puny representatives for a tribe once strong and numerous, but now nearly extinct, have been strolling aimlessly about the city, seeking to gratify their own idle curiosities. Possessed of stolid sense of that which is odd and fantastic, they go from store to store, peeping into the windows, and whenever they see any object peculiarly fascinating, they stop to admire it, doubtless wishing at the same time they had the wherewith to buy. Harmless to a degree, these begrimed, unkempt, and squalid looking beings, sauntering doggedly along in almost utter wretchedness, they appear as unconcerned about the affairs of men as children. Shambling up and down the streets in single file, with a retinue of boys usually following in the train, nothing seems to disturb them into anything like an excitement and no one knows how bright or dull is their life . . . WD
1891
09
03 BLACK HAWK WAR RELIC FOUND
One of the workmen engaged in burying the Valerius horses
last Friday on the H. Mulberger place, south of West Street,
Third ward, dug up a well-preserved spur which lay imbedded about two feet
below the surface. It is doubtless a
relic of the Black Hawk war, as it is well ascertained that there was formerly
an Indian trail through this piece of land which the troops under Gen. Atkinson
followed in pursuing Black Hawk. WR
1895
12 25 SKELETON FOUND AT CRANGLE
FARM, NATIVE AMERICAN ASSUMED
One day last week the skeleton of a human being was unearthed in a sand pit at the Crangle farm in the Third ward by John Burns, a sand dealer. It is supposed to be the remains of an Indian as no knowledge is at hand of a white person having been interred there. WR
In 1941 thirty human skeletons were found when a sand pit was
developed in the area. This relates to a
tidbit of info on pg 13 of “Built on Irish Faith: 150 Years at St. Bernard's”
by Charles (Chuck) J. Wallman:
(referring to the Crangle home) “Both gravel and sand pits were
developed on portions of the property.
When the gravel pit was created, thirty human skeletons were found in it.”
09 14 REMAINS FOUND
IN CRANGLE'S FIELD
While excavating in Crangle's field south of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railway track yesterday, the workmen unearthed the skeletons of two persons. One is supposed to be the remains of an Indian and a portion of a gun was found near the bones. The other remains appear to have been a child. Indications point to the fact that at an early day the place was used as a burying ground, but since the city was first settled no records show that white people found a resting place there. The place of the find is on the banks of Rock River, about eighty rods south of the railroad bridge. WR
1932
06 27 REMAINS FOUND
Numerous bones of Indians long dead and buried have been found in the sewer excavation project at the new sewage disposal plant in the last several days. The bones have been gathered up and are now reposing in a safe place until their final disposition is determined.
1992
07 10 STONE WEIRS PROTECTED
Stone weirs used
years ago by Indians to gather fish in the Rock River have prompted the use of
high level technology to put a Wisconsin Natural Gas Company pipeline under the
river bed in two places to preserve the area.
The pipeline will run a minimum of four feet under the Rock River
near County
Trunk E in the town of Ixonia
and also near
Rockvale Road.
The pipeline, which is being bored ap proximately 650 feet across through solid limestone rock under the river bed at each crossing, is part of a $5 million project to install over 11 miles of Wisconsin Natural Gas Company pipeline to serve the new Wisconsin Electric Power Company Concord generating station located southeast of Watertown on County Trunk E. Wisconsin Natural and Wisconsin Electric did not want to disturb the fish weirs which were documented as part of an archaeological survey.
Cross References:
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Indians |
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Indians |
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Indians, Winnebago |
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Indian Hill |
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Indian John |
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Indian War |
History of Watertown, Wisconsin