Henry Gratiot

Colonel Henry Gratiot (April 25, 1789 – April 27, 1836) was a French-American pioneer, farmer, and mill owner. During the Winnebago and Black Hawk Wars, he acted as both an intermediary and early U.S. Indian agent to the Winnebagos throughout the early 19th century. He and his brother Jean Pierre were among the first pioneers to settle in Wisconsin, operating a successful lead mining and lead smelting business, during the 1820s and 1830s. Both, the present-day village of Gratiot, Wisconsin and the town of Gratiot (town), Wisconsin are named in his honor. Early life The second eldest son of Illinois pioneer Charles Gratiot, Sr. and Victoire Chouteau, Henry Gratiot was born in St. Louis, Spanish Upper Louisiana Territory, in the present-day State of Missouri. He became engaged to Susan Hempstead, only two years after her family arrived from Connecticut, and the two eventually married on June 21, 1813. The youngest daughter of Revolutionary War soldier Stephen Hempstead, her brothers included Edward Hempstead, the first congressional delegate for the Missouri Territory, as well as prominent lawyer Charles S. Hempstead and businessman William Hempstead. He and his wife would live at a small farm and mill, west of St. Louis, for the next several years. In October 1825, following the admission of Missouri as a slave state, the 36-year-old Gratiot moved his family to the Fever River lead mines region (present-day Galena, Illinois) due to his opposition to slavery and his wish to raise his family in a free state. With the discovery of lead ore in the region in 1826, he and his younger brother Jean Pierre Bugnion Gratiot became interested in the mineral lands of present-day Shullsburg, Wisconsin. Purchasing the right to mine the area from the local Winnebagos, he and his brother were the first to develop a successful mining and smelting operation at Gratiot's Grove in what is now Lafayette County, Wisconsin. Employing sixty Frenchmen and using six furnaces, the brothers would undertake nearly all smelting for the entire region for several years. Indian agent During this time, he and his wife became friendly with the local Winnebagos visiting them during the winter of 1826-27. They eventually befriended a mixed-blood woman, Catharine Mayotte, who had doctored Susan Gratiot for a time and with whom they exchanged gifts and information. Developing a close friendship, the three would remain in contact between 1827 and 1835.