LXY.
OLD BEN OF YORKTOWN, A PAAIOUS CANNON.
The old Yorktown cannon owned by the city of Menasha has perhaps as various and thrilling a history as any celebrated piece of ordnance to be found within the border of our country. If its dumb old lips could speak, it could a "tale unfold that would make each particular hair to stand on end, like the quills of a fretful porcupine." It was brought up to this city from Fort Howard, when the town was but a hamlet of a few dozen souls, and trees and stumps filled the streets in 1849 to boom at the beginning of work on the celebrated Menasha dam, and the government canal. It came into Fort Howard in 1816, with the first United States troops who came to erect the defenses of the government on the frontier. Old Smoker, a Winnebago chief of Lake AA^innebago, went down to protest against the fort; but was informed of the peaceable intentions of the military. He replied, "If your intentions are peaceable you have too much display of w^ar material; but if for war you have not enough." Colonel Miller then took the old chief to the bank of the river and pointed out a row of cannon just unloaded in the grass. He was satisfied they could defend themselves. Old Ben was one of cast iron pieces laying there. It had been brought over from Fort Mackinac, where it had been restored to the Americans by the British at the surrender, having been in 1812 surrendered to the British at the outbreak of the war. When Gen. Proctor accepted the surrender of Detroit by General Hull, he was de¬ lighted to recover cannon with the brass labels, "Captured from Cornwallis at Yorktown." These cannon came into the west from such celebrated fields of the revolution. When General William Henry Harrison recaptured these historic relics of Amer¬ ican liberty, at the battle of the Thames, they were distributed about the western posts, and in its long pilgrimage Old Ben of Yorktown came to Menasha in pioneer days on a flat boat, and part way by ox teams. Its loud roar was heard on the opening of navigation on the historic Fox river in 1856; again all the windows on Main street were shattered when the railroads came
Chapter Title Chapter LXV. Old Ben of Yorktown, a Famous Cannon
Full Text LXY. OLD BEN OF YORKTOWN, A PAAIOUS CANNON. The old Yorktown cannon owned by the city of Menasha has perhaps as various and thrilling a history as any celebrated piece of ordnance to be found within the border of our country. If its dumb old lips could speak, it could a "tale unfold that would make each particular hair to stand on end, like the quills of a fretful porcupine." It was brought up to this city from Fort Howard, when the town was but a hamlet of a few dozen souls, and trees and stumps filled the streets in 1849 to boom at the beginning of work on the celebrated Menasha dam, and the government canal. It came into Fort Howard in 1816, with the first United States troops who came to erect the defenses of the government on the frontier. Old Smoker, a Winnebago chief of Lake AA^innebago, went down to protest against the fort; but was informed of the peaceable intentions of the military. He replied, "If your intentions are peaceable you have too much display of w^ar material; but if for war you have not enough." Colonel Miller then took the old chief to the bank of the river and pointed out a row of cannon just unloaded in the grass. He was satisfied they could defend themselves. Old Ben was one of cast iron pieces laying there. It had been brought over from Fort Mackinac, where it had been restored to the Americans by the British at the surrender, having been in 1812 surrendered to the British at the outbreak of the war. When Gen. Proctor accepted the surrender of Detroit by General Hull, he was de¬ lighted to recover cannon with the brass labels, "Captured from Cornwallis at Yorktown." These cannon came into the west from such celebrated fields of the revolution. When General William Henry Harrison recaptured these historic relics of Amer¬ ican liberty, at the battle of the Thames, they were distributed about the western posts, and in its long pilgrimage Old Ben of Yorktown came to Menasha in pioneer days on a flat boat, and part way by ox teams. Its loud roar was heard on the opening of navigation on the historic Fox river in 1856; again all the windows on Main street were shattered when the railroads came 794