HISTORY OF WOOD COUNTY



operations of the French-Canadians. So bitterly did the latter resent the
restric-
tions imposed upon them by American officers and officials that in 1818 they
planned to remove in a body to some place under British jurisdiction, taking
the
Wisconsin Indians with them. Within a few years, however, the friction was
ad-
justed, and the leading Wisconsin settlers became naturalized American citizens.
   In 1818 Illinois was admitted as a State into the Union, and Wisconsin
was
organized into two counties, Brown and Crawford, justices of the peace were
ap-
pointed and American sovereignty became operative with this region. In 1824
United States district courts were organized for that portion of Michigan
Territory
lying west of Lake Michigan. In 1829 Crawford County was divided, all south
of
the Wisconsin River becoming Iowa County. In 1834 Brown County was reduced
by the organization of its southern portion into Milwaukee County. In 1835
Michigan was admitted into the Union, and the Territory of Wisconsin was
or-
ganized out of that portion of its limits that lay west of Lake Michigan.
   Wisconsin Territory was maintained for twelve years. In 1846 there was
a
movement for Statehood, but the Constitution then -drawn was rejected by
the
people, so that not until 1848 did Wisconsin become the thirteenth State
in the
American Union.
   The boundaries of Wisconsin' were first laid down in the Ordinance of
1787,
which decreed that the southern boundary of the fifth or northwestern State
of
the Northwest Territory should be an east and west line drawn through the
south-
erly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan; that the western boundary should be
the
Mississippi to its source, thence by a straight line to the Lake of the Woods
and
the international boundary; that the northern boundary should coincide with
the
international boundary through Lake Superior; and that the eastern boundary
should be the meridian due north of Vincennes to the international line.
The
area of Wisconsin as outlined by this ordinance was one and a half times
as large
as at the present time. By successive measures Wisconsin's boundaries have
since
been curtailed at the southern, northeastern, and northwestern sides.
    The southern boundary was changed when, in 1818, Illinois was admitted
to
the Union. In order to secure for that State a harbor on Lake Michigan, Illinois
northern boundary was shifted from the line due west from the southern point
of
Lake Michigan, to latitude 420 30'. This added to Illinois a strip of territory
61
miles in width, containing 8,500 square miles, and the site of Chicago. In
1818
there was no one in Wisconsin to protest against this change. In 1838, however,
and during Wisconsin's later territorial period, attempts were made to repossess
the northern portion of Illinois on the ground that the Ordinance of 1787
was a
solemn compact, and as such inviolable without the consent of all parties
concerned.
The matter never came before the United States Supreme Court, but Wisconsin's
territorial legislature passed several vigorous resolutions on the subject
to which
Congress paid no attention. Strange to say, many Illinois inhabitants dwelling
in the disputed strip would have preferred Wisconsin's jurisdiction; at one
time
an informal referendum on the question in several Illinois counties resulted
over-
whelmingly in favor of Wisconsin. No official action, however, resulted,
and the
enabling act for Wisconsin in 1846, fixed its southern line 420 30'. The
eastern
boundary, as outlined by the Ordinance of 1787 was obliterated when, in 1818,
Wisconsin became a part of Michigan Territory. When, in 1834, it became evi-



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