Outpost in the Wilderness: Fort Wayne, 1706-1828
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Keywords: Fort Wayne (Ind.) -- History

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Title: Outpost in the Wilderness: Fort Wayne, 1706-1828

Author: Charles R. Poinsatte

Release date: October 17, 2017 [eBook #55762]
Most recently updated: October 23, 2024

Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUTPOST IN THE WILDERNESS: FORT WAYNE, 1706-1828 ***

Outpost in the Wilderness:
Fort Wayne,
1706-1828
by
Charles Poinsatte

Allen County, Fort Wayne
Historical Society
1976

i

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

The French and British Period Page 1

CHAPTER II

The Establishment of Fort Wayne—Government Outpost of Defense, Diplomacy, and Trade Page 27

CHAPTER III

The Impending Conflict Page 50

CHAPTER IV

The Siege of Fort Wayne Page 63

CHAPTER V

Evacuation of the Fort and the Increased Indian Trade Page 79

CHAPTER VI

Platting of Fort Wayne and the First Local Government Page 94

CHAPTER VII

The Treaty of 1826 and the Removal of the Indian Agency Page 99

APPENDIX

Bibliography Page 106

Index Page 111

iii

FOREWORD

There was a time when the writer of local history and the academic professional were two different people; indeed, one is almost tempted to say, they were two different species. Fortunately for both, this is no longer true. Many academic historians now recognize local units as the fundamental units of historical study, presenting hard data in manageable quantities for precise conclusions. Charles R. Poinsatte was among the first to recognize this and merge the academic and local traditions of historical writing, the one supplying rigor and judgments based on cosmopolitan learning, and the other supplying the vividness and appeal of the familiar and relevant.

On the academic side, Charles R. Poinsatte got his undergraduate and graduate education at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend. Thomas T. McAvoy schooled him to precision in judgment and exhaustiveness in research. Poinsatte also had the good fortune to study under Aaron I. Abell, a student of Arthur Schlesinger, Senior, whose 1933 book, The Rise of the City, 1878-1898, initiated a new kind of American history. Professor Abell first got Poinsatte interested in what is now called urban history. In fact, however, Poinsatte’s career embodies still another great tradition in American historiography, that of frontier history as inspired by Frederick Jackson Turner. Frontier Outpost describes the site of an urban area to be, but it is not truly urban history, as Dr. Poinsatte’s book, Fort Wayne during the Canal Era, 1828-1855 (Indiana Historical Bureau, 1969), was. Thus Dr. Poinsatte writes in this book of Fort Wayne as an aspect principally of the history of the Old Northwest.

Higher education at Notre Dame, acquaintance with a student of the elder Schlesinger, and thoughts spurred by the Turner thesis are only part of the story, of course. The area Dr. Poinsatte decided to study was Fort Wayne and not Detroit or Chicago or Cincinnati. Here what Nathaniel Hawthorne called “a sort of home-feeling with the past” worked its magic. Born in Fort Wayne in 1925, Charles Poinsatte was stirred by the names he heard as a boy, Little Turtle, Anthony Wayne, and George Rogers Clarke. Some family property was part of the old Richardville estate, and in his youth he explored an old Indian burial ground there. He has never gotten over his fascination with those men, and now he examines them with his academic tools.

Dr. Poinsatte has always been able to reconcile seemingly conflicting movements in American historical writing. Urban history and frontier history, he argues, are in many ways complementary, for frontier iv historians can explain to urban historians why the entities they study are located where they are and how they got their start. Likewise, local history and history as most often written by academic professionals benefit from cross-fertilization. Local history always needs to be written from a broad perspective which keeps the local historian from claiming unique status for developments which took place in many other localities at the same time. Likewise, in-depth studies of certain localities provide tests for the larger generalizations of academic historians, generalizations that are too often based on unrepresentative samplings of evidence from national elites and large cultural and political centers like New York and Washington.

Still, one suspects it is the excitement of particular locality’s history which accounts for Dr. Poinsatte’s work. It has already taken him to England and France in search of the records and documents which explain the early history of Fort Wayne. He intends to return to Europe next year to explore still another aspect of history suggested by Fort Wayne’s story, the lives of French military officers who fought in the American Revolution. After that, he might consider a history of Fort Wayne in the railroad era, from 1855 (where Dr. Poinsatte’s work on the canal era ended) to the Progressive Era. Whatever the course of Professor Poinsatte’s future studies, Fort Wayne’s citizens will look forward to reading the results. He has already enriched our understanding of ourselves beyond measure.

September 4, 1975

Fort Wayne, Indiana

Mark E. Neely, Jr.

v

Preface

Early Fort Wayne played an important and definite role in the history of the old Northwest. Its unique position as a portage site between the Wabash and Maumee rivers made the Wabash route one of the natural waterways from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi river and brought Indians and fur traders to this spot at an early date. It is most likely the oldest continuous site settled by white men in Indiana. During the French, British, and American occupation of the region, forts were built here as outposts of defense in the Indian country. Its strategic importance was recognized in all the plans for military campaigns in the area between the Great Lakes and the Ohio river for almost a century. Here was located at a later date an important government Indian agency, and to the town on certain days of the year flocked hundreds of Indian traders. Fort Wayne was also situated in the heart of the rich Maumee-Wabash fur producing region.

While giving a comprehensive background of the French and British occupation of the site of Fort Wayne, I have stressed its importance in the early days of American settlement. The gradual decline of the fur trade, followed by the removal of the Indian agency in 1828 and the opening of the area to white settlement by the Indian treaties of that decade, all combined to usher in a new era in the history of Fort Wayne. By the 1830’s the people of Fort Wayne were feverishly making plans for the Wabash and Erie canal. This opened a new period in Fort Wayne’s history which has been studied in my previous work.[1] Since then the development of the city has been consistent and substantial.

From the modern growing city it is a far cry back to the time of the Miami Indians and the old fort in the wilderness with its little garrison of men puzzled at times, no doubt, to understand their choice of a life of loneliness in an environment which gave little opportunity for the refinements of life. The people of today are none too thoughtful of their obligation to the pioneer soldier, trader and settler. It is my hope that in addition to contributing to the annals of the Old Northwest, this work may create a deeper appreciation of these early builders. At the same time it has been my desire to treat all these people objectively rather than in the fictitious way of the sentimentalist.

Previous histories dealing with the early history of Fort Wayne, while furnishing valuable material, have either been incomplete or vi inaccurate, chiefly because many primary sources were not available to the writers or were not known to exist. I have made extensive use of primary material found in the Burton Collection at Detroit, the Chicago Historical Library, and the Fort Wayne Public Library as well as in the British Museum and the Public Records Office in London and the Archives des Colonies in Paris. Part of the European research was made possible by a summer grant from St. Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana.

Acknowledgments are due to many individuals who have so kindly given assistance, especially to the staffs of the various archives and libraries which I have used in Chicago, Detroit, Paris, and London. Mr. Albert Diserens, chief of the Indiana collection of the Fort Wayne Public Library, aided me in every way. A special debt is due to the officers and members of the Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society and in particular Mr. Fred Reynolds who assisted immeasurably in arranging for the publication of this work. To the late Reverend Thomas T. McAvoy of the University of Notre Dame I owe deep gratitude for first encouraging me to study the history of my hometown.

While almost all early American cities which originated as military outposts later changed their names—Cincinnati (Fort Washington). Chicago (Fort Dearborn)—or simply dropped “fort” from their titles—Defiance, Ohio—for some reason the citizens of Fort Wayne never followed this common practice. The old “Fort Wayne” fell into ruins, but the name survives. Undoubtedly few individuals have even wondered why, but I believe, or would like to believe, that somehow the later citizens of Fort Wayne wanted to retain an identity with the past—a past that is worth knowing and remembering. It is to these citizens—past and present and to my own family that I dedicate this book.

[1]Fort Wayne during the Canal Era.

1

Chapter I
The French and British Period

To know the history of any town is to know the significance of its geographical position. This is particularly true of the early history of Fort Wayne (Known to the Indians as Kiskakon or Kekionga[1] and to the French and English as Fort Miami). Therefore, it is necessary to explain the significance of the site of Fort Wayne in an era of exploration and trade when wilderness was king and waterways were the arteries of communication. The story of Fort Wayne begins as the history of the Maumee-Wabash portage. Located at the confluence of rivers, St. Joseph and St. Mary’s, which together form the Maumee or Miami of Lake Erie, Fort Wayne is situated at the northeast starting point of the seven mile portage to the Little River, (see map on page 2) Twenty-two miles southwest of Fort Wayne, the Little River joins the Wabash, which, in turn, empties into the Ohio and then into the Mississippi. The Maumee-Wabash portage was from the early seventeenth century until the mid-nineteenth century a vital overland link that tied together the great waterway systems of the St. Lawrence and Mississippi. In other respects the site of Fort Wayne was at the “crossroads”. From this point the traveler could journey northeast up the St. Joseph river into the present state of Michigan, or turn southeast up the St. Mary’s river into the central portion of the present state of Ohio. This, then, is the significance of the words of Little Turtle, the great Miami chief, who once called the site of Fort Wayne, “that glorious gate ... through which all the good words of our chiefs had to pass from the north to the south, and from the east to the west.”[2]

2

3

Of the five great portage routes used by the French,[3] the Maumee-Wabash was the last to be exploited, for, unlike the more northern routes, it was along the line of “most resistance”. The Iroquois warfare in this region and as far west as the Illinois country made it virtually impossible for the French to use the routes extending through southern Lake Erie. With the establishment of the French posts along the lower Mississippi, however, the Maumee-Wabash portage gained importance, as it proved to be the shortest route connecting the settlements of New France (Canada) and Louisiana. The first white man to use this portage may have been some unknown French “coureur de bois”, pursuing his lawless life of adventure and fur-trading. There is some claim that LaSalle used the Maumee-Wabash portage in his explorations of 1670 or later, but it is based, for the most part, on conjecture and is still open to various interpretations.[4] In any event, LaSalle’s description of the territory between Lake Erie and Lake Michigan indicates a familiarity with the region, and it was he who first directed the attention of the French to this portage by pointing out the way to shorten the route to the lower Ohio river.[5] Whatever LaSalle’s plans were for opening up this easy channel of communications[6] they had to be abandoned because of the failure of the French to appease the Iroquois. This powerful confederacy had all but annihilated the Erie Indians earlier in the century and were now pressing their attacks upon the western tribes south of Lake Michigan. Out of fear of the Iroquois the area of Indiana was largely abandoned by the Miamis and other related tribes. Therefore by the 1670’s, when LaSalle set out to achieve his great objective, control of the Mississippi for the French, he found it necessary “to go to the Illinois [river] through the lakes Huron and Illinois [Lake Michigan] as the other routes which I have discovered by the head of Lake Erie and by the southern shore of the same, have become too hazardous by frequent encounters with the Iroquois who are always on that shore.”[7] That this route had become “too dangerous” is indicated by the letter of Jean de Lamberville to Count de Frontenac on Sept. 20, 1682, in which he expressed his fears that “an Iroquois army, twelve hundred strong ... would completely annihilate the Miamis and their neighbors the Siskakon [Kiskakon] and Ottawa tribes on the headwaters of the Maumee.”[8]

The events which took place near the turn of the eighteenth century completely altered the situation for the French in this region. Differences between the Fox Indians, located west of Lake Michigan, and the French alienated the former entirely. The result was to compel the French to seek a more direct line of communication with the Mississippi settlements than by the Wisconsin river-Lake Michigan route, and to encourage them to promote the trade in the less remote posts. This new policy was inaugurated by Cadillac’s plan to establish a post at Detroit, which met with the Crown’s approval and was carried out in 1701. At the same time, the French were able to conclude a temporary peace with the Iroquois and to induce the pro-French tribes of Miamis to begin migrating eastward and to re-establish themselves at the headwaters of the Wabash and Maumee rivers. This migration of the Miamis was a gradual process and can be traced from northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin around the head of Lake Michigan to their old settlements on the Wabash, Maumee, and Miami rivers. The Miamis were persuaded to move for a number of reasons—the hostility of the Fox Indians, the advantages in trade and protection furnished by their proximity to Detroit, and finally the abundance of fur, especially beaver, to be found in the area south and southwest of Lake Erie. By 1712, the Miamis had taken 4 possession of the entire Wabash valley,[9] and the country as far eastward as the Big Miami river. Their principal village, Kiskakon, was situated where the present city of Fort Wayne now stands. Of the northern tribes the Miami confederacy was second only to that of the Iroquois. Father Marquette paid them high tribute, while LaSalle described them as “the most civilized of all nations of Indians—neat of dress, splendid of bearing, haughty of manner, holding all other tribes as inferiors.”[10]

Other tribes came to the Ohio valley about the same time. The Wyandots established themselves along the southern shore of Lake Erie about 1701. The Shawnee, a southern tribe, settled principally in the lower Scioto valley around 1730, while the Delaware were to be found in the Muskingum valley by 1750. A small group of Ottawas were located on the Auglaize river, a tributary of the Maumee, about fifty miles northeast of Kiskakon. The importance of this small tribe rests in their famous chief, Pontiac, and his “conspiracy” against the English in 1763. Altogether these tribes numbered about 15,000 people. For the most part, they were friends of the French, although at times they expressed discontent.

Grasping the new importance of the Maumee-Wabash trade route after 1712, the officials of New France were quick to suggest to the crown the construction of a chain of posts from the head of the Maumee to the mouth of the Wabash in order to protect this increasingly vital line of communication between Canada and Louisiana, and, equally, important, to counteract the English ever pressing closer to the Indians in the upper Ohio valley.[11] The idea was not new, as LaSalle had suggested such a policy to the home government previously, but the time was now ripe. Economic reasons for establishing these posts were not lacking. Fear of the English meant fear of their participation in the fur trade, which was exceedingly valuable in this area. Wild life had increased abundantly during the years of Iroquois warfare when the region was practically uninhabited. A French memorialist, writing at this time, pointed out that the New York traders, through the medium of the Iroquois agents, secured between 80,000 and 100,000 beaver skins annually from the area south and southwest of Lake Erie.[12] This almost equalled the amount taken annually from the whole of the land north of the Great Lakes. Cadillac, the founder of Detroit, reported in 1707 that the Maumee valley was “the finest land under heaven—fishing and hunting are most abundant there.”[13]

The revitalized village of Kiskakon became the location of one of the earliest posts established in the French chain along the Maumee-Wabash route, and was known as Post or Fort Miami. The exact year of the founding of Port Miami by the French is uncertain. Although some writers believe the post was established as early as 1680 or 1686,[14] there is no evidence to support such suppositions. Some confusion seems to arise from a misinterpretation of those French colonial documents 5 which refer to the Fort Miami built by LaSalle at the mouth of the St. Joseph river of Lake Michigan, and not, as these writers believed, to the Fort Miami at the headwaters of the Maumee. A careful reading of these documents is necessary in each instance to determine which Fort Miami is meant. About the same time that the eastward migration of the Miamis began 1697 Jean Baptiste Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes, was appointed attache to the Miamis.[15] At first he was obviously at the Miami fort on the southeastern shore of Lake Michigan, although, as the Miami village, Kiskakon, grew in importance, Vincennes found it increasingly necessary to visit the Miami village from 1702 to 1719. It is possible that in 1706 he built a small post primarily for trading purposes at Kiskakon.[16] By 1715 a new element, the English fur trader had entered the picture and Vincennes, as well as the French colonial government, was convinced that it was no longer feasible to encourage the Indians to migrate eastward. From Kiskakon, Vincennes reported to the royal officials that the English of Carolina were having recourse to every sort of expedient to persuade the Miamis to join them against the French.[17] The increased English efforts to gain footholds in the Wabash and Maumee valleys, determined Vincennes upon a course of action approved by the Marques de Vaudreuil, governor of Canada. Vincennes’ plan called for the removal of the Miamis at the headwaters of the Maumee to a new center on the St. Joseph river of Lake Michigan, near the present city of South Bend.[18] It is possible that the plan might have succeeded as Vincennes was “much loved” by the Miamis; however, with his death at Kiskakon in 1719, the Miamis “resolved not to move to the River St. Joseph, [but] to remain where they are”.[19] The Miamis preserved for a long time the memory of Vincennes. Thirty years after his death, Celeron de Bienville, while urging a group of Miamis to return to Kiskakon, used the name of Vincennes to work upon their minds, speaking of him as the one “whom you loved so much and who always governed you, so that your affairs were prosperous.”[20]

On hearing of the Miamis’ decision, Governor de Vaudreuil resolved, with the approval of the Council of Marine, to establish a strong post at the headwaters of the Maumee. For this purpose he sent Captain Dubuisson, the former commander at Detroit, who had already achieved success on one occasion with the Miamis, to build the fortifications.[21] Finished in May, 1722, the fort was located on the right bank of the St. Mary’s at a latitude later given by Father Joseph Pierre de Bonnecamps (professor of hydrography at the Jesuit college of Quebec who visited Fort Miami in 1749) as 41 degrees, 29 minutes. Other information Father de Bonnecamps gives indicates that the fort was about one-half mile down the river from the Maumee-Wabash portage road.[22] Writing the Council of Marine on October 24, 1722, de Vaudreuil stated:

The log fort Fort Miami which he Dubuisson had build is the finest in 6 the upper country. It is a strong fort and safe from insult from the savages. This post which is of considerable worth ought to have a missionary. One could be sent there in 1724 if next year the council will send the four Jesuits which I ask.[23]

It is unlikely that the priest requested was ever stationed at Fort Miami, as there is no indication from the Jesuit Relations or other sources of one being here, although it is possible that some missionaries visited this spot on occasion.

Fort Miami proved of value to the French for various reasons. After its construction, it soon became a military post of consequence, with a garrison of twenty to thirty men.[24] It was the policy of the French to locate their garrisons and trading posts wherever there existed a sufficiently large village of friendly Indians or wherever the strategic importance of a place itself made it necessary to erect a fort. Fort Miami combined both of these advantages. Once the Miamis determined to remain at Kiskakon, they would benefit the French not only by their fur trade but would be a means of protection against hostile tribes and the English. The strategic position for a fort at the Maumee-Wabash portage was recognized even by the English as early as 1717.[25] Pouchet, a French historian, writing shortly after the French and Indian War was of the opinion that the French would have been wiser to have strengthened their fortifications in the Miami region than establish their line of defense in the upper Ohio.[26]

Perhaps Fort Miami’s greatest importance was as a center of French activity among the Indians. Being at the principal village of the Miami confederacy, this outpost was used as a counter-balance to the English intrigue from New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the Carolinas. It is to be noted that Dubuisson was sent to Kiskakon “to counteract the effect of all those Belts it [the Miami nation] was but too frequently receiving and which, as they caused eight or ten Miami canoes to go this year to trade at Orange, might finally induce all that nation to follow their example.”[27]

In 1734, the Sieur de Noyelles was entrusted with the task of gathering the scattered Miamis in their village, where they would be protected from English intrigue. In this affair he was seconded by the Sieur Darnaud who was in command at Fort Miami.[28] The French had good reason to fear the English trader, who had strong economic advantages. The goods furnished by the English in exchange for the furs of the Indians were produced more cheaply than the French items. Also British virtual control of the sea trade meant these goods were transported for less. Finally rum one of the principal factors in the English trade was produced in the colonies, while the French traders had to import brandy from the mother country. As early as 1716, de Vandreuil reported to the Council of Marine that the Iroquois were sending belts to 7 the Miamis and Ouiatenons, an allied tribe on the Wabash, to induce them to seek the necessities of life at the English post on the “Oyo river”. Here the Indians were offered merchandise “a half cheaper than among the French.”[29] The following year the king replied through the Council that he was well pleased to learn that M. de Vincennes, apparently at Kiskakon, had prevented the Miamis and Ouiatenons from accepting the belts of the English. His majesty hoped that the sending of scarlet cloth would turn the savages away from the English trade.[30]

Other accounts show the wide-spread influence the French maintained from Fort Miami. There were considerable outlays for the savages in food, merchandise, and the repairing of arms. From here important chiefs were sent to conferences in Detroit and Montreal, with interpreters and guides and all expenses paid. One Miami chief, Cold Foot, was paid handsomely for his loyalty in putting an end to a hostile movement.[31] The expenses for messengers were especially numerous during the year’s 1748-1749, when English influence was particularly active. Between December 25, 1747, and July 25, 1748, 1,894 livres were spent at Fort Miami for presents for the Indians.[32] The high expenditures at Fort Miami of those years, of which we have records, gives some indication of the value the French ascribed to the post at the Maumee headwaters. Some years the annual expenses for the Indians at Fort Miami almost equalled those of Detroit.[33]

Fort Miami had its economic “raison d’etre” as the center of the thriving fur trade of the surrounding region. The furs were brought westward from the northwestern and central parts of the present state of Ohio, as well as northward from the Wabash valley, and eastward from the Illinois country. In his “Memoir of 1757”, Bougainville points out that the Miami post, like many of the French posts, was one “removed from free commerce”.[34] That is, Fort Miami was leased for a period of three years to the commandant or “farmer” who secured exclusive rights to the fur trade. The price of the lease was twelve hundred livres per year. Moreover the farmer was charged with the cost of the presents to the savages as well as the wages of the interpreters. There were extraordinary expenses, however, that the government paid. For instance, Sieur Charly, the farmer at Post Miami in 1747, collected 2,007 livres for the use of twenty-four horses by a party of Indians being led to Detroit for conferences.[34a] These expense accounts had to be approved by the governor and the “intendant”, the financial representative of the crown, who oftentimes scaled the figures down as they saw fit. An example of a most drastic reduction is found in the case of a bill of Sieur Charly for December, 1744. In this instance, Hocquart, the royal intendant moderated the bill from 1,491 livres to 100 livres.[35]

In an ordinary year there issued from Fort Miami 250 to 300 packages of furs. These furs were shipped by way of Detroit to Montreal, as Fort Miami by its geographical position belonged politically and 8 economically within the colony of New France rather than Louisiana. Nevertheless, by its proximity to the Wabash there was frequent communication and trade with the Louisiana settlements, particularly Vincennes and those of the Illinois country. For example, in 1749, 200 livres were paid at Fort Miami to Jean Baptiste Riddey de Bosseron, “voyageur” who had just returned from the Illinois country.[36] Grain and livestock were sent to Fort Miami from the French settlements along the lower Wabash and Ohio rivers. For this reason the price of corn, flour, and beef was generally lower at Fort Miami than at Detroit and the northern posts such as Michilimackinac.[37]

The Maumee-Wabash portage became the scene of increased activity as the French and English rivalry in the upper Ohio country grew more tense during the decade preceding 1756. From the year 1719 when ten canoes of Miami Indians passed down the Maumee on their way to Albany, New York, with furs and returned with firearms, ammunition, and trinkets, the English endeavored to bring the Miamis under their influence. During the 1740’s, there was a notable expansion of English trade with the Indians of this region. Twice—in 1739 and again in 1744—the French commander of Detroit, M. de Longueuil, led strong expeditions along the Maumee-Wabash against British traders on the White river near the center of the present state of Indiana. While he succeeded in his immediate objective, this display of military power no longer held the Indians in check. In 1747, the Wyandot chief, Sanosket, also known as Nicolas, under the influence of the English led an uprising against the French. The Miamis at Kiskakon believing that Detroit had been captured, set fire to Fort Miami and captured the eight men within the stockade at the time.[38] The temporary commander, Ensign Douville, was at Detroit when the Indians committed the pillage. He had been sent to the Miamis in order to invite them to a conference at Montreal, and two of their chiefs, Cold Foot and Porc Epic had accompanied him as far as Detroit when they received the news that the post had been taken.[39] Douville journeyed on to Montreal alone, while Ensign Dubuisson hastened to Kiskakon with the two chiefs and a force of some sixty men, “with a view to deprive the enemy [the British] of the liberty of seizing a post of considerable importance.”[40] Dubuisson found the fort and buildings only partially destroyed, but he was able to do little more than hold his position, without attempting to repair the place.

In the spring of 1748, Dubuisson returned to Detroit leaving Captain Charles DeRaymond in charge of the post, which Father de Bonnecamps, arriving the next year, described as being “in a very bad condition”.[41] DeRaymond was probably the most colorful figure to command Fort Miami during the French period. He had been one of the chief proponents of the policy of destroying the English influence in the Ohio, as he saw the danger of tolerating the English traders in the Miami region. In a memoir he presented in 1745 he gives one of the 9 best analyses of the whole Ohio question from the French point of view.[42] Writing from Fort Miami in 1747 to the crown, he pointed out that had the growth of English influence been checked immediately, the uprising under Nicolas could never have occurred.[43] Now in command of a partially ruined fort, DeRaymond had good reason to fear further trouble. Although the Miamis had given assurances of loyalty after the arrival of Dubuisson, most of them under the leadership of a Miami chief, “La Demoiselle” (so termed because of his fondness for dress and ornaments) had moved to Pickawillany, an English trading post on Loramie’s Creek at the start of the portage to the St. Mary’s river, northwest of the present town of Piqua, Ohio.

The French, determined to make a strong impression on the savages of the Ohio country, and to find out the true conditions existing there, sent the veteran officer, Pierre Joseph Celoron Celoron, Sieur de Bienville, with a force of 230 men down to the Great Miami river. Journeying up the later river to its headwaters, Celoron stopped at the village of “La Demoiselle” and urged the Miamis to return to Kiskakon. Celoron was disappointed bitterly when the wily “La Demoiselle” would merely promise to return to Kiskakon sometime in the future. Crossing the portage to the St. Mary’s, Celoron’s expedition continued up that river to Fort Miami. Here they stopped only long enough to buy provisions and canoes to continue to Detroit.[44] Celoron and Father de Bonnecamps, the chaplain and hydrographer of the expedition, found the energetic DeRaymond dissatisfied with his “decaying” fort. Moreover, he “did not approve the situation of the fort and maintained that it should be placed on the bank of the St. Joseph, a scant league from the present site.”[45] DeRaymond wished to show them the spot that he had selected for the new fort and obtain their opinion of it, but Celoron was in haste to depart. DeRaymond received some consolation from the fact that Father de Bonnecamps, an expert, could trace a plan for the proposed fort.[46]

Early in the year 1750, DeRaymond completed the new fort on the left bank of the St. Joseph. It stood on rather high ground (at the present St. Joe Boulevard and Delaware Avenue), less than a mile from the junction of the St. Joseph and St. Mary’s.[47] Chief Cold Foot, a staunch friend of the French, occupied the discarded buildings of the old fort, which became the center of an Indian settlement known as Cold Foot Village. Half a mile to the south of the new fort, where the Maumee turns in its course toward the east, lay the village of Kiskakon. Most of its inhabitants had joined the English at Pickawillany. Writing to Governor LaJonquiere in September, 1749, DeRaymond reported that the attitude of all the nations was very bad and apparently was becoming worse.[48] Again in 1751, he reported:

My people [the French traders] are leaving me for Detroit. Nobody 10 wants to stay here and have his throat cut. All of the tribes who go to the English at Pickawillany come back loaded with gifts. I am too weak to meet the danger. Instead of twenty men, I need five hundred.... The tribes here are leaguing together to kill all the French.... This I am told by Cold Foot, a great Miami chief, whom I think an honest man.... If the English stay in this country, we are lost. We must attack and drive them out.[49]

To add to the distress of the French, a smallpox epidemic in the winter of 1751, carried away many of the inhabitants of Cold Foot’s Village, including their good friend, Cold Foot, and his son.[50]

That not all of the French traders at Fort Miami were scurrying to Detroit is evident from the fact that in the year 1750 one of the most noted traders of the area, Joseph Drouet de Richerville, came to Kiskakon.[51] Richerville was a scion of French nobility who either was seeking a life of adventure or was engaged in the fur trade for the mere sake of a livelihood, as the family wealth had dwindled. Shortly after his arrival, Richerville married Tahcumwah, the daughter of the reigning Miami chief, Aquenochqua, and sister of the future chief, Little Turtle. Tahcumwah was later known as Marie Louisa,[52] apparently the name she received in baptism. All who came in contact with her at a later date speak of her as a clever and intelligent woman, and it was largely through her efforts that her son, Jean Baptiste de Richerville, arose to such high prominence as the last civil chief of the Miamis.[53]

The arrival of Joseph Drouet de Richerville at Fort Miami was an isolated case, however, and what DeRaymond had said of the traders leaving for Detroit remained true. In all likelihood, DeRaymond, despite his zeal, was glad to be relieved in 1751 by a new commandant, Neyon De Villiers. De Villiers had hardly assumed command when an English trader, John Pathin, was captured within the fort itself. As France and England were then at peace, Governor George Clinton of New York demanded an explanation of the incident. The French governor, the Marquis de la Jonquiere, replied sharply:

The English, far from confining themselves within the limits of the King of Great Britain’s possessions, not satisfied with multiplying themselves more and more on Rock River ... have more than that proceeded within sight of Detroit, even unto the fort of the Miamis.... John Pathin, an inhabitant of Willensten, has been arrested in the French fort of the Miamis by M. de Villiers, commandant of that post ... he entered the fort of the Miamis to persuade the Indians who remained there, to unite with those who have fled to the beautiful river [the Ohio.] He has been taken in the French fort. Nothing more is necessary.[54]

A short time later, two men of de Villiers’ garrison were scalped by “La Demoiselle’s savages.” Indeed the English seem to have laid claim 11 to the very fort itself, for on Mitchell’s “Map of North America”, drawn in 1755, Fort Miami is referred to as “the Fort usurped by the French”.[55]

In June, 1752, a French and Indian force, coming by way of the Maumee and St. Mary’s rivers, fell on Pickawillany, completely destroying the English post, so annoying to the French at Fort Miami. Four years later, during the French and Indian War, Lieutenant Bellestre, the commandant of Fort Miami, led a party of 25 French and 205 Indians from his post to the head of the James River, where they captured a blockhouse and some ten Virginia “Rangers”. After his release, one of the captives, Major Smith, proposed to lead a force of 1,000 woodsmen and a sufficient number of Indians across the Ohio and over the Shawnee trail from old Pickawillany to Fort Miami and then on to Detroit.[56] Although nothing came of Major Smith’s plans, the site of the future Fort Wayne was to figure prominently in all the military campaigns north of the Ohio river for the next half century, that is throughout the dramatic events marked by Pontiac’s conspiracy, the American Revolution, the Indian wars, and the War of 1812.

When de Vaudreuil, governor of Canada, capitulated at Montreal in 1760, he issued orders for the surrender of the posts—Michilimackinac, Detroit, Green Bay, St. Joseph, Ouiatenon, and Miami—as dependencies of Canada.[57] On November 29, 1760, Detroit was surrendered to Major Robert Rogers in command of the “Rangers”. Eight days later, Lieutenant John Butler with a detachment of twenty men set out from Detroit to receive the formal transfer of Fort Miami from the French commander, thus bringing to an end French rule at the headwaters of the Maumee.[58]

Although of strategic importance, Fort Miami never became more than a military outpost and trading center during the French period of occupation. Father de Bonnecamps wrote in 1749 of the French village in and around the fort, “The French there number twenty-two; all of them ... had the fever ... There were eight houses, or to speak more correctly, eight miserable huts which only the desire of making money render endurable.”[59] “The desire of making money” is of course a reference to the fur trade, the only occupation, outside of the military, of those French living there. The large Indian villages surrounding the fort naturally brought the trader and soldier, but, at the same time, this uncertain element of Indian friendship probably excluded any sizable French settlement. Whatever the reasons we must conclude that, unlike Vincennes, Fort Miami did not attract any type of French settler, outside of those connected with the fur trade.

Lieutenant Butler of the “Rangers” had been chosen by Col. Henry Bouquot to receive the surrender of Fort Miami since he could speak French and seemed “very intelligent”. He had orders to hold the 12 post, as it was of great importance to Detroit and being at the “carrying place of nine miles into the waters of the Ouabache Wabash ... it would prevent a surprise in the Spring.”[60] Lieutenant Butler found the savages destitute and sent a French trader to Fort Pitt for the necessary supplies.[61] In the spring, Butler was relieved by Ensign Robert Holmes, who was destined to become one of the first victims of the Indian uprising of 1763, known as “Pontiac’s conspiracy”. Ironically, Holmes was also one of the first to learn of the impending danger and passed the information on to Major Gladwyn, the English commander at Detroit, adding, however, “this affair is very timely stopt”.[62] A month later he allowed himself to be lured from the fort by a false request on the part of his Indian mistress to aid a sick Miami woman. Holmes was instantly killed by the savages concealed nearby, and the small garrison surrendered upon the demand of Jacques Godefroy and Money Chene, two Frenchmen who were implicated with the Miamis in the scheme. Godefroy, after leading another successful attack on Ouiatenon, journeyed to Sandusky where he fell into the hands of Colonel Brandstreet who had arrived from Niagara with a large force to quell the uprising. Godefroy had been a prominent citizen of Detroit and had taken the oath of allegiance to the British crown; consequently, he expected death at the hands of the British. Instead he was given his freedom on condition that he would guide and protect an English officer, Captain Thomas Morris, who was being sent to the Illinois Indians by way of the Maumee. Captain Morris, was a man of culture and literary tendencies. Being such, he kept an excellent diary of experiences, which he was later persuaded to publish.[63]

Almost any man would have failed in an attempt to go through hundreds of miles of hostile Indian country, and Captain Morris was no exception. Having journeyed up the Maumee as far as Kiskakon, Morris met such a dangerous reception at this place that he was forced to turn back. In fact he was fortunate to escape with his life, as the Indians intended to burn him at the stake, and he was saved by the intercession of Godefroy and the young chief Pecanne. Morris was also befriended within the fort by two French traders, Capucin and L’Esperance and a Jewish trader, Levi. L’Esperance concealed the English officer within his house until it was safe for him to leave. Captain Morris, despite the ill-treatment by the Indians, clearly saw the reason for their dissatisfaction. He observed that the French policy, or custom, of intermarriage with the Indians had been more beneficial than that of English, as the Indians felt that they and the French were one people. Moreover, he noted that the French prohibited, “the sale of spiritous liquors to Indians under pain of not receiving absolution; none but a bishop [could] absolve a person guilty of it.” He went on to point out, “This prevented many mischiefs too frequent among the unfortunate tribes of savages 13 who are fallen to our lot.”[64]

The failure of Captain Morris to get past Kiskakon, demonstrated beyond doubt that as long as the Indians at this spot were unfriendly, they could prevent any intercourse with those tribes to the south and southwest. Consequently, Colonel George Croghan, a famous English trader in the Ohio valley, was sent to the Maumee-Wabash area to pacify the tribes. Croghan was received with a display of enthusiasm by the Indians at Kiskakon, who hoisted an English flag he had given them at Fort Pitt. Croghan reported as follows:

The Twightwee village [the English called the Miamis “twightwees”] is situated on both sides of a river called St. Joseph. This river where it falls into the Miami [Maumee] river about a quarter of a mile from this place is one hundred yards wide, on the east side of which stands a stockade fort, somewhat ruinous. The Indian village consists of about forty or fifty cabins, besides nine or ten French houses, a runaway colony from Detroit during the late Indian war; they were concerned in it, and being afraid of punishment came to this post, where ever since they have spirited up the Indians against the English. All the French residing here are a lazy indolent people, fond of breeding mischief ... and should by no means be suffered to remain here.... The country is pleasant, the soil rich and well watered.[65]

Croghan’s judgment of the French at Kiskakon seems rather harsh, although his opinion of the French at Vincennes is no better. Apparently in the eyes of the austere English and colonists, the more carefree life of the French “habitants” of the western posts seemed to be an indication of indolence on the latter’s part.[66] Furthermore, it is difficult to explain why the same French people who had saved the life of Captain Morris in the previous year would now be “spiriting up” the Indians against the English, especially since Pontiac’s plans had collapsed. On the other hand, it was not to be expected that these French people would immediately cast aside all hostility toward their recent enemies. By 1765, it is likely that these French traders, weary of the warfare that had ruined their business, were ready to assume a neutral attitude, while the Indians themselves grudgingly came to terms with the English.

From the day Fort Miami fell to Pontiac’s Miami allies in 1763 until General Anthony Wayne built the American fort on the side of the modern city of Fort Wayne in 1794, there was no permanent[67] garrison stationed at the headwaters of the Maumee. Over this period of thirty-one years—during which time the American nation came into being—the region of which we speak gradually became the rendezvous of a defiant mixture of Indian warriors and lawless renegades of the frontier, such as the Girties. It was also the home of a heterogeneous population of English and French traders and their families, French “engages”, and Miami, Delaware, and Shawnee tribes. In 1790, General Harmar’s 14 men counted seven distinct villages in the immediate area. All together, they formed a considerable settlement or settlements, known near the end of the Revolution as the Miami Towns, the Miami Villages, or simply, Miamitown. In a sense such a place was the forerunner of the lawless frontier towns of the next century.

In 1772, Sir William Johnson, in charge of Indian affairs in America, pointed out to the British government the advisability of reoccupying and strengthening the Miami post, as it was “a place of some importance”.[68] Since the Indians were pacified, the home government for the sake of economy, did not see fit to carry out his suggestion at the time. A memorandum of the same year speaks of the “fort being inhabited by Eight or Ten French families”.[69] A census, apparently taken in 1769 by the English, lists the names of nine French families living at Fort Miami.[70] These French residents were nearly all traders, though some of them had been located here for many years. By 1772, most of them were willing to accept the friendship of their former foes, the English—primarily for mercenary reasons. British policy kept the colonists from occupying the land north of the Ohio, which meant the preservation of the Indian fur trade. Moreover practically all their furs were sold through the London market. Thus, with the outbreak of the American Revolution, the French traders at Fort Miami felt they had more to lose by being friendly with the American cause than their neighbors, the French inhabitants of Vincennes and the Illinois settlements who were primarily interested in farming.[71]

With the outbreak of the Revolution, British troops could not be spared for the post at Miamitown, but it was placed under strict supervision by Lieutenant-Governor Henry Hamilton at Detroit. Hamilton appointed Jacques Lasselle, an officer in the Canadian militia, to the super-intendency of this post as an agent of Indian affairs. Lasselle arrived with his family in 1776 from Montreal.[72] His duties were to see that the Indians maintained their active friendship for the British cause and to check the passports of all persons going from Detroit to the Wabash and lower Ohio.[73] None but those holding a license issued by the British authorities were permitted to engage in trade.

The year that brought Lasselle to Miamitown gave also to the region Peter LaFontaine and Charles (John?) Beaubien from Detroit.[74] Both settled in the Spy Run area of modern Fort Wayne. In his marriage with a Miami woman and the identification of his interests with those of the Indians, LaFontaine declared his loyalty to the red men. LaFontaine’s grandson, Francis LaFontaine, was the last chief of the Miamis to hold any real authority over the tribe. To Charles Beaubien there attaches greater interest. He was very active in the English cause and was a favorite of both Hamilton and Major Arent S. DePeyster, who succeeded Hamilton as Lieutenant-Governor of Detroit. From Miamitown, 15 Beaubien, with a young Frenchman named Lorimer and a band of some eighty Indians, made a raid into Kentucky, where they captured an American party under Daniel Boone at Blue Licks in 1778. In the same year he served as a scout for Hamilton’s army, preceding it to Vincennes. DePeyster, in 1780, proposed to recall all the traders, but Beaubien, from Miamitown. Because of his pro-British activities, Beaubien was cordially hated by the people of Vincennes, who “wish[ed] to hang” him.[75]

On September, 26, 1778, Hamilton received from Beaubien at Miamitown the first news that Colonel George Rogers Clark and his Virginians had taken Vincennes.[76] Hamilton prepared for his ill-fated expedition to Vincennes by ordering the militia to prepare the Maumee-Wabash portage route and strengthen the defenses at Miamitown. Supplies, valued at $50,000, were left there to be sent to Vincennes later. Concerning the portage, Hamilton wrote:

The waters were so uncommonly low that we should not have been able to have passed but that at the distance of four miles from the landing place the beavers had made a dam which kept up the water; these we cut through to give passage to our boats.... The beaver are never molested at that place by the traders or Aberigines, and soon repair their dam.[77]

Clark constantly thought the capture of Detroit to be his ultimate goal in the northwest campaign. The first step in his proposed expedition was to be the reduction of Miamitown; however, he was prevented from making any move toward Miamitown and Detroit, as he lacked men and supplies. While the subject was still fresh in the minds of the inhabitants along the lower Ohio, another individual made his appearance to undertake what even the daring Clark considered imprudent. This man was Augustus Mottin de LaBalme, a lieutenant-colonel in the French cavalry who had come to America to offer his services to the colonies. In July, 1777, he was commissioned inspector general of cavalry by Congress, but feeling himself slighted in not being placed in command of that division of the army, he resigned in October and engaged in private business. Late in the spring of 1780, he was sent west to arouse the French in Illinois. The antipathy of the Indians and French toward the Virginians hindered him a great deal and in order to accomplish his purpose, he abandoned the Virginians and promised the French and Indians that royal troops of France would soon be on the Mississippi.[78]

Map carried by Colonel LaBalme at the time of his death. Courtesy British Library.

16

At Vincennes and Kaskaskia he gathered a force to lead against Miamitown, with the ultimate objective being Detroit. Four hundred men were to have joined him at Ouiatenon, but as these reinforcements did not appear, he was obliged to strike at Miamitown on November 3, 1780, with but 103 men, before the news of the expedition reached there. The initial blow was successful as the traders and Indians were taken by surprise and barely had time to flee the village. The Lasselle family was forced to escape by way of the Maumee, and in their haste, their small daughter was drowned. LaBalme’s men fell to plundering the traders’ goods and Indian villages, then retired to Aboite creek, a few miles to the southwest. Beaubien and LaFontaine, whose goods had been destroyed, incited the Indians to attack LaBalme, as the Indians, learning the party was French, were not disposed at first to retaliate. The red men, led by their famous war chief, Little Turtle, in his first major engagement, completely defeated LaBalme’s force, all but a few being either killed or captured. LaBalme himself was killed and his personal papers, along with the news of the victory, were sent to DePeyster at Detroit. Among these papers was the intelligence LaBalme had gathered about Miamitown and its traders. The goods at Beaubiens’ store, which was “kept by Mr. LaFontaine, and old man” was valued at 50,000 livres. Another store, kept by Mr. Mouton, a partner of Beaubien, was also valued at 50,000 livres. These goods were “equally well disposed” to “Mr. Barthelemy [listed in the census of Fort Miami in 1769], Mr. Rivard, Mr. Lorrance, Mr. Gouin of Detroit, Mr. Lascelle [Lasselle?], Mr. Pottevin, Mr. Paillet, Mr. Duplessy, & others ... & an American called George, a partner of Israel [possibly the Jew, Levi, who aided Captain Morris in 1764].”[79]

DePeyster was thoroughly alarmed upon learning of LaBalme’s expedition, and he immediately dispatched the “Rangers” to Miamitown with orders to cover the cannon there, until it was possible to send them to Detroit.[80] Captain Thompson of the “Rangers” reported to DePeyster on March 14, 1781, that he was taking immediate action to alter the old fort. A false rumor that the French of Vincennes were heading for Miamitown, brought the Indians flocking to their villages. Their spirit was very high, and several times they asked Captain Thompson for assistance “to go and destroy Post St. Vincent, as it is the only place that gives them any uneasiness.”[81] Within a year, however, DePeyster reported that the Miamis and other tribes in the area were growing fearful of being too closely allied with the British.[82] It is possible that they had received some information concerning Cornwallis’ surrender at Yorktown.

The treaty of Paris in 1783, which formally brought to an end the Revolutionary War, transferred the sovereignty of the land south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Actually this transfer made little impression on conditions at Miamitown, for, in truth, the Revolution in the West closed only with the Jay and Greenville treaties. Great Britain, in violation of the treaty of Paris, continued to hold Detroit together with other posts along the southern shore of the Lakes. By this means they maintained effective control of the fur trade of the Northwest, and, thereby, to a great extent, influenced the Indians. Just how much the British officials were responsible for the Indian warfare from 1783 to 1794 is a debatable question. At times the action of the British officials seems to have been a case of the right hand not letting the left hand know what it was doing. Most present-day students of the subject are inclined to acquit the British government of any positive agency in the matter. They point out that the constant warfare injured the fur trade of the area which was in a state of decline during this period anyway.[83] Nor did the Indians need much encouragement to take the warpath, as the ever-increasing tide of immigration coming down the Ohio and across the mountains threatened to engulf them. But the American settler did not reason this way; to him the English government was responsible. Milo Quaife, historian of the Northwest, correctly observes:

The present day scholar, possessing sources of information denied to 17 contemporaries and entire immunity from the gory scalping knife and tomahawk, may consider the subject calmly and philosophically; the American borderer’s opinions were based upon the acts of Great Britain’s agents in America and the visible facts of the situation on the frontier.[84]

A concrete example of the condition of the Indian fur trade and warfare during this period and their connection with the British trader and his government is given in the history of Miamitown between 1783 and 1794. Strong evidence indicates that despite the general decline in the fur trade, the region southwest of Detroit, and Miamitown especially, was extremely important for the British fur trade. In 1790, the British commander at Detroit, Major Smith, wrote to his superiors:

How far the loss of the Miamis Country, to the protection of His Majesty, will effect this Post and its trade, is a matter it would be presumptive in me to comment on. I think it however my duty to observe that it is a considerable mart of Indian Commerce uniting in this place.[85]

A month later Dorchester, Governor of Canada, warned the authorities in London that the loss of Miamitown to the Americans would bring grave hardships to the trade at Detroit.[86] In an earlier document he had estimated that 2000 packs of furs were taken yearly from the Miami region, bringing an income of some 24,000 pounds sterling. This far exceeded any other area south of the Great Lakes, doubling in fact the number of packs taken from the next most important area, that from Detroit north to Lake Huron.[87]

In the heart of the Indian country, Miamitown was also the principal point from which the Indian raiding parties harassed the frontier. Twenty-six war parties left Miamitown in a period of six months during 1786.[88] There is a strong tradition and some evidence to show that a secret society of Miami warriors of necessary courage and cunning met at stated intervals at Miamitown for the purpose of burning a captive and eating his flesh.[89] By its proximity to Detroit, Miamitown remained within the British orbit of trade. The merchants at Miamitown formed a loose association for their mutual benefit called the “Society of the Miamis”.[90] Business was carried on not only with Detroit and other English controlled stations, but also with Vincennes and the Illinois settlements, until Indian warfare and the animosity of the American settlers toward the traders made it virtually impossible to go to the lower Wabash.

Low market prices, bad fur seasons, and almost constant warfare by the Indians threatened to ruin the fur trade in the years immediately following the Revolution. Many of the small companies failed and the larger ones had difficulties. David Gray, a prominent trader at 18 Miamitown, was advised not to come to Detroit, as his creditor, William Robertson, was awaiting Gray’s arrival.[91] The previous year, 1785, the same Gray had been requested to aid in collecting a long-standing debt from two of his fellow villagers, Rivard and LaBerche.[92] Larimier, another trader at Miamitown, failed because he could not meet the claims of his creditors.[93] There was constant danger that the British traders might lose all the export trade of the region to the Spanish at New Orleans. In 1787, the “Society” found it necessary to send “the Grandmaster to Vincennes to keep the trade from going to New Orleans.”[94] The Indians were also an uncertain quantity and at times were hostile even to the traders. Chapeau, a member of the “Society”, was killed by the Indians and George Ironside reluctantly told Gray at Vincennes to send the goods to New Orleans rather than risk shipping them up the Wabash.[95] Gray was repeatedly warned by Ironside to be most cautious on his return trip to Miamitown as he was in danger of losing his life. It is to the credit of the Miamitown traders that they traded only sparingly in liquor with the Indians. Their reasons were not altogether altruistic, however, as the price of liquor was exceptionally high.

The most candid description of the character of the trade at Miamitown has been left to us by Henry Hay, who wrote in his journal of 1790:

... but few skins comes in, and almost every individual (except the engages) is an Indian trader, everyone tries to get what he can either by fowle play or otherwise—that is by traducing one another’s characters and merchandise. For instance by saying such a one has no Blankets another no strowde or is damned bad or he’ll cheat you & so on—in short I cannot term it in a better manner than calling it a Rascally Scrambling Trade &c &c.[96]

Henry Hay, the writer, was an English trader and partisan who sojourned in Miamitown for a period of four months during the winter of 1789-90. His day-by-day account, obviously not intended for publication, gives us a cross section of life at Miamitown in all its aspects, both civilized and savage. Hay seems to have been in the employee of William Robertson, the Detroit merchant, although there is good reason to believe that he was also employed by Major Murray, the English commander at Detroit. Set off against the hard life of a trading post among Indian villages was the characteristic vivacity and gaiety of the French atmosphere prevalent in the town. The daily routine was by no means dull; drinking, dancing, and parties formed a constant round of entertainment in which the visitors gladly take part. Hay and John Kinzie (later the founder of Chicago) played the flute and fiddle for parties and dances, as well as for the ladies alone, and at Mass in the home of one of the oldest residents, Barthelemy. Their religion was an intricate part of the lives of the French inhabitants. During the four months Hay 19 was at Miamitown, Mass was celebrated at Barthelemy’s house by Father Louis Payet, a missionary from Detroit. After playing at Mass on one occasion, Hay wrote, “The French settlers of this place go to prayers of a Sunday, morning and evening, ... the people are collected by the Ringing of three cow bells, which three boys runs about thro’ the village, which makes as much noise as twenty cows would.”[97]

Miamitown in 1790 had certain refinements not to be expected behind its rough exterior. Afternoon coffee and lunch was served in the home of Mrs. Adhemar on numerous occasions. Dinners were given in grand style. For the parties the men and women dressed in their finest apparel. Mr. Adhemar and Mr. DeSeleron made their appearance at a ball wearing very fine fur caps, “adorned with a quantity of Black Ostridge Feathers” and “Cockades made with white tinsell Ribbon, amasingly large.”[98] Less refining was the constant drinking. At different times, Hay and his companions became “infernally drunk”, “very drunk”, and “damned drunk”. One affair was memorable in that none of the men became drunk, “which is mostly the case in this place when they collect together”.[99] Dancing was also a favorite pastime, so much so, that after dancing three nights in succession, Hay found his feet too swollen to continue. It appeared as if dancing was never enjoyed more by anyone than by these French “habitants”. It became almost a passion; when they grew weary of the old steps, new ones were devised. The almost annual springtime flood seems to have been more severe than usual in the year 1790. But not even the flood dampened the gaiety, for before the waters had subsided, the ladies were taken for a row on the river to be serenaded by the flute and fiddle. Not all was fun and frolic, however, as business was transacted regularly by the traders.

In strange contrast to the minuet and “dance ronby” were the wild war dances of the Indians across the river in celebration of a victorious raid on the American settlements.[100] From the French village situated on the St. Joseph river where it meets the St. Mary’s, Hay could easily see these spectacles. Behind the traders’ houses, northward to Spy Run Creek, lived the band of Miamis under LeGris, one of the most prominent and intellectual chiefs of his time. Across the river, in the present Lakeside area of Fort Wayne, was the principal village of the Miamis under Pacan, who in his youth had saved Captain Morris.[101] Frequent discussions were held by the traders with Pacan, LeGris, Blue Jacket, and Little Turtle; LeGris and Little Turtle often ate and stayed at Hay’s house. The three Girty brothers, the terrors of the frontier, visited Miamitown on a number of occasions during Hay’s sojourn. James and George Girty lived only three miles from Miamitown, and came more often than their brother, Simon. It is noteworthy that Hay obligingly wrote a letter for George Girty to Alexander McKee, the British Indian agent, informing McKee that the Miamis had upbraided the Delawares 20 by “telling them that the Ground they occupied now is not theirs and that ... the Delawares answered, they were great fools to fight for lands that was not theirs and consequently would not go to war against the Americans any more.”[102] Girty asked McKee to check the Delaware dissatisfaction.

It is clear that the inhabitants of Miamitown were, for the most part, English partisans. Hay could not venture his “carcass” among the “parcel of renegards” [sic] at Vincennes.[103] When Antoine Lasselle did venture southward and was captured by the Indians who thought him to be sympathetic with the Americans, Major Murray intervened and the people of the village certified that Lasselle was “a good loyalist” and “always for supporting his King”.[104] When Lorraine, an inhabitant of Miamitown for forty years, died and was buried, “the young Volunteers of the place gave him three Vollies ... in Honor to his services rendered to the King of Great Britain.”[105] Evidently the time Lorraine had aided Pontiac’s Indians in capturing the British post at Ouiatenon was forgotten at this late date. Not all of the traders at Miamitown were good loyalists, however. James Abbott is described as being “one of our dis-affected subjects.” He refused to obtain the necessary permit for trading and spoke to the Indians of “Major Murray & Capt. McKee in so disrespectfull a manner that they ... determined to send Strings of Wampum into Detroit immediately to informe them of it.”[106]

On the first of April, 1790, Hay departed for Detroit, “much regretted by every one in the village”.[107] Less than seven months later Miamitown lay in ashes, ravaged by an American army which left 183 of its men dead in the vicinity. There is nothing in Hay’s journal to indicate that the French, English, or Indian occupants of the villages anticipated the blow which was to be dealt them by Harmar’s army, although they were fully aware of the movements which preceded the coming of Harmar. “John Thompson [a prisoner] ... informed me their was great talk of raising men to come against the Ind’s”, wrote Hay on March 24, 1790. “However”, he continued, “General St. Clair who is now at the Big Miami [Cincinnati] with two boat loads of goods, means to call the Indians together at a Council at Post Vincennes—But if the Indians do not come to a settlement with them, they mean to fight them.”[107]

This and other councils were held. St. Clair, governor of the newly created Northwest Territory, following Washington’s instructions, offered peace to the Indians. Antoine Gamelin, a merchant from Vincennes favorably known by the Indians, was sent with the Governor’s overtures to the hostile Indians. The tribes along the Wabash would give Gamelin no answer until he conferred with those at Miamitown. Here, the Indians, as well as the traders, assembled to hear Gamelin’s speech. Their reply was evasive and unsatisfactory, while their true attitude was 21 revealed by the burning of an American prisoner only three days after Gamelin’s departure.[108]

War was now inevitable, and during the five years of bloody conflict that followed, Miamitown was the principal goal of the American forces. As early as 1784, Washington had confided in his future Secretary of War, Henry Knox, that the establishment of a strong post at Miamitown was desirable for the welfare of the new nation in the West.[109] The following year, Washington wrote to Richard Henry Lee for the benefit of the Continental Congress, advocating a strong western policy. In his letter Washington said:

Would it not be worthy of the wisdom and the attention of congress to have the western waters well explored, the navigation of them fully ascertained, and accurately laid down, ... at least as far westerly as the Miamis running into the Ohio [the Great Miami] and Lake Erie [the Maumee] ... for I cannot forbear observing that the Miami village points to an important post for the Union.[110]

St. Clair, while in Philadelphia during 1790, talked to both Secretary of War, Henry Knox and President Washington, and suggested that an American fort be established on the site of Miamitown.[111] Writing to Knox on November 26, 1790, St. Clair again urged that General Harmar in the forthcoming campaign be empowered to carry out this plan, concluding his argument by saying, “we [will] never have peace with the Western Nations until we have a garrison there.”[112] Knox, after conferring with Washington, rejected the idea. In doing so, he wrote to the disappointed St. Clair, the following explanation:

In contemplating the establishment of military posts northwest of the Ohio, to answer the purposes of awing the Indians residing on the Wabash, the west end of Lake Erie, St. Joseph’s, and the Illinois ... and, at the same time, exhibiting a respectable appearance to the British troops at Detroit and Niagara, the Miami village presents itself as superior to any other position. This opinion was given to me by the President in the year 1784, and has several times been held forth by me to Brigadier Harmar. But at the same time, it must be acknowledged that the measure would involve a much larger military establishment than perhaps the value of the object or disposition of the United States would admit, and that it would be so opposed to the inclinations of the Indians generally ... as to bring on inevitably an Indian war of some duration. In addition to which, it is supposed that the British garrison would find themselves so uneasy with such a force impending over them as not only to occasion a considerable reinforcement of their upper posts, but also fomenting ... the opposition of the Indians.[113]

It would appear that the government did not wish to offend Great Britain, a policy which was not too strong perhaps, but one that kept the 22 young republic at peace at a crucial time in her history. The proposed attack on Miamitown had to be under the guise of punishing the Indians. To do this and retire was permissible, but the establishment of an American fort there would have been considered by the British as a dagger pointed at Detroit. Consequently, when Harmar finally moved from Fort Washington with his army of 1,600 men, he had orders to destroy Miamitown and, if possible, its Indian occupants. Harmar himself promised that, in the event of a successful campaign, he would attend to “the villanous traders”.[114] Interestingly the British officials at Detroit and Canada believed that Harmar fully intended to build a fort at Miamitown although they expressed surprise at the “imprudence” of such action. Their spies, such as the Girties and Alexander McKee, kept them well informed of the strength and movement of Harmar’s army. They even noted Harmar’s tendency to be intoxicated.[115]

Forewarned by the British agents of the impending attack, the Indians adopted a “scorched earth” policy. The traders were forced to give their stores of ammunition to the Indians and were aided in fleeing with what goods they could carry. What was not destroyed by the Indians at Miamitown was burned by the Americans (20,000 bushels of corn, among other things). In two major engagements, the first at Hellar’s Corners, eight miles north of Miamitown, and the second, a three-pronged attack within the heart of the village and on the banks of the Maumee and St. Joseph rivers, the Indian forces, under Little Turtle, were victorious.[116] Although their crops and towns were destroyed and the trade ruined, the Indians were elated over their victories, and their frontier raids continued.

Knox now felt that, despite possible British disapproval, the only means of checking the Indians was to establish the fort at Miamitown for which St. Clair had asked. To carry this out, the Secretary of War asked Congress to increase the size of the army. The force contemplated for the intended post was 1,000 to 1,200 men. St. Clair argued that a strong fort at Miamitown “would curb the Wabash Indians, as well as the Ottawas and Chippewas, and all other northern tribes”; that it would “more effectually cover the line of frontier along the Ohio, than by a post any other place whatever (excluding Detroit)”; and “would afford more fully security to the territory of the United States northwest of the Ohio.”[117] For an economy-minded Congress, he pointed out that “it would assist in the reduction of the national debt, by holding out security to people to purchase and settle the public lands.”[118]

General Knox still feared English hostility to this move, and he instructed St. Clair to “make such intimations as may remove all such disposition.” These intimations, however, were better to follow, than precede, the possession of the post, unless circumstances dictated otherwise, as it was “not the inclination of the United States to enter 23 into a contest with Great Britain.”[119]

St. Clair never reached Miamitown. Badly trained and inexperienced, his army of 1,400 men suffered one of the most terrible defeats ever inflicted on American forces. Five hundred and thirty-two men fell before Little Turtle’s Indians on the site of Fort Recovery, Ohio. The situation was now critical. The Indians now attacked the frontier with impunity and another defeat might mean the complete alienation of the West from the new union. At this crucial point, General Anthony Wayne, hero of Stony Point in the Revolution, was appointed commander-in-chief of the American army. It is not necessary to give in detail the long months of preparation of Wayne’s “Legion” and the swift campaign which was carried out in the Maumee valley. Wayne cut the Indian forces in two by feinting toward Miamitown, then moving between it and the English Fort Miami at the mouth of the Maumee. Before the various tribes could reorganize fully, the “Legion” turned on the Indian forces to the east. At Fallen Timbers, a short distance from Toledo, on August 20, 1794, Wayne’s army met and defeated the red men. The Indian power in the Northwest was for the time being shattered and Wayne moved down the Maumee to complete his task, the construction, near the site of the old Kiskakon, of a new American stronghold in the Northwest—Fort Wayne.

[1]“Kekionga” is said to mean “blackberry bush”, this plant being considered an emblem of antiquity because it sprang up on the sites of old villages. This theory rests on the statement of Barron, an old French trader of the area. However, the word “Kekionga” is more likely a corruption of Kiskakon. The Kiskakons or “cut tails” were the principal tribe of the Ottawas who lived on the Maumee at a very early time, for which reason this river was sometimes called the “Ottawa”. Archeological American, 1,278; “Relation of Sieur de Lamothe Cadillac, 1718” Wisconsin Historical Collections, XVI, p. 353.

[2]From Little Turtle’s speech at the Treaty of Greenville, quoted in H. S. Knapp’s History of the Maumee Valley, p. 357.

[3]Justin Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, IV, 224 lists the following:

a. Green Bay, Lake Winnebago and Fox River to the Wisconsin River and to the Mississippi.

b. From the upper end of Lake Michigan, the Chicago river, and a short portage to the Des Plaines, and Illinois rivers.

c. The St. Joseph of Lake Michigan, a portage to the Kankakee and so to the Illinois river again.

d. The St. Joseph river to the Wabash by a longer portage and then down to the Ohio and Mississippi.

e. The Miami of Lake Erie, a portage to the Wabash and down as above.

[4]H. S. Knapp, History of the Maumee Valley, pp. 9-10; Justin Winsor, Cartier to Frontenac, p. 224; Elbert J. Benton, “The Wabash Trade Route in the Development of the Old Northwest” John Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science, XXI, 12.

[5]Pierre Margry, Decouvertes des francais dans L’Amerique Septentrionale II, 98.

[6]Justin Winsor, Cartier to Frontenac, p. 256.

[7]Pierre Margry, op. cit., II, 296; see also, Beverley Bond, Foundations of Ohio, pp. 70-8. Bond holds that the Maumee-Wabash route was the original one intended to be used by LaSalle who then decided to establish his communication by means of the upper Ohio; due to the Iroquois, however, he fell back upon the Maumee-Wabash route as the best means of reaching the Mississippi, but was forced to abandon this also to the Iroquois. Later Cadillac was to adopt LaSalle’s Lake Erie-Maumee-Wabash route.

[8]Logan Esarey, History of Indiana, p. 12.

[9]Elbert J. Benton, op. cit., p. 17.

24

[10]Otho Winger, The Last of the Miamis, p. 3.

[11]Pierre Margry, op cit., V, 359-62.

[12]Beverley Bond, op. cit., p. 76.

[13]Cadillac Papers, Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collection, XXXIII, 338.

[14]Charles Slocum, History of the Maumee River Basin, I, 86; H. S. Knapp, op. cit., p. 9; “Forts Miami and Fort Industry”, Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society Publications, XII, 120.

[15]New York Colonial Documents, IX, p. 676. This French officer was the elder Vincennes, the uncle of Francois Margane, Sieur de Vincennes. The younger Vincennes was the founder of the town of Vincennes on the lower Wabash.

[16]Archives des Colonies, c 11 117, 118, (Paris) Pierre Margry, op. cit., V, 178, 218, 225-8; 239-43; 256-8, 262-7; 271-3; 278; 280-283.

[17]New York Colonial Documents, Paris Documents, IX, 891.

[18]Archives de la Province Quebec, Vaudreuil to Council of Marine, Oct. 24, 1722.

[19]New York Colonial Documents, IX, 894.

[20]“Céloron Journal” Wisconsin Historical Collections, XVIII, 51.

[21]Archives de la Province Quebec, de Vaudreuil to Council of Marine, Oct. 24, 1722.

[22]The Jesuits Relations, ed. by Reuben G. Thwaites, LXIX, p. 189.

[23]Archives de la Province Quebec, de Vaudreuil to Council of Marine, Oct. 24, 1722.

[24]Archives des Colonies, c 11 117, 118.

[25]Letters of Governor Spotswood, II, 296.

[26]Norman Cadwell, The French in the Mississippi Valley, 1740-1750, p. 95.

[27]New York Colonial Documents, Paris Documents, IX, 894.

[28]Wisconsin Historical Collections, XVII, 211. Sieur Darnaud was in all likelihood Nicolas-Marie Renoud Davenne, born 1696, died 1743.

[29]Indiana Historical Society Publications, VII, 72. This post was a new settlement of the English from Carolina apparently on the upper Ohio River.

[30]Ibid., p. 72.

[31]Archives des Colonies, C 11 117, 118.

[32]Archives de Colonies, C 11 117, 118.

[33]Ibid.

[34]Wisconsin Historical Collections, XVIII, 175.

[34a]Archives des Colonies, C 11 118.

[35]Norman Caldwell, op. cit., p. 41.

[36]Ibid., p. 31.

[37]Ibid., p. 41.

[38]New York Colonial Documents, Paris Documents, X, 140.

[39]Wisconsin Historical Collections, XVII, 486-7.

[40]New York Colonial Documents, Paris Documents, X, 150.

[41]The Jesuit Relations, ed. by Reuben G. Thwaites, LXIX, 189.

[42]Norman Caldwell, op. cit., p. 95.

[43]Ibid., p. 95.

[44]The journal kept by Celoron on this expedition may be found in Margry, op. cit., VI, 666 ff.

[45]Jesuit Relations, ed. by R. Thwaites, LXIX, 189.

[46]Ibid., p. 189.

[47]Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society Publications, XII, 120.

[48]Mississippi Valley Historical Review, IX, 315.

[49]Francis Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe, I, 87.

[50]Charles Slocum, op. cit., p. 99.

[51]Charles Lasselle, “Indian Traders of Indiana”, Indiana Magazine of History, II, Number 1, 4.

[52]A Narrative of Life on the Frontier, Henry Hay’s Journal, ed. by Milo Quaife, p. 261.

[53]See below, pp. [p 79

-80.]

[54]Marquis de la Jonquiere to Governor Clinton, Aug. 10, 1751, New York Colonial Documents, VI, pp. 731-34.

[55]Mitchell’s map was the best known of contemporary maps of North America. A reproduction of this map may be found in the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collection, XXXVI, 52-3.

[56]Beverley Bond, op. cit., pp. 153-154.

[57]For an interesting discussion of the French attempt during the peace negotiations at the end of the war to establish the Maumee and Wabash rivers as the new boundary between the two colonial empires, see Theodore Pease’s article, “Indiana in Contention between France and England” in the Indiana Historical Bulletin, XII.

[58]“Croghan’s Journal”, Early Western Travels, ed. by R. G. Thwaites, I, 122-23.

[59]Jesuit Relations, LXIX, 189.

25

[60]Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, XIX, 47.

[61]Ibid., p. 47.

[62]Francis Parkman, Conspiracy of Pontiac, I, 189.

[63]The Journal of Captain Morris as quoted in his Miscellanies in Prose and Verse has been reprinted in Early Western Travels, I, 301-ff.

[64]Captain Thomas Morris, op. cit., p. 312. This prohibition of the sale of liquor to the Indiana was not always as successful as Capt. Morris thought.

[65]“Croghan’s Journal”, Western Travels, I, 149-150.

[66]For the French philosopher Volney’s description of these French Creoles See Below, [p. 34

.]

[67]After LaBalme’s raid, a British force was stationed at Fort Miami for four months, See Below, [p. 16

.]

[68]Illinois Historical XVI, 60.

[69]Indiana Historical Society Publications, II, 435.

[70]Ibid., p. 439-40. The following names are listed: Capuchin, Baptiste Campau, Nicholas Perct, Pierre Barthe, Bergerson, Berthelemy, Dorien, Francois Maisonville, Laurain.

[71]As it turned out the people of Vincennes suffered a great deal for their friendship with the American cause.

[72]Charles Lasselle, loc. cit., p. 4.

[73]Wallace A. Brice, History of Fort Wayne, p. 102.

[74]Charles Lasselle, loc. cit., p. 4.

[75]DePeyster to Haldimand, Nov. 16, 1780, and Haldimand to DePeyster, June 6, 1781, Haldimand Papers relating to Detroit, 1772-84, II, British Museum. After his release from captivity by the Americans, Colonel Hamilton accused Beaubien of treachery for not following Hamilton’s orders during the campaign, cf. Hamilton’s account of the ill fated expedition against Vincennes, Hamilton to Haldimand, July 6, 1781, Haldimand Papers, II, British Museum.

[76]Hamilton to Haldimand, Sept. 26, 1778. Michigan Pioneer Collections, X, 449.

[77]Hamilton to Haldimand, July 6, 1781, Haldimand Papers, II, British Museum.

[78]Michigan Pioneer Collections, XIX, 699. For LaBalme’s dramatic speeches to the French, see the Illinois Historical Collections, II, p. xci. For other information concerning LaBalme, see the Virginia State Papers, I, p. 380. The complete papers of LaBalme were forwarded to the war ministry in London and together with the map carried by LaBalme at the time of his death are available in the Haldimand Papers, II, 13, British Museum (London).

[79]“LaBalme Papers”, Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, XIX, 578-8.

[80]“Haldimand Papers”, Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, XIX, 582.

[81]Capt. A. Thompson to DePeyster, Mar. 14, 1781, Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, XIX, 589-600.

[82]DePeyster to Haldimand, Apr. 22, 1782, Haldimand Papers, II, British Museum.

[83]Wayne Steven, “The Northwest Fur Trade” University of Illinois Studies in Social Sciences, XIV, p. 513.

[84]Milo Quaife, op. cit., p. 209.

[85]Major Smith to Dorchester, Oct. 16, 1790, Public Records Office, (Colonial Series) CO-42 73, London.

[86]Dorchester to Grenville, October 17, 1790, Public Records Office, (Colonial Series) CO-42 73.

[87]Dorchester to Grenville, May 31, 1790, Public Records Office, (Colonial Series) CO-42 73.

[88]Leonard Helderman, “Danger on the Wabash, Vincennes letters of 1786-87” Indiana Magazine of History, XXXIV, 459.

[89]Logan Esarey, op. cit., I, 102.

[90]George Sharp to Paul Camelin, June 23, 1786, “Letters from Eighteenth Century Indiana Merchants” (the Lasselle Papers) ed. C.B. Coleman and published in the Indiana Magazine of History, V, 145-146.

[91]George Leith to Gray, Apr. 3, 1786, loc. cit., V, 144-145.

[92]John MacPherson to Gray, March, 1785, loc. cit., V, 142-143.

[93]Ironside to Gray, Apr. 15, 1787, loc. cit., V, 151-152.

[94]Ironside to Gray, Mar. 15, 1787, loc. cit., V, 150.

[95]Ironside to Gray, Feb. 16, 1787, loc. cit., V, 149. George Ironside was a leading trader in the Maumee valley. He was born in 1760 and died in 1830, at Amherstburg. For many years he was in the British Indian service. He was an M. A. of King’s College, Aberdeen and was known, even to the Americans, for his humanity and hospitality.

[96]A Narrative of Life on the Old Frontier, Henry Hay’s Journal from Detroit to the Mississippi River, edited by M. M. Quaife, p. 224.

26

[97]Ibid., p. 221.

[98]Ibid., p. 241.

[99]Ibid., p. 240.

[100]Ibid., p. 260. Hay gives an interesting description of the “Natt”, the Indian symbol of war, carried about much like the Ancient Roman standards.

[101]above, [p. 23

.]

[102]Quaife, op. cit., p. 226.

[103]Ibid., p. 245.

[104]Ibid., p. 237.

[105]Ibid., p. 258.

[106]Ibid., p. 245.

[107]Ibid., p. 261.

[108]Indiana Historical Society Publications, VII, 360.

[109]“Gamelin’s Journal”, St. Clair Papers, II, pp. 155-160; American State Papers, Indian Affairs, I, P. 37.

[109]St. Clair Papers, ed. Wm. Smith, II, 181.

[110]The Writings of George Washington, ed. Jared Sparks, IX, 80-81.

[111]St. Clair Papers, II, 181.

[112]Ibid., 193.

[113]Knox to St. Clair, Sept. 14, 1790, St. Clair Papers, II, p. 181.

[114]American State Papers, Indian Affairs, I, p. 104-5.

[115]Dorchester to Grenville, Nov. 10, 1790, including dispatches from A. McKee and others, Public Record Office (Colonial Series) CO-42; 73, London.

[116]For the accounts of the battles see Harmar’s report in ASP, Indian Affairs, I, pp. 104; also the “Military Journal of Major Ebenezer Denny” in Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, VII, 343-353. The heaviest action took place at Harmar’s ford at the end of Harmar Street. Here the regulars suffered severely while attempting to cross the Maumee in the face of the Indians’ fire.

[117]ASP, Indian Affairs, I, 112.

[118]Ibid., p. 112.

[119]“Knox’s Instructions to St. Clair”, Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, XXIV, 197-8.

27

Chapter II
The Establishment of Fort Wayne—Government Outpost of Defense, Diplomacy and Trade

Wayne’s victorious “Legion” arrived at Miamitown on the evening of September 17, 1794. Lieutenant John Boyer, to whose journal we are indebted for the best account of the conditions relating to the construction of Fort Wayne, wrote on the day of the arrival:

... there are nearly five hundred acres of cleared land lying in one body on the rivers St. Joseph, St. Mary’s and Miami; there are fine points of land contiguous to those rivers adjoining the cleared land ... the land adjacent [is] fertile and well timbered, and from every appearance it has been one of the largest settlements made by the Indians in this country.[1]

On the following day, Wayne reconnoitered the ground and selected the site for the new fort, an elevated position on the right bank of the Maumee just below the confluence of the St. Mary’s and St. Joseph rivers. The ground chosen approximates lots 11, 12, and 13 of the present Taber addition on the northeast corner of East Berry and Clay street.[2]

Wayne determined to build a strong fortification, much to the disapproval of Lieutenant William Clark, who felt that a common picketed one would be equally as difficult for the savages.[3] It is conceivable that Wayne in building a strong fortification feared a future British attack equally as much as he feared the Indians. Actual construction began on September 24. The difficulties were many. The season was late, and the fort had to be completed before winter came. The regulars had been good fighters, but proved to be poor workers. All the severity of the army code was required to keep them in line, one hundred lashes on their bare backs being the usual punishment. The volunteers were rebellious; for a while they were employed convoying the supplies from Fort Defiance to Fort Wayne over the improved road Wayne had constructed, but finally, when Wayne could no longer cope with the Kentucky militiamen, they were sent home. Provisions were also scarce and prices were high. Not infrequently the men were on half-rations, while the 28 horses died at the rate of five a day for lack of feed. A ten gallon keg of whiskey cost eight dollars; a pint of salt, when it could be obtained, brought six dollars.[4]

Despite these difficulties, Wayne seemed well-satisfied with the construction of his new fort, which was capable of resisting 24 pound guns. By October 17, he felt “free to pronounce them [Fort Wayne and Fort Defiance] the most respectable now in the occupancy of the United States, even in their present situation which is not quite perfect as yet.”[5] Construction was pushed with all possible speed, and although the fort was not quite completed, the day of dedication was set for October 22, 1794, the fourth anniversary of Harmar’s defeat. Early that morning, after firing fifteen rounds of cannon in honor of the fifteen states in the Union, the flag was raised. Colonel Hamtramck then named the new fortification, “Fort Wayne.”[6]

The “Legion” departed for Greenville on October 28, leaving Lieutenant-Colonel John Francis Hamtramck in command of four infantry companies and one artillery battery at Fort Wayne. Colonel Hamtramck is described as being “a small Canadian Frenchman, an intelligent, capable, and meritorious officer.”[7] After serving in the Revolution, Hamtramck came to the West with Harmar, being in command at Vincennes when he joined Wayne’s army. Although somewhat of a martinet, Hamtramck was popular with his men and, from all accounts, one of the most efficient officers in the army at that time.

It was fortunate that Wayne left a capable man in charge of Fort Wayne, as Hamtramck’s difficulties proved to be many. There still remained a great deal of work to be done in strengthening the fort, which was not completed until the following spring. The garrison was plagued by an epidemic of malaria fever during the first summer. This condition was made worse by the lack of quinine or any medical supplies.[8] During the winter, the men often went about in rags and tatters. Hamtramck was forced to permit them to cut up their blankets and turn them into over-coats.

Facing such difficulties, it is little wonder that Hamtramck complained frequently to Generals Wayne and Wilkinson about the problems of disciplining his rebellious men and caring for the destitute Indians who were returning to their ruined villages. Concerning the soldiers Hamtramck wrote, “I have flogged them until I am tired. The economic allowance of one hundred lashes, allowed by the government, does not appear a sufficient inducement for a rascal to act the part of an honest man.”[9]

Hamtramck was actively engaged at this time in discussions with the chiefs, particularly Little Turtle, LeGris, and Richardville, concerning the proposed peace negotiations to be held at Greenville the following summer. In these matters, Hamtramck was aided immensely by the 29 Lasselle brothers, Antoine and Jacques.[10] Antoine had resided at Miamitown from 1771 until Harmer’s destruction of the village in 1790. He had fought on the side of the Indians in the battle of Fallen Timbers and had been captured by Wayne’s troops. Tried as a spy, he narrowly escaped the gallows through Hamtramck’s intercession. Colonel John Johnston, Indian factor at Fort Wayne, later described Antoine Lasselle as a man of wit and drollery who “would often clasp his neck with both hands to show how near he had been to hanging by order of Mad Anthony.”[11] After his release, Antoine Lasselle with his brother Jacques returned to Fort Wayne, apparently the first traders to do so. Here they furnished the Americans with supplies and used their strong influence with the Miamis to the good advantage of the American cause.

The Indians had asked that the forthcoming peace conference be held at their old village, Kekionga, as Kiskakon had come to be called by that time. Wayne insisted that the tribesmen come to Greenville, 79 miles southeast of Fort Wayne. Resorting to the use of Indian symbolism, Wayne argued, “It was there [Kekionga] that the hatchet was first raised, to bury a bloody hatchet there would disturb the spirits of the unburied dead.”[12] Wayne’s real reasons were less symbolic, but more practical. The distance of bringing supplies to Fort Wayne would be much farther than to Greenville, and at Greenville he would have his “Legion” ready in case of trouble. In the spring the Indians going to Greenville came by way of Fort Wayne, so overcrowding the post that Hamtramck’s garrison had to go on half-rations to feed the delegates. Even this did not suffice; emergency stores were depleted, while the liquor and tobacco were so exhausted that Hamtramck had to buy additional supplies from Antoine Lasselle.

At Greenville Wayne won the peace which Fallen Timbers had secured. In respect to Fort Wayne, which remained an American island deep in Indian Territory, the United States gained an area of six square miles around the fort, free use of the Maumee-Wabash portage, and an area of two square miles at the Wabash end of the portage. The Indians also promised the United States the use of the roads leading to Fort Wayne from Defiance to the northeast and Piqua to the southeast. Little Turtle, Wayne’s keenest antagonist during the negotiations, debated long and eloquently over these concessions at and around Fort Wayne. The great Miami chief secured one compromise from the General, a reduction of the land around the fort to be ceded to the United States. After this concession by Wayne, Little Turtle addressed the council:

These people [the French] were seen by our forefathers first at Detroit; afterwards we saw them at the Miami village—that glorious gate which your younger brothers had the happiness to own.... Brothers, these people never told us they wished to purchase these lands from us.

30

I now give you the true sentiments of your younger brothers with respect to the reservation at the Miami villages. We thank you kindly for contracting the limits you at first proposed. We wish you to take this six mile square on the side of the river where your fort now stands, as your younger brothers wish to inhabit that beloved spot again ... The next place you pointed to was the Little River, and said you wanted two miles square at that place. This is a request that our fathers, the French or British, never made us; it was always ours. This carrying place has heretofore proved in a great degree, the subsistence of your younger brothers. That place has brought us in the course of one day, the amount of one hundred dollars. Let us both own this place.[13]

To this Wayne replied:

The Little Turtle observes, he never heard of any cession made at that place [Fort Wayne] to the French. I have traced the lines of two forts at that point ... and it is ever an established rule, among the Europeans, to reserve as much ground around their forts, as their cannon can command.[14]

Wayne could not grant Little Turtle’s request for joint-control of the Maumee-Wabash portage since the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 guaranteed to everyone free use of all important portages (Article V). Wayne proved himself an economist and shrewd diplomat by arguing before the other assembled tribes that the tolls garnered by the Miamis actually were passed off to all the Indians in the form of higher prices for the traders goods. At length, Little Turtle, speaking for four tribes besides the Miamis, expressed himself as satisfied with the treaty, and being the last to sign it, promised he would be the last to break it.[15] This he never did, as he spent the last seventeen years of his life at peace with the Americans.

In a farewell address to the conference, Little Turtle asked that the United States government appoint Captain William Wells as resident interpreter at Fort Wayne. William Wells, frontier scout and pioneer, was one of the most romantic and mysterious figures in the early history of the Northwest. A biography or even a sketch of his life has never been written, although his story is intimately connected with that of Fort Wayne and the Indiana Territory. Between 1794 and 1812, when he was killed, Captain Wells was decidedly the most interesting white person in the history of Fort Wayne. Little is known about him personally, except that which we can obtain from letters written by him or those concerning him. A member of prominent Kentucky family and the brother of Colonel Samuel Wells of Louisville, William Wells had been kidnapped by a band of Miamis when he was twelve year old. Taken to Miamitown, he was adopted by the tribe of Little Turtle and was raised by the Indians, as was the custom of that time. It is not surprising, consequently, 31 that the Frenchman, Count Volney described Wells as “tall and muscular, quick in movement, and having the complexion of an Indian.”[16] It is surprising, however, that Wells, having little or no education, in later life showed in his letters a knowledge of the English language and clarity of thought far superior to his white associates on the frontier.

Wells’ first wife was Anahquah, Little Turtle’s sister; and upon her death, it is believed that Wells married Wahmangopath, the daughter of the chief. By these marriages, Wells had the following children: Anne, who was educated at the Catholic school at Bardstown, Kentucky, and who later returned to Fort Wayne to marry Dr. William Turner; Mary, who married James Wolcott; Rebecca, who married James Hackley at Fort Wayne; Jane Turner, who married John H. Griggs, and William Wayne, who after graduating from West Point, died at an early age. On March 7, 1809, Wells married Mary Geiger, daughter of Colonel Frederick Geiger of Kentucky, by whom he had three children, Samuel Geiger, Yelberton, and Julia Ann.

Against Harmar’s and St. Clair’s armies, Wells fought willingly on the side of the Indians. In 1794, however, he joined Wayne’s forces apparently with Little Turtle’s approval. It is known that in the summer of 1793, Wells paid a visit to his white relatives in Kentucky. Upon returning through Vincennes, he met Col. Hamtramck, who employed him to carry a message to Wayne.[17] In the message, Hamtramck suggested to Wayne that Wells would prove invaluable as a scout, if the General saw fit to give him a commission. Before accepting this offer, Wells returned to Miamitown, and here secured Little Turtle’s consent. The reason for Wells’ desertion of the Indian cause has never been clear. Perhaps Hamtramck, later one of Wells’ staunchest friends, convinced him that the American cause was to be successful. Possibly, as Quaife suggests, it was due to a belated consciousness of his true race identity and the pleadings of his white relatives while he was in Kentucky.[18] The fact that Wells and Little Turtle remained intimate afterward and that their viewpoints were always identical, indicates there was no friction between them. It is known that Little Turtle did not wish to give battle to Wayne at Fallen Timbers, and advised the Indians to make peace. While only conjecture, it is not unreasonable to assume that Wells foresaw the American success in the forthcoming campaign and convinced the chief it was to the red man’s advantage to make peace.

Wells was placed in command of Wayne’s scouts, and it was primarily through his vigilance that Wayne’s forces were not surprised. At Greenville, Wells served as an interpreter, a position of trust. Wayne was willing to grant Little Turtle’s request to appoint Wells as resident interpreter at Fort Wayne, and later wrote to the government recommending Wells for the position, as well as authorizing the payment of 32 high rewards to this valuable scout.[19]

During the winter of 1795-96, Hamtramck found the food and supply situation at Fort Wayne somewhat better, although there were about 90 children and old women entirely dependent on the garrison for their subsistence. Until the British post at Detroit was transferred to the United States, Fort Wayne was the headquarters for detachments at the following western forts: Defiance, Sandusky, Adams, Recovery, Jefferson, Loramie, Head of the Auglaise, and Michilimackinac. In June, 1796, Col. Hamtramck was ordered to proceed to Detroit and take command of the former British post there. After his departure, the force at Fort Wayne never numbered more than 100 men. These men held an important position along the first line of defense in the northwest. Other than Michilimackinac, there were no posts to the north or northwest until Ft. Dearborn was erected in 1803. The men at Fort Wayne acted as if they had little realization of their responsibility. The majority of the enlisted men of that day were drawn from the most turbulent elements of the east. The soldier’s life was not a popular vocation. At this western outpost, garrison life was more than harsh; it was extremely boring. The troops at Fort Wayne had nothing to do in their leisure time, and usually passed their days in drinking, fighting, and gambling.[20] In vain did the officers have insubordinate men flogged at parade (not infrequently the maximum penalty of 100 lashes was given), deprived them of their whiskey rations, and put them to hard labor. When, in 1812, Congress amended the articles of war to prohibit flogging, other substitute punishments, hardly less severe and equally degrading, were devised. Men were confined in small dark rooms, put astride spiked wooden horses, forced to wear the wooden collar, ankle bolts, and irons. In the Orderly Books for the Fort Wayne garrison, we repeatedly find non-commissioned officers demoted to the ranks for misconduct or crimes of one nature or another, only to be reinstated when their successors proved even more incapable. Yet, when this wild, bored garrison was besieged during the War of 1812, they successfully held the fort against a force six times as strong.

Living within the fort were the wives and children of those married officers and men who chose to bring their families to the wilderness with them. In many respects these women shared the army life of their husbands. They were governed by the same military regulations, even receiving the same daily whiskey ration as did the men. The officers and their families generally came from an older and more formal society and carried into the rude barracks the manners and customs of the East. One of the commanders, Col. Hunt, brought his family directly to Fort Wayne from their Boston home. With this eastern culture was added a certain punctilio, a natural consequence of military life. The officers’ families, together with those of government officials and more prominent 33 settlers, formed the elite of the American society at Fort Wayne. In 1807 Lieutenant Philip Ostrander, an officer at Fort Wayne, wrote to his friend, George Hoffman, collector for the government at Michilimackinac:

On my arrival at this post I was received with the utmost politeness by Captain Heald [the commandant] who continues to show me every flattering attention. Indeed, sir, by every officer ... at this place I have been treated with the utmost liberality and respect. The very day of my arrival, I was requested to dine with Captain Wells [the Indian agent] and today by Mr. Johnson, our present factor at this post. [Col. John Johnston, superintendent of the government “factory”] I do not mention these circumstances through vanity, but merely with intention of informing you that everyone endeavors to make my place of residence comfortable and happy.

I could form no conception of what an agreeable situation this is, both as to the face of the country and the elegant situation of the fort. We are, however, destitute of one thing which would make the situation still more agreeable—that is, society. Mr. Johnson [Johnston], Captain Wells, J. Audrian [a trader], and the officers of the garrison compose our party. They tell me that the place is in general healthy, but, to tell the truth, I have seen a number of very sick people. Dr. Edwards had unfortunately started for Cincinnati an hour before my arrival.[21]

Dr. Edwards, who had recently been given authority to serve as a merchant at the fort in addition to his duties as post surgeon, evidently had gone to Cincinnati to obtain supplies. Judging from the above letter and other sources, it must be concluded that the number of sick at Fort Wayne was generally quite high. Before Dr. Edwards came there were twenty-five men reported on the sick list, almost 35% of the garrison. This may have been somewhat of an abnormal condition, however, as his predecessor, a man named Dr. Elliot, was so incompetent, that Mr. Johnston, the government factor, had to act as post surgeon.[22]

Colonel Hamtramck remained in command of Fort Wayne until June, 1796. In March of that year he had been ordered to move down the Maumee with a detachment from Fort Wayne in order to counteract a demonstration by the British which was possibly intended to arouse the Indians to revolt. While encamped on the Maumee, Hamtramck received a message from General Wilkinson, directing him to receive the transfer of the British Post Miami and then proceed to Detroit to take command of the former British post, Fort Lernoult.

Colonel David Strong, Hamtramck’s successor at Fort Wayne, had, like Hamtramck, served in the Revolution and in Wayne’s army. Prior to coming to Fort Wayne he had been in command at Fort Greenville.[23] The twenty-six months of Colonel Strong’s administration witnessed the 34 beginnings of the new Frenchtown at Fort Wayne. Located across the St. Joseph from the site of the old Frenchtown, this new village was situated where Kekionga or Kiskakon once stood in the present Lakeside area of Fort Wayne. Most of the inhabitants were either former occupants of Miamitown who returned to this new site after Wayne’s victory or French-Canadians of the Detroit-River Raisin region. Volney, a native of France who traveled in the United States during 1796, questioned the Americans concerning these French “habitants” of the northwest. He was told that they were a kind, hospitable, and sociable sort of people, “but in ignorance and idleness they beat the Indians. They know nothing of civil and domestic affairs; their women neither sew or spin or make butter but pass their time in gossiping and tattle. The men hunt, fish, roam in the woods, and bask in the sun.”[24]

In weighing the value of this characterization of the French “habitants,” we must remember that Volney an intellectual coming from the Paris of the Enlightenment naturally thought of these people as crude and rustic, as indeed they must have appeared to him, but what is more important neither Volney or the Americans appreciated that these French Creoles way of life was different from theirs. The Creoles were not as interested in the middle-class virtue of respectability nor in the acquisition of much property.

Evidently the English-American opinion of the French people living in the Northwest had not changed since the days of George Croghan and earlier. Nor in all likelihood had the French “habitants” and traders changed their manner of living to any great extent. Although they had suffered a great deal financially and were less prosperous since the American occupation of the territory, there is no reason to doubt that these people lived as they did during Henry Hay’s sojourn at Miamitown, independent and satisfied with life.

There is no way of determining the number of inhabitants living in Frenchtown at this time. That the settlement was at least worthy of notice is indicative from the Orderly Books for Fort Wayne. Mention is made repeatedly of the town.[25] The soldiers and their wives were in the habit of frequenting the town, which practice some officers considered inimical to the garrison’s welfare. All military orders published for the civilians living around Fort Wayne were made out in French as well as English, and until the early 1820’s the majority of the population of Fort Wayne were either French or of French-Indian blood.

While most of these French inhabitants during these years remain unknown, there are a few individuals whom we can identify. Besides Antoine Lasselle, there was another member of the Lasselle family who returned to Fort Wayne at an early date. This was Hyacinth Lasselle, the nephew of Antoine Lasselle and the son of Jacques Lasselle. Hyacinth Lasselle was only four years old when his family fled from Miamitown 35 at the advance of LaBalme’s force in 1780. After this he was placed in a private school in Montreal. In May, 1795, he returned to Fort Wayne from where he carried on trading activities until 1804 when he removed his establishment to Vincennes. In appearance he was rather short, being about five feet six inches tall, but at the same time very muscular. His athletic prowess and the fact that he was born at Miamitown made him a great favorite of the Miamis, who entered him in contests against the champions of other tribes.

Other inhabitants of the former Miamitown who returned to the site of Fort Wayne after the American Occupation were Antoine Rivard or Rivarrd and Francis Minie. Rivard’s wife and daughter had entertained Henry Hay quite often while the latter stayed at Miamitown. Included among the new arrivals at Frenchtown were Charles and James Peltier, brothers who had come here from Detroit around 1798. In 1804 the Peltiers secured permission to sell supplies to the garrison at Fort Wayne. At a later date, Charles Peltier was attacked and eaten by wolves within a few miles of the fort. James Peltier married Angeline Chapeteau, an attractive young girl who had come to Fort Wayne from Detroit with her grandparents, Jean Baptiste Maloch and his wife. Jean Baptiste Maloch had been a resident at Detroit before the time of Pontiac’s conspiracy, and he was apparently considered to be a man of some wealth.[26] What prompted him to bring his wife and granddaughter to Fort Wayne at this late date in his life is unknown. Angeline Chapeteau, who was only sixteen when she came to Fort Wayne, instantly became a favorite of the Miamis, who called her “Golden Hair” and formally adopted her into their tribe. Her sister Theresa Chapeteau married Francis Minie, while a second sister married Charles Peltier. One of the most prosperous traders at Fort Wayne prior to the war of 1812 was Louis Bourie. Not only did he trade in furs himself, but he also kept pack horses and large warehouse for the transportation and storage of the merchandise and furs carried by way of the Maumee-Wabash portage. For these services he collected a handsome profit. Two other traders who married Miami women were Peter LaFontaine and Antoine Bondie.

To the west of the fort there came into being a collection of government buildings and sutlers’ establishments, which in time resembled a small village. These log buildings were located at the meeting place of two roads, “Wayne’s trace” (this was the road connecting Fort Wayne with Fort Washington, Cincinnati) and the old Maumee-Wabash portage path.[27] This was the nucleus of the village that made up the plat of the original town of Fort Wayne, when it was laid out in 1824. The sutlers, who lived here, were traders who had been given permission by the government to occupy choice locations near a military outpost and carry on the trade deemed necessary for the garrison. These sutlers were subject 36 to the orders of the commander of the fort, who could dismiss them upon a just provocation. It was also the commander’s duty to see to it that the men were not overcharged and investigate any complaints brought to him either by the sutlers or soldiers. For instance the soldiers complained on one occasion that James Peltier was overcharging them for his merchandise. After an investigation, the commander, Captain Whipple, excused Peltier on the grounds that the cost of transportation for the winter had risen to one hundred dollars a boatload.[28] The sutlers brought their merchandise either by way of the Maumee from Detroit and the East or by way of the St. Mary’s from Cincinnati and the Ohio River.

The largest of the log buildings comprising the small village west of the fort was the two-story council house. This was erected in 1804 by the government to be used as a meeting place between the government officials and the Indians. Around the village and along the banks across the river were gardens and cultivated fields of vegetables and corn. One of the better farms was owned by Colonel Hamtramck and William Wells. Wells managed it and by 1800 had it well fenced. On the property were several buildings, a good orchard, a number of livestock, plus the usual corn fields. Several negro slaves whom Wells had brought from Kentucky did most of the labor.[29] Apparently this farm did not always furnish a dependable source of income, for in 1801, Wells reported to Hamtramck that although he expected to harvest 350 bushels of corn for each of them, he would not be able to sell it because of the overabundance of corn raised that year around Fort Wayne.[30] The reason for this, Wells maintained, was the fact that the military were competing in the corn market. The officers of Fort Wayne were in the practice of having the enlisted men farm the fields for wages.

In June, 1797, the newly appointed General of the United States Army, James Wilkinson, stopped at Fort Wayne during his initial tour of inspection of the western forts. Here he found conditions “truly deplorable”. In his report he stated:

“The army in this quarter presents a frightful picture of the scientific soldier; ignorance and licentiousness have been fostered, while intelligence and virtue have been persecuted and exiled; the consequences were that factions have been generated to sanction enormity, and it follows that all ideas of system, economy, order, subordination and discipline were banished, and that disorder, vice, absurdity, and abuse infected every member of the corps militarie.”[31]

Wilkinson was equally dissatisfied with conditions at Detroit. In fact he found fault everywhere, for the General had a habit of exaggerating ills so that he might gain more credit for employing successful antidotes. He never doubted that his methods were correct, and his solution for the problems at Fort Wayne and Detroit was relatively simple. He merely 37 exchanged garrisons and commandants between the two posts. Colonel Hamtramck with the First Regiment was transferred to Fort Wayne, and Colonel David Strong at Fort Wayne with the Second Regiment was transferred to Detroit.[32]

Whether or not General Wilkinson achieved his purpose of bettering conditions at Fort Wayne and Detroit by these transfers is not known. At any rate Colonel Hamtramck did not remain long at Fort Wayne. In less than a year he was ordered back to Detroit and there he remained in command until his death in 1803. In April, 1798, a month before his final departure from Fort Wayne, his son, John Francis, was born. As far as it is known, this child was the first white person born within the stockade.

On May 16, 1798, Colonel Thomas Hunt arrived at Fort Wayne to take command. Colonel Hunt had served with distinction in the Revolution. Born in Massachusetts, he became a member of Captain’s Croft’s Company of “minute men” at Lexington and Concord, in April, 1776. Later he fought in the battles of Bunker Hill and Stoney Point. In 1793, he returned to military service as a major with Wayne. Following the western campaign and the building of Fort Wayne, he went to Detroit and assisted Wayne in the formal transfer of the British post to the Americans. He served then as commandant of Fort Defiance.[33] Following the western campaign of Wayne, he had been given command of Fort Defiance. With Colonel Hunt came his family to Fort Wayne directly from their home in Boston.

While at Fort Wayne, Colonel Hunt often drew criticism for his independent action. Nevertheless, it is apparent that he devoted his energies to the betterment of conditions at Fort Wayne, for he undertook the responsible task of building a new fort to take the place of Wayne’s hastily constructed post which by 1800 was beginning to decay. The new fort was located about three hundred feet north of the old structure and enclosed the area of the present Old Fort Park in the city of Fort Wayne. It seems very probable that the troops occupied the original fort during the period of construction of the second fort, so there were two American forts standing at the same time, separated by perhaps three hundred feet of space. The new fort was reported to be “large and substantial ... commanding a beautiful view of the river, as also an extent of about four square miles of cleared land.”[34] Six log barracks for the officers and men, a brick magazine, and smaller buildings were grouped within the palisades around the parade ground.

Captain Thomas Pasteur, an officer in the Revolution and a member of Wayne’s corps succeeded Colonel Hunt as commander in June, 1802. Pasteur remained but a year at Fort Wayne during which time there was little activity at the outpost. There is some indication from two letters written at the time that Colonel Henry Burbeck was in 38 command at Fort Wayne in the spring of 1803, although the Fort Wayne Orderly Books give no record of this.[35] If he did serve at Fort Wayne, his stay was no longer than that of his successor, Major Zebulon Pike, who remained less than two months. Major Pike was the father of the noted explorer of the southwest, Zebulon M. Pike. The Major who was in poor health was given command of Fort Wayne in the hope that the position would be an easy one, as well as furnish an increase in his pay. The command did not meet Pike’s expectations, since his nature was such that the constant drunkenness of the men under him was more than he could stand. His rigid attitude in regard to temperance was revealed in a letter to Colonel Kingsbury while both were serving at Detroit. In it he declines an invitation of the Colonel to attend an officers’ party at which he believes some alcoholic drink would be served.[36]

Major Pike’s successor, Captain John Whipple, arrived at Fort Wayne in September, 1803. A group of Quakers visiting Fort Wayne in 1804 reported that Captain Whipple, “behaved with a freedom and gentility becoming a well breed [sic] man.”[37] That he was a man of fair intellectual talents is shown by the nature of the entries in the Fort Wayne Orderly Books during his administration. In 1804, Captain Whipple journeyed to Detroit to bring back his wife, the former Archange Pelletier, a descendant of the oldest family of Detroit, Francois Pelletier having preceded Cadillac to that spot by two years.

After serving almost four years at Fort Wayne, Captain Whipple resigned on January 31, 1807 and in his stead Captain Nathan Heald was appointed as commander. Captain Heald remained at Fort Wayne until May 16, 1810, on which day he left to take command at Fort Dearborn (Chicago), being in charge of that garrison on the day of the fateful massacre, August 15, 1812. During his stay at Fort Wayne, Captain Heald met the niece of William Wells, Rebeckah Wells, whom he later married. Captain Heald was replaced at Fort Wayne by Captain James Rhea, an unfortunate choice for the troublesome days that were to come during the crucial first year of the War of 1812.[38]

From the beginning of Colonel Hunt’s administration in 1798 to the end of Captain Heald’s in 1810, the frontier was comparatively peaceful, especially until 1807. In that year signs of the forthcoming Indian difficulties began to appear, although the actual conflict did not break out until 1811, with the battle of Tippecanoe. In August 1796, Winthrop Sargent, the Secretary of the Northwest Territory, proclaimed the organization of Wayne county, with Fort Wayne on its southern boundary. This original Wayne county was divided into four townships, bearing the names of Detroit, Mackinaw, Sargent, and Hamtramck, with the region of Fort Wayne and the Maumee valley included in the latter. In October, 1799, William Henry Harrison was elected to represent the Northwest Territory in Congress. This body, on the seventh of May, 39 1800, created the Territory of Indiana, composed of all that part of the territory of the United States west of a line beginning at the Ohio river opposite the mouth of the Kentucky river and running northward to the straits of Mackinac. Five days later William Henry Harrison was appointed governor of the newly created territory. Vincennes in the southern part of the territory, situated on the Wabash river, became the capital.

Up north, Fort Wayne, already an important post in the defense of the Northwest Territory, also became a government outpost of diplomacy and trade with the Indians. By 1798, the United States government had established an Indian agency at Fort Wayne. The Office of Indian Affairs was a division of the War Department from 1789 to 1849, and was under the direction of the Secretary of War. The Indian agents were the representatives of the department among the various tribes. This plan, to have official representatives of the government stationed permanently among the Indians, was adopted from that used by the English during colonial times. Captain William Wells was the logical choice to be the first Indian agent at Fort Wayne. The military and government officials both felt that he was deserving of some reward for his outstanding services during and after Wayne’s campaign in 1794-95. Above all he was admirably suited for the position, being intimately acquainted with the Indians of this region and being able to speak fluently five of the Indian dialects. When Volney asked the inhabitants of Vincennes for aid in compiling a dictionary of the Indian language, they recommended that he consult William Wells, as Wells knew the Indian languages better than any other man in the territory.[39]

Undoubtedly, Wells was anxious to secure the position for it paid a handsome salary of $1,200 a year plus some expenses, which was rather good in those days for a government employee. Moreover, the position gave the agent the opportunity of arranging profitable private contracts for services and goods for the Indians. With the purpose of obtaining the appointment, Wells secured a letter of introduction from his friend, Colonel Hamtramck, to the Secretary of War.[40] In all probability Wells used this letter and other recommendations to good advantage when he accompanied Little Turtle to Philadelphia in the winter of 1797. Upon his return from Philadelphia, Wells wrote to Hamtramck that he “was encouraged and hopeful.”[41] His hopes were well founded for in the summer of 1798, Wells received the appointment as Indian agent at Fort Wayne.

Four years later, Fort Wayne was selected as the location for one of the Indian “factories” then being established by the national government. It is somewhat difficult to make a distinction between the Indian agency and Indian factory. Strictly speaking, the factory was the place where goods were received, stored, and distributed, where trading was 40 carried on with the Indians by the government and payments of goods and annuities made. The factor (the government representative in charge of the factory), therefore, dealt primarily in financial and commercial matters. On the other hand, an Indian agent was concerned with political matters, such as the negotiations and treaties for the cession of lands belonging to the Indians. It was his duty to see that the tribes remained friendly to the United States and to report any grievances and discontent. The distinction between the respective positions, however, was one more in theory than in fact. That the agent’s and factor’s duties would overlap is fairly obvious, even if they would have been clearly defined and adhered to. Any political negotiation of the government with the Indians called for payment in money and goods to the Indians, often for a number of years, as well as at the time of the treaty. One of the main causes of Indian dissatisfaction which the agent had to meet was that caused by the poor quality of goods sometime furnished at the Indian factories.

In theory, both the agent and the factor at Fort Wayne were responsible to their immediate superior, Governor Harrison, as commander of military forces and superintendent of Indian affairs in Indiana Territory. However, those agents, such as Wells, who held their positions prior to the creation of the territory continued to deal directly with the Secretary of War as well as with the Governor. Benjamin Stickney, Wells’ successor as agent, refused to recognize Harrison’s authority over him. The factor also received his orders from the Governor and the Secretary of War. More directly he was under the Superintendent of Indian Trade, an official answerable to both the Secretary of War and Congress. During the years before the War of 1812, the post of Superintendent of Indian Trade was held consecutively by William Irvine and John Mason. This lack of central authority pertaining to the factories and agencies only served to add to the confusion already created by the nature of the positions. At a later date, the agent assumed the duties of the factor and the latter term fell into disuse, but until the factory was destroyed by the Indians at Fort Wayne, the two positions remained separate and from the start, difficult to harmonize.

“Colonel” John Johnston served as the first Indian factor at Fort Wayne from 1802 to 1811. Johnston, a prominent figure in the northwest, during his lifetime served thirty-one years with the Department of Indian Affairs. He was born in Ireland on March 22, 1775, and came to America at the age of eleven. A few years later, while yet a youth, he undertook the job of driving supply wagons to Wayne’s army. After receiving his appointment as factor for Fort Wayne, Johnston married sixteen-year-old Rachel Robinson at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, much against the desire of the young girl’s parents. The Johnstons’ wedding trip consisted of the journey by horseback through the wilderness to Fort 41 Wayne. While living at Fort Wayne, Colonel Johnston and his wife were noted for their stern rectitude, which contrasted considerably with the type of life generally found at this military outpost. In later life, Johnston, for his years of government service, became known as “Colonel Johnston”. He is described as “six feet and more in height, very erect, in his bearing and he had a blond complexion inclined to ruddy.”[42]

Besides his duties as factor, Colonel Johnston occasionally served as assistant surgeon at the fort. For his position as factor, Johnston received a salary of $1,000 a year from the government and $365 for subsistence. The latter amount was funded by the profits of the factory. In 1810, William Oliver was appointed to the Fort Wayne factory to serve as Johnston’s assistant. When Oliver resigned in 1812, Johnston secured the position for his brother, Stephen Johnston.

As factor, Johnston aimed at being just to the Indians and loyal to his government, a combination of purpose attended with many difficulties. In a report to the Secretary of War, Johnston pointed out that the trading houses with the northern Indians never produced any political effect in favor of the Americans, as had been expected when they were established. Rather, on the contrary, the Indians were led to believe that the object was to make money; and in as much as the government goods were never sold cheaper than those of the private traders, it was impossible to produce a different impression.[43]

Johnston had trouble procuring the proper kinds of supplies to issue to the Indians at Fort Wayne. The goods intended for the Indian trade were rarely imported into the United States, there being no regular demand for them. On the other hand, the British traders in Canada had agents in England, long accustomed to this commerce, who sent out the very articles needed. The supplies destined for the United States factories went through many hands, and this offered countless opportunities to defraud the Indians and the government. Often the goods came out of season or were damaged. Johnston constantly urged that the trade either be put in the hands of private traders who would be licensed by the government, or, if the government thought it necessary to stay in the business, an expert should be sent to England to do the purchasing of the Indian articles. Typical of the goods used by the Indians are the following items listed in Johnston’s record book, “blankets, strouds, [a coarse Indian blanket] hat bands, head bands, Indian mats, kettles, pans, rings, cloth of various color, wampum, broaches, scalping knives, fish hooks, and tobacco.”[44] Johnston also complained that the military were generally unfriendly to his trading post and even hindered his work at times. Apparently this ill feeling was caused by the fact that the soldiers did not consider it a part of their business to furnish transportation for the furs and Indian goods or to erect the necessary buildings for the 42 trade at Fort Wayne.[45] On one occasion, the factor lost in Lake Erie $2,300 worth of furs. Johnston claimed that the accident came about through the carelessness of a drunken non-commissioned officer, Joseph McMahan, although McMahan was excused of all responsibility by a court martial.[46] The result of the trial provoked Johnston so much that he protested to the Superintendent of Indian Trade, but nothing could be done.

During the decade of its existence prior to the War of 1812, the Fort Wayne factory was the most prosperous of all the trading houses established by the United States government. A report submitted by the Secretary of War to Congress showed that in the three years and ten months preceding January 13, 1812, the Fort Wayne factory made a profit of $10,502.77. This was by far the largest profit shown by any of the ten factories then operated throughout the nation.[47] Another report shows that the fur and peltries received from the Indians at the Fort Wayne factory sold for $27,547.07.[48] While the government did only a small fraction of the fur trading, this is a good indication that the fur trade of the Maumee and Wabash valleys which led the French to fortify the spot was still the principal economic asset of Fort Wayne. Colonel Johnston’s account books suggest that the once abundant beaver skins were becoming scarce. Instead of beaver, racoon and deer skins were being shipped in great quantities.[49] These furs were carried by way of Lake Erie to New York and Philadelphia, where they were sold at auctions. Most of the furs obtained from the private traders were taken to Detroit where they were purchased by the American Fur Company. Skins were worth deer, $1.25; raccoon, $.50; bear, $3.00 to $5.00. These values were nominal, as the price fluctuated and the furs were paid for in goods which were passed off on the Indians for more than double the initial cost and transportation.

In order to transport the skins, they were dried, compressed, and secured in packs. Each pack weighed about 100 pounds. A pirogue or boat, that was sufficiently large to carry forty packs, required the labor of four men to manage it on its voyage. In favorable stages of the river, such a vessel, under the management of skilled boatmen, was propelled by poles fifteen or twenty miles a day, against the current. On the return trips the pirogues were loaded with merchandise to be sold to the Indians.

Turning our attention once more to Indian treaties and their resulting difficulties, important events centered about Fort Wayne between the years 1800 and 1809. The year 1800 in which William Henry Harrison was appointed the first governor of the Indiana Territory was one of peace in the Great Lake region of the United States. The British had evacuated the posts they had held in the northwest, according to the agreement in the Jay treaty, and the Indians appeared content. At Fort 43 Wayne, the future appeared so calm that William Wells wrote to Hamtramck that he expected the garrison to be withdrawn shortly.[50] However, the spark that set off the flames of Indian warfare was soon to be ignited and kept aglow by British intrigue. This spark was the never ending demand for new lands by the western settlers, which resulted in the attempts of the government to satisfy this demand by gaining new land cessions from the Indians.

Governor Harrison, on assuming his office, proceeded promptly to enter into treaty agreements with the Indians for the purchase of their large tracts of land in what are now the states of Indiana and Illinois. This was in accordance with President Jefferson’s objective, the acquisition from the Indians of the whole territory east of the Mississippi. Harrison sent word to the Indians to meet him at Fort Wayne in the summer of 1803 for the first of his important treaty councils. By June 7 of that year, he completed his task, having secured from the Eel River Miamis, Kaskaskia, Kickapoo, Piankashaw, and Wea tribes a large tract of land around Vincennes, as well as the valuable salt spring on the Saline Creek. This treaty had been brought to a successful conclusion for the United States through a combination of Harrison’s shrewdness and stubbornness in bargaining, the financial backing of the factory at Fort Wayne, and the influence of Capt. Wells over Little Turtle. Although Harrison and Johnston obtained the cooperation of Wells in gaining the consent of the Indians, the agent, for the most part, strove against any cession of lands by the Indians. Wells went so far as to instigate the Indians to protest to the national government against a treaty Harrison concluded with the Delawares and Piankashaws the following year.[51]

Between Colonel Johnston, the factor, and Wells, the agent, there was no coordination of purpose or even good will. Outside of the fact that the conflicting duties of their respective positions involved them in quarrels, Wells and Johnston seemed to have been mutually antagonistic, and each put the worst interpretation on the other’s actions when writing to their superiors. Wells felt that Johnston’s policy of trying to win an active alliance with the Indians for the United States in the event of war with Great Britain was in effect evidence of Johnston’s gullibility in dealing with the red men. Even after the battle of Tippecanoe, Johnston gave arms and ammunition to the Indians who had participated in the affair. Wells knew the Indians well, and realized that in the event of war the best that could be expected would be that they would remain neutral. On the other hand, Johnston felt that Wells was completely unprincipled and could not be trusted.

Johnston’s opinion of Wells was shared by Governor Harrison, who nevertheless realized the agent’s great ability in dealing with the Indians. Harrison wrote of Wells on one occasion, “My knowledge of his character induces me to believe that he will go any length and use any 44 means to carry a favorite point and much mischief may ensue from his knowledge of the Indians, his cunning and perservance.”[52] In all matters, Wells and Little Turtle were in agreement, and while the latter’s influence with his fellow tribesmen had diminished considerably with the rise of a new generation, he was still a force to be reckoned with in any treaty negotiations. It is almost certain that neither Wells or Little Turtle intended to arouse the Indians to war against the advance of the tide of settlers, yet they were ready to oppose Harrison’s objectives at the various treaty councils.

Although Harrison indicated in his correspondence with the Secretary of War that he knew the reasons behind Wells’ action in opposing most of the land cessions, the Governor’s letters do not definitely reveal what he meant. In an indefinite manner, Harrison ascribed the reason for Wells’ action to the agent’s attachment for Little Turtle, mingled with a jealousy of the Governor. Harrison apparently felt that Wells had a personal animosity toward him, and that Wells’ opposition was intended to discredit him.[53] In one letter to the Secretary of War Harrison suggested that Wells was profiting dishonestly from his position as Indian agent at Fort Wayne. He wrote:

I am really of the opinion that the Turtle, the Five Medals, and two or three others receive much the greater part of the annuities and provisions which are intended for and said to be given to the Potawatomies and Miamis and I am by no means certain that Wells himself does not largely participate. The fact is admitted that he makes more money than any other man in the Territory. Mr. Johnston told Col. Vigo that he [Wells] cleared last upwards of $6000. How he can do this honestly I am at a loss to know.[54]

Concerning the reason for Little Turtle’s opposition to further land cessions on the part of the Indians, Harrison is more definite in his convictions. In 1803, the Governor wrote of Little Turtle:

“Conscious of his superiority of his Talents over the rest of his race and colour he sighs for a more conspicuous theatre to display them. Opportunities for exhibiting his eloquence occur too seldom to satisfy his vanity.... A chosen connexion among the neighbouring Tribes and a regular convention of their chiefs has been long the ruling wish of his heart and the object of numberless intrigues.”[55]

Assuming that Harrison was correct about Little Turtle’s ambition to form an Indian confederation, it is interesting to observe that had the Miami chief succeeded rather than Tecumseh, the league formed would have been inclined toward peace rather than war with the United States. Following the Treaty of Greenville Little Turtle often objected to further cessions of land, yet, at the same time, he endeavored to induce the red men to lay aside the tomahawk and scalping knife and take up the 45 peaceful tools of agriculture. This fact made him unacceptable to the majority of Indians, as Harrison himself admitted at a later date. “It was the rock upon which the popularity of Tecumseh was founded”, he wrote, “and that upon which the influence of Little Turtle was wrecked.”[56]

The truth of this assertion is made plain in the report of the visit of two Quakers who, in response to an appeal by Little Turtle, came to Fort Wayne in 1804 to attempt to introduce the best methods of agriculture among the Indians. From the official report of Gerard T. Hopkins to his church, the story as here reviewed has been obtained.[57] Mr. Hopkins was accompanied by George Ellicott, also of the Society of Friends, and Philip Dennis, a practical farmer who was engaged to serve as instructor.

The Quakers arrived at Fort Wayne on March 30 and were conducted to Captain Whipple, then commandant of the fort, to whom they presented a letter of introduction and recommendation from Henry Dearborn, Secretary of War. This letter was a liberal commendation of the committee and their motives. General Dearborn was personally acquainted with the members of the committee, was in hearty sympathy with their mission, and rode on horseback from Washington to Ellicott’s home, a distance of forty miles to present the letter to the committee before leaving.

The Quakers were surprised to find that no attention was given, either in the fort or the Indian village, to the proper observance of the Sabbath day. The Friends were entertained by John Johnston, and there the chiefs took supper with the mission committee. Under the guidance of Captain Wells the following days, the Friends went over the lands most suitable for cultivation, and at the same time observed the most historic places and listened to the stories as told by Wells of the Indian villages and of Harmar’s and St. Clair’s defeats.

The rides to the country included visits to large sugar camps and the “prairie” between the St. Mary’s and Little River, the distance from one to the other being but four miles in the then swampy land; and the watershed ridge but five feet high with reports of canoes passing over in highest stages of water. The subject of a canal through this ridge was also mentioned. Indians were constantly coming and going, the women carrying the burdens of packs of skins and bark boxes of maple sugar each weighing about fifty pounds.

The next day Little Turtle and the other chiefs assembled at the home of Captain Wells, and there arrangements were made for Dennis to remain with the Indians and establish a farm. The attempt to educate the Indians to till the soil was undertaken at a point on the Wabash river about twenty miles southwest of Fort Wayne. After the departure of the Quakers, Dennis continued his efforts but only one or, at the most, two 46 of the Indians could be induced to help him. After a year, Dennis returned to Maryland, and as no one could be induced to take his place the project was left in the hands of Wells, who had a contract to supply the Indians with fence rails for the farms.

The Indians were in no mood to give their attention to the tilling of the soil. Trouble of a subdued nature portended serious conflicts for the future. On April 26, 1805, Harrison wrote to the Secretary of War that he felt it was necessary for him to proceed to Fort Wayne to investigate the complaints arising from the Indians threat. These complaints centered chiefly around the treaty concluded with the Delawares and Piankashaws in 1804. The Miamis maintained that they should have shared in the benefits of the treaty as part owners of the land sold, while the Delawares felt that they had not received enough in the way of annuities for the land. Harrison suspected that these complaints arose primarily through the instigation of Wells and Little Turtle and had determined to investigate Wells’ activities as well as the grievances.

Harrison, however, decided not to go personally to Fort Wayne, explaining that it “would be a sacrifice of that dignity and authority which is necessary to observe in all our transactions with the Indians.”[58] In his stead, Harrison dispatched General John Gibson, secretary of Indiana Territory and Colonel Francis Vigo,[59] who on their arrival met strong opposition from Wells and Little Turtle. These two, viewing the visit of Gibson and Vigo with evident suspicion, addressed a letter to the former in which they demanded his credentials. Lieutenant Brownson, in temporary command of Fort Wayne, remarked to the Governor’s agents that he had heard Wells repeatedly say the Indians were very much imposed on in the late treaty. In a private conversation the Miami chief, Richardville, told Colonel Vigo that he was quite surprised to hear an officer who had taken an oath to support the Government of the United States, express himself in the manner Wells had. Richardville also informed them that the Little Turtle, in the presence of Wells, had produced a paper and requested Richardville to sign it. Being a remonstrance in favor of Wells, Richardville refused to sign it, saying, “if Mr. Wells had behaved well there was no occasion to write to the president in his favour that he did not wish to interfere in matters which belonged entirely to the White people, and that he, the Little Turtle, had frequently wrote letters to the president, without their being consulted or asked to sign them.”[60]

Vigo and Gibson were convinced that a certain Peter Audrian had conspired with Wells and Little Turtle in the affair. Audrian was an influential French trader at Detroit, who during his lifetime held the governmental positions of judge, prothonotary, and land commissioner. At this time he had an advantageous contract from Wells to furnish the log rails for the farms of the Indians. In one year alone the Indians purchased 47 63,000 rails from Audrian, many more than were actually needed.[61]

In their report to Governor Harrison, Gibson and Vigo concluded:

“... no noise or clamor respecting the treaty last summer with the Delawares ... would have been made had it not been occasioned by the Little Turtle and Wells, the latter of whom seems more attentive to the Indians than the people of the United States.”[62]

In his report to the Secretary of War, Harrison added that Wells’ services were highly useful and that he discharged his duties on occasions with great zeal and industry. Early in August, 1805, Wells, accompanied by Little Turtle, came to Vincennes. “Both are here,” wrote Harrison to Dearborn, “and I have received from each a positive assurance of a friendly dispostion as well toward the government as myself individually. With Captain Wells, I have had an explanation, and have agreed to a general amnesty and act of oblivion for the past.”[63]

Notwithstanding this seemingly peaceful settlement of the difficulty, the official relationship between Wells and the governor remained strained, and we find Harrison as late as April 23, 1811, writing to the new Secretary of War, Eustis:

“Could I be allowed to dispose of Wells as I thought proper, my first wish would be to place him in the interiour of our settlement where he would never see and scarcely hear of an Indian. But as this is impossible, from his being located in such a manner at Fort Wayne, that he cannot be removed without a very considerable expense, my next wish is to get such an appointment as he could consider an object, where he might be used to advantage, but at the same time so limited as to prevent his doing mischief.”[64]

While Governor Harrison was doing his utmost to secure more territory from the Indians, he did not wish the newly purchased lands to fall into the hands of unscrupulous traders who used the bargaining power of whiskey to rob the Indians of their furs. This was especially true of the United States land around Fort Wayne, which was too distant from Vincennes to be under his effective control. When, in 1805, Harrison heard that it was intended to sell the government land around Fort Wayne immediately, he objected strongly. “I am very certain,” he wrote to the Secretary of War, “that the money which will be put into the Treasury by the sale of it will not counterbalance the inconveniences which will arise from having it settled with the description of people who will naturally buy it.”[65] He then pointed out that Fort Wayne was too far removed from any other settlement to entice American farmers to go there, and in all probability, only Indian traders would buy the land and would thus be out of the reach of the laws of the United States regulating Indian trade and commerce. He conceded that the Fort Wayne 48 was fertile enough for farming and concluded by saying, “If the immediate settlement of it is an object I think it would be better to sell it by contract upon the condition that there would be within a given time a certain number of American farmers upon it.”[66]

The government officials apparently accepted Harrison’s advice since the proposal to sell the Fort Wayne lands was laid aside. It is fortunate that this land was not sold, for it is unlikely that any farmers would have been attracted to this remote spot in northern Indiana during the forthcoming years of Indian difficulties on the frontier. If any settlers had come, it is doubtful that they could have survived the War of 1812. Consequently, Fort Wayne was destined to remain until the end of that war primarily a government outpost of diplomacy, defense, and trade, represented by the Indian agency, the military garrison, and the government factory. There were a few farms of value, such as those of Wells and the officers, but while the land was fertile, the market was too distant for the crops to bring any considerable return. The civilians living in the neighborhood were, for the most part, French families who still found the fur trade profitable, along with a few American traders and sutlers. None of these people held any title to the lands they occupied.

[1]Lieut. John Boyer, “Daily Journal of Wayne’s Campaign,” Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, XXXIV, 554.

[2]T. B. Helm, History of Allen County, Indiana, p. 37.

[3]Lieut. William Clark, famous explorer of the great Northwest, was an officer in Wayne’s Legion at the time of the construction of Fort Wayne.

[4]Lieut. Boyer, loc. cit., p. 556.

[5]Wayne to Knox, Oct. 17, 1794, quoted in Charles Slocum. Op. cit., p. 217.

[6]Lieut. Boyer, loc. cit., p. 561.

[7]Charles Slocum, op. cit., p. 221.

[8]Hamtramck to Wayne, Aug. 13, 1795, Hamtramck Papers, Burton Historical Collection.

[9]Hamtramck to Wayne, Dec. 5, 1794, Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, XXXLV, 734.

[10]Concerning Jacques Lasselle see Above, [p. 14

.]

[11]Charlotte Reeve Conover, Concerning the Forefathers, p. 69.

[12]Harry Wildes, Anthony Wayne, p. 438.

[13]H. S. Knapp, op. cit., p. 357.

[14]Ibid., p. 357.

[15]Otho Winger, The Last of the Miamis, p. 8.

[16]Comte De Volney, View of the Climate and Soil of the United States of America, p. 413.

[17]Hamtramck to Wayne, July 18, 1793, Hamtramck Papers, Penn Historical Society, microfilm at Burton Historical Collection.

[18]Milo N. Quaife, Chicago From Indian Wigwam to Modern City, p. 122.

[19]Harry Wildes, op. cit., p. 435.

[20]Indiana Historical Collections, XV, Fort Wayne Gateway of the West, Garrison Orderly Books, Indian Agency Account Book, ed. Bert J. Griswold, p. 87 ff.

[21]Philip Ostrander to George Hoffman, Oct. 4, 1807, Kingsbury Papers, Chicago Historical Society Library.

[22]John Whipple to J. Kingsbury, Sept. 10, 1804, Kingsbury Papers, Chicago Historical Society Library.

[23]Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, VIII, 445.

[24]Comte de Volney, op. cit., p. 332.

[25]Fort Wayne Garrison Orderly Books, IHC, XV, ed. B. J. Griswold, pp. 173-4, 150, 251, 255, 281-6.

49

[26]Francis Parkman, The Conspiracy of Pontiac, I, 260, 280.

[27]These two roads later came to be called Columbia and Barr streets. For a long time Wayne’s Trace was known as the “Bloody Path” because of Harmar’s and St. Clair’s defeats along this route.

[28]IHC, XV, Fort Wayne Orderly Books, ed. Griswold, pp. 201-2.

[29]Wells to Hamtramck, Oct. 29, 1801, Hamtramck Papers, Burton Historical Library.

[30]Although slavery was forbidden in the Indiana Territory by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, government officials and army officers stationed at Fort Wayne occasionally kept one or two blacks as slaves. This practice existed at other posts and in the case of Fort Snelling, Minnesota led to the series of events behind the famous Dred Scott decision in 1857.

[31]Wilkinson to Major James Bruff, June 18, 1797, American State Papers, Miscellaneous Affairs, Vol. I, p. 586.

[32]General Orders, July 9, 1797, General Orders—General James Wilkinson, 1797-1808 War Department Archives, Old Records Division, Photostat in Burton Historical Collection.

[33]Frances B. Heitman, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army, from its organization September 29, 1789 to March 2, 1903, I, 557.

[34]Gerard T. Hopkins, A Mission to the Indians from the Committee of Baltimore Yearly Meeting to Fort Wayne in 1804, p. 55.

[35]Dearborn to Col. Kingsbury, July 9, 1803, and Dearborn to Burbeck July 20, 1803, Kingsbury Papers, Chicago Historical Society Library.

[36]Pike to Kingsbury, June 29, 1803, Kingsbury Papers, Chicago Historical Society Library.

[37]Gerard T. Hopkins, op. cit., p. 60.

[38]See below, pp. [p 64

-68.]

[39]Comte de Volney, op. cit., p. 401.

[40]Hamtramck to Wells; June 27, 1796, Hamtramck Papers, Burton Historical Collection.

[41]Wells to Hamtramck, March 15, 1797, Hamtramck Papers, Burton Historical Collection.

[42]Charlotte Reeve Conover, Concerning the Forefathers, being a memoir ... of two pioneers, Colonel Robert Patterson and Colonel John Johnson, p. 52.

[43]ASP, Indian Affairs, II, 82-5.

[44]IHC, XV, Indian Agency Account Book, ed. Bert Griswold, pp. 453-466.

[45]Charlotte Reeve Conover, op. cit., p. 42; ASP, Indian Affairs, II, 84.

[46]IHC, XV, Fort Wayne Orderly Books, ed. Bert Griswold, pp. 268-9.

[47]ASP, Indian Affairs, I, 773.

[48]Ibid., p. 791.

[49]IHC, XV, Indian Agency Account Book, pp. 660, 650, 637, 618, 581.

[50]Wells to Hamtramck, November 3, 1800, Hamtramck Papers, Burton Historical Collection.

[51]IHC, VII, Harrison’s Messages and Letters, ed. Logan Esarey, p. 80.

[52]IHC, VII, Harrison’s Messages and Letters, ed. Logan Esarey, p. 125.

[53]Ibid., p. 81.

[54]Ibid., pp. 148-9.

[55]IHC, VII, Harrison’s Messages and Letters, ed. Logan Esarey, p. 81.

[56]Calvin Young, Little Turtle, p. 175.

[57]cf. Gerard T. Hopkins, A Mission to the Indians from the Committee of Baltimore Yearly Meeting to Fort Wayne in 1804.

[58]IHC, VII, Harrison’s Messages and Letters, ed. Logan Esarey, p. 133.

[59]Francis Vigo was a Sardinian adventurer who came to America with a Spanish regiment. He was unstinting with his aid to George Rogers Clark before and after the capture of Vincennes by the Americans. Harrison considered Vigo as one of his most valuable assistants.

[60]IHC, VII, Harrison’s Messages and Letters, ed. Logan Esarey, p. 146.

[61]Wells to Friends at Baltimore, May 10, 1805, quoted in Kathryn Troxel, “A Quaker Mission Among the Indians”, Old Fort News, VII, (1942) 11.

[62]IHC, VII, Harrison’s Messages and Letters, ed. Logan Esarey, p. 146.

[63]Ibid., p. 161.

[64]Ibid., pp. 508-9.

[65]Ibid., p. 149.

[66]Ibid., p. 149.

50

Chapter III
The Impending Conflict

A dozen years had passed since the battle of Fallen Timbers and the defeat suffered by the Indians at that time was growing dim in their memories. English traders and military officials at Malden encouraged the red men to strike once again the Americans who were fast turning their hunting lands into farms and settlements. The occasion awaited only a second Pontiac. That leader came in the person of Tecumseh, the Shawnee. Tecumseh saw his race driven from their native land, their morals debased, their independence destroyed, and their means of subsistence cut off. He looked for the cause of these evils, and believed he found it in the flood of white immigration.

With Tecumseh came his brother Elskwatwa, better known as “the Prophet”. The Prophet prophesied the resurgence of the Indians, and although his character was not as great as Tecumseh’s, for a time he overshadowed Tecumseh. As Pontiac had conspired against the British, so Tecumseh and the Prophet came to destroy the Americans. Unfortunately for the white settlers on the frontier, their great scheme neared its climax simultaneously with the outbreak of war between the United States and Great Britain.

The small outpost at Fort Wayne was to play an important part in the events preceding the conflict as well as in the war itself. Captain Wells, through his close acquaintanceship with the Indians, kept well informed of conditions. He was the first to notify the Secretary of War, Dearborn, of the new danger emanating from the Prophet’s power.[1] In June, 1807, Wells reported that a sort of religious madness had spread among the Indians. A constant stream of warriors had passed Fort Wayne, on the way to the Prophet during April and May; at least 1,500, he estimated, had made the pilgrimage to Greenville, and many more were due in August and September, after the Indian crops had ripened. A month later he wrote to Governor Harrison:

Two confidential Indians that I sent to that quarter [Mackinac] have returned today and say that all the Indians in that quarter believe in what the Prophet tells them.... I am also informed by a letter from Detroit that the inhabitants of that place are fortifying themselves. We are all alarmed at this place, myself excepted, as I can see no danger as yet at our doors. Something must be done. It cannot be done too soon.[2]

51

Wells had sized up the situation correctly. The threat was real and dangerous, but not immediate. That winter he informed Harrison that there was a very unusual assemblage of Potawatomis in the vicinity of Fort Wayne; however, he added that he thought their intentions were pacific. Harrison was not so certain of their friendly intentions and requested Wells to send two or three chiefs to him that he might ascertain their true purpose. The Secretary of War was even more alarmed at the news, and he urged Harrison to visit Fort Wayne in order to find out their real object. Dearborn also mistrusted Wells, who, he thought, was “too attentive to pecuniary considerations.”[3]

Despite the reports of dissatisfaction with the conduct of Wells by his superiors, Harrison and Dearborn, Congress, in 1808, in recognition of his past services, granted him the right of pre-emption to one section of land in the present Spy Run and Bloomingdale districts of Fort Wayne at $1.25 an acre. It was in this section that Wells had already established his farm. Wells died before he could pre-empt the land, but his children took advantage of the government’s offer and entered the property in 1823.

To Fort Wayne, in September, 1809, came Governor Harrison, in spite of the threatening conditions of the community, to make what proved to be his final treaty with the Indians in Indiana Territory. The scene that was enacted was a memorable one. On the one side were arrayed the Governor with his servant, his secretary, four Indian interpreters, and the officers of the fort; on the other, the painted warriors of the Miamis, the Potawatomis, the Delawares, and the Weas. On the third day of the council, 892 warriors were present, on the day of actual signing of the treaty, 1,390 were there.[4] Never before had such a large number of Indians been assembled to meet a commissioner of the United States. There were enough supplies on hand to meet this unexpected demand, although the garrison lacked necessary provisions for some time afterward.

By adroit maneuvering and clever diplomacy, Governor Harrison secured his objective. The agreement, signed on the 17th of September, added to the domain of the United States an area of 2,900,000 acres, the greater portion of which was situated north of the old Vincennes tract. For this were exchanged the usual annuities to be paid to the Indians, a great deal of these being in the form of domestic animals to be delivered at Fort Wayne. Moreover, an armorer was to be employed at Fort Wayne for the benefit of the Indians. The result of the treaty had little direct effect on Fort Wayne, other than making it possible for the line of civilization to move closer to it.

In connection with the treaty of Fort Wayne, the complex question of Captain Wells arose once more to plague the Governor. On April 8, 1809, prior to Harrison’s coming to Fort Wayne, Wells wrote to him in 52 detail concerning the activities of the Prophet. In the letter Wells offered his assistance in forthcoming treaty negotiations.[5] Two weeks after writing this letter, Wells was dismissed as Indian agent at Fort Wayne by Secretary of War, Dearborn. This was shortly before the latter left the War Department. Apparently General Dearborn believed that Wells did not always use the public funds for the best interest of the government. The surprising fact is that Harrison, supposedly the immediate superior of Wells, first learned of the agent’s dismissal when he arrived at Fort Wayne to negotiate the treaty. Harrison was surprised and also a little angered at not being consulted in the matter.

Upon the governor’s arrival, Wells solicited Harrison’s intervention in his behalf and again tendered his aid in bringing the contemplated treaty to a successful conclusion. After the treaty was signed, and while he was still at Fort Wayne, Harrison wrote to William Eustis, Dearborn’s successor about the matter, saying that Wells had rendered most essential services during the negotiations. Harrison then added:

“He [Wells] professes himself to be unconscious of any crime which merits the treatment he has received. I think from his former services he deserves a hearing, and if his removal has been occasioned by misrepresentations, and a vacancy should occur in the Indian Department the government would find it to their account in placing him in it.”[6]

Back at Vincennes, two months later, Harrison wrote to Eustis in a somewhat different tone. First he gave a detailed account of Wells’ career, mentioning his natural abilities as well as the defects in his character. Harrison then said that since the treaty of Fort Wayne, Wells’ conduct was so unfavorable that it did away with all favorable impressions which his zeal for the treaty had created. However, he concluded that it would be better to employ Wells in some position within the Department than not to make use of him at all.[7]

Having heard that Wells might be reinstated in the Indian Department, John Johnston, Wells’ bitterest enemy at Fort Wayne, wrote immediately to Harrison saying:

I think you will have to give up all idea of taking up —— [Johnston usually referred to Wells by a dash in the letter] again. He is too unprincipled to be employed anywhere, except as an interpreter, and under your own eye.... I could detail to you a thousand instances of his total disregard of everything that is held sacred by honest and honorable men. Admitting he was restored here again ... he would be useless to you and the government; for the latter never would put any confidence in his representations, and the public interest would thereby suffer. He has so long travelled in the crooked, miry paths of intrigue and deception, that he never could be made to retrace his steps, and pursue a straight, fair, and honorable course, 53 such as might be creditable to himself and useful to his country. My opinion of him is made up from a long residence at this post, and an intimate knowledge of his character, both public and private ... the sooner all hope of his reestablishment is at an end, it will be the better, for he is becoming a pest here, and will move off if he finds he cannot be reinstated.[8]

Under Article 9 of the treaty of Fort Wayne, part of the land cession of the Indians was valid only with the consent of the Kickapoo tribe. On December 9, they signed a separate treaty and in it added another tract this time subject to the consent of the Miamis. Johnston accused Wells and Little Turtle of stirring up opposition among the Miamis against the new cession of land.

Harrison’s displeasure with Wells became more intense when he learned that a false story was circulated among the Indians around Fort Wayne after the treaty, charging Harrison with buying the lands for his own use and that of the people of Vincennes. What part Wells played in this is not clear. Harrison believed him to be to a large extent responsible, primarily by acting as an agent for William McIntosh, a Scotch Tory. McIntosh was eager to prevent the settling of the new land, as he had acquired title to it from the French at Vincennes.

The situation was made even more delicate and dangerous by the fact that Tecumseh and the Prophet refused absolutely to recognize the validity of the Fort Wayne treaty.

In October, the Indians were called to Fort Wayne on Harrison’s order, in order that Johnston might stop the spread of false stories circulating about the treaty. During the council, Johnston brought up the question that he found was being agitated among the Indians, that is petitioning for the removal of Governor Harrison, on the grounds of misconduct in office. Johnston thought that Wells was the one responsible for the petition, and told the Indians, “that whoever advised them to it was a wicked bad man and not their friend.”[9] The Owl, a Miami chief, maintained that all the mischief going on among them had sprung from Wells and Little Turtle. Johnston also reported that Wells had gone to Washington in an attempt to regain his old position as Indian agent, and Johnston hoped that if Wells failed, he would leave Fort Wayne.

Johnston’s report confirmed Harrison in his belief that Wells was acting as an agent for William McIntosh, by spreading the false stories concerning the governor’s relations with the tribes. The question of Wells’ connection with McIntosh deserves some attention as the quarrel between McIntosh and Harrison was more than one of mere personalities. Their dispute was involved in that of the land speculators and Indian traders on the one hand and the government authority, represented primarily by the governor, on the other. Harrison did all in his power to check the purchase of the Indian lands by speculators and traders. 54 It has been noted above that he prevented the sale of the Fort Wayne lands owned by the government for fear of these lands being purchased by unscrupulous traders. It is possible that Wells fell in line with McIntosh in the latter’s quarrel with the governor. Johnston hints that Wells was eager to trade with the Indians himself, and it is to be remembered that Wells and Peter Audrian tried to prevent the execution of the treaty with the Delawares in 1805.[10]

In the fall of 1810, Harrison brought a libel suit against William McIntosh for slander in regard to the alleged misconduct in the treaty negotiations and general mismanagement of the Indian affairs in the territory on the part of the governor. The trial became a test between the land speculators and Indian traders and Harrison. By the time the trial was over, it included a complete examination of Harrison’s conduct as territorial governor. Connected with the affair were the “Letters of Decius”, a series of attacks on the governor by an Irish lawyer, Isaac Darneille.[11] Considerable attention was directed to the trial throughout the Northwest; the Cincinnati and Frankfort papers carried lengthy accounts of it. The jury gave a verdict in favor of Harrison, and granted him damages of four thousand dollars.

In respect to Wells, it is surprising to learn that he testified at the trial in behalf of Harrison, stating that he found the governor’s manner of dealing with the Indians in the councils at all times just. At first glance, it would seem as though Harrison had been wrong in accusing Wells of scheming with McIntosh, and it is possible that Harrison may have been. However, such a contradiction of previous action is in keeping with the pattern of Wells’ character and life. William Wells was undoubtedly an intelligent and shrewd man, but with this ability was combined a capacity for intrigue for his own benefit, which prevented his superiors from relying on him and most of the Indians in his later life from trusting in him. In trying to play the part of a “Talleyrand” in Indian affairs, Wells failed miserably. Why he chose this manner of accomplishing his purposes is unknown. Possibly his connection with both the white and red races prompted him to believe himself a mediator, who, incidentally, could profit by the differences between the two.

Wells had many enemies and a few friends among both races. If there is any value in the observation, it is to be noted that most of his friends were made in his early life, while his enemies were made after he became Indian agent at Fort Wayne. Among the Indians, Little Turtle was Wells’ most intimate associate, although Five Medals, Blue Jacket, and many of the older chiefs were also counted among his friends. Richardville, one of the shrewdest of the Miamis, did not trust Wells. The Prophet and Tecumseh, as well as Winamac and the White Loon hated Wells. Harrison admitted shortly before Wells’ unexpected death 55 that Wells deserved some credit from the circumstance that the line that separated his friends among the chiefs from his enemies was precisely the same as one Harrison would have designated to separate the friends of the American cause from its enemies.

Among Wells’ white friends were General Wayne, who valued his services immensely, and Colonel Hamtramck, who was also Wells’ business associate. Other commanders at Fort Wayne, notably Captain Heald thought highly of him. On the other hand, his superiors—Harrison, Dearborn, and Eustis—felt that he was unfaithful and not worthy of their trust, while John Johnston despised him.

Considering all this, it is no wonder that Harrison wrote to the Secretary of War in one of his last letters concerning William Wells:

If my letters and opinions on the subject of Wells have appeared to you in any degree inconsistent and contradictory I can not say that they have not exhibited a faithful presentation of what has passed in my mind. You will do me justice in believing that this has not proceeded from fickleness of temper or any less worthy cause but from the contradictory impressions which a knowledge of his superior talents for an appointment in the Indian Department and the fear of his possessing dispositions which might in some degree prove dangerous, have made upon me. Without troubling you again with observations upon his character which I have before frequently made I will merely mention the conclusions which my mind has arrived at after much reflection. Could I be allowed to dispose of Wells as I thought proper my first wish would be to place him in the Interiour of our settlements where he would never see and scarely hear of an Indian. But as this is impossible from his being located in such a manner at Fort Wayne, that he cannot be removed without very considerable expence my next wish is to get him such an appointment as he could consider an object where he might be used to advantage but at the same time so limited as to prevent his doing mischief. I sincerely believe that he would now be faithful. His activities and talents need not be doubted.[11a]

Harrison still found Wells’ ability worth while and made use of this despite the latter’s severance from the Indian department. In April, Wells and John Conner were sent to the Prophet’s town to investigate the murder of four white people in the neighborhood. Wells had a prolonged conversation with Tecumseh during which the Shawnee openly declared his intention to resist the white encroachments. In July, Tecumseh came to Vincennes with a large body of Indians and once more protested strongly against the agreements of the Fort Wayne treaty of 1809.

In the midst of this agitation, Captain Heald, the commander at Fort Wayne, was transferred to the post at Fort Dearborn. Captain Heald was followed shortly by his young bride, Rebekah Wells, the favorite niece of William Wells. Arriving on May 15, 1810, Capt. James Rhea took 56 over the command of Fort Wayne. Rhea was a native of New Jersey, and had received a commission in the army in 1791. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1800, and was commissioned a captain in 1807. He had served with Wayne’s army and for a time was assigned to the command of Fort Industry on the Maumee River. Shortly before coming to Fort Wayne, Captain Rhea married Polly Forsyth, the 18 year old daughter of James Forsyth, a wealthy Detroit merchant.[12]

Two days after his arrival at Fort Wayne, Captain Rhea wrote to his superior, Colonel Kingsbury:

... I found Capt. Heald at this Place; he starts in the morning ... I am much pleased with my Command; I hope to be continued here ... at this Post every thing has been going on very correct; I mean to take the Tract of Capt. Heald as near as possible ... I have been very ill with Rheumatism Pains ever since I left you. I don’t know if ever I shall recover, I have not had a Night Sleep in two Weeks.[13]

The following month Captain Rhea reported that he was still suffering a great deal from the rheumatic attacks; nevertheless during his first year at Fort Wayne, the captain displayed the qualities of a good commander. He made considerable repairs on the fort and carried out a program of sanitation and land clearance. He knew of the impending trouble with the Indians, but he failed, when the time came, to grasp the opportunity of achieving recognition. At the critical moment, Captain Rhea proved to be a weak character, given somewhat to alarmist tendencies. During the siege of Fort Wayne, he displayed appalling cowardice and a fondness for whiskey which proved his undoing. Whether or not he sought to relieve his continued attacks of rheumatism by alcohol can only be surmised, but his decline from the position taken in his first garrison order at Fort Wayne to that of a slave of alcohol in 1812, forms a striking reversal. In his first order on May 20, 1810, he noted the “abonimable [sic] practice” of drunkenness among the men, and commented that he was “much hurt to see so much intoxication.”[14]

From the captain’s first quarterly report for the months of April, May, and June, 1810, we have the following information in regard to the garrison:

Officers: Captain, James Rhea; First Lieutenant, William Whistler; Second Lieutenant, Philip Ostrander; Composition of the Company; Native Americans, 36; Englishmen, 1; Irishmen, 11; Frenchmen 2; total, 50. Strength of the Company: 1 captain, 2 subalterns, 3 sergeants, 2 corporals, 3 musicians, 39 privates.[15]

Captain Rhea’s report for November was almost identical in regard to the number of his men, but he added that the garrison was 31 men short of its required strength of 81 men. He also felt that the arms of the garrison were in bad condition, while on the other hand, the clothing of 57 the men was in good condition and the fort was regularly supplied with provisions and ammunition. Captain Rhea reported the discipline of the troops to be good, but actually it could have been no better than usual, judging from the numerous court martials recorded in the garrison orders during his command.[16]

During the summer of 1811, Fort Wayne became for the Indians the central point between the Prophet’s Town on the Tippecanoe river and Malden, the British post across from Detroit where arms and ammunition were distributed to the red men. On August 11, 1811, John Shaw, the assistant government agent at Fort Wayne, reported to the Secretary of War that the situation in regard to the Prophet was growing serious, and many of the neutral tribes were coming to him for advice.[17] To determine the exact disposition of these neutral tribes, in particular the Miamis, Delawares, and Potawatomis, Governor Harrison dispatched Toussaint Dubois to Fort Wayne. In a council on the 4th of September, Dubois found the Indians divided almost equally for and against the Prophet’s schemes. After receiving Dubois’ report, Harrison instructed John Johnston to separate the friendly Indians from the others and to place them, if possible, in settlements on the White River, where they would be safe from the contemplated attack of the American army on the Prophet’s town.

With regular troops and militia, Governor Harrison advanced up the Wabash in October towards the Prophet’s town on the Tippecanoe river. Early in the morning of November 7, 1811, on the fields of Tippecanoe, the Prophet’s forces attacked Harrison’s Army, but were driven back after a hard fought battle. At Fort Wayne the first reports of the engagement indicated that the Americans had suffered a severe defeat. Until the correct information was received a week later, the garrison and populace were in a state of great anxiety.

Two weeks after the battle, on the 22 of November, the period for the annual meeting of the Indians to receive their annuities having arrived, the tribes assembled at Fort Wayne in great numbers. Many of the chiefs were fresh from Tippecanoe, but they claimed their annuities along with peaceful tribes, saying that the Prophet alone was to blame for the hostilities, and that he had been imprisoned by his own followers. Although entirely untrue, these stories had the desired effect on John Johnston, and he was thereby induced to grant the Indians their annuities. Many of the tribes were sincere in seeking peace at this time, but Johnston’s hasty action in granting the annuities provoked Harrison, who heretofore had never criticized the factor’s decisions.

Shortly after this incident, Johnston was transferred to Piqua, Ohio, to act as principal agent for the Shawnee tribe. His precipitate action in regard to the annuities had nothing to do with the transfer, since Johnston himself had applied for the change in positions, five months 58 before the battle of Tippecanoe, in order to be near his farm at Piqua, Ohio.

Johnston’s successor, Major Benjamin Franklin Stickney was a singularly brave man, but very eccentric and headstrong. A suggestion of his eccentric character is found in the choice of names for his children. The sons were styled, “One, Two, and Three” and the daughters bore the names of states of the union. Benjamin Stickney had been in the government service at Upper Sandusky, Ohio, prior to coming to Fort Wayne. While at Fort Wayne, he and his family occupied the council house, located just outside the stockade of the fort.

Stickney was rather cold and heartless in his attitude towards the Indians. In 1815, testifying before a Senate committee, he stated:

... it is cheaper to reduce them [Indians] by meat and bread than by force of arms; and from the observations I have had the opportunity of making, three or four months full feeding on meat and bread ... will bring on disease, and in six or eight months great mortality ... I believe that more Indians might be killed with the expense of $100,000 in this way than $1,000,000 expended in the support of armies to go against them.[18]

In December Tecumseh visited Fort Wayne. He had not been a participant in the battle of Tippecanoe, as the conflict had been instigated by the Prophet while Tecumseh was visiting the tribes along the Ohio river. The outcome of the battle had ruined his plan of an Indian confederation, but Tecumseh was still confident he could succeed with the help of the British. At Fort Wayne he made bitter reproaches against Governor Harrison; and at the same time demanded ammunition from Captain Rhea, who refused. McAfee relates that Tecumseh “then said he would go to his British father, who would not deny him. He appeared thoughtful a while, and then gave the warwhoop and went off.”[19]

Such was the spirit in which Tecumseh left Fort Wayne. The year 1812 became a period of terror throughout the West. Fort Wayne, in the center of the turmoil and uncertainty preceding the outbreak of the war, became an excellent listening-post for the news passing between Malden and the Indians along the Wabash. Harrison and the officials of the War Department paid particular attention to the information gathered by Wells, Stickney and John Shaw at Fort Wayne. On February 10, Wells reported that two British emissaries passed Fort Wayne on their way to the Prophet’s village. He added that the Potawatomis were ready to strike the Americans at Fort Dearborn and Fort Wayne whenever war was declared between the United States and Great Britain.[20]

On March 1, Wells wrote that Tecumseh had arrived on the Wabash and that “he has determined to raise all the Indians he can, immediately, with an intention, no doubt, to attack our frontiers.”[21] Writing to 59 General Hull, Benjamin Stickney came to the conclusion, somewhat belatedly, that it was necessary to cut off all communication between the Indians within the territory of the United States and Canada.[22] Stickney was also extremely annoyed by the activities of Esidore Chaine, a clever agitator employed by the British to maintain connections with the Indians in the Fort Wayne area. Chaine had held several conferences with the Indians, advising them to remain at peace with the Americans until war broke out between Great Britain and the United States.

The last report of Tecumseh’s actions before the outbreak of the war came from Wells at Fort Wayne. On June 17, Tecumseh stopped long enough at Fort Wayne for Wells to find out that the chief was on his way to Malden to receive from the British twelve horse loads of ammunition for the use of his people at Tippecanoe. The following day, Congress declared war against Great Britain. A week later the news arrived at Fort Wayne and the other Northwestern posts.

Even at this hour the question of whether Harrison had full control over the Indian factor at Fort Wayne or not remained unsettled. This time Benjamin Stickney, rather than Wells, chose to display his independence of the Governor. However, the matter did relate to Captain Wells, who at the time intended to retire altogether from governmental service at Fort Wayne and move to Kentucky. Having been informed of this by Colonel Geiger, Wells’ father-in-law, and believing the presence of Wells at Fort Wayne was necessary at this critical time, Governor Harrison wrote to Benjamin Stickney, saying that Stickney should consider Wells under his immediate orders and that he should employ Wells wherever possible and beneficial for the government.

To this order Stickney replied:

In all my instructions from the secretary of war ... he has not given me the least intimation that I was to consider myself under the direction of any other officer than himself. And as I received my appointment from the secretary of war by the approbation of the President it appears to be a dictate of common sense that I should consider his instructions as the rule of my conduct. And he has instructed me to have nothing to do with Wells and that Wells is to have nothing to do with Indian affairs at Fort Wayne. Nevertheless every communication from you shall be attended to by me with the greatest cheerfullness and conformed to as far as my instructions with the Department will permit.[23]

Stickney’s attitude provoked Harrison a great deal. The governor immediately dispatched a lengthy letter to the Secretary of War in which he brought up the entire question of his authority over the Indian agents in Indiana Territory, and he urged the War Department to correct any misconceptions relating to it. Reference was made by Harrison to the incident of Wells acting independently in 1803 and the vindication of 60 Harrison’s authority over Wells at that time. Finally, Harrison caustically observed that “it has been reserved for the ‘Common sense’ of Mr. Stickney to discover that no such obligation existed because he derived his appointment immediately from you.”[24]

Truly the situation did call for the utmost vigilance from the members of the Indian department and demanded harmony and concert in their measures. If Stickney would have been permitted to stand upon ground independent of the governor, their plans could have resulted in contradiction that would have produced a discord fatal to the interests of the nation. Harrison had directed Stickney to correspond regularly with him concerning the trend of events at Fort Wayne and to send copies of all such correspondence to the War Department in order that it might be fully and immediately informed of the important happenings at Fort Wayne. Harrison had also ordered Wells to send any messages directed to him through Stickney. However, Wells naturally disregarded these instructions whenever he wrote to Harrison concerning Stickney’s actions.

Stickney was the subject matter of Wells’ last two letters to the Governor. On July 22, Wells reported that the Prophet with one hundred of his followers had been at Fort Wayne for ten days and planned to leave that day. During this interval Major Stickney appeared to have been completely beguiled by the Prophet’s declarations of neutrality. Despite Tippecanoe and the fact that Tecumseh was already allied with the British, Stickney allowed the Prophet to take the lead in the councils with Indians and freely gave the Prophet ammunition and supplies. On July 19, the Prophet received word from Tecumseh to send the women and children west of the Mississippi and to unite the warriors for a blow at Vincennes. In order to make better time the Prophet’s men stole two riding horses from Wells’ farm and proceeded westward. To make sure that Stickney would suspect nothing, the Prophet informed him of the theft of the horses and dispatched two men on foot, supposedly to find the thieves. According to Wells, Stickney swallowed this bait and congratulated the Prophet on his honesty.[25]

Two weeks before his death at Fort Dearborn, Wells wrote to Harrison, stating that Stickney, “does not consider himself under your constraint. He declares publicly that you have no authority over him. Your speech to the Indians has been here seven weeks and has never been communicated to the Indians by the agent.”[26] Thus in his last letter, Wells had completed the circle of contradiction and now stood with Harrison in an attempt to uphold the governor’s authority over the agent at Fort Wayne.

To his credit, Harrison saw the importance of having Wells remain at Fort Wayne during this crucial time. Concerning this, Harrison wrote to the Secretary of War, “He [Wells] is ... able from his influence over a few chiefs of great ability to effect more than any other person particularly 61 with regard to the now all important point of obtaining information.”[27]

Three days after Harrison wrote this, Wells’ most intimate friend and greatest of the chiefs, Little Turtle, died at Fort Wayne. The chief had long suffered from the gout, and in order that he might have the attendance of the post surgeon, he was brought from his village on the Eel river to the home of Wells. Little Turtle was buried with full military honors on Captain Wells’ farm, Captain Rhea and the officers of the garrison being present.[28]

Within a period of two weeks after the death of Little Turtle, General William Hull, governor of Michigan and commandant of a strong American force at Detroit, sent an order to Fort Dearborn, instructing the commander Captain Nathan Heald to evacuate the fort and transfer the occupants of the lonely post to Fort Wayne. Hull also sent word of the intended evacuation to Fort Wayne, ordering the officers there to cooperate in the movement by rendering Captain Heald any information and assistance in their power. Captain Wells, spurred by a desire to aid in the evacuation and by the fact of his close relationship with Mrs. Heald, organized a company of thirty friendly Miamis and with Corporal W. K. Jordan from the garrison started for Fort Dearborn on August 8, 1812. Milo Quaife asserts that the arrival of Wells five days later afforded the only ray of cheer and hope which came to the settlement in this time of danger.[29] Preparations for departure were under way when Wells arrived. Wells was downcast. To remain in the fort now meant death from starvation as all the supplies except the little needed for the journey had been destroyed or given to the Indians. The attempt to reach Fort Wayne was the only alternative.

The story of the anguished departure from the fort on the morning of August 15 and the subsequent massacre need not be related here. Suffice it to say that Captain Wells was killed during the battle in an attempt to save the women and children. The Indians paid their sincerest tribute of respect to his bravery by cutting out his heart and eating it, thinking thus to imbibe the qualities of its owner in life. Quaife writes, “Wells was the real hero of the Chicago masacre, giving his life voluntarily to save his friends.”[30] Thus, Captain Wells’ colorful career was brought to a close. Paradoxically, he died while fighting against the Indians, although in his first battles he had fought on their side. In death as in life Wells remained an enigmatic figure, one who deserves far more attention by those endeavoring to understand the frontier with its curious mixture of romanticism and realism. Wells’ companion from Fort Wayne, Corporal Jordan, was captured by the Indians but later made his escape, finally reaching the safety of Fort Wayne on August 26 after seven days in the wilderness.

62

[1]IHC, VII, Harrison’s Messages and Letters, ed. Logan Esarey, p. 223.

[2]Ibid., p. 242.

[3]Ibid., p. 285.

[4]Elmore Barce, “Harrison and the Treaty of Fort Wayne, Indiana”, Indiana Magazine of History, II, 361.

[5]IHC, VII, Harrison’s Messages and Letters, p. 337.

[6]Harrison to Eustis, Oct. 3, 1809, this letter was copied by Capt. Heald and sent to Colonel Kingsbury. This copy is to be found in the Kingsbury Papers, Chicago Historical Society Library.

[7]IHC, VII, Harrison’s Messages and Letters, ed. Logan Esarey, pp. 393-5.

[8]Ibid., p. 432.

[9]Ibid., p. 477.

[10]It must be remembered that the Indians were never completely passive to the surrender of their lands. This, Harrison often failed to take into account, when alleging instigation of the Indians by white men.

[11]cf. Henry Adams, History of the United States, VI, 107.

[11a]IHC, VII, Harrison’s Messages and Letters, ed. Logan Esarey, pp. 508-9.

[12]Capt. Rhea to Col. Kingsbury, March 18, 1810, Kingsbury Papers, Chicago Historical Society Library.

[13]Capt. Rhea to Col. Kingsbury, May 17, 1810, Kingsbury Papers, Chicago Historical Society Library.

[14]IHC, XV, Fort Wayne Orderly Books, ed. B. J. Griswold, 302.

[15]Capt. Rhea to Col. Kingsbury, July 1, 1810, Kingsbury Papers, Misc. Letters, 1804-1813, Chicago Historical Society Library.

[16]IHC, XV, ed. B. J. Griswold, pp. 302-350 passim.

[17]IHC, VII, Harrison’s Messages and Letters, ed. Logan Esarey, p. 557.

[18]American State Papers, Indian Affairs, II, 84-5.

[19]McAfee, History of the Late War in the Western Country, p. 128.

[20]IHC, IX, Harrison’s Messages and Letters, ed. Logan Esarey, pp. 21-2.

[21]Ibid., p. 27.

[22]Ibid., p. 53.

[23]IHC, IX, Harrison’s Messages and Letters, ed. Logan Esarey, p. 68.

[24]Ibid., p. 69.

[25]IHC, IX, Harrison’s Messages and Letters, ed. Logan Esarey, pp. 77-78.

[26]Wells to Harrison, July 30, 1812, Burton Historical Collection.

[27]IHC, IX, Harrison’s Messages and Letters, ed. Logan Esarey, p. 70.

[28]What is believed to be the grave of Little Turtle was discovered in 1912 at the home of Dr. George Gillie in the Spy Run section.

[29]M. M. Quaife, Chicago and the Old Northwest, 1673-1835, p. 225.

[30]Ibid., p. 217.

63

Chapter IV
The Siege of Fort Wayne

At last the savages had struck their long deferred blow. The little garrison of eighty-five men at Fort Wayne received with alarm the first account of the massacre at Fort Dearborn. The news was conveyed by one of the friendly Miamis who had accompanied Wells to Fort Dearborn. Unknown to the garrison at this date was the fact that Detroit—the protecting center of the other northwestern posts—had been ingloriously surrendered on August 16 to a British-Indian force by General William Hull. Mackinac had already fallen to the British. Tecumseh and the British now turned their attention to the reduction of Fort Wayne and Fort Harrison (near Terre Haute, Indiana), as the principal remaining obstacles to prevent them from driving the white inhabitants beyond the Ohio river. After their success at Dearborn, a council was held by the Indian tribes and British officers at the Potawatomie villages. Here it was determined that the Potawatomies together with the Ottawas were to be assisted in the proposed siege of Fort Wayne by a British force under Major Muir. Meanwhile the Winnebagoes and Miamis would direct their attention toward Fort Harrison.

When the people of Fort Wayne became aware of the gravity of their situation, it was determined to send the women and children to a safe refuge, the closest being Piqua, Ohio. In order to accomplish this, Captain John Logan, a Shawnee Indian, was sent by John Johnston from Piqua to conduct the group which numbered close to twenty-five. Among Logan’s charges on the hundred-mile journey were Ann, Rebecca, and Mary Wells, and the wives and children of Antoine Bondie, William Bailey, and Stephen Johnston. This was but the first of many acts of heroism on the part of the Shawnee brave, John Logan, during the war.[1]

None too soon were the women and children removed to a place of safety, for in a short time about five hundred warriors began to gather quietly about Fort Wayne, encamping in the forest and seeking to avoid open evidence of hostility. Theirs was a waiting game, as the British had promised troops and artillery within a period of twenty days.

Fortunately for the garrison and the people remaining near Fort Wayne, the Indian plan to attack the fort was discovered beforehand in much the same manner as Pontiac’s famous plan to capture Detroit had been revealed to the British at an earlier date in history. On the night of August 20, Metea, a Potawatomie chief, made his way under cover of 64 darkness to the cabin of Antoine Bondie outside of the fort enclosure and there revealed to Bondie the plans of attack in order that Bondie and his Indian wife might escape death. Antoine Bondie, a French trader, was then about fifty years old and had lived with the Indians since he was twelve near the vicinity of Fort Wayne. Metea naturally thought that Bondie would join them and when the Frenchman did not decline the chief’s offer, he suspected nothing.

However, Bondie accompanied by Charles Peltier, another French trader, went to Benjamin Stickney the following morning and informed the agent of the plot.[2] Stickney, who at a later date wrote his account of the siege, gave himself most of the credit for the turn the events then took.[3] At first, he relates, he was inclined to reject Bondie’s information as false, since a mistake in a matter of so much importance would have proved ruinous to his character and would have resulted in his disgraceful ejection from office. However, he informed Captain Rhea of the situation, and despite the fact that the Captain discredited Bondie’s story on the grounds that the latter was untrustworthy, Stickney determined to send an express to Harrison at Cincinnati and another to Captain Taylor at Terre Haute informing them of the state of affairs.

Why Captain Rhea should have refused and Stickney should have hesitated to believe that an attack was imminent even though they knew of the massacre at Fort Dearborn is difficult to understand. It can be said in their defense that when Bondie revealed to them the plot of the red men, they had not yet heard of the surrender of Detroit; consequently, did not realize their position was so precarious. Lt. Curtis in his account of the siege of Fort Wayne states that many attempts were made to send messages through to Detroit, but that they all failed.[4] Earlier in the same day that Metea informed Bondie of the coming attack on Fort Wayne, Captain Rhea expressed the rather naive belief that the Potawatomies gathering about the fort intended to proceed to Piqua for a conference with the U. S. commissioners, and requested Governor Meigs of Ohio to send him instructions concerning the matter. At the same time Captain Rhea asked for information in regard to General Hull’s movements at Detroit, which indicated he knew nothing of the surrender.[5]

Four days later it was becoming increasingly apparent that the information furnished by Antoine Bondie was no mere fiction. Stephen Johnston, who served as a clerk at the Fort Wayne factory after the departure of his older brother, described conditions surrounding the fort in a letter written August 24, 1812, to his wife at Piqua:

“We have about four hundred Indians here. Their intentions are very suspicious. I have moved all the public goods into the garrison, so that I am now unincumbered by the business, and if it were not for Mr. Stickney’s illness, and having to attend to his department, I 65 would leave the place for the present, as the trading establishment is at an end for the time being.”[6]

On the 24 or 25 of August, Captain Rhea dispatched a message to General Worthington and Governor Meigs of Ohio, stating that he expected the fort to be attacked that night.[7] This was the last communication received from the garrison prior to the start of the siege. It is fortunate that these appeals for aid were sent by Benjamin Stickney and Captain Rhea as they served to hasten Harrison’s army of relief in time to save the fort. By August 28, Harrison, realizing the gravity of the situation, wrote to the Secretary of War, “The relief of Fort Wayne will be my first object.”[8]

Meanwhile at Fort Wayne, both parties wished to delay the final conflict, the garrison in order to give time to Harrison to bring the necessary relief, and the Indians, from daily expectation of the arrival of the British force which had been promised them. Within the fort, the situation was rendered highly embarrassing and hazardous by the condition of Captain Rhea who began to drink heavily and was incapable of handling any duties. It is evident also that ill-feeling between Benjamin Stickney and the two lieutenants, Curtis and Ostrander, was not lacking. In his account, Stickney wrote, “The commanding officer was drunk nearly all the time, and the two lieutenants were inefficient men, entirely unfit to hold commissions of any grade.”[9] This last statement must be taken with some allowance, as Philip Ostrander was later made temporary commander of Fort Wayne with Harrison’s approval, and Daniel Curtis rose to the rank of captain after creditable service during the war.

By August 28, the post was definitely in a state of siege. About ten o’clock that night Stephen Johnston, accompanied by Peter Oliver and a recently discharged soldier set out for Piqua, as Johnston was eager to join his wife there. When the three men had arrived at a point a short distance south of the fort, near what was the Hanna homestead, they were fired upon by the Indians. Johnston was killed instantly. The other two men fled back to the fort. A reward of twenty dollars, offered by Antoine Bondie the next day for the return of Johnston’s body to the fort—a work performed by a young chief, White Racoon—revealed the fact that Johnston had been scalped and tomahawked in a most brutal manner.

No further proof of the attitude of the Indians was needed; however the next morning an Indian approached the fort and asked Stickney for a white flag in order that some of the chiefs might come and speak with him. The flag was granted under a promise of its being returned that day, but the Indians kept it several days during which time they were constantly plundering the gardens and cornfields and were killing and 66 carrying away the cattle and hogs. This they did right under the guns of the fort, and comments Lt. Curtis, “we poor soldiers, either from cowardice or some other agency in our captain, were not suffered to fire a gun but obliged their repeated insults to pass with impunity.”[10]

On one occasion a party of soldiers left the fort to check the Indians. For this the lieutenants were rebuked by Captain Rhea in an official order.[11] Finally the Indians bearing the flag before themselves approached the fort in large number, hoping evidently to be allowed to enter in such force as to be able to overpower the occupants. But only a few were admitted by Stickney, who designated thirteen chiefs who would be welcomed. Each chief was disarmed on entering the stockade and the party followed the agent to his quarters. At the request of Stickney the troops were paraded during the council which followed. When the council pipes were finished, Winamac addressing the agent disclaimed any part in the death of Johnston. “But,” he added, “if my father wishes for war, I am a man.”[12] With this expression he struck his hand upon a knife that was concealed under his blanket. Stickney at the time did not understand the language, but Antoine Bondie who was present and understood the whole force of what was said, sprang to his feet and, striking his own knife, shouted in Potawatomie, “I, too, am a man.”[13] His dramatic action, together with the appearance of the soldiers, fully armed, brought the plot to a finish. The Indians had hoped through the murder of Stickney and the officers, to be able to control the situation within the fort, even to the opening of the gates to allow the entrance of their warriors. However, they filed back to their encampment disappointed.

The garrison was cheered on September 1 by the arrival of William Oliver who brought news of the approach of Harrison’s army. Oliver, who was then twenty-five years of age, had been connected with the fort as a sutler. While the Indians were gathering about the fort he was absent in Cincinnati purchasing supplies, and there he learned of the state of affairs at Fort Wayne. He enlisted with the Ohio troops and offered his services to General Harrison with the proposition that the general allow him to proceed from St. Mary’s, Ohio, to Fort Wayne with a small company as an advance detachment of the army of relief. This he did, but when the group of ninety-four men came within twenty-four miles of Fort Wayne, they ascertained the size of the besieging forces to be larger than they could safely meet in an open encounter. Oliver continued on, however, with three Shawnees—Captain John Logan, Captain Johnny, and Brighthorn. Well mounted and well armed, they eluded the vigilance of the besiegers and succeeded in reaching the Maumee river at a point one and a half miles east of the fort. Here they left their horses in order to make a preliminary reconnoiter. The enemy was conferring on a strategem for the capture of the garrison and had gathered 67 on the west and south sides of the fort. Returning to their horses, the four messengers rode stealthily along the Maumee and up the bank to the east wall of the fort. No member of the garrison was in sight. In despair, they rode down the river bank and skirted the shore as they turned their horses to the west to follow the St. Mary’s river. Then, in full view of the Indians, they dashed up the river bank and made straight for the north gate of the fort, at a moment when Winamac and four other chiefs were rounding the northwest corner of the fort with a flag of truce to hold another conference with the commandant. The sudden appearance of the riders disconcerted the besiegers who believed them to be the advance of a large relieving force. Winamac retired after a mere handshake. Lt. Curtis later stated, “The safe arrival of Mr. Oliver at that particular juncture may justly be considered most miraculous. One hour sooner or one hour later would no doubt have been inevitable destruction both to himself and escort.”[14]

Once within the fort Oliver announced the approach of Harrison’s army and immediately dispatched a note to Harrison by John Logan and his companions, who succeeded in evading the besiegers once again.

In the meantime Harrison’s force had reached Piqua on September 1. Here he found the whole “country in dreadful alarm on account of the fall of Detroit and Chicago and the supposed investiture of Fort Wayne by the Indians.”[15] A body of 700 volunteers for the relief of Fort Wayne was unwilling to go beyond Shane’s Crossing on the St. Mary’s without reinforcements. On September 4, Harrison received information that a British and Indian force was advancing toward Fort Wayne from Malden. Actually, the British detachment under Major Muir did not leave Malden until September 16, four days after the siege was abandoned by the Indians. This delay by the British was occasioned by the temporary armistice arranged between General George Prevost and General Dearborn. Had the British sent support to the besieging Indians sooner, or had not Harrison been so prompt in bringing relief, the outcome of the siege of Fort Wayne might have been far different. As it was the garrison being well supplied with provisions was able to withstand the attacks made by the Indians.

Nevertheless, the situation at Fort Wayne was fairly critical from September 3, to September 12. On September 3, Captain Rhea published his final garrison order, saying, “It is earnestly hoped by the Commanding Officer that for this night every man will be at his post,—relief is at hand but means may be taken to cut us off from that relief. Should any man be found inattentive to his duty, punishment ensues; For on this night, our fame, our honor and every thing that is near & dear depends. —be therefore Cautious and brave—“[16] For the following twenty-seven days no entry was placed in the Orderly Book. The next morning, despite his dramatic order, Captain Rhea, inwardly 68 disheartened and apprehensive of the doom of the garrison and its occupants, took to drink to bolster his despairing nature.

On the same day the chiefs again approached the fort with a flag of truce, and being asked whether they wished war or peace, Winemac replied, “You know that Mackinaw is taken, Detroit is in the hands of the British, and Chicago has fallen; and you must expect to fall next, and that in a short time! Immediately”, Lt. Curtis continues, “our great captain invited the savage over to his headquarters and after drinking three glasses of wine with him rose from his seat and observed: ‘My good friend, I love you; I will fight for you; I will die by your side. You must save me!’ and then gave him a half dollar as a token of friendship, inviting him at the same time to come and breakfast with him the next morning.”[17]

Winamac failed to accept the Captain’s invitation to breakfast, but instead sent five warriors who secreted themselves behind a small building and shot two members of the garrison. From then on the siege became active. That night the Indians made a general attack, but were driven off by the four howitzers of the fort. Almost continuous firing was kept up day and night until September 10; several times the buildings were set on fire by flaming arrows, but the vigilance of the garrison prevented a conflagration.

During this time, Captain Rhea continued “drunk as a fool, and perfectly incapable of exercising rationality on any subject whatsoever, but was constantly abusing and illtreating everyone that came in his presence.”[18] The disorder and confusion he created among the men was one of the greatest dangers of the siege. At one time Lieutenants Curtis and Ostrander considered placing him under arrest in order to silence his clamor. The captain would frequently talk of surrendering if the Indian attacks grew stronger and particularly if they or the British would bring up the cannon they had captured at Chicago. When Captain Rhea was told by Lt. Ostrander that the largest piece at Chicago was a three-pounder and that the first person in the garrison who should offer to surrender at the approach of no heavier piece than a three-pounder should instantly be shot, he remained silent on the subject.

Meanwhile, instead of waiting at Piqua for the arrival of General James Winchester, who had been assigned to the command of the northwestern army, Harrison issued the following call:

Mounted Volunteers! I requested you, in my late address to rendezvous at Dayton on the 15th instant. I have now a more pressing call for your services! The British and Indians have invaded our country and are now besieging (perhaps have taken) Fort Wayne. Every friend to his country, who is able to do so, will join me as soon as possible, well mounted, with a good rifle and twenty or thirty days provisions.[19]

69

Although Harrison was eager to press forward, the army was detained at Piqua for lack of flints and did not move until September 6. Two days later it reached Girty’s Town, now St. Mary’s, Ohio. By that time the army numbered 2,200 men, and the scouts sent out by the Indians returned to their camp with the report that “Kentuck is coming as numerous as the trees.”[20]

At Fort Wayne comparative calm had set in, according to Lt. Curtis’ account. “After the 10th we rested in tranquility, but could see large bodies of Indians between that time and the 12th running in great haste across the prairies and many without arms.”[21] On the night of the 11th, while still seventeen miles from Fort Wayne, Harrison wrote to the Secretary of War that he fully expected a major engagement the following day. The Indians were prepared to give battle at a swamp five miles southeast of the fort, but finding Harrison’s army too strong to attack, they kindled extensive fires to create the impression within the fort that a battle had occurred. They hoped thereby to draw the troops out of the fort, but his final ruse failed, and the Indians withdrew, some only a few minutes before the arrival of Harrison’s advance guard.

The arrival of the army around three o’clock that afternoon was an occasion of great joy to the troops and people who had taken refuge within the fort. Harrison’s men encamped outside the walls of the fort where, McAfee relates, “a few days previous there had been a handsome little village; but it was now in ruins.”[22] The government factory had been burned by the Indians as well as the large council house. Captain Wells’ farm had been overrun and laid waste, while all the outlying homes were destroyed. The corn which had been cultivated by the villagers was nearly all gone and the remainder served as forage for Harrison’s cavalry.

Fort Wayne was described by McAfee as:

Delightfully situated on an eminence on the south bank of the Miami of the Lake [Maumee river] immediately below the formation that river by the junction of the St. Marys with the St. Josephs ... It is well constructed of block houses and picketting, but could not resist a British force, as there are several eminences on the south side, from which it could be commanded by a six or nine pounder.[23]

After referring to the proximity of the Wabash river to that of the St. Mary’s, McAfee added, “A canal at some future day will unite these rivers and thus render a town at Fort Wayne, as formerly, the most considerable place in all that country.”[24]

From a military viewpoint, Fort Wayne had successfully withstood the siege, but the destruction of the village and trade must be considered as a major setback to the community. McAfee indicated this even though he foresaw a more promising future. As late as 1821, Thomas 70 Teas wrote after visiting Fort Wayne, “The village before the late war was much larger than at present.”[25] Many of the families who left Fort Wayne in 1812 never returned.

On the day following Harrison’s arrival, detachments, using Fort Wayne as their base of operations, commenced the destruction of the Indian villages of the entire region. The men who remained at Fort Wayne proceeded to remove all the underbrush surrounding the fort. The land was cleared on both sides of each river for a mile in every direction.

After arranging his camp, Harrison summoned the officers and agent of the fort and there, from Lieutenants Curtis and Ostrander, with Benjamin Stickney as a corroborative witness, heard the charges preferred against Captain Rhea. Rhea was placed under arrest and after a careful consideration of the charges, Harrison was in favor of having him brought before a court martial. However, on account of his age and his having a young family, Rhea was allowed to resign. He was given until December 20 to return home, at which time his pay and emoluments ceased.

On September 18, General James Winchester arrived at Fort Wayne to take command of the army. It was only after the troops had been promised that Harrison would soon be re-appointed commander that they consented to march toward Detroit under Winchester.

General Winchester chose to follow the usual route to Detroit by moving down the north bank of the Maumee. The American army left Fort Wayne on September 22. Meanwhile unaware that the siege of Fort Wayne had been lifted, the British commander at Detroit, Colonel Proctor, dispatched two hundred British regulars under Major Muir together with a thousand Indians under Captain Elliot to assist in taking Fort Wayne. Having brought their baggage and artillery up the Maumee as far as Fort Defiance, the British discovered the approach of Winchester’s stronger army. A hasty retreat on the part of the British followed. Their cannon and heavy equipment were thrown into the river.

As pointed out previously the British had delayed sending this expedition because of the temporary armistice. Had the force under Major Muir reached Fort Wayne before Harrison’s army, it is likely that the fort would have fallen, which would have rendered the recapture of Detroit much more difficult. General Brock in writing to his superior, Sir George Prevost, expressed the belief that Fort Wayne would surely fall to Major Muir and added, “The Indians were likewise looking to us for assistance. They heard of the Armistice with every mark of jealousy, and had we refused joining them in the expedition it is impossible to calculate the consequences.”[26] That the British troops were prepared to batter down the palisades of Fort Wayne is shown by the official report of Major Muir to Colonel Proctor. Some of his officers endeavored to 71 induce Major Muir to hold his position at Defiance and use their cannon to prevent the advance of Winchester’s troops. “I told them”, Major Muir wrote, “that the guns were brought for the purposes of battering Fort Wayne, but would not answer to fight in the woods.”[27] Colonel Proctor, in turn explaining the movement to General Brock, wrote, “The delay occasioned by the armistice prevented the attainment of the object of our expedition, which was destruction of Fort Wayne.”[28]

After the departure of Captain Rhea, Lt. Philip Ostrander was left in temporary charge of Fort Wayne for a period of nine weeks. During October, Ostrander reported that over half the garrison was sick. For these men there was no medicine, while all the men were destitute of clothing and blankets. Concerning the Indian menace, the situation had improved, but the danger from attack had not passed. Lt. Ostrander issued a stern warning to his men not to leave the fort without permission.[29]

Word that the Indians were again collecting around Fort Wayne induced Harrison to send Colonel Allen Trimble and five hundred mounted volunteers to the fort. A battalion of Ohio infantry was also sent to Fort Wayne with much needed provisions. While at Fort Wayne this group collected firewood since the garrison was unable to do so with the hostile Indians lurking in the woods.

On November 22, 1812, Captain Hugh Moore arrived at Fort Wayne to take command of the post. Little is known about Captain Moore. He had been with Harrison from the outbreak of the war. At Fort Wayne he served as commander until the summer of 1813 when he was succeeded by Major Joseph Jenkinson. Captain Moore’s first order was the appointment of Antoine Bondie as issuing agent at the post. This was obviously in recognition of Bondie’s service during the siege. This position enabled Bondie to support his family, as his trading establishment was all but ruined. Later Bondie was also appointed captain of the scouts which were sent out occasionally from the fort.

On April 28, 1813, Captain Moore issued an order placing Lt. Philip Ostrander under arrest and prohibiting any member of the garrison from communicating with the younger officer. Lt. Ostrander was never brought before a military court, but died on July 13, 1813, while still imprisoned. There is no reason given for the arrest in the orderly book, other than the statement, “circumstances have transpired within this garrison of a most destructive, injurious and dangerous nature to the service.”[30] Brice in his short history of Fort Wayne says: “Lieutenant Ostrander ... who had unthoughtfully fired upon a flock of birds passing over the fort, had been reprimanded by Captain Ray [Rhea], and because of his refusal to be tried by courtmartial, was confined in a small room in the garrison, where he subsequently died.”[31]

This account is rendered impossible from the fact that Ostrander 72 acted as commandant from the time of Rhea’s departure in disgrace, until the arrival of Captain Moore. As late as January 5, 1813, Lt. Ostrander was a member of a court martial, which found Alexander Scott guilty of contemptuous conduct to one of the officers, possibly Ostrander himself. After that date his name does not appear in the record until April 27, 1813, the day prior to his arrest, when the same Alexander Scott was tried and acquitted on a charge of traducing Lt. Ostrander’s character.[32] In what manner Scott supposedly slandered Lt. Ostrander is not stated in the proceedings of the trial; however, it is possible to surmise that there was some connection between the charge and Lt. Ostrander’s arrest the following day.

During the year 1813, Fort Wayne became the natural center for supplies used by the American armies operating in northern Ohio and eastern Michigan. In May of that year, Harrison addressed the Secretary of War, saying:

“I am persuaded that a demonstration in the direction of Fort Wayne by a body of mounted men would be attended by very happy effects. I am not entirely at ease on the subject of the garrisons in that direction. The enemy, if they understood their business will certainly make an attempt to carry some of our weak posts where we have large deposits ... I have always been partial to the assembling a body of Troops in the Vicinity of Fort Wayne. It is in the immediate line of communication between the Indians of the Wabash, Illinois, Mississippi, and the South and West sides of Lake Michigan and Malden.”[33]

Following this logic, Harrison ordered Colonel Richard M. Johnson to proceed to Fort Wayne and from thence to scour the northwestern frontiers. After a difficult journey over the swollen St. Mary’s river and flooded countryside, Johnson’s men reached Fort Wayne on June 7. Grim excitement greeted their arrival. One of the ten flatboats bringing provisions to Fort Wayne had struck on a bar within sight of the fort. Before help could arrive, the three crewmen were killed by Indians lurking near the fort. Johnson’s cavalry pursued the red men, but nightfall and rain ended their endeavor.

Leaving their heavy baggage at Fort Wayne, the regiment moved across the St. Mary’s and established their camp in the present Spy Run district of Fort Wayne. After a day’s rest, Johnson’s men began a march two hundred miles in the region to the northwest of Fort Wayne. They returned to the fort on June 14. The result of this excursion was important, for never before had this land been traversed by such a large body of white men. The knowledge gained at this time, together with the information published by Capt. McAfee, played a significant part in the development of the northwestern part of Indiana.

After spending a few days at Fort Wayne, Johnson’s regiment proceeded 73 down the Maumee to join Harrison’s army, and aid in the recapture of Detroit. On October 5, 1813, the British and Indian forces were routed at the battle of the Thames by the American army under Harrison. Tecumseh was killed in the battle, and in effect, the Indian power was broken forever in the old Northwest. This battle, following closely upon Perry’s victory on Lake Erie, brought the war to an unofficial close in this region.

The danger of Indian hostilities at Fort Wayne was never again critical, but the safety of the people about the fort was still menaced by occasional attacks. Such a one occurred late in 1813, when Major Joseph Jenkinson arrived to succeed Captain Hugh Moore as commander of Fort Wayne. On the march from Newport, Kentucky, three companies of militia which accompanied Major Jenkinson found it convenient, in the latter part of their journey, to convey their supplies by flatboats on the St. Mary’s river. At a sharp bend in the stream about a mile from the fort, the Indians ambushed the last of the boats and killed the men who were guiding it.

Major Jenkinson’s period of service at Fort Wayne was brief. His family did not accompany him to the post, and after six months he chose to return to Kentucky where he was appointed adjutant of the state militia. The only existent letter of Major Jenkinson while he was stationed at Fort Wayne, throws some light on the attitude of the local French people toward slavery. The major, writing to his wife, complained that some of the French men living near Fort Wayne had thoroughly “corrupted Ephraim [the major’s slave] by their ideas”; so much so that it was necessary “to cool the fellow off, by two very hard whippings.”[34]

In May, 1814, the command of Fort Wayne was given to Major John Whistler of the First United States Infantry. Major Whistler was not a stranger to Fort Wayne. As a lieutenant he had accompanied Wayne on his western campaign, and was here to assist in the building of the original fort. He remained as a special officer to oversee the maintenance of the forts of the surrounding region. Later, his wife joined him at Fort Wayne, and it was here that their son, George Washington Whistler was born in 1800.[35] Following Major John Whistler’s early service at Fort Wayne, he was transferred to Detroit, and from thence to Chicago, where he built Fort Dearborn and became its first commandant.

Major Whistler was chronically in debt. In fact, his financial outlook was almost hopeless. With a salary, as a captain, of $40.00 a month, he had a family of fifteen children to maintain. To make matters worse, the visits of the government paymaster were highly irregular. On one occasion, he wrote to a creditor that he had received no pay in a period of more than two years. “I hope you will not think I complain 74 against my government for detaining my pay,” he added, “No, but necessity forces me to make the real statement to satisfy my creditor.”[36] It is distinctly to Major Whistler’s credit that even in the act of pressing for payment his creditors frequently paused to express confidence in his honesty and sympathy for his lot.

The year 1814, which marked the return of the Whistler family also marks the re-establishment of family life in and about Fort Wayne. While the Maloch and Peltier families remained at Fort Wayne throughout the war, the other Fort Wayne families had taken refuge mainly in the more settled areas along the Ohio river. Some of the families never did return, but among those who did was the Louis Bourie family. Bourie as early as 1786 maintained a profitable enterprise at the portage by keeping pack-horses and a warehouse for the deposit and transportation of merchandise and peltries. During the war, he moved to Detroit with his wife and two children. Soon after his return to Fort Wayne in 1814, Bourie was given a contract to provide bread for the soldiers, and in 1815, he built a bakery at the corner of the present Clinton and Columbia streets. A short time later he established a general store and erected a log residence adjoining the building.

George Hunt, who had served as a sutler prior to the war, also returned to Fort Wayne in 1814. He was the son of Colonel Thomas Hunt, the third commander at Fort Wayne. With George Hunt came his younger brother, John Elliott Hunt.

Lt. Daniel Curtis, to whom we are indebted for the best account of the siege, was still connected with the post in 1814. Other residents of the fort in that year included Benjamin Stickney, who remained as Indian agent; Benjamin Berry Kercheval and Peter Oliver, clerks of the agent; Charles Peltier a fur trader; John P. Hedges, who had first visited the fort in 1812 and who was now stationed at the fort as a storekeeper; Dr. Daniel Smith, the post surgeon; Robert Forsythe, who later became a paymaster in the United States army; and a French blacksmith, Louisaneau, who had a government appointment to do work for the troops as well as the Indians about the fort.

One of the new arrivals at Fort Wayne at this time was William Suttenfield. Suttenfield had first visited Fort Wayne in 1811, at which time he was in Colonel John Johnston’s employ, being in charge of a pack train hauling military and Indian stores from Piqua, Ohio, to the fort. In 1814, he brought his wife, formerly Laura Taylor, and his infant son, William F. Suttenfield, to Fort Wayne by way of the St. Mary’s river, the route used most frequently by travelers from southwestern Ohio. Suttenfield was for many months after his arrival employed in bringing provisions to the fort from Piqua and other points. He was short, slender, and very active and agile. For these reasons he boasted that the Indians could not catch him while he was bringing in supplies. Soon 75 after their arrival, the Suttenfields built a log house outside the fort. This was the first home erected beyond the protecting walls of the fort, following the siege. It stood near the river to the south of the fort.

Mrs. Laura Suttenfield lived until 1886. Before her death, she left an impressive description of a 4th of July celebration in 1814. The isolation and quietude of Fort Wayne in that year is suggested by her account:

The fort at that time contained sixty men of the regular army, all patriotic and anxious to celebrate one day in the year. They made three green bowers, 100 feet from the pickets of the fort ... one bower for the dinner table, one for the cooks and one for the music. Major Whistler had two German cooks and they prepared the dinner.... Our dinner consisted of one fine turkey, a side of venison, boiled ham, vegetables in abundance, cranberries and green currents. As for dessert, we had none. Eggs were not known here for three years from that time. There were but three bottles of wine sent here from Cincinnati; but one was made use of. Then there were a few toasts, and, after three guns and music, they went into the fort and the ladies changed their dresses. Then Major Whistler called for the music, which consisted of one bass drum, two small ones, one fife, violin and flute. There was a long gallery in the fort; the musicians took their seats there.... A french four passed off very well for an hour. Then the gates of the fort were closed at sundown, which gave it a gloomy appearance. No children, no younger persons for amusement, all retired to their rooms. All was quiet and still. The sentinel on his lonely round would give us the hour of the night. In the morning we were aroused by the beating of the reveille.[37]

The lives of these residents of Fort Wayne in 1814 were never without some fear of possible attack from the Indians, even though the danger had diminished. That Major Whistler expected just such an attack is evident by his letter of July 1 to Brigadier General Duncan McArthur, in which he asked for additional men or permission to reconstruct the fort. Said he “The Indians show a bad disposition to attend the Treaty [This treaty was held at Greenville]. I have Received an Account from Mr. Johnston that the Potawatomies and Taways and the Other Indians Bordering on Lake Michigan are intending to join the British and take Detroit, Malden and this Place this Moon.”[38]

The conduct of Chief Richardville had been especially annoying to Major Whistler. At the outbreak of the war, Richardville hurriedly gathered his effects and fled with his family to the British lines and there remained, without taking an active part in the trouble, until 1814. When he returned to his home six miles east of Fort Wayne, Major Whistler invited him to a conference. He responded, but he appeared reluctant to attend the conference at Greenville. Finally he came, in company with Chief Chondonnai, a participant in the Fort Dearborn massacre, 76 and placed his signature to the treaty.

In May, 1815, Major Whistler again informed General McArthur of his intention to rebuild the fort, provided he could receive permission from the War Department. Permission was granted and in the fall of 1815, Major Whistler directed the construction of the new fort to take the place of the one erected by the troops of Colonel Hunt fifteen years before. Thus it fell to the lot of the builder of the first Fort Dearborn to become in turn the builder of the last Fort Wayne. Although the troops were destined to remain in this fort only four more years, parts of it remained standing until 1852, and for a long time after the garrison evacuated it, the fort served the government agencies and some of the citizens as a useful shelter.

The best source of information in regard to this last fort is in the record of John W. Dawson, who, in 1858, gathered information from the early settlers and wrote a series of articles for the local paper.[39] According to Dawson, the fort enclosed an area about 150 feet square. The pickets were ten feet high, and set in the ground, with block houses at the southeast and northwest corners, which were two stories high. The second floor projected and formed a bastion in each blockhouse where the guns were rigged; that on the southeast corner commanding the south and east sides of the fort, and that on the northwest corner, the north and west sides. The officers’ quarters, commissary department and other buildings located on different sides formed part of the walls, and in the center stood the liberty pole from which the flag flew.

The plaza, in the enclosure was smooth and gravelly. The roofs of the houses all declined within the stockade after the shed fashion, to prevent the enemy from setting them on fire, and if fired, to protect the men in putting it out. The rainwater was carried along by wooden troughs, just below the surface of the ground to the flagstaff, and from thence led by a sluiceway to the Maumee.

Dawson believed that when Major Whistler rebuilt the fort, he did not include all of the ground covered by the fort built under Colonel Hunt’s direction. This conviction is substantiated by the fact that before building the new fort, Whistler expressed the opinion that the old fort was too large for the number of troops he had to defend it.[40]

Writing to General McArthur on October 17, 1815, Major Whistler reported that the new fort was almost completed. Only one section of the old fort needed to be taken down and replaced by the new. Whistler expressed the belief that the new fort was the most substantial in the West. “The pickets”, he wrote, “were 12½ feet long and were put in sets of six, with a cross-piece two feet from the top, set in and spiked, and a trench dug 2½ feet deep, into which they were raised.”[41] The major added that he was anxious to complete the work as he expected difficulties with the Indians, who declared their intention to continue the war against the United States. Benjamin Stickney, also writing from Fort Wayne, expressed the same belief.[42]

77

However, the threatened outbreak of the Indians did not materialize. British intrigue had come to an end, and the red men lacked another leader as capable as Tecumseh. Many Indians continued to congregate at Fort Wayne in the years following the War of 1812. They came for reasons of trade or to receive their annuities or possibly from a feeling of sympathy and attraction for the scenes of their old home and gathering place, but aside from some petty quarrels among themselves, nothing war-like was ever again manifested in the relations of the Indians and whites at Fort Wayne.

[1]John Logan as a small child had been adopted by General Benjamin Logan of Kentucky. In 1813, Logan was killed while undertaking a most hazardous mission. “More firmness and consummate bravery has seldom appeared in the military theatre.”, wrote General Winchester in his report to Harrison.

[2]After the war, Bondie was rewarded by being appointed issuing commissary for the Fort Wayne garrison.

[3]Stickney’s account of the siege first appeared in the Fort Wayne Times, May 27, 1856.

[4]Daniel Curtis to Col. Kingsbury, Sept. 21, 1812, Kingsbury Papers, Chicago Historical Library. Curtis also wrote to a friend named James Cullen C. Witherell on Oct. 4, 1812, concerning the siege. This second letter is almost a copy of the one sent to Kingsbury and is found in the Indiana Historical Society Library.

[5]IHC, IX, Harrison’s Messages and Letters, ed. Logan Esarey, p. 89.

[6]T. B. Helm, History of Allen County, Indiana, p. 39.

[7]IHC, IX, Harrison’s Messages and Letters, ed. Logan Esarey, p. 99.

[8]Ibid., p. 99.

[9]Fort Wayne Times, May 27, 1856.

[10]Curtis to Kingsbury, Sept. 21, 1812, Chicago Historical Society Library.

[11]IHC, XV, Fort Wayne Garrison Orderly Books, ed. Bert J. Griswold, p. 371.

[12]Fort Wayne Times, May 27, 1856.

[13]Ibid.

[14]Benjamin Drake, Life of Tecumseh and of his Brother and Prophet, p. 50.

[15]IHC, IX, Harrison’s Messages and Letters, ed. Logan Esarey, p. 108.

[16]IHC, XV, Fort Wayne Garrison Orderly Books, ed. Bert J. Griswold, pp. 371-2.

[17]Curtis to Kingsbury, Sept. 21, 1812, Kingsbury Papers, Chicago Historical Society Library.

[18]Ibid.

[19]IHC, IX, Harrison’s Messages and Letters, ed. Logan Esarey, p. 131.

[20]Robert McAfee, History of the Late War, p. 123.

[21]Lt. Curtis to Col. Kingsbury, Sept. 21, 1812, Kingsbury Papers, Chicago Historical Society Library.

[22]Robert McAfee, op. cit., p. 126.

[23]Ibid., p. 127.

[24]Ibid., p. 127.

[25]Indiana as Seen by Early Travelers, ed. Harlow Lindley, p. 243.

[26]Major Brock to Sir George Prevost, Sept. 18, 1812, Michigan Historical Collections, XV, 88.

[27]Major Muir to Colonel Procter, Sept. 29, 1812, Michigan Historical Collections, XV, 93.

[28]Colonel Proctor to General Brock, Oct. 5, 1812, Michigan Historical Collections, XV, 97.

[29]IHC, XV, Fort Wayne Garrison Orderly Books, ed. Bert J. Griswold, p. 373.

[30]Ibid., p. 390.

[31]Wallace Brice, History of Fort Wayne, p. 134.

[32]IHC, XV, Fort Wayne Garrison Orderly Books, ed. Bert J. Griswold, pp. 381 and 389.

[33]IHC, IX, Harrison’s Messages and Letters, ed. Logan Esarey, p. 157.

[34]Major Jenkinson to Mrs. Jenkinson, March 14, 1814, Fort Wayne Public Library.

[35]George Washington Whistler rose to fame in the topographical service of the government. His death occurred in Russia in 1849, while he was superintending the construction of the St. Petersburg to Moscow railroad. His son, James Abbott McNeil Whistler, became one of the most famous artists.

[36]M. M. Quaife, “Detroit Biographies: John Whistler”, Burton Historical Collection Leaflet, V (1926), p. 4.

[37]Fort Wayne Times, Oct. 17, 1869, Fort Wayne Public Library.

[38]Major Whistler to General McArthur, July 1, 1814, Burton Historical Collection.

78

[39]Fort Wayne Times, April 7 to April 15, 1858, Fort Wayne Public Library.

[40]Whistler to McArthur, July 1, 1814, Burton Historical Collection.

[41]Whistler to McArthur, October 17, 1815, Burton Historical Collection.

[42]Stickney to Secretary of War, April 30, 1815, Michigan Pioneer Collection, XVI, p. 87.

79

Chapter V
Evacuation of the Fort and the Increased Indian Trade

After peace came finally with the end of the struggles of 1812-15, the scene around the fort was one of rare beauty. The extensive clearing made by order of General Wayne in 1794, and again by General Harrison in 1812, was covered with waving grass. Circling this was the green forest, pierced by three gates through which flowed the gleaming rivers. The days of Indian warfare had come to an end, the day of white settlement in numbers was yet in anticipation.

The first year of peace, 1816, brought to the troops and the few families at Fort Wayne a well founded feeling of security and comfort. This feeling of security and comfort was not based upon the standard of today, for few could endure now in comfort the life typified by the tallow dip and open fire, the ox-cart and the pirogue. The national government realized the permanent return of peace, and already had removed from the other western posts the troops stationed there for the protection of the pioneers. But the time had not yet arrived when the Washington authorities considered it wise to remove the military garrison from Fort Wayne. The Indians still thronged here in large numbers. Their periods of gathering to receive their annuities brought hundreds to the little settlement and here, ofttimes, they remained for several weeks.

Following the war, there was no settlement nearer than St. Mary’s in Ohio, and between Fort Wayne and Fort Dearborn (Chicago) only one white man, a fur trader named Joseph Bertrand, had ventured to establish his abode near the site of the present city of South Bend, Indiana. Until 1818, all of northern Indiana was considered Indian territory.

However, this was not true in central and southern Indiana where ever-increasing numbers of pioneers were settling. After the end of the War of 1812 and the Napoleonic conflicts, a commercial depression hit the eastern states, and multitudes sought new homes in the West. The seaboard could no longer furnish the returned soldier nor the ruined merchant with opportunities. This led to a rush of the people into the new country beyond the mountains. The westward movement, in turn, gave an immediate demand for highways of transportation.

Traffic over the rivers showed a steady increase over former years, and the Maumee-Wabash portage once again became a busy pathway of commerce. Chief Jean Baptiste Richardville, who was granted a license to 80 trade at Fort Wayne in 1815, nearly monopolized the carrying-trade over the portage. Through this profitable business, and by the sale of the land granted to him as chief of the Miamis in various treaties, Richardville became the wealthiest Indian then living in American. In five treaties he acquired over 44 sections of land and $31,800. It is known that he had $200,000 in silver alone at the time of his death in 1841.[1]

The Miami chief established a place of business on the present Columbia street in Fort Wayne and also one of his reserves was on the Wabash river southwest of Fort Wayne.

In common with the people of the territory of Indiana, the citizens of Fort Wayne rejoiced in the transformation of the territory into a state on April 29, 1816. At the time of the creation of the state of Indiana, all of northeastern Indiana was included in Knox county, of which Vincennes was the seat of government. In 1818, Randolph county was organized with Winchester as the county seat. Fort Wayne was included in this latter subdivision.

The new governor, Jonathan Jennings, in his first message to the Indiana legislature, urged a prompt consideration of the establishment of internal improvements, and especially a canal to connect the Maumee and Wabash—a waterway which would supplant the centuries-old portage at Fort Wayne. Despite the enthusiasm of many proponents of the canal, the difficulties were many and work was not to begin on it for sixteen years.

The westward movement of the settlers brought about the transfer of Major Whistler from Fort Wayne to St. Louis in 1817. The government authorities assigned to the command of Fort Wayne, Major Josiah N. Vose of the Fifth United States Infantry Regiment, who was destined to be the final commandant of the post at the head of the Maumee.[2] During a period of about three months, from February 15 to May 31, 1817, before Major Vose assumed his new duties, the garrison was under the command of First Lieutenant Daniel Curtis, who had served with credit during the siege of 1812 and whose lively account of his experiences has been quoted.[3]

A significant characteristic of Major Vose was his strict adherence to the observance of Sunday in a religious way. John Johnston, who knew Major Vose well, said in a letter written in 1859, that he was the only commandant of the fort who publicly professed Christianity. It was his constant practice, according to Johnston, to assemble his men on Sunday, read the Scriptures to them, and talk with them in a conversational manner about religion. Colonel Johnston adds, “The conduct of such a man and under such circumstances, can only be appreciated by persons familiar with the allurements and temptations of military life.”[4]

With Major Vose came Dr. Trevitt, assigned to the post as surgeon’s mate and Lieutenant James Clark. One of the first tasks undertaken under Major Vose’s direction was the erection of a new council house to replace the one burned during the siege. It was a two-story structure, which in later years 81 was used as a school house and as a residence. The garrison in 1817 consisted of fifty-six men.

On October 6, 1818, the Miami nation ceded to the United States that part of their land to the south and southwest of Fort Wayne. This section of land lay between the Wabash near the mouth of the Racoon Creek and St. Mary’s river as far north as the portage at Fort Wayne. The treaty was concluded at St. Mary’s, Ohio, with Governor Jennings, Lewis Cass, and Benjamin Parke, serving as commissioners of the United States and Chief Richardville acting as principal spokesman for the Miamis. This treaty, together with one concluded with the Wyandots the previous year, gave to the United States complete ownership of the territory south of the Maumee and Wabash rivers. Thus the way was opened for travel and settlement in Indiana as far north as Fort Wayne.

According to the treaty of St. Mary’s, many sections of land near Fort Wayne were reserved for individuals designated by the Miamis. These individuals included the following: Chief Jean Baptiste Richardville, Joseph Richardville (the chief’s son), Francis LaFontaine, the son of George Hunt, Little Little Turtle, Josette Beaubien, Eliza C. Kercheval (daughter of Benjamin Kercheval, sub-agent at Fort Wayne) John B. Bourie, Ann Hackley (the daughter of William Wells), and the children of Maria Christina DeRome and LaCros. A reading of these names indicates the strong influence the early French traders had acquired over the Miamis by intermarriage. As mentioned in an earlier chapter, Richardville’s father, Joseph Drouet de Richerville was a French trader.

The granting of individual reserves to the chiefs and other men favored by the Indians in the treaty of 1818 led to a dangerous innovation in land and Indian policy which later permitted the traders to grab the choice land sites before the government attained control of it. In the later treaties the Indian traders and agents combined their resources to secure the best sections of land through the consent of the Indians in payment of actual or supposed debts.

The year 1819 witnessed an important and significant change at Fort Wayne, the departure of the troops and the abandonment of the fort as a military stronghold. The formal evacuation took place on April 19, 1819, in pursuance of orders issued by the Secretary of War. The treaty of St. Mary’s and the westward movement of the settlers had carried the frontier beyond Fort Wayne. At the time of the departure of the troops, the garrison consisted of Major Vose, one post surgeon, two captains, one first lieutenant, five sergeants, four corporals, four musicians and seventy-five artillerymen and privates—ninety-six men in all—in addition to a group of women and children. Major Vose and his men went directly to Detroit by way of the Maumee, in pirogues. They took from the fort its equipment of heavy armament, including one six and one twelve-pounder cannon. Fort Wayne was the last of the Indiana posts maintained by the government and had 82 served as an American fort for more than a quarter of a century.

It is not surprising that the news of the evacuation came as a shock to the few families and the traders who had built their log houses just outside the fort. When the day of departure came, the few settlers who comprised the village felt a loneliness as their sense of security gave way for the moment to a realization of the coming days of isolation and possible danger. In every direction stretched unbroken wilderness and while the Indians had been subdued, the abundance of whiskey given them by the traders made them at times a menace to the safety of the village.

The fort buildings, vacated by the military, now came under the control of the civil authorities, represented by the Indian agent, Benjamin Stickney. For a number of years thereafter the wooden fort with its bastioned blockhouses, officers’ quarters, and barracks, housed such civil, governmental, and private enterprises as the Indian agency, the United States land office, and the first Protestant mission school. Moreover, the opening of the barracks to the settlers not only made safe and comfortable living quarters for those already located there, but induced other settlers to choose this immediate region. Even at this period, the shelter of the stockade brought a feeling of security, and the fort was not without its convenient firearms and supply of ammunition. For a considerable period all but those of stoutest heart sought refuge within its walls with the coming of darkness.

Although the depression of 1819 in the Northwest checked the tide of immigration temporarily, there were some travelers and homeseekers who came to stamp their names upon the small settlement, which continued to be known as Fort Wayne even after the evacuation of the troops. These settlers included James Barnett, who was with Harrison’s army of relief in 1812 and who returned in 1818 as a permanent resident and trader; Paul Taber and his sons, Cyrus and Samuel, and his daughter, Lucy, all of whom came in 1819; Francis Comparet, who came in 1819, and who in 1820, together with Alexis Coquillard and Benjamin B. Kercheval, established a post for the American Fur Company at Fort Wayne; Dr. William Turner, a former post surgeon, who returned to Fort Wayne in 1819 and later served for a short time as Indian agent; and James Aveline who with his family came from Vincennes to Fort Wayne in January, 1820.

Among these early settlers who found their way to Fort Wayne in 1819, was Samuel Hanna, pioneer trader, judge, legislator, canal builder, railroad enterpriser, and banker. In many respects, Samuel Hanna was to become Fort Wayne’s most active citizen as the small community grew from a mere village to a city during his lifetime. Born in Scott county, Kentucky, in October, 1797, and later moving to Dayton, Ohio, with his parents, he came to Fort Wayne from St. Mary’s Ohio, where he had been engaged in supplying goods for the government during the Indian treaties of 1818. He was twenty-two years old when he came to Fort Wayne. Hanna built at once a log house on the site which later became the northwest corner of Barr and 83 Columbia streets. Here, having formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, James Barnett, a trading post was opened. Many of their goods which came from the east were purchased from Abbott Lawrence at Boston; the shipments were made by water to New York, thence up the Hudson river and across to Buffalo, and from there to Fort Wayne by way of Lake Erie and the Maumee.

Upon the abandonment of the fort by the military, the government sent James Riley, a civil engineer, to Fort Wayne to survey the lands around the fort belonging to the United States, preparatory to the sale of a portion of the military reservation to the settlers. Riley was a noted author of that day, having published in 1817 Riley’s Narrative, a 554 page book on his experiences in Africa as a slave of the Arabs. His prominence and the fact that he was well known in Washington because he had spent several years there, lent weight to his recommendations concerning the Fort Wayne lands.

On November 24, 1819, Riley wrote a letter from Fort Wayne to B. Sanford, Esq., advising him that he had concluded his surveys for the season but wanted:

“... to examine for myself the practicality of so uniting the Wabash with the Maumee as to render intercourse by water between the Ohio river and Lake Erie safe and easy through this channel.... The little Wabash rises in an elevated swamp prairie six miles south of Fort Wayne, and joins the Wabash eighteen miles hence. Thus in high stages of water, a portage of only six miles carries merchandise from the level of the Maumee into the navigable waters of the Wabash (and vice versa).”[5]

These observations by Riley on the possibility of a canal were supplemented in the same letter by his early impression of Fort Wayne as a future center of population. He stated to Mr. Sanford:

The country around Fort Wayne is very fertile. The situation is commanding and healthful.... Here will arise a town of great importance, which must become a depot of immense trade. The fort is now only a small stockade; no troops are stationed here, and less than thirty dwelling houses occupied by French and American families form the whole settlement.[6]

Riley added that the departure of the soldiers had left this little band of residents extremely lonely, but he predicted that as soon as the lands were opened for sale the settlers would flock to this region. The people living at Fort Wayne at this time had no right to the land and were considered as “squatters” by the government officials.

Possibly the most interesting letter that James Riley wrote from Fort Wayne was written near the close of the surveying season in 1820. It was addressed to Edward Tiffin, Surveyor General. Riley had been in the neighborhood of Fort Wayne, when a snow storm forced him to discontinue his work temporarily. Taking advantage of his free time, Riley came to Fort 84 Wayne to witness the annual distribution of the annuities to the Indians gathered there. After speaking highly of the natural advantages of the site of Fort Wayne, Riley urged that the government land be offered for sale as soon as possible, saying:

There are now in its [Fort Wayne] immediate vicinity, more than 40 families of ‘Squatters’ and traders, besides a great number of young men each with his bundle or shop, of goods and trinkets; all of whom are depredating on the public lands, for timber for their numberous buildings, for fire-wood, &c. &c.; and as they have not interest in the soil, and little hope of being able to purchase the land when sold, a system of waste and destruction is going on, and is apparently entered into by all.[6a]

Riley then added another reason why the lands should be sold. He wrote:

There are now assembled, as I should judge, at least one thousand persons from Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and New York, whose object is stated to be that of trade with the Indians, in order to carry off some of their specie, paid them by the Government. They have brought whiskey in abundance, which they pretend to deposit with agent, until he shall have finished his business with the Indians, but yet contrive to deal out large quantities from their deposits in the woods, so that the savages are kept continually drunk, and unfit for any business. Horse-racing, drinking, gambling, and every kind of debauchery, extravagance and waste, are the order of the day, and night too; and in my opinion, the savages themselves are the most christianized, and least savage, of the two classes now congregated here. Here the whites set example to the Indians too indelicate to mention, and that cannot fail to produce in their minds disgust for the American character.[7]

Riley concluded by saying:

The only means that occurs to my mind, of stopping this career of vice and immorality, is the speedy survey and sale of the lands from the mouth of the Maumee to this place; and from hence down and along the banks of the Wabash.... Thus, a cordon of hardy and respectable settlers ... would be formed along the Maumee and Wabash.... At present, there is no security to him who locates himself on the public lands, nor do I wish there should be; because every citizen ought to enjoy equal advantages. This place, if laid out as a town and sold by the government, would bring a large sum of money. The St. Mary’s has been covered with boats, every freshet, for several years past. This is a central spot, combining more natural advantages to build up and support a town of importance, as a place of deposit and trade ... than any point I have yet seen in the western country.[8]

This letter of Riley, which also contained a strong recommendation for the careful survey of a canal route connecting the Wabash and the Maumee, became a part of the official records of the surveyor-general’s office, and 85 through this channel found its way into the congressional debates concerning the Wabash and Erie canal.

Lest James Riley’s severe arraignment of the white traders present during the time of the annuity payments appear unjust, let us compare it with the opinion of Reverend J. B. Finney, who visited the village during the same period in the previous year. He writes:

This was an awful scene for a sober man to look upon ... men and women, raving maniacs, singing, dancing, fighting, stabbing and tomahawking one another—and there were the rum-sellers watering their whiskey until it was not strong grog, and selling it for four dollars a gallon, their hired men gathering up all the skins and furs and their silver brooches ... and their guns, tomahawks and blankets, till they were literally stripped naked, and three or four were killed.... The reader may set what estimates he pleases, or call him by what name; yet, if there were ever a greater robber, or a meaner thief, or a dirtier murderer than these rum sellers, he is yet to be seen.[9]

The laws for preventing the introduction of alcoholic drinks among the Indians, though very severe, were ineffectual. A person might have remained in the woods within five or six miles of Fort Wayne for a year without being discovered by any government agent. It was the custom of the traders to bring whiskey in kegs and hide it in the woods about half a mile from the fort, a short time previous to the paying of the annuity, and when the Indians came to the fort, to give information to such of the Indians who could be confided in that there was whiskey to be had at those places. As soon as the Indians received their money they would go off to the appointed places.

Another reason that the Trade and Intercourse Act was so ineffectual at Fort Wayne was the fact that it was almost impossible to bring any offender to trial. The nearest court was at Winchester, Indiana, eighty miles away. A few of the better traders of the region formed a society to prohibit this illegal trade, but it soon dissolved when they found that their regulations could be inforced only by action of the courts. When John Hays, Indian agent at Fort Wayne reported that all the traders were guilty of selling whiskey to the Indians, and asked for special authority to deal with them as he saw fit, the government officials replied that they did not believe such authority was necessary. No action was taken.

But these conditions at Fort Wayne prevailed to a large extent only during the periods of the annuity distributions. It is of interest, then, to quote the words of a man who made a “between-times” visit to the village. We find him in the person of Major Stephen H. Long, a topographical engineer, who visited the village in 1823. Wrote Major Long:

At Fort Wayne we made a stay of three days, and to a person visiting the Indian country for the first time, this place offers many characteristic and 86 singular features. The village is small—it has grown under the shelter of the fort.... The inhabitants are chiefly of Canadian origin, all more or less inbued with the Indian blood. The confusion of tongues, owing to the diversity of the Indian tribes which generally collect near a fort, make the traveler imagine himself in a real babel.[10]

From the fort, a cart track angled down to the river bank and boatlanding, the bustling center of the town’s traffic in furs; and three embryonic roads, boggy and stump filled, let respectively northeast to Detroit, northwest to Fort Dearborn and Lake Michigan, and southeast to Fort Recovery, Ohio. Thomas Scattergood Teas, who visited the village in 1821, wrote

The settlement at this place consisted of about thirty log cabins and two tolerably decent farm houses. The inhabitants are nearly all French-Canadians. The fort stands at the lower end of the village ... the barracks are occupied by the Indian agent, the Baptist missionary and some private families.[11]

The Baptist missionary, of whom Teas speaks, was the Reverend Isaac McCoy who came with his wife and seven children to Fort Wayne on May 15, 1820, and stayed for over two years at the fort. McCoy wished to go farther into the Indian country, but as he states, “necessity not choice compelled us to consent to go to Fort Wayne.”[12] Despite the predilection of some of the Indians for the Catholic faith as a result of long contacts with French traders and past remembrances of the French Jesuits, McCoy collected a fairly large number of Indian children for his school at Fort Wayne.[13] The authorities at Fort Wayne afforded McCoy every encouragement, although the Indian agent, John Hays, later regretted the fact that he allowed McCoy to use the barracks for housing the children. The forty half-civilized children racing around his offices, nearly drove the agent to distraction, besides destroying a great deal of government property.

Of the five instructors engaged from time to time to aid in teaching the Indians, none remained over a period of three months. The McCoys found the necessities of life very dear at Fort Wayne; flour was obtainable only by long transportation and corn was also scarce. In the year 1821, the mission was saved from closing by receipt from the United States Government of four hundred and fifty dollars. This money was taken from a fund of ten thousand dollars appropriated by Congress for civilizing the Indians. Because of the steady demoralization of the Indians around Fort Wayne brought about by the traders’ whiskey, McCoy decided to move his mission in 1822. A new mission was established one hundred miles northwest of Fort Wayne on the St. Joseph of Lake Michigan River.

A change in the management of the Indian agency at Fort Wayne took place in 1819 when Benjamin F. Stickney was transferred to a post on the lower Maumee and Dr. William Turner was named to succeed him. Stickney 87 had served for nine years, and during this time, like all agents, had made many enemies. General Duncan McArthur writing from Chillicothe, Ohio, as early as March, 1815, informed Secretary of War James Monroe, that Colonel Lewis, a Shawnee chief had placed before him severe criticisms of Stickney’s methods. “The Indians are generally displeased with Mr. Stickney as an agent,” added General McArthur, “and several of them have requested me to make it known to the president and solicit his removal. He is certainly not well qualified to discharge the duties of an Indian agent.”[14]

As a federal Indian agent, Stickney was responsible for the fate of numerous whites and Indians. Among his duties at that time were the licensing of traders and the settlement of their claims and disputes with the tribes, enforcement of the intercourse regulations, disbursement of annuities and gifts, and expenditure of funds for improvements, and the punishment of unruly Indians. Tactful handling of these problems and of numerous squabbles between the two races was an invaluable factor in preventing bloodshed and preserving good relations. Stickney was inclined to be too arrogant in dealing with the Indians, and at times seemed to lack any humanitarian feeling toward those under his care.

On April 20, 1818, Congress passed an act which consolidated the agencies of Fort Wayne and Piqua, and John Johnston was appointed agent for the agency thus formed. In effect this left Stickney out of the service, but as it was impossible for Johnston to take care of the Fort Wayne agency as well as that of Piqua, Stickney remained at Fort Wayne as sub-agent.

Stickney continued to serve under this arrangement through the year 1818, though there appears to have developed a degree of friction between the sub-agent and his superiors. Governor Lewis Cass of Michigan, writing in January, 1819, to John Calhoun, Secretary of War, said, “... circumstances have occurred at Fort Wayne which have had a tendency to injure the usefulness of Mr. Stickney there.”[15] What these circumstances were we do not know, other than a supposition that Stickney might have made many powerful enemies among the traders at Fort Wayne. This was quite likely due to the nature of the Indian trade and the power of the agent. Lewis Cass was not one to disregard the complaints of the traders, as he usually supported the large trading companies, in particular Astor’s American Fur Company. As a perennial political appointee, Cass found it worthwhile to have friends among these influential traders, and as Stickney’s superior in the Indian Department, Cass was in all likelihood inclined to support the traders in any quarrel that might have developed. In commenting on the charges brought against himself by some of the traders at Fort Wayne in 1824, John Tipton, another agent, wrote to John Calhoun, “You will no doubt recollect that Mr. Stickney while Agt here was harassed with charges and all kinds of persecution.”[16]

Under these circumstances, which we can only surmise, Benjamin Stickney left the agency in 1820 and moved to Toledo, where he later gained 88 prominence as a leader in the fight to keep that section of the country under the government of the state of Ohio rather than the state of Michigan.

Dr. William Turner, Stickney’s successor, had been stationed at Fort Wayne between 1810-12 as garrison surgeon’s mate. On April 7, 1813, he was promoted to surgeon in the Seventeenth Infantry. He resigned from the army on January 31, 1815, returned to Fort Wayne as a private citizen, and married Anne Wells, daughter to Captain William Wells. On March 6, 1819, he was appointed agent for the Miami, Eel River, and other Indians, and in 1820, assumed all of Stickney’s duties. Because of ill health, Turner began to drink considerably, and within a year, on May 24, 1820, Calhoun informed him of his removal from office in consequence of “unsatisfactory conduct.”[17] However, the affairs of the agency were not turned over to his successor, John Hays, until August, 1820. Turner died at Fort Wayne in 1821.

At a time when the story of Indian relations was a sordid and corrupt one, revealing on the part of traders, agents, and officials of the Indian administration a baseness and moral depravity that was unusual even for the nineteenth century, John Hays stands out as one of the few agents who could not be classed in such a group. Hays was born in New York City in 1770. While a youth, he engaged in the Indian trade as a clerk in a trading house in Canada. In 1793 he settled at Cahokia, Illinois, where he held a number of government positions until his appointment at Fort Wayne. Unfortunately for the Indians of this area, Hays remained at Fort Wayne less than three years.

John Hays was never happy at Fort Wayne, despite his good work. He could not bring his family here, as they were too numerous to move a great distance, and the five hundred miles to Cahokia was also too far for Hays to visit them. Furthermore, Hays became disgusted when he found that by his own efforts, he was helpless in checking the traders from furnishing the Indians whiskey. On one occasion the traders combined against him to prevent the issuance of a presidential order curtailing the amount of whiskey brought to Fort Wayne.

Hays also urged the appointment of a sub-agent to assist him in controlling the situation, and the reestablishment of a military force at Fort Wayne. “It is neither [at] Chicago, Green Bay, Prairie du Chien, Falls of St. Anthony, Rock River, or any part of the Mississippi or even Michilimakanac ... that in my opinion a Military force would be more necessary.”[18] he wrote to John Calhoun. The opinion of Hays was not one to be lightly put aside, as it was he, who on the strength of his wide experience, furnished information on the routes for the armies and the distribution of forces from Montreal to Michilimackinac during the War of 1812.

Owing to the disapproval of his proposal by Governor Cass, head of the Fort Wayne agency, none of Hays’ suggestions were adopted, however. Hays was often at odds with Cass as to the manner of dealing with the 89 Indians. In one instance, Hays had been having particular trouble with the Potawatomies under Metea. These Indians objected to traveling to Detroit to receive their annuity rather than coming to Fort Wayne, which was almost a hundred miles closer to their village, near the present site of South Bend, Indiana. Hays, therefore, agreed that the next payments should be made at Fort Wayne, but Cass ignored the agreement and ordered the Indians to come to Detroit. After they arrived, Cass reproached them for crossing into Canada to receive British gifts. Metea bitingly replied that they would gladly give up the practice, if the Americans gave out the annuities at Fort Wayne.

During his second year at Fort Wayne, Hays was obliged to reduce his expenditures from $5,000 to less than $3,000 in line with a general reduction of funds for the Indian Department. At the same time, he needed money to repair the agency quarters within the fort, which were fast decaying. Added to the decay was the destruction brought about by Reverend Isaac McCoy’s Indian school children living within the fort. The property of the agency at this time was listed as “public dwellings inside the stockade, five dwelling houses outside the fort, one blacksmith shop, one coal house, one root house, one stable, two pastures, one timothy meadow, and one field all fenced.”[19]

While John Hays was Indian agent at Fort Wayne, Benjamin Berry Kercheval served as his assistant at a salary of $500 a year. Kercheval was born at Winchester, Virginia, April 9, 1793, and went to Detroit when he was eighteen. Around 1818, Kercheval came to Fort Wayne and here served for a time as an interpreter for Benjamin Stickney. Later he became a representative of the American Fur Company, a position he held when he was employed by Hays. Hays used Kercheval a great deal and trusted him implicitly. In 1821, the birth of a daughter to Benjamin Kercheval and his wife, formerly Maria Forsythe, was an event of such interest to the Indians that they shortly adopted the child with solemn ceremonies as a member of the Miami tribe.

The national government recognized the growing importance of Fort Wayne in the establishment of a post office in 1820. Although Samuel Hanna was in reality the first man to serve as postmaster at Fort Wayne, Kercheval whose commission bore the date of February 4, was the first appointee of President Monroe. Hanna established the office in his store, after Kercheval evidently had declined to serve.

At this time there was one mail every two weeks from Cincinnati, and the only newspaper to find its way to the pioneer village regularly was the Liberty Hall from Cincinnati. In 1822, in response to the demands of the town, the government established regular routes between Fort Wayne and Chicago, as well as the Ohio villages on the St. Mary’s.

The chief industry of the village in these early years continued to be trade with the Indians, either for their furs and peltries or for their annuity money. With the end of the Indian wars, the Miamis and 90 neighboring tribes once more found time for hunting and trapping. At the same time the establishment of European peace in 1815, at the end of the Napoleonic era, brought about a sharp rise in the price of furs. New and powerful traders began to operate in the Maumee-Wabash area with many coming to Fort Wayne as the central point of the region.

We have already noted the firm established by Samuel Hanna and his brother-in-law, James Barnett in 1819. A year later the American Fur Company, operating from Detroit and owned by John Jacob Astor, established an important branch at Fort Wayne. Benjamin Kercheval, Alexis Coquillard, and Francis Comparet were its first representatives. Comparet and Coquillard, both came directly from Detroit for the purpose of establishing the company’s branch house at Fort Wayne. Comparet remained at Fort Wayne permanently, but Coquillard later established a trading station on the St. Joseph river of Lake Michigan, on the site of the city of South Bend, as an outpost of the company’s establishment at Fort Wayne.

In 1822, the family of Alexander Ewing came to Fort Wayne from Troy, Ohio. The Ewing family consisted of Alexander Ewing, an old Pennsylvania trader, his wife, Charlotte, three daughters—Charlott, Lavina, and Louisa—, and four sons—Charles, who became president judge of the circuit court of Indiana, Alexander H., who later became a prosperous Cincinnati merchant, and George W. and William G., who became associated with their father in the trading establishment.

Alexander Ewing with his sons, George W. and William G., did business under the name of “A. Ewing and Sons”. After the older Ewing’s death in 1826, the firm became “W. G. and G. W. Ewing.” The Ewings became known for their real-estate and fur-trading operations, the latter on a scale that made them rivals of the American Fur Company in the Great Lakes region. At first the two firms were friendly toward each other, but a trade war which eventually broke out between the two companies in 1828 resulted in the bankruptcy of the American Fur Company five year later. The Ewings also found it profitable to advance goods to the Indians, thereby presenting large claims against the annuity payments for the Indians. The Ewings had branch houses in Logansport, Largro, and Peru, and posts in Missouri, Iowa, Michigan, Kansas, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, at the height of their business interests.

The year 1822 also brought to Fort Wayne the families of William Nesbit Hood and his brother, Robert Hood, who came from Dayton, Ohio. The Hoods also secured a license for trading with the Indians. Although successful in their operations, they never entered into large scale trading such as the Ewings, and later became involved in politics and real estate speculation.

Most of the traders at Fort Wayne seldom left town, but had a number of men called “engages” in their service who accompanied the Indians in their hunts, supplied them with goods in small quantities, and watched them that 91 they did not sell their furs to traders other than their employers. The furs brought in consisted principally of deer and raccoon skins. Bear, otter, and beaver were becoming scarce. In the eighteen-thirties, when the beaver prices tumbled and the raccoon skins became popular, the Maumee-Wabash region became for a few years the center of interest of the American fur trade, as this area produced large numbers of raccoons.

The skins when brought in were loosely rolled or tied, but they were afterward made into packs which were three feet long and eighteen inches wide after being subjected to a heavy pressure in a wedge press. The values of the furs were nominal, as they were paid for in goods passed off to the Indians for two or three times their actual worth. Moreover, fur prices fluctuated greatly, depending upon the fashion.

On February 24, 1823, John Hays wrote to Calhoun tendering his resignation as Indian agent at Fort Wayne, pointing out that he was too far from his home at Cahokia, Illinois. After elaborating on the benefits the Indians had received under his administration of the agency, he strongly recommended that Benjamin B. Kercheval, his present assistant, be appointed as his successor. Kercheval was an excellent man for the position, but did not receive the appointment, as Hays had allowed the news of his intended resignation to leak out before writing to Calhoun. As the fears of British intrigue around Fort Wayne had vanished after the War of 1812, the agency at Fort Wayne came to be regarded as a political plum. The state delegation in Congress had been exerting pressure on the president for some time to appoint citizens of Indiana to positions in the state. Calhoun, early in 1822, had refused to remove Hays in order that John Tipton, a native of Indiana, could be appointed in his place. However, when the Indiana delegation heard of Hay’s intended resignation, they carried the matter of their recommendation of Tipton directly to President Monroe and secured his approval before Calhoun had the opportunity to recommend Kercheval. When Kercheval brought the news of his failure to Hays, the latter wrote to Lewis Cass, “I never was more disappointed and mortified than on the arrival of Mr. Kercheval. I certainly should not have resigned at this moment, had I not thought Mr. Kercheval would be successfull.”[22]

Hays remained at Fort Wayne until June 5, 1823, and for a short time both he and Tipton were present at the agency. John Tipton was a product of the east Tennessee frontier, where he was born in 1786. When he was seven, his father was killed by an Indian. In 1807, the Tipton family moved to Harrison County, Indiana. Although he lacked any formal education, Tipton’s dynamic qualities as a leader more than compensated for his educational shortcomings. In later life, Tipton learned to read and write, but it always remained a difficult task for him, judging by his letters. In 1811, Tipton took part as a common soldier in the battle of Tippecanoe. Afterward his advancement in the army was astonishingly rapid, for in six years, he became a brigadier general. After the War of 1812, Tipton’s rise in the 92 political field was equally as rapid and his influence became statewide. The political positions he held were as follows: justice of the peace, deputy sheriff, sheriff, member of the state legislature, state commissioner, Indian agent at Fort Wayne, and finally U. S. Senator.

In 1823, Tipton was glad to accept the position as Indian agent at Fort Wayne for life at Corydon, his former home, had become unpleasantly complicated by financial and domestic difficulties. His marriage to Martha Shields had ended with a divorce in 1817. The salary of the Indian agent was $1,200 a year, a fair income in those days. The position also gave Tipton special advantages in the treaty negotiations to secure choice sites of land either for his friends or for himself. It was primarily through this means that Tipton was well on his way to becoming one of the wealthiest men in the state at the time of his death. Obviously Tipton’s financial and political success were closely linked. In today’s society the public and private “conflict of interest” in his career would be grist for many crusading journalists. However in an age when the “Spoils System” would soon become acceptable and in a small isolated frontier community where the agent had to deal constantly with the same few individuals, his career should also be judged in relation to the time and place. Tipton was not insensible to the needs of the Indians under his care, but he usually decided on the issues with his personal and political future in mind.

When Tipton received his appointment there were only 2,441 Miami, Potawatomie and Eel River Indians left in the territory covered by the Fort Wayne agency. In 1824, their annuities amounted to $17,300 for the Miamis, $1,100 for the Eel River Indians, and $1,700 for the Potawatomies. These annuities, which increased threefold during Tipton’s administration, were a stake well worth effort of the traders. Moreover, added to these annuities were the gifts and other contingencies which the government furnished the Indians and had to buy from the traders. The traders in the vicinity of Fort Wayne realized the fur trade was declining, but they also knew the Indians sill needed their goods and encouraged then to buy heavily on credit. The Indians recognized these debts, some of which were artificial even, and before the annuities were paid, the traders made sure they received their payments. What was left for the Indians was either spent on whiskey or in buying more goods. There was no limit to the greed of many of the traders. Finding the annuities inadequate, they joined with the Indians in asking for increased payments by the government and conspired to hold up treaty agreements until demands were granted.

The outstanding incident of Tipton’s second year as agent was his seizure of goods belonging to the powerful American Fur Company for violation of the Intercourse Act on the part of two of their clerks at Fort Wayne. Tipton’s action was upheld by a jury in the United States district court, and the goods were declared forfeited. However, when the case was carried to the United States Supreme Court, the judgement was reversed, and 93 the case was ordered back to the district court, where it was finally dismissed.[23] Whatever the legal merits of the case, it was clear that not even someone with Tipton’s political influence could challenge the important traders, especially Astor’s American Fur Company.

[1]John Tipton Papers I, IHC, XXIV ed. Nellie Robertson and Dorothy Riker, p. 49.

[2]Major Vose was a native of Manchester, New Hampshire. He was commissioned a captain in the twenty-first infantry in 1812 and promoted to major during the war. In 1842, he received the commission of colonel. His death occurred at New Orleans Barracks, in Louisiana, in 1845.

[3]Above, pp. [p 66

-69.]

[4]J. L. Williams, Historical Sketch of the First Presbyterian Church, Fort Wayne, Indiana, p. 12.

[5]Riley to Sanford, Nov. 24, 1819, quoted in Riley W. Willshire’s Sequel to Riley’s Narrative, pp. 401-404.

[6]Ibid., p. 403.

[6a]Riley to Tiffin, Nov. 14, 1820, quoted in T. B. Helm, History of Wabash County, p. 78.

[7]Ibid., p. 78.

[8]Ibid., p. 78.

[9]Rev. J. B. Finney, Life Among the Indians, p. 34.

[10]William H. Keating (comp) Narrative of an Expedition to the Source of St. Peter’s River ... 1823 ... under the command of Stephen H. Long, I: 81.

[11]“Journal of Thomas Scattergood Teas”, Indiana as Seen by Early Travelers, ed. Harlow Lindley, p. 98.

[12]Isaac McCoy, History of Baptist Indian Missions, p. 68.

[13]Chief Richardville, himself a staunch Catholic, sent his son to McCoy’s school. Later his son died a drunkard. After that Richardville would allow no school to be established for boys of his tribe unless they were instructed by a Catholic. See, John Tipton Papers, II: 134.

[14]Duncan McArthur to James Monroe, March 16, 1815, McArthur Papers, Burton Historical Collection.

[15]Lewis Cass to John Calhoun, January 7, 1819, Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collection, 28 91.

[16]John Tipton Papers I, Indiana Historical Collection, XXIV, ed. Nellie Armstrong Robertson and Dorothy Riker, p. 432.

[17]Calhoun to Turner, May 24, 1820, Tipton Papers, I, IHC, XXIV, ed. Nellie Armstrong Robertson and Dorothy Riker, pp. 535-6.

[18]Nellie A. Robertson “John Hays and the Fort Wayne Agency”, Indiana Magazine of History, 39: 230.

[19]Nellie A. Robertson, “John Hays and the Fort Wayne Agency”, Indiana Magazine of History, 39: 226.

[22]John Tipton Papers, I, IHC, XXIV, ed. Nellie A. Robertson and Dorothy Riker, p. 303.

[23]John Tipton Papers, I, IHC, XXIV, 434-5; 439-40; 782-3.

94

Chapter VI
Platting of Fort Wayne and the First Local Government

While the traders, large and small alike, were thus successfully evading any effective control over their operations, Fort Wayne was developing from a frontier army post and portage center into a very prosperous community. Its strategic location, the opening of a land office in 1822 and its selection as the county seat of Allen county brought many new settlers to the area.

The land office was established at Fort Wayne by an act of Congress on May 8, 1822.[1] The coming of Joseph Holman of Wayne county, appointed by President Monroe to serve as the first register of the land office, and Captain Samuel C. Vance of Dearborn county, as the receiver of the public moneys, was the signal for great activity in securing the choicest sites when the sale should open in the fall of 1823.

Register Holman and Captain Vance established their office in the old fort where much of the clerical work of the business came under the direct supervision of a young man who accompanied Captain Vance as his assistant, Allen Hamilton. Hamilton later became one of the most foremost merchants in the Fort Wayne area. He was born in Tyrone county, Ireland in 1798 and came to America in 1817 to retrieve the family wealth which had been lost by his father. In this he was quite successful after arriving at Fort Wayne. As a trader, he became a good friend of the Miamis, and in particular Chief Richardville. In this manner he was generally able to obtain choice land sites from the Indians in exchange for payment of their debts. He and Tipton later became partners in buying and improving Indian lands for speculation. In political affairs he was not so successful, later incurring the powerful opposition of the Ewings by reason of his friendship with the American Fur Company.

The act that set up the land office at Fort Wayne provided that all public lands for which the Indian title had been extinguished and which had not been granted to or secured for the use of any individual or individuals or appropriated and reserved for any other purpose were to be opened for sale. It was necessary to make some decision about the fort and public buildings which had been used by the Indian agency since the withdrawal of the garrison in 1819. Upon the recommendation of Lewis Cass, the site of the 95 fort and thirty acres additional were withheld from the sale in order that the Indians assembling for councils or annuity payments might have a place for encampment. The land speculators were bitterly disappointed and made periodic efforts to secure part of the valuable reserve. Tipton was one of the principal opponents of its sale as long as the agency remained at Fort Wayne.[2]

On October 22, 1823—the thirty-third anniversary of Harmar’s defeat on this same spot, and the twenty-ninth anniversary of the dedication of the original fort—the government land sale was opened in the fort. John T. Barr, a merchant of Baltimore, Maryland, and John McCorkle, an active citizen of Piqua, Ohio, combined their resources and purchased the tract which is known as the Original Plat.

Neither of these original proprietors of Fort Wayne chose to make his home here. Nothing is known of the activities of John T. Barr in Baltimore, beyond the showing of the Baltimore city directories of his period, which refer to him as a merchant. More is known, however, of the activities of John McCorkle. He was born at Piqua in 1791. As the owner of a carding mill, gristmill and oil mill, he laid the foundation for a prosperous future and became Piqua’s most enterprising citizen. In 1819, together with John Hedges, he furnished supplies of beef and bread to the Indians at Fort Wayne while they were awaiting their annuity payments. Two years later he founded St. Mary’s, Ohio. He was actively engaged in state and national politics in 1829, when he died at the age of thirty-eight.

Barr and McCorkle came to the Fort Wayne land sale together, in a bateau, which they propelled down the St. Mary’s river. For the original tract, they paid twenty-six dollars per acre, in that year an extravagant price for western land.[3] They took immediate steps to plat the property and to offer it for sale in the form of business and residence lots. A surveyor was employed to lay out the property which today would include that part of Downtown Fort Wayne bounded on the north by the Nickel Plate Railroad, on the east by Barr Street, on the south by Washington Boulevard, and on the west by the alley between Calhoun and Harrison streets. The plat consisted originally of 110 lots. There were four north-and-south streets and five east-and-west streets.

Alexander Ewing secured eighty acres of ground immediately west of the Barr and McCorkle tract. This later became known as “Ewing’s addition”. The tract known as “Wells pre-emption”, lying between the forks of the St. Mary’s and St. Joseph rivers, having been set aside by Congress for Captain Wells as early as 1808, was purchased by his heirs at the minimum price of $1.25 an acre.

The land offices were continued at Fort Wayne during the period of twenty-one years. The positions connected with it were considered excellent rewards for political service. Thus, with the inauguration of Jackson in 1829 Holman and Vance were removed. Later appointees were also appointed or 96 removed according to the political fortune of their parties.

While the proprietors of their newly purchased land were busy preparing for the sale of lots, the state legislature on December 11, 1823, passed an act creating the county of Allen, with jurisdiction over what is now Wells, Adams, DeKalb, and Steuben counties and portions of Noble, LaGrange, Huntington, and Whitley counties.[4] This area included practically all of northwestern Indiana. The name of Allen county was suggested by John Tipton, who was an ardent admirer of Colonel John Allen, the gallant Kentuckian who, after aiding in the relief of Fort Wayne in 1812, lost his life at the battle of the River Raisin in Michigan.

Barr and McCorkle awaited the organization of the county government, after which they proceeded with the work of securing returns on their investments. At this time there were no streets beyond beaten paths and driveways which had, by chance, come into accepted use whenever one man chose to walk or drive over a route taken by another before him. However, with the laying out of the streets for the future town, the site assumed an air of order and enterprises. There was work for all.

The legislative act creating Allen county took effect April 1, 1824. Six days previous to this date, four state commissioners arrived to select the seat of government for the new county. Throughout the West the various town promoters frequently fought vigorously to have their community selected as county seat. This usually led to fierce rivalries between neighboring towns. However in the case of Allen county, Fort Wayne faced no competition due to its dominant position in location and population, it being the only village of any size in northeastern Indiana. These commissioners, in accordance with instructions from the state legislature, held their session at the tavern of Alexander Ewing, known as Washington Hall, and soon completed the formalities of their mission.

The first election of county officers occurred on May 22. Previous to this, Governor William Hendricks had named Allen Hamilton to serve as sheriff of Allen county. The election of county officers was held in accordance with the sheriff’s proclamation. Although partisan politics did not enter into it, the race was a heated one, as indicated by the attempt of the defeated candidates to contest the election.

The voters selected Samuel Hanna and Benjamin Cushman for associate circuit court judges; Anthony Davis for clerk and recorder; and William Rockhill, James Wyman, and Francis Comparet for county commissioners. Alexander Ewing, a rival of Samuel Hanna, and Marshall K. Taylor, who ran against Comparet, contested the election, claiming that there was an unfair count of the ballots. However, they failed to prove their charges.

At the first meeting of the commissioners, John Tipton was appointed to the important post of county agent. The commissioners also fixed the following figures to regulate the rates to be charged by tavernkeepers, who 97 were required to pay an annual license fee of $12.50 to conduct their business: Dinner, breakfast, and supper 25 cents; keeping horse, night and day, 50 cents; lodging per night 12½ cents; whiskey, per half pint 12½ cents; brandy, per half pint, 50 cents; gin per half pint, 37½ cents; cider, per quart, 18 cents.

The board also decided upon the following rates for assessment on personal property for the year of 1824: Male person, over the age of 21 years, 50 cents; horse or mule, 37½ cents; work oxen, 19 cents; gold watch, $1; silver watch, 25 cents; pinchbeck watch, 25 cents; pleasure carriage, four wheels, $1.50; pleasure carriage, two wheels, $1.00.[5]

Treasurer Holman reported that in 1824 the county was entitled to $111.62 from taxes. The state at that time, and for a long period to follow, paid a bounty on all wolf scalps taken; the certificates thus issued were receivable for tax payments. For the first years, nearly all the taxes of Allen county were paid off in these certificates, a clear indication of the wild nature of the Fort Wayne area.

The first session of the Allen County circuit court was held beginning August 9, 1824, at Ewing’s tavern, with Judges Cushman and Hanna presiding. The records of the opening years of the county’s judicial history reveal the fact that very few of the leading citizens escaped indictment on charges of selling liquor illegally, larceny, assault and battery, gambling, defamation of character, or trespassing, while the civil and chancery cases were numerous from the beginning.[6]

The report of the first grand jury, which was received no doubt with complacency by the community, would if duplicated at the present time precipitate official investigations and loss of positions. But it reflects the spirit of the time in early Fort Wayne. Both of the associate judges were indicted for minor offenses. Of the nine defendants charged with illegal sale of liquors, the large part were men whose names are synonymous with the builders of early Fort Wayne. Six of those accused of the illegal sale of liquor paid fines of three dollars, while the remaining three drew fines of four dollars each. Apparently it was well worth such small fines to be able to trade with the Indians, and the practice continued.

The most important matter to come before the county commissioners in 1824 was the proposition of John T. Barr and John McCorkle in regard to the town plat which they had laid out in August. The offer included a grant to the county treasury of $500 cash and the donation to the county of one square for the use of public buildings (the present Court House square), one lot for a school building, and one lot for a church of no particular denomination, but free to all. In addition to this, Barr and McCorkle offered various other lots located throughout the plat to be disposed of by the county.

The commissioners lost little time in accepting this offer, and the town of Fort Wayne consisting of about sixteen square blocks came into existence. The deed was made out to John Tipton, the county agent. The first lots were 98 sold September 18, 1824, under the direction of Tipton. The buyers were Francis Comparet, William Barbee, William Suttenfield, Edward Mitchel, Thomas Rue, Charles W. Ewing, Rees Goodwin, John J. Griggs, Benjamin Kercheval, Christopher Vallequitte, Jean B. Richardville, Alexander Ewing, William Murphy, Benjamin Archer, Moses Scott, James Scott, William N. Hood, Jacob Everly, Walker and Davis, Samuel Hanna, and Benjamin and Jacob Glossbruner.[7]

Some of these lots, in the heart of the present city, sold for $10.25; the highest brought only $25. The entire thirty-six lots comprising this original sale netted only $690.50, an average of less than $20. per lot. Most of the purchasers made a down payment of half the purchase price. After the sale of some of the remaining lots, Tipton resigned as county agent on September 5, 1825, and Charles W. Ewing was appointed to fill the vacancy.

With the selection of Fort Wayne as the county seat and the improvement and sale of the public lands, new settlers began to arrive in 1824. One of these was Hugh Hanna, the brother of Samuel Hanna, who established the first cabinet and carpenter shop. The villagers were becoming prosperous enough to build more permanent homes and furnish them with better furniture. Chief Richardville and Samuel Hanna, following the best tradition in the East, imported most of their household furnishings from France.

Another indication that Fort Wayne was becoming a village for the more permanent type of settler was the establishment of a small brick factory north of the town by Benjamin Archer who also arrived in 1824. From the products of his yards the first brick building at Fort Wayne was constructed near the end of that year.

Other settlers of 1824 were Mrs. Peter Edsall and her nine children. At Fort Wayne the family purchased a farm. Later her sons—Samuel, John Simon, and William—became identified in the developments of the town, establishing saw mills, laying plank roads, and finally contracting for the construction of the first railroad to reach Fort Wayne. William Stewart, Smalwood Noel, John Bruno, Charles and Francis Minie, Richard Chobert, and Joseph Barron also came to the village in 1824. Most of these people came from Ohio, Kentucky and Virginia by way of the Ohio and St. Mary’s rivers. A few of them came from the Detroit region or from New York state by way of Lake Erie and the Maumee river.

[1]U. S. Statutes at Large, 3: 701-2; 6:448.

[2]At a later date part of the reserve was taken over by the state in connection with the opening of the Wabash-Erie canal; the remaining twenty acres were purchased by Cyrus Taber and opened for sale in 1835. It appears from John Tipton’s correspondence at the time that he and Allen Hamilton also had an interest in Taber’s purchase.

[3]John Tipton Papers, II, IHC, XXV, p. 18.

[4]Revised Laws of Indiana, 1823-24, p. 109. This legislative act took effect April 1, 1824.

[5]Treasurer’s Report for Allen County, 1824, Allen County Historical Society Archives.

[6]Judge Allen Zollars, “Bench and Bar of Allen County” quoted in Charles Slocum, Valley of the Upper Maumee River, II, p. 439.

[7]Tipton Papers, I, IHC, XXIV, p. 405.

99

Chapter VII
The Treaty of 1826 and the Removal of the Indian Agency

The year 1825 found the village of Fort Wayne had developed to a town of nearly one hundred and fifty people—that is to say of persons considered more or less permanently settled. The town was in the pathway of many who traveled by way of the rivers, passing chiefly to the southwest; so there was a closer business and social connection with the busy eastern centers than had prevailed during the earlier years.

In many respects the growth of Fort Wayne was typical of what was happening elsewhere in the West. The Indian country, opened to the whites by the treaties between 1795 and 1818, was being speedily settled. The “New Purchase” acquired from the Miami and Potawatomie in 1818 was carved into twenty-two counties and a flood of settlers rushed in to take up the choice locations. In 1829 it was estimated that a hundred thousand people were living in the New Purchase. In 1820, but four years a state, Indiana boasted a population of 147,178 people, and the next census revealed the addition of 195,853. In 1826, the northern third of Indiana was held by less than three thousand Indians while the southern two-thirds was settled by one hundred times as many whites. Within a short time pressure of the whites, who lusted for the rich land north of the Wabash-Maumee line, led to an inexorable demand for Indian removal.

Fort Wayne as a central point along this line of the Maumee and Wabash river, and at the edge of the white civilization, while touching the Indian country, held a unique and paradoxical position. The traders and land speculators at Fort Wayne—the Ewings, Hamilton, Hanna, Barnett, Hood, Comparet, Coquillard, and others—were making a handsome profit in their dealings with the Indians. As long as the Indian agency remained at Fort Wayne, and as long as the Indians remained in this area and received ever-better annuities, these men profited. Removal of the Indians, as William G. Ewing pointed out, would deprive the area of many thousands of dollars distributed annually. This money, he maintained, contributed to the upbuilding of the area.[1]

100

However, it must be remembered that there was a factor, especially important at Fort Wayne, which made the removal of the Indians very desirable. The craze for internal improvements had struck throughout the West in the eighteen-twenties. In Indiana the most-discussed and most-promising project was the proposed Wabash and Erie Canal, for which the portage at Fort Wayne was the focal point. Many of these traders at Fort Wayne had through their astuteness in business with the Indians acquired valuable property along the route of the proposed canal. Nevertheless, the Indians still held the territory north of the Wabash and Maumee, and their removal was necessary for the work to be able to proceed. In the final analysis, it became a question of which interest was more powerful, the Indian traders and fur companies or the larger group of land speculators, town-site promoters, merchants, and settlers of the Wabash and Maumee valleys. It was inevitable that the latter group should win out, but at Fort Wayne the struggle was a bitter one. Here we see some of the traders, such as Hanna, placed in the paradoxical position of agitating for the removal of the Indians, while at the same time eager to retain their trade. Others, in particular the Ewings, opposed their removal. Both groups had acquired valuable property along the proposed canal line, but those who sided with the Ewings had more money invested in their trading operations with the Indians and usually dealt in the fur trade also.[2]

Somewhere between both groups stood John Tipton, Indian agent. Tipton never doubted that Indiana was destined to be a white man’s country. He thoroughly agreed with the popular demand for internal improvements and for the removal of the Indians. He himself was one of the major holders of choice land, which he had acquired from the Indians and which he hoped to develop. But as Indian agent he had to account for his acts to the Washington officials as well as to opinion in Indiana. Moreover, he was not callous to the sorry plight of the once powerful Miami and Potawatomie, whose contact with the white traders had reduced them to pitiful tribes. Then, too, Tipton could not openly flaunt the powerful traders, who wanted the Indians to remain. Tipton’s position as Indian agent was recognized as one of the best political appointments in Indiana. His hold on his position depended on his ability to keep in the good graces of the Indiana delegation in Congress, and this in turn necessitated making as few enemies as possible. Moreover, Tipton realized that the traders could prevent the negotiation of any treaty and the cession of land by the Indians by reason of their powerful influence with the chiefs. Failure to secure these cessions periodically would ruin any Indian agent.

By 1826 Tipton was ready to act. He felt that the Miamis and Potawatomies were sufficiently softened by their growing dependence on government annuities and on the whiskey and other goods furnished by the traders to be amenable to proposals for another land cession. Accordingly, a commission of Tipton, Lewis Cass, and Governor James Ray of Indiana was 101 appointed to deal with the Indians.

By this time, the procedure in negotiating Indian treaties had become fairly stereotyped. The Indians were gathered together by agents who made glowing promises of good things to come. At the meeting place preparations were made for feeding great numbers of people; traders were encouraged to attend with attractive selections of goods, numerous barrels of whiskey were imported; and every precaution was taken to satisfy the appetites and desires of the Indians. At the proper time the agent in charge assembled the braves, to whom he read a stilted and pompous message from the Great White Father in which the Indians were upbraided for their depredations, drunkenness, and other misconduct, and reminded of the forbearance, generosity, and friendliness of the whites. Then the Indians were asked what lands they would surrender and if they would move farther west.

Neither the Miamis nor the Potawatomies wanted to leave their lands in 1826, but after food and whiskey had been consumed and goods given out to the value of $61,588, they showed signs of weakening. However, it was apparent that the commissioners could get nowhere unless they could secure the support of the traders. The latter desired to have their claims—sometimes two or three times the actual amount of credit they had extended to the Indians—allowed and paid for out of the annuities. They also wished to gain control of more desirable land through the treaty, thus obtaining it without the land being put up at public auction as was the legal requirement.

There had grown up in the administration of Indian affairs a way of passing Indian lands to the whites without subjecting them to the land laws of the United States. The proper legal procedure of land disposal was for the Indians to cede land to the United States, whereupon it became subject to the administration of the General Land Office. The land would then be surveyed and sold at auction to the highest bidder. The remaining land was sold for $1.25 an acre. This method was fair and democratic. The nonstatutory method of land disposal worked in this way; trader and Indian agents, who generally cooperated closely with one another, would include in the Indian treaties provisions authorizing the patenting of certain lands to the chiefs, half-breeds, or ordinary members of the tribes. In turn these individuals conveyed their rights to traders in payment of real or imaginary debts before the treaty was signed or shortly thereafter. Although presidential approval for such conveyances was necessary, in most cases the approval could be secured easily, provided the agents would report that the Indians had received a fair price for their land. As the agents were either under obligation to the traders for support in treaty negotiations or were personally interested in some of the reserves, they could usually be induced to send in a favorable report even though the Indians might have bartered their land away for some trinkets or a few drinks.

The Ewings, Hanna, Coquillard, Hamilton, Taber, Tipton, and Vermilya, all acquired interests in individual reserves to the amount of 102 thousands of acres. All of these men were involved in the promotion of certain projects (towns, roads, canals) for which their land was valuable.

Thus we see the traders were in full force at the treaty grounds in 1826, fighting for their interests. They worked through the chiefs and headmen of the tribes to whom they gave gifts and loans. To take care of the traders claims, present and prospective, it was necessary to increase the annuities and agree to pay the Indian debts. In addition, goods to the value of $41,259 were to be distributed to the Miamis for two years following the treaty. For these stipulations the Indians surrendered 976,000 acres, the main part of which was along the Wabash and Maumee rivers. From this cession, the Miamis were permitted to retain 81,800 acres for special groups and 13,920 for individual reserves.[3]

The primary importance of this treaty, aside from the surrender of land wanted by actual settlers, is that it opened the way for the construction of the Wabash and Erie canal. The treaty of 1826 and the enlarged annuities it provided also made the ultimate removal of the Indians from this area even more difficult. The frontier community of Fort Wayne could not be disdainful of payments of specie which ran as high as $100,000 in some years. The payments of annuities, the distribution of gifts bought from traders and the assumption of Indian debts were followed by a period of prosperity for agents, traders, and land speculators.

It is no wonder that when the people of Fort Wayne learned that Tipton had applied to the government officials to move the Indian agency from Fort Wayne, many protested vigorously. For a long time, Tipton had desired to remove the agency to a more central location in the Indian country. The exploitation of the Indians at Fort Wayne was reason enough, but Tipton had to wait for a while as the opposition was too strong. The attitude of the traders at the treaty of 1826 gave Tipton plenty of excuse to push the project of removal once more. In a letter written February 7, 1827, which eventually found its way onto the Senate floor, Tipton listed seven reasons why the agency should be removed from Fort Wayne.[4] Not only was the agency too remote from the Indians, argued Tipton, but it was also too close to numerous grog shops and to the traders who sold his wards whiskey, encouraged them to run up debts which must later be deducted from annuities, and cheated them in a hundred different ways. Tipton cited one case in which a white woman at Fort Wayne had purchased a shawl from a drunk squaw for seven apples and 12½ cents. This shawl had cost the squaw $3.50.

Since the removal of the Indian agency would destroy their highly lucrative business, the traders at Fort Wayne put aside petty quarrels and joined in common defense to prevent it. John McCorkle, as a principal owner of real estate at Fort Wayne, wrote to Representative William McLean from Indiana:

This settlement has been formed in consequence of the establishment of 103 the agency at that place. Reserves were made for the use of the agent, thereby holding out a guarantee to the purchasers of public lands and property, that this agency would be continued at that place until the Indians should be removed from that country. Among others, I became a considerable purchaser of considerable public lands, for which I paid an extravagant price. One tract, near and adjoining the reservation for the agency, I paid $26 per acre for.... If a removal should take place, the Indians, as well as the inhabitants at Wayne, who have expended their all there, will be greatly disobliged.[5]

Judging from an earlier letter of McCorkle to Tipton, the former believed that the agent had misled him at the time the Fort Wayne lands were sold by the government. McCorkle sincerely believed that the agency would remain at Fort Wayne when he purchased the original plat.[6] After the agency was removed from Fort Wayne, McCorkle and Tipton became bitter enemies.

Meanwhile some traders at Fort Wayne raised the old cry of mismanagement and misuse of government funds and sought the dismissal of Tipton. Tipton’s perennial enemies—Robert Hood, Benjamin Cushman, and Elisha Harris—brought five charges of misconduct against Tipton before the Secretary of War, James Barbour.[7]

In answering these charges Tipton wrote:

Although it is improper for a man to speak of his neighbours faults and follies, yet both self defence and truth Justifies the assertion that a majority of the Citizens of this village are of the lowest order of society, such as discharged soldiers and dishonourable men. In this latter class is Robert Hood, Ben Cushman and Elisha B. Harris, who have fled from the offended laws of their Country elsewhere and have stopped here on account of the quantity of money annualy disbursed at this place. Their constant practice is to get money from the Indians by every artifice in their power ... we should not be surprised at the unexampled exertion made to oust me, when we reflect on fate of all my predecessors that Wells and Turner were dismissed, Stickney put out by address, and M. Hays almost compelled by the society here to resign. The superintendant knows me and is not wholy unacquainted with the character of a part of the inhabitants of this village.... He can satisfy you what kind of people I have to deal with.[8]

Elisha Harris, one of the men who filed charges against Tipton, had a very questionable record. He was indicted several times for stealing horses from the Indians. The other men, Cushman and Hood, who filed the charges against Tipton, were both elected judges of Allen county and apparently had some standing in the community. Cushman was indicted once for carrying concealed weapons, but he was never convicted on any charge. Indeed there were few leading men in the county who escaped being brought before the court. Subpoenas were served on the Ewings, Suttenfield, and others. Nor was Tipton innocent of all charges. His enemies could truthfully say that he had used his 104 position as Indian agent to gain control of some of the most valuable land in northern Indiana, but this they would not do, as they would expose themselves also.

Despite the vigorous protests and charges leveled against him, Tipton was able to accomplish his purpose, the removal of the Indian agency from Fort Wayne. Through the controversy, Tipton was supported by Lewis Cass, his immediate superior, who in this instance became convinced that the welfare of the Indians and the greater convenience of Tipton required removal. With Cass’ influence on his side, the transfer was authorized on March 14, 1828.

Tipton had a personal interest in securing the removal of the agency to a spot near the junction of the Wabash and Eel rivers. He and his friends were able to lay out to the best advantage and to buy control of the Indian reserves there. Shortly thereafter, Tipton and his associates established the town of Logansport. The new town attracted many of those traders whose prosperity depended on the Indian annuities, among them being Cyrus Taber and one member of the Ewing firm, George W. Ewing. Whiskey became as plentiful at Logansport as at Fort Wayne, and the Indians were persuaded to overpurchase as often and defrauded as badly. One can hardly see what benefit had been attained by the removal of the agency to Logansport other than the enrichment of Tipton and his associates.

Although the Indians failed to secure any benefits from the removal of the agency, actually it produced a blessing in disguise for the village of Fort Wayne. While the change was not immediately apparent, the removal of the agency meant that the town would secure a higher type of settler than before, and that its growth would depend more on its own natural advantages and industry than on the artificial boom of the annuity payments. Most important of all, the removal of the agency turned the attention of the villagers to new enterprises. Chief among these was the construction of the Wabash-Erie canal, which proved the means by which Fort Wayne achieved a new and more permanent reason for existence. The removal of the Indians in 1826 had made the land available for the canal. Now the removal of the Indian agency indirectly resulted in local enthusiasm for its construction.

On the other hand the agency played an important role in the early development of Fort Wayne. While it was in existence here, the agency attracted many men to this area, such as Hanna, Comparet, and the Ewings, who later remained to build a city. The Indian agency also contributed indirectly to the ultimate construction of the canal. Many of the leading traders, in particular Samuel Hanna, had secured by means of trading with the Indians the choice lands they hoped to develop through the construction of the canal. Consequently, they vigorously championed the Wabash-Erie canal program.

For a short time after the principal Indian agency had been removed, a sub-agency was maintained at Fort Wayne with Samuel Lewis and Abel C. 105 Pepper in charge. When, on December 30, 1829, Pepper reported that the public buildings were in such a state of decay that a hundred dollars would be needed to repair them, the government officials determined to discontinue even the sub-agency.[9] Thus early in 1830, Congress authorized the sale of the public lands yet retained by the government at Fort Wayne. This act sounded the death-knell of the old fort, which was purchased by a land company from New Haven, Connecticut. The other twenty acres were purchased by the county.

[1]John Tipton Papers, I, IHC, XXIV, ed. Nellie Robertson and Dorothy Riker, p. 13.

[2]By the late 1820’s, a distinction must be made between the Indian trade and the fur trade. The latter was still valuable but an increasing number of furs were being trapped by whites, as the Indians of the area were becoming less industrious.

[3]C. Poinsatte, Fort Wayne During the Canal Era, p. 15.

[4]John Tipton Papers, I, IHC, XXIV, ed. Nellie Robertson and Dorothy Riker, pp. 651-2.

[5]John Tipton Papers, II, IHC, XXV, 18.

[6]John Tipton Papers, I, IHC, XXIV, 527.

[7]Ibid., pp. 631-3.

[8]John Tipton Papers, I, IHC, XXIV, 662-3.

[9]John Tipton Papers, II, IHC, XXV, 233.

106

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111

INDEX

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

A. Ewing and Sons 90

Abbott, James 20

Agriculture 45

Allen, John 96

American Fur Co. 42, 82, 87, 92

Anahquah 31

Annuities 79, 84, 87, 92, 99, 102, 104

Annuity Money 89

Aquenochqua 10

Archer, Benjamin 98

Assessment Rates 97

Astor, John 90

Aveline, James 82

B

Bailey, William 63

Baptist Missionary 86

Barbee, William 98

Barnett, James 82, 83, 90

Barr, John T. 95

Barron, Joseph 98

Battle of Tippecanoe 38

Beaubien, Charles 14

Beaubien, Josette 81

Beaver 91

Beaver Skins 4

Beef 95

Besiegers 67

Bienville, Sieur De 9

Bienville, Celeron De 5

Bissot, Jean Baptiste 5

Blacksmith 74

Blacksmith Shop 89

Blankets 71

Blockhouse 76

Blue Jacket 19, 54

Boatmen 42

Bondie, Antoine 63, 64, 66, 71

Bonnecamps, Joseph Pierre De 5

Boone, Daniel 15

Boston 83

Bougainville 7

Bourie, John B. 81

Bourie, Louis 35, 74

Boyer, John 27

Bread 95

Brick Building 98

Brick Factory 98

Bruno, John 98

Burbeck, Henry 37

C

Cadillac 3

Canada 89

Canadian 86

Canal 45, 80, 83

Cannon 28, 71, 81

Carpenter Shop 98

Carrying-Trade 80

Cart Track 86

Cass, Lewis 81, 87, 91, 104

Catholic Faith 86

Cattle and Hogs 66

Celoron, Pierre Joseph 9

Cession of Lands 40

Chapeau 18

Chapeteau, Angeline 35

Chene, Money 12

Chief Chondonnai 75

Chief Cold Foot 9

Chief Richardville 75, 81, 94

Chippewas 22

Christianity 80

Circuit Court 97

Clark, George Rogers 15

Clark, James 80

Clark, William 27

Clinton, George 10

Coal House 89

Columbia Street 80

Comparet, Francis 82, 90, 96, 98

Congress 59

Congressional Debates 85

Conner, John 55

Coquillard, Alexis 82, 90

Corn 8, 22, 69, 86

Cornfields 65

Council House 36, 80

Council of Marine 6

County Officers 96

Credit 92

Croghan, George 13, 34

Curtis, Daniel 74, 80

Cushman, Benjamin 96

D

Dancing 18, 19

Daniel Boone 15

Darnaud 6

Darneille, Isaac 54

Davis, Anthony 96

Dawson, John W. 76

Debauchery 84

Delawares 4, 13, 20, 43, 51

Dennis, Philip 45

DePeyster, Arent S. 14

DeRaymond, Charles 8

DeRome 81

Detroit 3, 7, 20, 32, 61, 73, 98

Dresses 75

Drinking 19, 84

Drunkenness 56, 101

Dubuisson 5

Duplessy 16

E

Edsall, Mrs. Peter 98

Eel River 88

Eggs 75

Election 96

Ellicott, George 45

Elskwatwa 50

English Traders 8

Erie Canal 100

Evacuation 81

Everly, Jacob 98

Ewing, Alexander 90, 96, 98

Ewing, Charles W. 98

112

Ewing, George W. 104

Ewing, William G. 99

F

Fallen Timbers 23, 31, 50

Fines 97

Finney, J. B. 85

Flagstaff 76

Flaming Arrows 68

Flatboats 72

Flour 86

Forsyth, James 56

Forsyth, Polly 56

Forsythe, Maria 89

Forsythe, Robert 74

Fort Dearborn 63, 64, 73, 79, 86

Fort Dearborn Massacre 75

Fort Defiance 37, 70

Fort Harrison 63

Fort Recovery 23, 86

Fox Indians 3

French 83

French Families 14

French Jesuits 86

Frenchtown 34

Friends 45

Fur Companies 100

Fur Prices 91

Fur Trade 11, 17, 48, 100

Fur Traders 74

Fur Trading 42

Furs 42, 86, 89

G

Gambling 84

Gamelin, Antoine 20

Garrison 63, 67, 81

Garrison Life 32

General Store 74

Gibson, John 46

Girties 13

Girty, George 19

Girty, James 19

Girty’s Town 69

Glossbruner, Benjamin 98

Glossbruner, Jacob 98

Godefroy, Jacques 12

Goodwin, Rees 98

Gouin 16

Gray, David 17

Great Britain 43

Great White Father 101

Greenville 28, 29, 44, 75

Griggs, John J. 98

Grog Shops 102

Guns 66

H

Hackley, Ann 81

Hamilton, Allen 94, 96

Hamilton, Henry 14

Hamtramck, John Francis 28

Hanna, Hugh 98

Hanna, Samuel 82, 89, 96, 98, 104

Harmar 20, 28

Harris, Elisha 103

Harrison 40, 52, 60, 69, 70, 79

Harrison, William H. 42

Hay, Henry 18

Hays, John 85, 86, 88, 91

Heald 56

Heald, Nathan 38

Hedges, John 95

Hedges, John P. 74

Hendricks, William 96

Hoffman, George 33

Holman, Joseph 94

Holmes, Robert 12

Homeseekers 82

Hood, Robert 90

Hood, William 90

Hood, William N. 98

Hopkins, Gerard T. 45

Horse-Racing 84

Howitzers 68

Hull, William 61

Hunt, George 74, 81

Hunt, John 74

Hunt, Thomas 37, 74

I

Illinois Country 8

Immigration 82

Indian Agency 39, 86, 102

Indian Agent 82, 86, 87, 91, 100

Indian Agents 39

Indian Blood 86

Indian Country 99

Indian Crops 50

Indian Debts 102

Indian Dialects 39

Indian Factor 40

Indian Goods 41

Indian Removal 99

Indian School 89

Indian Stores 74

Indian Trade 79, 87

Indian Traders 47, 54, 100

Indian Treaties 82, 101

Indian Villages 70

Indiana Delegation 100

Indiana Territory 30, 46, 59

Indians 29, 41, 46, 58

Intercourse Act 92

Internal Improvements 100

Ironside, George 18

Iroquois 6

Irvine, William 40

J

Jay Treaty 42

Jenkinson, Joseph 71

Jennings, Jonathan 80

Jew 16

Johnson, Richard M. 72

Johnson, William 14

Johnston, John 40, 52, 57, 74, 80, 87

Johnston, Stephen 41, 63, 65

Jonquiere, Marquis De La 10

Jordan, W. K. 61

113

K

Kaskaskia 43

Kekionga 1, 29, 34

Kercheval, Benjamin 74, 81, 89, 98

Kercheval, Benjamin B. 82, 91

Kercheval, Eliza C. 81

Kickapoo 43

Kinzie, John 18

L

LaBalme 15

LaBerche 18

LaCros 81

Ladies 18

LaFontaine, Francis 81

LaFontaine, Peter 14

Lamberville, Jean De 3

Land Disposal 101

Land Office 82, 94

Land Sites 81

Land Speculators 99, 100, 102

Largro 90

LaSalle 3

Lasselle 16

Lasselle Brothers 29

Lasselle, Antoine 20, 34

Lasselle, Hyacinth 34

Lasselle, Jacques 14, 34

Lawrence, Abbott 83

LeGris 19, 28

Lewis, Samuel 104

License Fee 97

Licensing of Traders 87

Liquor 12, 18

Little Turtle 1, 16, 19, 28, 30, 31, 39, 43, 44, 53, 61, 81

Log Barracks 37

Logan, John 63, 66

Logansport 90, 104

Long, Stephen H. 85

Longueuil, M. De 8

Lorimer 15

Lorrance 16

Louisaneau 74

M

Maloch, Jean Baptiste 35

Maple Sugar 45

Married Officers 32

Mason, John 40

Maumee 80

Maumee-Wabash Portage 1, 29

McArthur, Duncan 75, 87

McCorkle, John 95, 102

McCoy, Isaac 86

McIntosh, William 53

McKee, Alexander 19

Medicine 71

Metea 63

Miamis 13, 43, 63, 88, 99

Miami Villages 30

Michilimackinac 8

Militia 57

Militiamen 27

Minie, Charles 98

Minie, Francis 98

Mission School 82

Mitchel, Edward 98

Montreal 35

Moore, Hugh 71, 73

Morris, Thomas 12

Murphy, William 98

Music 75

N

Necessities of Life 86

Negro Slaves 36

Neutral Tribes 57

New Fort 28, 76

New Purchase 99

Noel, Smalwood 98

Northwest Territory 20, 39

Noyelles, Sieur De 6

O

Observance Sunday 80

Officers’ Quarters 76

Old Fort Park 37

Oliver, Peter 65, 74

Oliver, William 41, 66

Orchard 36

Orderly Books 34

Ostrander 72

Ostrander, Philip 33, 56, 65

Otter 91

Ouiatenons 7

P

Pack Train 74

Pack-Horses 74

Paillet 16

Parke, Benjamin 81

Pasteur, Thomas 37

Pathin, John 10

Payet, Louis 19

Paymaster 73

Peace 79

Pecanne 12

Pelletier, Francois 38

Peltier, Charles 35, 64, 74

Peltier, James 35

Peltries 74

Pepper, Abel C. 104, 105

Peru 90

Piankashaw 43

Pike, Zebulon M. 38

Piqua, Ohio 57, 67, 87

Pirogues 42, 81

Pontiac 50

Pontiac’s Conspiracy 12

Portage 1, 35, 79

Post Surgeon 74

Potawatomie 51, 63, 66, 89, 99, 100

Pottevin 16

Prevost, George 70

Prophet 50, 53, 58

Provisions 27

Public Lands 103

Q

Quakers 38, 45

R

Raccoon Skins 91

Rainwater 76

114

Randolph County 80

Religion 18

Rhea, James 38, 55, 56

Richardville 10, 28, 46, 79

Richardville, Jean B. 98

Richerville, Joseph Drouet De 81

Riley, James 83

Rivard 18

Rivard, Antoine 35

Robertson, William 18

Robinson, Rachel 40

Rockhill, William 96

Rue, Thomas 98

Rum-Sellers 85

S

Sale of Lots 96

Sanosket 8

Sargent, Winthrop 38

School 86

School House 81

Scott, Alexander 72

Scott, James 98

Scott, Moses 98

Scriptures 80

Settlement 82

Settlers 100

Shaw, John 58

Shawnee 4, 13, 55

Shields, Martha 92

Siege 56, 67

Skins 42

Slavery 73

Smith, Daniel 74

Society of Friends 45

South Bend 9

Speculators 53

Spoils System 92

Spy Run 72

Squatters 83

St. Clair 21

St. Mary’s, Ohio 69, 79, 81

Stewart, William 98

Stickney, Benjamin 40, 58, 64, 70, 76, 86

Stickney, Benjamin F. 86

Streets 96

Strong, David 33, 37

Sunday, Observance 80

Supplies 72, 73

Supply Wagons 40

Supreme Court 92

Surgeon 80, 86

Surveys 83

Sutlers 35, 74

Suttenfield, Laura 75

Suttenfield, William 74, 98

Suttenfield, William F. 74

T

Taber, Cyrus 104

Taber, Paul 82

Tahcumwah 10

Tallow Dip 79

Tavern Rates 97

Taylor, Laura 74

Taylor, Marshall K. 96

Teas, Thomas 86

Tecumseh 45, 50, 53, 58, 59, 73, 77

Terre Haute 63

Thames 73

Thompson, John 20

Tiffin, Edward 83

Tippecanoe 43, 57, 59, 91

Tipton, John 100

Town Plat 97

Traders 4, 18, 19, 22, 34, 35, 41, 81, 82, 84, 87, 88, 92, 94, 99, 102

Trading Establishment 71

Trading House 88

Trading Post 41, 83

Transportation 36

Treaties 40, 99

Treaty Grounds 102

Troops 57, 63

Turner, William 82, 86, 88

U

Unscrupulous Traders 47

V

Vallequitte, Christopher 98

Vance, Samuel C. 94

Vaudreuil, Marques De 5

Vigo, Francis 46

Villiers, Neyon De 10

Vincennes 31, 35, 52, 60, 82

Vincennes, Sieur De 5

Vose, Josiah N. 80

W

Wabash 80

Wabash-Erie Canal 100, 104

War Dances 19

Warriors 63

Warwhoop 58

Washington 21

Washington Hall 96

Waterway 80

Wayne, Anthony 13, 23, 27, 73, 79

Weas 43, 51

Well’s Family 31

Wells, Anne 88

Wells, Rebeckah 38

Wells, Rebekah 55

Wells, William 30, 36, 38, 55, 60, 81

Western Forts 32

Western Policy 21

Western Posts 79

Whipple, John 38

Whiskey 47, 56, 82, 84, 85, 88, 92, 101, 102

Whistler, George 73

Whistler, John 73

Whistler, William 56

White Loon 54

White Racoon 65

Wilkinson 33

Wilkinson, James 36

Winamac 54, 66, 67, 68

Winchester 80, 85

Winchester, James 68, 70

115

Wine 75

Winnebagoes 63

Wolf Scalps 97

Wyandots 4, 8

Wyman, James 96

Transcriber’s Notes

- Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook is public-domain in the country of publication.

- Corrected a few palpable typos.

- Crosslinked footnotes and references; for some footnotes, no references were found.

- In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by _underscores_.

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Table of Contents

- Outpost in the Wilderness: Fort Wayne, 1706-1828

- TABLE OF CONTENTS
- FOREWORD
- Preface
- Chapter I The French and British Period

- Chapter II The Establishment of Fort Wayne—Government Outpost of Defense, Diplomacy and Trade

- Chapter III The Impending Conflict

- Chapter IV The Siege of Fort Wayne

- Chapter V Evacuation of the Fort and the Increased Indian Trade

- Chapter VI Platting of Fort Wayne and the First Local Government

- Chapter VII The Treaty of 1826 and the Removal of the Indian Agency

- BIBLIOGRAPHY

- UNPUBLISHED PAPERS AND MANUSCRIPTS

- PUBLISHED SOURCES

- INDEX
- Transcriber’s Notes
- THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE