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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
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Gc 977.202 F77woo Woodworth, Lura Case. Reminiscences of old Fort Wayne
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INDIANA COLLECTION
THE OLD FORT.
REMINISCENCES OF OLD FORT WAYNE
1906
Compiled by MRS. LURA CASE WOODWORTH MRS. CAROLYN RANDALL FAIRBANK MRS. MARTHA BRANDRIFF HANNA
Allen County Public Library 900 Webster Street PO Box 2270 Fort Wayne, IN 46801-2270
FOREWORD.
We have endeavored to make this book of Remin- isences a chronicle of some of the most stirring and in- teresting events connected with the early history of Fort Wayne.
That we have not been able to secure the recitals of happenings, that are just as closely woven around the memory of many of the other founders of our beloved city, is our misfortune, but the halo of glory which hovers around the memory of these sturdy, self confident, and far seeing pioneers, can never be dimmed, and their names which we still honor and revere are placed in loving remembrance upon this page. They are :
Judge Samuel Hanna.
Thomas Johnson.
Allen Hamilton.
Dr. M. W. Huxford.
Cyrus Taber.
Maj. Thomas Forsythe.
R. W. Taylor.
Henry Johns.
Hugh B. Reed.
Wm. G. and G. W. Ewing. James Barnett.
Thomas Swinney.
Louis Peltier.
Wm. Suttenfield.
Michael Hedekin.
James Aveline.
Col. Marshall S. Wines.
Wm. S. Edsall.
Francis D. LaSalle.
Dr. Louis B. Thompson.
Dr. Chas. E. Sturgis.
Hon. Hugh McCulloch.
Morgan French.
Jesse L. Williams.
O. W. Jefferds.
Franklin P. Randall.
R. W. Townley.
John B. Dubois.
Samuel C. Freeman.
Robert Hood.
Dr. W. H. Brooks.
Henry Cooper.
George DeWald.
Samuel Sowers.
R. Brackenridge.
Reuben J. Dawson.
I. D. G. Nelson.
Major Samuel Edsall.
Dr. James Ormiston.
Philo Rumsey.
Wm. Rockhill. Madison Sweetzer.
M. W. Hubbell.
Jacob Bowser.
Pliny Hoagland.
Joseph Scott.
John P. Hedges.
Oliver Silvers. Robert E. Fleming.
Joseph McCorkle.
Dr. Benj. S. Woodworth.
Henry Rudisill.
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
The Miamis, who lived here before the coming of General Anthony Wayne, were a powerful tribe of Indians, the central force of the North- west, whose sway extended over Indiana, part of Ohio and the Southern portion of Michigan, in fact reached even to the banks of the Mississippi River. At the time of General Wayne's campaign, Little Turtle was the Chief of the tribe, at his death the Chieftainship being in the female line descended through his mother to Richard ville and he in turn was succeeded by Chief Godfrey.
The last of these Miami Indians were taken in 1847 to their government reservation in Kansas.
In 1790 the American forces in the Northwest had sustained a crushing defeat under General Har- mer at Maumee Ford, now known as Harmer's Ford, about half a mile east of the confluence of the St. Mary's and St. Joseph's Rivers. Again in 1791 the army commanded by General St. Clair was routed and almost totally destroyed near Fort Jefferson in Ohio. The defeat of St. Clair was the most disastrous that the white men had sustained at the hands of the red since the days of Braddock and it came at a time when the Nation was in dire distress, because of the Brit- ish aggressions. Since the War of the Revolution, no event had so impressed the people and placed the Re- public in greater danger than did this defeat.
It was at this time when the country was in such peril that Anthony Wayne was called to save the nation. The campaign in Ohio and Indiana, which was to give peace to the frontier and loosen the British grip upon the Northwest was the crowning. work of Wayne's life. Strictly speaking the war that called
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Wayne to the frontier was a prolongation of the War of the Revolution. Though the treaty of peace made with England had been ratified, it had not been car- ried out, and while the British could no longer claim territory to the South of the Great Lakes, they encour- aged the Indians to hold and fight for these broad lands.
In 1792 Washington appointed General Wayne Commander-in-Chief of the American Army and he was ordered to Pittsburg to organize troops for the purpose of subduing these Indian tribes. This com- pany was called the "Legion of the United States" and the men for the command were gathered by sweeping the streets and prisons of the Eastern cities of their beggars, tramps and criminals and let it be remem- bered, that this was the second sweeping, the first having gone to St. Clair.
General Wayne soon found that whiskey and tales of Indian cruelties were demoralizing his troops, so he shipped them twenty-seven miles down the Ohio River and named the post Legionville. In May, 1793, the command was transferred to Fort Washington, now Cincinnati. In the meantime the government endeav- ored to effect a treaty with the tribes and to establish a peace without bloodshed. A Grand Council com- posed of representatives from six nations was held at Maumee Rapids. The negotiations turned out fruit- less and Wayne was ordered to make another effort to subdue the Indians.
October 7, 1793, Wayne's army began its march and on the 13th he camped at a place which he named Greenville, in honor of his old commander, General Green.
This post, which was eighty miles from Cincin- nati, he selected for his winter quarters. There in the wilderness, surrounded by hostile Indians, he passed the winter. To render his troops familiar with the danger, he sent a detachment to the battlefield where St. Clair met defeat, with the double duty of burying the dead and building a fort, this was called Forts Recovery. In the meantime, Wayne was joined by
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General Scott with 1,600 Kentucky volunteers and the army now moved toward the Maumee. Some miles beyond Fort Recovery, he built a stockade and called it Fort Adams. On August 4 the troops encamped on a beautiful plain where a strong fortification was built and named Fort Defiance. Wayne's army was now at the most important point of the Indian country. Once more peace was offered the Indians, but the overtures, against the advice of Little Turtle, were rejected. Wayne perceived that nothing but a severe blow would break their spirit and he resolved to inflict it. For this purpose the army moved forward and on Aug. 18 they established a magazine of supplies, which was called Fort Deposit. Then General Wayne summoned a council of war and adopted a line of march and battle submitted by Lieutenant William Henry Harrison. Wayne learned through his scouts that a large force of Indians were waiting to meet his army at a place known as Fallen Timbers. A tornado which had swept the country had piled up huge trees of the forest in confused masses and heaps that gave an ideal cover for such fighters as the red men. The British fort was but two miles below the advance edge of this entangle- ment and the Indians were confident that its garrison would come to their aid as soon as the battle was begun. Wayne's troops now marched down the Mau- mee River in a column with a battalion of mounted Kentuckians under Major Price as an advance guard, when six miles below the camp, the Indians opened fire that literally hurled the Kentuckians back on Wayne's main army.
The supreme moment of the day and of the long war on the frontier had come. With instant decision, Wayne gave the word to charge and as the long roll of the drums began, the battle line leaped forward, yelling with joy of conflict. The soldiers shot down the red men as they fled and dashed on in relentless pursuit till they had driven the panic-stricken Indians past the tightly closed British fort and scattered them far and away into the wilderness beyond.
Wayne's troops now marched down the river and
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built a fort called Fort Industry. When this garrison was completed, the army moved slowly up the Maumee Valley, they finally reached the Miami Village at the junction of the St. Joseph and St. Mary's Rivers. It is said that the troops blazed their way through, on the line of what has since been known as "Wayne. Trace" in the extreme eastern part of the city, arriv- ing here on September 17, 1794. On the 22nd of Oc- tober the garrison was finished and after firing fifteen round of cannon, it was given the name of Fort Wayne.
The fort which was built in 1794 was restored in 1804, rebuilt in 1815, and evacuated in 1819, but por- tions of the last fort remained until in the '60's.
-Carolyn Randall Fairbanks.
MRS. LUCIEN P. FERRY,
DECATUR, INDIANA.
To the Daughters of the Mary Penrose Wayne Chap- ter, D. A. R .:-
My father, Louis T. Bourie, who was an Indian trader and an interpreter, came to Fort Wayne in 1762, before General Anthony Wayne built the fort here in 1794. Later he became a warm personal friend of Anthony Wayne.
There were only two houses standing near the old English fort, and it was near these that my father built a home and brought his family to live. This old English fort was built before 1762, between the St. Joseph and Maumee Rivers, in what was then known as the "Old Apple Orchard" and now known as Lakeside.
After living here for a while, he moved back to Detroit . but becoming dissatisfied there, he finally moved here again, this time to stay. This was in 1814 and I was a baby three months old.
When I was older, I was told how we came here from Detroit by water in a pirogue-a boat hewn from a large log-the boat being large enough to hold
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THE.OLD.COUNCIL. HOUSE. WHERE. ANTHONY . WAYNE. HELD .COUNCIL. WITH. ·THE . INDIANS.
.SITUATED. ON. E. MAIN ST. PRESENT. SITE. OF. HON . JAMES. M. ROBISON'S. RES.
Que no- 183, 4. 18.30
trunks, bedding, passengers and a good stock of pro- visions for a long trip.
The only means of travel in those days was by water or horseback. An occasional wagon coming some- times from Ohio or Kentucky. When my father and his family landed, he found that his house had been burned to the ground, fired, so we were told by the Indians.
While my father was building a new house we lived in the fort built by General Anthony Wayne and saw a great deal of military life there. The new house was built on East Columbia street, between Clinton and Barr streets, near the fort.
After my father's death, my mother and I went to live with my oldest brother, John Bourie, who had mar- ried and built a home on East Columbia street oppo- site my father. This brother was the father of the late Louis T. Bourie and Miss Desdemona Bourie, who is still living with the family of Louis T. Bourie in Lakeside.
My sister Hattie married Colonel George Wash- ington Ewing, so well known in the early days of Fort Wayne.
About the year 1822 I was sent to school and this school was held in the fort. My teacher was a Baptist missionary by the name of McCoy. This same mis- sionary baptized by immersion a daughter of Captain Wells, who, as you know, was a brother-in-law of Lit- tle Turtle. Captain Wells had three daughters, Re- becca, Ann and Jane. Ann married Dr. Turner ; Re- becca, Captain Hackley, and Jane a Mr. Gregg. There was great excitement when Captain Hackley hung himself at his home in Bloomingdale. This, of course, happened when I was yet a young child. I next went to school in the Council House. In one room there were cupboards full of tobacco to be sold or given to the Indians. Whenever the boys were unruly, they were shut up in these cupboards until they were almost suffocated. I next went to school in the jail, which was situated where the court house now stands. The old jail was built of logs and I remember being told
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of a man by the name of Alexander who was impris- oned just so often for debt. As soon as he was incar- cerated he would mysteriously appear on the street. This happened so often that upon investigation it was found that he could lift out one of the logs, step out and replace it.
I can remember, I think it was in 1828, how wolves would prowl around about where Shoaff's gal- lery used to stand and where Wolff & Dessauer's large store now stands. This was an open and wooded spot and here the wolves were trapped and disposed of.
When I was older, I was sent to Detroit to school but returning home at one time for a visit, I met Mr. Lucien P. Ferry, a rising young lawyer here, and we were married in 1831. I was just seventeen years old. In those days, cook stoves were almost unknown in this part of the world and I cooked my first meal after I was married in a fireplace ten feet long. In 1836 my husband bought a stove from a family traveling through in a wagon and people for miles around came to see the curiosity.
While we lived in a primitive way, we did not dress that way. The ladies' dresses were rich bro- caded silks, satins and Canton crepes, cut decollete and sleeveless. Life was very gay as the garrison was filled with officers and their families and many parties were given.
The men were resplendent, some in their military uniforms, while the civilians wore broadcloth suits with satin vests and ruffled shirts of linen, and silk and satin stocks.
I think the old fort was torn down in 1865. The old Hedekin property, now occupied by the Honorable James Robinson, was the exact spot where the Council House stood, the front facing Columbia street. The old well of the fort was on the northwest corner where the Nickle Plate railroad passes this house.
One of the block houses was right by the well.
Major Stickney's daughter was the first child born in the fort and he called her "Indiana."
Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Bourie were born in the
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Council House and strange to say in the same room.
Mrs. Margaret Colerick, lately deceased, was born in the fort.
Where the Pennsylvania depot now stands wild strawberries, plums and other fruits grew in abun- dance, but the blackberries grew everywhere in the greatest abundance.
The Indians, who cherished the belief that the Great Spirit had caused these fruits to ripen specially for them, venerated this spot and called it "Ke-ki- onga," either because the word signified "blackberry patch" or was a symbol of antiquity. That this par- ticular spot was venerated is shown by the long de- fense they made to keep it-indicating their belief that it was the most ancient village of the Miamis.
From the year 1814, when I was christened Caro- line T. Bourie, just ninety-three years ago, I have watched Fort Wayne grow from a small Indian vil- lage to the beautiful city which we are all now so proud of and my greatest pleasure is to live and think over the life of the early days which were equally as full of pleasures as of privations and cares.
(Mrs. Lucien P. Ferry makes her home with her daughter, Mrs. MacMillan of Decatur, Ind., and is a bright and active woman for her years, and always eager to tell of the pioneer days of Fort Wayne.)
ALEXANDER C. COMPARET,
SPEAKER.
Mrs. Chairman, Old and Young Settlers of Allen County :-
It is a little unusual for me to appear in public and speak before an audience, but I will endeavor to do the best I can in giving this history.
My father came up the Maumee River in 1818 and landed here in Fort Wayne as a "fur trader." I was born here on Columbia street in 1828 on the fourth day of January, so you may know whether or not I amı an early settler of Allen County.
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William and Washington Ewing and my father, Francis Comparet, were the most extensive fur traders in this country. It may be of some interest to you to know how this fur was taken from Fort Wayne to other places. We had no roads, just the Maumee River. The early settlers went into the woods, felled poplar trees and made out of them a contrivance fifty to sixty feet long. The furs were packed closely and put on this contrivance and sent down Lake Erie. The men along the lake to whom this fur was consigned would wade into the river and swamps for this traffic. Often this fur was picked up by persons other than the ones for whom it was intended and the whole ship- ment lost.
The first boat yard on the feeder canal was con- structed by Barthold & Sons. They built the first three canal boats. The first boat was called "Indiana" and was built for Mr. Asa Fairfield. It started from a place on the feeder canal north of Bloomingdale, known in those days as the Hinton farm.
There were four brothers, Samuel, Archy, William and Monroe Mahon, who became the principal owners of the first boats, the "Indiana," "Clyde," "Wabash" and Chief Richardville." This last named boat was built by my father, who leased it to Captain Dana Co- lumbia, the father of Mrs. D. F. Comparet. The latter is still living in Fort Wayne.
One other line of boats used on the Maumee River in early days was the Maumee River line of pirogue and keel boats. The men who followed this line of work were John F. Barbor, Patrick Ravenscroft, Hull and many others living along the Maumee River.
The keel boats were propelled by man power. The boats had a running board on each side where three to four men with long poles with heavy iron sockets at the end walked back and forth a distance of thirty-five or more feet, and shoved the boats up the river. This was the way traffic was carried on up the stream of the Maumee River to provide the early settlers with goods to supply their wants.
The pirogues, made by hollowing out a poplar log,
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would measure from two to three feet across and as long as the log would make. Produce was sent down the St. Mary's River in these boats from Dayton and Piqua, Ohio, and after they were unloaded they were allowed to drift down the river. The first produce was brought up the river in these pirogues, and later on in keel boats.
In the middle of 1830 a small steamboat came up the Maumee River from Defiance during the high waters. She landed above the bridge that spans the river just above where the St. Joe and St Mary's River form the Maumee. It was a sight to be seen on these rivers. The boat did not stay but long enough to take out ex- cursions up the St. Joe and St. Mary's Rivers.
Many people do not know that there was once a creek running up Harrison street, but there was, for I have waded the creek many times. It was called Lee's Ford, and began at the Bloomingdale bridge and continued to where the Wabash railroad is now. We used to catch minnows in this creek to go fishing. I have seen Columbia street when the culvert would fill up with fifteen to twenty inches of water. You could run a skiff in it.
In the early days Frank Aveline was also a fur trader and had a trading store on the corner of Co- lumbia and Calhoun streets. Richardville also had a store on Columbia street. These trading stores were only opened in the fall and spring when the Indians came here to dispose of their furs and lay in a supply of blankets and other articles.
The first bank of Indiana was opened up in the basement of a one and a half story brick house on Co- lumbia street which was owned by my father. The Honorable Hugh Mccullough was president and Mr. M. W. Hubble cashier.
The digging of the Wabash and Erie Canal was a great benefit to Fort Wayne. After its completion we were able to handle a great deal more wheat, as the canal was a great outlet from Lafayette. Instead of going down through the Wabash River to New Orleans, the wheat was sent to Toledo instead.
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I recall going down to Paulding County at a time when this county was all timber land and could be bought for 31 cents an acre. In the first place it was $1.25, then 621/2 cents, then reduced to 31 cents but very few people would buy, as it was a desperate country.
In early days the settlers paid a great deal of at- tention to fishing as the rivers here afforded a great supply of fish, there being no dams across the Maumee and the fish found their way up from Lake Erie to Fort Wayne. I have seen them so plentiful on the riffles that a person could easily gather them up by hand and carry them to shore.
In building the canal there had to be built two dams to supply water for the canal; one below De- fiance, Ohio, and one at Providence, Ohio. These two dams put a stop to the fish coming up the river from Lake Erie.
The first boats for the canal were built by Mr. Elsworth, a fine boat-builder and of these the Ewing Company owned four, Little & Mccullough two, Hill & Orbison two, and at least eight were owned by dif- ferent individuals.
The first burying ground here was just west of the present jail on a sandy ridge and many were laid to rest here uncared for with the graves grown over with briars and thorn bushes.
-Alexander C. Comparet.
GEORGE W. BRACKENRIDGE.
Mrs. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen :-
I am surprised at my temerity in consenting to appear before an intelligent audience to present pic- tures in words of scenes and incidents of the long past, and the scenes, as I describe them from the faded roll of my memory, may be as vague as the boy's descrip- tion of his lost calf.
The boy asked a man he met if he had seen a stray calf. He was answered, "Describe it." "Well,
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it was about as tall as a stump, had a tail about as long as a string, and a spot on the side next the fence."
My father, who lived in Brookville, Franklin County, Indiana, a town about forty miles northeast of Cincinnati, was appointed by General Jackson, then President of the United States, registrar of the land office in Fort Wayne. This was in 1830. He took his way across the country on horseback to acquaint him- self with the roads-the most direct route for trans- portation of family and household goods, to look over the situation in Fort Wayne and provide some place to bestow his family. He returned home, consulted my mother-but not my brother and me-made arrange- ments to move, securing the services of two large cov- ered wagons, one to be drawn by two yoke of oxen, the other by horses.
The wagons were loaded and we bade fare- well to our old home. Our company numbered seven, father, mother, . Robert £ Brackenridge, nephew of my father, my brother Joseph, who was older than I, two sisters-Julia and Baby Eliza-and two teamsters.
Our progress was slow. The sparse settlements af- forded uncertain entertainment. Night sometimes over- took us in the dark woods and then we camped, never being disturbed or hindered.
We landed in Fort Wayne in the fall of 1830 and took possession of a log house which was on the north side of Columbia street, about half way between Clin- ton and Barr streets. Our house stood flush with the sidewalks-if there had been any. The front room was of good size. There was another cabin back with a covered space between which served as a store-room. The back room was kitchen and dining room; the front was office and sleeping room. Each room had a large fireplace. Stoves were not known of then. We passed the winter here and in the spring moved into a two-story hewed log house on the northwest corner of Berry and Calhoun streets belonging to Mr. John P. Hedges. The Old National Bank now occupies the place.
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On the first floor of this house were two rooms, the north room opened on Berry street. This was the office in which were tables, desks and bed; the south room was larger. This was parlor, dining room and kitchen. The second story was intended for a dance hall. Temporary partitions made it furnish conve- nient sleeping rooms. We were quite comfortable here.
This home was quite remote from Columbia street where all the business of the town and country was transacted.
There were residences there also, and hotels of good size, one-Suttenfields, on the northeast corner of Barr and Columbia, and one belonging to the Ewings on the southwest corner of same streets. These were frame; the third one belonged to Zenas Hender- son, situated on the northeast corner of Columbia and Calhoun streets, and was of brick.
Across the street from Henderson's Tavern was John B. Bourie's trading house. On the other two corners were small stores.
East of Dr. Thompson's residence just across the narrow alley was Mr. Francis Comparet's brick resi- dence and east of that on the adjoining lot was Mr. Comparet's store and trading house.
Near the corner of Clinton street was the resi- dence of Mr. John B. Bequette, silversmith, maker of brooches, hair bands and trinkets worn by the In- dians. Across the street was Ewing's trading place and vacant space for packing furs.
West along Columbia street on the north side were dwellings-McCarty's, Mrs. Bourie, a log house where we lived, a frame owned and occupied by Mrs. Turner and her sister, Mrs. Hackley, both widows. Next to this house was Mr. Barnett's residence, still standing on the corner.
Hamilton & Rudisill and Taber's store was on the northwest corner of Clinton and Columbia streets ; west of them the postoffice, a frame building. Captain Henry Rudisill was postmaster. Next a double brick tenement house, then Henderson's ball alley, and a
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hotel west of Bourie's trading house was a frame dwelling and farther on the Masonic Hall. Opposite Masonic Hall was Joseph Holman's brick residence of two stories. Such was Columbia street the principal business and residence street.
The population of Allen County in 1830 was less than one thousand, not counting the Indians, who were a variable quantity.
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