Moses PAQUETTE

   Other names for Moses were Pierre PAQUETTE Jr, Moses PAUQUETTE and Pierre PAUQUETTE Jr.

  Birth Notes:

in a dwelling on the bank of the Fox river at Portage [WI]

  Death Notes:

Submitted to LDS by Reta Lee FULLER

  Noted events in his life were:

• Biography. MOSES PAQUETTE
JUNEAU COUNTY FUR TRADER AND INDIAN REMOVAL AGENT
By Lawrence W. Onsager
Moses Paquette, the son of Pierre and Therese Paquette, was born on March 4, 1828 at the Fox-Wisconsin Portage. He was connected with Juneau County as an Indian removal agent and as a fur trader. In 1848 he was employed by Henry M. Rice to help remove the Winnebago from Wisconsin to Long Prairie, Minnesota. Others employed included his half-brother, Theodore Lupient, and John T. de La Ronde. He went mainly to the camps on the Lemonweir and near La Crosse. Moses traveled alone on horseback. The Winnebago were widely scattered in small encampments of two or three families each. Old Dandy was among those he went after. Dandy's camp was near the Wisconsin River Dells but the removal agents could not find him.

After the futile removal to Long Prairie, Minnesota and the return of the majority of the Winnebago to their old haunts in Wisconsin, Moses obtained a supply of goods from Bernard W. Brisbois of Prairie du Chien and set up as an independent trader among the Winnebago. He operated near Elroy, on the Lemonweir, on the headwaters of the Baraboo River, and at other places. Other traders in the same region were Norbert St. Germain, who was employed by Miner and Weston at Necedah, and another man with headquarters at Mauston (possibly Giles Smith). By 1856 he had lost two thousand dollars in the trade. He then went to farming with his mother in Caledonia Township, Columbia County. In 1859, he married Madelaine, the widow of Gabriel Brisbois. They lived in Caledonia until 1883 when they moved to a farm in the town of Albion, Jackson County, four miles northwest of Black River Falls. He also took a position as government interpreter for the Wisconsin Winnebago.

[http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wijuneau/Paquette.html]

• Reference: Indian Treaty, 1832. "Another piece of information I have is an Indian Treaty with the Winnebago Indians from 1832. Part of this treaty was at the Winnebago's request to grant land to several people. Pierre Paquette, Pierre Paquette Jr., Theresa Paquette, and Caroline Harney all received land. Pierre and his family ran the trading post at Portage for the American Fur Trading Company. He was well known and liked, often acting as an interpreter for traders and soldiers in the area. The oddest things about the treaty is that the interpreter for the Winnebago Indians was Pierre Paquette and one of the soldier witnesses for the treaty was Captain William S. Harney (1st Infantry). The coincidence of Harney being present when a 3yr old girl named Caroline Harney received an acre of land seem too great. Perhaps Harney felt by granting her some land she would be properly taken care of (perhaps by Pierre Paquette and his family)."

[ Brian Wiegand
http://homepage.mac.com/wieganbr/Harneyrelationship.html]

• Land: father's land, 1843, WI.
Author/Creator:Paquette, Pierre.
Title:Land patent, 1843.
Quantity:0.1 c.f. (1 item in an oversize folder)
Summary:Original land patent [seal missing] granting three sections of land in Wisconsin Territory to Pierre Paquette under the terms of the Winnebago Treaty of 1832.

Subjects:Land grants --Wisconsin.
Form/Genre:Manuscript collection.
RLIN Number:WIHV96-A706



Location:Archives Main Stacks
Call Number:SC-O 76
Shelf Location:MAD 4 /15/SC-O 76

[http://arcat.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?Search_Arg=rlin+%22wihv96-A706%22&SL=None&Search_Code=CMD&DB=local&CNT=30]


The administrators of the estate were H. L. Donsman, of Prairie du Chien,4 and Joseph Paquette, of Green Bay. This Paquette was a farmer, a cousin of my father. Mr. Dousman was general agent for the American Fur Company, for Prairie du Chien, Portage, and Green Bay.1 Very soon the company and many private individuals brought in claims against the estate, all of which were allowed, the result being that everything was swallowed up except the bare Bellefontaine farm, the stock from which was driven off to Green Bay, along with the other animals, and there sold to liquidate the debts.

Among the property which was swallowed up in this way were two sections of land which were granted by the treaty of 1832 to my sister and me, near Taycheedah,--part of the land being now included in the present corporation limits of Fond du Lac. We never saw this land. It was granted to us because of my father's relation to the nebago tribe, and his services to the government.

In 1829, my father and his two children were granted a section apiece by the government, in town 8, range 8 east, near Madison.3 My father's section, with some neighboring that he had purchased, also became involved in the toils in some mysterious way; and although many years afterwards I recovered it in behalf of the family, by litigation conducted at Madison, the property slipped through our fingers through over-confidence in certain persons, and was lost.
Our land at the south end of the Portage bridge was a claim, father having been permitted to settle there by the tribe, he contracting to run a ferry-boat and trading post for their accommodation. After his death, my mother, who became married to a man named Walsworth, formally entered it. There were ninety-three acres in the tract. In May, 1857, Walsworth having died some few years previous, we sold and moved from this place, both because of frequent overflows of the Wisconsin river, and the fear that it would be eaten up in taxes, the tract having become incorporated in the city limits of Portage. We removed our possessions to sections 27 and 28, town 12, range 8 east, where my mother had bought a hundred and sixty acres. She afterwards gave eighty acres of this to my sister Thérèse,--upon which the latter now lives,--and died at her home there on the sixteenth Of March, 1864, aged about seventy years.

[R. G. Thwaites's Moses Paquette's account of Wisconsin Winnebagoes, p402-403]

• School, 1838-1845. [1838] After their father died, H.L. Dousman (general agent for the American Fur Company) of Prairie de Chien was assigned as a guardian and Joseph Pauquette of Green Bay was the other administrator. Moses and his sister Therese were sent to a Presbyterian Indian school/mission at Yellow River, Iowa to learn English [they spoke French].

[1845] H.L. Dousman sent Moses to a Presbyterian university in Lebanon, Tennesse (30 miles east of Nashville). He said he got sick and at the end of a year came home.

• Census: Long Prairie, 1850, Wahnahta County, MN. line 33

15 17 James Lacuyen 47 [mention of Simon Lecuyer, a relative of Jean Lecuyer
]
Margeret " 37
Mary Ann " 17
James " 12
Sophia " 10
David Twigg 19
Theodore Lepeon 30 [Theodore Lupient was Moses' half brother]
Moses Paquette 21 M Clerk 5000 Wisconsin
James Legren 18


[page 3 of 7
http://content.ancestry.com/Browse/view.aspx?dbid=1058&iid=mnsam_350-0194
similar to Washington County, MN, page 1 of 2
http://content.ancestry.com/iexec/?htx=View&r=an&dbid=1058&iid=mnsam_350-0449&fn=Moses&ln=Paquette&st=r&ssrc=&pid=216922]


alternate transcription:

25 | 15 17 | James Sacuyer | 47 M | Laborer | Wisconsin | X | S260 |
26 | 15 17 | Margaret Sacuyer | 37 M | | Wisconsin | | S260 |
27 | 15 17 | Mary Ann Sacuyer | 17 F | | Wisconsin | X | S260 |
28 | 15 17 | James Sacuyer | 12 M | | Wisconsin | X | S260 |
29 | 15 17 | Sophia Sacuyer | 10 F | | Wisconsin | X | S260 |
30 | 15 17 | David Twigg | 19 M | Laborer | Wisconsin | | T200 |
31 | 15 17 | Theodore Sepeon | 30 M | Laborer | Wisconsin | | S150 |
32 | 15 17 | Moses Paquette | 21 M | Clerk 5000 | Wisconsin | | P230 |
33 | 15 17 | James Le Greu | 18 M | Laborer | St. Louis | | L260 | Missouri (?)

[http://ftp.rootsweb.ancestry.com/pub/usgenweb/mn/statewide/census/1850/wahnahta/pg65b.txt]


In 1848 I was employed by Mr. Rice in helping remove the Winnebagoes from Wisconsin. He had a contract to remove them, at so much per head, to Long Prairie, Minnesota, on the Swan river, above St. Cloud; the exact head money I do not remember, but it was a considerable sum.1 Others employed by Mr. Rice in this service were Theodore Lupient, my half brother, Simon Lecuyer, a relative of Jean Lecuyer, of Portage, and John T. La Ronde.

[page 407
R. G. Thwaites's Moses Paquette's account of Wisconsin Winnebagoes
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2000.03.0131;query=spage%3D%23429;layout=;loc=406]

• Census: Caledonia, 1860, Columbia County, WI. page 239, line 29

2069 1786 Moses Parquett 31
Adeline " 26
George Brasbos 8
Kate " 5
Mary Mantang 48
Theresa " 69
Joseph Crelee 145
P N Brisbo 20

[page 15 of 24
http://content.ancestry.com/Browse/view.aspx?dbid=7667&iid=WIM653_1401-0113]

• Census: Caledonia, 1870, Columbia County, WI. page 22, line 13

166 162 Paquette Moses 42 Farmer
Madelein 36
Doneitille 9
St Clair 8
Solomon J 6
Peter 4
Daniel 2
Mary Ann 4/12
Bisbois Catharin 15




[page 22 of 30
http://content.ancestry.com/Browse/view.aspx?dbid=7163&iid=WIM593_1706-0024]

• Census: Caledonia, 1880, Columbia County, WI. Name RelationMarital StatusGenderRaceAgeBirthplaceOccupationFather's BirthplaceMother's Birthplace
Moses PAQUETTE Self M Male W 52 WI Farmer WI MO [b. abt1828]
Madaline PAQUETTE Wife M Female W 45 WI Keeping House WI WI
Donatelle PAQUETTE Dau S Female W 19 WI Working At Home WI WI
St. Clair PAQUETTE Son S Male W 17 WI Working On Farm WI WI
Solomon J. PAQUETTE Son S Male W 14 WI Working On Farm WI WI [b. abt1866]
Peter PAQUETTE Son S Male W 13 WI Working On Farm WI WI
Daniel PAQUETTE Son S Male W 11 WI Working On Farm WI WI
Mary A. PAQUETTE Dau S Female W 10 WI At Home WI WI
Moses PAQUETTE Son S Male W 8 WI At Home WI WI



Source Information:
Census Place Caledonia, Columbia, Wisconsin [Racine County?]
Family History Library Film 1255420
NA Film Number T9-1420
Page Number 15B

• Reference: The history of Columbia County, Wisconsin, et. al, 1880, Columbia County, WI. p1059-1060
MOSES PAQUETTE, farmer, Sec. 27; P. 0. Portage; was born March 4, 1828, at the old trading-post, about one-quarter mile from Ft. Winnebago; he is the only surviving son of Pierre, or Peter Paquette, who was employed by the American Fur Company at Ft. Winnebago in trading with the Indians, and also in the transportation of their Mackinaw boats between the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers at the "portage," and who was shot and killed in 1836 by an Indian named Mazomanie, which event has already become a matter of history. After the death of his father, Moses was taken to the Catholic Mission School on the Yellow River, and afterward to the mission on Turkey River, Iowa, where he remained till the fall of 1845, and was then sent to Lebanon, Tenn., where he remained in school two years; he then came back to Wisconsin, was employed in the store of the American Fur Co. at Prairie du Chien about a year, and then returned to Columbia Co., and lived about a year with his mother near Portage; he then worked another year for the American Fur Co., this time at Lung Prairie, Minn.; he was then engaged one season in assisting H. M. Rice in removing the Indians from Wisconsin to Long Prairie, Minn., then traded with the Indians till 1857. He then came back to Columbia Co., and, in 1858, was married to Madaline Brisbois, who was born in 1835 in Prairie du Chien. Since his marriage, he has followed farming in Caledonia on the farm he now occupies. His mother died in 1864, aged about 70 years, leaving a quarter-section of land in Secs. 27 and 28, which was divided between him and his only surviving sister, Mrs. Thomas Prescott. Mr. Paquette has seven children -- Domitille, St. Clair, Solomon J., Peter, Daniel, Mary Ann and Moses. Has 80 acres of land. Republican in politics, and a member of the Catholic Church.

• Reference: interview with Moses Paquette, 1887, Allamakee County, IA. While the name of Father Lowrey has long been familiar as the principal teacher at this mission school, that of the female assistant provided for in the instructions of General Street has been left in obscurity. In the Wisconsin Historical Collections of 1892, however, is an account of an interview (in 1887) with Moses Paquette, a half-breed, in which he says: "I was born March 4, 1828, at the Portage, in Wisconsin. -- Two years after my father's death, when I was ten years old, my sister and I were sent by our guardian, H.L. Dousman, for education in English, to the Presbyterian Indian Mission on the Yellow river, in Iowa. Rev. David Lowrey was the superintendent. His assistants were two young ladies, Minerva and Lucy Brunson, sisters, who did the teaching, while Mr. Lowrey preached to us and superintended the agency. Minerva, in after years, married one Thomas Linton, who had in early days been employed at the old agency house at the Portage. There were about forty children at the mission, all of us more or less tinctured with Winnebago blood. The English language was alone used, the grade of instruction being about the same as the average rural district school. Of course the religious teaching was wholly of the Presbyterian cast, and the children were very good Presbyterians so long as they remained at the mission; but most of them relapsed into their ancient heathenism as soon as removed from Mr. Lowrey's care."

Some of Paquette's recollections relate to noted Winnebagoes, for instance: "It is related by the descendants of the Winnebago Black Hawk of that day the One-Eyed Decorah (Big Canoe) had a village at the mouth of Black river. Out hunting one day he came across a Sac fugitive and notified his companions; they had instructions if found to bring him to Prairie du Chien. Winnebago Black Hawk declined to do so, so One-Eyed Decorah went and found the Sac leader and took him to Prairie du Chien. I knew One-Eyed Decorah well when I was a boy at school on the Turkey river. He was an old man then, quite stout, hale, with heavy features, and hair somewhat gray."

[PAST AND PRESENT OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY, IOWA
A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement
By Ellery M. Hancock
Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1913
Chapter VI , Old Misson ; pg 55
http://www.sharylscabin.com/Allamakee/history2/chap6.htm]

• Reference: Milwaukee Sentinel Article, 1967, WI. Last Name: Paquette First Name: Moses Qualifier: Day: Month: Year: 1873 - 1967 County: Volume: Page: Record Type: Newspaper Article Source: Milwaukee Sentinel Published: 05-26-1967 Location: Notes: Moses Paquette; kin of a 'Methuselah'. Portrait: no

[http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/vitalrecords/index.asp?id=74816&record_type=wni]

• Reference: Wisconsin Winnebagoes. An Interview with Moses Paquette. R. G. Thwaites's Moses Paquette's account of Wisconsin Winnebagoes, pp. 399-433.

[Paquette, Moses. "Wisconsin Winnebagoes. An Interview with Moses Paquette by the Editor [Reuben G. Thwaites]," Wisc. Hist. Soc. Colls., 12 (1892): 399-433.
complete version on-line at
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2000.03.0131&query=head%3D%23232]


Moses Paquette gave Dr. Thwaites of Wisconsin a brief account of the Buffalo Dance, which he describes, as "Probably the most popular of their dances." "They represent," he continues, "themselves bisons, imitating the legitimate motions and noises of the animal, and introducing a great many others that would quite astonish the oldest buffalo in existence. Of course it has been a long time since any Winnebagoes ever saw buffaloes; their antics are purely traditionary, handed down from former generations of dancers."

[http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/iowa/winneshiek/religion.htm]

Of the Winnebago marriage customs Moses Paquette, who went (1845) to the Presbyterian school at the Turkey river, stated in 1882: "Presents to the parents of a woman, by either the parents of the man or the man himself, if accepted, usually secure her for a partner. However much the woman may dislike the man, she considers it her bounden duty to go and at least try to live with him. Divorce is easy among them. There are no laws compelling them to live together. Sometimes there are marriages for a specified time, say a few months or a year. When separations occur, the woman usually takes the children with her to the home of her parents. But so long as the union exists, it is deemed to be sacred, and there are few instances of infidelity. Quite a number of the bucks have two wives, who live on apparently equal, free, and easy terms; but although there is no rule about the matter, I never heard of any of the men having more than two wives. With all this ease of divorce, numerous Indian couples remain true to each other for life." Many of the early traders took Winnebago wives.

[http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/iowa/winneshiek/manners.htm]

• Reference: MEMOIRS OF LA CROSSE COUNTY 25: La Crosse County, WI. Moses Paquette, the government interpreter for the Winnebagoes,
also locates several Indian villages of that tribe; one, the village of
Big Canoe, on the La Crosse river where West Salem now stands.
Snake Skin (Waukoncauhaga), had a village in the early times at
the headwaters of De Soto creek, below La Crosse. Spoon Decorah
also stated, "During the Black Hawk War my father had his lodge
near La Crosse," and also, "My father, Winnebago Black Hawk, had
a hunting lodge on the La Crosse river, near where Bangor now stands."
The relations of the Indians and the whites are shown by reference
to the early papers where the former are frequently spoken of in a
half-friendly, half-contemptuous fashion. On May 3, 1853, a white
man named Will Sutcliffe was rescued from drowning in the Mississippi,
by an Indian called "John," for which service he was rewarded
by the citizens with a new red blanket and a sum of money. This
Indian sometimes took part in the street exhibitions of native dancing
and music and was a skillful dancer.


[http://murphylibrary.uwlax.edu/digital/lacrosse/BryantMemoirs/text.html]

• Reference: Removal of the Winnebagoes From Iowa, 1846, Winneshiek County, IA. October 13, 1846, the Winnebagoes ceded "all claim to land," and especially their rights on the Neutral Ground, and were given a tract of land selected by the chiefs at Long Prairie, Minnesota. The Indians were not satisfied with the location, and most of them remained scattered throughout the country.

Mr. Henry M. Rice secured the contract to remove these to Minnesota, and employed Moses Paquette, Antoine Grignon, and others to assist him. Antoine Grignon, who is now eighty-four years old and a resident of Wisconsin, says,

"I went to school four years with Moses Paquette; he was a Winnebago mixed blood. I have no Indian name, but am part Sioux and Winnebago. I helped locate camps for H. M. Rice, along the river, and we gathered the Indians together in La Crosse, took them by steamboat to St. Paul, then overland by wagon to Long Prairie, Minnesota. I remained at Long Prairie until 1854. They disliked very much to leave Iowa. They were removed in wagons, being guarded by dragoons from Fort Atkinson."

[http://www.usgennet.org/usa/topic/historical/winneshiek/win_3.htm]

In 1832, One-eyed Decorah married two wives and went to live on the Black river, Wisconsin. He had at least one son, Spoon Decorah. Chas. H. Saunders says: "One-eyed Decorah has one daughter, Mrs. Hester Lowery, still living in Wisconsin. Her Indian name is No-jin-win-ka. She is between eighty-five and ninety years old." One-eyed Decorah was living in Iowa between 1840 and 1848, as Moses Paquette, who went to the Presbyterian school at the Turkey river, says that he saw him while he was at school, and Decorah was then an old man. Big Canoe disliked to leave their Iowa reservation.

[http://www.usgennet.org/usa/topic/historical/winneshiek/win_2.htm]

Moses married Madeline LA RIVIERE, daughter of Julian LA RIVIERE and Madeline Agnes LAPOINTE, on 5 Jun 1859 in Crawford County, WI. (Madeline LA RIVIERE was born on 13 Mar 1832 in Prairie du Chien, Crawford County, WI and died on 30 Sep 1910 in Apache County, AZ ¹.) The cause of her death was reoccurring cervical cancer.

  Marriage Notes:

In 1859, I was married at Prairie du Chien, to Madeleine, the widow of Gabriel Brisbois, who was a nephew of B. W. Brisbois. We lived in Caledonia until 1883, when we removed to my present farm in the town of Albion, Jackson county, four miles northwest of Black River Falls, I having taken the position of government interpreter for the Winnebagoes of Wisconsin. We have had seven children, six of whom are living [1892], and three of whom are still at home.

[p412
R. G. Thwaites's Moses Paquette's account of Wisconsin Winnebagoes
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2000.03.0131;query=spage%3D%23434;layout=;loc=411]