SUGGESTED PROPOSAL OF TWO GARRISONS – ONE AT PRAIRIE DU CHIEN AND ONE AT GREEN BAY.
(Wisconsin) Beard, David. An important proposed policy letter between Michigan army agent David Beard and the Honorable Peter Buell Porter, a congressman from New York. Within the letter David Beard is encouraging Congressman Porter that not only is there a need for a garrison at Prairie du Chien but also one at the mouth of the Fox River on Green Bay. These garrisons, which were a combination of both a trading post and a military garrison, would be important to collect duties which the British merchants were bringing into the United States. The letter in full reads:
Detroit – March 22, 1810
Dr. Sir
By Some communications lately rec’d at this place we perceive that our government are about to establish a garrison at Prairie Du Chien I conceive that a port & custom house at the mouth of Fox River on green Bay would be of use to the government particularly in collecting duties on vast quantities of goods that are brought in there yearly by the British Merchants it is also believed that a Factory at that place would doe more than Mackinack and chikago together & they might aid in forwarding military stores to those garrisons that are and may hereafter be established high up the Maseipe by an easier Rout than the other.
I am Very Respectfully Sir
Yr. Obd ____
David Beard
Col’e Peter B. Porter
Folded self address envelop sent to:
The Honorable Peter B. Porter
in Congrefs
Washington
Docketed: D. Beard
Mar 22, 1810
Prairie du Chien, located just above the confluence of the Mississippi and Wisconsin Rivers, is the oldest European settlement on the Upper Mississippi River. Its recorded history began on June 17, 1673, when Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet came down the Wisconsin River and were the first Europeans to enter the upper Mississippi River.
In 1685, the French explorer Nicolas Perrot established a trading post in the area as part of the large and lucrative French fur trade industry. French Canadians engaged in the fur trade settled on the island by the river, and the fur trade made the first major economic impact on the settlement. Each spring fur traders and Native Americans met on the prairie to exchange furs for guns and other goods. Prairie du Chien was neutral territory: conflicting tribes set down their arms before attending the rendezvous.
Gradually the British took over much of the fur trade centered in Prairie du Chien. In the early 1800s the Americans asserted their presence with the building of Fort Shelby. During the War of 1812, the British and Americans skirmished for control of the fort and the prairie. In July of 1814, the only battle of the war fought in Wisconsin, the Battle of Prairie du Chien was fought here. The fort was burned.
After John Jacob Astor’s machinations had closed the entire government fur trade factory system and the federal factory established in Prairie du Chien in 1815, the American Fur Company became established in the area and later built the Astor Fur Warehouse, an important building in the regional fur trade, which was centered in Prairie du Chien. Prairie du Chien's significance as a center of the fur trade did not diminish until the mid-19th century, when European demand declined, as did game stock.
The U.S. was slow to present any authority over Prairie du Chien, but late in the War of 1812, when the government realized the importance of holding the site to prevent British attacks from Canada, it began construction of Fort Shelby in 1814. In July, British soldiers captured the fort during the Siege of Prairie du Chien. The British maintained control over the city until the war's end in 1815. Not wanting another invasion through Prairie du Chien, the Americans constructed Fort Crawford in 1816.
The second location which David Beard was urging for consideration was that of the Green Bay area which was under British control until the 1783 treaty formally ended the American Revolutionary War. Following the War of 1812, which in part was over disputes related to the border with Canada, the United States built Fort Howard on the west bank of the Fox River in Green Bay, Wisconsin in an effort to protect the northern border.
Along with Fort Crawford at Prairie du Chien, Fort Howard was constructed during the War of 1812 to protect the Fox-Wisconsin Waterway, an important regional trade and travel route between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River, from British invasion.
In 1809, Congressman Peter Buell Porter was elected to the United States House of Representatives as a Democratic-Republican. He served in the 11th and 12th United States Congresses, holding office from March 4, 1809, to March 3, 1813. During his service in Congress, he was a leading figure among Congressional "war hawks” and Chairman of the Committee that recommended preparation for war with Great Britain and was known as an early supporter of James Madison, eventually with others pressuring Madison to end the discussion and take up arms against England in the War of 1812.
At the same time, from 1810 to 1816, he was a member of the Erie Canal Commission, a commission on inland navigation established in 1810 by the New York State Legislature to survey a canal route from the Hudson River to the Great Lakes.
Sources: National Historical Publications and Records Commission; Wikipedia; Appleton’s Cyclopedia of American Biography.
4 pages folded with letter on one page. Several expected folding tears, very readable and in vg cond.
$2475.00