Thought something smelled funny in the car today...

...but it was just that decomposing clown in the trunk.

When the "Father of Wisconsin" almost killed the Father of our Country

First things first: I don't know why Charles Langlade is known as the "Father of Wisconsin."

His father was a French fur trader, and his mother was an Ottawa of some family influence.  So, okay, that's pretty deep Wisconsin history there. 

On the other hand, it's not Wisconsin history: it's Great Lakes area history.  But he's not the Father of the Great Lakes Area - he's the Father of Wisconsin.  So there must be more.

Langlade became a trader and a military leader who fought first on the French side during the French and Indian Wars (which was not fought between the French and the Indians, but between the French and the British), and then on the British side during the Revolutionary war (you should already know what the two basic sides were in that one).  So he wasn't exactly a home-team hero, from this historical perspective.

Jumping ahead to the actual point of this post: in 1755, Langlade led a force of Native Americans against a British force in Pennsylvania.  I read about this in M. Richard Tully's book, "A Man Called Baraboo:"

In 1755, war would once again break out between the French and English colonists.  Charles de Langlade, who supported the French cause, collected members of several Wisconsin tribes - the Ottawa, Ojibwa, and Potawatomi - and attacked British General Braddock at the Monogahela River in Pennsylvania on July 9, 1755.  Braddock was mortally wounded, and a 23-year-old Major named George Washington barely escaped with four bullet holes in his coat and two horses killed under him - a group of Wisconsin men had almost killed the man who would one day become America's greatest hero and first president!

Cool.  I mean, not cool exactly, but... yeah, cool.

Cue discussion of whether or not, in what way, and exactly how much that would have changed American history.

Back to that "Father of Wisconsin" thing.  Alternate subtitle: More Research Would Probably Explain This Better.

Langlade was born in what is now Michigan (in 1729, so well before there was a Michigan, a Wisconsin, or even a United States), but moved to the future Green Bay area to establish a trading post in the 1740s.

Then came the fighting for the French during the French and Indian Wars, and later for the British during the Revolutionary War.  That's what makes me scratch my head.  More research is obviously necessary.  I reserve the right to update this post*.

There is a story about Langlade during the Pontiac Rebellion, in which he convinces the Native victors not to massacre the survivors after the fort at Mackinac fell.  So that's a point in his favor.  He then moved back to Green Bay and lived there until his death in 1801, so there was plenty of time for him to become an important early Wisconsin figure.

Years ago, I wrote a long series of historical bits for the Racine Journal Times leading up to the Sesquicentennial, so you'd think I'd know more.  Best case: I've just forgotten.  Wonder where all my notes are.

* Duh. 

x

Hello, world

I'm just an average wannabe home brewer with a thing about zombies who loves to write but is eight hard months into a job search, with no end in sight.  So I'm teaching myself SEO and some other (hopefully) useful skills, and this blog is my way of experimenting.  Also, trying to get back in the habit of regular writing without attracting too much attention, which is weird because SEO is all about attracting attention.

Once more into the breach, so to speak, obscured by the smoke and the noise and the overall fog of war, but still hoping for that nice shiny medal at the end.  I'm tall, but I'm not Chewbacca.  I'm not waiting twenty friggin' years.