This is a note on a map made to show where Indian villages were in the region northwest of Chicago during the War of 1812. I’m not able to figure out what the two words in the red boxes might be.
The rest of it says
There is many Winnebago villages in the Fox River and near the Green Bay that we know nothing about. The scratch with a ___ on the headwaters of the Rocky River includes a space of country that is impossible for any person to go through in winter or summer without being clothed in leather and leather mitts to cover the hands. Note from Milwaukee to the nearest Little Lake on the ___ of the Fox River that empties itself in Illinois River there is a portage of 12 miles.
Presumably you also have the map? Is there in fact a scratch with something on it drawn on the may at the headwaters of the Rocky river? Obviously the writer wrote something and and then chose another word and wrote over it.
That looks like an L at the beginning of it, especially compared to other Ls in the writing. The ds at the end matches the ds in roads at the top, so I’m guessing “Leads” instead of “head”.
The first one looks like funoughyn. Erm… gotta look at that one some more. I’m not getting it at all yet.
Not so fast – compare that initial letter with “leather” in the previous line. It’s a stronger match for “hands” at the start of that line. The second word is almost certainly “heads”.
I’m pretty certain now that my first guess was wrong. I now agree with the others that it is an H at the beginning, so “heads” and not “leads”. I do still think there is an S at the end (see “Roads” above it).
I’m disagreeing or failing to see some of the words that have already been deciphered. This is what I came up with:
"you will please observe that the dotted lines are Roads or paths from one village to another. There is many wenebago [1] villages in Fox ? [2] and near the Green Bay that we know nothing about.
The scratch with a f-n-?-n [3] the head waters of Rocky River includes a space of country that is impossible for any person to go through in winter or summer without being clothed in leather and leather mitts to cover the hands.
note from Milwaukee to the nearest Little Lake on the heads of the Fox River that empties itself in ? [4] River there is a portage of 12 miles."
[1] I believe that Winnebago is what is meant, but I don’t believe it is spelled that way here.
[2] I’m not seeing “River” there. I’m not sure what I’m seeing.
[3] is still the word we’re struggling with. My best guess as to the letters I can pick out matches with “function” so I’m kinda leaning towards that. When I got to the word “space” the way that he wrote the C made me think that there was a C near the front of this word, which is also consistent with “function”.
[4] I don’t know how you got Illinois out of that. I didn’t. But then I didn’t get anything intelligible out of it.
Yeah, on further examination (once I zoomed out and realized the “on” was a separate word), I retract that guess. I think Alley Dweller nailed it – “pencil” makes sense in context, and the first two letters match “person” in the next line.
I had convinced myself that the dot was just a mark on the paper until you posted this, simply because the dot is over the n(?) and not the i. Then I went back and noticed that he dots all of his i’s over the next letter.
I’m still going back and forth between f and p for the first letter. There’s not enough of a loop to convince me that it’s a p.
A portage is a piece of land that you carry your water stuff over. I think. And iirc there are two parts of Fox River. I actually read it as ‘levee’ until I scrolled the thread. Does it mean the ‘head’ of the second splinter of the river? There is the WI and the IL Fox Rivers. One is the tributary to the other. It seems like the letter is talking about the southern one. (I don’t know how to explain it. This part.)
I’m thinking f or p for the first letter, “in” or “im” after that, and either an e or an o after that, and some other letter that is partially obliterated by damage. Then a “on” or something n after the damage.
With the damage to the paper it is difficult to tell if it is one word or two.
I think it might be ‘junction’, with the T partially obliterated by the map fold. Both ‘Pencil’ or ‘Junction’ would make sense:-
The scratch with a junction on the headwaters of the Rocky River includes a space of country that is impossible …
The scratch with a pencil on the headwaters of the Rocky River includes a space of country that is impossible …
The first letter being a capital J with the thicker part at the bottom being the upward curl, I think the second character is a U with a linkage leading in, but unusually wide, making it look like an II or an EI
Make sure that you share some of the buried treasure with me when you find it :p.
The problem with “junction” (my original suggestion) is that it doesn’t make sense in context. I looked at “The scratch with a ___ on the headwaters of the Rocky River” from the OP, then zoomed in on the graphic and came up with “junction” as a word that fit the blank. Unfortunately, I wasn’t seeing the forest for the trees, failing to realize that the “on” was not part of the blank to be filled in.
Therefore, “junction” renders the phrase “The scratch with a junction the headwaters of the Rocky River” which doesn’t seem right.
Also, I was thinking “scratch” might not refer to a physical feature of the map but rather a parcel of land. Like a “patch” of land. This may be a stretch, but google returns 3,620 hits for “scratch of land”.
