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Menominee County

Early Indian people were in the area of Menominee County for several generations before the first white explorer came along. While little is known of the first people who made this region their home, mounds scattered throughout the county, remnants of streets and towns that have been exhumed, and even some fortifications, suggest that the builders were more advanced in civilization than some of the races that succeeded them.

When the white men came, the land along the Menominee River was home to the "Menominee Indians," who were then numerous, residing mostly in the area that is now the city of Menominee.

While the Menominees were known as a mostly peaceful tribe, one battle is recorded in history. The battle was between the Menominees and another tribe from somewhere upriver, probably Chippewa. The battle occurred near the home of Charles McLeon, an early white settler in the area, and the story is that it had to do with a stone dam that the Menominees had erected across the Menominee River, preventing the sturgeon from ascending the river, making their own catch more plentiful. This of course deprived the upriver tribes of sturgeon. The other tribe first sent a peaceful negotiating party, hoping to reason with the Menominees. Apparently, they were insulted and there was no resolution to the matter. When the negotiating party returned upriver with the news, a battle resulted. Both tribes suffered heavy losses, and a Menominee chief was tortured and killed. The invading tribe removed the dam and returned to their own lands.

Tradition has it that one of the first two Europeans to visit the Menominee was a black Indian trader, accompanied by a Canadian white man, both of whom visited the region several times before being killed by Indians along the Peshtigo River, for reasons unknown.

The first white man who came to stay was Chappee, also an Indian trader, and agent for the American Fur Company. He established a trading post on the Wisconsin side of the Menominee River in 1796, in the area that is now the city of Marinette. Chappee remained at that location for several years before moving his trading post across the river to a place about five miles from Menominee, and which now bears his name, Chappee Falls.

William Farnsworth and Charles Brush were the next white settlers to arrive. Although arriving at the Menominee separately, but in the same year, they quickly teamed up in a joint enterprise. Their first order of business was to get rid of Chappee, a task that Chappee himself made easy.

In a quarrel with two Indian chiefs, Spaniard and Shengesick, Chappee lost a thumb. In what was considered by the Indians to be an overreaction, he had the two chiefs arrested and imprisoned at Fort Howard in what is now Green Bay, Wisconsin. Farnsworth and Brush made the best of the situation, circulating and exaggerating the story throughout the Indian population. Farnsworth then took it upon himself to intercede for the Indian chiefs, obtaining their release.

In gratitude, the chiefs granted to Farnworth and Brush all of the land on the Wisconsin side of the Menominee River, including Chappee's trading post. Chappee was forced to move across the river to his second home along Chappee Falls.

Next to arrive was John Kittson, a clerk for American Fur Company under Chappee. Becoming popular among the Indians, he did much to restore Chappee's relationship with the Menominees.

In 1826, Joseph Duncan, a packer for American Fur Company, arrived. Baptiste Permeau and Charles McLeod arrived in 1832, and Joseph DeCoto came later that same year. In 1852, McLeod built the first frame house in Menominee County, not far from what is now the city of Menominee.

When William Farnsworth first came to the Menominee, Marinette was a young woman, daughter of Wabashish, a chief of the Menominees, and a white man by the name of Bartholomew Shevaliere. It is unknown whether Shevaliere lived in the area or simply visited it, but tradition says that he was just passing through. Joseph Bartholomew Shevaliere, known as Joe Bart, was his son. He has often made the claim that he was the first white man to live at Menominee.

Andrew Eveland came in 1842, and built the first frame house in Menominee in 1853.

John Quimby arrived in 1845, as a fisherman, but he later went on to build Menominees first tavern. He later built the first hotel and several other businesses. At one point, he owned the largest number of businesses within the (then) village of Menominee.

The first mill was built on the Wisconsin side of the Menominee River by Farnsworth and Brush in 1832. The second was built by Charles McLeod in 1841 at Twin Island Rapids. In 1844, a Dr. Hall built a water mill that reached from the Wisconsin side to an island, and then from the island to the Michigan side of the river. A company by the name of Hackbone & Boyden constructed a water mill along the Big Cedar River, near Cedarville, in 1854. The Kirby-Carpenter mill was completed in 1857, built on a sandbar in the Menominee River opposite Menominee. In 1858, Anson Bangs built a small mill on Little River, a branch of the Menominee, about five miles from Menominee. It was soon abandoned, to be reopened under new management in 1870. A steam mill was built in Menominee by Luddington, Wells, and Van Schaick Co. in 1863. Charles Ingalls put together the Ingallston Mill in 1866, and Mellen Smith built a mill in Ingallston (now Ingalls) in 1872. And there were others.

At the time of the first white settlement of the area, the region extending from the Menominee River to Lake Huron, mostly wilderness, without civil offices or people to fill them, belonged to Mackinaw County. Then the state established a new county covering the area from Lake Michigan to the Menominee River, calling it Delta County. But as there were still few white people living in the area, its government remained attached to Mackinaw County for judicial purposes.

In 1861, amidst the confusion caused by the American Civil War, Anson Bangs was in Lansing on other business during a session of the legislature. While Bangs then resided on the Wisconsin side of the Menominee River, he owned considerable property on both sides, and had built a small mill on Little River, on the Michigan side. Without consulting anyone, he caused a bill to be passed that created a new county to be called Bleeker County, named after a family that he later married into.

When word of this reached the settlers in Menominee, they were outraged and refused to organize under the act. By provision of the act, if the residents refused to organize under it, the couny would be attached to Marquette County for judicial purposes. In 1863, residents successfully petitioned the legislature to dissolve Bleeker County and create a new county, to be called Menominee County.

The county organized under that act.

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