Back when I was a teenager my Grandfather always talked of our relationship to General Harney. When my mother and I began researching our family it seemed very unlikely that there would be a connection. I did some brief searching about Harney and did not find him even being in Wisconsin at all.
When we found the obituary for Charles LeGros (my great-grandfather) and it mentioned the relationship to Harney we were very surprised. Charles LeGros' parents were Caroline Parenteau and Daniel LeGros. Caroline's parents were Mary Caroline (or Caroline Mary) Harney and Abraham Parenteau. The obituary we found for Mary Caroline stated she was born about 1829 at Fort Winnebago. It mentions her childhood in Little Chute (north of Appleton WI), her first marriage to John LaFromboise and his death soon after their marriage. Her second marriage to Abraham Parenteau occurred on June 9, 1850.
We then obtained the official record of her death from the state and found her father listed as Gen. William S. Harnais(sp?). For some reason a group of death records were recopied and there are actually two entries - one crossed out, and one the "official" record. The second was obviously copied from the first sometime in the past.
We wrote to St. John the Evangelist Church in Green Bay, WI and found they had several important records. They had the marriage to John LaFromboise in 1948 and her marriage to Abraham Parenteau in 1850. On both records her name is listed as Mary (Carole) Harney. They did not have any baptism record but suggested I write to LaCrosse, WI for the records from Portage.
I also obtained a land record clearing up the ownership of a piece of land near Green Bay. It states that Mary Caroline Harvey (spelled Harney on the marriage record in Green Bay) is the same person as Caroline LaFromboise and Caroline Parenteau. This piece of land was apparently being sold by the family and needed proof of ownership.
Another piece of information I have is an Indian Treaty with the Winnebago Indians from 1832. Part of this treaty was at the Winnebago's request to grant land to several people. Pierre Paquette, Pierre Paquette Jr., Theresa Paquette, and Caroline Harney all received land. Pierre and his family ran the trading post at Portage for the American Fur Trading Company. He was well known and liked, often acting as an interpreter for traders and soldiers in the area. The oddest things about the treaty is that the interpreter for the Winnebago Indians was Pierre Paquette and one of the soldier witnesses for the treaty was Captain William S. Harney (1st Infantry). The coincidence of Harney being present when a 3yr old girl named Caroline Harney received an acre of land seem too great. Perhaps Harney felt by granting her some land she would be properly taken care of (perhaps by Pierre Paquette and his family).
A few years ago I got in contact with Rollie Adams, who wrote his dissertation at the University of Arizona in 1983 called "General William Selby Harney: Frontier Soldier, 1800-1889". Rollie has turned out to be a great help in filling in some of the missing pieces for me. We discussed the possible relationship of Caroline to William and how since there were no white women in Wisconsin in 1830 it certainly could be possible for General Harney to have fathered a child with a Native American woman.
About a year or so after contacting Rollie he discovered three letters which in my opinion certainly prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Caroline is his daughter.
The first is from H. L. Dousmann and it was witnessed by Robert and Alexander Grignon. It states that both of the Grignons know Caroline and that she is the "reputed, known and acknowledged daughter of Ke-sho-ko, and Captain Harney of the Army". (View the letter)
The second is from someone named Stewart and again he refers to Caroline as "daughter of Major Harney of the Army" and mentions Ke-sho-ko as her mother. (View the letter)
The third is from John Horner to John Flemming, the commissioner of the Winnebago Treaty of 1837. In it he asks that Caroline, her mother Charlotte, and Peter Carbono (Charlotte's new husband) receive money from the Treaty. In the letter he refers to Caroline's father as "Wlm S. Harney a white man" and that Caroline is about 10 years old. (View the letter)
Now that DNA is available, I've been able to trace my genetic relationship to the Harney's family, proving beyond a doubt our relationship.
I am still looking for more information about the General's relationship to Caroline and her early life.