Little Chute is a village in Outagamie County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 11,619 at the 2020 census. It is immediately east of the city of Appleton and runs along the Fox River. It is a part of the Appleton, Wisconsin Metropolitan Statistical Area.
The town was originally established as a trading post by French explorers who called it "La Petite Chute" (Little Chute). In the late 19th century, it was settled by Dutch Catholic immigrants from North Brabant, led initially by the Dominican Missionary Theodore J. van den Broek from Uden. The town became an outpost of Dutch Catholic immigrants in the Midwest. Little Chute is home to a full-scale Dutch-style working windmill, which has become a tourist attraction.
Prior to European exploration it is likely the Mississippian culture tribe, the Oneota lived in the area. The Oneota are believed to be the ancestors of the Winnebago or Ho-Chunk tribe. A historical marker near Little Chute commemorates the Treaty of the Cedars, a treaty which ceded 4 million acres of Native American land to the US government.
History
While sharing in the history of northeast Wisconsin, Little Chute has been influenced by two unique factors: the rapids and portages along the Fox River and the coming of Dutch-Catholic settlers in 1848. Prior to and during the early European settlement, the Fox-Wisconsin Waterway to the Mississippi River system was one of the most heavily traveled routes between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River.“That Dark and Bloody River”, 1996, Allan Eckert Afterward canals and locks were built to circumvent these rapids. The actual construction of these features provided employment to settlers, the Dutch among them, although the canal system never proved to be a great success.American Canal Society Canal Index (PDF) In 1836, the Treaty of the Cedars was signed near Little Chute by the Menominee Indians, which ceded to The United States "Four million acres between the Fox, Wolf and Menominee Rivers".
Native Americans There is little evidence today of the earliest Native American communities in the area. Prior to the European exploration it is likely the Mississippian culture tribe, the Oneota, lived in the area. The Oneota are believed to be the ancestors of the Winnebago or Ho-Chunk people; this has yet to be conclusively demonstrated. Regardless, the Ho-Chunk dominated the area just as the French were first appearing in the St Lawrence area far to the east. The Illinois tribe was generally far to the south; the Menominee tribe was just to the north. The Ho-Chunk maintained reasonably good relations with both tribes, although there were several battles with the Illinois. While the French had yet to settle in the area, their presence to the east started a chain reaction of tribal migration. The Huron, Ottawa, Potawatomi, and other eastern tribes all had encounters with the Ho-Chunk. The Sauk and Meskwaki peoples, originally in the St. Lawrence Valley, migrated first to southeastern Michigan. The Meskwaki (Renard in French) called themselves the Meshkwahkihaki and were also known as the Outagamie by the French. The Sac and Meskwaki were uprooted again by eastern tribes and began to arrive in the Fox River Valley in the late 17th century. The Sac and Fox eventually drove most of the Ho-Chunk from the area. When the first French settlers appeared, they named the river after the Fox. The county which today includes Little Chute was to be named Outagamie.
The series of rapids along the Fox River near Little Chute necessitated canoe portages. By the time the French settlement started in the early 18th century, the Sac had essentially set up toll stations along the Fox-Wisconsin Waterway, including the rapids at Little Chute. The French, outraged at the impact on trade, launched a series of attacks on the Sac, culminating in the Fox Wars, which drove them out of the area by 1742.“First Nations Histories: Winnebago” http://www.dickshovel.com/win.html“Four Directions Institute: Winnebago" http://www.fourdir.com/winnebago.htm“Sauk and Fox History" http://www.tolatsga.org/sf.html The power vacuum created by the departure of most of the Ho-Chunk, the Sac and the Fox allowed the Menominee to briefly dominate the area. The Menominee set up a village, Ookicitiming (“causeway” in Menominee)“Little Chute, A Century of Progress, 1899-1999”, 1999, Village of Little Chute Centennial Committee near present-day Little Chute.
First European settlement
The first Europeans to the area were the French. Jean Nicolet reached the Fox River at Green Bay in 1634 and set up a trading post. Explorers Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet passed through the area in 1673, following the canoe route to the Mississippi. As early as 1760, the families of Augustin and Charles Grignon, French Canadian Métis, established a fur trade post along the rapids. While French influence waned, it can still be seen in local place names, particularly waterways. Locally the three major rapids on the Fox were named “La Grand Kauklin” (near Grignon's trading post at present day Kaukauna), “La Petite Chute” (present day Little Chute) and “La Grand Chute” (still the name of the adjoining township).
The French maintained a presence in the area until the end of the French and Indian War in 1763. The area switched to British control until the end of the Revolutionary War in 1781. The Americans nominally controlled the area although the British continued to maintain a presence until the end of the War of 1812 in 1814. In 1787, the area became part of the American Northwest Territory. In succession the area became part of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and finally, in 1836, Wisconsin Territories. Statehood was reached in 1848.
Father Van den Broek and the first Dutch settlers
The singular person in the establishment of Little Chute as a Catholic Dutch-American community was a Dominican missionary: Father Theodore J. van den Broek. Born to wealthy parents in Amsterdam, Netherlands in June 1784, he had relatives in Uden, North Brabant, Netherlands and apparently spent time there as a youth. He was highly educated and fluent in six languages. He was ordained a priest in 1808 and joined the Dominican Order in 1817. After a period as a pastor in the Netherlands, he left in 1832 at the age of 49 to join other missionary priests at Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1834 he was ordered to Green Bay to an established Dominican mission. In Green Bay he met the Grignon family, and probably through this contact he went to La Petite Chute in 1836. There he built the first church for the Menominee Indians, St. John Nepomucene, one of several he would establish in the area. Father Van den Broek also met Morgan Lewis Martin, who was in charge of the local canal project. Father Van den Broek purchased land in the area which he later hoped to sell.“The First Dutch Catholics In Brown County”, Willem Keeris, Netherlands In that same year, 1836, the Menominees signed the “Treaty of the Cedars” which required them to give up title to the local land and move beyond the Wolf River to the west.History- Treaties- September 3, 1836; The Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin
Father Van den Broek began to write letters about the area to groups in the Netherlands. The letters appeared in the Roman Catholic paper, De Tijd (The Times) beginning in 1843. In the summer of 1847 Father Van den Broek went back to the Netherlands to settle his parents’ estate. The settlement was not very beneficial and he found himself nearly destitute. As St. John Nepomucene parishioners were significantly reduced after the Treaty of the Cedars, he used the trip as an opportunity to again write in De Tijd, advertising the mission, the land at La Petite Chute and employment opportunities associated with the Fox River Canal, which included free passage to America for workers. The results were immediate and, by 1848, three wooden sailing vessels called "barks" or "barque" (small three-masted sailing ships), the Libra, the Maria Magdalena and the America,All three ships (broker was Hudig & Blokhuyzen) departed from Rotterdam. Libra departed March 13, 1848, and arrived in Boston, America departed on March 18, 1848, and arrived in Philadelphia, and Maria Magdalena departed March 20, 1948, and arrived in New York City. had been booked for passage to the east coast of the United States. Approximate 918 Dutch Catholic immigrants were on the three boats. Most of the early emigrants were from villages near Uden, including Zeeland, Boekel, Mill, Oploo and Gemert. The Dutch economy of the era was stagnant and much of the motivation to emigrate was economic. The emigrants were not poor, as the cost of passage, expenses and land purchase in Wisconsin would have been substantial. They were not, however, affluent and many would have been risking most of their wealth on the chance of economic improvement. There were also political pressures at the time that favored mass emigrations of Catholics.Albert Vanderheide “Priest led party of emigrants to Wisconsin’s frontier territory” H.A.V.M. Van Stekelenburg. Landverhuizing als regionaal verschijnsel, Van Noord-Brabant naar Noord-Amerika, 1820–1880, doctoral thesis, accessed: March 7, 2003 Catholics were far fewer in number than Protestants among the immigrants. On their experiences see Yda Schreuder, Dutch Catholic Immigrant Settlement in Wisconsin, 1850-1905 (New York: Garland, 1989); and H. A. V. M. van Stekelenburg, Landverhuizing als regionaal verschijnsel: Van Noord-Brabant naar Noord-Amerika 1820-1880 (Tilburg: Stichting Zuidelijk Historisch Contact, 1991). On Dutch Jews see Robert P. Swierenga, The Forerunners: Dutch Jewry in the North American Diaspora (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1994). On socialists see Pieter R. D. Stokvis, "Dutch Socialist Immigrants and the American Dream," in The Dutch-American Experience: Essays in Honor of Robert P. Sweierenga, ed. Hans Krabbendam and Larry J. Wagenaar (Amsterdam: Vrije Universiteit Uitgeverij, 2000).
For an overview on Dutch immigration which explains the three waves see Suzanne M. Sinke, "Dutch," in A Nation of Peoples: A Sourcebook on America's Multicultural Heritage, ed. Elliott R. Barkan (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1999), pp. 156-7. See also Robert P. Swierenga, "Dutch," in Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups, ed. Stephan Thernstrom (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1980), pp. 284-95. By far the most complete study of the nineteenth-century migrants in the United States is Jacob van Hinte's Netherlanders in America: A Study of Emigration and Settlement in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries in the United States of America, 2 vols., ed. Robert P. Swierenga, trans. Adriaan de Wit (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1985), a translation and reprint of the original published in the Netherlands in 1928. Henry S. Lucas also used this work extensively for his Netherlanders in America: Dutch Immigration to the United States and Canada, 1789-1950 (1955; reprint, Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1989).
See Robert P. Swierenga, "Local Patterns of Dutch Migration to the United States in the Mid-nineteenth Century," in A Century of European Migrations, ed. Rudolph Vecoli and Suzanne Sinke (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991), pp. 134-57.