Wisconsin Historical Collections, Volume III (1857)

              augustin g&ign03nps recollections e.^at the i«static6 ctf the historical sdciety x made a afisit to tm venerable capt augustik grignon at his residence at the btitte desmorts on fox river and spent a coupfeof weeks with him from m^y 26th - to june 8th 1857 in obtaining the following narrative if is here presented just as i oteol it down-lrdm his ftps lat tne time alt simple and unadorned — cnte<heristicf ctf th j^ged cnfohici^r vhtfee nairfatite it is of a life time's recol lections it is true that while the facts and statements are essentially his the language order and arrangement are mine as are sometimes th inferences and l deductions but in all cases with his approval and addition * . - ; •'¦¦" mtffh>id thdtrgh iiow setentf sfeve^ri years old ig fdbust and healthy ; : tkb^hardy life h6jnas led ks'a'fe&erin thts ilderhefes with the simplicity of his habits seemv tokaye tottghenm his cdnstitutidn : so that old age does not appear irksome to him he is cheerful pleasant and communicative intelligent and well read i was pleased to observe that he was familiar with that rare and sterling old work charlevoix's histoire de la nouvelle france published in three quarto volumes in 1744 he spends his time mostly between fishing smoking and reading the papers of which one is le courier des stats uhis i have taken great pains to elicit from mr grignon a narrative as replete as possible of the men events habits and life of the olden time i felt that another such opportunity of securing a full account of the early settlement and early men of eastern wisconsin would never again occur ; a native of the country and an intelligent descendant as he is of the sieur charles db lan glade emphatically the father of wisconsin and personally acquainted with him as well also as with glode tomah and other noted menomonee chiefs ; and with reaume porlier lawe and their fellow pioneers a partici pant in the war of 1812 and in the black hawk war ; with a retentive memory in no wise disposed to exaggerate filled with a just and discriminating knowl edge of the men and events of wisconsin for the past seventy two years and by tradition for the forty years preceding — such a living chronicle we may never expect to see again in wisconsin very much of this information he alone possessed — the last of the grand children of charles de lan glade ; and