USA > Indiana > Allen County > Fort Wayne > Charcoal sketches of old times in Fort Wayne > Part 3
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On the northeast corner of Main and Calhoun streets was a frame occupied by Philip C. Cook, blacksmith, who, while I have been writing these sketches, has passed my door, but in the eventide of life, quite unlike he was before the noontide. Between that corner and the next east were several small shanties, and on the corner was the then elegant residence of Honorable Allen Hamilton, now deceased. Going north on the west side of Calhoun to Main, there was an only house from the corner to the alley (Pearl), and it unoccupied. From the alley to the corner was owned by William G. and George W. Ewing, and was covered with low frame build- ings. In the corner (Keystone Block) was a first class dry goods store, by Philo Taylor, S. C. Freeman and Royal W. Taylor. Just around the corner to the left, on Columbia, was the cabinet shop of Freeman P. Tinkham . . . On the southeast corner of Columbia and Calhoun was a grocery, whisky shop, etc., of Captain Benjamin Smith, who deceased many years after- wards. Coming south we find Lewis Wolke, at the alley, working at the forge -- the same Major Lewis Wolke, who owns the fine block in which the SENTINEL is printed. Across the alley was then found Peter Kiser, with saw and knife, steel and scales, dealing out fresh meat to hungry citizens -- more jovial then than now.
Going around the corner on Columbia, in a low house were found Tom Moore, the barber, and Burrell Reed, bootblack, town crier and fac- totum -- the only negro in town -- the merry, loud-laughing Reed whom all
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March 23, 1872
knew. Tom was generous, Reed obliging and honest -- Tom died a drunkard, and Reed's career in that respect was terminated by being brutally mur- dered by a boatman many years afterwards. A few lots now going east are in my memory vacant. We now reach the brick residence of Dr. Lewis G. Thompson, standing one lot west of the alley, far back from the street . . . On the alley the drugstore of Thompson & Jefferds -- across the alley in a low brick, the Fort Wayne Branch of the State Bank of Indiana, Honorable Hugh McCulloch, President, (now of London) and Mr. W. Hubbell, Cashier, (now of Toledo) -- adjoining this was the law office of Thomas Johnson, Esq., the peer of the best man in Indiana -- a gentleman by nature, and a distin- guished lawyer of application, who in September 1843, fell in the brilliancy of the morning of life . . .
Next to this law office was the Indian trading house of Comparet & Colerick. At the rear of the store was the fur room, and here it was, in the summer of 1838, that a large Indian named "Bob" stabbed "White Rac- coon," a tragedy which created much excitement. During his illness, I frequently saw Raccoon, and witnessed a devotion on the part of his Miami squaw wife, which Washington Irving could not sketch truer than he did the wife in his sketch book. It was an affecting sight, and like "a thing of beauty, which is a joy forever," it impressed my young mind so deeply as to be undimmed by the lapse of long and busy years. In fact, since that time while mingling with the world and taking note of its lights, and trying to forget its shadows, I have seen wives, who while deeply conscious of their spiritual relation to every child of God, and polished from the foun- tains of literature and science, were yet seemingly wanting in the love of that untutored heart which needed a faith and hope that could not be bounded by earthly limits and restraints. But what of "Bob"? Truly, "the way of the transgressor is hard." He lived some years after, but ever in dread of the avenging hand of the friends of Raccoon. I saw him several times thereafter, but always alone. At length the fatal period came, and some- where down on the Miami Reservation, Bob was decoyed to a spring of wa- ter, and while lying down to quench his thirst, the friends of Raccoon, then with him, crushed his head with a stone.
Next to Comparet & Colerick's were some frame houses, and I only recollect the sign of "T. Hoagland, Draper and Tailor" .. . Then came the establishment of Francis D. Lasselle, and on the corner of Columbia and Clinton streets the shop and residence of A. Lintz, shoemaker, and just to the right on Clinton Street, the silversmith shop and residence of Jean Baptiste Bequette, and a few rods below, on the alley, the residence of Captain Dana Columbia, of Canal-boat notoriety. Mr. Madison Sweetser kept an elegant dry goods store on the southeast corner of Columbia and Clinton streets, and just to the east, in a two-story log house, lived Hon- orable William G. Ewing. It was from the logs of this house that Colonel George W. Ewing took the canes which he presented to the "Old Settlers, " at the Rockhill House, July 4, 1860. Hard by was the dry goods store of Sam & William S. Edsall, the tailor shop of Stophlet & Rees, and then a frame building, used as a store. On the alley the law office of Lucien P.
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. . White Raccoon was stabbed . . .
March 23, 1872
Ferry, Esq., who died amid his usefulness in 1844, and to whom I will also refer hereafter. From that to the corner my memory serves me little, only, that Thomas Pritchard, an excellent English gentleman, kept a res- taurant in that space . .. Washington Hall stood on the southwest corner of Barr and Columbia streets, and was the model hotel of Northern Indiana for many years. Here congregated travelers and distinguished men from all parts, as business called them together, and the "Hall" maintained its prestige for many years, until 1839-40, Colonel Spencer, built the Ameri- can House, on the lot where now is Wagner and Trentman's building, on Calhoun Street, and Francis Rolla built the Lafayette House, the frame part of the now Mayer House. This pioneer enlisted in the volunteer service for the war with Mexico and died at Seralvo, Mexico, about January 1, 1847.
On the southwest corner of Main and Barr there stood as now, a yellow frame building, which has a large history -- land officers, canal of- ficers, bankers, civil engineers and many others have lived in it. They who survive are, like the house, dilapidated by time, but they live in pala- tial style, and would not stable their horses in such a rude building. Cus- toms improve with advancing time, and old things are destroyed to be re- placed with better. Next, this was a low log house amid apple trees -- where lived the plain old Judy -- or Judith Shore . . . Next west of Judy's was the residence of L. G. Bellamy, a plain, blunt shoemaker, generally respected, now dead -- and next the cabinet shop of Johnson and John M. Miller has re- mained ever since. His imposing building, and extensive business furnish a lesson to young men -- that perseverance, industry, and integrity will al- ways accomplish great ends.
Here ends my description of Fort Wayne as seen on March 6, 1838. To those who then lived and survive, it probably has an interest, such as early memories always create; and to those who know nothing of what I have written, from actual observation, may perhaps be interested as in any matter which has passed into the history of the place of their residence . . .
Epitome -- There were in the town 1838, six lawyers, six preachers of the gospel, eight physicians, four drugstores, about fourteen dry goods stores, a dozen grog-shops, several tin shops, six carpenter and joiner shops, four stone and brick masons, three cabinet shops, six tailors, three wagon makers, two bakeries, one brewer, two saddle shops, one printing office, one fanning mill factory, one jeweler, one potter, one tinner, one banking house, one boat yard, one hatter, three painters, two houses of worship, and six religious societies, one court house, and one jail. Tax- able value of real estate in town, $500,000, and in the county about $800, 000. Population of the city about 2, 000.
It was a military post from 1794 to 1819. The town was platted in 1824, incorporated as a town 1829, and chartered as a city 1840. Popu- lation 5, 000 in 1850; in 1860 about 9, 000; and in 1870 about 18, 000. Valu- ation of real and personal property in the city for taxes in 1871, about $12, 000, 000; county outside the city about $7, 000, 000.
Canal completed from Fort Wayne to Logansport in 1835; to Toledo, 1843; Railway from Pittsburgh here 1854; from Toledo 1856; to Chicago
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March 23, 1872
1856-57; to Muncie and Cincinnati 1870; to Jackson, Michigan, 1870; to Grand Rapids 1870; to Richmond, Indiana, 1871.
The social aspect of the town will be considered in a short Supple- ment, in my next, and may be considered as an accompaniment of the pre- ceding view of the town of Fort Wayne.
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Number VIII
CHARCOAL SKETCHES OF OLD TIMES IN FORT WAYNE
DAILY SENTINEL
Fort Wayne, Monday, March 25, 1872
Page 3, Col. 5
The Social Aspect of Fort Wayne, 1838
By Hon. John W. Dawson
The society of the town of Fort Wayne was, at the time of which I write, limited. By society I mean those who were not of the canaille, and between whom and the latter was observed that distance so necessary at all times to give that pre-eminence which mental and moral accomplishments always attain in a well-regulated and refined community. The punctilio which had attained from long military domination, had so impressed soci- ety, the politeness which the French population had infused into it, and the unaffected hospitality which early privations had made a necessity among the citizens, gave to it not only a high and refined tone, but a character for generosity which made it appreciated at home as well as distinguished abroad.
Our citizens were hardy pioneers, but of an elegant class; some from Virginia and Kentucky, some from Pennsylvania and Maryland, some from Ohio, others from the best society of Detroit and Monroe, Michigan, and not a few Knickerbockers, and a sprinkling of "down East" Yankees, and combined both Protestants and Catholics, but these "gave up, " and those "held not back, " until we formed a homogeneous unity, peculiarly sui generis and Fort Wayneish.
For the want of amusements, which of late years have come to the place, we had balls and social parties, when ladies and gentlemen met, at evening generally. For the lack of news through the papers, gentlemen met at the hotels to relate incidents of the day, and hear the new ore tenus from travelers arriving and friends returning from the different towns and settlements far and near. Public entertainments, ball, social parties, banquets, etc., were gotten up and conducted in a style quite as elegant as in any western town. There was a liberality among traders that did not descend to pennies. Everything was done on a scale of generosity which looked beyond and above a per cent, in the way of "change." We had the Spanish, or Mexican coin -- dollars, quarters, halves, eighths and six- teenths -- the latter, though, sometimes called "levenpences, " and "fips" were usually called shillings and sixpences, and according to "York cur- rency, " eight shillings to the dollar. A dime would buy two drams, a shil- ling would buy no more; but a quarter would buy five drams of the best French brandy or old Dayton whisky, decanters of which were then almost as common as tumblers and other glassware on our side-boards . . .
Our pleasure rides for gallantry and past-time, were then taken on horseback, in summer, and extended up the St. Mary's River to Chief
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03
ladies and gentlemen met to relate the incidents of the day .
. .
March 25, 1872
Richardville's, five miles, and in winter on the Canal in sleighs, ten miles west to Vermilyea's. This was the double-log house of Mr. Jesse Vermil- yea and lady, who were, I speak from knowledge, quite as competent to do the graces of host and hostess as any persons I have ever met. The "bill of fare" was always equal to the occasion, and prepared in the very best style. This gentleman and lady were equally matched. Mr. Vermilyea died on August 8, 1846, at his residence in Aboite Township, lamented by whites and Indians, rich and poor, and his lady many years later.
Our Court days, twice a year, brought together most of the county, as did the Fourth of July, which was always celebrated in the spirit of '76. Our general elections were then held on the first Monday of August annual- ly; and as every elector could vote anywhere in the county, nearly all came from the country to town to vote. Strange as it may seem at this time, men who had a quarrel to settle, met at the election and fought it out with fists and feet. I remember on the first Monday of August, 1838, after nightfall, of seeing several hard personal battles fought at the crossing of Calhoun and Columbia streets. The blows given sounded like those a butcher fells an ox with.
We had but few books, and those we read and understood well, and made a proper application of our knowledge, derived from them.
Our churches were well attended, and the Sabbath day quite better observed then than now.
Our judges, lawyers, preachers, and doctors, would not suffer in the least by comparison with the best today. I knew all these gentlemen well . . .
Honorables Charles W. Ewing, Thomas Johnson, Lucien P. Ferry, Henry Cooper, Reuben J. Dawson, of the bar, Lewis G. Thompson, Lewis Beecher, Philip G. Jones and Charles E. Sturgis, physicians, and a long list of invaluable citizens, non-professional, who then lived here and shone in business, and adorned society, have ceased from their labors. Around the graves of nearly all the bar of that day have I stood and laid fresh ever- greens on the delved earth of their narrow homes. Though those ever- greens have faded and those bodies become dust, as often as I am called to pay the sad office to a departed brother I renew those memories in that spirit of which the new generation feels nothing. How true the allegory:
"The path of glory leads but to the grave."
My sketches of Fort Wayne as it was before the present generation lived is now ended, and as it is probable that it will not again be attempted by any living witness, it will pass into history to be more appreciated as time pushes this period into the past . .
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Number IX
CHARCOAL SKETCHES OF OLD TIMES IN FORT WAYNE
DAILY SENTINEL
Fort Wayne, Thursday, March 28, 1872
Page 3, Col. 5-6
Recollections of Hon. Charles W. Ewing
By Hon. John W. Dawson
The recent death of John Colerick, Esq., has suggested some mem- ories of Judge Charles W. Ewing, which, by my professional brethren will certainly be read with great interest. I speak thus positively, because of my long acquaintance with the bench and bar of this part of the State. I know there has always been exhibited an esprit du corps among them while living that made them interested in anything that honorably concerned their dead compeers.
When I came to this town, in 1838, Mr. Ewing was then President Judge of the Eighth Judicial Circuit. Though he was very much my senior, I was adventitiously thrown into his company very often. I may say truth- fully that it was my good fortune to have been, much before my majority, the recipient of the favors and good countenance of the first men resident and visiting here on public business. I have never ceased to feel under great obligations for the information and good advice I received. Judge Ewing took an interest in me and gave me his good counsel and friendship up to the time of his death. And now, in the thirtieth year after that sad event, I take pleasure in testifying to his good qualities . . .
Prior to the year 1824 Mr. Ewing was located at Detroit, Michigan, as a practicing lawyer; and among compeers of unquestionable refinement and professional culture he was able to take a distinguished rank . . . He went to Logansport, I think -- and there began the practice of the law under very flattering circumstances and with great success. He practiced in this place in 1824, for I find that he was appointed by the court Prosecuting At- torney, for the term, began on August 9, 1824 -- was appointed First Master in Chancery of the same court at the same term and at the August term 1826; reported a device for the official seal of said court and it was ap- proved by Judge Eggleston, of this, the then Third Circuit. Here he prac- ticed for several years . . .
He returned to Indiana after 1830, and began again the practice of law with usual success, and so continued till early in the year 1837, when he was elected President Judge of the then Eighth Judicial Circuit. He held his first term in this county early in March of that year, assisted by Mar- shall S. Wines, and associate judge, of whom it is truth to say, that, though he was no lawyer, he was so well fitted by nature and education, that he would have done no discredit to the bench, had he presided.
It was at the April term of the same court, in 1838, that I first saw Judge Ewing on the bench. Thomas Johnson, Esq., was prosecuting the
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March 28, 1872
pleas of the State, John P. Hedges was sheriff, and Allen Hamilton, clerk. One Asa Crapo was under prosecution and on trial for the murder of an Irishman, at Bull Rapids, about sixteen miles down the Maumee River, on the Wabash & Erie Canal, there and then in the process of construction. He was prosecuted by William Johnson, and defended by Cooper and Col- erick, and was acquitted. This trial was so well conducted by the prose- cution, and defense, and so well adjudicated by the bench as to create en- tire public satisfaction, even amidst the excitement that prevailed. In April, 1858, just thirty years after, while I was assisting in the prosecu- tion of the pleas of the State, in the Lagrange Circuit Court, as an auxiliary to that wholesome movement, the "Regulators, " I found this same Crapo one of the file leaders of that terrible band of thieves, burglars, and coun- terfeiters that so long infested Northern Indiana and Southern Michigan.
Judge Ewing was by nature fitted for a lawyer, jurist, and gentle- man .
In the summer of 1839, Judge Ewing resigned the Judgeship, and entered again on the practice of law, taking the lead of his profession, then distinguished for its ability, and equal to the brilliancy and ability of any period since
The "maniac thought" rushed over him, and on the morning of Janu- ary 9, 1843, the whole city was startled with the appalling intelligence that Charles W. Ewing had shot himself with a pistol. His death was almost instantaneous. Thus he found the long quiet sleep of the grave . . .
He fell in the 45th year of his age, universally lamented, and the Circuit Court being in session, the Bar, through Lucien P. Ferry, Esq. offered a beautiful tribute, which I give as a fitting close to this sketch, to show how well and how feelingly our professional brethren of that day spoke. I give only a paragraph of his excellence:
"If we should permit ourselves to speak of his qualities as a man of genius and as a lawyer, from the promptings of that friendship which an association with him for years, has only tended to cement, we might be suspected of indulging in a panegyric of too frequent repetition to be prized, and unsuitable perhaps, from its length, to the occasion on which it would be offered. We cannot, however, suffer even this opportunity to pass with- out testifying to that highly gentlemanly deportment which, characterizing, as it did, a long and continued intercourse with us, under all the vicissi- tudes and privations incident to our employment, added to a deserved prominence as a lawyer, and advocate and judge, can hardly fail to impress us with a painful sense of that vacuum which his decrease has occasioned."
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Number X
CHARCOAL SKETCHES OF OLD TIMES IN FORT WAYNE
DAILY SENTINEL
Fort Wayne, Wednesday, April 3, 1872 Page 3, Col. 5-6
Captain William Wells
By Hon. John W. Dawson
The subject of this sketch, as one of the pioneers of this place, and long ago numbered with the dead, and who fell while defending his country against Indian and British invasion and aggression, deserves a notice now nearly sixty years since his death. He was a native of Kentucky, and from all the early data I can command at this time, was born about the year 1764. Volney, the French philosopher, who, during his western travels was at Vincennes, and perhaps at this place, about 1796-97, having met Wells at Detroit, says:
"The only person in America capable of giving me the aid I wanted, was a man by the name of Wells, who had been made a captive by the Indi- ans at thirteen years of age, and, having previously had a good education, he acquired an accurate knowledge of many of their dialects, while he lived among them. After the victories of Wayne, in 1794, he obtained leave to return home, and was at this time (1798) negotiating at Detroit with more than seven hundred Indians."
At another place he speaks of Wells having been with the Indians fifteen years, and that he seemed then thirty-two years of age. In another part he quotes Wells as saying at Philadelphia that he was taken by the In- dians at the age of thirteen years, and was adopted and well treated by them. He also says, as Wells often said, that he (Wells) was at the defeat of General St. Clair, at Fort Recovery, Ohio, in 1791. This data will put the date of his birth about 1764, his capture about 1777, and his exodus from them about 1795.
During his life with the Indians he married the sister of Little Tur- tle, then the great war chief of the Miami Indians, who inhabited the upper branches of the Wabash, and whose language was spoken by all the tribes of that river -- Weas, Piankeshaws, Peorias and Kaskaskias, and in which dialects he was perfect. This marriage was brought about by the kindness of the same squaw, who early after his capture saved him from a barbarous death, which the Indians had designed to inflict upon him. It was with the Turtle that Volney found him at Philadelphia, and after Turtle's conviction that all efforts against the United States were fruitless, when he was en- deavoring to get the assistance of the Government and the Society of Friends to aid him in his laudable intentions of subsistence by tilling the soil. The separation of Wells and Little Turtle took place some time before that, and after Wayne's victory. When Wells was leaving the Indians, he took Little Turtle with him to a "Big Elm" tree three miles east of this. This tree
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April 3, 1872
was long called the "Post Office" from the fact that a party from the Fort celebrating the Fourth of July under it, met the Express with the mail from Detroit and the officer in command of the garrison then present opened it. At this tree the two being about to part Wells told Turtle that they had long traveled the same road together, and in one interest, but now they must separate -- that he would henceforth act with the whites, and if they in future met they must be arrayed against one another; that he loved him and the Indians who had always treated him so well, but the whites were his kindred and nation, and he felt constrained to act with them in future. With this they separated -- but Turtle soon found it proper to follow Wells and was ever after known as a friend to the whites, but was greatly distrusted by the Indians; and for his good offices to the government, he was amply re- warded.
By this marriage with Little Turtle's sister he had four children, viz .: Ann, Rebecca, Mary, and William Wayne Wells. These perhaps, were all born before 1800, and before his exodus from the Indians. On his exodus and return to Kentucky, he married a white lady, the issue of which marriage, as far as I can learn, was Yelverton P. Wells. These half-Indian children were well taken care of and sent to Kentucky for education, and when educated, returned and took and held a fine social position among our best people. They were Christian ladies, and at the house of Ann, who very early married to Dr. William Turner, Surgeon's mate to the United States Army at this post, religious service was first held here. She and her sister Rebecca, who had married Captain James Hackley, also of the United States Army, having very early -- prior to 1820 -- joined the Baptist Church under the labors of Reverend Isaac McCoy, a missionary to the In- dians at this post. These two ladies, Mrs. Turner and Hackley, were of the first members of the Presbyterian Church, organized here on July 1, 1831, by Reverend James Chute, of the Presbytery of Columbus, Ohio. The other and youngest daughter of Captain Wells married Judge James Wolcott, of Fort Miami, near Maumee City, Ohio, who died in March, 1843.
William Wayne Wells was educated at West Point, as a cadet from Kentucky -- graduated with honors -- was appointed to a lieutenancy in the U. S. Army, and died in early manhood.
Captain Wells was a very useful person to the United States, and was an excellent interpreter. He was early appointed a captain of the spies and lived on the east bank of Spy Run, just north of the foot of Clay Street, at the old orchard, at the north end of the long embankment on Spy Run Avenue. For his good offices to the United States, the Congress granted him the right to pre-empt, or buy at $1. 25 per acre, a half section of land in the forks of the St. Mary's and St. Joseph rivers, but he having died be- fore the entry, it was laid off by survey and his children entered it, hence the name of Wells Pre-emption applied to the land in the forks of these rivers, erroneously called "Wells Reserve." He was at one time Indian Agent at this place under the appointment of the United States. He went from here with some forces, in August, 1812, to relieve the garrison at Chicago, Fort Dearborn. The fort having been evacuated by the improvi-
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