Electa arrived in Wisconsin on June 20, 1828. At the time, Wisconsin was not yet a state. It was part of Michigan Territory. Wisconsin wouldn’t become its own state for another 20 years.
Wisconsin’s forests were full of wild animals, such as wolves and bears. There were also other Indians. Four of the 7 Indian groups that live in Wisconsin today were already living in the area long before 1828. These were the Menominee, Ho-Chunk, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi. The other 3 Indian nations—the Stockbridge-Munsee, Brothertown, and Oneida—began arriving in the 1820s.
There were many wolves in Wisconsin in 1828.
When Electa came to Wisconsin, there were only a few scattered towns. Madison and Milwaukee, 2 big cities today, did not exist yet. Wisconsin’s first newspaper wasn’t printed until 1833. The first bank didn’t open until 1835. In 1828, most white people who lived in Wisconsin worked as lead miners, missionaries, fur traders, or lumberjacks. Some were soldiers at 3 United States military forts.
People mostly traveled by lake or by river. Roads were rare, and Wisconsin’s first railroads weren’t built until the 1850s. Travelers often used the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers to get from one place to another.
In the 1820s, travel in Wisconsin was usually by canoe on rivers and lakes.
Statesburg, where Electa first lived, was along the Fox River between Green Bay and Lake Winnebago. It was near a spot on the river called the Grand Kaukaulin (kah kaw lin). Today, the Grand Kaukaulin is still a beautiful place. There are high bluffs along the river and many small islands. Ducks swim among the islands.
Grand comes from the French word for “big.” And Kaukaulin comes from a Menominee Indian word that means “where the fish stop.” This was once a popular fishing spot for the Menominee Indians.
In Wisconsin, Electa lived along the Fox River, at a place called the Grand Kaukaulin.
The Grand Kaukaulin has many rocky rapids. In Electa’s time, it was a dangerous spot for travelers. The current is swift at the rapids, and the river quickly drops more than 40 feet in elevation.
Most travelers got out of the river at the rapids and portaged their canoes. This made the Grand Kaukaulin an important trading post. Travelers bought supplies there. Later, in the 1850s, locks and dams were built, making boat travel easier.
On August 1, 1828, a missionary named Jesse Miner mentioned Electa in a letter. Jesse said Electa arrived in Green Bay from New York on June 20. She had traveled to Wisconsin with him and some other Stockbridge Indians. They made their new home in Statesburg.
A lock at the Grand Kaukaulin
That summer, Electa began teaching school in Statesburg. She taught subjects such as math and reading, and her students learned about the Christian religion.
“She is a person of good education,” Jesse wrote. “She is very faithful to the children.”
On October 5, 1828, Electa’s name appeared on a list of people attending the church in Statesburg. The mission house, or church building, was made of logs. It was also Electa’s school.
Electa’s school wasn’t the first one in Wisconsin. There were a few private schools in other places. But it was Wisconsin’s very first public school, and Electa was Wisconsin’s first public schoolteacher.
Public Schools and Private Schools
What’s the difference between a public school and a private school? The main difference is in how teachers are paid. Everyone whose home is near a public school gives some money to pay the teachers. They do this even if they don’t have children because they agree it is important to have a school.
In Statesburg, Stockbridge tribal leaders paid Electa with money collected from members of the tribe. Today, money to pay public school teachers is collected through taxes.
Private schools are not paid for by everyone in a community. Usually, just the families of students pay the teacher. In 1830, a school in Mineral Point charged a tuition of $2.50 for younger children and $3.50 for older children.
The students at the first private school in Wisconsin were all from one family. This was in 1791. They were the children of a French fur trader in Green Bay. The fur trader paid a private teacher to instruct his children.
Some private schoolteachers before 1828 were paid by the US military. In 1817, the first school in Wisconsin for children of soldiers opened at Fort Crawford in Prairie du Chien. The teacher was an army sergeant.
Other private schoolteachers were paid by churches. In 1823, a missionary opened a private school near Green Bay. About 50 children went to this school. The church paid the teacher.
At first, only Indian children went to Electa’s school. Then, in November 1828, Jesse Miner’s children arrived with their mother from New York. They were the first white children at Electa’s school. Many years later, Jesse’s son, Eliphalet (i lif uh let), said Electa was a good teacher. Eliphalet is the only student of Electa’s whose memories were written down and saved.
Electa “was a better teacher than the average of teachers,” Eliphalet said. He said her classroom was like “the best public schools of New England.” In addition to math and reading, Electa taught Eliphalet spelling, public speaking, and geography. She began each day with a prayer.
Eliphalet Miner said he used this textbook in Electa’s classroom at Statesburg.
Eliphalet also recalled that Electa was kind. At this time, it was still considered okay for teachers to whip naughty children by hitting them with rope or a thin stick. “She rarely whipped,” Eliphalet said.
Another teacher, Augustus Ambler, arrived in Statesburg in November 1828. He lived with Jesse’s family and taught at the school for a few months. Electa took over again in 1829.
“I have taught their school 3 months,” Augustus wrote in a letter in March 1829. “The Indians have agreed with Mr. [Miner] to pay me $24 per month for teaching the winter school. Electa Quinney, a competent native teacher, will probably take charge of the school this summer and be paid from public funds of the Indians.”
In 1829, Electa helped some older Stockbridge Indian women write a letter to friends back East. Things were going well in Wisconsin, the letter said. “The people have much improved since leaving New York,” Electa wrote.
A missionary named Cutting Marsh came to Statesburg in 1830. He agreed that things were going well for the Stockbridge in Wisconsin. He wrote that the Stockbridge Indians were going to church. Each family lived in their own house made of logs and had a farm with animals and a barn. “Their houses in winter are very comfortable,” Marsh said.
Electa also had fun. She was young and not yet married. One person wrote that she was well liked and “moved in [the] best society at Fort Howard.”
Fort Howard
Fort Howard was in Green Bay. Many young soldiers lived at the fort. They invited young people like Electa to dances.
What were dances like at Fort Howard? Marie Brevoort, whose father was an Indian agent, went to a dance at Fort Howard in July 1827. Marie said dinner was served early in the evening, followed by dancing until midnight to a military band. “The music was enchanting,” Marie recalled.
Marie’s dress that evening was light purple and had white lace. She wore long white gloves and red slippers. On her shoulders was a white lace shawl, and on her head she wore a large green calash.
A calash
Another young woman in the area was Elizabeth Baird. She was 14 years old and newly married when she came to Green Bay in 1824. Her husband, Henry Baird, was a lawyer. Many years later, he became mayor of Green Bay.
Elizabeth said young people went on picnics and canoe trips up the Fox River. When there was not a dance at Fort Howard, they danced and ate supper at the homes of their friends. In the winter, they went on sleigh rides.
One family had 4 sons Elizabeth’s age. They were all musicians, Elizabeth remembered. “Louis, the eldest, was our fiddler. Whenever we made up a sleigh-ride party we were always accompanied by Louis Ducharme (du shahrm).”
Louis was from a well-known family. The Ducharmes were some of the first French settlers in Green Bay. A few years after this, Electa’s older sister Phebe married Louis Ducharme.
A fiddle player
Perhaps on a sleigh ride, as Louis Ducharme played the fiddle, Electa met Ebenezer Childs. In 1829, Ebenezer was the sheriff of Brown County. One story says that Ebenezer asked Electa to marry him. Electa told him no. She wanted to marry an Indian man.
We don’t know if this really happened. But we do know some things about Ebenezer. Later in life, he recalled that he had been a “stubborn, hot-headed young man.” He got into trouble for doing things like sneaking whiskey to the soldiers at Fort Howard. And when he “got his Ebenezer up,” or got mad, everyone around knew to look out.
Despite his temper, Ebenezer did some good things. He helped build the first road along the Fox River between Green Bay and the Grand Kaukaulin. He served in Wisconsin’s very first territorial legislature. Ebenezer also built a sawmill for the Stockbridge Indians at Statesburg.
Ebenezer Childs
And he married the daughter of Augustin Grignon, an important fur trader whose house was right across the river from Statesburg. So whether or not Ebenezer actually asked Electa to marry him, it’s quite likely that they knew each other.
Electa did not marry Ebenezer Childs. But soon, an Indian husband came along.
