A Standard History of Waupaca County, Wisconsin. An Authentic Narrative of the Past, with Particular Attention to the Modern Era in the Commercial, Industrial, Educational, Civic and Social Development.

              HISTORY OF WAUPACA COUNTY 29
as a means of conserving the expansion and population of her own ter¬ ritory. Thus the commandants, the garrisons and the traders who made the post at the Bay their headquarters were never more than unsettled residents, although frequently the Canadian Frenchmen lived among the Indians for indefinite periods. They domesticated themselves among the savages during convenient seasons, and often intermarried. And thus with fur traders, engages and voyageurs continued the affairs at Green Bay so long as the country belonged to France. The permanent settlement of the Fox River country and its long offshoot, the Valley of the Wolf River, seemed afar.
The Conquering English Found Fort Edward Augustus
The first third of the eighteenth century witnessed much warfare be¬ tween the French and the Foxes and Sacs; the Indian allies of the French in these campaigns were the Hurons, Ottawas and Iroquois. Finally the rebellious tribes were cowed and brought over to New France, and in 1754 arrayed themselves against the English. But power passed to the English, and in 1761 a small garrison of regular soldiers occupied the deserted post at the bay. Other French garrisons in the Northwest were similarly occupied, and in 1763 all of New France, including the territory west of Lake Michigan, was ceded to the English. Fort St. Francis became Fort Edward Augustus and the great colonizing power of that day held sway over what is now Wisconsin, with vast undefined ter¬ ritories stretching westward.
The general expectation that Fort Edward Augustus would become an important military post was not realized. Instead, the Indians of the Northwest were placed under control of the re-garrisoned post at Mackinaw.
First Wisconsin Settlement at Green Bay
But no sooner had the English soldiers left the bay than French traders again made it their headquarters for their traffic in furs to the westward of Lake Michigan. A few even determined to make the locality their permanent home and by 1766 there were several families living in the decayed Fort Edward Augustus, as w^ell as opposite on the east side of the Fox River, where they even cultivated the soil. Thus was formed the nucleus of the first permanent settlement in Wisconsin, and the commencement of the uncertain waves of immigration which spread from the foot of Green Bay, up the Fox River Valley to the mouth of the Wolf and thence to the special section of Northern Wisconsin cov¬ ered by this history.