This site was part of a 4800-acre tract patented to Eleazer Williams by the United States. In 1882 he led a delegation of New York Indians to the Fox River Valley, hoping to establish an Indian Empire in the West. A year later he married the daughter of pioneer French-Canadian blacksmith Joseph Jourdain and his Menominee-French wife. The couple settled in a cabin on the bank of the river, but construction of the De Pere dam forced them to rebuild on higher ground. In 1841 the French Prince de Joinville visited Williams in Green Bay, helping give rise to the belief that Williams might be the Lost Dauphin, son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. The story gained wide publicity in 1853 through John H. Hanson's book The Lost Prince. Williams had scars like those borne by the little Louis XVII.