As is the case in most communities, the early history of Two Rivers is somewhat obscure, and what accounts have been written and preserved were woven about the recollection of old settlers. The first epoch, that of Indian habitation, is the most picturesque, as it is the most obscure.

Perhaps the first reference made to Two Rivers was penned in 1779, when one Samuel Robertson undertook a voyage on Lake Michigan on the British vessel, "Felicity," and embodied his experiences in a book called, "A Voyage on Lake Michigan." on Thursday, November 4 of that year, while off the present site of Milwaukee, he wrote:

"The Indians also told us that they had sent to Monsieur Fay, who is at a place called Twin Rivers, eighteen leagues north of Milwaukee: he had two canoes of goods from the committee, but he said it was against his order to go among them and they supposed so as no trader had ever entered at that place."

The inference that before this no trader had entered the Indian communities at or near Two Rivers establishes 1779 as the date when Two Rivers first entered into the crudest kind of trade with the outside world.

The first mention of Manitowoc, the county seat which lies just seven miles south of Two Rivers, was made in 1818 when Colonel A. Edward, while making a canoe trip from Green Bay to Chicago, reported having seen "many Indians out in canoes spearing white fish" at Manitowoc.

It is not difficult to imagine that Two Rivers, as it was before the advent of white settlers, was an ideal plat on which Indians might build a village. The Mishicott (or East Twin) River rising in what is now the Town of Montpelier, and the Neshoto (or West Twin) River taking source in what is now Brown County meandered through forests of pine and hemlock and joined at Two Rivers to flow as one stream for no more than a city block before entering Lake Michigan. It is easy to understand that the spot where the two rivers converged commanded the communication up both of these streams and would therefore have been strategic enough; but the fact that the streams emptied into Lake Michigan at this pint made the plat immensely more important.

Lake Michigan was teeming with whitefish, trout, sturgeon, perch, and chubs. The rivers were alive with muskellunge, pickerel, bass, pike, and bullheads. Rabbits, foxes, deer, black bears, and other game infested the thick forests. The mud flats of both rivers were the rendezvous of ducks, mud hens, partridges and other fowl. Small wonder that the region constituted a virtual paradise for the Indian. James S. Anderson, one of the pioneers of Manitowoc County, has declared "I have stood on the Neshoto River bottoms in the years 1852 and 1853 and had coveys of partridges run around me thicker than the fowls in a farmer's barnyard and nearly as tame."

Evidence that an Indian village stood at the junction of the Twin Rivers is given in an account written by Col. S. Hamilton, who, after traveling the Green Bay trail in 1825 said that there was no settlement between Milwaukee and Manitowoc, but that "there was an Indian village at Manitowoc and one at Two Rivers of different tribes, mixed peoples, Chippewas, Ottowas, Menominees and Pottowatamies."

James Anderson also declared, in a report read before the Wisconsin Historical Society in 1911, that there was an Indian village on the site. He says furthermore that "the Indians at the time of the advent of the whites (1836-46) appear to have been a mixed lot composed of Ottowas, Chippewas, Winnebagoes, Pottowatamies, and a few Menominees who had separated from their tribes and spoke a sort of mongrel Chippewa."

Further evidence of the inhabitation of Two Rivers by the Indians has been found in the many exhumations of skeletons, implements and ornaments. In June 1893, mounds were opened which contained six skeletons and many copper implements, all of which were sent to the Smithsonian Institute for preservation. When the Hamilton Manufacturing Company was excavating for the foundation of a new warehouse about about five years ago, several graves were uncovered - each filled with bones, implements and ornaments. H.C. Wilke, in a local history gleaned from the recollection of old timers, states that "the red men buried their dead on a site where St. Luke's Catholic Church now stands." H.C. Hamilton, a Two Rivers archaeologist, began his extensive collections by searching about Two Rivers. When he died on June 15, 1919, his entire collection, in accordance with his wishes, was donated to the Wisconsin historical Museum at Madison, Wisconsin and constitutes the largest Indian collection in the museum.

Within the recollection of the white men, at least, the Indians living in this section of the country were very peaceful and were not hostile to the invading whites. They lived by hunting and fishing, and raised a little cord to round out the menu. In the winter, after the white settlers had come, they would frequently bring in a deer or some wild fowl to exchange for flour, jam and bread. Sometimes they would beg for food, but the always considered it a loan and they inevitably returned with game, clever beadwork, or some leather garments as payment of the debt.

The chief of one of the bands of Indians who frequented the region along the Mishicott River had a French name, La Chandelle. The English-speaking settlers on the town line road corrupted this into John Dale. He was said to have been a Winnebago, and to have participated in the massacre in 1812 at Fort Dearborn, Chicago. He had a passion for "firewater" and was very often drunk. He frequently figured in fights. In one of them, his nose was split into two parts by a tomahawk. Another chief who is recalled by old timers in Two Rivers was Old Katoose.

The last head chief of the Manitowoc county Indians was Waumegasako or "The Wampum." He was a kindly chieftain, greatly respected by the settlers. He received a medal from the government for settling numerous disputes among the Indians. With their characteristic tendency to corrupt Indian names, the settlers dubbed the chief "Mexico." While I know of no authentic explanation of how this appellation was fixed upon him, I am quite sure that it was just a corruption of the Indian name, Waumegasako. During the summer months, especially, Mexico made his home on the south side of the Neshoto River at Two Rivers, and to this very day, the older residents in the city refer to the South side as the Mexico side, although I venture to say that not one in a hundred knows how the name was derived. James Anderson says that Waumegasako died near Clarks Mills in 1845, but Ralph G. Plumb sets the date at 1857. The old chief was buried at Manitowoc Rapids, the first lasting settlement in the county. In the Wisconsin Historical Museum at Madison hangs a portrait of Waumegasako, painted by George A.P. Healy.

H.C. Wilke says, "The Indians were very numerous in the village of Two Rivers in 1849. In that year they had a dance on the site of St. John's Lutheran Church and no less than 300 participated. At that time, a large number of wigwams were found on the East side along the banks of the river, on the North side on the Baetz's blacksmith shop location, and also on the South side where at present the coal dock is found."

Gradually, before the influx of the white settlers and the lumbering industry, the Indians retired toward the interior, and came to Manitowoc and Two Rivers only to trade. Cholera, smallpox and whiskey combined to thin out their ranks, too. In fact, the only direct descendants of these Indians are the Menominees who inhabit the Shawano reservation.

In the fall of 1858 or 1859, a large number of Indians came to Manitowoc in canoes along the lake from the north. They brought fish oil, furs, baskets and other things to trade. Their canoes were of cedar frames covered with birth bark and were 50 feet long and had an eight-foot beam. That was the last great band of Indians that visited Manitowoc.